Christmas parties

mango chicky lasagne

chicken sandwhich

chicken hamburg

dinner feast

why?

This year, the church where I am currently working at is challenging us to Bless 50, Connect 25, Win 5 and Disciple 1. LR and myself, are intentionally on our off-days (Tuesday) out to bless anyone, so this Tuesday, we decided to cook for LR's dad and step-mom. Something we have never done before, and instead have always been cooked for. We have been spoiled rotten by his dad's lavish chinese dishes, so in a sense, we want and should bless them back :) I knew cooking Asian cuisine would like me trying to teach Tiger Woods how to play golf. So, it was definately going to be an all out Western affair.

The menu for the night:

Starter

Tomatoes in French Dressing

Entree

Asparagus wrapped in Bacon

Main

Roasted Chicken with

Sweet Potatoes Mash

Dessert

Crepe Suzette

success?

On the whole, the dishes complemented one another, this was more accidental than planned! Also, put together on a dish, it was a masterpiece! The colours looked so pretty and I must say, my presentation skills are on the uphill! Taste wise, I think I did impress my in-laws but LR gave good comments that reminded me that there can always be room for improvement! LR really enjoyed the tomatoes being prepared this way (lightly blanched, remove the skin and drizzle some dressing on top) and the mash as quoted was "velvet-y" ! Pat on the back for 2 out of 3 sides being well executed.

failure?

The asparagus were a little over-cooked, perhaps I should not have blanched them first before grilling them. The chicken was not a juicy as my previous roasts, this could be due to me opting for 2 smaller chickens instead of a jumbo one but yet did not alter the cooking time in the oven. The marinade I used this time included paprika which added some spicy-ness to the chicken, but LR said he prefers a sweet marinade with honey mustard. This boils down to preference I guess :)

chicken goulash

why?

I have recently been converted into a paprika fanatic! Last week after lunch, I walked passed a shop selling spices by weight. You don't see that too often these days, I couldn't help but walk in and walk out with 50cents worth of paprika and after that is done, I'm definately going back to try the other spices. I looked up the internet and decided to make goulash since I had some baguette left over. However, LR's mom does not take beef which is the usual main ingredient. So I decided to 'improvise' :)

success?

I was yummy!! A little spicy but I like!

failure?

The taste isn't as robust as Hungarian Goulash, but I would think that not using beef would have that effect. The taste is more subtle and in fact using chicken brought the paprika from a supporting role in the dish to the lead role! So even in seeming failures something good does emerge!

chicken fajitas dinner

braised chicken

duck & chutney

chicken cottage pie

why?

I wanted to prepare a dish that I could make the day before to serve at the luncheon to save me slogging over the kitchen and leaving me utterly exhausted on the day when my friends arrive. This dish also tastes better the next day after the chicken fillings are allowed to soak in the gravy at least over a day. I have made this dish so many times and it is something that my mom taught me that never fails to WOW my guests. Thanks mom!

failure?

I forgot that the gravy would be lessen with baking and being soaked up by the chicken and potato topping. So personally, I would have preferred the filling to have a wetter consistency.

success?

Never fails and I this dish is a keeper. Here's the recipe:

Chicken Cottage Pie (serves 10)

Ingredients

• 1 kg chicken breast, diced in bite size
  
• 2 cups of frozen vegetables
  
• 1 can of mushroom soup
  
• 1 can of button mushroom, sliced
  
• 3 tbs of mixed herbs
  
• 2 medium white onions, finely sliced
  
• 20 cloves of garlic, chopped
  
• salt and pepper to taste
  
• 10 US potatoes, peeled and cut into half
  
• 300g of butter
  
• 1 cup of full cream milk
  

Method

1. Fry the onions and garlic in some butter till fragrant.
2. Add in some pepper and mixed herbs.
3. Add in the chicken and fry till slightly browned.
4. Add in the mushrooms and frozen vegetables.
5. Mix the canned mushroom soup with 1 can full of water and 1/2 can full of milk, and pour in.
6. Bring to a boil then simmer for 15 min.
7. Spoon the fillings into the baking pan for your pie.
8. In a pot of boiling water, add a pinch of salt and the potatoes.
9. Once the potatoes are cooked, drain off the water.
10. Mash the potatoes with a fork and add the butter.
11. Add in milk 1 tablespoon at a time till smooth consistency is achieved.

candied chicken wings

hainanese chicken chop

why?

I brought LR to Colbar once and from that day on, we started sharing this unexplainable love for this seemly old-fashion fusion dish. I decided to try to whip it up by 'feel'.

success?

This dish is terribly heart stopping. The potatoes and chicken are deep fried. But we can comfort ourselves to say the usual "once in a while, it is ok" and also we used white meat, chicken instead of red meat, pork! Any excuse to gorge! Haha

Ingredients

300g chicken / pork fillet

1 medium white onion, sliced

1 cup of frozen vegetables

2 bowls of breadcrumbs

1 egg

2 tbs of milk

salt and pepper

2 local potatoes cut to resemble french fries

4 tbs of tomato ketchup

1 tbs of sweet chilli sauce

3 tbs of sugar

1 tbs of light soya sauce

2 tsp of sesame oil

1 tsp of cooking wine

2 tsp of corn starch

some water to dilute, depending on how thick you want the gravy to be

Directions

1.Season the meat with salt and pepper.

2.Heat up cooking oil in a pot for deep frying. Check if the oil is ready by dropping some breadcrumbs. If it is ready the breadcrumbs should start 'bubbling'.

3. Deep fry the potatoes and remove on a kitchen paper to soak up the oil.

4. Mix the egg with milk. Dip the meat into the egg mixture, then the breadcrumbs. Repeat this again.

5.Place the battered meat to deep fry and turning only once when 1 side browns. Remove onto a kitchen paper to drain off excess oil.

6.Scoop 3 tbs of the oil into a frying pan and saute the onions till slightly brown. Do not overcook the onions, you want them to remain crunchy.

7.Throw in the frozen vegetables and fry for another minute.

8. Mix the ketchup, sweet chilli sauce, sugar, light soya sauce, sesame oil, cooking wine, cornstarch and some water together.

9.Pour into the frying pan, have some water on hand to dilute to the consistency of gravy you desire.

10.Place the french fries and battered meat onto the plate and spoon the gravy over to serve.

failure?

I would probably try pork. Chicken just isn't the same! The next time, I might add some white vinegar to add a slight tinge of sourness to the sauce.

japanese katsu rice

turkey pie

TURKEY!!!

why?

It's Christmas!!! And I had a party for my dear YWAM classmates as they would be spending Christmas out in the mission field. What's a Christmas party without the gigantic bird?

failure?

I was utterly mad to buy a bird that is 6kg and expect to prepare it and finish roasting the turkey within 6 hours! I started preparing the turkey at 2pm but the turkey was only ready for the oven at 3pm. I weighed the turkey after the stuffing and it came up to a whopping 11kg!! I was stunned and after calculations, the turkey would need 7 hours of roasting. Of course I was worried that the turkey wouldn't be ready when everyone got here. Thankfully, the turkey was sort of done when we were ready to eat. I say 'sort of' because nearing the bone areas were still raw. But, the turkey was so huge that for the 15 of us, the 2 legs, wings and a quarter of the breast filled us up. We didn't even get to the 'raw' parts of the bird. It was only after everyone left, LR and myself started to shred the meat and pack the bones that we came upon the raw bits. So into the oven for just another hour to be packed and ready for left-over recipes to come.

success?

I had a lot of fun preparing the turkey with the help of my classmates. What I particularly liked about this Jamie Oliver's recipe was that the stuffing instead of going into the cavity, was distributed under the skin of the bird. Really an unusal touch that produced a surprisingly juicy and well flavoured turkey meat. Slicing the breast meat brought immense satisfaction as well as the meat with the outer layer of stuffing mimics that of really pretty terrine that I only see at expensive restaurants! The stuffing was a mixture of dried apricots, minced meat and celery with herbs and seasoning. Super yummy, I would definitely roast my own turkey next year with this recipe but with a much smaller turkey.

Cordon Bleu

creamy salami chicken

Apricot Raisin Chicken

huff puff stuffed chicken

Orange everything chicken