Oven Baked Chicken Leg

We had oven baked chicken leg. This is the second time I've used my Baby Belling oven to bake a chicken. It's so-so. We had leftovers so I'd say the kids prefer chicken cooked by the Turbo Broiler because they turn out crispier. I baked the chicken at 190 deg C until brown. Is that right?

I marinated the chicken legs with ground black pepper, sugar and salt. The veggies were cooked separately.

Chicken Curry Moru

It has been a long time since I last cooked from a recipe. I wanted to cook chicken curry because I love chicken curry.

This recipe is from The Eurasion Cookbook by Mary Gomes.

This is the magic - ginger, garlic and big onions ground together.

I used cute potatoes.

Curry powder made into a paste.

To make this into a one-pot dish, I added carrots and cabbages.

This is the tastiest chicken curry I've ever cooked! My kids loved it.

What The Kids Want

My kids love to eat hotdogs. I don't try to understand why. At least once a week I would give them what they really love to eat.

This is hotdog omelette. The kids just looove this.

This is lightly grilled luncheon meat. It is absolutely unhealthy but heavenly. Once there was a shortage of luncheon meat in Singapore. You can imagine the panic in this family.

When I was young, my mother would fry luncheon meat with scrambled egg. It tastes really good but my kids won't touch it. So I only cook it for myself. My GP says that when you eat unhealthy food, you must balance it with healthy food. So we eat healthy grain rice.

This is the other healthy dish we eat with the unhealthy stuff. Boiled cabbage, carrots in chicken soup with a little ginseng powder.

Grilled Chicken and Vegetables

I overdid the sugar this time. See how some parts are blackened?

The mixed vegies was very successful. Zucchini, baby corns and carrots. I simmered them in water before stir frying quickly with little oil and onion and just a light drizzle of soy sauce.

Butter Chicken

This is the most delicious chicken I have ever cooked! I rubbed Olive Oil margarine all over the chicken, inside out and baked using my Turbo Broiler. (I call it my flying saucer) Crispy and fragrant and dripping with margarine. Yummy!

Oven Baked Chicken

This is the first chicken I had baked using my Baby Belling oven. I used a simple marinade of black soy sauce and black pepper. I was really apprehensive and rightly so. It took a really long time for the chicken to be cooked. I kept poking it and poking it. Everyone got really hungry waiting for it to be cooked.

Verdict:
It tasted really tender despite the amount of time it spent in the oven.

Postmortem:
Use smaller pieces of chicken next time to reduce cooking time.

Turmeric Chicken

After days of eating from foodcourt again, I'm back at cooking again. I was still searching for the perfect turmeric chicken and this time I decided to try Mad About Food by Sylvia Tan.


The main ingredient for this recipe is turmeric powder and coconut milk which I substituted with HL milk. I added carrots and cabbages.


Yum yum


When my girl saw me preparing to shoot the dish, she put her face next to it and that's why she's in the shot. We eat it with french loaf.

Verdict:
Everyone loves it but wants more chilli.

Postmortem:
I can't believe it's not spicy enough!

Rich Turmeric Chicken

I love turmeric anything. I don't know anyone else who has a thing for turmeric. I had been dying to try out Rich Turmeric Chicken from Hot & Spicy Treats by Mrs Leong Yee Soo. Finally I got all the ingredients I needed. And it's a lot of ingredients - corriander, cumin, cinnamon, curry, lots more ... and evaporated milk! This is the first time I come across a curry dish which does not use coconut milk. I was so excited. And confused. I had thought turmeric chicken uses just turmeric....


My goodness, it's so yellow. For once my gravy turned out thick instead of watery.


And this is how I eat eat - with mixed white/brown rice and a tall glass of grapefruit juice. (I also have a thing for grapefruit)

Verdict:
My girl said it's too fragrant but she liked it especially the gravy.
My boy said it's alright and I could cook it again.
My husband thought it was good.
I actually found the cumin too overpowering. Definitely too rich for me.

Postmortem:
This recipe did not achieve the kind of turmeric chicken I liked. Too much of everything.

Chicken Moolie

I am a big fan of chicken curry but since coconut milk, a major ingredient in curry causes me migraine, I only eat it if I cook it myself and substitute it with milk. Recently I tried Chicken Moolie (chicken in spicy coconut gravy) from Mrs's Lee's Cookbook by Mrs Lee Chin Koon. I have become a fan of Mrs Lee as I find her recipes rather easy to follow and her instructions have sufficient information for a beginner cook like me.

I REMPAH (pound together) ginger and shallots. No, just kidding. I don't rempah anything. I use an electric mincer. The fragrance from frying the rempah ingredients is fabulous. My son loves the smell of rempah and would go "Mmmm, what are you cooking?"

I used HL fresh milk. It doesn't have the the richness of coconut milk but I don't know what else I can use.


I used my Scanpan non-stitck wok to cook the curry. I wonder what other people use to cook curry?


Looks oily and spicy.


This is how we eat it. With white rice and stir-fried broccoli.

Verdict:
My kids love it but they said to make it more spicy next time. What?!
My husband said it didn't taste like curry, was too watery and lacked fragrance. Still it was alright.
As for me, I thought it was great.

Postmortem:
Cook it again. Don't withhold the chilli. Add more tomatoes/potatoes to thicken the gravy.

Minced Chicken Cutlets

My mother-in-law used to cook these minced pork cutlets which were delicious but she never got the saltiness right. It was always too salty and we would be left feeling quote husband "thirsty for the rest of our lives".

I'm still ploughing through The Eurasian Cookbook by Mary Gomes and sure enough there is a Corned Beef Cutlets recipe. No, we're not a corned beef eating kind of family except for husband but then he eats everything. I substituted corned beef for minced chicken and hoped for the best!


What goes into the minced chicken - soy sauce, egg, soda biscuits, potato and ground black pepper


All nicely mixed


I pan fried using my WMF stainless steel frying pan and the cutlets turned out really nicely browned


And this is how we eat it. White rice, minced chicken cutlets and boiled unflavoured cabbage. No, I'm not being cruel. My kids love boiled cabbage. It's the truth.

Verdict:
My girl said she didn't care for the cutlets but she still ate quite a number of them.
My boy was pretty direct. He didn't like them and told me not to make them again.
I LOVE them. They were tasty and not too salty.
My husband tasted the cutlets 3 days later and complained they tasted old.

Postmortem:
My kids don't like minced meat. Accept it.

Honey Chicken Wings

I cook out of desperation. Having relied heavily on my favourite foodstall just 2 mins from my flat all these years, I was devastated when my "personal cook" did not return after the coffee shop was revovated. Only the bad stalls returned. After weeks of paying for bad food, I decided I would cook. And none of that usual boiling, grilling, pre-mix, call my mother for information sort of thing. I would cook using actual recipe from cookbooks.

I have The Eurasian Cookbook by Mary Gomes. Her food looks familiar - like stuff my mother has cooked. I chose Honey Chicken Wings because my children love chicken wings so I can't go very wrong.

Chicken wings with the marinade. What's in the plastic tube is pancake honey. The spoons contain minced garlic and minced ginger.


I was supposed to get coriander leaves but bought Chinese celery instead.


I think that's too much water!


While the chicken was simmering, I could smell the fragrance of the ginger and garlic and it was heavenly.

I was supposed to cook until the gravy had dried up. But I added too much water (I followed the recipe!) and the chicken wings were wetter than desired.

My celery wilted!


Verdict:
My girl said it was too spicy for her but she doesn't mind the chicken.
My boy likes it and said I could cook it again.
My husband who ate the chicken wings the next day likes the fragrance.
I thought the chicken tasted really good. My mother has definitely cooked this recipe before.

Postmortem:
Go easy on the ginger and garlic and less water next time!