Tag: soy sauce

Review: Amoy Special Selection Soy Sauce & Sticky Glazes

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Amoy Collage

We consume rather a lot of soy sauce in our house. Perhaps it’s down to the Chinese Malaysian ancestry. Ever since I was little, I’ve loved the stuff and I could probably survive on a diet of boiled white rice smothered in soy sauce. Just the thought of it now is making me hungry.

I usually buy huge bottles from the Chinese supermarket because we get through so much of it. So when Amoy asked if I’d like a complimentary bottle of their new ‘Special Selection’ soy sauce to try out, of course I had to say yes.

It’s actually very good, and I’m not just saying that because I got it free. I fully intend to buy some when we finish this bottle, which won’t be long, and I’d certainly recommend it.

According to Amoy, their Special Selection soy sauce is made from the finest extracts of soya beans and blended with sea salt to provide an intense and full-bodied flavour. They’re absolutely right about the full-bodied flavour – it’s deliciously deep and rich and very, very moreish. We’ve tried it with rice, noodles and stir-fried vegetables and the whole family has given it a thumbs up every time.

Amoy also sent me some of their Sticky Glaze sauces to try: peanut satay, Chinese barbecue and sweet soy.

AmoyCollage2

While I don’t normally buy packet sauces, I was quite impressed with these, although they were all a little on the sweet side. That’s probably why they were so popular with the children. The glazes are an extremely speedy marinade for meat, fish and vegetables, so they’d be quite a useful ingredient to have in the cupboard when you’re short of time and need something quick and easy for dinner.

The children loved the peanut satay in particular, which we had with chicken, but they do usually love food of any description on a stick. It was supposed to have ‘a chilli twist’ but I couldn’t really detect any chilli in there. My favourite was the Chinese barbecue glaze, which I used on pork spare ribs. Sweet and sticky and finger-lickingly good, just as good ribs should be. I can see myself buying that one again in future. I wasn’t so taken with the sweet soy glaze though – I much prefer my own version I made at Chinese new year!

Disclosure: Amoy sent me a complimentary bottle of their new Special Selection Soy Sauce and the three Sticky Glazes  for review purposes. No money exchanged hands.

A Malaysian Chinese New Year Feast

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I don’t know about you, but when I was little I wanted to be less like me and more like everyone else. More like my friends with their pale skin and mums who wore high-heeled shoes. Less like me with my Chinese eyes and mum who wore hand-painted baseball boots.

Growing up in Newcastle in the 1980s, I found myself being teased quite a bit, sometimes even bullied, for being part Chinese and being the daughter of artists. Both of which I’m fiercely proud of now, but back then I’d have given anything just to be normal.

Thankfully my children seem proud of their Chinese heritage, although the world does feel quite a different place now. In recent years we’ve started celebrating Chinese New Year and it’s becoming one of our family traditions, a chance to bring a taste of Chinese Malaysian cuisine to our little corner of rural Somerset.

Last year I cooked up quite an ambitious Chinese banquet for our New Year celebrations. It was delicious but a little stressful preparing so many dishes for one meal, so I decided to make things easier this year. So last weekend, I chose just a few recipes from a wonderful cookbook called Nonya Flavours, an excellent guide to the cuisine of the Straits Chinese community of Penang, the Malaysian island where my mother grew up.

We had a couple of chicken dishes – a sweet soy sauce chicken and a traditional chicken curry, served very simply with boiled rice and a nourishing vegetable soup. And it was perfect, proving that a fabulous feast doesn’t need to be complicated. The curry was fairly spicy and I was rather surprised that both my kids could handle it. Must be their Chinese blood I suppose…

Vegetable soup

2 litres water
2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp Shaoxing (Chinese rice wine)
3 slices ginger
1 tsp white peppercorns
2 carrots, peeled and cut into decorative shapes
2 cloves garlic, crushed
10 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in hot water and halved
300g pak choi, shredded
salt and sugar

In a large pan, bring the water to a boil and add the soy sauce, Shaoxing, ginger, peppercorns, carrot, garlic and mushrooms and cook for about 5 minutes before adding the pak choi. Cook for another 10 minutes and season to taste with a little salt and sugar. Serve hot. We like to pour the soup over our boiled rice.

Sweet soy sauce chicken

2 chicken breasts, cut into bitesize pieces
20g sugar
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
salt and pepper
4 slices ginger
125ml water

Mix together the sugar, soy sauce and a little salt and pepper and pour over the chicken pieces. Make sure the chicken is well covered and leave to marinade for at least half an hour.

Pour the water into a wok over a medium heat and add ginger slices and the marinated chicken. Bring to a boil and simmer until the chicken is tender and cooked through – around 20 minutes. Add more water if the liquid dries up before the chicken is cooked.

Serve immediately with rice.

Nonya chicken curry

For the spice paste

1 green chilli
100g shallots, peeled and finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 tsp dried turmeric
1½ tbsp coriander seeds
½ tsp cumin seeds
½ tsp fennel seeds

3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 star anise
2 cloves
½ cinnamon stick
8 skinless chicken thighs
250g potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges
400ml coconut milk
100ml coconut cream
salt

First of all make the spice paste. Put all the ingredients in a food processor and mince well. Then grind using a pestle and mortar – you’ll probably need to do this in several batches – until you have a fairly smooth paste.

Heat the oil in a large pan and fry the star anise, cloves and cinnamon stick for a minute. Add the spice paste and stir fry well. Add a couple of tablespoons of the coconut milk and fry over a low heat until fragrant.

Throw in the chicken thighs and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the potatoes and pour in the rest of the coconut milk. Simmer gently until the chicken is tender and the potatoes are cooked through.

Pour in the coconut cream and stir well. Season with salt to taste. Continue to cook until the gravy is slightly thick.

Serve with boiled rice. This served two adults and two children, and there were plenty of leftovers for the freezer to provide us with an easy mid-week supper.

Kung Hei Fat Choi!