Western – The Occasional Cook

Chicken Spanish Stew

November 10, 2023 7shasha7

So even after WordPress gave me a super great deal to renew, and renew I did, I didn’t have the time to post anything!

I have been making videos on TikTok and of course posting on my Instagram @shasha_cooks more frequently but seriously, I have not been cooking that much. I really am The Occasional Cook!

Yesterday, however, I had the time and the mood to cook and as usual, turned to my Chef Wan recipe book Sedap and found Chicken Spanish Stew.

Chef Wan never fails me, like seriously. I have tried so many of his recipes from this cookbook and they all turn out brilliantly.

Look at this outcome!

The colours and the flavours – ooo lala! The only thing I couldn’t follow from the recipe was the green olives. Have I griped about the supermarket closest to me? Well, even after after renovating, the stock up is really bad.

So here is how I made Chef Wan’s Spanish Chicken Stew.

Step 1: Coat chicken pieces with plain flour that has been seasoned with salt and black pepper. Brown the chickens and remove

Step 2: In the same oil (you can add more if needed, and I used olive oil) sautee till soft onions, carrots and garlic. Once soft and fragrant, add a teaspoon of dried tyhme (the recipe called for fresh but I didnt have any) and a teaspoon of chopped fresh basil (now, this I have plenty of because I grow my own Italian Sweet Basil). Add in one tablespoon of tomato puree, a can of chopped tomatoes and some chicken stock. I used Maggi concentrated chicken stock with water. Add saffron strands. Add in chopped red capsicums, the chicken pieces and then just let the whole thing simmer and cook for about 25 minutes. Once beautifully cooked through and the stew thick yet luscious, add in the black olives, stir. Taste and season with salt.

This was not only beautiful to look at but really delicious and healthy.

This is the recipe from his book:

Poultry, Western

Turkey Lunch

December 24, 2021January 22, 2022 7shasha7

Last Sunday I whipped up a Turkey lunch for the family. Now, using the word ‘whip’ makes it seem as though I had an easy time but other than the sheer huge size of the poultry, the rest of it was simply that easy.

The turkey I bought was an 8pounder baby. Now, that’s not very big but I don’t usually cook on a large scale. The first problem I had was finding a receptacle big enough for brining it overnight.

After much trial and error, I found the biryani pot which I took from my Mama but never returned. It was still a tad too small and the top of the turkey was exposed but it was the best given the circumstances.

The brining liquid was simple. Water, salt, lemon and orange peels, peppercorns, Bay leaves, rosemary, thyme, onion, garlic. Brine overnight.

See how it peeps out? But I’m never going to buy a bigger pot because my fridge is small and I doubt I’ll be roasting a Turkey often.

A sneak peek into my cluttered small Japanese fridge.

The next problem came when I had to twine the legs together. i didn’t have twine and so Pandan leaves to the rescue!

This is my brand new two year old oven. Yet, it barely fit this turkey.

And 3.5 hours later…voila! Super sexy turkey here !

I made some veggie sides, cranberry sauce etc etc. It was a delicious meal!

Western

Quiche

November 13, 2021November 14, 2021 7shasha7

I decided that I’ll be using recipes from the many cookbooks I own from now on. Not that I dont think Internet ones are bad but to justify purchasing all the cookbooks I have in my kitchen now! 😅

So I picked up the Australian Women’s Weekly Cookbook on Pies and Tarts. I used to be such a fan of this Australian Women’s Weekly series and have a few in my kitchen.

I decided to make the quiche. The recipe for the pie crust was easy!

Plain flour: 225g

Cold butter: 125g

One egg yolk

And a couple teaspoons of cold water to combine

I must say after I started on my sourdough journey, I’ve been using weight measurements than cups. It’s more precise and I think it’s easy too once you have the weighing scale and just using the tare function, I can get all I need in one bowl.

The dough came nicely. After wrapping in cling film and refrigerating it for half an hour, I rolled it and naked blind in the oven.

For the filling, I used Turkey ham and French Brie cheese. The custard mixture came to 1/4 cup double cream, a few tablespoons of milk, 2 eggs. I seasoned with only black pepper and added chopped coriander because I didn’t have parsley.

Me filling in the pie with the custard mixture.

Salads and Vegetables, Snack, Western

Poutine

August 1, 2021 7shasha7

I’ve a cool game I am playing with the children now. Though they are older now, it doesn’t mean we can’t have some fun, especially in this trying pandemic era.

In the last post I shared that the game involves being blindfolded and picking a country at random. Whichever country the finger lands at, I will learn more about the country and cook dishes relevant or popular to that place.

Last week after picking Mali the previous week, the Boy’s finger landed smack on Victoria Island, Canada. Now, that’s like almost Arctic territory and I scoured the Net but there’s very limited information about Victoria Island. I even borrowed a book online on Canadian cuisine but nothing on Victoria Island. Disappointed, I decided then to make Canada’s national dish of sorts – poutine!

What is there not to like about fried potatoes! But what’s even better is that it’s served with homemade gravy! And what can make it even better? Adding cheese. Goodness. Loaded with all the good stuff, but yes, not a diet friendly dish at all!

The first thing I did was make the gravy. Authentic ones use a combination of beef and chicken stock but I never have ready made home-made beef stock so I used all chicken. It’s so simple to make. Make a roux of butter and plain flour and make sure the mixture darkens to a dark brown. Add black pepper here at this stage. This adds to the fragrance of the gravy. Once it’s a dark brown, slowly add chicken stock and stir furiously. After that, thicken with 1-2 tsp of cornflour that had been mixed with some water. And that’s it! You may choose to season with salt but for me, that’s just too much sodium because I used boxed chicken stock.

For the potatoes, I used Idaho russet potatoes. They were huge, and the perfect length. Twice fry the potatoes. The first at a lower temperature to cook the insides, and the second at a higher temperature to crisp them up.

I don’t have cheese curds. We don’t have a wide range of cheeses here so I read that the best substitute is mozzarella. Use the block kind and tear it up into chunks.

And that’s it. Poutine is delicious but must be eaten hot. I’m glad I am playing this game because seriously, sometimes I run out of ideas on what to make next for the family. This is spontaneous and educational. Travelling vicariously through food and books now since it’s been 1.5 years since we travelled out of our island. 😦

food, Meat, Western

Cowboy Steaks using GR’s Texan Rub

July 11, 2021 7shasha7

One day while watching YouTube, I saw an episode of Gordon Ramsay in Texas I think. He was making a breakfast steak.

And then one day as I was browsing through the website of a meat supplier, I saw that this particular one was selling the same type of beef cut. So I bought one and made Gordon’s recipe.

And yesterday as we had a movie lunch day with my sister’s family, I decided to make a full blown Texan inspired meal.

I must say the outcome was amazing!

The menu yesterday was:

Cowboy steak, coleslaw, baked potatoes, air fried corn, Texan rice, chimichurri sauce, baked chicken wings

Let’s start with his rub recipe. I took a picture of the recipe from someone who posted

it on his website.

But let’s see what I had to substitute and remove. There was no way I could get ancho chilli here nor Aleppo so I used Kashmiri powder and removed the ancho powder. The result was still amazing.

I had the best coffee blend and so the smell from this rub was super amazing.

So The Man saw me massaging the steaks lovingly and couldn’t resist snapping a picture and teasing me about it.

Ah, ‘‘twas a good meal. Thanks Mr Ramsay for this recipe idea. It really is an amazing rub.