Soya Chicken my style

This is one of my kids favourite dish, easy soya chicken. I cook this dish almost every week. Very easy to prepare and cook and extremely kid friendly.

The recipe is based on estimates. Adjust the sauce to your liking. If you don't want it sweet, use regular black soya. I prefer kicap manis.

Some like to add cornflour to thicken the sauce but i like mine without. You can add if you like.

What you need:
1 whole chicken (about 1.2kg cut into pieces)
1.5 tablespoon ginger+garlic paste
1 large carrots, cut into bite size
2 medium potatoes, cut into bite size
2 large onions, cut into rings
1 small can button mushrooms
3 tablespoons light soya sauce, adjust accordingly
6 tablespoons kicap manis, adjust accordingly
Black pepper
Some oil

What you do:
1. Fry garlic ginger paste in oil till fragrant, add 1/4 cup of water to prevent it from burning and add chicken pieces
2. Stir the chicken till they turn opaque then add the soya sauces, continue to stir and add another 1/4 cup water to cover the chicken pieces
3. Let it simmer for about 5 minutes then add the carrots,potatoes and mushroom
4. Adjust the water and soya sauce to taste
5. Cover the pot and continue to let it simmer till the potatoes and carrots are tender
6. Add the onions and continue to cook under medium heat till the onions turns soft and translucent
7. Add pepper to taste
8. Turn heat off and serve it hot with rice

Airfryer Stirfry Bittergourd

My airfryer is one of my favourite appliances in the kitchen.  If you do not owe an oven, I highly recommend that you get one for yourself.  There are many many things that you can do with it.  Apart from baking, you can also use it for stir frying.  I bought an airfryer recipe book and decided to try one of the recipe.  You will need a small baking tin for this.
  

Here is the recipe:

What you need:

1 large bittergourd, thinly sliced

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

prawns, de-shelled with tail on

Marinade

Salt+pepper to taste

Sugar

Sesame oil

Light soya sauce

Some oil

What you do:

1. Marinate bittergourd slices with a little salt,sugar and oil

2. Marinate prawns with salt, pepper, dash of light soya sauce and sesame oil, put aside

3. Put bittergourd slices in the baking tray and airfry at 200C for 3mins, stir midway

4. Scoop the slices out and put them aside

5. Spray some oil and pour beaten eggs, airfry for 3 minutes stirring the eggs midway twice

6. Remove from baking tray and scoop it together with the bittergourd slices

7. Add prawns to the baking tray and airfry for about 6mins stir midway till prawns are cooked

8. Add the bittergourd slices + eggs into tray and mix everything well

9. Continue airfrying for another 2 minutes and serve with sprinkle of black pepper

Easy Apple Galette

I had a bunch of apples at home and running out of fridge space to keep them.  Ended up making this easy apple galette to get rid of some of them.   Other than the pastry that needs a recipe, the filling is simply by estimation.  

I used flan pastry for this galette because it is the easiest and less fragile.

What you need:

Flan Pastry (adapted from Michel Roux Pastry)
250g pastry flour (original using plain flour)
125g butter, diced and slightly soften
1 egg
1 tsp caster sugar
1/2 tsp fine salt
40ml ice water

1. Pour flour into a big bowl and make a well
2. Put butter, egg, sugar and salt in the middle, mix and cream the ingredients with you finger tips till it become like breadcrumbs
3. Add cold water and mix it until dough begins to hold together
4. Using palm of your hand, push the dough away 4 or 5 times until it is smooth
5. Roll pastry into a ball, cling wrap it and refrigerate at least 30mins or until ready to use

Apple Filling
3 medium size apples, skin removed and sliced
1/4 cup brown sugar (adjust accordingly to your liking)
1.5 tsp ground cinnamon (adjust accordingly)
some butter

1. Mix everything except butter and put it aside

What you do:

1. Roll the pastry to about 0.5cm or thinner
2. Pour the filling in the centre of the rolled pastry
3. Cut butter into small pieces and put on top of the filling
4. Fold the edges and brush it with egg whites if you want
5. Bake in the 180C preheated oven until the edges turn golden brown
6. Once slightly cool, sprinkle with confectionary sugar and serve warm on it's own or with ice-cream or cream

Moroccan Egg Tagine

This dish is inspired by a dish a colleague had when we had lunch at a restaurant in Sydney.   So took the opportunity to test my new tagine, I just had to make it for dinner a few days ago.  We had it with rotis/chapatis instead of a crusty bread which is in fact a better choice.  This is an easy dish that can be prepared in 30mins.  

What you need:
1 large onion, sliced
3 small clove garlic, chopped
14oz diced tomato (canned)
2 tsp hawaij spice (optional)
1 Tbsp harissa (optional for extra spice)
salt to taste
1 Tbsp raw sugar/brown sugar
some sausages
2 eggs
Olive oil
chopped parsley for garnishing

What you do:
1. Heat the tagine/pot/pan and pour some oil
2. Throw in sliced onion, once the onions sweat, add chopped garlic and stir till lightly browned
3. Pour in diced tomato with the liquid
4. Add harissa, spice, stir the mixture
5. Add sugar and salt to taste and let the sauce simmer, add abit of water if it looks dry
6. Add the suasages, cover the tagine and continue simmer for about 5-10mins
7. Add a bit water if gets too dry, the pour the eggs, 1 at a time and cover the tagine again for about 5 mins or till the egg white turns opaque
8. Turn off the heat and sprinkle with EVOO and parsley and serve

Enjoy!

Skillet Smores

Small treat for the girls over the weekend with my stash of dark chocolate in the refrigerator.  Got this idea from pinterest (where else :D) and I thought it was cool to have it done for the girls.  So with my medium size skillet, good dark chocolate bars plus some leftover bittersweet chocolate chip cookies, they had a great time munching this after lunch.  I partially melt the chocolate for a bit in the oven before I arranged the marshmallows on top.  Then put it on grill in the oven till the marshmallow turns brown.  We had it with soda crackers instead as we don't have graham crackers easily available here.  The combination is wonderful!  

What you need:
2 bars or more of your favourite chocolate
1 bag marshmallow
crackers

What you do:
1. Break the chocolate and heat the skillet in the preheated oven till partially melted
2. Arrange marshmallows on top of the choc
3. Put the skillet back to the oven and let the marshmallow browned, serve with crackers

Vietnamese Yogurt (drink)

I make my own yogurt at home using my yogurt maker and cultured powder, once a few weeks. They are usually made with low and full fat milk and quite recently with coconut milk.  I usually eat it on its own or use it for my bakes and cooking.  A few days ago, I chanced upon a recipe of a vietnamese yogurt that uses sweetened condensed milk.  Very interesting I should say and that made me wanted to try. The recipe I chose uses yogurt as a starter, curious with the taste, I made it 2 days ago.  Unfortunately my low-fat yogurt is not potent enough to firm up the yogurt nicely but I really do like the taste.  Instead, I have myself a yogurt drink that tastes very much like Yakult *yummy*

Next time I will use the powder instead and replace some of the water with full cream milk.

I used my yogurt maker for this, but you can use your oven to set the yogurt.  Best to do it at night so that it will be ready by the next morning.  Recipe follows:

What you need:

1 can sweetened condensed milk

1 can boiling water (use the same can of the condensed milk)

1 can room temperature water (use the same can of the condensed milk, original recipe uses 2 cans)

1/2 cup yogurt (store bought is fine)

What you do:

1. Pour condensed milk into a bowl, add boiling water and stir the mixture

2. Add room temperature water and stir till well blended and let the mixture cool a little bit (you do not want it to be too hot when adding the yogurt as it will kill the bacteria and your yogurt will not set)

3. Add yogurt and stir

4. If you are using a yogurt maker, pour mixture into your yogurt maker and let it set in the maker till it sets

5. If you are using the oven, preheat the oven to 75C then turn it off the heat

6. Pour the yogurt into small containers and place them in the oven with the light on overnight.

7. Yogurt is ready for consumption the next day.  Keep some yogurt to be used as a starter for the next batch

Happy trying !

Random: My coffee corner

Just some random entry which is not food related :)  I always enjoy a good cup of coffee and feels that it would be a shame to hide this cute pixie in the kitchen.  So I decided to dedicate a small corner of my flat for my coffee machine so that I can serve my guests with good quality coffee.  Nothing fancy really, just that I got a good friend to do one framework for me to hang above the coffee cart as it was pretty bare.  So yesterday I got my father-in-law to drill my wall so that I can hang this up... Cosy isn't it?

Juicy Lucy Cheeseburger

One of those weekends when you do not know what to prepare for lunch.  Then the hubby requested for a burger after he saw a photo of the juicy lucy burger done by his cousin. So since I am in the mood to be busy, I made this for lunch. Mince the meat using my grinder and baked the burger buns - everything from scratch .. well almost everything :)

You know I always go for easy recipe and this is easy. Very minimal seasoning required. 

This is how we had it, with potatoes and sweet potato chips.

Here is the link to the recipe I used for the patty.

http://www.food.com/recipe/jucy-lucy-cheeseburger-383042

What you need:

1 kg ground beef, chilled

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

2 tsp garlic powder

150g a mix of cheddar and mozarella cheese cut into 1cm cubes

kosher salt

ground black pepper

What you do:

1. Place beef, Worcestershire sauce, garlic salt, and pepper in a bowl; mix well, portion into eight (size of lemon)

2. Flatten the the beef and stuffed the cheese into the patty

3. Preheat a cast-iron skillet or heavy-bottomed pan to medium heat

4. Cook burgers over heat 3 to 4 minutes on first side (Burger may puff up due to steam from melting cheese. This is normal. Do not be alarmed)

5. Flip, and using toothpick, prick top of burger to allow for steam escape. Allow burger to cook 3 to 4 minutes on this side.

6. Remove patties from pan or grill, place them on the burger bun, add some condiments on, and ready to be eaten

Enjoy !

Quick Rise Yeasted Rolls

I was thinking of baking bread but not in the mood to do something that takes hours. So tried this recipe because of the rave reviews. It also doesn't use huge amount of yeast considering this is a quick rise roll. Verdict: really good. Soft and delicious.

I made minor changes. Refer to the link for the original recipe. Mix the dough till slightly stretchy before the first rest. No need to knead. The dough I got was soft but manageable.  This rolls also keep well, they still stay soft the next day.

http://m.allrecipes.com/recipe/13827/quick-yeast-rolls

Quick Rise Yeasted Rolls

What you need:

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons raw sugar

1 cup hot water

7g instant yeast

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon salt

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

What you do:

1. Preheat oven to 220 degrees C

2. In a large bowl, mix the oil, sugar, and hot water

3. Allow to cool until lukewarm, and mix in the yeast until dissolved
4. Mix in the egg, salt, and flour, allow the dough to rise until doubled in size.

5. Divide the dough into the prepared muffin cups or tray, and allow to rise again until doubled in size.

6. Bake for 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until a knife inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean.

Double Chocolate Banana Muffin

I had some overriped bananas in the refrigerator that was calling me.  Need to clear them and I was thinking of something chocolaty. After checking the internet, I ended up with this. Recipe is taken of a magazine and not only it was easy, but they came out delicious. I have made some modification to the flour but I would encourage you to try the original recipe

Double Chocolate Banana Muffin

What you need:
1 1/2 cup plain flour (I used white whole wheat)
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 cup mashed bananas
1 large egg
1/3 cup oil/melted butter
1 cup chocolate chips
*1/4 cup milk (this is not in the original recipe. I added because my batter was really dry due to the flour I used)

What you do:
1. In a large bowl, sift and combine all the dry ingredients
2. In a small bowl, combine bananas, oil and egg and stir into dry ingredients until moistened. Add milk if batter is really dry. Fold in chips 
3. Fill paper lined muffin cups 3/4 full

4. Baked at 170C for 20-25 mins or until toothpick inserted near the centre comes out clean