Baked Chicken Drumstick

Posted by Vivian in Chicken

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This is a common dish for many and but the recipe somehow differ from person to person.  Before this, I was using the most basic marinade made up of a mix of light soy sauce, dark soy sauce and honey.  Then came this recipe which belongs to my mum-in-law.  The taste had more substance as compared to mine and since then I have tossed my old recipe out.

Ingredients:

• 6 chicken drumstick or thigh 
• 1 tablespoon dark soy sauce 
• 3 tablespoon teriyaki sauce 
• 3 tablespoon oyster sauce 
• 3 tablespoon honey 

Preparation:

• Mix dark soy sauce, teriyaki sauce and oyster sauce together. 
• Add chicken to sauce mixture and marinate overnight if possible. 
• Preheat oven to 200 degree Celsius with conventional oven setting. 
• Place chicken on tray and retain remaining sauce. 
• Add honey to remaining sauce and mix well. 
• Baste chicken with sauce before putting into oven. 
• Bake chicken for 15 mins and remove from oven for one more round of basting. 
• Bake chicken for another 10 to 15 mins until juices run clear. 

Number of Servings: 4 to 6

Parmesan Toast

Posted by Vivian in Bread

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Another simple breakfast idea thanks to wokkingmum.

Ingredients:

• White sandwich bread 
• Butter 
• Parmesan cheese (powdered type) 

Preparation:

• Butter bread. 
• Spread Parmesan cheese on top of buttered bread evenly. 
• Toast bread in oven toaster or oven until golden brown. 

Number of Servings: Dependent on number of slices of bread used and appetite of diner.

Baked Pasta

Posted by Vivian in Italian, Pasta

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An extensive "research" for a great and easy baked pasta recipe was done a while ago and the truth was that it didn't seem like there was a definite way to put this dish together. The key was probably to make sure that the ingredients blend well with each other. And hence I concocted this recipe by adapting it from various sources.

The photo showed that I had used the big shell pasta because the supermarket ran out of penne the other day. I personally felt that penne will be a better choice with a baked pasta dish.

Ingredients:

• 200 gm penne pasta (pre-cooked) 5 sausages 
• 200 gm swiss brown mushroom (thickly sliced) 
• 1 big yellow onion (roughly chopped) 
• 1 big bottle of tomato based pasta sauce 
• Mozzarella cheese 
• Cheddar cheese 
• Dried parsley 

Preparation:

• Heat up cooking oil in frying pan. 
• Add in sausages and lightly brown it. 
• Set sausages aside to let it cool and slice diagonally. 
• With the same frying pan, add in a little more cooking oil and stir-fry the onion until almost done. 
• Add in mushroom and stir-fry until the juices start to run. 
• Remove the mushroom and onion mixture and set aside. 
• Mix the pasta, sausages, onion, mushrooms with 3/4 bottle of the tomato paste. 
• Add in mozzarella cheese (amount to personal liking) and sprinkle with a generous amount of dried parsley and mix well. 
• Put mixture into an oven-proof dish and top with with more tomato paste to cover. 
• Add cheddar cheese on top. 
• Bake in pre-heated oven at 200 degree Celsius until the cheese melts and top browns. 

Number of Servings: 4

(The one thing I learned is that the oven settings can be played around with even during cooking to attain the desired results. Of course this is usually learned through trial and error for different types of dishes. For this dish I started with fan-forced conventional oven to quickly melt the cheese and then up the temperature to 220 degree Celsius and changed the setting to fan-forced grill which helps to brown the top very quickly and nicely.)

Korean Savoury Pancake (Buchimgae)

Posted by Vivian in Korean, Snacks

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I only found out this week that justbento.com (sister-site of justhungry.com) is not only about bento basics and skills. There are actually some simple to follow recipes available as well. And so I attempted one of the recipe that was posted earlier this week by Maki.

The pancake didn't turn out as crispy as I though it would be. From the Just Bento site, Maki's pancake definitely looked crispier. I can't quite figure out the reason why but I suspect it has got to do with the ratio of the batter to the filler. She mentioned 7 oz of flour but also indicated that it is equivalent to 2 US cup. 1 US cup is 240 ml, so that should make it 480 ml . But 7 oz is only almost close to 210 ml. The consistency of the batter looked right today though. A little confused with the flour measurement. Will need to experiment with it again. Probably increase the ratio of the batter to the filler or reduce the filler significantly.

I think the kids would have preferred this deep-fried to pan-fried. So that is also one variation to consider.

Ingredients:

(1) Filling -

• About 3 cups of finely julienned vegetables (green onions, garlic chives, bean sprouts, carrots etc) 
• 1 cup of kimchi cabbage roughly chopped or add more vegetable instead (I added normal cabbage instead) 
• Other ingredients that can be added - ham, julienned meat etc 

(2) Batter -

• 200 gm / 7 oz (about 2 US cups) white all-purpose flour or cake flour
• 1 large egg beaten
• 250 ml water 
• Pinch of salt 

(3) Dipping Sauce -

• 2 tablespoon soya sauce 
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar or lime juice with a mix of 1 tablespoon sugar 
• Few drops of chili oil to taste 
• Chopped green onion 

Preparation:

Sift flour and salt together. Combine the egg with water. Add the liquid to the flour gradually to form a thin batter. Set aside for at least 1/2 hour if possible.
Mix the batter and the other ingredients together (ratio of filler should be quite high).
Heat up frying pan or griddle and coat with oil. A little sesame oil can be added for a nutty flavour.
Spread the mixture out as thin as possible on the pan and cook over medium heat until crispy and golden brown, then turn over and cook on the other side.
Cut into wedges or square before serving.


Number of Servings: 4

Fettuccine with Prawn and Saffron Cream Sauce

Posted by Vivian in Italian, Pasta

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This recipe is adapted from a book titled "Pasta. Best-Ever Pasta & Sauce Recipes".

Why do I say that it is adapted rather than lifted from the book?  It is because I changed one of the major ingredient of this dish - lobster tail meat.  I don't really think that I can find lobster in a supermarket and even if I can it will burn a big hole in a pocket.  The book suggested that raw bug tail can be used as a replacement.  That sounded very foreign and exotic to me.  Again I doubt that I can find it in the supermarket.  Hence, prawns were added instead.

Ingredients:

• 400 gm fettuccine (pre-cooked) 
• 4 large garlic cloves (diced) 
• 250 gm Swiss brown mushroom (sliced) 
• 400 gm prawns (shell removed and deveined) 
• 1/2 cup white wine 
• 1/2 teaspoon saffron threads 
• 700 ml thick cream 
• 2 egg yolks (beaten) 

Preparation:

• Heat olive oil or melt 60 gm of butter in a large deep frying pan. 
• Add garlic and mushrooms, and cook over medium heat for 2-3 minutes or until mushrooms turn soft. 
• Add in prawn and cook through. 
• Remove mixture from pan. 
• Add in wine and saffron threads to the pan, scrapping the bottom to collect any bits. Bring to boil and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until reduced. 
• Add in cream, reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. 
• Add in some salt to taste. 
• Whisk through the egg yolks until thickened. 
• Return the prawns and mushrooms to the pan and stir well. 
• Serve hot with sauce over fettuccine. 

Number of Servings: 4 to 6

(Tip: To prevent the sauce from turning into an egg-drop soup, I read somewhere before that a little of the sauce should be added to the beaten egg first, stir to mix well and then repeat this step at least 2 to 3 times before adding the egg into the pan. By doing so, it slowly increases the temperature of the egg and prevent the egg from being cooked too fast. This ensures that the egg will mix thoroughly with the sauce.)

Baked Mussels with Cheese

Posted by Vivian in Seafood

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Credit for this recipe goes to Wokkingmum yet again.

I made this the second time today and was a little disappointed with the quality of the mussels. When I first attempted this dish, I had made it with frozen mussels from Australia. This time round I got the mussels from the seafood section and found the quality no where near the Aussie mussels. The latter was bigger in terms of size and more flavourful. A little more pricy but with the added convenience of not needing to remove one side of the shell. Lesson learned!

Ingredients:

• Mussels
• Tomato based pasta sauce
• Mozzarella cheese 

Preparation:

• Steam the mussels for 3 minutes to partially cook it first and to remove the liquid. After steaming the mussels, drain them. 
• Spoon pasta sauce to cover fill the shell. Top with shredded mozzarella cheese and sprinkle some chopped parsley. 
• Bake at 180 degree Celsius for 10 minutes or till the sauce bubbles out of the cheese and that the cheese has melted. 

Number of Servings: Dependent on the number of mussels used and the appetite of diner

(In the event if the mussels are more than partially cooked during the steaming process, bake the mussels at 200 degree Celsius or bake at a higher rack to allow the cheese to melt faster and not over-cook the mussels.)