Roast Chicken in Pepper Steak Seasoning

My apologies for not updating my love for food blog. Some friends are complaining because I don't have new entries but the truth is that we moved to Australia from Indonesia and we were busy looking for a house and trying to settle in. I also got a new computer that needs a different SD card reader so I can't upload the  photos of the food that I took straight away. I wish to have a new camera as a christmas gift... Santa Claus please hear me? hehehe...

Let me tell you this though, the roast chicken I cooked tonight was very tasty! I have no photos to share unfortunately and I hope you can just imagine how we enjoyed our dinner. The meat was juicy and tasty even without a gravy, yummmmmm!

All you need are:

• 1 medium-size chicken
• salt
• pepper steak seasoning
• butter
• 1 stick celery (slice into 4)
• 1 small carrot (slice into 4)
• 1 whole onion
• a few cloves of garlic ( I didn't want a strong garlicky flavour )

-Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
-First of all rinse the chicken thoroughly then pat it dry using a kitchen paper towel.
-Rub salt inside and outside the chicken, sprinkle the seasoning inside and outside of chicken as well. You can put a few whole peppercorns into the chicken cavity if you don't like pepper sprinkled on the skin.
-Put 2 or 3 slices of butter like the size of your thumb inside the cavity then the celery, onion, carrot and garlic. I had about 3 cloves, if you are not too fussy about garlic you can add the whole garlic making sure you prick each clove to release it's flavour and aroma. I did pricked the garlic I put into the chicken cavity.
-Slide 2 or 3 fingers between the breast skin and meat and move from side to side to loosen (the skin stretches easily, but be careful to move slowly to prevent tears) and put some butter.
-Place the chicken breast side up, on rack in roasting pan for about 1 hour and 30 minutes to 2 hours.
-Turn the chicken over once it turns brown then I suggest you start basting from the juices or dripping of the chicken every now and then.

Serve it with steam broccoli and asparagus or mashed potato once cooked. Enjoy!

Salmon Burger

I have been following the book “Eat Right for Your Blood Type” by Dr. Peter D'Adamo (http://www.dadamo.com/program.htm ) since the last week of November 2008. I had been feeling sick before I started this and my cough and cold just won’t go away. It has been quite a challenge to eat right and at the same time enjoy the food that is supposed to be right for my blood type. My blood type is B, hubby is A and our daughter is AB. There are food that I can’t eat that my husband can eat while our daughter is just in between, but she eats most of the food I can have. For dinner though I make sure we have something that we can all eat. Tonight I thought I experiment my own style of salmon patty which turned out to be really good! It will be added on my recipe list of course.


Here are the ingredients:

A.

2 pcs. Salmon fillet (skin removed)
Onion powder
Garlic powder
Dried Parsley
Breadcrumbs
1 Egg
Salt

B.
Cooking oil

C.
White bread or burger bun (or your preferred bread)
Lettuce
Carrots
Beetroot
Cheese

1. Minced salmon fillet and add the rest of the ingredients in A.
2. Heat oil in the pan. Make a tiny patty and fry it. Taste it and check if you need to add more salt or the other ingredients in A.
3. If you are satisfies you can then make big patties (two salmon fillets make 2 or 3 patties) and fry under medium heat until brown.
4. Prepare bread on the plate. Put the lettuce, carrots, beetroot, salmon patty and cheese.
5. Serve hot.

May's Sauteed Prawn

I had a wonderful lunch with my Mum one time at their home in the Philippines and this was one of the dishes served. I wanted to have a prawn or a shrimp one day and thought of this dish. I asked Mum how she cooked the prawn dish and she told me my elder sister made it not her. Thankfully it is easier to get in touch with our family and friends nowadays because of the internet. We both have YM (yahoo messenger) and it is on every day, so I asked her secret prawn recipe. She laughed and said it is so easy to cook. Now remember, the amount of oil, salt and sugar depends on how much prawn you are going to cook.

WHAT YOU NEED:

Prawn/ Shrimp
Olive oil
Garlic
Salt
Sugar

WHAT TO DO:

1. Wash prawn with water.
2. Put the prawn in the heated pan.
3. When water from the prawn had dried up on the pan add the oil.
4. Put the garlic and add salt.
5. Cook for 10 minutes or until the color of the prawn changes to orange.
6. Add a little bit of sugar, preferably brown sugar.
7. Adjust the taste and serve while hot.

Fish with Teriyaki Sauce

I told Mini to cook my daughter her lunch a few days ago. I had an appointment for my hair that day and I told her not to cook anything for me. But then I finished my appointment earlier than I thought. I decided to go home and see what I can have. Trinity (my daughter) had rice and fish with some sort of sauce in it. I wasn’t interested in her food because I was thinking of the ‘chicken macaroni salad’ that I made. As I was about to open the fridge Trinity said she had enough of her lunch. There is something about being a mother that told me I better eat her left over or else it will go to the bin. So there I go, grabbing her plate and started eating half of the fish and the left over rice. I enjoyed eating it and asked Mini what was in the sauce. She said it’s JUST teriyaki sauce. I asked her to cook the same dish today and I still enjoyed it.


YOU NEED:

3 tsp of teriyaki sauce
3 tsp of Maggi seasoning
1 tsp of corn flour (mix with 3 tsp of water)
1 cup of water
1 clove garlic
1 small sized onion
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 pcs of fish

WHAT YOU NEED:

1. Sprinkle fish with salt
2. Heat enough oil in the pan and fry the fish
3. Heat 2 tbsp of vegetable oil in another pan
4. Sauté garlic and onion till wilted
5. Add water, teriyaki sauce and Maggi seasoning
6. Cover and boil for 3-5 minutes
7. Pour the mixture of corn flour to the sauce
8. Transfer cooked fish to the other pan where you are cooking the teriyaki sauce
9. Cover again and let it boil for another 3 minutes
10. Serve at once while hot.

NOTE:

I believe we all have different taste so always adjust your seasonings and other sauces.

Water Spinach in Oyster Sauce

Mini my helper cooked a green vegetable to go along with the Grilled Pork Belly that I had today. It was easy to make all you need are; water spinach, garlic, onion, oyster sauce and pepper. Add a little bit of water if there was no water coming out from the washed water spinach.

Grilled Pork Belly

A new friend of mine Anne was showing me photos of her cooking. One of those was “Chili crab” but then there was another dish at the back of the chili crab. I asked her what it was and she said its pan-fried pork belly, and it was so easy to cook. She told me how to marinate pork in 3 different ways. That afternoon I went to the mall and was thinking of an easy to cook dinner. According to Anne the dish was easy to cook so I decided to have them for dinner. Trying to remember the ingredients for it I decided to make 3 different choices of sauces. I decided to grill it instead of frying for health reason. The one with fish sauce was very salty, the one with oyster sauce had a taste I can’t describe and the third tasted simple yet tasty. That night I had a chat with her and I asked her again how it was marinated. Sad to say, there was a mismatch of the other ingredients. So here’s the soy based marinate that I like and tasted better than the 2 sauces.

TO DO:

Combine the following:

· pork belly (160 grams) (sliced according to your liking)
· soy sauce (just enough to cover the pork)
· garlic
· lime (half)
· Peppercorn



WHAT TO DO:

1. Marinate for 30 to 2 hours.
2. Heat the grilling pan
3. Put the pork in the pan
4. Remove from pan when it's ready and cooked.

NOTE: This serving is for 2 people.

Sarciadong Isda with Chayote

I had a chat with my high school classmate via yahoo messenger two nights ago. He mentioned that his wife checks my food blog every now and then to get some recipes. Lately though I made my helper do the cooking since my husband is in America anyway, and I don’t have a fussy eater around the house. So last night I decided to do a simple dish “Sarciadong Isda”. This dish doesn’t include chayote but I wanted a vegetable in my dinner last night. You may double the serving size if you are cooking for your family.


YOU NEED:

2 fried fish
1 big tomato
1 onion (medium size)
2 cloves of garlic
Half of Chayote (whatever slice you like as long as it is still crunchy when you eat it)
1 egg (beaten)
1 tbsp olive oil (any cooking oil you have)
1 cup water
1 bay leaf (optional)
Pepper
Fish sauce or salt to taste

WHAT TO DO:

1. Heat olive oil in the pan
2. Sauté garlic and onion ‘till golden brown
3. Add tomato, sauté for a minute or two
4. Add chayote, water, bay leaf, pepper and fish sauce (just a little bit of fish sauce for now)
5. When boiling adjust the taste by adding more fish sauce or salt if necessary
6. Let it boil for another 2 or 3 minutes then add egg little bit at a time stirring
7. Turn off the heat
8. Put half of the sauce you cooked to the serving dish, arrange the fish, then put the rest of the sauce on top of the dish
9. Serve with steam rice.