Chicken Masala Roast with Soya sauce #Thanksgiving #Christmas #New Year

These days I have to admit are particularly hard for me to blog. Not because I am extremely busy but instead not too fine and dandy. I miss my Mum a lot and Christmas is a time to spend with family. These last 3 years Mum did not have Christmas celebrated at our ancestral home as 2012 we had lost my dad's youngest bro and 2013 Mum's youngest bro passed away. 2014 we lost our grandma (Dad's mom) and this year Mum was taken by Our Lord. So it is particularly hard this year as not only did I lose Mum but we didn't spend Christmas together for 4 years now.

Growing up Mum always designed our Christmas celebrations perfectly. I remember our childhood Christmases and there is not one thing I would change about it. Mum's roasts were raved about all year through be it her Turkey roasts over Christmas or all year through with our healthy Chicken roasts. Bliss! I am sure all our relatives who have attended our Christmas parties or any party thrown by Mum would vouch for her roasts and celebratory meals.

I have played a lot with the different roasts made over the years. So since we are not celebrating Christmas or the New Year, I decided that I would help you my dear readers with some of my best roasts made over the last year(s) (the recipes of which I have not posted yet) to help you with the upcoming Thanksgiving meal preparation (November 26, 2015), Christmas 2015 and New Year 2016. So my not celebrating does have it advantages, I am available at your disposal for any and all queries regarding your celebratory meal. And when you do try these out, do say a little prayer for my dear Mum and our family or send a positive thought in our direction. We really need it.

I need to specially thank three people in life, my dear friend Shireen (Shirs) who helped me get back on track with writing on my blog (Thanks Shirs my motivator) , my buddy Suzanne (Sue) who needed some help with her upcoming Thanksgiving meal prep (Thanks Sue I got a wake up call through your request) and my darling hubby (always thankful to you for your motivation and pep talks) who gave me a jolted shake this morning to get out of the gloomy valleys and move up hill. I also thank my many readers who were/are looking out for simple roast recipes. I hope the upcoming recipes along with the previous ones on Turkey Roast Delight (which can be adopted with the humble chook as well minus the cook time) ,  Lemon and Herb Roast Chicken , Jamie Oliver's Perfect Pork Loin with crackling , etc. helps you prepare your perfect albeit simple Thanksgiving or Christmas or New Year meal. I am available on gginazkitchenette@gmail.com for any of your queries regarding these meal preparations or any others. Also my dear vegetarian and vegan friends/family/readers, I am  available here to tell you how to cook your perfect vegetarian celebratory meal.

Now on with the recipe:

What you need:

• 1200 gms of  perfectly cleaned chook or chicken with skin on
• Salt to taste
• 2 tbsp heaps of Garam Masala
• 2 tbsp heaps Chili Powder
• 1 tbsp pepper powder
• 1/2 tsp of turmeric powder
• 2-3 tbsp of ginger-garlic paste
• 3-4 cloves of garlic
• 1" pc of ginger
• 1 tbsp soya sauce
• A drizzle of oil
• Water as required

The Make:
Preparation Time: 10 minutes | Roast Time: 1 hour | Serves 6-8 adults | Marinade and resting time: min 1 hour 

1. In a large wok, heat some oil and toss in the ginger and saute for half a minute, then add the garlic for about 20 seconds and saute on low heat.
2. Then add all of the ingredients except the chook and saute well for about a minute.
3. Add a drizzle of water as required to form a thick marinade paste. Keep adding water as required taking care to retain the thick paste texture and not be to watery.
4. Saute for another minute until the masala leaves the sides of the pan or is cooked.
5. Set aside to cool for a few minutes and grind the paste to a fine consistency.
6. Next marinate your chook well all over and in the cavity as well. Let it stand for about half hour at least and up to 4 hours (in the refrigerator if required).
7. Preheat the oven to 200°C.  Next prepare the roasting pan either well oiled or with foil paper and grease lightly. Place the chook carefully on the roasting pan. I always advise my readers to add their favourite veggies either inside the cavity of the chicken (depending on their stuffing type it would take more than an hour to cook the chook) or at the sides of the chook (in which case it would take up to the hour).
8. Slide the roasting pan into the oven on 180°C. Lightly cover (do not tuck the foil at the sides) the chook's breast with a foil paper to keep the breast tender and moist.
9. Roast for about an hour checking at the 30 minutes and 45 minute time to see if tenderised and cooked. Uncover the foil at the 45 minute mark and allow the chook to roast for the remaining 15 minutes without the foil. If required continue for another 10-15 minutes until the breast in nice and springy and the limbs seems soft enough to pull off with your fingers (do not actually pull the limbs off at this stage :) )

If using an oven without a top flame oven, please turn the chook over at the 30 minute mark. This requires some amount of skill to avoid burning your hands/fingers. However a good pair of tongs and a large ladle always helps. It would also help to slide out the roasting tray at the 30 minute mark in this case before turning over the chook.

Serve hot with with your favourite sides, salads, choice of breads. Flat breads would go well with this make of roast.

Pepper Chicken drumsticks in a light Tomato gravy

I had made this chicken dish as an accompaniment for the Carrot-Coconut rice.

My little one prefers the drumstick pieces of the chicken. So she asked,  "Mama, why can't you buy just the drumsticks?" And so I did. I had a little fun at it too. When she actually expressed how she enjoyed this make (when Dad was over last weekend), I had a bit of fun saying, "Hey see Mama found a chicken who had only legs and that's why there are so many in this gravy!" :D She is too smart for me though! She caught me out in less than a minute.

Although I ventured to make this recipe in my mum's way, I realised that it was not possible without red chili powder, so I just took the inspiration and ran a modified version to the same recipe to accommodate both Daddy's and Isabelle's taste buds and tummies. I will add Mum's complete version once I have tried the same.

This recipe calls for a slow cooking process to add more flavour.

You need: 

• 14 pcs of chicken drumsticks, cleaned and slit across the fleshy part of the drumsticks
• 2 medium onions, diced finely
• Salt to taste
• 2 medium size tomatoes, chopped
• 1 tbsp pepper powder
• 1 tbsp coriander powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/2 tbsp Garam Masala
• 1-2 cups of drinking water
• Oil to drizzle

The Make:

1. In a large non-stick pan, drizzle some oil. Toss in the onions on medium heat and saute well until translucent.
2. Next toss in the chopped tomatoes and lower the heat.
3. Saute on low heat and then add the salt and all the spices. Cover and allow to cook slowly on low heat.
4. Uncover and add in the chicken pieces in about 2-3 minutes and cover the pan once more and continue to cook slowly for the next 40 minutes.* Add water as required only. Most likely you would not need to as the chicken releases the liquids which makes for a very nice gravy.
5. Once cooked, turn off the heat and serve hot with rice or rotis.

Enjoy!!

*Note:
 i. If I had used the whole chicken, it had to be cut into small sized pieces and would take an hour and a half over slow cooking process to get this recipe right.

The Almost Perfectly Poached Egg!

I have made poached egg for the family a couple of times now. They have so far enjoyed it quite a bit until I stumbled upon this video from BBC Good Food. I actually was in search of another egg recipe and found this.

Then I knew that my poached egg was just no where near perfect and I still believe after trying the tips in this video that I can improve upon the poached egg. I will let you know where I went wrong and you too can try to improve on your poached egg recipe accordingly.

The perfect poached egg when cut into would ooze out with the yolk!

You need:

• 1 large and fresh egg (remember if there is no fresh egg, then don't bother trying this recipe)
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Dash of vinegar
• Water to poach 
• A medium sized saucepan
• Kitchen towel
• A slotted spoon

The Make:
Preparation time: 2 minutes | Cooking time: 3 minutes | Serves : 1

Source: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/technique/how-poach-egg

1. Heat water in the sauce pan and allow to simmer. Make sure you are using a medium sized saucepan.
2. Add the small drizzle of vinegar to the pan of simmering water.
3. Crack the egg carefully in a small cup or bowl, making sure not to cut into the yolk. Some like to crack the egg by tapping on a hard surface whilst others use the stem of a spoon or butter knife to crack at the shell. If you are following the latter approach make sure u crack only the surface, else if you touch the yolk with the metal spoon or knife, you can loosen the yolk into the egg white whilst pouring into the cup.
4. Create a whirlpool in the water using your spoon. This would ensure that the egg white wraps well around the yolk.
5. Tip the egg into the center of the whirlpool or pan of just boiling water. Lower the heat to medium-low and allow the egg to cook for 3 minutes.
6. Once cooked, remove the poached egg with the slotted spoon and leave any feathery edges by cutting it using the edge of the spoon against the pan.
7. Drain the egg on a kitchen towel else you would find eggy poaching water with your egg.
You can also trim the edges of your poached egg once at room temperature to make it into a perfect tear drop shape (the kind you would find at your fine dining restaurants) :)

Season with salt and pepper and serve with toast, flatbread or on top of your salad.

My kid loves poached egg esp. when she sees the yolk spill out of the white when cut into.



Bon Appetit!

Kids' Special # 1 - Mixed Veggies Vermicelli with meat kebabs or mince in chicken broth

This was the surprise I had for you mommies and Stay at Home Dads or Home cook dads. I have been asked time and again by friends, fellow bloggers and even an organisation at one point if I can have a special blog or page dedicated to kids' meals. I was even asked to write nutritious recipe creations catering to kids for the organisation that contacted me.

Considering my already busy schedule, I finally decided that it is best for me to dedicate a recipe creation each week or every other week to satiate those precious little ones' tummies. I have been having a page of kid-friendly recipes already going on my blog but the other day when I heard my little one grumble about her food getting not too exciting, I decided to finally give in and make time to do these sets of dishes especially for her. It really does not take out much time from your already busy schedule of preparing adult dishes. Just a tad bit of tweaking here and there will get you going well on your way. Portions would depend on your little one's appetite and which meal of the day to which you are catering.

It is a huge hurdle to get toddlers to eat, so I was thinking of dedicating my 'T'hursdays to the 'T'errific 'T'oddlers or kids in general out there.Based on your feedback and how useful you think my recipe creations are I can add to various age groups.

Right now these recipes have been tried and tested with ages 3-6 years. Albeit a small age bracket, it is quite a challenging age criteria for food needs. Age 4 yrs and above usually demand a lot of variety and can complain if you give them the same food type. So it is important to get the variety out there but more important to get the nutrition in there. Touch wood my little one has had no issues with greens and other healthy, nutritious elements of her meal.

This recipe is very simple indeed and can take portions from your adult meal for which you have planned  minus certain elements like spice, etc. I have mentioned meat kebabs or mince. Ideally freshly cooked mince is preferred however if you have made kebabs at a previous meal and have reserve, then you can shred the same and use. Remember the idea is also to make it easier on you mommies and daddies there to cook your precious one his/her special meal. You can also substitute chicken or for vegetarian meals you can add proteins such as mushrooms or diced boiled eggs or even a fried egg on top. You can use Veg stock or Veg broth instead of Chicken broth

You need:

• 2 cups of mince meat
• 1 medium onion, finely diced
• 1 cup of diced vegetables (I used carrots, peas and beans)
• 4 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 3 cups of roasted vermicelli
• 4 cups of freshly made chicken stock (I usually have a reserve in the fridge) or you can use stock cubes
• Salt to taste
• Oil

The Make:
Serves 2 toddlers | Cooking Time : 30-35 minutes | Preparation Time: 10 minutes

1. Cover and cook the mince meat in 1 cup of chicken stock with half of the diced onions and 2 cloves of garlic.
2. Meanwhile in a wok, add a drizzle of oil and saute the remaining onions and garlic until translucent.
3. Toss in the veggies and cover and cook for about 5-10 minutes
3. Add in the remaining stock and vermicelli and cook for about 5 minutes.
4. Next add in the cooked mince with its juices and allow to boil on medium-high heat for a few minutes.
5. Lower the heat and cook until the stock reduces.

Serve hot with a side of your little one's favourite salad.