Roast Chicken With Lemon & Rosemary

Rosemary is a woody, perennial herb with fragrant evergreen needle-like leaves. It is native to the Mediterranean region and the name derive from the Latin name rosmarinus, which literally means "dew of the sea". The fresh and dried leaves are used frequently in traditional Mediterranean cuisine as an herb; they have a bitter, astringent taste, which complements a wide variety of foods. It is is extremely high in iron, calcium, and Vitamin B6.


For today's quick and easy meal, I will like to share with you one of our favour way to roast chicken wings. It's pretty easy to prepare and bursting with juicy taste and scented with the aroma of the herbs.

Ingredients: (serves 2)
4 - 6 Chicken Wings, washed and tuck-in
3 - 4 Cloves of Garlic, thinly sliced
6 Slices of Lemon
1 Spig of Rosemary
1/2 Tablespoon of Lemon Juice
Pinch Of Salt
Ground White/Black Pepper
5 - 10g of Butter, optional

Methods:
1. Washed and pat dry the chicken wings then tuck in the wings.
2. Marinate the Chicken Wing with garlic, lemon, rosemary(the leave only), salt and pepper for at least 1 hour or leave it over night in the fridge.
3. Preheat the oven to about 180 degree, place the marinated chicken wings in the baking dish and top each wings with the lemon and garlic slices from the marinate and a little cubes of butter(optional) and bake for about 20 - 30 minutes(depend on the oven) until golden brown and cooked through. (turn the wings once or twice to have even baking colour)
4. Served with baked potato, fries, spaghetti or as finger food.

OR (in order to cut down the baking time)
3. Place the marinated chicken wings in a microwave oven and cooked on medium heat for about 5 - 8 minutes.
4. Remove from the microwave and place it in baking dish and top with a tiny dot of butter and arrange the lemon and garlic slices on top of the chicken wings.
5. Bake in an oven toaster for about 15-20 minutes turning the wings at least thrice until down.

Notes:
a) You can buy those mid-joint or drumlets to make this dish depending on your preference.
b) If you can't get hold of rosemary you can ombit it but add in more garlic slices instead.

Our Pre-Mother's Day Dinner

Tomorrow is 11 May 2008 is once a year Mother's Day so my little Darling Reyon insists that we will have these for dinner today to celebrate Mother's Day. Early in the morning, he asked me to go market and buy some fresh prawns to make his favourite Deep-fry Breaded Prawns and some other ingredients to make the ABC Pork Ribs Soup.


ABC Pork Ribs Soup consists of carrot, potato, corn and pork ribs. Reyon loves this soup because of it's natural sweetness and fragrant taste. I purposely boiled extra amount of this soup and use it as a base to cook it with rice so that the white rice will taste even nicer.

Ingredient:
500g Pork Ribs
2 Medium Potato, cut into big chunks
1 Medium Carrot, cut into thick slices
1 Sweet Corn, cut into section
2 Garlic Cloves, lightly smashed
3 Shallots(small red onion), thinly sliced

Methods:
1. Wash and trim the pork ribs then blanch it in boiling water for about 5 minutes, removed and rinse with water then set aside.
2. Use a soup pot, add about 1/2 tablespoon of oil and saute the shallot and garlic for about 2 minutes then add in the carrot, potato and pork ribs and continue to saute till fragrant on low heat for about 5 minutes.
3. Add in about 1 litre of water and bring it to boil then add in the corns.
4. Let it simmer for about 25 - 30 minutes then season it with salt if prefer.(i add in 1/4 of the chicken stock cube)

Notes:

a) I replace the water for cooking rice with the above soup stock to make the rice more fragrant.

This is another one of Reyon's favourite deep-fry food other than chicken wing and nuggets. He loves either traditional Tempura Prawn or this type of Breaded Prawns. He can eat either 3 or 4 of this prawns for his usual meal.

Ingredients:
6 - 8 Medium Size Prawn, shell and devein
3 Tablespoons of Corn Flour
1 Beaten Egg
5 Tablespoons Dry Breadcrumbs(might need more)
Oil For Deep-frying

Methods:
1. Remove the shell from the prawns and keep the tail portion, try to snip two cuts at the base of the prawn so that the prawn will not curl up when deep-fry.
2. Next dry the prawns with kitchen paper towel well so that it will not have any water for safer frying.
3. Coat the prawn with cornflour then deep in beaten egg then coat with breadcrumbs and back to beaten egg then breadcrumbs again then set aside. (you can refer to a similar example here as in cornfour, beaten egg and breadcrumbs)
4. Make sure that the oil is hot before you drop in the coated prawns. Fry a few prawns at a time to avoid over crowded.
5. Fry the prawns till golden brown at medium heat for about 2 - 3 minutes.
6. Drained them well on kitchen paper towel and serve hot so that they will be crispy and nice.

Notes:
a) Select those with hard shell and firm meat type.
b) Remember to dry the prawn really well so that you can achieve a more crispy texture while deep-frying.

Lastly, I want to wish all my blog pals and reader especially those who are already mummy, I sincerely Wish You a HAPPY MOTHER's DAY............

Sushi Tale

It's had being a few months since my last Salad post in December. Due to the hectic working schedule, I don't really have time to whip up any meals on the weekdays night as well as weekends. What I do most is to spend time with my little darling and doing all the household chores. But this weekend, upon Reyon's request we decided to turn out kitchen into little Sushi Bar.........(click here to see our Little Sushi Chef)


These are what we had made for our dinner and all these are Reyon's favourite sushi like Kanikama, Tamago and Kani Salad. I also made a few Gunkan Sushi(round sushi which is wrapped with seaweed and topped with ingredients) topped with Fish Floss for him.

Ingredients For Sushi Rice:
125g Short Grain Rice
Seasonings
10g Fine Salt
35g Fine Sugar
50ml Japanese Rice Vinegar

Methods:
1. Mix salt, sugar and vinegar in the pot and simmer over heat till mixture is dissolved. Set aside.(or you can do it in Microwave oven on 30 sec High)
2. Using both hands, wash rice gently for a few times till rice water becomes perfectly clear then drain.
3. Add some water and soak the rice for 30 minutes. Drain and add 250ml water and cook in the rice cookers.
4. When the rice is cooked, let it stand in rice cookers with covered lid for 15 minutes before removing the lid.

5. Transfer cooked rice into a wooden rice tub, pour prepared seasoning mixture evenly over sushi rice and stir well with wooden ladle. Use a fan to cool the rice for 5 minutes.

Tamago is the Japanese omelette commonly used in maki, nigiri and tamaki sushi. Unlike a regular omelette, the tamago is made with sugar, soy sauce, and mirin added. And this is always the MUST have items when Reyon visit any Sushi restaurants, he can have about 4 in a meal. This is my very first time trying to make this at home for him. Even though I didn't managed to achieve those professional Tamago look but at least it still taste good and presentable...... For those who are interested to try out, here is the recipe that I used and also a very good youtube video that is recommended by one of my friend Pamy on how to fry the omelette @ Tamago Making (I did not use the recipe given in the video).

Ingredients:
2 Eggs
2 Tablespoons of Dashi Stock
1/2 Tablespoon Sugar
1/2 Teaspoon Mirin
1/4 Teaspoon Soy Sauce

Methods:
1. Add the eggs and the rest of the ingredients in a big bowl then beat well to make sure that it is smooth and well combined.
2. Heat up a well-oiled tamgo pan and pour about 1/4 of the mixture to the pan and swirl it as if you making crepe.
3. Cook the mixture over medium heat till almost done, fold it up to the side with a chopstick to the back of the pan.
4. Add more oil to the pan and pour in another 1/4 of the mixture, making sure to get some of it under the roll.
5. As it cook, roll the sheet and fold it up again and set it on top of the previous omelette.
6. Repeat the steps until all omelette mixture is used up.
7. Square omelette with a wooden block and remove, leave to cool.
8. Cut omelette into 7 or 8 slices then mould the sushi rice and place each slice of omelette on top and wrap it with a roasted seaweed strip and serve.


Notes:
a) I replace the Dashi Stock with Chicken Stock.
b) The 1/4 of the egg mixture that you pour in will depend on the size of the pan as in it might be more or less.
c) If you don't have the special rectage pan for making tamago, you can use any normal round pan but then trim the side when it is done. Or you can get a affordable rectangle pan at any Daiso branch for $2.

Grill Asparagus With Bacon & Cheese

Hello! All my blogger friends out there! I am back in action again....... After disappearing for about a month plus. I finally decided to start off my blogging hobby again.

Very soon, you will see new recipes coming up... so just give me a few days to sort things out, ok.... Cya.....Thanks for those who kept coming back to check for new recipes and etc. Hope my new coming up recipes will enhance your cooking life in a way.... :)

Yam Balls & Crispy Prawn Salad

Try making this dish from one of the cookbook which is called the "Flaky Taro and Scallop Ring" but in the end I change the entire dish and end up something like this. Because instead of using scallop I replace it with prawn and I also deep-fried the remaining prawn with coated breadcrumbs and serve with some fruit salad.

The original recipe for this yam balls are supposed to be very flaky type but mine was not. I am also not sure which steps had I miss out or do wrongly, but overall these yam balls do taste good as well.


Ingredients: (make 5 portions)
150g Yam, peeled and cut into cubes
40g Vegetable Shortening
5 Teaspoons(25ml) Boiling Water
2 Tablespoons Wheat Starch Flour
1/4 Teaspoon Salt,
1/4 Teaspoon Sugar
1/4 Teaspoon Five Spice Powder
5 Medium Prawn, shelled & devein

Methods:
1. Steam yam for about 15 - 20 minutes until tender, use a fork to mash up the yam then set aside.
2. Put the flour and boiling water in a small bowl and stir till combined.
3. Add the flour paste into the yam paste together with shortening, salt, sugar and five spice powder.
4. Knead into a smooth paste then divide the paste into 5 portion, wrap 1 prawn each and shape into round balls.
5. Heat oil and deep-fry until yam balls are crisp and golden brown, drain well.

Fruit Salad Ingredients:
1 Avocado, diced
1 Tomato, deseeds and diced
1 Apple, peeled, cored and dice
1 Tablespoon Salad Dressing

Methods:
1. Mix all the above ingredients together and stir till combined then served.

Breadcrumbs Prawns Ingredients:
6 - 8 Prawns, shelled & devein
3 Tablespoons Dried Breadcrumbs
1 Tablespoon Cornstarch
Some Beaten Egg

Methods:
1. Coat the prawn with some cornstarch then dip in beaten egg and coat with breadcrumb.
2. Deep-fry it in medium hot oil until crisp and golden brown, drain and serve.

Bacon, Mushroom & Cheese Tart

Make this Bacon, Mushroom and Cheese Tarts for my guest yesterday night dinner and everyone love it very much. The taste of the filling is just right and the case is very crisp and yummy. Thank Tazz for sharing this wonderful recipe.... Another test proof recipe from Tazz's kitchen.....

For my version, I actually pan-fry the chopped bacon in some olive oil for a while till fragrant then I spread it evenly onto the tart case itself. As I thought this might make the bacon more fragrant when bake.....

Stuff Eggplant With Basil Pork mince - 塔香茄子肉

Another dish of the week using Thai Basil Leave(click link for more details). It can be treated as finger food or appetizer because of it's light content. You can easily get hold of Thai Basil Leave(it with purple-red flowers and fresh green foliage which offers an intense licorice aroma) in those vegetables stall in the wet market. The one selling in the Cold Storage is Sweet Basil which had a bigger leave and it's fragrant and taste will be different from Thai Basil Leave.


Raw Eggplant has a somewhat disagreeable taste, but when cooked, becomes tender and develops a rich, complex flavour and firm texture. Salting and then rinsing the sliced eggplant can also remove much of its bitterness. This is a spongy, mild-tasting vegetable that's meaty yet low in calories. You can either sever it with or without sauce dressing. It's all depend on individual taste. As for the sauce dressing, you can click on the Thai-style Basil Salad for it's sweet chilli sauce dressing.

Ingredients:
1 Large Purple Eggplant(Brinjal) 茄子
50g Pork Mince
4-6 Leave Of Thai Basil Leave(九层塔), finely chopped
1/2 Teaspoon Sesame Oil
1 Teaspoon Soy Sauce
1/4 Teaspoon Pepper
2 Tablespoons Plain Flour
2 Tablespoons Cornstarch

Methods:
1. Wash and cut the eggplant into halve, then slice them length-wide thinly to about 0.5cm thick.
2. Soak it in some lightly salted water or else it will oxidize and darken in colour.
3. Marinate the pork mince with chopped basil leave, sesame oil, soy sauce, pepper and 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch and set aside.
4. Coat 2 slices of eggplant with some plain flour then sandwich it with a thin layer of basil pork mince.(do not put too much filling inside, otherwise it will not be cooked with deep-frying)
5. Continue to sandwich the pork mince with the rest of the eggplant slices then let them in the fridge to infuse the favour for about 30 minutes before deep-frying.
6. Evenly coat the eggplant stuffing with some cornstarch on both side of the eggplant slices(set it aside for a few minutes before deep-frying, so that the flour will stick to the eggplant) and deep-fry it in medium hot oil until golden colour.
7. Drain and set aside. Blanch some extra basil leaves in hot oil, drained and crash it on top of the eggplants and serve with or with sauce dressing.

Guo Tie - 锅贴

Guo Tie or Gyoza which is originally a Chinese dish, which has become very popular across Japan. In this recipe of mine, I will share with you how to make a simple guo tie dough. To make the Spinach Juice, just wash and soaked 3 bunches of spinach leave in water. Then remove the leaves only and add about 1/2 cup of water in a blender together with the leaves to blend until smooth. Strain and obtain only the juice, you should get about 3/4 cups or more.


In this little experiment of mine, I am making two kind of doughs(one is the plain type while the other is using spinach juice to make spinach dough). Spinach is an important leaf vegetable, now grown throughout the temperate regions of the world. Spinach is a rich source of iron. In reality, a 60g serving of boiled spinach contains around 1.9 mg of iron.

Ingredients For Pork Mince Fillings:
200g Pork Mince
1 Tablespoon Chinese Celery(芹菜叶), finely chopped
1 Teaspoon Ginger Juice
1 Teaspoon Light Soy Sauce
1 Tablespoon Sesame Oil
1/4 Teaspoon Pepper
1/4 Teaspoon Cornstarch

Methods:
1. Combine all the ingredients together and set aside to marinate in the fridge for at least 30 minutes or more.

Notes: You can replace the Chinese celery to Chives(韭菜).

The time consuming and difficult part of making of the dough can be skipped by buying pre-made dough pieces, which are available at some Japanese and Chinese grocery stores. But if you had time, it's a fun activities to share with family members as each can play a different role in making the dough.

After trying a few failure wrapper on wrapping a traditional Guo Tie, I finally gave up the idea and trying making this simple wrapping. I really hope to master the skill for pleating the traditional guo tie, so I am sure to challenge this recipe again.....

My final product of Guo Tie from Cuisine Paradise...... Although the shape is not up to standard but the taste is there... It's very yummy to go with the black vinegar and ginger dipping sauce......

Ingredients For Dough: (make about 10-15)
125g Plain Flour
35ml Water
35ml Cold Water
Pinch Of Salt

Methods:
1. Sift Plain Flour into a mixing bowl, then slowly pour in the water and stir using a chopstick until combined.
2. Use hand to knead the dough while adding in the cold water.(you can add abit more if it is too dry).
3. Add pinch of salt in it and continue to knead until it form a soft dough.
4. Remove and place it on a lightly flour table top and continue to knead until it's smooth and elastic(10 to 15 minutes) then rest it for at least 30 minutes then cut it into half.
5. Roll it into an oblong shape and cut it into about 20g dough then flatten it on the cut side and roll into a 8-9cm circle.
6. Wrap it with the pork mince filling and pleat it into a Guo Tie shape.(sorry can't find any picture of showing how to pleat the guo tie)
7. Preheat a non-stick pan till hot add 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, tilting pan to spread evenly.
8. Arrange dumpling in the pan, being careful not to overcrowd and fry until the base is slight golden brown, add 150ml water/chicken stock, cover, and cook over high heat for approximately 2 minutes to sear bottoms.
9. Then simmer on low heat until all the water has evaporated, gently loosen dumpling with a spatula to check whether the bottoms are golden brown.
10. If not, pan-fry, uncovered, until bottoms are crisp and browned. Transfer to a platter, and serve immediately with black vinegar and shredded young ginger.

Note: To make the spinach dough, replace the wonder to spinach juice.

Stuffed Chicken Wings

Actually there are a few version in preparing this stuffed chicken wing dish. The Thai style version often used ground meat and water chestnut as filled while some will replaced it with minced shrimp. Here I am using Steamed Glutinous Rice as stuffing which is much filling. The rice filling is yummy but you need to spend sometime to steam the glutinous rice, stuffing the de-bone chicken wings then deep-fry them.

Ingredients:
12 Chicken Wings, wings part and debone
1/2 - 3/4 Cup of Glutinous Rice, soak for at least 3 hrs
2 Mushroom, soak and finely diced
1/4 Carrot, finely diced
1 - 2 Shallots, finely diced
1 Stalk Spring Onion, finely diced

Seasoning:
1.5 Tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
1/2 Teaspoon Five Spices Powder
Dash of Pepper
Dash Of Sesame Oil
70 - 100ml Water, used the water from the mushroom

Methods:
1. Preheat frying pan with oil, saute shallots until fragrant then add in the mushroom and continue to fry for another minute then pour in glutinous rice and carrots.
2. Give it a few stirs for half a minute then add in the seasoning except the sesame oil.
3. Stir for another minute until the seasonings is well mixed. Dish up into a steaming plate or bamboo basket and steam for about 40 minutes or until rice is soft and tender.
4. When the rice is done, stir in the spring onion, sesame oil, some pepper and light soy sauce to taste.
5. Cool the filling slightly before stuffing it into the chicken wing pocket. Coat them with beaten egg and corn flour then deep-fry until golden brown and serve.

Steps To Dedone Chicken Wings:
1. De-bone the chicken wings by bending backwards the joint between the drumstick and wing to loosen the tendons.
2. Then cut a ring around the top part of the drumstick and using a sharp knife, slowly scrape down against the bone to loosen the meat from the drumstick.
3. Always pushing back the skin as you scrape.
4. Now proceed to do that for the wing by first cutting off the bone of the drumstick and continue scraping down to the second joint, pushing back the skin and meat as you go.
5. Then carefully cut off the two bones of the wing and discard them.
6. Be careful not to pierce the chicken skin.
7. Repeat this for all the wings.
8. Now the chicken wings are ready for stuffing.

Notes: Marinated the chicken wing with some cornflour, pepper and light soy sauce for at least 30 minutes before stuffing in the glutinous rice.

Deep Fried Grouper With Bread

All along I have being doing Prawn Toast but recently after seeing one of the recipe which used fish instead of prawn I decide to give it a try. I bought a piece of grouper fillet From NTUC and cut it into 6 equal pieces and come out with this Deep-Fried Grouper With Bread.

Thai Lemon Grass Chicken

This dish is known for its Thai-style dish fragrance with blend of spices and herbs such as; lemongrass which is one of the unique characteristic taste of Thai dish. With the combination of lemongrass and chicken together, the special dish is infused with citrus scent and a touch of sweetness. This can also make a perfect BBQ dish as well.

Grill Mushroom With Mixed Vegetables & Tuna Mayo Tomatoes

Always wanted to try grilling some veggie so I decided to test out with the beautiful tomato and mushroom which I bought earlier. To begin with dinner, I turned the veggie into two starter dishes; Grill Portobello With Mixed Vegetables and Stuffed Tomato With Tuna Mayonnaise.

Deep-Fry Prawn Toasts

Suddenly we have the urge to eat Prawn Toast so I modify slightly from one of my old recipe and come up with this. It's took about 30 minutes from preparation to deep-fry and it definitely worth the effort when you see and try the end-result. By seeing this, one of my friend even thought I cut out this photo from one of those food magazine.

Deep-fry Lemon Fish Strips

Had this for yesterday night dinner. This is a simple and easy to prepare dish which you can try out it too.

Ingredients: (serves 2)
1 Piece of Dory Fillet
1 Cup Self-Raising Flour
1/2 Cup Milk
1/2 Cup Water
1 Egg York
1 Teaspoon Lemon Rinds

Methods:
1. Cut fillet into strips and marinate it with some pepper and extra lemon rinds.
2. Sift flour into a large bowl and gradually whisk in combined milk, water, yolk and lemon rinds until smooth and consistency of pouring cream
3. Set batter aside for 15 minutes.
4. Heat oil until a piece of bread sizzles as soon as it is added.
5. Dust fish in flour with a few pieces at a time. Dip into batter, draining off excess and deep-fry for about 3 minutes until golden and cooked through.
6. Drain on kitchen paper and keep warm then continue with remaining fish.

Note: You can do a Seafood Basket by add in Prawns, Calamari, and Chips.