Roast Chicken & Asparagus Salad

New house, new cookware...GOT to put it all to test!

My first "real" cooking session in my new house~ should sheepishly admit tho that the chicken was purchased pre-marinaded (I'm a working girl after all!)

So...is it really cheaper to cook at home? Let's put it to the test:

6 chicken thighs $7.50

1 bunch asparagus $1

1/2 bag of baby rocket $1

2 Roma tomatoes $1

Total: $10.50 (fed 2 with leftover chicken for next day consumption ;p)

As for the process...easy as!

1) Throw chicken in foil, all covered, and heat for 30mins at about 180 degrees.

2) After 30mins, take chicken out, unwrap the cover foil, throw in the tomatoes (and any other vegetable) and put back in for another 20mins to 30mins

3) While waiting, spread baby rocket on plate, chuck asparagus in water & boil for a couple minutes

4) Once asparagus is nice & soft & cooked, drain into a bowl and season with salt, pepper & some Parmesan cheese. 

5) Take the chicken out of oven, and plate everything decoratively (helps make the meal look yummier, seriously!).

And voila! Dinner is served!

Creme Brulee

Who knew that making creme brulee could be one of the easiest desserts in the world? I think most people just avoid because they're missing that essential blow torch, required to caramelise the topping.

Amazingly enough, only a few ingredients are needed:
600ml thickened creme
6 egg yolks
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
1/4 cup of caster sugar
1/4 cup of normal or brown sugar (for the topping)

mix/beat all but the last ingredient together in a large bowl, split it into ramekins (I bought 6 super cute Marie Claire ones in baby blue, green & pink) and put it in the oven for about 40mins.

To make it all nice and soft and puffy, you can put the ramekins in cake tin trays that are filled with 1-2cm of water...something about steam and softening...don't get it! But it works!

And once the ramekins are out and relatively cooled...spread the sugar on top, BURNNNNN with the blow torch until it's golden brown (or look caramelised), and serve!

This can be served hot or cold but I found it sooo yummy when it's just lukewarm ^_^

The simple no frills beef noodle soup (pho)

So many times my sis & I go to get a pho and we get the death stare for trying to customize the simple dish. But hey...we're customizing it to make it even SIMPLER! >_<

"Can I please have a pho...with no shallots....and no onions...in fact no garnish at all please...and cooked sprouts...not that much beef...and oh...1/4 of the noodles and more soup please!"

That's why I decided to attempt my own no frills version of the pho.

Ingredients:
1kg beef bones
Star anise (a few)
Salt & MSG
1 packet of flat rice noodles
300 grams of beef (thinly sliced)
4 small red chillis
Mint, onions, shallots, sprouts etc as required (they're optional extras which are supposed to spice up the noodle soup, but to me, they just steal the taste away...)

The steps then become way easy!
1) Cook the 1kg beef bones & star anise in a large pot of water for 1-2 hours
2) Add salt & msg as required
3) Filter out the bones & star anise to leave a pot of nice & clean beef stock soup
4) Add noodles & sliced beef
5) Add additional garnish (the chillis, mint, onions, sprouts, whatever you felt like) as required

And voila! It might seem like a too simple/too plain version, but I'll just end the post by saying that all family members I fed cleaned their bowls and there wasn't enough for seconds :)

To think I once thought cooking a pho was the most difficult thing in the world :p