Tag Archives: home cook

Homemade Pork Satay during MCO

08 Wednesday Jul 2020

Posted by in Gastronomy, Home Cook Food

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Malaysia announced lockdown / MCO (Movement Control Order) on the 18th March 2020 in the battle to control the spread of Covid-19. During this time, many of us were confine the our own home. The hardest part of the lockdown for me and my family would definitely be the joy of enjoying different delicious food from famous restaurant.

After 2 months into the MCO, I was having a really bad carving for Melaka pork satay. And, decided to do something about it. After doing a lot of research and watching a dozen of youtube videos, I finally made the decision and recreated my cheated version of Pork Satay.

For the pork marinade, I used the satay paste from Snugfood.

Satay Marinade Paste by Snugfood

It’s about RM8/ packet for the 200gm. 1 packet of this is enough for 1 kg of meat. My recipes below is for 2kg of meat.

2 pkt Snugfood Satay Paste (200gm)

200ml Santan UHT (I used the Ayam brand type)

100ml Olive Oil

2kg Pork Belly (Half-half type)

I washed the bamboo stick and soak them in warm water before using. After mixing the marinade above, I proceed to skewered them. Being slightly OCD, I wore a food grade glove while doing it. I find that it helps to give me a better grip when trying to pierce thru the meat. The fat part is harder to pierce. So, be careful not to stab your fingers ! After that, I left the satay to continue marinade in the fridge for another 2-3 hours.

The 2kg meat yielded about 35-40 sticks (depending on how big chunk I cut). I used my Grill pan for the job. Oven set at about 175 degree on grill fan. Remember to flip them around every 5-10 mins to get an even grilling. Cooking time varies between 25-35 mins (depending on the size of the meat chunks)

All ready for the Oven
Freshly out from the Oven. Looks Awesome !

If you cannot finish so many sticks in one seating, you can also opt to freeze them. I vacuum pack the marinaded satay and freeze them for later day. That way, you can just defrost them to grill another day.

For the Peanut sauce, I used the McQuek’s Satay Celup sauce and add extra peanut powder. There’s instruction at the back of the pack. But, I didn’t follow as I wanted a thicker sauce. So, I use about 1/4 of the packet mix with about 3 bowl of water and 3/4 bowl of peanut powder. I boil it on small fire for about 30-40 mins (stirring often to ensure no sticking on bottom).

Peanut Sauce from McQuek’s

Tada ! What do you think? Not bad, right?

Chuletz Homemade Porky Satay !

Nom Nom nom…. craving satisfied.

Chulet’s Roast Chicken

03 Thursday Apr 2014

Posted by in Gastronomy, Home Cook Food

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I love a good home made roast chicken. It’s quite easy to make and the best part is there’s no right or wrong. Everyone have their own formula for succulent roast chicken. For me, a good roast chicken should never be over marinated. I prefer to be able to still enjoy the fresh sweetness of the chicken.

It might be easy to make but it doesn’t make it less tedious. First thing is to CLEAN the chicken. Don’t think that just because you bought it nicely wrapped from the supermarket means it’s clean. Remove all feathers and all debris sticking to the skin. If you look closely, the yellowish ‘skin-like’ debris is usually under the wings or along the inner thigh. Once it’s clean, I like to give the chicken a good salt scrub. It’s sort of like exfoliating the skin. Rinse off the salt after that. You will definitely feel a big difference to the skin. It’s so much smoother.

After that, pat dry the chicken.

Prepare separate small bowls of salt, pepper, herbs,  5 cloves of crushed garlic and 2 bay leaves. For the herbs, I just throw in a mix of dried herbs like rosemary, thyme, oregano and basil. (It’s quite flexible. You can put in anything you like. Personally, I will not skip thyme. It goes amazingly well with chicken!)

Grab the salt with your 5 fingers and sprinkle it all over the chicken evenly. Always sprinkle it higher than 15cm to get the even spread. Do the same with pepper. Ensure you salt and pepper well the inside of the chicken as well. Next, I rub the dry herbs on the palm of my hand first to release the fragrance and oil before rubbing it onto the chicken. Remember the inside too! Throw in the crushed garlic into the chicken tummy. Stuff a lemon inside to hold the chicken’s shape which roasting at the same time releasing a beautiful aroma soaking into the chicken. Before you stuff the lemon, wash it really well and give the surface a good prick.

I thrust my chicken here because it looks so much prettier and inviting. 😉

The chefs on TV make it look so EASY. But, it’s not if it’s your first time. Don’t panic. Just make sure you manage to close the legs together to push up the breast, sort of like giving the chicken a wonderbra effect. LOL…  Ready to cook

I like to place the chicken on a bed of sliced onion. This way, the chicken skin will not stick to the bottom and or have a soggy look on the bottom. I like to cover the chicken and allow it to steam for a good 40 mins at 170 degreeC first. As you can see the chicken looks so moist here.

After 30mins steaming

Then, I remove the cover and let it roast for another 30 mins  to allow the surface to dry and the skin to slowly turn golden. When the skin is sufficiently dried out, I’ll lightly brush a layer of butter all over the chicken. This gives it a beautiful shiny look. I’ll roast it again for another 20 mins at 200 degree C.

Tada… my home made roast chicken.

Tada - Ready for nom nom Side profileOh… one more thing. Do not throw away the lemon. Slice it to half and squeeze the juice out together with the roasting juice. It is AWESOME !!!

Please note that the cooking time varies depending on your chicken size. My chicken here was about 1.2kg. I used the Kami Sakura chicken which is about RM20 /bird. It’s a bit on the expensive side. But, I like the taste and texture of this chicken… 🙂 The chicken is not raise in cage but not entirely free-range. You can read more about this chicken online.

Stir fried Scallops with baby Bak-Choy pasta.

21 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by in Gastronomy, Home Cook Food

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Hub and I went to Kuala Selangor over the weekend and bought some really big fat frozen scallops. Kuala Selangor is a little fishing town about one hour plus away from Kuala Lumpur (famous for enjoying fresh seafood at lower price).

It’s really simple to handle frozen scallops. I just took them out from the freezer, give it a good rinse and let it thaw by itself for about 15-20 mins. After that, I give it another good rise and pat dry. (Never soak your frozen scallops in water as it will loose it’s sweetness)

Ingredients (3 person’s portion)
  • 12 nos             Scallops (sprinkle with salt and black pepper)
  • 4 bunch           baby bak-choy (separate the leaves from stem)
  • 15 nos             cherry tomatoes (halved)
  • 4 slices            bacon (julienne)
  • ½ cup              marsala wine / white wine
  • 1 tbsp              Abalone sauce
  • 1 tbsp              pre-fried garlic (I keep one jar of fried garlic in oil around)
  • 3 portion         boiled Spaghetti
     
    Sauté the scallops on high heat and remember to keep them apart (no soup formed. Or you’ll have steam scallops in the end). It’s always better to have scallops slightly undercooked. So, I manage them by pressing on them with the spoon. I like it cooked till it feels like medium rare beef bounce. Then, I’ll lift it and set it aside.
     
    Next, sauté the bacon till you see the oil release from its fat. Put in the bak-choy stem and allow it to stir fry a bit first before putting in the leaves. Add the cherry tomatoes, abalone sauce and Marsala wine (You can just use any white wine but I love the sweetness of Marsala with scallops). Allow this to simmer for 2-3 minutes.

Add the pasta and Scallop. Simmer for another 2-3 minutes and it’s done.

Dinner is serve. Chomp chomp. I had it with a glass of chilled marsala. Simple healthy meal with tons of greens. Yay !