Baked lemon chicken leg in Italian herbs

It has been a while since I posted an entry on this cooking blog. I would love to spend time experimenting different dishes and updating the recipes on my blog. However the reality is ever since I went back to full time work, I am struggling to get dinner done everyday. I have to jump off my seat (literally) when it is 6pm and mad rush to the childcare to pick up my son before going home to cook. Still, I am glad on some days when I have mood to cook, the dishes aren't that bad. Sharing a simple baked chicken dish I tried today. Loved how nicely baked the chicken skin is and lemon juice makes it extra yummy!

Here's the recipe I have referenced from - roasted lemon herb chicken. What I loved about the recipe - the ingredients are easy to get and preparation time is short. I could pop this into the oven and started washing up my dishes.

Ingredients
2 chicken legs
1 tsp Italian herbs
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper 
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 lemon
1 Tbsp olive oil

Recipe
1. Preheat the oven at 180 degree celcius.
2. Mix the Italian herbs, salt, black pepper and garlic powder in a bowl.
3. Pat dry the chicken legs with kitchen towel and spread the mixture all over the chicken legs.
4. Cut the lemon into half. Juice half of it and add olive oil to it. Pour it over the chicken. The remaining half you can cut into slices and place it around the chicken.
5. Bake for 35 minutes or until the juice runs clear.

Minced meat egg fried rice

Ever since I started cooking, this was my second time attempting fried rice. I still remember the first time I made salmon egg fried rice and this time I tried to make using minced meat. My inspiration came from a youtube video of 阿基師 making egg fried rice. I was so impressed by his method of doing it and seriously it is just easy and yummy!

Ingredients
1 1/2 portion of cooked white rice
carrot
long beans
fresh shiitake mushrooms
minced meat 
2 eggs
minced garlic 
chopped spring onions

Recipe
1. Cut the vegetables (carrot, long beans and shiitake mushrooms) into cubes. Steam carrot and long beans for about 5 to 10 minutes while setting aside the cubed mushrooms. I did this to quicken the cooking process as I was rushing to serve dinner. :p Then, while steaming, marinate the minced meat with sesame oil, soy sauce and pepper.
2. Crack the eggs and separate the egg yolks from the egg whites. Place the egg yolks onto the cooked white rice in a bowl and mix well to coat the rice evenly using a spatula.
3. Heat up the oil in the wok and add in minced garlic. Stir fry the garlic till fragrant then add in the marinated minced meat to cook. When the meat is almost cooked, add in the cubed mushrooms. Remove from wok to set aside.
4. In the same wok, add in oil and pour in the egg white. Do a scrambled egg white then add in the cooked rice. Stir fry till the rice becomes dry and the grains are not sticking to each other.
5. Add in the meat and vegetables to give a quick stir fry and season with some soya sauce and pepper. Garnish with chopped spring onions and it is done.

Sorry if the ingredients looked a bit strange as I was clearing the vegetables in the fridge. Well, fried rice is really one of the best way to combine the leftovers! As a gauge, I think 2 eggs for 1 portion of rice is good. The rice really looked nice and yellow even though my photo does not show well of that. :)

Minced meat tofu with sauce

When I have minced meat and tofu on hand, I tend to go for steaming because it is easy to prepare. I really like to attempt mapo tofu some day but am not very keen on cooking spicy dishes for now as my son is still too young for hot stuffs. So, I decided to try experimenting with the sauce to create similar sauce kind of dish. It's a great dish for young kids and those who are not so keen on chilli.

Ingredients

70-80g minced meat

1 block of silken tofu

Sesame oil

White pepper

Soy sauce 

Cornstarch

Minced garlic

Chopped spring onions 

Sauce  

1 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp tomato sauce 

2 tsp sugar 

1/2 tsp dark soy sauce

1 tsp light soy sauce 

Water 

Recipe

1. Marinate the minced meat with white pepper, light soy sauce, sesame oil and a little cornstarch. Remove tofu from the packaging and cut into small cubes to set aside.

2. In a small bowl, prepare the sauce by mixing the sauce ingredients listed above and top it up with water to approximately half the bowl. You can add a little more water in step 4 if you find that the sauce is not enough to your liking.

3. Heat up oil in the wok, then add in minced garlic to stir fry till fragrant. Add in the marinated minced meat to stir fry. Gently use the spatula to break the minced meat into small pieces as you cook.
4. When the meat is almost fully cooked, pour the sauce to cook. Let it boil for a while before adding in the tofu cubes.  
5. Test the taste of the sauce and adjust accordingly. Then add some cornstarch solution and allow it to thicken. 
6. Remove from wok, garnish with the chopped spring onions and serve. 

My family enjoyed this dish very much. Usually my son takes a long time to eat his dinner but with this dish, he ate well. Definitely a dish that I am going to prepare again next time!

Fried purple sweet potato fries

My friend introduced me this yummy sweet potato fries during one of our gatherings. Then during one of my weekday lunches, I had Mac sweet potato fries again with my colleagues. It is so yummy! I happened to have one purple sweet potato left in my fridge so I decided to make this for fun.

Ingredients
Purple sweet potato
Cornstarch
Salt
Dried parsley

Recipe
1. Cut the sweet potato into thin long strips. Try to make them as uniform as possible.
2. Steam them till they are turning soft, but not mushy.
3. Add oil in the wok and heat up. Prepare cornstarch solution for dipping.
4. Dip the sweet potato strips into the cornstarch solution then fry it. It takes about 2 minutes to be done.
5. Try to fry in batches so that they can be uniformly cooked. Remove from wok and sprinkle on some salt for seasoning. Sprinkle the dried parsley before serving.

Miso baked salmon

While I was working, I was thinking how should I cook the salmon for dinner? Found a recipe by this cooking blog - white on rice couple (their blog name is so cute!) sharing their lovely recipe roasted salmon with miso glaze! I am pretty satisfied with the overall taste. We all ate a lot of rice!

Ingredients
1 salmon fillet
1 Tbsp white miso paste
1/2 Tbsp sake (I replaced with my own rice wine)
1/2 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 Tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp sesame oil
Sesame seeds
Chopped spring onions

Recipe
1. In a bowl, add in the white miso paste, sake, soy sauce, brown sugar and sesame oil and mix well.
2. Brush the marinade on the salmon fillet and set aside for 30 minutes.
3. Remove some of the marinade off the fillet, leaving a thin layer. (Additional step as I did not want it to be too salty)
4. Bake it in preheated oven at 190 degree celcius for 20 minutes. (In between baking, the fillet looked a bit dry and I brushed it with some olive oil.)
5. Sprinkle the sesame seeds and spring onions for garnish.

Wong Bok soup with Pork ribs

Soup is always essential for our weekday dinners. I cannot imagine having dinner without soup. Other than my usual ABC soup, pumpkin soup etc, I cook this soup often because I love the sweetness of wong bok. This time I added in special ingredient - white fungus! Seems like the haze is not fully gone so I thought it is good to add something nourishing for our lungs. :) 

Ingredients
Wong bok
Carrot
White fungus
Pork ribs
Garlic
Ginger
Salt

Recipe
1. Cut away diagonally the bottom thick part of wong bok and separate the leaves. Wash them and cut them into a few sections before placing them in the pot.
2. Peel the carrot, cut them into chucks and add them into the pot. Soak the white fungus for a while before trimming and cutting them into smaller pieces to add in as well. Pour hot water till it is fully covered.
3. Par boil the pork ribs in a separate pot till the scum is formed. Pour away the scum and rinse the pork ribs before adding them into the soup pot.
4. Peel a few garlic cloves and smash a knob size of ginger to add in.
5. Let it cook for 1 - 2 hours and season with salt before serving.