Lemon Rosemary Thyme Chicken with Boiled Vegetables

At times, we just get bored of the normal rice and lauk dishes. So when this happened, I normally opt for something simple yet fulfilling. The classic favorite of everybody had to be the chicken. Hence, it is always most easiest to just marinate them in whichever way that you like and coupled them with some boiled vegetables on the side.

Like this particular night, when we had Lemon Rosemary Thyme Roasted Chicken with Boiled Brocolli and Cherry Tomatoes.

Recipe was simply to marinate the chicken with salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme with some lemon juice. Grilled them and walla, you're done. Seriously. It is as easy as that. You can use whatever herbs that you like for that matter. That night, we ate the chicken with Nando's hot peri-peri sauce. The thousand island was for the vegetables on the side.

And if you are a beginner, just try to marinate them with BBQ sauce the first time. You can hardly go wrong with that. Try 'em!

Gourmet Sandwich

Pernah tak rasa macam sometimes, u just get tired of nasi and wanted something light and different for dinner?

Aku and hubby kekadang macam tu lah. Especially kalau dah lapar sangat and wanted a quick fix. But dinner out macam malas pulak nak bersiap berjalan. So, we opted for this:

A Gourmet Sandwich

Side-ways dah nampak ke-delicious-an dia kan. Roti are Gardenia wholegrain bread. Inside are layers of salad/lettuce leaf, then slices of tomatoes and your choices of meat. Gambar atas ni showing smoked salmon as meat, which I bought at Cold Storage kot.

Then on top of the salmon, I also put slices of bombay onion. I like 'em crunchy so I use them raw. Lepas tu cheese slices for a little bit of saltiness. As finishing touches, squeeze some lemon juice, chili sauce, barbeque sauce, mayo and lastly, of course the black pepper.

A clearer view of the ingredients

As you can see in the picture above, the meat can be anything up to your imagination. But my favorites have to be either the smoked salmon or meatloaf slices. Only meatloaf slices need to be cooked before hand. Which Ms. Kecik loves to ratah. Smoked salmon is 'smoked' as the name suggests. But if you don't like 'em so raw/bare, squeeze some lemon juice before putting it on a sandwich.

Sure best! Sila cuba di rumah memasing yek.

FF: Homemade Pizza

....Not! The pizza crust was actually store bought. If I were to make them myself, pukul berapa pulak nak makan kan.

Anyway, this was only made for dinner. We had a lot of grated mozarella and cheddar cheese leftovers from a makan-makan event before. Since cheese lifespan tak lama, so I was mostly planning along that way, thinking what else can I cook using the cheese. Hari2 makan nasi pun, boring jugak kan?

So, here goes:




You'll need:

• Pizza crust
• Pizza sauce/Prego
• Mix vegetables
• Minced meat
• Grated mozarella and cheddar cheese

To do:

1. Boil mix vegetables in a pot filled with water, sprinkled with a little salt.
2. In a frying pan, tumis onion+garlic+ginger. Masukkan minced meat, bila dah naik bau. Bila daging dah half-cooked, masukkan prego pulak. This should be a very fast process as everything will be re-cook in the oven later anyway.
3. Dah siap, spread the sauce mixture on pizza crust. Be generous, baru rasa.
4. Sprinkle the mix vegetable, followed by cheese as much as you like.
5. Put them in the oven for 25 minutes.
6. Dah siap, sprinkles some more cheeeeeeezzzzzzzzzzzz........Yummeyh!!!

Happy trying!

FF: Vegetable Fritata

Rule of thumb when planning for dinner, I normally make sure ada 2 dishes - 1, the main dish and another should be vege-based. So, this fritata is the vege-based which I made to complement the pizza that I made for dinner recently.

The recipe was taken from Children's Cookbook by Sara Lewis. Of course, with some tweaking as I do not have all the ingredients listed ready in my kitchen.

The recipe is so simple. Senang gila nak buat especially if some preparations have been made prior to the actual masak day. In bullet points, as I recalled:

• Boil potatoes and mix vegetables till half empuk.
• Mix together eggs, salt and pepper.
• Masukkan both potatoes and mix vege in small bowls.
• Pour in the egg mixture.
• Sprinkle in the cheese as finishing touches.
• Bake till cooked.

Dah tak igt berapa lama and what temperature I used as, this had to depend on specific oven. So, try and error, trust own instinct, agak2 dah masak tu, keluarkan aje.

Featured Friday: French Fries

I was so excited to cook dinner on Monday after so many days of eating out, sebab bz kat ofis. What with the intro on the new weekly feature kan. So, finally decided to prepare lamb chop with mushroom gravy, served with brocolli rebus and french fries for dinner.

The lamb chops were bought at Jusco. I marinated them with black pepper sauce and bakar dalam oven for 20 mins at 190C. Mushroom gravy buat caca marba sesuka hati tokok tambah sendiri ikut resepi ni. Brocolli rebus....well rebus like normal without preservatives.

So, yang confirm2 menjadi and recommended is the french fries. I was particularly inspired by this one recipe but my version is much simpler and most importantly, the ingredients are not fancy and readily available in your own kitchen.

Ingredients:

• 2 potatoes
• Ikut suka hati - all purpose flour, garlic powder (rasa minced garlic pun ok), salt & black pepper.

Cara masak:

1. Slice potatoes into French fries, basuh and sejat.
2. Combine all purpose flour, garlic powder, salt & black pepper with the sliced potatoes. Gaul2 sekata.
3. Heat oil, goreng satu2 until golden brown. Sejat atas kitchen towel.
4. Siap.

Verdict? Sgt2 sedap. This would definitely be THE recipe for french fries...for our family la. Tengok la ni Ms. Kecik enjoying the food:

Introducing...Featured Friday

We have been toying with the idea for quite some time already. But we have been delaying/postponing it due to other commitments. Thought this would be a good idea to keep the bake shop 'alive' as well as to share the knowledge/tips that we have...yang tak seberapa ni.

Featured Friday is a weekly section in Izzy B, featuring all the tried and tested recipes by the no other than yours truly. In short, Featured Friday would feature recipe/pictures/food that we had tried and tested at home. They should be easy enough for even the beginners can follow and try the recipes at home.

Of course, you should try at your own risk! All Featured Friday is sedap based on our very own tekak. Hope that you would think the same...Happy Cooking!

Tomyam Ayam

Ms. Kecik's all-time favorite is 'shup'. Shup actually refers to anything soupy yang boleh tonggang mangkuk untuk dihirup. So I thought to myself, what could be better than a Tomyam to go with the kerabu? Result:


I was merely following what they have written behind the tomyam cubes packet. So, here are what I put in the 'shup'. Oh, gambar ayam is no where to be found as camera dah 'kong'.

Kerabu Sotong

First and foremost, this is not Izzy B's latest product. This is actually one of our many efforts to attract more people to the bake shop as well as to make it more interactive.

Having said that, this was actually cooked for a dinner. I was in 'Siam' mode at the time. Plus, there were limited resources in the fridge. So, I was just working around what was available at the time.

The original recipe was actually meant for kerabu kaki ayam. Dengan sesuka hati-nya, I changed it to kerabu sotong. Fortunately, it turned out well. Very well, indeed. Tak caya, leh tanya En. Husband. Anyhow, here's the recipe:

Bahan-Bahan

Sotong secukupnya
Bawang merah - hiris halus
Serai - hiris halus
Perahan limau nipis
Cili api - hiris nipis
Fish sauce
Daun ketumbar - hiris kasar
Garam
Gula

Cara

1. Potong sotong ikut suka and Rebus sampai masak.
   
2. Masukkan kesemua bahan kedalam mangkuk dan gaul sebati.
3. Siap. Done deal!
   

Oven-baked Macaroni

One of my favourites. Beef was cooked as normal spaghetti sauce except with less sauce/water. Layered with spiral pasta, beef mixture and mozarella cheese. Topped with triple layers of mozarella cheese.

Yummeeeehhhh!!!!

Steamboat Buffet Dinner @ Home

Family dinner is the best. You get to have what we cannot have at restaurants and eat more. I could not recall if this was done in conjunction to any big day but hey, expect more meals as such.

Mixed Vegetables with Oyster Sauce