Chicken Baked Rice (Tomato Based)

Coming home from work and cracking my head to think of what to cook everyday can be quite a feat.. I am always trying to find the easiest recipes to prepare. And this is also why I adore oven baked dishes. Throw them in and forget about it until the timer beeps..

Recently I came across a cream based chicken baked rice recipe but Mikka can't take too much cream (and its also not good for my waistline.. haha) so I decided to alter the original recipe a little and made mine into a tomato based one instead.

Like I said, fast and easy is my thing so I used a lot of short cuts. For those who might be interested, here's the recipe :-

Ingredients

(Serves 2-3)

- 1 cup cooked rice

- 1 onoin, diced

- 200g (white or brown) button mushrooms, sliced

- 2pcs chicken fillet (breaded or grilled) - Cooked & cut into thick strips,

- 15g garlic butter

- 5 - 6 tbsp pasta sauce of your choice / 2 - 3 tbsp to spread over rice

- Shredded Cheese (I used emmentaler)

- White asparagus (or whatever veggie of your choice)

- Salt & Pepper

- Parsley (garnishing)

Directions

1. In a heated wok or saucepan, melt the butter. Add the sliced mushrooms, onions and asparagus, stir-fry for a few minutes until the veggies are soft. Add 5 - 6 tablespoons of pasta sauce and some salt to taste.

2. Portion out the rice into individual oven-safe baking dishes (or use a 20cm x 20 cm square alumnium tray) until about half the height of the dish.

4. Spread some pasta sauce on top of the rice, and topped with a layer of fried mushrooms, asparagus and onion. Place the chicken slices and top with shredded cheese.

5. Baked in a pre-heated oven at 200°C for about 20-25 minutes, or until all the cheese melted and is very slightly browned. Garnish with parsley.

Bye bye 2011, hello 2012... Marking my one year in Germany!!

Today marks my 1st full year in Germany. Looking back it has been a rather fruitful and interesting year for me. Getting to know all the great freinds in my German class and the different places in Germany that I have visited, Spring/Summer Fests, Canstatter Volksfest, playing DIY lady and also all the recipes that I have not had the chance to try out.. Here's a short picture sum up of my 2011... =)

Some of my great classmates from my German class in Henke Schulungen..

Heidelberg

Tübingen

Bodensee

Düsseldorf

Fireworks @ Blühendes Barock

Mallorca

 Food......

Cola BBQ Sauce Pork Chop

The picture of this dish got a little rave from my friends in FB. Happened to find this a few years ago over the internet and I picked up a lot of 'advice' from others.
For those who are curious and wanna try, this is my final recipe....

Original Recipe Yield 8 servings

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/2 cup BBQ Sauce
• 1 cup cola-flavored carbonated beverage
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tsp plain flour
• 8 pork chops
• salt and pepper to taste

1 onion sliced & sauteed until soft and translucent.

Meat Seasoning

• Garlic Powder
• Onion Powder
• Pepper
• Salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 220 degrees C .
2. Mix together the ketchup, BBQ Sauce, cola and brown sugar & 1 tsp of plain flour.
3. Sear pork chops in frying pan to seal in the juices.
4. Place pork chops into a baking pan, spread onions over and pour cola mixture over, coating well. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
5. Bake for about 50mins to one hour depending on the thickness of the pork chop.

Going 4 months and still having fun....

2 more days and its the 3 month mark for me in Germany.. How time flies... I was still just complaining that the weather is always cold cold freezing freezing.. now its Spring already. Still chilly but there is definitely more sunshine... =)
Still 'struggling' with school but I made quite a few new friends. My class is super international.. We have classmates from so many countries. Spanish, USA, Canadian, Czech, Russia, Turkey, Peru, Ukraine, Taiwan and of course... China.. *winks* Its really interesting when we go out for meals cos there are some many different languages coming from one table.. LOL...
Other than the norm school day routine, I have managed to find some interesting 'close to home' food. There's a Chinese restaurant - Rice Man - in downtown Stuttgart that sells Sichuan Mala-Steamboat.. Was soooo elated and it actually tastes not too bad..  But do take note that the steamboat is on the second level. The shopfront is quite deceptive.. Looks well... not so appetizing.. If I didn't know it, I would never step in.. keke.. Last weekend I also found a great Korean restaurant - Eat Drink Man Woman - @ Schwabstraße a few stops away from Stuttgart by S-Bahn. The BBQ is great but personally, I would give the Kimchi soup a pass the next time.. =D
Today is Mikka's birthday so I decided to try to cook some real German food. Poor Mikka, had to put up with my not East not West cooking.. but he's still alive.. keine panic!! So, for the first time in my life, I attempted the Schweinebraten... and it didn't taste too bad.. keke.. I also made Vanilla & Chocolate pudding for dessert.. Sweet right?.. *winks* Hope that he liked this Birthday dinner...
So much so for now.. will try to update more soon... Ciao!!

After 1 month in Deutschland.....

Okay.. I know I've been too lazy to update my blog but still trying to fit in to the new environment... =P
Have been here for one month and ten days and still trying to get used to the cold.. lol.. Chinese New Year just passed by as a breeze as there is no big celebration here like Singapore. Was soooooooo homesick during those first few days and I would just die for some of the dishes on the reunion table.. You know what I mean.... Maybe next year I will go home for CNY... Still need some of these familiar traditions once in awhile.. *winks*
Mikka's parents are really nice.. For the fact that my Deutsch still sux, we had to trouble them when the building maintainence guy came along to fix the taps when we had our washing machine installed.. Gosh.. Was really surprised at how the parts were corroding.. Should have had these changed long ago... Thankfully they are staying really close by..
Had the chance to meet up with Dawn & Kel when they came down to Stuttgart for a visit. Picked them up from Stuttgart HBF and hung around in town for the day.. Even brought them to Lola's (Towers is actually the name of the place but I call it Lola's.. a joke from last time) in Ludwisburg, my favourite Irish pub so far.. =D Hopefully will be able to meet up with Dawn again, maybe in Bonn before she finishes her work contract.
Also met up with my friend Cindy from the Deutsch class @ Goethe in Singapore. Her husband works in Nürnberg and they go back to Manheim where her in laws are staying once in awhile. So, Mikka & myself took a day trip to Manheim for a visit... =D  All I can say about Manheim is.... its a city of cars & traffic lights.. LOL.. Mikka was going crazy at the amount of times he had to stop on one stretch of the road cos the traffic light intervals was like every 30 - 50 meters.. Maybe its really better to go around that town on bicycles.. keke...
So, what have I been doing for the last month... Hmm... playing maid, cook and carpenter... LOL.. Have been trying out different kinds of recipe and poor Mikka has to eat... can't complain.. heh heh.. I also built up a chest of drawers from scratch... First time in my life.. but it was quite fun.. At first it drove me crazy and I wanted to kick myself for even attempting.. Should have waited for Mikka to finish work and build that up together.. But after awhile, I got it.. LOL..
Will be starting school next Tuesday @ the Henke Schulungen in Stuttgart downtown.. Compulsory Integration course that I have to take... Course will stretch all the way to July.. Hopefully I can catch up cos I'm actually joining another class that has already started....
Ohh.. and my ex company (the head office) offered me a 3 day translation job.. and I have to go to the city of Bielefeld which is (accordong to Mikka) around 300Km away from Stuttgart. After that, I will go to Hannover with them and join Mikka to come home... =D But that means I have to miss school for 2 days.. Think should be no problem.. plus I have to make some money for my monthly train ticket.. keke...

Will update again soon... =D

Food Galore....

We decided to do our regular cousin's gathering last Saturday - Halloween!!!
We only had only 18 adults and 2 kids but the amount of food that we had was more than enough to feed 40 people.. LOL...
Its always nice to see a whole table full of food.. *GRINZ* We all just luuurve these food parties...
We were supposed to be each bringing a dish of some sort to contribute to the food 'mountain' so Jac did her 'speciality' - Crab bee hoon which we all love.. *yummie* Poor girl, got bitten by the stoopid crab while picking it up. Luckily the bite was not too serious, if not we would have felt really guilty.. keke... But it was a little disappointing on my end cos there was simply too much food on the table and I didn't eat as much crabs as I would have liked to.. keke... Will be looking forward to the next food party.. maybe Christmas... haha...

German Market Place (in SG)

Today I finally decided to drop by the German Market Place which I have found over the internet.
When I was over in Stuttgart, we found an Asian supermarket - BETA Supermarket (exact location I'm not sure... keke) so I thought here in Singapore, there must be at least ONE shop that sells German products.
Wanted to drop by yesterday but thankfully I didn't as they close for the day at 7.00pm.
The staff was nice, actually as mentioned, they close rather early. I stepped into the shop at 6.58pm and they let me finish my shopping anyway... LOL...
They really have a wide range of products in the shop. From beer to wurst to pickles to schokolade... *GRINZ*

I have been wanting to get spätzle to try out more dishes but they don't have this in the regular supermarkets. Mikka volunteered to send them to me if I really wanted it.. Sweet ja? keke... So, spätzle was actually no. 1 on my 'list of things to find' from the German Market Place. I was actually only half convinced that I could get my spätzle but surprise... They really have it!! Too bad I didn't have time to slowly browse through the racks. Next time I will drop by again when I need my re-stock of Hanutas.. Yes.. they have Hanutas too.. So Mikka.. next time you have one less thing to lug along.. keke...
For those who wants to drop by the mart, address and opening hours as follows :
German Market Place (Along the shophouse further up Coronation Plaza)
609 Bukit Timah Road
Mon - Sat : 10am - 7pm
(Closed on Sundays & Public Holidays)

Käsespätzle?? More like Ham n Cheese pasta

Mom and dad left me to feed myself today.. So I thought I would do something that Mikka taught me.. only that.. its more my version.. Had to more or less change the recipe a little cos I don't have Swabian noodles anymore so I replaced that with pasta.. Its still some kind of noodles.. keke.. Sauteed the onions with butter & olive oil & set aside for 30mins (normally its to be set aside for an hour but I was hungry... LOL) I cook the pasta until it is really soft this time as I remembered Swabian noodles as being more moist. After that, I tossed the ham and onions together to let it mix well, added the pasta then into the baking plate. I used red & white cheddar slices. Oven was preheated to 170°C and the pasta was baked for about 20mins.

~Swabian Food~

Last week Mikka told me that his mom made some Linsen Mit Spätzle - Authentic Swabian food. I was kinda curious so I went to search for this recipe. Looks typically like a meat gravy dish but boy was I surprised. The 'meat' is actually lentils - a kind of bean. Interesting... Mikka promised that we would try to make this dish when he is here with the Swabian noodles that he will be bringing me. We have to go get the other ingredients from the mart but it should be no problem.

Just for those who are curious, I have the recipe here.. *winks*

Ingredients

Fresh Spätzle or 1 package dried Spätzle (available at most German Delicatessens)

2 cups dried Lentils

1 Onion, cut in half

4 Soup-Bones

2 Cloves

1 teaspoon Salt

2 teaspoons Tomato Paste

Salt, Pepper, Marjoram, Thyme (to taste)

8 Frankfurter Würstchen

Instructions

In a large cooking pot, soak the lentils in water for 12 hours to soften them.

Press cloves into onion halves.

Leaving the lentils in the water, add the soup bones, onions halves, and 1 teaspoon salt.

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and allow mixture to simmer for 1 hour.

In the meantime, prepare Fresh Spätzle or cook dried Spätzle according to package instructions.

Remove onion halves and soup bones from the soup.

Mix tomato paste and seasonings into the soup. Add Frankfurter Würstchen.

Allow soup to cook for another 5 minutes to cook the sausages.

Serve immediately and serve with the Spätzle.

Ich Mag Gulasch!!!! *SMILEZ*

Yes.. as what my Mikka says, I am a gulasch-holic.. keke...
When I was in Germany, I went all crazy over Gulasch Suppe... I figured that since I like to eat it, I must learn how to make it.
Bought the Gulasch spices from one (of the many) supermarket in Stuttgart on my last trip but never tried it till now... So, today is my first attempt...

Took me around 15 mins to prepare all the necessary ingredients.
I used capsicum, carrots, onions, potatoes, tomatoes and of course... BEEF!!

I used olive oil instead of vegetable oil (from what I find in most Gulasch recipes online) to sauté the garlic, onions and capsicum. Threw in the beef to stir-fry until half cooked, then lastly, the carrots, potatoes and crushed tomatoes. Added approximately 3 cups of beef stock and 1 small can of tomato puree. Lastly, the Gulasch spice that I brought all the way back from Germany... keke...

Had the whole pot boiling for about half an hour before I turned down the heat to let it 'stew' for about another hour or so... The smell was.... yummy yummy yummy...

Mom and dad was going all curious about what I was boiling.. They kept going into the kitchen and asking me.. 'Is it done?' *Grinz*

My dear brother is another darling.. I sent him an SMS asking if he would like to try my Gulasch (which was still cooking) and I got an answer almost immediately - "Ok, I come now!'.. LOL

The review of my Gulasch No. 1 - has room for improvement but overall - Yummy!!! Yay yay!!

So, Mikka.. too bad for you.. It wouldn't be bad for you and your stomach.. No.. not at all.. =P

What's cooking honey?

Missy told me today that she's going to experiment in the kitchen.

During her last visit here in Germany she discovered the "wonderful world of Gulasch" (or goulasch, how Missy says).

Actually, Missy is a Gulasch-holic.

Everywhere we travelled she ordered Gulasch at least once to find "Germany's Best Gulasch".

According to Missy this was the best looking Gulasch (found in Hamburg's restaurant "Alte Apotheke") - but not the best in taste... (on the picture you see a loaf of bread which is holed and then filled up with Gulasch).
Nice idea of the chef - but really messy to eat after more than 15 minutes ;-)

So, Missy is going to try her own Gulasch today.

So far the meat is ready and boiling... we will see the final result soon... ;-)

It's a pitty that I will not have a chance to taste "Gulasch no. 1" - but maybe that's better for me & my stomach... ;-)