Ginger Braised Chicken, My mom's style

First of all, Happy Mothers' Day to all mothers.

My mom… how to tell u about my mom. Widowed when I was just 11. She raised us, 3 siblings and 1 cousin, fed us well, gave us all we ever needed. No luxuries, but never deprived of anything. We have our computers, our Nikes(no DKNY or GA), piano lessons(but no piano, I practiced at my teacher’s), Honda C70s(3 of us got 3 bikes, no cars), local tertiary education, first car downpayment… all with her working from 6am to 6pm in a coffee stall passed down since my granddad. My great grandfather had another shop somewhere else, but it’s my granddad that operated this one.

My mom is the type where she’ll play with us, roll on the bed with us when we were young. Not all fun at all times, she never spares the cane if we got tooooo funny in the house. But I could count how many times I was severely canned, just 2. And each time, the moment she put down her cane, she’ll quickly grab ointment to put on our skin. Skin deep… truly skin deep. Even at age 63 now, we still can grab her neck by our elbow and play with her. A very fun mother, but dun try to be too funny, ya know what I mean.

She retired and sold off the business since Hannah came by. Took care of her and Joanna and made that her new job. One that she never regretted, although she does receive jests from others that she forsake money to be imprisoned with kids. To her, nothing is more important that to have your granddaughters hug you and kiss you everyday, and miss u like mad when you’re not around.My mom always say,” If you don’t take care of them, they won’t have that special bond with you, something that money cannot buy.”

My mom is a lazy cook. Haha!!! Ask her to cook sweet and sour pork, and she’ll give u a stern no. Cos it makes her fry the meat and cook the sauce later, something that she hates to do. Since her retirement, she watched a lot more TV than she used to, and definitely more cooking shows. She’s improved a lot and got more adventurous with ingredients. Her stews and braises have always been good, and these few years, her soup is getting better and better. Can u imagine that I taught her how to cook when I was 6 or 7??? If u read my “about me” you’ll know that I watch grandaunt cook a lot, and mom never cooked at home that time. For a few weeks, grandaunt wasn’t home, and mom had to cook. She had to ask me, what did grandaunt use for this dish and that…. So I became her “sifu”. I was so bad, telling her ketchup here and ketchup there, because I loved ketchup (hey I was 7!!!). and if she really did cook sweet and sour fish, I’ll be there instructing her to put in more and more ketchup. If you can imagine how bad her cooking was, I tell you, even her blanched veggie tasted yucks( no ketchup ok)!! What if your kids were so frank telling u that your cooking sucks??? Will that stop u from cooking?? My mom didn’t, and she cooked even more(on Sundays). By the time I was 9, she could cook the most wonderful dinners ever (every mother cooks the best!!!!). No more complaints.

This ginger braised chicken is one of my mother’s forte. No ketchup here. No one does it as good as she does, and that includes me, her earlier “sifu”. Never ask her for recipes, she never cook with one and when she does, it always sucks. Freehand is always better with her. But I’ve jotted down what I’ve done today(after referring to my mother to confirm ingredients used) for ur reference.

My mom's Ginger Braised Chicken
1.2kg chicken whole legs (3 pcs)
80gm ginger, julienned (about ¾ cup)
2 Tbsp oil
½ tbsp salt
2 Tbsp oyster sauce
3 Tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
¾ tsp sugar or slightly more if ginger is pretty hot
3 cups water

1. Chop chicken legs into pieces, I chopped them into 8 pieces each.
2. Heat wok until very hot. Put in oil and fry ginger until fragrant.
3. Make sure the wok is well smeared with the ginger oil. Put in chicken and spread it around. Do not toss them immediately. Let it sit in the wok for 30 seconds, then only u start to use ur spatula to flip the chicken pieces. Stir fry chicken in wok until the chicken looks opaque and skin starts to brown slightly.
4. Put in all the seasonings. And continue to stir fry until the seasonings dry up a bit, but be careful not to burn.
5. Put in water and simmer on medium low heat until chicken is tender.

My mother’s advice: Best if cooked in a claypot.
And weeks later, after I did this, she did this, and luckily I was there to capture the process. This is my mummy dearest doing her best dish, not me.

And lastly a picture of my mom with Lyanne.... see their resemblence?? Lyanne is very attached to her, even though they meet nnly once a month. Lyanne even sleeps with my mom :)

And here's another one with all her grandkids

These pics were taken 8 months back, so everybody has grown..