A1 Curry Chicken (Express Recipe)

"Impress your guests with this quick and easy curry chicken and egg goodies during your open house or friends' visit!"

Curry chicken is a common spicy Indian cuisine across Asia countries. Asian loves spicy food, and Singaporean is always so fascinated by this fabulous curry dish. We have our own version of curry chicken, whereby its gravy is more 'watery'. Indeed, we like to drench the bread, especially french loaf, into curry sauce, eating the loaf with curry dipping as a meal just by its own. Having more gravy in the curry chicken dish, we can even pour the curry sauce onto a plate of fried bee hoon (rice noodles) or fried rice to complement the dryness of the fried bee hoon/ rice.

Well, there isn't any 'must' to load your curry dish with sauce. I did cook the dry curry (chicken) dishes, too! It's all up to you!

Now, we are talking about how to have the curry chicken cooked easily and conveniently... Cooking curry chicken with pre-packed curry paste is the most convenient way to have an express dinner during weekdays. Simple and quick to fix delicious dinner meal at home, there is nothing bad about using pre-packed curry paste. But of course, some pre-packed curry sauce might be added with flavour enhancer or permitted preservative, similar to canned food. If instant curry paste is not what you are looking for in a home-cooked meal, you may actually go to some wet markets where you can find Indian spice store to have them mixing the chicken curry spices for you.

I cooked curry chicken quite frequently. Besides preparing my own curry mixture (sometimes and will tell you how next time), I've stored many readily curry spices in various brand, just to try the differences out, yes. This A1 curry sauce is one of the best tasted curry sauce I found so far. Even just the A1 brand, it has many different types of curry paste. So far, there are two types of curry sauce from A1 tasted the best. I am going to recommend the one with this (*see pic on top/ right) packaging, this time. Not only A1 curry sauce is used in this curry dish, I had another curry powder added, too, just to intensify the robust taste and pungency of my curry chicken dish, and to yield a thicker and more flavoursome gravy (I don't like it too watery as it tastes bland and too 'diluted' to me).

Curry chicken is found at almost every eatery/ food store in Singapore! Cooking curry chicken has also become a “regular” practice, for and to be served in some small parties/ events. It's definately not difficult to find this curry dish in the food menu of buffet catering. I think this will be a good recipe for the same purpose. Yes, I emphasized, it’s quick and easy! Not sure if this brand could be found in Western countries, but for sure it is easily available at many groceries and supermarkets (NTUC Fairprice) here in Singapore.

Here with me, there aren't just sharing about my recommendation and cooking method. I am gonna tell you what have I added to my my curry chicken dish a wholesome meal! First, look at my recipe, even though it was the readily packed (off-the-shelf) curry powder or instant curry paste used, but I'll never cook a curry dish just liek that as its taste will never be impressive with just the instant packet. Additional ingredients are still needed to be mixed in the recipe for a good curry dish! Also, it's important to know the right amount of ingredient and water in it, for a perfect taste, isn't it (winking smile)?!

Then, see what I have added here?! It's the egg (maybe it isn't a surprise to you..:p)! You almost forget how delicious it was to taste a hard-boiled egg in curry sauce. I added it into my curry chicken meal for more varieties. Anyway, you'll never go wrong with egg in it!

Serves 4 - 6
Ingredients
1 packet of A1 brand instant chicken curry sauce
4 tablespoon of Baba's brand meat curry powder (2 tablespoons are to be used to marinate the chicken meat beforehand)
4 medium potatoes, cut into bite-sized cubes (mine were just as big as half the thumb size)
1 chicken, chopped into pieces (about 1kg)
250ml of coconut milk
1 shallot, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 cups of water (about 500ml)
2 tablespoons of cooking oil
4 - 6 eggs, hard boiled

Method:
1) Mix chicken meat with 2 tablespoons of meat curry powder. Combine well and marinate for 20 - 30 minutes. You may leave it refrigerated.

2) In the meanwhile, preboil the eggs, if you have not done so. Peel when cooled, and set aside.

3) Heat wok with 1 tablespoon of cooking oil over medium-high fire, add chopped shallot and garlic, sauté till fragrant. Add in chicken meat and stir fry till for 5 minutes or half cooked. Heat off.

4) In a separate large deep pot, heat 1 tablespoon of cooking oil over medium fire. Add potatoes and stir fry for 30 seconds. Transfer half-cooked chicken meat from wok to the pot. Then, add in A1's instant curry sauce, stir-fry with wooden spatula to combine all ingredients well. Add in water, and continue to stir fry for another 1 minute.

4) When ingredients are well combined. Cover pot with lid, and reduce heat to low fire. Simmer for 30 minutes. Place hard-boiled eggs into the pot, and continue to simmer for another 10 minutes. Gently stir in coconut milk to thicken the gravy, 5 minutes before heat off. Laddle into deep serving bowl, and serve hot with steamed rice or loaf.

1 serving of curry chicken with an egg counts about 360kcal.

Tips: I never liked chunky potatoes in my curry dish. Bite-sized cubes will be just nice as it is easier to cook and serve.
* No worries if the water put in is not enought to cover the ingredient fully, but make sure potatoes are covered.

Sweet Potato Dessert Soup with Dried Longan Recipe

"Heart-warming & savoury sweet potato dessert soup with dried longan. Simple recipe and tips to attain perfect taste and texture of this sweet soup dish!"

You do have impression that potato-related food is generally a ‘fattening’ food, don’t you? Would you believe if I tell you only potato is considered as, but not the sweet potatoes? Yes, not all kinds are. Sweet potatoes are not a fattening food. In fact, both potato and sweet potato are NOT high in calorie. The difference is, potatoes contain higher GI (= 56 – 65) (which somehow related to ‘fattening’), while sweet potatoes are relatively low GI (= 48 – 54) food. Check out GI(Glycemic Index)/ GL elaboration here.

How to have sweet potato taken regularly with nice cooking ways, and yet, not causing weight issue? Besides having just the steamed ones, try to have it cooked into dessert soup! Cook the sweet potato in dessert soup might look simple and very easy for some season cook, but it could be quite a challenge to some newbies, to reach the desired taste and texture of the sweet potatoes, too. The key is to control the sweetness in your soup. I never liked my sweet dessert soup to be too sweet (smile), of course, cannot be tasted bland! A successful sweet potato soup, taste of the ginger in it counts, too. I won’t have the ginger tasted over-whelming. Neither would I forgo the spicy fragrance at all.

Don’t forget the sweet potatoes mustn’t be cooked too soft as it will lose its interesting bites and beautiful & glossy appearance. Over-cooked sweet potatoes look ‘aged’ and easily disintegrated upon ladling into bowls. Always test its readiness with a fork inserted into the potato, after boiling for 30 minutes or so.

I had my Purple (and yellow) Sweet Potato Dessert Soup Recipe previously. Last week, I cooked the orange flesh (with yellow flesh) soup, with dried longan pulp added. Dried longan (龙眼干), also called Gui Yuan (桂圆) in Chinese, is rather common in Chinese sweet pr tonic soup cooking. I liked dried longan in my dishes due to one of its main benefits, promoting better sleep, according to some Chinese practitioners. Dried longan looks dry (of course!) and shrinked before it's cooked. Need not to pre-soak it, just wash and put in the soup to cook. You'll have the bulging and chewy textured longan pulps once it's cooked.

Dried longan complements the sweet potato soup so well. My sweet potato with dried longan dessert soup was a hit, when served to my friends and family.

It's indeed imaginably simple, and easy to cook! Check it out now:

Serve 4 - 6
Ingredients
2 regular yellow flesh sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into bite-sized/ small cubes
2 regular orange flesh sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into bite-sized/ small cubes
1 palm-sized honey rock sugar (or normal rock sugar, if desired)
1 thick slice of ginger (about 1cm thick, thumb-sized), lightly smashed once
1 pot of water (about 1500ml)

Method
Bring a pot of water to a boil and add ginger slice. Put in dried longan, yellow and orange flesh sweet potatoes, and bring them to another boil. Reduce heat to low fire, add rock sugar, and simmer for 20 - 30 minutes, or until sweet potatoes just soften. Serve hot.

Of course, you can have some sweet potato caserroles or briny-taste dishes, instead of having it sweet. Give me some time, I will have more sweet potatoes recipe in due (trying… winking smile)!

A bowl of this sweet potato dessert soup with dried longan counts about 120kcal.

Tips: Please do not over-cook the sweet potatoes as it will become too soft to yield the right texture.
* Cut the sweet potatoes into small cube size makes the cooking faster. It is also easier for the children to chew. Most of all, it looks much more presentable in appearance when served.
* Do simmer the rock sugar together with the sweet potatoes to attain perfect sweetness.

(Low-Fat) Marble Yogurt Cheese Cake

"Cottony soft steam-baked yogurt cheese cake. A healthy & savoury treat for you & your loved ones!"

Cheese cake is almost everyone's favourite dessert! I had my non-baked cheese cake recipe earlier on.. And learnt this baked one from a baking class recently.

The thing I liked particularly about this recipe is the almost melt-in-mouth softness. With yogurt added into the recipe, it's not just about adding fragrance and taste, it makes the cake more mellow.

Unlike creamy cheese cake, this cottony soft and moist cake was not too sweet. I have sweet-tooth, but I don't like my dessert to have too much sugar. And, this recipe has the perfect sweetness for me. Thanks to the right amount of sugar added and also the contribution of yogurt taste to it!

Seriously, you may not know, if you don't try this... fragrant, soft, smooth & moist cheese cake, fresh from your oven.. For goodness sake, serve this heart warming cheese cake to your friends and family during occassions and holidays, they won't stop talking about you, and will come back for more.. The problem is, you have to do this everytime... (chuckling).

Decorate it with chocolate marble or just a plain yogurt cheese cake, they both are absolutely good to taste!

Yup, yup, I used low-fat yogurt and milk to trim down the extra calories here! Yeah!

Yields 12 - 14 thick slices
Ingredients
250 grams of cream cheese, softened (I used PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese)
125 grams of plain yogurt (I used Marigold low-fat plain yogurt)
100 grams of butter, softened
50 grams of white sugar
50 grams of fresh or skimmed milk (I used low-fat skimmed milk)

30 grams of plain flour, sifted
80 grams of corn flour, sifted
4 egg yolks

4 egg whites, without any stain of yolk
100 grams of sugar
⅛ teaspoon of cream of tartar

1 tablespoon of chocolate essence or cocoa powder

Optional:
1 teaspoon of lemon or orange juice or vanilla essence to flavour

Utensil:
9" square metal baking tin/ 10" round baking tin
1 large deep pan, at least 12" in diameter with 1" in height, for steam-baking.

Method:
1) Preheat oven to 150°C for 15 - 20 minutes. Beat soft cream cheese with electrical mixer/ beater till coarsely blended. Remove from mixing bowl, and place in a large cooking pot. Add in plain yogurt, soft butter, sugar (50 grams) and milk. Boil cream cheese mixture until all ingredients melted, and leave to cool.

2) Add egg yolks to cooled cream cheese mixture and mix well with a hand whisk. Combine and sift plain flour and corn flour, before adding into the cream cheese mixture.

3) Whisk pure egg whites, sugar (100 grams) and cream of tartar in a clean and oil free mixing bowl, with electrical mixture/ beater at maximum speed, until stiff peak (light and foamy texture). To test its readiness, turn over the mixing bowl, the meringue should adhered to the upturned bowl.

4) Combine cream cheese mixture with meringue and fold well, preferably by clean bare hand (or spatula), in repeated upward circular motion until batter looks glossy.

5) Grease the sides and line the bottom of baking tin with baking sheet/ non-grease paper. Pour almost all the batter into greased baking tin. Leave just a little batter (about a bowl) to create marble design.

6) To create chocolate marble design: Add 1 tablespoon of chocolate essence/ cocoa powder into the remaining batter, and combine well. Scoop and top dark batter onto light batter in the baking tin. Place dark batter right at the centre, and scatter it with a stick or chopstick for the marbling.

7) Place baking tin over a larger deep pan filled with 1cm of hot water to perform steam baking, for about an hour on the lowest rack of oven, or until a metal skewer or toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

8) Remove baking tin from oven, and cool for 10 minutes before removing the cake from the tin. Cut and serve warm or store in refrigerator to serve chilled.

A thick slice of steam-baked marble yogurt cheesecake counts about 250kcal. Hey! I've had it skinnier with low-fat yogurt and low fat milk, k?? Laughing..

Tips: Place baking tray on the lowest rack to avoid cracks on top of the cake when baked.
* To beat the egg whites successfully, eggs must be fresh, and the whites must be free from any yolk. Beat egg white in clean and oil-free mixing bowl.
* Cream of tartar: Comes in powdery form, and easily available at most supermarkets and baking supplies stores. In any case if you do not have it, substitute with corn flour.
* Chocolate marble can be replaced with coffee flavour, if desired.

Express Chicken Soup with White Fungus and Button Mushrooms

"Express Chicken Soup with Chinese Herbal Spices from Seah's, to keep your loved ones at thier best, at all time!"

Some might find Chinese soup too bland for the palate. Its taste has been described as drinking "plain water", as Chinese soup is always cooked watery (not in thick consistency), and it does not taste creamy. You may realise, Chinese soup is often taste subtle and light (smile). I love Chinese soup, so as my family!

Tonight's not any soup recipe boiling from scratch, nor it needed long hours boiling. So, one of these great choices you may consider for express and simple soup cooking even on busy weeknights is the Seah's herbal spice for chicken soup! Taste of this chicken soup cooked with Seah's herbal spices was fairly good, especially for how quick it was. Unlike most instant packet spices, this won't make you feel thirsty after taste.

The fragrance of chicken soup was extensively rich in the palate, but I found it a little too salty after boiling for more than 2 hours (which was not required, in fact), on my first trial. It was not terrible, but I've had it better when I cut back to its original boiling hour of 45 - 50 minutes in my subsequent cookings. Nonetheless, this soup was perfect and wholesome, with the additional ingredients, i.e. button mushrooms and white fungus, in it.

Seah's packet for express cooking of chicken soup isn't expensive. It is about S$2 per packet, widely available in most supermarkets and even grocery stores within neighbourhood.

I bought it from NTUC Fairprice supermarket.

Serves 4
Ingredients
4 whole chicken drumsticks or 500g of chicken meat of any parts, skinless and blanched
1 cup of button mushrooms
10g white fungus, soaked in water for about 10 minutes and torn into bite sized
1 packet of Herbal Spices from Seah's
1 pot of water, 50% filled (about 1500ml)

Method:
1) Boil a pot of water over high heat. When boiled, add in chicken and packet of Seah's herbal spices. Bring it to another boil. Then, add in button mushrooms. Reduce heat to low fire, and simmer for 40 minutes.

2) Add in white fungus 10 minutes before heat off. Serve hot.

If you intend to boil it with slow cooker, add a little more water, about half a cup more (150 grams) than usual amount, so that it will not be too salty after boilig almost whole day long.

1 bowl of chicken soup counts about 120kcal.

Tips: This recipe does not require long boiling hour as soup will become too salty to taste.
* If you are using chicken breast meat or wings, cut them into bite-size.

Baked Sausage & Ham Scramble Quiche with Potato Base

"It's a perfect simple dinner, the wholesome and smart-eating meal, for working couple and small family."

EAT the soup in the quiche.. Sounds special huh? It's not only about eating the quiche, you'll get to enjoy the soup, not separately, but in the same food! Yes, cream of mushroom soup was added into this wholesome and delish baked scramble casserole. Most of all, this is so simple and quick to make!

A satisfying and filling 1-dish western meal adapted from a recipe featured in a lifestyle magazine, I baked this dish this evening (it's Monday!) as dinner. Yes, it's Monday blue. Thinking that it's still a long week to go, I was too 'tired' (or lazy) to fix rice-with-dishes dinner meal (laughing).

As this casserole dish is baked with mushroom soup, it is best to eat it cold so that the whole quiche will be able to hold up firmly. However, I served it hot, still. You know... Chinese loves hot meal (chuckling). Yes, it was kinda hard to cut and serve in perfect shape due to the runny mushroom soup. It got only much firmer when I chilled the remaining quiche, and had it cold as lunch the next day. Still, as nice!

There was this thing I liked about this particular recipe is its limited seasoning/ condiments used. Neither salt nor pepper was used, it was still perfectly flavourful!

This yummy goodness supposed to be baked in casserole dish, but I used a disposable aluminum foil tray to do the job. Do away with the scrubbing of stubborn stain on the casserole dish after baking food with egg and cheese, it left me some time to post this recipe up the same day. See!

Serves 5 - 6
Ingredients
1 tablespoon of butter
4 slices of shoulder ham, thinly sliced into strips
8 chicken chipolata (sausages), slices into 1" thick lengthwise
1 tablespoon of bacon bits (get instant ones off the shelve or fry it crisped with fresh bacon strips)
1 tablespoon of olive oil
½ onion, thinly sliced
10 eggs
½ cup of evaporated milk (about 125 gram)
1 can of Cream of Mushroom soup
120 grams of shredded Cheddar cheese
4 small potatoes, peeled, boiled and mashed

Method
1) Pre-heat oven to 120°C for 15 - 20 minutes. Grease the base and sides of a casserole dish with some butter (or foil tray).

2) Pre-boil potatoes: Peel and slice the potatoes. Boil a small pot of water to cook the potatoes till soften. Drain and let it cool. When cooled, mash it and set aside.

3) Place the remaining butter into a heated wok/ frying pan, fry chipolata, ham slices and bacon bits till browned. Remove from wok and set aside.

4) In the same wok, add olive oil, saute onions till soft with low flame. At the same time, break eggs into a large bowl, and stir in evaporated milk. Return the chipolata, ham and bacon and add into the egg mixture.

5) Pour the egg mixture into the wok with onions. Stir-fry to combine all ingredients. With medium-low heat, keep stirring the egg mixture until thick but runny consistency. Heat off.

6) Quickly place the mashed potatoes to the base of the casserole dish, and lightly press to firm the base. Then, pour the egg mixture into the greased casserole dish, followed by mushroom soup. Briefly mix the egg and soup, do it gently. Bake for 20 minutes on centre rack.

7) When done, bring it out from oven, and sprinkle with Cheddar cheese. Return it to oven, but place at upper rack this time. Increase oven temperature to 150°C and bake for another 15 - 20 minutes, or until the cheese is lightly brown. Serve warm or chilled.

A thick slice (abt 150 grams) of homemade baked quiche with potato base counts about 410kcal. Oops, it's always the 'cheese and milk business'! Choose low-fat cheese and evaporated milk, please (winking smile)! Forgo the bacon bits, too, if desired. If you haven't noticed it, this helps you to minus off 50-70kcal intake...

Tips: Place mashed potatoes to the base of casserole way beforehand might be better for you, so that you'll not feel pressure when you are trying to cope with the stirring (of eggs) before pouring onto the mashed potatoes base.
* Leave the bake cool and firm for about 10 minutes before serving it in order to keep this scramble quiche in better shape.