Dinner for 4

Haiya....why am i in office working??!??! All because i have exhausted my annual leave. So what do you do when you go to office and your boss is not around? Happy hour time of coz!!! It's blogging time...kekek

First day of Raya...bb brought his cousin and his cousin's partner over to my house for mahjong's session. Since daddy and mommy are away for holiday, i took up the chef responsibility for the day. My mom is too generous. She bought all the ingredients for me and all i need to do is cook...i don't need to purposely drive out and start picking which chicken is nice, which veges is good...bla bla bla...

My meal preparation started on Tuesday night. I marinated some chicken wings with Teriyaki sauce, soy sauce, honey, sesame oil and dashes of pepper overnight. The next day, i placed the wings on a baking tray threw some butter on it, drizzle some sauce from the marination...baked the wings for about half an hour.

While waiting for the wings to be readied, i cook up some Mapo Tofu...this is superbly easy. All i need is just some minced pork, a cube of tofu, some soy bean paste (Taucu) and some pounded chili paste. I prefer my tofu spicy, so i actually added generous amount of the chili paste to the Mapo Tofu. Heh...bb was complaining the tofu is too spicy.

Next, i stir fry some green vegetables and added a tablespoon of Chinese wine to taste. I also stir fry some french beans with shrimps.

Ha....a typical Chinese cuisine cannot be completed without soup. I made a pot of anchovies soup base and threw in some preserved vegetables, tomatoes, carrots and sour plums. Yea...i made the "HAM CHOI Soup"....yummy...

Although I'm a pure genuine Chinese....ya pure genuine (just in case u may doubt that I'm of mixed blood...hahah) my meal will not complete without dessert. Hu HU HU!! Early in the morning, i baked a tray of Cheese Brownies...oh my god...this is heavenly good! After i have cooled the freshly baked brownies on the dining table, i transferred the brownies to the fridge and chill it. When i served the guests of the day with the brownies, holy mama, both cousins (bb and his cousin) requested to ta-pau the brownies. Hehe...thanks thanks thanks for your endless support. Keke...paiseh paiseh...

Ok...to cut story short, I'll leave the pictures talk the story :)

p/s: Not enuf...i also steamed some fruit cakes...in conjunction of Hari Raya...hahahaha!

Mapo Tofu with extra chili!

Baked Wings......mmmm

Cheesy Brownies.....sinfully deliciooooussss!

Last but not least......the Steamed Fruit Cake...moist and rich ;)

Coca Cola Chicken

Coca Cola Chicken

TeeHee~! It's Sunday again. We usually stay home for dinner on Sunday and i'll get to test my skills on cooking.

The Chef : Dumb-Baker

The White Rat : Dumb-Baker's BB...wakakakaka

Dish of the Nite : Coca Cola Chicken
Accompaniment : Pan fry fish ( i have no idea what is the name of this fish ) + Self creation "Loh Hon Chye"
Something to digest : Stir fry "Choi Sum" + Stir Fry Lady's Finger w/ dried shrimps & chili.
Soup of the Nite : Old cucumber with anchovies + dried scallops + dried cuttlefish + dried oyster

This Coca Cola Chicken....the first time i tasted it was in Calorie's Cafe in Sri Petaling. The taste is between Sweet and Sour Chicken & Honey Baked Chicken. Last week, i saw a 1.5L of unopen bottle of Coca Cola sitting in the fridge. Then suddenly i had this 'bulb' in my mind...ha...i'm gonna make my own version of Coca Cola Chicken.

To be honest, i have no idea on how to prepare the chicken. I have not google any websites and have no seek any advice from other great cook. This is my experimental dish...if you are bold enough to try it out, please...my pleasure :> I find the chicken a bit too sweet...maybe i should reduce the amount of coke next time. Other than that, i thought it was yummy. The white rat commented that the chicken is a bit too sweet...other than that, it's fine......Yay! My experimental chicken is not going to the trash bin! Applause! Applause!

What you need :
1 chicken breast (cut into small pieces)
a small knob of ginger (thinly sliced)
some chopped onions (i chopped half of a big onion)
1 tbsp of dark soy sauce
1/2 tbsp sesame oil
dashes of salt and pepper
1 1/2 cup of Coca Cola (you might want to reduce to 1 cup)

What you need to do :
Combine all the ingredients together and leave it marinate in the refrigerator for at least 1 hr. Heat some oil in the pan/wok. Using chopsticks, pick out the chicken into the wok. Stir fry for about 2 minutes on medium fire. Pour the remaining liquid into the chicken and simmer for 20 minutes with lid covering the wok. Stir occasionally. Thicken the sauce with cornflour and let it simmer for another 5 minutes. Dish it up and serve hot.

Rice Cooker Pot Chicken Rice

OK, I don't have a claypot at home. My family can never get a decent claypot....there were a few times when we bought the claypot, they are always leaking or defective in certain places. Hence, mom said, "don't waste the money to invest on claypot anymore". Any advice on where i can get a decent-no-leakage claypot?

So no claypot....how to make claypot chicken rice? Ah ha....rice cooker may be a good replacement. It's pretty easy to make an almost-hawker-stall type of claypot chicken rice. All you need to prepare is :

Ingredients (for 2 persons meal):

• 2 chicken thighs, chopped to bite sizes



• 2 waxed meat (chinese sausage), sliced abt 5mm thick



• 3 presoaked mushrooms (sliced thinly)



• two small onions, finely chopped



• about 2 cm ginger, finely chopped



• 2 cups of rice, thoroughly rinsed



• 2 cups of water



• some finely chopped fried salted fish + chives for garnishing (optional)

Sauce for marination : Oyster Sauce + Dark soy sauce + Light soy sauce + Chinese cooking wine + dashes of black pepper (I've prepared the sauce in my own estimation...so no exact measurement)

Methods

1. Marinate the chopped chicken thighs with sauce overnight.


2. Lightly oil the wok and sauteed the onions and ginger till fragrant.


3. Add in chicken thighs, mushrooms and waxed meat and stir fry them for a good 2 minutes over medium heat.


4. Add in rice and water to the wok, continue stir frying for a minute.


5. Turn off the heat and transfer everything from the wok to the rice cooker pot.


6. Set your rice cooker to 'cook' and allow 8-10 minutes to keep warm before serving.


7. Garnish your plate/bowl of chicken rice with chopped chives and salted fish as you desire.

Now, I do have a rice cooker at home but KO-ed last week. So what i can utilise is just the rice cooker pot. *Panic* No rice cooker...sei lor....a minute after ransacking the kitchen's cabinet, i found this super huge pot. Ha! I can do it in a conventional-rice-cooking-way.....maybe. After transferring the kinda-raw-chicken rice to the rice cooker pot, i had the pot sit over an inch of water in the huge pot. Put the lid over the huge pot and let it 'steamed' over medium fire for 35 minutes.

My other half said the rice seemed to be a little too soggy....i guess i have over steamed the rice...but can't blame me, this is my first time cooking rice over the stove k. *pout* Having said the rice is soggy, my other half actually helped himself with 3 bowlfuls of rice...could it be because he's my ever supportive fan or because the rice is yummy despite soggy? Haha...try out the recipe yourself and you'll be the best judge :)

My version of rice-cooker-pot-chicken-rice

Teriyaki Chicken Wings

I was inspired by my cousin sis in law [who is truly a good chef & baker], Sue Sue, to make this dish. True enough, this is really finger licking good! Plus, it's really easy to prepare and no messy clean up too!

Since i get home earliest by 7pm after work, i had my mom to do the baking part so that by the time i'm home, we can all have dinner together. Probably there was a slight miscommunication, my mom set the oven temperature to 200 DC and baked for a good 40 minutes......and by the time i'm home, i quickly ran to the dining table to check out the chicken wings my mom had prepared.

First sight...."MA!!!!! WHAT HAPPENED TO THE CHICKEN?? WHY SKIN BLACK BLACK 1?? DID YOU BAKE THEM AT 180 DC FOR 30 MINUTES? DID YOU PUT IN ALL THE LIQUID LEFTOVER FROM THE MARINATION PROCESS?"

This is what my mom replied...." HA? MUST PUT IN ALL LIQUID 1 AR? OOOO I DUNNO MA...NEVER MAKE 'GUAI LOU' DISH B4....YOU SAID 180 DC FOR 30 MINUTES MEH?"

haha...nevertheless, the wings were still yummylicious despite the partly burnt skin...

Thanks a lot ma!

Try this recipe and i'm sure you'll enjoy them as much as i do!!!