Spiced Rice and Lentils with Chicken

 

This hearty dish took only took 20 minutes. 

When my parents started watching their diets, I had to find other healthy alternatives to white rice.

That's when basmati rice and legumes came into the picture

But thank goodness healthy doesn't have mean bland and eeky

Healthy foods actually taste great when they're cooked the right way

Many people I know can't get used to all that brown rice, red rice even purple rice??

It was difficult getting my brothers to eat those things

But Basmati..We love it because it doesn't lump up. Every grain is on its own..fluffy!

Everyone loved this
It's mediterranean by accident actually. I ran out of ideas of what to put in so I just grabbed whatever was nearest to me.
Definitely recommended for those who need to feed a family and fast.
recipe:
4 chicken drumsticks
3 tablespoons ground coriander
salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons fennel seeds
1 large red onion or 2 small ones, diced
half a head of garlic, diced
1 cup of basmati rice
1 cup of yellow lentils
2 teaspoons ground cumin

 water
 1 carrot, diced into small cubes
1/2 cup raisins (or more)
1/2 cup roasted cashews

Sprinkle the ground coriander and some salt all over the chicken drumsticks. Set aside
Heat up the oil in a large skillet
Fry the fennel seeds, onions and garlic till its frangrant
arrange the chicken on top and brown it all over
Add in the rice, lentils and ground cumin
Mix it around for about 2 minutes
Pour in enough water to cover the rice and lentils by a centimeter.
Season with salt if needed
Scatter the carrot cubes on top
 Bring to a Boil, Cover with a lid, lower the heat
Simmer for 15 minutes or until the water has been absorbed and the rice is cooked
(If its not cooked, but it has already dried up, add in more water and cook for longer)
Fluff the rice up a little
Turn off the heat, add in the raisins right away and place the lid back on
Leave it to cool slightly
The raisins will plump up slightly during this time.
Serve with some roasted cashews on top.

Honeyed Chicken with Sesame Seeds

Chicken, Honey, Sesame Oil, they are a prefect match!

The results are irresistably scrumptious legs, you can't wait to dig in, making sure you get every bit of sauce on the bones and on the plate

Literally finger lickin' good

recipe:

8 chicken drumsticks

1 tablespoon sesame oil

2 teaspoons salt

3 tablespoons hoisin sauce

4 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

Toss the chicken with salt and hoisin sauce

Place in the dish, cover and leave to marinade in the fridge for 2 hours

Preheat fanforced oven to 180C

Bake the chicken for 40 minutes

(check it now and then, covering it with foil if it gets too brown)

Microwave the honey in a small bowl to make it more liquid

Open the oven door and quickly brush the honey all over the chicken

Bake for another 10 minutes

Remove from oven

Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve!

Peanut Sambal Chicken

This chicken dish will get people asking for the recipe after eating it =)

It's almost like a satay sauce but just not as sweet and it's way more easy..

In the recipe below, I mentioned that I've browned the chicken first. But that's optional..However, browning it not only adds flavour, but also helps the chicken to hold it's shape better while cooking.

recipe:

20 red chillies

4 cloves of garlic

2 medium sized red onions

1 stalk lemongrass

1 cup of roasted peanuts, chopped roughly

Cut the chicken into pieces

Blend chillies(with seeds), garlic and onions in a food processor

Heat a wok with some oil and brown the chicken pieces until golden brown.

Add in the blended mixture and cook until fragrant

Bruise the lemongrass with the back of a knife and add into pot.

Add enough water to barely cover the chicken

Season with salt

Simmer uncovered for about 45 minutes until the chicken is tender

Remove the chicken pieces from the pot and continue reducing the gravy until it's quite thick

Add the peanuts to the gravy.

Return the chicken to the gravy.

Serve!

Sang Choy Bao

This is My take on "Sang Choy Bao"

Fresh and fragrant flavours, sweet, salty, a bit of spicy all in one bite

The Pork stir fry itself is so simple to make

recipe:

1 medium sized red Onion

3 cloves of Garlic

2 long red Chillies

2stalk of Lemongrass (the middle only)

500g minced Pork

a handful of fresh Mint

a handful of fresh Kesom

a handful of fresh basil

Sesame Oil

finely chop the onion,garlic, chilli and lemongrass

Heat some oil in a wok and fry them until golden brown and fragrant.

Add in the minced pork

Season with salt

Fry until the pork is cooked

Roll up all the herbs into a cigar and roughly chop them.

Stir the herbs and a little Sesame Oil into the stir fry

Dish out onto a plate

Top with more chilli slices.

And serve with cabbage leaves.

A day with the cousins- Honey Soy roasted Chicken and Caramelized Carrots

 

The yumminess is effortless!

Simply marinate the whole chicken (skin on) with sesame oil, soy sauce, minced ginger and garlic

Rub it all over and stuff the ginger and garlic under the skin..that way the flavour really penetrates the meat.

Fridge it overnight

and roast it in a 180C oven for about 45-50 minutes.

Drizzle the skin with Honey before serving!

Some of my guests thought they were sausages..

anyway,

simply cut the carrots into bite size pieces

toss them in olive oil, salt and pepper, a handful of brown sugar (I used Gula Melaka) and a dash of nutmeg.

Roast in a 180C oven for about 35 minutes, till they're golden and have burnt bits here and there.

Finally, sprinkle with shredded Kaffir Lime Leaves for a lovely touch!

CHhhoppp!

Lasagne

Yeapp this is like the 2nd or 3rd lasagne post..that shows how much I love it!

But this time it looks way better

Ollo ollollollollo

Satay Partayy

Satay is Malaysian? Indonesian? I think every country has it's own form of satay..

I just happen to think Malaysian satay is the Awesomest!!

or perhaps I'm just biased..hehe

Yup that big bowl of brown stuff's the satay sauce..peanuty and quite spicy

My brother and I managed to burn all 200 of em satay stick..and boy was it hot..

Once we got the hang of it, we confidently filled the entire grill!

So the Party was a success!

On the menu

Satay

 

Beef Rendang

Pandan Chicken

Glass Noodle Salad

For Dessert

Durian Cake

Ruth's Apple & Rhubarb Pie

 

I just LOVE durian..unfortunately some need a little bit of psycho-ing to try it xP Hence, the fruit cake gesture

Not too heavy, just the right amount of sweet, My Birthday Cake=) 

nyehehehe

 

And those are all the lovely people in my oh so wonderful life =)

Quail with Pomegranate Mollases

Mum's arriving tonight and it's been months since I've cooked her dinner

This is my first time cooking quail.

Deboning it was the most difficult part..you do Not wanna see the pictures xP

Here's the final result instead..

Roasted Cochon stuffed Quail with Pomegranate Mollases glaze

("cochon" is pork in french)

I did'nt really know how to tie the bird..so it looks a little bit retarded

served with a green lentil, leek and carrot salad

That's what it looks like inside..

The stuffing was fantastic by the way..

Shepherd's Pie

This pie is one of the things I love making, because it's easypeasy, and we love cheesay things

For this, I used pork and fresh tomatoes. Adding a little bit of cumin and nutmeg gives it a slightly spicy flavour too..

As you can see, I made a bit of a hollow in the meat and the reason is so that I can do 

This

nyehehehe

Then top it with lots of mash and more cheeeeeeese

bake it..and it only takes a few minutes=)

Lamb

 And today, we went to Italy

 I always love it when my family gets invited to house warmings, and they serve roast lamb. The caterers would be outside the house, watching the lamb under the burning charcoal fire..and the smell..ohhh man it's the best smell ever..

This was a whole leg of lamb. I was at the market and the very friendly greek butcher there happily de-boned it for me.

 And yess! it turned out very well =) pink and juicy, served with a white wine and mushroom risotto.

My recipe:

2 kilo leg of lamb, de-boned

1 whole garlic

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tablespoon salt (a lot)

5 sprigs rosemary

1 large onion

Preheat your oven (fan-forced) to 175C

Pound the garlic and salt to almost a paste. Add in the oil and mix it to combine.

Rub the paste all over the INSIDE of the lamb. Sprinkle the rosemary leaves all over. Roll it up to its original shape and secure it with wooden skewers. Rub the outer part with some oil and salt.

Slice the onion into rings. Place them on a baking tray lined with 2 layers of foil (trust me, 2 layers)

Drizzle with a little olive oil. Sit the lamb on top of the onions.

Roast in the oven for 1 hour. 

Remove from the oven and let it rest for about 15 mins, and its ready to be carved!

Risotto:

1 small onion, diced

1 cup arborio rice

1/2 cup white wine

2 cups chicken stock (just buy it)

8 button mushrooms, sliced

a handful of shredded cheese 

Heat some oil in a pan. Fry the mushroom slices until golden brown, season with salt.

Heat some oil in a med size pot. Sweat the diced onion. Add in rice and mix well.

Season with salt.

Pour in the wine and stir continuously under med heat until the liquid has almost dried up. 

Add in the stock 1/4 cup at a time, covering the pot and mixing continuously under low heat until all the stock is used up and absorbed into the rice and the rice is tender (you Might need more stock). 

This would take about 20 minutes.

Lastly, add in the cooked mushrooms and the cheese. Stir until the cheese is just melted. 

Turn off the heat and serve!

 

Brunch

I was supposed to help in the gardening this morning but was just too lazy to bend my back..So I agreed to cook my brothers a brunch to get myself out of gardening=P

  Sweet paprika seared steak, buttered toast, avocado,

scrambled eggs, baby spinach and pear salad with pickled onion.

Gordon Ramsay was quite particular about how the perfect scrambled eggs 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU_B3QNu_Ks

In-te-res-ting..

I love onions but they make me tear whenever I eat them raw..it's just way too strong to have them raw in salads..However, these pickled onions are perfect for salads and it's the easiest thing in the world. 

Pickled onions: 

2 red onions

1 cup white vinegar

3 tablespoons of sugar

Slice the onions thinly. Put them in a jar. Add in sugar. Pour in the vinegar. Shake lightly. Leave to pickle for at least 30 minutes before use. Or refridgerate for up to a week or two. 

WE WANT RIBS

I used to chicken out on cooking ribs. I was always afraid that it would turn out tough or dry, but not anymore! turns out, they're easy to prepare and the yummy smells filled the house..

 

Marinade them overnight with whatever you like really..I wanted mine asian style so i went with soy sauce, sesame oil, honey and chopped garlic and ginger. Then bake them in a 180 celcius fan-forced oven for about an hour and a half (depending on the weight) until they're well done. I had 2.5 kilos of ribs so you do the math=)

 The porky flavours were strong so you need something "clean" tasting to balance it all up=) I feel, that there's nothing better than a simple salad. This is my FAVOURITE salad ever: rocket, pear and green apple salad. Its sweet, tangy and I just love it..

salad:
green apple,quartered and sliced thinly

pear,quartered and sliced thinly
rocket leaves
walnuts
dried cranberries
lemon juice
extra virgin olive oil
salt

mix the apple and pear slices with a squeeze of lemon juice, a glug of olive oil and salt to prevent them from discolouring.
Place the rocket, walnuts and dried cranberries in a large salad bowl and set aside.
To make dressing, mix one part lemon juice to 2 parts olive oil and season with salt to taste.
Pour this over the rocket mixture. Add in apple and pear mixture. Toss well and serve.

Roast chicken and pizza anybody?

 Roast chicken is easiest when you can't think of what to cook for dinner. Of course, I could easily drop by woolworths and buy one, but nothing beats home-cooked..

The market had fresh turkish bread. Its just flat bread thats oval shaped and its perfect for making pizza

 I used basil, tomatoes and mozzerella cheese. Mozzerella is really mild and milky so I added a generous sprinkle of salt on top before grilling it in the oven. It was perfect! cheesy, tomato-ey and the basil, ohh man the basil gave it everything it needed=)But something was still missing..no greens? Then came salad and roast pumpkin to the rescue..really good

Roast chicken

1 whole chicken
1 whole garlic bulb
3 tablespoons oil
2 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons sweet paprika powder

500g potatoes, halved (i used baby potatoes)
500g pumpkin, cut into wedges
2 sprigs of rosemary
3 tablespoons oil
juice of half a lemon
salt and pepper

Butterfly your chicken http://video.about.com/bbq/How-to-Butterfly-a-Chicken.htm
With a pestle and mortar, pound the peeled garlic with salt. Add in the oil and blend it to a smooth mixture.
Using your hands, separate the skin of the chicken around the breast and the thighs. Fill it with the garlic paste.
Season the whole chicken with salt and rub the paprika all over it.
Place the chicken on a baking tray lined with foil. 
Toss the potatoes and pumpkin with the rosemary,oil,lemon and salt and pepper. Place them around the chicken on the baking tray.
Bake this in a 180 degree oven for about 45 minutes.