Pan-Fried Potatoes with Rosemary

Posted by Vivian in Potatoes

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Had some leftover potatoes and carrots in the fridge bought 2 weeks ago and I really want to clear the stock before everything turned bad. The initial idea was try to my hands on making a cottage pie but was worried at the same time that Holland potatoes may not be the best potatoes for mashing since it is higher in sugar than starch. So when I saw this recipe at The Little Teochew's blog, I immediately changed course.

A very simple dish but I went away with many lessons learnt:

(1) Have some good sense and never mix different types of potatoes together when cooking (I bought some loose USA potatoes because I wasn't sure if my leftover Holland potatoes was going to be enough to feed so many mounths and was glad that I did) because it becomes a challenge trying to manage the cooking time and making sure that the consistency was just right. The US potatoes turned out to be too soft by the time its cousin was done just right. I could tell who's who based on the colour!

(2) To reduce the cooking time, cover the pan with a slight opening for water vapour to escape and leave the potatoes to cook over medium heat. Turn the potatoes every few minutes to avoid charring. We need to brown it not char! The second batch was quite badly done because I walked away to tend to the children and in the end my 6-sided cubed potatoes all had 1 side that was almost burnt
(3) It is important to let the water vapour out if not the potatoes will start to "stew" in the water that had dripped back to the pan, making it hard to brown the potatoes and the potatoes will be slightly soggy as well.

(4) Never be too ambitious or lazy and attempt to cook too many potatoes in one go. The potatoes need to lay flat in one layer in order to get them all browning at the same rate.

But I must say that the rosemary leaves lended this dish a lovely smell. It is my first dealing with rosemary leaves as far as my own cooking is concerned and I have fallen madly in love with it. Time to go google for a rosemary chicken recipe.


Ingredients:

• Potatoes (cut into morsels)
• Rosemary leaves
• Olive oil
• Salt

Prepration:

• Heat pan and drizzle enough olive oil to cover the entire pan.
• Add in potatoes and rosemary leaves, making sure that all potatoes are in one layer.
• Cover pan, leaving a slight opening for water vapour to escape.
• Leave potatoes to cook over medium heat and giving them a flip every few minutes, until potatoes are soft enough to cut through easily
• Remove and sprinkle lightly with salt.
• Serve as a side-dish.

Number of Servings: Dependent on number of spud-monsters being served.

The Holland potatoes have a sweeter taste to it and holds up better in shape. Because of its natural sweetness salt can be omitted. Starchy potatoes require less cooking time and can do with some salt before serving.

Honey Lemon Chicken

Posted by Vivian in Chicken

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This was entirely an experiment and in my opinion wasn't quite successful (I am the worst critic of my own cooking!).

Though the taste isn't bad to the extend that it makes the chicken hard to swallow, I thought that it lacked the lemony taste which I was hoping to get.  Not only that, it was slightly more salty than ideal... might have marinated the chicken a tad too long or perhaps had too much light soya sauce added.  The proportion of the lemon juice and light soya sauce needs some adjustment for sure.

In any case this was what went into my "experiment"...


Ingredients:

• 6 chicken drumsticks (can be substituted with thigh or chicken wing)
• 2 tablespoons of honey
• 2 lemon (juiced and strained to remove pulp)
• 4 tablespoons of light soya sauce

Preparation:

• Mix ingredients and leave to marinate overnight.
• Bake at 180 degree Celsius for 30 minutes.

Number of Servings: 6

Pasta with Mushroom Sauce

Posted by Vivian in Pasta

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This was what we had for lunch on Saturday.  What was planned for Saturday's lunch was a bowl of creamy mushroom soup and plate of warm pasta topped with tomato based sauce, with ham, onions and more mushrooms added on.  So what the hell happened?  Short answer is that I had a "misadventure" in the kitchen.

I should have known better and chucked the soup recipe long time ago.  As usual, I try and go for the simple stuff but this one was a horrible mistake.  The soup was no where near creamy the first time I tried it... so I decided to attempt it again on Saturday and ended up having more cream.  The proportion was way way way off.  I could only taste the cream and there was just not enough mushrooms to it.  It turned out to be worse than the first attempt.  I started to panic like hell seeing how I had ruined the soup and lunch time was nearing.  Hungry men are angry men, hungry children are beyond imagination.  I had to turn the whole situation around quickly to redeem myself.  The first idea that came to mind was to turn the pot of soup into pasta sauce and so I went with it, keeping my fingers and toes crossed, hoping for the best.

By the time I served up lunch, I was adamant that it was crap even before I tasted it.  But after I plucked up the courage and took the first bite I had to congratulate myself that it actually wasn't that bad.  Except I still think onions in cream sauce renders it a weird taste.

This is probably how I should go about with this dish the next time (after I recover from this terrible espisode!)...

Ingredients:

• 3 portobello mushrooms (finely diced)
• 20 swiss brown mushrooms (sliced)
• 300 ml thicken cream
• 500 ml chicken stock
• 2 cloves of garlic (minced)
• Pasta (pre-cooked)

Preparation:

• Heat oil in frying pan and add in garlic.  Stir-fry till fragrant.
• Add in portobello mushrooms and allow it to cook until juices start to run.
• Add in swiss brown mushrooms.
• Once the mushrooms are thoroughly cooked, pour in chicken stock slowly.
• Allow the mixture to come to a boil and low heat slightly.
• Stir in heavy cream and bring it to a simmer.
• Serve sauce over pasta, with parsley flakes and freshly grounded black pepper for an added kick.

Number of Servings: 4

Pork Rib Soup with Potato and Carrot

Posted by Vivian in Chinese, Soup

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The above is a bowl of fuss-free, no frill, idiot-proof soup.  Simple but oozing from it is nothing but flavour, goodness and natural sweetness.  Good with a bowl of steaming white rice and even when eaten on its own.

I admitted that because I am such a spud lover, I had added in a tad too much potatoes in the soup today.  Taste-wise, of course it has to be the more the merrier.  But I can't say that it did much good to my waistline by the time I wiped out the entire pot LOL.


Ingredients:

• 300 gm of pork ribs
• 1 stick of carrot (skinned and cut into 1 inch thick)
• 3 mid-size potatoes (skinned and cut into 1 inch thick or into wedges)

Preparation:

• Bring a small pot of water to boil and add in the pork ribs.
• Allow pork ribs to boil for 3 to 4 mins to remove the scum.
• In the meantime, bring another bigger pot of water (about 1.2 litre) to boil and transfer the pork ribs from the smaller pot to the bigger pot.
• Throw in potatoes and carrots.
• Allow soup to boil for 10 to 15 minutes before lowering heat to medium-low.
• Leave the soup to brew for another 30 minutes before serving.

Number of Servings: 4