meatball noodles

why?

GBS organised a picnic last Saturday, and it was requested for me to prepare beehoon. To me frying beehoon would be automatically labelling myself as an Ah-Soh!! Of course, I wanted to prepare something close to the request of beehoon but still try something exciting :) So began to pour through all my cook books to find something to cook. I found this recipe in Nigella's FEAST book and as I read through how to prepare the dish I discovered that even when it comes to cooking, there can be an element of surprise and mystery! I bet you must be wondering as you look at the picture above and cannot help but ask "Where are the noodles?" Haha... that's the surprise! The noodles are actually mixed with minced meat to form the meatball noodles!

success?

This dish is so easy to prepare and it definitely got people asking where the noodles are! Yeah, this is really a 'cheap thrill' experience, but I did get a kick out of it! Haha.. It does look pretty as well, but somehow the noodles were not visible enough.

failure?

Somehow Nigella's recipes never turn out great for me at least. On my part, I knew that from my many experiences trying out her recipes, so I already knew I had to tweaked the recipe to add more spices and seasoning but the meatballs still ended tasting too bland for my liking. Yes, the recipe did call for Thai sweet chilli sauce to complement the meatballs, but it should not be bland on its own! And the meatballs could have turned out much worse if not for my added ingredients...Sigh, I wonder if she really did pen down the recipes accurately. I watch her on television and I am more incline to think she has not been as meticulous as she should be :(

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.

Rolled plum pork

Apricot Raisin Chicken