Baked chicken mid-wings

These are addictive!!! They are very easy to prepare with just a few ingredients. 

Baked Chicken Mid-Wings Recipe:

Ingredients :

20 pieces of chicken mid-wings - cleaned & pat dry. 

2 tbsp oyster sauce

2 tbsp soya sauce 

1/2 tsp pepper

Preparation Steps:

1. Marinate chicken in the above ingredients for 3 hrs or overnight in the fridge. 

2. Lay them neatly on the baking tray lined with aluminum foil / baking paper. 

3. Bake in preheated oven at 180 degree C for 20 minutes or untill fully cooked. 

4. Remove from oven. Serve as finger food or as a dish with steamed rice. 

Bon appétit !

Chin's notes:

1. Ensure chicken is at room temperature before bake. 

2. You can coat the chicken wings with some honey if you prefer them sweet, coat the wings after chicken are cooked, leave them in the oven for just a few mins before you remove them from the oven.

3. I like to pour the left over marinade on the wings before bake. 

4. My favourite oyster sauce. 

5. Cut the chicken in 3 sections. I normally throw away the tail end. But they are yummy if deep fried. 

Cut the wings into 3 sections. 

Chicken in Chinese Cooking Wine

A simple dish, chicken cooked in XiaoShing cooking wine (Chinese cooking wine) for today's dinner. 

Chicken in Chinese Cooking Wine Recipe: 

Ingredients : 

700g Chicken thigh cleaned, deboned & cut into bite sizes.

1 tbsp dark sweet soy sauce

3 clove garlic - smash 

2 tbsp vegetable oil 

Marinade: 

3 tbsp ShaoXing cooking wine 

1 tbsp oyster sauce 

1 tbsp soy sauce. 

Salt & pepper to taste 

1 thumb size ginger grated/chopped & juiced. 

Preparation steps : 

1. Marinate the chicken with the marinades for 30 minutes. 

2. Heat up the wok on high heat, add in the oil then garlic. Fry until fragrant then add in the marinated chicken.

3. Fry until chicken is partially cooked. Add in dark sweet soy sauce. Stir until the chicken is well coated for a few minutes. Cover with a lid turned the heat to medium & let the chicken smimmer until chicken is fully cooked. 

4. Dish out. Served with blanched broccoli & steamed rice. 

Bon appétit !! 

Chin's notes: 

1. There will be some gravy from the chicken. If more gravy is preferred, add some water & some soy sauce & adjust the taste accordily. 

2. These are also yummy to go with cooked egg noodles. 

3. Don't throw away the ginger after you taken the juice. Add them to the chicken as marinade. Best if they are fried with garlic before the chicken. 

4. Here is a picture of ShaoXing cooking wine. 

5. Alternatively HuaTiow Chinese cooking wine can used if ShaoXing is not available. 

Marmite chicken

An easy recipe with a twist!

Ingredients : 

4 chicken thighs , cut into chuncky bite size. ( deboned optional).  Marinate with 1 tbsp of soy sauce , 1 tbsp cornflour , salt & pepper to taste.
Ingredients:
4 chicken thighs, (remove the bone & cut into chuncky bite sizes & marinate for at least - 1hr with

Sauce: ( mix well in a bowl) 
1 very big tbsp of marmite 
1 tbsp maltose 
1 tbsp honey 
100ml warm water 

Method:
1. Deep fry chicken pieces in hot oil until golden brown & cooked. Dish out & set aside. Drain the oil. 
2. Leave a little oil in the wok. Heat up the wok & pour in the sauce mix, cook untill thicken. Add in the fried chicken & stir well. 
3. Dish up & serve with steamed rice! 

Bon appétit !

Pineapple Jam

It is not difficult to make pineapple jam, just that the process takes a very long time.

Using a different sugar will gives you a different jam colour. 

If brown sugar is used, you'll get a deeper brown coloured jam. 

Here is how I prepare my pineapple purée. 

1. Cut the top & bottom of the pineapple. 

2. Cut away the skin. You can cut deeper into the flesh to get rid of some of the "eyes". 

3. Remove the "eyes" from the pineapple, buy cutting a V along the eyes. 

4. Keep going until you have all the "eyes" removed. 

5. Cut them into smaller chuncks to be puréed in the blender. 

6. Drained the juice, to reduce the liquid before the cooking process. 

Pineapple Jam Recipe: 

Yeild about 650g of jam. 

Ingredients: 

1500g pineapple purée

350g white sugar / brown sugar 

2 pandan leaves ( optional ) 

Preparation Steps: 

1. Place the pan on the stove heat on high flame. Add in all the ingredients & give it a good stir & mix well. 

2. Once the purée started to bubbles. Reduced heat to medium mode. 

3. Stir constantly until the liquid level reduced. 

4. Try your jam, if it is not sweet enough add more sugar, tablespoon by tablespoon & continue to cook the jam until texture is dry. 

5. Transfer the cooked jam to a clean , sterlised container / jar. 

6. Seal, label & date your jam. 

Voilà ! 

Chin's Notes. 

1. I like to use heavy based pan, because it can reduced the chances of burning the jam easily. 

2. I like my jam color cooked in brown sugar. The color is deeper & I like the taste too. It is my personal preference.

3. Jam can be kept in the fridge for at least 1 month in a sterlised containers. 

4. Taste the jam while cooking, if it is not sweet enough add more sugar until you get the sweetness that you like. 

5. You can make it slightly sweeter because after you baked them to the pastry, the sweetness is usually reduced. 

6. Different type of sugar was used. The one on the left is cooked in brown sugar & the one on the right is in white sugar.  

7. These are suitable for pineapple tarts. Pineapple tarts recipes :

Pineapple rolls : 

http://fromchinshome.blogspot.fr/2015/01/pineapple-rolls.html?m=1

Pineapple closed tarts : 

http://fromchinshome.blogspot.fr/2014/10/pineapple-tarts.html?m=1

Different Methods in cooking the Pineapple Jam

Usually this time of the year, a lot of bakers in Singapore / Malaysia will be busy making their Chinese New Year ( Chinese Lunar Year ) snacks. One of the favourite is pineapple tarts with homemade pineapple jam or premade jam bought from the store. 

Today, I decided to try to make some pineapple jam with different methods.  Jam made by the bread machine ( on the left, with a deeper brown colour)  or stir them in the deep based heavy pan over the stove ( on the right, with a yellow colour). 

The link below has the detailed instructions on how to make pineapple jam : 

http://fromchinshome.blogspot.fr/2015/01/pineapple-jam.html?m=1

Here are the ingredients used: 

Bread Machine (BM) - 1500g Pineapple purée , 350g brown sugar. 

Pan on Stove (PS) - 1500g Pineapple purée , 350g white castor sugar + 2 pandan leaves. 

For BM , there is a jam mode function. I'm using Kenwood bread machine BM450 model. 1 cooking cycle is 1hr 25mins. 

Below are my findings : 

BM - after 1 cycle of cooking in the machine, the jam is still very wet. 

And I decided start another cycle. 

After 1hr into the 2nd cycle: The jam is still wet. 

PS - after 1 hr of cooking, most of the liquid has evaporated. 

After 1hr 25 mins, my jam looks dried and it is done! 

Conclusion : 

PS, does a better job to cook jam. It can be done within 1 hr 30 mins, just that I need to stand & stir the jam constantly.

BM, took 2 hr 30min & the jam is still wet. I have to put it on the stove & cooked it for another 30 mins to get the jam to the right texture. Hence total cooking time is 3hrs.

Which method do you prefer? 

Fresh oysters

Tried once during my uni years & I'm hooked on them since. 

They are on sale at Carrefour Montesson Paris today, 18€ for a basket. There are about 30 medium size fresh oysters in a basket. 

The freshly opened oysters, will have some sea water, try not to spill them when you open the oysters. They are yummy! I will drink the sea water before I eat the oysters. 😋   

My hubby's French friend once told us that we should always drink the sea water from the oysters. We are aware but never get the chance to try them cos they were already open & served on the plate. 

I always like my fresh oysters with just a little lemon juice. 

Finally get a chance to open (shuck) them. Picked up a new skill on how to shuck the oysters. 

Here is a video on how to open (shuck) an oyster. 

http://youtu.be/4qI11fK-xeM

Bon appétit !! 

Chin's notes:

1. Do not use kitchen knife. Use an oyster knife as they are specially made for opening/shucking the oysters. 

2. Protect your hand that is holding the oyster. 

3. Added 06/01/2015 - apparently I need to scrub & clean the oysters before I shuck them.  Don't forget to clean your oysters. ;) 

Pineapple Rolls

Finally got around to make these.  These are popular snacks for Chinese New Year.  My first attempt for Pineaple rolls.  I think it is a great way to start a new year!! :)

It is very nice of my friend Evelyn Lim to share her lovely recipe with me.  I made some adjustment to her recipe because I do not have all the needed ingredients & wanted so badly to try to make these rolls.  Ghee is also another ingredients which I'd read in many blogs that it will give the tarts a buttery flavour.  

These rolls are so yummy & they melts in your mouth. 

I used these tools to help me piped out the pastry. Thanks to my friend SiewLoon who brought me these when she visited Paris in March 2014. 

Pineapple Rolls Adapted from Evelyn Lim's Recipe.  

Pastry Ingredients : 

150g butter 

100g pure ghee ( I used QB pure ghee )

60g icing sugar 

2 egg yolks

370g plain flour

2 tbsp custard powder 

2 tbsp cornflour 

Tart fillings :

500g pineapple jam 

Egg wash :

1 egg - beaten 

1/4 tsp salt 

Method : 

1. Divide the pineapple jam into small portion & form into an oval shapes. 

2. Combine all the pastry ingredients into a mixer, set on low speed until a soft dough is form. Remove & let it rest for 5 minutes. 

3a. Place some dough into to the mould & pressed out the dough about 5cm in length. Place a piece of jam fillings on one end & roll up to enclose the fillings. 

Note: with the grains facing down. 

3b. Alternatively you can piped out a long strips , put the jam filling at the end , roll & cut out, continue until you finish the whole strips. Hence you do not need to measure the each strips.  Thanks to Christina Lim's advise. I'll try that the next batch of bake! ;) 

4. Brush some egg wash on the pastry. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 deg C for 15 mins or until golden brown. 

5. Remove from oven & leave it completely cool before keeping them in an airtight containers. 

Bon appétit !! 

Chin's Note:

1. The original recipe as for 250g margarine. I replaced with butter & ghee. 

2. Here are some pictures of the process for making these rolls. 

3. There are other moulds used to pipe out the pastry. I find the tools that I have needs a lot of strength, after a few my thumb & fingers hurts. I could be doing it the wrong way. 

4. Added 05/01/2015 - Apparently there is an extension for my mould. Here is a picture of Chirstina's tool to pipe out the pastry.