"Western" Chicken Soup

Hadi apparently thinks that our usual chicken (noodle) soup is Asian in character. I ... suppose it is, slightly. The seasonings we use, plus the fact that we eat it with noodles or rice usually... So he got it in his head that he would make a "Western"-style chicken soup, hahaha. Let's see how he fares, shall we? Here we go!

What you need:
3 chicken thighs
3/4 cup chicken stock
1 litre of water
Pinch of ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon dried mixed herbs
Salt and pepper, for seasoning
2 (280g) bags of mixed vegetables - we had carrots, cauliflower and broccoli

Roast potatoes, to serve

What you do:

1. Place everything except the vegetables and potatoes in a large pot, and allow to simmer for about 45 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
2. For the last 5-10 minutes of cooking, add in the mixed vegetables.
3. Taste and adjust seasoning, and serve with the roast potatoes.

I was a bit worried when Hadi put in the nutmeg, as that can get too strong for me. But I needn't worry. He put only a tiny little bit in. I could barely even taste it in the final soup, haha. Also, I forgot to mention it before, but Hadi had made home-made chicken stock by boiling a LOT of chicken bones, then removing the fat, etc. We've been thinking of ways to use up this stock, and I used a little bit of it yesterday, but Hadi used up whatever was left here. :P

So anyway... how did it turn out? Luckily there was a lot of soup, because the potatoes were just barely enough, and I didn't eat the vegetables. I tried, I really did! I tried chewing on a carrot stick, but it was just so... carrot-y. o.0 Needless to say, I didn't like it. So the two boys managed to polish off over half a kilo of vegetables (!!) between them. Of course, they were very happy about it, haha.

Anyway, back to the flavour of the soup. We finally ran out of salt and as of yet, no one has remembered to buy a new batch, so Hadi had to make to with minimal amounts of salt here. In fact, he had used all the remaining salt on the potatoes. So he had to add commercial chicken stock granules into the soup instead. (Home-made chicken stock is not supposed to be very salty, just so you know. Its supposed to be chicken-y, that's all. On its own, it tastes like air ayam, ahahaha - chicken water, eeeeeeee!)

But anyway, AGAIN back to the flavour of the soup (I babble too much, really). Despite the lack of salt, it really was tasty. The nutmeg and mixed herbs gave a subtle flavour, and Hadi would like to think that the added chicken stock made it taste more chicken-y. I do believe he's right. :P He didn't add that much chicken stock granules, yet the soup was very full-flavoured. It was also helped along by the vegetables, which also imparted some flavour to the soup. So all in all, it was a rather satisfying meal. :D

Quote of the day: Good manners - The noise you don't make when you're eating soup.

Crispy Sesame Chicken

This sounded like an interesting recipe. Chicken was coated in sesame seeds and oats (amongst other things) then deep-fried till crispy. I like crispy chicken. Never mind that I'm not too big a fan of sesame OR oats. (The boys, however, love them. They eat a bowl of oats almost every morning! Ugh, so healthy...). Of course, I don't really like to fry either, so I decided to modify the recipe slightly to make it baked instead - knowing full well that it probably wouldn't taste as nice, ahahaha. Anyways, here we go!

What you need:
3 boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into three pieces each

Marinade:
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoon garlic powder (I used garlic granules)
2 teaspoons sesame oil

Flour coating:
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon onion powder
3/4 cup chicken stock, plus enough water to make a thin liquid

Crispy coating:
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup toasted sesame seeds
1 tablespoon chicken stock granules

Oil, for greasing
Sesame oil, for drizzling
Soy sauce, to serve

What you do:

1. Marinate the chicken in the marinade ingredients for about 4 hours in the refrigerator.
2. Mix the ingredients for the flour coating in a medium bowl. In another bowl, mix together the ingredients for the crispy coating.
3. Grease a shallow baking dish very well with the oil as well as a splash of sesame oil.
4. Dip chicken pieces in the flour mixture, then roll in the oats and sesame seed mixture. Place on the baking dish.
5. Bake at 180 C for 30 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through.
6. Before serving, drizzle over more sesame oil. Serve with rice and soy sauce, as a dip.

Hmmmmm, there was one thing I didn't take into account when converting it from frying to baking... Oats are able to absorb a lot of water and, essentially, turn into porridge. :P So while the top-side of this chicken might be okay, the bottom certainly wouldn't. But oh well, its much easier than frying still, so I decided to go ahead anyway.

In the end, the top side turned out relatively crispy while the bottom was, yep, quite soggy. But oh well, never mind. That's how most baked chickens turn out anyway. The most important thing is the taste, yea? ;) Plus, as you can see, the chicken does look quite pretty. :D You can clearly see the sesame seeds.

You can very clearly taste the sesame seeds as well. Big shock, huh? :P Not a big problem for the boys, but I found it slightly too nutty for my taste. Plus, Hadi said the oats were slightly chewy, instead of crispy. Again, that must be because of the baking thing.

But, all in all, it was an interesting dish. The flavour improved tremendously with the addition of soy sauce, which means to say that the chicken was rather bland to begin with. Well, not really. I could taste the salt and pepper, but hmmmm... garlic was missing, plus it felt a bit empty, somehow.

When asked for suggestions on how to improve it, Hadi just wanted it fried, while Justin wanted it crispier using breadcrumbs, or even Tex's chicken powder. -_-;; Interesting suggestions... but nothing I want to try anytime soon, ahahaha. :P Plus, we're almost out of sesame seeds anyway.

Quote of the day: Without rice, even the cleverest housewife cannot cook

Steak with Potatoes

Mmmmmm. Colourful yeah? ;) If I had to guess, this would be close to what the boys consider their "perfect dinner". There's beef, and there's potatoes. What more can they ask for? (Actually, quite a lot. When I posed this question to them, Justin answered "shark's fin soup" and Hadi was extolling the virtues of the ribs at Charcoal BBQ & Grill. :P But anyway...) Justin again claimed that I wouldn't like this, because the taste of beef will be strong. Although this isn't steak per se because we didn't get the correct piece of the cow. Or something like that. I only know my chicken parts. :P But yeah, that's what the boys told me...

Anyway, I really am not too picky with food, actually. Above all, I like simple food and according to Justin, the best steak is prepared simply with no showy ingredients. So... even if its beef, I'm sure I'll like it. ;) Here we go!

What you need:
3 large beef pieces (ours was ~200g each, I don't know the name of the piece :P)
Olive oil, for frying

Seasoning:
Plenty of Worcestershire sauce
Black pepper
Garlic granules (or chopped fresh garlic)

What you do:

1. Heat up the olive oil in a large frying pan.
2. Add the beef in a single layer and season well. (Feel free to use your own combinations)
3. Cook until it is as done as you like it, and serve.

Hmmmmm, quite a simple recipe, yeah? Well, it wasn't that simple, I guess, since Justin also served it with some mixed veggies, potatoes and cream of mushroom soup. Unfortunately, I only had the potatoes since I am a not a fan of either veggies or mushrooms. :P But, luckily, the potatoes were very nicely done. Justin chopped them up, seasoned with olive oil, sesame oil and plenty of salt and pepper and baked them at 200 C for 45 minutes. They turned out really soft and tender and flavoursome, unlike our usual potatoes which are always undercooked as well as a bit bland. :P

But of course, the main thing here... is the beef. We each got a huge slice of beef! I wasn't sure if I could finish it, but of course, I managed to, ahahaha. :$ I actually quite liked it! The seasonings were very nicely done, although a bit more pepper would have been nice. But that's easily remedied. It was... certainly very beefy tasting, but all the seasonings complemented it perfectly!

The main thing I didn't like was how tough it was, compared to chicken. Of course, Justin probably got the cheaper option so it wouldn't have been very tender anyway. But I got tired from just trying to cut it, hahaha. By the time the boys were finished, I haven't even eaten half of mine! But oh well, eating slow is good for you, no? ;) Plus, I had the yummy potatoes to rest with. :P

So all in all, it wasn't too bad a dish. Although I much prefer chicken, I really liked the seasonings . *drool* Although I also prefer rice to potatoes. I don't find potatoes very ... satisfying, really. Hadi is really really into potatoes, but I definitely like rice more. :) But yeah, this kind of meal, once in awhile, is a nice change, really. :D

Quote of the day: Give them great meals of beef and iron and steel, they will eat like wolves and fight like devils.

Crispy Honey Garlic Chicken

Hadi and Justin were arguing over who should cook this. They both thought up of the same dish, separately, weirdly enough. But their motivations were markedly different. Hadi wants the honey while Justin wanted the garlic. :P In the end, Hadi gave up and made his lemon chicken, so Justin was ready to go!

What you need:
3 chicken thighs
2 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons plain flour
4 tablespoons garlic granules (or use fresh garlic cloves, chopped up as finely as you can)
2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda

Sesame seeds
Sesame oil

What you do:

1. Marinate the chicken in the honey overnight in the refrigerator.
2. Mix the other ingredients in a bowl and use to coat the chicken. Place on a shallow baking dish.
3. Sprinkle over the sesame seeds and sesame oil.
   
4. Bake chicken at preheated 180 C oven for about 45 minutes, or until cooked through.

Hadi and Justin were exclaiming at how pretty this chicken looked when it came out of the oven. They urged me to come and take pictures (I was still in my room) but when I got out... well, it looked like your typical Justin crispy chicken, really. :P Nice and golden brown, but.... hmmmmm, guess the boys were just hungry maybe, ahahaha. Dinner today was a bit later than usual. :P

Anyway... like lemon, garlic is another popular combination with honey. Honey Garlic Chicken in Brunei's Pizza Hut is apparently their #1 flavour... though its weird they don't have that flavour in Malaysia. :S We've used honey with garlic a couple of times, most notably Hadi's pan-fried Honey Garlic Chicken. We've also used garlic as a coating for roast chicken... so this recipe is sort of a cross between the two, I guess?

Now... I've mentioned over and over again that, unlike Hadi, I don't have a major sweet tooth. My weakness is potato chips (keropok) not chocolatey things. And I simply cannot stand to have very sweet chicken. The few exceptions are buttermilk chicken and honey chicken. Otherwise, I find the taste a bit strange. :P

So, after taking a bite of Justin's latest creation (one he is rather proud of, I might add), I was dismayed to find out that it was sweet. Very sweet. The overnight marination was extremely successful. The chicken was sweet outside and inside. *sigh* Weirdly enough... the boys didn't think it was too sweet at all, and Hadi complained he can't even taste the honey. (!!!) And trust me, Justin used a lot of honey, hahaha.

I suppose the problem here is our tastebuds...? Stuff I cook usually turn out a touch too salty for the boys, while on the other hand, I'm extremely sensitive to sweetness in chicken. Not chocolate though, for some reason. There was this one cake that I complained wasn't sweet enough, but the boys looked at me as though I was crazy, because they found it plenty sweet. Even Hadi. And let me tell you, for Hadi to be satisfied with the sweetness level of a dish... is very rare event. He's always urging me to "Taruh lagi! Balum manis tu! (Add more! It's not sweet enough!)"

But... I am getting off-topic here. :P What I really meant to say was that chicken would have benefited a LOT if Justin had added just a little pinch of salt. Hadi (and Syukri, for that matter) are always aghast when I add a pinch of salt to something that's supposed to be sweet... but salt helps sharpen the flavour somewhat. Prevents it from being sickeningly sweet. But yeah, there's no salt at all here, which was a pity. We tried sprinkling a little over the cooked chicken, and sure enough, it tasted much better.

Especially since crispy chicken is best left salty, don't you think? :)

Quote of the day: The best thing to do with garlic of course, is to eat it.

Braised Honey and Lemon Chicken

Phew, it has been an inactive few days, hasn't it? Hadi has been cooking rather boring dishes, so there was nothing to write about. See, the thing about Hadi is that he would take a completely normal recipe, and try to give it an odd twist. Like before this, he made ayam kicap with curry leaves. It was an interesting taste, but... nothing worth writing about really. :P So when he announced that he was going to make yet another chicken curry, I hinted (very strongly) that maybe it was time for some experimentation, haha. Sigh... I really shouldn't have done that. You'll see why in a minute, haha. Here we go!

What you need:
3 chicken drumsticks

1 lemon
2 dried chillies
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons chicken stock granules
1 tablespoon garlic granules
Paprika

Oil, for frying

What you do:

1. Heat up some oil in a wok. Add the chicken pieces and fry until golden brown all over. Set aside.
2. Cut the lemon in half and squeeze the juice into a bowl. Grate the rind into the same bowl, and add the honey, chicken stock and garlic.
3. To the wok, add in sliced dried chillies and fry for about a minute or so. Add in the chicken, then the lemon mixture. Add in hot water.
   
4. Leave to simmer for about half and hour, or until cooked through.

Remember when I said Hadi likes to put odd twists? All the while he was cooking this, he tried thinking of stuff that would go with it. Onions, shallots, curry leaves, turmeric ... all were put through the list and discarded. In the end he put in paprika. For no reason other than to "add colour". Hey, what can I say? This was the guy who tried to make red rice, ahahahaha. :P Thankfully, he hasn't thought up of a way to make blue rice yet... but if he can, I bet you he will make it, ahahaha.

Anyway, being honey lemon chicken, you would think that this is going to be sweet right? Well, it was sweet... but unfortunately, it was extremely salty as well. Hadi was a bit too overenthusiastic with the chicken stock, hahaha. Justin couldn't even take it (he's sensitive that way :P), and for once, didn't eat the chicken with the sauce.

Now, I do admit that the salty-honey-lemon taste was a bit too ... weird, my main problem was actually the *bitterness* of the chicken. :o I've made lemon chicken before, and that also uses lemon rind. But see, I knew more than Hadi. I didn't actually put in the white part (pith, was it?) of the lemon skin into the chicken. But nooooooo! Hadi just happily grated the *WHOLE LEMON* into the sauce. There was no trace of it left except for his sticky fingers. Have you tried eating the pith of lemons and oranges?? >.< They are extremely bitter, and this bitterness just permeated through the whole sauce.

Weirdly enough, this wasn't what the boys were complaining about, as I mentioned earlier. But I'm quite sensitive to bitter things, I guess. I can't take limau kapas (erm, I don't know the English-ified name?) at all, because I find it too bitter. No matter how sweet people say it is, I just find it too bitter. So this really wasn't a good dinner for me. Nor was it a good one for Justin, who has low salt tolerance.

So in the end, only Hadi ate the sauce, while me and Justin stuck with our chicken only. (I hadto mask the bitterness with tomato sauce, gah). In fact, he was all lik, "I can't believe you guys don't like this! I like it!" Probably because Hadi likes lemons. And don't forget the honey. :P Sweet = good, no matter what, in Hadi's case, ahahaha.

Quote of the day: It is probable that the lemon is the most valuable of all fruit for preserving health.

GRRR Chicken

This is one recipe from Aunidayini's blog that I've been meaning to make for some time. (Unfortunately, her blog is private-ised now, but you can always get this recipe from this blog ;)) The name apparently comes from GRRR-reat chicken, shortened to GRRR chicken by her daughters. Ahahahaha, how cute. :P Its rather unusual in the fact that it uses salad dressing to flavour the chicken. I also modified it very slightly to make it simpler to cook, ahahaha. Not that it was complicated to begin with, but hey... :P Anyway, here we go!

What you need:
3 boneless chicken drumsticks, cut into strips
Salt, white pepper and black pepper, for seasoning
Flour, for coating
Oil, for frying
Thousand island salad dressing

What you do:

1. Season the chicken pieces with salt and plenty of white pepper ans set aside for 5-10 minutes.
2. Place the flour in a big bowl and season with lots and lots of white pepper. I literally just poured it in there, ahahaha. Shaking the bowl slightly, drop chicken pieces in one at time, ensuring that each piece is coated with flour before adding the next one. (This is an easier, though slower, way of coating chicken strips with flour, in my opinion anyway).
3. In a large frying pan, heat up about a tablespoon of oil and add the chicken pieces and fry until browned and cooked through. If you are hardworking enough, I suggest you shallow fry it, or, even better, deep fry it!)
4. Once cooked, add in enough of the thousand island sauce to your liking. Stir to coat the chicken pieces, leave for about 2-3 minutes, and then serve.

On a side note, Hadi broke some eggs on the way home, so I used those to make scrambled eggs - fried up some shallots, added the eggs (seasoned with parsley, chilli flakes, salt and white pepper, as well as a bit of milk), scrambled them then added some cheese. Yum! :D That's the pile of yellow stuff in the background, hehe.

The original recipe used chicken wings, which were first deep-fried, covered in the sauce, and then baked. I have nothing against baking, but I find deep-frying too troublesome, as well as using too much oil. So I decided to use chicken strips instead, which cook faster, and decided to just pan fry them. This doesn't cook them as evenly, hence the dark patches, nor does it make it as crispy. But, it makes for a really quick easy dinner, and with our days now busy with exam preparations, its really convenient.

....
*cough*

Okay, I lie. I just didn't want to use so much oil. :P We're running out, and we're trying to stretch the bottle until the end of our tenancy. Hahaha. So there you go.

Anyway, back to the chicken. :P The boys are really big fans of salads and salad dressings, so when they smelled the thousand island sauce, they were going "Oooooo, smells good!" Ahahaha. So easy to please. :P On the other hand, I don't eat salads or their dressings... so I was unsure on whether I would like this...

But, it looks like I do! :D :D :D It was really good! I liked it with less sauce though, just enough to give some flavour to the chicken. Otherwise, the taste of the mayonnaise was too strong. The other two, on the other hand, added MORE sauce to the chicken. Hahaha. Can't please everyone, I guess. :P But yeah, it was really nice! It would've been yummier if it was crispier though, so I might try that frying then baking thing later on.

And in case anyone was wondering, this was what Hadi cooked up for dinner last night.

Its just curry chicken, from a packet. The only major difference is that he added in potatoes, a tomato, some dried chillies and coriander. I was rather looking forward to it, actually, since we haven't had curry in awhile, but I really don't like the taste of coriander. *sigh* The boys liked it though.

Quote of the day: A Texas woman, Waynetta Nolan, was sentenced to 10 years in jail for running over the manager of a McDonald's with her car because she wanted mayonnaise on her cheeseburger.

Hahahahaha. PMS much? :P

Beef and Tomato Pilaff

A pilaff is apparently a Middle-Eastern dish where the rice is cooked in a seasoned liquid (as opposed to normal water). The original recipe for this was actually for lamb mince, but it mentioned that it can be substituted with beef, or even with vegetables if you want to make it vegetarian. :) I modified the recipe *very* slightly to incorporate the rice cooker, but this didn't turn out so well, as you'll see later. For now, here we go.

What you need:
1 onion, chopped
3 shallots, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
300g minced beef
500g long grain rice (3 cups)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I used a thumb length stick)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 litre chicken stock
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
400g can chopped tomatoes
Handful of fresh parsley, chopped

What you do:

1. Fry the onions and shallots in the oil for about 5 minutes, until they are lightly browned. Stir in the beef and fry for 10 minutes, until browned. Tip in the rice and stir until all the grains are glistening.
2. Stir in the cinnamon and oregano into the rice and pour in the stock, Worcestershire sauce and tomatoes. Season and stir well.
   
3. Transfer to rice cooker and leave to cook until rice is done. (Alternatively, cover the pan and simmer for about 15 minutes until the rice is tender and stock absorbed). Just before serving, stir in the parsley.
   

A relatively simple dish, is it not? :) Again, the main reason I wanted to make this was because of the nice splashes of green from the parsley. Unfortunately, I thought I read coriander and before I could correct my mistake, Justin had already gone out to buy it. So coriander it is. :P We also didn't have ground cinnamon, so I made do with a stick of cinnamon (the only one we had) instead. Both me and Hadi found the coriander much too strong, but Justin claimed that it went really well with the rice. So up to you. :P I thought the flavour was okay, only it overpowered the tomatoes somewhat. Speaking of tomatoes, Hadi, as usual, found it "not tomato-ey enough", so you might want consider adding more tomatoes.

Also, the original recipe had 200g rice with 425 mL stock, but that's not going to be enough at all. Unfortunately, I forgot to measure how much water exactly is needed for 3 cups of rice, so I calculated the amount of stock needed by upscaling the recipe. Which was a bad idea. This brings me to the whole thing about the rice cooker. So you see, I poured in the whole mixture into the rice cooker (ours is a 5 litre one, I believe) and it just barely fit into the pot. Can't be good, but I decided to continue on anyway. Because I didn't have a cover for that frying pan... :P

When the rice cooker went off, signalling it was done.... the whole thing was still bubbling away merrily. Lots and lots of liquid left. *sigh* So there's nothing left for it but to pour it back to the pan and use the stove instead. I simmered it on low heat until most of the water was more or less gone... But the rice turned out really mushy. Not quite porridge, but very very soft and squishy. A texture I am not too fond of...

Because it was so mushy, it was really solid as well. Makes you full fast, compared to firmer rice. :) So maybe that's a good thing? Hahaha. I couldn't manage more than a bowlful, since I really prefer firm rice (plus, the coriander wasn't helping...). Justin initially complained that there wasn't going to be enough but he changed his mind after a few bites. Hadi, on the other hand, called dibs on any leftovers for breakfast, hahahaha. :D In the end, there *were* leftovers (*gasp* for once!) but only because Justin left some for Hadi's breakfast. :P

This was a rather similar style of cooking to the Baked Cheddar and Tomato Rice (or is it only because they both have chopped tomatoes in them? :P ), only that one was baked, of course. I liked the flavours of that one better. (Mmmmmmmm, cheese!) Also, I measured the water needed for that one, so it didn't turn out as mushy. But, although this wasn't my favorite-est dinner ever, the boys quite liked it (porridge-like consistency and all), so its a matter of taste, I guess. ;) I'm positive that this can turn out much better. I just need to pay more attention, that's all. ;)

If I had to redo this, I would... measure the water carefully. Also, I wouldn't use coriander, haha. But for now, we have a big bunch of fresh coriander that is rapidly wilting, and I have no idea what to use it for. Haiz... :P

Quote of the day: On cooking - If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.

Garlic Fried Rice

Garlic fried rice is something that I just *love* to eat whenever we go Excapades or Kaizen Sushi. (Kaizen Sushi's rice is better, in my opinion. :P ) I've been trying to duplicate it, but couldn't get the garlicky flavour in the rice all that well. And when I did, something always seems to be missing. Recently, it hit me... it must be butter! So here is my latest attempt! ;)

What you need:
2 cups cooked rice
Salt (and chicken stock granules), to taste
2-3 tablespoons butter
2-3 cloves garlic, diced (or 1 tablespoon garlic granules)
3 shallots, sliced finely
Soy sauce
Ground black pepper
2 eggs, beaten and seasoned with salt and white pepper
Parsley, for garnishing

What you do:

1. Season the rice to taste with the salt and chicken stock, and set aside.
2. Melt butter over medium heat. Add garlic and fry quickly, but do not allow to brown. Set aside.
3. Add a little more butter to the wok, and add in the shallots (and salami/chicken/etc, if using). Fry until softened and translucent.
4. Add in the seasoned rice and stir to mix well.
5. Add in the garlic butter and stir until the rice is completely coated.
   
6. Sprinkle with soy sauce (to taste) and stir to mix well.
7. Make a well in the center of the rice, and add in the eggs. Wait until they have set, then break into small pieces and stir into the rice to mix well.
8. Taste and adjust seasoning, sprinkle with parsley and serve. (It's also nice if the bottom of the rice has some crunchy bits. Adds to the flavour, hehe).

Wah! Butter *was* the missing ingredient! This time round, the rice was nicely flavoured with a hint of garlic!!! Yummy yummy yum yum! *drool* We didn't have spring onions anymore, but I think spring onions would go very well with this. Plus, it would add more green into it, hehe. I only added in the parsley because I wanted some colour in the rice. ;)

Although I really liked this, Hadi said he prefered Nasi Goreng Cheese. :P So he added some cheese into his bowl and ate it like that, hehe. But for me, just the garlic fried rice itself was good enough. I love having this with teriyaki chicken, but my version of teriyaki chicken is still too strong, I think. :(

So that ups my repertoire of nasi gorengs to a grand total of four now! hohohoho. (One is unblogged, because its much too simple, ahahahaha)

Quote of the day: As for butter versus margarine, I trust cows more than chemists.

Chocolate Chicken

Nope, you didn't read that wrongly. That's right. For tonight's dinner, Hadi served up CHOCOLATE chicken. Literally. Its not just chocolate-coloured chicken, but CHOCOLATE chicken. Yes. CHOCOLATE with chicken. No, you're not the only one thinking that.

Now, chocolate with chilli is a fairly common combination. It is something I want to try, as the chilli is supposed to give a nice kick to the chocolate. Mexicans use that combination often as well, apparently. In fact, this is where Hadi's dish today hails from. So yes, he did follow a proper recipe and yes, it IS a proper dish. But will our tastebuds be able to handle CHOCOLATE with chicken? Let's find out, shall we? Here we go~!

What you need:
3 chicken thighs
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
3 tomatoes, chopped
2 medium onions, chopped
1 tablespoon sugar
480mL chicken stock
50g unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves (he used whole)
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon anise seed (he used STAR anise, THREE of them -_-;;)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons crushed chilli flakes
1/8 teaspoon Cayenne pepper (he used paprika, since we were out)

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C. Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a large frying pan, add the chicken and brown on all sides.
2. Remove the chicken to a baking dish and set aside. Add the onions to the pan and fry until softened, the stir in the tomatoes and sugar, and cook gently for 5 minutes.
3. Add the stock to the frying pan, bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, add the cocoa to 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil and mix to form a paste. Add cloves, cinnamon, anise seed, salt, pepper, chili and cayenne and blend well.
5. Stir the spice mixture into the simmering sauce mixture, mix well and simmer for a further 5 minutes, stirring from time to time.
6. Pour the sauce mixture over the chicken, cover and bake for 1-1/2 hours until the chicken is very tender. Serve hot.

We actually have been expecting this dish, since Hadi announced he was going to make it quite awhile ago. Initially, this smelled great while Hadi was cooking it. Frying chicken... onions... always smells yummy, if a bit greasy. So I went to the kitchen to have a peep at what was up for dinner. Everything looked good and tasty so far.... until I saw this innocent-looking brown paste in a bowl. It looked like cocoa powder - and SMELLED - like chocolate! Surprise surprise~ NOT! But the real horror was to come when he mixed it into the sauce (step 5). The simmering sauce suddenly turned into what looked like melted chocolate. It looked like chocolate, it smelled like chocolate. If he was making cookies or brownies, it would be a fantastic smell. But this ... CHOCOLATE sauce was to go with our chicken??? *shudders*

The whole time it was cooking in the oven, it smelled agonizingly like chocolate chip cookies. Yet, underneath the chocolatey smell was a roast chicken smell. Separately, these are two of my favorite smells. But to put them together.... well, needless to say, it was a rather odd combination. But the real test was to come when the chicken was cooked. Yep, time to eat it. ;) Sorry for the rather blurry photo, but you can see that it really has a chocolatey colour. Gulp!

At first, no one wanted to have a bite. I was "trying" to get more sauce on the chicken, Justin was "serving" the rice while Hadi "wasn't really all that hungry anyway". There's just something about the idea of chocolate flavoured chicken that makes one lose their appetite, I have to admit. But we eventually steeled ourselves up. Hadi was first, closely followed by me. (Justin - the big baby! - didn't eat it until we gave our opinions :P)

To my surprise, it really wasn't all that bad. It was a bit strange tasting, and slightly bitter (from the star anise, a mistake on Hadi's part!) but it tasted nothing like chocolate. Apart from that though, the chicken was more than edible. Though no one dared touch the chocolate sauce after an initial tasting, hahaha. :D

Justin said that the star anise flavour was very strong, which might have drowned out the chocolate flavour. He also complained about the amount of washing involved with this dish (boy, he is just full of complaints today, hahaha). I pointed out that they managed to eat Hadi's Chicken of Death plus his Chicken Cake as well. He countered by saying that with those two dishes, there was at least the slim hope that the dish might be good. Hahaha. Excuses. I personally think that this was slightly better that the Chicken Cake. Only slightly, mind you. :P But there's a bit of psychological bias for this dish, I think. Our minds just can't accept that chocolate will go with chicken. So we refuse to think that it tastes good. Or so my theory goes... :P The boys don't accept it, meh.

So now, the three least edible dinners all go to Hadi, ahahaha. Let's just hope the poor boy doesn't get depressed from this dubious honour.

(And to those of you who are worried, no, he is not. :P I asked him multiple times, hahaha)

Quote of the day: Gourmet /n./ Anyone whom, when you fail to finish something strange or revolting, remarks that it's an acquired taste and that you're leaving the best part.

Savoury Omelette

This is yet another last-minute dinner. I was actually planning to make something else, but lacked a couple of the ingredients. (Bad planning, yes. :P) This was actually finalised while I was cutting the chicken up, but is based on a recipe in one of my books, I think. Here we go!

What you need:
3 skinless, boneless chicken drumsticks, chopped into small chunks
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
1 onion, sliced
2 shallots, sliced
2 dried chillies, chopped
1 tablespoon garlic granules ( or 1 clove fresh garlic, minced)
3 eggs, beaten well and seasoned with salt and pepper.
4 spring onions, chopped finely
1 teaspoon chilli flakes (optional, and to taste)
Salt, white pepper and chicken stock, for seasoning

What you do:

1. Season the chicken lightly with salt and pepper, and set aside.
2. In a small-ish frying pan, melt the butter with a teaspoon of vegetable oil over medium heat. When hot, add in the onion, shallots and dried chillies. Fry until the onions and shallots are soft and slightly translucent.
3. Add in the chicken and garlic. Fry until chicken is cooked through. Taste and adjust seasoning.
   
4. Switch to low heat, spread the mixture in an even layer and pour in the eggs, forming an omelette. Cover the pan (with a heat-proof plate, if you don't have a cover for the frying pan, which I don't :P) and leave to cook undisturbed for about 5 minutes,
5. When the top is almost set (but not quite, it must still look a bit creamy), sprinkle over the chopped spring onions and chilli flakes, if using. Replace cover and leave to cook until the top of the egg is completely cooked. Serve immediately.

Awwwwwwwwww, do pretty isn't it? I do think that a colourful dish feels nicer to eat, but since I don't really eat veggies all that often (ahem), our foods tend to be just mono-coloured. But thanks to the spring onions and chillies, the omelette has nice splashes of red and green! Yum! ;)

This is actually a bit tricky to cook properly. By covering the pan, you trap the heat inside and in that way, the top of the egg is cooked without having to flip the whole thing over. But you can't have the heat too high, otherwise the bottom will burn before the top is cooked. I'm not sure about too low a heat, but maybe it won't get hot enough in that case, or something? :P Who knows, hehe.

Anyway, for a last minute dish, this really wasn't too bad. The bottom of my omelette was burnt (very slightly), because I didn't put the heat low enough in the beginning, I think. But it was quite yummy. :) Plus, we can stretch our chicken a little, ahahaha. Justin was complaining that the drumsticks were tiny, and when I told him I was just going to use 2 eggs, he insisted I put in 3. Hahaha, some people... so particular :P I really liked the spring onions, which gave a slight sweetness to the whole thing. I didn't really eat the chopped dried chillies, but I recommend sprinkling over the chilli flakes, maybe even mixing in some with the egg. They give it a nice kick. :)

I do think this dish is very flexible. All you need are eggs and your favorite ingredients, or maybe even leftovers? Feel free to add in beef, lamb, veggies, etc etc etc. Just pour the eggs over the whole thing. In fact, if you were making this for one (as students are prone to do), you could even mix in the rice (or noodles) together with the meat and vegetables, before pouring over the eggs. That way, you'll make a sort of... omelette-type nasi goreng, ahahaha. Sounds nice! Ooooo, I bet this will be even better with cheese... *drool*

Quote of the day: When I go to a restaurant, I always ask for a chicken and an egg, to see which comes first.

Cheesy Bread with Spring Onions

Wai! This blog just got chosen to be Simpur's Blogging Nation Featured Blog of the Week (man, that is a mouthful!). That is such an honour! As Bulimic says, more power to the foodies~! Uh-huh! ;)

I took a screenshot to forever preserve Food for Thought as a featured blog, hehe. Awwwwwz! :D


Anyway, on with the food, yeah?

In one of the bread competitions in Yakitate Japan!!, spring onions was the featured ingredient. Granted, it was a special spring onion from one of the regions of Japan (apparently), but the bread they came up with was so pretty. It had little specks of green in it, and looked super appetizing! Now, I've been looking for a bread recipe that has spring onions in it, but haven't been successful so far. The I came across this recipe for Cheesy Bread...


Technically, its not a bread, since it uses self-raising flour instead of yeast as a raising agent. The recipe also used chives instead of spring onions, but I decided to just substitute it in. According to Yakitate, its a bit hard to use easily crushed ingredients like spring onions in bread, because the dough had to be kneaded, but this one required no kneading (because of the lack of yeast) so I thought it would work out just fine... So here we go! :)

What you need:
2 tablespoons butter, melted, plus extra for greasing
225g self-raising flour (I used 225g plain flour with 4 level teaspoons of baking powder)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon mustard powder
100g mature cheddar cheese, grated
2 spring onions, chopped finely
1 egg, beaten
150mL milk

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 190 C. Grease a 9-inch square (I used 8-inch square) cake tin with a little butter and line the base with baking paper.
2. Sift the flour, salt and mustard powder into a large bowl. Reserve 3 tablespoons of the grated matured cheddar cheese for sprinkling, then stir the remaining grated cheese into the bowl, together with the chopped spring onions.
3. Add the beaten egg, melted butter and milk to the dry ingredients and stir thoroughly to combine.
4. Pour the mixture into the tin and spread with a knife. Sprinkle over the reerved grated cheese.
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until risen and golden.
6. Leave the bread to cool slightly in the tin. Turn out to a wire rack to cool completely. Cut into triangles to serve (hot or cold. Hot is yummy! :D)

These are rather similar to the Cheese Scones, only it is much much simpler to make. Which makes it an ideal dish for breakfast - though not if you're rushing to go to school or work, of course. I'm sure these keep quite well though, so you can make some in advance and heat it up the next day for breakfast. :)

It smelled really good while it was baking (I just LOVE cheese), and was baked to golden perfection in about half an hour. I let it cool slightly, before cutting out practically a quarter of the whole thing for my breakfast. ;)

Hmmmmm... It tasted super yummy! The spring onions went really well with the cheese, and were slightly sweet, which was a nice touch. The bread itself was a tad too salty, so I would suggest reducing the salt (or reducing the cheese, if you like. But *gasp*! More cheese = better! ;) ) The texture was nice and fluffy, though more like cake instead of bread. Still good though. :D I think these would go really well with white pepper and tomato. I might make another version next time, and spread some pasta sauce on top before sprinkling on the cheese. It'll be like a slightly different version of pizza, maybe. Can't wait!

Yummy yummy yummy! Food in my tummy! ;)

Quote of the day: Never work before breakfast; if you have to work before breakfast, eat your breakfast first.

Crispy Garlic Chicken

We used to buy garlic granules from Saisbury's, but we found out that the Chinese supermarket sold a KILO of it for two pounds. That is super cheap. So we decided to buy that instead. That is the main reason we use garlic granules instead of fresh garlic in our cooking. Its much more convenient, and we have a LOT. After all this time, we still have... oh, maybe 800g left? So Justin decided that it might be nice to cover chicken in the garlic, before roasting it... Wonder how that will turn out. Here we go!

What you need:
3 chicken thighs
Seasoned flour, for coating (seasoned with salt, chicken stock, pepper... anything you like really)
A LOT of dried garlic granules
Sesame seeds, for sprinkling

What you do:

1. Mix the flour with the garlic granules. Season the chicken lightly with salt and pepper, then coat with the garlic flour. Place in a shallow baking dish.
   
2. Bake for 40 minutes in an oven preheated to 180 C, sprinkling on the sesame seeds on the last 10 minutes of baking. Serve immediately.

We haven't had this type of crispy chicken in awhile. So I really really enjoyed it. It was crispy, with a faint hint of garlic. Yums! I love garlic, though not too much. I have yet to create the perfect garlic fried rice like in all the Japanese restaurants in Brunei. *drool*

Anyway, back to the chicken... Although the chicken was yummy, what was really good was the chicken juices at the bottom of the dish. The garlic there was really strong, combined with the yummy chicken flavour. *drool* So good!

Funnily enough, the parts where the flour is soggy or where there is too much flour was slightly bitter, and I'm not sure why. But no big deal, really. Still very much edible, hehe. Now, I wonder if this will go well if fried...

And, um, that's all really. Notice how little I have to say if the recipe is very simple? Ahahahaha. :)

Quote of the day: The first time you see something that you have never seen before, you almost always know right away if you should eat it or run away from it.

Chewy Gooey Chocolate Brownies

Phew! My first baking thing in more than a month! Long overdue, hehe. Anyway... This is my absolute favorite brownie recipe. :D I first made it in my first year here, and have kept it as my main brownie recipe since then.

Brownies usually come in several types, yeah? There's cakey, which I'm not a fan of. And there's also fudgey, which is sort of like the melt-in-your-mouth chocolate cake, I'm guessing, only not so soft. This one falls sort of in between - not too soft, but too too fluffy either. Just perfect. :) Once, I don't know what happened, but it was sort of like a cross between a cookie and a cake. So good! I think I overbaked them a little, but am not too sure... Hmmm... Oh well, let's see how this batch turned out, shall we? Here we go!

What you need:
500g semisweet chocolate, broken into pieces
250g unsalted butter, diced
3 tablespoons fresh strong coffee
3/4 cup soft brown sugar
3 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

What you do:

1. Preheat oven to 190 C. Using 25g of the butter, grease a 8x11 inch baking pan, line with baking paper (leave to hang out on two sides, so you can lift the brownie out easily later), and grease again.
2. Melt chocolate and remaining butter in a heatproof bowl.
3. While coffee is hot, add sugar to it, making sure it dissolves. When cool, beat in the eggs.
4. Combine the remaining ingredients in a bowl. Add the melted to the egg mixture and combine well. Fold into the dry ingredients.
5. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until just firm to touch. Leave to cool slightly, carefully lift out of the pan and leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
   

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm. So good! This brownie is nice and chocolatey. With HALF A KILO of chocolate in there, it better be! I used to use milk chocolate, which is fine, but I suggest you reduce the sugar if you do. This time, I used dark chocolate (over 70% cocoa solids). Wah! Sooooo good! It was even more chocolatey! Yum!

Hadi complained that it was not sweet enough, and slightly bitter. But that's just him, I think. The bitterness is from the coffee and the chocolate, but wasn't a big problem. It wasn't a problem at all, for me! I think the coffee complements the chocolate perfectly. Ahahaha. But small children might not like is as much, I'm not sure. (Oh noes, I have old people taste now???)

Funnily enough, I had some problems with it this time round. This recipe ... is very simple. Just like the melt-in-your-mouth chocolate cake, all it needs are a few big bowls and a baking pan. But... for some reason... something went wrong... (maybe my eggs are not fresh enough...? But that can't be...)

Anyway, this brownie is usually firm (and a little bit chewy) with a nice crunchy crust. But, when I took it out of the oven, the crust... wasn't so crunchy. That was strange. What was even weirder, though, was that the texture was very... crumbly. Once it had cooled, I cut out a slice and... it felt apart in my hands. So I was left with a very messy pile of crumbs. Very very weird...

Hoping that a night in the cold will firm up the texture, I just stuck half in the fridge and half in the freezer (just to see if there's a difference, ahahaha). And ta-dah! When I checked it again today (I made it yesterday), the brownie is much much firmer. And much tastier as well! Since I don't really like cakey brownies. :P The chocolate flavour was much deeper. Yay~ Look at that. Pretty???


Oh, and as for the fridge and freezer thing... the one in the freezer turned out too hard, and I couldn't cut it properly. :P So I just thawed it in the fridge and left it there. Yum! Looks like we'll be having lots of chocolate these next few days. CHocolate's good for exams, right? ;)

Quote of the day: A little too much chocolate is just about right.

Beef Stew with Noodles

Wow, we seem to be using beef quite often these days, don't we? ;) I bet the boys are enjoying it, haha. They always always come in the house saying "Wow, something smells nice!" now. Is that a hint, I wonder? Hahaha.

Anyway, I think Justin actually wanted to make something else tonight (although it was still with beef). But we ran out of rice and he didn't want to go to the Chinese supermarket today (its his turn for buying rice), so in the end, he just told Hadi to get some noodles from Somerfield instead. The noodles were a slight surprise. We usually use Sharwood's egg noodles, but Hadi said those weren't available, so he bought Amoy's Straight-to-wok noodles instead. Which is still fine. But one pack (with two packets of noodles the size of Indomie) was supposed to serve 2-3 people. So Hadi only bought two packs. Which turned out to be not enough, haha. Guess we eat a lot here. They were expensive though! TWO pounds for those two packets! Haiz. But anyway, enough griping. Here we go!

What you need:
300g lean beef, cut into strips
5 shallots, sliced
2 teaspoons garlic granules, or 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 beef stock cube
1 teaspoon chilli sauce of your choice (we used this Jamaican thing...)
1 teaspoon black pepper sauce
1 teaspoon arrowroot or cornflour
Water, to taste (I think we used about three cups)
White and black pepper, for seasoning
Oil, for frying

Noodles, enough for three (or however many people you want. All our meals serve four - two normal people and one Justin. Sometimes even five, if Hadi's been to the gym. :P yes, I shall stop blabbing now...)

What you do:

1. Heat some oil in a large saucepan, and add the shallots. Fry until softened and translucent, then add the garlic. Stirfry for about a minute, or until fragrant.
2. Add the beef, and fry until cooked to your liking. Season well with pepper.
   
3. Add the oyster sauce, mashed up stocked cube, chilli sauce and black pepper sauce. Mix well.
4. Add the water with arrowroot or cornflour dissolved. Stir well to mix. Simmer for about 5 minutes.
5. Add noodles (cooked according to packet, if they're the dried type) and simmer for about a minute. Serve immediately.

Hahaha. Justin's getting to be a fan of the arrowroot. I actually bought it a couple of months ago for this dessert (which I still haven't managed to make it!) but he's been using the past few dishes because he likes that it thickens the soup into a clear sauce, unlike cornflour.

Anyway, back to the dish. I actually am glad that Hadi didn't find the egg noodles. I don't really like those all that much. Too egg-y. But these noodles were nice! They were soft and absorbed the sauce really well, and almost reminded me of udon, though they are slightly different.

The dish itseld tasted really familiar as well, though I can't quite place it. Must be the beef stock, I guess. Maybe its quite close to soto (*drool* haven't had that in awhile... I want...), but I can't be sure... But it was a typically Asian dish, defnitely. Which I like. :) Even though it was beef, though the boys aren't complaining, of course.

The black pepper taste in this was really strong, even though Justin only added one teaspoon of the black pepper sauce. The chilli sauce also gave a nice 'oomph!' to the dish, and deepened the flavour slightly. But the boys both complained that the flavour was lacking something. It tasted salty, yes, but didn't have any depth to the flavour and just tasted empty. Or so they said. I didn't actually notice, haha. I liked the noodles a lot. I think I gave the boys most of my meat. :P Oh well, no big loss.

I actually suggested that Justin added some sugar, but he was a bit wary of that, haha. Rightly so. I mean sugar can lend something to the flavour of a dish, but I'm not sure if it would go well here. But one thing I bet would've gone well is some mashed up onion/shallots. It would just dissolve in the soup and flavour it really really well. Like my 10-minute ayam kicap. :D I love the shallots in that, hehe.

But all in all, it wasn't too bad a dish, really. :)

Quote of the day: I'll bet what motivated the British to colonize so much of the world is that they were just looking for a decent meal.

Original Roast Chicken, Herby Version

The original roast chicken is just chicken seasoned with salt and pepper, before being baked. In this version, Hadi gets a little (very very little) creative and adds a few extra ingredients. Here we go. :)

What you need:
3 chicken thighs
Salt
Ground black pepper
Dried mixed herbs
Sprinkling of turmeric
Olive oil, for drizzling

What you do:

1. Marinate the chicken with the rest of the ingredients overnight. Be sure to rub some under the skin as well.
2. Place the chicken in a shallow baking dish, drizzle more olive oil over it and bake in a preheated 180 C oven for 40-45 minutes, or until cooked through.

Yeah, typical Hadi roast. Nothing complicated here, hehe. One good thing about this though, was that he marinated it straight in the baking dish. So there was very little to wash. That is never a bad thing. :P

Our chicken pieces tonight... were small, very small. Justin was disappointed, needless to say. But it seems like Hadi did something right. The chicken was quite flavoursome, and the juices at the bottom of the pan even more so. Justin even managed to finish his rice, which is no mean feat, since he usually has trouble if there is very little chicken or gravy.

So yeah, that's it for tonight!

Quote of the day: Whenever I feel like exercise, I lie down until the feeling passes.

Stir-Fried Beef with Oyster Sauce

The weather sure has gotten a lot warmer over the past week. Our doors and windows are constantly open, giving the house a much needed breath of fresh air. :) The days have also gotten longer, which have prompted me to try and take photos in natural daylight, as opposed to under a very bright lamp, which I've been doing for the past 6 months. Unfortunately, at the time of our dinner, the light isn't quite bright enough, which have made the photos *slightly* blurry. But still see-able. :D

And I have to admit, I never thought I'd find beef looking so yummy, hehe. Hadi and Justin are wondering at my choice of beef for tonight's dinner, but I thought I might as well. :P Plus I had a pack of noodles which I've been trying to use, but failing to find a recipe for them, hehe. So here we go!

What you need:
300g lean beef, cut into thin strips
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 teaspoons cornflour
3 tablespoons sunflower oil
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 spring onions, finely chopped

What you do:

1. Place the beef into a bowl and add the soy sauce, sesame oil and cornflour. Mix and leave to marinate for 5-10 minutes.
2. Heat a wok until very hot, then add the sunflower oil. Add the beef, and stir-fry for 5 minutes. Remove the meat from the pan and drain well in a colander placed into a bowl. Discard the drained oil.
3. Wipe the pan clean with kitchen paper and reheat over high heat. Add the oyster sauce and bring it to a simmer. Return the drained beef to the pan and toss in the sauce. Sprinkle over the spring onions.
4. Serve with rice or noodles. (We used Yeo's EZY-cook noodles, which are very similar to Indomie or Maggi noodles.)
   

One thing about this dish, it is *fast*. Once you have prepared everything, sliced the beef, etc, the whole cooking took less than 10 minutes. The noodles didn't take very long to cook as well, the usual 2-3 minutes you would expect from Indomie/Maggi. Rice would take longer to cook, but you can start the rice cooker before you prepare the beef, and it would be done by the time the beef is cooked. So yes, a very fast easy dish. Half an hour, max - 20 minutes for the preparation, plus another 10 minutes for cooking.

I thought that there wouldn't be enough meat to go with the noodles, but I needn't have worried about that. The beef on its own was *very* salty and flavoursome, thanks to the oyster sauce. So you can dilute it with a lot of noodles (or rice, if that's what you're using). Weirdly enough though, I didn't really taste the "beef" flavour all that strongly. It must've been drowned out by the oyster sauce. :P

In spite of that (or maybe because of that :P) this dish was very yummy. I liked it, Hadi liked it, Justin liked it, we all liked it, haha. The noodles were a bit too soggy, the beef a bit too mushy for some pieces (according to Justin... not sure what he was talking about, to be honest). But all in all, it was a satisfying meal. Although I would've preferred rice. And chicken, of course. Always chicken. ;)

Quote of the day: I'm on a seafood diet. When I see food, I eat it.

Chicken in Black Pepper Sauce

When Justin came back from the Chinese supermarket last time, he was all beaming from his latest find - a jar of black pepper sauce. Apparently, its very good with beef - makes it taste even more beefy-er, according to Justin. But of course, all we have here is chicken, so chicken it is. :P Here we go!

What you need:
6 smallish chicken drumsticks, boneless and skinless, cut into bite-sized chunks

Flour seasoned with salt and pepper, for coating
Oil, for frying
Ready-made black pepper sauce (we used Lee Kum Kee), diluted to taste with water
1 teaspoon cornflour, or arrowroot

What you do:

1. Coat the chicken pieces in flour, and fry in hot oil until golden brown and crispy.
2. Meanwhile, simmer the diluted black pepper sauce with the arrowroot/cornflour until thickened.
3. Add the chicken into the sauce, stir quickly to mix and serve immediately.

I'm not sure whether the black pepper sauce was supposed to be diluted before using or not, but Justin claimed that it was so strong, I would not have been able to take it. Fair enough. But even diluted, it was a touch too spicy for me. I think Justin used about 3 tablespoons. Still bearable though. That must have been some strong stuff! Hehe :D

That said, it was actually quite okay. Very peppery, ahahaha. But that's never a bad thing, although I prefer white pepper to black pepper. But there isn't anything called white pepper sauce now, is there? :P So black pepper sauce will have to do. Hadi compared it to hoisin sauce, and said that they were both quite similar, but of course... he prefers hoisin sauce since its much sweeter. This one is salty instead, so its more to my taste. Although the pepper taste - not spiciness, taste - was a bit stronger than I would have liked.

But the main advantage of using a ready-made sauce, of course, is the simplicity. It took Justin very little time to cook up the whole thing, which, I suppose, was the point. :P

Quote of the day: So my sister asks me if this shirt makes her look fat, and I was like: 'no the fat underneath does'.

Chicken in Pitta Pockets

For some reason, I haven't been able to plan properly for the last few dinners. Luckily, we stopped by Sainsbury's yesterday and I was able to grab some random things, hehe. :D Top of the list was some pitta pockets (so cheap! 12 pockets for 60p) and I added in some veggies to bulk the dinner up. At first, I wanted to make Ibu's kebabs, but then decided to change it a little, haha. Here we go!

What you need:
3 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 boneless, skinless chicken drumstick

Marinade:
2 tablespoons Thai sweet chilli sauce
2 tablespoons tomato sauce
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon garlic granules (or 1 clove of garlic, crushed)
Dash of Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon chilli flakes (or to taste)
Plenty of black pepper

2 onions, roughly chopped
3 mixed peppers (I had green, yellow and red)
1/2 a cucumber (about 10 cm)

10 pitta pockets
Caesar salad dressing and salsa, to serve

What you do:

1. Chop the chicken up into 1 cm pieces. Add in the marinade ingredients, and set aside. (by the way, feel free to use your favorite seasonings)
2. Heat up some oil in a wok. Add the onions and fry until softened and slightly translucent. Add the chicken and fry on high heat until cooked through, stirring occasionally.
3. Meanwhile, chop the peppers up into 1 cm pieces, and arrange on a plate. Cut the cucumber into slices, then cut each slice into half, and add to the plate.
4. To serve, heat up the pitta pockets in an oven or grill briefly, cut in half, and allow each person to fill with chicken and vegetables. Drizzle salad dressing and salsa over the filling, if you wish.
   

I was a bit doubtful about this dinner, since I am not really a kebab person - and by using pitta bread, Justin was sure to draw comparisons, since he loves kebabs. Surprisingly though, the boys really really liked this dish. They seem to like "unconventional" dinners, as they said. This was also the case with the chicken fajitas from last time. A breath of fresh air, I believe were their words then. Unfortunately, also like the chicken fajitas, this wasn't really my taste. It was nice, yes, but... I prefer chicken goreng with rice. ;)

I also found the seasonings a bit too spicy and a touch too sweet. I was slightly overexcited with the oyster sauce and black pepper, I think. The boys, though, went crazy over it. They said it was nice on its own, but they really really really liked it with the salad dressing and salsa. Hadi ate most of his with more veggies than chicken (healthy healthy) while Justin liked a veggie version, where he didn't add chicken at all. Hahaha, is my chicken that bad? :P I hope not, and I really don't think so. The boys just liked the peppers, I think. ;)

In fact, Hadi was full before he finished half his chicken. But he still refused to give some over to us, haha. Stingy. ;)

But anyway, for yet another last minute dinner, it really wasn't too bad. In fact, Justin admitted that if he ever visited my blog in the future, it would be to get this recipe, hahahaha. Um, yay? ;)

Quote of the day: Give a man food, and he can eat for a day. Give a man a job, and he can only eat for 30 minutes on break.

The Mysterious Ayam Kicap (Soy Sauce Chicken)

Hadi decided to make an ayam kicap (soy sauce chicken) today. But it seemed like he put stuff in at random, so I'm not sure whether I can actually provide a recipe. If I'm not mistaken, the ingredients were:
sweet soy sauce, light soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, tomato ketchup, mixed spices, one sliced onion; all mixed in a good amount of water, then simmered for about half an hour or so.

As for how it tasted like... well, it tasted like ayam kicap, really. :P I found the spices a strange addition, but Hadi claims that he's had ayam kicap with them before. Justin found the gravy a bit too salty for him and had to dilute it with a lot of rice, which isn't too bad really. On the other hand, I found it quite okay. But then again, I didn't eat it with the sauce... :P

Looks like that's all for today! (Yes, why do I even bother? Haha)

Quote of the day: If it screams, it's not food... yet.

Cheesy Chicken Fillet Burgers

Again, faced with no time to think up of something to cook, I was left to try to think of a dinner right before I went to sleep the night before. And what came up was ... more cheese. I actually meant to serve the chicken with rice, but when I found a leftover pack of sandwich buns in the freezer, I thought I might as well use it. So here we go!

What you need:
6 boneless chicken pieces, with skin on - I used drumsticks
Marinade - use your favorite combination. I used tomato ketchup, a dash of light soy sauce, salt, plenty of black pepper, a sprinkling of garlic granules, a glug of Worcestershire sauce, and this bottle of Maggi seasoning thing

Grated cheddar cheese, about 6 tablespoons
1 egg, lightly beaten
Dried breadcrumbs - I used Japanese panko, but anything would be fine

What you do:

1. Combine the marinade ingredients and add the chicken. Marinate for about an hour or so.
2. When ready to use, carefully loosen the skin of the chicken, and add some of the grated cheese under it. Smooth the skin over, and set the piece aside. Repeat for the remaining pieces.
3. Heat up a wok with enough oil for deepfrying (recommended) or shallow-frying (which I did).
4. One by one, dip the chicken pieces into the egg, and then into the breadcrumbs. Press the breadcrumbs on the chicken, if necessary, and add into the hot oil. Fry until one side is golden brown, then flip to the other side. Don't crowd the pan. I managed to fit two pieces each time. Drain.
   
5. Place cooked pieces in a sliced and toasted burger/sandwich bun, and serve immediately with oven fries.

Mmmmm. If you look carefully, you can just see the cheese oozing out of the cut chicken piece on the far right. Justin thought the cheese was a nice touch, especially if you're not expecting it, but to be honest, I didn't taste it much. Not enough for me, I guess. :P

Hadi wanted to add all sorts of condiments and sauces to his burger, but one bite convinced him otherwise. He said it was nice enough on its own, hehe. So do take a sample bite before you eat yours. ;) Both Hadi and Justin really liked it, Justin going as far as to urge me to patent it. Patent?? Its just a recipe, hahaha. But it is an Ihsan original, as far as I know, so I do hope you enjoy it. ;)

I actually didn't like it all that much. The seasonings were slightly off, I think. I shouldn't have used the soy sauce, I think. There wasn't enough pepper, and maybe just a little bit of crushed chilli flakes would have been nice. Just to give it a zing. ;) I wanted to add chilli sauce, actually, but forgot about it. Oh well.

The biggest problem, though, is the oil. It was super oily. Just brush your fingers lightly against it, and they would come off glistening and shiny. Sigh. I have yet to master the art of frying chicken, I think. Probably if you deepfried it, it might be less oily. Ironically, haha. I used up a *lot* of oil with this, I shudder to think of it. But oh well, as Justin put it, we only have this kind of dinner once in awhile. Yup. Sigh. Still not feeling better. :P

Quote of the day: To eat well in England you should have breakfast three times a day.

Nasi Goreng Tomato with Cheese

The very first nasi goreng (fried rice) I ever made was just rice, with black pepper and salt. It was absolutely horrible. I never ate nasi goreng in Brunei before, and it was my first year cooking for myself, after all... But, as you might have seen, I have come quite a long way from those days. ;) So if I don't make Nasi Goreng Cheese (Cheesy Fried Rice), I usually flavour my nasi goreng with oyster sauce, chicken stock, and of course, shallots. *drool* But... we were out of oyster sauce and I didn't quite feel like having Nasi Goreng Cheese... so I decided to make this instead! Nasi Goreng Tomato with Cheese (Tomato-Fried Rice with Cheese). This was influenced partly from the baked cheddar and tomato rice dish from last time, which was really good. Of course, the other influence would have to be nasi goreng cheese. ;) Here we go!

What you need:
1 cup cold cooked rice (actually, I lie. I used 2 cups of uncooked rice to make it, and it wasn't even cold :P)
2 shallots, sliced thinly
Some kind of meat - I used chicken salami, but feel free to use chicken seasoned with more tomato, pepper, etc
Tomato sauce, to taste
2 eggs, beaten well and seasoned with salt and white pepper
Chicken stock and black pepper, for seasoning
Cheddar cheese, grated, to taste

What you do:

1. Heat up some oil in a wok. Fry the shallots until fragrant and slightly translucent. Add the chicken (salami) and fry until chicken is cooked.
2. Add the rice, stirring to mix the shallots and chicken in. Season with tomato sauce, chicken stock and plenty of black pepper. (Careful with the chicken stock - or salt, if you prefer. Cheese is salty.)
   
3. Pour half of the eggs into the rice, and stir well to combine. Leave for about 3 minutes to cook. Make a well in the center of the rice, and add the rest of the eggs. Wait until they have set, then break into small pieces and stir into the rice to mix well.
4. Lastly, sprinkle as much cheese as you like into the rice and mix well. Heat for a couple of minutes until cheese is melted. Taste and adjust seasoning, and serve immediately.
   

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm. Yummy! It was nice enough without the cheese, but with the cheese... it's just fantastic! Hadi wasn't really all that hungry when I was cooking this and offered it to Justin, but changed his mind after one bite, haha. Buruk siku. ;)

This tastes slightly different from the baked version, but being a nasi goreng recipe, its nice and simple. You can cook the rice the night before and have it for breakfast (which is what I usually do - only I keep on forgetting to cook extra rice. :P) And, unlike nasi goreng cheese, this uses tomato as part of the flavour, so it doesn't need to be so cheesy. I used just enough cheese to complement the tomato flavour, but you couldn't actually see any of the cheese or anything. I think.

I really like the chicken salami that we can get here. It's really nice in sandwiches (with cheese, of course) and it goes really well with nasi gorengs - also with cheese! ;) Hehe. Wonder if they sell something similar in Brunei?

Quote of the day: If you really want to be depressed, weigh yourself in grams.

Hahaha, this quotation is so true! When you think about how many grams you weigh.... For the not-so-methematically-inclined, that's your weight multiplied by a THOUSAND! So if you weigh 60kg, that would be 60 000 grams! o.0 Does that not sound like a lot??? And no, that's not mine. :P Haha.

Roast Teriyaki Chicken

The boys tend to make dinner on the fly, so imagine my surprise when this morning saw Justin rooting through the kitchen cupboards for ingredients for an actual recipe! This was yet another recipe for teriyaki chicken, which I've done a couple of times before (see v1 and v2). Oddly enough, this was classified as a Chinese recipe, although teriyaki is definitely a Japanese dish. Oh well, doesn't matter I guess. The ingredients were slightly different than the ones I made before, and it seems like Justin added a Chinese twist by using sesame oil. Here we go!

What you need:
3 chicken thighs (sigh, how I wish we were having the wings)
1 teaspoon roasted sesame seeds (Justin didn't roast them)
Sesame oil, for drizzling

Marinade:
1/4 cup Japanese soy sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon tomato sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cloves garlic, smashed (substituted with garlic granules)
1 tablespoon grated ginger (substituted with ginger powder)
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons honey

What you do:

1. Mix the marinade ingredients together in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, and stir until the sugar and honey dissolves. Leave to cool completely.
2. Mix the chicken with the marinade and set aside for at least 4 hours, or overnight.
3. Place chicken in a shallow baking dish, together with the marinade. Bake in an oven preheated to 180 C for about 35 minutes.
4. Sprinkle over the sesame seeds and sesame oil and bake for another 10 minutes, or until juices run clear.

Yeah, a slight change from the original recipe, as some of you might realise. Justin "forgot" about the additional cooking in the pan (which probably would've given the chicken a slightly crisp texture) and added the sesame oil "for fun" (his exact words). But, all in all, it wasn't a bad effort.

Hadi quite liked it, since it was sweet-ish. Justin thought it tasted like normal soy sauce chicken, but the flavour was slightly different, I think. The tomato was a nice touch, hehe. Unfortunately, since these were thighs (instead of wings) the flavour didn't penetrate so well. But, because Justin baked the chicken together with the marinade, there was plenty of gravy to go around, hehe. So, not much of a problem, I guess.

But I'm still not exactly sure how he managed to burn half of the chicken...

But anyway... now, if only I can find something as simple to make for tomorrow's dinner...

Quote of the day: Sigh. Got to go buy some food. A mouse hung itself in my fridge and left a note 'can't live like this'.

Chilli Roast Chicken

The picture for that came with this recipe looked very nice. The golden chicken was speckled with red and green and looked extremely yummy. I also had most of the ingredients on hand, so it was an ideal dinner to make - because I had been too busy thinking about my project to think about what to cook for dinner. :( Unfortunately, I didn't have some of the key ingredients, so I had to substitute those. Which might not have been a good idea. But still. Here we go :)

What you need:
3 chicken thighs
1 teaspoon crushed chili flakes - according to taste
2 tablespoons sesame oil
1 teaspoon turmeric
thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped ( or 1 tablespoon garlic granules)
1 teaspoon dried sage
Sprinkling of dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon salt
Sesame oil, for sprinkling

What you do:

1. Pound the chilli flakes, sesame oil, turmeric, ginger, garlic, herbs and salt with a mortar and pestle into a rough paste (or use a food processor).
2. Smear half the chilli paste under the skin of the chicken pieces, then smooth the skin back in place. Spread the remaining paste over the chicken and marinate for at least 2 hours, or overnight.
3. Place the chicken in a shallow baking dish and sprinkle some more sesame oil over it.
   
4. Roast the chicken in an oven preheated to 180 C for about 45 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through and juices run clear.

The original recipe actually used fresh chillies and coriander, instead of the dried chilli flakes and herbs. But I didn't go out or anything, so... I decided to use what I had already instead.

The result was... hmmmm.... I probably am missing a LOT by not using the fresh chillies. I also used a bit too much ginger and not enough salt. Which means that the chicken was a bit bland, but in a weird way. That was easily remedied by sprinkling some salt on the chicken, so that's not a problem, I guess, hehe.

The one thing I didn't like was the powdery texture from the ginger. Hmmm... I might try this again with fresh chillies, but with ginger powder instead. Oh well, we'll see, I guess.

Quote of the day: If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, talks like a duck, it probably needs a little more time in the microwave.

Roasted Honey Garlic Chicken

This was actually from a couple of days ago (though it is correctly dated at 2nd April), but I just haven't the time to post it up. But better late than never, yea? :D

What you need:
3 chicken thighs
1 tablespoon honey
3 tablespoons sweet soy sauce (kicap manis)
Garlic granules, or fresh garlic cloves, crushed - to taste
Generous pinch of salt

What you do:

1. Marinate the chicken in the rest of the ingredients for a couple of hours, or overnight.
2. Roast the chicken in an oven preheated to 180 C for about 45 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through.

I told Hadi over and over again that if he bakes chicken at 180 C, it should be in there for 45 minutes. He likes roasting chicken at 200 C, but always leaves it in for 45 minutes as well. Which tends to burn the chicken, as you can see from the picture. Luckily, he decided to check the chicken before the time was actually up (he usually never does - another bad habit), so the chicken was saved slightly. Although the outside was a bit black, the insides were just about cooked, which was nice. :)

What was also nice was that he marinated the chicken overnight. The flavour penetrated nicely, which means that although it was a bit burnt, it was very tasty, hehe. Although my main complaint would probably have been that there was too much soy sauce and too little garlic. Still yummy, nevertheless.

Quote of the day: It's amazing how pervasive food is. Every second commercial is for food. Every second TV episode takes place around a meal. In the city, you can't go ten feet without seeing or smelling a restaurant. There are 20 foot high hamburgers up on billboards. I am acutely aware of food, and its omnipresence is astounding.

Good Food from Food for Thought

I thought I'd do an "awards" ceremony, of sorts, of the food I've featured here. The last time I did this was the beginning of this year, so maybe every three months? :D

But before I get into that, as of today, this site has seen more than 10,000 visitors! Again, I would like to thank everyone for visiting, and hope that there would be many more visits to come. :$

Now.... on with the food!

Best Dinner:

Hmmmm, this is a tough one. There's been sooo many nice recipes. But one that has been received *very* well by many people was the Butter Oat Chicken recipe posted by Aunidayini. It was a rather unique and very tasty recipe. There is room for a *little* bit of improvement in the version I posted up, but other than that, it was just perfect. :D Even looking at the picture makes me feel like cooking it tonight. *drool*

Other contenders: Chicken Fajitas, Fried Chicken with Spring Onions, Tori Katsu-don

Best Dessert:

I haven't been very busy on the dessert side, but even if I was, this award would have gone to this cake, anyway. Which cake is this, you ask? Its name is a mouthful - the Melt-In-Your-Mouth Chocolate Cake from Chocolate & Zucchini. Its a very rich, very decadent cake which is amazingly simple to make. You can't get any better than that!

Best Comfort Food:

Ahhhh, comfort food. Simple to make, but tasty and *very* satisfying. That's my definition of it, anyway. :P And it seems as if I find cheese comforting, because again, the dish to receive this award has cheese in it! And its no other than the (recent) Baked Cheddar and Tomato Rice. Its not as simple as I would have liked, but I managed to make a Nasi Goreng version of it, a recipe of which I will post up soon. :) But the original one is definitely the best. Look at that cheese!

Favorite New Recipe:

I've only just discovered how to make this, but I like it so much, that I'm sure I'll make it over and over again. Its none other than Buttermilk Buns, of course. :) Although this is freely available in shops in Brunei, UK has no such thing and I do have to admit, its satisfying being able to make it yourself! Plus, you can be rather more creative with the filling, such as Buttermilk Toast (which I have yet to make). So do try and enjoy!

That's it for now! Look forward to the next installment of Ihsan's Good Food Awards in July, where I hope to bring you more delicious foods!

Quote of the day: When I'm at a Chinese restaurant having a hard time with chopsticks, I always hope that there's a Chinese kid at an American restaurant somewhere who's struggling mightily with a fork.