Ibu's Ayam Bakar Tomato (Baked Tomato Chicken)

Eep, sorry for the lack of posts. I've been really busy. Anyway, continuing on with my chicken wing recipe series, here's a recipe that has gotten several incarnations over our time in Bristol (see here and here). But because it was HADI who did it, he didn't get it quite right, since he tends to dump random things into his cooking. He comes from the "throw everything into the pot" style of cooking, which is how we ended up with the curry of life. :P

In any case, this really is a simple recipe with simple ingredients. I don't know why he insisted on adding to it. Anyway, here we go!

What you need:
4 chicken wings

Equal amounts of tomato ketchup and kicap manis (sweet soy sauce)
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
Pinch of salt

What you do:

1. Mix all the other ingredients except chicken together in a small bowl or container. Add in the chicken and mix well to coat.
2. Leave to marinate for as long as you want, or as short as you like.
3. Meanwhile, preheat and oven to 180 C. When ready, place the chicken into a shallow baking dish, with extra marinade drizzled on top if you like and bake for 30-40 minutes or until cooked through with a sticky tomatoey coating. Yum!

See? It can't be easier to make, but Hadi has to mess around with it, adding lemon juice or chicken stock and whatnot. Ideally, you should really use chicken wings with this. If you want to use bigger pieces of chicken, like the thighs for example, then make sure you marinate it for longer. Unless, of course, its from a baby chicken which is tiny anyway with wings not worth eating...

So... yes, this used to be a staple dinner when I was back home, but am not sure what they're eating now. :P There's really not much else to say so...

erm, yes. Till next time. :D

Quote of the day: I'm awfully sorry for people who are taken in by all of today's dietary mumbo jumbo. They are not getting any enjoyment out of their food.

Baked Oriental Wings

Well... this is a recipe rather reminiscent of what we went through, back in our Bristol days (though we didn't buy much chicken wings then... you still remember Hadi and Justin, I hope!). Forgive me, I have been quite busy. :) But never mind, its not as if this recipe is horrible. It was actually quite nice. Here we go!

What you need:
4 chicken wings (well, I had 2 wings and 2 small drumsticks)
2 teaspoons garlic powder - or equivalent fresh minced garlic
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
2 tablespoons (Thai) fish sauce
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar

What you do:

1. Typical of a roast chicken recipe, this is very easy. Mix all the ingredients together with the chicken and leave to marinate in the fridge for at least a couple of hours, or overnight.
2. When ready to cook, preheat an oven to 200 C.
3. Line a baking dish (just about large enough to fit the chicken in a single layer) with aluminium foil.
4. Place the chicken (skin side up, for the wings) in a single layer in the baking dish. You can either throw in the marinade with it, which I did, or baste it with the marinade while its cooking. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until golden and cooked through.

Yes, I know. Its so easy. Not too easy, I hope. :P I've had the fish sauce in the fridge for awhile, so I thought this can be a way to use it up. The thing about marinated chicken recipes is that you can prepare it the night before, and have a very easy dinner the next day. Which is always good, particularly if you come home late, or what not.

Anyways... to tell you the truth... I didn't like this dish much. Not because of the fish sauce, which a lot of people complained about in the original recipe (I really have no idea what they are whinging on about), but because... I didn't like the lemon. I thought it gave a slightly strange sour taste and I have no idea what's it doing in there. But since I already have lemon juice handy, I thought I might as well use it as well.

But apart from that (which was mainly present in the gravy anyway), I thought this dish was just delectable, as most chicken wing dishes are! The wings are juicy, slightly sticky and were this beautiful brown colour. I was worried at the beginning, because it still looked a bit pale at the end of 30 minutes. But I figured it was just the Brunei Hall oven acting up and cooked it for another 10-15 minutes. And they came out beautifully.

But I don't really like the combination of ingredients in the marinade, particularly the lemon, as I've mentioned. But hey, with chicken wings selling so cheaply here (compared to Brunei, where they are the most expensive cut!), I think its quite good to cook them in other ways besides frying, haha. Healthier and cheaper too. So look forward to more chicken wing recipes!

Quote of the day: Do not be afraid of simplicity. If you have a cold chicken for supper, why cover it with a tasteless white sauce which makes it look like a pretentious dish on the buffet table at some fancy dress ball?

Gooey Chocolate Brownies

Right... now that it seems that I have completed my quest for my perfect cookies, I thought I'd move on to my next favorite dessert ... brownies! So yes, that more or less means there will be no more chocolate chip recipes coming from me, although other types of cookies will pop up once in awhile, of course.

A brief recap... I've posted three different versions of chocolate brownies before...
v1 was my original favorite, chewy and firm, but never really got it gooey
v2 (though I had posted it first) was a cream cheese and chocolate mixture, but was a little bit cakey for me to like it very much
v3 was posted just this year, and I found it much too cakey for my liking

Obviously, with brownie textures, its a personal thing. Some people do like the fluffy cakey brownies, but I love love love the rich fudgey (almost gooey) ones with a firm crisp crust. A big difference in thinking from when I baked my first batch of brownies with my friends, using a recipe from the back of a Hershey's baking chocolate box. Back then, I didn't even know what a brownie was (!!) and thought they only came in one kind. I can't quite remember how our brownies turned out, but I do remember it was rather a disaster, haha. N was steaming her face over the chocolate as we melted it over a pan of simmering water, saying it will "open up our pores, and give us less pimples". C was stressing over everything. And then, when we did go to bake it, I think the oven wasn't working or something, and we had to borrow a neighbour's oven, where we found out we were supposed to line the baking tray before pouring in the brownie mixture. (Haha, still remember, Sarah? I think you didn't like the brownies, in the end...)

In any case, we are all wiser and certainly older since then. Now, I know what brownies are, and that there are different types with different flavours. Of course, everyone's favorite has to be the chocolate brownie, so I shall stick with that for now - a gooey one from UKTV food. :D So... here we go!

What you need:
600g dark chocolate (at least 60% cocoa solids), broken up into smaller pieces
250g butter, chopped
6 eggs
400g caster sugar
200g plain flour
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
60mL strong coffee

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C.
2. Line a 25cm square cake tin with baking paper, allowing two sides to hang over the edges to give easier removal later.
3. Melt the chocolate and butter together, either over a pan of simmering water or in the microwave, though as usual, be careful not to burn it with the microwave option. Set aside and allow to cool slightly.
4. Meanwhile, whisk together the eggs (that's right, all 6!!) and sugar together until pale and creamy. Pour in the chocolate mixture, then sift in the flour.
5. Stir gently until well combined, stir in the vanilla and coffee.
6. Pour into the prepared baking tin and bake for 20-30 minutes or until firm. Centre should still be slightly soft to the touch.

Right... so, let's have a small comparison between this and my favorite recipe, the first version. Obviously, there's slightly more chocolate. Both don't really need an electric mixer, though you might want to use one for this second version as beating the eggs and sugar with a balloon whisk was quite tiring. Butter is the same, but new one has double the number of eggs and a lot more sugar. And, most interestingly of all... no raising agent added at all. Since I was looking for a really fudgey brownie, that sounds promising.

Of course, that was before I took into account the Brunei Hall oven. Now, I had managed to bake cookies successfully using it, so I thought brownies should be okay right? Well... apparently not. I think the main problem is that the heating element at the bottom of the oven is not working... or at least not working well. Which means I had to ramp up the temperature from gas mark 4 (180 C) to gas mark 7. And even after that, and after baking it for TWO WHOLE HOURS... the brownie still wasn't quite done! I just gave up after that.

Well, sort of. I managed to flip it over (which was no mean feat, since some parts were still a bit liquid) and toasted it in my little toaster oven for about 10 minutes, haha. It was slightly firmer after that, so after letting it cool for a bit, I cut it into about 6 large pieces, stuck 5 in the freezer and left one piece in the refrigerator - after wrapping them first in cling wrap, then foil.

And now I absolutely love love love the result. When warm, the brownies were very soft. Kind of like a kek batik texture. (Haha, I'm not sure what Ibu will think of me knowing what kek batik is. I've only tasted it for the first time like, 3 months ago) But when cold, they are almost like a very thick, very rich chocolate ice cream. Mmmmmm! The best thing was, the crust was still firm and crunchy, even after freezing and refrigeration. Must be all that sugar!

So... I guess this is a half success, half failure. I don't think I'll be continuing on my brownie quest while I'm still at Brunei Hall, but at least the brownies I made won't go to waste. However, I can't really say whether this batch was good or not, since mine were kind of "defective". So if you do try this recipe out, tell me how it goes. :) Bear in mind, its quite a rich recipe so either use very dark cooking chocolate, or think about reducing the sugar and serve in small portions, to reduce sugar-related incidents, haha.

Quote of the day: Money talks. Chocolate sings.

Chicken and Vegetable Spring Rolls

Whew... sorry for the long break there. Its been a bit busy for me these days, and I don't really have the time to cook anything fancy. Last weekend though, I decided to finally use the spring roll pastry that I bought ages ago to make... what else but spring rolls! :D Here we go!

What you need:
15 pieces spring roll wrappers - the large size... I think about 8-10 inches square?
~250g boneless springless chicken, finely chopped
4 shallots, finely sliced

1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon Chinese 5-spice powder
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 garlic glove, finely chopped
2cm piece fresh ginger, grated
Crushed dried chillies, to taste
Handful of beansprouts
3 spring onions, finely sliced
1 small carrot, finely sliced
Handful of rice vermicelli noodles cut into 5cm pieces, cooked according to instructions

Cornflour, mixed with enough water to make a thin paste
Vegetable oil, for frying

What you do:

1. Heat up a tablespoon of the oil in a frying pan, and stirfry the chicken and shallots until cooked through.
2. Add all the rest of the ingredients except the veggies and noodles, and mix well. Taste and adjust the seasonings. Leave to cool slightly.
3. Now you can add in the veggies and noodles. Again, mix well.
4. To assemble, place the spring roll pastry in front of you so that it looks like a diamond instead of a square. Spoon a little bit of the filling into the centre of the pastry. Fold each of the opposite corners over the filling, then roll the wrapper into a cigar shape.
5. When you get to the end of the wrapper, brush a little bit of the cornflour-water mixture to seal. Repeat with the rest of the wrappers.
6. Meanwhile, heat enough oil in the frying pan (to a 1cm depth, or for deepfrying, if you so wish). When ready, fry the spring rolls in the hot oil until golden and crispy. Drain on kitchen towels and serve immediately, or leave to cool and have it as a packed lunch! :)

Okay, just a few little changes I made. I mean, I posted the recipe so that it'll be easier for those of you in Brunei. :) But what I actually did was use a beansprout stirfry mix from Tesco that already had slices of carrot, lettuce and onion in it. I also used garlic and ginger powders. But these changes are so minor, they hardly matter. :)

Anyway, a little bit of history about spring rolls.... well, my history with it anyway, not its origins or anything...

Anyway... :P Back in Brunei, we had two kinds of spring rolls - prawn (udang golong) or beef (daging golong). We never really had chicken as the filling before... Plus, the ones we have in Brunei are tiny, about the size of your finger. But because I didn't have the patience (or the time), I decided to make these ones bigger. :) Plus, I also decided to use chicken because... I don't have beef and don't really want to go all the way just to go and buy it. Plus, I like chicken. :D So chicken it is!

But the thing about chicken is... its rather bland compared to beef or prawn. So you need to make the seasonings really ... oomph! ;) I don't really use 5-spice powder, but I already had a packet of it from last time (I can't remember when...) so I thought I might as well use it. And glad I am. Because it gave slightly more depth to the flavour, I think. I mean, I'm not really a fan of 5-spice powder, even here, but without it, this would have been mainly salty. And ginger-y. But the 5-spice powder gave even more flavours, so that was good. :D A subtle kind of flavour, mind you. I'm not too huge a fan of the spices in there in hugr quantities.

I had this both with Thai sweet chilli sauce and tomato ketchup (separately) and found that I liked it with tomato better. You might think different, or might have a different favorite sauce. By all means, use it. :D I also had this as a packed lunch, and thought it was still as delicious. Though of course, its best fresh when its nice and crispy. Mmmmmm!

Quote of the day: There is no sight on earth more appealing than the sight of a woman making dinner for someone she loves.

(Yes, I know its a short one. Sorry! Yummy though, I hope. ;))