Thursday, January 16, 2014

Mint and honey mustard chicken

I've done a mustard honey recipe before but since I had tonnes of mint in the garden thanks to some fertiliser, insecticide and summer, I thought I might as well put it to good use.

Ingredients
400g chicken thigh, deboned and deskinned, cut into chunks
10 mushrooms, sliced
¼ cabbage sliced thinly (optional because this was in the fridge. U can put in chopped carrots too)
1 handful washed fresh mint leaves
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp grained mustard
2 tbsp honey
3 tbsp soya sauce
1 tbsp corn flour
½ cup water
1 tsp crushed garlic
1 tsp crushed ginger

Method
1) Using a food processor, blitz together the mint, honey, mustard and olive oil into a smooth paste.
2) Pour the marinade over the chicken, and together with the corn starch and soya sauce, mix everything together well. Leave to marinade for at least an hour.
3) In a wok, stir fry the aromatics (garlic and ginger) briefly till aromatic. Be careful not to burn.
4) Drain the chicken and stir fry the chicken till 75% cooked. Add the vegetables and stir fry again till well incorporated.
5) When the vegetables wilt, add the water. When the liquid comes to the boil, turn down to a simmer and cover with a lid. Simmer till cook, approximately 7 minutes.
6) Serve immediately with steamed rice.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

5 spice Oxtail stew

I used to eat this quite often as a child. It was always delicious, and one of the best memories of childhood. I don't know the exact childhood recipe, but there is still a little glamour involved in eating  oxtail stew compared to eating plain boring beef stew, and this is the best beef-ish stew I've had in ages!

Ingredients
1kg oxtail (ensure at least one medium sized bone for each person)
250g stewing beef, cubed (there really isn't much meat on the ox tails after removing the bones)
3 bay leaves
1 tbsp black peppers
1 tbsp Szechuan peppers
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tbsp 5 spice
3 star anise
3 cloves
3 sticks of cinnamon
1 l water
1 can stout (about 475ml)
1 cup flour
½ big onion
1 tsp crushed garlic
1 tsp crushed ginger
8 sticks of celery (sliced)
4 medium carrots (chopped into big cubes)
2 big potatoes or 2 medium ones (chopped into big cubes)
3 tbsp light soya sauce or salt to taste

Method
1) Using a freezer bag, pour in the oxtail, beef and flour and shake to coat.
2) Shake off the excess flour and sauté the beef pieces in a little oil in a screaming hot pan. Don't crowd the pan to ensure that the beef is nicely browned. Put the browned meat in a stewing pot. I prefer to use a slow cooker but it can also cook at a low heat (130 deg C) in the oven.
3) Sauté the onions slowly till caramelised, then add in the ginger and garlic and briefly sauté. Be careful not to burn the garlic. Place in the stewpot. Sauté the vegetables briefly till slightly softened. Pour into the stewpot.
4) Place all the herbs and spices, except the salt, into a stock bag and place it in the pot with the ginger and garlic.
5) Pour in the stout and top up with water to cover everything. Once the liquid comes to a boil, skim off the scum. Leave it it to cook for 6 hours. Periodically open to skim off the scum and oil.
6) 1 hour before it's ready, add the soya sauce. Adding it too early will cause the meat to stop tenderizing.
7) At the end, check for seasoning and serve with rice or crusty bread. If you can wait a day, leaving the stew to steep overnight will let the flavours develop.


Monday, January 06, 2014

Gluten free banana pancakes

Gluten free banana pancakes is a fancy name for banana omelettes. What they are, are essentially just bananas and eggs, hence, flour free and thus, gluten free.

Got the recipe from the internet but although it was touted as being so easy, it really isn't. Easy to prepare maybe, but difficult in cooking. Because there was no flour, it was difficult to turn over compared to pancakes, and i really had to make sure it was slightly more than golden brown before doing so. Because of the high sugar content of the bananas, it needed more oil than normal pancakes, so it meant I had to add oil to my non stick pan after each pancake and clean the pan of burnt sugars.

Difficult to perfect and come out with a flawless pancake that wasn't torn, but the taste is fantastic because it's naturally sweet and texture wise, it literally melts in the mouth.


Ingredients (serves 2)
2 bananas
2 eggs
Dash of cinnamon sugar
Dash of vanilla extract

Method 
1) Mash up the banana in a bowl. Try it get them as mashed up as possible and without as many big lumps as possible.
2) Lightly whisk up the eggs and incorporate into the mashed bananas. Add the cinnamon and vanilla.
3) Lightly oil and heat up a non stick pan and using an ice cream scoop, scoop the mixture into the centre, swirling the pan to get as best as circular shape as u can.
4) You have to be really patient. Start the flame on high and after 2 minutes, turn it down to medium. The smaller and flatter the pancakes (hence, no big banana lumps), the faster it cooks. I test where're it's ready to turn by using my spatula to touch the edges and trying to gently move it. If it's still stuck it's not yet ready to flip. It may need to be more golden brown than you're used to but not a worry, the browning is due to the caramelisation from the sugars in the banana, so it's not really burning, but this is also the reason I turn down the fire so it really won't burn!
5) When the edges shrink back slightly from the pan (about 5 minutes in total) gently use the spatula to slide under the pancake and flip over. Give it another 2 minutes. This is much longer than real pancakes!
6) Before cooking the next pancake, pour on more oil and also scrape away any burnt sugars. This reduces and catching of the next pancake on the pan, and unnecessary burning.
7) Serve with butter and more syrup if preferred.

Buchujeon (Garlic chives pancake)