Easy Chicken Stir-fry

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Chicken Stir fryA bowl of chicken stir-fry on rice is quick, healthy, low-fat, gluten-free and well balanced meal with a full of flavour. Soy, garlic, ginger and chili creates a flavourful base of the dish. It is even better when you do a quick marinade of the chicken breast for 10-15 minutes. You might want to add a teaspoon of corn starch or rice flour if you want a thicker sauce. I like adding sesame seeds and sesame oil after cooking so that it doesn’t lose the fragrance and flavour over the heat. And use mixed grains for different texture and nuttiness, not just old boring white rice. Make a stir-fry and stay healthy x

you have time to meander down every isle

Ingredients

300g chicken breast
1 tsp of coconut oil
1 carrot
1 spring onion
2 tbsp of dark soy sauce
1 tsp of minced garlic
1 tsp of minced ginger
1 tsp of chili flakes
1 tbsp of honey
1 tsp of sesame seeds
1 tsp of sesame oil
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup of cooked rice to serve

Combine soy, garlic, ginger, chili flakes, honey, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Heat coconut oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add sliced chicken breast, carrot and spring onion to the pan and cook for 3-5 minutes until golden and half-cooked. Stir the sauce into the pan and continue cooking until cooked. Take it off the heat, serve on rice, sprinkle sesame seeds and drizzle sesame oil.

 

Posted in: Dinner, Gluten Free, Lunch, My recipes

Anniversary Dinner

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We just celebrated our 2nd year anniversary yesterday. Time flies! Two years already. How fun was it on our wedding day 2 years ago. A few my family members flew over from Korea. We had to take them around Perth for a week, you being a driver and me being a tour guide. Thankfully nice weather on our wedding day (we had a wedding in wineries). Cute red mini cooper. Beautiful mums. Oops, we were running a little late and forgot to take flowers for mums. So the best man gave them hand-picked garden flowers instead. Bruno Mars for our wedding aisle song. Happy tears. Lots of hugs and kisses. Lots of wine. I fell on my bum at the table because I didn’t know Daniel was pulling my chair out when I was sitting down. Touching speeches. Good catch ups with friends and family. It all happened so quickly. Happy anniversary honey and love you 하늘만큼 땅만큼 xxx

Thyme and Olive Bread such a beautiful combination, fragrant thyme and salty black olives. If you haven’t tried it yet, you must. My trick, using a water spray when you put the dough in the oven makes a nice crust outside, but still moist inside. 
Thyme Olive BreadGrilled Saffron-Infused Polenta with Mushroom Ragu It is a little time consuming this dish because you need to make polenta ahead of time with saffron and then grill in a pan. But it’s totally worth it! Always remember, polenta is quite blend by itself, so it needs a generous amount of seasoning and something like saffron makes it extra special. I sauteed mushrooms in a splash of balsamic vinegar – yum!
Mushrooms on polentaGrilled mullet with Pear Salad I pan-fried mullet in coconut oil for a beautiful crispy skin and served with pear, dried cranberries and almond salad dressed in mustard vinaigrette.
Grilled MulletOsso Bucco Daniel’s favorite. Yes, you are a meat lover 🙂 3 hours of braising in lots of spices finally paid off. Meat is falling off the bone and the sauce is nicely reduced. Best part – when you hold that bone and suck bone marrow!
Osso BuccoCoconut Panna Cotta with Mango, Citrus maple syrup and Pink peppercorns something light for dessert. I used coconut milk, no creme, to make panna cotta and served with fresh mangoes to make it more tropical. You might think it is weird to sprinkle pink peppercorns in sweets, but geez it is divine!
Coconut panna cotta

Posted in: Dessert, Dinner, My recipes, salads

Vegetable Soup with Saffron and Turmeric

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Vegetable soupMy typical lunch in a bowl. It’s a vegetable soup today. Weather is finally cooling down now, perfect for making a nourishing soup! I like making salads too but my body is calling for a bowl of warm soup in this weather. I threw in chopped onion, pumpkin, broccoli, cauliflower and peas into a pot. Bring it to boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes until cooked. I also added a pinch of saffron and a teaspoon of turmeric and cardamom into my soup to make it more nutritious and beautiful. 

Saffron is well known for a very expensive and amazing medicinal spice. It is full of antioxidants protecting you from oxidant-induced stress, cancers and infections. It is a good source of minerals and vitamins. Saffron has been traditionally used as anti-depressant, antiseptic, digestive and anti-convulsant. For ladies, it also has beauty benefits for beautiful radiant skin. You can buy either threads or powdered form at the spice markets, but ground saffron has a shorter shelf life. You need to keep them in a closed box and in a dark cool place away from the light. I like its distinctive flavour, aroma and beautiful colour, great both in savoury and sweet dishes. Add a pinch when cooking rice, risotto, pilaf, quinoa, or paella, making a soup, baking a cake, making a warm drink. It is very versatile and a pinch is enough for the full flavour and colour. I paid about 7 dollars for a 1g box. It is a bit expensive, but remember you use only a pinch for the entire recipe and it is so worth it!

Posted in: Dinner, Gluten Free, Lunch, My recipes, Vegetarian

Coconut Meatballs with Wild Rice

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Coconut Meatballs1
Another comforting curry dish for Daniel’s post-workout meal. Using lean beef mince and low fat coconut milk will reduce the amount of fat in this dish, but doesn’t compromise the flavour. Plus nutty wild rice adds more flavour and texture. Thai curry and coconut milk is satisfying and flavourful, but…your waistline might not like it.

Coconut milk is high in calories and fat. So you need to control how much you put in your smoothies, breakfast bowls, curries and sweets. Having said that, as long as you don’t go overboard, it is quite good for you. It has a high amount of fibre. Each cup of coconut milk contains about 5g of fibre (you need about 30g a day!). Coconut milk has high plant-based saturated fat which has a high HDL, beneficial to your heart. It is rich in minerals – iron for oxygen supply to your cells, magnesium, phosphorus and manganese for bone health, selenium and zinc for immune function.

So should I have it or not? For me, it is definitely sometimes foods. I choose to buy a low fat option and use only half of the recipe plus water or stock or non-dairy milk. I think a touch of coconut flavour is enough for the dish. You don’t have to use a whole can of it if you are concerned about calories and fat content. Same rule goes to other coconut products such as coconut cream, coconut butter, desiccated coconut, coconut flakes, etc. Enjoy in moderation!

Coconut MeatballsIngredients

200g Lean ground beef
1 tsp all spice
1 tsp coriander ground
1 tsp of Himalayan salt
1 tsp of ground black pepper
1 tbsp of coconut oil

100g coconut milk
1 tsp of green curry paste
1 tsp of cayenne pepper
1 cup of chopped leek
1/2 chopped tomato
1/2 chopped onion
1/2 tsp of fish sauce
1 tsp of coconut sugar
1 tsp of cardamom

Mix the ground beef with all spice, coriander ground, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Make 8-10 little meatballs and set aside. Finely chop the leek, tomato and onion. Heat a pan over medium heat. Cook meatballs with coconut oil. Once the meatballs are caramelised outside, add vegetables in and cook for a few minutes. Keep stirring. Add other ingredients in and simmer for 10 minutes until the sauce is combined and thickened. Turn off the heat and serve with cooked wild rice.

Posted in: Dinner, Gluten Free, My recipes

Mini Vegetable Rice Casserole

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I ask Daniel “what do you feel like for dinner?” His usual answer is “nothing off the top of my head” which really doesn’t help me come up with menu plans. But this time he actually told me “maybe vegetarian tonight?” He actually had naughty(?) foods for a couple of days in a row over the weekend. He and his mate watched footy at the pub on Friday, which means pizza and beer. We got invited to my friend’s barbeque next day, which means more meat for him. I also cooked some chicken for lunch today. Yep, time for veggies! I didn’t plan what to cook for dinner so I was glad he said “vegetarian!”. I pulled out little cute Le Creuset pots out of the drawer and filled up with lots of veggies and rice, topped with nutritional yeast and baked in the oven. Za’atar flat bread is so flavoursome even just by itself. If you can make fresh za’atar spice blend and top with a good quality of olive oil, it is so divine. Make this flat bread when you have a dinner party next time and serve with some humus, olives and cheese. Yum! heaps better than normal Turkish bread. Your guests will be impressed.

Veggie Rice CasserolMini Veggie Rice Casserole

Ingredients

1/2 cup of cooked glutenous wild rice
1 tsp of coconut oil
2 grated carrots
1/2 grated zucchini
1 sliced onion cooked
1/2 cup of chopped mushrooms
1 cup of chopped spinach
1 tsp of Dijon mustard
1 tsp of minced garlic
1/2 tsp of smoked paprika
2 tsp of nutritional yeast
salt and pepper to taste

Rinse and cook the rice in a boiling water for 20-25 minutes until cooked al dente. Preheat a pan and cook all vegetables with coconut oil. Season with salt and pepper. Combine cooked rice and vegetables in a large bowl. Add garlic, mustard, paprika and nutritional yeast into the bowl and stir to combine. Pour the mixture into two ramekins, sprinkle more nutritional yeast on top and put in the preheated oven (180) for 20 minutes. Serve warm.

Za’atar Flat Bread

Ingredients

200g flour
1 tsp of dried yeast
1/2 tsp of brown sugar
a pinch of salt
1 tbsp of olive oil
2 tbsp of za’atar spice blend (4tbsp toasted sesame seeds, 3tbsp dried thyme, 2 tbsp sumac, 1 tsp sea salt)
1 cup warm water

Place half of the flour, dry yeast and brown sugar in a large bowl. Add warm water in and stir with a wooden spoon. Let it stand for 10 minutes. Then add the rest of the flour and stir to get a sticky dough. Turn out the dough onto floured surface and knead gently until soft. Sprinkle more flour if too wet or add more water if too dry. Place dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and stand until doubled in size. Gently knock it down and roll out the dough to about 1/2-1 cm thick. Use your fingertips, make dimples onto the dough. Drizzle olive oil and sprinkle a generous amount of za’atar all over. Bake on the middle shelf in the preheated oven (200) for 15-20 minutes until golden. Serve it warm right out of the oven.

 

Posted in: Baking, Dinner, Lunch, My recipes, Vegetarian