Cajun Chicken Pasta Recipe

Chicken Cajun Pasta is one of my husband's favourite. Everytime we go to BJ's, this is what he would order so I figured I'd try make this at home. It took me quite a while to get the recipe right and after a few trial and errors, both from recipes I got online and my own interpretation, I finally figured out how to make it right. It is also very easy and for this Chicken Cajun Pasta recipe, I opted to use more dried seasonings instead of fresh ones so it would be easy for those who would rather not buy a whole bunch of fresh ingredients and not use the rest.

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Beef Rendang / Rendang Daging

I made Kerisik in my previous post. I am sure some of you already know what it was for. Yes, it is Beef Rendang. Rendang is an all time favourite of Malaysia and Indonesia. In Malaysia, rendang is popular among the Malays and is usualy served during wedding reception, family gathering and special events. I finally made Beef Rendang from scratch! Thanks to MamaFami whose recipe I think is the simplest with minimum easy to get and/or substituted ingredients. According to her, the dish was her late father's favourite. I am happy to share with you the easy-to-make Beef Rendang. Try this Beef Rendang recipe. You won't regret it. It is easy to make yet it tasted so good.

Beef Rendang / Rendang Daging


1 lb beef, cut into small chunck
4-5 shallots, sliced
3-4 garlic, sliced
2in ginger, sliced
1.5 tbs sambal oelek
2 tbs coriander powder
1 lemon grass, thinly sliced
1 tsp turmeric powder
3oz coconut milk, about half small can
3 tbs brown sugar
Salt
3 tbs sweet soya sauce (for color)
1-2 kaffir lime leaves
2-3tbs Kerisik

1. Heat oil in a pot and add in the sliced ingredients. Fry till fragrant.

2. Add in sambal oelek, lemongrass, coriander powder and turmeric powder. Stir well.

3. Add in the beef and let it cook on medium heat.

4. Add in coconut milk, brown sugar, salt, sweet soya sauce and kaffir lime leaves. Mix well.

5. Let the rendang cook on medium heat till almost dried and add in kerisik.

6. Mix well and remove from heat. Enjoy with warm white rice or toast or nasi impit.

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Cheesy Garlic Biscuits

Is it just me or it is hard to get back to posting after a very long weekend? Well, Thanksgiving was good. Our friends, Shirley and Kevin came to celebrate it with us. We did not have any turkey this year but that does not mean we did not have lots of food. We had hot roast beef sandwiches, Cheesy Garlic Biscuits, sushi, potato salad, coleslaw, yeemee noodles and even a few vodka shots. ;)




I don't really fancy biscuits but Michael loves them especially the ones at Red Lobster. He could just eat those Cheesy Garlic Biscuits and nothing else and he is a happy camper. Very easy. So for Thanksgiving, I decided to make some. I found the recipe at Joyfulabode.com and decided to give it a try. I'm glad everybody liked them. It is easy to make and goes well with the hot roast beef sandwiches.


Cheesy Garlic Biscuits Recipe
Makes 12

*** Burst21 is a game made by my husband during his spare time. Please do extend your support to the game. Thank you all!

****Chef's note: I made these again last night but using Jiffy's Baking Mix. The result is almost the same. So if you can't find Biscuit Mix, you can always use baking mix or maybe even pancake mix. Good luck!

1 pack buttermilk biscuit mix (I used Bisquick, about 1 1/2cups)
1 1/2cups shredded cheddar cheese
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp oregano (you can omit or use less)
3/4 tsp garlic salt

1. Preheat oven to 400F. Spray cooking sheet with non-stick spray.

2. Put biscuit mix, cheese and milk in a bowl and mix well to form a sticky dough.

3. Using spoon, drop lumps of dough onto cookie sheets 1.5in apart. Bake for 10min.

4. In a bowl, melt butter and mix with oregano and garlic salt.

5. When the timer goes off, take them out and brush with butter mixture and bake 5min at 400F and another 5-6min at 350F.

6. Transfer into a plate and serves immediately.

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Daging Goreng Kunyit (Dry-Fried Beef with Potato)

Eventhough I live far away from home, I still keep in touch with my family and friends on a regular basis. Be it via phone (love those calling cards from the internet!) or IM or Skype. Being away from them is not an excuse not to keep in touch. 1 of them is my friend Su who came to visit me last year. When we are on skype, among other topics that we talked about is their plan to move to Seattle and food. Su is also a reader of both my blogs although she has only left a comment once. (Su, hint hint!)

She is also a good cook. I tried making Daging Goreng Kunyit before but I just could not get the beef to be crispy. I thought I needed to deep-fry the beef first which I kept doing which resulted in a horribly looking beef. That is until she spilled the secret of getting the beef to have that deep-fried texture and taste instead of chewy. For those who dont speak Malay or Bahasa, daging = meat (in this case its beef), goreng = fried and kunyit = turmeric.

Daging Goreng Kunyit

serves 4-6

1lb beef, thinly sliced

Water, enough to cover the beef in the pan or wok

4 tbsp veggie oil (or any kind of cooking oil)

1 potato, peeled and cut into wedges

3/4 tbsp turmeric powder

1 each of green and red bell pepper or capsicums, cubed

1 yellow onion, sliced 1/3-1/2 in width

Pinch of salt, black pepper and sugar

1. Put the beef in a pan or wok and add water enough to cover the beef. Cook until the water has completely dried. Stir occasionally.

2. Add in the oil, potato and turmeric powder. Stir regularly until the beef looks crunchy and the potato is soft.

3. Add the bell peppers, onion, salt, pepper and sugar. Continue stirring for a minute.

4. Serves with warm white rice.

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Green Beans with Chicken Gizzards in Soy Sauce Recipe

How time flies. Its already the 17th day of Ramadhan. 13 more days before Syawal comes which means the end of fasting month and all muslims would be celebrating Eid ul-Fitr or as we Malaysian call it, Hari Raya. A Merry Day. That's celebrated not just for a day, but the whole month. More on Hari Raya later though.

I started fasting when I was 7 years old but I only managed to fast for the whole month the next year when I was 8. Back then as an incentive, my parents (and I think most parents do too) would give us $1 for every day that we fast. Well, that lasted until we turned 12 and after that we just do it because its our responsibility.

When I was a kid and staying at home with my parents and 3 brothers, waking up for sahur for our very early morning meal is rather a challenge. I may be a light sleeper now but definitely not then. But I would still get up and eat the meal with everybody for I dont want to be hungry the next day. However, by the time I got up, my mom usually would have the food ready on the table. The spead is not as much as of for iftar/breaking of fast but enough to last us the whole day of fasting. Those are some of my favourite childhood memories. I attended a full boarding school since I was 13 so I didnt get to spend much time with my family anymore.

Well, I better proceed with the recipe post before I get too emotional. Today's recipe is about internal organs. Chicken gizzards that is. I just love love love these things. Dont ask me why. I just do. And as my other recipes, this is also very easy to make and nutritious too.

Green Beans with Chicken Gizzards in Soy Sauce
Serves 3-4

1/2lb chicken gizzards, cleaned and halves/quartered

Salt & turmeric to coat

2 handfuls of green beans, cuts into 2in long

3 garlic, thinly sliced

1in ginger, thinly sliced

Half onion, sliced

1 red chili, sliced

5-6 tbsp sweet soy sauce

2 tbsp light soy sauce

2-3 tbsp water

Oil for deep frying

1. Coat chicken gizzards with salt & turmeric, set aside

2. In a wok, heat the oil and deep fry chicken gizzards until golden brown. Set aside.

3. Transfer access oil into a container leaving about 2 tbsp in the wok. Medium heat.

4. Sauteed garlic and ginger until fragrant.

5. Add water, sweet soy sauce and light soy sauce. Stir.

6. Add green beans, onion and red chili. Stir. Turn heat to high and cover. 2 min.

7. Bring the heat back to medium and uncover. Add chicken gizzards and stir a few more times.

8. Serves with warm white rice.

I am also linking this to Kitchen Flavours for Joy from Fasting to Feasting.

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Spicy Sardine Sandwich Recipe

Playing around with the newly acquired photoshop. I know I still have a lot to learn and a long way to go but well, I am learning.

Sardine is pretty easy to get here in the US but most of the times they come in oil whereby in Malaysia, most of them comes in tomato sauce. They are widely used as filling, be it sandwiches or puff or roti canai (pratha). Some people might think less about sardine compared to tuna but trust me, if you know how to prepare them, you will get hooked.

Sardine sandwich is one of my personal favourite when it comes to sardine of course. It is cheap, easy to make and easy to eat and also healthier. My other favourite would be eating white rice with sardine, cut chili and onion. That would be for another post.

Sardine Sandwich

Serves 2

Filling

1 can sardine in tomato sauce

1 red chili or if you like it hotter, 2 thai chili, finely chopped

1/4 onion, finely chopped

1-2 tbsp ketchup

1-2 tbsp lime/lemon juice

Salt & sugar

1. Put all the ingredients and the juice from the sardine into a bowl and mix well.

2. Add in the sardine and using a spoon or fork, mash the sardine (gently if you want it to stay a bit chunky)

3. Taste to your liking.

If you are using a sandwich maker, lightly butter 1 side of each bread. Place the bread with the buttered side out.

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Belacan & Salted Fish Fried Rice Recipe

Thank you friends who participated in my "Let's play a guessing game". Yatie actually guessed the closest. She may not get the name but she was the only who saw the (bony)salted fish. :)

Actually that was the first time I made anything with salted fish. My good friend Bee Yinn of Rasa Malaysia gave me some last year during one of those times when she was flying home and had to clear her fridge/freezer. Thank you Bee Yinn! ;)

Anyways, Iv been meaning to make this kind of fried rice for ages but keep forgetting that I have the salted fridge in the freezer. So, on that lovely weekend, after getting some green bean from the supermarket, I got busy.

1 cup cooked day-old rice

2-3 shallot
2 garlic
4-5 thai chili (use more/less depending on how hot you like your rice)
1/2" belacan (if you're using powder form, use about 1.5 teaspoon)

half medium size onion, sliced into 1/4"
a few pieces salted fish, fried and cut into small pieces
Deep-fried anchovies (optional)
green bean, thinly cut (i prefer long bean but when i was at the store they looked old)
frozen mixed vegetables
2 tablespoon vege oil
salt, pepper and sugar to taste

1. Using mortal & pestel, pound shallot, garlic, thai chili and belacan or you can use the small food processor.

2. In a wok or pan, heat the oil on medium high. Add in the blended ingredients and stir until fragrant. About 30seconds.

3. Add in the rest of the ingredients and keep stirring. 1 min.

4. Add the rice and continue stirring until the rice and ingredients blend together. Taste and add salt/sugar/pepper until you're satisfied.

You can see from the picture how I like eating my fried rice. I prefer my egg fried with oil to sunny side up since I like the crunchiness of the edges. Pour some of the Lingham Chili sauce, cut some red chili, fry some prawn/fish cracker and voila! It was heaven!

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