Braised chicken with preserved beancurd ~ foo yue kai

Ingredients

• 450 g free range chicken
• 10 g beancurd sticks
• 10 g cloud ears/'wan yee'
• 2 teaspoons wolfberries
• 2 tablespoons preserved beancurd/'Foo Yue' mashed into a paste
• 2 teaspoons sugar or to taste
• 2.1/2 cups water
• A few slices of young ginger
• Salt to taste

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Preparation

• Soak the cloud ears in water and once they're soft, cut off the stems and tear into smaller pieces.
• Season the chicken with 1/2 tsp salt, set aside. Wipe the beancurd sticks with a damp kitchen towel, break into shorter lengths and deep fry.
• Drain off oil and set aside. Saute the ginger slices with some oil, add in the chicken pieces and stir-fry.
• Mash up the preserved beancurd and add into chicken pieces, fry for a while.
• Add in 1.1/2 cups of water and let it simmer. Add in the cloud ears, sugar and let the chicken cook till they are tender.
• Add in the deep fried beancurd sticks and you may need to add in another cup of water at this juncture as the beancurd sticks tend to absorb a fairly substantial amount of liquid.
• Fine tune to taste, toss in the wolfberries, give it a quick stir and turn off heat. Dish out onto plate and serve hot with rice.