Steamed Chicken with Gravy

A simple and easy dish to prepare for dinner. It's delicious, very tasty and it doesn't take much time to prepare. I like to steam the chicken till well done where you wont find any traces of slightly red or pinkish meat meaning that the meat is slightly undercooked. After steaming, there would be some steaming liquid in the steaming tray, this is the liquid collected from the chicken and very tasty. It is then used to cook the gravy and pour over the chicken. Delicious! Try out this simple, easy and tasty Chinese dish. Enjoy!

Steamed chicken cut to bite-sized pieces

Pour gravy over and enjoy!

Steamed Chicken with Gravy
Ingredients for steaming
half chicken
1 tbsp ginger juice
some salt

Ingredients for the gravy
2 tbsp chopped ginger
2 tbsp chopped garlic
1 tbsp chopped red chilli
2 tbsp chopped spring onion
some cornstarch solution

Method :
To steam chicken :
Clean chicken and put on steaming tray. Rub ginger juice and salt all over chicken half. Steam on high heat about 20 minutes or until chicken is cooked. Remove chicken and keep aside to cool. Retain liquid from steaming tray. Keep aside. When chicken is cool, cut to bite sized pieces and arrange on a plate.

To prepare the gravy :
Heat about 1 tbsp oil. Saute minced ginger and garlic till fragrant and slightly brown. Add in minced red chilli and stir for a minute. Pour in the liquid retained from above and let it simmer for about 1-2 minutes. Test for saltiness, add salt if necessary. Add in chopped spring onion and some cornstarch solution. Stir and pour gravy over chopped chicken. Serve.

French Baguette

French Baguette is one of my favourite bread. It can be eaten plain as it is, with or without butter, or it can be toasted or baked with any topping you fancy, spread it with butter and garlic, wrapped in aluminium foil and baked it for a delightful garlic bread or just dip it in your favourite soup ! This recipe is so easy to follow. I use my bread machine to do all the kneading! I'm really lazy at kneading. The crust is so deliciously crispy (as it should be!) and the bread is soft inside. Couldn't wait for the bread to cool, sliced one immediately and eat it. Soooooo.... crispy! As breakfast for the kids, I top it with sausages, cheese, tomatoes and bake it for a few minutes. They love it! My son says "Tastes like mini pizza, very nice!". Top it with anything you like, the next time I'm gonna try with tuna, or maybe minced chicken, or maybe ham with sour cream.... the list is endless! Try it, it's a healthy breakfast and an after-school snack. Enjoy!

French Baguette
(adapted from "The World of Bread" by Alex Goh)
Ingredients A
90gm plain flour
360gm bread flour
1-1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
3 tsp instant yeast

Ingredient B
250-260ml water

Ingredient C
10gm shortening

Method :

1. Mix A till well blended.
2. Add B and knead to form a dough.
3. Add C and knead to form a smooth and elastic dough.
4. Leave it to rise for 45 minutes.
5. Divide the dough into 3 pieces, mould them into balls and let them rest for 10 minutes.
6. Flatten the dough and make them into stick shapes about 30cm long.
7. Leave them to prove for 30 minutes.
8. Brush them with water and slash the tops with a sharp knife 3 or 4 times.
9. Bake at 220C for 25 minutes.

(my notes : I use butter instead of shortening. I put everything in the bread machine up to end of step 4)

My topping recipe :
2 sausages (the ones with mushroom)
2 red cherry tomatoes
2 yellow cherry tomatoes
2 slices cheddar cheese
some coriander
dash of black pepper

Chop sausages, tomatoes and coriander to small cubes. Cut the cheddar cheese to bigger cubes.
Mix everything together in a bowl with dash of black pepper. Slice the french baguette diagonally and butter on one side. Scoop topping and place on buttered side. Bake in oven (or toaster oven) at 150C for about 3-5 minutes, or until bread is crispy and cheese melts. Enjoy!

Apple Pie

The crave for apple pie has been on my mind for several weeks now. You can hardly find any apple pie selling at the local bakery. The only one that I can think of is from McDonalds. But this is "fast food apple pie".What I want is the traditional old-fashioned american apple pie! So the only way that I'm gonna have it is to make it myself. This recipe was taken from 'Joy of Baking' who sourced it from Rose Levy Beranbaum's 'Pie and Pastry Bible'. It is really delicious. I'm not posting this recipe as it is too lengthy. If you want the recipe, just visit the website of 'Joy of Baking', a really wonderful and informative website on baking. The pastry is slightly crumbly with a light crispy crunch and the apples are just perfectly moist and soft, full of flavour. Try it out and you will be rewarded with the most delicious apple pie! Enjoy! Mmmm.....