The Excitement Over a Chicken...

Remember my new toy by the hubby? On Saturday, we started using it seriously by putting in the whole chicken. You know when you buy something, the sales person was so good in selling their wares that you are unaware of the real fact. The man was mentioning about how to prepare the whole chicken where the meat was so tender. It was like making steam chicken just that you're not using steam for this one. By the way, that's my new Mdm. Yeap's cast iron dutch oven. The method was really simple according to the seller. Just fill up the cover with water. When the water on the cover has completely dried up, the chicken inside would be done. Nobody asked how long would the whole process take so I assumed it should be roughly around 15 minutes. Assumption is mother of all sins. 

Before that, I prepared a few dishes because at the back of my head, I have arranged that the chicken be prepared last on the stove. I needed the stove to make something that's fast. I did not know what to cook of the siew pak choy. I'm not a skillful cook when it comes to vegetables. So, I stir-fry those vege with Thai chilli sauce gravy. And the biggest mistake would be to chop up the vegetables. I think siew pak choy was meant to be cooked in whole, not cut up as the vegetables became bitter. It's like grinding the lime leaves. Maybe I should try it again without chopping the leaves up. If it's bitter again, I will just forget about trying to cook with green leafy vegetables.

That steamed egg tofu with salted fish was road-side bought. I buy it with a hidden agenda. To try out the taste and if it's nice then I'll create them myself. The salted fish taste was not strong enough. It was too mild and bland but it's okay, I'll make my own next time.

Prawns are easy to cook. The little bit of soup looked reddish in colour. There's no chilli or whatsoever. The prawn released its own juice. The prawn meat was succulent and yeah, we're really blessed to have such good food on days when there's no special occasion. Maybe because we treated everyday as special. We realized that many people do not know how to enjoy eating. Some just eat for the sake of filling up the empty stomach. We are really eaters who enjoy good food. We were actually waiting for our chicken to be ready but after we finished eating and clearing up the dining table, the water on the cover still looked very full. I ended up going up to the room, leaving the hubby to care for the chicken. Mi mama was taking a nap while my precious was lazing around doing nothing. Whenever you just had a hearty meal, you become lazy and tired.

After steaming half a pumpkin and getting my precious to remove the flesh, the pumpkin flesh was left in a container. I totally forgotten about it. Then, I got hubby to work the blender while I prepare the soup base for the pumpkin soup. It sounds easy to make pumpkin soup. Everything sounds easy but nothing is easy in cooking. It's easier to eat.

After more than an hour, finally the water on the cover dried up completely. It was such a long wait and we were not hungry anymore. Hubby has no strength to lift up the pot so left me only. The empty cast iron pot was already heavy and plus the chicken, it's not for those who has no strength in both arms. The pot would go down with your elongated arms.

I opened the lid and my precious went crazy. She was climbing up the chair like a three-year old getting her first birthday cake. I thought she was gonna climb up the table with all the excitement in her. I didn't know one can get so excited over a chicken in a pot. We used to have the whole chicken being roasted from the oven but she never got excited at all. 

I did it China style with the chicken head as well to prove that it's a chicken. Hahhahaha.... The meat was really tender even the breast meat was tender. We're so gonna do this again but I'm gonna marinade the chicken to the best I could muster. It's as simple as placing the spring onion at the base of the pot so that the chicken will not be burnt. You don't have to add any water. That's pure chicken essence in a pot.

We attacked the chicken with our fork and spoon. The meat just came off from the bone. It's so good. The cast iron dutch oven was sold at RM599 in various departmental stores and we got ours for only RM50. Worth every Ringgit.

We called the neighbour but none of them pick up their phones so we had the whole bird to ourselves. And of course, we couldn't finish the whole chicken. We still have leftovers until today. It's already Monday.