Herbed chicken in cider

Not only yummy but also nutritious.
The chicken pieces are fried lightly in butter till golden, then mushrooms are thrown into the pot and it is then seasoned with salt, pepper, mixed herbs and simmered in chicken stock and cider for a good hour. Meanwhile, the rice grains are coated with vegetable oil and cooked with chicken stock in the normal method. Side veg i.e. seasonal asparagus spears are saute' in butter/olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
I love slow cooking method as all flavours and spices can incorporate into the food and it is more rewarding to eat something after waiting impatiently for a little while.
As usual, recipe will only be posted if a) I feel like it or b) somebody asks for it.
Also, due to a mini economic recession, the novice cook will have to plan her weekly meals ahead and there will limited trips to China Town supermarkets :sigh: Therefore in the next few weeks or so the food will be pretty basic (erhmm, actually the novice cook's foods have always been basic).Hopefully the novice cook will still find something interesting enough to write about:D

First-time donburi

Apparently donburi is a bowl of rice served with one or various toppings. Inspired by Cooking Cute, I decided to make my own donburi today. I didn't expect much but it came out quite nicely. The only thing is that I had a heap of dishes to wash afterwards.
The picture is from Cooking Cute website as my camera was playing up and I couldn't take a picture (:D honest, It's not because my dish is c**p). As I didn't have ground beef (or more precisely, I have to save the ground beef for the hubby's tea tonight) ;I replaced it with dried tofu sheet, which is similar in the way that it's another source of protein. The crispy texture of mange tout goes perfectly well with the soft scrambled egg and saute'd tofu. I also added sliced shitake mushrooms sauted in oyster sauce and soy sauce as I absolutely adore shitake mushrooms. After all, I topped it with a bit of gochujang (another confession, I am also addicted to gochujang) and mix everything together (steamed mange tout, shitake mushroom, scrambled egg and sauted tofu and of course, steaming hot rice.).
Hang on a minute, it tastes too similar to bibimbap. Now I'm confused, what is the difference between bibimbap and donburi then? Maybe I altered the recipe too much it has turned from Japanese food to Korean food with a Chinese twist. Or maybe I'm a novice cook after all and I can't tell the difference between Korean and Japanese food. Oh well, whatever, as long as it tastes nice, it's worth my effort.

Quintessential Vietnamese food

Thit kho tau -( which literally means pork belly braised in Chinese style) or a more common name in Viet restaurants is pork braised in coconut juice.
This is one of the most popular Vietnamese dish, which is served with white rice and sometimes picked bean sprouts. The meat is marinated and refrigerated for 8 hours ahead of the cooking time, then braised and simmered in a pan of coconut juice for at least 2 hours until all the flavour has incorporated into the meat and the hard boiled egg.
It is a lengthy cooking process but it's totally worth it when you chew into the soft and tender pork pieces which are both sweet (from the use of sweet soy sauce or caramel sauce) and savoury (from fish sauce). Eaten with pickled bean sprouts or picked Chinese mustard leaves as side dishes, it is one of my top ten all time favourite food.
Recipe will be dug up some time later if requested.

An English love affair

To be honest I am not too sure whether this originally came from Scotland or England. I got the recipe from an English cookbook and it was relatively easy to follow. All you need is some self raising flour, sugar, salt, butter and milk to bind.
I mean, If I can do it, anyone else certainly can. I have to admit I love baking despite various disastrous attempts I've made so far. It's hit and miss really with the tiny oven I have. I need a bigger kitchen.
Anyway I'm off now for a scone and a cuppa tea. Will be back later.

Tofu

I initially wanted to use silken tofu, as inspired by Simcooks post on silken tofu with shallot oil. However, I couldn't find any silken tofu from the local supermarket so I had to make do with firm tofu. The end result tasted a bit like mapo tofu to me. The tip of seasoning the mince pork with cornstarch worked a treat. I never thought of it before but it actually enhances the taste an awful lot.
Thanks simcook for the yummy recipe :D

Pot roasted chicken - ga roti

The novice cook PROUDLY presents:



At least now and then there is something decent coming out of my kitchen. This dish has always been my favourite. Ga` means chicken in vietnamese and the word ro^ti is supposedly derived from the French word rosti. When I was at home my mum normally roasted it in a mini oven while my grandma opted for the on-the-hob cooking method. I myself prefer cooking this particular dish in a pot as I love to pour the gravy over steamed white rice. The dish is also accompanied by some fresh tomatoes to give a refreshing taste to contrast the rather heavily seasoned chicken.
The marinade mixture used in this dish (for one person)include
1tbsp sugar, 1tbsp fish sauce, 1tbsp soy sauce, 1 tsp five spice powder, 1tsp garlic, 2-3 chopped shallots (or 1 chopped onion)
Method:
-Marinate the chicken for at least 2 hours
-Then, lift the chicken out of the marinade and fry in high heat for 7 minutes, just when the chicken starts turning brown.
-Turn the heat down to low, add the marinade, fry for 1-2 mins
-Pour just enough water to cover the chiken, stir and put the lid back on
-cook on low heat for another 45-50 minutes
Note: I also put a star anise in to make it more fragrant and being a mushroom junky means that I also include shitake mushrooms in the pot. The star anise really works wonder but I'm not too sure about shitake mushrooms in this dish. mmm
Anyway, enjoy.

The eyes can be deceiving...

I've wanted to make cassava cake for a while but was held back because there's not a single Filipino shop in town. So my quick thinking told me that I could try making it with tapioca flour instead, based on the premise that tapioca flour is somehow made from cassava roots;therefore, it should be the closest substitute I have in hand.
The result, was supposed to look like this:

Instead, mine looks like this:

D'oh! Don't let the eyes deceive you though. Mine tastes just as good (I would imagine). It is still soft, chewy and pretty moist.
At the end of the day, even though I don't make pretty cakes,at least I'm getting there (eventually).