Fast to Cook, Better to Eat!

Those who venture the kitchen on a daily basis, would definitely face ‘a cook’s block’, which means, you can’t really figure out what to prepare. It seems as if you’ve prepared everything that could be cooked. Nothing seems interesting or challenging anymore but there are mouths to feed and time is running out, so you begin to feel the tension building up. The easiest option, stating a matter of fact, would be eating out. However, having to dress up and decide where to go and what to order would make you think twice. So, how do you tackle the matter?

Many would opt for instant noodles or fried eggs topped with soy sauce over a plate of white rice. On the other hand, those who don’t really prefer rice would go for sandwiches or simply having a few pieces of biscuits dipped in a piping hot mug of Milo. Well, the problem seems to be sorted out if you are alone but what if you have more than one mouth (with different preference, undoubtedly) to feed? In order to settle this matter, I’ve decided to share this simple roast chicken recipe – my problem solver on my ‘cook’s block’ days. Who would say ‘NO’  to a roast chicken? Do have  try because  it is very straight forward, just like the MAGGI Instant noodles tagline -Fast to Cook, Better to eat!

SIMPLE ROAST CHICKEN ALA CIKYAH

Ingredients :

• 1 chicken (about 1-1.5kg) (cleaned and pat dry)
• 2 onion
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 1 inch piece of ginger
• 10 pieces of dried chillies (seeded, soaked in boiling water and drained)
• 2 teaspoonfuls of fennel seeds
• 2 teaspoonfuls of cummin seeds
• 1 tablespoonful of coriander seeds
• 1 piece of chicken cube
• 1 teaspoonful of turmeric powder
• 2 tablespoonful of sweet soy sauce
• 2 tablespoonfuls of cooking oil
• salt to taste
• enough aluminium

Method :

1. Preheat your oven at 170C ( I used the roasting option) for 15 minutes.
2. Grind onion, garlic, ginger,dried chillies, fennel seeds,cummin seeds and coriander seeds till fine.
3. Put ground into a bowl and add in other ingredients till a paste is formed.
4. Rub this paste all over your chicken. Next, put your chicken onto a roasting tin and cover tightly with aluminium foil.
5. Bake the chicken covered for 1 hour.
6. Then, remove the foil and reduce the temperature to 150C and bake for another 15 minutes to brown the skin.
7. Serve hot.

 

Fun!Fun!Fun!

I have a soft spot for kitchen gadgets and blog hopping has worsen my condition and I drool when I look at these gadgets. However, drool as I may, unfortunately, the budget does not really permit excess buying. Talking about blog hopping, I came across this and decided to go to Daisho in One Utama to look for it and I had fun trying my new toy. It all happened when I saw a pot of chicken curry prepared by my MIL and I knew I was going to have some fun in the kitchen. I was very happy with the outcome of my trial and error session but sadly, I was the only one enjoying it! Pity me, huh?

ROTI JALA  DAN KARI AYAM

(LACY PANCAKES WITH CHICKEN CURRY)

Source : aishiteru81@myresipi.com

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of water
• 2 cups of flour
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup of cooking oil
• 1 teaspoonful of salt
• a few drops of yellow food colouring

Method :

1. Put all ingredients into a blender and blend till well-mixed. Make sure that you scrape the flour at the sides of the blender.
2. Sieve to get smooth batter.
3. Pour batter into the mayonnaise bottle.
4. Heat up a non-stick pan smeared with little oil over  medium heat and squeeze your batter into a lacy pattern.
5. Fry your pancake for 1 minute.
6. Take out from the pan and fold into a roll or a wedge.
7. Serve with the chicken curry.

 

Post Ramadhan- Celebrating, Celebration, Celebrated : Part 2

Still with happenings during the holy month of Ramadhan, this entry will be on a cookie recipe, a new entry into my must-haves Eid-ul-Fitr’s cookie list. The recipe is simple, uses only four ingredients, but with melt in the mouth outcome. A single batch would produce about 70-80 pieces of cookies so I doubled the ingredients used. Have a try, will you?

GERMAN COOKIES

Source : Rima 

Ingredients :

• 125 butter (I used SCS)
• 40g icing sugar (sieved)
• 125g potato starch
• 80g superfine flour

Method :

1. Beat butter and icing sugar till creamy and pale.
2. Put in potato starch and superfine flour and mix gently to form a soft dough.
3. Roll into small balls and arranged on a greased baking tray. ( I used 1 teaspoon of dough for each balls).
4. Dip the tip of your fork in a bowl of water and press on the rolled dough.
5. Bake in preheated oven at 170C for 15 minutes. (The oven I’m using gets very hot easily so I baked mine at 120C for 15 minutes)

 

Post Ramadhan- Celebrating, Celebration, Celebrated : Part 1

Finally, I managed to come up with an entry.  First and foremost, I wish a blessed and blissful Eid-ul Fitr to those celebrating. However, this entry is not about the much awaited celebration because I’ve decided to share some of the happenings during the holy month of Ramadhan. The reason is very simple. It is because, this year, in this holy month, I turned 36. Look at these photos on how my big day was celebrated.

A big canopy for the big event

The people in charge to make sure everything runs smoothly

Kuih Kaswi – part of the scrumptious array of  food galore

As a true blue-blooded Malaccan- Kuih Bakar is a must

and last but not least,

Kuih Tako

So….how did the celebration go? It was fun and I was thankful to be able to share my big day with more than 200 people – yes, those who turned up to the Majlis Berbuka Puasa and Khatam Al-Quran held at my school which happened to be on my birthday. What? I was being lame? Come on, can’t you spare this old bird some fun? Tee hee heee…….