INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

Chop the chicken, bones and all, into Chinese serving pieces--about  an
inch and a half. Use a juicer to get the 2 teaspoons of ginger  juice.
You can just mince it, but there will be a subtle difference.  Put the
chicken into a big bowl and sprinkle with the ginger juice or  minced
ginger. Combine sugar, salt, cornstarch, sesame oil, soy sauce  and
booze in another bowl. Blend it to a smooth paste. Rinse the  black
beans in a strainer until visible salt is gone. Drain and mince  finely
along with the garlic. Add to the seasoning paste and mix  well. Add
all this to the chicken and mix to coat thoroughly.  At this point, I
put the chicken on two 8 inch pie plates and put each  plate into a
steamer compartment on my aluminum steamer. If you don't  have one you
can improvise using a large pot and a low-sided dish  held just above
the water by an inverted dish or whatever. The idea  is to allow the
steam to circulate around the chicken while keeping  the boiling water
from splashing into the dish holding the it. Start  the water boiling
and place the plate onto the inverted dish in the  large pot. Cover
tightly and steam for 25 to 30 minutes--a little  longer if you like
your chicken well done. The water should be  boiling just enough to
produce steam. When you're handling the dish,  BE CAREFUL. Steam burns
are no fun.  This makes enough for four served with rice. (And there
won't be any  leftovers.) I serve it with steamed rice, a bowl of
chopped up green  onions, and small dishes of hot mustard, hoisin sauce
and Vietnamese  chili dip. I usually put out small dishes of Chinkiang
vinegar and  spiced salt as well. Dip a piece of chicken into the sauce
of your  choice and then into the green onions and enjoy! The taste is
rich  and subtle, the chicken succulent and steamy. The green onions
and  dips serve as a counterpoint the richness.  It's one of the few
Chinese dishes I know that I can serve to someone  who "doesn't like
Chinese food" with no problems. It's a quick and  easy dish once you
get it down. The fermented black beans, hoisin  sauce, fresh ginger and
sesame oil are fairly specialized, but any  good Oriental market and
many supermarkets will carry them. All will  keep for a long time in
the fridge. The sesame oil is the dark,  cooked Oriental variety, not
the health store variety. The latter  won't work. While you're in the
Chinese market, pick up a can of  preserved tea melons or sweet mixed
pickles. They're an excellent  accompa- niment. Water melon pickles or
chutneys also go well with  it. One hint--don't let the chicken sit in
the bean sauce mixture too  long. It's not a marinade and will become
overpowering if left too  long.  From "The Step-by-Step Chinese
Cookbook" by Georges Spunt. Thomas Y.  Crowell Company, New York. 1973.
From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini

A Message from our Provider:

“Life – your only chance. Eternity – payback time”

Nutrition (calculated from recipe ingredients)
----------------------------------------------
Calories: 92
Calories From Fat: 40
Total Fat: 4.5g
Cholesterol: 0mg
Sodium: 770.6mg
Potassium: 30mg
Carbohydrates: 10.3g
Fiber: <1g
Sugar: 2.3g
Protein: <1g