Thursday, September 30, 2010

Buffalo Chicken Wings Stick

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If you like buffalo chicken wings, try this homemade buffalo recipe and surely you will love this!

I found this from All Recipes.  I thought it was easy and simple and true enough it was really easy and I love the flavor.

I didn’t follow everything.  Like the flour mixture, I just used my available chicken breading mix.  And for the butter and hot sauce mixture, I used regular tomato sauce and shredded garlic.

The important direction that I strictly followed was refrigerating the chicken with flour mixture for 60 to 90 minutes.  I made mine for 90 minutes.

So these are the ingredients:
  • 10 chicken wings stick
  • 1/2 cup chicken breading mix
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1/4 cup tomato sauce
  • 1 clove garlic, shredded or minced
  • oil for deep frying
  1. Wash chicken and drain.  In mixing bowl, coat chicken evenly with chicken breading mix. Cover and refrigerate for 60 to 90 minutes.
  2. Heat oil in a deep fryer.  Fry coated chicken until golden brown. Set aside.
  3. In a cooking pot, heat butter until melted.  Add the garlic and tomato sauce.  Mix all together and turn off heat. 
  4. In same cooking pot of your butter-sauce mixture, add the fried chicken and stir together. 
Please note that you can alter your sauce with butter mixture.  You can purely use hot sauce (from original recipe) if you can tolerate the spiciness .  Or you can actually mix the hot sauce and regular tomato sauce as long as the butter and red sauce mixture are of equal parts.  Lastly, the refrigerating process of chicken and flour mixture made the chicken crispy :)

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Paksiw na Pata

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My Paksiw na Pata version was inspired by a dear friend of mine and touch of Nora Daza.   I learned to cooked this when we were new here in Singapore.  I almost forgot this recipe until I read it from Let’s Cook with Nora.

My friend said, the only important thing I should remember when cooking this recipe that the vinegar, soy sauce, and brown sugar should be in equal parts. 

You need:
  • 1 large pata or pig’s feet
  • 1/2 head garlic, crushed
  • 1 laurel or bay leaf
  • 1/2 cup dried banana blossoms, soaked in water
  • 1 1/2 cup water
  • 1/2 cup vinegar
  • 1/2 cup soy sauce
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • peppercorn
Clean pata.  In large cooking pot or pressure cooker, combine all the ingredients except banana blossoms.  Bring to boil and remove scum if using a regular large pot.  Simmer until meat is tender.  Add more water as needed if cooking in regular pot.  No need to add water in pressure cooker.  Add banana blossoms and simmer for few minutes more.  Serve hot and enjoy!

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Saturday, September 25, 2010

Filipino Rice Muffins / Puto

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My Puto are made of rice flour and coconut milk.  This was inspired by Reynaldo Alejandro’s excellent - The Philippine Cookbook filed under Asia Recipe.  His version tasted really good.  If you have a sweet tooth better stick to his recipe otherwise try my version as I lessen the amount of sugar.  And I omitted the anise seeds.   

You need:
  • 2 cups rice flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3 teaspoons baking powder
  • 3/4 cup white sugar
  • 2 cups (400ml in can) coconut milk
Optional: cheese, butter, grated coconut

What to do:
  1. In mixing bowl, combine all the dry ingredients.  Mix well with fork or hand mixer. 
  2. Add the coconut milk and mix until all ingredients are blended and smooth. 
  3. Fill-in Puto molder at least 2/3 full or if you have food coloring/flavor for the cakes/pastries just divide the mixture first in separate small bowls then add drop(s) of coloring/flavor.  Mix well and fill-in Puto molder.   
  4. Cook in steamer.  Test for doneness after 30 minutes by inserting a toothpick in the center of the muffin and comes out clean. 
  5. You can top the muffin with cheese.  Put the cheese on muffin when almost done, or top with butter or serve with grated coconut.
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Usually serve at breakfast or snack.  Also best serve for special occasions.  

Next time I will try the Puto made in all-purpose flour and evaporated milk :) 

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Thursday, September 23, 2010

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

My 120 pound journey

Very inspiring . . .


If you want to do it, all you have to do is do it!!

Decision, decision.  For the record, I’m getting big too.  When I entered college, I weighed 85 lbs (underweight).  My waist was less than 24 inches, wooh!   I started getting bigger when I reached 28yo, tsk.  Before my wedding, I was already overweight.  After my first pregnancy, I was overweight for more than 10 lbs.  I gained more 10 lbs after my gallbladder’s been removed and my tummy's been bloated after my second operation from acid leakage (when foreign tube was removed near my gb sutures).  My tummy never came back to normal.  Though during my second pregnancy, I lost weight but after my second child was born I started gaining weight again.  Currently, I know I’m near 30 lbs overweight hu hu.  Am I happy?  Of course, I’m not happy!  To add up, I have a health voucher (courtesy of my hubby)  for blood screening which I should do anytime now.  Honestly, I’m already worried that my result would be really really bad :(

I should not wait for more than a 50 pound to do what Ben did.  I should act now or else…

Aja!! :)

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Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Sarap to the bones

Oh la la, I enjoyed the version of Panlasang Pinoy's Max's Style Fried Chicken.  We all love it!! Sarap to the bones talaga! The whole chicken was steamed with spices and deep fried with salt and pepper.  Please note that aside from his ingredients, I added ginger and star anise from one of his reader's comments/suggestions.  The skin even the bone was really crispy and the meat is not dry. 


Servings: good for 4 to 6 person (share share) serve with rice and other side dish.  Best for 1 to 2 person with or without rice - oh la la the best!! 

So really really really happy that I bought a steamer pot few days ago.  Just so you know, my hubby gave me money so I could buy new clothes.  Instead I bought few kitchen stuffs again, wehehe.  Okie okie, its worth it.  Cos above all, I enjoy and love food (Priority A) more than fashion stuffs (Priority C) hi hi.

Um, about the fried chicken, will definitely cook this again and again!!! Thanks so much Panlasang Pinoy!! :)

Coming up: Puto Rice Muffiin from Asia Recipe.

 

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Tuesday, September 14, 2010

My Improved Ube Halaya

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Here’s my improved version of Ube Halaya.  I added evaporated milk and vanilla essence and tried another brand of condensed milk to my old recipe.



You need:
  • 800 to 900 g purple sweet potato / purple yum
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 388g / 1 can Carnation condensed milk
  • 405g / 1 can Carnation evaporated milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
  • 1 tablespoon ube food coloring / flavor  (for best result)
Procedure:
  1. Boil purple yam until cooked. Drain from water.
  2. Peel and mashed with fork.
  3. In low heat, melt butter in non stick cooking pot.  Add condensed milk and stir to combine.
  4. Add the mashed purple yam then continue stirring until the mixture becomes thick.
  5. Add evaporated milk with vanilla essence and ube food coloring and stir until very sticky and moist but not dry, about 10 minutes or so.
  6. Transfer mixture into a mold or container and let cool.
  7. Refrigerate for at least an hour, then serve.
Enjoy! :)

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Hainanese Chicken Rice

First and foremost, I wanted to try a home-made roasted chicken IMG_1790with chicken rice cos my children like it too.  I was searching… instead I found Hainanese Chicken Rice recipe.  For curiosity, I checked on the recipes and thought it was not that complicated.  Why not try.  Well about the Roasted Chicken, can’t find anything good yet.  In fact, I was surprised how roasted chicken was prepared – the chicken was not roasted but deep fry.  Hmm, wonder how it is done? 
Anyways, comparing all the recipes I’ve read online.  Here’s what I came up…


For the chicken -
  • 1 whole chicken
  • salt and ground black pepper
  • 2 medium onions, peeled cut in half
  • 1 whole garlic, skin intact
  • 3 1” ginger
  • spring onions
  • water, reserve for rice  (depends on how many cups of rice you are going to cook)
  • chicken cube
  • fish sauce


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For the rice -
  • rice, uncooked and wash the usual way
  • reserved chicken stock
  • 1 tablespoon minced garlic
  • 1 tablespoon minced ginger
  • 2 tablespoon cooking oil



Directions:
  1. Clean chicken the usual.  Rub generous amount of salt and pepper on the skin and cavity of the chicken.  Set aside.
  2. In a a large cooking pot, place the onions, garlic, ginger and spring onions.  Add water just to enough to almost cover the chicken or depending on how many cups of water you will use for your rice later.  Bring to boil.
  3. Once boiled, slide the chicken carefully.  Add fish sauce according to your desired taste and chicken cube.  Simmer for 20 minutes in low heat, covered.
  4. Carefully turn the chicken and simmer for another 15 minutes, covered.
  5. Remove from cooking pot by inserting a fork inside the cavity.  Be careful not to brake the chicken while dripping.  Serve on large plate.  Set aside.
  6. In a separate pan, sauté the garlic and ginger in cooking oil.  Add the reserved chicken stock only.  Set aside.
  7. Wash your rice the usual way.  Instead of plain water, add the chicken stock, measure according to  your rice and rice pot/rice cooker requirement.  Mix and cook the usual way. 
  8. For the cooked whole chicken, I did not dipped in cold/iced water per other recipe’s *sorry.  Instead - in same plate, I cut the chicken with kitchen scissor.  Yay, it was a clean and nice cut :D
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Serve with chicken rice and chicken rice sauce. Try and enjoy your meal :)

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Monday, September 13, 2010

Karyoka (Filipino Chewy Balls)


Since this is a Filipino dessert or snack I prefer to spell it as Karyoka, usually spelled as Carioca or Karioka.  This is commonly seen on street food in skewer.  I'm also longing for this dessert, I often buy it from street food in my hometown.


 Ingredients:
  • 1 cup glutinous rice flour
  • 1 cup decadent coconut
  • 3/4 cup coconut milk
  • cooking oil for deep fry
Coating: 1/4 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup coconut milk

This recipe was inspired by Panlasang Pinoy.  Though I used a different rice flour as suggested and used decadent coconut as I have no idea yet where to buy a (fresh) shredded coconut in our area.


His procedure, as quote:
  1. In a mixing bowl, combine 1 cup  glutinous rice flour, 1 cup decadent coconut and 3/4 cup coconut milk.  Mix well until dough is formed.  (Mine was not formed, it's a bit dry). 
  2. Scoop about a tablespoon and a half of the mixture then form into the ball shaped figure.  Set aside. 
  3. Heat cooking pot then pour in cooking oil.
  4. Deep fry the mixture that were formed into balls in medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes or until the color turns light to medium brown. 
  5. Turn off heat and remove the ball from the cooking pot.  Transfer the balls to plate line with paper towel.  Set aside. 
  6. Start making the coating by heating a saucepan and pouring the coconut milk in.  Let the coconut milk boil then add the brown sugar and stir continuously until the mixture thickens.  Turn off heat.  
  7. Dip the fried balls into the coating then skewer.  (I forgot to buy skewer, so I used toothpick instead :D).

 Try it and enjoy!
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Bibingka Rice Flour Cake


When I saw the Bibingka carton pack from White King in our nearby Filipino store, I didn't have the second thought of buying it.  Its been years, I missed bibingka so much...Oh I love the smell and the cake itself!  This is a must buy after the Simbang gabi mass :) 

Instruction from package as follows:

You will need (using oven/toaster)- 1 cup water; 1/2 cup sugar; 4 tbsp butter/margarine (melted); and 3 pcs eggs.

Cooking Directions (using oven):
  1. Heat oven at 450F.  Grease 2 round 8-inch pans and line with wax paper.
  2. Beat eggs until frothy.  Combine White King Bibingka Mix, water, sugar, melted Selecta Butterfresh Margarine in medium bowl until well blended.  Pour batter on prepared pans.  
  3. Bake for 12 minutes or until done.  Brush surface with Selecta Butterfresh Margarine and serve hot.
Makes 2 8-inch pans of bibingka.



For toaster and traditional cooking method using coals, pls refer the package.  Try it!  Recommended :)

Please await for my post soon as I will try other version of this recipe.  



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Thursday, September 9, 2010

Classic Thai Delights


Date: 16 September 2010 (Thur)
Time: 7:00 PM - 9:30 PM
Venue: Kopitiam Square (Next to Sengkang MRT)
Ticketing: Register online

These Thai dishes are popular with Thais and others alike. Learn from Chef Pung how to prepare the mighty trio of Thai Seafood Salad, Thai Tom Yam soup and Thai Olive Fried Rice. This workshop is supported by Kopitiam.

PAssion Card Privileges:

  • Members: $15.00
  • Non-Members: $20.00
Source and details here.



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Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Crispy Pata

This morning, I imagined myself eating crispy pata (pork leg) :D.  Glad my hubby was off from his work today so I went to market just to buy one, happy I found a nice pork leg.

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From market, I requested to cut it by 4 parts.

What to do:
  • After cleaning and removing hair, if any, boil the pork leg (just like cooking pork stew/nilaga) with peppercorns, onions, garlic and water. Bring to boil and remove scum.  Add pork cube and fish sauce.  Simmer until tender (When its really tender, when fried - for sure sure its crispy, like major major crispy :d).  I actually cooked it with pressure cooker for 30 minutes. 
  • Remove the meat from stew, let it cool and dry for few minutes (put in fridge).  By the way, I left a portion of meat for my kids in soup for their meal, they prefer soup/stew than fry;
  • Once cool and dry, dust meat with ground black pepper and rub with Maggi Magic Sarap All-in-One Seasoning granules;
  • Deep fry in a deep saucepan until tiny blisters appear on the skin.  And chop into desired pieces.
Serve with your favorite sauce and rice.  Well, my crispy pata was really crispy and delicious!!

Enjoy and good luck :)

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Sunday, September 5, 2010

Homemade Doughnuts

After Churros, the next thing I had in mind is to try making doughnuts :)  Well, I did it this afternoon for our snack, original plan was for breakfast but I can't get up in bed early due to nice weather.  The recipe was inspired by Crispy and Cream Doughnuts by Kelly from All Recipes


Donut CutterCrisco All Vegetable Shortening, 16 ozThe original recipe yields 18x but I changed the servings to 9 doughnuts.  Since this is my first try, don't want to waste too much and 18 pieces are too many for my family.  From there, I followed the ingredients for 9x doughnuts and the procedure as well.  The dough was ready at least an hour when I checked  but I started the direction #3 after two hours cos I was busy this afternoon doing other chores.  Then the rising of the cut doughnut to make it rise again was at least 15 minutes.  Based on the photos, dunno if I fried too long  but it's not over cooked when I tasted it.  It was yummy.  Actually, my doughnuts yielded more than 9 pieces, but I forgot to take note of it.  I wonder how it taste if I bake it?  Anyways, I'm happy my family likes it.  Best serve with coffee :)  Go ahead try the recipe and enjoy!! :)


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