Recipe: Pesto Pasta with Oven-Roasted Chicken

I've said it before and I'll say it again - it's amazing having a herb garden at home. Furthermore, my kids love eating herbs, be it raw (straight from the plant) or used in our cooking.

One of our favorite herbs from the garden is sweet basil, which we love making pesto with. Don't worry though if you do not own a basil plant, you can always get a pack of basil at the supermarket for under RM2 and make this.

Pesto Pasta with Oven-Roasted Chicken

Making pesto is super simple, especially if you are using a food processor. Just place everything in there and blitz until you get a paste. To make our dinner more substantial, we served our pesto pasta with oven-roasted chicken. You can also use a grill pan to cook it, though using the oven would be less messy. We use chicken breast as it's leaner and healthier, but equally delicious!

Pesto pasta is one of my kid's favorite pasta so they were delighted to see this at the dinner time. Loved the marinade for the chicken, making the chicken really tasty and tender. This recipe is a keeper, one I would be making over and over again! :)

Funny pasta-eating faces!

Pesto pasta with oven-roasted chicken
Recipe by Baby Sumo
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Serves 4


Ingredients
2 quantity homemade pesto (recipe here)
300-350g dried spaghetti
Salt and freshly ground pepper

To garnish
Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
8-10 cherry tomatoes, halved
A handful walnuts
Basil leaves, roughly torn
Extra virgin olive oil

For the chicken
1 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 tbsp cooking oil

For the marinade
1 clove garlic, crushed to a paste
1 large pinch of salt
1 tbsp olive oil
Juice of 1/4 lemon
1 tsp whole cumin seeds, roughly ground
1/2 tsp smoked paprika


1. First, clean the chicken breast and then cut each piece into half lengthwise and crosswise. This will cut down cooking time. Place marinade ingredients in a bowl, and mix well, then rub all over the chicken breasts and leave to marinade for at least 2 hours in the fridge.

2. To make the pesto: please refer to recipe here. You can place all ingredients in a food processor to save time. Once the pesto is ready, set aside in the fridge with a covering of olive oil.

My kids always have fun making pesto at home!

3. For the chicken:
To cook in oven: Preheat oven to 200°C (roast mode). Line the baking tray with foil, and brush lightly with oil. Then place marinated chicken on the tray in a single layer. Roast in preheated oven for 12-15 minutes, until cooked through. Season chicken with more salt, if necessary.

To cook on hob: Alternatively, heat 1/2 tablespoon of oil in a large grill pan over high heat. Once the pan is hot, place chicken down, and turn heat down to medium heat. Cook the chicken breasts just until golden brown and cooked through, about 5-6 minutes each side. Season chicken with more salt, if necessary.

4. To prepare the pasta: Cook the spaghetti in a large pot of boiling salted water over medium high heat until al dente, stirring occasionally to prevent it from sticking, about 8-10 minutes. Drain the spaghetti and place in a large bowl. Then add the pesto and toss to coat. Add some olive oil (about 1 tbsp) if it seems a little dry.

5. To serve: Using a two-pronged carving fork, swirl some of the pasta around the fork. Slide the pasta off the fork and mound it in the center of a plate. Repeat for each serving.  Cut each chicken breast on a slight diagonal into 6-8 thin slices. Arrange the chicken slices alongside the spaghetti.

6. Garnish with the cherry tomatoes, shaved Parmesan cheese,  walnuts and torn basil leaves.


(Note: We do like our pasta with lots of pesto, however if you're having this for the first time, try with 1 quantity pesto and gradually add more to your liking).

*I am submitting this to LTU: Noodles/Pasta hosted by Anne of My Bare Cupboard.


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Nutmeg, Bangsar Village II, Kuala Lumpur

I was meeting up with a friend in Bangsar and she suggested Nutmeg in Bangsar Village II as our lunch venue. Nutmeg is a casual dining restaurant/cafe serving all-day breakfast, lunch and dinner and some of their specialties here include salt beef and house-cured salmon gravlax. They also do a Executive Set Lunch Menu (3-course for RM28+) from Mondays to Fridays. 

On their menu, they have breakfast items such as brioche French toast, big breakfast, salt beef hash, Spanish frittata, or sandwiches such as Classic Reuben, and bagels. I decided to try their Southern Fried Breakfast (RM26), which comes with two eggs any style, a piece of Southern fried chicken, biscuit, gravy, hashed potatoes and a side salad. I went for two poached eggs, and they were cooked beautifully. The chicken was tender and moist, and I liked the biscuit and hashed potatoes too which were crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside. A hearty, satisfying breakfast!

Poached eggs, beautifully done  :)

My drink - orange elderflower

My friend had the Fish and Chips off the specials board and the portion was really huge, so she shared some with me too. The "fish" was a large tilapia fillet, battered and deep fried. It was fresh and moist. Served with peas, fries and tartar sauce.

For dessert, we ordered one of their bestsellers, the OMG! chocolate fudge cake. When it arrived, I literally went OMG due to the sheer size of it. Served with vanilla ice cream, the cake was pretty good - moist and not too sweet. Definitely one for sharing though.

Opening times: 9.30am to 10.00pm daily.

Location:Nutmeg, UGF-28A Bangsar Village II, 2 Jalan Telawi 1, Bangsar Baru, 59100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Tel: 03 2201 3663

Website: https://www.facebook.com/nutmegkl/

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Top 8 Recipes for a Brilliant Sunday Roast

It's the first Sunday of 2015 and there's no better way to spend it than with my favorite Sunday tradition - Sunday Roast. A typical Sunday roast consists of roasted meat, roast potato, vegetables, gravy and Yorkshire pudding.

Here are 8 of my favorite recipes for a brilliant Sunday Roast.

1. Roast Beef

My favorite cut to use when making roast beef is rib eye. Tender and succulent, the whole family loves it.

I usually cook my roast beef to medium rare - the cooking time is 5 mins per 100g at 180°C. Allow to rest for at least 15-20 minutes before carving.

For roast beef recipe, see here.

2. Roast lamb

Roast leg of lamb is great if you're feeding a large family. This Heston Blumenthal-inspired recipe is my favorite - simply slow roasted at 90°C for about 2 hours. 

See recipe here.

3. Roast lamb loin chops

Baby C's favorite lamb cut is the lamb loin chops. This is much more quicker to cook compared to the whole leg of lamb (20 mins vs 2 hours). 

See recipe here.

4. Roast chicken

This is a simple roast chicken recipe from Michelin-star chef Thomas Keller. You only need 4 basic ingredients for this recipe - unsalted butter, salt, pepper and fresh thyme. Moist chicken with incredibly crispy skin.

See recipe here.

5. Roast potatoes

A must-have with every Sunday Roast is roast potatoes. Crisp on the outisde, fluffy on the inside - delicious!

See recipe here.

6. Yorkshire puddings

We like having Yorkshire puddings with roast beef. They're really easy to make (less than 20 mins for prep and cooking). I love them crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, and with lots of gravy poured over.

See the recipe here. 

7. Homemade mint sauce

A good mint sauce is essential when serving roast lamb. I prefer making my own using fresh mint from the garden - so very easy to do. 

See recipe here.

8. Vegetables

We like to keep it simple and have our Sunday roast with steamed or boiled vegetables. Two of my favorites are Brussel sprouts and carrots.

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Best Wings Recipe: Sticky Gula Melaka Glazed Chicken Wings

Let's end November with a fantastic recipe - sticky gula melaka glazed chicken wings! After experimenting with lots of different marinades, this is by far the best chicken wing recipe I've tried. If you love wings, you gotta try this!

What I like about this recipe is definitely the ease of making and availability of the ingredients. I have everything I need in my kitchen pantry, and all I need to do is measure it out and mix it in a bowl and pour it over the chicken wings. So easy! Plus it tastes really really really good.

Sweet, salty, sticky, juicy wings... absolutely glorious! Worth getting your hands dirty, and they're so good you'll wanna lick your fingers afterwards. Yup, finger licking good they are!

My kids absolutely adore these chicken wings - my boy surprised me the other day when he ate one after another wing and kept telling me how yummy it was. He likes to do this "tick" sign with his fingers as a sign of his seal of approval. We usually serve this with a side of salad to keep things simple.

This is a recipe so easy that you can even assign it to your children to make. Baby D made the ones we had a couple of weeks ago - from marinating to arranging them on the baking tray, as well as making the salad (I helped him pit and peel the avocado but he did everything else). I make this recipe at least once a month now as my family tells me "more of this, please" ;)

Sticky Gula Melaka Glazed Chicken Wings
Recipe by Baby Sumo
Preparation time: 1 minute
Cooking time: 25-30 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
12 chicken wings, cleaned

For the marinade
1/4 cup light soy sauce
1 tbsp mirin or ginger wine
3 tbsp gula melaka (palm sugar) syrup or concentrate
1 tsp coarse black pepper
1/2 tsp shichimi powder
2 tbsp cooking oil



1. Place all marinade in a bowl, and mix well. Pour over the chicken wings and marinate for at least 6 hours in the fridge.

2. Preheat oven to 190C (roast mode). Line a baking tray with foil and arrange wings on tray in a single layer. Pour the marinade over the wings and cook for 25-30 minutes, until the meat is cooked through and the skin is sticky, and a beautiful golden brown.

3. Remove and serve immediately with some of the marinade leftover in tray as a dip.

Note: Gula melaka syrup is available in supermarkets- they usually come in a 500ml bottle, costing about RM5-7 depending on brand.

Avocado, lettuce and cherry tomatoes salad
For the salad
1 ripe avocado
1 baby butterhead lettuce
6-8 cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 lemon

For the dressing
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp white balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp honey
Salt

1. To pit the avocado, first you need to find the stalk and remove it. Hold it horizontally, with a knife through the centre until you hit the seed then move the knife in a circular motion until you go all the away around. Twist the avocado halves in opposite direction and it will come apart easily into 2 halves. Sink the knife into the avocado seed and remove. Squeeze lemon juice all over to avoid discoloration. Chop the avocado into bite-sized chunks. Season with salt.

2. Place ingredients for dressing a bowl and whisk well to mix.

3. Place avocado, butterhead lettuce and cherry tomatoes into a salad bowl and then pour over dressing and toss. Season with more salt as necessary and serve immediately.

The wings and salad that Baby D made ;)

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*This recipe was featured on Asian Food Channel's Facebook page on 5 December 2014.

Recipe: Korean Grilled Chicken (Bobby Flay)

Eaelier this month, I tried and posted a Korean-style marinated steak recipe from Bobby Flay and today, I am posting yet another Korean-inspired dish from him - Korean Grilled Chicken (one of his most popular dishes on Food Network). Looks like Bobby Flay is a fan of Korean flavours!

For this recipe, Bobby Flay uses a whole chicken but I opted to use chicken maryland instead since I find that drumstick and thigh are best for roasting and the cooked meat is moist. The meat is marinated in a mix of Korean red pepper paste (gochujang), light soy sauce, rice vinegar, honey, ginger and garlic. Only 1/2 heaped tablespoonful of gochujang is used in this recipe, so I would say this is pretty mild but just perfect for me since my kids would be eating it too. By all means double or triple the gochujang quantity if you prefer a spicy kick.

The chicken is left to marinate for 4-8 hours, then oven roasted until a beautiful golden brown. You can also grill the chicken if you prefer. The chicken is then served with some of marinade sauce which has been reserved. In his original recipe, Bobby Flay serves this with some tortilla wraps, but butterhead lettuce works just as well. Simply wrap the chicken in some lettuce, top with dipping sauce and enjoy!

A very easy chicken recipe, with big flavours. 

Korean Grilled Chicken
Recipe by Baby Sumo, adapted from Bobby Flay
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
4 chicken maryland, separated into 8 pieces

For the marinade
1/2 cup low-sodium light soy sauce
1 1/2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp honey
1/2 tbsp Korean red pepper paste (gochujang)
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 spring onion, thinly sliced
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
Freshly ground black pepper
3/4 tsp toasted white sesame seeds


To serve
4 (6-inch) flour tortillas, warmed (optional)
or 1 butterhead lettuce, leaves washed


1. Place the ingredients for a marinade in a bowl and whisk together. Add half of the mixture to the chicken, then turn to coat. Cover and let the meat marinade in the ridge for at least 4 hours or up to 8 hours.

2. Add the spring onions, sesame oil, black pepper and sesame seeds to the remaining marinade and reserve as a dipping sauce for the finished chicken.

3. Preheat oven to 180C (roast mode). Line a baking tray with foil, then arrange chicken on tray in a single layer. Place in oven and cook for 25 minutes, until cooked through and skin is crispy and golden brown. Arrange chicken on a platter, and serve wrapped in tortilla (if desired) with dipping sauce on the side.

4. Alternatively, you can cook the chicken on the grill or BBQ.


Note: You can also serve the chicken with some lettuce. Wrap the chicken in the lettuce with some dipping sauce.

**************

I am submitting this to the "Cook Like Bobby Flay" event which I am co-hosting with Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Grace of Life Can Be Simple. To join, simply cook or bake any recipe from any Bobby Flay websites or cookbooks for the whole month of November 2014.

Your post must be a current post i.e. posted in November 2014 - please do not link older posts.Please mention Cook like a Star in your post and link back to Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Grace of Life Can Be Simple and Baby Sumo of Eat your heart out.

Happy cooking! Do check out the other bloggers recipe below:


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Nyonya lunch @ Limapulo: Baba Can Cook, Jalan Doraisamy, Kuala Lumpur

Do you like Nyonya food? A good place to get delicious, affordable Nyonya food is at Limapulo. It is located on the Asian Heritage Row at Jalan Doraisamy (adjacent to Sheraton Imperial KL Hotel).

Lunching at Limapulo

The restaurant was packed with customers, just 15 minutes after opening time. Seems that on some days, you even have to queue to get in. Uncle John (also affectionately known as Baba), one of the owners of the place can often be found at the front of the restaurant welcoming the customers.

You can either order from their set lunch menu (available from 12 to 3pm) or their a la carte menu. We chose from the set lunch menu, which was reasonably priced, at RM9.90 each - amongst the items you can choose from are nyonya laksa (Mon/Wed/Fri only), nyonya fried mee/mee hoon/rice, pongteh chicken,and gerang asam fish (pari).

Authentic mee siam + Peranakan Ale

We ordered the mee siam (a special on Tue & Thurs) which was served with a spicy nutty sauce (apparently it's not authentic if it's served without it) as well as the tamarind chicken and ayam berempah. The latter two comes with rice, fried omelette and a side of vegetables. They were all very tasty, but out of the three, I loved the ayam berempah the most. The sauce was thick, creamy, spicy and very appetizing. We were told that the tangy tamarind chicken is made without any oil at all, definitely great for those wanting a healthy option for lunch.

Since we were here on a Thursday, we didn't get to try the nyonya laksa. I am definitely going to return for that.

Ayam berempah.. my fav!

Tamarind chicken

Some other side dishes that we tried - mangga patchree (a sweet-sour poached mango curry with turmeric).

Pai tee (RM2 each) - hot from the fryer... crispy with a delicious filling 

Mystery Green, an appetizing made with the by-product from the Mangga Patchree. We also tried the Peranakan ale (RM4.50), nice and gingery, great for my cough.

My boy loved this classic dessert, sago gula melaka (RM3.50). Richness + sweetness level is just perfect.

Thanks Eunice for the lovely cakes from Yut Kee :) as well as your company during lunch. xoxo

On a separate visit, I went back to try their Nyonya laksa (RM9.90). It's available here on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays during lunch time. The broth is rich and delicious and inside you will find tofu puff, half boiled egg fishcake and fishballs and if you do not specify, it will be served with both meehoon and yellow mee. Big generous portion too!

*They have also opened another outlet in Intermark called Limabelas. It is located at LG Floor (near Jaya Grocer).


Pork-free.

Opening times: Monday to Saturday 12pm - 3pm; 6pm - 10pm.

Service: Good.

Price: Total bill RM54.10.

Location: Limapulo, 26 Jalan Doraisamy, 53000 Kuala Lumpur. (near Sheraton Imperial KL/Heritage House)

Tel: 03-2698 3268

Website: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Baba-Can-Cook/635621076504974

GPS Coordinates: 3.158284, 101.699541



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Recipe: Mee suah 麵線 noodle soup with prawns, chicken and tofu

We have been getting quite a lot of rain here in KL and the rainy weather is definitely making me crave for hot soupy noodles. A delicious noodle dish that we like is mee suah 麵線 in a chicken or ikan bilis (dried anchovies) broth.

Mee suah noodle soup

This is a dish I have been eating since I was a little girl. We have it when we want a simple and quick meal. Also, when I'm feeling under the weather, my mum always makes this for me - it is comfort in a bowl.

Now, my kids also often request this- their favorite version consists of prawns, sliced chicken, tofu and choy sum. Tasty, nutritious and best of all, this is something you can whip up in under 30 minutes.

Most Chinese mums (or dads) would have cooked this for their family at some point in their life

The brand of mee suah that I buy is in a red packaging from a company called Chin Peng Mee Factory with two dragons on the front. For some reason, most mee suah comes in red packaging (perhaps to signify prosperity). Mee suah noodles cook very quickly, so do not overcook or else you will end up with a mushy lump.

Mee suah 麵線 (flour vermicelli noodles) with prawns, chicken and tofu
Recipe by Baby Sumo
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 20-22 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients
4 pc flour vermicelli noodle (mee suah 麵線)
600-700ml ikan bilis stock
1 tbsp cooking oil
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
200g choy sum, washed and cut into 2 inch lengths
A handful spring onions, cut into 1.5 inch lengths
20 king prawns, peeled and deveined with tails intact
100g chicken breast, sliced thinly (or pork)
1 tofu, cubed
6 shitake or Chinese mushrooms, rehydrated and sliced thinly
Salt, to season

To serve - Condiment
6-8 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4-5 cili padi, deseeded and chopped
Soy sauce


1. To make the ikan bilis stock, simply add about 1 large handful of ikan bilis (rinsed) with 700ml water and simmer on medium heat for about 10 minutes. Strain away ikan bilis and discard.

2. In a wok or large saucepan, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add the garlic, and cook for 2 minutes, until lightly browned. Then, add the mushroom and stir fry for about 1 minute, then add the ikan bilis stock (or chicken stock) and bring to the boil.

3. Add the chicken and cook for about 2-3 minutes, until it is cooked through. Then, add the mee suah noodles and cook for about 2 minutes (depending on which noodle you use) and quickly add in the king prawns, tofu and choy sum and cook for a further 1 minute, until the prawn are cooked. Finally, taste and season with salt as required, and just before serving, add in the spring onions and cook for about 10-15 seconds. Divide into bowls and serve with a condiment of garlic, chilli and soy sauce.

Note: You can also use chicken stock instead of ikan bilis. See here for a light chicken stock recipe.

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