Sunny Pancakes

Prepared pancakes for breakfast this morning.

Sunny, Soft & Fluffy Pancakes :)

Click for recipe here.

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. 

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.

Ribeye Steak (Lawry's Marinade)

Prepared steak for the 1st time for Jerome's birthday... trying to replicate a meal from Jack's Place we had last month... minus the hotplate... plus lotsa love :P I'm not much of a 'beef' person... The beef I usually eat comes in a burger. I'm always cooking chicken at home :P So you can say that it's a special birthday meal for Jerome who likes to eat beef.

Ribeye Steak served with boiled brocoli & baked potato

And since it was my 1st time preparing steak, I bought a bottle of instant marinade from Cold Storage... to guarantee a simple success.

I marinaded the beef in the fridge for a good few hours & by pouring quite a bit of marinade to 'bathe' the meat in. I pan fried the beef steaks, trying to get them medium well, not too raw, not too tough. For the sauce, I just heat up the leftover marinade and added some cornflour mixed to water to thicken up the sauce.

For the potatoes, I washed the potatoes & brushed the skin with oil & baked them in the oven @ 180 degrees for about an hour. I put some whipped sour cream with spring onions & bacon bits to the potato & the sour cream started to melt into a gooey mess!

When I placed the plates on the table, Jerome couldn't wait to try the beef. We were  really disappointed when we found out the beef was still quite raw... I had to cook it again. Finally, after the extra cooking time, the steaks were just right. Despite the inperfection, it was still a great meal. Jerome said that it was worth the wait ...

This is not so difficult after all. :) Next time, I'll make sure I cook the beef steaks a little longer.

Fish & Chips Again (Improved)

Didn't know what to cook for dinner & went searching in the fridge. Found 2 pieces of frozen fish fillet & decided to prepare fish & chips. This time, I tried coating the fish with flour, before the beaten egg & the breadcrumbs. The fish turned out to be more crispy. :)

So basically, it's just sprinkle some Tuscan seasoning (or any other seasoning) on the fish. Coat with flour, then coat in beaten egg & finally the breadcrumbs. Deep fry & you will get nice, crispy, golden fish! Talking about food really makes me hungry... Hope it doesn't make me fat too!

Fish & Chips

Recipe for Fish & Chips (Serves 2)

Ingredients:

2 fish filet, defrozed (those frozen types- Dory fish, etc)

1 egg

some Tuscan seasoning (abt 1 tsp)

a plate of breadcrumbs

Method:

1) In a plate, add Tuscan seasoning to an egg. Beat.

2) Coat fish well in the egg mixture.

3) Coat the fish with the plate of breadcrumbs. Coat well.

4) Heat oil in wok for deep frying.

5) Slowly slide the fish into the oil and fry till golden. Then flip to the other side.

6) Drain excess oil from the fish using kitchen paper.

7) Serve with chips & salad/coleslaw.

To prepare Fish & Chips served with Soup in 45mins.

1) Take fish out of fridge. Rinse it with water. Remove & place on a plate for defrozing.

2) Pour a can of Cambell soup together with a can of water into a pot. Add fresh mushrooms if desired. Put soup to boil.

3) While waiting for soup to boil, cut mushroom for soup & vegetables to prepare for salad.

4) Meanwhile, heat oil for frying in a wok. When oil is ready, fry frozen fries.

5) While fries are frying, prepare the fish (refer to recipe on top).

Tips:

1) If preparing for dinner, take the fish out from freezer & place in the fridge in the morning.

2) To check if oil is ready for deep frying, put the tip of a wooden chopstick into the oil. Oil i ready for frying if there are a lot of small air bubbles. Be careful not overheat the oil though.

3) To drain off the excess oil, use paper towels.

4) To keep the fries warm & crisp while frying the fish, put it in the oven with low heat.