Smoky Wok

This is simplicity at its' perfection - I used Thomas Keller's famous yet extremely easy recipe for roast chicken for today's feature and words just cannot describe how much I loved the roast chicken legs I made.  The skin was crispily golden while the meat underneath was still tender and moist, what more can you ask for in a roast chicken or in this case, roast chicken legs?  To be honest, I was a little worried that the chicken would be a little dry due to the sheer minimalism of the recipe and probably because of the absence of any basting liquids in the recipe, hence the mushroom sauce I made but the chicken was really just good on its' own and a sauce is really not needed although it could be a nice alternative for your sauce-loving guests :O.



The secret to achieving Keller's perfectly simple roast chicken I think is to make sure that you remove as much of the chicken's moisture as possible and also refrain from adding butter or other liquids to marinate the chicken as we do not want any steam in the oven while the chicken is roasting.  Only salt is required (and just a little freshly grinded black pepper) and it's just so amazing what salt can do on its' own - I admit I was rather tempted to add some butter before roasting but I quelled my automatic tendencies and decided to follow his recipe to utterly delightful results.  The mushroom sauce I made was a simple affair where I used butter, mushrooms (of course!), a splatter of red wine and my little 'secret', the juices from the chicken after the legs were roasted.  I consider myself a newbie at roasting chicken, so if I can do it, anyone can - seriously, you have to try Thomas Keller's recipe at least once. 



It may be my personal preference, but I prefer Keller's recipe to the roast chicken I made adapting Jamie Oliver's recipe although with the latter, you get the delicious vegetables together with the chicken all in one pan, so really it's up to you which one you prefer.

I have been so absent minded lately, first I forgot to add eggs into my banana bread which resulted in my still fortunately delicious eggless banana bread and then I almost forgot to add eggs into my chocolate swirl cheesecake that I made for little brother's birthday last week.  Hmm, what's up with eggs and I? For the naan pizzas I am featuring today, I actually used the 'wrong' flour, yes my go-to naan recipe calls for all purpose flour but I happily used bread flour and it was too late by the time I read the label of the packet just right when I was proofing the dough for the first time.  Luckily, the naan pizzas turned out great and I actually preferred the ones made with bread flour as they were fluffier and rose much higher although if that's not what you like, do stick to all purpose flour.



I really really love naan and I think they make a great crust as 'pizzas' - there's so much one can experiment and come up with that I am already thinking about my next topping for yet more homemade naan pizzas.  Today's toppings were just inspired by one of my family favourites from of all places, Pizza Hut i.e. their 'Hawaian Delight' which is mainly made out of pineapple and ham.  Sweet, savoury and tangy, these were pretty hard to resist.  Making your own naan at home is really straightforward and fun (I actually find kneading dough very therapeutic)- I really encourage you to try it at least once but if you find it too time-consuming, do go ahead and use store-bought versions.  For a photo tutorial, please refer here - this is totally fool-proof by the way :O.

Pancakes are not only breakfast food to me - I think they make great snacks that you can whip up quickly and I've also been known to have 'typical' breakfast foods for dinners.  I thought of making blueberry compote when I saw some gorgeous looking blueberries at the local grocery store and I thought pancakes would make the perfect accompaniment or rather canvas. I totally adore the gorgeous colours that the blueberry compote provided, soaked up so deliciously by the extra fluffy pancakes today.  Just to experiment, I decided to borrow an idea from my go-to naan recipe and used soured milk instead of just milk, I am not entirely sure of the sciences behind, but my pancakes were fluffier and lighter than usual and I did not even separate the white of the egg to beat separately. 



This was my first time making blueberry compote at home and I am pleased to report that it proved really popular with my guests, the pancakes (and the compote) were finished in no time.  The compote was extremely easy to whip up where you just need to cook the bluberries together with some sugar and a squirt of lemon juice until the berries start (literally) popping out of their skins.  Easy, delicious and gorgeous to boot, I hope you'll give this a try the next time you want something a little more than maple syrup to serve with your pancakes.

Today's feature is my version of yet another popular dish in Hong Kong's famous 'char chan tengs' (茶餐厅) - macaroni cooked simply in some broth which makes a quick and comforting breakfast option.  This is a noodle dish that you can whip up pretty quickly and the accompanying ingredients are entirely up to you, whether you use ham or sausages or even spam (luncheon meat), this is another highly personalisable dish.  I cooked mine in some homemade anchovy broth although chicken broth is usually what you will get if you go to one of these cafes and I added some spinach since I had some in my fridge as well.  As I was feeling just a tad under the weather earlier, these really fit the bill.



If you prefer chicken broth, by all means use canned or packet versions to save time although do try to get the ones without added MSG.  I did not strain the anchovy broth as we actually like eating the anchovies but if you don't, do strain the broth once.  Anchovies are extremely handy to have around your pantry and they can be found in all Asian grocery stores, down the dried foods aisle.  Anchovy broth is also used a lot in Korean dishes by the way.  I think that macaroni in broth is one of the lighter dishes one can get at a typical char chan teng and it just goes so well with a hot cup of one of my favourite drinks ever, Hong Kong's famous 'stocking' milk tea (絲襪奶茶).

Cheesy and savoury flavours combined in pillowy soft and fluffy buns -right up my alley. The tangzhong method is a fool proof way to achieve pillowy soft bread and is always a winner. This method is a Japanese method for baking bread and requires a starter, tangzhong (汤种) which can be loosely translated to mean a water roux starter. This method of baking bread produces the characteriscally soft and fluffy textures found in Japanese breads and if you're a fan of the latter, you really have to try this method the next time you're in the mood for some homemade bread. When I lived in the US, one of the things I missed about living in Asia was the close proximity of good or at least decent Japanese/ Asian bakeries.



I had read about tangzhong fleetingly in the past but it was not until I saw the lovely bread posts by Christine of Christine's Recipes that tangzhong really caught my attention.  I used to be a total noob at bread making and trust me, these were really easy although a little time-consuming but totally worth it. The payoff will be more than worth the efforts, I promise. I actually made these little buns by hand without a breadmaker so don't worry if you don't have one. For today, I topped the slightly sweet buns with a savoury topping of bacon and cheese and as always, you can modify the toppings to suit your preferences and availability of ingredients. I also stuck to just making round buns today although the buns were flattened and folded a couple of times before being shaped into a ball - you can shape them into whatever shapes that take your fancy like my heart-shaped buns or simply braid them up like what I did for brioche here.

When in doubt, make chocolate cake and if you've ran out of flour, make it flourless.  That's exactly what I did over the weekend when we had company in the form of my little brother's university mates.  Surprisingly, I had a lot of fun hanging out with them despite the rather significant age gap :O.  I even willingly chatted through the night without sleeping a wink until the next evening - this is a first after almost ten years when I last did it when I was studying at university.  So much fun to watch and observe them - definitely nostalgic.  I guess as you grow older, nostalgia overtakes you more and more.  Anyway, back to the cake or rather cakes, these little cakes baked in jars not only make for elegant presentation, they are also very straightforward and easy to make. 



The texture of these cakes are slightly gooey - so if you like your flourless cakes crumbly, this recipe may not suit your taste.  For added texture, I topped the cakes with some roasted cashew nuts and if you don't like cashew nuts, pistachios are great alternatives.  These cakes consist of chocolate, butter, eggs, cocoa powder and of course sugar.  I baked these in little glass yoghurt jars that I have been saving forever and I was delighted when my guests mentioned they loved the presentation apart from the sinful cake.  I baked them in a water bath to ensure even cooking and also to make sure the glass did not crack.  If you prefer, you can just use little ramekins or other suitable oven-safe alternatives.

Banana bread is definitely one of the best and most delicious ways of finishing up slightly overripe bananas in my opinion.  I like to keep my banana bread simple and for today, I just added some slices of bananas on top of the batter before baking for better presentation.  Banana bread or cake really tastes more like cake to me so I'm not quite sure why it is referred to as 'bread', do let me know if you know the reason :O. For my banana cake/ bread today, I used 'pisang mas' a species of bananas available mostly in South East Asia which are sweeter, softer in texture and I thought altogether perfect for banana bread.  I did not use eggs in my batter today and I have to admit, it was a little accident as I usually add an egg into my batter.  It turned out really good and I'm so pleased to report an eggless recipe.  You can mash the bananas by hand which is what I did or use a food processor if you prefer a finer texture.



This was easy and quick to make with delicious results, definitely an ideal dessert to make when you have unexpected company.  Another plus - I really loved the perfumey scent of bananas in my kitchen while baking the loaf as well. 

Happy Friday everyone!  I am back again with another skewer styled dish - do excuse me as I seem to be especially fascinated with satay dishes recently.  There are just so many different possibilities/ interpretations when it comes to skewered meat dishes.  For today's offering, I used mainly Thai condiments hence the name of the dish and I am extremely pleased to report that these were gone in no time at the little party I cooked for last night.  Flavours in this dish are sweet and savoury, with hints of spiciness and tartness, extremely appetising I would have to say.  I would like to share a little tip I picked up along the way as well - I made a lemongrass 'brush' by smashing the white part and brushed a mixture of corn syrup and oil on the skewers right before roasting.  This really makes all the difference, trust me - apart from the scent of lemongrass, you get the delicious looking shiny glaze as well.  If you can't find corn syrup, you can substitute with just regular syrup or make your own by mixing up sugar and water.



For the marinade, I used Yuen Chun's Thai stir-fry sauce, fish sauce, ketchup, a tiny bit of sugar, garlic, bird's eye chilli peppers and Thai chilli sauce.  If you have difficulty finding these condiments, do substitute according to what you can find - just keep in mind that we want a marinade that is spicy, sour, savoury and slightly sweet.  I did not add in too much sugar in the marinade as I was going to brush the skewers with the oil-corn syrup mixture before roasting so do keep that in mind.  All in all, I was extremely happy with the results and totally excited to share with you how easy it is to make these at home.  I also whipped up an easy dipping sauce of sweetened vinegar with lime juice and chilli peppers but I thought the chicken skewers were flavourful enough on their own so a dipping sauce is really optional. 



This post is a part of my series in my Yuen Chun Recipes, an ongoing project on this blog.

Like most Asians, I am an avid dumpling/ wonton lover and today's feature (at least the filling) is inspired by the Korean version, mandu.  I thought it wrong to call these mandu as the skins I used were vastly different from mandu skins. The main difference I thought with Chinese dumplings are that interestingly tofu is added to the filling - correct me if I'm wrong but I think the tofu acts as a binding ingredient and of course adds smoothness to the texture.  I used store-bought wrappers today but if you have the time, do try making your own skins (well worth it).  These are part of my intended menu for a little party I am cooking for in a couple of days and since these dumplings freeze well, you can prepare these a couple of days beforehand and just whip them out from the freezer on the day of your party and fry, pan-fry, steam or boil them, entirely up to you.




There is just something so satisfying about biting into these neat little parcels and as always you can be creative with the filling.  You can add kimchi for the classic kimchi mandu and replace the chives with other vegetables like cabbage.  I used pork for today's dumplings but you can substitute with beef or a mixture of pork and shrimp.  In terms of wrapping, I merely folded the dumpling skin over to form a half-circle shape and then brought the ends together to create a 'hat' looking dumpling.  That's what these dumplings remind me of, little steamed hats :O. 



The dumplings, fried

Today's feature is my version of a classic dish in Hong Kong's famous cafes or otherwise known as 'char chan teng' (茶餐厅), these cafes that are all over the place in the territory are Hong Kong's answer to fast food restaurants and 'char chan teng' fare is usually a delicious (albeit not the healthiest) fusion of local Chinese dishes and British/ Western influences. Apart from the food, there is also a cult following for its' drinks, the most well known probably being the famed 'stocking' milk tea 絲襪奶茶 - with its' fragrant flavours and ultra smooth texture, I am also one its' biggest fans.  The menu can be rather eclectic at these little cafes - ranging from peanut butter drenched French toast to sinful deep-fried pork ribs with salad cream, or for the more health conscious, perhaps a piping hot bowl of macaroni cooked in broth may fit the bill. I still remember when I first ate in a 'typical' Hong Kong 'char chan teng' (I think it was in Kowloon when I was 13 or 14), I was immensely fascinated by the speediness of it all right from the bustling no-nonsense waiters to the focused diners who ate quickly. These cafes are definitely not ideal for a leisurely lunch but are great when one is on the move and needs a quick but fulfilling bite.



This easy baked cheese rice I am presenting today is rather rich I must admit but I think it's fine to indulge once in a while.  Before baking the rice, I fried it with a bit of butter, bacon, garlic and green onions, as usual, you can add to or modify the ingredients used to suit your preferences.  Apart from the usual soy sauce, I also seasoned the fried rice with a bit of worcester sauce to enhance the smoky flavours from the bacon and for a little tartness.  Worcester sauce is a very underused condiment in my kitchen and I just love how it adds more pleasingly complex flavours to an otherwise simple dish.  After the rice is fried, simply spoon the rice into an oven safe dish, sprinkle some cheese on top and just bake until cheese is melted and golden.  I do hope you'll give this a try and if you get a chance and have not done so, I highly recommend for you to step into one of these cafes to sample this unique fare Hong Kong has to offer.  By the way, a lot of these cafes have opened up in other Asian countries but they differ slightly - the hustle and bustle was definitely not imported (good or bad depending on your perspective), note too that these are usually chains although not necessarily a bad thing, I still prefer their hole-in-wall counterparts.

These pork skewers were a result of me experimenting for a party dish - I used the popular Korean condiment of doenjang (bean paste) and thick caramel sauce for the marinade.  For some fruitiness and to tenderise the pork, I added a bit of fresh Korean pear juice as well.  The results were really satisfying and my test-skewers were gone in no time.  I have been busy testing out dishes and also recooking my older dishes since little brother has been back, these skewers will be presented at a little party for his friends, incidentally his friends do read my blog and I think a few of them have even tried out my recipes while studying in the UK so I am feeling a little extra pressure to make sure the food turns out good :O



Anyway, I do hope you give these easy skewers a try, if you don't like pork you can substitute with chicken thighs.  You should try to marinate these for at least an hour for the flavours to seep in.  Instead of a grill, I roasted these in the oven but if you have a grill handy, these will taste even better grilled on open flame.  The doenjang lends savoury and earthy flavours while the thick caramel sauce provides a slight hint of sweetness and of course gives the skewers a gorgeous glaze. 



This post is a part of my series of Yuen Chun Recipes, a project on Tastes of Home.

One of the things I love about maintaining a cooking blog is that it makes me more inspired to try out new recipes or new dishes that I might not otherwise have tried.  So for today, I finally made the effort to make soybean milk at home.  I had always thought that you have to own a soybean milk machine to make soybean milk at home and was I pleased that all you need is a regular blender (a tip from my aunt).  I am a total newbie at this and I was really happy with the results.  Soybean milk is my little brother's absolute favourite drink and since he just flew back from the UK a few days ago, I thought it would be fitting to try making this at home for him.  The milk was smooth and just utterly delicious - beats store bought versions by a mile and more.  So if you have not tried making this at home, you really should - you definitely won't regret it!



You will just need soybeans, water, muslin or cheesecloth and of course a blender.  Another good thing about  making this at home is that you can adjust the amount of sugar you use in the milk or even add some other flavourings like pandan (screwpine) leaves for added fragrance.  The important thing to note is that you can't shirk from the straining of the soybean milk as there are lots of remnants of the soybeans left behind.  Apart from that, it is very straightforward and extremely easy to make.  Please trust me on this :O.

Here's a classic Chinese homecooked dish with a little Malaysian twist - salt and pepper pork chops with curry leaves.  Apart from the usual garlic, chilli pepper and green onion slices, I decided to add some curry leaves for an additional touch of fragrance.  Salt and pepper pork chops are a perennial favourite in my household and since my brother just returned home from the UK for the summer, I was requested to cook this dish and I wanted to update the dish a little, not too much but just enough for a hint of something different.  So since I have an abundance of fresh curry leaves readily available, I thought of adding some - gone are the days where I had to diligently hunt for these fragrant leaves while living in the US.  However, if you live in the US or UK, I would suggest that you look for fresh curry leaves in Indian grocery stores.  As their name implies, curry leaves are used heavily in the making of curries and just add a touch of unbeatable fragrance to dishes.  By the way, dried ones lose most of the fragrance already and so are not recommended.



Curry leaves are used a lot in popular Malaysian dishes as well like in the ever-popular butter prawns and kam heong crabs.  The potent combination of garlic, green onions, bird's eye chilli peppers and curry leaves with crispy pork chops guarantee an explosion of flavours and textures.  I do hope you will give this updated homecooked dish a try as this dish is sure to please both young and old alike.

The Chinese love their noodles and I may be a bigger lover than most - today's feature is a stir-fried version of the humble 'Yang Chun Mian', a plainer type of Chinese noodles and is usually served simply in hot broth with a handful of fragrant chopped scallions and some garlic oil.  These noodles however can be very versatile and after going back and forth between making a lo mein or a chow mein, I decided to go the latter route.  For this dish, I must emphasise yet again the importance of wok breath or 'wok hei' as it just gives the noodles the extra layer of flavour that unfortunately cannot be reproduced with say a non-stick pan though the noodles may tend to stick to the wok if you're not careful so washing time may not be too fun (don't say I didn't warn you!).  I added some slices of pork, fresh shitake mushrooms and Chinese broccolini as the accompaniments but really, the main star to me were the noodles.



Yang Chun noodles are sold in fresh and dried form although the latter is more commonly found based on my experience.  Yang Chun noodles are basically plain noodles typically made out of wheat flour, salt and water - of course varying ratios of the above will produce different textured noodles.  Being the self-confessed noodle fiend that I am, I think the next step would be to make my own Chinese noodles - well I did make my own udon noodles at home earlier so I think making some type of Chinese noodles at home will be on my agenda.  For this dish, the soy sauce used is also very important, for my stir-fried noodle dishes, I prefer to use Mushroom flavoured dark soy sauce which can be found in most Asian grocery stores and most major soy sauce brands have their own version.



Well, apart from blogging about today's dish, as some of you may know if you read my tweets, I am quite the drama enthusiast but it is not often very rare that I find a drama making a big impression on me.  When that happened earlier this week, I was amazed at myself - perhaps the drama reminded me of a different time in my life when I still had dreams of playing in an orchestra someday (alas, I was quite very lax with practice :O). Well, it was actually a Korean drama called Beethoven's Virus and honestly I was very late to the game, this drama screened in 2008 but somehow it never looked appealing to me and I just skipped it until earlier this week and all I can say is better late than never.  This is not your typical romantic drama where either the heroine has a terminal illness or the mains are long-lost siblings (!) (I skip those by the way) so it was refreshing and I loved the use of all my favourite classical music pieces.  Last but not least, I was glad to discover Kim Myung Min who is an amazingly charismatic actor and I am such a fan now .