Summer holiday and marathon of dishes..

In a few days we will be leaving to Malaysia for summer break...along awaited ones, just to escape the extreme hot over in Qatar..It is time for more food, food and food...

That also means clearing up necessary stock from the fridge and pantry... So after school and a quick lunch, scout around what can be done - saw some bananas that was intended for fritters, but then it found another use.  Lets make cake - I decided to make 2 types the usual one and another one without eggs - in other words vegetarian.

A quick tour and I found 2 recipes, an eggless one with atta flour (whole wheat flour), emm fancy that, at http://sunitabhuyan.com/  and the other one at http://masak-masak.blogspot.com/.  Will feed back on the outcome of the cakes.

Next need to figure out something for dinner. I had earlier soaked whole wheat for making of a porridge made by my Sri Lankan colleague from school.   Looking around for more information I found the recipe is also well know among the Qataris.  It reminds me of a popular dish available mostly during Ramadhan - Bubur Lambuk.    We will dwell on this later.

Another recipe which I tried was a dish very common among the Iranians-  Kashk-e Bademjan ie Persian Eggplant with Whey Dip.  Again this dish was shared by my colleague from Iran - it was fantastic and I immediately fell in love with it.

Recipes will be followed. 

Simple Roast Chicken Thigh

Yesterday, June 19, was Father's Day,and was not sure what to have for dinner.  I know I have some chicken thighs in the freezer, so decided to make bake chicken thigh.  and again i dont want something too fancy..looked around the kitchen found spices that can be used to marinate the chicken. add some veges to it,  instant mushroom soup, a few slices of buttered bread l put in the oven for a few minutes and what I got was "a simple but fulfilling dinner" - quote from my daughter....

Happy Father's Day my dear husband.....hope you enjoyed the dinner....Happy Father's Day my loving dad too.........

Simple Roast Chicken Thigh

6 medium sized chicken thigh - wash and pat dry.
a handful of rosemary
a handful thymes
2 tbs of honey
1/2 lime juice
2 tbs of worchester sauce
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil
carrots - clean and cut 1/2inch diagonally
potato - scrub clean, cut quartered

Method

1. wash and pat dry the chicken thighs.
2. in a different bowl, add other ingredients, mix well and rub well with the chicken, stuff some of the marination into the skin.  Add in the veges of your choice, cover and let it marinate atleast an hour (the longer the better it will be), in fridge.
3. Heat oven at 180C, for 5 mins, place only the chicken on a roasting pan/casserole, including any marination juice, if any, cover with foil, and bake for 30mins. 
4. At 30mins, remove foil, and bake further.
5. Place veges for baking just before the last 20mins...  Once done enjoy your meal. 

Kashmiri Cardamon Chicken

This is a dish from my friend Wan Noor Baya.  She is a good cook and loves to share her recipes and I have tried many of her recipes.

Lets look at the ingredients.

500gm skinless chicken cut small bites
1 big onion - chopped small ( I used bombay onions)
3 cloves of garlic - chopped
1 inch of ginger - chopped
10 - 12 green cardamon, take the pods/seeds and pound fine or 1 tsp of cardamon powder
2-3 clove
2 bay leaves
1 cinnamon stick
2 tsp cumin powder
1tsp fennel powder
2 -3 tsp  of chilli paste from dried chillies (I used a few pieces of red chillies instead)
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup of yogurt
oil
Method
Marinate chicken with ginger, garlic, fennel powder, salt black pepper, chili paste and half of cardamon powder for at least 4 hours or overnight. Fridge it.

Heat oil, saute cloves, cinnamon, bay leaves and cumin powder for a few minutes.  Saute onions for 8-10 mins add in marinated chicken, mix well , reduce fire, cover pot and let it cook till done about 25-30mins.  Make sure to stir every now .

Add in the rest of the cardamon powder.and remove.  Add mint and serve with bread or rice.

Giant Chocolate Chip Cookies

My daughter was looking for a big size, crispy and yet chewy chocolate chip cookie.  She found one at Martha Stewart's.   She tried them, she likes it (me including) and since then she has baked them a few times....

Its so so simple that any one can do it...My personal verdict for this...simply fabulous. 

Ingredients

2 cups of all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup of unsalted, room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar

2 large eggs

2 tsp of vanilla extract

1 bag (12 ounces) chocolate chips

Directions

1.  Preheat oven to 180C, whisk together flour, baking soda,salt and set aside.

2.  In a different bowl, beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy.  Add egg one at a time.  Mix well add vanilla extract mix well.

3.  Mixer on low speed, add flour, mix till just incorporate, with a spatula stir in chocolate chips.

4.  Drop 1 tbs full heap of dough onto ungreased baking sheets, at least 4 inches apart and away from edges of pan, spread around the dough to a 1/4 inch thickness.  Bake 15-18 mins, remove.

5.Cool 1 to 2 minutes on baking sheets, then transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Baked Salmon Thai Style

I made for dinner last night, Baked Salmon Thai Style, it turned out perfectly, simple ingredients, quick to prepare and marinate an hour, bake next thing you know you enjoying the dinner...

When I bought the salmon fillet...nice orangish color, My son gave me strict warnings " no salmon for me, you have to make me something else" , no way I am going to make something else for him...  Any way, when he had his bite, not knowing that it was salmon, he said "Emm very nice" and next thing you know he finish it all. Way to go my son.

So search starts for a "eatable" dish for my family members... I saw this recipe, however, forget to take not of the source and vaguely remembered the ingredients.  Wanting it to be complete meal, I add on some asparagus and bombay onions - but it turned mushy, I should have them baked towards the last 10mins or so so that it will be just nice and tender.  Points to take note in the future....

Ingredients

4 pc of salmon fillet
1 big onion
2 lemon serai, chopped small pieces
gallangal - size of thumb
1 red chily -deseeded
1 tbs of chilli flakes - this I add on
a few kaffir leaves
salt to taste
1 cup of olive oil
Lemon juice from 1
1 big bombay onion - cut into round rings
asparagus -  a bunch - chopped the ends and cut into half

How to prepare:

1.  Clean and pat dry salmon.  rub olive oil all over.
2.  Blend galangal, onion, lemon grass, chill,kaffir leaves and chili flakes to a fine paste.
3.  Add salt, lemon juice and olive oil and blend to a fine paste.
4.  Line a baking tray with aluminium foil. Set aside
5.  Marinate the salmon fish with the lemon grass paste all over.  Place it on the baking tray, cover, cover with plastic wrapper and marinate in fridge for atleast an hour.
6.  Preheat oven at 180C for 5 mins.
7.  Cover with aluminium foil, bake for 30 mins.  Place the asparagus and onions just 10 mins before.
8.  Serve hot