Tandoori Chicken

Tandoori chicken is one of the most significant roast chicken dish in India. It is commonly mistaken tandoori chicken supposed to have a reddish or orangey appearance which is not true. Indian restaurant add food coloring to made the tandoori chicken appear orangey or reddish in color before roasting in tandor. Another downside with roasting the chicken in tandor the chicken meat will become too dry. Therefore, tandoori chicken sold outside commonly fall in this category. My rendition of the tandoori chicken will be grill rather than roast so as to keep the chicken meat succulent and still retain the wholesome flavour of the tandoori spices.

Tandoori Chicken

• 4 Chicken Thighs
• 2 Tablespoon Tandoori Spice Mix
• 1 Teaspoon Garlic Puree
• 1 Teaspoon Ginger Puree
• 1 Tablespoon Plain Yogurt
• Pinch of Salt
• 1 Tablespoon of Lemon Juice

Remove the skin from the chicken thighs. Use a knife slice deep slits on chicken thigh and apply salt and lemon juice to it and leave it marinated for 15mins.

You can move on to prepare the tandoori paste while the chicken marinate. Add in all the ingredients into bowl and mix it until it form a paste form. Then apply to the chicken thighs and made sure all it is even applied and let it marinate for at least 1 hour or for best result overnight.

Heat up the grill until it hot enough and apply adequate oil to the grill. Once it start to smoke, put the chicken onto the grill and grill it for 10 mins on 1 side and 10 mins on the other side and you are ready to serve it over plain rice. 

Here is a tip, if you worry the grilling time is not enough to fully cook the chicken thighs. You can heat it up in the microwave under high settings for 2 minutes to fully cook it.  

Emperor Chicken Triple Play

Emperor Chicken is one of local soup delicacy that is commonly found in chinese soup stall in Singapore. It is similar to western chicken soup with the exception many chinese herbs are added to the soup. These herbs really help rejuvenate the tired soul and I can vouch for it. I always order it when I need a pick me up after a day of battle in the corporate jungle. The soup easily price from $4.50 to $5.50 or more depending on dining location. I decide to whip up my own version of Emperor Chicken (an excuse cook up to cut expenses during recession) and co-incidental create 2 spin-off dishes from it.

Emperor Chicken

• 400 - 500 gm of  Chicken Thigh (about 3 to 4 pieces)
• Emperor Chicken Herb Mix (get A1 Brand if available as their spices are blend finer)
• Chinese Cooking Wine or Mirin (Optional)
  
• Salt
• Baby Carrot or Enoki Mushroom
• Maggie Non- MSG Liquid Chicken Stock (Optional)
• Microwave Proof Glade Wrap (Can get it cheap at $2 at Daiso) 
  

Emperor Herb Mix can easily be found in all local supermarket like Giant, Sheng Siong, Cold Storage, Shop`N'Save and NTUC. Unlike those sold in soup stall, the Emperor Chicken herbs are blend into fine powder so that you can pre-marinate the chicken so that it can be imbue with the wholesome goodness of the chinese herbs. However, in powder form you cannot apply too much or it will be too overpowering. Enough of talk, let get on with it.


You can use half a chicken, or 8 pieces of wings or 4 to 5 pieces of chicken for this. First rinse the chicken under the running water and drain and excess left over water. If you have Chinese Cooking Wine or Mirin(if you have any), use a teaspoon of it together with a pinch of salt and rub the chicken pieces to remove the raw smell.

Add a teaspoon of the Emperor Chicken Herb mix together with a teaspoon of Maggie Liquid Chicken Stock into the chicken pieces. Ensure every pieces are evenly coated then leave it to marinate for at least an hour or overnight for best result. 

Line the bowl (that is deep enough to hold the chicken pieces with some allowance) with baby carrot before you place the marinated chicken pieces on top. Seal the bowl with a microwave glade wrap and place it in a steamer and steam it for 2 hours. After 2 hours of steam, you will notice whole chicken bouillon is collected below the bowl. The bouillon will have a faint sweetness of baby carrot in it which is superior than those sold in soup stall.

   
Grill Emperor Chicken

• 8 pieces of mid wings
• Emperor Chicken Herb Mix
• Salt
• Maggie Non-MSG Liquid Chicken Stock
• Electric Grill or Grill Pan 
  

Recently, I purchase a Kenwood multi-purpose sandwich maker that come with interchangeable grill plate. This spark off my creative culinary brain juice, we can have grill version of the Emperor Chicken instead of the common soup version.

The preparation is similar to the soup version which I will not repeat the preparation and marinate procedure here and move on to the grilling portion. If you have a Kenwood electric grill like me u can heating up the grill until the green indicator light up to indicate you can grill food items on it. Make sure you have coat ample cooking oil on grill plate. Line the wings onto the grill and close the cover of the grill and let it grill for 5 minutes. Open the grill and check on the wings brush oil on the wings then close the grill cover grill for another 5 mintues. Then it is ready to serve.

Fried Emperor Chicken 

• 8 pieces of mid wings
• Emperor Chicken Herb Mix
• Salt
• Maggie Non-MSG Liquid Chicken Stock
• Rice Flour
• Cooking Oil

The fried version of Emperor Chicken was conceptualize from Colonel Sander's Kentucky Fried Chicken whereby 11 spices were used. If the western got KFC why not asian have their own version.


The preparation procedure is same as before with the exception you might need to add additional 1 or 2 teaspoon of the Emperor Chicken Herb mix to the chicken as when it coat with rice flour the herb flavour will diminish. Next evenly coat the marinated wing pieces with layer of rice flour and set it aside for 30 minutes. 

Heat up the fryer and fried the wings till golden brown as shown. There you have Asia own version of Colonel Sander's 11 Spice Fried Chicken. Enjoy.

Blog Abandon?! Maybe? Maybe not!

It been been more than a year since I last post in this cooking/food blog. Recently, I been thinking is this blog going to be one of those millions of blogs whereby the new blogger that started many postings with zest and end with abandonment due to lack of interest or drive. These thoughts had got me to post again as I do not want this blog to fall in this category.

Many things had happened during this period had left me burnout and depress. Life really have more downs than ups that even those strong will eventually fall, the optimist will become pessimist eventually. While those issues might look superficial to others, but the actual person who is going through it have the hardest hit. It is hard to juggle life, work, study and family as a single. I always admired those can do it single-handedly with ease.

Being single in Singapore is more of curse as Government does not acknowledge your contributions as Singles don't get much incentives when comes to rebates, taxes and housing rebate. Where is the "equality" in the National Pledge that was read out with fervour by every Singaporean. Is all this for show or "wayang" to give people false sense of belonging? I think the top honcho in the Singapore government have the answer for it.

I had a friend who is single working in education sector always being "arrow" for those ardous tasks. This had left my friend drain, burn-out as there seem to be no light at the end of the tunnel as he is the only single in the school. He is left with no choice but to leave this profession. I'm in similar predicament as my friend however, unlike him being a worrywort and concious of the impact of my actions have on my family members. I couldn't take the leap like him. Until now it is still eating me up, I still feel so lost without any sense of direction what I want to do with my life just like a living corpse.

However, my interest in cooking still remains as it is the only hobby that still keeping me sane. I hope to find strength to post a few more entries.

Ken Japanese Noodles House

Ken Japanese Noodles House is one of my favourite ramen shop that I frequent. They are the only ramen shop in Singapore that allow you to customise your salt intake. You can request them to reduce salt if u prefer a lighter taste. Among the ramen type served in Ken Noodles House, I personally obsessed Ken's Kimichi ramen highly appealing as it is robustly flavoured with pork bone soup mixed with miso coupled with generous chunks of hand-made kimchi cabbage.

For those who avoid those fatty charsiew that are commonly serve in Ramen shop, rest assure Ken's charsiew will not add extra calories to your diet as Ken use lean shoulder pork for their charsiew. For ramen purist, they might find the charsiew not succulent enough as it lack those fatty meat portion.

Ken use straight noodle instead of those curly noodle. The straight noodle tend to be more "soggy" resistant in the ramen soup, so you can slowly take your time enjoy the ramen. I highly recommend those who haven't try it give it a go since it is located at Orchard Plaza which is at the heart of Singapore shopping district Orchard and within walking distance from Somerset MRT.

Sanma Kabayaki Rice

Ever since the year of rat begins, it is like hell break loose at workplace. By the end of the day, you hardly left with any energy to cook something nutritious. If you considering dining out, be prepared to fork out at least $10.00++ for a more decent filling meal considering Singapore inflation caused all those local delicacies sold in foodcourt to shrink drastically in size. I still vividly remember an occasion I paid $6.90 for tomyam fish soup at one of Ang Mo Kio foodcourts and shocked to find there is only 3 small pieces of thin sliced fried fish in it while the base was lined heavily with veggies and fried egg (kinda like those tauhu telor kind).

Therefore, I'm stuck between eating something that you paying more that its worth or cooking your own meal which can be tedious especially after you're so shag after work. Lately, I found a solution at local supermart Tay Sanma Kabayaki that is pre-cooked, vacuum packed and frozen for your last minute culinary adventure.



Sanma Kabayaki Rice

1. Tay's Sanma Kabayaki ($5.60 at local supermartket, currently on promotion buy 2 get 1 free at NTUC)
2. Furikake ($2.00 at Daiso)
3. Rice
   
4. Chopped Cherry Tomato Garnish ($1.95 at NTUC Fairprice)

Tay's Sanma Kabayaki comes in a pack of 5 enough for 2 meals. Get a bowl of rice depends on your rice comsumption as shown above. Sprinkle a teaspoon of Daiso's furikake (rice topping) or more on the rice and ensure the rice is even coated not too much as it will be too salty. Take out the Sanma Kabayaki frozen, take note do not thaw it. The reason for not thawing is you want the teriyaki sauce in the Sanama Kabayaki to coat the rice when you microwave it. Use a knife and cut the Sanma into pieces so that you can easy line the bowl filled with rice. Next, use a microwaveable glad wrap (you can get it cheaply at $2.00 at Daiso) and cover the bowl but leave a vent. Pop in microwave oven and microwave it at high power for 3 minutes and it is ready for hearty meal. Then, you can garnish the top with some chopped cherry tomato as shown above.

New Japan F&B Craze - Shokoku

A new kind of Japanese Craze F&B - Shokoku or Shokuko hit Singapore F&B scene. It is opened recently in the new section at Raffles City Basement - MarketPlace. Pardon me if I got the name wrong as I was amazed by the queue than take note of the restaurant name when I took the picture with my PSP camera. It is open concept similar to Marche where a lot of mini stalls inside selling Japanese cuisine whereby you pay what you order. I personally haven't try it out but from the surface it looked similar to Marche.

I guess Singaporean find this F&B concept refreshing considering it is Marche cross Japanese. I personally find it is nothing new just a concept being rehash with another country cuisine. I will give it a go once the fad die down bit or after a year with reference to donut craze that rock Singapore last year. Seem like Donut bandwagon didn't die down much as compared to RotiBoy craze few years back, Bread Talk owner also decide to join in the Donut war and opened a donut concept cafe at the MarketPlace with ample media coverage by local news.

Singaporean tastebuds is ever changing as today fad might become yesterday news. Even the donut shop that rock Singapore at Raffles City - MarketPlace for a year also showing wan in popularity. As for whether another Shokoku or Shokuku will be opening another outlet remains to be seen.

Sapporo Ramen Bishamon

After being bedridden with flu for the whole Chinese New Year, I finally fully recovered and met up with colleagues today for simple coffee chit chat at Gloria Jeans Marina Square. We left early around 6pm and I decide to take walk at Raffles City Basement - MarketPlace which housed a collective of F&B restaurant and retail outlets as it been 3 months since my last visit.



I chance upon this small ramen shop - Sapporo Ramen Bishamon in the MarketPlace which opened quite a while back just that I was either full or not up for ramen when I passed by. I decided to give it to try. I was recommended by the floor manager of the restaurant to try the Special Miso Ramen $13.40 SGD as the pork bone broth is mixed with 3 special miso to give it a robust flavour and the egg that goes along with it is full cooked on the outside while the yolk is not. I decided to take up on the manager's recommendation.



The Special Miso Ramen served with generously with corn, wakame, 2 sliced of kakuni and egg pre-soaked in shoyu as shown. When comes to ramen, I always taste the ramen soup base before anything else as the ramen soup base is the soul of ramen follow by the noodle. The soup base is pork bone based pleasantly flavored with miso (not your average miso you get off the shelf) but it hard to discern if it is a mixture of 3 miso blend. The soup base is slightly quite salty for local singaporean taste but I had tried a few authentic japanese ramen the saltiness is similar to Bishamon. It would be best Bishamon have reduce salt option upon customer request similar to Ken's Ramen Shop.

If Bishamon's Ramen is to compare with another Ramen Restaurant - Miharu offering Sapporo Ramen, Miharu Sapporo ramen's miso ramen left me with a deeper impression due to it unique miso flavor. Nevertheless, Bishamon Sapporo Ramen has it own ramen fan base. The ramen noodles used in Bishamon is similar to Miharu - thick, curly cooked to pretty el dente but you need to consume fast as the noodle tend to soften after a while. The soup base actually complement the noodle quite well without the feeling of being overpowered like marutama's ramen.

Next, I moved on to the Char Siew or Kakuni, the pork is stew similar to Marutama's Kakuni it is stewed to very tender but it is the most saltiest of ramen condiment in the miso ramen. Bishamon's ramen half boiled egg - the egg white is fully cooked while the yolk is liquid unlike other ramen shop whereby the yolk is only 75% cooked with a creamy aftertaste. I 'm not sure if Bishamon's ramen egg uniqueness is because the egg yolk is raw but I would prefer if the yolk is at least 75% or 50% cooked.

Overall, Bishamon ramen is pretty okay but with many areas need to looked into. Sodium intake conscious ramen fanatics might want to avoid Bishamon as for those who find current Singapore ramen shops lack the saltiness flavour that some Japanese liked might want to give it a shot.