Erika Makes - Asian Orange Chicken

Last weekend Erika threw a tantrum saying she wanted to eat Orange Chicken so we visited  PF Chang's for dinner. That was not all, we had to prepare it at home, so we google searched the recipe and guess what we found it at allrecipes.com.  We shopped for the groceries and got down to preparing it for dinner.

Now this was not a dish I prepared. I only assisted Erika with fyring the chicken. Oh here's the recipe http://allrecipes.com/recipe/asian-orange-chicken/

According to the reviews, many suggested coating the chicken with egg before coating with  flour. It does help... We also adjusted the cornflour as suggested. We mixed 1 tablespoon cornflour with 2 tablespoons of water.  And we substituted the rice vinegar with apple cider vinegar as rice vinegar is not available in Kuwait (and don't go looking for it... don't ask me why???).

Erika was very happy with herself...that she had prepared a dish which is served at PF Chang's.... and that it tasted absolutely yummy.  Yes, this ones a keeper...

Proud of Erika!!!! Thank you for the scrumptious dinner. 

Quesadilla

While shopping at TSC, Erika picked up a packet of tortilla and I knew just exactly what she was thinking. So I picked up the shredded mozzarella cheese and the rest of the ingredients. 

Last night we got busy cooking. Erika brought the laptop into the kitchen to follow the recipe. 

Makes 2 quesadillas

You will need:

4 tortillas 

Olive oil 

300-400 grams shredded mozzarella cheese. 

2 halves chicken breast 

Ginger garlic paste

Salt

1/2 lemon juice

1 onion sliced

1 tomato sliced

1/2 colored capsicum sliced

1/2 carrot sliced 

1 cup lettuce chopped 

Pepper

 

Preparation:

Cut chicken into small cubes. Marinate with salt, ginger garlic paste and lemon juice for 15 mins. 

Meanwhile cut onions, tomatoes, capsicum, carrot and lettuce. 

Heat 2 tbsp oil and sauté onions, capsicum and carrots. Add chicken and stir fry for 5 mins. Add tomatoes and let cook on low flame for 10mins. Add lettuce and cook for another 5 mins. The quesadilla filling is ready. 

For the quesadilla:  On a low flame, drizzle 1 tbsp oil in a frying pan. Place tortilla on the pan. Scatter some of the shredded mozzarella cheese on the tortilla. 

Then place 1/2 of the cooked chicken on the cheese. 

Sprinkle pepper and scatter cheese over the chicken.

Cover with tortilla.  Cover the pan and let it cook on a low flame for 5 mins. 

Lift the tortilla using a wide spatula and drizzle oil on the frying pan. Then flip the tortilla and cook the other side  for 5 minutes wih the pan covered.

Remove and place onto a serving plate. 

 

Cut tortilla into 6 wedges and serve. 

In the original recipe the chicken is not cooked. Instead after scattering the cheese on the tortilla sinply scatter the marinated chicken and all the veggies, season with pepper, then add the cheese and cover with the tortilla. Cook for 10 minutes on each side on a low flame. 

We tried both versions of the recipe, both taste the same. 

You can add more seasoning if you wish to. You can also use shredded cheddar cheese instead of mozzarella. You can almost add any meat for the filling with a lot  of add-ons that suit your palate. 

This Mexican appetizer is a favorite of Shawn and Erika's. After all it's finger food.....

Jewel in the crown - cake

A friend of ours sent me this picture....saying "what say amazing cake", and I sprang to the opportunity, which otherwise was on my low priority "to do" list.

I looked up the tutorial and decided to make it a weekend project as it involved baking two cakes with cooling time between the two. 

I decided to bake  my cake from scratch and not to use the cake mix as I have never used cake mix. After coloring the batter which I did in individual bowls, I realized that I should have poured the batter into the measuring cup, colored it one at a time and then poured it out into the zipper bag. 

A cup of Pink, blue, yellow, green and orange cake batter ready to be strewned into the cake pan to give it a tie-dye effect. 

This is the fun part and the most agonizing part too. Piping out the batter from the zipper bag after snipping a small corner was painstaking and pretty messy. At a point I had batter coming out from both ends of the zipper bag making it very messy. My fingers went numb piping the batter and my brain went numb having to remind myself that I need to pipe a little of each color to achieve the tie-dye effect. 

It took a little less than 30 minutes to color and pipe out the cake batter into the pan, while otherwise it would take only 1 minute to pour the batter into the pan. And It took exactly 70 mins to bake. 

Gorgeous looking colorful cake. Felt like eating it right away. Left it overnight on the rack to cool.

The next day I cut the cake into 1 inch slices and cut out hearts using a heart shaped cutter. Placed them in the frezzer for about 4 hours.

I prepared the cake batter for the second cake. Poured a cup full of batter into the pan and lined up the frozen heart shaped cake in the middle of the cake pan, then filled in the sides and covered the top with batter. The pan was a little more than 3/4 filled and I had my doubts so I let go some of the batter so that the batter would not overflow while baking.      

It took 90 minutes to bake and there was this huge mountain in the middle which was taking a lot of time to bake. I was worried about the sides getting burnt, but that did not happen. Pulled out the cake from the oven and tossed it on the rack to cool.

When the cake had cooled and it was time to cut through I was trembling and felt like I was competing in Masterchief. Had to do what I had to do and ta da....

Oh!!! the hearts had risen.....and i missed a heart beat...I knew what had happened, but then that is not what should happen, so what should be done so that it does not happen?????????  too many questions on my mind.. 

I looked for more tutorials and found this https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtube_gdata_player&v=jBoqh8M8ltU&app=desktop I will follow this tutorial the next time I make this cake.

My cake earned its name "jewel in the crown". Hudson, who inspired me to bake the cake named the cake so, to cheer me up.  I am sure going to try it out again....

Instant Poha

Today I made poha for the first time. Poha is flattened rice or otherwise known as rice flakes. I bought some with the intention of making it but kept putting it off for some reason or the other. 

I called mom to speak to her and she told me that she had gone visiting my aunt, and that she was served poha which my uncle had prepared. Well that was it... Memorized the recipe and went off to the kitchen to make poha instantly. 

You will need:

100 grams Poha (1 and 1/2 cups).

1 medium potato

A handful peanuts 

2-3 tbsp oil

1 tsp. mustard seeds

6-8 curry leaves

1/4 tsp. turmeric powder

1 small onion finely chopped

1 green chilly finely chopped

Salt

1/2 bunch coriander leaves finely chopped

2 tbsp. fresh grated coconut (optional) 

1 lemon

To prepare:

1. Wash the poha and leave in a strainer to drain the water.

2. Cut the potato into 4 halves and boil it with salt.  

3. Add the peanuts and let them boil with the potato. 

4. In a non-stick pan heat the oil and add mustard seeds and curry leaves.

5. Then add the onions and let them fry till translucent, add chillies, turmeric powder and fry for a minute.  

6. Add the poha and mix well with all the ingredients.  Add salt and simmer for 5 minutes.

7. Cut the boiled potato into small cubes and add to the poha mixture along with the peanuts.

8. Remove into serving dish and garnish with coriander and grated coconut.

9. Serve hot with lemon wedges. 

It tasted just like mom's. She would make it for tea, a perfect snack for a rainy day... I had mine for dinner and it was just right and light. 

Feeling great.... feeling at home.