Balti Chicken Tamarind Sauce

Do you know that I am now staying in a country which Indian food is one of the main choices we have? There are so many dishes which we can't understand what it is just by looking at the dish name. When I go shopping for my grocery, the Indian food section is so huge that nearly make me cry, because most of the packaging comes with Arabic words and of course in some places like Carrefour, Geant, Spinney they have English labelled on the ingredients, otherwise you will be lost forever! 

Ok, this is the first time for me to cook Indian food and I know it will not be the last time because lot of Indian dishes are very delicious and I love the fragrance spices in them. The tamarind in this dish gives the dish a sweet and sour flavour and it supposes to be hot Balti, but I want my son to try this Balti Chicken Tamarind Sauce, therefore I omitted the chillies from this dish and replaced it with some mild curry powder, also add some capsicum in it too. There are some others ingredients such as fenugreek seeds which I don't have and doesn't want to buy just for this dish so it is also omitted from this dish.

My version of yummy sweet and sour chicken Indian food for my son! Let's eat!

Candle holders in my home

Recipe adapted from Best Ever Indian Cookbook

Ingredients:
8 chicken drumsticks, skinned (~450g)
60ml tomatoe ketchup
1 tbsp tamarind paste (used 2 tbsp)
4 tbsp water
1.5 chilli powder (omitted)
1.5 mild curry powder
1 green capsicum, cut into small
1.5 tsp salt (use 1 tsp)
1 tbsp sugar
1.5 tsp grated fresh root ginger (used minced ginger)
1.5 tsp crushed garlic (used minced garlic)

2 tbsp desiccated coconut
2 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp poppy seeds
1.5 tsp ground coriander
5 tbsp corn oil
8 tbsp curry leaves (used a handful of it)
1/2 tsp onion seeds (omitted)
3 large dried red chilli (omitted)
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds (omitted)
10-12 cherry tomatoes (used tomatoes harvested from my garden)
3 tbsp chopped fresh coriander (omitted)
2 fresh green chilli, chopped (omitted)

Method:
1. Put the tomato ketchup, tamarind paste and water in a huge mixing bowl, and mix well.
2. Add the curry powder, salt, sugar, ginger, garlic, coconut, sesame and poppy seeds, cumin and coriander to the mixture. Stir to mix.
3. Add the chicken pieces and stir until all coated with the spice mixture. Set aside for 1 hour. 
4. Heat the karahi, wok or deep pan. Add the oil. Add in the curry leaves, onion seeds, dried red chillies and fenugreek seeds and fry for about 1 min.
5. Lower the heat to medium and add the chicken, and green capsicum, stir well. 
6. Cook for about 12~15 mins or until the chicken is thoroughly cooked.
7. Add the tomatoes, fresh coriander and green chillies and serve warm.

I am submitting this post to Asian Food Fest  

Indian Subcontinent hosted by Chef and Sommelier

Creamy Kombu Chicken Soup 昆布奶香鸡肉汤

Today I discovered a way of cooking delicious soup for my son! Is fast and easy because everything go into a soup pot. I added vegetables and chicken in it, and the stock base is using kombu or konbu. 

The recipe inspired me to cook this soup is from a child nutrition recipes book, it use cabbage and chicken stock, the chicken has to be pan-fried to golden brown before add to the soup. As I'm afraid the fried chicken will be too hard for my son, i didn't pan-fried the chicken and end up doing my own way all together. The soup turn out very delicious with a very flavorful taste of kombu, and of course this can be a great soup base for noodle too. I will serve the soup together with steamed rice for my son dinner. 

I'm linking this post to Little Thumbs Up (May 2014: Milk) hosted by Tze of Awayofmind Bakery House (Me ^.^) 

Mother's Day is around the corner, wishing all mums a Happy Mother's Day! 

Note:

Add milk to the soup last and just right before switch off the heat.

今天孩子的晚餐是甚么？就来一碗营养丰富的昆布奶香鸡肉汤吧！一个锅煮，一碗温胃的汤，为孩子的健康打下基楚。用了昆布高汤，汤头真的好赞！这汤也是很好下面条的，我在试吃时一直喝个不停 ^^ 

祝妈妈们母亲节快乐！

Ingredients:
200g Napa Cabbage, cut into small bite size pieces
100~150g chicken breast meat, cut into small chunks
4 pieces baby corns, cut into small
1/2 medium carrot, thinly slices
1/2 medium red onion, thinly slices
a few pieces of wolfberries 
100ml concentrated kombu stock
500 ml water
120ml milk
40g plain flour
1/4 salt
a pinch of black peppers
some coriander, finely chopped 
1 heap spoon of butter, soften (can cut a bit if doesn't want the soup to be too oily)

Method:

1. Heat up the medium soup pot, add butter. Switch the heat to low, gradually add the flour, continue to stir until no more flour lump. Add the concentrated kombu and water. Switch to high heat. 

2. Add the slices onion, cut napa cabbage, baby corns, carrot and wolfberries. (The water level should be able to cover the vegetable, if not add a bit more water) Bring the broth to boil. Add the chicken and cook until the broth re-boiled. Switch to low heat and cook for another 5 mins.

3. Gradually add in the milk, add salt and black peppers to taste. Remove from heat. Add the coriander before serving.

I'm submitting this post to Little Thumbs up (May 2014: Milk) organised by Bake For Happy Kids, and My Little Favourite DIY, hosted by Tze of Awayofmind Bakery House

Black Sesame Cream Jelly

This Black Sesame Cream Jelly just took me less than 10 mins to make. It tastes really good, full of creamy milk flavor and the distinctive taste of black sesame but ... it should not be in two layers!! 

I boiled the milk and black sesame paste, mixed the rest of ingredients together, very happy with the less than 10 mins work, go on doing the clean up until I noticed... it creates two different layers! I panic, and use a chopstick to keep stir on the mixture, hope the layer will disappear when the jelly set. ..but it doesn't! The jelly didn't turn out like in the recipe book picture, a nice glass of jelly filled with black sesame dots...no. I think it could be the black sesame paste I used is not the same type of black sesame paste used by Keiko Ishida. 

Initially when my son looks at the grey jelly, he said he doesn't want. Then, he saw his dad eating, he said he wants to try, then he said he wants the dark grey layer one, then he said he wants the whole glass!!

The recipe yield 3 glasses of jelly about 130 ml each.

I'm linking this post to Little Thumbs Up (May 2014: Milk) hosted by Tze of Awayofmind Bakery House(Me ^.^) 

Note: Please see how I solved the two layers problem here. 

午后的甜点，一口一口的吃着下午的凌静，把下午的太阳忘在户外了。