Mummy in a hurry - Part 2

Chicken Tikka Masala Pasta

Prep time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes
Serves: 4 people

Ingredients:
400gm minced chicken
½ packet of spaghetti ( I prefer San Remo’s – available at Cold Storage)
½ onion
1 potato
4 tablespoons Tikka Masala paste (I prefer Patak’s – available at Cold Storage)
3 tablespoons of olive oil
Light cooking cream (available at supermarkets)
Salt to taste

The method:
1. Boil the spaghetti until tender in a large pot. Add some salt and 1 tablespoon of cooking oil while boiling.
2. Rinse the cooked spaghetti under cold running water for 5 seconds.
3. Dice onion. Peel and dice the potato.
4. Heat olive oil on a medium sized pan on low fire.
5. Saute onion until yellowish.
6. Set the fire to medium and add in Tikka Masala paste.
7. Stir for a while.
8. Add in the minced chicken and diced potato and stir until they're coated with the paste.
9. Let the chicken cook in its juice for awhile before adding in 1 cup of plain water followed by light cooking cream.
10. Stir continuously while the sauce boils.
11. Add salt (if needed).
12. Turn the fire off once the sauce seems thick enough to your liking.
13. Serve the sauce with spaghetti.

Mummy in a hurry

Recipe name: Chicken Capsicum
Creation date: 5th September 2007
Test date: 5th September 2007
Prep time : 20 minutes

Ingredients

350 gm chicken fillet (cut into smaller pieces)
1 green capsicum
1/2 onion
4 garlic
1 cm ginger
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of tumeric powder (fresh tumeric is preferred)
Cooking oil

Preparing it

1. Combine garlic and ginger in the 'lesung batu' and pound them wholeheartedly.
2. In a 'tumericproof' bowl, marinate chicken fillet with the garlic/ginger paste, salt and tumeric powder for about 10 minutes.
3. Slice capsicum and onion thinly.

4. Heat 4 tablespoons of cooking oil in your teflon layered wok with medium fire.
5. Fry the marinated chicken fillet to your liking (juicy, dry, semi-brownish etc). Your kitchen will be filled with the aroma and your salivating children will be waiting behind you with plates in their hands.

6. Throw in onion and capsicum into the wok. Stir gently to even out your wok's content.
7. Lower the fire and cover the wok. Cook for 3 more minutes or until capsicum becomes tender.
8. Ready to be served with steamed rice and 'sambal belacan'.

** Aren't you feeling hungry already?
As usual, didn't get the chance to snap some pics because before I knew it, chicken capsicum was already gone (into 4 tummies).

Little John

A simple recipe for the busy moms. This is actually the smaller version of Roti John.

Difficulty Level: Medium
Time to prepare: Less than 20 minutes.
Serves: 7-10 people

The ingredients
2 packets of hot dog buns (total of 12 pieces)
1 packet of minced meat or minced chicken
300g round cabbage
1 big onion ) to be pounded
4 garlics )
10 eggs
salt to taste
white pepper
black pepper
butter (@room temperature)
Chilli/ketchup
Mayonnaise

Prepare the meat/chicken
Pound onion and garlic to make paste.
Heat 1 tablespoon of butter in a flat bottomed pan on a medium heat.
Sautee onion-garlic paste until brown.
Add all minced meat/chicken. Stir a little to mix well with onion/garlic paste.
Add the white pepper, black pepper and salt after the meat/chicken liquid starts to dry.
Stir for 2 minute, turn the fire off and set aside.

What to do with the round cabbage
Cut the cabbage coleslaw style.
Rinse under running water and then set aside.

What to do with the eggs
Break all eggs into a large bowl. Add salt and a dash of white pepper to taste. Beat lightly for about 10 seconds.
Add in the fried meat/chicken. Mix well with the egg.

Cooking the John
1.Melt a teaspoon of butter in the pan (set fire to medium).
2.Use a medium sized ladle, take a scoop of the meat-egg mix and spread evenly on the flat bottomed pan.
3.Meanwhile, use a sharp knife to cut the hotdog bun into 2 (without separating the pieces).
4. With the bun's opened section facing down, put and press the bun evenly onto the meat-egg in the pan. Let it cook for about 2 minutes. Don't turn the bun.
5. Once the meat-egg is cooked, transfer your Little John onto the serving tray and let it cool off. Don't need to trim the egg at the edges so that your Little John has some attitude :)
Repeat steps 1-5 for the rest of the buns.

Preparing to serve
Put enough cabbage in each Little John and spread with chilli/ketchup and mayonnaise. Cut Little John into pieces or serve as it is.

Good luck to you all, and you're welcomed to improvise. I'm not putting any pictures here. It would be good if you could post the pictures of your versions of Little John :).