Strawberry yogurt ice cream

After Shu-Yin tried this out, I wanted to make my own as well. You can get the recipe from here though it's for blueberries, where else I chose strawberries because it's so much cheaper and I like strawberries more.

Tried to force Yin How to help me out in the kitchen. He helped me take out my under-utilized mixer from the cupboard, got fascinated and was playing with the different speeds of the mixer for a while, then got bored and left the kitchen.

The outcome of my strawberry yogurt ice cream - Yummy.

Chicken Sambal recipe

It's been long since I've blogged about a new recipe. My grandma's maids can cook very well so I copied over one of their recipes and tried it at home. The mother-in-law came over to my place and she loved the recipe I tried out so much that she took some home and took back some of the ingredients so that she could cook it herself.

Here's the recipe. It's very simple and easy to cook.

Ingredients A
1 chicken
4 tbsp of light soy sauce
Juice from 1 lime
salt & sugar to taste
5 tbsp of oil


Ingredients B
25 dried chillies, seeds taken out
10 shallots
7 candle nuts (buah keras)

Directions

1. Grind ingredients B with a blender or something
2. Marinate chicken in soy sauce
3. Heat up oil. Fry chicken until brown while stirring. Take out chicken.
4. Fry ingredients B until fragrant.
5. Add in lime juice, salt & sugar and mix evenly. Add chicken.

Mash Potato recipe

I've got a recipe request from WY.


Hi Mindy
I am thinking of trying out mashed potato this weekend. And that reminds me of your mashed potato… I love yours very very much, do you mind sharing the recipe with me…? *evil grin*
Or, you can share it in your blog as well
wying


Hehe, first time somebody has requested me to share a recipe. Below is roughly the one I used. I actually didn't refer to the recipe, my sister taught me how to make it so I just followed her instructions.

I didn't add in the beef stock granules and mustard into my gravy. And when you make the gravy, it will look very pale so a trick is to add a few drops of thick black soy sause just to give it the color.

If you want the mash pototos to be really creamy, be generous when adding the butter and milk to it. Because I didn't rely on the recipe, I kept tasting the mash potato and the gravy as I made it to check whether I needed to add more milk, butter, or chicken stock.

Just talking about mash pototoes makes me wanna eat it... I think I'll make myself some this weekend as well. :)


http://kuali.com/recipes/viewrecipe.asp?r=2229

Ingredients
800g potatoes, unpeeled
40g butter
100ml hot milk
1/4 tsp salt
Pinch of salt and dash of pepper to taste

Gravy for the mashed potatoes
30g butter
30g plain flour
300–320ml fresh chicken stock
1 tbsp beef stock granules
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp prepared mustard

Method
Put potatoes in a large pan. Add enough water to cover and add in 1/4 teaspoon salt. Bring to a boil then reduce heat and simmer for 25–30 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Drain and leave aside to cool.

Peel the potatoes then put them into a pan. Add butter and heat over a low fire. Use a potato masher to mash the potatoes until smooth in texture.

Gradually pour in the hot milk and beat until mixture turns creamy without any lumps. Add in a pinch of salt and a dash of pepper to taste.

To prepare the gravy, heat butter in a non-stick pan. Stir in the flour and allow the roux to brown gradually over a very low heat. Stir constantly to prevent the roux from burning. (It will become like a doughy texture, so be careful not to let it burn. Just keep adding a little butter, then flour, then stir, then butter, then flour, then stir...)

Blend in the stock and allow to boil. (To make the stock, just add 1 tablespoon of the liquid chicken stock into one cup of water. I added the stock bit by bit into the doughy texture, stirring it first until it thickens, the adding more stock. Once you add in the stock, don't try to add it more flour to thicken it, else it will turn lumpy. Just let it boil and it will thicken eventually. Make sure you use a very low heat).

Add salt and pepper to taste and beef stock granules and mustard. Cook until the mixture turns thick and smooth.Serve the gravy with the mashed potato.

Ayam Percik recipe

I was going to blog about something else but something else just happened and I just have to write about this.

This is the continuation of the Chicken Varuval post I wrote. Yin How keeps asking me to cook for his parents to let them try my cooking. And each time I refuse because like I said before, my parents-in-law earn a living by cooking so they know what's good and what's not. Also, I don't think my mother-in-law initially thought that I was housewife material. I didn't know how to cook, and I actually had a pampered childhood compared to Yin How so I'm not street-wise like him and I come from a very untraditional family.

A few years ago, Yin How fell very sick until he had to be admitted to the hospital. After he was discharged, his mum insisted that Yin How go home with her instead of following me home, saying that I could not cook for him (in other words, I could not look after him). I was offended, but what she said was true, I could not cook. Because of this, I was determine to be a great homemaker and at the same time try my best in my career as well. I basically just wanted to prove to myself that I can do both.

Anyway, back to the story, my parents-in-law unexpectedly dropped by for a visit. They are currently still here waiting for my brother-in-law to fetch them back to Butterworth. I had already prepared dinner the night before, marinating the chicken overnight to roast for dinner today.

Yin How's mum was curious about my roast chicken and said she wanted to try it. I was sitting there nervously thinking, "oh crap, oh crap, what is she going to say?" She took a bite while I anxiously waited to hear what she would say.

And she said....

"Ho chiak ah" and not once, a few times.... then she turned to Yin How and said in Hokkien, "Good loh, you get to eat food like this".

Fuiyoh!!! I could almost hear angels behind me singing "Hallelujah! Hallelujah!" I was trying very hard not to grin crazily from ear to ear. I have finally passed the mother-in-law taste buds test.... I'll shall declare this as another "today in history" day. Lalalala...

Anyway, the dish I cooked which earned a "Ho Chiak" rating from my mother-in-law is the following recipe. This round, I used evaporated milk instead of coconut milk because it's healthier. However, using coconut milk makes the chicken tastier.

http://kuali.com/recipes/viewrecipe.asp?r=1649

Ayam Percik

Ingredients
1.5kg chicken, cut into 6 pieces
50g tamarind paste mixed with 100ml water (squeezed for tamarind juice)
300ml thick coconut milk Spices (ground and combined):
5–6 shallots
3 cloves garlic
2cm piece ginger
1 stalk lemon grass
4 tbsp chilli paste
1 tsp cinnamon powder Seasoning:
1–2 tsp salt or to taste
½ tsp pepper
½ tsp ground black pepper

Method
Combine ground spices with tamarind juice and coconut milk. Put chicken pieces in large mixing bowl. Pour in combined spices, coconut milk mixture and add seasoning. Mix well until chicken is coated with marinade. Keep in the refrigerator for several hours or preferably overnight. Remove and grill the marinated chicken pieces over a charcoal pit or bake in the oven until meat is cooked and slightly charred.

Ayam Masak Merah

I cooked Ayam Masak Merah last week. Try this only if you have a food processor because there are a lot of ingredients to chop. I chopped everything myself and it's a lot of work! I think I spent an hour just preparing all the ingredients. Then imagine having to clean up all the mess after that.

Overall, a yummy recipe. Yin How gave it a Ho Chiak rating. :)

http://kuali.com/recipes/viewrecipe.asp?r=1833

Ingredients
1 kg chicken, chopped into bite-sized pieces
2 onions, quartered
3 potatoes, cut into wedges
2 tomatoes, quartered
1 small can tomato paste
150ml water
4cm piece cinnamon stick
4 cloves
1 star anise
3–4 tbsp oil

Ground spices (A):
10 shallots
4 cloves garlic
12 red chillies, seeded
3cm ginger
2 tbsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder

Seasoning (B):
1 tsp salt or to taste
1 tbsp sugar or to taste

Method
Heat oil until hot, sauté ground spices (A) until fragrant. Add in cinnamon stick, cloves and star anise. Fry for 1–2 minutes. Add onions, tomato paste and potatoes. Stir-fry well. Mix in water and tomatoes. Cook until mixture starts to boil. Reduce heat and simmer until chicken is tender and gravy turns thick. Add seasoning to taste and serve this mildly spiced curry dish with bread slices or with plain rice.

Chicken Varuval recipe

Since i moved to my new home, I usually cook dinner everyday after coming back from work. Usually I cook chinese food because it only takes a 10 minute preparation. But lately I've been trying Malay and Indian food. The latest recipes i tried are Fried Chicken 65 and Chicken Varuval. My Chicken 65 turned out ok, and my Chicken Varuval was yum yum yummy.

I can tell whether my cooking good when I ask Yin How about it. When ask him, "Is my cooking nice or not?" (with a slight threatening note at the end hinting that if you say it's not nice, then I won't cook for you again), he'll usually say "Nice....." meaning it's just so so. But when the dish is really nice, he'll say "Nice!! Ho Chiak!! Cook some and let my mum try".

Him asking me to cook for his mum means that the food is worthy enough for my mother-in-law's taste buds. My parents-in-law made a living by cooking at their restaurant packed with customers, and my mother-in-law is very judgemental on what food is good and what is not. Yin How told his mum that I wanted to challenge her cooking which made her laugh (i just meant it as a joke but he told her and I was horrified!) . No way am I going to let my mother-in-law try my cooking. I don't dare. :P

Yin How is a mummy's boy who loves his mum's cooking. When I first moved in with Yin How, his mum got so worried that he'll starve because that at that time, she knew i couldn't cook at all. During the first week after Yin How moved in with me, she fried around 5 fishes, and a few different meat dishes, took the bus to the Jetty to come to Penang (they stay in Butterworth), then took the bus to my place to bring us the 1 week supply of food for us to freeze in our fridge.

After that, I was determine to learn how to cook. So i went online to look for recipes and self taught myself how to cook. I think i'm doing ok though sometimes i still burn my garlic. :) And I insist on using measuring cups and spoons to measure everything in the recipe which makes Yin How impatient. Sometimes I purposely do things very slowly so that Yin How will get impatient, and he'll take over.

Anyway, this is the Chicken Varuval recipe i used. I'm gonna cook it again this weekend. Yum yum...

http://www.spiceindiaonline.com/chicken_varuval
Ingredients
1 lb Whole chicken cut into pieces
2 nos Onion (diced)
1 tsp Ginger garlic paste
2 nos Dry red chilli
½ nos Cumin seeds

6 nos Curry leaves
2 tsp Red chilli powder
2 tsp Corrainder powder
2 tsp Black pepper powder
¼ tsp Turmeric powder
1 tsp
Salt (or to taste)
3 tbsp
Oil

Instructions
Wash and cut chicken into pieces, heat oil in an iron kadai and splutter cumin seeds, red chillies and curry leaves. Saute onions until golden brown along with ginger garlic paste. Add chicken along with turmeric powder, red chilli powder, corrainder powder, black pepper powder and salt. Cook on medium flame until the oil separates making the masala slightly thick and dry. Good side for any rice dish.