Sweet and Sour Chicken

I realised I hadn't eaten a proper meal in a few days, the last time I ate a full meal was Monday dinner and today is Friday. Whoopsy daisies. Just been lazying around at home doing useless stuff online. Thus I decided to switched on my housewife mode today and started cooking and cleaning. lucky for you I documented what I cooked. Anyway, arranged the cupboards because it looked like a nuclear bomb had gone off in there. Also arranged the counter-top and got rid of the 5 different types of black tea and put it all in one compact variety box. Finished off/threw out all the tiny bits and pieces that were leftovers just lying around in massive boxes and cleaned out my baking cupboard and arranged them in a methodical order. I may be a bit OCD. I'm an utter mess when I'm just chillin', but when I start cleaning I clean till everything is neat, tidy, orderly and shiny. In that way I'm a meticulous perfectionist, but most of the time I'm just lazy. 

Back to the food. I was going to make Tomato and Basil soup, but realised we didn't have any basil left. So made a fusion french onion tomato coriander soup thingy. Then I remembered that I came across this Sweet and Sour chicken recipe online. I love sweet and sour. I think it's a Lankan thing, because if we go to any Chinese restaurant you have to order Sweet and Sour Prawns and you can never get the same flavour/taste anywhere else in the world. So I gave it a shot because I've always wanted to make it. The sauce was really good, not exactly like the Lankan version but I guess if you add some carrots and pineapples and a lot of artificial colours you could perfect it. 

Your Challenge: make some Sweet and Sour to make you miss mother Lanka.

 

Ready --- Steady --- Cook!

Sweet and  Sour Chicken

INGREDIENTS:

Chicken Breading:
3-5 chicken breast
salt and pepper
1 cup cornstarch
2 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup canola oil

Sauce:
3/4 cups sugar

6 Tablespoons ketchup

1/2 cup white distilled vinegar

3 Tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon garlic salt

METHOD:

1. Rinse chicken, trim off fat or extras and then cut into 1 inch cubes.

2. Season with salt and pepper. 

3. Dip chicken into cornstarch and coat all the way and then into eggs.

4. Heat oil in large skillet. Cook chicken until browned. 

5. Place in baking dish. 3 chicken breasts can be in a 9x9 but 5 chicken breasts fits better in a 9x13.

The Sauce:

1. Whisk all ingredients until smooth. 

2. Then pour evenly over chicken. 

3. Turn chicken so the sauce gets on both sides and then put in the oven at 160C for 15 minutes. turn chicken and then cook for 15 more minutes.

Challenge Accepted???

Enjoy!

Tosakanth

Quick Cake in a Mug

So Podi-Peré and Lady Shwij came to visit me at my Crib of Awesomeness (yes, it's a real place. One at a time ladies, please!). Well technically they came to visit Schmelly my dog. Whatever! still counts. That Lady Shwij is such a useless bugger (lady), she's been 'trying' to visit for the last 2 months and finally ran out of excuses. Anyway, cooked a Lankan meal: Rice, Pol Roti, Chili Chicken, Dahl, and Vambatu, the lot. Stuffed our selves, gossiped like school girls, stalked like loners and laughed at Youtube clips, then craved some dessert. So Lady Shwij had the brilliant idea of making Cake-in-a-Mug. It literally takes like 5 minutes to whip it up. 3 minutes to mix the stuff 'thoroughly' under Lady Shwij's bossy supervision and then 2 minutes to microwave and 0 minutes to eat it. It was good, we may have put a bit too much peppermint and we were all rolling around with a chocolate food baby afterwards, but what-evs, twas still good. 

Your Challenge:  whip up a couple-a Mug Cakes instead of Cupcakes.

 

 

Ready---Steady---Microwave!

Quick Cake in a Mug

(serves 2)

INGREDIENTS:

4 tablespoons flour
4 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 egg
3 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons oil
1 dash vanilla
1 dash salt (optional)
1 dash baking powder (optional)

1 dash of mint essence (optional)

METHOD:

1. Put all ingredients in a large mug and mix well.
2. Separate batter in to 2 microwavable mugs

3. Microwave for 3 minutes.
4. You will see cake rise, but it will fall when you take it out of the microwave. Microwave times may vary. If it looks done 15 or so seconds earlier, take it out.
5. Serve with some ice cream or whipped cream.

Note: We used a gigantic mug and doubled the quantities. Don't fill the mug right to the top with batter, because it will overflow and make a huge mess like our one.

Challenge Accepted???

Enjoy!

Tosakanth

Chicken with Balsamic Cream Sauce

Pretty simple stuff really. Saw the recipe on this blog that did healthy recipes with low carbs. Since I was going through my balsamic vinegar phase and my diet week, thought I'd give it a go because I was super hungry and didn't have anything at home to eat. As usual I added my own twist to it. Didn't have heavy cream so used milk instead and added corn flour to make it thick. It was super. It didn't have a very strong balsamic flavour but it had a yummy gravy-like flavour. Therefore I think this would be a really good alternative for gravy during Christmas. Just a thought. Up to you.

Your Challenge: get on this awesomic balsamic trick!

 

Ready---Steady---Cook!

Chicken with Balsamic Cream Sauce
(Serves 2)

INGREDIENTS:

2 pieces Chicken Breasts

1/2 Onion, thinly sliced

4 Mushrooms, sliced
1/4 Red Bell Pepper sliced

1/2 Cup of Chicken Broth

1/2 Cup Heavy Cream or milk

5 tablespoons Butter

6 tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar
2 teaspoons Corn Flour  (if using milk instead of cream)
1 bunch coriander, chopped
1/2 Cup of Parmesan Cheese (optional) 

Salt and Pepper
  

METHOD:

1. Saute onions over medium heat in 2 tablespoons of butter until they are nice and caramelized - About 15 Minutes. Add the mushrooms and bell peppers and cook. When the onions are a nice golden brown and mushrooms and bell peppers have cooked, remove from the heat and set aside

2. In a separate pan, heat the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter over medium-high heat.  Place the chicken breasts in the pan.  Brown on both sides, remove from the pan and set aside (Note - they will not be all the way cooked at this stage)

3. De-glaze the pan with the chicken stock.  Use a rubber spatula to make sure you get all the chicken bits and butter off the pan. This helps to flavor your sauce

4. Add the heavy cream/milk, balsamic vinegar and corn flour and stir immediately. (so the corn flour mixes well)

5. Add mushrooms, onions and bell peppers and a little S&P, reduce heat to low and let simmer for 10 minutes

6. Add the chicken back to the pan, turn heat back up to medium and saute until the chicken is cooked all the way through.  About 10-15 minutes.

7. Remove chicken breasts from the pan and plate. Add the Parmesan and coriander to the sauce and keep stirring until the cheese is completely melted in.

Note: Only add corn flour if you are using milk instead of heavy cream to make the sauce thick. If you are using cream you do not need to use corn flour as your thickening agent.

Challenge Accepted???

Enjoy!

Tosakanth