Simple Easy Dhall

Tonight, I decided to try out the Airfryer Chicken Varuval recipe and since I'm making that, we go Indian theme tonight. So, to feed the girl, I made curry dhall that she loves.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dhall, pre-soaked with hot water for at least 30mins to removed the phytic acid
• 1/2 onion, sliced thinly
• 1 carrot, cut to big cubes
• few pieces of curry leaves
• 2 tablespoon of dhall spice (pre mix but if you don't have it, you can also make this combo yourself - 1 tsp garam masala, 2tsp tumeric powder. 1/2tsp curry powder, 1/8tsp cinnamon powder, 1/2tsp cumin powder, 1/2tsp cardamon powder)
• 2tbsp home made tomato sauce, recipe here
• 3cups of water
• 1tbsp oil
• 1tsp salt

Steps:

1. Pre heat the pressure cooker pot. I used high saute mode. Heat up the oil
2. Add in the onion and curry leaves. Saute till the onion is soften.
3. Add in the spice and fry till it form a paste like mixture in the pot.
4. Add in the dhall, carrot and water.
5. Change the pressure cooker to manual pressure mode and select KPT 12mins.
6. Once done, let the pressure valve fall before opening the cooker and season with salt.

*KPT = Keep pressure time

Easy Peasy Chocolate Chip Cookies

By demand of my daughter, I need to churn out some chocolate chips cookies but it is already almost 8pm, so got to do a quick one. Here it is the recipe for a quick easy peasy chocolate chip cookies:

Ingredients:

• 150g butter
• 3/4 cup raw sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 3/4 cups plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• slightly more than 1 cup of chopped chocolate (or you can use chips, I was out of chocolate chips)

Steps:

1. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla extract till it is smooth and fluffy at medium speed.
2. Then slow down the mixer speed and add in the egg.
3. Finally add in the plain flour and baking powder and mix till it forms a soft ball dough.
4. Preheat oven to 180c.
5. Remove the bowl from the mixer and use the spatula to fold in the chocolate chips or chopped chocolate.
6. Scoop the mixture out, roughly one ice cream scoop and place them on a tray lined with either baking paper or silicon mat. Make sure to leave some space in between as the cookies will get slightly bigger.
7. Reduce the heat of the oven to 160c if it is fan forced, otherwise keep it at 180c. Bake the cookies for 18mins, or when u poke a skewer into it and it comes out clean.

Home made Tomato Sauce

This home made sauce is great to go with pasta or to spread on pizza or to cook with some minced or whatever you creativity allows you.

Ingredients:

• roughly 1kg of fat juicy red ripe tomatoes, cut quarter
• 1 large onion, lightly chopped
• 6pcs of cloves
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 3 tablespoon of any type of berry jam
• 1 teaspoon of paprika
• 1/2 stick of cinnamon
• 10 tablespoon raw sugar
• a big pinch of rock salt
• 1 teaspoon of mixed herbs
• 2 cups of malt vinegar
• 1 big handful of basil leaves
• roughly 2 tablespoon of fresh mint leaves

Steps:

1. Place all the ingredients except the basil and mint leaves in the pressure cooker (if you don't have one, use a normal pot). Set for it to cook in the pressure cooker for 15mins, or on the stove top for about an hour to soften all the ingredients and it is all juicy and nice.
2. When it is done, turn of the heat and add in the basil and mint and give it a stir.
3. Next, let it cool down slightly before blending them either in the blender or you can use the stick blender.
4. Transfer them back into the pot or pressure cooker and cook with lid open till it thickens and no longer runny. The viscosity should be roughly the same as store bought tomato sauce.

Beef and/or Pork Adobo

Heard bout this Filipino dish for a while but has not tried eating or cooking it. And a friend recently attempted it and hence I thought I'll give it a try since it is rather easy.

Ingredients:

• roughly 350-400g of beef, slow cook fillet, slice to roughly 1.5cm thickness
• pork rashy, roughly 200g, cut to 1.5cm thickness
• 1/3 cup soy sauce
• 1/2 cup malt vinegar
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 3pcs of bay leaves
• 1tbsp of peppercorn
• sprinkle of crushed pepper

Steps:

1. Put everything into the pressure cooker pot, mix it evenly. 
2. Turn on the pressure cooker, set to manual, KPT5mins.
3. After the 5mins, cover the valve with a piece of cloth and manually release the pressure.
4. Then leave the valve setting to baking and set to bake for 5mins.
5. Once sauce thicken, it is all ready to be served with your favourite veggie, rice or noodle.

Air Fried Chicken Balls

Instead of making nuggets, I decided to make some nice simple yummy chicken balls for the kids for their dinner and the extras for the big girl to bring to school on the next day.

Ingredients:

• 1 pc of chicken breast (roughly 150-200g) - cut to small fine pieces, but not mince so you still get the chicken slices texture
• 1/4 onion - chopped roughly, to get the crunchy texture too
• 1/2 tsp of garlic powder
• a dash of pepper
• a pinch of sea salt
• 1tsp of corn flour
• 2 slice of bread (blend till powder)
• 1/2 cup of plain flour
• 1egg - beaten

Steps:

1. Marinade the chicken with the onion, garlic powder, pepper, sea salt and corn flour. Leave it aside while you blend the bread, prepare the flour and egg.
2. Scoop a tablespoon and then shape them into balls.
3. Dip the balls into plain flour, egg and finally the bread crumbs. Make sure you follow the right order.
4. Place them in the air fryer. Set at 160c for 6mins.
5. Done, serve with your favourite sauce.

Braised Lamb Shank

I had always been a fan of lamb or mutton but can't really cook them at home coz the big and small bosses don't like it. However, since my small boss no 2 loves any meat, I thought of trying it out. Few days back when we went shopping, lamb shank was on sale.. hmmm... why not try it out with the pressure cooker. Imagining the fall apart and yummy goodness of the veggie.

Ingredients:

• 4pcs of lamb shanks
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 onion, cut to 8 chunks
• 3pcs carrots, cut to big chunks
• 2pcs of parsnip, cut to big chunks
• 4pcs of big tomato, cut to smaller chunks
• 1/2 tsp of mixed herbs
• 1/2 tsp of fresh rosemary
• 1/2 tsp of fresh thyme
• 6pcs of fresh button mushrooms
• 1 cup of salt reduced chicken stock
• a big handful of fresh parsley for serving
• some salt and pepper to season the lamb
• 2 tbsp of olive oil

Steps:

1. Heat up the pressure cooker. Pour in the oil and wait for bout 10-15 seconds for it to heat up.
2. Season the lamb shanks with salt and pepper. Then brown the lamb shanks on all side in the pressure cooker. That should take about 5-7mins.
3. Add in all the veggies and herbs and stir the mixture.
4. Then add in the chicken stock and cover the pressure cooker. Set to meat function, KPT for 25mins.
5. Once it is done, let the valve drop and then set it to vent and set to bake for 20mins to help reduce the stock to thicker sauce.
6. Served with fresh parsley.

Cloud Bread

Stumble across this thing called cloud bread, which is actually not bread, not biscuit, but more like softer version of a meringue. It looks simple and I thought it will be a great snack for the kids yet reduce a little carbo amount on their diet.

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs, separate yolks from white
• 1/8 tsp cream of tartar
• 85g cream cheese (can be substituted with thick yogurt or ricotta cheese too)
• 2tbsp honey
• a pinch of salt 

Steps:

1. Preheat the oven to 140c.
2. Prepare some baking tray and line them with greased paper or for me I used the silicon mat (it is easier to take off).
3. Place the egg white and cream of tartar in the mixer. Beat till the egg white reached stiff peak. It should be really thick, fluffy, won't fall off when you turn the bowl upside down.
4. In a separate bowl, beat the cream cheese till smooth. Add in the rest of the ingredients (egg yolk, honey and salt) and beat till it is all well mix and the mixture turn into pale yellow colour.
5. Slowly fold in 1/3 of the egg white to the cream cheese mixture and continue till you finish with all the egg white. Do not over do it and do it slowly to avoid deflating the air in the egg whites.
6. Once done, scoop the mixture on the baking tray to your desired size. Do not place them too near as they will slightly inflate after baking.
7. Bake for 35mins at 140c for till it is dry and crispy on the outside. You will not be able to remove it if it is not ready.