Chicken with Soy Sauce and Bean Sprouts

Whole this month the weekends were really busy, especially saturdays. So it was wonderful to have a weekend were all three of us were at home.
We went to the Indian store 35 km from out place. Normally when we go for grocerry shopping daughter won't come with us saying it is boaring , but then saturday we bribed her :-)

We told her for lunch we can go to Koekcoek ( it is a place were they only sell roasted half small chicken and they serve with just bread and on they don't give knifes and forks, you have to eat it with your hand) This place has been there for more than 40 yrs and it is always packed.

My MIL said once when they went years ago, a elderly woman came there to eat while they all were there for eating chicken. And this lady was served, and she waited and waited for the knife and fork, and in the end she asked the waiter and he remarked they don't use them here so woman just wraped up her chicken and they saw her going.

For me when I came here it was really getting used to eat with knife and fork,as back home we always ate with our hand. I remember first time I went to a restraunt here i was afraid my piece of food wil fly to my neighbours plate :-)

This is one of those dishes you can make in a jiffy if you hace the things at home.
I have never timed it, but I am sure it will take less than 15 minutes.

Ingridietns.
2 tbsp soya sauce
1 tsp brown sugar ( optional)
Peper powder 1 tsp
500 gm chicken cut into bite size pictures.


Mix all the ingridients in a bowl and keep aside, while you cut the onions etc...
2 tbsp oil
1 large onion chopped roughly

Few chillies ( optional)
150 gm mushroom sliced.
A handfull of bean sporout.
250 to 300 ml chicken broth
Corn flour 2 tbsp mixed with a bit of water.


Heat the oil in a high fire and when it is really hot add the oil and then add the chicken pieces, ., the wok should be hot otherwise you won't get the brown colour. When the chicken is browned few minutes, then add the onions and fry them golden brown.
Add the mushromms and chillies ( if you are using) fry them for few minutes.
Add the chicken broth, and when it is boiled and the chicken pieces are cooked , stir in the corn flour mix and boil till the sauce is thickend. Don't add the full corn flour at them same time.

You can add the bean sprouts at the last moment, but what i do is, in a frying pan add 1 absp oil and fry the bean sprouts together with a bit of spysauce for 2 minutes and then mix with the chicken dishe. Choice is yours.

Orange Tian Daring Bakers Challenge March 2010

The 2010 March Daring Baker’s challenge was hosted by Jennifer of Chocolate Shavings. She chose Orange Tian as the challenge for this month, a dessert based on a recipe from Alain Ducasse’s Cooking School in Paris.

I got confused by seeing the pic in the forum, i thought there was two sablee cookie in one tian but there is only one, it is after making the dessert i was reading the recipe again and found out there was only 1 cookies used.
It didn't matter as the cookies were really yumm.
I coudn't figure out how to assemble the oranges, ofcourse not as i was mistaken about the cookie, so i just assembled the orange segments on top of each tian before i serve them.

My daughter and I enjoyed this tian. Hubby didn't eat as he canot stand orange peel, when ever he eat something with the peel his stomach gets upset and also he gets headache, I know it is weird, you don't know half of the food things which gives hubby trouble.

For the Pate Sablee:
Ingredients

2 medium-sized egg yolks at room temperaturegranulated

sugar 6 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon; 2.8 oz; 80 grams

vanilla extract ½ teaspoon

Unsalted butter ¼ cup + 3 tablespoons; 3.5 oz; 100 grams ice cold, cubed

Salt 1/3 teaspoon; 2 grams

All-purpose flour 1.5 cup + 2 tablespoons; 7 oz; 200 grams

baking powder 1 teaspoon ; 4 grams

Directions:Put the flour, baking powder, ice cold cubed butter and salt in a food processor fitted with a steel blade.
In a separate bowl, add the eggs yolks, vanilla extract and sugar and beat with a whisk until the mixture is pale. Pour the egg mixture in the food processor.
Process until the dough just comes together. If you find that the dough is still a little too crumbly to come together, add a couple drops of water and process again to form a homogenous ball of dough. Form into a disc, cover with plastic wrap and leave to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.Preheat your oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit.
Roll out the dough onto a lightly floured surface until you obtain a ¼ inch thick circle.
Using your cookie cutter, cut out circles of dough and place on a parchment (or silicone) lined baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes or until the circles of dough are just golden.

For the Marmalade:
IngredientsFreshly pressed orange juice ¼ cup + 3 tablespoons; 3.5 oz; 100 grams

1 large orange used to make orange slicescold water to cook the orange slicespectin

5 gramsgranulated sugar: use the same weight as the weight of orange slices once they are cooked
Finely slice the orange.

Place the orange slices in a medium-sized pot filled with cold water. Simmer for about 10 minutes, discard the water, re-fill with cold water and blanch the oranges for another 10 minutes.
Blanch the orange slices 3 times. This process removes the bitterness from the orange peel, so it is essential to use a new batch of cold water every time when you blanch the slices.
Once blanched 3 times, drain the slices and let them cool.
Once they are cool enough to handle, finely mince them (using a knife or a food processor).
Weigh the slices and use the same amount of granulated sugar . If you don’t have a scale, you can place the slices in a cup measurer and use the same amount of sugar.
In a pot over medium heat, add the minced orange slices, the sugar you just weighed, the orange juice and the pectin. Cook until the mixture reaches a jam consistency (10-15 minutes).
Transfer to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge.

For the Orange Segments:
For this step you will need 8 oranges.
Cut the oranges into segments over a shallow bowl and make sure to keep the juice. Add the segments to the bowl with the juice.

For the Caramel:
Ingredientsgranulated sugar 1 cup; 7 oz; 200 grams

orange juice 1.5 cups + 2 tablespoons; 14 oz; 400 grams
Place the sugar in a pan on medium heat and begin heating it.
Once the sugar starts to bubble and foam, slowly add the orange juice. As soon as the mixture starts boiling, remove from the heat and pour half of the mixture over the orange segments.
Reserve the other half of the caramel mixture in a small bowl — you will use this later to spoon over the finished dessert. When the dessert is assembled and setting in the freezer, heat the kept caramel sauce in a small saucepan over low heat until it thickens and just coats the back of a spoon (about 10 minutes). You can then spoon it over the orange tians.

[Tip: Be very careful when making the caramel — if you have never made caramel before, I would suggest making this step while you don’t have to worry about anything else. Bubbling sugar is extremely, extremely hot, so make sure you have a bowl of ice cold water in the kitchen in case anyone gets burnt!]

For the Whipped Cream:
whipping cream 1 cup; 7 oz; 200 gram

3 tablespoons of hot water

1 tsp Gelatine

1 tablespoon of confectioner's sugar

orange marmalade (see recipe above) 1 tablespoon
In a small bowl, add the gelatine and hot water, stirring well until the gelatine dissolves. Let the gelatine cool to room temperature while you make the whipped cream. Combine the cream in a chilled mixing bowl. Whip the cream using a hand mixer on low speed until the cream starts to thicken for about one minute. Add the confectioner sugar. Increase the speed to medium-high. Whip the cream until the beaters leave visible (but not lasting) trails in the cream, then add the cooled gelatine slowly while beating continuously. Continue whipping until the cream is light and fluffy and forms soft peaks. Transfer the whipped cream to a bowl and fold in the orange marmalade.
[Tip: Use an ice cold bowl to make the whipped cream in. You can do this by putting your mixing bowl, cream and beater in the fridge for 20 minutes prior to whipping the cream.]

Assembling the Dessert:
Make sure you have some room in your freezer. Ideally, you should be able to fit a small baking sheet or tray of desserts to set in the freezer.
Line a small tray or baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone sheet. Lay out 6 cookie cutters onto the parchment paper/silicone.
Drain the orange segments on a kitchen towel.
Have the marmalade, whipped cream and baked circles of dough ready to use.
Arrange the orange segments at the bottom of each cookie cutter. Make sure the segments all touch either and that there are no gaps. Make sure they fit snuggly and look pretty as they will end up being the top of the dessert. Arrange them as you would sliced apples when making an apple tart.
Once you have neatly arranged one layer of orange segments at the bottom of each cookie cutter, add a couple spoonfuls of whipped cream and gently spread it so that it fills the cookie cutter in an even layer. Leave about 1/4 inch at the top so there is room for dough circle.
Using a butter knife or small spoon, spread a small even layer of orange marmalade on each circle of dough.
Carefully place a circle of dough over each ring (the side of dough covered in marmalade should be the side touching the whipping cream). Gently press on the circle of dough to make sure the dessert is compact.
Place the desserts to set in the freezer to set for 10 minutes.
Using a small knife, gently go around the edges of the cookie cutter to make sure the dessert will be easy to unmold. Gently place your serving plate on top of a dessert (on top of the circle of dough) and turn the plate over. Gently remove the cookie cutter, add a spoonful of caramel sauce and serve immediately.

To see how other bakers have done on the Tiramisu, do stop by here

Little Pistachio and Orange Blossom Water Cakes

At last the weather seems to be getting better. Today we had such a sunny weahter, it was almost 15°C. I think when it is nice weather one automatically feel better.
Sometimes I think that is why people from sunny places are much more cheerfull than the people from cold countries.
It is nothing against anyone, it is my personal expirence, look at me, when it is really cold I am a grumby woman and if I see a dash of sun I am like a sunshine myself :-)

You can see from the colour of the icing in my cake how I was feeling last saturday.
When ever I bake and when I am busy with these wild colours , hubby comes to the kitchen and remark she is again busy with her alien cooking.

Now to the recipe, I saw this few days back Poires au Chocolat and this is her own recipe, I fell in love with it the first time i saw it and had to make them especially there was pistachios and almonds in them.

Recipe courtsey Poires Au Chocolat

110 gm butter
40 gm sugar
2 eggs
50 gm whole blanched almonds ( i didn't have them, i useed almond flakes)
50 gm whole shelled pistachios
110 gm plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp orange blossom water.


Preheat the oven to 170C.
Put the nuts into a food processor and blend till fine but with a few slightly bigger lumps. In a mixer cream the butter and sugar. Add an egg with a few tablespoons of the flour and blend, followed by the other egg and some more flour. Sieve in the rest of the flour and the baking powder then add in the ground nuts and the orange blossom water.
Fold in till combined. Divide between the moulds and and bake for about 15 minutes or until browned on top and cooked through. Leave to cool in the moulds for five minutes then pop out. Dust with icing sugar or use icing like I have done here.

Chickpeas and Potatoes, flavoured with singed spices

My daughter is in a Orchestra and every friday evening from 8 to 9 they have rehersals in a auditorum in one of the schools here. She was on the way there with hubby and she was telling all the gossip of the day from the school and she didn't notice a small hole on the road and she fell down and Sprained her ankle, still she did the rehersal, came home with pain and I gave her a painkiller and saturday morning took her to our GP and ofcourse had to go for X ray and now she is waling with crutches, well it is only for a week then she can remove the bandage.

And at the moment we call her SKIPNDER as she is skipping like the Kangaroo skippy ;-)

Saturday it was Annual day of the Music Academy, were she learns violin and she had to perfomr 2 pieces and poor thing was hopping in the stage with her crutches.
With her black drees and to her horror she had to wear those easy summer shoes, and she was moaning about wearing a slipper for easy walking with a frock.

Now before wite the recipe I have to tell you some Good News.
There was this giveaway in Daily Muisings and guess who won, well I won this beautiful Rachel Ray Cast Iron pot.
When I got the mail saying I won, and hubby who was working in the next room got a shock hearing me SCREAM :-)

Now to the recipe, one of the legume i make here at home is channa dal, even more that dal.
For me if I want to have a Indian vegetarin food for lunch, then it is channa and roties.
This is a recipe from the book 660 curries, I just love this book. There is so many delicous recipes in it, that I am sure I will be using this book for years and years.

Ingridients.
1 potato peeled, cut into 1/2 inch cubes.
3 cups cookes chickpea
2 tbsp of mango powder or fresh lime juice
1 tbsp dried pomegranate seeds ground
2 tsp cumin - corriander powder blend.

1 tsp chillies

1 tbsp garam masala powder
1 tsp salt

6 tbsp oil
1 cup finley chopped red onions
1 large tomato chopped
2 to 4 fresh green chillies cut in half length
1/4 cup finley choped fresh corriander leaves.

Pour 3 cups of water into a medium size pan and add the potato, chickpeas, mango powder, pomegranate, cummin-corriander blend, chillie powder, garam masala and salt.
Bring to boil over medium heat and contnue to simmer vigoursly uncovered, stirring occasionallyn untill the potato is fork tender and the sauc has thickend,15 minutes.

While the potato chickpea mixture is cooking, heat 2 absp of the oil in a pan. Add the onion and stir fry untill it is light brown around the edges, 5 to 6 minutes.
Stir in the tomato and contine to simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, untill it softens, but is still firm cooking. 2 to 4 minutes.

When the potato chickpea mixture is thickend, stir in the onion tomato mixture.

Heat the remaining 4 absp of oil in a small skillet over medium high heat untill italmost starts to smoke.
Carefully pour this hot oil into the potao chickpea mixture, singering the spices and stir well.

Sprinkle with the chilies and cilantro over the curry and serve.

Macarons with Apricot Marmalade Buttercream for Spring Mactweet

Earlier on this month I had decided I was not going to do the Mac for this months Mactweets after hubby was grumbling about last month about them :-)
But then the last days I have been seeing so many beautiful Macarons like this one from Meeta with her rosewater mac, Deeba with her frozen yoghurt mac and Jamie with her Tulip inspired mac ( she is getting her own domain, so i can't get the link right now)

I had to do them today afternoon and I am in a hurry posting them. I am two days late with the deadline.

Used the same Ottolenghi recipe and filled them with buttercream mixed with apricot marmalade.This monthe Mactweet theme was Spring

Raisin Buns

As always weekend just go so fast. It is funny how one try to do so much things in a weekend, it is like if you don't do all these things in the weekend it will never be done, which I think is not true. But still every weekend it is like that here.

One thing how much I try hard never seems to finish is my Ironing.
I just hate ( well if my daughter says that she hates something, we tell her don't use the word hate, use dislike) well i canot use the word dislike for ironing, i just truly hate the ironing.

Saturday my daughter had a concert and she needed her black shirt which she use only for performance.
I remember after the last concert washing and ironing her shirt and giving it to her. Two hours before the time to leave she looked for her shirt and she coudn't find in her shelf.
And me most of the mothers do ,started grumbling.
She looked in her room no way it had disapeared.
I am still grumbling as I don't want to open up the part of the closet which I try to forget about , that is the place were I dump all my washed clothes saying I have to iron,
In the end I opend up that part and literally clothes fall on to me shouting Iron me Iron me.
I search inbetween then mess, Twice for the missing black shirt, not there.

Then I went to daughters room and looked in her closet , and what do I find in a corner the BLACK Shirt.

So fingers crossed, after writing this post I am gonna Iron at least for 3 hours.

I have made buns with chocolate and now I used the same recipe , but instead of using chocolate i used raisins.
You can find the recipe for the basic bread for sweet breads here and how to make the raisin buns here in the chocolate buns just use the same recipe and use raisins instead of the chocolate pieces. You will see the step by step pic too.


Sending this to Tangerine's Kitchen as she is hosting this Months which is a event started by Zorra, so bake some sweet buns and send it to Rachel.

Sundried Tomatoes in Olive oil.

I was not going to post anything more this week as I didn't had anything intresting to post. Can you imagine that. But then today afternoon while I was reading a recipe in one of my cooking books they asked for sundried tomatoes in oil.
I thought why not make them at home, anyway I still have a lot of the tomatoes i bought from Italy.

Last summer when we went for holiday to Italy I had bought some 4 huge packets of sun dried tomatoes. Have been using them regulary in dishes .

There is no recipe for this, I just added a hand full of dried tomatoes and poured good olive oil till they got filled. You can add herbs if you want, but i thought I will keep the taste as it is.

I will be suing this in pasta dishes, salades etc.....

Cinamon Raisin Pecan Nuts Bread

For the last weeks I have been making breads a lot. Especially sweet breads.
Every year this time my hubby goes in a sort of a diet, he stop eating most of the luxry food or just say foods he love to eat, and no wine etc.
So he won't eat chocolate, biscuits, fried food, no nuts which he is crazy for and have almost every evening a small bowl.
He does this saying the whole winter one has been having fatty food so it is nice to clean the body.
Well daughter and I join in, grumblingly.
So to have my additiction for sweets I bake sweet breads to compensate :-)

I have made this bread before but then without then cincamon sugar and without the nits.
I followed the same recipe but instead of just adding raisins , i did

1 1/2 cup of raisins and 1 cup chopped pecannuts.
And also did the cinamon swrill.
To make the cinamon sugar, stir 1/2 cup sugat and 2 tbsp cinamon. When shaping the dough,roll out the dough into a rectangl and then sprinkle the sugar mix and then roll up the dough into a light sandwithc style loaf, pinching the seam closed with your fingers.
When you slice the bread, it will look pretty and also add extra cinamon flavour.
Sending this to Yeastspotting.

Fried Chilly Chicken.

Last days the sun god has been really kind in our part of the world.
We have been having suny weather, well don't even think that we are sweating here from the sun. If you look outside sun is shining and one feels really good, but then go outside your ears will drop off from the freezing cold.
But then atleast I take comfort in seeing the sunshine, thinking aobut soon spring will be here finger crossed.

I am sure there is a varietty of recipe for this chicken dish.
I make them dry, wih sauce according to my mood.
Mostly I make this when we have a party and I serve this when I give drinks, so everybody can nibble on these delicous spicy fried chicken while having their drinks and talks.

There are times when i add a teeny red colour to brighten it up.

Ingridients.

500 gm chicken cut into bit size pieces
1 tbsp ginger finley cut
2 tbsp soya sauce
1 tsp pepper powder
1/2 tsp salt.

Mix all these ingridients and keep it in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
Oil for deep frying the chicken pieces
2 tbsp oil
few spring onions slices
2 tbsp galrlic chopped
2 tbsp ginger finmey chopped
6 to 8 Chillies finley sliced (according to your taste)
2 to 3 tbsp soya sauce
2 to 3 tbsp tomato ketchup
2 tbsp of water. (you can add this if u think the dish is too dry)

I don't use salt as the soya sauce is having a lot of salt, if you want you can add salt after tasting the dish.
Method:
Heat the oil in a wok and deep fry the marinated chicken till it is done.Drain and keep it aside.Now add the 2 tbsp of oil in a wok and add the onions, ginger, garlic and chillies.
Fry them till they are soft, now add the fried chicken pieces , soya sauce and the tomato ketchup.
Stril till all the pieces are well coated, sprinkle with few spring onions and serve with steamed rice. Or just give them when you give drinks for a party as sfingerfood.

This bowl of chicken Ifried the chicken more and didn't make any sauce at all.

Sabayon with fruits

I am sure there is no need for me to Introuduce Meeta, everybody who is bit in intrested in blogging, know her place for her beautiful pictures, presentation and not to mention delicious dessert recipes. I have spend in her place hours and hours.

Even I have forced my husband who is not intreseted in blogs ( not even mine :-) ) to look to WFLH , to show him the beautiful pictures, if he is aorund when I am looking to her new post.

She is celebrating her 4 th year of blogging. And she want all of us to join in with her by opening up a bottle of bubbly, well also sparkling wine is good.
That is what I did yesterday opened up a bottle of sparkly wine and made this delcious Sabayon to serve with fruits.
I mostly love to serve sabayon with summer fruits, but well they are not there yet, still i coudn't stop to pick up a small box of berries while I was in the shop to add to my fruit mix.
So this delicous sabayon , I am going to send for her like to join in the party for MM, here are the details.

My daughter ofcourse is always thrilled when I make sabayon as she just loves it.

First time I made sabayon i used a double boiler method, now i have made them so many times that I just use a steel pan over a small heat and make them.
There is a step by step picutures in my earlier post if you want to make them.

Variety of fruits.
2 tbsp granadine ( optional)
Slice them fruits ans mix with the 2 tbsp of grenadine, if you are using and divide them into 4 glasses

Sabayon:
100 ml sparkline wine
2egg yolks
40 gm sugar ( I used vanilla sugar as i didn't want any eggy taste)

To make the sabayon you need a double boiler or a heatproof bowl over simmering water, and either a strong wrist or a handheld electric whisk. I used a electric whisk.
I don't have a double broiler so i fill up a pan with hot water and use another bowl to fit on to the pan.
Put the pan in a small heat and add the sweet wine in a glass or steel bowl and add the eggs and starts whisking. While bush whisking add the sugar and keep on whisking untill it turns white and frothy, it will take almost 8 to 10 minutes.Pour over the fruits and serve it immidietly.Enjoy this super delicous dessert.