The Art of Modern Wifery: July 2010

How to Unstink the House

Love frying but don't like the lingering odor it left behind? I know I do! Fried food are one of my favorite thing to eat (for me if it's deep fried then I'll eat it - and trust me, I had farm cockroach in Thailand, and the reason I had it was because it was deep fried!) but frying is definitely the last thing I want to do in the kitchen. Thinking about the mess and the stale oil it left behind, usually makes me take out the steamer and convince myself that I need to be healthier by eating steamed food.

But don't be afraid people, do this and you'll be able to get rid of that fried smell.

Without turning on the kitchen fan, boil 3 cups of water mix with 1 tbs cinnamon powder and a splash of lemon juice over medium heat. Once water is boiling, let it simmer for about 1 hour or so. You can always be creative and add a drop of vanilla or cloves powder.

Now, I found that this trick works like charm and I 've been enjoying fried chicken, fried wonton, fried pork rib...hmm fried food!

Smoked Chicken Pasta

Labels: Meats/Seafoods, Pasta |

Do you remember what is the first recipe you tried? Well as for me, I think this is one of my first recipe I tried and actually wrote on an index card. It passed in-laws and guests inspection and it has always been a good people pleaser. I've made it with regular chicken but I find that the smoked chicken will actually give your taste buds much more satisfaction.

This dish is quite easy and quite versatile. I've substitute so many things in it and it still turns out delicious! Pair this dish with the no knead bread and your guest will think that you've slaved all day in your kitchen. So by request of one of my food tester, I'm sharing one of my staple pasta recipe

Smoked Chicken Pasta

(make 4 - 6 serving)

2 tbs butter

1 medium onion, chopped

1/2 red pepper, chopped

1/2 lbs (500 gr or about 6 mushrooms) crimini mushroom

1/2 lbs (500 gr) shitake mushroom

1 tsp salt

4 tsp flour

1 1/4 cup chicken broth

3/4 tbs paprika powder - if you have to choose between hot and sweet paprika powder, I would suggest that you'll pick the sweet one or your taste buds will end up with a burning sensation

2 tsp dijon mustard

1/2 lbs smoked chicken breast (about 1 big breast or D/E cup in human) - cut bite size

12 ounces penne/fussili - you can use any kind of pasta. I think at 1 point I mixed penne, linguini, and one of those shell shaped pasta, I mean they all taste the same anyway

1 cup light sour cream - sometimes I mix my sour cream and plain yogurt

1 tsp chopped fresh dill

Cook pasta as directed to your liking.

Melt butter in large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and red pepper, cook & stir occasionally until onion is translucent (about 10 minutes).

Increase heat to medium high, add mushrooms & salt. Cook & stir until mushroom are well browned (about 7 minutes). Reduce heat to medium low. Add flour and stir for about 1 minute.

Add broth, paprika powder & mustard. Mix and reduce heat to low and let simmer until sauce thicken (about 3 minutes).

Stir in chicken & dill & cook 1 minute. Before serving, mix in sour cream to sauce. Toss noodles with sauce. Enjoy!

Chicken Crispy Cup

Labels: Meats/Seafoods |

Don't you hate it when you realize you are left with a little left over of uncooked wonton or egg roll or dumpling skin? I think it's a conspiracy between the manufacturers and the world' butchers association that you'll always have skin left over that will be too many to toss but too few to make another batch of wonton or egg roll or dumpling. It seems like mine always ended up in the freezer and in a couple months, when I decided to make more, they've become dry and I would have to buy more and toss them anyway.

I was determined not to let this happen again (my life is filled with big missions) so this time, I made the chicken crispy cup (take that wonton or egg roll or dumpling skin manufacturer!). I think this dish is a union between lettuce wrap and egg roll. I saw this dish before at restaurant and it's actually pictured on the front of pampas spring roll pastry.

Chicken Crispy Cup

for the cups:

6 spring roll pastry (I had the pampas brand at hand)

for filling:

1/2 lb (500 gr) ground chicken (or pork or turkey)

1/2 red bell pepper - diced

2 green onions - thinly sliced

2 garlic - minced

1 tsp minced ginger

1 225 gr canned water chestnut (or 1 green apple) - diced

2 tbs hoisin sauce

1 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp sesame oil

1.5 tsp rice wine vinegar

1.5 tsp hot sauce (optional - I use the ABC hot and sweet sauce)

1/2 tsp fish sauce

to make it pretty:

shredded carrot or cucumber or both!

mung bean noodle - deep fried in hot oil. Before frying, DO NOT soak the noodle in water, just separate them and fry. Make sure the oil is HOT.

Cut the pastry into 4 to make a 3.5 x3.5 inch (about 9 x 9 cm) square. Place 1 square on top of other square to make a star shape. Lightly coat muffin pan with cooking spray and press star shape pastries into the pan. Bake at 300F (150C) until they're golden (about 15 - 20 minutes)

While the pastry in the oven, mix hoisin sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, vinegar, and hot sauce in a small bowl. Heat 1 tbs oil on medium heat. When oil is hot, add green onions, garlic & ginger, fry for 30 seconds (more or less). Add chicken and cook until almost cooked. Add red bell pepper and water chestnut (if using) and cook for about 1 minute. Add sauce. Mix well and simmer until sauce becoming a little thick. Add fish sauce, mix and cook for another minute. Remove from heat. If using green apple, add green apple and toss well with the chicken mixture.

To eat: Put about 1 tbs of chicken in mixture in the cup and top it with fried mung bean noodle and shredded carrot or cucumber.

How to Unshrink a Wool Sweater

Labels: Household tips |

So I've wrote more about my cooking on this blog but I am trying to get it to cover everything about the art of wifery (is wifery even a word??). To start, here is a useful tip that might come in handy.

So a couple weekend ago, we accidentally washed Msr. No Quatre' in 'may or may not be' hot water and ran it in the highest temperature of our dryer. Needless to say, his sweater shrunk to 1 size smaller and then claimed that it was his favorite sweater (it seems like we always ruin his 'favorite' clothes and everything is his favorite clothes once its ruined). After some asking around my network, and phone calls to mère de Msr. No Quatre, and research on google, I found some tips about how to unshrink wool sweaters. I like this one since I found it in both ehow.com and one of those website for fashionistas (and believe me, they take their cashmere sweaters seriously!)

How to Unshrink a Wool Sweater

Soak sweater in warm water mix with hair conditioner (They didn't specify how much conditioner I needed, but I had about 2 big squirts)

Then stretch (It'll help if you know how big it was originally. I kept on pulling and I might have make his sweater 1 size larger but no worries, we could just rewash his sweater in hot water right?! haha)

Drain water, do not wring sweater, but gently press it to get excess water out.

Place 2 absorbent towel on a counter or floor, put sweater on top and shape. With another towel, blot sweater to remove additional moisture. Lay flat and air dry.

No Knead Bread

Labels: Bread, Easy |

I used to think that it is just easier to buy bread than to make one. Thinking about the mess from kneading, flour dust, sticky dough all around the kitchen, it'll create usually make me run into the store and buy the most expensive loaf. But then I get to know Mme. SF here in Melbourne. She made gourmet pizza for lunch one day and the fact that Msr. no Quatre once proclaimed that bread is one of his favorite foods other than pizza (yeah I say it's same different), the tiny voice in my head screamed at me that I should at least try bread making.

I started easy with 30 minutes pizza dough and progressing to garlic breadstick and sweet potato roll. And now after a year of bread making with just plain-old all purpose flour, I actually bought bread flour (wooo hoo) - a big 5 kg (10 lbs) sack too!! And last night, I made my first bread with it and it comes out delicious. I say it's a long process, since you have to leave the dough overnight and an additional 2 hours, but easy enough as no kneading is necessary.

I got this recipe from www.steamykitchen.com which is adapted from mark Bittman from the NY Times who got it from Sullivan Street Bakery which has been adapted again by Rose L Beranbaum (it's like saying the sister of a sister in law of a friend of a friend haha).

No Knead Bread

3 cups bread flour

1/4 tsp instant yeast

1 tsp table salt

1 1/2 cup warm water (my water was about 125F/50C)

Combine ingredients and mix with wooden spoon until dough just comes together. It'll be sticky. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit on the counter for 12 - 20 hours.

With a wet spatula, dump the dough on a floured surface. With wet hand, fold the edges of dough and form into a ball-ish shape. Generously dust flour on a cotton towel (don't sneeze or the little mess part is history) and set dough seam side down on top of the towel. Cover and let sit for 2 hours

Place covered pot (make sure your pot and its cover are oven proof!) in the oven and preheat to 450 F/230 C . Remove pot from oven, and dump dough into pot. Cover and bake for 30 min. Uncover and bake for 15 - 2o minutes or until the crust is golden. Remove from pot. Now the hard part: let it cool in the wire rack. Happy eating!

Sweet Grilled Chicken

Labels: Indonesian Foods, Meats/Seafoods |

Of all ways you cook your food, I say my favorite will be grilling. Of course, outdoor BBQ is the ultimate grilling experience, but since a BBQ cost an arm and a leg here in the land of the down under, a stove top grill is an excellent substitute. I love my grill pan, got it at Costco a while back and I use at least once a week. So last week I made sweet grilled chicken (Indonesian style), it was delicious and quite easy to make. Although Msr. Quatre thinks it was a long process for the dish, I said it was well worth it. I forgot to take a picture, but it was "guest" tested and just yummy!

Grilled Chicken

1 chicken - cut into 4 or 8

butter

sweet soy sauce (it's Indonesian, it's dark, thick, and I think it has a molasses after taste)

1 (about 1 - 1.5 inch) galangal

1 lemon grass - cut into 3 or 4

3 bay leaves

5 red chillies - ground (I cheated I used "sambal oelek" red chillies paste)

2 cloves garlic

4 shallot

5 candlenuts

1/2 inch turmeric root

salt

Place garlic, shallot, candlenuts, turmeric, and salt in a food processor. Process well to form a thick paste. Boil chicken in water (or better yet coconut milk) with the paste, lemon grass, and bay leaves until chicken is cook in medium low heat.

Cool chicken, discard juice and move chicken to a ziploc bag. Add chillies and enough sweet soy sauce to cover chicken. Let it stand for 1 hour to overnight.

Melt butter (about 1 tbs) then add sweet soy sauce, stir well. Brush chicken with butter and sweet soy sauce mixture. Grill until chicken are hot and skins are slightly burn (about 20 minutes and re-brush chicken with butter mixture after turning)

The Art of Modern Wifery