Mom ended up having a tiny dinner party tonight with a few of her friends, in celebration of Mother’s Day tomorrow and their mothers all being in South Korea or having passed on. Now, whilst I love nearly all of my mother’s cooking, some dishes are a bit of a headache to eat - tonight’s is an example - a chilli korean broth/stew with chinese cabbage, crud-loads of potatos and very odd cuts of beef which are a little reminiscent of ox-tail but more difficult to eat with less rewards. Another problem is that after the bones have been boiled for this amount of time, they tend to fall apart which means many mouthfuls result in pulling bits of bone out of your mouth. Nyergh. Don’t get me wrong, the flavours are great, but it’s a time-consuming dish to eat when you want something easy.
So, I decided to make my own dinner of sweet and sour chicken drumettes - I’d bought some drumettes the other day, and after removing all the skin and fat and rinsing them, stuck them in the freezer till I could think up a sauce.
Sweet and Sour Oven-Baked Chicken Pieces
Ingredients
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup dark soy sauce
1/2 cup white vinegar
3/4 - 1 cup caster sugar
2 thai chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
1 heaped tsp ground ginger
1 heaped tsp ground garlic
1 heaped tsp corn starch
1 cup plain flour
Salt and pepper, to taste
1.5 kg chicken cuts (wingetts, drumsticks, drumettes - make sure they have been trimmed of skin and fat)
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Season the flour with salt and pepper, then coat the chicken and Coat chicken flour, then fry till they are deep brown all over.
3. Mix up the water, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, chillies, ginger, garlic and corn starch.
4. Place fried chicken in a baking tray, then pour the sauce over, using a soup ladle to make sure that each chicken piece is soaked through.
5. Bake for 30-45 minutes, checking every 10-15 minutes and giving them another bath in the sauce.
By the time they’ve finished cooking, you have a thick, sticky sauce which is divine. So divine, in fact, that my mom’s friends were pestering me throughout the cooking process, and then proceeded to steal half the drumettes. Some more were stolen off me by my sister and her friend, and my brother and his friends, and in the end I had 4 drumettes for dinner. Pooey. But man oh man, were they GOOD!
Now, let me tell you something about Korean women from Korea. They fascinate me, they’re these loud, hysterical creatures who are quite interesting to observe. Now, almost every kitchen in Korea has an oven…but the oven does not get used. Ever. Korean women do NOT know how to bake, relying on their neighbourhood bakery for all the baked sweet-goods they require - they don’t understand the concept of a baked savoury good, and hence are puzzled by things such as frittatas and SANDWICHES!!! My mother’s friends all immigrated to Australia in their adulthood, and since they are friends with my mother, have sampled many of my baked/cooked goods, exclaiming surprise when I announce that ANYONE can make these things, you do not have to be a Cordon Bleu certified patissier.
At any rate, after they finished my chicken (this is after they’ve had the dinner served by mom), they begged me to make something “sweet in the oven”. At this stage it was midnight and I’d run out of energy, so I made some more of the financiers as they were quick, easy, and impressive.
Those disappeared too - but I did manage to snare one for myself before my siblings and their friends stormed down the stairs and back up again with hands full of these golden delights.
Now, it’s always a compliment when the food I make is wolfed down…but next time my mother has guests, I think I’ll make sure to eat before they arrive! For a dinner party that isn’t even mine, that was a lot of work for very little food for me! 
Technorati Tags: chicken, marinade, sauce, baking, drumsticks
So, I made the decision today to go out for a social gathering as a friend of mine had a comedy revue on and my oldest and longest running group of friends (the stranglies, as we refer to ourselves - long story!) had organised to go. It also presented an opportunity to introduce them to the man who has stolen my heart, and continues to do so every time I see him…
Unfortunately, the decision was made not to stay the night at his place as he had to head off ridiculously early tomorrow morning for a band rehearsal, and I was buggered (from an upset stomach not caused by my cooking!!!) and felt I needed a long sleep in tomorrow. Which is a big fat turd, as I haven’t seen him in a fortnight, and won’t get to see him for long next week either as his schedule is insanely busy with rehearsals and gigs. SIGH. The thing I miss most about all this is waking up in the morning with his breath warming the crook of my neck WAAH *sobs into pillow*
Anyway, completely unrelated to food, a night out with friends in photos 
First couple of tonight is Sam and Estelle
Third couple of the night, my best friend Gauri and her man Pete
It’s a best friend cuddle - smoosh!
Estelle and Jane pull a pose
“Say cheese”
Oh my god - almost the entire group gathered together!
I love my stranglies - with our individual schedules keeping us running like headless chooks, it’s difficult to get us together in the same room - even in this photo, we are missing the Divine Ms. Katy F, and Vee obviously couldn’t participate as she was getting ready for the show.
Technorati Tags: friends, comedy show
This is for Lisa at La Mia Cucina, a fantastic food blog that I check every day for tasty recipes and oh-so-yummy photos!
This recipe came from Clotilde over at Chocolate & Zucchini. The original recipe I used to use came from Stephanie Alexander’s “The Cooks Companion”, but unfortunately my food processor was never up to the challenge of turning blanched almonds into almond meal, and it’s a lot more involved. This recipe is good when you want to turn out a batch of almondy goodness in about 5 minutes, not including baking time of course 
Ingredients
125g caster sugar
125g almond meal (also referred to as ground almonds or almond powder)
2 eggs
70g butter
20g flour
1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C
2. Melt butter in a small bowl, set aside to cool slightly
3. Combine sugar and almond meal in a seperate bowl, add eggs and mix in well with a fork. Pour in melted butter, mix to combine, then add sifted flour and mix well again.
4. Butter the moulds (highly recommended even if you have a non-stick mini muffin tin, these suckers are sticky!), and fill each mould to the 3/4 mark.
5. Bake for 10-15 minutes (for mini muffin tins, it may be slightly more for larger tins). They will puff up slightly and turn golden and slightly crusty along the edges. Remove from the oven when the edges look darker and the tops are beautiful and golden.
6. Leave to sit in the moulds for about 5 minutes before removing them. You may want to let them cool upside down once removed, as the sides and bottoms are a bit sticky.
This recipe can be flavoured in many ways - lemon juice & rind, coffee granules, cocoa, or by putting berries, nuts or chocolate chips on top. They’re tiny and delicious and the perfect mouthful - but make sure they’re not too accessible or you may end up devouring the lot in one sitting!
Now, Stephanie Alexander says in her book “The Cooks Companion” that financiers and friands are the same thing, however I don’t believe that to be the case, as the texture of both are quite different. Financiers are light and textured, while the friands that I’ve eaten (and that’s quite a few, as they’re my favourite accompaniment to tea and are served in almost every cafe in Melbourne) are a lot more dense and cakey, and taste infinetely better when refrigerated, as when they’re warm they’re a bit thick (whilst losing their denseness) and the taste of the crumb is a bit less impressive.
I’d make my white chocolate and raspberry friands and post the recipe, but I went to the supermarket this morning and a TINY punnet of about 20 berries costs $8.00!! I love winter for it’s many delights such as pumpkin soup and roasts, but goddamn it! I can’t justify spending $8.00 on not even one sitting of berries in cream…
Technorati Tags: financiers, mini muffins, baked, friands
I spoke to my supervisor for my Media Project at uni today, and she has said that this blog (along with other documentation which I won’t go into here) will qualify as my project?
You know what this means, right?
It means I can say that cooking is my STUDY! HAH! I may never make it to Le Cordon Bleu (AUD $7000 for a beginner’s pastry course? In my dreams!), so I’ll take what I can get
In celebration, there was more baking to be had tonight, albeit a quick and easy recipe as I’m a bit wiped…these cookies are crisp, crunchy, and very much for a person with a bit of a sweet tooth.
By the way, if you’re reading this, HI LISA
Honey & Macadamia Cookies
(warning - these are decadant, and equally as dangerous for the waistline!)
Ingredients
125g melted butter
2 tbsp honey
55g caster sugar
1 heaped tsp bicarb soda
50g cup shredded coconut (not dessicated, you need the texture of shredded)
185g plain flour
35g finely chopped unsalted macadamias
Demerara or Coffee sugar (they’re both large grained sugars, I prefer the flavour of demerara, but the coffee sugar crystals look a lot more impressive!)
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Beat melted butter, honey, caster sugar and bicarb soda till smooth. Stir in sifted flour, coconut and macadamia nuts.
3. Roll rounded teaspoons of mixture into balls, press one side into the sugar granules then place the rounds 4cm apart on a lined baking tray, flattening them slightly.
4. Bake for about 10 minutes, or till they have lightly browned on top. Remove tray from the oven and stand for about 5 minutes before lifting them onto wire racks to cool.
This quantity will make about 20-25 deliciously decadant, crisp and crunchy cookies.
And what was my kitchen-hand doing whilst I was making these golden lovelies?
“Maybe if I look pretty, I’ll get some cookie dough?”
“Pretty please?”
Technorati Tags: honey, macadamia, cookies, baking, dogs, golden retrievers, photos
Okay, I lied. There’s nothing squeezy about this recipe! Got home from uni at 1pm and was starved, so I wanted something warm, comforting and filling. Not including time taken to prepare the chicken (I am a chicken nazi - I’m terrified of the fat in the skin so will painstakingly sit and remove every piece of skin and fat from the chicken pieces, and since I was using boned chicken thighs, there was quite a bit!), it takes about 10-15 minutes to make.
Sweet and sour chicken on purple rice
Ingredients
1kg skinless, boneless chicken meat, cut into small, bite sized pieces
1/2 cup thinly sliced green capsicum (bell pepper)
1/2 cup thinly sliced red capsicum (bell pepper)
1 cup carrot strips
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 cup snow peas
1/4 cup soy sauce (a little less than 1/4 otherwise it could be a bit too salty)
1 small tin of diced pineapple (about 250g/8 oz)
2 tbsp vinegar
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp corn starch
1. Sautee chicken, garlic and ginger till the chicken is browned. Make sure you do this on a high heat, a low heat will cook the chicken too early, making it lose all it’s juices and it will be dry and tough by the end of the cooking process.
2. Add capsicum, carrot and snow peas, stir fry for 1-2 minutes then remove from heat.
3. In a small bowl, combine corn starch, soy sauce, pineapple juice and pieces, vinegar and sugar. Put the chicken back onto a medium heat, pour the sauce over the top and stir through, bringing it to a full boil. Leave to boil for 1 minute, then remove from heat.
Purple rice is just a mix of regular white rice (jasmine or calrose, you choose) and black rice. We use a 5:1 ratio of calrose to black, and the colour is amazingly vibrant. The black rice is a lot chewier and helps to add more texture to the fluffiness of the calrose.
You’ll notice no red or green in my chicken - that’s because I was so taken with the colour of the yellow and orange capsicums that I decided to substitute those instead. They’re a lot milder in flavour, but I think I’ll go for red and green next time, as I think a dish as strongly flavoured as this needs a more prominant capsicum flavour. I also forgot to throw the snow peas in whist cooking, so I munched on them raw yumyum!
Technorati Tags: chicken, capsicum, snow peas, black rice
