October 2, 2015
Monthly Mystery Munchies #6: White Beans Chicken Stew with Truffle Oil
Believe it or not, we’ve reached half a year milestone for our Monthly Mystery Munchies, making this the 6th edition of a successful collaboration with Gen, author of Eat, Play, Clove since we started buddying up in April post Blogging 2015. Ain’t that just awesome!
Stats don’t matter, but what I’m really proud about is the fact that we both have managed to keep this up on a monthly basis; every month challenging ourselves to push the envelope and creating something edible! So far, we have not run out of ideas. Yet.
It’s Beans & Stew this month; nothing too difficult with room for experimentation! And, if you love stew, you would just have to give this one featured today a go.
This recipe though, had really came about as a fluke. Seriously, a fluke and we were in Holland when I created this stew. The story was that: I had wanted to cook, but the requested dish from my in-laws had called for the use of ingredients that weren’t quite easily found there. They were taucho (fermented beans), fresh tumeric, fresh ginger and dried chillies – the must-have ingredients I need for the dish I was going to make.
Very Asian ingredients, and I’m not even sure if we could find those at all.So I substituted the taucho with white beans and the fresh tumeric and ginger with powdered ones instead. Luckily the dried chillies were sold in the supermarket, although they came with only a few pieces! And, we needed more than 10! I then drizzled over a dash of truffle oil just for kicks.
The key ingredients used were originally meant to be a base for my Asian-style Fried Vermicelli. Little did I know that I had unwittingly concocted a new recipe on a fly in the absence of those ingredients. My base for a different dish altogether had become a stew!
I don’t quite remember what went it in the first time round, but somehow, managed to delight everyone with a brand new recipe. I have since replicated the recipe and I think it is worth a share!
And that’s what I love about cooking. A bit of this and a bit of that and voila! We make something out of nothing! With a little bit of creativity, something edible and sometimes incredible magic happens.
- 2-3 pieces dried chillies
- 2 onions, peeled and cubed
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 tbsp ginger powder
- 1 - 2 tbsp tumeric powder
- 1 can of white beans in tomato
- 2 small cans of tomato puree
- 3-4 pieces of chicken breasts, chopped
- 2 pieces tofu, cubed
- 4-5 slices chicken ham, thinly sliced
- A drizzle of truffle olive oil
- 3-5 tbsp extra virgin oil for frying
- Salt to taste
- Cut the dried chillies in slants and soak with hot water for 5-10 minutes. Drained.(Discard of seeds is optional)
- Blitz onions, ginger powder, garlic and the drained dried chilles together in a blender
- Heat up olive oil in a pot. First fry the chicken until browned.
- While waiting for the chicken, rinse the canned white beans lightly with water. Blitz and set aside.
- Add in tofu and chicken ham. Fry them altogether for about 10 minutes
- Add white beans and tumeric powder. Fry up till you get a little aroma. Mix well and make sure that all the meat are coated well.
- Add in the the blitz ingredients in #2. Mix well for about 5 minutes and then add in the tomato puree
- Cover and let it simmer for 1 hour. Add salt to taste.
- Drizzle truffle olive oil over the stew and mix well.occasionally stirring the stew. Add a little water if it's too thick.
- Turn off the fire once the stew thickens to your liking.
- Serve with french baguette
- Truffle olive oil can be over-powering, use sparingly.
With Gen stewing all the way over in South Africa, I can’t wait to feature what she’s got tomorrow! Speaking of featuring what she’s got for this month’s Mystery Munchies, watch out for a special edition in which I will be interviewing the Experimenteur Goddess in my next post.
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Monthly Mystery Munchies features every first Friday of the month in collaboration with Gen, Author of Eat, Play, Clove. Next month will be Gen’s turn to come up with a theme. Until then!
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Sounds very comforting for the chili evenings we are having here! Have a great weekend, Ann!
Food for the soul, Jas! ;D You have a wonderful one too! x.
Oh wow, truffle oil – what a treat! This is what I love about cooking – playing around and experimenting and coming up with a recipe that turns out so perfectly. I love all the spices you used and chicken ham and tofu – so interesting and not ingredients I would have thought about adding but this is why we do MMM, to broaden our cooking horizon. What a wonderful recipe and stellar job Ann! Well done and happy 6 month anniversary! Xoxo
It’s all about experimenting, isn’t it! Sometimes, can be a disaster, but let’s hope it stays OK! I love using chicken ham, they add so much flavour to something so simple too. 😀 And thank you for doing the interview.You have a great weekend, Gen!!! xxx.