Recipe Ingredient
- Half a chicken, skinned and chopped into serving pieces
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- Dash of soy sauce
- 1 big lotus leaf
- 3 dried mushrooms, soaked and halved
- 10 dried chestnuts (foong lut)
- 20g ginger, shredded
- 1/2 tsp chopped garlic
- 2 tsp oil
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 500ml stock or water
- Sauce:
- 2 tbsp oyster sauce
- Dash pepper
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp Shao Hsing Hua Tiau cooking wine
Instructions
- Put chestnuts in a bowl and soak in 1/4 tsp alkaline water for 10 minutes. Pour hot boiling water over the chestnuts, then discard the hot water. Do this twice, then boil the chestnuts, covered with water in a saucepan for 10 - 15 minutes over a moderate heat.
- Remove and clean chestnuts well. (This is done so that the chestnuts will taste creamy.)
- Marinate chicken with light and dark soy sauce. Deep-fry chicken in enough hot oil until golden brown.
- Heat oil and sesame oil in a wok, fry ginger and garlic until fragrant. Add mushrooms, chestnuts and stock or water. Stir in sauce ingredients and chicken. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes over a moderate heat until gravy is reduced to half its initial amount. Soak lotus leaf in water until soft. Clean the leaf and line the base of a heatproof dish.
- Place chicken and the other ingredients into the lotus leaf, then wrap it up into a nice and neat parcel. Steam for 40-45 minutes. Remove the parcel. Open up the lotus leaf packet and serve immediately.
