I make - Chicken Adobo with balsamic vinegar

Yes, balsamic vinegar. Actually it's balsamic vinegar glaze purchased online. Please don't scream.

In most Adobo recipes chicken is cooked with skin on. Nowadays I like to first grill chicken skin separately in an un-oiled non-stick pan until most of the chicken fat is released from the skin. Save the chicken fat for later use and add the degreased chicken skin to the intended dish. By doing that, I get to have the best of both worlds (well, hopefully). My guests can also decide for themselves whether to eat the skin or not, or like me, munching just a few bites gingerly.

Chicken Adobo

- 6 chicken thighs about 500 g, skin separated from the meat (optional step. Please refer to the instructions)
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 2 cloves of garlic, lightly crushed with skin on (or off)
- 2 bay leaves
- 2 teaspoon of whole black peppercorns
- 4 green onions (optional)
- 1 tsp dried chilli powder (optional)
- boiling water
- 1/4 cup vinegar (I used balsamic vinegar glaze)
- brown sugar to taste

If you want to cook Adobo with the skin on, you can skip the first step. Otherwise, in a un-oiled pan, grill the chicken skin on medium-high heat until most fat is rendered. It will take about 15 minutes or so. Don't rush this process by using high heat, otherwise you may end up with burnt chicken skin with not much fat out. All good things take time. Be patient. When you see your pan is fully covered in yellow chicken fat and the chicken skin is nicely golden brown, it's time to stop. Save the rendered chicken fat for later use. Scoop out the crispy chicken skin and set aside.

Take a cooking vessel which can stand acid, put in chicken thighs, crispy skin, soy sauce, garlic, bay leaves, black peppercorns, green onions and chilli powder. Add the boiling water just enough to submerge most chicken flesh. Bring the pot to a boil. Cover and reduce the heat to very low, simmer the chicken pieces for 45 minutes.

After 45 minutes, the chicken should be quite tender. This is time to add vinegar. Bring the pot back to a boil. Simmer the pot uncovered for another 15-20 minutes until the cooking liquid is much reduced. Because of the chicken skin, the sauce should also look delectably shiny and slightly sticky (thanks to all the gelatin in the skin).  Taste at this stage, use brown sugar to tune your preferred balance between sourness and sweetness. You may also want to adjust with salt as well.

Serve with plain rice.

Dîner chez moi 18-24 May

Saturday - Crispy chicken and roasted cherry tomatoes, Three cheese and potato pie

Sunday - Burger patties, Mac and cheese, steamed broccoli

Monday - Stuffed tomatoes and grilled fish

Tuesday - Sausage and mushroom filled pasta

Wednesday - Chicken Adobo, steamed rice, garlic sauteed greens

Thursday - Sausage and mushroom filled pasta

White Chocolate, Cacao Nibs and Sour Cherries Blondies

I love making blondies. For me, they are just like big giant cookies without going through the trouble to roll each one out individually. Also, I can fool myself that I can enjoy bird-bite size each time. It's just that I am a serial bird-bite muncher...

I particularly like the combination of sour cherries and chocolate. This time I think I got the ratio right because the other discerning eater (finally) gave me the nod tonight!

White Chocolate, Cacao Nibs and Sour Cherries Blondies

- 1 large egg
- 2/3 cup brown sugar
- 100 g salted butter, room temperature
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup oat bran or old-fashioned rolled oat (can be replaced by 1/4 cup of flour)
- 50 g dried sour cherries (about 1/3 cup)
- 1/4 cup cacao nibs (or dark/milk chocolate chips)
- 50 g white chocolate, roughly chopped
- 1/4 cup chopped pecan nuts

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Beat the egg and brown sugar until well incorporated . Add in the softened butter and beat the mixture until light and fluffy.

Mix in all the rest ingredients with a hand-held mixer, except flour and pecan nuts.

Switch to a rubber spatula, fold in the flour and pecan nuts. Make sure there is no dry flour visible to the eye. If the mixture appears a bit dry, add a teaspoon of milk at a time.

Scrape the mixture to a lined square tin (20x20cm). Even the mixture in a tin with a rubber spatula. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the edges of the blondies start to get golden brown. Perform the toothpick test. If the toothpick comes out clean, it's ready.

Rest the blondies in the same pan for 20 minutes before cooling it on the rack.

Crispy Courgette Sticks

A new way of enjoying an old favorite. It's crunchy, it's juicy, it's savory and it tastes this natural vegetable sweetness after roasting. Courgette has never tasted so good. That's how much I liked it.

Crispy Courgette Sticks

- 2 medium sized Courgettes, cut into sticks about your index finger dimension
- 2-3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour (or gram/chickpea flour)
- 2 teaspoons of Schwartz Perfect Shake Season-All powder (or Italian mixed dried herbs mixed with garlic and onion powder)
- 1/2 teaspoon of chili powder, optional
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 1/4 cup of panko (Japanese styled bread crumb)
- Olive oil

Preheat the oven at 200C.

In a large bowl, put in courgette sticks and dust flour on top. Shake the courgette sticks in a large bowl so that the flour is evenly distributed around the courgettes. Adjust the flour so that each stick has a thin coating of flour.

In the same bowl, sprinkle on your choice of herby seasoning (such as Season-all powder), chili powder (if using) and salt. Shake the bowl again until the seasoning is evenly distributed.

Now, scatter the panko into the courgette bowl. Shake the bowl again. The amount of panko specified here is enough to create a crunch for the final product but not intended to cover the courgette sticks completely. Drizzle the olive oil in a thin stream and a circular motion into the bowl, about 2 seconds. Yes, shake the bowl again for the last time. Transfer the panko-coated courgette sticks onto a baking tray lined by parchment paper.

Bake at 200C for 30 minutes. Enjoy immediately.

Dîner chez moi 11-17 May

Saturday - Grilled steak pizza with golden onion slices, mushrooms and red bell pepper, Caramel apple tart

Sunday - Smoked salmon open sandwich, radish and tomato salad

Monday - Roast trout with caper tomato sauce, pan grilled flattened baby potatoes

Tuesday - Turkey kebab, rice and beans

Wednesday - Pancetta and tomato pasta

Thursday - Turkey kebab, rice and beans

Recent culinary highlights

With the increasing temperature and daylight, I am enjoying more and more in the kitchen (when I get time). These days I am very into savory tart making. I feel more comfortable now in tart/pie crust making. And I discovered that if you roll out the pie crust on a large piece of parchment paper, just transfer the whole lot, paper and dough, to your pie dish and tuck the dough along with the parchment gently to fit around the intended pie dish. Yes, the pie/tart is baked directly on the parchment which sits in a pie dish. So easy, no more messy transportation of a fully rolled out dough and no more pie crust cracking up here and there. The clean-up is a doddle!

Here are other things I've made and am thinking when to make it again.

• The secret of creating a shiny top for brownies from Scientifically Sweet: both pretty and yummy. The method does work! Isn't it beautiful?
  
• Roasted broccoli and prawn cooked by Amateur Gourmet (originally from Melissa Clark): a truly wonderful dish. How an oven can create such a nice texture and taste for two very different ingredients still puzzles me. The seasoning is flexible, though. The key is the cooking method. I used minced garlic, dry chili flakes, thyme, salt and olive oil. Heaven.
• Smoked Salmon Smørrebrød: Man, try this asap! Wonderfully tasty and embarrassingly easy to prepare. The horseradish cream is a must. I used Greek yogurt instead of sour cream, skipped the mashed potato and oomphed up with a teaspoon of Dijon mustard. I did wish I had pumpernickel bread to go with it but Turkish flatbread went down equally well.
• Tarte a la tomate: I am in love and I have a picture to prove it. I used feta and a little bit grated cheddar. Worked out surprisingly well.
  
• Pea and ricotta cheese from Rachel Eats: Rachel is a Londoner living in Rome. I have been a faithful reader of her blog since I discovered it about a year ago. Her recipes are rarely complicated and usually contain just a few ingredients (always in season) to prepare. Let the quality of produce speaks for itself, authentically Italian. This is no exception.

A very good cake indeed

My life has become very hectic this year. Three very on going projects and one very interesting personal one, and that's only professional work I am talking about. I am not sure it has made me more efficient and worried that it actually has the opposite effect. I am feeling tired constantly and my body aches even with gentle exercise now. I should not overload myself with work but hey, life does not always go as planned or wished.

My physical and sometimes mental fatigue even prevents me from doing simple things I love at home, like baking our weekend breakfast cake. I am missing it. I miss eating different cakes every weekend and I miss the fulfillment and contentment which also comes from completing a series of actions, searching for a recipe, sourcing its required ingredients, getting busy in the kitchen and finally cutting into the first piece. Total self indulgence, I admit.

Last night I baked our weekend breakfast cake, the first after many weeks of pause. When I took a first bite this morning, I felt a sensation running up and down my body as if my body recognized my own baking. No kidding. It was very brief but also very real. I smiled. This is a very good cake indeed.

Dorset apple cake (originally by Lesley Waters)

- 450g apples which hold its shape after baking (I use Granny Smith), about 3 small
- juice of ½ lemon
- 200g butter, room temperature
- 230g golden caster sugar
- 4 eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 350g all-purpose flour
- 3 tsp baking powder
- demerara sugar and almond flakes , to sprinkle

Heat oven to 200C. Butter and line a rectangular baking tin (approx 27cm x 20cm) with parchment paper.

Peel, core and thinly slice the apples then squeeze the lemon juice over. Microwave for two minutes. Set to one side.

Place the butter, caster sugar, eggs, vanilla, flour and baking powder into a large bowl and mix well until smooth. Mix in the apple slices. Pour the mixture into the prepared baking tin. Sprinkle over the demerara sugar and almond flakes.

Bake for 45-50 mins until golden and springy to the touch. Leave to cool for 10 mins, then turn out of tin and remove paper. Cut into bars or squares.