Roast Drumsticks

I always have some drumsticks and chicken wings stored in the freezer, because you can always whip up some quick and easy dinner with these ingredients. Also, the drumsticks and wings are always on specials at Woolworths or Lennards. I can get them for $2.99 a kilo most of the time :)

Some nights, I will just get some drumsticks out, prepare for the next night's dinner so that I can have an easy evening by putting everything into the oven when I get home and diner will be served in an hour :p

This is just a very typical, simple roast drumsticks I make from time to time and the left over is great for lunch the next day with some green salad.

Marinate:

2 tsp five-spice powder

3 cloves chopped garlin

1 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

1 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp soy sauce

black pepper

2 tspn dark soy sauce

Marinate over night for the ebst results. :)

I will often put a layer of sliced sweet potato under the drumstick, when the drumsticks are cooked, the sweet potato slices are full of flavour and absorb all the chicken juices and marinate...Yum!

You can also put some potato, carrots, capsicum on a separate plate and put them in the oven with the chicken. So, one meal can be cooked at the same time :)

Deadly Choc Cookies

Wow, I just realised I haven't posted any food posts for a LONG LONG time. I have been cooking and baking a lot, but I jsut didn't have time to sit in front of the computer to blog about them. All because of HER

Anyway, I need something very sinful a couple of days ago, and I wanted to try out my new oven. So I baked some deadly choc cookies, I used the recipe from Nigella's Express. You can get the recipe from her website :)

INGREDIENTS
125g dark chocolate, minimum 70% cocoa solids
150g flour
30g cocoa, sieved
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
125g soft butter
75g light brown sugar (I used 50g)
50g white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg, cold from the fridge
350g (2 bags) semi-sweet chocolate morsels or dark chocolate chips ( I used 250g)

Also I added 2 Ts of milk to the mixture in the end.

Preheat the oven to 170°C/gas mark 3. Melt the 125g dark chocolate either in the microwave or in a heatproof dish over a pan of simmering water.

Put the flour, cocoa, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a bowl.

Cream the butter and sugars in another bowl. (I use my freestanding mixer, itself an odd source of comfort to me.) Add the melted chocolate and mix together.

Beat in the vanilla extract and cold egg, and then mix in the dry ingredients. Finally stir in the chocolate morsels or chips.

Scoop out 12 equal-sized mounds (I made more than 20, I think I made about 20 by using a normal teaspoon)– an ice cream scoop and a palette knife are the best tools for the job – and place on a lined baking sheet about 6cm apart. Do not flatten them.

Cook for 18 minutes, testing with a cake tester to make sure it comes out semi-clean and not wet with cake batter. If you pierce a chocolate chip, try again.

Leave to cool slightly on the baking sheet for 4–5 minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack to harden as they cool.

Verdict:

The cookies were yummy and not TOO sweet. So my colleagues who are on Weightwatchers had a piece and glad that it wasn't as 'deadly' as she thought it would be. :p

I kept a few pieces in my drawer at work, in case I have the sudden choc craving again!

Instant Chicken Rice!

I was at Chan Brothers one Sunday, was doing my normal Asian ingredients shopping. Time to stock up my instant noodle again (especially my dear bf started eating instant noodle now). I saw a 'rather' new packaging on the shelf, when I said it is rather new, I mean it could be in the market for a long time but I have just came across it.

I have always been very skeptical about instant rice and porridge, never thought they would be nice, I prefer fresh, fluffy rice. Anyway, I decided to buy one to try. I think it costs around $2, can't really remember.

So I took it to work one day and prepared it during lunch time. All my colleagues were very curious and couldn't wait to see whether it would turn out allright.

The instructions given were to soak the rice in boiling water for 5 minutes then pour out the mear from the seal foil pack and put the container into the microwave, heat it on high for 2 minutes.

After the initial 5 minutes, the rice was half cooked! I was so excited and thought, hey! this could turn out good. BUT I was sooooo disappointed when I pour the meat out, only 3 pieces of chicken! 3! THREE! Can you believe it? The rest were bits of carrot and bake beans!

I didn't have my phone with me so I couldn't take a pic. :(

It tasted OK, but bloody disappointed with the freaking 3 pieces of chicken. I ate only half the rice because there weren't enough chicken, carrot and beans.

Verdict: NOT going to buy it again.

Silly Me

I wrote an entry about Seoul Korean - Northbridge but posted it to my other blog! Click HERE if you are interested to read that.

Vegetarian Noodle

Every 1st and 15th day on the luna calendar, I am a vegetarian. I will only eat vegetables, bean or eggs. For the previous 15th day, I decided to make vegetarian noodle. Something very simple and yummy.

Ingredients:
half a carrot - shredded
4 chinese mushrooms - shredded
handful of shredded cabbage/chinese cabbage
2 cloves of garlic - diced

Sauce:
1 tbsp vegetarian oyster sauce
2 tspn dark sauce
1 tspn fish sauce
salt and pepper
1 tspn sugar
150ml water

1 packet of noodle (egg noodle/yee mee/instant noodle)

Brown garlic, put in carrot, mushrooms and cabbage. Stir fry till carrot and cabbage are semi soft, put in noodle. When noodle is getting soft, stir in sauce. Coat noodle with sauce, then add in water, cover the lid and simmer for 5 -10minutes. You may adjust the amount of water depending how much gravy/sauce you want with your noodle :)

Curry Laksa @ Asian Cuisine

I was craving for curry a few days ago, so when I had a chance last Thursday. I dropped by at Asian Cuisine on Collins Road to have a bowl of curry laksa. :p

The curry was very flavourful, very tasty. I thoroughly enjoyed it. However, my favourite curry laksa is still the one @ Northbridge food court, it is more expensive tho, $14 per bowl if I am not wrong.

Unfortunately, I got very thirsty after eating this curry, I think they used a lot of MSG. :(

Asian Cuisine do serve other yummy food like Wonton Mee, Fried Squid, Curry Ckicken Rice, Sambal Fish (my favourite), Mee Siam and Char Kuay Teow.

Asian Cuisin on Collins Road, Willetton.

Close every Monday and Tuesday

Pretty Agar Agar and Konyaku

I love agar agar, jelly, konyaku jelly since I was little. I can eat agar agar as my meal, crazy I know! Agar agar and konyaku are such easy recipe that no brainers could make them as well. Anyway, made these for Karen's engagement party as I was busy house hunting so I could only make something as easy.

I tried to mix sago and agar agar together, they turned out very well, the sago were transparent so they made some pattern on the agar agar. As for the agar agar, I just used the pre-mix and added coconut milk in it.

Made the konyaku with pre-mix as well and added lots of fruits to make them as colourful as possible. I get very happy when I see colourful (naturally) jelly. :p