Today I cooked all day :) part 2 - an array of dishes and steam rice

Soy chicken with potatoes, grilled baby aubergines, stir fried water spinach with sambal belacan served with fluffy white rice...
yummm!!!

Melaka day 1

Sometimes all you need is a great friend, a car and a place to go to to eat great food.

Here are 3 meals we had on our first day in Melaka for lunch. We did the typical tourist thing and hung out at Jonker street. We started with chicken rice balls and an assortment of side dishes which included kailan in garlic and otak-otak (fish fillet cooked in spices and coconut milk) yumm. We then headed over to have the ever so famous ABC. Its a mixture of asorted jelly, sweet corn, red bean, topped with shaven ice and drizzled with syrup, melted palm sugar and evaporated milk.. refreshing and sweet!!

After walking around we found this quaint little shop where this old lady was making onde-onde. Its basically tapioca flour mixed with pandan juice rolled around a palm sugar rock. Its boiled in salty water for no more then a minute and tossed in fresh coconut shavings. The sensations of eating this dessert/snack is like a poping bursting  sensation in your mouth of a creamy, sweet, slighlty perfumy silky and salty ball. Its amazing!!

Lunch Feast!!! with left overs....

So, I had a made a huge roast the night before and had some left over Meats, potatoes, Liver (stuffing) and thought wouldn't it be nice to have an array of cold meats and other bits.

I always enjoy creating things from what I have and find in the fridge.

so these were the items I found and this is what I manage to do with them
- half cold roast chicken
- 6 roast potatoes
- some salad leaves
- hand full Cherry tomatoes
- a glug of yogurt (not enough to satisfy your need for something healthy almost a little to much to throw away)
- fresh chicken liver
- fresh thyme
- Octopus :)
- Bread
- cheese
- 3 figs

Cold Left over Chicken
Great as an insert to a sandwich so what I did was simply slice the meat and set on a plate. serve cold and everyone can help themselves really.

Garlic Mayo
for every table spoon of yogurt slab 2 table spoons of mayonnaise. mix well add a pinch of salt and sugar. Crush a small garlic clove and add a pinch at a time and mix well. keep adding the garlic should you wish to make it super garlicky - serve with chicken.. YUM!!!

Chicken Liver Parfait
2 small shallots needs to be diced and in a pan, heat a very generous knob of butter and stir shallots in then add the chicken liver and cook through. at the end add salt, pepper and fresh thyme. at the last second add a dash of cream (optional) you can also add some brandy to give it an additional twang. blitz in a blitzer until smooth and set a ramekin/bowl. pour melted butter on top and set in the fridge to set.

Octopus - Spanish Style
1 x Frozen and clean octopus
Boil frozen octopus in cold running water and salt for at least 45 mins to and hour. once tender remove and set a side to cool. slice octopus into bite size pieces and set a side. slice the roasted potatoes (you can boil your potatoes too. skin on and remove skin once potatoes have cooked) and set on a dish. Place the sliced octopus on the sliced potatoes. dash good quality olive oil and sprinkle with good quality flaky salt and dash some sweet Spanish paprika on the top.

place the salad leaves, tomatoes, cheese in individual platters and set on table.

get everyone over an tuck in. Nothing like finishing up left overs and making it look nothing like a Tupperware party.

xxx

Romano Peppers in a Fajita!

I have never cooked with Romano peppers and when they were on offer one day, i though hey! Why not give it a crack. A lot of the recipes out there say stuffing them was the best way to eat them. Trust me to try something else with them :)

You will need

2 x Romano Peppers or normal peppers

2 x chicken breast or frying steak or 500g mince beef

4 x Big Portobello mushrooms - sliced

1 x bag of mix leaf salad

100g x grated cheddar cheese

1 x tomato diced

1 x onion sliced

1 x lemon - juiced

1 x zucchini - sliced

8 x tortilla wraps

2 x cups sour cream

Seasoning

1 x teaspoon ground cumin, pepper, salt, sugar, cyan pepper, chilli powder, ground coriander, ground garlic, ground onion, paprika, thyme

Method

prep for romano peppers, wash them and stick them on an open fire on the stove and charcoal them until they turn black and set them aside to cool. Once they are cool, run your fingers through them and peel the black skin off. Don't worry if there are some black skin stuck on it, it give it extra flavour. Cut them in half and take seeds out and sliced them up and set aside.

in a pan add a little oil and fry your onions until soften and add a touch of salt and pepper and set aside.

in the same pan, fry sliced zucchini with salt and pepper and set a side

in the same plan, fry sliced onions until tender and set aside

in the same pan, add a touch of oil and add the meat and seasoning toss until cooked and set aside

grate cheese and set aside in a bowl and set fresh salad leaves in a bowl too

in a bowl, add tomato, lemon juice, salt, pepper and sliced onions and mix and set aside in a bowl

heat tortilla wraps

now, on a plate, place tortilla warp and start loading your wrap with what you desire. Can get messy but hey! if it is good it’s worth the mess.

The romano peppers add such a sweet taste to the salty meaty fajita, mushroom etc. it’s amazing!! enjoy!!!

Sticky Chicken

The one recipe, everyone likes.....

For the chicken, you will need:

1 large chicken breast cut into strips

2 x medium size cloves garlic chopped or minced

1 x table spoon honey, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, light soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, chicken marinate (available in your local Asian supermarket)

1 x ½ teaspoon salt, white pepper, coarse black pepper, sugar

A dash of red/white wine vinegar and sesame oil (not necessary but if you do have it, great!)

*mix all the above in a big bowl and marinate in the fridge for at least 30 minutes*

For the Vegetables:

6 x strips of Chinese cabbage (torn into bite size pieces) and blanched into hot boiling water for 5 mins – or you can use bak choi, lettuce, green beans or whatever greens you have. Harder greens should be blanched longer in cooking boiling water

10 x dried/fresh mushrooms (Shitake or 2 or 3 x Portobello mushroom) sautéed in a hot pan with no oil and set it on the bottom of a nice dish with the green vegetables

For the Stir Frying:

1 x cm ginger sliced/diced - whatever you prefer

1 x table spoon oil

1 teaspoon corn flour with 4 table spoon room temperature water for thickening

So take a hot, hot wok/pan and dash your oil into it and wait until it is nice and hot. Once the oil is hot slide in the ginger and fry for 15 seconds until you can spell ginger awesomeness. After 15 seconds, slide in slowly the marinated chicken and leave for 20 seconds (you want to get some colour or browning on every side of the chicken strips). Keep stirring, but not too often, because you want the side to brown a little and create the caramel effect. If it looks dry, do add a dash of water to keep it from burning.

Cook for 10 minutes and add the cornflour + water and let it cook for another 2 minute.

Once cooked dish sticky chicken onto the bed of mushroom and greens

Sserve with steamed rice, tortilla wraps or noodles and for extra kick, slice some Red Chilies and spring onions and garnish

*Note: Marinate can be used on chicken thighs, drumstick, wings etc. for barbecues/oven cooking – for veggie option, substitute chicken with potatoes (skin on)