What I cooked today (家常便饭系列）- 31-7-2013

 

On 31 July 2013, white rice served with

1	Indonesian Ginger Chicken	印尼姜鸡
2	Japanese Fried Ginger Chicken	日本炸姜鸡
3	Blanched White Stem Pak Choy with Japanese Salad Dressing	日式沙拉酱奶白
4	Bok Choy Meat and Fish Ball Soup	贸白菜肉丸鱼丸汤

Today, this menu was a rather unusual combination with two ginger chicken dishes called Indonesian Ginger Chicken and Japanese Fried Ginger Chicken. One of the my blogger friends from http://eatapieceofcake.blogspot.hk have posted this Indonesian Ginger Chicken Recipe into a Facebook Group that I have recently created called Food Bloggers and Foodies United.

The picture in her post looks  really nice and she explicitly highlighted that only 4 ingredients were needed (ginger, garlic, honey and dark soya sauce). Based on these 4 ingredients, I have no doubt that it will taste nice because all the ingredients are common ingredients used in Chinese cooking and I am especially fond of ginger. I also noted that these ingredients were almost the same as Japanese  style fried chicken where chicken were marinated in ginger juices. Therefore I have decided to marinate the chickens together using ginger juices. After one hour, I took some marinated chicken out for Japanese fried chicken whereas for the portion remaining, I added the required honey and dark soya sauce.  I baked for about an hour. I did not let the juice dries up because I knew my kids would like to have some gravy to go with the rice which is sweet and aromatic. That was the reasons why what I cooked is different from the original blogger’s picture.

For the Japanese ginger chicken portion, instead of adding the dark soya sauce, I have added some Japanese light soya sauces and deep fried it. After I fried it, I drip soe honey on top of the fried chicken and served with shredded pineapple. Fried chicken is a bit oily and shredded pineapple will have the effects of negating the oiliness of the dish. Slice cucumber is another good way of garnishing.

The verdict of these two ginger chickens  competition : the Indonesian Ginger Chicken dish won because it was softer and go with sweet sauce. This was expected because of the kids’ taste buds. However, they were complaining a bit spicy because of the ginger sauce.

For the blanched vegetables, i have resorted to the use of Japanese salad dressings and sprinkled with fried shallots. This whole bottle of dressing were given by my neighbour who complained that she don’t know how to use it after she brought it. It is a nice dressing in fact and goes relatively well with the white stem pak choi.

Well, that is my cooking adventures to day and the submission of this report will consider that my daily kitchen duties as complete. Ha ha

Yes, before I end my post, I am thinking of cooking something with these combinations tomorrow. Can you guess what noodle dish is it?

Have a nice day ahead and cheers.

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What I cooked today (家常便饭系列）- 30-7-2013

You may be surprised that today I am having some western meals. In fact, I have never cooked western meals before. This should be one of the very first full course meals that I have prepared. Well, today is my son’s birthday and I just want to expose him something different. In addition, my girl is crazy about baked potatoes and I thought why not I “try” to cook them something what they like…… 

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MENUS

Soup

Cream of Mushroom Soup (with fresh sweet corn kernel and button mushroom slices

 

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Entree

Tomato salsa (served with kiwi fruit cubes and sprinkle with mozzarella cheeses and Italian herbs)

 

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Main Dish

Grilled halibut with lemon cream sauce; and

Asian style grilled chicken breast with Japanese sweet barbecue sauce

Side dishes: Baked potato and sweet corns, buttered broccoli and asparagus and cocktail sausages

 

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Dessert

Durian Cheese Cake

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I am really not good in preparing western meals and I have well underestimated the time of preparation. We only can had dinner by 7:30 pm and I am really exhausted by then.

The kids loved the food especially the grilled halibut. For this dish, I have seasoned it with Italian herbs (oregano and basil), salt and bit of butter. I topped with some mozzarella cheese and grilled it for about 15 minutes.  I used the “juices” secreted out from the fish to make into cream sauce and it is exceptionally sweet without any seasonings and condiments.

As for the Asian style grilled chicken, apparently they don’t really able to appreciate it because I have used chicken breast instead of chicken thigh meat. They are complaining a bit hard and fibrous. I may have over grilled the chicken breast.

The girls are complaining that the serving is too huge for them. However, she managed to finish the baked potato. A really simple side dish and personally I loved it. I have to say I never knew that baked potatoes tasted so good as I usually order fries rather than baked potato or meshed potatoes. This was requested by my girl specifically she wanted baked potato.

The cream of mushroom soup was good. Initially, I was thinking of using the ready made cream of mushroom soup. Since I have some canned mushrooms and some cream at home, I have decided to make my own cream of mushroom soup. I butter fried the chopped onions and garlics, add chicken stocks, fresh kernel corns and mushrooms and let it boiled until the onion were very soft. Thereafter, creams were added to thicken the soup. That was a hit also.

As for the dessert – durian cheese cake. I have prepared it about 2 days ago and it is really a very rich and creamy cake. It is very nice but both me and my wife have eaten in guilt. Usually, for 1 piece, 4 of us shared and for my kids, they don’t really have sweet tooth and after one two bites, they just stopped. Frankly speaking, for an 8 “ cake , after 2 days, I still have 4 pieces left (after 2 pieces given to my neighbours). I am in the process of compiling the post and will share with readers very soon.

Lastly, hope you like the post to day. A lighter note before I end, while I am writing this, I heard my boy told her auntie  (my wife’s sister} that one of his birthday wishes is  that “there will be endless supplies of sausages and eggs”, his favourite foods … Such a simple wish… Haha.

Have a nice day and cheers.

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Special – What I cooked today (家常便饭系列）- 22-7-2013–Korma Chicken (科尔马鸡肉）

    

 

UPDATED POST ON 16-2-2015 – Update with another set of images since i cooked the dish today.

On 22 July, 2013, white rice served with:

1. Korma Vegetable and Chicken       (蔬菜及鸡肉科尔马）
2. Blanched Ladies Finger                 （青烫羊角豆）
3. Chinese Cabbage (Napa) Soup       ( 大白菜汤)

To day, I have decided to cook Korma Chicken and Vegetable to expose my kids to curry dishes. As per my daughter’s request, no additional dishes were needed since she said she liked the dish and they have the Chinese Cabbage (Napa) soup which I cooked for lunch.

I agreed with her and just blanched some ladies finger to go with the Korma dish. If you want detailed pictorial instructions on cooking the Chinese Cabbage (Napa) Soup, you can follow the link above to Guaishushu’s Facebook Page.

 

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KORMA CHICKEN AND VEGETABLES

 

INTRODUCTION

I first tasted Korma chicken during my university days in Kuala Lumpur. It was in a Malay store  and when I take the first bite, I immediately fell in love with it as it is not spicy hot and the chicken is full of coriander fragrances. It had always in my mind because unlike other chicken curry dishes, the curry is beige in colour (depending on the spice mix) as opposed to the reddish yellow colour.

Korma is actually a dish from South or Central Asia such as India and Pakistan. It is essentially cooked with a variety of spice powders of which the two most important spices are coriander  powder and cumin powder. It differ from the normal curry spice mix in that the ratio of turmeric powder is very small whereas for curry, the major portion of the spice mix is turmeric thus causes the dish to be yellowish in colour. In Malaysia, the Korma was cooked and thickened with coconut milk as compared to India and Pakistan where yoghurt were used. Nuts and peas  (such as cashew nuts and almonds) usually added to further thicken the gravy and enhance the taste.

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WHY THIS DISH

Recently, I found that my kids start to like curry dishes. However, before they eat the curry dishes, they will get ready a cup of cold water, take the curry chicken, dip into the cold water and start eating it. They still cannot take spicy hot food that were cooked with chilli. In view of this, I am thinking of letting them to try some Malay and Indian dishes that were not spicy hot. The first thing that comes to my mind is Korma chicken (ayam kurma in Malay). Therefore, last Saturday, when I frequented one  of the Indian Muslim spice stalls in Geylang Serai Singapore, I asked the same lady who gave me the Sarawak Laksa spice mix to pack me one Korma spice mix. You can read my previous “spice encounter” HERE.

Another reason that I cooked this dish is for purposes of contributing to a food community in Google Plus whereby members were encouraged to contribute halal dishes during the month of Ramadan.

I love to eat Korma chicken. However, today, I have used more vegetables than meat in my Korma.  As my kids don’t really like to eat meat, hence I have used about 5 vegetables to make the dish. Should it be called a vegetable or chicken Korma is entirely up to you since it have almost equal portion of meats and vegetables in the dish.

As this Korma dish uses small chicken chunks from drumsticks and vegetables, it is rather easy to cook, as such braising is consider not really necessary as compared to the traditional braising of lamb or big chicken pieces.

 

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KORMA DISHES DEFINED

As per Wikipedia,

Korma, kormaa, qorma, khorma, or kurma is a dish originating in South Asia or Central Asia which can be made with yogurt, cream, nut and seed pastes or coconut milk. It is a type of curry.

It is a characteristic Indian dish which can be traced back to the 16th century and to the Mughal incursions into present-day Northern India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Classically, a korma is defined as a dish where meat or vegetables are braised with water, stock, and yogurt or creamy azid (the name is in fact derived from the Hindi and Urdu words for “braise”). The technique covers many different styles of korma (azid).

The flavour of a korma is based on a mixture of spices, including ground coriander and cumin, combined with yogurt kept below curdling temperature and incorporated slowly and carefully with the meat juices. Traditionally, this would have been carried out in a pot set over a very low fire, with charcoal on the lid to provide all-round heat. A korma can be mildly spiced or fiery and may use lamb, chicken, beef or game; some kormas combine meat and vegetables such as spinach and turnip. The term Shahi (English: Royal), used for some kormas indicates its status as a prestige dish, rather than an everyday meal, and its association with the court.

 

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WHAT IS REQUIRED?

• 1.5 cups of tomatoes cut into big pieces;

• 1.5 cups of onions cut into big pieces;

• 1.5 cups of potatoes cut into big pieces;

• 1.5 cups of carrots cut into big pieces;

• 1.5 cups of celery cut into big pieces;

• 750 grams of chicken tights cut into big pieces;

• 200 gram of Korma mix (readily available in most Indian provision shops or spices stalls). However, If you can’t get hold of the ready mix Korma spice, the two most spices are coriander powder and cumin powder in the ration of about 4:2. All other spices shall include cardamom, anise powder, fennel powders, turmeric all of which shall need a 1-2 teaspoon only).

• 1 cup of yoghurt (optional but I have used it as I like the korma to be rich in flavour but slightly sour).

• 2 cups of fresh coconut milk .

• 1/2 cups of cooking oil or ghee or butters.

 

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STEPS OF PREPARATION

• In a big mixing bowl, put the Korma spice powder and gradually add in water until it form a paste.

• Have about 2-3 big tablespoons Korma spice mix and marinate for at least 15-30 minutes. As the chicken is quite small, therefore 15-30 minutes is deemed sufficient.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• In a big pot, put some cooking oils and fried the Korma spice mix until the fragrance starts to permeates the space.

• Add 3 big cups of water, stir until the spices are well mixed.

• Bring to boil until high heat. Note that as this is quite concentrated, you have to constantly stir it until it boils. This is to avoid the spice getting burnt in the bottom of the pot. Once boiled, turn the heat to medium or slow heat.

• Add in the potatoes, celery, carrots and onions and boiled for about 10 minutes;

• Add in chicken chunks and boiled for about 20 minutes;

• Add in tomato and boiled for another 5 minutes;

• Add in yoghurt and coconut milk, seasonings (salt and sugar). Once boil, off the heat and let it sit in the pot for at least 5-10 minutes to let the ingredients further absorbed the gravy.

• Garnish with fresh coriander leaves or mint and served with hot rice. Drizzle more yoghurt or coconut milk on top of the dish if necessary.

 

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CONCLUSIONS

• Korma dish is a common dish among the Indian households in South and Central Asian. it is equally popular in Malaysia and Singapore especially among the Malay and Indian races. It is a form of curry dishes of which the main spices are coriander powder and cumin. It differs from curry in that the proportion of turmeric is very small and it can be cooked without chilli those making it rather “kids friendly”. The gravy were usually thickened with yoghurt or coconut milks and at times nuts such as cashew nuts and almonds were added.

• The dish that were illustrated today uses lots of vegetables including celery which is not a common vegetable included in the curry dishes. However, celery is definitely a good choice as it could withstand rather long hours of cooking though the strong celery flavour were masked by the strong Korma aroma. As I have use drumstick meat, it is rather easy to cook and the texture is soft as compared to the breast meat.

Hope you LIKE the post today and cheers.

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• For more recipes, you can refer to my RECIPE INDEX (updated as at 26 November 2014)  here and you can follow me at PINTEREST or visit the blog’s FACEBOOK PAGE to keep abreast of my future posts. Also follow me at INSTAGRAM or TSU, a new social network for some more personal sharing other than recipes.

• You can also join the FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED FACEBOOK GROUP  to see more recipes. Currently there are about 21,500 members sharing various food photos . I am posting my daily home cooked food in the above Facebook Group daily. I would be more than happy if you can  post in the Group for the recipes that you tried from my blog.

• If you are a Pinterest user and you are interested to have more recipes, you can join or follow this Pinterest Board set up by me  where there are more than 2600 recipes worldwide and pinned by various bloggers: FOOD BLOGGERS AND FOODIES UNITED PINTEREST BOARD.

 

 

Are You Crazy? You Performed Month End Closing of “Home Dishes Cooked” Accounts?

While my ex-colleagues or classmates may have month end closing of accounts these few days, I too have the monthly closing of my meal plans. It is 30 days since I started this series and I am determined to continue no matter no many dishes have been repeated and just take your sweet time to come here to look at what I have cooked.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Being an accountant by background, I have the tendency to summarize data and analyzed the data. The raw data does not mean anything to the reader and a summary, in my humble opinion is deemed necessary for reader’s benefits.

Before I proceed, I have to highlight the following points which you have to take into consideration when referring to my meal plan.

• My meal plan basically caters for 2 adults and 2 children aged 7 and 9.

• My cooking objectives is to provide nutritious meals to the children since they are at their growing stage.

• Usually, I will try to cook dishes that were liked by all the 4 family members.

• All members in the family are supposed to eat the same dish, meaning, I would not cook a special dish just for any particular members of the family.

• I will try to rotate the meals as long as possible as I do not want my children to be too picky in their food.

• We have no special diet as to the type of food but I will ensure that what we have eaten are all in moderation. However, very soon I will start a one month vegetarian diet !

• We seldom throw away food and we ate leftover foods. Perishable items will usually be consumed within the day and meaty items, if cannot finish will be kept for next meals. Usually, yesterday left over dishes will be “transform in another new dish” in the next day to avoid boredom. However, these overnight dishes were not included in my analysis below.

• Spicy food is generally not cooked because of the children. I missed all those spicy food such as curry, belachan kangkong and etc. It is a pity that when my kid ate the curry, they have to dip the curry into some plain water before they put it in their mouth.

• I preferred to dine in rather than dine out as my kids are quite a big eater and they generally preferred home cook food.

• Generally, every meal shall include one soup, two fish, meat or tofu dish, one vegetable dish.

• Meat dish and soup will usually cook in the morning and shared between lunch and dinner. Vegetable dish will be cooked prior to the dinner.

• We don’t have a maid and all the work from dish preparation, cooking and cleaning was done by either my wife or myself.

• Marketing were usually done once a week on Saturday to Sunday.

I HAVE PREPARED SOME NICE EXCEL WORKSHEET IN HTML FORMAT BUT IT DID NOT WORK FOR SOME CATEGORY. I AM RATHER UPSET OVER THIS. THEREFORE, I HAVE ATTACHED AN EXCEL SPREADSHEET FOR YOU TO DOWNLOAD AND READ (WHAT I COOKED TODAY SUMMARY). I also have the difficulty to write any more thing as it is a big post and I cannot name the dish that I posted here, I therefore apologize for that also.

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DISH CATEGORIZATION

I have categorized my dish into the following broad categories

• Soup dish – Soup is a must in my family. if the soup is to last for 2 meals, it will be cooked in the morning and if only one meal, I  will usually choose some quick soup made with fresh leafy vegetable.

• Meat dish – This shall include pork, chicken and fish.

• Tofu and egg dish – All the tofu relatives be it taukwa, tofu, taupok and etc. Egg dish is included in tofu dish since it’s nutritional value is quite the same. May also include dishes such as fish cakes, fish balls if it is a dish on its own. A good way to visualize this categorization is the items that you bought in the stalls that sell bean sprouts ……

• Vegetable dish – This is another must have dish unless there are too many dishes.

Whether a dish is classified as a vegetable dish or a meat dish will depends on the portion of the raw ingredient in the dish. For example, for chicken braised with bamboo shoot, if I cooked the entire chicken and I use the bamboo shoot as a side ingredient, it will be considered as a meat dish. However, if I cooked the whole packet of bamboo shoot with some chicken slices, it will consider as a vegetable dish.

SOUP DISH

A must in the family. Soups were usually cooked in the morning for two meals. Sources of vegetables to cook soup can be:

• All sorts of melons, gourds and those that will not turn “ugly” after you cooked for about 45 minutes and able to keep it for the next meals. Eg. Radish, sweet corns, bitter gourds etc.;
• Most green leafy vegetables and usually these were quick soups which was prepared just before the meals for one meal. E.g. Chinese spinach, water cress, Bok Choy etc.
• Beans and roots and soya bean products . It can be peanuts, black turtle beans. Roots can include lotus roots. Soya products include bean curd stick, bean curd, taupo etc..
• Canned products – usually we used canned mushrooms and canned kernel corns.

The soup base can either be from pork or from chicken. As my kid do not like to eat the pork rib and I have to finish all the pork ribs, I have sort to buy the “big bones” – bones with no meat and boil the soup. Usually these soups will have other side ingredients like red dates (红枣）, goof berry (枸杞)，dried squid (鱿鱼干)，dried scallop (干贝)，anchovies (小鱼), honey dates (蜜枣) to make it tastier and provide more minerals and vitamins.

The picture are not that attractive. Please refer the number to the table as I have difficulty of typing the name

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MEAT DISHES

I don’t really cooked meat dishes on a daily basis as both my wife and my daughter are not keen to have meat (especially pork). For my son, he likes to eat meat but he is “extremely prosperous” now. As such, meat to us is secondary. As long as there are something that can be munch, that will be okay. Meat usually is alternated between pork, chicken and fish. As meat preparation can be quite time consuming and is difficult to cook a small quantity, we sometimes buy some ready made meat dishes like Yakitori satay etc. to add as the dish.

The proteins that the kids are getting are mostly from soup and other soya bean related products. If you looked at the fish that I cooked, I have intentionally include “commoner’s fish “ like ikan selat kuning, types of fish for nasi lemak. The main purpose is to expose my kids to have as many types of fish as possible and “train” them how to eat fish with bones. Believed it or not, they can;t even handled fish like fried black pomfret! For me, these fish are cheap and protein amount is almost the same. They can’t continue like a baby where we only use kurau, white pomfret, codfish(鳕鱼), salmon, black and red grouper etc..

 

 

What I cooked today (家常便饭系列）- 13-5-2013

On  13-May-2013

White rice served with:

1. Meat Stuffed Tofu Puffs and Fish Cake Soup (豆卜肉丸鱼饼汤）
2. Braised tofu and egg in Chinese Black Vinegar（黑醋焖蛋及豆干）
3. Celery Egg Omelets (西芹蛋饼）

As a Chinese of traditional upbringings, I seldom throw away food. We continue to eat some of the leftover food from last evening. In order to make it appetizing, we usually re-invented the dish. The second dish was prepared using the gravy from yesterday’s black vinegar pig trotter. Today, I have added most members of the “soya bean” family – Tau Kwa, Tau Pok, “Tau meat” (Vegetarian meat), “Tau Kee”..and additional eggs. For non Chinese speaking readers, Tau here basically means bean. Usually, foodie like to eat the black vinegar but just eating the gravy will be too sour, therefore these items were added to “absorb” all the gravy because it blends well with these items.

Celery is not a common vegetable used in traditional Chinese cooking and in fact you seldom find it in the food stalls. My wife have “invented” this dish to tailor the taste of the Chinese origins and I am considering to write a post on this and share with readers.

Cheers