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Of Food and perhaps a little about me
January 6, 2009 at 11:39 pm · Filed under TWD, Recipes: Dessert
Lovely, sweet and absolutely delicious!! As I’m extremely pleased with the result, I am still grinning away while typing this. Readers who have read my previous post about my Twofer Pie will come to know that my crust went totally wrong. But this time, it’s perfect for me! The right amount of butter and proper tart pans were used and the French pear tart came out looking so good.
The recipe uses a sweet tart dough to make the crust which is actually cookie dough. It’s the base for French sables or shortbread. As I do not have a food processor, I used my hands again to rub in the butter into the flour. I halved the recipe to make 2 small tarts. Best of all, there wasn’t a need to roll out the dough. All I need to do was to press the dough into the fluted tart pans.
Canned pears were used as I couldn’t find any fresh pears in the supermarket. You can replace with other fruits like peaches, it should work well too. I didn’t really understand the instructions on the arrangement of the pears on the tart as there wasn’t any photo that came along with the recipe. My first tart looked weird and ugly as it was my first time arranging fruits on a tart. B came to my aid and helped me arrange the pears for the second one. Boy, the tart looked quite professionally done. He insisted that I take a photo of both the tarts to show everyone who did a better job.
A little problem I encounter was when the tarts were in the oven baking, the almond cream overflowed. The one that was nicely arranged had a lot of cream flowing out. I guess it’s because there were more slices of pears? And this one, the almond cream didn’t set well, still soggy after it was baked. Perhaps I forgot to pat the pears dry before putting them on the tart. On the other hand, the uglier tart didn’t have the almond cream ooze out much, and set much better.
With the nice sweet aroma lingering in the kitchen, I couldn’t wait to eat the tart! Just a few quick shots of the pear tart, I quickly got a knife to slice the tart. Oooo… Awesome!! It’s a little tart and I thought it tasted a bit like pineapple tarts. The almond filling goes so well with the pear and the sweet tart. It’s pretty hard to impress B but he commented that this pear tart is good. And that puts a smile on my face.
This week’s recipe is chosen by none other than the author of the book herself, Dorie Greenspan, for the first Tuesdays with Dorie bake for the year 2009. With Dorie choosing this French pear tart, this must be one of her favorites. It indeed was a very satisfying dessert. Thanks, Dorie!
December 16, 2008 at 10:50 pm · Filed under Recipes: Cookies, TWD, Recipes: Quick & Easy, Recipes: Baking
Tender and buttery with a hint of sweet orange marmalade. Think buttery biscuits. That’s what these cookies taste like. With a cake-like texture, they go best with your favorite tea. Don’t be fooled by the plain appearance, they taste great. I had them for tea with my earl grey. Oh, so buttery.. as much as I would like to resist, I can’t help going for seconds or thirds!
The recipe asked for ¼ cup of apricot jam which I replaced with sweet orange marmalade. You can replace it with any jam or marmalade you can get on hand. The marmalade in the cookies are very subtle, detectable only when I chewed those with the orange peel. I had wanted to add more but I’m left with only that much in the jar. This recipe has to be the easiest among all the recipes in the book I’ve attempted so far. The dough is thick and stay in shape. No more chilling and rolling of the dough like the previous cookies. Simply just scoop them onto the baking sheet with a spoon or scoop once the dough is done. Easy peasy! These cookies don’t spread much in the oven so you can bake as many as you like on one sheet.
Heather of Randomosity and the Girl chose this recipe for this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie. I say, this is a good pick!
December 9, 2008 at 11:05 pm · Filed under TWD, Recipes: Baking
Yay! It’s Tuesday again! This week, we are churning out Grandma’s All-Occasion Sugar Cookies from our ovens. Still a novice in baking, this is only my second attempt at making cookies. I encountered some minor problems especially when handling with the dough. Yes, again!! Argh! But compared to last week’s Thanksgiving Twofer Pie mishaps, I would say this was a smaller problem.
After receiving tips and advices from readers last week, I went to read the recipe again. Finally, I knew what went wrong. Or at least, a big part of why the tart came out so wrong. The recipe asked for one and a quarter stick of butter. It didn’t occur to me that I actually bought the bigger stick of butter(doubled the size). I googled and found out that one stick of butter is only 115g which explains why the tart was so greasy. LOL!
Ok, back to sugar cookies. This cookie dough gets soft easily after rolling out and getting warmed, making it hard to cut them into shapes. One useful tip I got from Hannah for cut-out cookies is to lightly floured the cookie cutters to prevent sticking. However, the dough was still too soft for me to handle. I had to keep chilling the dough to make the cut-out perfect. Although not exactly a breeze, still a little frustrated when cutting the cookies, I’m glad that the whole rolling and cutting process was still manageable.
Baking the cookies was a pretty fast job, just a mere 9 to 11 minutes. Judging from the browned sides, they might have been baked a little too long. I’m really happy that these sugar cookies turned out well. They tasted like the sugar butter cookies in the blue round tin that most of us grew up with, probably crispier.
I might just use this recipe for the nieces whose been pestering me for a whole month to bake cookies. Is there anything I can add to the recipe to make the dough more manageable for the kids to cut out? Any simple ideas on the kind of icing design they can decorate on the cookies?
With Christmas nearing, be prepared for more cookie posts this December!
Thank you, Ulrike of Kuchenlatein for choosing sugar cookies this week. Head over to her blog for the recipe.
November 30, 2008 at 10:45 pm · Filed under TWD, Recipes: Dessert, Recipes: Baking
Finally! I have joined the fun group, Tuesdays With Dorie. I read about great reviews of this book, Baking from home to yours by Dorie Greenspan and had wanted to buy it since. I got it for only SGD20.00 after a 20% discount with the addition of a $20 voucher.
I’m already late with this entry. Although we do not celebrate Thanksgiving, I don’t mind trying out the recipe as this will be the first time I’m making a pumpkin pecan pie. Sounds delicious, isn’t it? Vibi from La Casserole Carrée, is the host this week. Check out her site for the recipe.
The recipe asks for shortening and I didn’t managed to buy them, so I just skipped that totally by adding more butter. With no food processor or a pastry cutter, I went ahead to make the pie dough using my fingertips, the rubbing-in method. I knew that I had to work fast. But it seemed that there wasn’t enough flour for me to work with and the butter starts to melt a little. The whole dough seemed so greasy and wet and I’m not sure if I was doing it correctly.
The dough was to stay in the refrigerator for an hour for it to harden up before rolling. The rolling was tough with a new rolling pin, although I made sure I rolled the dough on a floured kitchen counter. First roll out, and the dough cracked. Gee.. was the dough too hard? This is really tough for me! The rolling was so frustrating with the dough sticking to the rolling pin which I’ve floured it as well. With the help of B, we managed to place the pie crust onto the foil tin, with holes, of course. We patched up the crust with the remaining dough. Whew! Ugly, but finally done. After all, it’s my first pie! If only I knew earlier, I could just use a stand mixer to help me out on the dough.
With a badly done crust, it might not hold the filling well after I cut the pie. Will it just crumble? This has to be the most challenging and time-consuming bake I’ve ever done. And I’m glad I managed to come out with a decent looking pie. Oh yes, it’s ONLY decent looking from the outside.
Being the first attempt, everything looked and tasted so wrong!! Just as I cut the pie, it feels so soggy. The pie was already baked for 60 mins but the pumpkin filling didn’t firm up. What went wrong? I’ve no idea. Can someone enlighten me on this? The pie crust is no better. There’s just oil oozing out as I cut the pie. It seems under-baked. Did I used too much butter? Or was it the mishandling of the pie dough in the initial phase?
Ok. The pie can’t be eaten, it’s just too greasy. I’m glad that I tried. At least, I have gain some experience making my first pie. No, I’m not showing my unsuccessful bake this time round. LOL
November 20, 2008 at 12:38 am · Filed under Recipes: Salad, Recipes: Quick & Easy, Recipes: Pasta
Finally, I’m back after a long hiatus. I didn’t realize that it’s been a long 3 months since I’ve last blogged. Laziness and heavy workload made me put off blogging during this period. However, I managed to squeeze in a vacation to Taiwan in October. As I needed to be away for a short week, I had to complete all my work before I set off. Yes, it was only a week, and there was so much to do!! Thanks to a few readers for reminding me that I’ve not been blogging. Haha..
Soy and Pepper is hosting Pasta Presto Nights this week and I thought, why not join in the fun? I cook pasta dishes quite often, mainly as a main course. This shall be my very first submission to Pasta Presto Nights.
Some time back, I was organizing a birthday picnic for a close friend. They requested to have my mashed potato salad for the picnic. It is the one and only salad they wanted every time we have a potluck. Making potato salad is quite time consuming, at least to me. The boiling, peeling and cutting of the potatoes takes up at least half an hour? Pasta salad on the other hand, is so much faster and easier to make. Boil the pasta and toss everything together and you’re done! I’m lucky they weren’t disappointed with the pasta salad. That’s a relief.
This is an easy salad recipe and you can add any ingredients you like to the pasta. For mine, I added yellow bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, ham and Japanese cucumber. Simply omit the ham if you want the vegan way. If you can’t find Japanese cucumber, replace them with normal cucumber or zucchini, anything to add crunch to the salad. I added some leftover cheddar shreds as well, really adds more punch to the salad. The dressing I added to the pasta is just a guideline, adjust the amount of mayonnaise and vinegar to your own preference. The pasta salad looks slightly dark due to the balsamic vinegar. Less is more!
Hearty Pasta Salad
Serves 8 to 10
300g fusilli pasta
1 to 1½ japanese cucumber, julienne
4 slices of picnic ham (or anything ham you like), cut to strips
1 yellow bell pepper, julienne
12 to 15 cherry tomatoes, halved
30g cheddar cheese, shredded (optional)
3 tbsp olive oil
1½ cup low fat mayonnaise (replace with yogurt for the healthier choice)
1½ tbsp balsamic vinegar (add more if you like it sour)
1 tsp dried parsley (1 tbsp if you are using fresh parsley, chopped)
black ground pepper
Cook pasta according to the packet instructions. Once the pasta is cooked, drain and set aside in a large bowl. Add mayonnaise, balsamic vinegar, olive oil and black ground pepper to the pasta. Toss to mix evenly so that each fusilli pasta is coated with the dressing. When the pasta has slightly cooled, add in Japanese cucumber, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, ham strips and cheddar cheese, mix well. Taste the salad, add more dressing if you like. Lastly, mix in the parsley. Cover the bowl and leave it in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours for the flavors to sit in. If time permits, leave it in the refrigerator overnight.
Quick to make, right? Share with me what kind of dishes you bring to a potluck. Perhaps I can try making them for my next potluck!! And I will share with you my mashed potato salad the next time I have the chance to make them.
July 13, 2008 at 2:59 pm · Filed under Recipes: Dessert
There is always a first time for everything. And this was my first time making ice-cream, semifreddo to be exact. I like ice-cream, don’t you? Especially on a hot, humid day here in Singapore, an ice-cream is so hard to resist!
So what’s a semifreddo? It has a texture icier than ice-cream yet still creamy if you let it melt a little. It’s somewhat between a mousse and an ice-cream. I set my eyes on this recipe when I saw Milk and Cookies execute it from Donna Hay’s magazine. And since I have that issue as well, I thought why not give it a try especially when this recipe doesn’t need an ice-cream maker to do the churning.
My first try was a disaster as I messed up the whipping of the cream. The egg mixture was nicely whipped and left to cool. As I proceed to whip the cream to soft peak, I decided to try hand whisking it quickly. How hard can it be right? That was a mistake. The cream needs to be whisked fast and I couldn’t as my hands got tired after a while. I wonder if it’s the type of cream I bought that caused the problem (I bought Bulla pure cream). I stopped whisking to rest my arms and continued to beat the cream. While resting, the cream hardened and no matter how hard I beat, it began to curdle and stayed hard. Without any extra cream to make a new batch, I felt really disappointed that night as I was looking forward to enjoying the semifreddo on a weekend night the next day. And I ended up sulking in front of the TV the whole night.
I did whipping of egg whites to stiff peak before for my tiramisu using the mixer. That was so much easier. So the following night, I re-did everything from scratch. And this time, I used the mixer instead. Lesson learnt. A different cream was used as well. I got the whipping cream instead which I thought might be easier to whip.
The original recipe asked for only raspberry, but I added some blueberries in and reduced to 2/3 the portion. Instead of letting the berries puree sank to the bottom, I made some swirls to make it looked more beautiful. I used the normal vanilla essence as I didn’t purchase any vanilla pods. I think you can make do with vanilla extract too. Everything went well the second time. Happy.
After leaving the semifreddo to set in the freezer overnight, I eagerly went to taste it the next morning. It was a bit hard to scoop partly because of the frozen berries puree. But once it starts to soften, it melts very fast. I like how the slightly sweet cream was paired with the tangy berries. Every mouthful was a delight, of course, eating my first home-made ice-cream.
My Canon G3 was giving me some problems some time back, so I was ‘forced’ to use B’s DSLR. See the semifreddo melting in the bowl? I still haven’t figured out how to use the DSLR properly. As I fumbled through the settings, the semifreddo couldn’t stand the heat and started to melt! It’s really frustrating as I was so used to the G3. With a flip screen, it was even easier for me to compose the shots comfortably. To take photos using the DSLR without a flip screen and with a pair of very unsteady hands, I got so panicky seeing the ice-cream melts. I guess it’s time to start learning again.
Raspberry Ripple Semifreddo
Recipe from Donna Hay magazine, issue 36
3 x 120g punnets raspberries
3 eggs
2 egg yolks, extra
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
1 cup (220g) caster sugar
13/4 cup single or pouring cream
Place the berries in the food processor and process until smooth. Set aside.
Place the eggs, egg yolks, vanilla and sugar in a large heatproof bowl. Place over saucepan of simmering water and whisk the mixture with a hand-held beater for 4 – 5 mins or until thick and pale. Remove the heat and continue whisking until cool. Whisk cream until soft peaks form and gently fold into the egg mixture. Reserve 2 cups of the mixture and pour the remainder into a 12-cup capacity dish (any container will do actually). Fold the reserved mixture through the pureed berries and spoon stripes over the semifreddo. Place in the freezer for 4 – 6 hours or until set. Serves 10.
This will be my first entry to Sugar High Friday! SHF is a monthly event organised by The Domestic Goddess. The theme for this month is berries and is hosted by Food Blogga. Thanks Sihan for enlightening me on this.
I am also submitting this entry to Red & White Foodie Photo Contest, a collaboration of three foodie bloggers Dhi-Fitri-Dwi, in celebration of Indonesia’s Independence day. I am really eager to see what other foodies have come up with.
June 2, 2008 at 2:26 am · Filed under Recipes: Quick & Easy, Recipes: Pork
Pork with Basil? Sounds familiar? That’s right, a particular Thai dish may have come to your mind, minced pork with thai basil, a common dish in Thailand. In order to try cooking my first dish with my flourishing home-grown basil, I immediately thought of this thai dish. But my version doesn’t have any fish sauce in it as I didn’t have any in my pantry. Fish sauce seems to be an important ingredient in most Thai dishes. I figured that they use it like how we use soy sauce? I’ve been wanting to buy a bottle but not sure which brand to get. I’m not sure if the taste of basil differs from thai basil. Can anyone enlighten me on this?
Since I only had some pork loin in my freezer, I’ve decided to just cook the pork my way (with just some soy sauce), with basil and some pine nuts. I’ve seen NoobCook cooked one of her dish with pine nuts. In another occasion, I had a nice deep fried yam ring at a restaurant, topped with pine nuts instead of the usual cashew nuts. Pine nuts are really delicious. I bought them solely for my hamsters. And I thought I should put them into better use before they expires. I had wanted to make some pesto sauce with my basil and pine nuts, but have yet to make it as B didn’t really like basil that much.
Stir Fry Pork Strips with Basil and Pine Nuts
Serves 2
200g pork loin
1 tsp garlic, chopped
1 tbsp cooking oil
10 to 15 basil leaves
20 to 30 pine nuts, toasted
Marinade
½ tbsp light soy sauce
½ tbsp hua teow wine
1tsp corn flour
Use the back of the knife to ‘chop’ the pork loin evenly throughout, this is to make the meat thinner. Then cut the pork loin into ¼ inch strips. Marinate the pork loin strips with the above marinade and set it aside for about half an hour in the fridge.
To start cooking, heat oil in pan. Fry the chopped garlic until they starts to brown. Add meat to stir fry for a few minutes or until the meat is cooked. You do not need to fry the meat for too long as it might gets too tough. Add in the basil leaves and pine nuts. Stir fry for another 1 or 2 mins until the basil leaves wilt. Serves hot with rice.
You can add more basil and pine nuts if you like. Or try out the authentic thai minced meat with basil, by adding fish sauce. Paw paw has got some nice Thai recipes on her blog. Do try them out. It’s definitely tastier with some fats in the minced pork. Gosh.. me and my pork fats. Haha..
May 25, 2008 at 1:07 am · Filed under Recipes: Quick & Easy, Recipes: Pork
Have I enticed you enough from the title of this post? It’s not just any parts, it’s my favorite part, the pork belly meat. Sinful and gross as the pork belly may seems to some of you, especially girls, but it’s heavenly to me.
In my younger days, there were 2 different parts of pork in our frequent braised pork dish (卤肉) that Mum cooked for dinner. They were lean meat（瘦肉）and pork belly meat(三层肉). I love the pork belly, while my brother flicks them away. Be it braised or roasted, it doesn’t matter. I like them anyway. I love how chewy the pork skin are for my braised pork belly meat, but they can’t be too soft, which can be a bit gross to swallow. Mum used to cook them with bittergourd but she has now replace pork belly with chicken wings, which are more well-loved by my nieces. And not forgetting, my favorite bun of all buns, the kong bak bao (扣肉包).
When it comes to roasted pork belly (烧肉), the crispy crackling skin is a must. 三层 means 3 layers. I am guessing the 3 layers means the skin, the fats and the meat. So I detest those with just skin and fats, but no meat at all. There should be a balance, crackling skin, with some fats and meat. Whenever there are leftover roasted pork belly we bought for dinner, they are stir-fried the next day with lots of garlic, mum’s chilli paste and dark soya sauce. B had learnt to enjoy this leftover dish since I brought him home for dinner a few years ago.
Growing up from a family that eats pork almost daily, I find it hard to comprehend the fact that some of my friends do not eat pork. They hate the porky smell and worst of all, the fats. Give me pork any time, I’d take it. I prefer it to chicken, which I get sick after eating too much. The feeling of eating a perfectly cooked pork belly and pig trotters makes me contented. I really enjoy eating them.
As much as I love them, I must say it’s sad that I’ve started controlling the intake these 2 years. When I say “Pork Belly, come Dance to my Belly”, it not as rejoicing as it is 10 years ago. Donkey years back, everyone tells me, “Hey, you skinny bamboo, you can afford it.” I never seems to put on weight since I started schooling. And I really think that it was a blissful thing to not put on weight even when I like eating fatty stuffs. But NOW, people who have never met me for a long time are shocked that I CAN actually put on so much weight. Pants are getting tighter now, metabolism has slowed down A LOT. I don’t think I can afford it now. *chuckles*
However, I still love my pork belly. Everything in moderation should be fine. Below is just a simple dish B taught me. I never had pork belly eaten this way. It’s one of the 陈家私房菜. You can replace them with lean meat. It is light and simple to whip up, yet still satisfying for me.
Pork Belly with Black Dipping Sauce
Serves 2
250g pork belly meat (or any portion you would like to cook)
1/3 chicken stock cube
Dipping sauce
1tbsp dark soya sauce
½ tsp homemade chilli paste or chopped chilli padi
a dash of sesame oil
Boil the whole strip of pork belly with the chicken stock cube for about 10 to 15 mins in a pot (depending on the amount of meat, you need to gauge this yourself).
Once cooked, turn off the heat, remove pork belly from pot. Cut the pork belly ½ inch thick.
Mix ingredients for dipping sauce together in a saucer.
Serve meat with dipping sauce and rice.
Easy enough?
Few months ago, ovenhaven was really nice to pass me the Nice Matters Award. I’ve forgotten to mention it till now. Thanks, dearie.
April 9, 2008 at 3:22 pm · Filed under Recipes: Appetizers
What’s your favorite cold dish? Cold dish usually reminds me cold crabs, cold soba noodles and the first dish in every Chinese wedding banquet. I wonder why the first dish is called the Cold Dish (冷盘) though some of the items in the dish consists of deep fried spring rolls, braised duck, etc.. and they are not really served chilled.
How about some peanut butter with cold tofu? This is a dish B often had when he was still staying with his family. It’s like a family dish. He calls it the 陈家私房菜 (The Chen’s Secret Recipes). So naturally, shortly after we got married, he promised to whip up some of his family’s ‘special’ dishes. And he made me waited for a good one and a half years before I got to savor this. Although along the way, he did cooked some other dishes like their Foochow Red Wine Chicken(红糟鸡), Mee Sua in Rich Hua Teow Wine Soup with Egg (蛋面线)… Wait… I think that’s about it!
His family seems to like peanut butter. He once made for me his regular lunch at home, peanut butter noodles. I was skeptical about the taste. And I didn’t quite stomach this well. The noodles was cloyingly dry with the peanut butter sauce. After a few mouthful, I said, “No, thanks. I’ll stick to my instant noodles.” And I happily slurped up my curry instant noodles. And that was the first time he cooked something for me. Okay, I know it’s my bad, but I couldn’t make myself chomp down the sticky dry noodles.
So how did the cold tofu with peanut butter sauce fare? Excellent!! Although my first try on the peanut butter noodles was pretty bad, but this definitely works for me. It’s really easy to make and comforting to eat. The ingredients and steps are simple. You can adjust the amount of seasoning according to your own taste bud. The below recipe is just a guide. If you prefer it to be more salty, then add more soy sauce. Like it more watery, add more hot water.
Cold Tofu with Peanut Butter Sauce Dressing
topped with Pork Floss and Century egg
Serves 2
1 silky tofu (standard size packed tofu from supermarket)
1 century egg (diced or cut into wedges)
2 tbsp pork floss
1 tbsp creamy peanut butter
sesame oil
½ tbsp light soy sauce
½ cup of hot water
spring onion for garnish (optional)
Remove tofu from container and wash it clean under slow running water. Drain well and place it on a plate. Chill it in the refrigerator. You can prepare this half an hour ahead.
To prepare the dressing, mix peanut butter sauce with hot water. You can add the water bit by bit and stir until the desired consistency. Next, add light soy sauce and a dash of sesame oil. Taste and season according to your preferred taste.
Pour the peanut butter dressing over the tofu, topped with pork floss and century egg. Garnish with chopped spring onions and serve.
We loved to mash and mix up all the ingredients in the plate before tucking in. If you ever try making this dish, let me know how it goes for you.
April 3, 2008 at 2:29 am · Filed under Recipes: Greens, Recipes: Poultry
“Hey! Stop it! I’m really stuffed!!” This must be what the chicken thigh was telling me. Instead of making the usual roasted chicken, I added some stuffing to the chicken thigh. The idea struck me when I recalled having chicken ballotine at a café, chicken breast or thigh rolled with some vegetables inside.
There are 2 pots of edible herbs added to my ‘mini garden’, namely basil and lemon balm. Fresh basil comes in handy when I whip up pasta dishes which are regular meals in the house. Or simply just toss them together with my salad. I didn’t know why I chose to grow lemon balm. It’s from the mint family, not much of a mint smell, but very strong lemon scent. Rubbing the leaves sometimes makes me happy, although sometimes I thought I am inhaling Mama Lemon, the dish detergent! I figured I could use it for baking which I seldom do these days. Well, I can also chopped them up and toss with salad too, for an added zesty taste.
As these 2 pots of herbs starts to flourish, I was so eager to harvest them. So apart from stuffing sautéed diced mushrooms and carrots with the chicken thigh, I stuffed together some of my freshly harvested basil and lemon balm leaves. You can omit these 2 herbs totally, as I was just getting excited that I wanted to use them in anything I cook!
I should have gotten some kitchen twine to tie up the chicken thigh tight instead, I used toothpicks to stitch them up, which didn’t worked very well. As you can see from the photo, the stuffing were dropping out.
The chicken thighs didn’t look good after they were roasted as they were a bit dry on the outside and still slightly raw on the inside. I would probably lower the oven temperature and roast them longer if I were to make this again. Another thing I will try is to use a rolling pin and roll it over the chicken thigh. This might make them thinner and thus a larger surface for containing the stuffing. Or I would roast a whole chicken, with some rice stuffing as well. That would be really nice to have for a weekend dinner!
Stuffed Chicken Thighs with Roasted Vegetables
Serves 2
3 chicken thighs, deboned
30g butter
150g fresh shitake mushrooms, diced
1 small carrot, diced
2 big russet potatoes, cut into wedges
1 white onion, quartered
1 bulb garlic
4 baby corns
½ zucchini, cut into chunks
½ capsicum, cut into chunks
½ cup fresh basil leaves
½ cup lemon balm leaves
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
olive oil
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar (optional)
dried parsley
paprika
black ground pepper
salt
Rub chicken thighs with salt, black ground pepper and olive oil. Leave it aside.
Preheat oven to 180°C.
Heat pan with butter. Once butter starts to bubbles, Sauté chopped garlic till fragrant. Add mushrooms and carrots. Sauté them till the mushrooms are cooked. Add about 1 tsp of dried parsley and stir for another 30 secs. Set aside on a plate for cooling.
Toss potatoes with dried parsley, parprika, salt and black ground pepper. Seasoned to your own preference. Next, drizzle olive oil generously and toss evenly.
Toss baby corn, zucchini and capsicum with black ground pepper and olive oil. Drizzle balsamic vinegar over the vegetables and toss evenly. Adding balsamic vinegar is optional.
Next, place some stuffing on the chicken thigh and rolled it up. Tie it with kitchen twine to secure the stuffing. Else, probably use toothpicks like I did. Be careful when poking the toothpicks through the chicken.
Lastly, arrange the vegetables(tossed vegetables, onion and garlic) and potatoes nicely around the chicken thighs on a roasting tray. I like the potatoes to be at the outermost edge as they will get slightly burnt on the edges and still soft on the inside. Brush more olive oil on the chicken skin if you want to have crispy skin to munch on.
Place roasting tray into the oven and bake for approximately 30 to 40 minutes. Chicken is cooked when you insert a knife and the juices are clear.
Sounds tedious, but it isn’t really complicated. It’s easier to stuff everything into a whole chicken. I wish I can cook a whole chicken instead but there will be a lot of leftovers for just the 2 of us.
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