An improvised Friday night dinner

The squash and the chicken can be repeated. Hence recording for future purpose. The basic braising method for the chicken can probably be reused for other meats.

Squash cooked salad.
1. Cut butternut squash into 3-4cm chunks. Then roast in 150C oven with olive oil and salt till tender.
2. cook quinoa in salted chicken stock (used 1/3 cup for about 300g of butternut).
3. toast pumpkin seeds in dry non stick pan till brown and fragrant.
4. Mix.

Braised chicken. Used a dutch oven.
1. 2 thighs and 2 half chicken breasts. I dry brined the chicken a bit for 1 hour. No other salt added later.
2. Moderately cook some chopped bacon until fat renders out and bacon browns. Set bacon aside.
3. Brown chicken. Put aside also.
4. saute some oregano until fragrant.
5. pour in 1 can of tomato (whole tomato, crushed by hand).
6. cook for a few minutes at boiling.
7. Add in 2-3 table spoons of heavy cream.
8. cook for a few minutes more, mixing in the cream. Add a healthy dollop of pepper. Out in several sprigs of thyme.
9. put back the bacon. Then lay the chicken on top. Make sure sauce just covers the chicken. Add a little water if necessary. Add a few pats of butter on top.
10. boil the lot.
11. put the pot into a 150C oven. Cook for 20 minutes covered, then take out the cover and cook for a further 40-50 minutes uncovered.
12. Take out chicken. Boil the remaining sauce if necessary to thicken.
13. To serve, put chicken on plates and spoon over sauce.

Savory Onion custard

Not sure what to call this really. It's sort of a cross between a Frittata and a crustless Quiche. Kind of made it up using a bit of kitchen science.

It tastes quite nice, is inexpensive, and is very moist inside, but browned outside.

1. For this size dish, I used 6 eggs + 3 tablespoons greek yoghurt. Mix it together with a bit of milk, salt and pepper.

2. Slice one medium onion. On fry pan, saute the onions slowly in a butter/oil mix till they are soft, but not browned.

3. Butter the round pan.

4. When onions are done, pour into the pan and spread everything out evenly. Then pour the egg mixture over it.

5. Place into an oven with steam injection at 70-80C (alternative : use water bath) and slowly bring the egg mixture temperature up to about 65C. This is so that the entire mixture is just short of curdling.

6. Remove pan, and spread a generous amount of grated Parmesan cheese on the top.

7. Re-insert pan into a 190C oven with broiler turned on and bake till the top is brown and egg mix is no longer bubbling up.

8. Take out and cool before cutting.

Cha Siu with Lee Kum Kee

Tried a char Siu done with Lee Kum Kee char Siu sauce.

Result is decent. Though I would have cut the meat differently - against the grain instead of with the grain. That made slicing the meat a bit iffy when cutting through the char. 

1. Cut pork shoulder into manageable pieces. 

2. Dry brine the pork for several hours using salt, Apple cider vinegar and a little maple syrup.

3. Wash the brine off. Then insert into baggies and coat with Lee Kum Kee sauce.

4. Cook at 61.5C for 18 hours. 

5. Take out meat, clean it of sauce and pat dry. Reserve sauce in bag. Reduce the sauce on stove top to a thick consistency.

6. Char the meat in a very hot oven with a broiler turned on (260C). 

7. Take out, and apply the sauce as a glaze and put back into oven (reduce heat to 160C) until the glaze becomes a sticky coat on the meat.

Note: The char siu goes well with mw's home made bean sprouts (below the char siu in the pic). 

Crab meat pasta and a good home made tomato sauce

Made a tomato sauce, following almost faithfully the recipe in this link : http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2014/09/the-best-slow-cooked-italian-american-tomato-sauce-red-sauce-recipe.html

I made about 6 two person portions using 4x800g of canned tomatoes (the tomatoes really reduce down in the long cook).

The pictured pasta was made using the basic sauce and it was pretty good. Went well with a Bordeaux. 

1. Fry some sliced bacon in a non stick pan with no added oil to render the bacon fat at medium heat.

2. Take out the bacon and then put in a healthy dollop of crab meat at high heat. 

3. Stir briefly then add in the tomato sauce. 

4. Stir to mix, then add a dollop of heavy cream. Add back the bacon.

5. Add pepper to taste.
6. Toss with pasta.