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Dinner (& Dessert) with Mabinogi
Comments
12 oz can of chicken (you can find it in the tuna section)
10 to 12 oz Can or Jar of Chicken Gravy
Instant Potatoes or Baked Potato or Rice
Heat the chicken and the gravy while you cook the potatoes or rice. Pour gravy over the potatoes or rice. Dig in! We also have canned corn, carrots, or green beans as a side with it.
EDIT: Oh, and its cheap. Lol.
that sounds so disgusting
Like Tuna, just chicken preserved in a can. Not that bad, usually. The one's I've seen have typically been white meat.
Now canned BEEF on the other hand... barf!
(Trial #1: 60-75% success this time round)
I'll briefly go over the finished result tonight so those who want to attempt to make it as follows will adjust correctly.
The skin did not crisp enough and a late dressing of salt on one of the pieces made the top too salty. Otherwise everything else went well.
It's actually quite easy because no need to keep a constant watch of cooking time.
And now to the process. Even though it is easy, it will still take time, so start early to get sufficient time to marinate and cook.
Ingredients
2 full sized pork belly pieces with the skin (photo below)
Salt and Coarse Salt
Pepper
Five Spice
Garlic Powder
Chicken Bouillon
Coriander
Cumin
Cinnamon
Ginger Powder
Vinegar
1. Prep your pork belly. We used pork belly we bought today at the market so it was ready to use as soon as we got back. And that is preferred over frozen pork belly as the pork juices won't be frozen and lost after thawing. But if you must use frozen pork belly, let it thaw to room temperature and pat it dry of any excess moisture.
Next, you should fill up a pan or skillet of water and boil it. With tongs, hold meat side up and blanch the skin side. The skin side needs to cook to make it easier to do the next process. We skipped this process due to time constraints so that was the main reason why the skin did not crisp properly.
After blanching, set your pork belly to cool and then proceed to stab holes around the skin. Like cooking other meat, this will help the meat under to skin cook later on as well as help the skin crisp.
On the bottom side of the pork belly, cut a couple thin incisions across the pork belly which will help the bottom side cook and also for the next step in seasoning.
2. Seasoning
Prepare the seasoning. Grab a good pinch of each: salt, pepper, five spice, garlic powder, a tablespoon of granulated chicken bouillon, coriander, cumin and cinnamon. Mix these dry ingredients together. You can taste it to see if the flavor is ok. You do not need to add a whole lot of salt and garlic powder at the very beginning as you can always add more if it is lacking. But if you overkill from the start, then your seasoning may be ruined. You can be a bit more generous with five spice, because that is the main spice used.
Once your seasoning mix is ready, rub the bottom side of your pork belly completely and squeeze some inside the open incisions to make sure there will be flavor in every bit of the meat. At this time we do not add any seasoning to the skin side because we don't want it to burn while cooking.
Using a cooking brush, gently apply some cooking vinegar on the top of the skin.
After rubbing in the seasoning, let the meat sit and marinate for around 2-3 hours.
3. Cooking
Have your oven set to 400 degrees F. You may use a separate rack if you do not want to get your oven rack dirty. Place the pork belly on the rack and place in the oven skin side up. The pork should roast for around 2 hours, but keep watch on it so you don't burn it. Towards the end, take out and put a light layer of coarse salt on the skin, raise the heat to 425 and pop it back in for another 20 min for the skin to crisp.
4. Serving
Once the pork belly is done cooking. Set it out to cool a bit before slicing to serve. Because the skin is tough but will also fall off, make sure to keep the pork belly still while slicing, use a sharp meat or chef's knife or a cleaver. You may need to chop down a bit to get it to cut through without making the skin fall off. Cut into about between 1/10, 1/8 inch slices and arrange on a platter skin side up.
Serves well with rice and use hoisin sauce as a dip. Some steamed cauliflower also goes nice with it.
For cauliflower. Break the flowers down to smaller pieces. Blanching them help them cook more easily to be tender.
Blanching between 3-5 min is usually enough. Drain the cauliflower, pop it into the pan/skillet with some oil add a little salt and put a little water and let is steam til tender.
Before cooking
Cooked whole pieces (lighting is a little off)
Sliced for serving
Some cauliflower too go along
XD Yea.... My husband was skeptical too, but it's really easy to handle, safe, still a healthy option AND, you can eat it straight from the can. Also, I do only use the white meat chicken; Swanson is my preferred brand. Growing up, my mom would get it just for leafy salads as a protein topping.
Beef.... I'm not even going to try it. xD
Easy recipe for the lazy me. You can just do it in one pan to avoid lots of dishes, but I'll do it with two because it taste better that way. It's not bad considering the amount of effort going in.
Ingredients
1 boneless chicken breast (I prefer skinless)
1 small onion
few cloves of garlic
6~8 asparagus
bit of salt
bit of pepper
decent glug of olive oil
tablespoon or two of butter
bread!
Preparation
Slice the onion, garlic, take the ends off of asparagus and slice them in half. You can peel the asparagus with a potato peeler if you don't like the texture.
Flatten the chicken a bit to ensure even cooking surface. Make sure you do it in between a cling film to avoid mess!
Cooking
Preheat the pan on the hob around medium-high heat and put a decent glug of olive oil in as well as few knobs of butter. The remaining oil, butter, chicken juice mixture is going to be a dipping sauce for our bread.
When the temperature is hot enough, salt and pepper the chicken and place it in the pan. Cook the chicken breast on one side for few minutes? Until it develops bit of a color, but not too much. Now flip the chicken and lower the heat to medium-low, put the onion in the oil and cover with a lid. It should take about 10 minutes depends on how thick your chicken breast is.
Get a second pan on the hob on high heat. When it's hot enough, put few table spoons of olive oil and garlic in. Sweat the garlic until it turn golden brown and put the asparagus in. Salt and pepper to season. Set aside
Assembling
Just plop it all in one plate! Of course you can give it a bit of presentation if you'd like..
Dip the bread in the oil and nom!
Edit: Was tired last night so I didn't get the rest in. That and organizing stuff on Mabi... photos tonight will be added
Photos added
Sweet Potato & Sausage Hash with a side of Chicken Salad
it's late morning borderline to lunch, so why not make a brunchy like meal?
We found a recipe for a sweet potato hash, and it sounded healthier than a regular tuber hash. But probably not much different in the end. And remember that chicken I posted on the other page with the fish? Well, that chicken became part of this salad.
Ingredients for Sweet Potato & Sausage Hash
3 sweet potatoes
4-5 sausage links
1 large onion
Cheese (equivalent to about 2 sticks of butter) or up to a half pound.
Peas and striped beans
3-5 large eggs
Mint
Dried parsley/thyme
Ingredients for Chicken Salad
About 2-3 pounds of leftover chicken
1-2 stalks of celery
Loose cooked corn (or 1 can of corn, drained)
Mayonnaise
Mint
Lemon Juice
Lemon Zest
Making Sweet Potato & Sausage Hash
1. After washing your sweet potato, cut them into small bite sized chunks. It's up to you whether you want to keep the skin or peel it. Chop your onion and sausages into similar bite sized chunks. We had some overgrown striped beans, so we just cut em up and put them in there too. And shelled some fresh peas from the garden as well. About 1/2 - 3/4 cup combined. You may season with some salt and pepper lightly, but not too much as the sausage has flavor
2. In a pan/skillet stir fry the sausage, onion and sweet potato in some oil. Let the onion release its juices because once you pour the beans and peas in, the liquid will help it cook. Cook on medium high for about 15-20 min. Be sure to check or flip it so it doesn't burn. At this time prep the cheese. You may use shredded cheese for convenience, but we used block gourmet cheese that we let it sit in the fridge to age a bit. It was garlic-basil cheese. Shredded cheese is easy to spread out evenly on top. The block cheese should be cut into smaller pieces. While the hash is cooking and you are prepping the cheese, preheat your oven to about 400 degrees F.
3. Check to see if your sweet potato is cooked. At this time, it does not have to be fully cooked and soft as it will be broiled on the oven. Spread your cheese across and put it in the oven for 10-15 min. Check to make sure it does not burn.
4. Take out your skillet after broiling and put it back on the stove. At this time crack your eggs and distribute them evenly around your hash. You can add some more cheese. Put on medium to medium low heat and put a lid on top to let the eggs steam in. Time will be based on how you like your egg.
5. After you are satisfied with your egg on the hash, turn off the heat and garnish with herbs. We used dried parsley and thyme and fresh mint.
Should serve 3-5. Cut squares with each egg per serving.
Chicken Salad
1. Prefer regular cooked chicken if possible, but if no options the feared "canned chicken" can substitute. Shred your chicken meat if you're using whole chicken. If you're using already cut meat like breast meat that was cooked and left over, it shouldn't be hard. But ripping to meat off the bones takes patience, or try to think of it as messy fun.
2. Chop some celery, either diced of small slices to keep the curved shape of the stalk and set it aside.
3. Drain your canned corn and grill them on a pan/skillet for 3-5 min on medium/med-high. (You can add some spice like chili pepper or powdered pepper powder of flakes to the corn to enhance it).
4. Put your chicken celery and corn in a bowl. Get 2 serving spoons of mayonnaise. (We used an avocado mayonnaise which was thicker and the liquid doesn't separate from the solid as easily as regular mayonnaise. Of course making your own mayo is also an option). Cut half a lemon and squeeze in the juice. Chop some fresh mint and add it in. With a spoon, tongs, fork or whatever you like, mix everything together until well-combined. Add a few more whole mint leaves for the looks and it is complete.
Should serve 3-5 and a great side to the hash.
Got a good cold milky coffee thingie with almond aroma.
Ice Frappe with Cocoa and Nutty
Ingredients
-Powder coffee of your liking. 2 dining spoons
-Milk powder (with nut flavoring mixed in for aroma) 1 dining spoon
-Cocoa powder. 1 dining spoon.
-Water. 1/5 of the glass.
-Regular milk. 3/5 of the glass.
-Extra thicc milk. The amount you'd feel like.
Optionals:
-Sugar
-Chocolate creaming smeared inside the glass
-Smashed ice cubes
-Whipped cream
Instructions
1. Pour in the powders. All of'm.
2. Pour in like a table spoon of water, and start mixing. When it starts to look like cream, pour in water until you get like 1/5 of the glass.
3. Mix a bit then throw in the milk and thicc milk. Mix until it's done.
Optionals:
-Add the ice cubes after the water to avoid spilling.
-Good thicc whipped cream on top for added dessert look.
Etc.
It's worth noting that these powders won't break down if you throw in too much water at once. Some powder pieces will harden and creates air pockes inside, not allowing water to enter, so they'll never dissolve.
This is why you pour in just a little bit of water when mixing, before throwing in the rest of the liquid.
The scientific reasoning is just fat, that's contained in cocoa and coffee powders.
I'm not much of a coffee person, but I kinda wanna try it! I love sweet things, so >u<
To be fair. At this point you'll just be drinking milk with small coffee flavour.
Just adjust the sugar leve. I usually take about 1 dining spoon's worth. The cocoa and milk usually fixes the rest.
@Kensamaofmari the chicken salad looks good, and that video. ... XD
So, its not really an unknown recipe, or I can't call it my own, but ....
Fruit ( & Veggie ) Smoothie
1 cup of frozen fruit and veggies
1 cup of fruit juice or liquid
1 blender
1 cup
Optional, 1 straw
Chop up fresh fruit and veggies of your choice into no larger than 1 inch pieces (unless you have a powerful blender). Put them in freezer safe, 1 cup serving size containers, or freezer bags if you prefer. Freeze. Take out the fruit and veggie mix, add to 1 cup of fruit juice, I use 100% organic apple juice,in your blender. Blend until smooth. Pour into a cup, and drink! Super easy, super healthy.
You can ultimately get your daily servings of fruit in just one smoothie, as long as you use 100% fruit juice. Not a juice cocktail or juice with added sugar. Then its less healthy.
I also added a small amount of chia seeds to mine. I may try flax seed as well.
TIP: You can buy frozen fruit and veggies at the grocery store if you dont want to cut your own. I used a mix today that had sweet potatoes, mangos, mandarine oranges, pineapple, and bananas. Bananas help with the texture of the smoothies, so I recommend using them in most smoothies.
NOTE: Freezing the fruit eliminates the need to use ice like a lot of smoothie recipes call for.
Well, sure. Instant coffee.
Any coffee is fine, really, as long as you manage to dissolve everything. And if you like the taste.
No meat!
Ok, thanks!
Easy, Quick, and 4 Ingredient Lasagna
9 x 13 baking dish, I use a glass Pyrex one
5 QT Pot
Frying Pan
9 Lasagna Noodles
1 lb Lean Ground Beef
3 cups of Pizza Cheese (Mozzarella and Cheddar)
1 Jar of Spaghetti Sauce
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Fill your pot with water and place on the stove until it reaches boiling. While the water is heating to boiling, brown your ground beef in the frying pan, stir in the spaghetti sauce and leave a couple table spoons in the jar to spread it on the bottom of the baking dish so the noodles don't stick to the dish.
Boil the lasagna noodles according to the instructions on the box; mine are usually 10 to 12 minutes. You can leave them in the pot while you're putting the lasagna together in the baking dish, but be careful to not leave them in the water for too long otherwise they'll overcook and get soggy and be difficult to work with. If you take them out and let them sit outside of the water while you're putting the lasagna together, they might dry out and stick together. Do it whichever way you're most comfortable with. If you're not good with timing things, which I'm not the best, make sure the meat and sauce are done before the noodles, it's fine if that sits on the stove longer then the noodles.
Now that the pasta and sauce are ready to go, grab your cheese. Layer three noodles, sauce, cheese, three noodles, sauce, cheese, and three noodles, sauce, and cheese. You could use more noodles and thin the sauce out some more, or use more ingredients if you want a thicker lasagna. Bake it in the oven uncovered for 20 - 30 minutes, depending on how crispy you like the edges. Take out of the oven and let sit for a few minutes, it will always be extremely hot. Serve with a salad, garlic toast, or just as is.
I tend to add zucchini and cream cheese to my lasagna. Cook it with some onion too.
So my version cooks the ground meat, zucchini, onion with salt, pepper, oyster sauce, soy sauce, and the tomato sauce.
Layer it with mozzarella and Parmesan or other gratable cheese and the cream cheese, Lasagna with a mix of Asian flavor.
I used carrots from the garden so the sizes were all over the place. But for simplicity, you can use regular carrots from the market or bagged and cut baby carrots.
Ingredients and Tools
3 large carrots or 1-2 pounds of baby carrots
1 to 1 1/2 cup of vinegar
4-5 serving spoons of sugar
Salt
A small pot (preferably glass or clay pot)
In a small glass or clay pot, pour 1 to 1 1/2 cup of vinegar and 4-5 serving spoons of sugar and mix well. Bring it to a boil.
Peel your carrots if not peeled. If you are using baby carrots, you just need to wash them, For regular carrots, after cutting, cut them into slices or chunks of your preference and wash them.
Once your vinegar mixture has boiled, let it cool off.
Pour some salt on the carrots to make sure they are well mixed together and let them sit for 5-15 min.
Briefly wash the carrots after 5-15 min, they don't need to be rinsed of the salt, just slightly washed, You can do this with a basket with holes. Dry off the carrots and put them into the vinegar mixture and wait for them to pickle. You can eat anywhere from 3-5 hours, but the longer you let them stay in there, the more pickled they will be.
If you don't want them in a pot, find some jars, such as jam and jelly jars or pickling jars and fill them with carrots and pour the vinegar mixture in the jars.
@Jazmyn Pickles tend to be for long term storage. If you have problem trying to seal the jar tightly, cover the top with food wrap before putting the cap on. Serve em as pickles, eat out of the jar, serve with or in sandwiches or as a sidedish.
If you prefer sweeter pickles, you can add more sugar when you boil that vinegar.