Chicken Biryani

The good thing about having a new kitchen is getting that opportunity  to splurge on new kitchen gadgets and tools.  Since my old pans and pots are no longer suitable for my new induction stove, FF became quite understanding  and even indulging  when it comes to my culinary shopping spree .Who needs Prozac when you can go shopping?!

 I have been eyeing Le Crueset Products for years now  and since I could get as much pots and pan as my cabinets could swallow,  I went out and end up buying 5 of these sturdy, cast-iron  babies. A skillet , a grill pan, a small dutch oven , a wok and a braiser .

Since I love cooking things with sauces, this brasier became my  favourite . One of the first dishes we enjoyed using this pan in this Biryani  recipe. Since the heavy cast- iron retains heat and looks quite pretty, it went from straight the oven into the table.

The food stays hot and the dish looked attractive and appetising as it is. The best part is, instead of using a pot and a serving plate, FF got less dishes to do, . It made him sated and happy.That's three wins for the Babbling spoon and her Favourite Fork.

Ingredients: 

1 whole chicken, about 1.5 kgs. skin removed and cut into serving pieces

Marinade: salt, 1 tbsp garlic and ginger paste

 1 tsp. garam masala powder

1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder

1 teaspoon Chili powder

Spices: 3 cardamon pods, 

5 cloves, 1 star anise, 1 cinnamon stick

Fried Onion:

6-7 medium size onion, sliced thinly

oil for deep frying

500 g Basmati Rice, soaked for 1 hour

2 bay leaves, 1/2 tsp. cumin seed, salt to taste, 1 tbsp. Ghee

Others:

3 tbsp. ghee

a cup of coriander leaves

a cup of mint leaves

1 green chili ( more if you like it hot)

3 bay leaves

1 tsp. turmeric powder

1 tsp. coriander powder

2 tsp. chilis powder 

1tsp. garam masala powder

1 cup curd

1 cup water

2 tomatoes

juice of 1 lime

pinch of saffron dissolved in 3 tbsp. milk

1. Wash chicken thoroughly. Remove skin and cut into serving pieces. Add marinade, toss until well lathered in marinade, cover and refrigerate for few hours for better flavours. You can do this the night ahead.











2. Heat vegetable oil in a pan. Fry onion until golden brown and crispy.

 3. Transfer crispy onion into a paper towel. Set aside.

 4. Using a mortal and pestle, pound spices until it turns fine and almost powdery. Set aside.

 5. Chop mint and coriander leaves and green chillis.

 6. In a wide pan, heat ghee. Once hot, add bay leaves, cumin seeds and pounded spices. Fry for about 2 minutes.

 7. Add tomatoes, chili powder, coriander powder , turmeric, chopped green chilis and garam masala. Add in marinated chicken. Fry until chicken pieces turn brown .Stir in curd.  Add warm water and bring pan to a boil.

8.  While chicken is cooking, bring a pot full of water to a boil. Add 2 tsp. salt, ghee,  cumin seeds and bay leaves. Put soaked rice grains into the pot. cook for about 6-7  minutes.

 8. Stir in half of the chopped coriander and mint into the chicken. Sprinkle a good handful of crispy onion over the chicken.

9. Drain rice. Discard bay leaves.

 10. Spread partially cooked rice evenly  over the chicken.  Drizzle rice with saffron soaked milk . Do not mix!

11. Spread another handful of crispy onion on top of the rice.

12. Cover and bring the heat to medium low. Let the steam coming from the dish, cook the rice. This cast- iron braiser is heavy and seals the pan pretty good, trapping both heat and moisture. Cook the dish undisturbed, for about 12 minutes.

12.  Check for doneness of both rice and bird. Once cooked, sprinkle the rest of the coriander and mint leaves as well as those crispy onions.

 Serve hot and dig in, literally speaking!

Thai Sweet Sticky Rice with Mango

Mango sticky rice is probably one of  , if not the most  popular Thai  dessert there is. Anybody who have been to Thailand or visited a good Thai restaurant must have tasted and fell in love with this simple yet sumptuous  treat.

What's not to love anyway? Light and  tasty rice, sweet and velvety mango, all drizzled  in this silky and slightly salty coconut cream sauce . Lastly,  that addictive crunchy mung bean is just well, a cherry on top. This is one of those very, very rare dishes that nobody seemed to hate. Even those who aren't much of the rice eater or for some reason, don't like mango, still end up giving this humbling dish,  a thumbs up.

I ate this dessert almost every day when I was in Bangkok last month and somehow missed it. Well, after reading this blog,  you must already know that nothing comes between me and my food melancholy. So I searched for recipes, look for the much needed ingredients and even hunt down authentic looking cooking apparatus ! Thanks Amazon! The only thing that's missing are Thai mangoes but hey, I guess I simply have to make do with what I could get my claw into.

So today, I finally make mango sticky rice and  It was just divine......

Ingredients:

For the Sticky  Rice:

500 g glutinous rice

2 1/2 cups coconut milk

1 cup white sugar

1 tsp. salt

5 pandan leaves

Salty coconut sauce:

3/4 cup coconut milk

1 tsp. rice flour dissolved in 2 tbsp. water

1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar

Others:

1 tbsp. peeled split mung bean
Aaaaand as much mangoes as you can eat!

Let's get cooking! 

1. Prepare crunchy mung bean toppings. Wash yellow mung bean . Put in a sauce pan, fill sauce pan with  1 cup of water bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn off the heat , cover sauce pan and let mung bean simmer in hot water for 10 minutes. Drain and spread on paper towel.

2. In a not stick pan or skillet, toast mung bean until crispy. Takes 8-10 minutes. Set aside. If you can not fine peeled mung beans in your place, toast some sesame seeds instead, it will be just as delicious.

4.  Wash and thoroughly rinse glutinous rice until water runs clear. This will help to get rid of the extra starch. Soak rice in water for at least 4 hours. I soaked mine overnight.

5. Drain rice well. Try not to overwork the rice at this point since the rice grains are quite brittle.

6. Steam rice for 25 minutes. I used this traditional bamboo steamer I bought from the internet. If you don't have a steamer , use the sieve ( picture number 5) . Just make sure to cover it well.

 7. When the rice is almost cooked, make coconut syrup. In a saucepot, put 2 1/2 cups coconut milk, 1 cup sugar, salt and panda leaves. Bring to a gentle boil , cook until  sugar dissolves. Takes less than 5 minutes!

.8. Transfer hot steamed rice in a container/bowl . Pour just cooked coconut syrup.

9.  Mix carefully until no lumps are formed or until rice grains are soaked in the sweet syrup. put panda leave. The rice is wet and '' soupy'' at this stage but the rice will absorb the liquid soon enough. Cover  tightly and let it set for 30 minutes. The rice will be ready then.

10. For the sauce. Put 3/4 cup coconut milk in a sauce pan, add 1/2  teaspoon salt and 1 tsp. sugar. I fished  pandan leaves  out from the sticky rice and put it into the pan for some extra flavour.

11. Dissolve rice flour in 2 tbsp. of water. Add into the coconut milk. Stir.  Bring sauce to a boil, simmer gently until it thickens and until sugar and salt are dissolved. Do not overcook.

Peel and slice mangoes  . Now, for the fun bit, assemble the elements unto a plate!

Let your inner domestic goddess reign for 5 minutes. Empress your loved ones or guests by plating this dessert as beautiful as it deserves.

Baked shrimp and chicken paella

Saffron is known to be the most expensive spice on Earth. A kilo of these golden threads is enough to buy you a ridiculously expensive crocodile skin bag...plus its meat. Yeah, it's that expensive. Fortunately, you don't have to marry a well- tattooed  underwear model,-cum -hair and fashion trend-setter -cum  - retired footballer named Beckham, to be able to afford it. We ,  non- zero sized  mere mortals could purchase a pinch, a flick or a dust of this luxe spice to  perk our risottos, bisque, chowders and paellas. A few thread is what one need for it goes a long way.

I was at a local market in Andalucia, Spain last summer, when the sight of a stall selling spices caught my attention. It was the Paella mix spice that particularly pique my interest. Andalucia, particularly Valencia, is famous for their paella.  Knowing that saffron is the most essential spice that gives this rice dish its characteristic colour and taste, I was rather surprise how cheap this mix spice is. It did not take long before I was happily swaying a plastic tote bag containing a quarter kilo each of Mandras curry and paella mix , worth an astonishing 5 euros . Imagine how many pots or curry and pas of paella will I be making with these! What a steal!

I made Beef mandras curry, using that curry powder  for the family on my b-day celebration at home. Needless to say, everybody immensely enjoyed it . This week, I decided to give the paella mix a try. I was equally happy with the result Here's how I did it.

Oven baked paella ala Emily

Ingredients:

4 tablespoon olive oil

1 red onion, peeled and finely diced

500 g, chicken cut into pieces

300 g paella rice

600 ml chicken broth

2 smoked sausages or chorizo

1 green and 1 yellow capsicum,   seeded and diced

1 red capsicum, seeded and cut into strips

400 g raw shrimps, peeled and deveined

salt and pepper
1 pinch of saffron or 1  tbsp. of paella mix if you have some at hand

  The spice mix is deep orange , almost red. Reminds me of paprika powder.

1.  Bring chicken broth to a boil. Stir in saffron thread ( if using). I used a tablespoon full of my magic and cheap paella mix spice and waaaa la! The broth turns golden yellow! Season with salt and pepper. Keep warm.

  2. Heat a tbsp. olive oil in  the paella pan. Brown chicken pieces. Toss until all sides are equally golden in colour. Take out from the pan and set aside.

3. Add the rest of olive oil in the same pan. Heat chopped smoked sausages. Add in diced onion. Sauté until  translucent.

 4. Add diced yellow and green bell pepper. Toss  well. Kitchen is smelling' rather guuud at this  moment.

 5. Add in risotto rice.  Stir well until each grain of rice is coated in delicious grease.

 6. Put browned chicken pieces back into the pan. Pour chicken stock . Let it simmer for 5 minutes.

 7. Arrange raw shrimps over rice and chicken. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

  8. Carefully place red paprika strips over it. Put pan into a preheated ( 200° C) oven, cover loosely with aluminium foil and bake for 30 more minutes or until rice is al dente. I'm Asian and I like my rice a bit mushy. I cooked mine for about 10 more minutes. (^_^)

                   Garnish with chopped parsley and serve with lemon wedges. Enjoy!

Filipino style Arroz Valenciana

Every time I go back home to the Philippines, Nanay always asked what I want to have as my first welcome home meal.  I could request a whole lechon and I know, my Family will go scourge the neighborhood and beyond for the most promising swine to satisfy my home sicked palate. Anything for the long gone child,per se.

To answer that question,  I always and I mean always, requested Tinolang Manok ( native chicken soup), grilled tuna jaw and lastly, something that might request the most work, the Arroz Valenciana . 

My mother's brothers can cook tasty Valencianas. They're the official cooks in the family . So during family feasts and celebrations,  if there will be a pig squealing, chicken chucking or ducks quacking, they are the men behind the animals' distress calls. Don't take it against them or our family, they are farmers who raised animals, very well if I may add ,( much better than how commercialized animals in most develop countries are raised) and slaughter it, for food.
 Valenciana Is always present in our family get together and reuinon. Eating it is somehow interlaced with good times with family and close friends. 

I was feeling under the weather lately and missing my country. It would be another year for the next holiday, so I end up doing something that could make me feel like I'm back home, enjoying a festivity with my big and loud family. Pleasure the palate and soothe the mind. Food really comforts me. 

It was quite a lot of work to cook this dish but it worth it. I was quite happy with the result. By our next family reunion, I'm going to cook this and make my uncle Dodong and Uncle Cito proud of me.

Ingredients:

350 g sticky rice + 300 g jasmine rice

1 L chicken stock

1 tsp. turmeric powder ( originally, astuete or annato seed is used but I can't find it here)

1 chicken leg, chopped into bite size pieces

350 g pork shoulder, sliced into bite size pieces

200 g pork liver , sliced

300 g shrimps, shelled

1 medium sized onion, diced

4 - 6 cloves of garlic, finely minced

2 red bell pepper, cut into small squares

2 tbsp tomato purée/ paste

1 cup of raisin

1 cup of green peas

3 bay leaves

Oil for sautéing

Salt and pepper

Fish sauce

Cooking Instructions:

1.Cook sticky rice, jasmine rice in the rice cooker. Use about 800 ml of the chicken broth, add salt and turmeric, mix well until rice is submerged in the yellow tinged broth. 

The Protein cast and characters.

2.While rice is cooking. Chop and slice meat and vegetable and set aside.

3.Heat vegetable or olive oil in a non stick pan big enough to hold the protein chunks and carbs.Sauté diced onion until translucent, add in chopped garlic. Add in chicken and pork slices. Keep stirring  and cook for about 10 mins. 

Hello Iron!

4.Add in the liver.

 5.Add a dash of fish sauce. Put bay leaves in the pan. Season well with salt and pepper, cover and simmer for about 8 mins under high heat.

 

6. Take the lid out. Add chopped Bell peppers, peas and raisins. Stir! Stir! Stir!

7.Dissolve the tomato purée in the remaining 200 ml of chicken broth. Add the mixture into the Pan. Let it simmer for another 10 mins, uncovered.

8.Add in the just cooked rice into the pan. Mix thoroughly.

9.Stir in shrimps. Cover Pan until shrimps are cooked or turn pink. Mine was already glazed so it only took 5 more mins. Test taste. Season with more salt, pepper or fish sauce if needed.

Well? What are you waiting for? Dig in and enjoy!