Chicken & Hoi Sin Chinese Pancakes

My family love Peeking duck that you can get from good Chinese butchers or restaurants.  Unfortunately duck is high in fat, especially as the part of the duck that you eat with duck pancakes is mainly the skin and the layer of fat under the skin.  I had a recipe for honey soy chicken kebabs, that I've adapted to make a healthier chicken version of Peeking duck for my kids.  Another lady on the Swank diet forum jokingly calls hers Peeking Cluck!

Ingredients:

2 chicken breasts

2 spring onions

1 small continental or Lebanese cucumber

20 Chinese Peeking Duck pancakes (available from Chinese grocery stores)

Hoi Sin Sauce

Marinade:

2 tbsp Hoi Sin sauce

1 tbsp honey

1 tsp garlic, crushed

1 tsp fresh ginger, grated

pinch Chinese 5 spice powder (optional)

Method:

Trim the chicken breast of all fat and place in a glass or non-reactive dish.  Mix together the marinade ingredients, and thoroughly coat the chicken.  Leave in the fridge for several hours, or as long as you have.  After the chicken has had time to marinate, cook it for 20-25 minutes in a 180C/356F oven.

Cut the cucumber into 5 cm sections and then into matchsticks.  Do the same with the spring onions using only the white and light green part of the onion.

Heat the pancakes.  I steam mine in a bamboo steamer lined with round parchment paper with holes in it that I get from the Chinese grocer.  You can also microwave them.

Once the chicken is cooked, cut it into slices or strips.

Look how light and fluffy the pancakes are when you steam them.

Lay everything out on the table, so each person can make their own pancakes.  In a Chinese restaurant, the waiter would normally carve the duck in front of  you.

To make the pancake, smear some sauce onto the centre of the pancake, and top with slices of chicken, cucumber and onion.

Wrap up and enjoy

Serve with Chinese jasmine or Oolong tea.

Notes & Variations:

You could also try adding a little soy sauce to the marinade for a deeper colour and flavour.

Tian Mian Jiang is a sweet bean sauce that is used with Peeking duck pancakes.  It's not easy to get, so you can use Hoi Sin or maybe plum sauce instead.

Interesting Facts:

Traditionally these pancakes are served as part of a banquet.  After using the layer of skin and fat for the pancakes, the chef would then use the duck meat in various dishes such as  san choy bau or a stir fry and finish with a soup made from the duck bones.  If you live in Sydney and want to know where to get the best Peeking duck and san choy bau, see Not Quite Nigella's thoughts here.  I don't know how they ate so much duck in one night?

Real Peeking duck is quite a complicated process, made from a white feathered mallard duck from Beijing called Peeking Duck (funny that).  Air is pumped inside the ducks, then they are bathed in a maltose solution (from fermented barley) which gives them their red colour, hung out to dry, steamed and then roasted.  If you're not on a low-fat diet, best just to buy one.

Chicken wire cloche

When I went out to the shed the other day to get some paint, I spotted a roll of chicken wire that we bought to keep Gus, our schnoodle, out of the pool area when he was a puppy.  Hmmm, I wonder what I could use that for?  Maybe a cloche?

The chicken wire I had is only narrow, so I cut 2 lengths and bent it round to form a cylinder.  Twist the cut wire edges together to join the chicken wire.  

I then put one on top of the other and joined them together. If you had wider chicken wire you wouldn't need to do this.

I cut another small piece of chicken wire and bent it into a dome shape for the top.  I slipped it inside the cylinder and just pushed and squeezed the wire together to hold it in place.  Then tied a piece of Hessian around the top.

It's not perfect, but it was free.  I placed it in the shelves in the cinema room.

I don't know how good it would be at keeping out the flies?

I recently read an article by an interior designer.  Before she buys anything for her clients, she starts by shopping their home to look for things she can use.  I like the concept of looking around your house before you head to the shops.  Sometimes you might even have to look in the shed.  It's a real bonus when you can make or find things for free.  Do you shop your home?

This is my last post for Decorating Forum.  

Thank you for featuring my blog this week.

The Hallway Challenge Success

I did it.  I have been procrastinating with finishing up and photographing my entrance hallway for like, um ... ages.  So last week I put all my inspirational photos on the blog and told you I'd be back in a week with the results.  Just the pressure I needed to finally finish it.  So here is my hallway.

I wrote about my lovely French sofa when I bought it here, and about the Love Home cushions here.  What I needed was a pretty display to hang above it.

So this is what I settled on.  The large heart wreath was from a little vintage shop down an arcade in Bulimba.  The little mirror is Laura Ashley.  I actually use it to slap some lippy on before I walk out the door.

This  wicker bird was $4 from KMart. I had an old rhinestone necklace pendant that I felt was too tacky to wear so I thread it onto the hook and tied some jute twine to it.

The antique keys were the same ones as here.  I cut the ring and painted the black keys white.  Then I brushed over a mix of clear varnish tinted with burnt umber acrylic paint to make them look a bit old.  The hooks they hang from are brass push pins from Bunnings which I sprayed white.

Here's looking towards the front door.  Can you see the diamond pattern under the rug?  Very unattractive feature tiles that I hated the minute I stepped inside the house nearly 12 years ago.  The rug is sisal, so it's very hard wearing.  I had the rug in another room and finally moved it here.  It's just the right size and I don't have to look at the feature tiles anymore.  Why didn't I think of that earlier?

The wall art was from House & Garden years ago,  These candles were chocolate scented, but they've lost their smell now.

Originally the pot was a bright orange terracotta colour, so I painted it.  I honestly feel like I paint everything sometimes.  The boxwood topiary ball was from Bunnings.  I think Masters have similar ones now.

This is the newest purchase, an Eiffel tower doorstop from Earthborn for $14.95.  Makes me smile when I see it.

This framed MCG print gets a lot of comments from guests - mainly male.  My husband went to the Boxing Day test match in Melbourne in 1996.  He managed to score a member's pass through my brother-in-law, and they had a wonderful day.  He bought the print and had it framed with his ticket.

Just off the main hallway is a small walkway to the powder room and laundry.  This is where I hang my hats and bags.

So it's all done thanks to the pressure of wanting to show it to you guys.  I'd already done a lot of it but as usual slowed down and procrastinated at the end.

By far, my favourite thing about this room is the little French sofa with the display above it.  It's nice to see something pretty as you walk in the door after a big day.

This post is featured at Decorating Forum this week - have you been there yet?

Sharing at French Country Cottage, Thrifty Decor Chic

The Gradual Outdoor Kitchen

This story starts a long time ago.  In fact over a decade ago, when we first bought this house.  This is what the back wall of our garage looked like.  The built-in barbecue that came with the house, our old timber trolley barbecue, and a grey concrete floor.

In September/October 2005, we took a big financial plunge and added an outdoor entertaining area to the back of the house.  It comprised the main area where we sit and entertain, and a smaller kitchen/barbecue area at the back of the garage.

The "Outdoor Kitchen" ended up looking like this.  The poles and the green bit across the front were meant to be timber (but that's another story and why I have learnt my lesson with builders - big time!).

That's our barbecue all shiny and new.  It still looks like that now after I restored it here.  So for the past 7 years our outdoor kitchen has looked pretty much the same, complete with "provision for hot and cold water" - translate - ugly pipes sticking out of the ground with me always explaining to guests "Oh that's where the sink is going ....eventually".

I knew I wanted a sink and a fridge.  I knew it needed to be stainless steel for when we get those crazy Queensland storms, this area gets wet despite the roof.  I knew that to get something custom-made would cost a bomb.  I looked at IKEA and Bunnings solutions but nothing worked the way I wanted it to.

Well it finally happened.  I found a sink and fridge unit, in stainless steel, the right dimensions and configuration to fit the space I had, and at a price within my budget.  Hallelujah!!!!  

Here it is.  The writing on the fridge says Schmick.  I think it's a pretty good description. It's all plumbed in, and my lovely electrician Matt came and put in an external power point for the fridge and any appliances we need to plug in.

I found this unit online at a site called Man Cave Oz.  Oh Yeah.  Where else would you find something like this but a blokey man cave?

So now I have a working fridge, sink and barbecue.  I also have a timber butcher's block trolley that I want to restore, and put it inbetween.  The idea is that if I can get this outdoor kitchen set up, we will have somewhere to cook when we finally renovate our indoor kitchen, and also it is so lovely to cook outside when you have people over.  You stay part of the conversation rather than being stuck inside.

The green fascia has discoloured and faded - which makes me dislike the builder even more, and you can see where the ceiling has dropped from rain getting in, but one trip to the BSA tribunal was enough for me.  One day we may have to replace the ceiling panels, but for now it will just have to be.  Maybe I could grow a climber up the poles and across the front?

Now all the really hard work is done, I can get on with finding lots of pretty things to make the kitchen look more than just brick and stainless steel.

This post is being featured at Decorating Forum.

Stencilled Cushions - Movie Quotes

Inspired by Anthropologie's 'You Are My Sunshine' cushion, and similar versions on pinterest, I decided to stencil some cushions.  As the cushions are for the home cinema room, I decided to use movie quotes from some of our favourite shows as the text.

Two of our favourite Aussie shows would have to be:

Kath & Kim - text is Look at moy, Look at moy, now I've got one word to say to you.  That's noice, different, unewe-sual.  Hunk of Spunk.  Foxy Morons.  Pru & Tru.  Epponee-Rae, Fountain Lakes

and The Castle - text is Dale dug a hole, tell 'em Dale, This is going straight to the pool room, Tell him he's dreamin', what do you call this darl?, how's the serenity?, It's the vibe of the thing.

How I Made Them:
I bought 2 plain cotton canvas cushions from Target for $10 each.  The stencil was from Spotlight, about $2, and the Sharpie laundry marker was $5 from Riot Art & Craft.

Once I worked out what I wanted to write, I used a pencil to trace the words on the cushion, so I could get my spacing right.  Here's a tip - don't use pencil.  It didn't wash out well.  Probably best to use tailor's chalk or those dressmaker pens where the ink fades.  Here's another tip - put an old magazine inside the cushion cover so the black ink doesn't go through to the back.

After I was happy with it all, I went back over the words with the laundry marker.

The cushions are in our back living room that my husband set up with an overhead projector and cinema screen.  Friday night is movie night in our house, especially on holidays.

Home Cinema Lounges

A home cinema room can be a tricky room to furnish.  My taste would prefer a big white slipcover lounge with lots of pretties, but the most important thing when watching a movie, is that you are comfortable, and you have somewhere to put your drink and popcorn.

When my Dad passed away, I brought his Jason leather recliner back here.  I thought it was so ugly, but we all fought over who was going to sit in it because it was so comfortable.

In the end, we chose comfort over design, and two years ago we splurged and bought this home cinema lounge.  We bought it from Devlin Lounges in Brisbane.  Through them, we were able to pick the colour, choose the configuration,  had the option of an electric recline, and they were priced in the middle of the market.  We didn't have enough room to have armrests between each chair so we chose to have two chairs together, great for snuggling up.

 This is the chair in recline position - so comfy you almost (and sometimes do) fall asleep.  The advantage of the electric recline is that it is easy to use and  you can stop the chair at any point.  With the manual recline you are pretty much up or down often at a frightening speed - anyone seen Candice Bergen as Kate in Sweet Home Alabama?

There are 4 chairs, with 4 cup holders.  One for each of us.  The centre console stores remotes and there is a pull out drawer in the bottom.

This is definitely the most modern piece of furniture in the house, but it works.  I really like that we all sit and watch movies together.  I will cherish those memories in the future.

This week my little blog is being featured at Decorating Forum  If you haven't already been, be sure to check it out.

Sharing also at Freckled Laundry

Creating the Hallway

Okay, I am sick of having a messy hallway.  I want it to look pretty and inviting.  You know, create a good first impression.

  I want to give my hallway a little facelift, so what do I need?  Here's my inspiration.

Somewhere to hang my bag and hat.

Source: moderncountry.blogspot.com via Stylish on Pinterest

Somewhere to sit (or dump shopping bags).

  

Source: sweetvintagedecor.blogspot.com via Stylish on Pinterest

Some pretty artwork on the walls

Source: tinyurl.ms via Stylish on Pinterest

and maybe a basket to hold the mess and all the things that need to go upstairs, and I'm too lazy to take them up.

Source: google.ie via Stylish on Pinterest

I've set the challenge.  It's on the blog.  I'll see what I can do, and share the photos with you next week.