Teriyaki Chicken

I love chicken teriyaki! I always order anything teriyaki when I am going to a Japanese restaurant. I was wondering how difficult it is to make the teriyaki sauce and thought that I have to buy a Japanese saute pan to make teriyaki dish.

Anyway, I guess everyone needs google search these days. I typed "Chicken teriyaki recipe". Many recipes came up from the google search engine. There was even a video to show how to saute the chicken correctly. COOL!! Time to try making this dish in my kitchen using a flat teflon pan. As simple as that!!

Ingredients:

• Teriyaki sauce: 0.5 cup kikkoman soy sauce, 0.5 cup mirin, 2 tbs sugar
• 3 chicken thigh fillets (cut each fillet into 2 pieces)
• 1 carrot (sliced into matchstick size)
• 2 brown onions (sliced into lengthy strips)
• 1 tbs toasted sesame seeds (optional)
• 4 tbs oil for sauteing

Preparation:

1. Marinate the chicken with the teriyaki sauce for 30 mins
2. Add oil into the pan, wait until it is hot
3. Fry the chicken fillets until they turn golden brown, turn the chicken over to another side
4. Pour half the sauce in pan
5. Cover the pan and steam cook the chicken fillets on low heat until only a little bit sauce left
6. Put the chicken fillets on the serving plate
7. Add the remaining teriyaki sauce into the pan
8. Add carrot and onions until they are cooked
9. Add the carrots and onions on the side of chicken thigh fillets
10. Sprinkle the dish with toasted sesame seeds (optional)

Long Beans with Garlic and Chilli

A simple and delicious dish! When you are in the mood of hot-chilli dish, this could be the one. It is perfect with a warm jasmine rice. You can add more/less chillies based on your taste. Just remember that adding too much chillies can overpower the flavour.






Ingredients:

• 300 gr long green beans (cut the edges)
• 1 cloves garlic (minced)
• 3 bird's eye red chillies (minced)
• a pinch of salt
• a pinch of white pepper
• 2 tbs of water
• oil to stir fry 

Preparation:

1. Add oil in the wok.
2. Add minced garlic, chillies, salt and pepper. Stir fry until the garlic turns slightly golden.
3. Add the long green beans and water. Keep stir-frying until the green beans are crunchy and cooked (approx. 5-7 mins).

Pistachio & Dark Chocolate Brownies

No matter if you are good in baking or not, you should be able to make these brownies (no mixer required). I got this recipe from my colleague, Ken Wyse, who is a great cook. He made these brownies once for his lab's morning tea. There were some left behind and I tasted one of them. Oh la la...... It was so good. I asked Ken for the recipe. I baked once with almond instead of pistachio and brought to the lab meeting. My friends loved them and asked for the recipe. As a result, the girls in the Fatkin group got a copy of Ken's brownies recipe!!
Ingredients:

•  85 gr unsalted butter
• 45 gr cocoa powder
• 225 gr caster sugar (I usually reduce it to 180 gr)
• 2 extra large eggs
• 55 gr plain flour
• 0.5 tsp baking powder
• 0.5 tsp salt
• 115 gr nuts or 150 gr chocolate (I usually use 80 gr pistachios and 40 gr dark chocolate >50% cocoa)

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 180 C deg
2. Melt butter
3. Stir in cocoa and sugar
4. Add egg one at a time
5. Sift together flour, baking powder, salt
6. Beat gently
7. Fold in nut and/or chocolate
8. Pour in brownies tin
9. Bake for 30 mins
10. Cut into medium-sized squares when cold

Red Salmon with Caramelised Shallot and Chilli

A very delicious dish! It reminds me of my mum's cooking although her version is not exactly the same. It is worthwhile to prepare this dish in the weekend. This dish takes a bit of time to prepare. It needs your patience for cutting the spring onion, shallot, and chillies thinly. You will need to take a break in between as your eyes will be teary when cutting them.

You also need low heat for pan-frying the fish so it will turn out nicely. High-heat will cause your salmon fillet to be overcooked. The result for this dish will make you feel like "I am a cool chef!" Hahaha... That's what I always think everytime I make a great dish.

Ingredients:

•  1 atlantic salmon fillet (boneless) cut into two pieces
• 1 bunch spring onions (cut diagonally)
• 6 shallots (cut thinly)
• 3 birds eye chillies (cut thinly)
• 3 tbs Seasoned soy sauce for seafood (Lee Kum Kee)
• 5 tbs water
• a pinch of pepper
• olive oil (approx. 5 tbs, for pan-frying)

Preparation:

1. Pan-fry the salmon with olive oil (the skin side facing the pan surface first). Leave for 10 mins in low heat. Cover your pan with the lid so that the oil won't spread all over your kitchen.
2. Turn the salmon fillet to another side and pan-fry for another 10 mins (until golden and slightly crispy).
3. Take the salmon fillets out and add the sliced spring onion, shallot, chillies, pepper, soy sauce, and water to the pan. Stir-fry until they are caramelised.
4. Add the fried salmon fillets in until the sauce is slightly absorbed.

Szechuan Eggplant with Pork and Tofu

I recently found the recipe for spicy szechuan eggplant from About.com Chinese Food. I read the reviews and thought that it would be good to try as I had 1 eggplant wandering in my fridge. I don't even know what to cook with this lonely eggplant. As you may have guessed, I got very excited and bought all the ingredients needed to make this dish. I added tofu to this dish to give more different texture. I think this dish turned up perfect and very good for lunchbox.


Ingredients:

• 0.25 gr pork minced
• 2 big eggplants
• 1 small pack of classic tofu (diced and pan-fried)
• 1 cloves garlic (minced)
• 1.5 tbs chilli bean sauce (Lee Kum Kee)
• 1 tsp chilli paste with garlic (Indonesian sambal bawang)
• 2 tsp sesame oil
• spring onions (cut thinly)

Sauce:

•  0.5 cup chicken broth (Campbell's)
• 3 tbs kikkoman soy sauce
• 1 tbs balsamic vinegar
• 2 tsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp sugar

Marinade:

• 0.5 tsp salt
• 0.5 tsp black pepper
• a pinch of cornstarch

Preparation:

1.  Dice the tofu into medium squares and pan-fry with olive oil for 5 mins each side (until they turn golden brown).
2. Marinate the pork minced with the salt, pepper and cornstarch. Leave it while you are preparing others.
3. In a small bowl, combine the sauce ingredients and mix well.
4. Cut the eggplant into long strips and pan fry with a very small amount of olive oil until the strips go soft and floppy. This can take up to 15 minutes.
5. Add olive oil to the wok and stir fry the minced garlic and bean sauce until fragrant. Add the marinated pork minced. Keep stir-frying until the pork is cooked.
6. Add the prepared sauce from step 3, the chilli paste with garlic and eggplant. Keep mixing them and add tofu last.
7. Cook for a few more minutes and stir the sesame oil.
8. Add a pinch of spring onions before serving.

Bok Choy with Garlic and Ginger

I got this recipe from a cooking book by Martha Stewart Living (annual recipes 2005). I like this dish as it is very simple to prepare and it tastes delicious. The ingredients are easily found in the supermarket downstairs where I live. For a great result, you have to remember to get a young ginger and use a good soy sauce. I have been using kikkoman in all of my cooking. This soy sauce is naturally brewed and has no MSG added to it.


I am originally from Indonesia and my family has been using "ABC" brand soy sauce (kecap asin ABC). When I came to Sydney in 2002, I was so pleased to find "ABC" brand soy sauce in an asian supermarket and since then, I had used it. One day, Thu and I found out that ABC soy sauce has MSG and other preservatives added to it. If you concern about this, you might want to switch to kikkoman.

Ingredients:

• 3 tbs sesame oil
• 1 cloves garlic (minced)
• 1 piece of young ginger (minced)
• 1 bunch of bok choy
• 2 tbs soy sauce
• 3 tbs water to dilute the soy sauce

Preparation:

1. Wash the bok choy and cut in half. Blanch the bok choys in a boiling water for 30 second and drain them. 
2. Heat the wok and add the sesame oil to it. Add minced garlic and ginger and stir fry until all turned slightly golden. 
3. Add the soy sauce diluted in water and it is ready for the bok choys. Mix the sauce with bok choys in a bowl and it is ready to serve.

Fruit Salad

You basically can add any fruits to this fruit salad. I love the fruit salad base (mixed orange, mango, and passionfruit flavour) as it is tangy and very refreshing. Mix all ingredients into a big bowl and put in the fridge for at least 30 mins. This fruit salad is very entertaining during a hot day. Everyone, kids and adults, will love it. Best of all, it covers you for the fruit intake requirement in a day.




Ingredients:

• 1 small can of passionfruit pulps
• 1 peach can in mango syrup (by SPC)
• 3 kiwi fruits (peeled and diced)
• 100 gr seedless grapes (cut into small pieces)
• 2 nectarines (cut into small pieces)
• 4 oranges (peeled, use the flesh and squeeze the remaining juice)
• Strawberries, blueberries (optional)