10 Jun 2010

roast chicken pasta bake

Exam week is drawing to an end. Sat the 3 hour GAT today and have a 3 hour English practise exam tomorrow. Like last year, I did not end up staying for the whole 3 hours and 15 minutes of the GAT, but I left much later than last year. Actually most people stayed compared to last year. The MC questions were kind of fried XD

Came home through Doodie's "car pool" (THANKS FOR THE LIFT!) and decided to make some pasta with the roast chicken I bought after school yesterday.

The recipe itself is pretty versatile. You can make a white sauce, cheese sauce or use bottled pasta sauce instead of creamed corn and you can add whatever ingredient you want providing the flavour matches of course. You don't want to be putting gummy bears (or maybe you do) inside would you? And you can add more or less of a specific ingredient. Depends on what you feel like.

***
roast chicken pasta bake
original recipe by me

oven:
200 degrees Celsius
fan forced

ingredients:
serves 2 - 4
  • 150 grams dried pasta
  • 1/2 large carrot, julienned
  • 1/2 cup frozen peas, defrosted
  • 1/2 cup of grated pizza cheese + extra for topping
  • 3/4 can cream of corn
  • 1/4 roast chicken, deboned and shredded
  • salt, pepper, chicken stock powder

method:

  1. Cook pasta according to instructions on the packet.
    Add julienned carrots and peas in the last 4 minutes of the pasta's cooking time.
  2. Drain the pasta and vegetables when the pasta is cooked. Transfer to a mixing bowl and immediately stir in the cheese, cream of corn and roast chicken.
  3. Season with salt, pepper and chicken stock powder and stir thoroughly.
  4. Spread out the pasta into a baking dish and sprinkle grated cheese on top.
  5. Bake for at least 20 minutes or until cheese has melted and golden.

6 Jun 2010

m&m's cookies

There is nothing better than a melt and mix recipe especially for cookies. So often there is a craving for cookies but there is also a stream of laziness. Not that I am against biscuits and cookies that require me to cream the butter and sugar, but sometimes I feel there is no need to work so hard for that small craving.

Baked some gingernuts and whipped up some berry mousse on the Thursday for my food tech practical and just changed the cookie recipe to make an m&m's version.

On a note, let these chill for at least 1/2 - 1 hour so it has time to firm. If not, the cookies will spread too much when being baked.

Good luck to those who have mid years this week! Yes, you nerdy science students and future accountants :)

***
m&m's cookies
adapted from some food tech textbook

oven:
180 degrees Celsius conventional oven /
150 degrees fan forced

ingredients:
makes 26 cookies
  • 60 grams unsalted butter
  • 1/3 cup caster sugar
  • 2 tsp golden syrup
  • 1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda, dissolved in 2 tsp water
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup self-raising flour
  • 1 Tb dutch process cocoa
  • over 1/4 cup m&m's or your favourite chocolate roughly chopped
    (add more if you like)
method:
1. Melt butter, sugar and golden syrup together in a small saucepan. Remove from the stove.

2. Add the dissolved bicarbonate of soda, mix well and allow to froth and then cool.

3. Sift the flour and cocoa. Add the m&m's and stir to combine the flour and cocoa.

4. Stir the beaten egg into the cooled butter mixture and pour into the flour to form a soft dough.
5. Refrigerate for about 1 hour or until the dough is firm to touch.

6. Roll into small balls (approx. 1 Tb of dough per ball). Place on lined trays, spacing them well and flatten with your index and middle finger.

7. Bake for 10 - 15 minutes. (Play with the baking times as each minute passes, the cookie becomes more crispy.)
8. Allow the biscuit to cool on the tray, remove carefully and store in an airtight container when completely cold.

5 Jun 2010

bibimbap (비빔밥)

Photobucket

In this week's Epicure; a weekly pull out food section in The Age on Tuesday, the recipe section featured Korean recipes by Jill Dupleix. To be honest, I am very much anti-Korean dramas / k-pop etc just got killed by many Korean fangirls / fanboys but definitely not the food (even though I can't handle hot foods).

I made a few changes to Dupleix's recipe though and made use of what I had at home. The best two moments I had when making this when I got the flavour I wanted for the vinegar in one shot I was literally laughing when I tasted it and of course, eating the finished product :P

Make sure to add the picked carrots with the rice bowl. The flavour is awesome!

***

pickled carrots my style
original recipe by me

ingredients:
makes 2 sides serving
  • 1 large carrot
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 4 Tb mirin (味醂)
  • 2 Tb white vinegar
  • 2 tsp sake(酒)
  • 1 Tb castor sugar
method:

  1. Peel the carrot and julienne using a grater or knife. Sprinkle with salt and leave for 10 minutes. Rinse the carrots and squeeze dry. Leave aside.

  2. Put the mirin, vinegar, sake and sugar into a small saucepan. Dissolve the sugar and bring to a brief boil. Add the carrots and turn off heat.

  3. Leave carrots to soak in the liquid for a few hours to get rid of the raw carrot taste.

  4. Refrigerate after liquids have cooled.

***
stir fried beef with onions and bok choy leaves
slightly adapted from Jill Dupleix - Bibimbap with beef and onions

  • Before making this, cook 1 cup of rice per two people using a rice cooker.
ingredients:
serves 2

  • 100 g sliced beef
    (marinated in salt, pepper, drizzle of sesame oil, 1 tsp oyster sauce, 1/2 tsp corn starch, 1 tsp vegetable oil)
  • 1/4 of a large onion, sliced
  • 1 garlic clove, diced finely
  • 1/2 Tb raw sugar
  • 1/2 Tb la dou ban jiang (辣豆瓣酱)
    (I substituted kochujang with la dou ban jiang)
  • 1 Tb soy sauce
  • Bok choy leaves from 1 bok choy, washed and cut into squares
    (reserve the stems for something else)
  • vegetable oil for stir frying
1. Mix the marinated beef with sliced onions, garlic, sugar, la dou ban jiang and soy sauce. Leave for at least 30 minutes.

2. Heat a small wok and coat with oil. Pour the excess in a bowl. Add the marinated beef and onions and quickly stir. When the beef is half cooked, add the bok choy leaves and stir again. Cover for 1 minute or until bok choy leaves are wilted. Stir and turn off heat.

***

To assemble:

  • cooked rice
  • stir fried beef with onions and bok choy leaves
  • 1 raw egg yolk

Photobucket

Fill a bowl with the amount of rice you will be eating, top with beef and egg yolk. Add picked carrots and stir with chopsticks or with a spoon. YUMMY!

If you are wondering why there are corn kernels in the rice, I added them in when I cooked the rice.