Food experiments from my little kitchen

I bought a packet of coconut milk thinking to make jelly but ended up did not use it. It was sitting in my fridge for some time so I wanted to try using it to make nasi lemak. Not wanting to waste the remaining coconut milk, I added it to the chicken. It turned out to be very yummy. I know from the photos it looks crispy but trust me it is not the super crispy chicken. Haha =p Ingredients 2 bonele ss chicken legs turmeric powder chopped garlic / garlic powder salt black pepper 6 Tbsp coconut milk 1 banana leaf (optional) Recipe 1. Marinate the chicken with garlic, salt, black pepper and turmeric powder and set it aside for at least 30 minutes. I kept mine uncovered inside the fridge. 2. Heat up the pan with oil. Put the chicken in only when the oil is hot. Pan fry it on both sides for total about 6 minutes till each side is nicely brown. 3. Place a banana leaf on the baking tray and transfer the chicken to the baking tray. 4. In a small bowl, add a little salt, turme...

Every Chinese New year, I will end up with mandarin oranges and nobody eats them except me. To reduce wastage, I would try to add them in my cooking. This year I tried something new with chicken wings and my boy loves it. Sorry I am unable to provide very accurate measurements because I estimated while I was cooking. Ingredients 7 chicken wings 1 tsp white sesame (garnish) Shredded lettuce (garnish) Marinate Salt White pepper Cornstarch Baking powder Oil (I used extra light olive oil) Sauce 2 Mandarin oranges (juiced) 1 Tbsp oyster sauce garlic powder 1 tsp vinegar sugar Recipe 1. Marinate the chicken wings with the ingredients stated above. For the baking powder, I only added slightly less than half a tsp. Added some oil so that it is easier to coat the wings. Leave it for at least 30 minutes. 2. Arrange the wings neatly on the baking tray and make sure no overlapping so that they can get baked evenly for 180 degree 25 to 30 minutes. Depending on your ove...

I wanted to clear the one and only onion in my pantry and decide to try baking chicken with onions. After researching around in google, I found this lovely recipe from the Spruce - Baked chicken with sweet onions . I modified it with what I had in my kitchen. The chicken was so tender and succulent that my boy kept praising it. I should find some time to cook this again. Ingredients 2 deboned chicken legs  1 yellow onion  4 tbsp flour  2 tsp Nomu Cajun rub (you can replace with your own spice mix)  1/2 tsp garlic powder  Salt Black pepper  Sauce 1 tbsp oyster sauce  1 tbsp honey  1 tsp Worcestershire sauce  Recipe 1. Marinate the chicken legs with salt and black pepper. Cut the onion into slices and set aside.  2. In a shallow tray, add the flour, spice rub and some garlic powder. Mix well.  3. Heat the oil in the wok. Dry the chicken with kitchen towel then place the chicken on the tray and...

Our family loves chicken wings particularly just the mid joints! My regular chicken stall at the market does not sell the mid joints alone so I would usually buy it from NTUC. That day they happened to have promotion for 2 packs so I bought and braised it with mushrooms and black fungus. Ingredients 12 mid joint wings 3 dried shiitake mushrooms some black fungus Ginger slices Chopped garlic  Spring onions (garnish) Water Marinate Soy sauce White pepper Cornstarch Grated ginger (optional) Sauce 1 Tbsp Oyster sauce 1 Tbsp Dark soy sauce Light soy sauce Sugar  White pepper Sesame oil Recipe 1. Soak the dried mushrooms and black fungus till soften. I leave it to soak about 2 hours. You may retain the water for soaking mushrooms if you want to use it for braising. Cut the mushrooms and black fungus into slices and set aside. 2. To the wings, add soy sauce, white pepper, cornstarch to marinate. You can add some grated ginger to it. Let it sit in the mar...

Ginger and spring onion make the best combination when it comes to stir fry. Last night I was still thinking what to cook and this came to my mind since I happened to have some spring onions to clear. Just prepare more sauce to drizzle with rice and your yummy dinner is ready! Ingredients 2 boneless chicken legs 1 knob of ginger 1 stalk of spring onion Marinate Soy sauce White pepper Sesame oil  Cornstarch Sauce 1 Tbsp Oyster sauce 1 Tbsp Dark soy sauce 1 Tbsp Chinese cooking wine  1 tsp Light soy sauce 1/2 tsp sugar  Dash of white pepper Some water Recipe 1. Cut the chicken legs into smaller pieces and marinate them before setting them aside. Prepare the sauce in a bowl. 2. Slice the ginger into thin round pieces. Cut the spring onions into 3 inch lengths. Smash the white bottom part and set aside from the green top part.  3. Heat some oil in the frying pan and put in the white spring onion part. Then add in the ginger slices. Let it cook ...

It has been a while since I last blogged! Still busy cooking on most days but I have much lesser time and energy to try new dishes and be adventurous. Yakitori is one recipe that I have been wanting to try but never got to doing it. Last week I randomly bought one bag of capsicums without deciding beforehand what I wanted to cook. In the end, I decided to try pairing it with chicken to make yakitori. My reference is from yakitori recipe from Just one cookbook! Ingredients 2 boneless chicken legs (skin intact) Red capsicum (half) Yellow capsicum (half) Green capsicum (half) 8 satay sticks Sauce Soy sauce Sugar Chinese cooking wine Water Cornstarch solution Recipe 1. Soak the satay sticks in a tray of water for 30 minutes. 2. Cut the chicken legs into evenly bite size and set aside. 3. Cut the capsicums into small squares, about the same size as the chicken pieces.  4. Arrange the chicken pieces and 2 pieces of capsicums alternately as shown in the picture. 5....

The weather has been very hot these days so it's good to prepare this soup. The apple and Chinese pear make the soup sweet and children friendly. I have added white fungus which is very nourishing for the lungs too.  Ingredients 1 Chicken leg (skin removed/cut into half) 1 Chinese pear 1 Apple (I use Royal Gala) 1 Pc of white fungus (about palm size)  6 Red dates Recipe 1. Put the chicken into boiling water and boil for a few minutes till the scum appears. Drain and rinse it before putting into the slower cooker. 2. Peel the skin of the pear and apple and cut them into large chunks. Add the pear and apple into the slow cooker. 3. Put in the red dates and pour in water to cover the ingredients. Turn the slow cooker to auto mode for at least 3-4 hours.   4. About 30 minutes before serving the soup, soak the white fungus till soft. Remove the stem and cut into desired size before putting it in the soup for 10-15 minutes. 5. Season with salt ...

One of our family's favourite is chicken legs. No matter how you cook them, they will be tender and not as dry compared to chicken breast. So whenever I go to the wet market, I am always buying deboned chicken legs from the stall. It really saves me a lot of time when I do not have to debone the chicken. I just have to marinate it and put it in the oven. I have also previously uploaded a few recipes like Baked lemon chicken leg in Italian herbs that I depended on when my weekdays get crazy. Today I thawed the chicken legs but decided to try and steam it instead. Tried to search for recipes online but mostly are for whole chicken and making Hainanese style chicken rice. So I stick to a few basic seasonings and lucky it turned out well received. Ingredients 2 deboned chicken legs 1 knob of ginger  1 stalk of spring onion  local lettuce (optional) tomato (optional) Sesame oil 1 Tbsp Soy sauce Salt Recipe 1. Apply salt on both sides of the chicken legs and set...

I bought a pack of mid-joint wings from supermarket that day, wanting to make some baked wings. But my husband suddenly fell sick and was not feeling well. In the end, I decided not to bake as baked wings can be quite heaty. I switch to steaming the wings instead and it turned out just as yummy. Ingredients 1 pack of mid joint wings (approx 10 pcs) 2 dried shiitake mushrooms (pre-soaked) 1 knob of ginger Spring onions Marinate 1 tbsp oyster sauce 1 tbsp soy sauce 1 tsp Chinese wine  1/2 tsp sugar  Some sesame oil  Dash of white pepper Recipe 1. Prepare the marinate in a bowl and marinate the wings for 15 minutes.  2. Slice the soaked mushrooms into strips and slice the ginger into thin pieces. 3. Smash white part of spring onions and cut the spring onions diagonally into strips. 4. Place the white part of spring onions along with some ginger on the bottom of the steaming dish. 5. Arrange the chicken wings on the dish and ensure there is no over...

Chicken wings are one of our favourite dishes. Preparation time is short and the result is always yummy! For busy working mummies like me, I would marinate the wings in the morning before going to work and pop them in the oven once I reached home. Sharing this easy recipe that I frequently used to prepare the wings. Ingredients 10 chicken wings 1 Tbsp honey 1/2 lemon   Marinate Minced garlic 1 Tbsp oyster sauce 1 Tbsp soy sauce Dash of white pepper Recipe 1. Put all the marinate ingredients in a bowl and mix well. 2. Marinate the chicken wings for at least 4 hours. 3. Preheat the oven and arrange the marinated chicken wings on the tray. 4. Juice the lemon and drizzle over the wings. 5. Bake in the oven at 190 degree celcius for 15 minutes. 6. Brush the chicken wings with honey and continue to bake for at least 5 minutes till done.

Today is only Tuesday and I am already feeling so worn out. Coming back home, the only thought on my mind is to prepare the dinner in the simplest way and serve dinner asap. Last week I baked chicken leg with five spice powder and this week I am back to baking chicken legs again! lol At least for this week, this is the preferred method for cooking cuz it is my cheat method for saving time. While the chicken is nicely cooking in the oven, I use the time to blanch the vegetables and wash up the dirty dishes. Ingredients 2 chicken legs (boneless) Marinate 3 Tbsp worcestershire sauce 3 Tbsp tomato sauce 1 Tbsp honey 1/2 tsp garlic powder Some black pepper Pinch of salt Recipe 1. Put all ingredients for the marinate in a small bowl and mix well. 2. Marinate the chicken using some of the sauce for a few minutes. (a few tablespoon of sauce, as long as enough to cover the chicken will do) 3. Heat up a pan and pan fry the chicken on both sides. Remove when the skin turns brown...

My first experience using five spice powder was making braised pork belly. I love the smell of the five spices so I am always excited to find recipes that use five spice powder. I would also put the powder when I am making ngoh hiang. Picture of the five spice powder I bought from NTUC below. One year ago, I chanced upon a kind member who shared her recipe on marinating chicken legs with five spice powder and air fried it. I thought it was a very good idea and tried it. Wanted to find the original recipe and credit the owner but couldn't find it. I had it manually written down in my cooking notepad last year. Anyway this is strongly recommend for a simple quick dish with minimum fuss. Do try the recipe! Ingredients 2 large chicken legs Chopped spring onions Marinate 4 Tbsp Soy sauce 1 Tbsp Dark soy sauce 1 tsp Sugar Dash of white pepper 1/2 tsp five spice powder 1 Tbsp water Recipe 1. Put all the marinate ingredients in a bowl and mix well. 2. Pour marinate ...

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 ...

I like to steam dishes when the weather gets hazy. It makes things a lot easier in the kitchen. I remembered my mum passed me some dried stuffs last month and I have not started using black fungus. When I was searching "steamed chicken with black fungus" in Google, I found this recipe by My Kitchen Snippets - Steamed chicken with mushrooms and black fungus . Got really tempted to try out the recipe as it did not seemed too difficult.  Ingredients 1 chicken leg (deboned) Dried black fungus Dried wolfberries Spring onions Cornstarch Soy sauce Rice wine Oyster sauce Pepper Salt  Recipe 1. Soak the black fungus and wolfberries in separate bowls. After the black fungus expanded, remove the centre which is hard and cut them into thin slices. 2. Cut the chicken leg into bite size pieces. Marinate in soy sauce, pepper and cornstarch and place them on the steaming dish. 3. Add the black fungus to the chicken and distribute evenly by mixing. 4. In a bowl, add oyster...

When I started on my cooking adventure, I tend to buy some ingredients that are necessary for some dishes but not regularly used in my daily cooking. One of these items sitting in my kitchen is turmeric powder. I faintly remembered I bought one bottle of turmeric powder when I wanted to make butter rice. To make better use of my turmeric powder, I came across this recipe in Serious eats - Grilled Thai Turmeric chicken and quickly got down to doing it on the same day. I skipped some ingredients like cilantro stems, coriander seeds which I do not have on hand in my kitchen. The beauty of home cooking is you do not have to necessarily follow so strictly to the recipes! Ingredients 2 large chicken legs (skin on) 1/2 tsp white pepper 4 large cloves of garlic 3 tbsp fish sauce 2 tbsp oyster sauce 1 tbsp turmeric powder 2 tbsp brown sugar   Recipe 1. Pound the garlic into a paste using a food processor. 2. Put all the marinate ingredients in a bowl and mix well. 3. C...

Preparing weekday dinners sometimes can be quite tiring. It is especially for me who is working part time in the afternoon. I have only got a few hours after sending my son to childcare then rushing to market to buy groceries before heading home to prepare dinner. Chicken stew is one of my favourite dish to cook on days that I totally ran out of ideas or having not much time to cook! Because this stew is sweetened with honey, my picky son absolutely loves it. ^^b Chanced upon this wonderful food blogger on YouTube for her Korean chicken stew - Maangchi. *strongly recommended* I love watching her videos to learn cooking. She makes cooking seemed so fun and easy! Video linked here for your reference. :) https://youtu.be/I16AwkdIZOw Adapted from: Maangchi's Korean chicken stew Ingredients Chicken wings / fillet Potatoes Carrot Bunashimeiji mushrooms Korean glass noodles Sesame seeds Spring onions Soy sauce Oyster sauce Honey Garlic Recipe 1. Heat up some oil...