Sweet and Sour Chicken

I have posted Sweet and Sour Pork already, but I thought this sweet and sour chicken is a lot simpler. It's also a lot quicker to cook, in my opinion.

I was craving for some chicken necks, don't know why, I guess it's because I saw them at Coles Supermarket the last time I was there. So I sent the hubby to buy some. And he came home with marinated chicken thigh fillets. He said the butcher didn't have any chicken necks. I wonder what they did with them? Hmmm ... Anyway, I didn't really want to bake the chicken thigh fillets, so I thought I better make a sweet and sour out of them.




I must admit, it turned out really well, considering they have been marinated in some sort of sweet chili garlic God knows what else. The hubby was quite pleased with the outcome as well. He was quite proud of himself in buying the chicken thigh fillets.

Ingredients:

4 chicken thigh fillets, cut bite size
4 tbsp of cornflour
salt and pepper for seasoning
2 tbsp cooking oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced finely
1 medium onion, chopped finely
1 capsicum (red or green) sliced
2 medium carrots, cut round
1 can of pineapple, cut into bite size pieces

Sweet and Sour Sauce (mix these ingredients thoroughly)

1/4 vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp salt or thereabouts


Directions:

1. Mix the cornflour and chicken and season with salt and pepper.
2. Heat the oil in a wok then fry the chicken, until slightly cook. Remove the chicken from the wok and put on a plate with absorbent paper.
3. Cook the garlic in the remaining oil (add some more oil if necessary).
4. When the garlic is brown, add the onions. Cook the onions until translucent.
5. Add the carrots, capsicum and pineapple pieces.
6. Cook until carrots are tender.
7. Return the fried chicken and add the mixed sweet and sour sauce.
8. Keep stirring until it boils, then thicken with cornflour if you desire.
9. Serve with rice. Enjoy.

Ginisang Munggo

Everybody has their own way of cooking ginisang munggo. I've always thought that in Pampanga, our town in the Philippines, they always processed their munggo so that it's very smooth. And since we didn't have food processor or blender, we used to press the cooked munggo in a slotted bilao we called bitse. Excuse the words, I don't know what they're called in English. lol

Well, apparently, not everyone in Pampanga processed their munggo. I guess, it's only us .. lol

I have always processed my munggo, and that's the only way my husband and children know how to eat it. If they see munggo and it's not processed, they won't eat it. I must admit, I am not used in eating it that way too, so I usually stay away from it when it's not processed. I have served this munggo with fried Ling. In the tagalog region, they usually serve it with paksiw na isda , but if we have to serve something with munggo it's always fried fish, preferably galunggong.




Ingredients:

1 cup of munggo beans

2 tbsp oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium onion, chopped finely
1 tomato, chopped finely (optional)
1 - 2 tbsp of fish sauce
2 sticks of celery, chopped thinly and diagonally. Add the celery leaves if they're there.
bunch of spinach leaves (in my case, i put silver beet from the garden), washed thoroughly

Directions:

Boil 3 cups of water. When the water is boiling, add the dried munggo beans. Cook until it's very soft. About half an hour to 45 minutes. Keep stirring it, while cooking otherwise it might burn. When the munggo is soft, put it in a blender. I use a hand-held blender and blend it directly in the pot.

1. Saute garlic in the oil until slightly brown.
2. Add the onions, cook until translucent.
3. Add the tomatoes, and cook for another minute.
4. Season with fish sauce.
5. Add the celery pieces and cook further until the celery is slightly soft.
6. Add the processed munggo. Let it boil.
7. Add the spinach or silverbeet. Cook until the leaves are soft.
8. Serve with rice and your preferred fried fish. Or you can also serve pork chops if you're feeling generous.

When I was still in the Philippines, we used to put pumpkin flowers and the young leaves of the pumpkin. When I have zucchini flowers, I put them too. Other people, they use bagoong to season the munggo, but since my family do not eat bagoong, I use fish sauce. And others they put pork with it too. If you want to incorporate pork, saute the thinly sliced pork after putting the tomatoes. Cook the pork until it's tender, then proceed as above.

Spaghetti with Prawns and fresh tomatoes and chili

I am not usually fond of pasta dishes. The only way I eat it is when I cook it with seafood, mainly prawns and I will make it spicy so that it's palatable for me. Of course, you can always omit the chili. I omit the chili when I cook this for the family, they don't like it spicy. So I separate some of the tomato mixture for me and then I add the chili.




Ingredients:

1 500 grams of spaghetti, cook as per direction

2 tbsp of olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped finely
4 - 5 medium ripe tomatoes, chopped
500 grams of prawns, shelled and deveined
salt and pepper to taste
chili (optional) chopped finely


Directions:

1. Saute garlic in oil until fragrant.
2. Add the onions and stir until translucent.
3. Add the tomatoes. Cook the tomatoes for about 2 minutes.
4. Season with salt and pepper.
5. If you're adding the chili, mix it now.
6. Add the prawns, and stir thoroughly.
7. Prawns are cooked when they changed in colour.
8. Remove from heat and mix the cooked spaghetti.

Serve with your favourite wine. I like banrock crimson cabernet. Cheers!

Coconut Macaroons

I found this recipe at the back of the packet of a dessicated coconut when we were living in the Gold Coast way back in 1993. Well, we were not really living there, we were just having an extended holiday. 6 months is still a holiday, right.?Anyway, I used to bake this a lot back then. I always like macaroons, so when I found this recipe I was so excited I could finally bake some myself. I was just learning to bake at that time too, and this is a very easy recipe.

What triggers me to bake this again after all these years? Well, my sister Lhie who is learning to bake told me she just baked some, and she was quite impressed with herself. My son, Kim saw the pictures she posted on Facebook, and he wanted some, so I baked him some. And here are some of the macaroons I baked just a while ago.






Ingredients:

4 eggs, separated
pinch of salt
1/2 cup caster sugar
4 1/2 cups dessicated coconut

Directions:

1. Beat egg whites and salt until soft peaks form.
2. Beat in egg yolks (onto the egg whites - for the benefit of my sister) one at a time.
3. Gradually add sugar.
4. Stir in coconut, use spatula to mix well.
5. Line muffin trays with patty pan papers
6. Spoon mixture onto the patty pans. Press the mixture slightly.
7. Bake at 170 C for 15 - 20 minutes.

Pan de Coco

I was craving for some Pan de coco. And I still have left over grated coconut from cooking kutsinta quite a while back, sitting in the freezer, and I wanted so much to use it. So I searched on the internet for a good recipe. Luckily, I found this recipe and luckily, it is quite good too. At least in my humble opinion. What I like about this dough recipe is there's no Kneading. Yup, NO KNEADING.

I tweaked the recipe a bit, but not too much. As they say, if it's not broken, don't fix it. It just that from experience, I need more yeast than what it says in the recipe. And less sugar, without compromising the taste of the pan de coco.

And I must say, the result was very very good. I made some pan de coco, the way it was written in the recipe, but I also made some traditional round ones. I dunno if that's traditional, but that's the way I've known them since childhood.

Dough:

1 3/4 cups lukewarm water
2 tbsp instant dried yeast
1 1/2 tbsp salt
4 eggs, beaten lightly
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup butter, melted
7 cups all purpose flour
egg wash

1. Mix yeast, salt, eggs, honey and butter with the water in a bowl.
2. Add the flour and mix without kneading. Use a wooden spoon or wet hands.
3. When thoroughly mix, cover the bowl with cling wrap or tea towel and allow to rest at room temperature until dough double in size. I put mine on top of the oven, switch the oven 100 C and rest the bowl on top of the oven.
4. This dough is heaps. As in lots, plentiful. I was able to make 1 bread and lots of pan de coco. Apparently, the dough freezes well. Only use half of the dough for the pan de coco, and either freeze the rest of the dough or make this bread from the same cook of the pan de coco.

Coconut Filling:

2 cups unsweetened grated coconut
1/2 cup sugar (I used raw brown sugar)
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup water

Mix all ingredients in a sauce pan, simmer in medium heat until all the liquid si absorbed. Set aside to cool.


Directions:

1. Dust the half the dough with flour and roll into a ball. Let rest for 10 minutes. Divide into two smaller balls.
2. Take one dough and roll out into a rectangle, about 1/4 inch thick. Spread the coconut filling in the centre of the rectangle, leaving about 1/2 inch on all sides. Roll lengthwise and seal seams and ends. Now you have a long log. Divide it equally using a sharp knife in the desired size you prefer.
3. Alternatively, make the round, traditional pan de coco. Take a small amount of dough, the size of a golf ball. Roll it and flatten it. Put the filling in the middle. Then, gather the edges of the dough and pinch it towards the middle. Shape into a ball again, and lay it on the baking tray, seams down.
4. Place in a non stick tray about an inch apart. Cover with a tea towel and put it in a warm place until doubled in size. Again, I put mine on top of the oven.
5. Preheat oven to 190 C.
6. Remove the towel, brush the top of the pan de coco with egg wash.
7. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cool in a wire rack.

Prawn Curry

I harvested few beans, mexican chilis and even fewer cherry tomatoes the other day. So I decided to cook them. I just love fresh produce from the garden. So I quickly had a look in the freezer, and luckily I found some prawns there. So, prawn curry for me then.

I love my prawns. This is a very simple curry. Very few ingredients. The simpler to cook the food is, the tastier it is, I think. Of course you can substitute any vegetable. Whatever you have handy in your refrigerator.

And this is the result of my simple Prawn Curry. And it was yummy, even if I say so myself ;-)

Ingredients:



2-3 tbsp of cooking oil
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 medium onion, mince finely
1 1/2 tsp of curry powder
1 -2 tsp of fish sauce
handful of beans, top and tailed, sliced diagonally
1 mexican chili, juliene (or capsicum)
100 g of prawns, deveined and shelled
1/4 cup light coconut milk/cream



Directions:

1. Heat oil in a wok.
2. Saute the garlic in the oil, stir until light brown.
3. Add the onions, cook until transluscent.
4. Add the curry powder.
5. Stir in the beans and the chili.
6. When the beans are half-cooked, add the prawns and mix thoroughly.
7. Season with fish sauce.
8. Add the coconut milk and let it simmer for a minute or so.
9. Serve with steamed rice.
   
   
   

Bean Salad

We had a barbeque yesterday in a 38 C weather. We didn't know it's going to be that hot when we planned the BBQ, but hey, what can we do? I thought a very refreshing salad to go with a BBQ is a Bean salad, and this recipe was a big help.

I made some hamburgers and chicken satay. I took a picture when I started cooking them, but we were so hungry so I forgot to take a picture when they were already cooked. Hence, they still look raw in these pictures :D

As mentioned on this original recipe, the sugar in the dressing is important. I tend to agree, the sugar makes the dressing. It just so happened that our friend (who came to the BBQ) made the same salad. See, great minds think alike. I don't think she put sugar in her dressing, because it's a tad vinegarry (if that's a word). And of course, my boys said, mine tasted better. They better say that, because I am the one feeding them, otherwise there's a possibility they won't get fed anymore. ;D I added cherry tomatoes on this salad because I happened to harvest some from the garden.

Ingredients:

2 cans 400 g butter beans

2 cans 400 g 4 mix beans

2 cans 400 g red kidney beans

2 stalks of celery, sliced thinly and diagonally

a handful of flat leaf parsley

2 small onions, sliced thinly (I used white onions, but you can use red onions too)

a handful of cherry tomatoes, halved (optional)

For the dressing:

1/3 cup cherry vinegar (or use balsamic)

1/3 cup white sugar

1/4 cup olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Drain and rinse the beans thoroughly under running cold water.
2. In a large bowl, mix the beans, celery, cherry tomatoes and parsley.
3. In a separate bowl, mix and whisk thoroughly the vinegar, sugar, olive oil, salt and pepper.
4. Toss the dressing into the Bean Salad.
5. Chill the Bean salad for at least an hour (or longer if you have time) for the beans to soak up the flavour of the dressing.