Freestyle cooking with fruits!

Roasted Strawberry Chicken in Mango sauce

Feisal and I, well, We're bored of eating rice. So this week is Western Week.

On Monday, I had strawberry jam (opt for cranberry jam if you have any) smeared all over the chicken thighs. Together with crushed garlic, ground cumin and fennel, chilli powder, salt and pepper. Then, just pop them into the oven for an hour.

For the potatoes, I just boil them. Smear butter whilst potatoes are still piping hot. A dash of salt and chilli flakes.

For the salad, add apples for extra crunch. Lemon juice and tartar sauce for the dressing.

For the sauce, puree mango and add a squirt of lemon juice. Easy!

And last night's dinner, Mutton Stew with Apples

1. Marinate the mutton/lamb shoulders in cumin powder, chilli powder, salt and pepper.

2. Preheat a large thick-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Add a splash of oil to the pot, covering the bottom in a thin layer. Then toss in enough meat to form a single sizzling layer. Sear the meat on every side until it's evenly browned. As it browns remove it from the pot. Once the meat is done discard the remaining oil but keep all the browned bits in the pan. (They'll add lots of flavour, scrap them off if you must)

3. In the same pot, saute onions until translucent. Add the browned meat, tomato paste, carrots, apples, and chicken stock to just barely cover the works. (Add celery and mushroom if you have any.)

4. Add dry basil and bring the pot to a simmer. Continue cooking until the meat is almost tender, about an hour.

5. Serve with meatballs and toasted buns. Seriously easy and tasty.

Blogging proves to be boring these days. I would rather have my eyes transfixed on the TV. Or let my passion for cooking take charge in the kitchen, which I do so often. Leading me, more often than not, to blog on cooking/recipes.

What I prepared for dinner last Monday:

Asian Inspired Roast

* Marinate the chicken parts in chili powder, ground cumin, fennel and coriander, crushed garlic and ginger, and salt.

* Chill in the fridge for few hours.

* Roast the chicken in a pre-heated oven for an hour, adding the bed of carrots and broccolis in the last 20 minutes.

Creamy Baked Potatoes

*Boil 4 medium potatoes (cut into quarters) for 15 minutes or until tender. Leave to cool.

*In a saucepan, add 4 tbsp butter, 2 tbspn milk, salt and pepper; beat until fluffy.

*Beat in grated mozarella cheese. Sprinkle with paprika.

*Pour the creamy mixture onto the potatoes and place on a baking sheet. Sprinkle handfuls of remaining grated cheese onto the prepared potatoes.

* Bake, uncovered, at 200 celcius for 20-25 minutes or until cheese are goldenly brown.

* To serve, dollop spoonfuls of mayonnaise and chili sauce mixture.

Home made Banana Split

* Chocolate Sauce - Melt heaps tbspn cocoa powder, 1 tbspn butter, 3 tbsp condensed milk and fresh milk in a saucepan. Pour onto the vanilla ice-cream and chopped bananas. Top with crushed peanuts.

Simply delightful!

Comfort Food

Mummy used to make this almost on a weekly basis when we were young. Now, all she did was email me the recipe and prompted me to try make them myself. Sheesh! So Feisal and I did just the same.

You will need :

* 1 tbsp butter

* chicken breasts

* button mushroom

* spring onion

* carrot, broccoli, tomato (diced)

* diced pineapples

* slices of bread

* grated mozzarella cheese

* 1 cup fresh milk

* 2 eggs

* 1 tbsp mayonaise

* salt and pepper to taste

1.Melt butter, add in chicken. Fry till almost cooked.

2. Add in mushroom, spring onion, the vegetables mix, salt and pepper.

3.Cut bread into squares. Place in ovenproof dish. Spoon in mixture no.2, together with the pineapples. Top with remaining bread.

4. Sprinkle with half of the cheese.

5. Place eggs, milk and mayonaise in a bowl and whisk to combine.Carefully pour egg mixture over bread mixture and sprinkle with remaining cheese.

6. Bake for 50 - 60 min or till slice is firm.

Ours was not as tasty as mummy's, but it was a simple yet filling dinner!

I decided to try a Middle East recipe for dinner yesterday. The original recipe can be found here. It is so simple that anyone could whip this up. I am glad that Feisal loved it, and so He had seconds. All you need is:

* 500 gm fresh medium shrimp in shell, peeled and deveined. Marinate the shrimps in :-

* 1 tspn gingerrot

* 1 tspn ground coriander (ketumbar)

* 1/2 tspn paprika ( I used chili powder instead)

* 1/2 tspn 5-spice powder

* 1/4 tspn ground cumin (jintan manis)

* 1/4 tspn ground turmeric

For the rice,

* 1 1/2 cup long grain rice

* 3 tbs margerin ( I used ghee instead)

* 1/4 cup finely chopped onion

* 3 cloves garlic, minced

* 1 red chili, finely chopped

* 3 1/4 cup chicken broth

* Fresh coriander

1. In a large saucepan heat margarine/ghee until margarine/ghee is melted.

2. Add onion, garlic, and red chili. Saute until onion is tender, about 5 minutes.

3. Next, add rice and saute for few seconds.

4. To the rice, add chicken broth. Bring to boiling; reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 10 minutes or till rice is nearly done.

5. Lastly, stir in the shrimp mixture. Return to boiling; reduce heat.

6. Cook, covered, about 5 minutes more or till shrimp turn pink and rice is tender.

7. Garnish with fresh coriander.

Somehow I find it gratifying even just to cook one dish. Just like this chicken briyani Feisal and I whipped up some time ago. Campak the briyani mix and chicken into the rice cooker. Of course, must eat veggie. Salad is always the way to go.

Cooking cut short, a wholesome meal indeed!

Cooking made simple

With the weight I'm carrying, I try to keep cooking fast and simple. One that requires minimal dexterity and preparation, so as to minimize, if not prevent a nasty backache.

And this little Boy loves it when I cook, that's when he's most active, besides after every meal that is.

Check out the recipe here!

Seafood!

Earlier this month, I prepared these palatable seafood for lunch. And my parents loved them, so did Feisal and Achu Dedek. We had asam pedas kepala ikan jenahak, ketam masak lemak and udang galah kicap.

1. Soak the fish head in tamarind juice.

2. Saute belacan, turmeric, garlic and shallots (finely pounded) until almost crispy.

3. Next, add in few tablespoons of chili paste. Fry until pecah minyak.

4. Add in the fish head, together with a cup of tamarind juice, not too pekat nor cair. Let simmer.

5. Lastly, add in tomatoes, bendi, daun kesum and bunga kantan. Season with salt.

1. In a pot of water, add in crushed cili padi (a handful), santan, turmeric and salt. Let simmer.

2. Add in the crabs and simmer until cooked. (15 minutes)
For this, I used the same recipe as any masak kicap. Only that, I added few tablespoons of chili paste for the extra kick.

Happy Feasting!

On a Lazy Day

We decided to stay at home and laze around. More of pig around. Watching movies incessantly whilst munching on kerepek.The Husband decided to be a chef for the day.

For breakfast, We had these. Cocktail sausage with omelette and melted cheese.

Iced longan in fresh milk.

And He prepared this for lunch. Yummy mushroom sauce!


Now that is why Feisal is My King! A feminine one at that though.

Seafood at Home

To get cooking down to a fine art is something that I would love to achieve, but not just yet.

Last Sunday morning, my Darl Feisal and I went to the market and thereupon, fresh, fatty crabs caught our eyes. Bought them we did, together with some sting rays.

So yesterday evening, after a splendid chat with Miera, I cooked the seafood whilst Feisal went to "sepak bola" at the poolside. It's called "sepak bola" and not "bola sepak" as He kicks the football all by Himself. Towards a wall or something. See, His love for football is incontestable.

Enough digression, back to cooking. Here are the end results :

Pari Bakar with Air Asam.

Place the pari (season with salt and turmeric) on a grilling pan, pre-heated with butter.

Air asam

*Finely crush 1 cm belacan, red chili and sugar in a pestle. Pour in tamarind juice (1 tbsp asam jawa with 1/2 cup water) into the pestle. Add in finely chopped shallot and tomato. Lastly, add in lime juice.

*I love using the pestle (lesung batu) as it intensifies the taste. Original kampung style.

Sweet and sour crabs.

*Saute sliced garlic, ginger, onion and red chili in hot oil.

*Add the crabs, let them fry for 5 mins.

*Next, add in chili sauce, tomato sauce and water, to your taste. Also, add in sugar and salt.

*Lastly, you may add tomato, pineapple, carrot and coriander into the simmering dish.

Cooking is indeed therapeutic!

It has been a while

Prepping spaghetti is easy right, so no need for recipe. I like mine slightly sweet, with grated parmesan cheese to top it all of.

Also, tastes much better with these sticky wings!
Smother the chicken wings in honey, garlic, ginger, brown sugar, oyster sauce, chili powder and cumin marinade. Bake in preheated 190 deg oven for an hour.

My favourite cake, besides plain gooey chocolate cake.
The recipe, well, I kind of lost it. I placed it on my fridge with a magnet and my cute, rascal bunny decided to nibble on the recipe. Up to its very last shred of paper. But I am sure this recipe works just fine.

Walnut!

Since we had nothing else better to do other than idling at home on a public holiday, I decided to drag Feisal this morning to buy walnuts and butter at the bakery's. Got this recipe last month from a cook book, which I believe looks better than mine!

* Cream 150 gm butter until white and fluffy.

* In a seperate bowl, cream together 135gm castor sugar, 135 all purpose flour, one tspn baking powder, 3 eggs, 23 gm ovelette and 35 ml water.

* After mixing, pour the batter into the butter mixture.

* Lastly, add in 125gm walnut (baked for 5 minutes and chopped coarsely).

*Bake for approximately one hour at 175 celcius.

A simple meal

I hate cold sores, especially those appearing right on my inner cheeks. It hurts to talk, much less chew and bite. So I prepared chicken porridge for buka puasa yesterday. A simple yet tasty meal. Furthermore, I was eager to watch the newly downloaded One Tree Hill Season 6. So, cooking cut short led to this :

* Prepare chicken broth : Chicken parts in a pot of water with cloves and cinnamon. Salt to taste.

* Pour the broth in 1.5 cups of rice. Add in sliced ginger and garlic. Cook until 'porridgy'. Right before it's cooked, pour half cup of coconut milk. Season with pepper.

Served ours with fried potatoes, shallots and ikan terubuk masin. Yum!

Favourite!

May I present to you, my 'top of the list' favourite dish, soto; or chicken soup for that matter.

This was prepared even before I got married. Now that my brother is abroad, (who, come weekend, loves to 'order' soto from me) soto will only be prepared as and when I like. The last I prepared for one was last month when my parents came by.

* To make chicken broth, boil chicken breasts and carcass in a pot of water, together with cinnamon and one cube chicken stock.

*In a separate pot, place the usual spices (cloves,cinnamon etc.) into hot oil. Then add in shallots,onion,ginger,garlic (blended), and slightly crushed lemon grass and galanghal (lengkuas) . Lastly, add crushed fennel and coriander (jintan manis,jintan putih & ketumbar). Saute for few minutes.

*Add the prepared chicken stock and extra water into the mixture, one 'sup bunjut' and salt and pepper to taste. Let it simmer.

*To go with the soup, fry sliced potatoes (fries-like). I don't like 'begedil' so I opt for fried potatoes. Also fry glass noodles (suhun).

* To prepare soto, place shredded chicken breasts on top of few cubes of nasi himpit, potato fries and suhun.Garnish with coriander leaves and fried shallots. Pour the hot soup. Trust me, heavenly!

For chicken soup, I have not the patience to prepare chicken stock. So I just fry the spices and blended stuff, add chicken and lastly water. I love chicken soup. Last week, I had three healthful bowls of chicken soup in between berbuka and midnight. Insatiable indeed.

I don't mean to sound condescending, but I love my own-made soup/soto. I am proud to say that my Mum loves my soto/soup much!

Feast!

Feisal and I decided, on a Saturday, to have a 'kenduri' like berbuka. As if the kenduri food in Penang last week wasn't enough. Insatiable, indeed. So what better way than to spend my hungry moments with cooking.

So I cooked these dishes for us (except for the salad of course). Savoured every bite, so much so that I had two plates of rice during sahur. So there, mutton curry, ayam masak merah, perut masak kicap (always has been a favourite) cooked for four (berbuka plus sahur).

*Perut masak kicap - Boiled for 30 minutes. Then saute blended onion, shallots, garlic and ginger, together with the spices (cinnamon, cloves,cardomom). After a while, add in oyster sauce, soy sauce, tomato sauce, one tspn of honey and water. Let it simmer, lastly add in the boiled perut.

*Ayam masak merah- Fry the chicken. Into hot oil, add in spices, blended garlic, ginger and two tbsp chilli paste. After a while, add in a small can of tomato puree, two tbsp chilli and tomato sauce, 1/4 cup of evaporated milk (didn't have any so I used coconut milk) and a pinch of salt.

*Mutton curry-Opt for mutton instead of chicken from the chicken curry recipe. But cooking mutton takes quite some time as its meat is tough.

There you have it. A kenduri-like meal for one pelahap couple.

My aunt-in-law and I just shared lots of recipes this morning and I can't wait to try them out. Anyways, I have been meaning to post this recipe even before I got married since this picture was taken then, so here goes.

*Fry chicken parts (coated in turmeric and salt) until crispy.

* Into hot oil, saute chili, dried chili, shallots, ginger and garlic (blended together).

*Add chili sauce, one tbsp oyster sauce, 3 tbsp tamarind juice and a pinch of shrimp paste.

* Add in the chicken and onion. Done!

Favourite Dish

I love chicken curry. Especially my Mummy's. This is a recipe I learnt from her, of course.

* Into hot oil; add star anise, cardamom pods, cloves and cinnamon.

*Add shallots, garlic, ginger, chili (all blended together), lemon grass and few curry leaves right after. Saute for 5 mins, then add in chicken parts and potatoes. Let it simmer.

*Next, pour in the mixture of curry powder (3 tbsp of Baba's curry powder in a cup of hot water) and add additional water, to your liking.

* After 10 mins, pour 1/4 coconut milk, one tsp of 'kerisik', 3 tbsp of tamarind juice (air asam jawa) and a pinch of salt.

My brother always say I make yummier curry than Mummy. awwh! This recipe makes for four. I like my curry to be less creamy and watery. Add more water and coconut milk if you like it otherwise.

I don't write much. I eat much.

The ever gloomy days eventuated in more eating and less writing.

* Sear the flour-coated beef. Remove. Fry chopped onion until caramelized, add in the beef, chopped potatoes and carrots.

* Pour a cup of chicken stock, two tbsp full of oyster sauce and tomato puree, and let it simmer for 30 minutes.
* Lastly add the broccoli, one tsp courn flour, a pinch of black pepper and one tsp dry bassil.

*Serve with french toast or white rice.

And a simple dessert..

* Put 1 litre of water to boil. Add 100gm caster sugar, mango gelatine and a can of evaporated milk. Stir for 5 minutes.

* Cool in the fridge. Serve with fresh, sweet mangoes.

* This recipe makes a great longan pudding as well. Puree a can of longan, and just add agar-agar sheets instead of any flavoured gelatine.

Every Friday would be Go-Western Night. However, Feisal and I attended a doa selamat-house warming at my cousin's, leaving us preparing for a western lunch on what was otherwise last night's dinner. * Coat the fish fillet (seasoned with salt and pepper) with beaten egg, flour and bread crumbs.
* Fry until crispy.
* Fry potato wedges (coated with curry powder)
* Mix purple cabbage with thousand island.

Quick and easy, always the way to go.

Another recipe with oats!


You'll need:

* Chicken breast
* Egg
* All purpose flour (add in crushed pepper and salt to taste)
* Coriander powder (serbuk ketumbar)
* grated parmesan cheese. (I didn't have any so opted for chili flakes. Owing to too many a time of ordering in Domino's Pizza, there are lots of them at home. So why not use them.)

1. Dip the slightly damp chicken breasts into the flour mix.
2. Dip them into the beaten egg.
3. Roll the chicken in the oats and chili flakes.
4. Deep fry in really hot oil until golden brown and crispy.

Credits to Zack (you TKC girls must know her), a very very talented cook. Stumbled upon her page, love it!

Had a good day to myself today, baked oatmeal cookies for Feisal Boy. See, He's not fond of eating oatmeal, so He requested for me to bake them as He Loves cookies! My pleasure :)

The recipe, got them here.

However, instead of using peacans/walnuts, I opted for cornflakes to add extra crunch.

Also, I never bought ground cinnamon, so what I did was; grate 1/4 of a cinnamon. And I added a small amount of chocolate rice.

hehe, tell me about modification.

Can't do without choc chip! Before headed to the oven.

and, walaa! End product.

Giant cookies!

Fit for my King :)

Happy trying! Fit for your loved ones as well. Easy!

At your disposal cik Midah. I'll post entre'e and main course recipes when I have the time ok ;) This is my favourite recipe as far as baking is concerned. Easy peasy.

200 gm unsalted butter,
200 gm caster sugar,
200 gm flour,
3 eggs, (rule of thumb: gradually add in eggs one by one)
one teaspoon vanilla extract,
3 tablespoons chocolate powder(dissolved in hot water).

Whisk them all ala Nigella Lawson i.e. dump into a food processor and let the magic happen. (But I feel it is prudent for one not to mix the dry ingredients with the wet all at once). Before baking them in a preheated 180 celcius oven for 50-60 minutes, throw in nuggets of chocolates. Opt for Toblerone. The best. For topping, melt dark chocolate with few tablespoonfuls of icing sugar, butter and milk. Melts in your mouth ;)