Coq Au Vin

french for chicken with wine
This is a tried and tested recipe. The recipe was given to me by my boss's wife, who loves to cook and knows her french foods very well. I made this for a Christmas party in 2008 and it was a big hit! The best part of it all is that the flavour of the dish improves if it is made the day before consumption. This leaves you free to prepare the rest of the food on the party day.

1.5 kg chicken
3 tablespoons oil or butter
4 bacon rashers cut into strips
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
16 whole baby onions, skin peeled
1.5 cups of dry red wine
1 cup of chicken stock
2-3 tablespoons of brandy
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
250 gm baby mushrooms
1 tablespoon of plain flour
2 tablespoons of water
1 bouquet garni (a sachet or a bunch of herbs)

Use a deep frying pan or a deep saucepan. Brown chicken pieces in oil or butter until golden brown all over. Set them aside. Drain all but 1 tablespoon of fat from the pan. Add the crushed garlic, onions and bacon to the frying pan. Fry until the onions are nicely browned. You will find the onions will roll around the pan as you fry them. Stir in wine, chicken stock, brandy, bouquet garni and the tomato paste. Add in the chicken pieces and bring the pot to a boil. Once it starts to boil, cover the pot and reduce the heat to simmer for 30 to 40 minutes. Add the mushrooms and simmer uncovered for another 10 minutes or until chicken is tender and a thin film of red oil has formed along the sides of the pan. Push the chicken to one side of the pan. Stir in blended flour in water and stir constantly in the bubbling sauce until the mixture boils and thickens. Season to taste with salt and black pepper.

If the coq au vin is made the night before, keep it in the fridge and heat it on the stove again until it is warmed through. A hearty meal and the best part is mopping up all the delicious sauce with bread! :)

The Good Food Month of May

May was definitely the Good Food Month for me. Involved in a food-run for a couple of friends who have a new bub, inspired by Masterchef on tv, visited an exotic Marrickville grocery shop are among some of the reasons why I ate so well in May. :)




So in May, there was
Soba in Dashi: This was a feel good meal because it tasted so healthy! Soba is so healthy as it is. The soup base was made from dashi stock with bonito flake, topped with tofu, nori strips and shitake mushrooms. I think I had this twice this month. :)
Bœuf Bourguignon: Ah! So french! This was one of the meals cooked up for the food-run. It boiled for hours and it was well worth it. Of course, some were kept for own consumption. It was a hearty and warming meal, especially having all the sauce mopped up with bread. Yum!
Sticky American Pork Ribs: Seeing it made on Masterchef, it just had to be tried because it looked so easy despite the many ingredients needed. It was fuss free and fingerlicking-falling-off-the-bone good!
Crêpe Suzette: One of the ingredients for the Pork Ribs was the rind of an orange. Not wanting to throw the rest of the orange away, I remembered having Crêpe Suzette in Paris when I travelled with my sis back in 2006. Mine was slightly chewy and it was not flambéed like how they do it in France. It was a good first effort.
Ginger Brulee Tart from Bourke St Bakery: A surprise dessert from Clem! :) It was delicious, mainly because I like things with ginger. It sounded like a weird combination but it was truly delicious!
Mangosteen: Mangosteen is my top fruit and these were bought for $1.25 each! In Malaysia, I will be secretly devouring about 1kg of them with my dad over the kitchen sink so that we can clean our hands in between each fruit. Oh how I miss it!

It was a Good Food Month for me! :)

MKR Challenge 1: Part 2

Last weekend Sydney City cooked up a storm! They definitely opened a can of whoopass. Well done! We thoroughly enjoyed the evening as they invited us into their home, greeting us with magnificent aromas and serving us a fantastic meal. Of course the night was made even better when we started catching up on all sorts of things. A thoroughly good evening!




Starter: Sonoma olive bread with balsamic vinegar and olive oil dip.
Entree: Pan fried marinated prawns with tomato and cucumber salsa.
Mains: Homemade linguine with lobster medallion (hidden under the pasta) and lobster bisque dressed with tarragon.
Desert: Creme caramel.

I licked my plate clean!
Delicious! I'll have another one please.

I'm ready for round 2!

Spaghetti & Pork Meatballs

One of the most comforting foods: Spaghetti and meatballs. Having no beef mince today, the meatballs had to be a pure pork meatball rather instead of the traditional mix of veal and pork. An outing to Haberfield a few months back allowed the discovery of a wide variety of pasta sauces never seen before in local supermarkets. It was an exciting experience! The one in the picture was used today. Being an arrabbiata sauce, it was a bit spicy, perfectly chunky and delicious!

250g of spaghetti
1 jar of pasta sauce
300gm lean pork mince
1.5 slices of bread, made into bread crumbs
1 onion, chopped
3-4 sprigs of parsley leaves, chopped
2 tablespoons shaved pecorino or parmesan
1 egg
olive oil
salt and pepper


Cook onions in olive oil until softened but not yet browned. Set aside to cool. Mix the pork mince, breadcrumbs, 2 large pinches of chopped parsley, egg, three-quarters of the cooked onion and parmesan until well combined. Season well with salt and black pepper. Make balls which are about 1 inch in diameter. Heat up a pan (I use a wide rimmed pot to reduce oil splatter) with olive oil and fry the meatballs on one side till browned and then flip over to cook the other side. Make sure the fire is not too high so that the meatballs are well cooked and do not burn.

Heat up the rest of the onions and add the pasta sauce to heat up. Season with salt and black pepper. Add in the cooked meatballs and simmer for another 10 minutes. Meanwhile, cook the pasta. Once cooked, toss the sauce into the pasta. Dish out on a plate, garnish with parsley and pecorino cheese.

Strawberry Tart with Creme Patissiere

Cooking Creme Patissiere, Chilling the pastry case, Filled cases, and then topped with Strawberries.

MKR Challenge 1

Inspired to cook 3 course meals at home from watching one too many MyKitchenRules, Zetland (Clement and I) and Sydney City (Tsenwei and Gloria) kick started our own version. No scoring took place but all the trashtalking before the actual day built up enough pressure to plan for a great evening. What to cook? What to cook?

After searching for recipes for a good mix of experiments and knowhows, this was what we came up with: Stripey Tart, Ocean Trout with Funky Fennel Salad and Cauliflower Puree, and a More-Than-a-Mousse Mousse.

Entree: Stripey Tart
I love grilled eggplants and capsicum and I have been wanting to make Strawberry Tarts with Creme Patissiere (one of my favourites). Tart eggplants capsicum... Wouldn't it be nice to have a tartful of my favourite roasted vegetables! Brilliant! I have never made shortcrust pastry from scratch before. My first trial was okay but not great. So I made a new batch and it must have been the amount of water I added that made a whole lot of difference. Proud to say that the tart was a success! :) Here, the tart was layered with pecorino cheese, grilled eggplant, semi-dried tomatoes and lastly strips of roasted capsicum and bonconcini laid artfully on the top creating a stripey tart haha. The assembled tart was then put in the oven for a few minutes for the cheese to melt. Artful tartful ;)


Experiment: Shortcrust pastry
Knowhow: Grilled eggplant and capsicum

Main: Ocean Trout with Funky Fennel Salad and Cauliflower Puree
Clement was in charge of main and he's pretty good at frying fish fillets after a previous success with salmon fillets. Fennel has never been bought nor cooked before, so that was a challenge. The fennel salad recipe was very good with a mix of fresh fennel and roasted fennel, avocado, rocket, parsley and capers tossed in lime dressing. We wanted to add a sauce to the dish and picked a cauliflower puree for its milder flavour. So here it is, crispy skin ocean trout with funky fennel salad and a sweep of cauliflower puree.

Experiment: Anything fennel
Knowhow: Panfrying fish fillets

Dessert: More-than-a-mousse Mousse
What is a More-than-a-mousse Mousse? We've used 1/2 an eggwhite more than intended, so that makes it abit more than a mousse. haha. It wasn't as fluffy as a normal mousse but it still tasted good. Great dessert to make for a dinner party since it can be prepared well ahead of time. We served it with pistachio dust and slivers of strawberries.


Experiment: Mousse
Knowhow: Blitzing pistachios

It was a fun night with great company! :) Now, I'm looking forward to your entree of an opened can of whoop ass, Sydney City! :) For more photos check it out here.

Curry Laksa

A1 instant curry paste is the best! It is full of flavour, very affordable and very versatile. Cheryl, one of my ex-flatmates used to cook with this about 9 years ago and it has been a staple in my pantry ever since. For a super quick yummy meal, you can use the A1 paste to make a very tasty curry laksa.


1 A1 instant curry sauce (meat)
4 chicken thighs, cut into large strips
1 packet of tofu puffs
1 packet of noodles of choice
1 packet beans sprout
140ml coconut milk
750ml water

Fry the curry paste in a bit of oil until the oil separates (pecah minyak). Add in the chicken thigh pieces and stir fry until chicken is cooked. Add water and simmer until chicken is thoroughly cooked. Turn heat down and add coconut milk and tofu puffs. Turn off heat once the soup starts to boil. Blanch bean sprouts and cook noodles in boiling water separately. Portion into bowl accordingly. Add in curry laksa soup with chicken and tofu puff. Eat! :)