I love dumplings. The gyoza or pan-fried version. It is, however, not easy to execute. I’ve watched how it is done on TV and on Youtube plenty of times but it never turned out great. This is my second attempt and though better than my first attempt, still has loads of room for improvement.
For the filling, I mixed minced beef with a bit of water and hoi sin sauce and sesame oil. For the dumpling skins, I used ready made Swatow skins from NTUC. The next time I make these gyozas, I will make my own skin so that it would be better and more refined. This ready made method, though lacking in finesse, is still delicious and cheaper than eating gyozas from the coffeeshop.
Make the filling first. I added in chopped spring onions also.Add about a tablespoon of filling into the round skins and then fold and pleat. This is the most difficult part. Dab the edge with water to make it stick together. However, it gets really sticky and difficult to execute. I suppose this is when practice ought to make it easier.In a saucepan that has a tight fitting lid, add in a bit of oil and then place dumplings. Add water and cover to steam. Unfortunately, all my saucepans with lids have a tiny hole that allows steam to escape. The best is a lid with no holes.Once all the water has evaporated, the dumplings are ready to serve.These made a wonderful breakfast for my family. I like the flavour of the filling because of the hoi sin sauce.
Chicken on Coke. Haha. Hmm.. Anyway, I learnt of cooking chicken this way from a friend who is a wonderful cook. I learnt it last year and only today am using this technique. It seems like only yesterday when the whole lot came over and we decided to do a cookout at my place.
Back to the chicken. I marinated in for several hours. The marinade? Smoked paprika (lots of it please), dried mint (a bit), onion powder, garlic powder, safflower (the cheaper version of saffron), salt, zaatar (Arabic thyme), spice mixture (cardamom, cumin, fennel, cinnamon toasted and blended) and brown sugar. I rubbed it into the chicken and added just a wee bit of olive oil onto the chicken and then let it sit, covered, in the fridge till dinner time.
Then, I roasted it together with some vegetables. Potatoes, Japanese sweet potato, carrots and cauliflower. This roasting of cauliflower is new to me. I’ve been watching several cooking episodes where they feature roasted cauliflower so I decided to try.
The result? I overcooked the dish a bit so the vegetables were soft but still delicious because they had flavour. Oh yes, I seasoned the vegetables first with salt, black pepper, olive oil and the spice mixture. The chicken was wonderful because of the intense marinade. But I realise by cooking the chicken in this manner, the drumstick area didn’t crisp up. Hmmm, I will need to go back to my friend on how she resolved that. But the chicken was juicy and tender and so so flavourful.
The leftover chicken breasts (as usual, nobody wanted the breasts though they were very juicy) were made into sandwiches to be eaten for tomorrow’s breakfast. I coated the shredded chicken with some more of the pan juices and stuffed it into the panini sandwich from Gardenia.
Rub the dry mixture all over the chicken and marinade. Overnight is best.Wash a can of Coke well. Take half of the drink out and then place it in th centre of a lined baking tray.The fun part is propping the chicken onto the can. After you have managed to do that, arrange vegetables all around the chicken.Bake on the lowest tray and laugh at your family members reaction. 'Your chicken is standing up!' said one. 'I was wondering how the chicken could stand up. How is it standing up?' Ha ha ha.Once cooked, remove chicken from the can and then arrange on a plate. Drizzle the wonderful juices from the pan over the chicken.Save the chicken breast or use whatever leftovers to make a sandwich.
It really has been ages since I last updated this blog. In the meantime, I’ve been reading other Singaporean food blogs, some of which I really like. I’ll add their links in my Pages tab.
I love nasi ambeng. It’s my one Malay food weakness. I decided to make one during Hari Raya when my mom wanted to pop over for a visit. Well, this is a rendition of the traditional nasi ambeng. A traditional nasi ambeng would consist of rendang (usually beef), begedil (potato patty), fried tempeh and tahu (tau kwa), fried fish, sambal belacan, cucumbers – all the good things that make life worth living ;p
My version was chicken rendang (which turned out to be more like chicken sambal), urap (vegetable salad), begedil, fried tempeh and tau kwa and sambal belacan. I served it all on a plate lined with banana leaf. And I got the helper to make asam rebus (vegetable sweet and sour soup) which I will make and share it with all of you.
This is what I served that day – individual plates for all who came that day to visit.
This Raya I managed to squeeze some time to bake cookies. One of the two, yes two, cookies I baked is a chocolatey chip cookie using The Domestic Goddess’ recipe. I doubled the proportion since one butter is 250 g (hers called for 125 g butter). The result was good. Awesome. For the second batch, I used orange dark chocolate but the orange flavour wasn’t pronounced. Try this recipe as it is worth all the money you have to spend on Hershey’s cocoa, Hershey’s chocolate chips and 200g of dark chocolate bar (the recipe called for 250g, though).
The Recipe I used
Beat 250g butter (salted) with 150g brown sugar till creamy. Add 200g melted dark chocolate (use good quality dark ones). Add 2tsp vanilla and 2 eggs and continue beating till everything is smooth and rich. Add 300g all-purpose flour,1 tsp salt, 2 tsp bicarbonate soda and 60g cocoa powder. Stir in chocolate chips and voila! A beautiful, smooth, dark, rich, luxurious batter. Mmmmm….
I seem to have some sort of memory loss. I though I posted this already but it seems I haven’t. Oh well. I wanted to post about this Thai Green Curry. I like Green Curry. It’s rich and flavourful. I got the recipe from the internet after my friend told me that she had cooked a successful green chicken curry from a recipe off the web. I thought I’d give it a go and whaddya know? It turned out delicious. The only problem was that my chicken was tough. First time ever. I didn’t boil the chicken long enough. But seriously, this is so simple yet delicious to make that there really is no point paying so much from a Thai restaurant when you can do it yourself at home cheaply.
In a blender/chopper, add onions; garlic; ginger; one lemongrass; 5 big green chillies; a big bunch of coriander; pepper; fish sauce; cumin powder; coriander powder; a bit of palm sugar. Blend till it forms a paste.In a pot, add chicken, the green paste, water and boil till the chicken is cooked and tender.Pour in one box of coconut cream and pieces of brinjal.Season with salt and sprinkle fresh coriander over.The gravy is super delicious, especially when served with hot rice.
The Occasional Cook 