My Unforgettable Experience...............

A fortnight ago, I had a surprise invitation out of the blue from a beautiful lady blogger friend. She invited me to pop over to her place for lunch in the Southwest of Johor.

 An hour plus journey from my place.

 Southwest Johor is located 62KM from Johor Bahru city, the state capital of Johor, Malaysia.

At her lovely, spacious home with it's beautiful surroundings of coconut and fruits trees. I was surprised to see a TV van and crew there. And my blogger friend is ........

Cik Shahriah Abdullah  a beautiful Malay lady who is a Malaysian well known novelist, cookbook author as well with outstanding culinary skills. She was awarded the ultimate, as a Master Chef. I believe she has a 7th Dan Black Belt in baking and cooking.

Above two pictures are her published Malay novels.

Johor Laksa cooked by Cik Shahriah. A noodle dish using spaghetti top with fish paste gravy and garnish with onion, beansprout, Vietnamese coriander leaves, mint leaves, cucumber, chilli paste and  freshly squeeze lime juice is sprinkled on the dish.

After lunch, I got the shock of my life when Shahriah informed me that I'm invited as her guest to be interviewed on TV in her program. You can imagine my apprehension and my being very very nervous. As watching TV is one thing but to appear on TV is another thing. It really frightened me. LOL

The TV crew getting ready to do the shooting.

Yours truly interviewed by TV producer. And first time had my face made up by a TV makeup artist. I was really nervous, towards the various questions they asked me.

I was asked to help decorate the Pavlova dessert baked by Cik Shahriah.

 

The TV producer interviewed us how we first met? Viewing my blog and discussed about my blog posting. My most unforgettable experience being invited as a guest.

Cik Shahriah, I thank you so much, my dear friend. It was really an honour and a privilege, as well a thrilling, fun experience to have been invited as your guest to your beautiful home. Once again, Terima kasih.  
Yours Sincerely,
Amelia

This program was shown in TV1 @ Persada Aksara Episode 11 on the 3rd January 2014.

Beggar chicken

Beggar chicken is a dish from Changshu, a city in China's Jiangshu province that is famous for its delicious taste. Beggar's chicken is called "jiaohuaji" in the Changshu dialet. The chicken is stuffed, wrapped in clay and roasted following a traditional eastern Chinese recipe.

Many Chinese dishes have names adapted from folklore, legend, or story.
Once upon a time a beggar led a wandering life in poverty. One day, he was very hungry. He lucked into a chicken, but had neither tools nor condiments. He came to the foot of Yu Mountain and roasted it without plucking it. When it was finished, the smell spread over a long distance. About 100 years ago, a small restaurant created a method to cook this kind of chicken and called it Beggar's Chicken.

Ingredients
1.5kg chicken, washed and patted dry
1 1/2 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp dry sherry or Chinese rice wine
1 1/2 tsp five-spice powder
1 tsp freshly grated ginger
2 tsp salt
2 pieces lotus leaves ( optional ) Soak the leaves until soft
Aluminum foil

The texture is very moist and tender. 

Run for your life.......

Stuffing for the chicken

1 canned button mushroom - cut into half
8 red dates
1 tbsp goji berries
2 cloves garlic - chopped
2 shallots - chopped finely
1 thumb size ginger - slice thinly
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt or to taste
2 tsp oyster sauce
1 tsp black soya sauce
1 tbsp sherry or Chinese rice wine
2 tbsp water
pepper to taste

1/  Pour 2 tbsp oil in a sauce pan, saute garlic, ginger and onion until golden brown.
2/  Add the button mushroom, red dates, goji berries and stir fry for 1 min.
3/  Add the rest of the seasoning ingredients and stir fry for 3 to 4 mins.
4/  Stuff mushroom into the chicken and secure it with a toothpick

Rest the chicken on the lotus leaves. If you can't find lotus leaves, omit and wrap with aluminum foil.

 5/  Wrap the chicken with 2 layers of lotus leaves follow by a layer of aluminum foil.

6/  Then wrap the chicken with salt dough, decorate and play around with the extra dough.
7/  Bake the chicken in pre heat oven for 2 hours at 200 deg C.

8/  Break the salt dough with a mallet, remove foil and lotus leaves.
9/ Serve while it's hot.

Come on babe......

Salt dough for chicken
800gm plain flour
3/4  to 1 cup water
100gm salt

1/ Mix all the ingredients together and knead into a soft dough. ( Add the water gradually )
2/ Floured your table top and roll out the dough to 3/8 inch thick.
3/ Wrap the chicken with salt dough and baked for 2 hours.
 

Have a wonderful week ahead. Cheers!
Amelia