Foodarrific

I’ve been buying baguettes lately because I can never resist the buy one, get one free offers that some of the grocery stores are offering so often these days.

You’d think we’d have gotten bored and run out of ways to eat our baguettes. But no!! There’s always a new and more creative way to eat a baguette.

Me and the kids love baguette dipped in curry. It’s so yummy it’s hard to stop once you get started. If I lived in a cold country, heck I’d be cooking chicken curry every single day !

Never tried baguette dipped in curry? You don’t know what you’re missing. Actually curry is a cinch to make if you use my easy-peasy chicken curry recipe.

Filed under: AsianBreads & PastriesOne-dish MealsPoultrySpicy by chili queen - No Comments →

We had dinner twice at TGI Friday’s last month, and it typically sets us back by over rm250 each time. Although my kids love the food there, I’m sure there must be a more homey, less expensive option.

How about this? A sumptuous homemade meal of black pepper lamb chops, soft potatoes and mesclun salad for a fraction of the price. Sound good?

I bought 5 large slices of black pepper lamb chops from Jusco for rm20+. Besides the price, the other thing I love is that they’re pre-marinated and ready to pop on the pan when I get home.

Hey, tell me, what’s not to love about someone having done your homework, eh ?

So all I do is cut one large onion into rings. I heat up my non-stick pan on high, and add a fairly big drizzle of olive oil. First I throw in some of the onions and leave for a minute before layering on the first batch of lamb chops.

I lower the heat to medium and cook each side of the meat for about 5 minutes before turning over. In fact, I add two tablespoons water into the pan to make absolutely sure the meat is cooked through.

Once the water evaporates completely and the oil sizzles again, the lamb chop goes on a plate with the parboiled potatoes, lightly sauteed in olive oil.

I use a bag of prepacked fresh mesclun salad that comes with lots of rocket (aragula) and lettuce. To that, I add whole baby carrots and cut celery with a generous squeeze of thousand island dressing.

That’s it! This whole meal costs me about rm40 for the four of us. And yummy doesn’t even begin to describe the taste of this homemade Western meal. My kids booked me for an encore right there .

Filed under: $ave moneyMeatQuick & Easy CookingRecipesSpicyVegetablesWestern by chili queen - 3 Comments →

Most of the time, I use ladies’ fingers in my chicken curry but I like them stir-fried as well. Ladies’ fingers, also called okra, is one of the more versatile vegetables and lend themselves well to a variety of cooking methods.

The ingredients you’ll need for this very simple yet tasty dish are:

• 12-15 ladies’ fingers, sliced thinly at an angle
• 1 large red chili, sliced thinly with seeds removed
• 1 clove of garlic, chopped
• cooking oil
• soy sauce
• salt and pepper to taste

I normally cut off the pointed tips of the okra to keep the slices consistent. That’s just me. You can keep them if you want to, no biggie .

I drizzle a bit of oil into my wok on high heat and throw in the garlic to flavor the oil for a few minutes. Since I’m working with high heat, I have to be quick.

In go the chili followed by the ladies’ fingers. I give it a few quick stirs and add a wee bit of water and a drizzle of soy sauce to help the cooking process and so the veggies won’t burn.

Season with salt and pepper and it’s ready to serve. Goes great with rice. It couldn’t get any easier than that!

Filed under: AsianRecipesSpicyVegetablesVegetarian by chili queen - 2 Comments →

Well, I wished for rain and I got rain. So I have to cook some rainy weather food to warm up our tummies and to chase away the sniffles caused by the alternating cool and hot weather.

Chicken curry is the best thing ever and my kids love it. They’ve been trained to eat spicy food from young. It’s a gradual process. Just expose them to spicy food and pretty soon, their tastebuds will be conditioned.

It’s not too difficult to cook chicken curry at home. The end-result is really worth the effort. You need:

• 1 large chicken about 1.5kg, chopped
• 6 ladies’ fingers, cut into half lengths
• 4 large potatoes, quartered

• 3 teaspoons mixed spices, usually consisting of fennel and mustard seeds, coriander
• 4 tablespoons curry powder mix (use the prepacked mix for meat)
• santan, or coconut milk from 1 coconut
• 4 stalks lemon grass, crushed
• 4 stalks curry leaves

• 6-8 cups water
• cooking oil
• salt to taste

First thing I do is to heat up some oil in the wok, or pan. Throw in the mixed spices and leave to pop for a few minutes to flavor the oil.

Add the curry powder mix, then the stalks of lemon grass and curry leaves. Fry all together till the spicy fragrance fills your kitchen and gets your neighbors drooling with envy .

Add chicken pieces, then the potatoes. Fry for a few minutes before adding water to the mixture. Season with salt to taste. Cover the wok and allow to simmer till the chicken and potatoes are softened.

Add the ladies’ fingers followed by the coconut milk. Simmer till ladies’ fingers are softened. Use medium heat throughout the cooking process.

Chicken curry can be a one-dish meal if you’re in a rush, We typically eat it with rice and papadam. Papadams are round crackers made from chickpea flour and Indian spices. Very tasty, I tell ya!

They’re sold in packaged sheets at the Indian store and I fry them myself at home. They make a delicious accompaniment to any meal of curry. My kids sometimes eat it on its own as a snack or with a topping, sort of like a nacho.

Some of my Australian friends have developed a routine of eating Indian curry rice on Fridays. They would run to the nearby Indian restaurant to buy back a mountain of Indian curry and rice.

When they come to KL, they will insist I take them out for spicy Indian food. Who says Caucasians can’t take the heat? Some of them are even better than me and I’m supposed to be the resident Chili Queen!

Filed under: AsianCurryOne-dish MealsPoultryRecipesRice & NoodlesSpicy by chili queen - No Comments →