Farfalle with Chicken, Broccoli and Peppers

Ever since I've come back to Brunei, my sisters have been complaining that I am the cause of them eating too much. They've also commented that we've been eating "exotic" foods, ever since. Well, I'm not sure about exotic, but we have been having a rather varied diet, though most of it is revolving around chicken, of course. Hehe.

But its not my fault really, since if one of your sisters says she wants to have pasta for lunch, what can you do but make pasta for lunch, right? However, one of my sisters was determined to cook the meal for herself, so this is all her effort, hehe. I just chose the recipe. ;) Anyway, here we go!

What you need:
4 tablespoons olive oil
5 tablespoons butter
3 garlic cloves, very finely chopped
450g skinless, boneless chicken breasts, diced
1/4 teaspoon dried chilli flakes
450g small broccoli florets - we probably used only about half this amount, I think
300g dried farfalle - i.e. bow-tied pasta
175g bottled roasted red peppers, drained and diced (see below)
250mL chicken stock
Salt and pepper, to taste

Note: I couldn't find bottled roasted peppers here in Brunei, so I just grilled 2 red peppers for about 15-20 minutes, then peeled off the skins and left it to cool before dicing it. Probably not very similar, but hey... close enough. Also... that is a LOT of oil/butter used. We probably used about half the amount.

What you do:

1. Bring a large pan of lightly salted water to the boil. Meanwhile, heat the oil and butter in a large frying pan over medium-low heat. Cook the garlic until just beginning to colour.
2. Add the diced chicken, raise the heat to medium and cook for 4-5 minutes, until the chicken is no longer pink. Add the chilli flakes and season to taste with salt and plenty of pepper. Remove from heat.
3. Plunge the broccoli into the boiling water and cook for 2 minutes until tender crisp. Remove with a perfortaed spoon and set aside. Bring the water back to the boil. Add the pasta and cook for 8-10 minutes, or until just tender but still firm to the bite. Drain and add to the chicken mixture in the pan.
4. Add the broccoli and roasted red peppers. Pour in the stock. Simmer briskly over a medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until most of the liquid has been absorbed. Serve immediately.

Talk about exotic. I'm usually a bit iffy on pasta dishes that don't have tomato in it, so was wondering how well this dish will work. The chicken stock reassured me, somewhat, but still... it was a bit troubling.

Well, I needn't have worried myself, this dish is just fabulous! All the flavours of the olive oil, butter, chicken, broccoli and peppers combined to make this really really tasty sauce. Really. Babah was a huge fan. ;) And not only that, this is somewhat healthy as well. I mean, I don't particularly like broccoli, but really liked the red peppers. On the other hand, the rest of my family who all like broccoli loves the broccoli with the pasta.

I mean, okay... the picture may not look all that good... it is a bit messy, I admit, but the dish itself was gorgeous. The yellowish pasta, with chunks of red and green looked absolutely beautiful. When looking at it though, youd think, "Oh, that pasta looks quite bland...", but you'd be wrong! The chicken stock-based sauce is really good. Of course, I used commercial chicken stock, but if you used home-made chicken stock, I bet this would taste even better. Just make sure that you've simmered off most of the liquid. You don't want this to be a soup. The sauce sort of has to ... cling around the pasta, adding a coat of flavour.

I can't say whether the home-roasted peppers were similar to bottled roasted peppers, since I have never tasted those, but I must say I quite liked them. My problem with peppers, usually, is the texture. I find it a bit too crunchy for my liking. I also find the taste slightly weird, though bearable. However, with the roasting, the peppers became more tender and so much more flavoursome. I do think its worth spending the extra time roasting it. :)

In light of its extreme tastiness, as well as all those veggies inside there (it has to be somewhat healthy, right?), I am giving this the recommended label again. Two dishes in a row ... not bad. ;)

Quote of the day: Do you know the difference between broccoli and nose-pickings? You have to tell your children to eat broccoli.

Chocolate Chip and Apple Pancakes

One day, me and my sisters offered to make breakfast for the family. But... my sisters are really really hard to wake up early in the morning. Or at any time of the day really, whenever they are asleep. :P Luckily, I had already decided on what to make the night before and had made sure it was an easy one. So... here we go!

What you need:
225g plain flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
4 tablespoons caster sugar
1 egg
15g butter, melted
300mL milk
1 eating apple
50g plain chocolate chips

What you do:

1. Sift the flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl. Stir in the caster sugar. Make a well in the centre and add the egg and melted butter. Gradually whisk in the milk to form a smooth batter.
2. Peel, core and grate the apple and stir it into the batter together with the chocolate chips.
3. Heat a griddle or a heavy-based frying pan over medium heat and grease it lightly. For each pancake, place about 2 tablespoons of butter onto the pan and spread to make a 3-inch round.
4. Cook for a few minutes until you see bubbles appear on the surface of the pancake. Turn over and cook for a further 1 minute. Remove from the pan and keep warm. Repeat with the remaining batter to make about 12 pancakes.
5. Serve 3-4 pancakes stacked on individual plates and serve with sauce of your choice - we used Nutella, yum! But it should be equally yummy with maple syrup.
   

I've made apple pancakes once before and they were not that popular. However, since this had chocolate chips in the pancakes and are served with chocolate sauce, I was hoping it would get a better reception. And since one of my sisters was the one who requested pancakes, she better had eat it! ;) Haha.

Well, there were no problems on that end. There was actually a chocolate sauce that went with this recipe, but all we did was just microwave a bowl of Nutella spread and used that. It worked really really well. As you can see, the pancakes don't have all that much sugar and you definitely need a sauce to go with the pancakes, I think. Otherwise, the pancakes were a bit too bland.

However, my sisters didn't really like the apples inside the pncakes. I had no problem with them, personally, but they found the apples a bit too tart for their liking. Also, they claimed that the crunchy texture of the apples were at odds with the soft and really fluffy (yum!) pancakes, which were already studded with chocolate chips. So if you want to take fussy palates into account, you might want to finely grate the apples instead of roughly grating them like I did. Or, you might want to omit them altogether, I dunno...

But in any case, the pancakes were finished eventually, so they couldn't have been that bad. ;) The chocolate chips definitely helped, hehe. And the Nutella... Plus, the pancakes were really really fluffy so they were hard to resist, really. :)

Anyway... just thought I'd mention that I will be in New Zealand for a week from the day of this post (this is a scheduled post), so I won't be able to answer anything on the chatbox for awhile. At least, not easily. In the meantime, I hope you'll enjoy this post and the one coming after this. :)

Quote of the day: He who goes to bed hungry dreams of pancakes.

Spiced Honey Chicken Wings

I like chicken. Most people I know, know that. And the chicken I like most of all is fried chicken. I think there's nothing that beats a golden, crispy yet juicy, fried chicken wing, eaten so hot that you have to be careful that you don't burn your tongue or fingers.

Unfortunately, most people I know feel that chicken goreng is not fit food for people beyond the age of 10, so often, I am faced with other dishes instead. Oh, they're tasty enough, but nothing can beat fried chicken.

But, the thing about fried chicken is that it is just so darn unhealthy. As a kid, you normally wouldn't care, but adults (ahem) know better. So when I came across this recipe for chicken wings that are just stir-fried yet supposedly are crispy and sound really yummy to boot, I thought I would try it. I won't lie to you, I was actually thinking of making normal fried chicken that lunch. :P But then, I saw this and thought, meh, might as well. I'm glad I did. Here we go!

What you need:
1 fresh red chilli, finely chopped
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
Rind of 1 lime, finely grated
12 chicken wings
4 tablespoons sunflower oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh coriander - omitted
2 tablespoons soy sauce
3 1/2 tablespoons clear honey

What you do:

1. Mix the fresh chilli, chilli powder, ground ginger and lime rind together in a small bowl. Place the chicken wings in a wide, shallow dish. Rub the spice mixture into the chicken skins and leave to marinate for at least 2 hours to allow the flavours to permeate.
2. Heat a wok or a heavy-based frying pan and add half the oil. When the oil is hot, add half the wings and stir-fry for 10 minutes, turning regularly until crisp and golden. Drain on kitchen paper. Repeat with the remaining wings.
3. Add the coriander, if using, to the hot wok and stir-fry for 30 seconds, the return the wings to the wok and stir-fry for one minute.
4. Stir in the honey and soy sauce and stir-fry for 1 minute. Serve the chicken wings hot, with the sauce drizzled all over them.

I've tried a "flavoured" fried chicken before, in the form of curry fried chicken. I quite liked them, despite some glitches. I've also made honey chicken, which is a firm favourite of my family. This recipe, on the other hand, seems to be a combination of the two. A honey-flavoured chicken goreng. And the chicken wings were indeed crispy, until I added in the soy sauce and honey.... but no matter. And the best thing is... it barely uses any oil!

No, wait, the best thing is... it tastes really really good. Sweet, yes, but the salty soy sauce gives a nice balance, like in the previous honey chicken recipe. Not only that, the chilli in there also gave a nice heat. Not too spicy, but you are more than welcome to increase the amount if you so wish. :) I can't quite remember, since I made this quite awhile ago, but if I remember correctly, even my sister who is so so soooooooooo picky about everything she eats had this for lunch with nary a complaint. Either that, or she was having lunch at school and not at home, which is why I don't remember hearing any complaints. :P

In any case, since this is not only delicious, but semi-healthy as well, I shall be giving it the recommended label. :) Not bad, for a last minute decision.

Quote of the day: All the honey a bee gathers during its lifetime doesn't sweeten its sting

Custard Cream Puffs

As I have mentioned occasionally, I am a Japan-o-phile. One of the more recent Japanese dramas I've watched is Zettai Kareshi. The plot of the drama doesn't concern us here, but my point for mentioning it is that the main character in there is apparently very proficient in making cream puffs (or shuu-kuriimu, as they called it, a romanization of Choux-Cream, I am guessing). Despite their name, they are usually filled with custard not cream. Now, being in the UK at the time, I couldn't make it because I had neither the equipment nor the time. And for some reason, I can't seem to find cream puffs there. They have a similar thing called profiteroles and eclairs are close cousins as well, but these are filled with cream, not custard.

Until I found a Beard Papa's store on (or maybe near) ... Tottenham Court Road, I think. At that time, I was on the bus and didn't really want to go, but since it was near Hadi's place of study, I bugged him to get it for me. He never did, and soon enough, I had to fly back to Brunei. (I know, sad isn't it?) Once in Brunei, I did come across cream puffs of various makes, some nice and some not, but apparently, they are best eaten fresh. So the only choice left then ... is to make it at home! Here we go. :)

What you need:
Custard Filling:
6 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
2 cups whole milk, or light cream - I used a cup each :D
1 vanilla bean (if using vanilla extract, add in at the very end)
1/2 cup flour and cornstarch combined, blended and sifted
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Choux Pastry:
1 cup water
1 cup beaten eggs (~5 eggs, for me)
100g unsalted butter
1 cup plain flour
Pinch of salt

What you do:

1. Make the custard filling several hours in advance. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape the seeds into the milk. Place the bean in the milk (in a saucepan) as well, and heat slowly.
2. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until the mixture is a pale lemony yellow. Add in the flour-cornstarch mixture.
3. Remove the vanilla bean from the hot milk and add the milk in dribbles into the egg mixture, stirring constantly. Heat over a low-medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, until you can't detect a floury taste - about 3-4 minutes.
4. Add in the butter (and vanilla extract, if using) and stir to combine. Cover and leave to chill in the fridge for several hours.
5. Meanwhile, to make the pastry, preheat the oven to 210C. Line baking trays with silicone sheets or baking paper. (Important!)
6. Cut up the butter and place with the water and salt in a pan. Heat over medium heat until the butter has melted. Dump in the flour all at once and mix vigorously with a wooden spoon, until the flour is fully incorporated. The dough ball should leave a floury residue in the pan.
7. Cool the bottom of the pan (with a damp towel, or cool running water). Then add the eggs, little by little, mixing vigorously between additions. It is advisable to get ahold of someone with strong arms at this point. ;)
8. When the dough is ready, you can either scoop into a large piping bag, or just plonk tablespoonfuls onto the baking sheets. Bake for about 20 minutes - depending on the size of your blobs, or until the puffs are a medium brown colour.
9. Once the puffs are done, slash a hole into the side of each puff using a kife, in order to let the steam escape. You can bake them for a further five minutes to dry them out even more at this point, or just use them as it is.
10. To assemble, either cut the puffs in half (they will be hollow!!) and spoon in the custard or use the hole made above and pipe in the custard. They're nice served immediately, but can take a longer wait. :)
    

Because my motivation for this was a Japanese drama, I decided to go to a Japanese source for the recipe - another food blog called Just Hungry. However, needless to say, you can use your favorite choux pastry recipe and even your favorite filling. It doesn't have to be vanilla custard. By the way, Aunidayini beat me to posting up a recipe of cream puffs, hehe. She made chocolate cream puffs and the weird thing is, she also wanted to make cream puffs after watching Zettai Kareshi, apparently. Small world.;)

But since I had never made choux pastry... ever (or even custard!), I decided to go for just the basic recipe. I have come across a modified choux pastry in Ibu's Bun recipes, but Ibu had always been the main person making it. Me and my sisters just helped. But now, it was just us since Ibu was working, so it makes for a nervous situation.

And we felt even worse when our first batch of puffs was a disaster. Thinking it wasn't important, we just greased a baking tray and plonked the dough directly on top before baking, since that was what Ibu always did with the buns. We were ecstatic when we saw the little mounds of dough become puffy round balls. However. When they came out, the bottoms of the puffs were paper thin *and* stuck to the baking tray, making it impossible to extricate them without tearing the bottoms. After a panicked call to Ibu, we decided that maybe we should have used baking paper. Luckily, the batches after that came out beautifully.

The custard also came out beee-youu-tifully. :D The custard was a bit thicker than I expected, and I thought maybe we overcooked it, even though the floury taste was only just gone. But it was delicious! The vanilla bean is just awesome, I tell you. But once we tried to pipe it, I think it was a good thing it was so thick. Otherwise, it would have been a huge mess, particularly since none of us are that proficient at piping yet. Not that it was hard. Just messy. So maybe it was meant to be thick, I don't know.

In any case, we brought these puffs to a family event later on that night, after placing them into pretty paper cases. :) Since the puffs were... ahem, squashed a bit tightly into the container we used, people were a bit unsure as to what they were. And they were no longer puffy, haha. Unfortunately, they got a bit squished in the travelling. However, the people who dared eat it said it was good, so yay! :) Me and my sisters had already gotten our fill of it (we ate a lot!!) before coming, so it was heartening to see that most of the puffs were gone at the end of the night.

Of course, you might be thinking, why go through all this trouble? Since cream puffs are readily available here anyway, why not just buy them? For one thing, I find it fun to watch the puffs puff up, hehe. But another thing is, these puffs really are best eaten right after they are filled. And when you fill them right after they finish baking... yum! The pastry is warm and crispy, yet the custard is cool and dense and oh-so-creamy. Its so much better! Plus, when you make it at home, you can fill them with whatever you may wish. :) And its not a difficult recipe, by any stretch of imagination. You just need to get the amounts and the timing right, is all.

All right, after this particularly lengthy post, Ihsan is out. See you soon~

Quote of the day: You eat, in dreams, the custard of the day.

Thai Stir-Fried Noodles with Beef (Phad si-iew)

While thinking of something to cook for lunch one day, I vaguely remembered a recipe for crispy beef and so prepared the beef in thin slices as I recalled how it was done. But... I couldn't track down the recipe in time *cry* and had to look for another dish to make. I found this in one of my cookbooks and Ibu coincidentally had (baby) kailan in the fridge, so I already had most of the ingredients. Which is good. :) So... here we go!

What you need:
500g fresh rice sheet noodles, cut lenghtways into 2cm strips - I just used kway teow
2 tablespoons oil, for frying
2 eggs, lightly beaten and seasoned to taste
500g lean beef fillet, thinly sliced across the grain
1/4 cup kecap manis (sweet soy sauce)
1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce
300g kai lan/gai larn (Chinese broccoli), cut into 5 cm lengths
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper

What you do:

1. Cover the noodles with boiling water and gently separate the strips. Drain.
2. Heat a wok over very high heat, add 1 tablespoon of oil and swirl to coat. Add the egg and swirl to coat and cook over medium heat for 1-2 minutes or until set. Remove and slice.
3. Reheat the wok over very high heat, add the remaining oil and cook the beef in batches for 3 minutes, or until browned. Remove.
4. Reduce the heat to medium, add the noodles and cook for 2 minutes. Combine the kecap manis, soy and fish sauces. Add to the wok with the kai lan and white pepper, then stir fry for 2 minutes. Return the egg and beef to the wok and cook for 3 minutes. Adjust seasonings to taste and serve immediately.
   

Normally, we have noodles for breakfast and very rarely for lunch (or even dinner) but nobody really minded much. And to tell you the truth... this was nothing special. :P Fancy name aside, this is just a normal fried noodle dish. And its not even that good.

For one thing, I thought the beef was a bit bland. It might have been nicer if you had fried it with the seasonings, before adding the noodles in. As it is, it just taste like beef. That might be a plus for some people, but I thought I would mention it anyhow.

Also.... I don't cook with kailan much (in fact, at all) and as a result, the veggies in this dish were very very ... crunchy, shall we say? Ahem. Again, you might prefer to cook the kailan separately, especially if you had a large amount of noodles as I did, to make sure everything is properly cooked.

I also found it a bit hard to mix everything together, because the noodles became really really sticky a couple of minutes after adding them to the pot. Yes, I did wash them before adding them in. It might be easier if you cut them into shorter lengths beforehand, but I'm not sure... some people like really long noodles. I prefer shorter ones myself, haha.

Apart from that, everything was fine and dandy. :) Sorry for the short post, a much better one coming up next, I hope! And I hope all of you are enjoying the new features being introduced (slowly) here. I shall have to stop soon or the page loading time is going to be really badly affected!

Quote of the day: Chinese people say Marco Polo brought noodles from China back to Italy and Italians say they had noodles before that. All this has been based on documentary material, on personal accounts and menus.

Layout change!

I got tired of the little quirks of the Neo template I've been using. Also, I wanted to take advantage of some new features recently introduced by Blogger. So I decided to change the layout a bit. Most everything should look the same, only you don't get the asynchronous loading from last time. I really liked that, but there were all sorts of problems with getting the comments to show up properly or not. Time will tell if I will revert back to that. I'm not even sure if it will work with the new features I'm trying out.

They're just little features, but they seem interesting, so I thought I'd try it out and see how everyone likes it. :) First and foremost are the "Reactions". Like the recipe, but too lazy to give a comment? Think its disgusting, but too lazy to leave a message? Then just click on the brand new Reactions button (located below the post title) and tell me what you think!

Also, the comment form is now embedded below the post, which will make commenting ever so much easier! (Hint, hint!) Also, comments should show up properly now, unlike with the previous template where they didn't show up if you didn't use Neo's links. (If this doesn't make sense to you, never mind, but that was bugging me...) However, you have to go to the specific page to leave a comment. You can't seem to do it from the home page.

I'll be tweaking the template and perhaps adding more features, but the major work should be done. Hope you all like it. Leave a message! Try out the new Reactions buttons!

Edit:
Added a new feature - the Print button. Found at the bottom of each post, it will enable you to print off recipes easily without wasting ink and paper on the sidebar and other things. :) Very useful! (But darn, it doesn't seem to work properly in Firefox. :( Only the first page seems to show up properly...)

Edit 2:
Added another new feature - Related Posts. This appears at the bottom of each post and gives you a list of recipes in the same categories. Hope you will find this useful when browsing through the site. :) Though come to think of it, it will probably interfere with the number of pages printed...  Am trying out a different one, where the related posts list appears on the left sidebar instead. It doesn't show the categories unlike the other one, but you can see the categories at the bottom of each post anyway. I like how it looks better... but we shall see... Another minor feature added is page numbers! Check out the bottom of the page.

Cheesy Beef Burgers

After the brief touch of class and elegance (ahem) lent by the creme brulee in the last post, shall we get down and dirty with a more simple dish? Here, I present to you beef burgers... with a surprise filling

This is the dish my other sister decided to present to the family under their "we shall be cooking during weekends" idea. (Seriously, whatever happened to that?) Actually, this burger has a bit of a history in our house. Back when me and Hadi were teeny tots - okay, fine, we were 15-ish - we decided on this recipe from our book "Usborne's Cookery School - Cooking for Beginners" (I kid you not. :P) Now, back then, I was slightly less flexible in my food so we decided to make chicken burgers instead. And we had never heard of a cheese block. We had only encountered either grated cheese or cheese slices. So we decided to use the grated cheese and mixed it in with the meat. Needless to say, the burgers fell apart in the cooking, due to the cheese melting.


Not only that, we followed the recipe to a T and found that it was bland. Very bland. And thus, we discovered the value of salt in cooking. It might be okay if you use beef, since that has a flavour of its own, but with chicken, it was just too tasteless. But once we added in the salt (and a lot more seasoning stuff, besides that) the burgers tasted fantastic and we gobbled down almost a kilo of chicken between us. I know. Our excuse for not serving it to the family was that the burgers were ugly. Haha. Anyway, here we go!


What you need:
500g lean minced beef
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
1 teaspoon dried mixed herbs
Ground black pepper
40g Cheddar cheese
Sunflower oil

What you do:

1. Remove the grill pan and rack from your grill and put it to one side. Turn your grill to its highest setting.
2. Put the mince into a bowl and break it up with a fork. Add the soy sauce, herbs and black pepper to taste. Season to taste.
3. Mix the ingredients well and divide it into four. Squeeze each lump of mixture into a round flat shape. Dip your hands in clean cold water to prevent the mixture from sticking.
4. Cut the cheese into four cubes. Press each cube into each burger. Push the micture over to cover the cheese.
5. Oil your grill pan and use a fish slice to lift the burgers onto the grill rack. Turn the heat down to medium and cook the burgers for seven minutes.
6. After seven minutes, turn the burgers over, by sliding a fish slice under each one and holding the top with a fork. Cook the burgers for seven minutes more.
7. Press a fork on a burger to test it. If you like medium-cooked burgers they will feel springy. Well-done ones feel firm. Serve your burgers in buns, or perhaps with chips and a salad.

Can you believe the instructions? Definitely a cookbook for kids. Hard to believe me and Hadi managed to mess it up. But my sister didn't, haha. She used the right cheese and though I found the seasoning a bit too bland for my taste, the beef has its own flavour as I said earlier, so that's alright (if you like beef, that is). Plus, doesn't it look oh-so-pretty?

I actually have a fancier version of this tucked away somewhere, that I've been meaning to try. Its got all sorts of things mixed in with the mince. But the girls are not so keen on beef in this house, so maybe I shall just wait for our brothers to come back. :)

In any case, this version tasted pretty okay, considering its source. I am not too fond of beef, but it was fine. I would have preferred a different cheese though, something a bit stronger. Mature Cheddar cheese, maybe. And of course, up the seasonings a bit, definitely. Other than that, enjoy!

Quote of the day: It is the Americans who have managed to crown minced beef as hamburger, and to send it round the world so that even the fussy French have taken to le boeuf hache, le hambourgaire.

Vanilla Creme Brulee

Back when I was still in Bristol, Justin once brought home a three pack of creme brulee. Now, creme caramel is a regular in my house (in Brunei) and I didn't like that one much, so I was a bit leery at trying something that seemed so similar. However, one bite convinced me. It was awesome! We had it straight out of the grill, so the sugar top was all crunchy and the custard was piping hot and it was just really really good. That was just a one time thing and I never had it again... until me and my sister decided to make some! Here we go!

What you need:
1 vanilla pod, split lengthways
500 mL cream
6 egg yolks
40g caster sugar
6 teaspoons granulated or brown sugar

What you do:

1. Put the vanilla pod into a saucepan. Pour the cream into the pan and bring it slowly almost to the boil. Take off the heat and leave to stand for 15 minute for the vanilla flavour to infuse.
2. Lift the vanilla pod out of the cream and holding it against the side of the saucepan, scrape the black seeds into the cream. Discard the pod.
3. Fork together the eggs and caster sugar in a bowl until just combined. Reheat the cream then gradually mix it into the eggs and sugar. Tip the cream mixture back into the saucepan and heat gently, stirring continuously for 2-3 minutes until the custard is just beginning to thicken and thinly coats the back of the spoon.
4. Stand six ovenproof ramekins or custard pots om a roasting tin then divide the custard among them. Pour warm water around the dishes to come halfway up the sides.
5. Cook in a preheated oven (180 C) for 20-25 minutes until the custards are just set and still have a slight softness or wobble at the centre.
6. Leave the ramekins or pots to cool in the water then lift them out and chill in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours, or overnight. Before serving, sprinkle the tops with one teaspoon of granulated/brown sugar each. Caramelize using a blowtorch (we used a toaster oven, hah!) then serve hot, leave to cool at room temperature or chill some more. ;)
   

Now, the main difference between creme caramel and creme brulee is that creme brulee is much creamier and richer, and the sugar is on top rather than on the bottom. This was also my first time in using a vanilla bean for cooking... and I must say... its really really good! The flavour is great. It just made the yummy custard taste so much better.

Unfortunately, we didn't quite manage to get the crusty sugar top, unlike in Bristol, where we also used a toaster oven. It was probably because we didn't put that much sugar on the top of our home made ones, and they kind of dissolved into the custard instead. With the amount of sugar in the custard (i.e. very little, really) you can afford to sprinkle more sugar on top, without being overpowered with the sweetness. The end result is a custard that is creamy but not sweet, with a yummy sugary crust. Very very very good. I like it, and another one of my sisters who doesn't like creme caramel either liked it. Not that creme caramel isn't good.... I just don't like the caramel. But these... are much better. So much more creamier.

If you bake the custards in pretty dishes (like Ibu's pretty dish :D), you can get an easy yet impressive looking dessert for any dinner parties or what have you. These are ridiculously easy to make, you will barely break a sweat. Of course, they're not *very* healthy, so I wouldn't suggest you have them every week. Moderation is key. :)

I really really like this when it has just come off the oven... tongue-searingly hot. But you might prefer to chill them a bit longer after the caramelization for a cooler dessert, which I think my sister liked better. The book I got this recipe from suggested serving it at room temperature. I take this to mean that you can serve it at any temperature you like. So versatile, is it not? ;) Haha.

I'm not sure how well the recipe will translate to a bigger dish (i.e. one dish instead of many small ones) but I wouldn't want to do that anyway. What I want.... is a blowtorch. (Ibu mau balikan untuk birthday Ihsan?) Haha.

Quote of the day: Food to a large extent is what holds a society together and eating is closely linked to deep spiritual experiences.

Malaysian Glazed Chicken WIngs

I've been eyeing this recipe for ages, but postponed making it because I didn't want to buy a whole load of spices while I was in the UK. I finally made it here in Brunei, after I managed to track down molasses, which is apparently gula anau. Just so you know, I scaled down the recipe to about a kilogram of chicken wings, but have left the original recipe below. So... here we go!

What you need:
12 small dried chillies, or to taste
3 tablespoons coriander seeds
1 1/2 tablespoons fennel seeds
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
1/2 cup sugar
2/3 cup molasses
1/2 cup Asian fish sauce
1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce
1/3 cup soy sauce
8 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
One inch piece of fresh ginger, thinly sliced
2.5 kg chicken wings

What you do:

1. In a small pan, toast the chillies, coriander seeds, fennel seeds and cumin seeds over moderate heat until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a mortar and grind with a pestle to a fine powder.
2. Transfer the ground spices to a medium bowl and whisk in the sugar, molasses, fish sauce, soy sauces, garlic and ginger.
3. Marinate the wings in this mixture for at least 4 hours, or overnight, turning occasionally.
4. Preheat the oven to 220C. Remove the wings from the marinade and pat dry with paper towels. Arrange the wings on wire racks over a baking pan and roast for 40 minutes, or until well browned and cooked through.
5. Meanwhile, strain the marinade into a medium saucepan and bring to the boil. Cook over moderately high heat until thick and sticky. Transfer to a large bowl. When the wings are done, add them to the bowl and toss to coat with the sauce. Serve immediately.
   

While grinding the spices with the pestle and mortar, I was immediately reminded of satay. And in the end, yes, it did taste like satay. The chicken was sweet (very sweet... almost too sweet, in fact) and the combination of the spices just made the satay resemblance even stronger. I am not sure if I put in too much of the seeds after scaling it down, but I thought it tasted just a bit too strong. I think the flavours should be subtle and complement the chicken, not overpower it completely. So yeah... I don't really cook with whole spices at all, so I wasn't sure whether I was putting in too much or not... but you have been warned. :)

But on other aspects of it, it does look very nice. The marinade-glaze gives it a nice shine as well as an extra boost in flavour... which would be a great thing IF you liked the flavour. I do like baking chicken instead of frying though... its a much healthier option. :) Its just that... I think our house is not that keen on this kind of flavour... or at least, not this strong.

But I am very sure that there would be people out there who would like this dish. If I had to repeat though, I would drastically reduce the amount of spices as well as the sugar. Maybe then it would get a better reception. :)

Quote of the day: It was in France that I first learned about food. And that even the selection of a perfect pear, a ripe piece of Brie, the freshest butter, the highest quality cream were as important as how the dish you were going to be served was actually cooked.