Western Delights

I decided to whip up something special this weekend in order to keep my cooking enthusiasm going and at the same time to use up some leftover ingredients from my previous cooking attempts. (how do you use up all your leftover ingredients??)

So I surfed all around the internet for some interesting recipes to try out! Well, I found a few recipes that sounded pretty interesting and yet seem easy to prepare... So the menu was set
Main: Breaded Chicken Roast with mashed potato & baked broccoli with cheese
Dessert: Chilled Mango Sago

But lo and behold!! It was my first tedious try at making a meal! okay, I admit... I was feeling a little lazy tired... it probably is simple for some of you who are seasoned chefs and have prepared even more complicated meals before though :)

I got the breaded chicken roast from here but was rather hesitant as no one posted a review on the recipe. I started to turn a little skeptical ~ (maybe it was never tried before? maybe it isn't that fantastic? maybe no one bothered? hmmm) ~ The recipe was also submitted without a photo so I really had no idea what to expect of this dish. It was really a dish that required me to "imagine". So, I went ahead with the recipe on hand and a backup sidedish of mashed potato.

[Well, if the chicken failed then at least the potato would suffice in filling our tummy, right?]

And the result?

I felt rather proud of my first try!

Basically, the breaded roast chicken was better than I had imagined, my recipe-less mashed potato was quite successful and the baked broccoli with cheese was something unique and delicious! Though I have to confess that I hurried down to the supermarket to buy a packet of instant roast chicken gravy as I was worried the potato would turn out bland :)

Breaded Roast Chicken (adapted from Nigella.com/submitted by symphony0509)

Ingredients:

3 or 4 pieces chicken breasts/thighs

4 heaped tbsp of butter

4 cloves of garlic minced finely/blended

1/4 cup cheese (well, I used cheddar cheese that has been grated)

1 handful of coriander leaves (I didn't have any fresh leaves but had some masterfoods ready coriander leaves spice so I added approximately an amount of my palmsize)

2 splashes of virgin olive oil

Crushed graham crackers (I used my leftover panko)

the original recipe also included 1 tsp of lemon juice and 1 tsp of thyme leaves but I didn't have any on hand thus didn't add them in :)

Directions:

Season the chicken with salt and pepper and place it in the electric turbo boiler

Mix well the olive oil, coriander leaves, cheese, garlic, butter, lemon juice and thyme into a bowl

Paint the chicken generously with the mixture

cover the chicken with the panko until completely covered

Baked it for about 45mins to an hour with a temperature of about 150degrees

Recipe-less mashed potato (based on my agar-ation)

Ingredients and Directions:

4 potatos, skinned

Boil the potatoes for about an hour or until soft

Wash them under cold water and drain it

Place in big bowl/plate and start mashing them with a fork

When potato has been mashed totally, add about 1/4 cup milk or until mashed potato has a smooth texture

Season with salt and pepper together with basil leaves

Add about 1 heaped tsp of butter

Mash further and mix well

Baked Broccoli with cheese

Took the broccoli recipe from here except for a few modifications...

firstly, i used my muffin foil instead of aluminium cups and as I didn't know how to estimate the weight proportions, I basically used 2 broccoli stems with each cup, 1 tsp of mayo, 1/2 tsp of butter and enuff cheese to fill the top and cover with it with leftover panko again :)

I placed it in my trusty turbo boiler for about less than 10 mins till the top turned light brown at about 120 degrees

And for dessert, I have to admit that the sago almost drove me nuts! I soaked it for eons and it didn't turn translucent! It stuck to each other like glue and by the time I thouroughly read through the recipe again, then I realised there was an easier way!! argghh!

But definitely a recipe worth trying! Definitely doesn't taste as pale as it looks. I placed it in the freezer and by the time it was to make its appearance, it had bits of ice in it which made it a great finale to my weekend cooking experiment :)

Chilled Mango Sago (slightly modified from thelazychef & Zu's Kitchen)

Ingredients:

1 mango (original recipe uses 2 but I was on a tight budget)

400ml mango juice

125ml evaporated milk

80g sago pearls

250ml water

2 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp cornflour

1 tbsp water

extra 100ml water

Directions (slightly modified as I was lazy tired):

1. Used 250ml hot water and sugar, stir till sugar dissolves.

2. Mix cornflour with 1 tbsp hot water and pour into the syrup and stir until smooth.

3. Cut the sides of the mango and cube them.

4. Scrap the remaining mango and put in a bowl, add 100ml of water to blend, put aside. (I confess I skipped this step. Instead the remaining mango went into my stomach and upon slurping it all up I realised I was to use the remaining mango as well)

6. Add blended mango (from4), cubed mango, mango juice and evaporated milk into the syrup solution (from 2) then stir.

7. Add sago pearls and stir, if too thick, add abit of cooled boiled water or more mango juice.

8. Chill before serving.

As I had a tedious time preparing the sago pearls and have thus lost track of the time I took to prepare them...
Please refer to original recipe and preparation of sago pearls here :)