Month: April 2011

Delicious no-cook chinese marinated cucumbers.

I decided to make this after paying about RM5 for a puny plate of chopped 1/2 a cucumber at a chinese restaurant. Well, with RM5 I could get about 10 quality Japanese cucumbers (kyuri).

I can’t believe people (myself included) are actually paying RM5 for something that doesn’t even need cooking. I’m starting to sound like a major tight fisted housewife….but that’s exactly who I am!

This recipe is entirely my own conception, based on how I like to eat it. The marinade is savoury with just a tad of tartness from the Worcestershire sauce and kick from the chillies. I guess you can use ordinary cucumbers (with the seeds removed) but for best results, do use the Japanese sort as they’re more crunchy.

    Ingredients:

  • 2 tablespoon of sesame oil
  • 1 tablespoon of light soya sauce
  • 1/2 tablespoon of Chinese rice wine
  • 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 red chilli, seeded and finely chopped
  • 1 – 2 Japanese cucumbers, chopped

# – First of all, cut the cucumbers into the shapes you want. By the way, you know how sometimes cucumbers can taste really bitter? There’s this trick that a senior in high school taught me….cut off the end of a cucumber and then rub the surface with it till tiny bubbles form around it, like this….

And you won’t have bitter cucumbers anymore. Honestly, I have no scientific or logical explanation for it, but it works!

# – I soaked the cucumbers in iced water for 10 minutes to crispen them up. Set aside. Honestly I don’t know if this works but psychologically I feel that it does :D So feel free to omit this step.

# – In a bowl, mix the sesame oil, light soya sauce, Chinese rice wine, Worcestershire sauce and chillies.

# – Throw the drained cucumbers into the mixture. Mix. Cover with cling wrap and stick it in the fridge to chill for a minimum of 2 hours. Don’t put in the fridge uncovered as this will dry out the cucumbers.

You could even marinade them in a freezer bag so that all the cucumbers could absorb the marinade more evenly and thoroughly.

# – Serve as an appetiser or even as a vegetable dish of its own to go with rice.

Very tasty, very refreshing and best of all….very accommodating to my purse ;)

Incredibly tasty but simple spicy chicken fajitas.

The last time we ate fajitas at home was almost 5 years ago. It came out of box. They were basically 10 rather small tortillas, some mushy salsa and fajita seasoning mix. We had to buy our own chicken, capsicums,onion and now that I think about it…..I might as well buy my own spices to make the seasoning and vegetables for the salsa!

It took me 5 years to finally see the point but it’s okay, better late than never. I’ve finally made the fresh salsa from scratch, which was unbelievably easy and now, I’m going to blog about making the chicken using home-mixed seasonings….no preservatives, no chemicals, no colourings!

    For the marinade:

  • 300 grams of chicken fillet, cut into strips
  • 1 tablespoon of chilli powder
  • 1 tablespoon of paprika powder
  • 2 tablespoon of oil
  • 1 teaspoon of sugar
  • zest and juice of 1 lemon
    For the vegetables:

  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 1 red or green capsicum, julienned (I actually used 4 large chillies cut into large strips because I didn’t have capsicums, they worked brilliantly!!)
  • 4 stalks of celeries, chopped

Here we go!

# – First, mix the chilli powder, paprika powder, sugar & oil together, then top off with the juice & zest of 1 lemon. Mix thoroughly.

# – Then, put the chicken fillet strips into the mixture. Make sure all the strips are well coated. Leave in the fridge for 1-2 hours.

# – After 1-2 hours, heat up a well-greased griddle. Grill the chicken strips for 2-3 minutes on 1 side depending on thickness. Remember to keep the marinade!

# – Flip the strips to cook the other sides.

# – After they’re cooked, set aside.

# – On the same griddle, throw in the onions and capsicums (I used large chillies). Then mix the leftover marinade with about 10 tablespoons of water and pour it over. Also, throw in a pinch of salt. Mix thoroughly.

# – Next, add the celeries. Mix thoroughly.

# – Let them cook for about 5 minutes. Actually, just use your gut feelings, you will know when it’s cooked! :D

# – Lay the vegetables over the chicken strips cooked earlier. The fajitas are DONE!

# – Serve with warmed tortillas, plain yogurt and home-made salsa.

# – Pile them all up on a tortilla….

# – Roll it up…

# – Eat!!! The chicken is tender on the inside and the outside crispy and flavourful. The salsa, onions, celeries and chillies all contributed great flavours and a nice crunch! You can put some grated cheese too and use sour cream instead of yogurt, but we were feeling healthy :D

And there……a healthy, tasty, home-made chicken fajitas meal with no preservatives or overpriced “seasoning”. The only thing store bought were the tortillas and plain yogurt. Pretty sure this will be a big hit at parties too!

Fresh and crunchy salsa anytime, anyday.

This salsa recipe is so simple and delicious that I could just eat it on its own, like a salad :D It’s very good with fajitas or eaten as bruschettas. There’s no fancing cooking technique involved, not even cooking itself. All you need is a reliable knife to chop up all the vegetables!

    The ingredients:

  • 5 medium sized tomatoes, seeded and chopped
  • 80-100 grams of coriander, roughly chopped
  • 2 medium sized red onions, finely chopped
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • 3/4 tablespoon of coarse salt

# – The fresh ingredients.

# – Throw the roughly chopped coriander into a mixing bowl.

# – Then throw in the tomatoes.

# – Next in, the finely chopped red onions.

# – Sprinkle the coarse salt all over. Don’t be too heavy handed with salt, do taste as you go :)

# – And top it all off with the juice of 1 lemon.

# – Lastly, mix it all up!! Gorgeous, gorgeous colours!

# – Put in on a fajita….

# – Or even eat it as a salad on the side.

Now, this is a truly healthy salad and that’s why, I’m filing it under “Vegetarian” ;) It’s a surprise how something so simple and healthy can taste so gorgeous!