Chicken with Lemon and Soy Sauce

Ahhhhh, busy busy busy. Although its still the first week of our Easter vacation, it seems like this isn't going to be much of a holiday. Various deadlines for projects, applications, coursework, etc are coming up, and I think we're all getting a little frazzled. *sigh* And the thing I want to do most when I feel like this is cook up some comfort food like cookies or muffins or something. Sigh. Figures. Hope I'll be able to manage it, but oh well. We'll see, I guess. Work should take first priority, hehe. ;)

Anyway, the boys have also been rather unimaginative in their cooking, probably because of the same reason. Or maybe not. Since I always seem to catch them playing games of their computers.

...

Anyway, yesterday, Hadi made the exact same dish he cooked up about a week or so ago. We're not out of the Rempah Sop yet, so I believe we'll be having it pretty often. The one advantage of it, I suppose, is that there's very little to wash up. And the boys seem to like it a lot.


And today, Justin made what he calls a "random dish" consisting mainly of soy sauce and lemons. Unfortunately, I will not be able to tell you how much of each he used. Probably 90% soy sauce, 5% lemon juice, and a dash of everything else, from what it tasted like. :P Here we go.

What you need:
3 chicken thighs
Sweet soy sauce (kicap manis)
Lemon juice
Worcestershire sauce
Garlic granules
Ginger powder
Extra water

What you do:

1. Marinate the chicken in all the ingredients except water.
2. Boil the water in a saucepan and add the chicken with marinade sauce.
3. Simmer until soup is thick and syrupy, and chicken is cooked through.

Apparently, when he first boiled the chicken, the whole thing turned very frothy, almost white. The boys guessed that this was due to the lemon juice, but I suppose we'll never know.

The dish ... wasn't too bad. It tasted almost like normal ayam kicap, except for the slight tang of lemon. Hadi claimed that it burned the back of his throat, but it really wasn't that strong. I barely tasted it. Other than that, it tastes like any other ayam kicap. I would up the lemon, or maybe even use lime.

And um... yeah. That's it for now, I guess? :P

Quote of the day: I am not a glutton. I am an explorer of food.

Buttermilk Buns

Wa-hoo~ Finally, the infamous buttermilk bun of Brunei! I've come across this recipe (in another Bruneian food blog, which sadly seems to be inactive these days) about a month or so ago, but haven't had the time to make them - until today!

A few people have been asking about buttermilk toast (specifically Taurean's) but I have had no idea on how to make the buttermilk filling. In this recipe, you make the bread as well as the filling, but I don't think there would be any harm in using the filling to spread on toast (in a toaster oven, or course). I modified the recipe very slightly from the original one, as I don't have as accurate a scale as what the original baker has. So, here we go~

What you need:
Soup dough:
90g strong white flour
65mL water
40g salted butter
5g sugar

Main dough:
210g strong white flour
60g cake flour (I substituted with 40g plain flour, and 20g cornflour)
20g skimmed milk powder
40g caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
6g instant dried yeast
1 small egg, lightly beaten (about 40g without shell)
85mL water
85g "soup dough"
25g unsalted butter

Filling:
70g unsalted butter
30g icing sugar
Pinch of salt
1 small egg, lightly beaten (about 40g without shell)
1 tablespoon cornflour
80g skimmed milk powder

What you do:
Soup dough:

1. Put flour in a big bowl.
2. Put the remaining ingredients in a saucepan. Heat gently until simmering. Turn off heat and pour into the flour.
3. Quickly stir to mix and shape into dough. Cover with clingfilm and leave to refrigerate until cool (it says 24 hours, but I gave it about 2 hours)

Main dough:

1. Put all ingredients except butter in a big bowl in the order specified. Add in butter, and knead on a floured surface until smooth and elastic - about 5-10 minutes. Place the dough back into the bowl and cover with clingfilm.
2. Allow to rise for about 40-60 minutes in a warm place or until dough has increased to 2-3 times its original size. (As with the original recipe, I placed the bowl in a SWITCHED OFF oven above a baking tray filled with hot water).
3. When ready, gently knock-back the dough to release the air. Divide into 9 portions. Roll into balls, place on a non-stick baking tray and prove for another 10 minutes.
4. Flatten the dough and put in filling. Roll back into a ball. (See below) Place on the baking sheet and allow to rise for another 40 minutes, or until it is twice its original size.
5. Bake in a preheated 180 C oven for 15 minutes.

Filling:

1. Cream butter, sugar and salt until creamy.
2. Add egg in batches, mixing well each time.
3. Stir in cornflour and skimmed milk powder, mixing until well-combined.

This is only my second attempt at making bread, after last time's rather unsuccessful baked jam doughnuts. Of course, I was a bit worried, especially since this recipe was slightly more complicated than the jam doughnuts, which only needed one rising. This recipe, on the other hand, needed THREE risings. Which makes this a pretty long recipe, really.

But it was soooooo worth it! The resulting bread was soft and fluffy and tasty - unlike the tough, tasteless dough of the jam doughnuts. Either its because of the use of strong white flour instead of plain flour... or maybe because of the second "soup" dough? I don't know enough about bread, so I wouldn't know. (I glean most of the tips from reading/watching Yakitate!! Japan, a Japanese comic about making bread. Really funny! A recommended read, ahahaha.) But yeah, the bread was really tender, and I didn't even knead it all that properly (I think). It rose very nicely as well. The unbaked dough was very soft, although a bit wet from the hot water, hehe.

But, the main point of this, of course, was the filling. I actually made a few mistakes there. I didn't cream the butter and sugar properly, making it a bit lumpy. I used SALTED butter, and should've cancelled out the extra salt, which I didn't. I think I used a bit too much egg. But but but! The result was still good! Not excellent, but good! The buttermilk filling was a touch too salty and gooey, but I could definitely taste the buttermilk taste, hehe. In the picture above, it looks very wet, but it dries and firms up as the bun cools. Hadi, of course, really really liked it.

This particular recipe was definitely a success, I must say. Not as good as the ones you can buy from the shops (yet) but when you're in a place where you can't find buttermilk buns... hehe, this is definitely a good enough substitute. So... Yay~ :D

Quote of the day: The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight.

Baked Cheddar and Tomato Rice

Mmmmmm, cheese...

I was unsure on what to cook today. I usually plan it out, but the weekend didn't leave me much time to decide on today's dinner. So last night, when trying to get to sleep, I was thinking of what would be nice to have. I got to thinking that chicken pieces, chicken salami and cheese with a dash of tomato sauce, then baked together might be nice and had pretty much decided on that. But, the next morning, I remembered this dish with tomato and cheese and rice in it in one of my "recipes to try" collection. So I thought that might be slightly better and filed away the other one for use later.

The original recipe was actually completely vegetarian, but my housemates would bite my head off if I served a dish with no meat for dinner. So I modified it slightly to add the chicken and salami - so I pretty much had the dish I had in mind anyway! Haha. :D I also increased the amounts. It was supposed to serve 4, but I highly doubt they had people like Justin (and me and Hadi for that matter!) in mind. So here we go!

What you need:
Boneless, skinless chicken - cut into small pieces (I used about 4-5 drumsticks)
1 tablespoon tomato sauce
2 teaspoons tomato puree
Black pepper, for seasoning
Pinch of salt, for seasoning

1 onion, thinly sliced
1 red pepper (capsicum), seeded and sliced
2 tablespoons sunflower oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
500g rice (it said long-grain, but our current stock is short-grain Japanese rice)
1 litre vegetable or chicken stock
400g can chopped tomatoes
3 cm chicken salami, chopped (optional)
150g mature cheddar cheese, cubed or grated

What you do:

1. Mix the chicken with the tomato sauce, puree and season well. Set aside.
   
2. Turn the oven to 180 C. Fry the onion and pepper in the oil in a non-stick wok until soft and golden. Add the garlic and cook for a further minute.
3. Stir in the rice until completely soaked in oil, then add the stock and tomatoes and season. Bring to boil and simmer for 5-10 minutes until nearly all the liquid has been absorbed. Mix in the salami, if using.
   
4. Pour the mixture into a greased baking dish. Smooth out the top and add the chicken pieces. Press onto the top in a single layer. Scatter over the cheese to cover the chicken.
5. Cover the dish with aluminium foil and bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the rice is tender. Remove the foil and bake for another 5 minutes. Leave to stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Mmmmmmmm. This dish looked super tasty in the original recipe, All melty cheese, with a dash of red here and there. Hadi and Justin were a bit doubtful about using tomato and cheese with rice, as that is usually reserved for pasta, but I do think they would go well together. How can you go wrong with tomato and cheese?

And sure enough, it was really nice! The rice had a touch of tomato flavour in it which went really really well with the cheese. Unfortunately, I didn't have much cheese to spare, so there probably wasn't enough cheese in there. Or, it could be the cheese fanatic in me that's speaking, hehe. Hadi agreed, although that's not saying much either.

Hadi said that he didn't really like tomato with rice, but the dish was "acceptable". So it looks like he didn't like it as much as I did. :P But I, on the other hand, really really liked it! It was really nice! Definitely my kind of dish, hehe. I'm pretty sure I would be making more of this (for myself, maybe). If I did, I would probably add more cheese. Maybe even mix some in with the rice, before adding more at the top. Yum! Just like pasta. :D Also, I actually don't like peppers all that much, but the red pepper here was all nice and tender from the baking. You could barely taste it, but it gave a nice spiciness to the whole dish.

And, the rice was slightly soggier than I would like, so I might reduce the amount of water next time. I prefer my rice a bit firmer. Hadi also complained that it wasn't "flavoursome" enough, but I thought it was just right. Oh well. If you do decide to make it, just adjust the seasoning to your taste. Add some tomato sauce or puree or something, if you think its not tomato-ey enough.

But the one thing it definitely needs is more cheese. Oh yes. ;)

Quote of the day: Age is something that doesn't matter, unless you are a cheese.

Crispy Fried Noodles

After a veru busy weekdn in London, where all we seemed to do was eat eat eat, it was quite a relief to get back to Bristol. I never enjoyed waking up hungry here, but I kind of miss that growling your tummy makes when it is in need of nourishment. In London, even if you were feeling just a little bit peckish, you were given a whole meal, or a whole load of snacks. It seemed our tummies were always filled up to the brim there, which is a slightly uncomfortable feeling. SO much so that even when I got back to Bristol, two hours and a three hour bus ride after lunch, I was still feeling full! Not sure when I will ever feel hungry again. But I suppose I shouldn't complain. There are always people who say,"If the people in Africa were put in your position..."

But anyway, I'm getting side-tracked here. Let's see what we had for dinner. Even though Justin had the whole weekend to think up of a dish, typically he left it to the last minute. This time, he decided to use egg noodles. But when he only just realised that we were out of oyster sauce... Sigh. Oh well, it seems like he managed to improvise somewhat. Here we go!

What you need:
Boneless, skinless chicken - cut into bite-sized pieces
Egg noodles
1 onion, sliced finely
Kicap manis (sweet soy sauce)
Sweet Thai chilli sauce
Garlic granules
MSG
Sesame oil
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon curry paste (or powder, if you prefer)
1 tablespoon of salsa

What you do:

1. In a wok, heat up some oil. Add the chicken pieces and onion, and fry until the chicken is cooked through and the onions softened.
2. Meanwhile, place the uncooked noodles into a strainer/colander and boil 2 litres of water. When ready, pour the water over the noodles. They will soften enough to be eaten. Alternatively, cook using the instructions provided on the packet.
3. Add the noodles into the pot, and add all the seasonings. Of course, Justin doesn't know how much he put in, so unfortunately, you'll have to do some guesswork here. The amounts provided are the ones that I actually saw him put in.
4. Taste the noodles and adjust the seasonings. Fry on high heat until noodles are crisp. Serve immediately.

I liked the texture of these noodles. They were quite crispy, hence the name, hehe. I usually don't like egg noodles all that much, but this dish was quite nice, texture-wise.

Taste-wise, however, Justin thinks that it was missing something. Probably the oyster sauce, though I don't usually use oyster sauce in my mee goreng. I thought it was quite okay, although it could've used some improvement. For one thing, he didn't mix the curry or salsa properly, so there were little flavour bombs occasionally. And... I'm not sure what else, but the flavour was a little strange. Not missing something. Just a weird combination. Or, ir could be those egg noodles, meh. :P

Quote of the day: Spaghetti... I can't eat spaghetti, there's too many of them. No matter how hungry I am, 1000 of something is too many. I'll have 1000 pieces of noodles.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

A couple of months ago, Hadi made a sweet and sour chicken from a bottle of pre-made sauce. Since then, there have been some requests for a proper sweet and sour chicken recipe, but I haven't had the chance to look around yet. CookieMonster, listening to pleas on the chatbox, kindly posted up his version of sweet and sour fish. Yay~ I decided to try his version out, of course, substituting it with chicken instead. So here we go!

What you need:
Boneless skinless chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces

Cornflour, for coating

Batter:
1 cup flour
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon curry powder (we used curry paste)
Pinch of paprika and black pepper
One 330 mL bottle of sparkling water

Vegetables:
1 onion, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced finely
1 green pepper, cut into bite-sized chunks
1/2 cup pineapples, cut into bite-sized chunks

Sauce:
2 tablespoons tomato sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon sweet chilli sauce
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Dash of black pepper
1/2 teaspoon chicken stock granules
100 mL water

What you do:

1. To make the batter, mix all the dry ingredients together, then mix in the sparkling drink. Mix until just combined and let rest for at least 15 minutes, but not for more than an hour.
   
2. Coat the chicken pieces lightly in cornflour, and shake off the excess. Dip into the above batter, and deepfry a few pieces at a time. To keep them crispy, keep the cooked chicken pieces in a warm oven.
3. Meanwhile, heat some oil in a wok. Stir-fry the onions until softened, then add the garlic. Fry for another minute or so. Stir in the sauce ingredients, and mix until well combined. Simmer until thick and syrupy, then add the green pepper pieces. Simmer for a couple of minutes.
   
4. Lastly, add the pineapple pieces. Mix quickly until coated in sauce, then turn off heat.
5. Pour sauce over the chicken pieces, and serve immediately.

I more or less followed CookieMonster's recipe for the sauce, but decided to leave out some of the vegetables, since they're quite expensive here. Any more spending, and I would have been over budget, haha. Well, not that we have a budget. But Hadi and Justin prefer to keep it under a pound per person per meal. :D Plus, some of the ingredients were not easily available. Oh well, never mind.

Also, I couldn't find unflavoured sparkling water, and decided to use a lime and lemon flavoured one instead. :$ You could taste this in the cooked batter, and it went with the sauce quite well, actually. Since that also has lemon juice, hehe. The batter was... very interesting. The baking powder made it really fluffy, while the sparkling water (I'm guessing) made it really really crispy! Nice! But it was so fluffy, that chicken pieces about the size of my finger would be about the size of 4 fingers by the time it was done cooking, hehe. Reminds me of cucur ayam a bit, onyl cucur ayam doesn't expand so much.

In fact, they were so big, that I decided not to use all the chicken I set aside for tonight's dinner. Which was lucky, because I was just barely able to mix in the chicken with the sauce. Which is why my picture above looks a bit dry, ahahaha.

Anyway, Hadi and Justin really liked the dish. It's definitely their kind of meal, what with the pineapples and green pepper. They were in fact surprised that I was making this kind of dinner, since I don't eat pineapples or green pepper, ahahaha. Their taste did manage to blend in nicely into the sauce though, so even though I didn't eat them, I could still taste them. And that was ok. :)

Hadi said that this kind of batter would probably go better on its own though, as in, without a sauce. Its more than fluffy enough already, haha. So I might just try frying the chicken in normal cornflour next time. I was just curious as to how CookieMonster's batter tasted like. ;) But thanks for the recipe! It was really yummy, and I'm sure I'll make it again someday, hehe. If you minus all the veggies, the sauce ingredients should already be in your kitchen. :D

Quote of the day: I can't cook. I use a smoke alarm as a timer

Roti John

Yay~ Today is my first proper day of vacation! I had my very last lecture ever as an undergraduate on Monday, and on Tuesday (yesterday), I had to do a presentation on my final year practical project. I was really not looking forward to that, but surprisingly, it went really well! Even my supervisor who is usually very particular about things said it was really good. That was a pleasant surprise. So woohoo!

Anyway. I actually wanted to make buttermilk buns today. I even went out and bought the flour yesterday. But! I forgot to get skimmed milk powder, which was part of the ingredient list. I don't even know whether they sell it or not. I guess they should. But anyway. I really wanted to make something nice today, so I decided to make ... Roti John!


This is another one of my favorites from Brunei, and I'm quite surprised that I haven't featured it here yet. So here we go!

What you need:
Minced chicken
Shallots, chopped finely - about the same size pieces as the chicken

Eggs, beaten

Salt, for seasoning
White pepper, for seasoning
Oil, for frying

Slicced hotdog/sausage buns, burger buns, or sandwich buns - I used sandwich buns, which are quite similar to burger buns, only smaller.

What you do:

1. Season the minced chicken with salt and pepper.
2. Heat up some oil in a wok or frying pan. Add the shallots, fry until fragrant and slightly softened. Add the chicken, and fry until cooked through. Set the chicken and shallot mixture aside.
3. Season the beaten egg with more salt and pepper, and add some of the chicken mixture. You want the mixture to be a lot of chicken, with just enoguh egg to hold it together when it cooks.
   
4. Add some more oil to the pan (unless you're using a non-stick one). Wait for it to heat up, then carefully spoon some of the chicken mixture into the pan, in the shape of the bread that you are using. (like, round if you're using burger buns, and longish, if you're using sausage buns). Immediately press the bread onto the egg.
5. Press the bread down occasionally while frying to flatten it. Fry the Roti John until the egg is as cooked as you like it. If you like it crisper, bake in an oven (we used a toaster oven) for about 5 minutes or so.

And Ta-dah~

Why is it called Roti John anyway? But anyway, I don't really like eating Roti John that you can buy from all those gerais (stalls) because they usually add a lot of mayo, and veggies sometimes. Not my taste. But the first time Ibu made this at home, I really liked it! Hehe. I've made it once in awhile, but its usually not as nice, for some reason. But, my Roti John this time went surprisingly well!

Maybe that was because of the bun I used. I usually find sausage or burger buns a bit too dry, but this sandwich bun was nice and soft and fluffy. The chicken and egg was also yummy. I like my Roti John straight from the pan, all warm and fluffy. Some people, like Hadi, like it crispy, so they prefer to bake it for a bit. It does get nice and crispy, but sometimes, its too dry for me.

I made this with a wok (flat-bottomed) but in some parts, it was a bit awkward to get to the bread. So ideally, you would make this in a large frying pan, or even one of those flat ... metal things that you put over the stove. I don't know what you call it, haha. I think Ibu uses that? Or I could be mistaken, hmmm....

Anyway. Hadi and Justin are going through "grading" for tae kwon do tonight, where they have a chance to get raised to another belt level. So good luck to them!

Quote of the day: The wonderful world of home appliances now makes it possible to cook indoors with charcoal and outdoors with gas.

Dinners by the Boys

Haiz. Long time no update. Though it doesn't mean that we haven't been eating, but it does mean that we have been eating some rather boring stuff. It's been awhile, so I thought I might as well do a short post on what we've been having. So here we go.

• Friday, 16th March

Justin made yet another version of his Copycat Tex's chicken, but with no changes except the addition of slightly under a teaspoon of MSG. Yes, MSG. He was that desperate. We didn't really taste much of a difference. Probably because me and Hadi were a bit wary of using too much, since we've never really used it before. We probably took in about a pinch each, but Justin actually wanted to put in a tablespoon! Sigh.

• Saturday, 17th March

Hadi used a bottled sauce called "Reggae Reggae Sauce" to marinate the chicken in. Its slogan was "put some music into your food!" or something to that effect. Slightly amusing, hahahaha. :D But the sauce itself was nothing special. Tasted vaguely of Ayam Bakar Tomato, only with a slightly different flavour. Tasted rather familiar though.

• Today, Monday, 19th March

And today, Hadi used a few tablespoons of Soup Powder (or Rempah Sop) to make a soup-based dish with potatoes and fried onions and shallots. The soup was nice and salty, although it would probably have gone better with beef, haha. The dish itself smelled like beef while it was cooking in fact. Justin complained that it was "unnatural", but he liked the dish all the same.

And that's all from me for today! Boring week, isn't it? Sigh. Hopefully, some more interesting dishes will be on the way. :)

Quote of the day: I no longer prepare food or drink with more than one ingredient.

Crunchy Walker's Chicken

I've mentioned before that one of my favorite "snacks" here is Walker's Sensations Thai Sweet Chilli Crisps. I've tried making a recipe based on their description on the back of the packet, but it wasn't close at all. So how's this... actually using the crisps themselves IN the chicken. Or rather, in the chicken. This was a last minute idea, haha. I had no idea what else to cook. I have come across recipes that use potato crisps (keropok basically) but they usually use ready-salted crisps. :P I only had Walker's with me, but feel free to substitute with your favorite flavour. :) Here we go!

What you need:
3 boneless chicken thighs
Dried chilli flakes, to taste
1 tablespoon tomato sauce
1/2 tablespoon light soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1 150g packet of (Walker's) crisps

What you do:

1. Mix the chicken with the chilli flakes, tomato sauce and soy sauces, and set aside for about 15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, crush the crisps into as fine pieces as you can.
3. Press the pieces of crisps onto the chicken so that they stick.
4. Bake in a preheated 180 C oven for about 40 minutes, or until cooked through. Or, even better, fry the chicken in some oil until cooked through and crispy.

I actually had my oven set at 200 C without realizing it. Maybe because of that, my crisps got a little burnt, as you can see. But we could still taste the flavour of the crisps, so all was good! It would probably have been better if it was fried. Oh, and with smaller pieces too. I was too lazy to crush them properly, haha.

The chicken itself was nice! I didn't really taste the chilli, probably was being a bit too careful with it, haha. But the tomato ketchup and soy sauces flavoured the chicken nicely! And it went quite well with the crisps too, burnt as they were. If some of you decide to make this dish, feel free to replace the seasonings with those of your choice, that you think would go better with your flavour of crisps. :$

I had some crisps left over though, so I just plunked those on our plates as a "side dish", haha. Eating keropok (crisps) with rice was an unusual experience, but it wasn't too bad. I liked making a sandwich thingie with some of the pieces and a small piece of chicken as well. Yum!

Not our healthiest dinner, perhaps. But hey, in my defense, at the very least, it was baked instead of fried. Hahaha. ;)

Quote of the day: Cooking is at once child's play and adult joy. And cooking done with care is an act of love.

Udon with Cabbage and Chicken

Whoopsie! Without realizing it, we ran out of rice for today, and the two of them were apparently too busy to buy some more today. (And I can't carry 10 kilos of rice for longer than a few minutes :P Seconds, even. Haha.) So the only choice left was pasta or noodles. Luckily, I had a pack of udon noodles in the cupboards, so udon it is! Here we go!

What you need:
3 boneless pieces of chicken, cut into small bite-sized pieces - I used drumsticks

Marinade:
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon kicap manis (sweet soy sauce)
2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
2 teaspoons ginger powder (or 1 cm fresh ginger, diced)
2 teaspoons garlic granules (or 2 cloves fresh garlic, diced)

1 onion, sliced
1 dried chilli, sliced
1/4 of a head of cabbage, sliced as finely as you can
3 spring onions, sliced on the diagonal

1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon dark soy sauce
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 tablespoons kicap manis (sweet soy sauce)
1 teaspoon ginger powder
1 cup water, mixed with 2 teaspoons cornflour

1 pack udon noodles (400g dried noodles) - cooked according to directions

What you do:

1. Mix the ingredients for the marinade together. Place chicken in a bowl, and pour the marinade over the chicken. Mix thoroughly, and set aside for 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, heat some oil in a wok. Fry the chicken, onion and dried chilli, until chicken is cooked through.
3. Add the cabbage, then all the rest of the sauces (with water). Simmer until cabbage is cooked and softened.
4. Place the chicken and cabbage mixture into another bowl and add the udon noodles into the wok. Pour the cabbage and chicken over the noodles, stirring until mixed thoroughly. Sprinkle over the spring onions, heat for about a minute, then serve immediately.

Woooo. That was a long ingredient list. But it looks simpler than it is, really. Most of my udon recipes have been stir-fry "dry" dishes, if you know what I mean. But udon is sometimes eaten as a soup, so I thought it might be nice to have some liquid in it this time. Plus, its easier to cook the cabbage. This was basically a copy of the Chicken and Cabbage with Oyster Sauce, only with udon in it. :)

Like most of the udon dishes we've had, this was very very flavoursome. Sooo good! The noodles soaked up the sauce nicely, but there was still plenty left over at the bottom of the pot. There wasn't a lot of chicken pieces, and I didn't get much of the cabbage either, but that was okay. The noodles were more than good enough. :D

Actually, Hadi didn't like the soup all that much. He said it was too... "soupy". I have no idea what that means. But he said that it was much nicer when it was dry. Oh well, it was something to try anyway. Plus, I also wanted the water to cook the cabbage, so... (I didn't actually have any of the soup, haha. Like my rice, I prefer most things I eat to be dry as well :P)

This was definitely a nice change from rice. :) :) :) Harder to cook though, haha. Last year, I needed TWO woks to mix everything properly! o.0 Seems a little bit better this year though... Particularly with this one, since very little mixing is needed. You just pour everything over the noodles. :) And that's it from me for today~

Quote of the day: The ambition of every good cook must be to make something very good with the fewest possible ingredients.

Baked Curry Chicken

Well, here's a novel idea of cooking kari ayam (chicken curry). You usually simmer the chicken over the curry (amongst other things) in a pot, yeah? This time, Hadi took the curry paste from last time, added some water, mixed the chicken in and poured the whole thing into a shallow baking dish. Everything was easy sailing from then - he just baked it for about 40 minutes (skin-side down), the usual time for a roast.

And how did it turn out, heh. The chicken was a bit bland on the inside, but that was not a problem because there was plenty of gravy to sop it up with. I also had a piece of bread to mop up the gravy with. Yums~ The chicken itself was more or less similar to the one last time though, heh. Though I suppose this seems easier. Since you don't have to stir and stuff, I guess. It would have been nicer if the skin was a bit crisper, but since Hadi put it top down, it just soaked in the sauce. Which is good also. In any case, this was much better than the boys' last attempt at roasting curry chicken last year.

Oh, and as you might have spotted, Hadi decided to throw in another batch of his tongkengs. Heh. I tihnk he added extra stuff on it. Probably mixed herbs, from the looks of it.

Quote of the day: Buy a man a burger, feed him for a day. Teach him how to make a great burger, he's got good eats for life.

Saucy Microwave Chicken

I suppose that I should be grateful that it isn't curry or tandoori. But really. When Justin asked how long he should put chicken in the microwave to cook, my heart sank. How low can he go??? He actually wanted to bake this, but a bout of laziness struck him and he decided to microwave it instead. Sigh.

What you need:
3 pieces chicken thighs

Random amounts of:
Light soy sauce
Oyster sauce
Worcestershire sauce
Barbecue sauce
Sesame oil

1 tablespoon sesame seeds

What you do:

1. Mix everything in a microwave-safe bowl, coating the chicken with the sauces.
2. Cover the bowl with a piece of cling film and pierce a few holes into the film.
3. Cook in a microwave, stirring occasionally, until chicken juices run clear. (No, I don't know how long he put it in there for, he didn't keep track either. Probably 10-20 minutes. Just keep on piercing the chicken, until it looks done). Serve.

And, um, yeah. While he was preparing this, I was actually looking forward to it, because the sesame oil smelled quite good. When he said that he was thinking of marinating it (although for only 10 minutes), it sounded even better. But he *had* to spoil it by spotting the microwave and deciding to cook using that instead.

Not that I have anything against microwaves. He did this once before, and it was quite okay, I suppose. You have to be careful not to overcook and to stir once in awhile, other some parts of the chicken would become tought and chewy. (That happened to the edges of this batch). But yes, it was tasty and the sauce that collected at the bottom of the bowl was very good.

But. I don't particularly like this chicken. The insides was okay - juicy and a bit bland, but there's always the sauce to mop up. The skin was a bit iffy, I prefer it nice and crisp, like if you bake or fry it. ;) Haha, maybe I am biased against microwaves after all. To me, they should be used for reheating stuff, maybe for melting butter and chocolate, but to cook? :( No no.

Sigh. Oh well, at least it wasn't tandoori or curry. Must keep that in mind. -_-;; Plus, there was very little to wash up :D

Quote of the day: It is ludicrous to read the microwave direction on the boxes of food you buy, as each one will have a disclaimer: 'THIS WILL VARY WITH YOUR MICROWAVE.' Loosely translated, this means, 'You’re on your own, Bernice.

Fried Chicken with Spring Onions

Last summer in Brunei, I made a dish called Saegson Chun, which is a Korean dish of fried fish fillets, seasoned with spring onions and sesame. I really really liked it, but because fish in UK is rather expensive, I haven't tried making it here. I bought spring onions yesterday, meaning to use them in the Butter Oats Chicken, but I completely forgot about them! Since I had to cook again today, I thought I might as well copy that recipe only with chicken this time, and see how it turns out. I modified the recipe only by very little. :) Here we go!

What you need:
3 boneless, skinless chicken pieces - I used boneless thighs
3 spring onions
15 mm knob fresh ginger - I used ginger powder
1 tablespoon roasted sesame seeds (I used white sesame seeds)
Ground black pepper, to taste
Pinch of salt
Chilli flakes, to taste
1 teaspoon chicken stock granules
2 teaspoons sesame oil
3 tablespoons light soy sauce

Flour, for coating
Oil, for shallow frying

What you do:

1. Chop the spring onions and ginger as finely as you can. With a mortar and pestle, crush the sesame seeds into a powder.
2. Mix all the ingredients (except for the flour and oil) together and pour over the chicken.
3. Mix well to cover the chicken completely, and set aside for 15 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, heat up some oil for shallow frying in a frying pan. Coat the chicken pieces in flour carefully. Try to get the spring onions etc to remain on the chicken.
5. Fry the chicken pieces in the oil until golden brown and cooked through on each side. Drain thoroughly and serve.

I used just enough oil to cover half the chicken (although the amount decreased dramatically once I finished. Hence, the draining). Because of that maybe, the flour coating wasn't very ... erm, strong. It kind of flaked easily, and only some parts were crisp. So if you can, deep-frying the chicken would be a good idea. :) Either that, or I really don't know how to fry chicken properly, haha.

Aside from that though, the chicken was delicious! I love spring onions, and in this case, they go very well with the ginger. I couldn't really taste the sesame this time though. I think I added too much ginger powder, haha. It was still very good nevertheless. The chilli flakes gave a nice zing to the dish, and although I would have preferred white pepper, the black pepper was tasty as well.

I was actually very tempted to bake this instead of frying it. But it probably wouldn't have turned out as nice. :P I really really liked this, but I really can't be bothered to use so much oil each time. It was a very easy dish though. From deboning the chicken to serving it up, the whole thing took less than 45 minutes. Which is an achievement. Although I seem to breaking the record of my "fastest dinner to prepare" every week, haha. The actual frying of the chicken only took about 10-15 minutes. Deboning the chicken probably took another 10 minutes. The rest of the time was taken by preparing the rest, including the rice. So yes, another easy dish! Yay~

Quote of the day: To ask women to become unnaturally thin is to ask them to relinquish their sexuality.

Butter Oat Chicken

This is another recipe from Aunidayini's blog, hoho. She originally made it with prawns, and at that point, I was tempted to try it with chicken already. But, she then modified it and used it with chicken. The results were apparently very good, so of course, I have to try it now. :D So here it is~

What you need:
Boneless chicken pieces - I used 3 thighs and 3 drumsticks, deboned
Salt
Ground white pepper
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
1 tablespoon butter

50g butter
1 tablespoon oil
10-20 curry leaves
2 dried chillies, sliced
3 cloves garlic, chopped finely
1 cup oats
Sugar (I used demerera sugar)
Chicken stock granules
Salt

What you do:

1. Cut the chicken into bite-sized chunks. Add the light soy sauce, and season well with salt and white pepper.
2. Melt the 1 tablespoon of butter in a wok and heat until bubbling. Add the chicken and fry until cooked through. Set aside.
3. In the same wok, melt the 50g of butter together with the tablespoon of oil. Once hot enough, add in the garlic, dried chillies and curry leaves. Fry until fragrant.
4. Add in the oats, adding more oil if necessary. Fry until golden brown and crispy.
5. Season with chicken stock and sugar. Add in the chicken pieces, and mix well to cover in the oats. Serve immediately.
   

This was modified only slightly from the original recipe. I stir-fried the chicken, as opposed to her deep-frying (the prawns). Yes, its again with the price of oil, haha. I also changed the seasonings of the chicken a little bit - using light soy sauce to give it a bit of flavour, and using butter to fry it for the same reason. I also used dried chillies, because those were all I had. I also used demerera sugar, because this had big granules and would give a nice crunch in the oats mixture. :D Same thing with the chicken stock granules.

My housemates were a bit worried when I told them that I would be using oats for this dinner, as ... well, they usually use oats as cereal or porridge. (Me? I don't touch them :P) To tell the truth, I was a bit worried as well since A was coming over for dinner and its not really good to try out new dishes when guests are over, is it? I was also very worried when frying the oats in the butter, as they got all bubbly and looked like they were about to turn into porridge. So I just added in more oats and hoped for the best. :)

When I tasted the oats separately without the chicken, I thought they tasted a bit funny. Kind of powdery. I asked Hadi is this was because I used his "quick-cooking" oats, but he assured me that oats generally tasted like that. So... okay. I got him to taste it, and he claimed that it was delicious, so that gave me some hope. So I just mixed in the chicken, and served it up~

And ....
It was a hit! The others loved it, particularly the oats. It gave a good texture, apparently, since it was quite crisp. A said that it was "interesting" and I asked her if that was a good or bad thing, haha, since "interesting" can be interpreted in different ways. :P But apparently, it was in a good way, so yay~ They all liked the oats, like I said, and said that it was a unique way of using oats. Apparently, none of them (and me either) have eaten chicken with oats before, so this was new. And a yummy one as well :D I'll probably make this again some day. Hmmm... wonder how it will go if the chicken pieces were coated in flour and then deep-fried? Probably will make it even crunchier right? *drool* :$

Justin really liked chewing on the dried chilli pieces, but I found the whole thing a bit too spicy. Hadi and A liked the spiciness though, I think, haha. Our new dried chillies are very potent, I keep on forgetting that. In our old batch, I used to use about 3 each time, and you can barely taste the spiciness. But this one, even with one, its way too much. I actually wanted to add in dried chilli flakes, but luckily I didn't. :P Oh, and Justin also liked the garlic pieces mixed in the oats, which got all crunchy and golden brown from the frying. He even suggested I make a dish with garlic pieces instead of the oats next time.

Haha, I don't think so. :P

Quote of the day: You know it's a good recipe if it starts with a stick of butter.

(That's 113g of butter, in case you didn't know ;) )

MILO Chocolate Chip Cookies v5

Ever since I made the version 4 chocolate chip cookies, which has Horlicks in the cookie dough, I've been wanting to make a version with MILO in it. Speaking of MILO, wikipedia has some very interesting facts about it. Like, did you know that Malaysia consumes 90% of the world's MILO? Hahaha, that is some awesome love of MILO they have!

Me, I also like MILO. I like to drink it, but even better, I like to eat it. Sometimes I just grab a spoon or two of MILO and gobble it down. (haha, very bad habit, yes, I know :$) So the idea of having MILO in cookies was appealing. But try as I might, I couldn't find a good enough recipe for MILO cookies, so I though I'd try and make a recipe myself. Drawing together the various chocolate chip cookies that I had, I decided to modify a particular recipe for Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies, which has cocoa powder in the dough. Sounds promising. Woohoo! Here we go!

What you need:
250g salted butter, softened
1/3 cups caster sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
3 small eggs
3/4 tablespoon vanilla extract (powder)
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup MILO
1 teaspoon baking soda
200g semisweet chocolate chips

What you do:

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees C.
2. In a bowl, cream butter and sugar until just combined.
3. Add in the eggs one at a time and beat to mix well after each addition. Add in the vanilla extract and beat well to mix.
4. Combine the flour and baking soda. Add into the butter mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until just combined.
5. Add in both the MILO and chocolate chips and stir until just incorporated.
6. Use teaspoons to drop onto baking sheets, and bake in preheated oven for 8-10 minutes or until just set.
7. Cool slightly on the baking sheets before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

From the original recipe, I increased the amount of MILO (originally unsweetened cocoa powder) because I really wanted to taste the MILO in the cookies. Because of that, I reduced the amount of flour, to keep things from getting too dry. I also reduced the amount of sugar, because MILO is much sweeter, of course. But I added in an extra egg, because I set aside 3 eggs for this batch, plus to keep things more wet. Because I really added in a lot more MILO. Hahaha.

Now, I usually don't like to taste things before they are finished cooking, but I've gotten over that habit recently, and have been taste-testing my cookie doughs fairly regularly. Since this is a new recipe, I tasted it often throughout the cooking. (Trying my best not to think of the eggs *shudder*) The cookie dough without MILO added in was delicious. Sweet with a subtle taste of vanilla. Once the MILO was added in, I did taste a hint of MILO, but was disappointed, since it didn't seem like it was enough...

Once the first batch came out of the oven, I sampled one of the cookies and confirmed that yes, you can barely taste the MILO. So I added in more MILO to the cookie dough, probably about another 1/2 cup. But still the same results, meh. Guess MILO doesn't have a strong enough taste? Maybe that's why there aren't a lot of MILO cookies recipes around, meh.

That said, the cookie was actually very yummy! It was crisp and chocolatey (from the chocolate chips), with a very faint undertone of MILO that made it slightly different than normal, hehe. The center was a bit chewy/cakey, though that might have been because I underbaked the cookies slightly. Unfortunately, it got much softer overnight. Maybe the MILO in it is absorbing water, or something. But a few minutes in the toaster oven, and the cookie becomes much crisper (and yummier too!) so not all is lost. It just doesn't have much difference compared to a normal chocolate chip cookie, which is why I've titled this as version 5, hehe.


I got a rather interesting photo of the cookies though, and decided to edit it (very badly) a little. But lookie lookie! Isn't it pretty? :$ Or, at the very least, interesting looking, hehe.




On a side note, Justin made Tandoori chicken last night, using the instant sauce from Sainsbury's. Everything I have said about this last year, still applies. Justin's trying to make the sauce better though, he says. Sigh. First Hadi's curry, now Justin's tandoori. They are going back to their last year's dishes. Noooooooooooo! This week is not gonna be fun! :(



Quote of the day: Make a list of important things to do today. At the top of your list, put 'eat chocolate.' Now, you'll get at least one thing done today.

Return of the Curry Chicken!

Dishes like this was the reason why I didn't bother writing up a "recipe" for the dinners Hadi and Justin cooked up last year. Not that there's anything wrong with it. Its just... okay... here's the instant curry paste Hadi used:


So all he did was add the chicken, curry paste and water. Simmer the water until its very thick and gloopy. And that's it. We don't know how to make curry, so instant is the best we can do, haha. And now that Hadi has opened the packet, he'll be making curry for the next 3-4 meals at least. Sigh. Look our for an uninteresting week, food-wise, of course. :P

Oh, and how was it? Spicy, meh, but in a good way. Not like Justin's last two dinners. I could at least taste other flavours under the spicyness here. And, um, yeah. Ihsan is out, for today :)

Oh, and CONGRATULATIONS to Abg Zul and Kaka Lina on the birth of their baby boy~ :$ Dimples you say??? Awwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!! :D

Quote of the day: This curry was like a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony that I'd once heard.....especially the last movement, with everything screaming and banging 'Joy.' It stunned, it made one fear great art. My father could say nothing after the meal

Honey and Hoisin Chicken

I just realised that we (or rather the boys) haven't been using Hoisin sauce recently. Which is nice. I get tired of it quite easily. But there's still a little bit left in the jar which has been in the fridge for awhile, so I suppose it was high time we used it. So here we go~

What you need:
3 boneless chicken pieces (I used drumsticks), cut into bite-sized pieces
Flour, for coating
2 dried chillies, sliced
1 onion, sliced
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon hoisin sauce

What you do:

1. Coat the chicken pieces in the flour and fry until golden brown. (Justin pan-fried, but I suggest you deep-fry.)
2. In a wok, heat up some oil. Fry the chillies and onion until the onions are softened and almost translucent.
3. Add the chicken pieces. (Justin just fried the chicken together with the onions and chilllies).
4. Add the honey and hoisin sauce. Stir to mix well. Add some water if necessary. Heat for about a minute, then serve immediately.

Justin messed up on the frying here. The flour coating was very very gooey when he served the chicken. That was most likely because he shallow-fried instead of deep-frying. The flour coating wasn't cooked very well, and so kind of fell off. This mixed with the honey and hoisin, which made a very very thick gooey sauce. Um. -_-;

Also, because of the dried chillies, the whole dish was very very spicy. The second spicy dish in two days, meh. Apparently, the chicken went really well with salsa (which Justin had), but thankfully, he forgot to put it in while cooking. Otherwise, it might be much too spicy for me.

Hadi particularly liked the honey. He said that it gave a very big effect. I'm not sure, but... well, this wasn't one of my favorite dishes, meh. Too spicy, and I'm not sure I like hoisin all that much, plus I really really didn't like the texture.

Oh well. Hadi and Justin have the tae kwon do national (competitions?) tomorrow, so I can eat whatever I want tomorrow, hoho.

Quote of the day: It's like spicy food - sometimes you have to tone it down so more people can enjoy it.

Fried (Copycat) Tex's Chicken

As much as I've been talking about the Tex's chicken coating which is baked in the oven to yield chicken almost as good as ones that are fried, there is actually a fry-able version of Tex's chicken. Of course, I don't like it as much, since its more bothersome to fry stuff than to shove it in the oven, but its actually quite nice. Fried things often taste nicer than baked things, don't you agree? Must be all that oil, hehe. Just for reference, he used the coatin gof Copycat Tex's chicken v4 for this.

Anyway.... Justin is still very much a n00b (beginner, meh. Just wanted to say that, haha) in frying things, it seems. I suggested he deep-fry it (not that we have enough oil...) but he refused, shuddering at the thought of all that oil. But let me tell you, I personally think that deepfrying might have been healthier than what he did. He heated up about 2-3 tablespoons of oil and shallow-fried the chicken in that. In fact, I don't even think the oil was all that hot. So the flour on the chicken absorbed all the oil. -_-; AND he wasn't watching it carefully enough, so it got just slightly burnt. As you may be able to see from the picture. So not only was the chicken *not* crispy (from all the oil... *shudder*) but it had a slightly bitter aftertaste as well. o.0

That said, the chicken was actually quite nice, though a bit too spicy for me. Hadi commented that it tasted stronger than before, but that might have been due to the fact that Justin was a bit too free with the ingredients this time. Justin thought it tasted very unique-tasting. Not sure what he means by that. He claims that it doesn't taste at all like the baked version, but both me and Hadi disagree. I personally thought it was too spicy, though I don't think it was because of the pepper in it. Justin likes fried dried chillies, so he added some in together with the chicken. This made the whole thing very spicy, I think. I could barely taste the rest of the chicken, since it was just too spicy. Ah well.

Its a short one today. :)

Quote of the day: Perhaps the comparison is closer to the Chinese cook who leaves hardly any part of a duck unserved.

Sweet Sauce Chicken

Hadi warned me that this chicken was going to be "sweet". Its name comes from the sweet soy sauce Hadi used, which he referred to as the "sweet sauce" - which confused me, meh. Why can't he just call it kicap manis like everybody else, haha. But anyway, here we go!

What you need:
3 chicken thighs
2 tablespoons ginger powder (or 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger)
2 onions, sliced
1 tablespoon garlic granules (or 2 cloves fresh garlic)
3 tablespoons sweet soy sauce
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
Water, to make a gravy
1 tablespoon cornflour

What you do:

1. In a wok, add some oil and about 1/2 cup of water. Add the sliced onions and simmer until softened.
2. Add in the chicken and the rest of the seasonings (leave out the cornflour for now). Add in enough water to make as much gravy as you would like. Simmer until the chicken is cooked through.
3. Thicken the gravy by mixing it with the cornflour, stirring well to combine. Leave to simmer for another minute, then serve.

This dish was so typically Asian, haha. Or should I say typical Hadi? We haven't had this kind of dish in awhile, so it was really satisfying. It goes really well with the rice, unlike some of the other dishes we've been having. In my opinion anyway.

Although Hadi warned me it was going to be sweet, it wasn't as bad as I expected. There was a subtle sweetness in the gravy, but the saltiness of the oyster sauce offset it quite nicely. From the way he was speaking, I thought he was going to add more sugar, or something.

This dish was also nice because of the gravy. Well, I don't really mind either way, since I prefer my rice to be "dry" when I eat it, but at least we don't have to endure Justin's complaints of there not being enough chicken, haha. He usually needs to have a side-dish of fresh vegetables (yes, I know, so healthy...), but I think today was fine. So I guess we really should have chicken with gravy more often. But Hadi says he doesn't like the texture - he prefers the crisp skins of the roasts. So a compromise is needed, meh. Its up to them, I suppose

Me, I prefer stir-fries :) Especially those with crisp chicken under sticky sauces... Yum!

Quote of the day: Vegetables are a must on a diet. I suggest carrot cake, zucchini bread, and pumpkin pie.