Simple and Quick Chicken Biryani

Here's the Chicken Biryani. It taste pretty good for my between feed food. The recipe calls for peas only but I only have frozen mix vegetable, so why not? ^_^... I also use the left over rice from yesterday. So there's a little tweak from the original recipe

Source: BBC Goodfood Cookbook

Ingredient
2 tbsp vegetable oil
6 chicken wings
1/2 Onion, thinly sliced
2 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
2 cups of leftover rice
1/2 cup of chicken / vegetable stock
1 cup of frozen mix vegetable (mine was peas, beans, carrots and sweetcorn)

1. Marinate chicken with salt and pepper then fry for 5 - 8 minutes or until cooked. set aside.
2. Saute  onions until soften and fragrant, add the chicken and mix vegetable
3. Add the stock, curry powder and turmeric powder and let it simmer
4. Tip in the rice and mix well.-

Chicken and Vegetable A la Provencale

I was going to cook Briyani but I saw Simon's Bap Breads on their last day of expiration. Thus, I thought to make something that we can eat with the bread. We've got loads of vegetable in the fridge that demands to be cooked before they go spoil. So the easiest thing to cook is a quick Chicken and Vegetable with provencal herbs. We usually bought a ready to cook package from supermarket but just this once I want to try it from scratch. - Anyway, the recipe calls for chicken breast but I only have chicken wings so... no chicken breast no problem

Source: Pan-Cooked Chicken Dishes from Around the World (cookbook)

Ingredient:
2 chicken breast, skinned and boned (I use 6 chicken wings)
2 tsp of herbs de provencal (mix 1 tsp each of marjoram, basil, thyme and oregano)
1/2 Onions
2 garlic cloves
1 tomatoe, cut in fours and cubed
1/2 red pepper, cut into strips
1/2 green pepper, cut into strips
2 carrots, cut half length wise and cut in medium chunks
4 tbsp olive oil
salt and black pepper
2 tbsp chopped parsley (I used dried parsley)

Direction
1. Rub chicken breasts (or chicken wings or what ever you are using) with salt, pepper and the herbs.
2. Peel and finely chopped Onions and garlic
3. Heat the olive oil in the pan and fry the chicken breast for 8 minutes or until chicken is cooked to your liking. remove from pan
4. Add garlic and onion. Saute until fragrant
5. Put in the carrot chunks. you can add a little water  (4 tbsp) just to let the carrot a bit tender
6. Add the pepper and tomatoes. Stir until everything soften but still has a crunch to it
7. Add a little of the herbs mix, adjust the seasoning
8. Serve with toasted bread.

Cheesy Sweetcorn

It was a cold afternoon yesterday. I'm feeling peckish. So I checked on the cupboard but found none interesting. I then saw a can of sweetcorn and remembered the cheesy corn we usually buy in the mall. You know the little stand near the escalator in some malls selling steamed hot corn topped with cheese.
I made this without measurement. It's fool proof - nothing can go wrong. you can add or take awayanything you like. So thre you go... cheesy sweetcorn

make 2 glass

Ingredients:
1 can of sweetcorn
Handful of grated cheddar heese
2 tsp butter or margarine
2 tsp condensed milk

Direction:
1. Steam or boil the sweetcorn for 5 minutes or just to heat the sweetcorn
2. Drain the excess water then put the sweetcorn in a cup or glass
3. Add 1 tsp of butter or margarine to each of the cup
4. topped with grated cheese and drizzle with condensed milk

Best served steaming hot

Kacang Ijo Halia // Ginger Mungbean

I made this yesterday when Simon is busy catching up his dissertation deadline and I am 1 day away from my due date. Both of us are very anxious. Simon promised to finsih his dissertation before the baby goes into labour. Poor husband of mine is doing all he can to get ahead of time. Unfortunatelly, he started to feel unwell, a bit feverish. The temperature was dropping so it does feel a bit nippy. I suddenly remember that mung bean is good for health and having it with ginger will warm your body and provide extra energy.
I do not use exact measurement... so it's up to your liking for the taste

Ingredient:
2 handful of Mung bean
a big chunk (app. 3 tbsp) palm sugar - or ordinary sugar will also works
2 glass of water (app. 400ml)
1 tsp salt
2 cm ginger, crushed
Condensed milk to serve with

Direction:
1. Wash and boil mung bean with crushed ginger with 2 glass of water until the beans breaks and tender - feel free to add more water if the mung bean is not yet breaks and tender
2. Add Palm sugar and salt to taste.
3. To serve : ladle mung bean to a glass and drizzle condense milk to your desire.

Opor Ayam // Braised Chicken in Coconut Milk

I cooked this 2 nights ago just because I wanted to.

Ingredient:
4 piece of Chicken Drumstick and 4 piece of Chicken Thigh
4 lime leaves
2 bay leaves
1 lemongrass, bruised

400 ml very light coconut milk
200 ml thick coconut Milk
Salt, pepper and sugar to your taste
Cooking oil

Ingredient to grind:
8 shallot
4 garlics
5 candlenut
1/2 tsp coriander

1 cm galanggal
1/2 tsp cumin
1 cm ginger

Direction:
1. Marinate chicken with salt and pepper for 15 - 30 minutes. Then fry the chicken half cooked in hot oil. set a side
2. Saute ground ingredient, lime leaves, bay leaves and lemongrass until fragrant
3. Add the chicken and mix it well until chicken is fully coated with ingredient
4. Pour the light coconut milk, salt and sugar. Cook until coconut milk reduced to half and chicken tender
5. Pour the thick coconut milk... adjust the taste... and keep stirring until cooked

Kohu-Kohu // Ambon style Vegetable and Fish salad

3 weeks ago, I was craving food from home. Then I saw my sister in law food folder in Facebook and she made kohu-kohu... a traditional salad dish from Ambon. I immediatelly asked for the recipe and she sent me almost as soon as she get my message. Thank you usi Non...
Of course, I cannot find all the exact ingredient as we normally use in Ambon so she suggested some alternative. The taste is very very similar and cure my homesickness.

Ingredient:
1 pack of Smoked Makarel (1 medium fish), shreded
2 handful of fine bean, cut to 2 cm and blanched in hot water - In Ambon we use Kacang Panjang
1 handful of Beansprout, cleaned and blanched in hot water
a handful of basil leaves, cleaned and torn
1/2 coconut, grated - you can steam it for 15 minutes to avoid it getting spoiled too soon
4 Indonesian shallot (Bawang merah), grind
2 garlic, grind
1/2 tsp Salt

Direction:
1. Grind together shallot and garlic with 1 tsp of salt.
2. Put the blanched fine beans, beansprout, shreded smoked makarel, grated coconut and torn basil leaves in a bowl. add the grounded shallot and garlic. Mix together throroughly.
3. Adjust the taste of salt.

4. Ready to serve

Note : If you like it spicy, feel free to grind chili with the shallot and garlic

Ravioli with Roasted Squash and Sage Brown Butter

I was rummaging my old pic files and found this picture.
I cooked this for Christmas 2009 and I think I haven't posted it.
Since I am feeling heavy counting my the time to my-ever-so-close due date...
I think this is a great dish I wanted to eat today but not having the strength to cook it.

Source: RedBookMag March 2009 Edition

Ingredient:
1/4 portion of butternut squash - peeled and cut into 1/2 inch dice
1 tbsp Olive oil
20 frozen jumbo 4 Cheese Ravioli
1 stick of unsalted butter
1/2 medium Onion - Minced
15 sage leaves
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
salt and ground black pepper

Direction:
1. Heat oven to 475F. toss squash with oil on a baking sheet. Spread on even layer. Roast for 25 minutes. tossing once or twice or until browned on edges and tender.
2. While squash roasted, bring a large pot of salted water to boil
3. 5 minutes before squash is cooked, add frosen ravioli to boiling water and cook 3 to 5 minutes or according to package direction, until tender. Drain well -drizzle with little olive oil.
4. Whilepasta is cooking, melt butter in a skillet over low to medium heat. Add onion and cook for 3 minutes, then add sage leaves and slowly cook until butter is golden brown and smells nutty and sage leaves are crisp. - watch carefully, sage turns golden to brown very quickly.
5. To serve arrange 5 or 6 ravioli on each plate and top with roasted squash and Parmesan.
6. Spoon brown butter and sage leaves over each serving and season with salt and pepper