My collection of favourite recipes..tried and tested!
I went crazy buying recipe books at the Times Bookstore at Hartamas Shopping Centre one day while I was back in KL and one of the books I bought was “Martha Stewart’s Cooking School”. We needed a book like that here as a reference plus …
INGREDIENTS For the soup: 1/2 chicken, bone-in 2 small carrots 2 medium-sized potatoes 1 small ripe tomato 1 “sup bonjot” spice sachet Salt to taste For the saute: 3 – 4 shallots 2 cloves garlic 15 gms mix of local (Malaysian) celery, stalks and leaves …
The first time we ever ate Sri Lankan chicken curry was at Ann and Wayne’s in Dubai…their maid cooked it and it was quite amazing…then I had some at Chee’s house during her lunch a couple of weeks ago and it was sumptuous.
We have a new maid, Malika, and seeing as I was leaving for KL in a couple of days, I asked if she would cook me a chicken curry which I can freeze in portions..and she did that today. I had some for lunch and….IT WAS AMAZING!
Its a bit different from the way I have been cooking curry and I think its healthier and lower in calories because it doesn’t use coconut milk. So, I had it with roti canai…altogether less than 600 calories!
INGREDIENTS
1 chicken, skin off, bone in, cut in 12 pieces
1 medium-sized onion, chopped
1 whole garlic, peeled and minced
2 thumb-sized pieces of fresh ginger
2 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp chilli powder
2 cloves cardamom
1 stick cinnamon, about 2 1/2” long
6 fresh, green bird chillies, sliced
1 sprig curry leaves
3 pieces pandan (screwpine) leaves, each 3” long
1 medium-sized tomato, cubed
350 gm potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks
1 Maggi chicken or beef cube
6 tbsp Heinz tomato sauce (not tomato ketchup!)
1 1/2 glasses hot water
2 tbsp oil
DIRECTIONS
Heat the oil on a medium fire, then fry the garlic. Leave to simmer on low heat and when aromatic, add onions, chilli, ginger, spices, Maggi cube, curry leaves and pandan leaves. Mix well and allow to simmer on low heat until all the liquid is gone.
Add chicken pieces, mix well to coat them in the onions etc, cover and let simmer until all the water is dry.
Add the cubed tomatoes, curry powder and chilli powder, mix well and leave to simmer, uncovered.
When slightly dry, add the tomato sauce, hot water and potatoes. Leave to simmer with the cover tilted until the potatoes are cooked. Add salt if necessary.
Serve with rice, bread or roti canai.
I was looking for a chicken casserole recipe one day and was too lazy to check the internet sites, so I did it "old style"! Looked at the hundreds of recipe books we have and ended up with one of my favourite recipe books from …
INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 whole chicken, breasts removed and reserved
2 onions
2 litres boiling water
Salt
2 bay leaves
1 large carrot
1 celery stalk
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 cup fresh parsley leaves
Ground pepper
DIRECTIONS
Dice the onion. Peel the carrots and cut them as well as the celery into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces. Mince the fresh parsley leaves.
Heat the oil in a large heavy-bottomed soup pot and sauté the breasts until they are light brown, about 5 minutes. Remove the breasts and set aside. Add half of the onions and sauté until translucent, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Remove and set aside.
Cut up the remaining parts of the chicken (not the breasts) into small pieces to allow them to release their juices in the shortest time possible. If you have a meat cleaver, it makes the job easier, but if you don’t, do the best you can with a chefs knife.
Add the pieces to the pot, and cook for 8 to 10 minutes until no longer pink. Return the onions to the pot, reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer until the chicken releases its juices, about 20 minutes. Add boiling water, the reserved chicken breasts, 2 teaspoons of salt, and bay leaves. Cover and simmer until chicken breasts are cooked, about 20 minutes. Increase the heat if necessary.
Remove chicken breasts and set aside. Strain and reserve the broth. Skim fat from the broth. Sauté the remaining onions along with the carrot and celery for about 5 minutes in a little butter.
When the chicken breasts are cool enough to handle, remove and discard the skin and bones. Shred the breast meat into bite sized pieces and add to the pot. Add thyme and the reserved broth; simmer until the vegetables are tender.
Season with salt and pepper, add parsley and serve.
