Almond Crusted Chicken Wings

I love chicken wings, especially grilled or fried ones. Yummy, succulent wings. Mmmmmm. So the other day while cleaning up my pantry I found some chopped almonds, I bought it a while back thinking I might use it for baking but never got around to it. So before they turned bad, I thought of making almond crusted chicken wings instead of just the usual baked ones, not sure if it’s going to taste nice. But now I have another recipe added to my chicken wings collection.

Lovely Sunday Morning

 It has been so hot for the past few weeks that when it was breezy and cloudy last Sunday, we decided to stay indoors instead of hitting the malls. And of course, eating out is getting costlier these days as well especially for meals like these when you can easily make them yourself at home at home.


And of course, what’s breakfast without fluffy,yummy pancakes eh?
Oh and not forgetting the lil chef

 

All these while I have been searching high and low on how to make pancakes light and fluffy, I’d would follow the recipe to the T, tweaked it but still the pancakes will always turn out flat and slightly hard. Unlike the fluffy ones you eat at cafes or restaurants until I was beginning to think it’s a secret that everyone but me knows of. So one day by chance, I finally found the secret!And it’s thanks to the months of whisking my eggs whites/yolks/whole into pale, creamy and fluffy texture, I out of habit did the same when I was making pancakes, I beat the egg until it’s pale and light, sifted the flour over the wet ingredients and left the mixture to sit while I clean up and voila I got myself fluffy pancakes! Erm, I better start using other adjectives aside from fluffy. Anyway here’s the recipe for the pancakes and since it’s a lovely Sunday morning, I made garlic butter too. So double recipes in today’s post.Yaay!

Buttermilk Pancakes

(Adapted from Joy of Baking)
You don’t have to use buttermilk but I stumbled upon it the other day while grocery shopping and got it to see what’s the hoo-haa using buttermilk in cooking and so far I’m impressed

You Need
1 cup (130 grams) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons (28 grams) granulated white sugar. I omit this and used 4 tablespoons of honey
1 large egg
1 cup (240 ml) buttermilk, you can use fresh milk if you can’t find buttermilk
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
3 tablespoons (40 grams) butter, melted
Plus extra melted butter for greasing the pan

How To

1. In a large bowl, whisk the egg like how you usually do for sponge cakes until light and fluffy. Next beat in the honey along with the vanilla essence.

2. Sift the flour, salt, baking powder and soda over the egg and honey mixture. Mix well before beating in the butter and buttermilk.

3. I know some recipes said you shouldn’t over-mix the batter but in my case, I did and the batter will form a slow ribbon when I raised my whisk.

4. Let the batter sit for for 10-20 minutes for the chemistry to work (Baking soda reacts to honey and also buttermilk causing the batter to have bubbles, and this of course makes the pancakes light and fluffy*again!* )

5. While waiting for the batter to sit, heat a frying pan over medium heat and oil the pan using the extra melted butter.

6. Using a small ladle, pour about 3/4 full ladleful of batter onto the pan. When you see bubbles start to appear on the surface, by this stage the bottoms of the pancakes are already brown, you can flip the pancake over and cook until lightly browned.

7. Repeat until you used up the remaining batter.

8. Best serve HOT with sticky sweet honey (or if you can find maple syrup) and butter or jam.

9. Depending on your ladle, but this recipe makes about 6-8 pancakes.

Cooking Pictorial

Ingredients


How To

And now for the garlic butter, once you start making your own garlic butter you will never buy them anymore. It’s so simple to make and hassle free (well unless you count mincing garlic as troublesome, you can always grate them instead) and home made ones are 100 times so much nicer than store-bought version. I have been snacking on garlic toast nearly every day (that explains why the scales have been tipping over at the wrong side) because it’s so delish!

 

Garlic Butter
250 gram butter at room temperature (I use SCS butter as I find them creamier and more suitable to use to make garlic/herbed butter compared to other brands)
2 bulbs of garlic, minced or grated ( if you find 2 bulbs of garlic is overwhelming you can use 1 bulb instead)
1 tablespoons of dried mixed herbs
1/2 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
salt to taste

Just mix everything together and there you go. Freshly made garlic butter. Told you it’s easy




p.s I’m trying out another image sharing site, so do let me know if it’s any different or still the same yea while you go through my blog
p.p.s And guys I didn’t go through to Round 3 of Project Food Blog  but thank you so much for voting for me yea!

Pictorial Tutorial in making Kourabiethes

As promised, since some of you have voted for me , Efxaristo! here is the pictorial tutorial for the Kourabiethes. You can get the recipe here
The ingredients     How To

Mommy dearest!    

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Curry Chicken (Kari Ayam)

I used to feel intimidated to cook curries only because I’ve seen how my mom used to make them. You need to slave over the stove cooking the rempah (chilli & spice paste) till it’s fragrant before adding in the chicken and coconut milk. Then you need to keep a close watch ,stirring the curry making sure it doesn’t burn at the bottom. And I honestly think a good curry is hard to master let alone a yummy great one! So it took me years before I have the courage to make some on my own, well and also when you miss your mom’s curry and the ones sold outside just doesn’t cut it.

So one day over the phone, I asked her for the recipe and typically it goes like this tumbuk(pound) all the ingredients, masak (cook) the rempah until wangi (fragrant) and then add in the chicken and curry powder, and santan (coconut milk) along with the potatoes. Cook until the potatoes are soft when pierced with a fork. She make it sounds so easy!But truthfully it actually is, once you have the hang out of it. I’m beginning to enjoy cooking curries these days, it’s very therapeutic; the smell the aroma of the spices wafting from the stove and filling up the kitchen. This recipe has been tweaked from another curry dish I have on my blog and to my readers in Melbourne who asked for the recipe, here you go!

(Serves 4-6)  
You Need
1.5 kg of chicken, cut into bite sized pieces 
3–4 potatoes, cut into medium size cubes 
3–4 tablespoons of oil 
2 cups of santan (thick coconut milk or you may substitute with full cream milk) 
1 litre of water 
 
Spices (A) – ground :
5 shallots
5 onions
4 candlenuts (you may substitute this with macadamia nuts)
3 tablespoons chilli paste (you may omit with 5 tablespoons of meat curry powder this if you can’t get chilli paste)
2½ tablespoons meat curry powder
 
Spices (B):
4cm piece cinnamon stick
3 star anise
8 cloves
1 stalk of curry leaves
12-15 cardamom pods
* for the spices you don’t have to get exactly the amount stated here, it’s merely an estimation
salt and sugar to season 

Chilli Paste
200 grams dried chillies, soaked in hot water for an hour
100gram red chillies seeded   

How To
1. Heat cooking oil in wok or heavy based pot.
2. Add in spices (B), stir fry constantly at low heat till fragrant
3. Add in Spices (A) and continue frying until the oil rises.
4. Add in the chicken along with the potatoes and mix well until meat is coated with spices.
5. Stir in thin coconut milk and let it simmer until the meat’s tender and potatoes are soft. It would take about an hour and remember to stir occasionally
6. Pour in thick coconut milk, bring to a boil.
7. Serve and enjoy!

Cooking Tutorials
 Ingredients

Santan (Coconut Milk)   How To

Pounded/Blended onions

Candlenut should be added in when you sauté the rempah but like always I forgotten about it until I realized something is missing!       

To make chilli paste.
Blend the chillies until smooth, and this would make about a jar. The chilli paste can be used for dishes like Sambal Ikan Bilis, Kangkung Belacan or any dishes that calls for chilli paste. Now you don’t have to get those store brought ones, I never thought making my own chilli paste would be this easy!