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!

Shix Cooks: Lemongrassy Chicken Curry

Today's dish for tomorrow's tapau is a light chicken curry but it's just as tasty 

Ingredients:

 

Set A

1 onion

3 stalks of lemongrass (just the white part)

4 cloves of garlic

1/2 inch garlic

5 red chilli (add more if you want to)

1 tbsp meat curry powder

Set B

1/2 of a whole chicken

2 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

1 cup water

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 tomato quartered

Method:

1. Blend all the items in set A. Stir fry with some oil till it caramelizes. This will take a while. 

2. Marinate chicken with salt and pepper and leave aside in the meantime. 

3. Add in chicken. Mix and cover for 15min. 

4. Add in the other items from set B and cover. Leave to simmer for about 30mins. 

5. Uncover and let the sauce thicken and it's ready to eat!

Suggestion: serve with rice and a side of vegetables. 

Shix cooks: ayam kicap (chicken in spiced soy stew)

I need to learn to take better photos lol

Today, I made ayam kicap berempah

Ingredients:

Set A:

1kg chicken

1tsp turmeric powder 

1 tsp chilli powder

1/2 tsp salt

1tbsp cornflour

Set B:

1 large onion

4 cloves garlic

2cm ginger

4 dried chillies soaked

1cm turmeric 

1tsp coriander seeds

Set C: 

3cm cinnamon seed

2 Star anise

4 cloves

Others:

4 tbsp sweet soy sauce

2 tbsp tomato sauce

1 cup water

2 potatoes, peeled and sliced to abt 1cm thickness

1 Carrot sliced

6 button Mushrooms quartered

1 tomato, wedged. 

1 tsp each Salt and sugar

Method:

Mix all the items in set A. Deep fry till cooked and set aside

Blend items in Set B. Heat a wok with about 3 tbsp oil and fry paste together with items in Set C till fragrant.

Add in both sauces and mix for about 2 minutes before adding water. Let the mixture come to a boil.

Add in potatoes, carrots and mushrooms. Cover and let simmer  for 15 mins. 

Add in chicken and simmer (do not cover) for another 10 mins. Add in salt and sugar to taste before adding tomatoes. 

Turn off flame and it's ready to eat!

Shix Cooks: Butter Chicken

A simple butter chicken recipe adapted from  http://m.allrecipes.com/recipe/45957/chicken-makhani-indian-butter-chicken

Ingredients

Set A

3 tablespoons butter

• 1 tbsp blended shallots
•  1 tbsp blended onion

2cm ginger

• 1/2 tablespoon blended garlic
  Set B
• 1 teaspoon garam masala (I used tandoori powder)
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 bay leaf
  Set C
• 2 cups milk

• 1 cup tomato puree
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 pinch black pepper

2 tbsp sugar 

• 1 tablespoon oil
• 500g chicken drumlets
  Set D
• 1 teaspoon garam masala (tandoori powder again)
• 1 pinch cayenne pepper
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1/4 cup water
  In a wok, place all items in set A. Fry till fragrant. Then add items in set B and fry for another 5min. Lastly, add in items in Set C and leave it to simmer with a low flame. 
  In another pan, pan fry the drumlets in the oil for another 10 mins. Mix all items in set D together before pouring it into the chicken. Then, add about a cupful of the gravy from the wok and leave the chicken to cook. Do cover. 
  Once chicken is cooked, add it to the gravy and stir before turning off the flame. 
  Optional: throwing in cherry tomatoes and Ming sprigs before turning off the flame. 
  
  It's REALLY good. 

Shix Bakes: Cheese thins

This is my trial batch of cheese thins. Changes will be updated as I go along. 

Ingredients:

500g unsalted butter

1/2 cup sugar

250g Gouda shredded

250g mature cheddar shredded

800g plain flour

100g corn flour

Pinch of cayenne pepper 

Glaze/topping(optional)

Egg yolk (cut with milk if too thick)

Almond strips/slices

Method: 

Cream the butter and sugar till fluffy. Slowly add in the cheeses. Add in the sieved flours and pepper a little at a time. 

Once mixed, place the super soft dough in cling wrap and roll it into a log. Chill the logs till firm. (About an hour but I left them overnight and alhamdulillah it was fine)

Preheat oven at 150deg

Taking out one log at a time, cut them into 3mm slices and place the slices on a lined/greased baking sheet. (Optional: glaze with egg yellow and place almond on top) Bake for 20 min. 

Note: Cooking time will differ, depending on the size n thickness of the cookie

Shix Bakes: Honey cornflakes

This is strange but I've not made a successful batch of honey cornflake cups for the last decade or so. It was always my kakak's job to do it and she has always been successful in drowning the poor crispies in honey lol... So this year, I decided to google a darned recipe ahahahah.

Alhamdulillah they ended up nice... Mr R even made a short video review on it as I showed it off to my sisters ahahah.

Recipe from
Ingredients:
200g butter
2/3 cups sugar
3 tbsp honey
8 cups (about 200g) cornflakes crushed just a lil bit

Method:

Melt the butter then dissolve the sugar and honey, mixing till it's a lil bit frothy.
Put the cornflakes in a big bown and mix in the concoction above
Bake at 150deg for about 15 mins and you're done.

Feel free to toss in a bit of diced almond into the mix. Definitely will be tasty.

This produced approx 100 small cups of deliciousness.

Shix Cooks: Masak merah

This is my spur of the moment decision to masak merah instead of sweet sour lol. 

It was different. Sour and spicy all at the same time wooooo!

Ingredients:

Set A

1 large onion

2 shallots

4 cloves of garlic

2 cm ginger

4 red chillies 

1 large tomato

Set B

2 tbsp aminah's masak merah powder

1/2 cup water

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

5  pieces of 3 joint chicken wing

Set C

1/3 of a capsicum diced

1 large tomato wedged

Method: 

Blend the items in set A together till smooth. 

In a wok, put about 3 tbsp of oil. Then, fry A till fragrant. 

Add in the items in set B then fry it some more. 

Once you're satisfied that the rempah/spice paste is nicely fried and has oxidized to a nice deep colour, add in the chicken. Reduce the flame and cover for 15 mins. Add in set C and cover for another 10 mins. 

Taste to make sure there's enough sugar and salt in there. 

Optional: throw in some fresh mint leaves. 

That's it! Prep in less than 10 minutes and cooking for about 40 mins. Serve with a side of plain rice and a raita. Woot!