ILYS: It's chicken day once more

19-20 FEBRUARY 2011. I promise myself to cook a bit more beef, pork or fish next time. Because today, it's chicken once again.

I was finally able to try Chicken Satay with Cucumber Salad recipe on Yummy Meals in Minutes. I got myself to buy--at last--a bottle of satay sauce, a small bottle of which costs P98.00. Ouch. O_O I also purchased breast fillet at SM Southmall supermarket on my way home after work on Friday.


Saturday found me in the kitchen once more, bent on finally cooking this dish I have earmarked a long, long time ago (since I bought the cookbook, so that's more than one year ago already).

The stage is set for another yummy meal.

Cut the chicken breast fillets (skinless, 1 kilo) into
bite-size cubes and wash 'em real clean!

Although I find the nutty scent of satay sauce yummy, my mom was alarmed by it. Even hubby thought something smelled spoiled. =)

Prepare the marinade. Combine 1 tbsp. chopped garlic,1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup peanut butter,
1/4 cup satay sauce, and 2 tsps chili-garlic sauce.
Season with sugar, salt and pepper as needed.
Mix 'em real well!

Toss the chicken cubes in the marinade.

Make sure the chicken is mixed well in the nutty marinade!
Set aside for about 15 minutes.

Easy cucumber salad. Combine 2 diced cucumbers,
2 tbsps lemon juice, 3 tbsps minced red onion
and 1/4 cup sesame oil.

Hubby joined me in the kitchen after a while. He wanted to help out so I requested him to do the frying. I think it would help to use a non-stick pan. The one we used was no longer non-stick, so the marinade did stick until there was an accumulation which soon toasted into a black mess inside the pan (some of the chicken had burnt spots on them).

Pan fry the marinated chicken.

This dish deserves porcelain plating. Dinner time!

Long after I managed myself to stop scooping rice into my plate, I still found myself popping chicken pieces into my mouth as we were still hanging around the kitchen table listening to mom's story (I think it's one of those from her dalaga-days again, which we've heard a half dozen times already and which she is repeating for hubby's benefit). It's addicting. Ang sarap papakin. Hahaha! And the cucumber salad really goes well with the chicken.

The recipe above was for 1 kilo of chicken. As we're a family of five (hungry people), I used about half a kilo more (so if you'll do the same, just adjust the measurements). There was still more than enough of it until the next day when my kuya's family came over for lunch, and even for our breakfast on Monday. =)

Chicken Satay with Cucumber Salad
Find the recipe on the Yummy Meals in Minutes book


*BB*

SQF: My chicken is Italian

2010 JULY 11. My parents were leaving me, little bro and hubby-to-be home alone. A cousin who lives in Makati is celebrating her birthday. I had to pass--even if a quick trip to Market! Market! was tempting--because of colds and my still-heavy head.

I intended to cook Italian-Style Chicken Wings for Monday evening, but I didn't want to eat sardines or corned beef just now. This is the first recipe under the "Take 5 Ingredients" section of Meals in Minutes. This is actually the first recipe I earmarked, but because I kept on using the spaghetti sauce for pasta or chicken wings were constantly absent from our freezer, this got delayed.

The Italian-style sauce is composed of sauteed garlic,
sweet-style spaghetti sauce and Italian seasoning. I also
added a dash of cayenne pepper powder. So easy, right?

I prepared the sauce. I guess I didn't mince the garlic enough. LOL. Also, the recipe called for 500g of sweet-style spaghetti sauce. I only had 250g, so I added a 250g pack of a Three-Cheese version, which did make the dish a bit cheesy.

Coat the chicken wings with breading mix and fry.

Frying the coated chicken took a long time because I made the mistake of using a small pan. And I didn't want to deep-fry. Hubby-to-be already arrived; good thing he ate before he left. But little bro was starving. I decided to toss the cooked ones with the sauce while the last few pieces were still cooking so we can already eat.

Voila! A great alternative to your usual fried chicken.

The dish was simple but flavorful. I was already full after just two pieces as I ate a lot of rice with it. Three pieces were left for dad's lunch tomorrow. Later, I texted sis-in-law, who also owns a copy of Meals in Minutes, to try the recipe. Sayang, my baby nephew can't try it yet. I'm sure he'll love it.

Italian-style Chicken Wings

Find it on Yummy Meals in Minutes

*BB*

I Love You Sabado (ILYS): To bread for the first time

24 APRIL 2010. Since I started taking cooking to heart, I always looked forward to Saturdays (Saturdays with no work, of course). It's a day for me to practice. Sundays are hectic, as my brothers and I have church commitments in the morning.

The day began like any other day, with me waking up to the tune of my baby nephew's meowing in the other room. Played with him for a while and went down to get ready. I already knew what I'd be doing today.

I liked eating breaded stuff: breaded chicken, breaded pork, breaded fish, breaded whatever. But I've always thought breading is difficult. It seemed like such a hassle. So, back then, if you'd ask me to cook breaded chicken, I'll just fry the thing and say I didn't hear you say "breaded".

My nephew asleep in his carrier on the dining table while
I was cooking, oblivious to the chaos I was making in
the kitchen.

Now that I actually tried breading, I found the FEB (flour-egg-breadcrumbs) process quite entertaining. I thought before it was a hassle. Well, there were a lot of soiled plates and bowls after, but it was cool. Used to a workplace where the Toyota Production System is standard, a simple setup for cleaning up while cooking is in progress became second nature. It was of course quite tricky when doing breading, as you need all the containers at the same time and you finish using them at the same time. But it was OK.

OK, so they're supposed to be golden brown,

and they're just, well... brown. LOL.
Hey, there's my reflection on the kettle! 

I finished frying the breaded breast fillets... and it turned out we didn't have rice yet! LOL. So I took a break... to fold up some clean laundry and finish washing my own clothes the moment my sister-in-law vacated the sink (talk about multitasking!)

My Meals in Minutes propped like the Holy Bible next to the stove.
Breaded Chicken with Lemon Glaze on page 31.

Just as the rice was almost done cooking, I made the lemon glaze. I didn't exactly follow the quantities here, though, as my 3 lemons yielded 2 extra tablespoons of juice (I just needed 6 tablespoons). So I just made mental calculations on how much more water and honey I should put.

And voila! My first breaded project was plated, drizzled over with sweet-sour lemon glaze and topped with not-so-very-finely chopped parsley (OK, tinatamad na ako, noh! Gutom na ako!).

Breaded Chicken with Lemon Glaze

Dad was the first to have a bite. Was quite flattered when he said I can already cook for a restaurant (palakpak ang tenga, hehehe). =) I also got positive comments from my mom, older brother (who cooks better than I do and is very hard to please when it comes to food) and his wife.

Baby can't eat with us yet, so he settled for his favorite finger food.

Personally, the dish was OK. I think I should season the chicken a bit more. I was also afraid to dump the entire all the glaze on the chicken when I served it. I was thinking that it might be too strong, but I put some on a small bowl and served it on the side. As it turned out, we ended up pouring spoonfuls of it on our plates like soup and I had to refill the bowl. =)

I started prepping for this dish past 9:00 AM. We ate by 12:30 noon. Not bad, as I had to wait for the rice to cook (which involved some bumming around and lying on the bed) and did laundry and cleaned up and had to call my parents several times to come to the table. 


Breaded Chicken with Lemon Glaze
Find the recipe on On Yummy Meals in Minutes


*BB*

Everything must start somewhere...

Key performance indicator for a kitchen beginner:"If it looks like it, then you must have done it right!"

I guess it's true that a lot of extraordinary things happen on ordinary days. It was just any ordinary day for me. I woke up--not sure if I had work on that day--and the realization just came to me like divine inspiration.

I'm getting married.

And, Lord God, I don't know how to cook.

Sure, I know how to fry. But I guess everyone can do that. I know some recipes taught to me by my mom. She insists that I learn because I will eventually have to cook for my own family, etc, etc. But as she is always the automatic cook at home, I don't get to practice all the stock knowledge, resulting to my always mixing up ingredients (if I actually know the ingredient at all) and never getting the sequence of steps to stick to my head. Reading cookbooks and online recipes didn't exactly help me; I didn't understand the terms and all the prepping involved disenchanted me...what the hell is a slow cooker?!


And now I'm about to cross the border to a new life. I guess I must've panicked, I don't know... My fiance and I, as per our plans, will be moving to our own home a couple of years after we get married. But I found myself thinking, what would I feed my husband? My kids? Myself?


Then one day at work, I saw an officemate going through the pages of a small cookbook. It turned out to be the first issue of the quarterly released Yummy mini cookbook. I also took a look, saw how easy it was to understand (there were even recipes that can be cooked under 10 minutes, and some having just 5 main ingredients) and was delighted at how handy the book was (it was small enough to go into my bag).


Not long after, I came home with my own copy of Meals in Minutes and it was the first cookbook I ever owned in my entire life. And not long after that, my mom accompanied me to South Supermarket in Alabang to shop for ingredients--the first time we ever bought olive oil in the house! More first-ever times followed, until the first time I whipped up breakfast all by myself--and it was pasta! (I food I've always been fascinated with as I thought it was complex)


And so began my romance with the kitchen, and so begins the Beginner's Bible (read more). *BB*