Chicken Cream Stew

Tonight's recipe came from the Le Creuset recipe book. My dear wife cooked it for me while I rested after work. I felt a bit guilty because I promised to help cook this meal today.

it tastes just as nice as it looks... yum yum!

Lovely on plain white rice... let it soak up all the rich creamy goodness! I've seen a similar cream stew in pre-made 'blocks', like curry, but I prefer it when it's cooked from scratch. I think this was way better. It was made with love.

chopped veggies

The original recipe had asparagus. We couldn't find them at the markets and were told by farmers that it was the wrong season. So we used the kai lan flowers / stems with flowers as a substitute; they look a bit like asparagus although it doesn't have the taste. But it actually added a very nice vibrant green to the dish!

Normally you can't buy just the kai lan stalks, you buy them as bunches and Chinese families enjoy the leafy bits as well as the unopened flowers. For this soup, we used the overgrown kai lan from our patch. The leaves are not really edible anymore because we let it grow too large and 'old'. It's actually sucking out a lot of the nutrients from our soil, and I considered removing the plants and growing other edible greens like radish and bok choi, that don't get as attacked by those white moths. But I left it there because the flowers attracted bees to our garden.

I digress; back to the star dish of tonight! My wife added chicken, onions, and succulent chicken thigh pieces (not too much, as the dish is mostly veggies). The best part is tasting it and observing my wife magically transform this from a delicious chicken soup into a creamy stew.

My wife slightly adapted the original recipe. She is now recalling the ingredients she used for tonight's version, so that I can type it up:

• main ingredients
• 1 pack chicken thigh (about 4-5 pieces, or 500g), chopped and most fat removed
• 3 carrots
• 2 onions
• greens (we used kai lan flower stalks, from our patch)
• boiled potatoes (leftover from before, from our patch)
• liquids
• 300ml bottle of cream
• 200ml milk
• bouillon powder in 1L of water
• add 1 bay leaf
• others
• salt, pepper, sugar to taste
• white wine (to deglaze)
• vegetable oil
• a hint of nutmeg powder at the end... it adds an amazing dimension to this dish. My wife warmed me not to put too much.

The cream and milk must not be boiled, so it's added last. Therefore, most ingredients have to be cooked before the cream is added. The master chef claims that a gas stove would have resulted in an even better dish! I wonder how it could be even better!!

It's one of my favourite ways to eat rice: slurp it down with a delicious, rich sauce. It can be cream based, or curry, or tomato. Or just a creamy egg yolk with dark soy sauce (the first 'dish' I cooked when I was young).

Please post in the comments if you've got recipes or experiences with similar creamy, saucy goodness to accompany your plain rice. Cheers, and goodnight!