Showing posts with label chicken. Show all posts
Showing posts with label chicken. Show all posts

Sunday, March 13, 2011

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!

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Quiches!

- z.

So there I was salivating while reading/viewing some food blogs where suddenly, upon cruising through some of their archives, an entry about quiche loaded before my eyes. It was then that I realised that I should probably start making some... before I lose too much liquid from my body. :P

And THUS, the search for easy-to-make Quiche recipes began!

I learnt that there were two ways of making quiche : one where you make the crust and contents separately, and the other where you just pretty much mix the whole thing up. Laziness would dictate that I do the latter, but seeing that I was out of self-raising flour which that one requires, I did the first one, which wasn't too bad to begin with. Later I saw a friend and got some self-raising flour from her, so I did the second recipe as well because I had way too much 'filling'. Much later, I used the excess of that (I told you I made way too much :P) for some pasta.


So let's make some Quiche already!


Quiche #1

The quintessential quiche, for me, is one that uses sour cream or 50% cream 50% milk.
...but to put it simply, I used neither in this first recipe...because I forgot, lol. So this is practically like an egg tart. A very savoury egg tart.

Next time I make these (which will probably be aaaaaaaaages away because they're so unhealthy with all that cheese and eggs, lol) I will :
  • add cream (duh)
  • add spinach (because I'm dumb and forgetful D:)
  • add tomatoes (because I forgot again D: D: D:)
  • make the crusts thinner :D
  • use cheddar cheese 

Anyway, Here's the recipe I used for this one: ( My comments/alterations are in red. :) )
  • Crust (recipe suggested by Afdzal, thank you!!) : from Recipezaar.
    • Ingredients
      • 1 cup flour
      • ½ teaspoon salt
      • ¼ cup olive oil or canola oil - I used soya bean oil
      • ¼ cup cold water - refrigerated is good

    • Directions
      • Mix flour and salt with fork. 
      • Beat oil and water with whisk or fork to thicken.
      • Pour into flour and mix with fork ~ I think it's perhaps easier to use my hands, so I did. However, if you do this, don't knead too much, and make sure to put it in the fridge for a few minutes.
      • Press into 9" pie crust ~ I used a muffin tray, it works just as well

  • Filling (found at Suite101)
    • Ingredients:
      • 1 cup shredded cheese ~ I used vegetarian edam. It tastes kinda funny before it's cooked, but the aftertaste pretty much disappears after it's cooked. It's also quite creamy, so it's got a nice texture to it after the quiche is done. 
      • 1-1½ cups of whatever ~ I used:
        • 1tbsp of finely chopped garlic
        • 1tsp of ginger
        • 2 cups meat:
          • minced chicken (2 burger patties, mashed, actually =_=)
          • 1 chopped chicken sausage 
            • I realise that these processed meat products aren't as good as real lean meat, and aren't exactly healthy/conventional lol, but they're practical items to have around the kitchen.
        • 1 big white onion
        • 1 carrot
        • 1 capsicum,
        • ¼ cauliflower
        • Salt to taste
        • Blackpepper
        • A pinch of oregano, basil, parsley 
      • 4 eggs
      • 2 cups heavy cream or half & half with milk ~ Didn't add this in x_x 
      • ¾ tsp salt
      • ¼ tsp nutmeg, ground ~ Didn't add this either, because I don't have any. And I think I might be allergic to it, for some reason. I substituted this with some basil, a little bit of oregano and some parsley. Because I kinda predicted that I was gonna screw up anyway since it's my first time, so might as well experiment, lol.

  • Crust + Filling (also from Suite101)
    •  Directions
      • Sprinkle cheese evenly over the bottom of the crust. 
      • Place veggies, meats and other additions on top of the cheese. ~ I separately cooked my filling first till about 75%, because I use meat and I tend to get paranoid about meat not being cooked well :P.
      • Whisk together eggs, cream, salt and nutmeg in a medium size mixing bowl on medium speed.
      • Carefully pour cream on top of veggies, etc. ~ Seriously, do this carefully or everything may spill out of the crusty bit like mine did. -_-
      • Bake at 350degF/approx. 176.6degC for 45 minutes or until knife comes out clean.
      • Let sit for 15 minutes before slicing. ~ Content IS hot when it's fresh from the oven. Or you'll get a burnt tongue *shifty eyes*
      • Refrigerate leftovers.
And the result?

miniquiche
It doesn't taste that bad, I swear. x_x

~
Next, Quiche #2


Note for next time:
  • USE BUTTER! =_= I keep skipping ingredients accidentally, sigh! (I'm terrible at following recipes...)
Recipe taken from Best Recipes. :)
  • Ingredients:
    • 4 eggs ~ Used probably 3 eggs...long story.
    • 1½ cups milk ~ I used 2 cups by accident, sigh...
    • 3 tbsp melted butter ~ I suppose oil would do?
    • ½ cup self-raising flour ~ IMPORTANT! 
    • 1 cup grated cheese ~ Haha I grated my thumb while doing this =_= - the ingredients were fine tho!
    • 2 cups of whatever ~ See above 'whatever'

  •  Directions: 
    • Set oven to 180degC
    • Whisk together thesefirst 4 ingredients (eggs, milk, butter, s-r flour)
    • Fold in cheese and filling
    • Pour the mixture above into a quiche pan  ~ I used a normal medium-sized square baking pan ... which is a lot thicker than a normal quiche pan (quiche pans tend to be wide but short).
    • Bake for about 40 minutes ~Wait for about 10-15 minutes before serving
 Et voila:

bigquiche

This was right after I took it out from the oven, so the middle part is kinda bulging out.


To be honest, I prefer the taste of the 2nd quiche to the first, but then... I was silly enough to miss the milk of the 1st one, so I guess it's unfair to compare to begin with. Hehe.

As I've written above, due to the excess filling, I decided to make a pasta dish. Thus:

Pasta!

Chicken, Carrot, Capsicum Pasta

So that's just pasta (leftover elbows and spirals from previous cooking), about 250g, boiled (without the essentials : a tsp each of oil and salt, because, again, I forgot to add until they were done T_T), with other stuff. After sifting out the boiling water, I chucked the pasta into the pot with the extra filling. Then I twirled the whole combo around the pot with medium heat to let it mix. I added some salt, black pepper, oregano too. BecauseomgIloveoreganoomgitisawesome :P

And that's that. End of story, YAY! I can do other things now because this entry's done! :D :D :D

Hope I gave some ideas on how you can venture more in your cooking, or at least improve on. :)

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Ayam Masak Lomak Cili Api

- Aten.

Hey dudes!

aten yg xrajin tulis blog would like to contribute sumthing even though she is obviously not a great cook!! (malu la zaty, i bukan chef~~~) (zaty : eleh ye la tuuu ^_^) ;p sorry peeps.. forgive me coz i'm going to use manglish?? takut nanti jadi bende lain pulak kalo speaking je!! gagagaga

So in conjunction with Ramadhan al Mubarak, I think lots of u guys will end up frust at your toilet just to think about what to cook especially for those who cook everyday. So here's some tips!! ngeeee~

Apparatus:
Periuk TRC, blender Nanad, chopping board Firus, mangkuk kecik, senduk, sudu.

Chemical stuff required:
8 small pcs of chicken (those in Auckland, halal chickens can get from Mohamad ;p), coconut milk (thick and less thick), cili api (or cili padi), kunyit (basah/kering), garlic and serai (lemongrass), sugar, salt.

Note: tu je kot? kalo ade terkurang or terlebih pepandaila adjust ;p

Procedure:
1. Defreeze chicken if frozen. Masukkan dalam microwave TRC for about 10 minutes.

2. Blender (or tumbuk pakai lesung) 5-10 butir cili api bercampur dgn bawang putih 3-4 ulas. If pakai kunyit basah boleh campur skali.

3. Panaskan kuali/periuk (with or without oil ;p).

4. Masukkan ayam & kentang ke dalam periuk dan ramuan2 yang dah diblender (#2).

5. Masukkan 3-4 cawan air (sukati la nak kuah banyak mane) or santan yg cair dulu (kalau pakai kelape fresh)

6. Biar sehingge mendidih.

7. Setelah mendidih, masukkan santan pekat, kacau dan tambahkan salt secukup rase (bulan pose jgn suke2 nak rase tau!! mintaklah pertolongan org yg xpuase seperti...hehehe)

8. Masukkan serai yang telah ditumbuk hujungnye.

9. Kalau ayam & kentang dah empuk, bolehlah tutup api yeh?

Note: Nak tambah sayur macam carrot or kacang panjang pun boleh :)

Conclusion
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SELAMAT MENCUBE!!! ^-^


p/s : ampunkan saye kalau tersilap~

Idea asal: Pn Erabiah Abdul Samad. (luvluv~~)