Roast Chicken with Garlic and Peri Peri Sauce

It is not the first time I’ve heard from people how good those oven bags are for roasting meat, so I thought I’d give it a go!

As I was walking down the aisle in Woollies, I actually found those oven bags came with different seasoning as well! There were garlic, honey soy, herbs, and portugese or something, of course you can the plain ones and do your own seasoning as well. But I felt like being lazy, so I picked the garlic one!!!!

When it came to the chicken night, I felt extra lazy, and since hubby was working from home that day so I instructed my hubby to do the chicken roasting! But these oven bags are just so amzing, making this so a simple process! No need to give hubby a massive long instruction on how to marinate and all that fearing he will miss something along the preparing process, just ask him to read the instruction on pack!!! haha... Basically you just need to give the chicken a good wash, pat dry with paper towel, then put it in the oven bag and give it a good shake and rub, poke a few holes, and in it goes into the pre-heated oven for 1.5 hour! Easy!

Recently I’m in a hot and spicy crave, so after the chicken is done, I gave it a good brush of the Nando Hot Peri Peri sauce!!!! Yummmmm....

The colour of the roast chicken turned out great, and because it was cooked in a bag with its juice that means the meat can remain juicy and tender. But one thing I reckon can improve is the taste. Without the peri peri sauce, I think the garlic flavour wasn’t intense enough, it can do with a bit more flavour! Lucky that I had the Nanado sauce handy!!!!!

=)

Marinated Chicken Wings

Chicken wing is such a versatile kind of meat, basically you can cook it in any way you want! You can steam it, bake it, grill it, deep-fried it, pan-fried it.... and the list goes on!

Baking and steaming are the methods I use the most for chicken wings! Why??? Because it’s easy and less fuss as long as you marinate it beforehand! But this time I chose to pan-fried it just to make it out of the ordinary! I heated up the pan, and add a little oil in then start pan frying the chicken wings in batches until golden brown on both sides! Because this time I was so un-organised and didn’t marinate the meat before hand, so I qucikly whipped up a sauce hoping that it can be flavoursome enough! What I added in was some chopped garlic, tomato sauce, worchestershire sauce, sugar, vinegar and tobasco sauce!!! hahahaha... yes a random mixutre of everything...

After the wings are all done, give the pan a good wipe to get rid of the excess oil. Then return the chicken wings into the pan, turn the heat on low and add the ‘random sauce’ in and let it simmer for about 5-8 minutes!!!! The wings turned out to have a nice rich reddish brown colour, however this last minute sauce lack the tangy flavour that I was expecting, maybe it could do with a bit more vinegar and tobasco sauce! And next time I think I should be a bit more organised and marinate the meat beforehand or at least give the wings a good rub with the salt to enhance the flavour!

Boo boo for me this time!!!

=(

Unagi Fried Rice with Egg

I bought a couple of unagi a while ago, and they have been hiding at the back of the freezer quietly... ummm... maybe it's time for me to dig them out and do something with them!

Unagi on rice, unagi sushi and unagi fried rice have always been some of my favourite dishes in Japanese cuisine... I guess in general I just like unagi!!! hahaha... sometimes I do think maybe it's not unagi that I like, it's the sauce that I'm obsessed with. Usually unagi comes with a slightly sweet and sticky sauce, the chef usually keeps on brushing the sauce on top of the unagi while grilling, and after it is cooked, a generous amount of the sauce is brushed on top to enhance the flavour!

Unfortunately, the frozen unagi that you get from the Asian grocery store usually has a more chewy texture rather than the soft texture you get when it is fresh. So the frozen ones are usually not good for doing ungai sushi, but it's ok for eel fried rice!

Serves 3-4

2 cups cooked rice, cooled and refrigerated over night

2 unagi, diced

4 eggs, whisked

2 medium carrots, diced

handful chopped shallot

unagi sauce

1) Heat the wok with a little oil, and pour half of the whisked egg in to make an omelette. Then repeat to make a second one.

2) Once the omelettes are cooled, rolled it up and sliced into thread like shape.

3) Heat a little more oil in the wok, then add diced carrots, and stir fry for 2 minutes. Then add in the unagi and stir fry for 1 minute.

4) Add in the cold cooked rice and stir until the grains of rice are separated, and thoroughly mixed through with the carrot and unagi.

5) Drizzle with the sauce, and continue to stir fry until the colour is evenly distributed.

6) Turn off the heat, and stir in the egg threads and 3/4 of the shallots.

7) Spoon the fried rice into a bowl, and sprinkle with fresh shallots.

Enjoy!

A healthy start of the day!

On a saturday morning, what do I feel like for breakfast??? Cereal?? Nooooo... Egg on toast?? Nooooo.... Banana Bread?? Nooooo...

Feel like something healthy! Yoghurt and fruit salad!!!!

Spaghetti Bolognese

Sometimes a really simple dish is all you need to make yourself feel satisfied. All those glorious fancy ingredients like squid link pasta, duck rivoli, porcini linguini.... are not the type of things that you would store in your cupboard, and sometimes I do wonder whether our taste buds actually likes the simple taste of $5 tomato better or the hundred dollar porcini better!

Last night I made the good old spaghetti bolognese - the cheap but tasty childhood dish! There is no special ingredients in there just the tomato, beef mince, spanish onion, garlic, tomato paste, tomoato sauce, tobasco sauce, and some sugar and mint. I tried to make it more adult like by adding some tobasco sauce in there... hahaha... which was nice, you can try adding chili in if you prefer, it will have a totally different taste! I also added some mint in for colour, and a fresher taste! Of course you can always substitute it with other herbs just as basil and oregano. It just happened that I’ve got some left over mint in the fridge that I need to use up!!! hahaha....

After the first bite, hubby’s eyes lightened up and said it was awesome!!! And I asked him... did I hear this right?? did you say awesome?? It has tomato in there - your ultimate enermy!!!! Yes hubby hates tomato, but through our 3 years of marriage, he is slowly accepting tomato into his occasional meal... but still he would pick it out if he can! But this time, hubby said the taste was really good, the flavour was just right!!!! And he polished it off in no time, including all the tomato bits!!!! After the big bowl of spaghetti, he asked for MORE!!!!

Hahaha... I think I have slowly transformed him into a tomato eater!!! ummm... my next aim is to add some berries into his life!!!! Then it will be perfect!

=P

Pork Cutlet with Apple & Brocollini

Chicken and lamb are probably the two kinds of meat that hubby and I eat the most simply because they are easy to cook, and there is almost a guarantee that the meat is going to be soft and tender! But I guess sometimes we do want a change in life, just to mix it up a bit!

The other day I saw the pork cutlets in Woolies had some fat marbling through it, so I guess they should be alright! Can’t be that tough! I dropped it in my trolley along with some pear and broccolini!!! Why pear instead of apple?? Pear is probably in season right now, they’re less than $2 a kilo as opposed to the apples that are more than $4 a kilo! So there was no doubt that pear was the winner!!!

So I gave the pork cutlets a good wash, then bashed them with the back of a knife to loosen the meat up. Then I marinated it with some worchestershire sauce, soy sauce and sugar, then left it in the fridge over night!

The next day after a long tiring day of work, I took the pork out and dropped a couple of spoonful of corn flour, then pan fried it on a grill pan, 2 minutes on each side. Then chuck it in the oven at 180C for 15 minutes along with the peeled, cored and diced pear with a squeeze of lemon juice and brown sugar sprinkled on top. While the meat is in the oven I can boiled up the broccolini.

Gosh... I couldn’t believe how little effort was this dinner. And the main point is... it was ABSOLUTELY DECLICIOUS!!! The meat was soft, tender and juicy, the pear probably needed a bit more time in the oven, but I didn’t really mind the crunchiness in them, which created a contrasting texture with the pork and broccolini!!!! Even hubby gave a big thumbs up!!!!!!

=)