Pandan Leave Wrapped Chicken

Chicken wrapped in Pandan leaves taste really good. The scent of pandan wafting out of the wok while it was frying in hot oil makes me happy. Pandan leaves /screwpine leaves have a naturally sweet taste and soft aroma Its flavour is strong, described as grassy with hints of rose, almond, and vanilla, verging on coconut. That is why chicken cooked wrapped in pandan leaves taste good as the aroma of pandan leaves is infused into the hot oil and being absorbed into the chicken meat. What a great way to cook chicken meat in little parcels the Asian way. The chicken can be marinated with any spices or aromatic but I like to keep it simple with just turmeric powder and shallots plus seasoning (salt,pepper and sugar) and corn starch so as not masking the aroma of the pandan leaves.

great presentation when serving especially when you have guests

a great way of cooking chicken meat wrapped in pandan leaves - flavours plus presentation

the aroma of the pandan leaves is infused into hot oil while cooking and absorbed into the chicken meat

you can goggle YouTube on how to wrap the chicken meat with the leaves

a must have plants on my balcony served as a decorative plant plus serve as an ingredient for my cooking 

Ingredients for the marinade

Turmeric powder

Chopped shallots

Salt

White Pepper

Sugar

Large pandan leaves - wash clean and wipe dry with paper towel

Pan Fried Sea Prawns With Sizzled Soy Sauce Oil

This dish reminds me of a seafood dish served at a wedding dinner. It is very aromatic and has sizzled soy sauce oil coating the prawns shells.  I tried to replicate it and it is 90 percent near it. Not bad and will make again as my Meat Eater suggested that I should put into the family dinner menu . Oh well, I knew it! Anything yummy he will ask for a repeat. 😂 I agree that it is really thumbs up.

Recipe for 2 persons

Ingredients:

300gm medium sized sea prawns - leave shell on, devein with a skewer

1 tsp white pepper

1 heaped tbsp corn flour

1/2 head garlic -chopped fine

3 red chillies - chopped fine

3tbsp light soy sauce

4 tbsp olive oil for pan frying prawns

Method:

Rub pepper,salt and cornflour onto prawns. Heat up oil in pan and once oil is hot, add in the seasoned prawns and pan fry till golden brown. Push aside and saute garlic and chilli till fragrant. Add in the soy sauce till it sizzles. Push back the prawns. Give it a quick stir fry till all the prawns are coated with the fragrant soy sauce oil. Dish up and serve warm with rice

Gyoza Wrappers

Gyozas  are our all time favourite snack food. Sometimes we have them as a meal when I am too lazy to cook a proper meal. Gyozas are always made in advance and frozen as emergency food. I make my own Gyoza Wrappers as those store bought are too soft for me . I prefer a slightly soft chewy texture. So I always make my own gyoza wrappers from scratch as they are pliable to fold the filling and there is no preservatives .It is easy to make though may be time consuming but it is truly worth it. I kinda enjoy making them.  

After making the Gyozas, you can freeze them up to a month. Fillings are versatile, you can have meat fillings or kimchi with meat fillings or vegetarian fillings such as tofu and chives.

one recipe can make 24 pieces of gyoza

wrappers @ 16gm each

Before the filling starts to release moisture to the wrappers, cover the gyoza with plastic wrap and “flash freeze” them in the freezer until solid (at least outside is frozen). Make sure to layout the gyoza flat. Once the gyoza is solid, pack them in an airtight bag.

I like to store them in zip lock bag

as I can label the date they were made

Recipe for Gyoza Wrappers

Ingredients

250gm all purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

150ml hot water

Potato starch or Corn starch for dusting

Method:

Mix the flour and salt together in a mixing bowl. Stir in the hot water slowly and using a Danish whisk or chopstick to mix them together. Knead with hand for 5 to 6 mins till a smooth dough is formed. Leave it to rest for 1 hour. Divide dough into 24 pieces at 16gm each. Dust each pieces with potato starch. Roll into a flat round disc of 3.5 inches. Dust with more potato starch when stacking the wrappers.

Note: 

You can keep gyoza wrappers in the refrigerator for about 3-4 days and in the freezer for up to a month. Prior to use, defrost in the refrigerator overnight or on the counter for 60 minutes (depending on the amount and room temperature). Do not defrost in the microwave.

Japanese Potato Salad

This is the most delicious potato salad that I have eaten thus far. For this potato salad ,the best potato to use is the Russet potato . They are very suitable for making this salad. Fluffy in texture and they cook fast.  The other ingredients used are Japanese cucumber, carrots, sweet corn and hard boiled eggs , freshly ground black pepper and Japanese mayonnaise. And of course salt to taste. Easy to whip up and great accompaniment for roast meat. I love chilled before serving.

Ingredients

3 Russet potatoes - mashed

1hard boiled egg - mashed

1/2 Japanese Cucumber - sliced thinly

1/2 Carrot - sliced thinly

1/4 cup sweet corn 

1/8 cup Japanese Mayonaise

Salt to taste

freshly ground Black pepper to taste

Mix all the above ingredients together till well combined. Chill it before serving.

 

Homemade Fresh Pasta With King Oyster Mushroom

Yesterday in the mood to make fresh pasta and we had a wonderful meal. Sunday pasta night. I roast half a chicken breast the hubby and also whipped up a Japanese Potato Salad to go with the Roast meat.  For the fresh pasta recipe,I used Gennaro's recipe. I have put up the recipe for the ratio of flour and the numbers of eggs used in my previous post. I cooked a simple one by simply sauted lots of garlic slices, add in slices of King oyster mushrooms with olive oil, add in mixed herbs. Once aromatic, add in the cooked pasta and give it a quick stir. Add in the water used to cook the pasta to have a thicken sauce. Add a tbsp of oyster sauce for taste. Dish up and serve with side dishes  of  Roast meat and Japanese Potato salad. I will post up the recipe for the Japanese Potato Salad in my coming post. Stay tuned for it. The most delicious potato salad I have made. The hubby loves it and had servings after servings of the pasta and salad. Our happy Sunday meal.

 

fresh pasta with any mushroom with taste as good, for today I used King oyster mushrooms

love the texture of real Italian Pasta somehow homemade is our preferred choice if I am not lazy to make them

For the recipe on how to make your own Italian fresh pasta check out Gennaro's YouTube channel.

Homemade Fresh Pasta

My Sunday happy hour is making fresh pasta from scratch. Manually cut as I am too lazy to clean up the pasta maker after use 😜 also I like rustic looking pasta and also it's been a long time since I last used the pasta drying rack which I bought during the first MCO time . I used Genaro's recipe which is foolproof. Easy to make too.

for thickness -once you can see your fingers thru the dough sheet, it is ready for cutting

the best flour to use for dusting the dough is Semolina flour

resting the dough for an hour before rolling 

this is the flour used for making fresh pasta '00' flour and semolina flour

Dough Ingredients is for 4 person - I halved the recipe for the 2 of us.

150gm '00' flour

50gm semolina flour

2eggs

Check out Genaro YouTube channel for method