Orange Marmalade Roasted Chicken

Orange marmalade is the least preferred bread spread in this household. I'm rarely fussy about food, but it is the truth that it is not a favourite when it stands along the likes of Kaya, Nutella and Peanut Butter.

Now that I think of it, we aren't particularly fond of oranges either. Not a whiff throughout the year unless I'm doing a recipe that requires the use of it.

I wasn't worried about it going to waste though. I knew I'd just cook the orange marmalade off somehow and I did, in this yummy roast chicken dish the other day. It's sweet-savoury and finger-licking good, or should I say utensil-licking good.

Orange Marmalade Roasted Chicken

I have always liked roasting chicken with a little more sauce left behind on the baking tray. Hence, a habit of adding water once in between roasting time.

Orange Marmalade Roasted Chicken
Ingredients:
- 1 whole chicken
- ½ large yellow onion (cut into wedges)
- 2 tbsp orange marmalade (I use a local brand - De'Choice , a sweet jam)
- 1 calamansi lime
- 1sprig fresh rosemary
- ½ tsp salt
- Black pepper
- Water

To combine:
- 2 potatoes (quartered)
- 1 tsp cooking oil
- A sprinkle of salt

How-to:
1) Pre-heat oven to 180C. Rub potatoes with salt and cooking oil. Leave aside.

2) Place the chicken on a roasting dish.  Spoon the marmalade on. Season with salt and several dashes of black pepper. Squeeze calamansi juice over. Rub the mixture all over the chicken, including under the skin and some onto the onions too.

3) Stuff the onions into the cavity. Stick a sprig of fresh rosemary in. Place potatoes on the side. Cover the wing tips with a bit of foil to prevent it from getting burnt (I did this halfway, during basting).

4) Roast at 180C, for about 1hour and 30 minutes (or longer, depending on the size of the chicken). Test with a skewer. If the juices run clear, it's done.

To-do in between: Once the chicken has browned a little, baste using juices on the tray and pour ½ cup water (to preference) onto the roasting dish for a bit of gravy (around 45minutes into cooking time for me).

Tip: Place a piece of foil, loosely, on areas that are browning too quickly so that it doesn't get burnt.

These are the ingredients we'll need!

It's ready to go into the oven.

Tadaaa!

Orange Marmalade Roasted Chicken

Enjoy as is - roast chicken with pleasantly sweet crunchy onions, tender potatoes and delicious gravy.

Read more...

Food Discovery : Lucky King Bun, Port Dickson

They say that variety is the spice of life. When it comes to food, there is no shortage of that. My weekends are often dedicated to exploring nearby neighbourhoods for things to do or try. Sometimes, I end up going a little further. Hubster and I made an impromptu road trip out of the city towards the seaside of Port Dickson for a picnic last weekend.

I was up early that Sunday morning, excited by thoughts of 'lepaking' (lazing) under the shady leaves of a coconut tree. My backpack was filled with a picnic mat, napkins and eating utensils.

Before we left the house, I fiddled with my smartphone to search for places to eat. Lucky King Bun appeared top on the google list. For obvious reasons too - surely nothing was more interesting than gigantic buns baked with a pouch of decadent meat curry inside! It was perfect picnic food.

Here's a peek of a piece of droolworthy tender pork meat. 

Yummy Pork Ribs Curry

We drove into the town of Lukut to look for the restaurant. It was easy to spot as it was located by the main road. We were amongst the earliest customers at 11am, and our enthusiasm was obvious as we discussed excitedly over what to get.

"Pork-lah, pork-lah. We have tried chicken before at another place!" I grinned gleefully at the hubster who insisted that I be the one to choose.

Lucky King Bun Restaurant

Three varieties were available - Chicken Curry,  Pork Ribs Curry and  Yin Yong (Pork Ribs Curry & Dongpo Pork). It would have been interesting to try Yin Yong, which is packed with two pouches of gravied pork. Unfortunately, it wasn't ready. So, we vowed to come back for it another day.

Lucky King Bun - It's almost the size of my head.

It was really quite heavy for a bun! We placed it gently at the back seat of the car before continuing on our journey.

I found the bun really heavy.

It was high noon when we finally arrived at the beach. We sat on our picnic mat, admired the scenery for a bit before unpacking our food.

There was only but a light breeze to keep us cool. Were we mad? Wasn't it hot? Not extremely. You may have heard from the news that several countries in South East Asia are suffering from a haze situation caused by fires in Indonesia. The sun was partially blocked out. It was just another gloomy day for us. I speak only of the weather. Our spirits were high in anticipation at the thought of eating this bun!

Lucky King Pork Ribs Curry Bun

We tore the bun open from the top. There you go - bread and curry all-in-one (pictured below). Peel the bread away from the sides and dip it into the curry, which we discovered was a generous portion, with chunks of meat and potatoes. Hot bread, enjoyed with rich flavourful curry, is the kind of thing that makes me blissfully forgetful how sinful it is to over-eat. 

Pork Ribs Curry with Warm Bread - Yum Stuff!

This is a meal for three adults. I wouldn't keep it overnight. It's best enjoyed fresh out of the oven. One word describes my overall experience - tasty!

Price : 
Chicken Curry Bun (RM30),  Pork Ribs Curry Bun (RM38) and  Yin Yong - Pork Ribs Curry & Dongpo Pork (RM40)
Location : 4366, Taman Aman, Jalan Bandar Lukut, 71010 Port Dickson.

Read more...

Steamed Pork With Preserved Vegetables

Chap Fan (mixed rice) aka economy rice is the kind of meal that we identify as having the familiar feel of home-cooked food. It is a makan (eat) stall that typically offers plain white rice along with many trays of meat and vegetable dishes to choose from. That it is affordable and a quick lunch option makes it a popular choice for many office workers. Me included, in the days I was still glued to a 9 to 5 job!

Steamed pork is pretty much a standard offering with Chinese economy rice sellers. It's easy to do and is generally a crowd-pleaser.

Steamed Pork With Preserved Vegetables

I attempted to make something similar, down to cutting it into squares. It is a flavourful dish with a little wine for that oomph and preserved vegetables for a rounded flavour.

Steamed Pork With Preserved Vegetables
Ingredients:
To mix
- 350g minced pork
- ¼ cup preserved salted / pickled mustard greens (rinse well)
- 1 medium onion (chopped)
- 2 stalks spring onion (chopped)
- 2 ½ tbsp chinese cooking wine (or rice wine)
- 1 tbsp corn flour
- Salt and white pepper to taste

Garnish
- 1 medium carrot (shaved with a peeler)
- Fresh coriander

1) Taste preserved vegetable to check on the level of saltiness. Place all the ingredients to be mixed, into a bowl. Season sparingly with salt (or leave it out) if you feel that the preserved vegetable is salty enough to flavour the entire mix. Add a couple of dashes of white pepper. Combine all the ingredients using your hands.

2) Arrange the pork mixture onto a 7 x 7in square baking tray lined with foil.

3) Steam in a pre-heated cooking pan until cooked, which took about 10 minutes for me.

4) Cut the steamed pork into squares.

5) Serve it on shavings of raw carrots. Pour pork juice over and garnish with fresh coriander.

Best eaten with plain rice along with a spicy soy sauce, bird's eye chilli condiment.

1) Gather the ingredients. 2) Combine the ingredients.
3) Place pork mixture into the steaming pan. 4) It's done after 10 minutes. Cut into squares.
5) Check out the pork juice!

Steamed Pork on a bed of Carrots, garnished with Coriander

Steamed Pork With Preserved Vegetables

Read more...

Asam Pedas Stingray

There are two common ways that Malaysians eat stingrays. One, in an asam pedas spicy gravy and two, grilled on a banana leaf.  The former is favoured by home-cooks because it's convenient and is a perfect accompaniment for their rice meal. The latter is widely sold in hawker stalls, a street food that is usually enjoyed on its own.

Asam means sour in Malay, pedas on the other hand means spicy. Wikipedia describes asam pedas as a sour and spicy stew that is popular in Indonesia and Malaysia.

"The main ingredients in asam pedas are usually seafood or freshwater fish. They are cooked in asam (tamarind) fruit juice with chilli and different spices."

Asam Pedas fish is typically cooked with bunga kantan (torch ginger) and daun kesum. In the absence of these ingredients, kaffir lime leaves is another great way to go about it.

Those who enjoy an extra kick will add toasted coconut, black pepper and/or additional spices such as turmeric, cumin, fenugreek or aniseeds. The variations are too many to mention.

Asam Pedas Stingray

How I cook asam pedas is always a simple affair mainly because I don't have a lot of time to spend in the kitchen on work days, nor do I wish to fork out too much on a regular meal. Special occasions are a different story, of course!

Asam Pedas Stingray
Ingredients:
- 320g ikan pari slices (stingray)
- 5 ladies finger (halved or whole)
- 2 medium tomatoes (quartered)
- 1 red chilli (julienned)
- 4 kaffir lime leaves
- 1 medium onion (chopped)
- 1 garlic clove (chopped)
- ½ thumb ginger (chopped)
- 2 tbsp dried red chilli paste
- 1 tsp tamarind paste
- 2-3 tsp brown sugar
- Salt to taste
- Cooking oil
- Water
- Oven-grilled slices of red chilli for garnishing (optional)

How-to:
1) Heat some cooking oil in pan.
2) Saute onion, garlic and ginger for a bit.
3) Add tomatoes, kaffir lime leaves, chilli paste and tamarind paste. Stir to combine and fry it for a bit.
4) Then, add the ladies fingers in. Stir to coat.
5) Add about 1½ cups water. Simmer until the ladies fingers are cooked. Then, season with sugar and salt.
6) Add the fish and slices of red chilli. It's done when the fish is cooked. Optional : Garnish with grilled slices of chilli.

Best eaten with white rice.

1) Gathering the ingredients. 2) Chopped and ready to be cooked!
3) Add the paste after sauteing the onions and garlic. 4) Add the vegetables.
5) Finally, add in the stingray!

Asam Pedas Stingray

Enjoy!

Read more...

Creamy Coconut Milk Chicken

There were many things we did in the old days to make a living. One of it, was selling coconuts. I used to help grandma gather coconuts for the middleman to collect. It was in my early teens that I started using the wooden coconut grater, the kind that had a seat, to remove the white flesh from old coconuts for cooking.

After grating enough, I would hold a handful between my palms and squeeze the coconut milk out. That was how we used to extract coconut milk in the old days. Using a cloth was unheard of.

Today, coconut milk can be conveniently found in cans and small cartons.

This is another simple recipe (I'm all for anything easy)  that busy people can turn to, if their short on cooking time.

Creamy Coconut Milk Chicken

Creamy Coconut Milk Chicken
Ingredients:
- 400g chicken breast fillet (sliced)
- 1 large red onion (chopped)
- 2 cloves garlic (chopped)
- 1 red chilli (sliced)
- 4 green bird's eye chilli (sliced)
- 1 tbsp turmeric power (mix with a bit of water, into wet paste)
- ½ cup coconut milk
- ½ cup water
- ½ tsp sugar
- Salt to taste
- 3 tbsp cooking oil

Optional: canned button mushrooms (sliced)

How-to:
1) Heat cooking oil in pan.
2) Saute onion and garlic for a minute.
3) Add turmeric paste, and stir-fry.
4) Add chicken slices (and mushrooms, if using) along with ¼ cup coconut milk. Mix well.
5) Then, add ½ cup water. Allow the water to come to a boil, and gently stir until all the chicken slices are cooked.
6) Toss in the red and green chilli. Season with sugar and pour in the remainder of the coconut milk.
7) Cook until the sauce thickens a little or until it's creamy. Finally, season with salt.

Best eaten with rice, garnished with fresh lettuce.

1) Ingredients. 2) Saute the onions and garlic. Then, add turmeric.
3) Add the chicken along with some coconut milk.
4) Mix to coat the chicken slices.
5) Add the remaining coconut milk. Cook until creamy.

Creamy Coconut Milk Chicken

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This post is linked to the event Little Thumbs Up (October 2015 : Coconut) organised by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Doreen of My Little Favourite DIY, and hosted by Jess from Bakericious.

Read more...