Steamed chicken with spicy scallop oil

What could be healthier than steamed chicken and  green vegetable?

This recipe is a healthy take on that old Cantonese classic, steamed chicken with ham, minus the salty processed ham.

Plus the skin is removed from the chicken and needless to say, all obvious fat is also snipped off.

But this is no bland offering.

Instead it is individual serves of tender moist chicken each served on a bed of wilted spinach and mushrooms.

To give extra oomph to the dish, I drizzle a spicy dried scallop oil over the chicken as a luxurious finishing touch, this should be used with restraint, I might add.

While I give instructions on how to make this dressing, you could, at a pinch, buy it bottled.

After which it is an easy task to steam the chicken parts, marinated first in rice wine, together with spring onion and ginger.

The final flourish comes from a mushroom gravy which I then pour over the chicken.
Who says steamed chicken is boring?

Ingredients:

Steamed chicken with spicy scallop dressing (For 10)

• 1 1.5 kg chicken, skinned and de-boned and cut into 10 pieces (the stallholder can do this for you)
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 Tbs. rice wine
• 1 stalk spring onion
• 2 ginger slices
• 500 gm Chinese spinach (por choi)
• 1 packet honshimeji mushrooms (small brown Japanese mushrooms)

Scallop oil:

• 5 or 6 dried scallops (coin-sized)
• 1/2 cup rice wine
• 4-5 Tbs. vegetable oil
• 1 Tbs. dried chilli flakes
• 1 tsp. sugar
• Pinch of salt or to taste

Gravy:

• 2 cups chicken stock (homemade or store bought)
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 1 tsp. corn flour
• Reserved scallop-flavoured wine

Method:

1. Rub salt and rice wine over chicken pieces. Place over spring onion and ginger slice and steam for 20 minutes. When cool, discard spring onion and ginger.
2. In the meantime, rinse dried scallops. Steam in rice wine for about half an hour until soft. Reserve wine.
3. Shred scallops. Heat oil in a small pan and brown the shredded scallops. Add sugar and salt to taste. Turn off the fire, add chilli flakes and leave to infuse for at least an hour. (This can be done a day ahead of time).
4. Combine stock ingredients with reserved scallop wine in a pot. Add rinsed mushrooms, ends cut off and separated. Cook over a medium fire, stirring until sauce thickens.
5. Wash and tear spinach into smaller pieces. Wilt spinach in a hot wok over medium heat. Lay spinach out on a platter. Place cooked chicken pieces on top and ladle over hot gravy.
6. Top chicken with spicy scallop oil and serve.