Home-Made Chick-Pea Patties!

For this recipe, I did not cook the chick-peas after soaking them.

Ingredients:

1. 500gm chick-peas
2. 3 big onions (skin peeled)
3. 1 bulb of garlic (skin peeled)
4. 1/2 of sunflower oil
5. Sea-salt
6. Brown sugar
7. 1/2 cup of organic all-purpose flour
8. 3 large eggs

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1. Soak the chick-peas for 8 hours or overnight in the fridge. Alternatively, you need not soak the chick-peas but instead pour boiling water over it and wait for one hour. The peas will swell.

2. Rinse the peas.

3. Blend the peas, garlic and onions.

4. Pour the blended mixture into a large bowl.

5. Add about 3/4 tablespoon of sea-salt and 1 tablespoon of brown sugar, 1/2 cup of sunflower oil and organic all-purpose flour and the 3 large eggs.

6. Mix the mixture thoroughly.

7. Preheat the oven at 210C.

8. Shape the chick-pea mixture into fist sized patties.

9. Lay them on a baking sheet which is placed on a baking tray.

10. Bake for approximately 30 minutes.

11. Once it is browned and a wonderful aroma wafts through the kitchen, the chick-peas are done.

12. Allow to cool.

Patties ALL DONE!

11th Anniversary

Exactly 11 years ago, I signed a legal document binding myself to a man whom I have been calling husband everyday.

11 years have passed within a blink of an eye.

We used to have nice dinners outside, movies or outings. I used to receive a lovely bouquet of flowers from him.

Well, it all had to stop when I had the Idiopathic Anaphylaxis. I can't eat any outside food, walk into a cinema without feeling sick from the combination of perfume, popcorn and soft drinks, and any outings would require intensive planning (as if we were going for a trip to the moon). And the smell of flowers make me sick too. Yes, even the smell of dried flowers.

So now we have nice meals at home! Little young man and hubby enjoyed the meal very much. So did I! And that is the most important thing: we enjoyed ourselves!

Here's what I cooked today:

All coated with plain flour and sea-salt, ready to be oven baked!

The lovely baked chicken with crispy skins! This was requested by popular demand. The little young man loves this dish!

Stir-fried nai-pak with garlic.

Scrambled eggs with big onions!

Baked salmon!

A four-course meal!

 Here are the links for some of the recipes:

Bake Chicken

Big Onion Scrambled Eggs

Bake Salmon

Rice

'You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.' - Albert Camus

Count Your Blessings!

I was looking through a list of questions when this one caught my attention.

'What from your childhood are you most thankful for?'

I took a deep breath and let my thoughts drift back to the years when I could bend, squat, skip and not wince in pain and hear the bones in my back crack like rotten wood. Ahhh, those were the years!

So what am I most thankful for?

I am thankful that I was not struck with Idiopathic Anaphylaxis when I was a child.

I am thankful that I could eat whatever I wanted to eat, drink whatever I wanted to drink, smell whatever I wanted to smell, go wherever I wanted to go at my whim and fancy, sleep (or not sleep) whenever I wanted and use whatever products I wanted to use.

In other words, I lived my childhood with no restrictions.

I could go to my friends' house and eat the food that their parents cooked.

I could go to others' houses which had pets.

I could mingle with people who reeked with overpowering perfumes and 101-combined-scents.

I went out with my friends and had a blast with them at malls, concerts, eateries and parks.

I went for holidays and experienced the different cultures, food, sceneries and surroundings with my family.

I was not restricted by fatigue and exhaustion.

I was not restricted by this hypersensitivity in my immune system.

Well, a lot of people would think that maybe by living how I lived, ate, drank, used, touch, inhaled and breathed contributed to my state today.

I say hell, it was worth it.

If I could go back and live my childhood again, I would do it the same way.

'Cause if I had not met Death and Lived to tell of it, I would not be here today sharing with you my story and that I would not have met you!

The Yummiest Home-Baked Chicken!

* Chicken skin contain amines. If you are sensitive to amines, it would be better to remove the skin.

Ingredients:

1. 4 large chicken drumsticks/thighs (with skins)
2. Organic all-purpose flour or organic plain flour
3. 1 teaspoon of sea-salt
4. Baking paper
5. Baking tray

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1. Wash the chicken drumsticks/thighs thoroughly.

2. Line the baking tray with a piece of baking paper.

3. Preheat oven at 220C.

4. Sprinkle the sea-salt and about 1/4 cup of flour onto the tray.

5. Mix the flour and salt and rub the mixture onto the chicken parts liberally. Make sure that there is a coating of flour and sea-salt all over the chicken. This coating will make the chicken skin crunchier.

6. For the first 1/2 hour, bake the chickens undersides exposed (skin parts on the tray).

7. For the remaining 1/2 hour, bake the chicken parts with the skins exposed.

8. Allow to cool before serving.

Bon appétit!

I had the chicken with fried egg and stir-fried choy sum veggie with garlic.

Boiled some barley too!

The Only Way Out Is Through

A ship in the middle of the great, giant ocean caught in a typhoon-ic storm.

A warrior in the midst of battle with a torn arm and a spear through the shoulder.

A cancer patient going through chemotherapy with all its never-ending horrendous side-effects.

A single mother whose left foot is in the shoe called Father and the right, Mother working nine to five everyday to give her children the life that they deserve.

An addict in the midst of cold turkey.

A patient with an unknown ailment which perplexes doctors to no ends, with steroids as the only answer.

A person who had sunken into the chasms of depression with Suicide, Fatigue, Exhaustion and Insomnia as constant companions.

A dreamer whose dreams that got stolen, ripped apart and discarded like ash.

A husband who lost his wife and children in a tragic accident.

A child who had to grow up too soon as she was now an orphan.

Upon escaping Death, the Human became afraid to Live.

They all had not one thing in common, except this:

The only way out is through.

Home-Made Falafels

Falafel is a traditional Arab food. It basically is a deep-fried ball or patty made from ground chickpeas, lava beans or both.

I made some amendments to the traditional falafel recipe. And I used only chick-peas. Spices (such as cumin and coriander) are used heavily in the traditional falafel. I can't use spices, thus I replaced them with garlic and onions. Falafels are deep fried. I baked mine.

When chick-peas are used, they are not cooked prior to use. But I cooked mine. You can experiment with either way.

Ingredients:

1. 500gm of chick-peas
2. 2 large carrots (peeled and cut into small chunks)
3. 2 large big onions (peeled and sliced into halves)
4. 1 clove of garlic (peeled)
5. 1 cup of all organic all-purpose flour
6. Sunflower oil
7. Sea-salt
8. Brown sugar
9. 3 large eggs (beaten)
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1. Soak the chick-peas overnight or for about 8 hours.

2. If you need some tips on cooking the chick-peas, click here. If you want to use them raw, skip this step.

3. By using a blender or food processor, blend the chick-peas, the carrots, big onions and garlic.

4. Pour the blended mixture into a large bowl.

5. Add the 1 cup of organic all-purpose flour, 2 teaspoons of sea-salt, 1 tablespoon of brown sugar, 1/2 cup of sunflower oil and the beaten eggs into the blended mixture and mix thoroughly.

6. Preheat oven at 210C.

7. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.

8. Using a small soup ladle, scoop up the mixture and fill up the trays with blobs of the mixture. Use the back of the ladle to flatten the mixture.

9. Bake the two trays of falafels for about 1/2 hour. Once they are browned and a very wonderful aroma fills the air, you will know that it is done!

10. Allow to cool before serving.

Bon appétit!

Chick-Pea Minced Chicken Dish

Ingredients:

1. 200gm of cooked chick-peas
2. 500gm of minced chicken (marinate with sea-salt and 1 teaspoon of sunflower oil)
3. 5 large old potatoes (skin peeled and sliced thinly)
4. Garlic (sliced thinly)
5. Sunflower oil
6. Sea-salt
7. Sugar

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1. To cook the chick-peas, click here.

2. Heat a wok.

3. Once the wok is heated up, drizzle some sunflower oil over it.

4. Add the garlic and stir fry until slightly browned.

5. Add the potatoes and cover the work. Stir occasionally until softened.

6. Then add the minced chicken and make sure it is thoroughly cooked.

7. Break the minced chicken into fine pieces.

8. Add the cooked chick-peas, sprinkle some sea-salt and sugar and mix all the ingredients throughly.

9. Serve hot with rice.

Bon appétit!

We had this dish with brown rice!

Home-Made Minced Chicken+Mashed Potato Patty (Evelyn's Version)

Ingredients:

1. 6 very large old potatoes
2. 500gm of minced chicken (marinate with sea-salt, a dash of brown sugar and sunflower oil)
3. 4 cups of organic all-purpose flour
4. Sunflower oil
5. Sea-salt
6. Brown sugar
7. 60gm of butter (softened at room temperature)
8. 7 cups of water

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1. In a large pot, pour 6 cups of water into it and bring it to a boil.

2. Wash the potatoes and peel the potato skins. Discard the skins.

3. Once the water is boiling, drop the potatoes into it and continue to boil the water until the potatoes have softened.

4. Scoop the softened potatoes up and mash them up. Add the softened butter and 1/2 teaspoon of sea-salt to the mashed potatoes and mix throughly.

5. In a large baking bowl, pour the flour, a teaspoon of sea-salt, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1/2 cup of sunflower oil and the mashed potatoes.

6. Mix all the ingredients throughly until they resemble the mixture of dough.

7. Heat a frying pan.

8. Break the dough into balls the size of golf balls.

9. Flatten them and make a depression in the centre.

10. Scoop 2 tablespoons size of minced chicken and press it into the depression.

11. Drizzle some sunflower oil on the heated pan.

12. Place the patties onto the pan and fry till golden brown.

13. Flip them over and fry the other side until golden brown too.

14. Serve warm with rice. Alternatively, you can eat it them on their own with the sauce of your choice. I had mine with rice of course!

Bon appétit!

Mashing the potatoes!

The dough!

The potato patty with minced chicken in the centre!

The yummy-licious patties!

With rice of course! 

My Home-Made Minced Chicken Chop

Ingredients:

1. 500gm of minced chicken
(*marinate with sea-salt, sunflower oil and 2 tablespoons of organic all-purpose flour)
2. Sunflower oil
3. Bread crumbs

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1. Heat a frying pan.

2. While the pan is being heated up, flatten the minced chicken into a large slice "patty-looking-chicken". Use a plastic spoon to create some "lines of depression or wavy-lines" in the chicken.

3. Then coat the chicken with bread crumbs.

4. Drizzle some sunflower oil onto the frying pan.

5. Place the minced chicken onto the pan.

6. Allow it to sizzle until it is browned on one side.

7. Turn it over and allow the other side to sizzle until browned too.

8. Serve hot.

Bon appétit!

I did not coat the chicken with enough bread crumbs. Will do so the next time I cook this. 

This is the little boy's meal. I served the minced chicken chop with my home-made instant noodles, fried egg and sliced cucumbers. I garnished the noodles with some fried garlic and shallots. 

The Glorious Heavens - Part 17

"Clouds are the sky's imagination." - Terri Guillemets

7.50 in the morning!

"Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books.' - John Lubbock

"Know where to find the sunrise and sunset times and note how the sky looks at those times, at least once." - Marilyn vos Savant

This the Season to Be Cranky...

FA LA LA LA LA, LA LA LA LA!!!

The virus had been spreading its unseen hand all over the school. Kids had been falling sick and even the people in the cafeteria have succumbed to it. Little boy contracted the virus on Thursday and was sick, at home for two days. Things have been looking good!

Until TODAY!

The daddy had severe food poisoning which required a visit to the ER. He had to be on a drip as he almost passed out. Blood tests showed that he has a bacterial infection which requires TWO different types of antibiotics.

Do keep us (especially me) in your positive thoughts and prayers as I will be traveling about 100 kilometers everyday as hubby is now flat on his back in bed. I am very tired and exhausted. And cranky. And irritated. And tired. And Tired. And TIRED!! And little boy will be having his final exams the whole of this week!!

I do hope that the disrupted sleep every night will give me a break and allow me to sleep in deep slumber every single night!

Thank god for my parents!

My Home-Made Chicken Rice - Part 3

3. The Bean Sprout!

Ingredients:

1. 500gm of home sprout beans sprout.
2. 1/4 clove of garlic (sliced into thin slices)
3. Sunflower oil
4. Sea-salt

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1. Wash the sprouts thoroughly.

2. Heat a wok.

3. Pour some sunflower oil into the wok.

4. Add the sliced garlic to the wok and stir fry until slightly browned.

5. Add the bean sprouts, sprinkle some sea-salt and stir fry until cooked.

6. Serve hot with the rice and the chicken.

Bon appétit!

The un-cooked sprouts.

A truly delicious home-made meal!

My Home-Made Chicken Rice - Part 2

B. The Chicken!

Ingredients:

1. 1 whole chicken (cut into 4 parts) (skin or skinless, it is up to you)
2. 1 clove of garlic
3. Sea-salt
4. 1/4 cup of chicken broth

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1. Peel off the outer layer of some of the garlic and rub the garlic all over the chicken parts.

2. Then rub the chicken parts liberally with sea-salt.

3. Throw the rest of the unpeeled garlic with the uncooked chicken. Place them in a steamer or a pot with steaming function. I used my oven which has a steaming function.

4. Pour the 1/4 cup of chicken broth over the chicken.

5. Steam for about 40 minutes.

6. Serve hot with the rice.

Bon appétit!

The half-devoured chicken!

My Home-Made Chicken Rice - Part 1

A. The Rice!

Ingredients:

1. 4 cups of sushi rice
2. 60gm of butter (melted)
3. 1 teaspoon of sea-salt
4. 1 clove of garlic (outer layer not removed but washed thoroughly)
5. 1 big onion (outer layer removed)
6. Sunflower oil
7. 2 cups of chicken broth

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1. Wash the rice thoroughly.

2. Add 2 cups of chicken broth to the washed uncooked rice.

3. Sprinkle the sea-salt, add the melted butter and stir the mixture thoroughly.

4. Add the garlic and big onion and a dash of sunflower oil to the mixture.

5. Boil the rice for about 1/2 hour, with the first 15 minutes on high heat and the remaining 15 minutes on medium low heat.

6. Serve hot.

Bon appétit!