White Chocolate Brownies

Maybe I should stop making desserts, heh. Hadi and Justin are trying to get in shape, and I don't think its helping them any. :P But without them, well... life is a bit more boring. Plus, I would have nothing to write about on Wednesdays, haha! I usually eat a lot more on Wednesday (Hadi and Justin have tae kwon do, so we eat separately) but its usually "boring" stuff like Tex's Chicken or Nasi Goreng Cheese. The other two have a bit more variety, maybe I should feature their recipes, hehe. They usually use beef or lamb, and I'm sure a lot of people would appreciate a break from chicken. :P But anyway, for this week, we have brownies... so here we go!

What you need:
130g salted butter, cut into pieces
250g white chocolate, chopped
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups plain flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar (I used vanilla sugar - and reduced it to 1/2 cup)
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup almonds, chopped

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 160 C. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan with butter and fit an 18- by-16-inch sheet of baking paper into the bottom of the pan (it will overhang the sides, which you will use as handles later to remove the brownies). Coat paper lightly with butter as well.
2. Melt the butter and white chocolate together (over low heat, or in a microwave. *Careful* not to burn it) Allow to cool to room temperature. Add the vanilla.
3. In a small bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and salt.
4. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sugar until they are thick and pale. Add the white chocolate mixture and mix until it is combines. Add the flour mixture and mix until it is combined.
5. Stir in the cranberries and almonds.
6. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and spread it evenly.
7. Bake for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick stuck into the centre comes out clean. So not underbake these brownies, or they will taste raw.
8. Refrigerate the brownies overnight. Remove them from the pan and cut them into squares.

We had people visiting our house yesterday (groups of first and second years looking for a place to live next year) and they all commented how amazing the house smelled. :D These brownies gave off a white chocolatey smell, combined with a hint of vanilla. It was really really good, hehe. Unfortunately, the brownies weren't done baking at that point, so we couldn't offer them any. Oh well.

I was thinking the overnight refrigeration was just a waste of time, heh, so I took a sample just fresh from the oven. I thought, hmmm... I don't see what's so special about these. The brownie part was a bit *too* fluffy, if you know what I mean. Kind of dry and very crumbly. For me, browies are usually slightly fudgy and very dense, so that was kind of a disappointment. Justin, however, quite liked it.

But anyway, I just stuck the rest into the fridge (covered with foil) and had another sample this morning. I must say, it improved tremendously overnight. It was no longer so crumbly and was much more dense, more like a proper brownie, hehe. So, if you ever make this and feel tempted to eat it straight away, don't. The results are much nicer if you refrigerate them first. :P

The cookbook I got this from didn't have much pictures, so I wasn't sure how it would turn out. I was thinking a pure white brownie, with glinting rubies (cranberries) stuck in it, but was disappointed. I suppose its called *brownie* for a reason though, since the crust turned a rather nice golden brown. :P Very crunchy too, and I think its the best bit of a brownie. Any brownie. :D

If you can't find cranberries, substitute with another dried fruit, I suppose. They taste rather similar to raisins, only slightly more sour with a cranberry taste. You *could* leave it out, but I don't suggest it. Otherwise, the brownie would be much too plain. You could omit the almonds though, heh. :P I don't like nuts, so I mixed the almonds in only half of the batter, since the boys insisted we have them. It turned out quite well - one half has loads of nuts, while the other half is nut-free. :D The brownie batter was very thick, so I was able to pour the two batches into separate halves. :D

Other than that, it was a nice enough brownie, though I prefer something a bit chocolatey. There was only a hint of the white chocolate and vanilla, which is too bad. If I ever make this again, I would up the vanilla level, but am not quite sure on how to increase the white chocolate without making it too sweet. Maybe a white chocolate frosting. :D But that's not till next time, hehe.

Quote of the day: Nuts just take up space where the chocolate ought to be!

Chicken and Shallots Stirfry

Sometimes, the dishes we come up with for dinner are just so ... generic, that I find it hard to give them a name. Justin's dish today is a prime example. Its not that he's done the exact same thing before, its different enough to be a separate dish. Its just ... there are no identifying features in it with which to give it a name. Since this has double shallots in it though, I finally gave up and gave it the name you see now, heh. :P Here we go...

What you need:
3 pieces boneless chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces (Justin used drumsticks)
2 tablespoons barbecue sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon garlic powder (or 4 fresh garlic cloves, chopped up finely)
Dash of chilli sauce
2 shallots, sliced finely
White pepper, for seasoning
Paprika, for seasoning
2 eggs, beaten
Sesame oil, for drizzling
Handful of crispy fried shallots, for garnishing

What you do:

1. Marinate the chicken pieces in the barbecue sauce, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder and chilli sauce for at least 15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, heat some oil in a wok and fry the shallots until softened and slightly translucent. Add the chicken pieces and stir-fry until cooked.
3. Season well with the white pepper and paprika.
4. Once cooked, add the beaten eggs. Allow to cook and set fully, before breaking up into small pieces.
5. Drizzle over the sesame oil, and garnish with the crisp shallots. Serve.

I love shallots. I never used to eat them before going UK, but in my first year, I discovered just how tasty they were! I tried replacing them with onions once, because they are *quite* expensive (60p for 400g, compared to 60p for 1kg for onions) but I found the onions too sweet and... well, I prefer shallots, that's all.

So, it's of no surprise that I liked this dish, hehe. It smelled really good while cooking, very shallot-y. And the addition of the crispy fried shallots was genius, hehe. I don't actually make those by myself yet, although I have been "taught" the technique, heh. (Just deep fry the shallots till crispy :P) Since its quite expensive here as well, we top-up our supply everytime we go London, since our aunt is more than happy to make some for us, haha. But since we won't be going London anytime soon (I hope) I think we would have to start making it ourselves. :P

This dish also didn't taste quite like Justin's normal stirfry. There was a lot of pepper and paprika, so the whole thing was quite spicy, but in a nice way. Since I like white pepper. :P White pepper and shallots is a very good combination. I've made many dishes with that as a base, hehe.

Funnily enough, the eggs were slightly sweet as well, though he added it at the very end. Not sure where the sweetness came from, but it was tasty and gave a nice balance to the chicken, hehe.

Quote of the day: Good painting is like good cooking - it can be tasted but not explained.

Ayam Bakar Tomato (Roast Tomato Chicken)

This is an adaptation by Hadi of another one of our childhood dishes - and beyond that even. This dish is a staple dinner, back home in Brunei. When in doubt, Ibu would just make this chicken as *everyone* likes it (although I prefer ayam bakar kuning myself). Although... I'm not sure if Ibu ever put so much turmeric in her chicken, if she put in any at all. This seems to be a combination of both ayam bakar tomato and ayam bakar kuning, just because of the large amount of turmeric in it. Not that I'm complaining. I love turmeric. ;) So... here we go!

What you need:
3 pieces chicken thighs

Marinade:
Tomato ketchup
Chicken stock (concentrate or powder)
Dash of soy sauce
Ground turmeric

What you do:

1. To make the marinade, combine 2 parts tomato ketchup with 1 part chicken stock and 1/2 part turmeric. For example, 2 tablespoons ketchup with 1 tablespoon chicken stock and 1/2 tablespoon turmeric. Multiply to get as much as you need to cover the chicken.
2. Rub the marinade onto the chicken and marinate for at least 3 hours.
3. Roast chicken in a 200 C oven for 40 minutes, or until cooked through and juices run clear.

Again, a typical roast recipe, marinate for as long as you can, then pop into the oven, heh. Hadi actually had the foresight to marinate the chicken early, which was a plus, but it seems like it wasn't enough. It was flavoursome, yes, but it didn't permeate throughout the chicken piece. Maybe that was because he used thighs. Ibu uses chicken wings (yummy!) which are small and don't take a long time to marinate.

Her chicken is also a bit more... well-done, shall we say. Ibu uses a convection oven where the heat source is much closer to the chicken, while we use a normal oven. What results is a sticky layer that coats the chicken *drool* Hadi's version isn't quite so sticky, but still clings nicely to the chicken, so all is well, hehe.

As for the taste of the chicken... well, I think it is not quite the same either, heh. This one has a LOT of turmeric. Hadi thought he put in a bit too much, but I loved it, hehe. I love turmeric, as I keep on saying. The chicken was very strongly flavoured - mainly salty (from the chicken stock) and turmeric-y, with a hint of tomato sauce. Sooooo yummy, hehe. All it needs is more marination, is all. :D :D :D

Quote of the day: We are living in a world today where lemonade is made from artificial flavors and furniture polish is made from real lemons.

Beef 'n' Beans

Whew. I've been without internet for two whole days. No withdrawal symptoms though, and no overwhelming urge to sign in to MSN messenger, "just to see who is online". Hahaha! We just got back from London today, just in time for dinner, so Justin offered to cook. Before we left, he was blathering on about how great baked beans are, and how he misses beef, so I shouldn't have been surprised with this dish, haha. I've always told them that if they miss proper meat so much, just go ahead and cook it. Seems like he took my advice for once, heh. (Yes, we eat a lot of chicken).

What you need:
2 onions, finely sliced
400g minced beef
5 "glugs" Worcestershire sauce (about 5 teaspoons)
Dash of soy sauce
1 400g can of baked beans
2 tablespoons barbecue sauce
2 tablespoons tomato ketchup
6 eggs, beaten well
Sesame oil, for drizzling
White pepper, for seasoning
Black pepper, for seasoning

What you do:

1. Heat up some oil in a wok and fry the onions until soft and translucent.
2. Add everything except the eggs, peppers and sesame oil. Mix well to combine, and fry until beef is cooked through.
3. Pour the eggs in, and allow to set (cook) before breaking up into small pieces.
   
4. Season well with white and black pepper and sesame oil. Serve.

Justin did this on purpose, I tell you. Just before we left, I was saying how I really didn't like baked beans. What do you know, he comes up with this dish. Sigh. And its beef! I don't *hate* beef, but I just like chicken a lot, you know, hehe. Although, to be fair, we haven't had beef in awhile. When we were served lamb chops in London, Hadi was drooling. So I don't blame Justin for the beef. But baked beans???

To my surprise though, this tasted quite okay. I barely tasted the baked beans (they were just funny round things in my mouth, haha) and I liked the eggs, heh. The whole dish was very very bulked up by the beans and eggs, in fact. I had about the same amount as my rice. Which is quite a lot. Half my plate! o.0

Hadi and Justin liked it well enough, because it was beef, if not for anything else. Hadi ate his with more tomato sauce, but that's just Hadi. :P Justin managed to finish one and a half portions of the dish, but that's just Justin. :P I thought it would've been better with chicken, but that's just me, heh. :P

Quote of the day: The beef industry has contributed to more American deaths than all the wars of this century, all natural disasters, and all automobile accidents combined

Gooey Chicken

Come to think of it, we haven't had a stir-fry dish for awhile. You know, a proper one with shallots and onions and chicken all covered in oyster sauce. I complained about their frequency for awhile, but now I'm actually missing the simplicity and general saltiness, hehehe. So, tonight, Justin decides to serve up a *slightly* modified version of his usual stirfry. Here we go!

What you need:
3 boneless chicken pieces, cut into bite-sized pieces (we used drumsticks)
1 cup Japanese breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon garlic powder (or 3 cloves fresh garlic, chopped finely)

1 onion, sliced finely
3 shallots, sliced finely
2 dried red chillies, chopped
3 dried shiitake mushrooms, sliced finely (after 10 minutes soak in hot water)
Oil, for cooking

2 tablespoons oyster sauce, in some water
Sesame oil
White pepper

1 tablespoon cornflour, mixed with some water
2 spring onions, chopped

What you do:

1. Mix the breadcrumbs and garlic powder together. Dip the chicken pieces in water (or milk/egg if you want) and coat with the breadcrumb mixture.
2. Heat some oil in a wok. Justin used TWO tablespoons to fry the chicken without draining the oil off, but feel free to either deepfry or use less oil. Just get the chicken pieces cooked and golden brown. :)
3. Add in the onions, shallots, chillies and mushrooms. Fry for another 2-3 minutes or until onions are softened and translucent.
4. Add the oyster sauce (with enough water so that it coats the chicken pieces) and drizzle over sesame oil. Season liberally with white pepper.
5. Finally, add in the cornflour-water mixture, simmer till thickened and garnish with the spring onions. Serve.

Yes. I know the name of dish doesn't inspire much confidence. Gooey is never good when associated with food - except perhaps chocolate and ambuyat, hehe. But there was no other way to describe it. It was gooey. Though not in a bad way. But seriously, the boys put in ONE tablespoon of cornflour, and knowing them, it was a heaped one too! And yes, Hadi was an accomplice in this. Justin asked how much to put in, and put in one teaspoon, but Hadi took the liberty of adding a whole load more. I usually put one teaspoon, maybe two teaspoons max. Oh well.

But anyway, this dish gave a nice hit of salt, hehe. Maybe its just me, but we've been eating way too many things recently. I'm slightly tired of it, though I bet Hadi is not. And apart from the general texture, the chicken was good! Tasted of oyster sauce with a hint of pepper. Never a bad thing, hehe. Although, the breadcrumb coating kinda fell apart in the sauce, and probably contributed to the stickiness. A pity. It would have been nice if it was crispy. Japanese breadcrumbs always give a great texture, but not when you slather it in so much thick sauce, I guess. :P

In other news, there was an article in New Scientist that suggests that although food plays a pretty important part in determining our weight, genetic factors may play a role too. Phoo~ The volunteers in the study took in more than 6000 calories (!!!) per day, but some of them had very little weight gain, it seems. Some of them even gained muscle mass! And no, they weren't allowed to exercise very much. Some people just have all the luck it seems :P As one of my friends once put, it is time to give up trying to BE thin, and just try to LOOK thin instead. Haha.

Also, a very big deal is being made of the snow that has fallen in the UK recently. Its probably the first snowfall for the year. But, just so you know, Bristol has had no snow. :( We're in the south-west, and the weirdest thing is, people in the south-east have had snow. People in Wales (just to our west) have had snow. But Bristol, which is smack dab in the middle of these two places, has had no snow~! Even London has had snow. THREE winters here, and I've only seen snow pile up just once in my first year. And that melted before dawn even came. So depressing. Maybe I should've studied in Scotland or something :P

Quote of the day: Hunger - One of the few cravings that cannot be appeased with another solution.

Okonomiyaki

Okonomiyaki is... sort of the Japanese version of pizza. It basically means "whatever you like, grilled". The basic recipe is fine strips of cabbage in a flour-dashi mixture, which is fried with various toppings of you choice. Apparently, the recipe I was following is the Osaka-style okonomiyaki, but okonomiyaki is actually usually associated with Kansai or Hiroshima (all are regions in Japan).

Of course, I needn't say that okonomiyaki has been featured several times in the animes and J-dramas that I watch, such as Ranma and Teppan Shoujo Akane, so I don't need to tell you that I've always been tempted to make it, hehe. Its the same old story. Food looks good on screen, and you want to eat it at home. Especially the okonomiyaki in Teppan Shoujo Akane... *drools* So, here we go~!

What you need:
Base:
1 cup flour
3/4 cup dashi or water
1 egg
1/8 - 1/4 cabbage

Topping:
Anything you like, but I used
Chicken, cut into small pieces (marinated in seasonings of your choice)
1 onion, sliced finely
1 shallot, sliced finely
2 inches of chicken salami, diced finely
2 spring onions, sliced finely

Sauces:
Okonomiyaki sauce, or tonkatsu sauce**
Japanese mayonnaise (or just your favorite one)

What you do:

1. Chop up the cabbage into thin strips, as finely as you can. Discard as much of the white stem bit as you can.
2. Mix the egg, flour and dash/water with a whisk in a large bowl, until smooth and well combined. Mix in the cabbage the best you can. (Better to have too much than too little - it will shrink)
3. Heat up a large frying pan (or a teppanyaki hot plate if you have it!)
4. Fry your topping ingredients for a few minutes until almost cooked, then gather in a round in the middle of the pan.
5. Add the cabbage/flour mixture, also in a round on top of the toppings.
6. Turn up the heat and let it cook on one side for about 5 minutes, or until golden brown.
7. Carefully flip it over (cutting it into smaller pieces if necessary) and let it cook on the other side for another five to ten minutes. (Check the dough to see if it is cooked already)
   
8. Slide onto a plate, drizzle over the sauce and mayo and serve immediately.

One of my friends made this before me and was raving about it, so I really couldn't wait to try it out! I know, it has a lot of veggies, but hey. Its cabbage. I eat cabbage. So shouldn't be too bad right? Even if it is a vegetable.

Well, I don't know what I was expecting. I thought that somehow, the cabbage would magically transform itself into something like rice or bread or chicken or something. Unfortunately, this didn't happen. :( It still stayed the same old cabbage. Not that I have anything against cabbage, you see. Its just slightly... unappetizing (not to mention disconcerting!) to have so many vegetables on one's plate, heh. Not only that, I was trying to stretch the topping a little bit, so I didn't have *that* much chicken to go with the thick mound of cabbage. So, um, yeah... :(

I also had the heat a *bit* too high, so some parts of my topping were a bit burnt before the whole thing was done. And I must say, its pretty hard to cook this for three people at once, heh. :P The flipping thing was a bit tough the first time round, but my next 2 okonomiyaki were loads better.

In saying that, although this dish really really really really really wasn't my taste (seriously, what was I thinking???) Hadi and Justin luuuurved it. They liked the cabbage and dough mixture, even, and said they were willing to pay for this kind of thing. Although that one was the one that was slightly burnt, heh. All I had to do, they said, was increase the topping and don't be so stingy, hehe. So ... is it just me who doesn't like this??? :( How sad. Missing out on so much Japanese "culture" by not being a fan of vegetables, haha! Oh well, next time will be better, I hope~! ;)

Quote of the day: Cabbage - a vegetable about as large and wise as a man's head.

Turmeric Chicken

A rather busy weekend has made us quite tired. That is probably the main reason behind this rather uninspired dish of Hadi's. Nothing against it, as it is still tasty. Just uninspired and done a million times before, heh. :P I am exaggerating, yes. So anyway, here we go!

What you need:
3 chicken thighs
1 tablespoon turmeric
3 teaspoons chicken stock concentrate (mixed with 4 tablespoons water)
1/2 tablespoon white pepper

What you do:

1. Mix everything except the chicken together.
2. Rub mixture into the chicken and marinate for as long as you can.
3. Bake at 200 C for 40 minutes, or until juices run clear.

Yeah, that's it. Not kidding, hahaha. Really simple yeah? ;) Its quite similar to my Sunset Chicken, only really really simplified. :P And well, there's nothing much I can say about it, really. It tastes like turmeric, and it was salty. Full stop.

It could've done with more marination though. Hadi marinated for about an hour, but because these are thighs, I would suggest overnight, if you have the time. Also, I didn't taste the pepper at all, so putting in more might be an idea.

But, of course, the main flavour is that subtle turmeric taste, hehe. It wasn't very strong, but it was really good. I love turmeric, hehehe.

On a side note, we had a couple of lectures on the biochemistry of obesity today. I always thought that some overweight people would be overweight because of genetic factors, but apparently, for humans, that's not the case. If you're fat, most likely the reason is that you eat too much. Haha, so no more excuses now, eh people? ;)

Quote of the day: The belly rules the mind.

Tiramisu

Update: After one day in the fridge, the biscuits soaked up more coffee and the texture was much better, apparently. Also, the cherry flavour went quite well with the mascarpone, Justin says. In fact, he wants me to make it again, heh :P

Hoho, I finally got to make my tiramisu. I originally wanted to make this for Hadi's birthday, but he wanted the chocolate mousse instead. :( I don't know *why* I want to make it, since I don't like tiramisu anyway, but the picture looked so nice. :P That's why they have nice pictures in cookbooks, to tempt people into making them. The thing that was funky about this particular recipe was that it was individual (not a whole cake), used amaretti biscuits instead of sponge fingers, and was very nicely decorated. :P I thought it would taste good, so yeah... hehe ...here we go! :D

What you need:
1 egg yollk
2 tablespoons caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
250g mascarpone cheese
125ml strong black coffee
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
16 amaretti biscuits
Flake/cocoa, to decorate

What you do:

1. Beat the egg yolk and sugar until smooth. Stir in the vanilla and mascarpone until thoroughly combined and set aside.
2. Mix the coffee and cocoa. Break up the amaretti biscuits and stir into the coffee mixture. Divide half of the mixture between 4 glasses.
3. Spoon half of the mascarpone mixture over the biscuit mixtre, add the remaining biscuit mixture and top with the rest of the mascarpone.
4. Dust lightly with coca or crumble flake chocolate over the top. Chill before serving.

Amaretti are a type of Italian biscotti (biscuit :P) and tiramisu is Italian as well, so I thought this would be pretty authentic. Amaretti are Italian biscuits made out of crushed almonds, so it should probably give a pretty good flavour, no? Well, I don't know if Sainsbury's got it wrong, or if Italian almonds taste different from normal almonds, but these biscuits tasted similar to normal sponge fingers, but with a strong cherry undertone - which, to me, tastes almost medicinal! Despite this, I still used the biscuits in the tiramisu - because I didn't have a substitute!

So, how did it turn out? Well, the mascarpone layer was *very* good. I used vanilla sugar, in addition to the vanilla essence, so there was a distinct vanilla taste. The mascarpone, like in the chocolate cheesecake, was very smooth and creamy, so it was almost like a mild vanilla icecream!

The coffee-biscuit layer, however, is where the problem lies. The cherry flavour is just... strange. Although, apparently it wasn't so obvious in the finished tiramisu. But, not only that, the texture was also very bad. See, I asked Hadi whether the biscuits were usually soggy or not in tiramisu (since I've never liked tiramisu, I dunno how it is...). He replied that it was, but he didn't really like it. So, instead of using hot coffee, I poured cold coffee onto the biscuits so that they wouldn't go soggy easily. Turns out that this was a bad idea. I haven't dared taste it, but apparently, the texture of the biscuit layer was very very very bad. Powdery, and...strange, somehow. Hadi went as far to say that I wouldn't be able to sell the tiramisu. (heh. :P)

I think there's actually nothing wrong with the recipe - except for the use of amaretti. I bet if I made this with normal sponge fingers and hot coffee, it would have turned out alright. :( Oh well, maybe I'll make this again some day.... But not anytime soon, I think. Heh. *disappointment...* Although, the thing is, it looks very very pretty. :P hehe

Quote of the day: I'm trying to eat better. And, I do feel wise after drinking tea. After eating vegetables, I just feel hungry.

Chicken Fajitas

In the cookbook I got this recipe from, the picture of the fajitas had always drawn my eye. They looked all colourful and bright and happy, HAHA! I've never had a fajita before, I've never even had Mexican food before! But I decided, I want those fajitas, hehe. So, here we go!

What you need:
3 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
3 tablespoons maple syrup or clear honey
1 tablespoon vinegar (I used rice vinegar)
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1-2 teaspoons dried chilli flakes
Salt and pepper
6 boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 red pepper and 1 green pepper, deseeded and cut into 1 inch strips
6 plain tortillas, warmed
Guacomole, soured cream, salsa and iceberg lettuce, to serve

What you do:

1. Place the oil, maple syrup, vinegar, garlic, oregano, chilli flakes and salt and pepper to taste in a large bowl and mix together.
2. Slice the chicken into i-inch thick slices. Toss in the marinade until well coated. Cover and leave to chill in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours, turning occasionally.
3. Heat a frying pan until hot. Lift the chicken slices from the marinade with a slotted spoon, lay on the griddle pan and cook over medium-high heat for 3-4 minutes on each side, or until cooked through. Remove the chicken to serving plate and keep warm.
4. Add the peppers, skin side down, to the pan and cook for 2 minutes on each side. Transfer to the serving plate.
5. Serve immediately with the warmed tortillas to be used as wraps. Serve accompaniments separately.

The boys really really really liked this. They claimed that this is my best dish ever. Excluding even buttermilk chicken? Hmmm, I find that doubtful. :P I think, the reason they were so enamored of it was because it was quite different from what we usually have, i.e. Asian-based cooking. We've never had Mexican food before, and Western-based dishes are quite rare, so this was a "breath of fresh air", as Justin put it. Or maybe that was just all the peppers, hehe. Plus, its chock full of chicken so being the meat-lovers they are, of course they would like it. I bet they would have liked it even better if it was beef. :P

Actually, I have to admit that this wasn't quite my taste at all. Eating it was quite funky, reminded me of our home-made kebabs, hehe. Assembling the fajita was quite fun as well. But I didn't like the overall taste all that much. First, the chicken was a bit bland. I added some more salt while cooking the chicken, but didn't seem to help all that much, weirdly enough. The chilli flakes gave a nice zing to it, but I didn't quite like the oregano very much. Its nice on pasta, but its a bit weird here for me. Hadi couldn't even taste it, heh.

And yes, I bet some of you readers would be surprised, but I ate the chicken with the bell peppers as well. For my first fajita anyway. I don't *really* like bell peppers, but I've eaten them before so I can take a bit, I guess, heh. They taste a bit weird for me, sweet yet... I don't know... Not my taste, really. So no second helpings for me, hehe. The boys like bell peppers though, so they had no problem finishing up.

The recipe suggests FOUR different things to serve the fajitas with. Because of the salad side-dish, this was already quite an expensive dinner. (The fajitas themselves though, were relatively cheap.) So I picked only one of them and decided to buy a jar of salsa (Old El Paso Chunky Salsa). I bought the supposedly "hot" flavour, but the boys complained that it wasn't spicy at all. Even for me, when I had a taste. Which means its really not spicy at all (I can't take much spiciness). So... is it because it was adapted for Western tastes, or because Mexican food is really not spicy at all? Who knows :P But anyway, the salsa was still very flavoursome and added quite a lot of flavour, so the boys finished the whole jar anyway. Oh, and if you're interested, Cookie Monster has a recipe for guacamole which he is quite proud of, I think. ;)

On the whole, I thought it was a rather interesting dinner. The boys, for sure, enjoyed it a lot. I probably won't be making this again (unless I change the seasoning or something, but then it might taste a bit Asian, haha!) but I'm pretty sure that most of you out there would like it. So don't be afraid to give it a try! :D

Quote of the day: He that eats till he is sick must fast till he is well.

Zesty Chilli and Tomato Salad

I was very very sure that the boys wouldn't be full from just two fajitas, so I looked around for a Mexican side dish to go with it. I found this recipe for a Mexican-style salad, whose ingredients almost matched those of the fajitas, so I thought, yeah, this sounds good, hehe. I have never tasted any kind of salad before, and had no idea if the ingredients went well with each other, but oh well, it was just a side dish anyway. So, here we go!

What you need:
5 medium or large tomatoes
2 large green chillies
1 yellow bell pepper, deseeded and cut into 1-inch square chunks
1/2 cucumber
1/2 red onion, diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons vinegar
1/4 teaspoon additional salt

What you do:

1. Remove the stem area of the tomatoes. Cut into quarters, then into eighths. Use a spoon to remove the seeds. Place on paper towels to drain.
2. Slice the cucumber into 1-inch thick rounds. Lay them on paper towels and sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon of salt.
3. Cut the top of each chilli off. Cut in half lengthwise and, and remove the seeds and veins. Finely dice the flesh into small pieces.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, vinegar, lemon juice, oregano, salt and pepper.
5. Place the tomatoes, onion, cucumbers, chillies, bell pepper into a salad bowl and drizzle dressing on top. Toss to coat.

I rather thought it sounded quite Mexican, and should go quite well with the fajitas, hehe. The boys quite liked it, Hadi said the combination of flavours was "interesting". Hmmmm, is that good or bad? :P Anyway, he liked the sourness yet sweetness of the salad, so that was good, hehe. Although, I really don't see how they can eat it. Its all... vegetables.. :S

Gah, I really have trouble with writing up salads, because I have no idea what they were like, heh. So, that's all on the salad, hehe. ;)

Omelette Chicken Roll

Hehe, another recipe adapted from Aunidayini's blog. This one caught my eye because it looks and sounds quite yummy, plus I do believe it has a Japanese origin! Haha, being a Japan-o-phile, I try almost anything that's related with the country of the rising sun, heh. :P So, here we go!

What you need:
3 pieces boneless skinless chicken, thinly sliced (I used drumsticks)
3 eggs, made into 3 small omelettes

Marinade:
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 teaspoons Japanese soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil

3 shallots, finely sliced
Oil, for frying
1 tablespoon kicap manis (sweet soy sauce)
2 teaspoons ginger powder (replace with 2 tablespoons fresh chopped ginger, if you have it)
2 teaspoons garlic powder (replace with 2 tablespoons fresh chopped garlic, if you have it)
Japanese bread crumbs, for sprinkling
1 egg, beaten

What you do:

1. Marinate the chicken in the marinade ingredients for at least 30 minutes. Meanwhile, fry up the eggs to make the omelettes.
2. Heat up a wok and add the oil. Fry the shallots until softened and translucent. Add the chicken and ginger and garlic powders, and fry until cooked. Stir in the sweet soy sauce. Leave to cool slightly.
3. Use the one of the omelettes to wrap up 1/3 of the chicken in a roll. Repeat with the other two portions.
4. In a shallow greased baking dish, place the rolls and pour the extra beaten egg over it. Sprinkle the bread crumbs, and bake at 160 C until the crumbs are golden.

Because Justin is supremely conscious of his health at the moment (New Year's resolution, maybe?) I had to limit the amount of eggs I used, so I made one small omelette per person. Surprisingly, those fit the chicken filling quite nicely, hehe. Of course, I could've made one big omelette for all of us, but it wouldn't be as funky, hahaha.

Aunidayini's original recipe was actually for beef, but I modified it because I like chicken better, hee~! Justin was aghast, but oh well, I'm the cook! :D I do think the boys should get some beef, they seem to miss it a lot, haha. Or maybe they just really really like it. Either way, someone should make a beef dish soon :P I also replaced the fresh garlic and ginger with the powdered versions because they're easier (hehe, lazy) plus I didn't have enough of the fresh ones.

This was a pretty simple recipe to make, actually! I'm quite bad at making omelettes, but managed to make them somehow. Ours were very cute, about the size of my hand, HAHA! But I could still fit in the chicken pieces, so this wasn't too big a problem. Also, I didn't grease my baking dish, which wasn't really a good idea, because the extra egg stuck to to it. Oh well, live and learn. :D I also couldn't be bothered to wait till the breadcrumbs turn golden, since I was quite hungry already, haha.

The chicken was quite nice. It was reaaaaaallly flavoursome (hmmm, maybe I put in a bit too much seasoning there, heh :P) which was great! I did put in a touch too much ginger powder, but oh well. It just made the flavour much more intense. :D Hehe, definitely a keeper, this recipe. Thanks Aunidayini~! :D :D :D

Quote of the day: The most remarkable thing about my mother is that for thirty years she served the family nothing but leftovers. The original meal has never been found.

Fried Chicken with Eggs

If I'm not mistaken, I've mentioned before that Justin seems obsessed with coating his chicken with flour and bicarbonate to try and make it crispy. That fact has just been proven by his dinner yesterday, where he "accidentally" coated his chicken with flour, even if that wasn't his intention in the first place. So... here we go! :D

What you need:
3 boneless pieces of chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces (he used drumsticks)
Plain flour, for coating
2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
1 tablespoon Sainsbury's chicken seasoning (or your favorite seasoning)
2 shallots, sliced thinly
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 eggs, seasoned with salt and pepper
Salt and black pepper, for seasoning

What you do:

1. Mix the flour, chicken seasoning and bicarbonate together, and use to coat the chicken.
2. Heat the olive oil in a wok, and fry the shallots until almost translucent.
3. Add the chicken, and fry until golden brown.
4. Add the eggs, scrambling them as they cook. Season well with salt and pepper, and serve immediately.

Even though this was supposedly an accident, he actually made a *very* similar dish last year. The fact that he added the flour almost by instinct, though... is just weird :P He actually wanted to fry the chicken with the chicken seasoning only, not coat it with flour again. But he tipped in the flour anyway. Very weird. :P

Anyway, I can barely remember last year's chicken, but I think I liked that one better. For some reason, the chicken pieces this time round weren't as crunchy nor as juicy, plus they tasted a bit burnt. Either the olive oil burnt, or he left it too long cooking. And no, I don't know why he wanted to use olive oil. To make it healthier, he said. But I don't believe he truly knows either :P

Also, the seasoning for the chicken was a bit... off. They didn't mix together very well, somehow. Of course, there was only Sainsbury's chicken seasoning in there, but the flavours didn't blend, somehow. Or maybe that's just me. :P Anyway, I definitely think there's room for improvement here.

Quote of the day: And I find chopsticks frankly distressing. Am I alone in thinking it odd that a people ingenious enough to invent paper, gunpowder, kites and any number of other useful objects, and who have a noble history extending back 3,000 years haven't yet worked out that a pair of knitting needles is no way to capture food?

Tori Katsu-don

One big advantage of cooking your own food at home is that you get to choose from a wide variety of exotic things to eat, particularly here, in a foreign country, where choices of restaurants can be quite limited. So today, I present you with tori katsu-don, which comes all the way from ... where else, but Japan? :)

"Tori katsu", translated to English, is chicken cutlets, and "don" is basically a dish served over rice. Here, chicken is delicately seasoned and fried in Japanese breadcrumbs, then served with a delicious egg broth(you can just about see the creamy golden egg in the picture!) and rice! So, here we go!

What you need:
3 boneless skinless chicken pieces (I used drumsticks)
Salt and black pepper, for seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
3 tablespoons flour
1 egg, beaten
1 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)

Broth:
1 cup dashi stock (I used 1 cup water with 1 teaspoon dashi seasoning)
4 tablespoons Japanese soy sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
3 eggs, beaten (I used 2 eggs, plus left-over egg from the chicken)

What you do:

1. Season the chicken well with salt and pepper, and add the garlic powder and oyster sauce. Marinate for at least 15 minutes if you have time.
2. Dust the chicken with flour, dip into the egg, then the panko crumbs.
3. Fry in oil until golden-brown - about 4 minutes per side. Drain and keep warm.
4. Mix broth ingredients except egg in a sauce pan, and bring to boil. Carefully pour in the eggs, and stir gently. so that the eggs do not solidify into one solid mass, but form a lovely creamy pattern. (heh. my own words, but hard to describe :P).
5. Cut the chicken into 1-inch strips, and arrange carefully over a bowl of white rice. You can pour the broth over the chicken, on the side or as a dip.

The main thing that surprised me was at how little time this dish took! Because the chicken pieces are flat and boneless, they don't take long to cook at all, and the broth barely took any time as well. If you have a large frying pan, you might even be able to finish cooking everything (except the marination, but you can skip that out, maybe) in 15 minutes! Rice takes longer to cook, hehe. I had a small-ish wok (and didn't want to use too much oil), but I still took less than half an hour. Impressive, very impressive. The dish, also, is very impressive, if I do say so myself, hehe. The boys were worried at how much it must've cost, when in reality, it was probably less than 75 pence per person! Just perfect for our student budgets (and our busy student lives, hehe).

I actually modelled this after a dish in Excapades Sushi in Brunei, Tori Katsu. Some of my cousins are big fans of dish, and I must say, the chicken is quite okay when hot, but once it cools down a bit, you can tell that it actually tastes a bit bland. (Their Tori Katsu Maki Special, however, is just amazing.) So I decided to marinate the chicken before hand. Also, I KNEW it wouldn't be enough for Justin and Hadi, so I decided to look around for a side dish. That's when I came across a tori katsu recipe simmered in a broth, which seemed quite similar to oyako-don. I wanted to keep the crispiness of the chicken, however, so I decided to serve it on the side instead.

As for the taste, sure enough, the broth was very similar to Oyako-don, which I've made before. The chicken was also very flavoursome (nicely marinated, hehe) and the breadcrumbs gave a special flavour to it. Hadi, in fact, said that it had an authentic Japanese taste (though he's never been to Japan, heh - must be the dashi and soy sauce) and is reminiscent of Excapades. Justin really liked it as well, he poured a whole load of the broth onto his rice and really liked the chicken. I would recommend you either pour the broth over your rice (like the boys did) or use it as a dip or soup. Pouring it over the chicken makes it lose its crispiness. :(

If you don't have (or don't want to use) dashi, which is a Japanese fish stock, substitute with chicken stock instead. It has a unique flavour, that not everyone might agree with, hehe. Also, marinate the chicken with your favorite combinations. :) Just make sure it goes with soy sauce. ;)

Quote of the day: In Mexico we have a word for sushi - bait.

Pan-Fried Honey Garlic Chicken

This recipe evolved A LOT before my very eyes in the space of a few hours. Initially wanting to do a roast, Hadi swerved to stirfry before finally settling on pan-frying instead. The flavour was another issue, but he finally decided to make it sweet - just the way Hadi likes it! ;) So, here we go!

What you need:
3 pieces boneless chicken

Marinade:
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon ginger powder
1 teaspoon chicken stock (concentrate, powder or granules)

1 bulb garlic (about 15-20 cloves, peeled)
2 tablespoons olive oil

Sauce:
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon chicken stock (concentrate, powder or granules)

What you do:

1. Marinate the chicken in the marinade ingredients for at least 30 minutes, if you have time.
2. Heat up the olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-low heat, and add the garlic cloves. Fry for about 5 minutes, or until fragrant, then mash up the garlic pieces to release the juices into the oil. Fry for another 2-3 minutes, or until the garlic is golden-brown and crispy. Set aside.
   
3. Add the chicken pieces (with any remaining marinade) into the garlic-infused oil, trying as much as possible to keep them flat and in one layer. Fry, with occasional turning, until the pieces are cooked through.
4. Add the sauce ingredients, and simmer for 30 seconds, or until heated through. Serve immediately, with the fried garlic pieces on the side.
   

Hadi's reaction on his first bite was "Oh yes! This satisfies Hadi's sweet tooth." Yes, he does occasionally refer to himself in the third person. Do not ask me why. I have a very weird brother, that's all. I was busy taking pictures at that point, so I hadn't had a taste yet - but I had a definite sinking feeling.

And true enough, the chicken was extremely extremely sweet. I am sooo not a fan of sweet chicken. Ok, so I do eat (and enjoy!) buttermilk chicken, honey chicken and tori teriyaki, but in those cases, there's usually something to counter the sweetness. In this case, I can't taste the saltiness (from the chicken stock) at all! With Hadi's permission, I added a pinch of salt over my chicken, and that made it taste loads better. Hadi tried this on a *tiny* part of his chicken, and conceded that it did, in fact, give more depth to the flavour, but he refused to sacrifice the sweetness. Sigh. Hadi has the biggest sweet tooth I know.

The boys think that this is quite similar to my tori teriyaki, but I say it is not. For one thing, this is way sweeter, and more intense in that way, but it doesn't have the teriyaki taste. :P The honey is all I could taste. I tried persuading Hadi to NOT put the sauce, but nope. His flimsy excuse was that the chicken pieces shrunk (in the cooking), so we needed to pad it up with more sauce.

I've been trying to think of ways of making honey garlic chicken, but this is not how I would do it. First, I would lessen the honey. By a *LOT*. I would also make the garlic flavour a bit more pronounced. The garlic was strong, but only if you ate the fried garlic, which I found too bitter. (No, it wasn't burnt) Hadi was too lazy to slice it up, by the way, which is why he used whole cloves in this. I also think it could do with a bit of... a zing, haha. Hadi tried to up the spiciness with the cayenne pepper, but it was completely overwhelmed by the honey. Probably increasing the cayenne pepper, if we do this again. Also, I'm not sure if dried chillies would go with this, but it's worth a try. ;)

Oh well, at least the cook liked it. :P

Quote of the day: The only reason for being a bee that I know of is making honey....and the only reason for making honey is so I can eat it.

Creamy Cornflake Chicken

From last time's chicken with cornflakes dish, I make another, hehe, again from Cookie Monster's blog. The ingredients were basically the same, and I still had left-over yogurt, so I thought, hey, why not? :) So, here we go!

What you need:
3 boneless chicken pieces
1 can cream of chicken soup
250ml sour cream or yogurt (I used yogurt)
2 cups cornflakes
Enough grated cheddar cheese to cover the chicken
Seasonings, e.g. salt, pepper, chicken stock, herbs, etc

What you do:

1. Preheat oven to 175 C. Marinate the chicken with your favorite seasoning combo for at least 15 minutes. I used white pepper, chicken stock, garlic powder and parsley.
2. Place the chicken pieces in a shallow baking dish and cover with lots and lots of cheddar cheese. (:D)
3. Mix soup, yogurt and cornflakes in a bowl, and pour over the chicken. Add extra cornflakes over the top if you wish to have it crisper.
4. Bake in oven for 30-40 minutes, or until cheese is melted and chicken is cooked through.

Our first reaction when this came out of the oven was... Um, right.... It looked a LOT like the chicken cake, only it wasn't as solid and it had cornflakes on the top. We were a *bit* apprehensive at actually eating it, but what do you know! It was actually pretty good!

Justin, particularly, liked it because it was "much more flavorsome than the other one!". Me and Hadi, on the other hand, actually prefer the other one. Hadi, because it was crunchier. Me, because I didn't like the cheesy taste that much. Maybe I put in too much cheese or something, but surely there's no such thing??? :P

The texture of the cornflake/yogurt/soup mix actually left a lot to be desired. Because I didn't have canned soup available, I made one from scratch. Haha, or not. I actually made one from a packet mix instead. Maggi's, I believe. So this resulted in a hot soup. I was worried about the yogurt curdling or something if something hot is added, but Hadi assured me it would be fine. So I just mixed it in. The thing is, I forgot about the cornflakes! Cereal goes soft amazingly fast when mixed with hot liquids. So the cornflakes sort of turned mushy and not at all crunchy. Sigh. So I just sprinkled a lot more on top ;) But it wasn't the same, phoo~

If I do this again, I might consider pan-frying the chicken before pouring over the soup mix, just because it would give a better texture. :P Of course, it takes away the simplicity of the dish, but hehe, its something to keep in mind. :)

Quote of the day: If it weren't for the fact that the TV set and the refrigerator are so far apart, some of us wouldn't get any exercise at all.

Cheat's Sweet and Sour Chicken

I'm sure most everyone knows of sweet and sour sauce. :D Its a type of Chinese cooking, but has managed to be quite popular with Malay eaters. I'm not exactly certain on how you would make the sauce from scratch, but in this version, Hadi took a jar of pre-made sweet and sour sauce and poured it over the chicken. That is (almost) the whole recipe, if you can even call it a recipe! So, here we go!

What you need:
3 pieces boneless chicken
Cornflour, for coating
1/2 tablespoon oil
1 onion, sliced
1 jar of sweet and sour sauce (we used Yeo's)

What you do:

1. Coat the chicken pieces with the cornflour. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large frying pan.
2. Fry the chicken pieces until cooked and golden-brown all over. Set aside.
3. Add the sliced onion into the pan. Fry until softened and slightly translucent, then add the jar of sweet and sour sauce. Simmer until thickened.
4. Add the chicken pieces, and serve immediately.

Hadi actually bought this sauce because it was on offer, and of course, because he likes SWEET and sour dishes. We were a bit skeptical (from our limited experience, canned sauces are usually not all that good) but that was unfounded in this case. The chicken was really crisp and tender under the sauce, which tasted really good as well! In this recipe, Hadi used large pieces of boneless thighs, but another variation would be slices of boneless chicken, fried in the same way. The frying really helped the texture of the dish, I would fully recommend you do it. :D

I actually haven't had sweet and sour dishes all that much, but Justin and Hadi assured me that this particular sauce was delicious. The only thing missing, they said, was pineapple. I was skeptical on how we could make a pineapple (which would probably cost, what, 10 pounds?) fit into our budgets, but apparently, canned pineapples would do. Now, I am not a big fan of pineapples, but Hadi said that he would be doing a v2 of this dish with pineapples soon, so I suppose I'll have to it eat (and maybe like it!) anyway. :P We could probably try and make sweet and sour sauce from scratch as well. Wonder if that's hard... I'm sure someone out there could tell me. ;)

One of the best (and few) sweet and sour dish I've had was the sweet and sour fish from Rasa Ceria Cafe (RCC) catering. The fish was crisp and tender, and the sauce really nice. When I first ate it, I actually thought it was chicken! The fish didn't look or taste like fish at all! That was a good one, hehe.

Quote of the day: Sour, sweet, bitter, pungent; all must be tasted.

Cornflake and Yogurt Chicken (Happy Birthday Justin)

Heh, Justin is 22 today, but he barely seemed to want to celebrate it. (I suppose that happens, once you get older than you would like? ;) hehe). I offered to make him a cake, but he said no. In fact, he doesn't want any desserts coming out of our kitchen for the next two weeks! (Such a health freak :P) I don't have too big a problem with that though, since I am getting tired of all the sweet indulgences we've been having of late. When he told me that he wanted his birthday dinner to be "healthy", well, now, that IS a problem. Because I simply don't DO healthy. ;) But I suppose I had to manage somehow?

So, I decided to take one of the recent recipes from CookieMonster's blog. It sounded healthy enough to me and I thought it was a rather funky idea. Hehe, here we go!

What you need:
6 boneless chicken pieces (I used drumsticks)
250 ml yogurt
About 4 cups crushed cornflakes
Seasoning for your chicken (whatever you like, spices, salt, pepper, etc.)

What you do:

1. Preheat oven to 180 C.
2. Rub in the seasoning into the chicken flesh, and soak in the yogurt for about 20 minutes.
3. Dip chicken in cornflakes, place on a shallow baking dish and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
4. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through and juices run clear.

The result was juicy succulent pieces of chicken was a crunchy crust! The texture was amazing, both inside and outside. Hadi particularly liked the cornflake layer, although Justin thinks that the cornflakes didn't really go with the chicken... Well, Ihsan thought it did! (haha, shameless self-promotion!) But seriously, the cornflake flavour was really good, I thought, and the crunchiness contrasted really nicely with the tender chicken. I do believe I'll make this again, hehe. Though perhaps not when Justin is around. :P

Justin actually envisioned something other than this, when he told me he wanted a healthy dinner. Something along the lines of green and leafy. But that is simply out of my skills, hehe. I would have no idea where to start. Although, this chicken is still healthy, he did admit. Especially since Hadi bought LOW-FAT yogurt. The golden-brown colour reminded Justin of deep-fried chicken though, hehe. This was not fried at all (healthy healthy!) but tasted great! A sure winner in Ihsan's book, hehe. ;)

Just a few minor problems to iron out though. I marinated the chicken in Sainsbury's chicken seasoning the whole day, but I don't think I put enough, because there was no taste of it at all. The chicken just tasted like chicken (and cornflakes, of course, hehe). On that note, I didn't taste the yogurt at all either. Although this could've been because I was leery of using vanilla yogurt with chicken. (Yes, CM, I still think it sounds weird, haha). So I used plain yogurt instead. When Hadi heard this though, he insisted that the vanilla would go with the chicken. Am I the only one who thinks it sounds like a weird combo???

Another thing, I didn't have time to leave it to rest in the fridge after coating with the cornflakes, so I just popped it in the oven straight away. Didn't affect it much, although the cornflakes might have stuck better to the chicken if I did. CM suggests using chicken breasts, but the boneless chicken breasts here are horribly expensive, so I deboned drumsticks instead. That turned out quite well, since I usually find chicken breasts too dry, and the drumsticks were really juicy. It might not have worked with thighs though, since those would be too oily and might soften the crisp cornflake layer. Due to lack of time, I also didn't crush the cornflakes as finely as I should, but the result wasn't too bad. Gave the chicken a bit of character, hehe. ;)

Also, I really wasn't sure what to serve this with. Rice and pasta don't quite seem to go with it. Maybe potatoes, but we haven't bought any recently, so that's a no go. In the end, since this is an Asian flat after all, I served it with rice, but told the boys to go crazy with their chilli sauces. I myself had it with tomato sauce, heh. It tasted quite good. Maybe next time, instead of cornflakes with milk, I should use tomato ketchup instead? ;) hehe. And now, something a little different for today:

Fact of the day: John Harvey Kellogg invented cornflakes in 1894 as a food that would not break the false teeth of his old patients!

Justin's Fried Chicken (JFC)

It is now the FIFTH day that our boiler has broken down. No heating. In the middle of winter. Wonderful, just wonderful. We've actually seen our breath fog up IN THE HOUSE a couple of times! A very depressing sight. Repeated pleas to the housing agent has brought back replies of "We will deal with your problems in order of seriousness." But surely NO heating in this cold weather is enough to warrant emergency status??? Then again, these are the people who suggested we open our windows (IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER) to get rid of excess moisture in our flat. Whee~! I've taken to wearing a coat and scarf IN the house, as sad as that may sound, heh. They're promising to come tomorrow though, so hopefully we won't be in this situation any longer.

But anyway. Enough ranting. Today, Justin decided to do yet another version of his Chicken in a Chicken series (together with Five-Spice Chicken), only this time he added a lot more Sainsbury's Chicken Seasoning. The resulting chicken was much more flavoursome than his Chicken in a Chicken, and looked very pretty, almost like fast food chicken! So I (jokingly) suggested that he set up a fast food chicken place called "Justin's Fried Chicken", although this chicken, of course, was not fried.

But Justin (who is a potential investment banker and takes all things to do with finance and business very seriously) replied that it would not be a feasible business plan as there are already a lot of fast food chicken stores out there, and the competition would be high. Um, right. *SNORE* I wasn't serious about the suggestion at all, sigh. He also said that when you think of fast food chicken, people almost always think of KFC.

Is that true though? Here in the UK, when I think of fast food, I think of Quigley's (a halal fast food store in Bristol) because obviously, the KFC here is not suitable. But even in Brunei, I don't really eat at KFC all that much. I like their chicken, but I would prefer something like TPH's butter chicken instead. (Yummy!) In terms of fast food, I would most likely think of Express instead - their chips are drool-worthy! Something I can't get here at all, heh. But apparently, KFC is more popular in Malaysia, which is true, I guess. One of my friends ate KFC almost every week during the summer when she was back home in Malaysia! (Yes, not very recommended, health-wise :P) But then, KFC in Malaysia is much cheaper than KFC in Brunei, so I suppose its a cheap meal.

I still prefer TPH though. One of my favorite restaurants :D Or perhaps Kaizen Sushi's garlic-fried rice and tori teriyaki. And of course, Express just for their chips, hehe. GAH! I want to go back Brunei and eat all those! Maybe I shouldn't have started thinking about them, hehe. Oh well. 6 more months! :D

Quote of the day: Avoid restaurants with names that are improbable descriptions, such as the Purple Goose, the Blue Kangaroo or the Quilted Orangutan.

Melt-In-Your-Mouth Chocolate Cake

Today, we held another small dinner, this time with the theme of "Mari Kita Memasak", hehe. Nasrul (yes, the same Nasrul who occasionally leaves a message on the message box) wanted to know how to make Claypot Chicken Rice. Its actually a pretty simple recipe, hehe, but I guess the length of the ingredient list can scare people. Because we were planning to DDR some more, we invited Azriana over as well, hehe.

For dessert, in addition to all the left-over desserts we've had from the past few dinners (including yesterday!), I had also baked a chocolate cake. It was actually supposed to be for yesterday, but they had already brought a cake, so what to do...? I was unsure on how long it would stay fresh in the fridge though, so I decided to serve it up today, no matter how many desserts we had already. (Plus, I couldn't stand it. I HAD to taste it, haha) The cake was amazingly simple to make, but sounded very very rich. It had to be good. ;) So, here we go!


What you need:
200g good-quality dark chocolate
200g butter
200g sugar
5 eggs
1 heaped tablespoon plain flour

What you do:

1. Preheat an oven to 200 C. Line an 8-inch cake pan with baking paper, and grease well.
2. Melt the butter with the chocolate. Be careful not to burn.
3. Add the sugar and stir well to combine. Leave to cool a little.
4. Add the eggs one by one, mixing well with a spoon after each addition. Add the flour and mix well.
   
5. Pour the batter into the pan and bake in the oven for exactly 25 minutes. (The centre can be slightly trembling).
6. Let the cake cool down a bit and then turn out to a rack to cool completely.
7. Wrap tightly in cling wrap and refrigerate. Take out about an hour before serving (with whipped cream, if you decire, whoo~!)

This recipe is from an excellent food blog, Chocolate and Zucchini. From the description of the cake in the post, this is supposed have a fantastic crust while the the inside is ooey gooey chocolatey goodness. Sounds fantastic! And true enough, it is sooooooo good! I truly believe I am addicted to it. It is completely not like a cake at all. Its sooo moist and chocolatey and soooo creamy and.... its awesome!

And the worst thing is, IT'S SO EASY TO MAKE! All you need is a microwave, a spoon and some bowls! No electric mixer, no specialist equipment at all. Its almost as easy as the Maltesers cake! Oh, and you do need a cake pan, and I suggest a loose-bottomed cake pan at the very least, or a spring-form cake tin, so you can remove the cake easily to cool it down. This cake is a bit fragile, especially in the beginning when its a bit hot. Its a bit more firm once cold though, even though the inside still melts in your mouth. Fantastic!

Apparently, with dark chocolate cakes, its best to make it the day before you serve it, and leave it to chill in the fridge. My cake pan was leaky, I forgot to check the bottom was secure, heh. So I placed a piece of baking paper underneath it to catch the drippings. Once these cooled, we were able to "sample" the drippings as a preview of the actual cake, hehe. And I must say, the cold one was definitely better, hehe. Almost like ice-cream! A very rich chocolate ice-cream. The crust on the warm one was crunchier though, which was nice. But I had to leave the cake in the fridge for 2 days, so that might have deteriorated the crust a little. Oh well. The cake was none the worse for it, hehe.

Trust me. This cake is GOOD! The only problem now is the sheer amount of desserts we've been eating these past few days!

In the end, I found it a bit harder to cook for 5 people, as opposed to 3 people (or maybe 2 people and 1 Justin, hehe), but it turned out quite good. The chicken especially, was soooo flavoursome. To cater for the spicy eaters (all of them), I added in sliced dried chillies to the chicken. The rice was just so-so. I think I need to up the seasoning of it a bit more, hehe. But the chicken was amazing. Sticky and salty with a slight hint of shiitake. Sooo good! Look at that! The glistening chicken pieces.... *drool*



Quote of the day: Chocolate is an anti-depressant, which is especially useful as you start to gain weight.

Yet another dinner...

Woohoo! Today was the first time my statcounter recorded more than 100 visitors in a day! A big contributing factor to this was Emma's post on her favorite Brunei bloggers of 2006 (of which I am one, yey!) so big thanks to her, hehe. The photos of the people looked fantastic, whilst mine was just a huge close-up of my face, ahahaha. Should defnitely find a better photo ;)

But anyway, today, I held yet another dinner with friends, but this time on a much smaller scale (in terms of food :P) It was actually supposed to be a dinner with my ex-flatmates in Durdham (my university hall in first year) but word got out that I had DDR, and another person wanted to come, hehe. ;) And I thought, hey, why not, it'll be nice to invite my coursemate as well, so she came along too! :D How nice, hehe. Of course, most of them came for the DDR. I knew that. What is DDR? Here's the wiki article ;)

So, here's the menu:

Appetizers:


R's potato curry
This was a big hit with the predominatly (well, actually, completely) Asian eaters. This is apparently a traditional Sri Lankan dish, and involves frying potatoes, then seasoning them with a LOT of spicy stuff. I should definitely get the recipe from her soon, hehe. It was a touch too spicy for me, but everyone else loved it. It was very well-seasoned and tender, which is nice, coz our potatoes almost never are :P

Main course:
Buttermilk Chicken v1
Honey Chicken (baked)
R and A were pleased to see that I had made buttermilk chicken again, since they had tasted it a couple of weeks ago and absolutely loved it. ;) I made it a bit spicier this time, since I know what the crowd likes, hehe. Since I didn't have much time, I did a quick shallow-fry of the chicken pieces coated in flour, instead of deep-frying them one by one. This turned out quite nice, actually. I popped it in the oven for about 15 minutes, and they got even more crisp. Hehe, I might just do that next time. :D
Again, because I didn't have much time, I also did a baked version of the honey chicken. It turned out quite well, and crisp even! You just have to leave it in the oven till its nice and golden-brown, I guess.
Both are sweet, so of course, Hadi was ecstatic. Not helping the diets of some the girls though, hehe. ;)

Desserts:
L's Peach Crumble


This was quite nice, actually. The crumble topping was really good and flavoursome (though Hadi thinks it could've been crunchier) and the peaches were nice and sweet (she used canned peaches). I've only had the apple versions before this, and they are usually quite tart and sour. This one was just ... sweet. It was really good! Even for a fruit dessert, hehe. We had some double cream to go with it, but Hadi overwhipped it and it separated... so we had solid pieces of cream instead :P (Is that what they call curd? :S)

Sainsbury's Triple Chocolate Gateau (brought by F, hehe)


I liked the whipped cream on this cake, but the person who bought it complained that it was too dry. Fair enough, but that's usually why I don't like cakes anyway. Hmmm... maybe I'm eating the wrong types??? It looked good though, and tasted nice enough. Its just that we were quite stuffed after the dinner, so quite a lot was left over.

The dinner went great, hehe, as did the main event... DDR! They all got slowly better at it ;) and were contemplating getting their own mat, hehe. Once in awhile, there would be a squeal from someone on how she wanted one. Which means that I am slowly achieving my goal of getting everyone addicted to DDR, hahaha! (Too bad I didn;t get a lot of pictures... :( of people, that is. I have a lot of picture of the food... Maybe I need to get my priorities sorted, haha! )

Quote of the day: You know you're addicted to DDR when ... your personal ambition is to be a butterfly.

I know, no one gets it - except the true DDR fans, hoho! Oh, alright, here's a proper one... ;)

Quote of the day: I want to have a good body, but not as much as I want dessert.

Roast Hoisin Chicken

For all my complaining of how often Justin and Hadi use Hoisin Sauce, they actually hardly ever use it. Well, they haven't used it in awhile anyway - the fresh jar we bought this year has very very little left in it, which indicates just how much they (particular Justin) have been using it. The thing is, hoisin sauce is so strong that you get tired of it pretty quickly, or at least I do. :P Because it is so strong, its flavour almost always overwhelms anything else you put in, no matter how little you used. Here, Justin tries to use the hoisin to "complement" the other flavours, instead of just having hoisin flavour all the way through. So... here we go! :D

What you need:
Chicken thighs (or any other piece)
1/2 tablespoon hoisin sauce
3 teapoons BBQ sauce
1 teaspoon honey
1 tablespoon sesame oil
Crispy fried shallots

What you do:

1. Mix the hoisin and BBQ sauces, honey and the fried shallots together, and rub all over the chicken pieces. Leave to marinate at least 30 minutes if you can, then rub the sesame oil over the chicken pieces.
2. Meanwhile, preheat an oven to 190 C. Once hot, put the chicken in and cook until juices run clear, about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Serve immediately, with the juices from the pan.

Its the weirdest thing. Whenever we have roast chicken, somehow or other, Hadi and my chicken pieces are always always slightly undercooked so we would have to pop them into the microwave for about a minute to cook it completely (chicken should never be undercooked, unlike beef ;) ). But Justin's chicken is always perfectly done and tender. And the annoying thing is, he ALWAYS allows us to pick the pieces first. Either he's very lucky, or we're very unlucky, hehe.

But anyway, like I "hinted" above, we could not taste the BBQ sauce (as well as the sesame oil) at all. It was just hoisin hoisin and ooh, more hoisin! Its not a bad thing, after all hoisin sauce is quite tasty, but it means Justin did not achieve what he set out to do, hehe. He said that he'll try to reduce the amount of hoisin sauce next time, but I actually think that the problem here is that he doesn't have enough BBQ sauce. 3 teaspoons is almost equal to half a tablespoon, and to push down the hoisin flavour a little, you need much less of it than the competing ingredient. So if you want to try this, I would advise putting in more BBQ sauce as well. ;)

Apart from that, the chicken was really very good! There was a slight hint of honey, which complemented the almost non-existent BBQ flavour nicely. It was, of course, sweet overall because of the hoisin sauce. The crispy shallots were also a nice surprise - there would be little shallot bombs all over the chicken. Very tasty. :D One thing he could have done was marinate it - he didn't so this at all, which was a shame. The flavour was nice, but it didn't permeate through the whole chicken piece. But of course, there was the yummy gravy to mop up, so all wasn't lost, hehe.

For dessert, we had a blueberry pie - a survivor from our New Year's dinner last time. We've actually been having desserts for the past 2 days - and will be continuing to have more the next few days, unfortunately, hehe. Not good for the waistline, particularly after the holidays. :P The pie was from Marks & Spencers, but Justin commented that it didn't look like it was bought from M&S. True, it wasn't as classy as something you would expect from there, but it still wasn't too bad looking, I suppose. One bite though, and I think the boys were convinced of its "quality". Justin particularly liked the pastry crust, since it wasn't so "crumbly". I actually prefer my pastry less firm, and more melt-in-your-mouth-y, but oh well, different people, different opinions. Hadi, of course, loved it because it was sweet. The filling was sweet, the pastry was sweet, the glaze was sweet. :P On the other hand, I'm not all that big a fan of fruity desserts, so I didn't like it all that much, but hey! The other two liked it, which means that it must be good (although the both of them are notorious for eating anything :P). So if you're in the UK, you might want to give this a try. ;)

Quote of the day: We are all dietetic sinners; only a small percent of what we eat nourishes us; the balance goes to waste and loss of energy.

Merica Chicken

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I LOVE white pepper. The smell of white pepper is something that will not fail to make me want something to eat. Especially cucur ayam. So when I came across this recipe in Aunidayini's blog, well, I just *had* to try it. No question.

Merica, apparently, means white pepper in Indonesian. (When I told Hadi and Justin this, they cracked lame jokes about how they thought Merica is Indonesian for America -_-) Anyway, this dish is a slight adaptation from Aunidayini's recipe, but white pepper still plays a huge part in flavouring the chicken, and like hers, nicely complemented by oyster sauce and turmeric. So... here we go!

What you need:
3 chicken thighs

Marinade:
2 teaspoons turmeric powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon chicken stock
1 teaspoon white pepper
3 tablespoons white vinegar

Gravy:
(We ran out of shallots, so I used 1 onion instead. Otherwise, use 1/2 onion and 4 shallots)
1 onion, sliced finely
4 tablespoons oyster sauce with 2 tablespoons water
1 heaped teaspoon white pepper
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons kecap manis (sweet soy sauce)

1 tablespoon of oil, plus more for frying
1 tablespoon sesame oil

What you do:

1. Mix the marinade ingredients together and rub all over the chicken. Leave to marinate at least 15 minutes, or overnight (as I did).
2. Preheat an oven to 180 C, and place the chicken on a shallow baking dish. Mix 1 tablespoon of oil with the sesame oil, and rub all over the chicken. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until the chicken is done.
3. Meanwhile, fry the onion (and shallots, if using) in oil heated in a wok. Once soft and translucent, add in the rest of the gravy ingredients, as well as any remaining marinade and juices from the chicken (once cooked). Simmer until the gravy is thick (I used a thickener, heh - arrowroot mixed with some water).
4. Adjust seasoning and pour over cooked chicken.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, arrowroot is a thickener (similar to cornflour). I recently obtained it and was eager to test it, hehe. True enough, one teaspoon was able to thicken the whole sauce really well. And I added a LOT of water - much more than the two tablespoons in the recipe, as the taste was a bit too strong. Probably because I underestimated the size of a dessert spoon, but oh well, no harm done.

The chicken really absorbed the marinade very well, and was nice and flavoursome too. The fact that there was no turmeric in the gravy gave a nice contrast of tastes, I thought. Hadi felt that there should have been some turmeric in the gravy as well, but Justin and I don't agree, heh. I like the taste of turmeric, hehe. Its subtle, yet so good! My chicken looks a bit yellower than Aunidayini's, but that is probably because I went overboard with the turmeric, hehe.

Although the amount of pepper had me spluttering with every bite (earlier on), Hadi and Justin complained that they could barely taste it. Hadi ate it with some chilli sauce, but then said that it doesn't go all that well with it. Justin suggested something that is just spicy, with no other flavour (as in, not sweet, not sour, just spicy). Since we have no idea what would be a reasonable addition (he suggested jalapeños), I suggested just adding a whole load more pepper. At which point, Hadi pointed out that white pepper and oyster sauce combo is a dish I always make. Um, excuse me? I do tend to use a lot of white pepper, but barely use any oyster sauce. They're the ones who use it, not me. :P So yeah... more white pepper, maybe, hehe. Although it was more than spicy enough for me...

Also, it was a *bit* too salty, heh. I must've gone overboard with the oyster sauce, as well. There was very little left in the bottle, so I decided to just rinse the whole thing out with hot water. Looks like there was more than I thought. But, on the whole, I loved this dish! The turmeric and white pepper gives a combination that I really really like. Thanks Aunidayini for the recipe! :D

On a side note, someone made a search for "hadi justin food for thought" to reach this blog today. I realise that I do mention their names a lot more than mine, but it depresses me to think that someone out there actually remembered THEIR names (minor sidekicks that they are) instead of mine. :P Of course, the two of them are impressed that they "left their mark" on the Bruneian blogging scene. Um, right. But anyway, for future reference, this is IHSAN's Food for Thought. Hehe :D Just thought I'd give everyone a reminder~ ;) Have a good day!

Quote of the day: There are people who strictly deprive themselves of each and every eatable, drinkable, and smokable which has in any way acquired a shady reputation. They pay this price for health. And health is all they get for it. How strange it is. It is like paying out your whole fortune for a cow that has gone dry.