Country Chicken Casserole

This is a one pot dish that will take care of itself apart from the initial chopping up of the vegies and pan frying of the chicken. It taste delicious, even without any seasoning! If you do not take alcohol, replace the wine with equal amount of stock.



Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
30g butter
1kg mixed chicken pieces
1/4 cup plain flour
1 leek, trimmed, washed and sliced
1 clove garlic, crushed
3 tomatoes, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
125g sweet potato, peeled and chopped
1 stalk celery, sliced
1 potato, chopped
1 tbsp vegeta chicken stock powder
1 cup water
1 cup white wine
seasonings to taste

Method:
1. Heat oil and butter together in a large frying pan or a medium pot. Dust chicken in flour, shaking off excess. Brown chicken well.
2. Remove chicken. add leek and garlic to same pan. Saute for 2 minutes. Stir in remaining vegetables and stock.
3. Blend in remaining ingredients. Return chicken to pan. Simmer, covered for 1 hour or until chicken is tender and sauce has thickened slightly. Serve with pasta, rice or crusty bread.


Serves 4

Spiced Rice

This recipe can be made several hours ahead. Left over can be freezed and reheated in microwave oven.



Ingredients:
2 cups (400g) basmati rice
2 tbsp ghee or vegetable oil
1/2 large (100g) brown onion, chopped
1 1/2 cloves garlic, crushed
3/4 tsp garam masala
3/4 tsp black mustard seeds
1/4 tsp chilli powder
750 ml(3 cups) chicken stock

Method:
1. Rinse rice until water runs clear. Heat ghee in a large saucepan, cook onion and garlic, stirring, until onion is soft. Add spices, cook, stirring, for about 1 minute or until fragrant. Add the rice, stir to coat in the onion mixture.
2. Stir in stock, bring to the boil, reduce heat to very low. Simmer, covered, without stirring for 12 minutes. Stand, covered, for 5 minutes. Fluff rice with a fork.

Serves 4

Makhani Chicken

I am not sure how authentic this recipe is. However the contributor of this recipe at All Recipe alleged that it was from the owner of an Indian restaurant. I simplify the method a little. It is better to prepare this dish the night before.



Lemon marinade:
1 3/4 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cubed
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon chili powder
salt to taste

Yoghurt marinade:
1 cup yogurt
salt to taste
2 tablespoons garlic paste
1/2 tablespoon garam masala
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 tablespoon chili powder
2 tablespoons ginger garlic paste
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil

Sauce:
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon garam masala
1 tablespoon ginger paste
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 tablespoon chopped green chile pepper
2 cups tomato puree
1 tablespoon chili powder
salt to taste
1 cup water
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon dried fenugreek leaves
1 cup heavy cream

Method:
1. To Marinate: Place chicken in a bowl with lemon juice, 1 tablespoon chili powder and salt. Toss to coat; cover dish and refrigerate to marinate for 1 hour.
2. Mix together in a medium bowl: yoghurt, salt, garlic paste, garam masala, butter, chili powder, ginger paste, lemon juice and oil. Pour yoghurt mixture over chicken, replace cover and refrigerate to marinate for another 3 to 4 hours.
3. Preheat oven to 200C . Pour chicken on a deep baking dish and bake for 20 minutes or until almost cooked through.
4. To Make Sauce: Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in garam masala. When masala begins to crackle, mix in ginger, garlic paste and green chile peppers. Saute until tender, then stir in tomato puree, chili powder, salt, garam masala and water. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring in honey and fenugreek.
5. Place chicken in sauce mixture. Continue cooking for another 5 minutes, or until chicken is no longer pink inside. Stir in fresh cream.

Serves 2-4

Naan

A very easy naan recipe, made using bread machine. Thanks JadePearl for this great recipe.



Ingredients:
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/4 cup yogurt
2 eggs
1 teaspoon salt
4 cups bread flour
4 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast

Method:
Put all ingredients in the breadmachine according to manufacture instruction. (Mine is liquid first, then solid). Set the machine to - bread. When the cycle is completed, take the dough out and shape it into small balls.
Allow the dough to proof for another 10 mins. Roll the small dough balls out into oval shapes.

Heat-up a non-stick pan and pan fry it (about 2 mins per side) till its cook.
Note: This is the time where you can add in other ingredients before you pan-fry it, eg. garlic

Cucumber Raita

This is a refreshing raita to go with spicy Indian food. The recipe is from CD Kitchen.



Ingredients:
2 cups plain yogurt
1/8 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded & shredded
a pinch of cayenne to taste
1 tablespoon fresh coriander leaves (optional)

Method:
Mix cucumber and salt and let drain in a colander for about 15-20 min. Press out excess water. Stir yogurt into a bowl till smooth. Add cucumber and cayenne.
Heat oil in frying pan and drop in mustard seeds. When done popping, pour oil and spices into yogurt mixture. Add coriander if you wish. Serve cool with Indian meal.

Serves 4

American Chocolate Cake

Easy Bake By Alan Ooi



Ingredients:
Cake
125gm Butter
175gm Brown Sugar
½ tsp Vanilla essence
2 Eggs
35gm Cocoa Powder
130gm Warm Water
140gm Self-Raising Flour

Chocolate Ganache:
60gm Dairy Whipping Cream
110gm Dark Chocolate

Method:
1. Cake:
Mix in cocoa powder and water. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in eggs, one at a time. Add in vanilla essence, beating well after each addition until well combine.
2. Then add in a bit of cocoa mixture and flour slowly until finish.
3. Spoon batter into a 10”X14”X1” cake tin. Bake in preheated oven at 180degree for 10-15 minutes.
4. Chocolate ganache:
Heat dairy whipping cream until it comes to just under the boil, off the fire and adds in dark chocolate, mix well.
5. Slit cake into 3 layers. Spread ganache over first layer, cover with another layer. Repeat twice. Cover the top with ganache.

Serves

Hearty Greek Bean Soup

A perfect soup for cold wintry night. Although it is a soup, it is substantial enough to be served as a main course. Instead of cannellini beans, butter beans can be used.



Ingredients:
1/2 tbsp oil
1/2 large onion, roughly chopped
1 1/2 carrot, peeled and diced
1 1/2 stalks celery (leaves attached), sliced
2 cloves garlic, sliced
400g can chopped tomatoes
1/4 cup water
400g can cannellini beans, drains and rinsed.
salt & pepper to taste

Method:
1. Heat oil in a large saucepan. Saute onion for 2 minutes or until tender. Add carrots, celery and garlic. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes.
2. Blend in chopped tomatoes and water. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat. Simmer gently for 40-45 minutes.
3. Stir in beans. Simmer for 5 minutes or until beans are heated through. Season to taste. Serve with crusty bread. Top with some grated parmesan if desired.
Serves 2

Cappuccino Cookies

I adapted this recipe from an Indonesian website's recipe. The taste is so so only. I will work on improving it, probably with better, ahem,... expensive chocolate!



Ingredients:
275 gr plain flour
20 gr cocoa powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
100 gr butter
100 gr sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tbsp (10ml) instant coffee powder
50 gr palm sugar
100 g white chocolate and sprinkles, for decoration

Method:
1. Mix plain flour and cocoa powder together, sift to combine.
2. Cream the butter and sugar until soft, add sifted flour bit by bit while stirring to combine.
3. In another bowl, beat egg, coffee and palm sugar together until soft, pour it into the flour mixture little by little while continuously stirring.
4. Roll the dough flat, cut into shapes. Baked on greased baking sheet (or line with non-stick baking paper), at 150C for 20 minutes. Set aside to cool.
5. When the cookies are cool, decorate with melted white chocolate and sprinkles.

Makes 500g

Chorizo Sausage Pasties

I first tasted Chorizo sausages, a kind of spicy Spanish sausage, while having pasta at Sketches at Bugis Junction, Singapore. When I saw it on display in my local supermarket a few weeks ago, I didn't have any recipe in mind. Browsing through my collection of recipes, I came across this simple pasties recipe which will surely satisfy any true-blue Aussie males.



Ingredients:
2 chorizo sausages, roughly chopped
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 cup frozen peas
1/4 cup water
1 tsp curry powder
2 tbsp flour
1/2 cup milk
1 cup grated tasty cheese
2 sheets puff pastry, quartered
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp paprika powder
1 tbsp cooking oil

Method:
1. Heat up cooking oil, brown sausages over high heat. Add carrots, peas, water and curry powder. Simmer for 5 minutes or until liquid has evaporated.
2. Mix in flour. Cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add milk. Stir over high heat until sauce has thickened slightly. Set aside until cold.
3. Add cheese to mixture. Spoon 1/8 of mixture into each piece of pastry. Bring edges together to enclose filling and form 8 pasties.
4. Place pasties on an oven tray. Brush with egg, sprinkle with paprika. Bake in a moderate oven (180C) for 20-25 minutes or until golden. Serve with salad.

Makes 8

Black Forest Cake

My first ever black forest cake. Instead of using cream for topping, this recipe calls for ganache. The picture shows runny ganache as I didn't wait for the ganache to cool down before using it. So it will stay until the next time I bake another black forest cake and get a nicer picture. This recipe is for a 26cm round tin. I scaled it down to 2/3 for an eight inch round tin.



Ingredients for cake:
150g dark cooking chocolate
150g butter, soft
150g castor sugar
6 eggs, separated
150g self-raising flour
pinch of salt
250ml cream
1 tbsp extra castor sugar

Method:
Preheat oven to 170C. Gently melt the chocolate in a microwave or over a double boiler. In a bowl, combine the melted chocolate with the soft butter and beat until creamy. Slowly and gradually beat in the sugar and egg yolks (adding one at a time). Fold in the sifted flour. Beat the whites until stiff with a pinch of salt and very gently fold through the mixture. Pour into a lined and greased 26cm spring-form tin. Bake for 40-50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

To assemble:
Whip the 250ml cream with the 1 tablespoon extra castor sugar until thick. Cut the cake in half horizontally. Sprinkle the bottom layer with a little extra liqueur and spread over the cherry mixture. Top with the cream then place the other half of the cake on the top. Pour over the ganache and allow to set before cutting. Although this cake is best eaten on the day, it is still great the next day.

Ingredients for the cherries:
2-and-a-half tbsp cornflour
750g jar of sour cherries
75g-100g sugar (depends on how sour the cherries are. Add to taste)
30ml liqueur such as amaretto, kirsch or Cointreau

Mix the cornflour with enough cherry juice to make a paste. Combine the rest of the juice with the cornflour paste and put into a saucepan with the desired amount of sugar. Cook, stirring, until it boils and thickens. Add the cherries and liqueur, remove from heat and allow to cool.

Ingredients for the ganache:
375g dark chocolate, roughly chopped (this can be done in the food processor)
250ml cream

Gently heat the chocolate and cream in a saucepan, stirring constantly until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth. Do not let it boil. Pour into a bowl and allow the ganache to cool until you have the right consistency, i.e. thin enough to pour but thick enough so it stays on the cake. It's about right at room temperature. Pour over the top of the cake and wait until it is set.

Fluffy Banana Cake

Having read so much about how nice this banana cake is, I just had to try it. I lifted the recipe of this Joanne's Fluffy Banana Cake from Edith's blog with a little modification. I hope Joanne doesn't mind me posting the recipe here, since I am not trying to make money out of it :)



Ingredients:
170g butter
170g caster sugar
2 eggs, large
3 tbsp milk (liquid)
1 tsp banana essence
3 large banana
240g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate soda

Method:
Cream butter & sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time and beat well after each addition. Add milk, banana essnece and banana, mix well. Sift flour, baking powder & bicarbonate soda and add to mixture. Bake at 180 degree celsius for 1 hour. Serve warm with whipped cream.

Ayam Bakar Bumbu Bali

Eventhough it uses chillies, this dish is not hot at all. It has a combination of sweet, sour and hot taste that just hits the right spot. Nice eaten with hot steamed rice with sambal on the side.



Ingredients:
1 chicken
3-5 tbsp oil, for frying up the bumbu
400 ml coconut milk
2 daun salam
1 stalk lemon grass, bruised
1 tsp tamarind pulp

Processed Ingredients:
5 red chillies
5 shallots
3 cloves of garlic
2 cm ginger
4 candlenuts
1 tsp prawn paste (belachan)
1 - 2 tbsp palm sugar (gula melaka)
1 tsp salt

Method:
1. Fry the processed ingredients until fragrant. Add daun salam and lemon grass, fry until they are soft. Add coconut milk and tamarind. Bring to a boil, then add chicken. Simmer until ingredients are absorbed and the liquid is thick and reduced.
2. Grill the chicken. Turn over the chicken, baste and grill again.

Serves 6 - 8

Mua Chee

This little sweet sticky snack is called Kaloci in my hometown. I used to like watching the seller whipping up a big slab of cooked dough, dumping it on a piece big of tin full of chopped peanuts and then cutting the dough into small bite sizes pieces. I got this recipe from M4M (and scaled it down), with steaming method instead of boiling method of the dough.



Ingredients:
125 gm glutinous rice flour
200 ml water

Method:
Mix ingredients together to form mixture A
Grease a tray with about 4 tbsp of shallot oii (oil used to fry shallots)
Pour mixture A into the tray. Steam for about half hour (use chopstick to test for firmness when it's done). Cut out the muah chee when it's warm and roll the pieces onto the prepared sugar/peanut powder.
Ratio 1 sugar : 2 peanut powder
Or adjust the sweetness according to your taste.

Serves 2-3

Apple Yeast Sugar Tart

A recipe from Stephanie Alexander. A great way to use up not so crisp apples.



Ingredients:
250g plain flour
pinch salt
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp instant yeast
1 egg
½ cup warm milk
30g softened butter
2-3 eating apples
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup thick cream

Method:
- Sift flour, salt, sugar and yeast into a bowl. Whisk egg with milk and mix into flour mixture. Work in butter and knead to a smooth, thick batter. Sprinkle with extra flour, cover and leave to rise in a draught-free place for 30 minutes. Knock back dough, then press it into a 22cm buttered pie plate or loose-bottomed flan tin and allow to recover for 30 minutes (it will have puffed slightly).
- Preheat oven to 225C. Peel apples and cut into eighths. Arrange apple on dough and cover with brown sugar. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 200C. Spoon cream over apple and bake for 20 minutes. The top should be slightly caramelised and the tart light and spongy. Eat warm.

Serves 4

Lek Tau Suan

As a child, I used to have this dessert as mid-morning, sold by a middle aged man on a push cart. It must be eaten hot, delicious with crispy chinese cruller topping. The following is a recipe by Chef Lee Weng Eng, scaled down for a smaller family. If you use purchased crullers, cut them to pieces then crisp them up under the grill in the oven.



Ingredients:
Ingredients
150g skinned, split green beans
1/2 fresh orange
50g rock sugar
50g castor sugar
1 litre water
1 pandan leaves, knotted
2 teaspoons water chestnut (ma tai) powder, mixed with some water into a solution Chinese doughnut, sliced thinly

Method:
Soak the beans in water for 30 minutes. Drain and steam on high heat for 20 minutes.
Peel the orange and reserve flesh for some other use. Slice the orange peel.
Bring the rock sugar, castor sugar, water and pandan leaves to a boil. Add the beans, orange peel and water chestnut solution. Cook until the soup thickens slightly and has a translucent look.
Serve with the thinly sliced Chinese crullers.

Serves 3-4

Pizza

Pizza was born when a simple bread made from flour and water and cooked on large stones was flavoured with olives, olive oil and herbs by the ancient Babylonians, Greeks and Egyptians. The Greek brought the recipe with them during their occupation of Southern Italy where, by the Middle Ages, the unleavened bread was used by the poor as plates for their meals.

Experts are divided as to the origin of the word 'pizza'. Some say it comes from the Latin picea, meaning the blackening of the crust in the fire. Others say it's a Roman word meaning pie. Some think it started from the Roman word for magpie - pica - a bird with feathers of two colours.

Whatever the case, it wasn't until the 16th century, when tomatoes come to Europe from South America, that pizza as we know it began to take shape.

Two hundred years later, pizza was a popular peasant food and Naples, Italy, was the pizza capital. On the streets, the world's first pizza-delivery boys carried the tasty snacks on their heads in small tin stoves and sold pieces flavoured with oil. oregano and tomatoes to passers-by.

During a stay in Naples in 1889, Queen Margherite Teresa Giovanna noticed the popularity of this street food and after trying it herself, was hooked. It was considered unseemly for royalty to indulge in a working-class delight, though, so she called pizzaiolo Raffaele Esposito to the palace to bake her a pizza.

Esposito created a special pizza strewn with basil, tomatoes and, for the first time, mozzarella - toppings representing the colours of the Italian flag. Pizza Margherita was born, the queen said, "That's amore" and over the following decades, the rest of the world also fell in love with this simple delight.

This pizza dough recipe is taken from Breville's Ultimate Baker's Oven Manual. Put any toppings you like ie. tomato paste, mushrooms, capsicums, onions, tomatoes, capers, pineapple pieces, olives, herbs, salami, ham, anchovies, sardines and cheese.



Ingredients:
200ml water
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
375g (2 1/2 cups) bread flour
1 3/4 tsp tandaco yeast

Method:
Put the ingredients in order as above into the bread machine pan. Set the machine to Dough-Pizza cycle. When dough is ready handshape the dough. Roll out on a lightly floured surface into a 25cm round for a thick based pizza or into 2 x 20cm rounds for a thinner based pizza.
Place onto a lightly greased baking tray. Spread or sprinkle pizza with selected pizza toppings.
Bake in a preheated oven at 200C for 12-15 minutes or until base is cooked and topping heated through.

Serves 2-4