Roast Chicken Yum! Yum! on Smilebox

I made this for a potluck last night. Received some raving reviews. Enjoy!

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2nd Cooking lesson for #3

Today, up to Thursday this week, #3 is on holiday due to the UPSR examinations for Standard 6 students. To keep her occupied and satiated in her personal culinary quest, this morning we had our 2nd cooking lesson.

Meanwhile, #2 has ongoing SPM trials until the first weekend of September.

#3 fried her first pancakes (under adult supervision) this morning. It was a gleeful hour of dressing up with an apron for the role and then gathering the ingredients to whisk the load of wet and dry ingredients together to form the batter of this very flexible breakfast favorite.

We had these lovely pancakes with butter and maple syrup. *smacks lips*



This was #2's lunch when she got back from school. #3 fried the pancakes while I, pan fried the Sole fillet. I tossed some rolo rosa, julienne carrots, tomatoes, corn and sesame seed dressing together for the salad.


Notice the irregular color on the pancakes? The pan wasn't hot enough. The pan fried Sole fillet was topped with a gravy so that the dish would not be 'dry'.


When #1 came back from University after 2.00p.m., this was served to her. This time the pan was HOT and see how lovely the pancakes turned out!


Pancakes - delicious for breakfast, lunch and dinner! Who said pancakes were for breakfast only? They are a flexible lot to be creative with! #3 had to make a second batch to serve this meal because there wasn't enough!


Another Smilebox recipe for you! Enjoy!

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Mum's Chicken Stew recipe in Smilebox

When I was growing up, my mother used to make this delicious chicken stew which my siblings and I would rave about. We'd always request for it during occasions when mum would most certainly cook it!

The only problem was that the 'Bombay curry powder' concoction was only available at Cold Storage in section 14, the 'old' Jaya Supermarket. This Bombay curry powder was always out of stock and whenever mum saw it on the shelves, she would certainly buy 3 bottles to store.

After many years, we never saw that brand on the shelves anymore. Nevertheless, mum found another similar tasting curry powder and this has been used ever since. Mind you, I don't know why it's called 'curry powder' when it's not spicy at all!! Well the Bombay curry powder wasn't spicy either, just very aromatic and full of flavor.

This is the recipe:

Ingredients:
2 tbsp curry powder (check the brand in the smilebox slide show)
2 tsp salt
1 chicken, cut into 14 pieces (med-large size)
5 medium size red onions
5 small potatoes or 3 large ones, cut into smaller pieces

Method:

1. Marinate cut chicken pieces with curry powder and salt.
2. Keep in refrigerator for about 3 hours or overnight.
3. Deep fry onions and potatoes and put into a deep pot.
4. Fry chicken pieces and add to the deep pot.
5. Fill the deep pot with water to cover chicken.
6. Bring to boil and lower heat to a simmering boil.
7. Simmer for 20 - 30 minutes.
8. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Eat with baguette or spaghetti or even steaming white rice!!!

Enjoy!!

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Another recipe uploaded in Smilebox

This is the second week of the midterm holidays in Malaysia. School begins the coming Monday. It's been busy, busy, busy!

I cooked this sometime back and had wanted to post it up to smilebox. I finally managed to. It's really simple and you can improvise with meats or carrots and potatoes too. Someone brought this dish to a potluck dinner and just rattled the ingredients. I re-created the taste by memory.

After adding the seafood in at the end, add salt and pepper to taste. Eat it warm with baguette or simply with Spaghetti Alio Oglio! Yummy!!!!

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#2 had her school choir over for a pot luck party last night and I enjoyed listening to the angelic sounds they produced! Well done Harmonix A & B!

Bento 223 & Cawan Mushi

I made cawan mushi for dinner last night. I've used this recipe a hundred times and it's always turned out delicious! I had to pack a dinner bento for #2 last night because she was going from music class to Church and didn't have time to stop over anywhere for dinner. So dinner was eaten in the car.

In the bottom box is plain white rice and cawan mushi steamed in a foil cup specially for this bento.


I steamed some otak-otak which my mum made and I added the last piece of store bought apple strudel into the top box.


I've just added a new smilebox recipe for Cawan Mushi. Easy and delicious.

Note: I didn't use the traditional Japanese ingredients like shiitake mushrooms, kamaboko, chicken bits etc. I used whatever left over ingredients I had in the fridge.

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Edit: The Dashi is supposed to be 1 2/3 cups and not 1 1/3 as stated in the Smilebox slideshow. My bad@!

Sake no Nanbantsuke

This smilebox recipe has been long outstanding!

Ingredients:
Sake - 4 pieces
Carrot - 1/3
Onion - 1
Lemon - 1
Plain flour for coating
Salt and pepper

Dressing:
Shoyu - 1 - 1.5 tbsp
Vinegar - 4 tbsp
Sugar - 4 tbsp
Dashi - 1 cup
Salt - a pinch
Lemon juice - 2 tbsp

Method:
1. Marinate Sake with pepper and salt and coat with flour.
2. Fry Sake till crispy.
3. Slice lemon and onions.
4. Layer sliced lemon in a casserole and then Sake, topped with onions, lemons and carrots.
5. Prepare dressing and pour into casserole to soak Sake.
6. Serve after at least 2 hours or more.
7. Can soak overnight and serve the next day also.

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Vinegared Root vegetables

I made this last night and included some into Bento 173. Simple pickled dish!

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Tamagoyaki

This is another slide show on my favorite Japanese rolled omelet called Tamagoyaki.

I hope you don't feel intimidated by this recipe because it is very easy. Remember no pain no gain!

The recipe:
Ingredients:

90ml Dashi
4 eggs
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp sake
1 tsp mirin
pinch of salt


Method:
Gently mix all the eggs and the above ingredients together. Do not whisk.
Soak a small piece of cloth or kitchen towel with oil and wipe the tamagoyaki rectangle pan.
Set fire on medium and scoop enough of the egg mixture to have a thin layer of egg cover the pan.
For the rest of the method, please view the slide show. It will show you more than I can explain in words.

Enjoy!

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Other smilebox slides:

All purpose Dashi

Soy sauce pork

Salted fish and vegetables curry

All purpose Dashi

Dashi is the most basic ingredient necessary for many Japanese recipes. I make dashi at least two or three times a week depending on how often I cook. There are various qualities of dashi and it can get more gourmet by adding Shiitake mushrooms and anchovies, etc, etc.

I've made a slide show on how to make an all purpose dashi. Personally, I never use packaged dashi because nothing beats fresh dashi. Once you know how to make it, it becomes very easy and becomes an asset in the kitchen because you can use it to cook in so many ways.

The ingredients are:

2 litres of cold water
2 inch kombu - wipe with a wet cloth, do not wash
One and a half cup of katsuobushi


Method:

• Soak kombu in cold water for 15 minutes
• After 15 minutes, the kombu will double up in size.
• Bring water and soaked kombu to an almost boil (about 7 minutes).
• Do not boil kombu in the water because it will give a bitter or awkward taste.
• Once the water has almost come to a boil, remove the kombu.
• Pour the one and a half cup of dashi into the hot water.
• Bring to boil and switch off the fire immediately.
• Skim of scum if any.
• After 15 minutes, sieve dashi into another pot.
• Use as required or keep in a Tupperware in the fridge. Can keep up to one week.
  

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Soy Sauce Pork

I love Smilebox! It's given me endless opportunity to experiment and convert my pictures into a slide show.

In a previous post, I mentioned about my mum cooking without proper measurements. I realized that one of the reasons I never picked up on cooking Chinese is because she always estimated her ingredients and that put me off.

I am one who had to have my weighing machine, my liquid measuring jugs and measuring spoons (both Japanese and US standards) and recipe available before I get cooking.

I found that by taking detailed pictures of her cooking, I could easily follow and re-make her recipes! What a Gem I found in Smilebox!!! Yipeee!!!

I showed mum the first slide show I made on her Salted fish bones and vegetables curry and she was tickled! She cooked Soy Sauce Pork for dinner and I asked to post the recipe again. She was a little trilled, I think! Both of us are having fun!!

This is it, the recipe:

Approximately 600 grams of pork belly and lean pork marinated in 2 Tbsp of dark soy sauce.
Season for 15 minutes.

Spices:
A handful of garlic
3 cloves
half a Star Anise
1 inch of cinnamon
1 tsp of crushed white pepper
1 piece of rock sugar (to caramelize the pork to give it a glossy look)

Half ladle of cooking oil

Method:

• Heat up half a ladle of cooking oil
• Fry cinnamon stick, star anise and cloves and then add garlic
• Add crushed pepper corns
• Add marinated pork
• Saute and toss pork and add the rock sugar
• Add half a soup bowl of water
• Bring to boil and cook on medium/low fire for 15 minutes
• Add 3 Tbsp of soy sauce (Mum used the dinner spoon - she says it's the same!@#?!!)
  
• Add a ceramic soup spoon into the pork (this is to tenderize the pork)
• Add 1 Tbsp of dark soy sauce for darker color
  
• Continue to cook for another 15 minutes on medium/low fire (leave the ceramic soup spoon in the pot!)
  
• Taste and add soy sauce to taste if not sufficient

Mum's Soy Sauce Pork is different from others I have eaten because she adds spices like cinnamon and cloves into it. It adds a nice flavor to the soy sauce pork dish.

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Note: I have no affiliations with Smilebox

Recipe for Salted fish bones and vegetables curry

My mum is 80 years old this year. She's an amazing cook who can whip up any dish without referring to it's recipe! I been craving this dish of "Salted fish bones and vegetables curry" for a while and over the weekend she cooked it. I told her that I wanted to blog about it and take some pictures. She was quite accommodating was even a little excited. We had some great "bonding" time laughing and talking about how to cook this dish. She says "SO EASY!" and I on the other hand is "Curry challenged" (can't cook curry if my life depended on it).

However, after this session with mum, I found that it's not that difficult and that I could possibly do it myself! Hehehe! The curry was absolutely delicious! If you are like me "curry challenged" please try it because it is actually quite simple!

But....before I give you the recipe, I need to tell you this, Mum is from the 'old school', she doesn't have a recipe! It's all by "agak-agak" (estimation of proportions), that's why I took quite detailed pictures so that you can see what and how much was used. The amount in the pictures was exactly what she used.

Here's the Ingredients:

The ground ingredients:
6 stems of Serai (lemon grass)
2 inches of Lengkuas/Galangal
1 inch of Kunyit/Tumeric
12 pieces of dried chilli
1 soup bowl of blended onions

Brinjals
Cabbage
Taufoo-pok
Long Beans
Salted fish bones
One Coconut
Salt to taste
Prawns
Squids (optional)
Pandan leaves

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