Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Churros!
Basil Chicken Wantan Soup
I am posting here this recipe due to to a friend's request. She says this style of cooking is not the typical wantan and it's refreshing. This is the most fuss-free wantan I have ever made and it is good for berbuka and sahur, and of course way after Ramadan.
I say fuss-free because when I made these I only had minced chicken and wantan skins. I did not even have carrots or water chestnuts or Japanese mushrooms which I would normally add to my minced chicken if I make wantans. For greens, I asked my daughter to go to the garden and pick me some Thai basil and you can also use the sweet basil. FYI, it's very easy to grow basil, I bought some from the night market and planted the basil stalks in soil and watered them every day. The same goes for mint leaves and daun kesom. However, mint leaves always die on me. In the end I bought a pot from the nursery. They seem to be surviving. So now I have mint leaves in my garden as well.
Okay, enough digressing.
I marinated the chicken with olive oil, light soya sauce and oyster sauce, pepper, a little ginger powder (optional) and corn flour.
To make the soup, I simply boiled water, enough to cover the number of wantans I'd like to eat.
While the water is boiling, I took a fat pinch of chicken, placed it in the middle of the wantan skin, added a basil leave and pushed the skin inward to close. I made about 9 fat ones and kept the rest for next time. Then I just dump the chicken wantans into the boiling water. And some basil leaves. I seasoned the soup with a little oyster sauce, fish sauce and pepper. The moment the meat is cooked (you can see the white through the wantan skin), turn off the heat and serve. Super easy and super fuss-free.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Finally the recipe!
Chicken Posole
This Mexican soup can be an entire meal by itself. I had bowls of it when my friend, Carmen aka Siti Khatijah served it when we went to her house for a Mary Kay party. It was muy delicioso that when I had some friends coming over, I practically begged her for the recipe and it's really easy to make. The recipe below has been slightly adapted from the original recipe but it still tastes similar to the original. Have fun making it!
1 whole chicken put in pot, put in water enough to cover all the chicken. Boil with one whole clove
garlic. Take chicken out once it’s cooked. Shred the meat when cooled and return bones to the stock.
In a frying pan, put in 1 tbsp olive oil and fry one medium sized big onion, thinly sliced until golden brown with some salt and black pepper. Once the onion is done, pour into your soup stock.
Put in one chicken cube, 1 can of stewed tomato (you can use Del Monte) pulped, 1 box of tomato puree, 1 tin of Leggo's tomato puree, 2 tins of Kimball chickpeas, 1 bottle of mixed vegetables (I normally get this from Carrefour and it costs around 7.90-9.90 (or you can substitute with cubed carrots, green peas, French beans, radish). Add 1 ½ tbsp coarse chilli powder to the stock. Put in some of your shredded chicken.
If you have the powdered version, you don't need to grind jintan manis/ cumin , and ketumbar/ coriander, add to paprika powder and black pepper. (1tbsp of each to 3 bowls of water). Season with salt and sugar.
Garnish with grated cheddar cheese, shredded chicken, lettuce sliced thinly, cucumber julienned, onion sliced thinly, mint, tomato deseeded and cubed. Serve with tobasco sauce and lime wedges for extra heat and sourness.
This Mexican soup can be an entire meal by itself. I had bowls of it when my friend, Carmen aka Siti Khatijah served it when we went to her house for a Mary Kay party. It was muy delicioso that when I had some friends coming over, I practically begged her for the recipe and it's really easy to make. The recipe below has been slightly adapted from the original recipe but it still tastes similar to the original. Have fun making it!
1 whole chicken put in pot, put in water enough to cover all the chicken. Boil with one whole clove
garlic. Take chicken out once it’s cooked. Shred the meat when cooled and return bones to the stock.
In a frying pan, put in 1 tbsp olive oil and fry one medium sized big onion, thinly sliced until golden brown with some salt and black pepper. Once the onion is done, pour into your soup stock.
Put in one chicken cube, 1 can of stewed tomato (you can use Del Monte) pulped, 1 box of tomato puree, 1 tin of Leggo's tomato puree, 2 tins of Kimball chickpeas, 1 bottle of mixed vegetables (I normally get this from Carrefour and it costs around 7.90-9.90 (or you can substitute with cubed carrots, green peas, French beans, radish). Add 1 ½ tbsp coarse chilli powder to the stock. Put in some of your shredded chicken.
If you have the powdered version, you don't need to grind jintan manis/ cumin , and ketumbar/ coriander, add to paprika powder and black pepper. (1tbsp of each to 3 bowls of water). Season with salt and sugar.
Garnish with grated cheddar cheese, shredded chicken, lettuce sliced thinly, cucumber julienned, onion sliced thinly, mint, tomato deseeded and cubed. Serve with tobasco sauce and lime wedges for extra heat and sourness.
Friday, December 10, 2010
Chicken Posole
Haha, thanks Lin, for taking such a nice pix of my favourite soup in the world. Leave it to me, there won't be a picture at all; just the recipe. Now we have the pix, no recipe. Will do that in due time.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Burmese Briyani or Danpauk
This was a recipe I stumbled upon. I had one and a half big tubs of yogurt and went into Jamie Oliver's website. I found this: Cucumber yogurt. I had cucumber, I had yogurt, I had cilantro. But no salmon for the tikka recipe. It didn't matter coz I was only interested in the cucumber salad recipe. Here goes:
Peel and halve your cucumber lengthways, then use a spoon to scoop out and discard the seeds
• Roughly chop the cucumber and put most of it into a bowl
• Halve your lemon and squeeze the juice from one half into the bowl
• Add the yoghurt, a pinch of salt and pepper and half the chopped chilli
• Pick the coriander leaves and put to one side
Then I googled for Burmese Briyani. I thought the cucumber salad would be a nice accompaniment for that. So why Burmese Briyani? When my Burmese friend got married many many years ago, we had a very memorable briyani but it was different from the usual kind we eat at weddings. It had loads of caramelized onions that gave the rice an extra but natural sweetness. And it was so nice that even though I wasn't a big fan of briyani that I had two helpings and resisted a third helping. Here's the recipe: Danpauk
Ingredients:
300g Basmati rice (2 cups Ecobrown brown rice/ Jati Basmati brown rice)
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
4 tbsp margarine (1 tbsp and 2 tbsp canola/ sunflower/ vege oil)
250ml plain yogurt
1 tsp salt
900g chicken, chopped into large pieces (1 whole chicken, a bit larger than bite sized pieces, marinated with salt, paprika powder, a bit of pepper, a bit of oil)
80ml cooking oil (canola oil)
2 tbsp ghee (1 tbsp margarine/ butter)
5cm cinnamon stick, lightly smashed to break up
(A)
4 slices ginger
10 shallots, thinly sliced
3/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp coriander powder
(B)
5 cloves garlic
1 star anise
5 cardamoms, lightly smashed
1 tsp ground fennel
1 tsp poppy seeds
Garnishing
10–15 cashew nuts, deep-fried
50g raisins
1–2 tbsp shallots crisps
Method:
1. Wash and soak Basmati rice in water mixed with turmeric powder for 30–35 minutes. Drain rice in a colander. (yup, I did this first too. How much water to cook? At the bag of the rice packet, it says for every one cup add two cups water. So it should be 4 cups water, except some I substituted with the "gravy?" from the chicken and also added a chicken cube. Anyway, while the rice is soaking, I'd prepare the chicken coz I wanted to use the excess gravy as stock to cook the rice. So if I had 1 1/2 cup of chicken gravy, I'd top up with 2 1/12 cup of water, so it becomes 4 cups water.)
2. Heat margarine and fry ingredients (A) until fragrant. Add 2 tablespoons yogurt and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Mix in (B) and chicken. Fry well, then add in another 2 tablespoons yogurt and remaining salt. Continue to fry until chicken is tender. (You will realise at this point that you have loads of gravy from the chicken, later you'd only be putting the chicken in, so the gravy seems wasted, so I decided to pour out the excess gravy and use it as stock. Continue to fry chicken till the chicken browns.) Leave aside till it's time to put it into the about-to-cook rice.
To cook rice:
3. Heat oil and ghee (I use margarine) in a clean wok. Put in cinnamon stick and fry until fragrant. Add the remaining yogurt to mix. Toss in rice to mix, then transfer the well-mixed ingredients into a rice cooker.
4. Add sufficient water to a level that is 2cm above the rice (As mentioned, I substituted some water with the chicken gravy and added a chicken cube, add salt and a bit of sugar to taste). Cook rice for 20 minutes.
5. Open the rice cooker and add in the precooked chicken and continue to cook until rice is done.
Remember I said the wedding briyani I ate had caramelised big onions? Anyway, I browned some thinly sliced onions and put them in when i put in the chicken. I fried this separately.)
Add garnishing before serving.
I have made this 3 times now. It's nice...Really!
Peel and halve your cucumber lengthways, then use a spoon to scoop out and discard the seeds
• Roughly chop the cucumber and put most of it into a bowl
• Halve your lemon and squeeze the juice from one half into the bowl
• Add the yoghurt, a pinch of salt and pepper and half the chopped chilli
• Pick the coriander leaves and put to one side
Then I googled for Burmese Briyani. I thought the cucumber salad would be a nice accompaniment for that. So why Burmese Briyani? When my Burmese friend got married many many years ago, we had a very memorable briyani but it was different from the usual kind we eat at weddings. It had loads of caramelized onions that gave the rice an extra but natural sweetness. And it was so nice that even though I wasn't a big fan of briyani that I had two helpings and resisted a third helping. Here's the recipe: Danpauk
Ingredients:
300g Basmati rice (2 cups Ecobrown brown rice/ Jati Basmati brown rice)
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
4 tbsp margarine (1 tbsp and 2 tbsp canola/ sunflower/ vege oil)
250ml plain yogurt
1 tsp salt
900g chicken, chopped into large pieces (1 whole chicken, a bit larger than bite sized pieces, marinated with salt, paprika powder, a bit of pepper, a bit of oil)
80ml cooking oil (canola oil)
2 tbsp ghee (1 tbsp margarine/ butter)
5cm cinnamon stick, lightly smashed to break up
(A)
4 slices ginger
10 shallots, thinly sliced
3/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp coriander powder
(B)
5 cloves garlic
1 star anise
5 cardamoms, lightly smashed
1 tsp ground fennel
1 tsp poppy seeds
Garnishing
10–15 cashew nuts, deep-fried
50g raisins
1–2 tbsp shallots crisps
Method:
1. Wash and soak Basmati rice in water mixed with turmeric powder for 30–35 minutes. Drain rice in a colander. (yup, I did this first too. How much water to cook? At the bag of the rice packet, it says for every one cup add two cups water. So it should be 4 cups water, except some I substituted with the "gravy?" from the chicken and also added a chicken cube. Anyway, while the rice is soaking, I'd prepare the chicken coz I wanted to use the excess gravy as stock to cook the rice. So if I had 1 1/2 cup of chicken gravy, I'd top up with 2 1/12 cup of water, so it becomes 4 cups water.)
2. Heat margarine and fry ingredients (A) until fragrant. Add 2 tablespoons yogurt and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Mix in (B) and chicken. Fry well, then add in another 2 tablespoons yogurt and remaining salt. Continue to fry until chicken is tender. (You will realise at this point that you have loads of gravy from the chicken, later you'd only be putting the chicken in, so the gravy seems wasted, so I decided to pour out the excess gravy and use it as stock. Continue to fry chicken till the chicken browns.) Leave aside till it's time to put it into the about-to-cook rice.
To cook rice:
3. Heat oil and ghee (I use margarine) in a clean wok. Put in cinnamon stick and fry until fragrant. Add the remaining yogurt to mix. Toss in rice to mix, then transfer the well-mixed ingredients into a rice cooker.
4. Add sufficient water to a level that is 2cm above the rice (As mentioned, I substituted some water with the chicken gravy and added a chicken cube, add salt and a bit of sugar to taste). Cook rice for 20 minutes.
5. Open the rice cooker and add in the precooked chicken and continue to cook until rice is done.
Remember I said the wedding briyani I ate had caramelised big onions? Anyway, I browned some thinly sliced onions and put them in when i put in the chicken. I fried this separately.)
Add garnishing before serving.
I have made this 3 times now. It's nice...Really!
Corn Muffins Update!
They were so delicious! Not exactly like Kenny Rogers but much better than the 1st recipe I shared. I think I should delete that now that I have found something better. Will put a note there or something or try to improve it. So if you come across corn meal, go buy it so that you can make these lovely muffins. I reduced the sugar content to 1/3 cup but not the honey. If you still think that's still a little too sweet for your liking, I'd suggest you reduce the sugar to 1/4 cup.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Found another Corn Muffin Recipe
This time I went for the obvious. Who knows, Kenny Rogers might share his recipe on the world wide web. I searched for "Kenny Rogers Muffins recipe" and lo and behold, stumbled upon this site where the top secret recipe is shared. It really does use cornmeal. Will try this tonight with Inez. She'll be pleased.
Ingredients [ View Metric ]
1/2 c Butter
2/3 c Sugar
1/4 c Honey
2 Eggs
1/2 ts Salt
1 1/2 c All-purpose flour
3/4 c Yellow cornmeal
1/2 ts Baking powder
1/2 c Milk
3/4 c Frozen yellow corn
Preparation
He knows when to hold em, and he knows when to fold em. He also knows how to make awesome corn muffins that come with the meals served at his chain of fire-roasted chicken restaurants. When Kenny Rogers isnt singing "Ruby," hes out promoting his fast-growing chicken chain. And its working out pretty good. Already there are 203 stores in the chain, and when Kenny cant do the promotion himself, the chaps over at the TV show Seinfeld help out by featuring the restaurant in one of their popular episodes. Now, with the help of this Top Secret Recipe, you can make some sweet corn muffins of your own that taste just like Kennys. 1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 2. Cream together butter, sugar, honey, eggs and salt in a large bowl. 3. Add flour, cornmeal and baking powder and blend thoroughly. Add milk while mixing. 4. Add corn to mixture and combine by hand until corn is worked in. 5. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan and fill each cup with batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until muffins begin to turn brown on top. Makes 12 muffins. (http://www.topsecretrecipes.com) Posted to recipelu-digest Volume 01 Number 438 by eyesopen@ix.netcom.com (linda /tennessee) on Jan 03, 1998
Am planning to reduce the sugar to 1/4 cup. And put in the same amount of honey required. Let's see how it goes.
Ingredients [ View Metric ]
1/2 c Butter
2/3 c Sugar
1/4 c Honey
2 Eggs
1/2 ts Salt
1 1/2 c All-purpose flour
3/4 c Yellow cornmeal
1/2 ts Baking powder
1/2 c Milk
3/4 c Frozen yellow corn
Preparation
He knows when to hold em, and he knows when to fold em. He also knows how to make awesome corn muffins that come with the meals served at his chain of fire-roasted chicken restaurants. When Kenny Rogers isnt singing "Ruby," hes out promoting his fast-growing chicken chain. And its working out pretty good. Already there are 203 stores in the chain, and when Kenny cant do the promotion himself, the chaps over at the TV show Seinfeld help out by featuring the restaurant in one of their popular episodes. Now, with the help of this Top Secret Recipe, you can make some sweet corn muffins of your own that taste just like Kennys. 1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 2. Cream together butter, sugar, honey, eggs and salt in a large bowl. 3. Add flour, cornmeal and baking powder and blend thoroughly. Add milk while mixing. 4. Add corn to mixture and combine by hand until corn is worked in. 5. Grease a 12-cup muffin pan and fill each cup with batter. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until muffins begin to turn brown on top. Makes 12 muffins. (http://www.topsecretrecipes.com) Posted to recipelu-digest Volume 01 Number 438 by eyesopen@ix.netcom.com (linda /tennessee) on Jan 03, 1998
Am planning to reduce the sugar to 1/4 cup. And put in the same amount of honey required. Let's see how it goes.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Corn Muffins-One thumb Up
It's nearing the school holidays and Inez has been pestering me to make cookies or cake. Of course, cake! Cookies are much more work. The kids are on holiday. I am not. Anyway, out shopping one day, I found a packet of cornmeal and bought it. RM13.50 a pack. I was thinking cornbread but a friend said Kenny Roger's muffins were made from cornmeal. Really? That'd be cool!
I went on the net and googled "cornmeal muffins easy". And below is the recipe I tried. Normally the first time I make something, I'd reduce the sugar but this recipe didn't use much sugar. Only a quarter cup for 3/4 cup cornmeal and 1 cup flour. The only ingredient I doubted was the baking powder. Cautiously I used 3 tsp but not exactly level teaspoons. I made 12 tiny muffins and a loaf. The tin was kinda big, plus I'd use some batter for the muffins, so it didn't really rise that high. The result was okay, definitely not too sweet, the way I like it but not as soft as Kenny Roger's, which would have been better. Maybe those weren't made from cornmeal. I have some more cornmeal. Will experiment some more. In the meantime, try these. They are really quick to make.
Corn Muffins
3/4 cup cornmeal
1 1/4 cups milk
1 beaten egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil (used canola oil)
1 cup flour
3 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup corn kernels (Didn't use this)
Preheat oven to 350ºF.
Let cornmeal and milk stand while you get the other ingredients together. Add the egg and oil to the cornmeal mixture.
Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar and corn kernels. Stir to mix. Add the liquid mixture to the dry ingredients and combine just enough to incorporate.
Fill muffin cups 2/3 full (do not use paper). Bake for approximately 10 to 12 minutes.
Recipe taken from http://www.cookingnook.com/corn-muffins.html
I went on the net and googled "cornmeal muffins easy". And below is the recipe I tried. Normally the first time I make something, I'd reduce the sugar but this recipe didn't use much sugar. Only a quarter cup for 3/4 cup cornmeal and 1 cup flour. The only ingredient I doubted was the baking powder. Cautiously I used 3 tsp but not exactly level teaspoons. I made 12 tiny muffins and a loaf. The tin was kinda big, plus I'd use some batter for the muffins, so it didn't really rise that high. The result was okay, definitely not too sweet, the way I like it but not as soft as Kenny Roger's, which would have been better. Maybe those weren't made from cornmeal. I have some more cornmeal. Will experiment some more. In the meantime, try these. They are really quick to make.
Corn Muffins
3/4 cup cornmeal
1 1/4 cups milk
1 beaten egg
1/4 cup vegetable oil (used canola oil)
1 cup flour
3 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup corn kernels (Didn't use this)
Preheat oven to 350ºF.
Let cornmeal and milk stand while you get the other ingredients together. Add the egg and oil to the cornmeal mixture.
Combine the flour, baking powder, sugar and corn kernels. Stir to mix. Add the liquid mixture to the dry ingredients and combine just enough to incorporate.
Fill muffin cups 2/3 full (do not use paper). Bake for approximately 10 to 12 minutes.
Recipe taken from http://www.cookingnook.com/corn-muffins.html
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
This is such an old song but still beautiful!
Lyrics to A Is For Allah :
A is for Allah, nothing but Allah;
Ba is the beginning of Bismillah;
Ta is for Taqwa, bewaring of Allah;and Tha is for Thawab, a reward;
Ja is for Janna, the Garden of Paradise;
Ha is for Hajj, the blessed pilgrimage;
Kha is for Khaatem, the seal of the prophethood given to the Prophet, Muhammed (SAW);
Da is for Deen, Al-Islam, religion with Allah since time began;
Dha is for dhikr, remembering Allah;
And Ra is for the month of Ramadhan, ohh Ramadhan;
Za is for Zakat to pure our greed, when we give our money to those in need;
Sa is for Salamu alaikum, peace be with you wa'alaikum assalam;
Sha is for shams, the shining sun, which Allah placed for everyone;
And Sua is for salat, for when we pray facing him, everyday, facing him, till we meet our lord;
Allah there's only one God and Muhammed is his Messenger.
Allah, La ilaha illa'allah;
Dua is for duha, the morning light, the sun has turned from red to white;
Tua is for tareeq, the path to walk upon;
And Dhua is for dhil, a shadow;
And Aa is for ilm, the thing to know, to make our knowledge grow, in Islam;
Gha is for ghaib, a world unseen and that we know is not a dream;
Fa is for, the Opening, Al-Fatiha;
And Qua for the Qur'an, the book of God;
And Ka is for kalima, a word we're taught to teach us what is good and what is not;a
Nd La is for the beginning of La ilaha illa'allah;
Ma is for the Messenger Muhammed-ur-Rasoolillah.
La ilaha illa'allah, Muhammed-ur-Rasulilllah;
Allah, there's only one God and Muhammed is his Messenger.
Allah, la ilaha illa'allah;
Na is for nawm, the sleep God gave to give us rest after the day;
Ha is for the Hijra, the journey that, the Prophet made;
And Wa for wudu before we pray to help us wash our sins away;
And Ya for Yawm-mid-Deen;
Allah, there's only one God and Muhammed is his Messenger.
Allah, La ilaha illa'allah;
Allah, there's only one God and Jesus was his Messenger.
Allah, La ilaha illa'allah;
Allah, there's only one God and Moses was his Messenger.
Allah, La ilaha illa'allah;
Allah, there's only one God and Abraham was his Messenger.
Allah, La ilaha illa'allah;
Allah, there's only one God and Noah was his Messenger.
Allah, La ilaha illa'allah;
Allah, there's only one God and he created Adam, and we are the children of Adam.
Allah,La ilaha illa'allah;
Allah, there's only one God and Muhammed is his Messenger.
Allah, La ilaha illa'allah.
[ A Is For Allah Lyrics on http://www.lyricsmania.com/ ]
Blogging again...but for how long?
I know I haven't been blogging. And what I've posted is mainly just sharing. We really should be careful. People are getting more creative when they want to get their hands on your money, and property OR people can just do things behind your back.
Anyway, it's been a really hectic year. So much so, as I was updating my resume, I didn't have much recollection of the things I did. I was like, was that this year or was it last year? But despite the ups and downs, it's been a great year! I hope once I'm done with everything on my plate, I get to sit down and start writing again and sharing recipes. I'm really excited about brown rice at the moment. I've been experimenting. It's so euwwww cooked the normal way but as risotto or briyani, it can actually taste quite good. In fact, it's so good you want to eat a second helping.
Well, gtg. Will blog again soon, I hope. Ta ta!
Anyway, it's been a really hectic year. So much so, as I was updating my resume, I didn't have much recollection of the things I did. I was like, was that this year or was it last year? But despite the ups and downs, it's been a great year! I hope once I'm done with everything on my plate, I get to sit down and start writing again and sharing recipes. I'm really excited about brown rice at the moment. I've been experimenting. It's so euwwww cooked the normal way but as risotto or briyani, it can actually taste quite good. In fact, it's so good you want to eat a second helping.
Well, gtg. Will blog again soon, I hope. Ta ta!
Shocking video footage: Maid abusing child
The video makes me so sad to see a child picking herself in pain only to be kicked at, stepped and stomped on by a crazy maid who seemed possesed. Apparently parents put in a hidden camera when child kept crying when they got home, complaining of stomach pains. So now we can see the shocking truth. The maid was sentenced to two years' jail for assaulting the child.
I shudder at the thought of having my children abused like that. God forbid! Working Mom's maid used to hit on the head so there wouldn't be any apparent bruises. It's no wonder the child refused to follow the maid whenever the parents were around, even to get water. So beware, if you leave your maid unsupervised, read all the signs. Don't ignore them.
Here's link you can go to for more info about the above video.
http://forums.cozycot.com/cafe-talks/28577-maid-abuse-baby-video.html
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