Revisiting Expt 11 - Traditional Chicken Stew

Prelab:

I cooked ma mere's traditional, local chicken stew today. It is said that chicken soup is good for sick people. Since mon pere is ill and ma mere has her hands full, I had to cook the requested dish.

Date Performed: Feb. 19, 2010

Ingredients:
1 whole chicken (640 g)
6 small cloves of garlic, chopped
1 slice ginger (amounts as much as the garlic), chopped thinly
1 small white onion, chopped
2 tbsps fish sauce (a.k.a. patis)
4 cups water
1 whole green papaya, chopped
1 small bundle of green chilli (a.k.a. sili) leaves (50 g)

* If you don't have green papaya (that is, the unripe papaya), you may use jute (a.k.a. saluyot) instead.

Preparation:
Sautee ginger, garlic, and onion in that order. Add the chicken. Cover. Wait for the chicken to turn light brown (approx. 10 minutes). Add 2 tbsps of fish sauce. Let it simmer for about 5 minutes. Pour 4 cups of water (because the water should cover the meat). Then, add papaya. Cover and bring to a boil (approx. 10 minutes). When it boils, reduce the flame to low heat (and wait for 10 more minutes or until the papaya is cooked - that is, you can run through a fork into it easily). Add the chilli leaves. Mix quickly and turn off the flame. Serve hot.

Post-lab:
So far, the chicken soup tastes good.
I'm famished. I think I want to eat right now. They did give me permission to do so. They won't be back until much later. Oh well.
Ma mere says that the dish would taste better with chicken liver (not the crushed version, but rather, the normal version you find in the grocery).