Nasi Lemak

I asked Jerome what he liked for lunch and he said Nasi Lemak so...

Nasi Lemak- Fragrant coconut rice with stir fried sambal french beans, fried chicken midwings, fried crunchy fish, ikan bilis, peanuts, cucumber, sambal chilli and a sunny side-up :)

Nasi Lemak

Woh Hup Nonya Chicken Curry

Tried the Woh Hup's Nonya Chicken Curry Premix (1 for for $2.20 and there was a promotion- 2 for $3.50) last week for lunch. 

It's a drier version of chicken curry, not much of curry gravy. But it was just perfect to go with plain rice for lunch :) Jerome approves of it and I've just bought another 2 packets to stock up :)

Baked Teriyaki Chicken Thighs

Was busy baking cookies yesterday and didn't have much time to prepare dinner so I baked teriyaki Chicken thighs in my smaller oven while the bigger oven was baking the cookies. So easy to prepare, and simply yummy...

Baked Teriyaki Chicken Thigh

Baked Teriyaki Chicken Thighs (Serve 2)

2 chicken thighs (I used 3, cos it's so yummy, 1 is not enough for Jerome)

Marinade for a few hours (best overnight) in

3 tbsp light soya sauce

3 tbsp mirin

1 tbsp brown sugar

1) Preheat oven to 160C.

2) Put chicken thighs on a baking tray with skin face down. 

3) Bake for 20 minutes. Brush additional marinade in between baking. 

4) Turn the thighs over to bake the other side of the chicken. Brush on additional marinade as well. 

5) Bake for another 15-20 minutes. 

6) Serve with boiled vegetables and baked potato.

Baked Potatoes

I used Holland (they're really from China) potatoes yesterday and they're so sweet that I didn't have to add any other dressing, like sour cream or bacon bits. We enjoyed them plain. 

Wash the potatoes clean and rub some vegetable oil all over the potatoes.  

Use a skewer to prick a few holes all over the potatoes to release steam in the potato and aid in the baking process.

Preheat oven to 200C and bake the potatoes for 15 minutes before turning down the temperature to 160C to bake the chicken together. This give the potatoes a head start to bake. 

Teriyaki Chicken Bento again

When I don't have much time to prepare food, this is what I prepared for lunch.
Basically, just have to marinate the chicken well and put them into the oven to bake.
A quick and tasty meal. Check recipe for the marinade here.

Woh Hup Chicken Curry Premix

Bought a packet of Woh Hup instant chicken curry mix to give it a try. So far I've always used Prima Premix, but it's actually quite expensive , over $6. This Woh Hup Instant Curry is last than $2 as there is a promotion going on. See... I'm becoming an auntie...

Just add a cup of coconut milk/ evaporated milk and a cup of water, chicken and potatoes and an instant transformation to a pot of hot & spicy chicken curry!

This version of the chicken curry is more savory than the Prima Premix. Prima is kind of sweet. Well, I think I still prefer the Prima's version. Anyway we still enjoyed the curry :)
In the morning, I pan-fried some prata to dip in the curry. In the afternoon, we had fried bee hoon that also went well with the curry.

Pineapple Fried Rice & Thai Green Curry

Just prepared pineapple fried rice & Thai Green Chicken Curry for dinner. Had wanted to take a few more better pictures of them but Jerome can't wait to start eating... It is not the first time I had cooked this combination for dinner but it was a long time ago. He said he missed my cooking...

Had wanted to sprinkle some pork floss over but Jerome likes the original flavour.

Opps! The sausages are a little charred...

Thai Green Chicken Curry. 

Should have added some green peas but realized that they have expired :P

The curry mix that I used... 

Just add evaporated milk, chicken and mushrooms...

Baked Chicken MidWings in Hoisin & Char Siew Sauce

Marinade the chicken well (leave overnight if possible) and leave it to bake in the oven while you do other stuff. It was really simple and Jerome loves them. :)

Ingredients:

12 pieces of chicken's mid-wings

Marinade well in :

1 tbsp Lee Kum Kee Char Siew Sauce

1 tbsp Lee Kum Kee Hoisin Sauce

1 tbsp water 

Spread the chicken on a baking tray bake in preheat oven at 160 degrees celcius for 30 mins.

Turn over the chicken after 15 minutes for an even bake.

Thai Green Curry

I've cooked this Thai Green curry last week to acompany my pineapple fried rice. I used the Asian Home Gourmet Premix. I just added evaporated milk, fresh oyster mushrooms, chicken meat, baby corn & a handful of frozen mixed vegetables. You can actually add anything you like. Jerome love the green curry very much. A word of caution- it's a little spicy. Anyway, this means that I'll stock up on the premix :) It's about $1 for a pack (on special 1 for 1 offer now) & I don't have spend all the effort buying all the different ingredients & spices & processing them :P So it's just 20 mins for this bowl of spicy & delicious green curry :)

A spicy bowl of Thai Green Curry

Thai Green Curry Premix

Kai Yang (Thai Aromatic Baked Chicken Leg)

I was at Cold Storage doing my marketing earlier this week & saw the Asian Home Gourmet series of premixes on sale (Buy 1, Free 1), so I decided to give the premixes a try. I don't foresee that I'll be squatting in the kitchen, pounding the ingredients & spices with a stone mortar & pestle, like the little nonya just to prepare a dish. So the premixes are a great idea for me to cook up some new dishes at home.

Thai Aromatic Baked Chicken Leg served with Hainanese Chicken Rice

Premix of Marinade for Chicken

Premix for Hainanese Chicken Rice

The baked chicken legs marinaded with the premix Thai spices are really aromatic, especially with the smell of tumeric (yellow ginger). I just had problems getting rid of the yellow tint on my Lock & Lock container where I marinaded the chicken. The marinade in the pack was for marinading up to 900g of chicken, that's about 4 chicken legs. I only used it to marinade 2 chicken legs which explains why it's a little too salty :P But it's still good to go with the rice.

As for the Hainanese chicken rice premix, I've only used 1/2 of the pack as the pack was meant for 4 servings. I still prefer the "Prima Taste" premix that I've used previously. It's more fragrant. But maybe if I use the entire pack, it'll be more fragrant? Let me try & we'll see...

Now, I still have a pack of Premix for Thai Green Curry to try out...

Chicken Katsu with Tonkatsu Sauce

Just prepared Chicken Katsu with Tonkatsu Sauce for lunch :) Jerome said this is the best Bento set I've made so far... But then again, he said the same thing when I made the Teriyaki Chicken Bento Set & Tonkatsu & Japanese Curry Bento...

Chicken Katsu with Tonkatsu Sauce Bento

Close-up of Chicken Katsu with Tonkatsu Sauce

Recipe for Chicken Katsu

(Makes 4 pieces)

Ingredients:

2 skinless chicken breasts

1 tbsp soya sauce

some pepper

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 egg, beaten

1 cup bread crumbs

oil for deep frying

Method:

1) Slice the chicken breasts into halves (to make it thinner for easier cooking) so that you can 4 pieces in the end.

2) Marinade the chicken in soya sauce & pepper.

3) Coat the chicken with flour, then the beaten egg & finally the bread crumbs.

4) Heat oil for deep frying & deep fry the chicken till it's nice & golden brown.

5) Dish up and drain off excess oil on kitchen paper. Cut in pieces & serve hot with some Tonkatsu Sauce & rice.

Tonkatsu Sauce

2 tbsp Worschester Sauce

3 tbsp tomatoe sauce

Just mix the 2 sauces together. Then pour over Chicken Katsu.

Homemade Pizza, Garlic Bread & Baked Chicken Wings

Have been wanting to make pizza at home for quite some time now. Borrowed a few books from NLB but still didn't manage to make one. Must be waiting for Christmas... until I saw a blog post on Wednesday by Happy Home Baking. She had made pizza & included the recipe for making the dough. It didn't look too difficult & after my success in Cinnamon buns on Wed, I decided to make some pizza from scratch!

Pizza Before baking...

Hawaiian Pizza on the Plate, ready to be eaten...

The Taste Verdict: Jerome said that it's nice Lasagne :P The crust was kind of soft, actually soggy :P I must have added too much tomato paste, too much liquid on the dough... So this 1st pizza making attempt didn't work. Will try again soon.

I've also decided to make my own garlic bread & baked chicken wings to go along with my Hawaiian Pizza. I used the bread recipe for the Cinnamon buns to bake the bread first. As much as I tried to shaped the dough, I didn't managed to get them to look identical. No quality control :P

After the bread cooled, I cut slits into the bread & spread some ready-made garlic bread spread, wrapped the bread in aluminium foil & sent it back into the oven for another 15 mins together with the pizza. Jerome said the garlic bread is nice, but Pizza Hut's still better. Sigh...

Nice Soft Homemade Garlic Bread

Maybe not all totally homemade... as I used ready-made spread

In the end, it was the baked Teriyaki chicken wings that saved the day. I know that they will never fail to please.

Baked Teriyaki Chicken Wings

Recipe for Baked Teriyaki Chicken Wings

Ingredients:

6 pieces of midwings

2 tbps light soya sauce

2 tbsp mirin

2 tsp brown sugar

Method:

1) Mix up all the ingredients & marinade chicken wings for 2-3hrs in the fridge.

2) Grease a baking tray & line the chicken wings on the tray.

3) Bake the wings on each side for 10-15 mins on each side in a pre-heat oven of 160-180 degrees celcius (depending on your oven's 'strength') or until brown. Spread the left-over marinade over the wings occasionally during baking for more flavour.

Chicken Pie - A Pictorial Recipe

Inspired by the 'Step-by-Step' book, here's my pictorial recipe :P

Makes 5 Chicken Pies In a Bowl

Chicken Pie Filling




Ingredients:
300g chicken fillet, cut into cubes, marinade with some soya sauce & pepper
1 potatoe, peeled & cut into cubes
1 pink onion, diced
1 can of sliced mushrooms
1 can Campbell Soup
1 bowl of frozen mixed vegetables
(you can also include celery)


Heat 1 tbsp oil in wok. Add onion & fry till fragrant. Add some water, then the potatoes.
Cover wok and cook potatoes before adding chicken and all the other ingredients.
Add additional water & seasoning if necessary.
Set aside to cool & keep in the fridge until ready to use.



For the Shortcrust Pastry ('Pie Skin')

Ingredients:
240g flour
1/4 tsp salt
50g caster sugar
120g butter, cut into cubes & frozen
1 egg, beaten
2 tsp lemon juice
some ice-water


Sift flour into a bowl. Add sugar & salt. Mix well.
Add in the cold butter.


Use a butter/fat cutter or a fork to cut the butter into the flour...

... until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture & pour in 1/2 the beaten egg.

Mix well with the fork & add in the remaining egg & lemon juice. Mix well.

Slowly add a little water at a time and mix well...

...until a dough is formed.

Wrap up the dough and let it rest in the fridge for 30 mins.

Now is a good time to wash up all the previous mess...

... and get ready to roll the dough.

Make the dough into small balls before rolling them using a rolling pin.
Slightly flour the work area and the rolling pin to prevent the dough from sticking.
Rotate the dough 90 degrees after every roll.
Press the rolled pastry into the bowl & trim off the excess over the edge of the bowl.

Baking Blinds (Optional) : This helps to give you a crispy base.

Line the pastry bowl with a piece of greaseproof paper.

Put soya beans/rice on top to prevent the pastry from rising during baking.

Bake for 15-20 mins in a pre-heat oven of 180degrees celcius.

You can re-use the beans for baking blinds again.

Allow them to cool before storage.

Allow the pastry to cool before adding the fridge cold filling.

Add a cooked quail's egg or quarter of an egg if desired.

Cover the pie with another piece of rolled-out dough.

Trim off the excess & seal the edges by pressing down with a fork.

Decorate as desired.

To glaze, brush a beaten egg.

Prick some holes with a fork to help release steam during baking.

This will help to give you a crispy crust.

Bake in the oven at 180 degrees for 30 minutes or until the crust has turned a golden brown.

Enjoy your pie hot :)

Storage: Let it cool before keeping in the fridge.

Before serving, put it into the oven & turned on the oven to 180 degrees and heat up for 30 mins.

Hainanese Chicken Rice (Prima Taste)

Hainanese Chinese Rice is one of the most popular hawker food in Singapore. You can almost find a stall selling Chicken Rice in every Coffee Shop. The fragrant rice cooked in chicken stock & spices really make it such a easy favourite for so many people. Have tried looking for a recipe to prepare it at home but when you're cooking for 2, you wonder if it's worth all the trouble (just an excuse for being lazy :P). Anyway, there's a lot of ready mixes around at the supermarket, so I decided to try one from Prima Taste. I've tried using Prima Taste's Chicken Curry Mix & Laksa Mix and they're great.

Prima Taste Hainanese Chicken Rice Paste

Just wash the rice, mix in the paste & add enough water to cook the rice. Very easy.

When the rice was cooking in the rice-cooker, we can already smell the fragrance in the entire house. I'm sure the neighbours could smell it too :)

I've never like the 'white' chicken for Hainanese Chicken Rice with the white fatty skin. My hubby also didn't like them. So I prepared our favourite baked chicken for our Hainanese Chicken Rice instead.

Anyway, the rice itself was so good that I'm sure we can eat it simply on its own. My hubby & I decided that we've never eaten chicken rice so fragrant before. I've cooked it twice so far - last week & yesterday. And guess what! Hubby has requested for chicken rice again this Saturday! I wonder when we'll ever get sick of it...

Hainanese Chicken Rice with Panfried Teriyaki Chicken (last week)

Hainanese Chicken Rice with Baked Chicken Leg in Char Siew Sauce (yesterday)

Prima Taste Chicken Rice, so good you can eat it on its own...

So good it makes everything that accompanies it taste as great...

Baked Chicken Leg in Hoisin & Char Siew Sauce

I baked them again, this time sprinkling some sesame seeds on top during the last 10 mins.
I also use a camera & took some close-ups :P instead of using my I-Phone.
For recipe, pls refer to previous entry (http://www.cookisses.blogspot.com/2009/09/baked-chicken-leg-with-hoisin-char-siew.html).

Stir Fry Chicken with Cashew Nuts

A tasty stir fry chicken dish. Good enough to be part of a 1-dish meal, served with white rice. Great to add on a soup too :)



Recipe for Stir Fry Chicken with Cashew Nuts

Ingredients:
250g chicken breast, cut into thin strips

Marinade:
1 tbsp cornflour
1 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine
1 tbsp oyster sauce

Others:
1 + 1 tbsp oil
1 onion, cut into wedges
2 glaric cloves, chopped
1 carrot, cut into slices
100g snow peas
100g roasted cashew nuts
60ml water

Method:
1) Marinade chicken for at least 30 mins.
2) Heat oil & cook chicken. Remove & set aside.
3) Heat oil. Saute onion & garlic till fragrant. Add vegetables & fry briefly.
4) Add chicken. Add water. Cook until suace thickens.
5) Add cashew nuts & serve hot.

Baked Chicken Leg with Hoisin & Char Siew Sauce

Just marinade the chicken the night before for maximum flavour :)

Baked Chicken Leg with Lee Kum Kee Sauces

Recipe for Baked Chicken Leg with Hoisin & Char Siew Sauce

Ingredients:

2 chicken legs

Marinade in:

1 tbsp Lee Kum Kee Hoisin Sauce

1 tbsp Lee Kum Kee Char Siew Sauce

1 tbsp water

Method:

1) Marinade chicken legs with the sauces & water mixture. Leave in refrigerator overnight.

2) Place chicken legs with skin face down on baking tray lined with aluminium foil. Keep the remaining marinade sauce for brushing during baking.

3) Bake in preheat oven at 140 degrees, 20 minutes on each side. Brush leftover marinade during baking. (Baking at low heat ensures that meat stays tender.)

4) Increase heat to 160 degrees, baked additional 10 mins on each side. (The higher temperature will help brown the skin.)

Teriyaki Chicken Bento

Just prepared this for lunch. Hubby simply loves Teriyaki :)

Teriyaki Chicken Bento

Recipe for Teriyaki Chicken (Updated)

Ingredients:
2 chicken thighs (best if boneless but with skin)

Marinade for at least 3hrs (best overnight) in:

3 tbsp soya sauce

3 tbsp mirin

1 tbsp sugar

Method:

1) Remove excess fats from the chicken thighs. Marinade the chicken thighs well, best overnight.

2) Remove thighs from marinade & keep the leftover marinade sauce aside.

(You will use it for brushing on the chicken during baking or for cooking vegetables.)

3) Either pan fry the chicken or bake it in the oven.

To oven bake:

1) Preheat oven to 140-160 degrees. Place chicken thighs on baking pan with skin face down.

2) Bake for 20 mins on each side, brushing some leftover marinade over the chicken for greater flavour.

3) Use the skewer to test if its cooked. Bake for a longer time if necessary.

4) Cut & serve hot.

To pan fry chicken:

1) Heat 1 tbsp oil in the pan. Place chicken thighs into the pan.

2) Prepare 1 cup of water & pour a little at a time to cook the chicken. Once the sauce thickens, add a little more water. This cooks the chicken without burning the sauce & the chicken.

3) Turn the chicken over occasionally till cooked.

4) Cut & serve.

For Teriyaki Sauce:

Pour some leftover Teriyaki marinade, add some water. Boil & let the sauce thickens. Pour over the Teriyaki Chicken.

For Vegetables in Teriyaki Sauce:

Pour the remainnder Teriyaki Marinade into the wok/pan, adding some water if necessary.

Put in the vegetables of choice. Cook & serve together with the Teriyaki Chicken.