Wowzio Insights - Online Shopping for Kitchen Products

"Wowzio Insights for Effective Online Shopping (for top-notch kitchen products) with Product Reviews"

Just came across this website by WOWZIO, offering its beautiful and functional widgets for bloggers' posts and websites, at the same time, a special site helping users shop in a unique and useful way:

Wowzio “Insights”

I visited the site and realised that it is actually very useful, epsecially when you are looking at some kitchen products, and have no idea which is better, more functional, its comparable pricing in the market, and how to purchase it. Many comparisons of items, for instances, slow cookers, were actually from reviews write-up by real-life users.

Here's a handful write-up about what and how "Insights" works...

What really is 'Insights'?
Insights is a 3-tier system that bubbles up top-notch products for a given task or function, eg. 'Best Blenders for making Smoothies'. The base tier consists of an Insights-Extraction system, which as its name suggests, extracts key insights from reviews of users who have used these products. This gives us products that are good for a given task or function. The middle tier is a normalization and ranking tier called TopRank. This is used to rank products obtained from the base tier. The normalization layer factors in product level parameters like how buyers have rated a product, the number of times buyers have rated a product, how well a product has sold, as well as how a product's price is trending. The top tier (currently in development) is user-voting and editorial oversight.

Best Homemade Almond Tarts

"Best-ever-homemade almond tarts! Don't make a regret for not trying this "secret" recipe!"

It's alright if you do not believe, but I can tell you, this is the BEST homestyle almond tart I have ever tasted! Same compliment was given by my family, friends and even colleagues who tasted it as a treat from me!

Extensively fragrant and crisped tart crust with a 'not-too-sweet', aromatic cake-like textured almond filling... you may even taste the crunchy fine almond bites in the palate, yielding more interesting mouthfeel... How could one resists its temptation, my goodness! No worries about having strong pungent almond flavour in its filling, it wasn't at all. It was simply excellent with perfect aromas...

It's simple with 2-stage bakings, but it takes less than 2 hours to get these fabulous tarts ready to serve! Thanks to my 'baking Shifu'!

Yields 36 - 40 pcs of medium-sized tarts/ or 70 - 75 pcs of bite-sized tarts
Ingredients
500 grams of plain flour
250 grams of hard butter (no thawing needed)
100 grams of sugar
1 medium egg

Filling:
200 grams of butter, semi-softened
130 gram of sugar
2 medium eggs
1 egg yolk
200 grams of ground almond
60 grams of plain flour
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

Utensil:
Small or medium tart moulds/ or disposable foil tart cups, greasing is NOT necessary.

Method for pastry (tart crusts):
1) Cut hard butter into small pieces for easy creaming. Cream butter and sugar (using electric mixer) in large mixing bowl at medium speed for 15 - 20 minutes, or until **fluffy.

2) Add in egg and beat at low speed till just well mixed. At same low speed, gradually add in 450 grams of plain flour (leave about 50 gram of plain flour aside to mix only when kneading on table top). Beat flour mixture (at any speed), till all combined and form a dough (it's ok if the dough appears to be a little sticky).

3) Remove dough from mixing bowl and place it on slightly floured table top. Mix the remaining flour (by tablespoons) with the dough by kneading it a little, till all remaining flour finished. By now, the dough will not be sticking on your hand anymore.

4) Place a small lump of pastry dough into each tart mould, one by one, and press it against the tart mould evenly with your thumb to create a thin layer of pastry crust shell. Trim the excess along edges using small blade/ knife, to make it even and for beautiful presentation.

5) Preheat over to 180°C, and half bake the tart crust shells on middle rack for 15 minutes.

Method for filling:
1) Cream butter and sugar at medium speed for 10 minutes, or until **creamy. Add in vanilla essence when creaming is almost done.

2) Add eggs, egg yolk, ground almond and flour, beat at medium speed till well combined. Almond mixture should appear thick creamy consistency, when done.

3) Roll a large triangle sheet of grease-proof baking paper into cone shape, and place ground almond mixture into this paper cone. Close its opening at the top, cut away the tip of the sharp edge and pipe almond filling into each half-baked pastry (tart crust). Bake them at 180°C, on medium rack, for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

4) When baked, leave it to cool before removing from tart mould.

Alternatively, use disposable foil tart moulds (but remember to press the pastry very gently to avoid the foils turning out-of-shape). You may, therefore, serve the tarts together with the foil.

And also, no worries of making a large quantity of tarts as it may be kept for up to a week at room temperature, and up to 2 weeks if keep refrigerated. Otherwise, reduce the amount of recipe ingredients by half.

1 medium almond tart counts about 300kcal, while the bite-sized tart counts about 110kcal each.

Tips: Do not need excessive kneading on the pastry dough. Just knead when mixing the remaining flour to form a smoother dough will do.
* Choose normal ground almond, not the 'fine' ground almond, if you prefer the almond bites in your tarts.
* For easy folding of paper cone, remember to cut the large baking sheet into a triangle piece first, before rolling it into cone shape.
* If you find it difficult to make the paper cone for piping the filling, simply scoop a heaping spoon of almond filling into each half-baked tart crust gently, and do clean away any trace along the edges of the tart shell. The end result of your bake should come out the same.
** Fluffy texture - Butter and sugar should be beaten till light, smooth and soft creamy consistency (feel it with your fingers). The butter mixture should appear in whitish/ cream colour after beating for 15 - 20 minutes. It is normal that sugar may not dissolve, but still pretty in evidence in the mixture.
** Creamy texture - Less fluffy tecture. Beat for shorter time.

Salted Vegetable and Tofu Soup (咸菜豆腐排骨汤)

"Come, have a bowl of this delicate Salted Vegetable, tofu and prime ribs soup!"

Previously, I cooked this salted vegetable tofu soup with roasted duck meat. Taste was more intensive than this prime ribs version as the ribs were not roasted/ baked, but merely blanched and boiled together with the salted vegetable in soup. I did not even add tomato this time.

I loved this version, for its delicate taste of the soup. As for the salted vegetable, I did not use much of the leafy part. I used the short stems, cut into stripes for better presentation. The stem offers more crunchy and interesting bites, if you have the habit of eating the salted vegetables in the soup. Remember to steep the vegetables for at least 3 hours (rinse it once, and change the steeping water every 1 - 2 hour).

This simple salted vegetable tofu soup may not able to make a big statement out of it, but it helps to cool your body heat, as what Chinese believes. Hence, it considers a simple tonic soup to be easily cooked at home! It may also be our 1-dish-meal, by eating the ribs, tofu and salted vegetables in it, with a bowl of hot steamy white rice. Yummy... Add some carrots, if desired (smile)!

Serves 4
Ingredients
300 grams of prime pork ribs, blanched
200 grams of salted vegetable stems part (amount about size of your palm), steeped and sliced
1 packet of beancurd aka tofu, cut into chunk cubes
1 preserved (salted but taste pleasant sourish) plum (咸水梅 "xian shui mei")
1 teaspoon of white peppercorns (whole pepper), coarsely mashed
1 pot of water, 50% filled (about 1500ml)

Method
1) Steep salted vegetable in large bowl of water for 3 hours. Change water after every 1 - 2 hour of steeping. You may check readiness of the vegetable by tasting a little of it. Its saltiness should be just right for the taste bud. Then, slice into stripes. Reserve for later.

2) Bring a pot of water to a boil over high heat. Add blanched pork ribs, salted vegetables and peppercorns. Reduce heat to low fire, or enough heat to keep the soup bubbling. Simmer for 2 hours.

3) Add preserved plum, and continue to simmer for another 30 minutes. Add in tofu 5 minutes before heat off. Serve hot.

This salted vegetable tofu soup yields about 150kcal per regular portion.

Tips: Cut short the boiling hour, shut the fire once soup tastes right (saltiness).
* Choose more meaty pork ribs, as desired.

Chocolate Chip and Macadamia Nut Muffins Recipe

"I don't call it the best muffin, but it's what we called the homemade savoury!"

There isn't any odd combination, make your very own muffin into savoury varities! I made a nutty one! Yes, chocolate chips muffin with Macadamia nuts added into it. In fact, you may add any kind of nuts you like, even peanuts.. and that was what my "Master", Richard, joked about in his baking class (chuckling)!

Yields 12 - 14 muffins
Ingredients
250 grams of self-raising flour
2 medium eggs
125 grams of butter, soften
150 grams of milk
100 grams of sugar
100 grams of Macadamia nuts, coarsely crushed and roasted at 160°C for 5 - 10 minutes till golden brown
200 grams of chocolate chip
20 grams of cocoa powder/ or chocolate powder
1 teaspooon of cinnamon powder

1 teaspoon of dark rum essence, optional

Utensil:
14 medium-sized muffin moulds (model 152), greased or simply line each with paper cup

Method
1) Combine flour, cocoa powder, and cinnamon powder, sift into large mixing bowl. Add chocolate chips and Macadamia nuts.

2) Mix eggs and milk together with electric mixer till just well will do. Add rum essence to enhance the taste, as desired.

3) Heat butter and sugar over low fire till butter melts. Stir constantly while heating to avoid burning. Heat off and leave aside to cool.

4) Add egg mixture into cooled butter mixture, and fold in flour mixture with clean bare hand in upward circular motions, until combine just well. Need not to over-mix the mixtures to avoid denseness in muffins.

5) Ladle batter into each greased muffin mould or paper cup till 80% filled. Preheat oven to 200°C for 15 minutes. Place muffin moulds at centre rack of oven, and bake for 20 - 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. When done, leave it to cool before removing from muffin moulds (together with muffin cup, if used).

My muffin counts about 310kcal per cup. Choose low fat skimmed/ fresh milk to shed a little more calorie intake!

Tips: To create softer and moist muffins, avoid over-folding the mixture.

Golden Egg Tofu with Minced Meat

"Simple healthy dish, delicious homecooked taste, and likeable by most children!"

A variation of hot plate egg tofu dish. I do not have an iron plate at home, and hence, I used stir-frying method to prepare the dish (maybe I should just try heating up a fire-resistant metal plate to serve this dish next time).

Without extensive ingredients, such as, crabmeat sticks, prawns and mushroom shreds, and lack of sizzling effect, this simply an egg tofu homemade dish, with just the minced meat added (these were what I had in my refrigerator the other day... :D). Simple homemade dish, but likeable by most children!

Serves 4
Ingredients
2 tubes of silken egg tofu (soy beancurd in tube form)
150 grams of minced meat
1 egg
1 clove of garlic, minced

Seasoning:
1 teaspoon of light soy sauce
1 teaspoon of oyster sauce
Generous amount of ground white pepper
Sprinkle of sesame oil
Pinch of salt and sugar (just a small pinchy will do)

¾ - 1 cup of water (depends on amount of gravy desired)
1 tablespoon of cornstarch (made into slurry with 2 tablespoons of water)

1 cup of cooking oil (for deep frying of egg tofu)

Optional seasoning:
½ teaspoon of Shao Hsing Hua Diao rice wine (*add this to taste even better, if you are not serving toddler)

Method:
1) Cut each roll of tofu into pieces of 1cm thick, lengthwise. You may place tofu on a sheet of kitchen towel to dry out excessive water in the tofu.

2) Heat wok with oil over high heat, and deep-fry tofu till golden browned. Remove from wok, and drain on kitchen towel. Set aside.

3) Remove excessive oil and left only about 1 tablespoon in the wok, heat at medium flame. Slightly brown garlic, add in mince meat and water. Stir-fry well for 1 minute before adding in seasoning (and also rice wine, if desired).

4) Thicken gravy with cornstarch slurry, if it still appears watery (You may adjust the adding of cornstarch slurry till you find the right consistency). Then, break and add an egg into wok, stir it vigorously for few seconds. Heat off immediately.

5) Return golden browned egg tofu into wok, stir it gently just to combine well, and dish up.

Alternatively, place egg tofu on serving dish and pour over minced meat gravy. Serve with hot steamed rice.

If you think my dish lacks colourful appearance, garnish with scallion and chilli juliennes. Or, vary the toppings with seafood mixture instead!

However, doing with just the minced meat, it means less complication, less preparation time & less hassle to cook (smile)!

A portion golden egg tofu with minced meat & egg sauce counts about 180kcal.

Tips: Get tofu suitables for frying/ braising use. It's easily available at most supermarkets.
* Do not over-fried the egg tofu in order to retain its moisture and soft texture. Quickly remove from oil once it's lightly browned to allow standing time.
* Just add the egg directly into wok without pre-beating it. Egg should be added at the very final stage of cooking when it's almost time to dish up. It's to retain its runny texture and mouthfeel.

Tom Yam Macaroni Pasta

"When East meets West..."

I think Macaroni is one of the most versatile pastas. It can be cooked in Italian cuisine, in Chinese style, and now, even as a Thai dish!

Impressive?! I am not sure, but if you are a Thai food lover, I am sure you'll like this! I loved its spiciness as well as sourish flavour. It's definitely worth spending time for making this dish for your loved ones!

Serves 4 - 5
Ingredients
400 grams of Macaroni
200 grams of minced pork meat
1 cup of button mushrooms, thinly sliced
1 medium tomato, diced
2 tablespoons of Tom Yam paste (40 grams)
5 Kaffir lime leaves
2 cloves of garlic, minced
½ tablespoon of coconut milk
¾ cup of water

2 tablespoons of olive oil (and 1 more tablespoon for coating macaroni)

If required:
½ teaspoon of corn starch, made into 2 tablespoons of slurry

Optional:
2 bird’s eye chilli (chilli padi), julienned

Method:
1) Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add pinch of salt, and macaroni pasta into the boiling water. Cook for 8 - 10 minutes, or until al-dente. Stir occassionally to avoid macoroni from sticking together. When done, drain and mix 1 tablespoon of olive oil with macaroni. Set aside.

2) Heat wok/ large sauce pan with oil over high heat. Add garlic (and chilli padi, if desired. Beware of pungency when stir-frying it), and stir-fry till fragrant. Reduce heat to low-medium fire. Add Tom Yam paste and minced meat, stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add tomato and button mushrooms, stir-fry for another 1 minutes.

3) Add lime leaves and water. Reduce heat to low fire. Cover wok with lid, and simmer for 3 minutes.

4) Add in coconut milk. Stir to combine well and thicken the Tom Yam gravy.

The gravy should not be too dry as you need more gravy to top the pasta completely. However, its watery consistency should consist light resistance, still. If the gravy is watery without any resistance, add in 1 - 2 tablespoon of cornstarch slurry to further thicken it. Heat off.

5) Divide Macaroni into serving dishes, and top with adequate amount of Tom Yam gravy. Serve immediately.

You may get readily made Tom Yam paste, often available at Asian supermarkets or some grocery shops which sells Thai products. I used "Adabi" brand which comes in small packet of 40 grams. This is good to be used in soups or stir-fries. I used it for my pasta recipe (smile). It is available in many neighbourhood mini markets and NTUC Fairprice supermarket. I think I got it at mini market, costs less than S$2 per packet.

A regular portion of Tom Yam Macaroni pasta counts about 390kcal.

Variation: Seafood toppings. Add prawns, squids, crab sticks and fish slices instead.

Stir-fried Bitter Gourd with Black Beans

"Delicious bitter gourd that does not taste bitter"

Bitter gourd aka bitter melon is well-known with its rich nutritional properties. It is an excellent source of vitamins B1, B2, and B3, C, magnesium, folic acid, zinc, phosphorus, manganese, iron, beta-carotene, calcium and potassium. It has high dietary fiber and very low in calorie. Many Chinese families also believe in its cooling effect to reduce 'heatiness' in the body. However, not many take bitter gourd, despite all the health benefits it has. As its name implies, this vegetable tastes bitter!

However, you may limit its bitterness to the minimum, using my choosing method. I love to cook this dish and I have to cook it deliciously and less bitter so that my family will eat more.

It's so simple! Just select bitter gourd (big one) with lighter green in colour and less wrinkled. It is for sure less bitter to taste!

Serves 4 - 5
Ingredients
1 arm-lengthed bitter gourd, washed, removed seeds and thinly sliced
2 - 3 tablespoons of black bean paste (with whole beans)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 red chilli julienne
Pinch of sugar

⅓ cup of water
1 tablespoon of cooking oil

Method
1) Soak whole bitter gourd with salted water for 15 minutes. Slice bitter gourd into halves, remove seeds using metal spoon, and thinly slice the halves, crosswise.

2) Heat wok with oil over high heat. Add garlic and stir-fry till golden brown. Reduce heat to low-medium fire. Add in bitter gourd and stir-fry for 3 minutes. Add water and cover wok with lid to simmer for 5 minutes, or until cooked (bitter gourd should appear slightly darker green).

3) Remove lid, add black beans and chilli. Stir-fry for another 2 minutes. Add sugar and stir fry to mix well. Heat off and serve.

In fact, I mixed two types of black bean paste. 1 tablespoon each of Chilli and non-chili black beans into the dish. It's an alternative of using fresh chilli julienne. I'll leave the choice to you (smile)!

1 large portion of stir-fried bitter gourd with black beans counts about 60kcal only!

Tips: If bitter gourd appears too dry when simmering, add more water enough to complete the simmering. However, the dish should not be too watery when served. This is not a gravied dish.

Aglio Olio with Ham (Spicy Italian Pasta)

Aglio Olio (Aglio e Olio) can be easily prepared at home. This is a tradition pasta dish, but resembling Chinese stir-fried noodle dish with loads of garlic and dried chili flakes (chuckling). Another main ingredient of Aglio Olio will be the olive oil. This pasta dish can be eaten with just the minced garlic, dried chili pepper and olive oil, or top it with salmon, hams or mushroom slices.

I made Aglio Olio entirely plain with only the "threesome" sauce during our Western-style dinner the other night, when I had many other dishes to go along, for instances, Dark Rum Pork Chop and baked king prawns. But not this time, I made only the pasta dish for our dinner. Hams and meat slices were added into this simple pasta dish (shhh... tell you a secret.. adding pork slices was because I had some leftover raw meat in my refrigerator the other day. Just didn't want to keep the meat for too many days. I used it in my pasta dish.. :p).. Yes, great taste it yields!

This spicy flavoured pasta dish might be a little too spicy for the children and whoever does not take spicy food. So, reduce the chili pepper flakes, as desired.

Serves 4
Ingredients
300 grams of angle hair pasta or spaghetti
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil (and additional 1 tablespoon for coating purpose)
1 - 2 teaspoon of dried chilli flakes
Pinch of salt and ground black pepper

Toppings:
50 grams of ham slices, diced or julienned
100 grams of pork meat, thinly sliced or julienned and marinated with salt, ground white pepper and corn starch (Optional)
Or any topping of your choice

A pot of water with salt added (for blanching pasta noodles)

Method
1) Boil a pot of water, add salt. When boiled, place pasta and cook for 6 - 10 minutes (depends on type of pasta used), or until al-dente. Remove from pot and drain well. Mix pasta noodles with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, coat well to moist the strains while reserving for later.

2) Heat large sauce pan/ wok with 3 tablespoons of olive oil over low-medium fire. Add in minced garlic and sauté till fragrant will do. No browning is required.

3) Place ham (and meat) slices into the frying pan, stir-fry for 5 minutes or until meat slices are tenderly cooked. Return blanched pasta into frying pan and add in chilli flakes, salt and ground black pepper, stir-fry to combine well, for 2 - 3 minutes. The noodles have to be tossed constantly during the 2-minutes stir-frying process, to avoid over-cooking.

This is definitely a healthier choice as compared to those white sauce pasta dishes.. A portion of this Aglio e Olio pasta with ham yields about 240kcal (without pork slices).

Tips: Choice of Angel hair pasta to fasten the cooking process as the strain is thinner and easily cooked. However, watch out your timing to avoid over-cooking. Otherwise, the texture of pasta might become too soft and lose its interesting bites.

"Popcorn" Pork (Fried Pork Chunks with Biscuit Crumbs)

"Try making these cute and tasty little fried pork cubes to increase your child's appetite"

This is a variation of "popcorn" chicken.

I intended to cook sweet and sour pork at first, but ended up with just the fried meat with biscuit crumbs added. My hubby said it is crisped, and tasty enough to eat without sauce/ gravy onto it.

These bite-sized crisped meat chunks looked cute and delicious to my girl, too. She thought it was the "popcorn" chicken in KFC. Yes, pretty alike, except it was made of pork instead. And, I had it made better as tasty cream crackers were made into crumbs and added to these fried "pork corn" (laughing). It wasn't necessary to add biscuit crumbs into this fried popcorn pork, but I did. Yes, it was much more delicious and aromatic, with a hint of buttery taste. Yummy!

This recipe yields fragrant and crisped fried pork meat. It will be better to go with some soupy dishes as the fried meat chunks were dry ones. Well, just remember not to over-fry it to retain its tenderness and moisture in the meat.

Besides pairing with soup dish, you may also serve the sweet plum paste along, as dipping. It'll create a refreshing taste in the palate.

Simple recipe to follow:

Serves 4 - 5
Ingredients
400 grams of pork meat (preferably with some fat in it), cut into bite-sized chunks

Seasoning:
1 tablespoon of light soy sauce
1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
Sprinkle of sesame oil
Sprinkle of ground white pepper

Coating:
1 egg, briefly beaten
6 pieces of plain/ butter cream crackers (cream biscuits), mashed
2 tablespoons of corn flour

1 cup of cooking oil (for frying)

Method
1) Season pork chunks with the listed seasoning. Combine well and marinate for at least 30 min. You may keep it refrigerated while marinating.

2) Beat an egg briefly, and mix well with seasoned pork chunks. Set aside.

3) Mash crackers, mix it with corn flour. Coat pork chunks with cracker mixture. Make sure all sides are well coated with thick layer of cracker mixture to resemble popcorn shape.

4) Heat wok with oil over high heat till smoke starts rising. Reduce heat to medium fire, place 'popcorn' pork chunks into wok and fry till light golden brown.

5) When meat chunks turn light brown, increase heat to high fire and fry the pork chunks till oil is bubbling agressively. Then, heat off and remove from wok immediately. Drain on kitchen towel before placing on serving dish. Serve with dippings or some soupy dishes.

A large portion of "popcorn" pork cubes counts about 340kcal.

Tips: To make sure the pork chunks are well seasoned and coated. You may use clean bare hand to perform the mixing.
* Do not over-fry the pork meat. Pork cubes should be removed when lightly browned to allow some standing time after removing from oil (as it will continue to 'cook' for a while more even after heat off).

Old Cucumber Soup (老黄瓜汤)

"Nourishing Chinese tonic soup that helps to cool and revitalise your body"

This is the most common and popular Chinese soup in Asian countries, especially Singapore and Malaysia. Almost every Chinese family knows how to prepare this soup dish.

Whenever I drink this old cucumber (aged cucumber) soup, it will bring back memories of my childhood where we had this soup so often that even it was not cooked at home by my mum, we were sure had it when dined out for claypot chicken rice. In my impression, this old cucumber and pork ribs soup is best complement the claypot chicken rice! It reflects simplicity, yet, the taste of life.

While time has changed, some of these old aromas are still fondly remembered..

Serves 4 - 5
Ingredients
1 medium old cucumber with skin intact, halves, then cut each half into chunks, lengthwise
300 grams of meaty pork ribs, blanched
1 piece of dried cuttlefish, washed and cut into half
12 seedless red dates
⅔ teaspoon of salt
1 pot of water, 50% filled (about 1500ml water)

Method
1) Bring a pot water to a boil over high heat. Add pork ribs, dried cuttlefish, old cucumbers and red dates. Bring it to a boil again.

2) Remove scum on the surface of the soup, if any. Reduce heat to low fire and simmer for 2 - 3 hours. By the time it is done, the flesh of old cucumbers should appeared soft and transparent in colour. Add salt, 5 minutes before heat off. Serve hot.

Dried cuttlefish can be found in many grocery shops and supermarkets. If you do not fancy the taste of dried cuttlefish, substitute with dried scallops.

A bowl of old cucumber soup counts about 130kcal.

Tips: Cook old cucumber together with its skin intact. Soak the whole old cucumber in salted water for 15 minutes. Scrub and wash the skin thoroughly before cutting into pieces. The pocket of seeds can be removed or remained. It's OK, I cooked it without removing any of the seed.
* Stir in salt to your desired briny taste. Remember, adding of adequate amount of salt is crucial. Taste of the soup should be subtle, but not bland.

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 another 2 tablespoons of curry powder, stir fry 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.