Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Cheesy Chicken Fingers


Cheese again! My kids love cheese. And not to mention fried stuff. Who wouldn't?

However, as it's heaty to take too much fried stuff, I only once a week. And it's usually comes with water chestnut drink.

 This dish is similar to this except I have cut down on the cheese. You can say that it's a cheaper but crunchier version. :)

Ingredients:
  • 1 skinless chicken breast meat
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup Breadcrumbs or Panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
  • 1/2 cup Shredded Parmesan Cheese
  • 1 Egg, beaten
  • 1/3 cup Flour
How to do it:
  1. Cut the chicken meat into strips
  2. Marinate with salt for 30 minutes.
  3. Dust the chicken with flour.
  4. Dip the chicken in the beaten egg.
  5. Coat well with Panko mixed with Parmesan Cheese.
  6. Deep fry till golden brown.
  7. Dish and drain away excess oil.
  8. Serve with or without your desire sauce.
Note:
  • You can sprinkle on some chilli powder or paprika after frying too.
  • You can use Parmesan Cheese powder instead of the shredded type.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Maple Cookie

I haven't baked for a long long time. I managed to clear most of my housework yesterday. After washing all the pots and dishes, I set up the water play box for the kids outside our house and started baking with little disturbance. I still have to outside to break up their argument. Haiz!

I'm surprised I'm still able to finished baking the whole lot. In fact, I did a second batch soon after because the kids finished almost all the first lot of cookies as soon as I packed them.


Ingredients:
  • 300g Top Flour or Cake Flour
  • 5g Baking Powder
  • 4g Salt
  • 180g Unsalted Butter
  • 100g Brown Sugar
  • 1 Egg
  • 60ml Maple Syrup

How to do it:
  1. Beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy
  2. Add egg and beat well.
  3. Blend in the maple syrup.
  4. Fold in the flour, baking powder and salt till a dough is formed.
  5. Divide dough into 4g balls.
  6. Lay all the ball dough in baking pan with baking paper.
  7. You can flatten it a little or leave it as it is.
  8. Bake in preheated oven at 180C for 13 minutes till golden brown.
  9. Cool and store in air tight container.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Sprite with Plum Powder

I'm not sure if you practice this but what I was young, my mother would let us drink Coke with salt when we are having a sore throat or if we are heaty. :P Now she still ask me to drink it when she knows I have soar throat. After that she would ask me not to scream so much at the kids to avoid having soar throat. LOL

Honestly, I hates the taste of Coke with salt but sometimes it really works for the throat. Before I cut down on frizzy drinks, I changed from drinking coke with salt to Sprite or 7up with grind preserved sour plum instead. It taste so much better that the former.

Sometimes, when I ran out of preserved sour plum, I use the powder form instead. It's not as good as the preserved fruit of course but in cases of emergency, the sour plum powder 酸梅粉 works fine for me.

If you are from Singapore, you will be familiar with sour plum powder. We dip fruits like guava, pear in it and eat it together. Especially good when the fruits are cold. Hence, I always have a packet in my fridge.

Next time, if you want to have a frizzy (lime/lemon base) drink with a twist, try adding sour plum powder. One thing to take note of if you are using the powder and not the preserved fruit. Mix the powder to the drink in a jug, then pour it into your glass.

This is because the salt in the powder won't dissolve easy. If you add the powder directly to the glass of Sprite, the salt will stay at the bottom. Guess what happen when with drink it with a straw? :P

Alternatively, add sparingly. :)

Sour plum powder 酸梅粉

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Cheesy Garlic Bread


My husband decided to go drinking with his pals today. *roll eyes* I get nagged for staying up late to blog but somebody can go drinking when that same somebody just worked past midnight yesterday and had to wake up early as usual to get to work this morning. *shrug* I'm not complaining.

At least I get to blog in peace. LOL. Okay, for this recipe, which is one of my kid's favourite, is really easy to do. It's is actually this recipe plus cheese. But because cheese is added here, I cut down the garlic to 2 clove garlic with 1 tablespoon butter.

For this particular one you see in the photo, 1 tablespoon of Mozzarella Cheese is added into the garlic spread. You can use any cheese you like. Sometimes I use Cheddar with Parmesan Cheese too. It's basically whatever leftover bits of Cheese I have. I have not tried Cream Cheese though.

What you do is to mix the soften butter, garlic, cheese and the optional parsley and garlic powder together. Use that to spread on your bread before you toast it. The bread I use here is hotdog bun. I like it that it's still a bit soft on the inside but cruchy on the thin outer crust. So it won't hurt the kids' gums when they eat it.

Another great idea for pinic. ;) Do remember to wrap the garlic bun/bread with a 2 to 3 pieces of kitchen towels before to wrap it with foil so it will not be too soggy later.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Sandwich Kebab


It's the kids' school holiday. Yeah, the whole of June. I thought I'll have more time to do my stuff (like blogging) since I don't have to fetch my kids to school anymore. Boy was I wrong!

I'm only saved on 4 trips but there are still the tuition classes and enrichment class. On top of that, with them at home most of the time, the house is always in a mess. To save the house, I bought them out. :P Either to window shopping (to enjoy the air-con), the newly open wet plus dry playground at a shopping centre near my place or to ride on their bikes. Unless, someone buys me a notebook, I won't be able to blog when I'm out. :P

I did however complete a few of my sewings. I hand sew my stuff so I don't need to carry the sewing machine (which I don't own one) with me in case you are wondering how I could sew outside. Since my husband is still at work (yes, it's past midnight now), I'm taking the time to make a quick post. Otherwise, he nag at me for stay up late just to blog. :P So, here it is.

This is something I did for a magazine sometime ago. I'm not sure if they will be using it. My son likes it, so I thought I'll just share it with you. It's basically sandwich presented in a fun way.




You just need the basic ingredients for sandwich. What I used here are bread, ham, cheese, lettuce, Japanese cucumber and cherry tomatoes. I used a flower cookie cutter to cut the bread, ham and cheese to cut them into smaller pieces. The lettuce is tear into size.

The Japanese cucumber are thin enough, so I just slice them to the thickness I want. The top of the cherry tomato must be cut off so it's easier to pierce through. You can use bamboo skewers if you like but what you see here is 'pokey sticks'. It's a little fragile.

I had wanted to get Mitsuya Tasty Bisuit Stick but it wasn't stocked up at the gocery store at my place. If you are making sandwiches for pinic this school holiday, try making these instead.