Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Chicken Curry with Vegetables

There hasn’t been much cooking or baking action in my Malaysia kitchen lately. I was under the weather for the past 2 weeks and had to postpone my trip back to US for another week. So I start cooking meals for the family again this week. Part of me is eager to go back to US to see Carlos and Diana but part of me find it difficult to leave my family. It will be another 2 years before I come back here again. Enough of my rambling. Here is the curry chicken that I cooked recently. This is how we like our curry chicken with a lot of fresh vegetables in it. It’s simple and makes a great one dish meal with the balance of protein and vegetables.

Ingredients :
1/2 chicken - cut into bite size pieces
1 carrot - cut small
1 egg plant - cut small
2 potatoes - cut into 4
10 okra - remove both ends
3 cups of coconut milk
1 tsp of sugar
salt and pepper to taste

Curry paste

4 shallots or 1 small onions - cut small
3 cloves of garlic
1" of ginger
8 fresh red chilis
3 candlenuts (buah keras) - optional
2 tsp of tumeric powder
4 tbsp of meat curry powder

1. Put the curry paste ingredients in a food processor add enough water to blend into paste. Set aside.
2. Heat about 2 tbsp of oil in a wok and stir-fry the curry paste until fragrant. Add in the chicken and stir- fry until well combined and chicken changes color.
3. Add in coconut milk and bring it up to boil. Add in potatoes and carrot. Bring to a simmering over low heat and cook until chicken is cooked and tender and gravy is fairly thicken.
4. Lastly add in okra and eggplants. Bring to boil and cook for another minute. Check seasoning. Serve with warm rice.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Stir-fry Szechuan Eggplant with Chicken

I love eggplant. I know not many people like eggplant because of its unappealing appearance, looking dark, mushy, even though it is actually perfectly prepared. Though it may not look good, you will be plesantly surprise how good this dish taste.

Ingredients:

1 piece of chicken beast - slice thinly
2 Japanese eggplant - cut into 1" length
2 spring onions - cut into 1" length
2 cloves of garlic - chopped
1 " of ginger - finely chopped
1 tablespoon hot bean paste
2 tsp of chili paste

Sauce:
1 cup Chicken Broth
2 tbsp of light soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoons cornstarch

1. In a small bowl combine all the sause ingredients. Set aside.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil. When the oil is hot, add the eggplant. Stir-fry the eggplant until it is softened (about 5 minutes). Remove and drain on paper towels.
3. Add 1 tablespoons oil to the wok. When the oil is hot, add garlic,ginger, chili paste and hot bean sauce.
4. Stir-fry until aromatic. Add in chicken. Stir-fry until it changes color.
5. Add in the sauce and bring to a boil, stirring quickly to thicken.
6. Add the eggplant and cook for a few more minutes. Check seasoning and lastly add in spring onions. Serve warm.

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Almond Cookies II

This is one of the cookies I baked for Chinese New Year. The taste and method of making this cookies is very similar to peanuts cookies.

Ingredients :

250 grm almonds
450 grm of flour
225 grm icing/powder sugar
220 grm corn oil/vegetable oil
1/2 tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of baking soda
1 tsp of salt

Egg Wash

2 egg yolk
a few drop of yellow food coloring

1) Pre-heat oven to 350 degree F. Roast almond for 15-20 min in the oven. In a food processor, ground almond till fine (you can reserve some coarsely ground almond for decoration)
2) In a mixing bowl, mix flour, ground almonds, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix well.
3) Add in oil and knead to make into a dough. Shape the dough round or cut into desired shape.
4) Brush the top with some egg. At this stage you can decorate the top with some almonds. Bake in 350 degree F oven until golden brown.
5) Cool completely and keep cookies in an air-tight container.

Friday, February 06, 2009

Macarons II

Macarons, the cute and adorable little cookies from France! My obsession with it started last year when I saw them popping up on many baking blogs. Every blog I visited, someone was making them. And, how could I not fall in love with them as well? They are so many variations of them and I just love them all. I never tasted one until Diana bought me a big box all the way from Paris. From then on I was hooked.

I tried baking them a couple of times but fail miserably but I was determined to try again until I get it right. Finally with Tartelette recipe and tips I made some decent looking ones.

I baked another batch of these little morsels again using Tartelette recipe and it turn out much better than the first batch. I still need a lot of practice to get the size right and learn to control the temperature of my oven. Hopefully the next batch will be much batter than this one. Time to start collecting egg whites again ;) For the recipe of the Macarons please refer here .

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Sweet And Sour Meatballs

My mother love making these meatballs when we have a family gatherings. She will normally made a bit more so she can cook this sweet and sour dish the next day with the leftover mealballs. These meatballs is great on its own and will make a great appetizer for party and with the leftover you can make it into this delicious sweet and sour dish.

Ingredients for meatballs

1 pound of ground meat (can be pork, chicken or beef)
1 carrot – finely grated
6 water chestnuts - finely cubes
2 spring onions – finely chopped
2 tbsp of oyster sauce
1 tbsp of soy sauce
2 tbsp of cornstarch
1 egg
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Put all the above ingredients in a mixing bowl. Mix well and let it marinate for an hour.
2. Form it into little balls . At this stage you can either deep fried the meatballs or bake it in a 400 degree F oven until golden brown.

Ingredients for the sweet and sour meatballs:

15 cooked meatballs
1 cup of pineapple - cubes
Half cucumber - cubes
1 small onions – quartered
1 large tomato – cut small
1/2 carrot - sliced thinly
1 clove of garlic - finely chopped

Sauce
4 tbsp of tomato ketchup
2 tbsp of sweet chili sauce
Juice of 2 lemon
2 tbsp of sugar
1 tsp of cornstarch
1 cup of chicken stock
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Mix all the sauce ingredients together in a bowl and set it aside.
2. Heat some oil in a pan, stiry fry garlic, carrot and onions until fragrant.
3. Add in the sauce, bring it up to a boil, add in meatballs, cucumber, pineapple and tomato. Stir well until sauce reduce and thicken. Dish out and serve with rice.