Lemongrass Infused Roasted Chicken 香茅烤鸡

I love the aroma of lemongrass and have been experimenting a few dishes using it. This dish got to be one the favourites. My husband love it.

It's similar to (Singapore) Roast Chicken (which I'm updating a revised recipe to be posted soon),  except I did change some seasoning and bake it instead of oil fry it. There's some amount of work required making this but it's worth it.

I was a bit upset when I was making this dish as my new neighbor came visiting unexpectedly, during the last 10 minutes of my cooking. I turned off my oven but I didn't remove the chicken. The skin of the chicken become over browned and wasn't as nice looking as I want it to be. It tasted great nonetheless.

I will be making this again very soon! And I shall try to prefect it then. :)

Ingredients:

• 1 Chicken, cleaned and pat dry (I'm using a 1kg chicken)
• 4 tablespoon Oyster Sauce
• 12 talks Lemongrass, crushed
• Oil enough to cover the lemongrass
• A dash of Pepper
• 2 Calamansi

How to do it:

1. Rub chicken outside and in the cavity with oyster sauce and pepper.
2. Leave it in the fridge uncovered for half an hour, to marinate and dry.
3. Place lemongrass on oven-proof dish and have enough oil to just cover it.
4. Place the chicken on top and cover.
5. Roast chicken in preheat oven at 190C for 1 hour.
6. Baste the chicken with the lemongrass oil every 15 minutes.
7. After half an hour, turn the chicken around.
8. Continue to baste the chicken with lemongrass oil every 15 minutes.
9. During the last 10 minutes of roasting, remove cover.
10. Increase the temp to 220C, baste the chicken with lemongrass oil.
11. Roast the chicken for 10 minutes.
12. Turn the chicken over, baste with lemongrass oil and continue to roast for 10 minutes.
13. Remove chicken and place in a dish.
14. Drizzle chicken with juice of 2 Calamansi and serve .

Note:
Check if chicken is cooked by piercing a toothpick in the thigh. If the liquid that comes through is clear, the chicken is done.

A bouquet of unwanted part of lemongrass in a vase

to brighten my kitchen for a day. :P

Ika Teriyaki 日式照烧烏賊

Another easy recipe using the Happy Call Pan. ;)

I did my own teriyaki sauce here but you can always get ready-made ones from the supermarket for less hassle. I like to make my own sauce, though it may not be authentic, as I can adjust the taste. Furthermore, I don't use teriyaki sauce that often. So making it when I need it makes more sense to me.

You may do this using a regular non-stick pan if you don't have a Happy Call Pan. Just add in 2 - 3 tablespoon of water when you are cooking it as the regular pan (covered) doesn't not generate as much liquid as the HCP.

Ingredients:

• 2 medium Squid, innards removed and cleaned
• 1 tablespoon Sake
• 3 tablespoon Mirin
• 3 tablespoon Light Soy Sauce
• 2/3 tablespoon Brown Sugar
• 1 tablespoon Oil

How to do it:

1. Marinate for half an hour.
2. Place squid in the pan and pour the marinade into pan too.
3. Grill with pan covered for 4 minutes in medium low fire.
4. Grill on the other side for another 4 minutes.
5. Open cover and slit the squid by using a scissor.
6. Continue to grill on medium low for 1-2 minutes with cover opened, to thicken sauce.
7. Turn the squid in-between grilling to get the colour even.
8. Remove from pan and spoon some thicken teriyaki sauce over.
9. Serve.

Sake                                            Mirin