Extra Crispy Fried Chicken

I love fried chicken wings but am not allowed to have any too often. Why....? Chicken wings are mostly all skin and if they are deep fried as well, there is a double dose of cholestrol. Just this once I am defying doctors orders.

This recipe is my all time favourite for fried chicken. The skin has that extra flaky coating that is really crispy and the meat juicy and moist.

Ingredients
Seasoning
6 chicken wings
¼ tsp salt
1 Tbsp oyster sauce
dash of black pepper

Coating
50gm cornflour
25gm rice flour
¼ tsp salt
dash of black pepper
¼ tsp garam masala (optional)

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Lum Heong Fah Sang ~ Fragrant Braised Peanuts

When you eat at a restaurant in Malaysia, you are usually served with some peanuts to nibble on while you wait for your food. It seems restaurants have caught on that serving oily fried salty peanuts are not healthy and have now changed to serving these lum heong fah sang (fragrant braised peanuts) instead. They do not taste salty but are quite aromatic from the spices and has a tinge of sweetness from the rock sugar.

It usually takes hours to boil peanuts but I have used my trusty old pressure cooker which only took me 40 minutes.


Ingredients
200g raw peanuts, rinse
1 piece mandarin peel
1 whole star anise
1 pcs 3" cinnamon stick
1 tsp chopped garlic
2 cup water

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Rosemary Focaccia

This focaccia is a very nice crusty bread with the lovely aroma of rosemary, delicious eaten warm or as a filled pocket for cold meat. In the space of a week, I have churned out three focaccias and have found that it freezes very well too. It is at the moment our favourite bread for lunch.

As with any specialty bread, one has to be very patient and not try to rush the proving process.



Ingredients
355ml water
3 Tbsp olive oil
500 gm Elfin high grade flour (bread flour)
2½ tsp Surebake yeast or 16gm fresh yeast
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp rosemary, chopped (optional)

Topping
a few sprigs of rosemary
½ tsp course sea or rock salt
2 Tbsp olive oil

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Tahini with a mortar 'n pestle

I had more or less perfected the art of making tahini using my coffee grinder until one day the coffee grinder decided to go on strike and refused to work. What to do....I had everything ready to make hummus except the tahini.

I was so desperate I decided to try making it with the old fashion mortar and pestle. I was quite surprised as to how much easier and quicker it was than the coffee grinder method. It only took 5 minutes and the mortar was so much easier to clean than the coffee grinder.


Ingredients
2 Tbsp sesame seed
½ tsp sesame oil
¼ tsp sea salt
½ -1 Tbsp warm water

Method
1. Lightly toast sesame seeds in a small pot over a stove on low heat. This should not take more than 5 minutes. Leave to cool.

2. Grind (it is easier to grind. If you 'pound' the seeds will tend to fly all over the place) your sesame seeds in a mortar and pestle until smooth. Add in sesame oil and salt and mix till well blended.

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Feijoa Vodka Jam

I had an abundance of feijoa from my orchard and as I have never tasted feijoa jam before, thought it was about time I made some to try. Feijoa jam is not a jam commonly available in the shops. I found the taste quite smooth and milder in comparison to the strawberry jam which has a stronger and tarter taste. I quite like this jam.


Makes 4 jars

Ingredients
1.2 kg feijoa pulp (fruit minus the skin)
juice and zest from 1 lemon
¼ cup water
850 gm sugar
2 Tbsp vodka (optional)

Method
1. Scoop out the fruits from the feijoa. Either cut it into smaller pieces or use a potato masher to gently mash the fruit.

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Carrot Cupcake with Passion Fruit Glazing

I usually do not ice or glaze my cupcakes (healthier on the waistline) but since I had lots of passionfruits from my plant, I decided to do a thin glazing on these muffin size carrot cakes. These are adapted from my previous mini carrot cake but have reduced the sugar to compensate for the additional glazing.

As we do not eat the whole batch of cakes at one sitting, this individual mini size cakes are more convenient to freeze and defrost for future tea breaks.


Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients
160 gm sugar
½ cup oil
2 eggs
1½ cup grated carrot
125 gm flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
¼ cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Icing
1¼ cup icing sugar
2 passion fruit

Method
1. Beat sugar, oil and eggs until well mixed.
2. Fold in all the other ingredients.
3. Pour into paper cases or directly into muffin tins.
4. Place a few walnut pieces on top of the batter.

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