Roasted paprika and almond medley

 This is originally from Linas matkasse but we've made it our own since we originally got the recipe back in 2015 and its become a staple. It punches way above its weight in terms of flavours! This goes excellently inside liba bread with a meat+hummus or tzatsiki etc.

 Ingredients

•  Olive Oil
• Vinegar
• Red pepper flakes
• Parsley (fresh or frozen)
  
• Sliced almonds (50g per 2-4 capsicum)
  
• Red Capsicum/Paprika (multiples of 2)

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 250 degrees C
2. Slice the capsica in half and arrange in an oven dish, sprinkle olive oil, salt and red pepper flakes over the top
3. Roast in the upper part of the oven for 20 minutes
4. Toast sliced almonds until light brown and crunchy
5. Chop the roasted capsica into small cubes and add to a bowl
6. Add the toasted almonds, a drizzle of vinegar, more red pepper flakes, parsley and salt and mix together
7. Eat!
    

Tau Yu Chicken

 This is a malay/chinese/singaporean dish usually made with pork (Tau yu bak) but I didn't have pork, I had chicken. It was really tasty-- sweet, salty and really complex. I paired it with the congee but I think it would work great as a part of a chinese dinner or just over steamed white rice. Recipe adapted from a few different recipes I found on the net. The garlic in the skin were good, but if I have time I'm going to just peel and finely dice the garlic instead.

Ingredients

Marinate the chicken as below

• 600-750g chicken thighs (5-6 thighs) cut into chunks against the grain
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 1-2 teaspoons freshly ground pepper
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 2-4 tablespoons oyster sauce
• chicken stock concentrate
  

Other ingredients

• 5-10 cloves garlic, either in the skin or diced
• 1-2 tablespoons of diced ginger
• 2 star anise
• 1" cinnamon stick
• 3-4 green cardamom
• 300ml water
• 4 tablespoons dark soy
• Mushrooms (I used shimeji this time)

Method

1. Marinate the chicken (the recipes I read said overnight is best, I think I managed maybe 30 minutes in total and it was still delicious)
2. Add a splash of oil to a pan and when it gets hot, add in the spices and after they bloom, then the ginger and then the garlic. 
3. Once the onion and garlic have fried off for a few minutes (edges brown and reduced but not burnt) add in the marinated chicken and cook for 3-4 minutes
4. Add in the rest of the ingredients, bring to a boil and the reduce the heat to medium, cover and let it cook for 20 minutes
5. Take the cover off and let it reduce until it is the consistency you want. This was taking too long for us, so we ended up spooning out the chicken and then reducing the sauce over high heat and then adding the meat back in when we were ready.
   

 

Congee

 This was supposed to be a chicken congee but then ended up being just a mushroom congee. Heavy on the ginger, it was excellent! The texture was not as loose as I want, so next time a bit more water perhaps, the measure below is adjusted to reflect this. I didn't add chicken to this but some of the recipes recommend a diced chicken thigh, added at the start, which sounds yum. For seafood, the recipes I read recommended throwing the raw seafood in the last 5 minutes or for 5-10 minutes during the keep warm mode.

 Ingredients

• 1 measure rice (for the measures below, 3/4 cup), washed 4 times
  
• 7 measures water or use guide in rice cooker
• Lots of Shimeji mushrooms
• 2 tablespoons ginger, minced/finely diced
  
• 2 tablespoons garlic, minced/finely diced
  
• 2 tablespoons sesame oil
• 3 tablespoons light soy 
• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• Chicken stock
  

 Method

1. Wash the rice and add to the rice cooker
2. Add water and everything else
3. Cook on porridge setting