Honey Tomato Chicken

- Zaty.

I'm just so sick of my own cooking (and I'm sure Mr. M feels the same way) so yesterday I tried to make a modified version of "ayam masak merah" (ie. tomato chicken). This was inspired by this recipe; I adapted it to suit what I had around the house (I didn't have tomatoes and ginger, most importantly).

The taste was bit different from what I expected, I'm guessing 1/2 can of tomato puree was too much, so next time I use this recipe I'll use only a 1/3 or less. I had to add in a bit of boiling hot water to make the gravy less thick, and added in honey and soy sauce for extra flavor.

Anyway, here's the (fixed) version of what I made yesterday:

Ingredients (for 2 people)

• Group A - to 3/4 fry:
• 4 pieces of chicken nibbles
• turmeric powder
• Group B - to blend:
• 2 shallots
• 3 Tbsp dried chilli blend
• 1cm ginger (I was out of this so I used galanghal, but next time I'll make sure to use ginger)
• 3 pcs garlic
• 1 medium onion
• Group C - other stuff:
• 1/3 tin tomato puree
• 1 large Tbsp-full of honey
• 2 T soy sauce
• 1/2 tin of button mushrooms, sliced
• 1 small onion, cut into rings
• 1 cup frozen vege (peas, carrots, corn).
• sugar
• salt Optional: 1 cup boiled water
• Optional: 1 cup boiled water

Instructions

1. Clean and prepare chicken as appropriate (small pieces is easiest and fastest to cook). Toss the chicken pieces in a bowl and cover them completely with turmeric powder.
2. Heat up some oil in a pot, and fry turmeric-covered chicken until about 3/4 done. While waiting for this, blend everything in Group B - it doesn't have to be finely blended.
3. Take chicken pieces out and sautee the blended Group B ingredients till a fragrant smell rises.
4. Add in tomato puree, mixing well. Wait for a few minutes so that everything heats up well and the paste produces some oil (ie. until 'pecah minyak').
5. Add in soy sauce and honey as desired.
6. Add in sliced mushrooms, stir for a few minutes.
7. Place the previous chicken pieces back into the pot, stir well. 
8. Wait for the gravy to thicken, stirring the pot content every half a minute. Continue until sure that meat is cooked.
9. When gravy has thickened (might take about 10 mins), add in sugar, salt, peas etc. Wait for a few minutes, stirring constantly. 
10. When done, serve with rice (preferably tomato rice, but I ate it with plain rice).

Result

Will update with picture when my internet's not being annoying. :P

Have a nice day!

Super-easy Yoghurt Cake

- Zaty.

Today's baking is a a result of Carlo's story about his friend's mom who makes yoghurt cake (which is apparently one of the best cakes he's eaten), and a M'sian potluck thing (masquerading as a 'natural disaster' meeting). After much debate on what to bake, I surrendered and googled up 'yoghurt cake', and was pleasantly surprised by how easy the recipe seemed. It really is easy to make, just like how this recipe looks - no electric mixers, melting butters, kneading etc. Easy peasy. Just the way I like it. :P

Anyway, I got the recipe from here, but with a simple adjustment - I used the (150g) cup for single-serve yoghurts as the measuring tool. In other words, every ingredient is measured using this cup (aside from the eggs, of course... although 3 eggs do fill up the yoghurt cup nicely). :)

I made 2 cakes: one with raspberry+cream yoghurt, and the other was peach+cream yoghurt.

Will post up more pics later.

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This recipe makes a medium-sized cake.

Note: cup* = single-serve yoghurt cup

Ingredients 

• 1 cup* of yoghurt (fruity flavored is yumm)
• 1 cup* oil (I used my canola cooking oil)
• 2 cups* white sugar
• 3 cups* self-raising flour
• 3 eggs
  Optional: raspberry (or other) jam.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 160degC.
2. In a bowl, beat the ingredients one-by-one with a wooden spatula until smooth and creamy. This might take a few minutes.
3. Pour smooth mixture into a greased/baking-paper lined pan. 
• Optional: Scoop some jam and slowly place it at the top of the batter. Use a chopstick or something long to squiggle or swirl the jam to give the cake extra flavour.
4. Bake for 1 hour or till golden brown (the fork should come out clean when poked).
5. Give about 10 mins to cool down, then cut and serve.
• Optional: After the cake has cooled down a bit, turn the cake out of the pan, and let it stand on its side. Cut the cake in the middle lengthways, and place both sides down. Spread some jam onto the 'fluffy' side of both halves, then enjoin the two parts the way it was before -- it should look like a 'jam sandwich' cake in the end.

Result?

Raspberry+cream yoghurt cake (see the swirley bit at the top? Hee ^_^)
Note: This is before I turned it into a sandwich cake.


I have some extra slices left, so I'll post some pics of what it looks like later.

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It's so easy to make, and it tastes nice if I do say so myself. Do try it! Have fun baking! :)