Curry Chicken 2

My first time cooking chicken curry with the Earthen Pot Chicken curry powder mixed with Baba Meat curry powder. This combination gave a very different taste to the usual meat curry premix that I usually use for the chicken curry.

I learned about this when a church friend cooked this curry for a BBQ gathering sometime ago. His curry was shiok dh commented. Friend shared that different proportion of the curry powder combination will give a slightly different taste and you can add lemon grass, cinnamon stick, cardamon pods, fennel seeds and star anise. Oh the possibilites and I'm game to try. So here's sharing what I did tonight .....

Ingredients:

1.2 kg chicken parts
6 tbsp chicken curry powder
2 tbsp meat curry powder
1 cup water to mix curry powder mixture into a paste
2 tomatoes, quartered
2 potatoes, cubed
1 yellow onion, cubed
1 cinnamon stick
2 star anise
5 cardamon pods
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp ginger powder
1 cup evaporated milk
600 mls of water

Method:

Heat up 3 tsp of oil and fry the cinnamon stick, cardamon pods, star anise and fennel seeds.Fry till they give a fragrance and then add the onions, garlic and ginger and then the curry paste. Fry till the fragrance is out.

Add in the chicken pieces and coat them evenly with the spices.

Add in the tomatoes and then the potatoes and fry for about 3 mins.

Add in the water till it covers the ingredients in the pot and let it boil for about 15 mins.

Reduce fire and let the pot simmer for another 45 mins. covered.

After 45 mins. uncover and add in the milk.

Let the pot simmer on low fire for another 10 mins.

Add salt and sugar to taste.

Ready to dish up and serve with warm rice.

1A Curry Puffs

I went down to AMK hub to do my grocery shopping this week and bought this for lunch. They are yummy cos' this must be the third or fourth time I bought them back for lunch. This time I chose a chilli crab filling and a sardine filling.
The fillings are moist, sweet and tangy at the same time. You see on the pic I've already bitten half way into the puff before remembering to take a pic LOL.
Can't feel that I'm eating any crab flesh though but the sardines and onions were bite size. The good thing was that the puffs were still crispy and flaky after the 20 mins bus journey home. And they go down well with a hot cup of coffee for lunch :-)

Durian Cake 2

This is the second durian cake of the year. I baked this for mum to celebrate her birthday. She doesn't like too much cream on her cake so you see minimum cream here. It's an 8 " sponge cake cut into two and sandwiching a layer of fresh durian puree. For decoration I just sprinkle snow powder over the template. Dd saw me decorate the cake and asked me to add some red color on the hearts. So I sprinkled some red sugar on them and she smiled and told me the hearts look better this way. Mum definitely liked the cake cos' she even rang me up to tell me that she liked this very much.

Kiwi Jelly Cheesecake

Ah finally I have a semblance of success with the jelly cheesecake. I learned that if you put fruits in the jelly layer it is a must to put in gelatine powder to get it to set. Now to stop my kiwis from floating upwards, I had to secure them with toothpicks. You can see small indentations on the jelly layer where the kiwi fruit is. Next challenge is to set the fruits on the cheese layer before the cheese layer fully sets. Then when I pour the liquid jelly, they won't float upwards.
Care to share a slice with me :-)

Here's sharing the recipe with you...recipe uses an 8" round springform pan.

Ingredients for the biscuit base:
150 gm digestive biscuits, crushed
70 gm unslted butter, melted

Ingredients for the filling:
250 gm cream cheese, soften
50 gm sugar
half cup hot water
10 gm gelatine powder
1 tsp vanilla essence

Slices of kiwis (2 kiwi fruits, skinned and sliced)

Ingredients for jelly layer:
1 box lemon flavoured Tortally Jelly
1 cup hot water
1 cup cold water
4 tsp gelatine powder

Method:

Biscuit base
Crush biscuits till fine and mix with melted butter.
Press the buttered biscuit crumbs into the base of the pan and refrigerate for a couple of hours to let the base harden.

Filling
Whisk soften cream cheese with sugar and vanilla essence till smooth and creamy.
Put the gelatine powder in the hot water and microwave this for about 20 secs.
This way the gelatine powder melts very well in the hot water.
Pour the gelatine mixture into the cream cheese mixture and stir till well blended.
Pour the above mixture into the prepared biscuit base and chill the mixture till 3/4 set.
Place the kiwi slices on top of the cream cheese mixture and refrigerate for another hour till the kiwi slices set into the cream cheese mixture.

Jelly topping
Mix jelly powder in hot water together with the gelatine. Stir till dissolved and then add in the cold water.
Let the mixture cool a little.
Pour the cool jelly liquid over the cream cheese layer and refrigerate till the jelly layer sets.

Fish Steam Boat

Last Sunday night, dinner with dh was not planned. We had the luck of getting all the children to stay home after their dinner and it's just the two of us having dinner at the nearby coffee shop zi char stall at block 631. So It's pak tor time again for just a good two hours at the coffee shop. It's a good and wonderful feeling again to have dinner with dh without any of the younger ones tagging along and worrying if they had their fill.
So this was what we decided to eat. Fish steam boat at $26 for a whole red spotted grouper fish and yam and pak choy. The soup was delicious. And dh said that we must do this more often :-)

Fried Carrot Cake

I visted S from the IK forum board last week as she was not feeling well. We sorted of exchanged food in the process LOL. I gave her my bake of apple walnut quickbread and before I left for home she made me ta pao her carrot cake and even gave me pointers how to fry it. However I didn't have the sweet black sauce and the chai po which are the required ingredients to fry the carrot. Instead I used my black soya sauce, an egg and some chopped garlic to fry it and it turned quite palatable. Even dh thought it was bought LOL. On hindsight, I should have been more patient to get the reguired ingredients cos' with those two ingredients added, I'm sure it would taste even better.
Actually the carrot cake is already very yummy when eaten lightly pan fried with a little oil.
Thanks S for sharing this with me!

Toblerone Chocolate Cheesecake

My dear brother placed an order of a cheesecake from me out of the blue last week. I was at Giant doing my grocery shopping to stock up for the week and the stress of getting enough fridge space to make the cheesecake began immediately. How do I have the heart to tell him 'no' when he enjoys eating cheesecakes made by me LOL. Finally managed to squeeze some space in between storing my leftovers and miscellaneous foods in the main compartment. It was a good feeling that I am able to fulfil the order and it was also the first time I sold my bake and made some pocket money LOL.

It was an easy recipe using Toblerone Chocolate and the recipe was obtained from the Philadelphia Cream cheese box.

Durian Loaf

This loaf has a very unique texture. It's like a cross between a muffin and a kueh. The loaf is soft without being fluffy and because fresh durian puree was used, the aroma of durian can be quite strong. Dh and I loved it anyway and tomorrow, it will go for the taste test by the extended family.

Here's sharing with you the recipe which I got from KC and modified.

Ingredients:
225 gm cake flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
100 gm butter, soften
50 gm brown sugar
4 tbsp maple syrup
4 eggs
200 gm durian puree

Method:
Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.
Add in the maple syrup and mix till well blended.
Add in eggs, one at a time till well blended.
Stir in the durian puree and mix well.
Add in the sifted flour with baking powder and fold into mixture.
Pour batter into loaf pan (8x4x2 inches).
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degree C for about 50 mins or till skewer comes out clean.
Cool loaf and loaf can be kept in an air-tight container for about three days.
Refrigerate loaf if you want to keep it longer.

Crab Tang Hoon

This is our favourite way of eating crabs and we usually buy this from 204 King Crab and Seafood at Serangoon Central. Somehow the seasoning and the way it's done is different from the zi char stalls that we order from. I'm sure we'll be buying this for many years to come.

Baked Rice 1

Baked this for dinner. I know that Delifrance and Swensen sell this and it costs almost $7-10 a serving. I got the recipe a long time ago from m4m. I like the recipe cos' it's not so cheesey.

Here's what I did ....


Ingredients:
3 cups uncooked rice, washed and drained of water
1 yellow onion, diced
1 small tin button mushrooms, sliced
1 packet ham (8 slices), cubed
2 tbsps butter
1 can mushroom soup (Campbell)
Mixture of mozarella and cheddar cheese, shredded

Method:

Melt butter in a pan and stir-fry the onions till fragrant.

Add in the mushroom and ham and stir for a few minutes.

Add in the uncooked rice and mix well.

Transfer the rice mixture into the rice cooker and add enough water to cover the ingredients. Cook for one cycle.

When rice is cooked, portion out the rice into individual baking plates and ladle in about 2-3 scoops of the mushroom soup.

Add a layer of a mixture of shredded mozi and cheddar cheese.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200 degree C for about 20-30 mins.

You may want to bake the entire lot in a square aluminium pan.
Recipe makes 2 pans.

Apple Walnut Qbread

This is another of my favourite Qbread. It's always nice to eat this with a hot cup of coffee. On somedays I even have this for lunch.

Here's sharing with you the recipe ...

Ingredients:
250 gm butter
200 gm sugar
300 gm plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
100 gm walnuts, chopped
2 eggs, beaten
1 orange, juiced and zest
3 green apples, cored and cubed

Method:
Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy.

Add in the beaten eggs and orange juice and zest.

Add in the walnuts and apples, mix well.

Fold in the flour.

Put batter in a loaf pan (8"x 4"x 2"). Recipe makes two loaf pans.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degree C for 60 mins.

Cool loaf pan on a wire-rack for about an hour before removing out of pan.

You may want to refridgerate loaf for about an hour before cutting.

Loaf may be kept in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Yam Sesame Qbread

I used the last of my yam puree to do this quickbread and had the tasting session last weekend at the church. The verdict .... it's good but I need to add a little more oil to make it more moist. OK ....mum...point noted :-)

Here's sharing with you the recipe .... Mix and dump method.

Dry ingredients:
250 gm plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
180 gm sugar
2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds

Wet ingredients:
150 gm sunflower oil
100 mls evaporated milk
160 gm yam puree
2 nos egg, beaten
1 tsp yam essence/coloring

Method:
Mix wet ingredients to the dry ingredients till well blended.

Pour batter into a loaf pan .

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180 degree C for about 60 mins. or till skewer comes out clean.

Mango Yoghurt Cheesecake

This is my family's all time favourite. Thanks to hugbear who shared her recipe.
Here's the link to the recipe.

Bacon Enoki Roll

Got the idea from one of the mums in KC and did this for Fathers' Day celebration. It's very easy to do. I got 2 packets of streaky bacon and 2 packets of enoki mushroom from the supermarket. Roll them up as you see in the pic and fasten them with a toothpick. Place them in a pre-heated oven of 200 degree C for about 20 mins. Once done, bast the rolls with the oil left behind on the tray.

Black Soya Sauce Chicken

The original recipe was from KC. However my children didn't appreciate the strong spice aroma of cinnamon, star anise and cloves. I modified the recipe to decrease the amount of these spices and the resultant dish was more acceptable to them.

Ingredients:
1 kg chicken parts
2 tbsp black soya sauce
1 tbsp light soya sauce
2 tbsp sugar
300 mls water

Spices:
1 piece cinnamon stick
2 pieces star anise
6 pieces cloves

Method:
Add water and seasonings in a pot to boil.

Add in the spices, cover and boil them till fragrant (15 mins).

Add in the chicken parts and boil them for about half an hour, covered.
Do open cover and bast chicken parts with the gravy once or twice while cooking.

Turn off fire once chicken parts are done and soak them in the gravy for another 15 mins.

Remove chicken parts and serve with rice.

Fried Batang Fish in Plum Sauce

Fried batang fish in plum sauce mix.

Ingredients:

400 gm batang fish steak
Pound together 3 cloves of garlic and 5 slices of ginger
2 tbsp plum sauce
1 tbsp taucheo
1 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tsp sugar
quarter cup water

Method:

Marinade the fish with a tbsp each of sesame oil, chinese wine, corn flour and half tsp of salt for about half an hour.

Fry the fish steaks in about 4 tbsp of hot oil till cook. Remove and set aside.

Use 2 tbsp of hot oil to fry the pounded ginger and garlic mix, then add in the plum sauce and taucheo. Stir well.

Add in the fried fish, mix well and add in the rice vinegar and water.

Simmer for about 2 mins. and serve with white rice.

Savoury Glutinous Rice (Chu Bee Peng)

I did this for a BBQ party and had many positive feedback for it. I used a rice cooker to steam it and this was the easy part after putting in all the ingredients together. The original recipe was obtained from one of the cooking forums which I frequent. I modified the recipe a little and doubled the amount cooked.

Ingredients:
600 gm glutinous rice, washed and soaked overnight.

8 cloves garlic, chopped.

1 cup, dried shrimps, soaked overnight and drained.

20 pieces of dried chinese mushrooms, soaked overnight and then sliced.

(Keep the mushroom water for steaming the rice later.)


For garnishing ....
1 cup of fried onions
1 cup of pan-fried peanuts
green spring onions, chopped


For seasoning the rice ...
2 tbsp light soya sauce
1/2 tbsp dark soya sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sesame oil
Pepper to taste

Method:
Heat up 3 tbsp of oil and stir fry dried shrimps and chopped garlic till fragrant.

Add in the sliced mushrooms and the drained glutinous rice and stir till well blended.

Add in the rice seasoning and mix well.

Pour all ingredients from the frying pan into the cooking pot and add the mushroom water till it covers the top of the rice.

Turn on the rice cooker as per normal.

After the rice cooker beeps, check for rice doneness by fluffing up the rice( rice should be softened).

You may need to start the rice cooker again if rice is not ready.

Once rice has softened you may scoop rice onto plate and garnish with fried onions, peanuts, chopped green onions and sliced red chillis too.