Crispy Oven Baked Chicken Thighs

This year the hubby and I decided that we would be eating healthier, so for the pass few months we have been experimenting with new recipes. Here is one of our new found dishes that's so easy to make and we can indulge in without feeling guilty.

Crispy Oven Baked Chicken Thighs

Ingredients:

Chicken Thighs
Salt and Pepper
Garlic Powder

Method:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. For easy clean up, line a large shallow baking pan with foil sprayed with cooking spray or simply spray pan with cooking spray.

Season chicken on both sides with salt, pepper and garlic OR seasoning of your choice. Place on pan making sure the pan is large enough to accommodate the chicken without crowding but leaving at least an inch or more between pieces. The less crowed the chicken pieces, the crispier they will become.

Bake chicken 35-45 mins or up to an hour. Chicken pieces should be well browned and crispy on the outside and the juices clear.

Three Little Words

For the pass few days I seem to be in a rut, don't really know whats wrong with me... hmmmm could it be that time of the month when my hormone's are going out of control I thought, but after counting my days I guess its not .... well what could it be then?... Why do I feel the way I feel... I just want to get away and be alone, away from the world and all those whom I love as well as those I rather not be with.

So I gathered myself and offered to go for take out as I was just not up to cooking. During the journey I decided to call a friend to ask her what was she up to, and when she answered the call by saying " Valarie, I love you!!!" I was just lost for words and started laughing and crying at once. Now here's not something I often hear over the phone. We both laughed for awhile and ended the call.

On my way home I realised that I wasn't feeling as bad as I was when I left home, so I decided to call a few friends and told them that I loved them and before I could reached home I had received a few calls from other friends telling me that they loved me too.

Apparently my girlfriend had started a chain reaction without realising it and it was a great way to let people around us know that there is someone out there who loves and care enough to let you know that your loved.


By the time I reached home I was one very happy camper with a big smile on my face. With a puzzled look on his face the hubby asked "What happen to you while you were out getting lunch?" My answer "I LOVE YOU".

What's Cooking Tomorrow

My son's back for the semester break and having him home means I do alot more cooking, not that I'm complaining at all, but daily it would be a battle of thinking of what's the menu going to be for the coming day?

My boy is not a fussy eater, he basically eats whatever that's put in front of him but the one dish that I would say that is his favourite is spaghetti. Now preparing a spaghetti dish is one of those dishes that I enjoy doing cause it's ready in a jiffy. Here you have a dish that's easy to make and cost next to nothing. Just add some garlic bread and a salad and we have a wholesome healthy meal.

Well, now you can guess what the menu going to be tomorrow.

While most of us make spaghetti sauce by opening a jar or can, preferring convenience to sweat and tears of homemade. Let me tell you that making Spaghetti Sauce from scratch is not only simple but also delicious. Here is a recipe that will not only impress your friends and family, as well as your taste buds.

Making spaghetti sauce from scratch means you experimenting with all the different kinds of ingredients to discover what mix of taste you prefer.

There a few steps to getting things done but have some patience and enjoy the finish.




Spaghetti Sauce

Ingredients
20 ripe fresh Tomatoes
1/4 cups of chopped onions
3 cloves of chopped garlic
2 tablespoon of basil
1 lb choped mushrooms
1 large chopped green pepper
2 bay leave
2 tablespon oregano
1/4 teaspoon of ground black pepper
grated Parmesan cheese
3 tablespoon on olive oil

Method:

Prepare the tomatoes:
In a big pot of boiling water, put tomatoes in a few at the time for about 45 seconds. Remove them and immediately plunge them into ice water. This process will make the skin come right off.
Now cut tomatoes into half and squeeze each one with clean finger to remove seeds, put aside to drain.
Put the drain tomatoes in a food processor and liquefy.

Heat olive oil in a large pot and add onions and garlic and stir till onions is soft and garlic is golden brown. Add muchrooms, green peppers and liquified tomatoes to the pot and cook for a few minutes. Now add spices and bring to a boil, cover and simmer until sauce is thick.

You have now made spaghetti sauce from scrath. Enjoy!

Being Prepared

I'm one of those who would find ways of doing things in the shortest and quickest way.

NO!! that doesn't mean that I short change anyone. I just a planner and I find that it works just great for me and also for all those around me.

The 1 thing that I'm always doing is planing meals for my family.... as soon as I find out if the kids were coming home be it for the weekend or just for the day I would get all excited and the first thing I would ask them would be "what would you like to eat when you get home?" Then I would go all out to try my very best to get things on the way.

The 1 thing that I normally have ready in the freezer is my sambal base. I would make a whole lot of sambal base and then store them in the freezer for emergencies, this way I won't have to start from scratch every time I wanted to have a sambal dish made. So with my ready made sambal in the freezer I'm ready at anytime for unexpected guest (which happens quite often) who drop by for dinner or just ready to cook for the day.

So here I'm going to share with you the secret of my sambal base which can be added with anything IE: seafood, chicken or even eggs.

Here I leave you with the receipe for Hard Boiled Egg Sambal with Prawns. Enjoy ;p

Hard Boiled Egg Sambal with Prawns

Ingredients

500 grams of prawns ( shelled but tail left on)

3 chicken eggs or 15 quails eggs (hard boiled)

10 fresh red chillies

10 dry chillis (soaked till soft)

3 gloves of garlic

2 thumb size of balachan (prawn paste)

6 shallots

2 big onions (sliced)

3 tablespoon of thick tamarine juice

2 - 3 tablespoon of sugar

5 tablespon of oil

salt to taste

Method:

Using a blender, add fresh chilies, dried soaked chillies, balachan, shallots and garlic. Blend it to a fine paste and set aside.

Use a toothpick and lightly prick shelled hard boiled eggs in several places and pat dry.
Heat oil in wok and deep fry eggs until chrispy. Remove and set aside

Using the same oil now fry the sliced onions and blended ingredients until fragrant. When the gravy starts to bubble lower the heat to medium and add sugar, tamarine juice and salt to taste.
As gravy starts to thicken add prawns and fried eggs and simmer for 5 minutes. Stirring often to prevent burning.

Serve with hot steaming rice with slices of cold cucumbers.

A Family Favorite

Pandan Leaf Chicken with Thai Dipping Sauce

Ingredients

400 grams Chicken Drumstick cut into bite size

15 - 20 pandan leaf (screw pine leaf)

Oil for frying

tooth picks

Marinate:

40 grams shallots / small onions

2 cloves garlic

2 lemon grass / serai

3/4 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp pepper

1 tsp light soy sauce

a pinch of turmeric

Dipping sauce (mixed together)

3 tablespoons roughly grounded roasted peanuts

5 tablespoon Thai chillie sauce

Method:

Combine all the marinate ingredients together in a blender and blend into a fine paste.

Season chicken pieces with marinate for a few hours.

Take a screw pine leaf / pandan leaf and fold into a small cone. Place marinated chicken pieces and wrapped up neatly. Secure with tooth pick.

Heat oil and fry pandan leaf chicken over medium heat until leaf turns light brown.

Remove from heat and drain off excess oil.

Serve with Dipping.

Getting Started

It seem like eons ago that I have blogged ...... did try to start a few times but I guess the creative juices just wasn't flowing... so hopefully this time I'll get started and stay with it.

This time around I'll be blogging about my travels, health and my favourite subject "FOOD" ..... ;p.... but that doesn't mean that I wont be throwing in how I feel about things that happens around me.

I love to cook and watch people enjoy my food, Thur the years I must have cooked thousands of dishes and really enjoyed the look on the face people who had finished their meals and knowing they had enjoyed themselves brought great satisfaction to me.

So Lets Get Started with one of my favourite meats PORK ^@^ ......

Chinese Style Roast Pork

Ingredients:

1 piece of pork belly about 1.5 kg

3 tablespoon of coarse/rock salt

2 tablespoon of fine salt

1 tablespoon of 5 spice powder

Method

Wash pork belly and pat dry with kitchen towel.

With a sharp knife make small cuts on the skin of the pork belly and rub coarse salt on it. Finally apply rub fine salt and 5 spice powder on the meat.

Heat oven till 180 C. Place pork belly on a wire rack with a tray underneath to catch drippings.

Roast for about 30 minutes or until the coarse salt crystallises like in the pic below

Remove crystallised salt and continue to roast until the skin start to crackle and become crispy

Cut into small pieces and serve with hot steaming rice.