Sunday, December 11, 2005

Roasting a Chic and blabbering

I love to cook and bake, but am doing less of it since Zara was born. When I was 8, 9months pregnant with Zara, for my 1 hr lunch break, since I was such a greedy pig I used to bake pies or sausage rolls at home (since I was getting very heavy and lugging the notebook to and fro the office was hurting my back, I was spending most of the later months working from home). I also used to bake new years cookies for both my mil and our home but didn't do it this year because I was busy with Zara. After Zara was born, I was spending less time in the kitchen. When I did, it usually was because I wanted to make something for Zara. When she started solids, I prepared her food on weekends like stewed fruits; steamed or, when I was adventurous, Mediterranean style vege; pureed them, and then froze them in ice cube trays and the following day just popped them out and store them in zip locks bags. It was only when she turned 9mths old that we introduced meat and hence porridge to her (before it was all pureed vege or fruits mixed with organic rice cereal). No more need to do bulk cooking for her on weekends. Her porridge is mainly done by Tuyam, our maid. When we moved to our new place this March, I wanted a good oven, because our old cheap one was not cooking cakes or cookies evenly. We bought one with full feature (not the Teka or Pacific self-cleaning-catalytic-oh-so-expensive type). The only piece of equipment in the house which I had full say on since this is my forte (the rest of the gadgets I left it to Daddy). I had probably just baked a cake, roasted some sweet potato and potato and that's about it for this whole year. MIL and SIL were coming over for dinner yesterday, and it was also our marketing day. So I thought maybe I can get a fresh chicken and roast it for dinner, and try out the rotisserie. The chic was a medium sized chic, I seasoned it the minute we got back from the market. I used light soya sauce, a bit of dark soya sauce, brown sugar, ginger juice, minced garlic, a pinch of cinnamon powder and salt. At 6pm, I got Daddy to bring Zara to the park because I had to cook. I stuffed the chicken with garlic cloves and ginger slices, and skewed it through the rotisserie rod. Once it's in the oven, I just set the timer, and left the kitchen to do some blog surfing (hubby of course didn't know it was that easy to roast a chicken). I went to the kitchen to check a few times, just to make sure things were ok. In the process, I got burnt by being careless while moving the tray and the rotisserie rod about. The chicken was ready in an hours time and turned out to be quite nice; evenly cooked, juicy in the inside, and best of all, all the fat has dripped to the tray. For the ultimate test, we gave some to Zara. Alas, she being a fish person, preferred the steamed garoupa to the chicken. I kept the left over breast for her though, we'll use it to make sandwich for her for lunch. I'll start to spend more time with the oven now that I know how the rotisserie work, and if Daddy didn't mind looking after Zara, I can bake cookies again for the coming new year.

20 comments:

Annie said...

Whatever cookies u are baking, can I have a tin? *please*...

How does it look like the frozen food in the ice cube tray?? do you have picture? can show ar?

mom2ashley said...

i hardly ever cook!.period.

blurblur said...

I seconded mom2ashley's comment...;p

blurblur said...

...but your chicken really looks very ...yummy-licious...:D

Egghead said...

eh... you doing warm-up before roasting a turkey this Christmas?

Helen said...

Waaaa, u are superwoman lar!! Can earn your own living, take care of Zara (& hubby also lar..) and summore cook??? I felt so inadequate in your presence!! LOL

Allyfeel said...

Wah, that sounds like a hi-tech oven ler, like the one in Nando's. So yummy!

I like baking also, learnt how to bake my first salted chicken wing from a Hongkie friend, then a cake b4 bb was born. I think I should start doing it again hor since CNY is approaching.

What cookies do you make la? Can share your recipe arr?

Another thing, is Dr Seager's good? Where can I get them? I have very dry skin, is it suitable?

L B said...

I bake and grill a lotta stuff (usually casseroles) in the oven, but I never tried a roast chicken yet, cos too easy to buy one from the supermarket. Looking at your blog and at that picture, I think I might wanna try it sometime soon! Cheers.

Cocka Doodle said...

*Cocka doodle hung head low in mourning....one of my fellow chicken got roasted.......sniff, sniff*

ZMM said...

Annie,
Can.. that is if I'm making. :P

I wanted to take photos of the food, but they look horrible on photos, nicer in 'real life'. Let me try again.

Mom2Ashley,
You may change your mind when Ashley starts to have poridge and all. You'll have to cook for her over the weekend. :P

Blurblur,
Haha, last time Damien younger, didn't you have to cook poridge for him?
The chic was quite good actually. Most important is it's fresh from the oven.

Milly,
I'll drop my email at your site.

Egghead,
Hmm, good idea, maybe I should try. Save some $ actually.

Helen,
Hey, don't say that. It's my hobby, so I do it for fun. Making my own money is necessary, b'cos my hubby cannot support me mah.
I admire you also, esp your creativity, in writing as well as photo publishing (damn clever to come out with photos for your blog topic).

Allyfeel,
Salted chicken wing sounds yummy. Share your recipe!!
My cookies hor, all from western books. I want to do local cookies but no recipe ler.
If you want the Western Recipe, I can give you. Choc Chip (very easy to do), and biscotti (very tough to do) are the 2 I love best (to eat).
About Dr Seager, I left info on your site already.

l b,
I haven't tried casseroles though. You may want to share some of your recipe though.
With a good oven, the possibility is endless. The next I want to learn is to bake bread. We love European style bread, and buy 3, 4 loaves a week. Very costly, better I bake them myself. But still trying to find time to start.

Cocka doodle,
Sorry, roasted one of your kind. :-(, btw, you haven't started your blog yet?

L B said...

Ok, I will share my top secret casserole recipes on my blog - one day hopefully soon! Very secret wan. Will send you an encoded message in due course. Then u no more complain abt my lazy blogs ok? ;-)

Yes, a good roomy oven is essential! We have them all built-in over here, so that was handy. And pipe-in gas too. That's another thing I like about being over here. No empty Shellane canisters to worry about!

Anonymous said...

whoo...look so yummy, want to try, but how hot you put? 200*c or 300*c? I not sure mine oven can roast chic or not leh, may be try on a small chic first hor?

ky said...

Ahhhh, Teka oven sure expansive, but they look so nice. But, since you quite often use it, zara's papa should have no complain. My hubby just reminded me (as we are in the process of moving out) I have only used the current oven no more than six times in X years :P

Jess said...

wow, the roast chic seem nice le!
I hv oven but yet to try roast whole chic, normally only roast chicken wing or drumstick! should try it out day!

Twin said...

The only time that i 'really' cook is for the kids. As for us, when i'm feeling up to it ... too lazy. Have your hand recovered from the burn?

Sue said...

Looks very "seng kung" wor your chicken... I love baking too, but I seldom eat what I cook, reason being after cooking it I also feel jelak already LOL...

But haven't been cooking since I got back from studyign overseas... too pampered by mum liao I guess LOL

Babysmooches said...

my oh my! Looking at the chicken also makes me drool lah...

ZMM said...

l b,
Oh.. making us all envy huh? Good oven is essential to good results.
Most of our oven here runs on electricity, no gas. But I heard the gas ones cook things more evenly.

Maria,
For rottiserie I have to put 240C. If put on a dish, I saw the book taught me to use 160-200C, but use fan assisted top & bottom heating element activated at the same time.

KY,
We didn't get the Teka. Just got an Electrolux higher end one. Teka and Pacific ones are about 10K for similar feature (minus catalytic cleaning), not worth it!
High time you start using your oven already!! :P

Jesslyn,
I used to do chic wing and tighs only also. That is more of grilling. Also sedap. But roast whole chic, can keep the breast (juicier compares to grilling) to make sandwich loh.

Twin,
Hand recovered from the burn already. No boil, just a scar.
Yeah, nowadays I cook also more for Zara, but since I'm quite greedy one, will start to do for myself and hubby also.

Sue,
Yeah, sometimes got that jelak feeling. But I'm a very greedy person ler, jelak also still eat. :P

Baby,
It looks nicer than it tastes, I must say though. :(

ZMM said...

I mean Baby Smooches for the last comment. :P

Allyfeel said...

I think I have Choc Chip recipe aready but mamamia....biscotti, I love it too. ya, ya I want, I want.