Chicken Burger

I love meat and if you see my blog, I have a lot of meat dishes.

I hate eating McD or Burger King. They have too much mayonaise in them and just no substance.  Totally unhealthy (not that I am very healthy ;p).

I figure that if I want to have burger or a sandwich, I might as well make my own!

It is really easy to make your own sandwich once you figured out what ingredients do you want to put inside.  

 Part 1

• Garlic - 2 Large one. Bake in oven 180c for 50 minutes.

Remove the lovely soft roasted garlic from the skin and mash it. Set aside for further use.

Part 2

• 2 tablespoon Mayonaise
• Lemon Zest from 1 lemon
• Salt and Blackpepper

Combine part 1 and 2 together to form a paste and keep it in the fridge for later use.

Part 3

• Chicken meat - preferable thigh area, bone removed
• Salt and Black Pepper
• Olive oil
• Fresh Rosemary
• Fresh Thymes

Season the meat with Salt and Pepper. Heat the oil and pan sear the meat till slightly brown on both sides. Dont over cooked it because we only want a little char mark on the meat.

Line some fresh herbs on the glass baking place, add the meat on top. Springkle a little more of the salt and pepper and bake it in oven for 170C for about 25 minutes.

After 25 minutes, take out the chicken and cover with aluminum foil to let it rest for about 20 minutes.  We want the juices return back to the meat so the meat will be juicy.

• Slices of Tomatoes
• Wasabi Sprout (if available)
• Mozzarella cheese

Spread the bread with Garlic mayo on the slice of bread, add 2 slices of tomatoes, cheese and heat up in the over for 2-3 minutes until the cheese melt.

Add meat, additional garlic mayo and lastly wasabi sprout + bread.

Once you start biting on it, you will want more. They meat is so juicy. The garlic mayo + wasabi sprout adds so much flavour. 

You will not regret it!

Fluffy Pancakes

I love pancakes. I really loved the chewiness inside and I like the idea of adding anything and everything inside.

Sunday is usually my favourite day. I love to wake up and cook a nice brunch/lunch for family. Just a day with breakfast that I fancy instead of a normal boring food.

• 2 cups of self-raising flour
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 baking powder
• 1 tablespoon icing Sugar
• Lemon zest
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoon of cooking oil
• 1 cup of Buttermilk
• Butter

Part A - Buttermilk

To make Buttermilk, it's either you buy it from the supermarket or make some at home. It is really easy.  1 cup of milk and add half a lemon juice.  Let it sit for about 10 minute and that's it! (picture below)

Part B - Dry ingredients

Take a mixing bowl, add in flour, cinnamon, baking powder, icing sugar, lemon zest and salt into the bowl.  You may sift the flour once or twice before mixing with other ingredients. In my case, I prefer to sift twice so that the pancakes would be fluffier.  Use a whisk and mixed it all together.

Part C - Mixing all together

Add Buttermilk and oil inside and mix it all till it is creamy.  If the batter is thick, add some milk to dilute the batter.

Heat up the pan and add a little butter. Using about 1/4 cup of batter for each pancake. Cook until bubbly, a little dry around the edges, and lightly browned on the bottom; turn and brown the other side

Serve it with maple syrup, honey or berry topping.

Baked Miso Cod Fish

My husband loves fish. He always tells me that fish is an important protein for us. While staying in KL, it is really very hard to get different types of fish and if I can get one, it will be expensive!

Staying in Singapore, I've found a fish and seafood seller who can supplies a lot of types of fish. e.g. cod, salmon, mackerel, large prawns, squid, pomfret, red snapper etc etc.

When I have fish, I like big fish. I really hate small one with little meat. Waste of time eating it .

One of my favourite is Cod fish. Love it because the meat is just white color and tasty.  

Recipe:

• Cod Fish Fillet 1 piece - defrost and room temperature
• Japanese Miso Paste - 1 table spoon
• Fine Sugar

Direction :

Marinate cod fish with miso paste. Make sure it is evenly distributed.  Sprinkle a little sugar on both side. Miso paste tend to be salty so do not add too much paste to the fish.

Marinate the fish for 2-3 hours.  Preferably to use small toaster oven to bake the fish. If you do not have a toaster over, just normal oven with low temperature about  130C for about 15-20 minutes.

Check the texture of the meat whether is it firmed. If it is firmed, then it is cooked.

Serve while it is hot.

Good luck and happy cooking!

Potato and Leek Soup

I love this soup.  It is really a comfort food/soup after a lousy day.  It is creamy and filled with flavour.

I fell in love with this soup back in 2008 during my trip in Bali with my girlfriends. On the last night, we found this restaurant to have dinner without reservation.  It was a peak season and it was pretty hard to find a restaurant without reservation. While waiting for some of my girlfriends to finished last minute shopping, Ive decided to order this soup to fill my tummy and for the girls to pay!! ;p

 Recipe :

• 4-5 Russet Potatoes - Remove skin and cut into small cubes
• Leeks - Slice the while and light green part only
• Butter - 1/4 stick
• Seasalt
• Blackpepper
• Fresh Thymes - leaves only
• Heavy Creme
• Water - 1 cup
• Fresh Chives as garnish

Direction:

Butter in pot and add leeks.  Stir-fry the leeks till soft but not brown in medium fire.

Add potatoes, chicken stock and water.  Boil the potatoes till soft.

Once the potatoes soften, use a hand blender and blend the soup till smooth. If you do not have hand blender, use a normal blender by transferring the soup into the the blender.

After blending, add fresh thymes some seasalt and pepper and boil for 20 minutes. Always taste the dish that you are cooking and  decide how much salt and pepper do you prefer.

Do not follow a recipe blindly.

Add creme to the soup. If the soup is too watery, mix corn flour and water and mixed into the soup bit by bit.

Serve the soup warm and not pipping hot.

Garnish with Chives and some additional pepper.

Enjoy!

Brine Roasted Chicken with Spice and Herbs

I love roasting meat. The reason I love roasting meat so much is because I get to play with spice and herbs. You can mix and match the spice and you will be surprised with the result!

I have not been cooking for a while and I missed my roasted chicken.  I went to the market today and bought myself a medium big fresh whole chicken. Figured that I have the time so I've decided to brine the chicken first so that the meat will be very juicy after roasting.

Part 1 - Brine Chicken:

• 3 tablespoon each of sugar and salt
• 2 dry Bay leaf

Use a large plastic container, big enough to store the whole chicken. Dilute the sugar and salt in the container and add the whole chicken into the container. Let the chicken swim for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Take the chicken out from the container 1.5 hours before roasting. Wipe dry the chicken with clean cotton cloth and side aside.

Part 2 - Ingredients to prepare before roasting :

 Vegetable :

• Pumpkin/Butternut Squarsh - Cut into cubes
• 1 or 2 sticks of Pasnips - cut into 1cm
• 1 or 2 sticks of Carrot - cut into 1cm
• Celery - sice into semi long slice with 1.5cm (you can use Fennel instead of celery if you want)
• 1 large Brown Onion - Slice it
• Olive oil 
• Seasalt and Blackpepper

Use a large roasting glass plate which is big enough to store the vegetables and chicken.  Put all the vegetable in to the plate add some olive oil, salt and pepper. Mixed it together and set aside.

Part 3:

• Butter - half stick. melt in pot and set aside.
• Cinnamon - 1/2 tablespoon
• Ground Coriander Powder - 1/2 tablespoon
• Paprika - 1 tablespoon
• Fresh/Dry Rosemary
• Fresh/Dry Thymes
• Black Pepper
• Fine Salt

Use a brush and spread the melted butter all over the chicken.  Put a bunch of Rosemary and Thyme into the chicken cavity. Rub chicken with Cinnamon, Coriander Powder, Paprika and Blackpepper all over the chicken. Sprinkle fine salt all over the chicken (just like picture below :

Once you have spread all the ingredient onto the chicken, combine the chicken and vege together (picture below) and add some herbs onto top of the chicken.

Oven reheat 180C for about 15 minutes.

Use 1 piece of aluminium foil and cover the whole chicken. Send it into the oven 200c for 40 minutes. This way, the chicken will not over burned before cooked.

Remove the foil and continue to bake the chicken for 180C for 35 minutes. Take the chicken out from the oven and slice the thigh area to see whether there's any juice flowing. make sure the juice are clear in color. If you want to make it cook further, send the chicken back to the oven for another 20 minutes (max).

Split the chicken from the vege and send the vege into the over for another 20 minutes.

While waiting, use an aluminium foil and cover the chicken tight. Let the chicken rest so that the juices will return back to the meat.

After 20 minutes, enjoy!

Homemade Chicken Stock

 
Working 5 days a week do not really give me the luxury to cook at home everyday. I wish my mother would visit me more often to cook for me and I am pretty choosy when it comes to the food. Having breakfast, lunch and dinner outside bores me.

Sometimes you just want some home cook food. To get the right taste that you want. The right amount of salt. the right amount of sweetness, etc etc.

One of the best and easy thing that I love making is homemade chicken stock.  My mother-in-law has given me a very huge pot  and this is really useful to make these stocks.  I’ve found out that the chicken stock/broth sold at the supermarket are too salty, lack of flavour and there’s just no kick to it. Once I’ve started, I never look back!

Ingredient requires :

• 1 medium size Chicken (with head intact) or 2 chicken carcase
• 4-5 sticks each of Celery and Leeks (I prefer Japanese leeks)
• 2-3 Large Brown Onion (remove skin and cut into halves)
• 1 whole garlic (with skin and knock it)
• 2-3 sticks of carrot
• Fresh Thymes
• Fresh Rosemary
• Chinese Parsley
• White peppercorn (a small bunch/10 pieces)
• Seasalt

Direction :

Wash the chicken and remove internal waste.

Put all the ingredients into the pot and fill up with water and boil in high fire for half hour.

Reduce to medium fire. Add hot water if the water level reduced.

Boil for 5-6 hours in medium fire.

After 6 hours boiling all the ingredients are soften (picture above). Remove all the ingredient from the pot and split the stock into separate plastic containers.

Keep the stocks in the freezer for up till 1 month.

You can use the stock for noodle soup, risotto, stew etc.