May 11, 2007
Spaghetti With Tomato Paste Chicken
Melting Wok revealed her secrets to me about her Spicy Honey Chicken after I asked her how come my dish looked more like Tomato Paste Chicken rather than Spicy Honey Chicken?!?
versus
Melting Wok’s Spicy Honey Chicken
The only ingredient I did not add was an onion, because I had used that in my Chicken Pie and forgot to buy another one when I wanted to make her Spicy Honey Chicken.
Ok. So here are the secrets revealed and lessons learnt. (Note: You will need to read her Spicy Honey Chicken recipe first for this to make sense.)
Sim Cooks: I used a canned tomato paste (looks like tomato paste you use to spread on pizza dough) and bought a cheap Safeway brand. I needed to add water when heating up the paste cos it looked like the paste and all was going to burn and catch fire.
Melting Wok: I did not add water, cos for me, the tomato paste was not too thick - I used bottled ones.
Lesson #1: If you want more gravy, get a tomato paste with a lighter consistency. Bottled ones are useful cos you can then SEE the consistency of the paste inside. O, and don’t be a cheapskate. Safeway brand tomato paste sucks.
Sim Cooks: I pounded two chilli padi into a chilli paste using my mortar and pestle.
Melting Wok: Mine is a home-made chilli paste and is more watery & oily. I add cooking oil to my chilli paste before I store it in the refrigerator because that keeps my food moist from drying and sticking into the pan. Generally, if you use store-bought chilli paste, you must always put enough oil before you stir-fry your aromatics, spices, and spoon in some cooking oil before you add any thick paste in, or anytime while simmering the sauce. It’ll seal in the moisture. Otherwise, use more cooking spray before you start cooking.
Lesson #2: Matt or Glossy? The beautiful glaze you see from Melting Wok’s Spicy Honey Chicken is probably due to her more moist and oily chilli paste. So, matt or glossy? If you want matt, just shoddily pound a couple of chilli and make them into a paste. If you want glossy, er… pull up your socks and do some work!
Sim Cooks: How come my chicken is not crispy? Grrrr….
Melting Wok: I did not simmer the pre-pan-fried chicken too long. First, the chicken was almost done; second, I wanted to maintain the light crispy texture of the chicken, hence I did not let them sit in the sauce too long; third, I wanted lotsa sauce, enough to eat with my white rice, so I briefly let the chicken simmer in the sauce at low heat right after I briefly stir-fried the chicken at high heat, and last, the sauce did not have other liquids, hence, it’d only get thicker and dry up even more if you let the chicken sit in the sauce too long, and last, the more honey you add, the thicker it gets.
Sim Cooks: *Brain freeze* Can you speak in English?
Lesson #3: De-frost brain and re-read the above.
Sim Cooks: I did not have onions. Was I already off to a bad start?
Melting Wok: The onions added a light caramel texture and sweetness to the sauce.
Lesson #4: Always keep an onion handy in the pantry.
Sim Cooks: You said “add honey to taste” … the honey bear asked me to press his tummy a few times. Was a few times too many times too much?
Melting Wok: I’ve only used, I think, about 3/4 of tbsp of honey. The more honey you add, the thicker the sauce gets.
Lesson #5: Never trust the honey bear.
I had some chicken as leftovers and I did not want to eat that with rice again cos the taste of the tomato paste was a wee bit strong. So I mixed them with some spaghetti and chopped cilantro and I managed to get a pretty good Spaghetti With Tomato Paste Chicken.
Thanks Melting Wok for your additional tips on making Spicy Honey Chicken. I’ll be keen to make that again and eat with fragrant Basmati Rice.
Bite This!
More recipes:
Spaghetti with Shrimp and Anchovies
Spaghetti Bolognese - The All-Time Safe Pasta Dish
Chicken Recipe (5) - Spring Onion Chicken
How to cook spaghetti (for newbies only)
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May 11th, 2007 at 1:32 pm
Always trust the honey bear. He is your friend. Just don’t push his tummy too much. He likes it.
May 11th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
Tigerfish: Can I use tomato ketchup instead?
Simcooks: Can’t you learn from my lessons?
Meltingwok: Don’t fool around.
Lesson: Better get back to kindergarten and learn the differences between tomato paste and tomato ketchup.
P.S Sorry, I put words into your mouth and MW’s. Kekekeke.
May 11th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
Oh I’m sorry panda.. I pushed your bear friend a bit too hard. I’d gently squeeze his bear tummy next time. I promise.
Tiga with her brain juices flowing again. What’s she up to this time? Fusion Spicy Ketchup Chicken in a burger?
May 11th, 2007 at 11:45 pm
Hehe - that was a great post! I’ll make sure I don’t squeeze the honey bear too many times if I try out that recipe!
May 13th, 2007 at 9:18 am
This post is so funny when I read it.
Actually got short cut leh simcooks. The Brahim’s packs does wonders!
May 13th, 2007 at 10:12 pm
each time i read your blog i get hungry . moral of the story…. read your blog when you are nto hungry.
Would you believe Ah Fook taugh me how to make a very good chicken rice porridge? He said wash rice. add oil and seseme oil for one day . The boil rice in chicken stock but must stir all the time. We did it twice. Very Very good to eat. Must try
May 13th, 2007 at 11:32 pm
Wok And Spoon:
Be gentle ok… else Chubby Panda will come after you…
KM:
Melting Wok gave me permission to publish her secrets.
Oh. I had to google search for “Brahim’s pack”. I haven’t seen that premix before. Is that something new from NTUC?
Mamafess:
Wah… Ah Fook so nice to make Chicken Porridge for you. Rice cooked in chicken stock is sure to be fragrant. *yummy* If your stock is made from chicken meat and bones as opposed to a using a canned chicken stock, just remember to only bring the water to a boil then lower heat to a simmer, otherwise the chicken meat will become tough.
May 13th, 2007 at 11:38 pm
Search for: Brahim’s sauces.
It’s available in many countries. Msia, Spore etc, not only in NTUC :-)
I google and found that tigerfish’s blog gets listed out. she buys brahim’s too :-)
May 14th, 2007 at 4:23 am
hey up! I can’t remember how many times when I tried a new recipe and the result didn’t look like the picture at all :D, at least you’ve learnt a few valuable lessons that you can put in practice next time then :D. I actually watch a malaysian tv show a few weeks back when that dish was on and I had to say, Melting wok’s recipe was just spot on. the picture is simply mouth watering
May 14th, 2007 at 8:26 am
KM:
I also saw that search result. It was somebody’s comment :)
Anh:
Yeah, I so wanted to eat that crispy chicken Indian style with Basmati Rice. Gotta make it again.
May 15th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
Ha-ha. I love lessions #3 and #5:
De-frost brain and re-read the above.
Never trust the honey bear.
May 15th, 2007 at 11:14 pm
DF:
I think I got influenced by your writing in your blog. :)