Temptations @ Ara Cooked her last meal

It all started with just this two books .....

I bought these two confinement recipe books way back in 2008 after my wife gave birth to Ryan. The original idea was to get the confinement lady to cook some of the dishes listed in these cook books instead of the one or two standard dishes that she would cook everyday. She was accommodating enough to try some of the dishes we asked her.

After the month was over, I took over the cooking, trying out some of the recipes listed in these two cook books. Now, I have never really cook before and the best I could do before this were probably frying eggs and rice. So, it was quite a challenge to me then but I was determined to try and learn. I would faithfully follow the book to the letter and whipped out dishes after dishes, and my wife was gracious enough to be my guinea pig to try them out. (Anyway, she does not have much of choice does she). I remembered one of our good friend (Winnie) commented that I looked funny running in and out of the kitchen with the recipe book in hand while cooking.

Over time, I began to get comfortable cooking and does not find the task daunting. In fact, I find it rather interesting and began to experiment with different ingredients. My passion for photography fueled my interest in cooking further because I delight to making sure that my dishes are `visually delicious and inviting'. Hence, my cooking adventure takes shape .....

In the last four years, some of our close friends and my sister have been kind enough to partake in most of my `food experiment' and Temptations @ Ara takes form, only opened to serve my lovely wife, my sister, family members and friends, sharing food, wine, beer, laughter and a good time.

Well, Temptations @ Ara served her last meal on 30th and 31st October 2012 with our shifting to Beijing in next several days. And who better should her last guest be if not, the very same person that prompted her very existence....my wife....

With the ingredients left in our fridge, Temptations @ Ara served the following:-

I missed my kitchen here but our life and adventure beckons us else where.

With these four dishes, all the pots and pans have been packed to be shipped to Beijing, and hopefully Temptations @ Beijing will open soon to cook for her number one fan....my wife....and whoever, who happen to drop by for a visit in the future and daring enough to try ....Till then, Tempations @ Ara signing off.....:)

A Sunday Japanese Theme Dinner at home

I still have a slap of tuna and a couple of scallops left over in the fridge that I must cooked soon. Since we were a little lazy to eat out again after eating out rather often recently, we have decided to have another home cooked meal tonight.

I went out and got myself some additional ingredients for tonight's dinner. I was thinking of a Japanese seafood dinner. Hence, I got myself a whole mackerel, 4 large prawns, some mangoes, red capsicum, mint leaves, lemon and some Japanese cucumber.

First dish would be Pan fried buttered prawn served with Japanese Mayo and Mango salsa.

To prepare the mango salsa, simply diced a ripe mango and red capsicum. Add some finely chopped mint leaves, lemon zest and half a lemon juice. Add salt and black pepper to taste. Mix well and leave in the fridge to be served later.

Add some butter to the pan and put in the prawns when it is hot. Do not overcooked.

Next dish is the Pan seared scallops served with Japanese Mayo.

Again, another rather simple dish to prepare. Simply season scallops with salt and black pepper and pan seared lightly in high heat. Do not overcooked as scallops will shrink and the meat will dry. 

For the main dish, I have the Oven Grilled Whole Mackerel.

Seasoned mackerel with salt, lemon juice and black pepper. Pre-heat oven at 250 degrees. Place mackerel into aluminium wrapped tray. Add olive oil and grill for 5 to 10 minutes depending on size of the fish.

And finally, the last dish for the night is Pan seared Tuna steak ...

This is another all time favorite at home. Simply season the tuna steak with black pepper on the for sides. Heat up the pan with olive oil. 

Using a tong, place the tuna steak first on one side onto the pan and seared till brown. Seared the side next to it and continue on all four sides. It is important to just seared lightly to ensure that the center of the tuna is still red and juicy. Using a sharp (and I mean really sharp knife), slice the tuna steak into thin slices and served with wasabi and japanese soy sauce.

And that is our dinner for our Sunday night at home .....

Moshi Moshi ....ohayo (gozaimasu)

Nope...I am not in Japan right now (though I would definitely wish that I am and I am pretty sure that I will make my way there soon, especially during the sakura season).

My house turned Japanese last night when I decided to cook something Japanese for my wifey.

I was having a drink with my buddy and on the way back, I saw this beautiful whole salmon head at the fish section. Curious, I asked them to weigh it and I was pleasantly surprised that it was only RM14.95....I thought to myself...I could do something with this....

So, without hesitation, I told them to wrap it up and I headed home for my food adventure. I remembered that I still have a piece of salmon in my fridge that I bought the other day. I was inspired from a dish I saw on the menu recently while having a japanese lunch with my colleagues the other day. So, I bought a mango as well .....

And, this is what I served last night for dinner .....

Starter : Mango wrapped in Salmon sashimi, topped with Japanese mayo ..

(I saw a specialty sushi from a Japanese restaurant where they served salmon with mango and I thought I could do the same but with a twist. I would say that the texture of the salmon and the mango blended well, not to mention the taste of all three major ingredients which is the freshness of the salmon, the sweetness of the mango and the Japanese mayo)

Oven Grill Salmon Head with salt

(This dish is our all time favorite at home. It is actually extremely easy to prepare. Simply marinate the salmon head with salt and black pepper and place in the oven to grill at 250 degrees for about 10 to 15 minutes depending on the size and thickness of the head. Served with lemon and wasabi and Japanese soya sauce)

Last night was meant to be a fast and simple meal as wifey said that she was on the way back and was extremely hungry.

The following are some other Japanese dishes that we cooked some time back. I love doing Japanese because they are much simpler to manage as far as I am concerned.

Pan seared Salmon steak served with wasabi. 

(Another fast dish to prepare and serve. Sprinkle some salt and pepper onto the salmon steak. Heat up your pan to high heat and place the salmon with the skin side down on the pan. Depending on the thickness and the heat of the pan, seared for anything between 2 to 3 minutes. You might to sear it longer if you prefer your salmon more cooked. We love them lightly cooked.)

Oven baked scallops with Japanese Mayo

(Another all time favorite at home. Simply place scallop on scallop shell, if you have one. If not place on small dish which can be placed in the oven. Add finely cut Japanese mushrooms and topped with generous helping of Japanese Mayo. Placed the scallop in the oven and baked. Once the mayo brown, remove from oven, sprinkle with finely cut chilly and chives and served hot)

Prawns with Teriyaki sauce

(Simply marinate prawns with Teriyaki sauce. Served with Japanese mushrooms cooked with teriyaki sauce as well)

Now....where did I put my bottle of sake ......hehehehe 

Oven Baked Honey Lemon Chicken with Honey Lemon White Wine Sauce

We have been eating out for quite a number of weeks now and wifey was sought of hinting for some home cooked food. Honestly, I am also tired of eating outside as we have grown tired of the choices that we have around our place.

With the new maid around to help to clean up my cooking mess, I have decided to whip out something for tonight's dinner. Since my mother in law is around to help look after Chenya and watch over the new maid, I have decided to cook her favourite 'Creamy Broccoli Soup'.

For our main course, I have decided to cook an Oven baked Honey Lemon Chicken Drumstick served with Honey Lemon White Wine Sauce." My biggest weakness has always been making the sauce for the dishes. I was game to give it another try this round and hopefully to get it right this time ...

The final outcome .....

I am an adventurer when it comes to cooking. I don't have any particular technique and neither am I professionally trained. I goes with my feel of how I think the meal will look and taste like ...

This is not exactly a recipe that you could probably reproduce the above (God, I can't even guarantee I could reproduce that the next time I try ...hahahahaha)

• Marinate the chicken drumstick with black pepper, thyme, rosemary, honey, lemon juice, brown sugar, lemon zest and salt. I left the chicken drumstick marinated for more than 2 hours today.
• Preheat your oven at 250 degrees for 10 minutes.
• Lay marinated chicken drumstick in a baking tray with the skin facing up. Melt some butter and pour the melted butter over the chicken drumstick.
• Cover the chicken drumstick with an sheet of aluminium foil and backed for 15 minutes. (I have learnt the hard way that if I don't cover the chicken drumstick with the foil and baked, I  will without fail overcook my chicken leaving them burnt and dry when I managed to brown the chicken skin) By covering them with the aluminium foil, I will be able to cook the chicken well and yet retain all the juices and moisture.
• Once 15 minutes is up, remove the covering foil and baked the chicken drumstick for another 5 minutes. (This will help to brown the chicken skin for that brown juicy look)
• For the sauce, melt a fair amount of butter on a sauce pan.
• Pour the remaining juice used to marinate the chicken into the sauce pan and shimmer over low heat.
• Add more pepper, salt and rosemary to taste.
• Add whip cream for the added creamy taste.
• Add white wine to taste.
• Reduce over low heat. Add a touch of corn starch to thicken the sauce.
• For the side dishes, I have used white button mushrooms, baby carrots, corn and asparagus. Heat up the pan with some olive oil. 
• Add the mushrooms, baby carrots and corn and sauteed with some oyster sauce till cooked.
• Remove the above and then add in asparagus and lighted tossed with some olive oil. Take heed not to overcook the asparagus.
• Serve hot.

There you have it, my home cooked version of Oven Baked Honey Lemon Chicken Drumstick served with Honey Lemon White Wine Sauce. Please don't ask me why it might not turn out nice because I probably won't be able to help you....Hahahaha...And bear in mind that I am a pretty good photographer too...so what you see might not be what you get on your plate .....;)

Till the next dish, here is Chef Rod signing off from Temptations @ Ara ....:)

Cravings for Pasta

Like I have mentioned in my earlier post, the cravings changes everyday and what is surprising is that things that my wife loves before, she dislikes. Food that she can't stand before, she craves.

Every lunch and dinner is pretty challenging nowadays as her cravings or the the food that she felt like taking changes everyday.

Just a couple of nights ago, she has a craving for pasta. Luckily we still had some left over spaghetti at home. So, it was a quick spaghetti aglio olio with basil leaves, fresh chili, corned beef with broccoli (since I read somewhere that broccoli is good for pregnant mothers as they are loaded with folic acid besides the fact that it is the only vegetable I had in the fridge at that point in time.)

I wonder what her next cravings would be .......

Cravings for Potatoes

As I was saying in one of my earlier post, wifey's cravings has been going crazy this pregnancy. Her appetite and nausea before and after food is so bad this round that she has the phobia of eating. She feels horrible when she is hungry but after eating, she gets her nausea and heartburn. :( It's definitely no joke being pregnant with all the changing hormones creating such havoc.

Last night, she suddenly had a craving for potatoes. We have initially wanted to boil ABC soup but it was a little too late to buy all the ingredients. Managed to get some potatoes though. So, instead of ABC soup, we did a mash potato with butter mixed with corn beef (one of her favourite), served in roasted potato skip with a touch of olive oil.

End result was pretty satisfying. She loves it (and finished the entire potato which was a great relief to me) and surprising, Ryan liked it as well. It must have been the fried corn beef.

Emmm...I wonder what her next cravings would be. I sure hope that it is not going to be abalone or shark fin soup but something much simpler and definitely cheaper like ABC soup!

Butter Cream Chicken

There were two dishes that I like and have always wondered how they were cooked. Since I started developing some interest in cooking the last couple of years, I have always wanted to try cooking these two dishes.

So, a couple of nights ago, I've decided to give this two dishes a go.

The first is butter cream chicken cooked with curry leaves. Actually it was rather simple. First I marinate the chicken with some Chinese wine, black pepper, salt and sesame oil. Then coat them with corn flour and deep fried them. To make the sauce, I simply put butter, whipping cream, milk and curry leaves into a sauce pan. Add black pepper, salt and sugar to taste. (If you like it hot, adding some chopped `chili padi' would do the trick). Once the sauce starts to shimmer, simply add in the deep fried chicken and thoroughly coat the chickens with the sauce and serve hot. Verdict (from my wife and in laws....) yummy...hehehe..:)

Next, deep fried kai lan. This dish is pretty expensive when ordered in restaurants. It does look intimating to start with and I thought that it would be rather difficult to attempt. Anyhow, I wanted to quench my curiosity. And surprisingly it was rather simpe to prepare. First, separate the kai lan leaves from their stems. Cut the kai lan leaves into long thin pieces. Marianate with some salt. Next, prepare the wok with oil. Ensure that the oil is hot before placing the cut kai lan leaves in. Simply fried till the leaves are crispy. Once they are crispy, take them out from the oil, drain excess oil and serve while hot. (The only set back...this dish is time consuming to prepare and too much oil used)

2 more recipes into my personal log ....eemmmm...what should I attempt next?

Rice Cooker Chicken Drumstick ....

Wife was exceptionally busy this week, organising a big event for her company. So, I'm left with my little monster at home together with the maid. I was lazy to go out for dinner because firstly, I really don't know what to eat (and I'm sick of eating noodles for dinner since I have been having that for most lunches) and I had enough of Ryan not wanting to sit still and insisting of getting down and running all over the restaurant. There is really no peace in eating that way.

Instead, I've decided to cook something real simple and quick at home. Someone in a restaurant taught me and I think it's probably the simplest and fastest way to cook a chicken dish.

I bought two chicken drumstick, strip off the skin and cut into smaller pieces. Marinate them with soy sauce, salt, pepper, sugar, oyster sauce, ginger slices, garlic slices and plenty of chinese wine. Leave them alone for 15 to 20 minutes. Put them into a rice cooker and cook for 15 minutes. And they are done.

So for dinner last night, it was a simple meal of soy sauce chicken drumstick cooked with my rice cooker and baby spinach soup. Not only (I think) was it a better meal as compared to eating hokkien mee outside, at least I can eat more peacefully at home, not having to stress over Ryan running all over the place.

Mussels in White Wine Sauce

I have not had many food recipe post of late. Not that I've stop playing with food. Just that the kind of food that I've been trying out now are no longer meant for confinement, since there is no need for that now.

We went for an Italian meal recently and had mussels for our appertizers. We loved it and hence, when we saw a recent offer for a box of New Zealand green mussels for only RM20, we grabbed it and attempted the recipe ourselves. It is a very simple dish and relatively easy to prepare.

Ingredients:

• Mussels
• White Wine
• Basil leaves
• Garlic
• Corn Flour
• Salt and black pepper

Method:

• Clean mussels thoroughly.
• Chop basil leaves finely and cut garlic in thin slices
• Placed mussels, basil leaves, garlic, white wine and a touch of olive oil, a pinch of salt and black pepper together and steamed for 15 minutes or until mussels are cooked.
• Remove cooked mussels to be used later.
• Transfer the remaining juice/liquid left from steaming the mussels into a sauce pan.
• Add a cup of water and simmer.
• Add additinonal chopped basil leaves if desired.
• Mix a teaspoon of corn flour with water and add into sauce pan to thicken the sauce.
• When sauce thickens, add cooked mussels and allow to simmer together for 2 minutes.
• Serve immediately.

Creamy Broccoli Soup - Good for Pregnant and/or Breastfeeding Mommies

Since it is a Sunday and we got tired of eating out, I've decided to cook dinner tonight. We still have four chicken drumstick left in the freezer and some frozen tiger prawns bought back from our holiday in Kota Kinabalu. The drumstick are baked with peanut butter and potato chips while the tiger prawns are simply baked with butter and garlic.

Our meals are never complete without a soup. Went online to search and came across this recipe, Creamy Broccoli Soup. Apparently, this soup is an excellent dish for pregnant and breastfeeding mommies since broccoli is rich with frolic acid. And the soup is relatively easy to prepare.

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, diced
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1 celery stalk, diced
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 2 crowns of broccoli, chopped
• chicken broth
• skim milk
• ground black pepper to taste

Directions:

• Boil onion, carrot, celery, garlic and chicken broth in a large soup pot. Add pepper to taste
• Add broccoli and cook for another 5 to 10 minutes or until broccoli is tender
• Allow the soup to cool and transfer soup into blender. Add in milk and blend until smooth.
• Transfer blended soup back into pot and reheat the mixture slowly until heated through.
• Serve hot.

`Chef at Home' Sunday

We decided to turn last Sunday into a `Kitchen day'. Instead of `lepaking' (loitering) around shopping malls, we thought it would be good idea to whip up some new appetizer's and deserts recipe. So off we went to Subang Carrefour early in the morning to do our marketing for the necessary ingredients. By the time we finished and had our very late breakfast, we were ready to start at 1p.m.

For this session, I have two lovely assistants, namely, my wife and my younger sister. They were fooling around with the food and were pretty demanding as assistants. They must have music before they could cook and were only selecting in the tasks they like to do...aiyoh!

Anyway, by 4p.m. we have finally managed to present the dishes below. Rather successful I would said (with a few minor fine tuning if we were to cook them again in the future).

This is a modified recipe from Jamie Oliver. Proved to be an excellent hit recently when we served this during Ryan's birthday.

I had to soak the glutinous rice the night before for this recipe. Best to serve while still hot and while the spring roll is still crunchy. It's more of a sweet desert than a appetizers.

This is one of the easiest appertizers to make. Simply stuff a mixture of minced shrimp, onion and mint leaves, olive oil and lemon juice into cherry tomatoes. Best when served chilled. The only thing is that sizable cherry tomatoes can be pricey.


This fish cutlet recipe is a mixture of minced fish, onions, chili, mint and mash potatoes coated with bread crumbs and fried. The mint and coriander dip is an excellent compliment. Again, ideal to serve while still hot.

This is again another simple appetizer to prepare. Shrimp coated with coconut shreds served with mayonnaise, sprinkled with lemon zest. Yummy.

By the time, we finished sampling all the above, we were already full and hence skipped dinner, which we originally intended to have angel hair cooked aglio oglio style with shrimps and mussels. That, we will do for our Tuesday's night dinner, where we still have our Watermelon Granita prepared on Sunday. Food! Food! Glorious Food!

His 3rd Birthday Celebration in A month!

Last Saturday, we celebrated his 1st birthday for the 3rd time. This time, it was with his mommy's collegues. We had a small party at home. He was obviously enjoying all the attention and lots of presents too. And he gets to cut his birthday cake for the third time and this round, we bought him a 3kg chocolate banana cake from Cake Sense.

Besides having nasi lemak, fried meehoon and curry chicken, I prepared several appertizers as well. Thankfully, they turned out OK.

More pictures of his presents and him, tearing and thrashing his presents later.

Father's Day - A Cooking Day!

My wife wanted to cook for me to celebrate Happy Father's Day. She brought out the recipe book and asked me what I wanted to eat. I chose Seafood Risotto (something that I've tried before earlier despite buying the incorrect type of rice). A very good friend of mine was kind enough to find and buy for me the Arborio rice this time.

We opted just to put in prawns and grilled salmon this round. We could not fine saffron threads. Hence, we could not get the exact yellowish colour of seafood risotto that we wanted. Nevertheless, the dish turned out to be superb and the cooking process enjoyable.

Besides the Risotto, she also prepared home-made minestrone soup which proves to be a hit!

Of course, not to be outdone, I promised her to make the desert, MANGO SORBET. The preparation is simple but just required a lenghty time to freeze to get it ready to be served.

I would said that it is a very memorable Happy Father's Day to me.

Steamed Chicken with Chinese Angelica (Dang Gui)

December and January 2009 have been pretty busy for me especially with my son back from New Zealand. We have been eating out most of the time and hence, I have not been cooking much.

After a long break from the kitchen, we wanted to have a home cooked dinner the other day. So out comes the recipe book and the chicken dish that I have decided to cook was the `Steamed Chicken with Chinese Angelica (Dang Gui)’, another recipe from the confinement recipe book. This dish according to the recipe is good for ladies after the 12 days of confinement.

It’s not a difficult dish to prepare. The process just involved marinating and then steaming the marinated chicken.

Ingredients:
3 chicken drumstick (cut into pieces)
10g Chinese Angelica (Dang Gui)
1 tablespoon of medlar seeds (Kei Chee)
5 tablespoon of Shaoxing wine
1 tablespoon fresh ginger juice
½ teaspoon of salt

Method:
Rinse cut chicken pieces and drain well.
Season with ginger juice and 1 tablespoon of Shaoxing wine
Soak Dang Gui and medlar seeds with Shaoxing wine for about 20 minutes.
Then combine with seasoned chicken pieces and salt. Mix well.
Marinate for about 10 minutes.
Steam over high heat for about 20 minutes or until chicken is cooked. Serve hot.

Wolfberries Egg Soup

My wife loves to have soup for her dinner. Drinking lots of soup apparently will help in the quantity of breast milk. Hence, we will try to boil some soup for each dinner that we cooked. However, there are times, when I could not go and buy the necessary ingredients for boiling soup in time for dinner, since it normally would required a good 3 hours or so.

Since taking of Ryan during the day, it became increasingly challenging to go to my usual fresh vegetable and meat shop to get the ingredients ready for dinner, because Ryan is just so `sticky’.

2 days ago, since I did not have time to boil the normal soup requiring 2 to 3 hours, I have tried out boiling a Wolfberries Egg Soup that is simple to prepare. As I have mentioned in my earlier post in Wolfberries Chicken, wolfberries are widely acknowledged as a nutritious herb, widely used for ladies during the confinement period.

The dish can be prepared within 20 minutes. Taste wise, no complaints from my wife or my younger sister. Try it out if you need a soup dish that is nutritious, fast and easy to prepare.

Ingredients:
1 egg
1 stalk spring onion (chopped)
2 tablespoon wolfberries (soaked)
40g chopped ginger
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sesame oil
500ml chicken broth

Method:
Heat up sesame oil to fragrant the chopped ginger. Then pour in the chicken broth and bring to boil.
Next, add in the soaked wolfberries and salt and cook for 3 minutes
Beat an egg lightly in a serving bowl and add in the chopped spring onion.
Pour into the boiling soup immediately; stir lightly until the beaten egg is cooked.
Serve hot.

Wolfberry Chicken

Last week, besides trying the chicken with basil leaves, we also tried out the wolfberry chicken dish for one of our dinners. The recipe book recommended chicken wings but we used the entire chicken instead.

Wolfberry is another Chinese herb widely regarded as nutritious and consumed by the Chinese. It is also widely used in confinement recipes. Among the benefits of wolfberries are to improve blood circulation, increase energy and vitality, improve eyesight, and provide natural resistance to colds, flu, and disease. It was even reported that Wolfberries were among the secrets behind the longevity of the Himalayan people, as well as the north-western Chinese. And the best wolfberries are reported to be those from Ningxia autonomous region of China.

For all the health reasons, you should give this dish a try. The ingredients and the preparation method are again simple and straight-forward.

Ingredients:
5 tablespoon of wolfberries. (Quantity largely depends on how much you like the sweetness of wolfberries. Cut down on the quantity if you prefer less sweetness).
1 whole chicken (cut into small pieces)
100ml water
4 tablespoon of sesame oil

Seasoning:
1 tablespoon of light soy sauce
Dash of sugar
1 tablespoon of abalone sauce

Method:
Clean chicken and drain well
Heat the sesame oil and add in the chicken. Cooked until it changes colour
Pour in the seasoning, wolfberries and water and simmer on medium heat until the water dries up or when chicken is cooked.
Serve hot.

Fried Chicken with Basil

A couple of nights ago, we tried out this chicken recipe for our dinner. I found the ingredients and cooking method almost similar to frying chicken in soy sauce except that the recipe requires you to add in local basil leaves just before serving. The strong aroma of the basil leaves gives this chicken dish an additional aroma and flavour. There are certain people who dislike the taste of basil leaves. However, if you are like me, who loves the smell, aroma and taste of basil basil leaves, you should give this dish a try and add in more basil leaves to get the extra strong aroma and taste.

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken drumsticks (cut into pieces)
• 30g local basil leaves (or more if you like the taste and aroma of basil leaves)
• 5 garlic cloves (sliced)
• 6 shallots (sliced)
• 10 fresh ginger slices

Seasoning:

• 4 tablespoon of glutinous rice wine
• 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon of sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of dark soy sauce

Method:

• Heat up 3 tablespoon of sesame oil to fragrant the garlic slices, shallots and ginger.
• Add in the chicken pieces and stir-fry until the colour changes
• Add in the seasoning and stir well.
• Covered and simmer over low heat for a couple of minutes or until the sauce thickens.
• Add in the basil leaves and stir constantly until it mixes well.
• Remove and serve immediately.

Baked Lemon Grass Chicken

A couple of nights ago, we thought of trying this chicken recipe out for our dinner. Have been eyeing for a while but never got around trying it until now. The preparation method is again simple. The only tedious task is to pound or blend the ingredients together. A fruit blender would come in extra handy. An oven would be necessary since the chicken has to be baked at 200 degree for close to 30 to 35 minutes depending on the size of the chicken drumstick. As I have mentioned in my earlier post, we are so glad that we invested in a reasonable oven as we are definitely getting back our return in investment (ROI) from it.

Ingredients:

• 2 nos of chicken drumsticks (quantity depending on number of pax)
• 15g of fresh turmeric (we used turmeric powder since we still have)
• 15g of fresh ginger
• 20g shallots
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 stem lemon grass

Seasoning:

• 1/4 teaspoon of salt
• 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon of sugar

Method:

• Put the fresh turmeric (turmeric powder), ginger, shallots, garlic and lemon grass into a fruit blender to blend until become finely paste.
• Remove and mix well with chicken drumsticks.
• Marinate for at least 30 minutes.
• Arrange the chicken drumsticks on a baking rack.
• Bake in the preheated oven at 200 degree Celsius for at least 30 to 35 minutes until cooked and slightly burnt, or golden browned. Vary duration depending on size and thickness of chicken drumstick.
• Serve hot.

The recipe was a success. We are now planning to prepare this dish for my mum when she comes to visit next. She is also pretty good with her recipe of turmeric and lemon grass fried chicken. I guess we wanted her opinion as to how good is this recipe.

Black Beans with Chicken Feet Soup

As I have mentioned in my earlier post, my sister was responsibled for the soup on Saturday. This is the soup that she prepared. It is also one of the many soups that a mother still under confinement could prepare and drink. It is an extremely simple soup to prepare and apparently very nutritious and reported benefits include enriching and renourishing red blood cells. (I am not a chinese medicine man. Just stating what I was told. You might want to check this out with the experts in the Chinese medical hall).

Ingredients:

• 6 nos of chicken feet
• 100g of whole chicken carcass
• 100g of black beans
• 10 red dates
• 2000ml water

Method:

• Clean and rinse chicken feets and carcass. Blanch them in boiling water.
• Remove and rinse under cool water and drain well.
• Put chicken, black beans, read dates and water into a deep pot and bring to boil.
• Reduce to low heat and cook for 2 1/2 hours.
• Season with salt.
• Serve hot.