Malay-Style Roasted Chicken

When I am missing the strong flavours of Malay food, I fall back on this recipe. The marinade preparation takes about half an hour and the cooking takes about 40 minutes - still manageable for an easy Sunday night dinner.

Malay-Style Roasted Chicken

Ingredients:
- 4 pieces of boneless chicken thigh or drumstick
- 1 tablespoon of coriander seeds
- 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds
- 1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, grated
- 1 thumb-sized piece of galangal, grated
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder
- half a teaspoon of salt
- 1 stalk of lemongrass, bruised
- one quarter cup of coconut milk

(The original recipe calls for 4 red chillis but I have left that out because my son cannot take spicy food.)


Method:
1) Pound, or if you impatient like me, grind coriander seeds, cumin seeds, 
grated ginger, grated galangal, oil and light soy sauce into a fine paste.
2) Add turmeric powder and salt into the paste and mix well.
3) Rub the mixture all over the chicken and leave in fridge for 2 hours or overnight. I usually do this on Saturday afternoon to cook for Sunday dinner.
4) Leave the lemongrass stalk to steep in coconut milk for about an hour.
5) Preheat oven to 225oC.
6) Cover baking tray with aluminum foil and grease the tray.
7) Baste chicken with coconut milk and roast for about 15 minutes on one side.
8) Flip over chicken, baste with coconut milk and roast for about 15 minutes on the other side.
9) Done! Serve with rice and some soup and vegetables.


Till my next blog entry, happy buka puasa to my Muslim friends! =)

Chinese Beef Stew

Another one of my one-dish Sunday dinners .. Chinese Beef Stew. This one is not that easy but still manageable. I need to start cooking at about 3.30pm if I want to have dinner at 6pm.

Chinese Beef Stew with carrots

Ingredients:
- 500 gms of beef cubes
- some olive oil for frying
- 3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
- 3 spring onion, green and white parts separated and thinly sliced
- 2 cm piece of ginger, peeled and grated
- 0.5 teaspoon of 5-spice powder
- 1.5 tablespoon of Chinese cooking wine
- 1 tablespoon of plain flour
- 250 ml of beef stock
- 1.5 tablespoon of light soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon of light brown sugar
- 1 star anise
- 1 large carrot, sliced


Method:
1) Heat up olive oil.
2) Brown the beef in batches and set aside.
3) On medium heat, add garlic, white part of spring onion, ginger and 5-spice powder and cook until they are fragrant.
4) Pour in Chinese cooking wine and let it bubble for about 1 minute.
5) Add in the beef, sprinkle the flour and stir everything together until the flour dissolves.
6) Pour in the beef stock and soy sauce.
7) Add in the carrots, sugar and star anise.
8) Mix everything well together.
9) Simmer* for about 1.5 to 2 hours or until beef is tender to your desire.
10) Serve with green spring onion and rice.


*If the liquid dries out while simmering, add in more water.


Till my next blog post, happy cooking! =)

Kitty's Pork

I never have to cook when I was a single girl. I either have my mother's home cooking or eat out. I was never worried about learning how to cook until a few months before my wedding. I am going to move to Bangkok after my wedding and then what am I going to eat? I have always enjoyed my mom's home-cooking and the thought of eating out every meal is starting to sicken me.

I asked around about cooking classes and I have an Indonesian colleague who assured me that 'cooking is automatic'. I will always remember her telling me not to worry about cooking, once you are married, the skill will come to you 'automatically'. I was quite skeptical about what she said. Some 'sabotagers', who claim to be my friends, even bought me cooking books as my wedding present. =)


Then in my first few months of married life, it just clicked. I started to understand what my Indonesian colleague was saying. Cooking is about producing something simple and edible on the dining table. You do not have to produce gourmet food every meal, you leave that to the restaurants. You need to know a few recipes with easy-to-find ingredients and learn not to undercook them.


My husband showed me how to make Kitty's Pork (affectionately named after a dear friend of his who introduced this dish to him) when he realized that I cannot cook. That's when I learnt how to 'simmer'.

After twelve blissful years of marriage, I am still cooking this dish for my husband on some Sunday evenings and he has no complaints. =)

Very simple to make .. Kitty's Pork

Ingredients:
- some olive oil
- a can of mushroom soup
- some slices of pork
- a can of water
- broccoli
- rice


Method:
1) Heat up olive oil and brown the pork.
2) Add in the can of mushroom soup and water.
3) Bring to boil and let it simmer at low heat for about 50 minutes or until pork is tender.
4) Steam the broccoli.
5) Cook the rice.
6) Serve and enjoy!

Simple ingredients

Till my next blog post, simple is good! =)

Asian BBQ Pork Ribs

My family and I are always in a lazy and relaxing mode on Sunday afternoons. We laze around, go to the gym, catch up with the news, play games, watch TV, etc and feel too at home to go out for dinner. So, it is up to me to whip up dinner.

I always go for easy cooking with one meat dish, broccoli and rice. My criteria for easy cooking are: nothing fried with oil to mess up my kitchen, no need to watch over the stove all the time, no need to use exotic ingredients and, if possible, no need for marination. =) I am flexible on the 'no marination' bit if it can produce good results.


I am sharing with you one of my easy Sunday dinner recipe.

Asian BBQ Pork Ribs

Ingredients:
500gm of meaty, less-fat (or trim away the fatty parts) long pork ribs
5 tablespoons of light soya sauce
1 tablespoon of sugar
1 tablespoon of honey
3 tablespoons of Chinese cooking wine
2 tablespoons of apple cider
2 tablespoons of tomato sauce
400ml of water


Method:

1. Blanch ribs in a pot.
2. Combine all the ingredients together into the pot.
3. Bring the ingredients to a boil and reduce heat to simmer.
4. Simmer for about an hour or until ribs are tender to your liking.
5. Preheat oven to 150oC.
6. Place the ribs in a foiled baking tray or ceramic dish and spread some sauce onto the ribs.
7. Bake ribs for 10 minutes.
8. Flip ribs over and spread more sauce.
9. Bake for another 10 minutes.
10. Flip ribs over and spread more sauce.
11. Bake for final 10 minutes.
12. Remove ribs. Serve on a dish with some broccoli and rice.

Easy and clean cooking. Delicious ribs. Enjoy!


Till my next blog post, eat well! =)

Mango Madness

When April comes to Bangkok, 2 important events happen.


One is the Songkran festival, also known as the Thai New Year, and this is celebrated between the 13 and 16 of April. During this time, most Thais go to the temple to pray and give food to the monks. Water is gently poured onto Buddha statues and images to cleanse them and / or poured over elders' hands as a sign of respect. For the young at heart and also keeping in mind that April is the hottest month in Bangkok, Songkran has evolved to be the biggest splash party in the city. People are out with their hoses, water guns and buckets to target innocent people on tuk-tuks, motorbikes and buses with opened windows and wet them from head to toe. It is good fun! =)


The other important event for me is the start of the mango season. Mangoes are available all year round. But around April, there is a spike in supply and prices drop. I go all crazy and would have mangoes almost everyday. There are also a few other things that I do.


Like going to Swensen's every April to have one of their mango promotions. It's a ritual for me. =) Their mango concoction typically has some fresh mango, mango ice-cream, coconut flakes, pandan-flavored sticky rice and wafer.

Mango Paradise from Swensen's. My once-a-year mango ritual.

Since mangoes are so easily available and cheap, lots of shops and restaurants are also serving fresh ripe mango with sticky rice. Sticky rice is glutinous rice simmered in coconut milk. I love the combination of fresh mango, sticky rice and corn kernels. Some people would eat this with coconut cream but not me. the sticky rice is sinful enough for me. =)

Fresh mango with sticky rice

And for my very own home-made indulgence, I have my own version of mango-pineapple pudding. =)

Here is my recipe. It is a bit of a cheat but I compensate by putting in lots of mango cubes. =)

Ingredients:

- 1 packet of 90grams jelly crystals in pineapple flavor (This is the cheat. I can't get mango flavor and use pineapple instead for the yellow color. In general, pineapple and mango goes well.)
- 1 cup of boiling water
- 1 can of evaporated milk
- 1 big mango, cut into cubes

Method:

1. Pour boiled water into bowl and stir in jelly crystals. Jelly crystals have to dissolve completely. Set aside to cool.
2. Add in the evaporated milk.
3. Stir in the mango cubes.
4. Mix well.
5. Pour into small cups
6. Chill in fridge.

My version of mango pudding

Till my next blog post, Sawadee pee mai ("Happy New Year" in Thai) and enjoy APRIL! =)

Pandan Kaya

One of my favorite snack item in Singapore is kaya toast with tea. It is a sinful choice but also a very tasty one. The kaya and the toast are not that evil but the slab of butter in between is the killer. Nevertheless, the combination of the fragrant pandan kaya, killer butter and toasted brown bread is an awesome snack whenever I need the sugarkick. Sometimes, I also have this for dessert. =)

Kaya toast from Toast Box

In Bangkok, it is not easy to get the type of pandan kaya that you can get in Singapore or Malaysia. The kaya in Bangkok is very green (looks very artificially green) and it is just sweet. The fragrant coconut and pandan taste is not there. So, I have resorted to making my own.


Making kaya is a very time-consuming process, so, please do not attempt to make it if you do not have a whole afternoon free. I use a very simple recipe and spend the rest of the time stirring the mixture at the stove. Since I am an amateur cook and like to multi-task while making the kaya, I always use the 'double boil' method to prevent the kaya from burning.


Here is my simple recipe for a small jar of pandan kaya. If you need more, just double or triple the amount of ingredients.


Ingredients:
1 egg
100ml coconut (I always use the packet ones for convenience)
80gm of sugar
3 to 5 large pandan leaves


Method:

1. Beat the egg and coconut milk together.
2. Sieve and drain into small metal pot. (In the 'double boil' method, pour water into a large pot and set it to boil. Place a smaller metal pot on a stand into the large pot, immersing it in the boiling water. This prevents the kaya from getting direct heat from the fire and reduces the possibility of burning and hence ruining your hard-earned kaya.)
3. Knot the pandan leaves together and add into the egg and coconut mixture.
4. Add in the sugar in batches.
5. Simmer and stir until you achieve your desired spreading consistency for your kaya. I usually have to do this for about 3 to 4 hours. I think this can be faster if I set the heat to a higher flame but I feel safer doing this low  flame (so much for being a risk-taker =)).
6. When it is done, pour into sterilized jar, let it cool down and refrigerate.

Please note that the kaya will last probably about a week. I usually make a small batch and finish it up within a week. I toast my bread, spread the kaya, without the butter, and have it for breakfast with my morning tea. Great way to start my day! =)

Homemade kaya. Yummy! =)

Till my next blog entry, make some kaya! =)

Indulging in condensed milk

I love, love, love condensed milk. Some people may say that it is sinful but to me, it is the perfect comfort food. It perks me up, gives me fond memories of my childhood and is a permanent fixture in my fridge.

Condensed milk is made from cow’s milk from which water has been evaporated and sugar has been added to give a very thick, sweet and syrupy liquid. In South East Asia, this very sweet milk is used for baking, cooking and sweetening beverages.


Some ways in which you can enjoy your condensed milk are:

• Add it to your Milo Dinosaur, coffee or tea. Skip the sugar and let the milk enrich your beverage without diluting the taste.
• Liberally drizzle it on a slice of toasted white bread. Sprinkle some chocolate rice on top to give a twist to a Hong Kong 'cha chaan teng' favorite.
• On hot and humid days, top your ice kacang with the milk for that very special sweet treat to cool off.
• In Thailand, I love condensed milk on hot roti.
• My personal favorite – add a cup of condensed milk to your pound cake recipe and celebrate it with your friends!

Here is a condensed milk pound cake recipe that I use when I want to spoil myself .....


(For 8 inches by 3.5 inches pan)


Ingredients:
120 gm butter
40 gm sugar
0.25 tsp salt
1.5 tsp vanilla essence
0.5 cup condensed milk
120 gm cake flour
0.75 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
2 tbsp cocoa powder
some hot water


Method:
1) Line pan. Preheat oven to 170oC.
2) Mix cocoa powder with hot water.
3) Using electric whisk, cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
4) Add in salt, vanilla essence and condensed milk. Whisk till incorporated.
5) Add cake flour. Whisk using low speed until batter is smooth and not lumpy.
6) Add in eggs, 1 at a time. Whisk well.
7) Take out a third of the batter and mix in cocoa solution.
8) Pour in one third of batter to pan, add in the batter with cocoa solution next. Pour in remaining third of batter.
9) Bake in oven at 170oC for 50 minutes.

Condensed Milk Pound Cake

Till my next blog entry, stay hungry! =)