Ikea meatballs

Especially for Mags, who is a Ikea Swedish meatball lover! She's not alone tho' - Singaporeans really love their food. With a new Tampines Ikea branch, they will probably catapult Singapore into the top 5 Ikea cafes in the world in terms of sales! The cafe sales at the current Alexandra outlet already rates it top 20 in the world.

This recipe is reproduced from today's Sunday Times, which they took from the Ikea Real Swedish Food Book, available from the Ikea Food Market.

Ingredients
250g minced beef
250g minced pork
1 egg
2-3 deci-litre cream and water (or use milk and water)
2 1/2 onions, finely chopped
1/2 deci-litre unsweetened rusk flour
2 cold boiled potatoes (about 60g each)
4-5 tbs butter, margarine or oil
salt and pepper to taste

Method
1) Mash potatoes and moisten rusk flour in separate containers.
2) Heat the onions till golden with a few tbs of lightly browned butter
3) Mix and knead all the ingredients into a smooth paste.
4) Shape and form into balls, roughly about the size of 50 cent coins.
5) Pan fry in butter slowly, until golden brown.
6) Serve with Ikea's meatball cream sauce and lingonberry jam.

Casserole Chicken

I have been trying to re-create the tastes of my childhood - simple recipes yet it's the taste of home and family. The simpliest of them all - good old chicken soup, isn't really so simple after all! I just can't get the depth and richness of the tastes.

I have just found the trick to another familar favourite - casserole chicken. I had to wreck my brains and try to remember, and then I remembered cruching down on something deeply unpleasant when I was young, now I've identified it as star anise, a spice I've recently discovered a liking for! It gives this nice 'baked' taste to the soup, something I could never recreate until now. The carrot and potatoes are also essential to the flavour of the soup. ( I know because I used sugar peas instead..blech!)

So here it is, my mom's casserole chicken with that 'baked' flavour. The taste difference between normal 'steamed' or 'boiled' chicken soup and 'baked' chicken soup is quite different, give it a try and u'll know what I mean!

Ingredients (Serves 2, as always)
2 chicken thighs and 2 drumsticks
4 tbsp of chinese cooking wine (1 tbsp per per piece of chicken)
2 star anise
sprinkling of 5 spice powder
sprinkling of sugar
whole black peppercorns
1 tbsp light soya sauce
1 potato, cubed
1 carrot, cubed
5 cups water
salt to taste

Method
1) Put all the ingredients into a casserole pot, chuck everything in. If you like, you can also marinate the chicken in the wine for about 15 minutes.
2) Cover. Bake in the oven at 200 deg C for 25 to 30 mins until cooked.
3) Served with steamed rice.