Dainty Bites

Chicken Pot Pie is a really satisfying and comforting dish to have on a cold and rainy day. Thickened with roux (pronounce "roo"; it's a flour and butter mixture) and brimming with lots of veggies, you can either eat it on its own or top it with a puff pastry for an extra carb loading.

Rather than buying parts to cook this dish, I used the whole chicken. And I realised that poaching the chicken in chicken stock does make the chicken taste better. Not rocket science right, but somehow it just didn't dawn on me till now. A welcomed spin off from this dish is that we have a ready pot of simple chicken stock for our next meal of noodle soup.

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Chicken Pot Pie
(adapted from Joy of Cooking - '97 ed.)
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:::: What you need ::::
1 whole chicken
2 Knorr's chicken cubes
2 medium carrots, cubed
3 celery stalks, cubed
1 onion, diced and divide into half
225 gm fresh white button mushrooms, sliced
4…

My blog is worth $2,258.16.
How much is your blog worth? Just in case you are wondering where I have been up to since my last mystery shrouded post. Well, I might as well come clean about it. I have been researching into bread making for the past few weeks. Trying to field in as much information as I possibly could before I attempt to make bread again. Yes, I have made bread before and it wasn't very successful. My definition of a successful bread is a bread with soft and fluffy large holed crumb and nice crackling crust. Well, I am not quite done with my research yet, so there isn't anything to post on it. In any case, if you are still curious to find out how my little pet project turns out (or rather what it turns out), do come back and check on me again here.

I haven't been posting much recently as I have been busying with a pet project that has been growing on my mind lately. So I decided to give it some proper attention this time round and see if it leads to anywhere.

So Happy Holidays in advance! Hopefully, I would be back with some good news.

I have just noticed that Yahoo! has a section labelled "Food". At one glance it may look like a Martha Stewart site, but it actually has a collective databank pulled from Martha Stewart, Allrecipes.com, Epicurous.com, etc. Quite a time saver for me, as I usually visit these sites.

From the site I found Polenta with Meat Sauce. I bought a bag of polenta some time ago (seems like I have lots in my pantry), and I have been looking for a good recipe to try. If you haven't heard of polenta, it is actually finely ground cornmeal. Cooking it takes as much as and effort as making risotto; stirring patiently by the hot stove. Leave it to the Italians to come up with good food and torture the cook! Well, the torture was reserved for Hubby in my case (^.^), who stirred the cornmeal smooth for a good 20 mins. This is our first time making polenta, and I think we didn't fare well. That explains why no photo .... *boo boo*

Still have half a bag of polenta left in my pantry, so we…

I have gotten a copy of Australian Women's Weekly - Eating In from the library last week and was immediately attracted to all the beautiful pictures in it. The pictures are defintely beautiful but the recipes just don't click on me somehow. However, they do give me ideas for dinner!

The idea of this dish came from its Breaded Veal Cutlets with Gnocchi in Mushroom Sauce. No veal for me and no gnocchi here, so I had to improvise a little. Well, this dish took 65 mins from start to end, though doesn't really qualify as a jiffy meal, but it is definitely satisfyingly worth it.

While walking aimlessly at Plaza Singapura shopping mall the other day, I wandered into Daiso, a shop where everything it sells is for S$2. And the best part is that most of the things it sells are from Japan.

So after handing baby over to Hubby, I grabbed a shopping basket and started dumping all sorts of things for the kitchen into the basket. Guess I am exactly the sort of target customers they are looking for - complusive shopper.

When I saw these skewers, I thought making kebab would be a good execuse to buy it. So into the basket it went. Of course, as a complusive shopper I wouldn't just buy one set (comprise of 2 skewers), would I. No, I had to buy two sets of course!

I marinated the chicken pieces in Ginger Soy Vinaigrette as suggested by Joy of Cooking, though I thought it strange. A vinaigrette as a marinate? Although the vinaigrette tasted good on its own, the kebabs came out so-so only. Next time I am going to make Teriyaki instead. Well, until next time then.

The reason I added the word "almost" to the title of this post is because these Fish Cakes would be more Thai-like had I thrown in some chopped chillies to spice things up. However, as I thought that our little cherub might want a slice of the action (or Fish Cakes in this instance), so out went the chillies.

The resulting Fish Cakes taste close to its counterparts we have tasted in restaurants, minus the spiciness though. Think: non-chilli otah. So, to upgrade it to adult food, I made a Thai Chilli Dipping sauce to go with it.

Taste test result: Spicy, sour and more Thai-Like, of course!

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Thai Fish Cakes
(adapted from Joy of Cooking - 1997 ed.)
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(A)
2 red chillies, deseeded (this is what I would have added)
1 shallot
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp salt
2 cm piece ginger, peeled
1 kaffir lime leave or some lime zest

(B)
500 gm firm white fish fillets
1 large egg

(C)
3 shoots spring onions, co…

Love quiche but hate to dabble with the tricky pastry? Either you buy off the shelf or try this method of making quiche. The best description I have for it: baked eggs. Since quiches are actually egg pies, so minus the crust it would be just baked eggs. Make sense? Hmm....

I found and made this recipe some time back when Hubby was on low-carb diet. Its really easy to make, especially with a food processor. As quiches are usually very accomodating, you will throw pretty much anything in it. I made mine with spinach and some leftover white button mushrooms. A really good yummy dish to have first thing in the morning.



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Crustless Spinach Quiche
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Olive oil
1 medium onion
200 gm white button mushrooms. sliced
250 gm fresh spinach, finely chopped
5 large eggs
250 gm ricotta cheese
250 gm cheddar cheese, shredded
Salt and black pepper, to taste

1. Heat saucepan with olive oil and saute onions till tender. Add mushrooms an…

I would like to welcome BigFoot on board to Dainty Bites as a contributor. BigFoot is my best friend and is an ardent fan in cooking and baking. I have invited her on board hope to bring a more varied experience in our cooking/baking quests and hopefully we could all share and learn something from each other.

Sit tight and enjoy!

Rene

Still flipping through my Joy of Cooking, we made these cutlets last night. I have tried making Martha Stewart's version before but it didn't quite make the mark. Joy's breaded crust is wonderfully crispy and easy to make.

As I had bought more chicken breasts than called for, when I ran out of breadcrumbs, I merely dusted the chicken with seasoned flour and pan fried them. They looked kinda bare, don't you think?

Ever heard of SpongeBob Square Pants?

If your answer is no, click here. And you probably need to lighten up and live "The SpongeBob Way" once in a while. (^.^)

If yes, you would know that the nothing-can-put-him-down SpongeBob works at a diner call The Krusty Krab, frying up all the Krabby Patties. Whenever I hear that name, I would think of crabcakes, although I won't know for certain if SpongeBob is flipping crabcakes or not (looks like beef patties from the cartoon).

While packing my little cherub's toy box on Sunday, I saw her book set of SpongeBob books and I thought, hey, let's make some Krabby Patties! I dug up a pack of crabmeat and anxiously flipped my Joy of Cooking. The recipe was easy, but the hardest part I think was having to wait for an hour or two for the breadcrumbs to set before frying.

This is my first time making crabcakes and I am quite happy with them. Hubby happily chomped down most of them with Tobasco sauce and our little one swiped one away …

I have owned this Scones, Muffins and Teatime Treats by Family Circle for the longest time. I would think that this is probably my first cookbook I have ever bought. The pages are yellow and well-thumbed, however not from cooking from it, but reading the recipes over and over again (remember that this is my first cookbook and probably exhibiting signs of a budding cookbook addict!).So far I have only made a few of the recipes in it and this Banana Muffins is by far the best! I make it countless times and still in love with it. At times instead of making muffins, I would baking it in a loaf pan and slice it. I bought the paper cups from a SKP shop, perhaps due to my lack of skills in portioning the batter, somehow the muffins turned out loop-sided. *Sigh* Anyway, here is a cross section of the muffin.
*****************************************Banana Muffins(Adapted from Family Circle's Scones, Muffins and Teatime Treats)*****************************************3 cups self raising fl…

Inspired by Evan's Mac & Cheese , this is my version adapted from Good Housekepping Illustrated Cookbook. My first attempt at making this dish was at least 2 or 3 years ago, which was a complete disaster! After that, the only Mac & Cheese I ever eaten were from either Seah Street Deli's or Kenny Roger's. I was quite upset about the failed Mac & Cheese since the recipe is from Allrecipes.com, a site which I trust (or should I say trusted) implicitly. Well, maybe something just didn't work out then. Anyway, Good Housekeeping's rendition is good enough, but perhaps I ought to have invested in a better cheese (maybe say Kraft's Velveeta?). Instead of using butter to saute the onions, I substituted it with drippings from my roast chicken previously and it gives an added flavour to it. If I am ever to make it again, I would perhaps add cubed ham or bacon bits to it to satisfy our carnivorus tastes! (^.^)

Over in this part of the world, we spell chilli with double Ls, but in US, it is one less. There are two definitions for it: (1) very hot and finely tapering pepper of special pungency; or (2) ground beef and chilli peppers or chilli powder often with tomatoes and kidney beans.

Our case in view is, of course, the latter.

I don't quite know why I was attracted to chilli in the first place. Maybe it is the novelty of Mexican cuisine thingy, maybe it is the generous amount of yummy ground beef swimming in a thick spicy gravy. Whatever the reason, my first attempt at making chilli was at least 2 years ago from a recipe found at Allrecipes.com. The resulting dish was absolutely wonderful for a first timer. However, I didn't really like the idea of relying on the El Paso Chili pre-mix as it might (or should I have said certainly) contain MSG. So the search for a chilli recipe which starts from scratch began.

Then last week, I came by this recipe at Allrecipes.com. Though the initial th…

Another dish from Betty Saw. The title of the dish doesn't fully describe what this dish is really about. Initially I had thought that it was the soya sauce chicken sold at chicken rice stalls (jiang-you-ji in Chinese). I think that a better name for this dish would be Braised Chicken with Mushrooms, Spring Onions and Ginger. Again, needless to say, kudos to Ms Betty Saw, the dish was delicious.

This is my version of Betty Saw's tandoori chicken sans the red food colouring. I love spicies and I love anything that is spicy. The only reason why I haven't attempted this earlier is because the marinate calls for DIY Garam Marsala, which is a mayriad of aromatic ground spices. (More info on Garam Marsala here.) It would have been easier if I had bought it off the shelf, but I thought it would be more fun if I try my hand at it. Then the procastinating monster took over. Thank goodness I managed to kick the monster off in the b**t and here's my tandoor chicken (finally!).

As a side note, I have been searching for a Betty Saw Fan Club or something equivalent. As I have been trying out quite a few of her recipes, I wonder if there are anyone out there trying her recipes too and perhaps we could share experiences. Something similar to this site Joyful Cooking. The author of the blog cooks mainly from the book Joy of Cooking and shares her experiences. I would have love to j…

I have always loved one-pot cooking. It is so convenient. Just dump it right in and cook. That's why I love my slow cooker. The ang-mohs call one-pot/one-dish meals as casseroles. Whatever the name, it really is a time saver.

Over the weekend, I turned on my slow cooker again and made more lentil soup. This soup is much richer than the previous Lentil and Ham Soup as it has lots of sausages in it. Initially, the soup tasted just right, but the leftovers can be quite salty. Perhaps when reheated, the water content reduces hence making it more concentrated. But otherwise, this is really a tasty and hearty soup which goes really well with a crusty bread.

Here's my Slow Cooker Lentils and Sausage



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Slow Cooker Lentils and Sausage
(adapted from Allrecipes.com)
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450 gm dry green lentils
1 (14.5oz) can diced tomatoes
1.4 litres of water
1 Knorr beef stock cube (optional)
1 carrot, diced
1 celery, diced
910 gm Polish saus…

Made this wonderful creamy potato soup once the last drops of clam chowder disappeared. Got this recipe from Allrecipe.com. I am a big fan of cream and/or cheese soups, but as my "underwriter" is trying to pare down his weight, all these calorie-laden soups will be KIV-ed or cooked very infrequently.


This is the Apple Coleslaw I mentioned previously.



My usual roast chicken.

I once heard Hubby commented that he likes chowders and especially clam chowder, so I filed that in memory under "KIV". I was quite hesitant about cooking clam chowders of all chowders cos I am not really a big fan of clams. Again, browsing at Allrecipes.com, I found this recipe and thought maybe I would give it a shot.

Unfortunately, the chowder as it was too thick and creamy for me due to the huge amount of evaporated milk used. But Hubby said loves the chowder and finished almost the whole pot by himself. Taking the chowder as a standalone, I find it rather rich, so Hubby suggested having it with some butter biscuits (think Ritz Crackers) or using it as a dip for steamed broccoli and cauliflower. Both serving suggest is quite good as it tones down the creaminess.

Note: If you are interested the try the above recipe, please leave the evaporated milk out and cook on HIGH for 4-5 hour or LOW for 9-11 hours. Add the evaporated milk together with the clams and then cook for an a…