Basil thrives in our climate. When it grows, it grows. This is one thing that makes me really happy, when I get to use herbs from my garden to cook. They are so fragrant and fresh and it feels really good to know it came from my own garden patch. Here’s a wonderful recipe for chicken.

Ingredients

1/2  free range chicken (cut into small pieces)
300 gm fresh basil shoots
3 cloves chopped garlic
2 red bird eye chili (halved, seeded)
1 dried chili (soaked, seeded and cut into 1″ length)
dark soy sauce
light soy sauce
sesame oil
1/2 tsp sugar
dash of pepper
sea salt
olive oil

1. Wash chicken parts and pat dry. I prefer small free range chicken for this dish mainly because it has less fats and the meat is sweeter and more succulent. Make sure the pieces are small to enable it to cook through easily and not burn on the outside and still red in the insides. This dish has to be dry and not full of gravy.
2. Heat up the wok. Drizzle in the olive oil. Toss in the fresh and dried chili, chopped garlic, followed by chicken pieces. Stir fry them around until the chicken is well seared, then add a drizzle of light and dark soy sauce, a little sesame oil and stir some more till all the chicken is evenly coated and colored. Do not add water but you may lower down the heat.
3. When the chicken is almost cooked through, throw in all the basil shoots and leaves. Add sugar, pepper and sea salt to taste. When the basil goes limp, turn off the heat immediately and serve.

This is indeed a yummy dish, even those without much time on their hands can produce this miracle dish.

1 small pig trotter
4 Tbsp plain flour
2 Tbsp coarse salt
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5 dried Chinese mushrooms (soaked, discard water, cut into strips)
1 small dried cuttlefish (rinse, cut into strips)
a handful of dried ikan bilis (dried local anchovies)
2 pieces of thumb-size old ginger (smashed)
4 Tbsp dark soy sauce
1 Tbsp brown sugar
sea salt
pepper
filtered water
grapeseed oil

Method

1. Rub the pig trotter with flour and coarse salt. This is to rid the pork of all porky smell and also to tenderise the meat. Rinse it thoroughly under running tap water. Pat dry with paper towels. Marinade the trotter with some dark soy sauce.
2. Heat a wok with oil, in goes the smashed ginger and sear the whole trotter evenly. Leave aside to cool.
3. Toss in the cut mushrooms, cuttlefish and ikan bilis. Stir evenly and add back the trotter and the rest of the ingredients except sea salt. Pour in some water to create a gravy. Water should just cover the trotter slightly more than half way. Transfer all in the wok into a slow cooker and put on high for 4 hours. Season with sea salt when ready. The gravy should be slightly thick with the collagen from the trotter.
4. Take the trotter out from the slow cooker gently. Use a scoop to hold it together or else it will fall apart. Tear it into smaller pieces and serve with the rest of the ingredients on top.