Shix cooks: Baked potato with chili con carne

Last night, I made this: 

Baked potato with chili con carne

Prep time: 10 min

Cooking time 1h30min

Ingredients

4 russet potatoes

3 tbsp olive oil

5 cloves shallots

4 cloves garlic

3 whole red chilli

2tsp cumin

1 capsicum, cubed

300g ground beef

1 can whole tomato

1 can tomato puree

2 tbsp chili powder

1 tbsp cayenne pepper powder 

1 tsp dried basil

1 tsp dried oregano

2 cups water

Salt to taste

1 can kidney beans, washed and drained. 

4 tbsp grated cheese

Method:

1. Wrap the washed potatoes in foil. Put it in the oven for 1hr at 180degC.

2. Blend the shallot, garlic, chili and cumin into a rough chop. 

3. In a pot, heat up the oil. Throw in the blended stuff and capsicum. Stirfry for abt 15min. 

4. Add in the beef and cook till it browns. 

5. Add in all the tomato, herbs and chili powders.  

6. Add in water and salt to taste. 

7. Simmer for an hour. Be sure to stir once in a while and add in more water if necessary.

8. Sometime in between, potatoes will cook. Take it out to cool slightly. 

9. Mix in beans and let simmer for another 10mins then turn off flame.

10. Dress your potatoes with the chili and cheese then feel free to eat!

Potato alternatives:

- any Indian bread. 

- rice

- tacos

Ps: I made this spicy. Reduce the amt of chili powder to reduce the heat. 

Variation: 

I made the chili more hearty (in my mum's words, "anak banyak" style) by adding chickpeas, mushrooms,carrots and celery and increased the amount of water by 1 cup.

I also made a vegan version, chili sin carne, by omitting the beef and adding on more veges & beans. You can also add more mushrooms to give it more flavour.

Shix bakes: cheesy muffins (but not)

After half a day of preparing resources for next year, I needed a treat and was tempted by DNA's muffins. So what did I do? Bakes these babies

 I know I said muffins but I didn't have any cups. So I baked it in a loaf lan coz I was too lazy to scoop them into my mini muffin silicon tray. Lol. 

So here's how you make this lazy bake

Prep time: less than 10 min

Cooking time: 35 min

1 cup flour

1/2 cup wholewheat flour 

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup milk

1egg

1/2 cup oil or melted butter

1 1/2tbsp sugar 

1/2 tsp salt

3 cups cheese (leave 1/2 cup to dredge on batter)

1. Preheat your oven to 180deg. (You know shit just got serious -seriously easy- when I start the oven first)

2. If you're ysing butter, nuke it now. 

3. Put everything into a bowl and mix it up. Don't over mix. 

4. The end. Ok no not really. Now put the batter in a greased pan and sprinkle the cheese on it. 

5. Bake for about 30 min ( different ovens differ). Check doneness with a toothpick. 

6. EAT!

Note: 

1. Omissions: I omitted the eggs but they're still awesome. 

2. Substitution: I subbed 1 1/2 cup of plain flour with a mix of 1 cup plain and 1/2 cup whole wheat. Product is dense but still flavorful. 

3. Additions: I'm sure adding ham, herbs and cayenne pepper would make it more awesome. I

Shix bakes: Brazilian cheese bread

Today's peckishness resulted in this simple bake. It's quick, it's satisfying and best of all, it's gluten free. 

  

Prep time: 5 mins

Preheat oven: 200 deg

Baking time: 15 min

Ingredients:

1 egg (rm temp)

2/3 cup milk

1/3 cup olive oil

1/2 cup grated cheese 

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 cup tapioca flour

Directions:

Dump everything in the blender and whizz. That's all! Bake and eat it all!

Shixcooks : Chicken Biryani

By request, I made biryani for Mr R a few weeks back. 

Other than the saffron basmati first-timer biryani rice (HAHAHAHHAHA), I made a raw pineapple salad (paceri nanas), chicken in a spiced coconut sauce (rendang ayam) and prawn masala. If you're counting, there's an extra dish coz it was leftovers from the day before - nyonya chicken. Room for improvement but not bad I thought! 

Shix cooks: Turmeric Thai-style chicken

I'm trying to come up with something easy and interesting to fill up my leftover pitas so here it is:

Turmeric thai-styled chicken

Prep time: 10 mins

Cooking time: 15 min

500g chicken breast, cut into chunks

1 piece Tamarind slice 

4 pieces calamansi/lime leaves

Juice from 4 calamansi 

Finely ground paste:

2 cm ginger

10 cloves shallots

4 cloves garlic 

2 stalks lemongrass

8 birds eye chilli (add more or less depending on how much heat you want)

Oil to fry

Salt

Sugar

Optional: a handful of cherry tomatoes

In a wok, heat up about 2 tbsp of oil and fry the paste. About 3 mins in, add in the tamarind and leaves. Fry till fragrant. Then, add in chicken chunks and continue stirring till it looks cooked. Add in the tomatoes, juice then salt and sugar to taste.  Once you're happy with the product, turn off the heat and you're ready to eat! Serve with rice or pita/tortilla /flat bread

I need to tell you that I got some of the herbs and spices from a community garden! 

Check out my haul:

See you soon!

New recipes

Some recipes I've tried out over the week that could be prepared ahead of time and only took a few minutes to cook. Cleanup was also a breeze. 

1. Pan-fried Lemon chicken

2. Nyonya chicken

3. Orange chicken

Shix Cooks: Easy Peasy Chicken Porridge

Today, Mr R wasn't feeling too well so I decided to make the hearty and comforting Chicken Porridge. What's so awesome about it? I only took 30 mins MAX.

Ingredients:
2 cups rice rinsed
10 cups water
2 cubes chicken stock
1 large onion
2 cloves garlic
2 shallots
1 cm ginger thinly sliced
4 chicken wings
dash of thyme and nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste

Garnish:
Use your imagination! Some ideas:
- fried shallot
- sliced spring onion
- sambal belacan
- fried anchovies

Steps:

- Pulverize the onion, garlic and shallots
- Place ALL the items into a pot, cover and cook at medium flame
- Once it boils (abt 20 min), reduce the flame and open the cover slightly to allow steam to escape and water to reduce (abt 10 min)
- While everything is cooking, prepare your garnishes. I used sliced chicken katsu and sambal mangga.
- Then, serve and MAKAN!