All Taste BBQ chicken

It's the start of Jun! Yes, it's that time of year we traditionally associate with holidays - when kids are let out of school, and when the weather is hot, warm and sticky. What better time than to haul out the barbi - except for our friends Down Under of course! :P

This recipe is a favourite of mine - it's so simple, yet has never failed to impress, and has people coming back for more. I adapted it from Brit telly and also one of those recipe labels from Sainsbury's (I miss them :( ). I call it 'all taste' because it comprises all the taste your tongue can distinguish - sweet, sour, salty, spicy and bitter! (less so but it's still there)

Ingredients
1 packet of frozen chicken (preferably wings and drumlets), thawed
4 tbls dark soya sauce
4 tbls light soya sauce
4 tbls chilli sauce
4 tbls honey
4 tbls lemon (or lime) juice
zest of 1 lemon (or lime)
3 tsps mustard

Method
1) In a big bowl, mix together all the ingredients. Here is the secret - taste the concoction! Adjust sweetness, sourness, saltiness, spicyness to taste.
2) Put chicken in the bowl. Mix well. 2nd secret - marinate overnight!
3) Drain well and reserve the marinade as a dipping sauce, making sure to microwave on high to cook well before serving.
4) Cook the chicken - either on the barbi or bake lay flat on a baking sheet and bake at 200 degrees C for 20 mins or until cooked.
5) Serve!

Beef Teriyaki with grilled Bananas

Continuing on the experiment in cooking with fruits, I bought some bananas today. Never been a fan of bananas, esp when it comes to anything with banana essence. Blech! However, I thought of how people bake bananas (eg banana bread, toffee banana) and an idea struck. The outcome - the pleasant taste of roasted bananas, caramelised and brown on the outside, warm and soft on the inside!

Ingredients
2 beef steaks
2 tsbp dark soya sauce
1 tbsp light soya sauce
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp sherry/Japanese mirin (cooking wine) if you have it. I use Chinese rice wine, works just as well
freshly milled pepper
1 banana, sliced into thick chunks
Vegetables that can be roasted or grilled e.g. capsicums

Method
1) To make the teriyaki sauce, pour together the soya sauces, wine and brown sugar into a bowl. Microwave for 15 seconds until sugar dissolves.
2) Steep the beef in the mixture and leave to marinate. Add pepper.
3) Grease a baking dish and lay the beef and vegetables on top. Grill on high heat.
4) Put the vegetables and banana into the leftover marinate.
5) Halfway thru the grilling time, add the vegetables and banana and turn the meat over.
6) Serve.

Baked Chicken with Grapes

Recipe courtesy of Mags. Cooking with fruits isn't a new idea, but the trick is in finding fruits that cook well (don't end up in a mess) and also which blend well with the food in question. For instance, tried and tested combinations would include pineapples and pork, apples and pork, cranberry and turkey.

Ingredients
1 chicken, chopped into 8 pieces
small bunch of grapes
1 tbsp tarragon, chopped
1 tbsp sage, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
butter
cooking oil

Method
1) Marinate chicken with salt, pepper, tarragon and sage.
2) Brown the chopped chicken in a pan with the cooking oil.
3) Transfer the chicken and left over oil into a baking dish.
4) Squeeze the juice of a few grapes all over the chicken and stir in.
5) Add a few grapes (still on the vine) to the pan.
6) Dot butter all over the chicken and grapes.
7) Bake at 160 degrees for 40 mins, turning over halfway and basting.

No oil arrabiata

Traditional arrabiata in my mind always comes about too oily and too fiery. I'm really not a fan of oily stuff, and it's always hard to get the proportions of oil right.

However, last week, I came across a particularly tomoto-ey version by CBTL, with a nice tomato-based sauce and served with nice chorizo sausages for that smokey taste - hey why not!

Here's my recreation, made slightly sweeter cos B doesn't like sour stuff (ie he hates tomatoes) and also less spicy for me. I added barley because I usually find my sauces too thin - the barley gave the sauce a good 'saucy' consistency, and the barley texture gave it a nice mealy texture. The bonus was that in the tomato base, the texture and feel made it taste like baked beans! Keep it overnight and see how the sausages and barley bloats up!
Ingredients (Serves 3)
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 can water
1 packet (about 10) chicken franks sausages (or chorizos if you have them), cut into chunks
3 tbls chopped garlic
3 tbls chilli flakes (more if you dare!)
1 tbls chopped onions
2 tbls barley
3 tbls ketchup
1 tsp granulated chicken stock (I use the squeezy packets so it's simplier)
4 tsp sugar
Grated black pepper
Oregano or Basil
2 tbls Olive oil
Pasta for 3
Grated parmesan

Method
1. Saute onions and olive oil. Add garlic but do not brown the garlic.
2. Saute the chicken franks.
3. Add the chilli flakes and stir fry briefly.
4. Pour in the canned tomatoes. Stir. Using the same can, fill up with water and pour into the pot.
5. Add the barley.
6. Season with oregano or basil, black pepper, tomato sauce and chicken stock.
7. Leave to simmer for 20 minutes. Taste and add salt if necessary. Usually the chicken franks add enough salt to the sauce for me.
8. Cook pasta as per instructions on the packet.
9. Serve with grated parmesan.

Braised spare ribs in rice wine

Am currently into a phase where I am cooking with wine. I have tried cooking chicken and pork with wine. So far, the results have been quite good on both. Gotta love 'hua tiao jiu'! :D

Ingredients
300g pork spare ribs
Handful of wolfberries
Handful of red dates
1 star anise
150ml water

1 thumb sized ginger, sliced into thin slices

1 clove garlic, crushed

2 shallots, chopped

Oil for cooking

Marinade
3 tbls chinese rice wine
2 tbls dark soya sauce
2 tbls light soya sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tbls corn flour

Method
1) Marinate the pork ribs and set aside for at least half an hour. Best results if left overnight.
2) Fry the shallots, ginger and garlic until fragrant. Drain the ribs and set aside the marinade for later us. Add the ribs to the pot, and brown evenly.
3) Pour the marinade and water into the pot. Add the wolf berries, dates and star anise.
4) Cover and simmer on low heat for 20 minutes.
5) Serve with rice.

Option 1: Lazy me, I prefer oven cooking, so I pour everything into a covered casserole dish and just bake at 180 degrees for 25 minutes.
Option 2: You can also soak some dried shitake mushrooms in the 150ml of water. Slice them up when soft and add them to the pot.

Cheesy french toast sausage casserole

It was a 'clean out the fridge' day again. Got bored with eating sandwiches, so though I'd give it a twist, adapted from the 'Bread and butter' pudding. Easy and quick to do!
Ingredients
Canned sausages
Margarine (optional)
2 - 3 eggs
3-4 slices of bread
Parmesan cheese, grated
Herbs to taste
Salt and pepper to taste (if required)

Method
1) Butter a casserole dish so the food won't get stuck. On a casserole dish, arrange the slices of bread to fit the bottom of the dish. If you like, you can cut off the crusts of the bread. Spread the margarine on both sides of the bread if you like. This makes the whole thing more 'buttery'.
2) Beat the egg and add salt/pepper to taste if required. Pour it over the bread and spread evenly to ensure that the bread is all evenly coated with the egg. Let it soak in for about 5 mins.
3) Sprinkle herbs over the bread (parsley, sage, thyme - whatever you like)
4) Slice the sausages length-wise into half and lay them on top of the bread.
5) Sprinkle grated cheese over the top.
6) Grill for 15 mins until the cheese is bubbling and golden brown.
7) Serve with a nice side of salad.

Crusty Ham & Cheese Meatloaf

Got the standard meatloaf recipe from Mags. Decided to do a 'clear up of leaftovers' in the fridge thing before supermarket shopping later on. Decided to improv (that's the training term for 'improvise' activities) and here's what I got. Not a bad outcome, the top was almost like short crust pastry. Give it a try!
Ingredients
300g minced beef
Herbs (I used my favourite '4 big kings' or 'shi da tian wang' variation but you can use anything that you like which goes well with beef e.g. rosemary, oregano, etc)
2 tbls light soya sauce or salt to taste
Freshly milled black pepper
2 eggs
4 slices picnic ham, sliced into cubes
3 thick slices of bread, blitzed into breadcrumbs
Parmesan cheese, grated
8g melted butter

Method
1. Mix the minced beef, herbs, salt and black pepper together. Add the ham and half the bread crumbs and mix well.
2. Beat up 2 eggs. Pour into the mixture and mix well.
3. Brush a baking tray or casserole dish with melted butter.
4. Spread on the beef mixture, pressing down with a fork to ensure that the mixture is well distributed over the surface of the pan, and pat down the surface so that it is flat.
5. Pour in the melted butter into the bread crumbs. It should resemble breadcrumb consistency (no pun intended)
6. Spread on the bread crumbs on top and pat down with the fork.
7. Sprinkle grated cheese on the top.
8. Bake at 200 C for 20 mins. If using a casserole, cover for 1st 15 mins and unconvered to brown and melt the cheese for last 5 mins.

Slice up and serve with salad. Nice for a warm summers' day or as picnic food.

Variation
If you're a real cheese lover, sprinkle the grated cheese into the beef mixture and mix well for that extra cheesey surprise when you bite into the loaf.

5 spice Pig Maw soup

People say that as we get older, our tastes change and we start to appreciate foods with stronger flavours. Indeed, as a child, I would swear off intestines of any form. Yet in the last 10 years, after an introduction to 'kuay chup', I started liking intestines. I developed a liking pig maw (stomach) soup only in the last couple of years and would look forward to it. Of course it's not the healthiest dish on earth and frankly, neither is it very tasty, but I like the texture of chewing pig maw.

However, I notice that most pig maw soups that I've had are usually quite bland - it is usually just pork bone/chicken stock and pig maw with tonnes of black pepper. Not much taste otherwise, which has always been a 'source of concern' for me. Especially since most soups I've tasted had so much black pepper, it was more like a very peppery soup and not much else, and it's usually to cover the 'soh' smell of the maw.

I thought of my mom's great 5-spice chicken soup and decided to adapt that. I cook this all up in a slow cooker so that the pig maw is not tough. Great to pop this into the pot in the morning and u got lovely soup after a hard day at work! (that's provided u can pry yourself from bed in the morning!)

Ingredients (serves 4)
300g cooked pig maw
300g pork bones for soup (soft bones are great too)
10 cups of water (coffee mugs are great - u can add more water if you want a thinner soup)
1 handful wolf berries (optional, adds sweetness)

Seasonings A
1 shallot, finely chopped
2-cm length ginger, sliced
2 tsp 5-spice powder
9 cloves
4 star anise
2 cinammon sticks
10 black pepper seeds

Seasonings B
2 tsp sugar
2 tbls chinese rice wine

2 - 3 tsp salt (to taste)

Method
1) In a slow cooker, put in the maw and bones. Boil the water and pour it over the maw and bones. This is very important as it will scald the bones and seal in all the juices, and keep your soup clear. Alternatively, I brown my bones in a pan (what they do for ang mo stews) together with the onion and ginger. It takes more time, but adds a nice caramalized flavour to the soup.
2) Put in the wolf berries and Seasonings A and cook for 1.5 hours.
3) Add in the sugar and wine to taste after the 1 hour mark.
4) Add in the salt last (also to taste), about half an hour before the end. You don't want to put in the salt too early as salt is easily absorbed into the food. 1stly, salt causes meats to 'sieze up' and turns it tough. 2ndly, it is easily absorbed into the food and at the end of the cooking time, u can't taste it in the soup anymore, so you end up putting in more. I've been taught to put it in near the end so that you only flavour the soup and it means u add less salt to your cooking overall.

Serve with steamed rice. Lovely.

Cheesy Bak kwa sandwich

Now that the CNY feasting is nearly over, what to do with left overs? Well, usually with bak kwa, that's seldom a problem but I guess the weight-conscious people like me would eat it really sparingly.

To assauge my guilt, I turn it into a good and super easy to prepare meal, and I use other 'healthier alternatives' like low fat cheese and margarine (rather than butter). Especially useful after a bout of exercise of course! :P

Of course in reality, we all know I'm fooling myself...but what the heck, CNY only comes around once a year. Eating bak kwa any other time of the year kinda loses it's festive 'flavour'.
Ingredients
1/2 slice of bak kwa
1 slice low fat cheese (but of course!)
2 slices bread
margarine (but of course too!)

Method
1) Only assembly required. I usually put the cheese on top of the bak kwa so that it melts into the bak gwa. Yum.
2) Grill the sandwich or toast it. For best results, use a sandwich maker.
3) Optional - you can slot slices of tomato or lettuce into the sandwich but only after it's been grilled/toasted. You don't want your veggies to wilt!

Steamed Fish with Lemongrass

Ingredients (Serves 4)

Fish marinade
3 stalks lemongrass, sliced thinly
4 red bird eye chillies
30g (1 oz) ginger, julienned
4 kaffir lime leaves
4 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp lime juice (optional)
1 whole sea bass, make incisions on both sides of the flesh

Chilli sauce
2 cloves garlic, peeled
2 pcs coriander roots
5 red bird eye chillies
1 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp lime juice
4 tbsp water
1 tbsp fish sauce

Method
1) Prepare the chilli sauce ahead. Crush the garlic, coriander roots and red bird eye chillies in a mortar and pestle to obtain a rough paste. Add sugar, lime juice, water and fish sauce and combine well. Keep refrigerated.
2) Place the fish on a platter. Combine all the ingredients and marinte the fish for 5 minutes.
3) Place the fish in a steamer and steam for about 20-25 mins until cooked through but still flakey.
4) Garnish with some coriander leaves and serve with chilli sauce and rice.

Optional garish
Infuse some hot oil with leftover lemongrass. Strain and pour a few drops over the fish for extra flavour.