Greetings! (Finally)

Hello! First of all, happy Lunar New Year!

Us at our new humble abode on the first morning of CNY

Sorry I took a longer break from this space for longer than expected.I needed the rest. The whole house-moving-before-lunar-new-year project took a lot out of me. Post-CNY (okay, technically it's still CNY), I'm now doing a major reshuffling of the girls' routine while taking the rest of the stuff easy.

Other than that, I'm itching to use my new kitchen. The first new recipe that I have tried out is a marinade for baked chicken wings. I short listed a few recipes from the Web and finally zero in on a particular one that has more Asian taste (think light soy sauce & five spice powder) and yet not spicy which is great for the girls. Served it up yesterday and the Husband gave them thumbs up. I shall share my modified version at the end of this post (sorry, i forgot to take pictures of them though). :)

Thought I will do a short update about the two girls' progress in the last couple of months here too.

Arielle has started walking at exactly 12 months old. These days, she zips around the house and gave us a couple of scares by attempting to climb up the stairs on her own. In addition, she has also started to talk a bit. I cannot remember exactly when she started. In the recent two months, I believe. Here's a list of her current vocabulary (I'm sure I will have left out some) and its mighty cute, hearing her talk.

Daddy (da-di)
Mommy (mama or ma-meh)
Jiejie - meaning big sister (teh-teh)
Bubbles (bubba)
Ball (bah)
Amen (a-meh)
Dog
Cat (tat)
抱抱 - meaning to carry (baobao)
Pompom - meaning to take a bath
Ah gong - meaning her paternal grandfather
Ah ma - meaning her paternal grandmother
大伯 - meaning oldest uncle (da per)
婆婆 - meaning maternal grandmother (Porpor)
Gorgor - meaning elder brother
壳壳 Kéké - meaning the name of a stuffed turtle we have (ke-ke)
Bus (bah)
Motorcycle (vroom-vroom)
Chicken (ti-kern)
Egg
Potato (ta-poh-toe)
Pororo

And more...

And for Anya. She is pretty much a child now. She has started pre-nursery since the beginning of this year. She talks (on and on), she reasons (too much at times), and screams. She walks, she runs and jumps around a lot. She dances, and sings a lot these days we have lost count of the number of songs she knows how to sing. She is finally open to eating meat though still very selective and she has grew 5-8 cm in the last couple of months (I swear it happened overnight). Very soon, she will have to pay a fare for taking public transport.

Last but not least, she has become much more independent. Just earlier on, she was taking her nap when I heard her room door opened. That usually meant she is done with her nap. She announced that she needed to pee as I sprinted upstairs. And so I quickly ushered her into the bathroom.

While helping her get undressed, I remarked, "Wow, Anya is done with your nap. You slept a good one & a half hours!". To which she cried, "I don't want..! I still want to sleep..!".

I did not quite believe as I know my little girl to take little naps typically but in order not for her whining escalate into a major boohoohoo, I quickly agreed. "Okay, you want to sleep some more? Sure."

After she was done using the bathroom, I waited to see what she would do next.

"I'm going to lie down," she said and walked back into her room. She lay down on the king-size mattress on the floor (her current bed co-shared with Arielle), turned towards the entrance where I'm standing, slightly stunned and said, "close the door." With that, she reached for her favourite hankie and rolled to her side with her back facing me. "Okay, byebye." I croaked and gingerly closed the door.

Wow.

Anyways, here's the recipe of the chicken marinade. It originated here and I have tweaked here and there to my own liking.

Ingredients:
9 fresh chicken wings
3 tablespoons light soy sauce (I actually used 1/4 cup in accordance to the original recipe but I found it to be too salty and hence will reduce it to 3 tbsp hereon)
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine
2 tablespoons tomato sauce
3 tablespoons honey (I increased the honey because the marinade was less sticky than I was hoping for)
2 tablespoons chilli sauce
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 tablespoon chopped garlic
1/2 teaspoon white pepper powder
1/2 teaspoon Chinese five spice powder

Method:

Remove tips from chicken wings and discard. Cut wings in half at the joint. Place in a large zip-lock bag. Combine marinade in a bowl and stir to mix well. Pour into the ziplock bag, seal and shake to ensure all chickens are coated with marinade. Store for at least 2 hours or overnight, if time permits. For me, I prefer to make large quantity (in this case, 9 pieces of 3-joint wings) and freeze them up and a few ziplock bags. Then I will use two bags as a side dish for dinner/lunch, a small bag where I cut up the meat into bit-sizes to use in baked rice or wrap.

Preheat oven to 160°C. Place chicken and marinade in a greased roasting pan (i used a corning ware casserole pan which worked just as well, save the scrubbing after that). Set the oven to bake for 40 minutes. 20 minutes later, up the temperature to 180°C and turn the wings over. Another 10 minutes later, turn them back again and up the temperature further to 220°C. Serve.

Note: By upping the temperature gradually, it lowers the meat to be juicer on the inside while browned on the outside - that is my own personal take. Hope you will like it. :)

Recipe: Oven-Baked Salmon

The Husband is a fan of salmon. At Ikea's cafe, our default order is two sets of salmon steak plus a pair of fried chicken wings to share.  At Sushi Tei, we always order sashimi salad and request to change all the sashimi to salmon. Another must order in Sushi Tei is the salmon skin. Then over at Ichiban Sushi, our must-order is the grilled salmon head. Now, I'm about to divulge one of our best kept secret: The salmon head at Ichiban is a steal! At $10 (from what I recall though we haven't been there for a year now because the nearest outlet to us always has a snaking queue that parents with young kids like us avoid like plague), you get a humongous half salmon head with ample meat and it goes really well with rice! Never mind that you have to wait 20 minutes for it to be grilled to perfection!

Come to think of it, whenever we enter a Japanese eatery, there is a 95% likelihood that you will find some sort of salmon dish on our table. Anyway, you get the point: The Husband loves salmon. So, being the loving wifey that I am (or so I say), I have been on the lookout for a salmon recipe that is not too complicated for a amateur cook like me. Over the couple of years, I tried out a few and after rounds of modification, I think I have gotten something that goes well with our tastebuds. Hope you'll like it too! :)

(Serves 3)
Ingredients
3 salmon steaks (around 200gms each)
half Australian Tahiti lime, juice only
3 teaspoons of olive oil
2 teaspoons of yellow mustard
1 tablespoon of grated ginger
Dash of salt
Dash of cayenne pepper powder (optional for a spicy kick)
1 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
3 teaspoons of minced garlic


(Actually, I did not measure accurately the amount of seasonings as above. For most of the seasonings like pepper and rosemary are sprinkled directly from the bottle. So the above amount is really just a guideline of the relative proportions. And of course, if you favour one seasoning over another (e.g. pepper over ginger, feel free to wallop more pepper!)



Directions

1. With the exception of the minced garlic, sprinkle and smear the rest of the seasonings evenly on both sides of the 3 salmon steaks. For the grated ginger, I usually squeeze out the juice and drip it evenly over the salmon before smearing the ginger pulp on the surface. Leave the marinate to stand in the fridge for an hour. 
2. Add another two teaspoon of olive oil into heated pan / wok. Add minced garlic when oil is heated.  At medium heat, stir garlic till garlic turns slightly browned and you can smell the fragrance. Turn off heat and leave garlic aside.
3. Preheat oven at 175 degrees Celsius. Brush a layer of olive oil on a baking tray's surface. Place salmon steaks with skin facing up on the baking tray. Sprinkle minced garlic on top. 
4. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork. 

Before going into the oven.

Ready to be served!

P.S. If you enjoy organising your own BBQ party, this recipe will do will over the grill too! Just be sure to turn both sides for crispy grilled perfection.

Recipe: Oven Roasted Chicken

I have decided to to post recipes on this space from now on. While it is not really related to parenting, cooking sure comes as part of the responsibilities of being a SAHM. I reckon it will be a useful future reference for myself and the daughters should they be interested in pottering around the kitchen in time to come. And of course, those of you who pop by here are welcome to try out the recipes too!

Just a note though, if you are looking for professional cooking techniques, this is probably not for you. At the end of the day, I am really just a kitchen enthusiast (an aspiring kitchen goddess, not actually one!) who usually use cheats such as store-bought mix and sauces in my recipes. You probably can relate me more to noobcook. Lastly, I welcome all feedback and suggestions as to how to improve on the recipes too! Hope to hear from you! :)

So, the inaugural recipe post here shall be on oven roasted chicken. This is my second try and I have made some modifications from the original recipe that I copied online as the first try did not turn out too well (too salty and overcooked!).

Last night's roasted chicken was a hit. The meat was tender and succulent, the skin was flavourful with a tint of lime. The Husband pronounced it better than Kenny Rogers and even the helper was seemingly impressed. I was chuffed. Hee!


Ingredients (With two sides, it serves 3):

• 1 whole chicken, 1.3kg (Cut off head and feet)
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 2 tablespoons of lime juice (I used Australian Tahitian lime that are often seen in NTUC these days)
• 1/4 cup (or 4 tablespoons) of light soy sauce
• 1/4 cup of canola oil
• 1 tablespoon of sesame oil (optional - I added it on a whim cos I love the fragrant smell of it!)
• 1 tablespoon of ketchup
• 1 tablespoon of chilli sauce
• 2 teaspoons of chopped garlic
• 3/4 teaspoon of coarse black pepper (or pepper mill grind black pepper for even fresher pepper taste!)
• 1/2 teaspoon of dried rosemary leaves
• 1 tablespoon of yellow mustard sauce

Method:
After cleaning the chicken and pat dry, rub salt all over chicken surface and insides. FYI, since it isn't a stuffed chicken, I did away with the tying. Put it in a large dish, add all the marinate ingredients in. Be sure that the ingredients are well-mixed and the chicken is well-covered (including the insides) by the marinate.

Chicken standing in the fridge.

Let it stand in the fridge for 8-24 hours. For last night, due to time constraint, I only let it stand in the fridge for 3 hours. However, I made it a point to flip the chicken after 1.5 hours so that both sides get to be partially submerged in the marinate.

Pre-heat the oven at 170 degrees Celsius for 15 minutes. Here is a few points to note. Mine is a conventional oven that do not have a rotisserie. Of course, having a rotisserie will ensure the chicken be evenly cooked. In this case, I overcame it by flipping the chicken later on (will touch on it later). Also, while the recipe calls for 170 degrees Celsius, note that all conventional ovens do differ in actual temperature. So it is important to suss out your oven and be able to adjust accordingly. In my case, I pre-heated the oven at 170 degrees Celsius and had it adjusted downwards later on.

Basting using metal spoon before putting into oven.

Take the chicken out from the fridge. Baste the chicken once before putting it into the oven. For those who are unfamiliar with the term basting, it basically means to glaze the chicken with the marinate. In my case, I do not have a brush, so I use a metal spoon to pour marinate over the chicken, a few spoonful at a time. Basting is crucial in ensuring that your chicken turns out flavorful. For ease of basting throughout baking, I put an additional tray in the oven below the chicken to collect the marinate drips for later use. 

Into the oven it goes!

For a 1.2kg-1.3kg chicken, bake it for 75 to 90 minutes. Check the chicken after 10-15 minutes. A sign that the temperature is too high is the blackening of the tips of the chicken wings. If so, adjust temperature downwards (5-10 degrees Celsius at a time). Baste chicken at every 15 minutes interval, collect drips for reuse.

Blackening of the tips of the wings means temperature is too high

At 45th-50th minute, flip the chicken onto the other side. To gentle as you lift the chicken up to prevent tearing of the skin.

Flipped to the other side.

At 75th minute, start checking if the chicken is cooked. As I do not have a meat thermometer, I use the skewer test. Poke it into the thickest flesh part of the chicken. If it comes out clean, it is cooked. It is uncooked if the skewer comes out pinkish (tint of blood).

Skewer comes out clean!

Once cooked, switch off oven. The chicken is ready to be served! :)

Yummilicious chicken ready to be served!

For dinner last night, I served up the chicken with mashed potato and buttery corn kernels on the side. I tried making brown gravy from the drips but unfortunately, the gravy tasted funny due to the amount of lime juice in the recipe. But then again, The Husband felt that the chicken was flavorful and juicy enough on its own. "No need gravy!", he said. I kinda agree. Usually, I have to have chilli sauce to go with my chickens. But for last night, I could do without it.:)