Curry Chicken With Longan & Pineapple

Since this is the Deepavali week holiday and last week I have being invited for a Curry Sampling at CURRY ON! I think maybe I can share a simple and healthy Curry Recipe with everyone here. So what come in your mind when you read the heading of the post and see the photo. LONGAN + PINEAPPLE + CURRY ? ? ? ? ? ? = NICE?

From the ingredients here, you can see that it doesn't required any coconut milk or cream. All you need to get is these simple and healthy stuff which can satisfy your taste buds on curry and also help you to watch your waistline. The main ingredient that provide the fragrance is the Kaffir Lime Leaves which makes give this dish a very refreshing taste and fragrant. I have use this leaf to cook another Chicken Dish a few years back. You can click on this link for more details.

The Longan used in this recipe is from can which contain syrup, you can easily grab a can of this Longan in syrup in any supermarket or convenient store.

You will be surprised with the taste of this dish, it is something like a cross taste between Sambal and Tom Yum Chicken. It is very easy to prepared without much hassle. All you need is to cut the chicken breast meat into cubes, marinate with instant curry paste. Furthermore you can even use canned pineapple to replace the fresh type. Overall, this is a very refreshing dish because the gravy is infuse with Kaffir Lime leave aroma and Longan. It is an very appetising dish that goes well with steam rice.

Ingredients: (serves 2)
2 Tablespoons of Thai Red Curry Paste
1 Chicken Breast Meat, cut into cubes
1 Slice of Fresh Pineapple, cut into cubes
15 Longan In Syrup
2 Tablespoons of Sryup, from the longan can
1 Tomato, cut into wedges
2 Small Red Onion, cut into wedges
1/2 Tablespoon Olive Oil
4 Small Kaffir Lime Leaves, shredded

Methods:
1. Clean and trim the fat from the chicken breast, cut it into about 2" cubes.
2. Marinate the chicken with about 1 teaspoon of Thai red chilli paste and 1/2 teaspoon of light soy sauce for about 10 minutes.
3. Heat up a small saucepan with olive oil, saute the onion till fragrant.
4. Next add in half of the tomato wedges and some shredded kaffir lime leave then continue to stir-fry for another 15 second or so.
5. Spoon in the remaining chilli paste and continue to saute until fragrance then add in the marinated chicken cubes and fry till the meat is cooked through.
6. Next add in the pineapple cubes, longan, remaining tomato wedges and give it a good stir till combined.
7. Lastly stir in 2 tablespoons of syrup juice from the longan can and bring the mixture to boil for about 10 seconds.
8. Dish up and served with some balanced broccoli and steam rice.



Note:
~ You can get those instant Thai Red Chilli Paste by "Asian Home Gourmet" in most supermarket.

You can served this as a side dish or as a individual Main Course like those in the restaurant with steam rice. This is the 2nd time I tried using Longan as a ingredient in the dish. The other dish which I used Longan is "Stir-fry Pork Fillet with Longan" which you might be interested to take a look too :)

Cuisine Paradise @ Radio 100.3

Today is a very special day for both me and Rey as we are very excited in having a chance to visit the Singapore Press Holdings(SPH) for the FM 100.3 radio interview.

At about 2 weeks ago, I received a message from Dainel Ang, a part-time DJ from FM 100.3 who hosts a food programme called "Food Dairy" on FM 100.3 everyday Saturday afternoon between 3:00 - 4:00 pm. If you are keen, you can read more about him and his "Food Dairy" blog at this link.

I was very shock and excited when I received Daniel's message on asking me to do a Radio Interview for my food blog. So after fixing a suitable timing with him, today we finally meet up at SPH to do the interview. And as there is no one around to look after Rey today, I decided to bring him along to the Radio station. And our little friend is even more excited than me when we were in the recording room. Guess this incident will be rooted as one of the memorable day for both of us who gets a chance to see what is it like to be in the recording room.

When the interview starts, I knew that I was very nervous and I couldn't speak well as what I have prepared before hand. But Daniel on the other hand was very friendly and kind enough to help me with the questions so that the atmosphere became a very friend like conversation rather than official interview. And I must thank God and praise Him that Rey didn't make any noise during the whole recording process. As for the bonus you can even catch Rey's cute voice on air too :)

This interview will actually be broadcast in two different Saturday, which Part I had already being broadcast on 17 Oct 09. So if you are interest to catch Part II of Cuisine Paradise on Air at FM 100.3. Stay tune on next coming Saturday 24 October 2009 from 3:00pm -4:00pm at station FM 100.3 with Daniel Ang's Food Dairy & Ellena's Cuisine Paradise.

Lunch @ Bakerzin

What is your best way of relaxing your body and soul after facing a hectic work week. For me, the best way to relax my mind is to have a fulfilling meal that satisfy my tastebuds as well as a great dinning environment that can calm soul and takes my mind off those workload. Most important there must be a "great" dessert after meal.............

Upon reading this Bakerzin, 1 For 1 Main Course advertisement(according to the leaflet, the promotion is only available at "Jurong Point" and "North Point" branch) from TODAY newspaper, I knew I must go during my off-day. They have a new branch which had being in my area for about 6 months or so. I have not dine-in every since it open, but I love their layout and design. So with this great deal offer, I must go and try out their set lunch with the opportunity to take a break off my hectic week.

The atmosphere is great with tall glass window all around the cafe that enables the late morning bright light to shine in. We arrived around 11am and the area is still quite empty with only two or three tables occupied. Rey prefer the cushion sofa seats which are more cosy and we start glancing through the menu. The waitress who serves us is very friendly and she is keen in introducing to us the what are the dishes that suits our preference. She also invite us to try on their Free flow of homemade bread that you can either dip with extra virgin olive oil or balsamic vinegar.


This is the MAIN reason that bought me into Bakerzin this morning........ I was attracted by this "Braised Pork Belly With Japanese Rice" because I love Braised Pork Belly and from the menu, this dish give me the feeling of a "Comfort Dish" which that luxury, soft and fragrance braised pork belly lingering in my tongue. Indeed when this dish is served, it didn't disappoint me and my mum. We are both impressed by the taste and the texture of the pork belly which is so soft and juicy. The gravy is not salty compare to the usual Braised Pork Belly and it goes just nice with the steam Japanese short gain rice.

As mum wanted to have something light, she ordered this Seafood Pasta which serves with generous amount of seafood like Prawn, squid and green mussels. The tomato pasta sauce is great, the taste is not over-power with extra herbs added and the sauce is light and tasty which suits mum's tastebuds.

After a hearty meal, here comes the "Profiteroles" which we are all waiting for. This Dessert serves in a plate of 3 medium size Profiteroles, each sandwich with vanilla ice-cream, coated with a layer of chocolate sauce on top and drizzle generous amount of toasted almond flakes which add extra crunches and fragrance to the dessert. Everyone of us who tried, agreed that their vanilla ice-cream taste great. It has a very light and aroma scent of vanilla fragrant and it won't leave you with that creamy taste of ice-cream that is fattening. But there is a little setback on this dessert, we find that the puffs are a little bit too dry and hard when bite but after all it do soften a bit when soaked with the melt ice-cream :)

When we are looking at the menu, the waitress did pass us a piece of this kid's menu for Rey. I didn't know that they have such a wide range of Kid's menu. So my mum was telling me that, nowadays the young kids are very fortunate. They even have their own choice of "Kid's Menu" to select from when dinning out.

Note:
~ OFFER ONLY APPLY TO
* Jurong Point Branch #03-58
* North Point (new wing) #01-44

~ TERMS & CONDITIONS
* Second main course is of lower or equal value, offer strictly for dine-in only.
* Valid from Monday to Friday, 10.30am - 5pm (Not including eve and day of public holidays)

Moriya Japanese Cuisine

Saw a food review on this Japanese Bento stall known as "Moriya" in this week "U Weekly(优1周) - 201". This stall is located in a coffee shop at Block 417, Yishun Ave 11. They offer a wide range of Japanese Cuisine from Bento set, Ramen to Omelette Rice which you will sure to find something that suits your taste-buds for the day. Since our family loves Japanese Cuisine, we decided to give this stall a try.

Moriya, occupied a corner at one end of the coffee shop. The stall is nicely decorated with a Japanese-style outlook and they even has a glass-panel that allow customers to have a clear view of what is going on in their kitchen. We reached the area around 7pm and upon looking at the stall from far, I am already attracted by it's layout and food menu. So without much delay, we decided to settle for these two items on their menu list.

We order a set of "Yakiniku Beef Set" which is worth for it's cost at S$5.70. It consists generous amount of Yakiniku Beef which is very soft and tender and it also gives a very fragrance aroma which I believed is sesame oil and spring onion. This Yakiniku Beef Set served with a good portion of seasoned Green Soy Bean(Edamame), Japanese short-grain rice, Chuka Wakame (seaweed salad) and a bowl of hearty Miso soup.

Other than bento set, we also order a bowl of "Mixed Seafood Ramen" which cost S$7.90 and you can have 3 Half-shell Scallop, 2 medium size Prawn, a decent piece of grill salmon and half a portion of Japanese-style soft-boiled egg. So far, this is can be consider as a decent bowl of good Ramen for a non Japanese restaurant standard. We love the soup base which is very light, fresh sweet in taste. Although the soup do taste sweet but I think it's not from the added MSG as we don't feel any thirsty after taking the food.

They about more than 10 different varieties of Ramen in the stall that you will sure to find something you prefer. As for the Ramen, they also provide a very special Chilli Paste which we love it. Their Chilli paste taste sort of like our "Belacan Chilli" but with extra ingredients that is great to add into the Ramen soup base.