Chicken Feet, or Dim Sum-style "Phoenix Claws"

I wouldn't go so far as to say that I'm a terrible cook, but I definitely lack the balls to be a good one. My grandmothers on both sides are good cooks - they've got the burn scars to show for it. Due to my ineptitude, I've accumulated a few scars as well, but they were mostly from stupid, rookie mistakes like plunging something dripping wet into a wok of smoking oil *shivers*. My paternal grandmother recounted this horrible story of how she got her whole face splashed with hot oil in her youth after carelessly dropping something into the wok from a height. See a theme emerging? I hate hot oil. And, by extension, deep-frying. Which is why I'm so darn proud of myself for these Dim Sum-style "Phoenix Claws".

I'm delighted with the way they turned out. From the acquisition of ingredients (maltose syrup, what's that?) to the dreaded deep-frying part...all those added roadblocks only made the final result appear more impressive. To me, at least. My sisters took one look at the raw chicken feet and refused to touch the cooked ones with a ten-foot pole.

I guess they do look vaguely...grotesque.

Why chicken feet? Well, they've always been a firm favourite amongst the adults in my family whenever we go out for Yum Cha. And since I rarely cook Chinese food for my family, preferring to leave the job for our more seasoned chefs (i.e. the grandmas), I want to make something that's not usually on the weekly menu when I do get the opportunity to wear the apron. I spotted the chicken feet at the Saturday Flemington Markets, and they were so cheap (around $2 a kilo) that I impulsively bought 2kg of them without a clear idea of what I would do with it all. I'm glad these turned out so well, because I still have a kilo stashed in the freezer!

!!!They have nails!!!

Maybe I should have given a warning before that picture. Whoops.

I used to dismiss Chinese cookery as the same old mish-mash of soy sauce, ginger, garlic and spring onions (and, ahem, MSG). Hopefully this won't sound too much like a reflective essay but: my eyes have genuinely, genuinely been opened by trying out Chinese recipes for myself. The careful balance of the "suan tian ku la" (sour, sweet, bitter, spicy) flavours, the use of all parts of the animal, the ability to transform something as unyielding as tendons into this wondrous chewy, gelatinous gustatory delight - it's anything but boring. Far from it. These "Phoenix Claws" weren't perfect, but because I had made them from scratch, and because of everything I've mentioned in this post, they tasted like the best chicken feet dish I've ever eaten. And judging by the way my family polished off the whole kilo I'd cooked, I'd wager that this recipe is a winner :)

Dim Sum-style "Phoenix Claws"

Recipe adapted from Yum Cha !

Ingredients
1kg chicken feet
2 cups vegetable oil (to fry them in)
4 litres water (or enough to cover the chicken feet for boiling)
60g fresh ginger, cut to 2mm slices
6 pieces star anise
1 small bunch coriander/cilantro roots
120g maltose syrup*

For the marinade:
4 tablespoons oyster sauce*
2 tablespoons sugar
4 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons shaoxing wine*
4 cloves garlic, finely diced
1 teaspoon ground white pepper
2 tablespoons black bean sauce*
1 teaspoon sesame seed oil*

*Available from most Chinese grocery stores

Method

1. Wash chicken feet thoroughly, and chop off the tips of toes to remove nails. Scrap off any remaining bits of scaly yellow skin.

2. Dry the chicken feet with a paper towel. Toss the chicken feet in maltose syrup (you may have to melt the maltose syrup over heat to soften it) to coat.

Maltose syrup (right) and black bean sauce (left). 

3. Heat vegetable oil in wok over high heat until smoking. Fry chicken feet in batches, until the skin is a nice deep, mahogany colour. 

My ineptitude resulted in some burnt bits, but I simply scraped those bits off and carried on :)

4. In a pot, boil water and add ginger, star anise, and cilantro/coriander roots. Add the fried chicken feet. Bring everything to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 90 minutes. Drain.

Boiling the fried chicken feet.

5. Combine the marinade ingredients. Marinate the feet overnight, or at least 12 hours. Before serving, steam the chicken feet and marinade for about 15 minutes.

My Hong Kong trip: notable eats! (Part 3)

Picking up here where we left off in Part 2....so, after stuffing myself silly with waffles and beef offals at the hawker stall, I then proceeded to explore Causeway Bay on foot. I felt a bit self-conscious pulling out my iPhone and snapping away at every street corner, and was acutely aware of looking like a stereotypical tourist, but my curiosity trumped whatever reservations I may have had.

Hey...this looks familiar!

I'm not sure if the Saint Honore Cake Shop in Chinatown all the way back in Sydney is in anyway related to this one, but accidentally finding this bakery really struck home (no pun intended!) how deep the Canton influence in Sydney runs.

Lap cheong sausages and other dried meats hanging in an outdoor market.

Searching through the web for place names and landmarks now, it seems that I may have inadvertently found my way to Wan Chai, where there is a bustling and chaotic wet-market selling a variety of fresh produce, meat and other edible goods.  

A stall in the Wan Chai street market combining two of the best things in life: fruit, and socks.

The wet-market was a real sight to behold. The last time I saw something like this was when I was in Tianjin, my hometown in China, a few years back, and a relative took me to one of the local markets. Certainly, there is nothing like this in Sydney. The Wan Chai wet-market was positively teeming with life, from the butchers and fishmongers shouting their wares, to the old ladies picking discriminately at the fruits and vegetables, to the silver-scaled fish still flopping about in their pans. It was overwhelming, but in the best of ways.

A fishmonger with his array of seafood.

So many varieties of molluscs.

Tropical fruits.

Asian greens.

Woah, fish roe alert! Or, at least I think it's fish roe.

I gawked at this rack of ribs (stripped bare!), and the huge, whole liver and heart hanging next to it, until the vendor stared back and I scuttled away in embarrassment.

Another sight to gawk at: dried up chicken carcasses hanging in a row. 

There were hawker-style food stalls aplenty, offering cheap hot meals, but I decided to lunch on odd bits and pieces collected from a range of sources. First up - the Hong Kong egg tart (dan tat): 

This one was purchased from the Tin Lok Bakery in Wan Chai.

The pastry crust was wonderfully crumbly and layered, as a dan tat's ought to be. The custard filling was not as rich as that in a Portuguese egg tart, the latter making use of heavy cream and egg yolks. Still, eating this was an enjoyable experience.

The pastry was stellar. I desire desperately to learn the secret behind making a multi-layered tart crust.

I bought and ate whatever looked interesting. At that moment, it happened to be a glutinous rice ball, rolled in desiccated coconut and filled with a black sesame paste:

Black sesame is one of my favourite flavours in a dessert. I love it in all its forms - black sesame ice cream, black sesame soup, black sesame sponge roll!

Needing something savoury to balance out all the sugar, I got a few pieces of sugar-glazed bacon (okay, fine, more sugar!) from Bee Cheng Hiang, a company specialising in bakkwa (salty-sweet, jerky-like pieces of dried meat). 

The glazed bacon was listed as "gourmet bakkwa". Candied bacon is as gourmet as bacon gets in my book!

The streaks of fat were the best bits.

Stomach filled (for the moment), I did a bit more sight-seeing:

Sasa, the HK version of Priceline, but so much more awesome. I may or may not have blown all my spending money on fake eyelashes, eyelid tape, and hot pink lipstick...what, I'm a girl!

Ooh, shinyyyy...maybe it's good for hypnotising myself into eating less chocolate in the new year?

Cake food porn!

Apparently home to the best dim sum in Hong Kong. Must try on my next visit!

Chocolate selection at the International supermarket in Windsor House.

How is it that they stock the 90% and 99%, and Woolies/Coles do not?!

Commuters waiting at the bus stop. I haven't ridden in a double-decker in years.

It was cool walking through these dingy back alley-ways. Only in the light of day, though!

One of the entrances to Causeway Bay Station.

By the time dinner time rolled around, my Achilles tendons felt like they were about to snap. Sorry for that piece of imagery, but paper thin-soled ballet flats really aren't made for walkin'. Nothing a good dinner can't fix. Stay tuned for the details in Part 4!

Read more about my Hong Kong adventures in Part 1 and Part 2.

My Hong Kong trip: notable eats! (Part 1)

Happy New Year, everyone! I do realise it's the 2nd already, but I happen to have spent the 1st of January aboard a plane bound for Sydney. And before that, I was doing some last-minute shopping and eating in Hong Kong!

Indulging in some Ben & Jerry's at the Times Square Hong Kong shopping mall.

My HK trip was absolutely perfect - the sights, sounds, smells, and atmosphere...all of it left my yearning to return there someday soon, and continue my gastronomic tour of her fine-dining restaurants, her back-alley street food, and, yes, those terrible-for-your-waistline snacks that are somehow okay to eat because you're on vacation!

Chinese savoury donuts/crullers

One such waistline-endangering but oh-so-addictive food item is the youtiao (油条). It's yeast-risen dough that has been deep-fried. It is golden and crunchy on the outside, but soft within...like a donut! My grandmother makes it for us at home all the time, and these particular ones are denser than the ones I'm used to. Which made it all the more interesting to try!

The paler, soft insides of the donut.

[At this point, I should apologise for any potential mistakes made in naming the foods that appear in this post. I neither speak nor understand Cantonese, so all the names are ones that I've found on the Internet, or the Mandarin-equivalents.]

The amazing view from my hotel room window.

There was so much to eat in Hong Kong. And eat I did! All the while trying to capture the glorious experience with my unwieldy iPhone. I attracted quite a few stares (not to mention under-the-breath mutters) with my tendency to stop in the middle of the pedestrian walkway and take pictures of whatever it was that I happened to be chowing down at that very moment. It was probably a bit antisocial of me to obstruct the flow of human traffic like that, but I simply had to document everything.

In the midst of the throng of humanity.

Over the course of the next few posts, I will attempt to convey to you a recount of my adventures in Hong Kong. I stayed there for only three days, and my travels were limited to Causeway Bay (銅鑼灣; Tong Lo Wan). My senses were overwhelmed as it was - next time, I will aim for a longer stay, in order to more fully appreciate the place and its wonders.

A deflated fried glutinous rice sesame-coated ball

Another ubiquitous edible is the matuan (麻糰). The one pictured above was bought from the same breakfast stall as the Chinese donut, but they also happen to be a popular dim sum dish at yum cha. The skin is made from glutinous rice flour, and encases a variety of fillings. We came across ones containing red bean paste and black sesame paste.

Smaller and more refined-looking matuan at yum cha.

Speaking of yum cha - we went to Cheers Restaurant (迎囍大酒樓), a dim sum restaurant located in Windsor House in Causeway Bay for brunch, and the ones we tried were pretty good. The matuan pictured above are from there. The price for the dishes was relatively cheap, but the range was quite limited. And service wasn't exactly stellar either. Still, we got a good feed. Here are some of the dishes we ordered:

Braised pork knuckle.

'Pineapple' or Polo buns. Named for the pineapple skin-like crust on top. It doesn't actually contain any pineapple.

These otherwise sweet polo buns were filled with a savoury BBQ/char siew pork filling. Interesting flavour combo!

Roast goose.

Pig's blood.

 Deep-fried tofu.

 Tofu skin roll, filled with bamboo shoot and other goodies

Xiao long bao - Shanghai steamed buns

Steamed beef mince meatballs.

Steamed spare ribs with fermented black beans.

Mushroom with duck feet.

Beef tripes.

Shrimp dumplings (ha gaau)

Shaomai/siu maai: steamed dumplings filled with pork and minced shrimp.

"Phoenix claws" (fung zao): steamed chicken feet.

Duck egg and pork congee (皮蛋瘦肉粥)

Braised mushrooms with vegetables.

And that concludes Part 1 of this series of posts on Hong Kong. Keep an eye out over the next few days for the write-up of the rest of my trip!

For Part 2 of my Hong Kong adventures, click here.