Creamy paprika chicken and chickpea casserole

Can you see those little fingers there? J can't wait to have a bite at it.  

Off late, I have not been trying out any new recipes at all! Our lunch has been quite monotonous, so last night I blog-hopped a little to find inspiration for something different. I came across a fellow blogger mommy friend, Joyce who shared recipes for a very delicious looking chickpea ragout and chilli con carne. I have always loved chilli con carne, but I don't have any red kidney beans in stock, and I felt chilli con carne would tastes better off with minced beef and that's something I don't usually have in my freezer neither. Perhaps I can make the chickpea ragout. 

While cooking mine this morning, I felt that something is missing in terms of its flavor, so I added in ground cumin and ground paprika, and I served it with yummy yummy sour cream. When having it, I felt this dish is a cross between a ragout and a chilli con carne! Nonetheless, it turns out to be super yummy, much nicer beyond my expectation! Even little J (my little 31mo) loves it. He finishes everything on the plate. I thought he would like the crispy potato wedges, but he wasn't too keen this round. Instead, he loves the chicken and the casserole. This is definitely a 'must try' recipe, if you ask me. 

Oh, and I shouldn't forget to mention, it isn't hard to make. I think it took me around 45min from preparation (cutting the veg etc). I even had enough time to bake some banana and cinnamon cupcakes this morning, after preparing this casserole dish. 

Recipe (serves 2, one adult, one toddler, with some leftover that can be served with pasta for the toddler) 

• 2 chicken drumsticks 
• 4-5 cloves garlic, finely minced 
• 1/4 tsp ground cumin 
• 1/4 tsp ground paprika 
• 1/2 cup to 1 cup chicken stock 
• 3-4 tbsp cooked chickpeas* (Check method of cooking below) 
• 4 tomato, skin peeled and chopped into cubes 
• 1/2 onion, chopped into cubes 
• 3 fresh brown mushrooms, chopped into cubes 
• 1/2 carrot, peeled and sliced 
• Sour cream, about 2-3 tbsp, to serve (the more sour cream added, the more creamy it gets)
• Seasoning eg salt and pepper 

*To cook the chickpeas (the non pressure cooker way)

First, soak the chickpeas for around 6 hours in normal temperature water. Boil in hot water for about an hour or more, or until the chickpeas turn soft. 

1. Season the chicken drumsticks with salt, minced garlic, pepper and a little oyster sauce. 
2. Heat up about 2tbsp of grapeseed oil (or any cooking oil) in a frying pan. Brown drumsticks (about 5min). Remove from pan and place into an oven-proof casserole dish. 
3. Using the same heated pan, gently fry minced garlic, chopped onion until fragrant. Stir in carrot, tomato and mushrooms. Cover with lid and leave to brown for about 2-5min. 
4. Add in chicken stock. Season with ground cumin, ground paprika, salt and pepper. Simmer for about 15min. 
5. Preheat oven to 180degC. 
6. Pour the veg and sauce into the oven-proof casserole dish. 
7. Bake in oven for about 20min or until the drumsticks are thoroughly cooked. 
8. Serve with sour cream, pasta or rice, or potato dishes. 

With much delight, I am linking this post to the event, Little Thumbs Up organised by Bake for Happy Kids and My Little Favourite DIY, and hosted by Diana from the Domestic Goddess Wannabe. 

Chicken Shepherd's pie

I wasn't sure if this dish should be called Shepherd's pie or cottage pie. Now.. this is what I think, if Shepherd's pie is made with minced lamb meat and cottage pie is made with minced beef, shouldn't this be called farmer's pie? It does make sense, doesn't it?

So here's the recipe for my 'farmer's pie, which I quickly whipped up this morning for the little fella to bring to his nanny's and I asked nanny if she would steam it up prior to serving him as lunch, she kindly said yes. Note: At home prior to serving, I usually bake it in the oven with added grated cheese on top, I love seeing the way cheese melts when baked. But I don't expect the nanny to bake it for him. So I just asked her to steam it to re-heat it.

 

 

Recipe (makes two portions for a toddler aged 19mth old)

• 100g minced chicken breast, marinated with dash of soya salt and black pepper powder
• 1 clove garlic, minced with pinch of salt
• 1/2 medium size onion, minced
• 100g pumpkin, cut into cubes
• 2 medium size tomato, skin and seeds removed, chopped 
• 1/2 cup of water / stock

For the mashed potato topping

• 1 potato or sweet potato, peeled and cut into cubes
• 3tbsp milk
• 2tbsp cream cheese
• 2tbsp butter
• pinch of salt and black pepper powder
• 2tbsp Cheddar cheese (optional)

Instructions:

1. Prepare the mashed potato: bring a pan of water to boil, pour in the cubed potato and boil until soft and tender enough to mash.
2. Rinse away the boiling water, in a bowl, mash the potato with milk, cream cheese, butter and salt and/ or other seasoning. Set aside.  
3. In a wok or shallow frying pan, heat up 2tbsp grapeseed oil or cooking oil, stir in minced garlic and onion, followed by minced chicken, fry until fragrant. Stir in cubed pumpkin and tomato, gently stir-fry for another 3min. Add in water or stock, stew on low heat for about 10-20min or until the tomato and pumpkin are soft.
4. Prepare two small ceramic dish or one big one. Brush with oil or butter. Lay the minced chicken mix at bottom of dish. Top with mashed potato, followed by Cheddar cheese (optional).
5. Bake in a preheated oven at 170degC for about 5-10min or until the top is slightly golden brown.

I am linking this simple and easy toddler's recipe to Bake Along No. 62 themed savory pie/ tart hosted by Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids, Joyce from Kitchen Flavours and Lena from Frozen wings.

Korean ginseng chicken (samgeytang) 삼계탕

I just got back from Seoul last week. Unlike my first few trips of spending like crazy on Korean skin care and masks, this time, I only splurge on food!! I lugged back some fresh fat wild Korean ginseng and some hot pepper and soy bean pastes. I'm pretty pleased with myself this time. At least I make good use of these food ingredients, unlike the skin care and masks. In fact, I still have quite an amount of masks left from my trips to Seoul two years ago :p

 

I have gotten these pretty looking Korean ginseng from Lotte supermarket in Myeongdong. It cost me KRW40,000 (equivalent to about RM125) for 500g (which has about 15 ginseng roots). I felt that this is quite a good price, not as pricey as the dried Korean ginseng, and these days, there are risks involved when buying dried ginseng, we aren't sure the stuffs we are buying are genuine or not. 

 

In Korea, fresh ginseng are usually used to make samgeytang (which literally translates as ginseng chicken soup) by boiling a whole young chicken stuffed with glutinous rice. In Korea, samgeytang is widely believed to both cure and prevent physical ailments.  The proteins and nutrients from the whole chicken mixed with the beneficial properties of the ingredients combined in the dish makes it a revered culinary item in South Korea. Samgeytang is a favorite dish consumed in Summer cos food with high nutrient content is eaten to regain the loss of stamina in the summer heat.

 

I cooked this for a few friends at my place at dinner time. I was worried that it would keep me awake all night since it's supposed to boost stamina and uplift energy. But surprisingly, I slept well (went into snooze-land upon touching my pillow) and woke up with good glow on my skin. Must be the Korean ginseng chicken or was it just psychologically? Hahaa.. Feedback from all my friends who had this soup for dinner, they all slept superbly well. Amazing, huh?

 

 

Recipe

For the soup

• 1 whole chicken
• 3-4 fresh Korean ginseng
• 4 red dates
• handful of yuk zhuk 玉竹and wai shan (Chinese yam) 淮山
• bunch of spring onion
• Pinch of salt
• 10 cups of water

For the stuffing

• 3-5 fresh gingko
• 1/2 cup of glutinous rice (I used a combination of black and white glutinous rice), soaked in water for at least 1hr
• 3 red dates
• 2 fresh Korean ginseng 
• 2-3 fresh Chinese chestnuts

Instructions

1. Wash the chicken thoroughly.
2. Stuff the inside of chicken with soaked glutinous rice, 3-5 red dates, 1-2 ginseng, all the gingko. Use the red dates or ginseng to block the opening so that the glutinous rice doesn't oozes out while cooking. Do not attempt to over-stuff the chicken, cos glutinous rice would expand when cooked.
3. Place the rest of the ingredients at the bottom of your soup pot. Place stuffed chicken on top. Pour in 10cups of water.
4. Boil for at least 2-3 hours.

Pumpkin pesto chicken bolognese

Very delicious with parmesan.

 

Hubby's brunch

 

This is recently my favorite meal for the lil' fella. It's easily done, very convenient and very delicious. Most importantly, I can make the same dish and it feeds all of us (me, hubby and the lil' fella).

 

This is what I do to prepare it in the morning.

 

1. Steam cubed pumpkin with minced chicken, season with homemade pesto sauce. Also add some milk and dash of olive oil to make it saucy.

2. When the chicken is cooked and pumpkin turns soft, mash the pumpkin with a folk. Add more pesto sauce if needed. Serve with grated cheese or parmesan.

 

For the lil' fella, I pack the cooked pasta and sauce in two different container. So the nanny can add the sauce into the pasta when she needs to feed him later on.

 

For me and hubby, I just add the sauce into the cooked pasta and top with lots of parmesan.

Baked/ Roast honey lime chicken breast

The vegetarian shop nearby has closed down :( I ain't a vegetarian, but at times, I get sick of eating outside food and I would resort to eating there, cos its food is less oily and less seasoned. Argh.. but now it's no more there. So I try and make my own lunch, which I guess is a good thing. I made this roast chicken breast today, so that I can have extra roast chicken left for salad tomorrow morning for myself, the lil' fella and also the hubby.





Marinated this piece of chicken breast with

 

• Grated garlic and ginger (I used a cheese grater)
• Oyster sauce
• Bragg's liquid amino (soy sauce)
• Toasted sesame oil, organic
• Salt and cracked black pepper
• Blackstrap molasses (great as a replacement for honey, it gives it that stickiness and also the BBQ flavor and the hint of sweetness, not too overpowering like honey)
• Lime juice

I couldn't specify the amount used, cos I was happily pouring everything in, without trying to remember how much of everything put in.

I also slice two piece of the sweet lime and covered the upper part of the breast, in order to seal in the juices, or else the meat may gets too try. I covered the chicken with aluminum foil for the first 20min of baking, and only removed the foil last 5min. This was very effective in helping to keep the meat succulent and juicy.

Note: should remove the rind/ skin of the lime, it gave the juice a little bitterness :p

I baked this (with my toaster oven) at 190deg for 25min.

Ate half the breast, and left the other half for salad the next morning. Further marinated the remaining ones with Japanese Goma dressing.

 

 

My hubby loved this salad very much, with a special mention on the chicken. Guess I'll be making more of this in the future, also means more roast chicken for lunch for me :p 

BBQ chicken and mushroom pizza (toaster oven)

Pizza.. again??

 

Yep, it's the second time I'm eating pizza this week. Hahaa.. I can't help it. The pizza dough I made was always too much for one meal (for 2-3 pax), and that Ree Drummond mentioned the dough would be better and tastier if left in fridge for a few days. So I always make one recipe, so that I can have another serving of pizza using a few days old dough. This dough was made for breakfast on Tuesday, and it's Saturday today, which means this dough is about 4-5days old. Is it still ok? It looks fine. It does smells very yeasty, but the BBQ chicken and cheese masked the yeastiness once baked. Honestly, in my opinion, there wasn't much difference between this and the one baked on Tues.

 

The filling this time is different, no more a vegetarian one, I marinated minced chicken with minced garlic and HP sauce, salt and pepper, I grilled the marinated chicken with sliced mushroom and green bell pepper seasoned further with minced garlic and olive oil. Also note that I arranged them quite differently this time. I arrange the sliced tomato after I sprinkled on the grated cheddar, and this time, my sprinkle of cheese was not as generous, cos we're out of stocks on cheese. Arggh.. got to replenish soon. In this household, cheese gets eaten up quick, cos MOI am a huge cheese lover, and am making the lil' fella ONE too! Hahaa.. it's great protein source with calcium. Good for the mommy, good for the baby. Why not?

 

With a toaster oven, I baked this pizza at 190deg C for 13min. (can probably do with 180deg for longer time.. shall try that next).

 

I don't use the rolling pin to roll the pizza dough anymore. I actually like the rustic look and the texture of hand-stretched and pressed pizza. It also gives me the thicker sides.

Another wholesome lunch!