Chicken Recipe: Chicken Curry

I am from Malaysia. Curry is one of the popular dishes. Almost everyone eats curry on weekly basis, if not daily. Anyways, I had a Malay neighbor while I was back in Malaysia. She always share the curry she cooked with us. The smell and rich aroma of curry is intoxicating. and now, I am alone in a foreign country, and this makes me miss Malaysian food more the ever. so, I look up some simple curry recipe on the internet, and I found out that the recipes requires many ingredients that are difficult to get in U.S. (or maybe I just don't know where to get it). I kinda modified the recipe, and it turned out pretty tasty. Although it is incomparable with the aunthentic ones, but the flavor of curry sort of cure my "foodsickness" temporary.

The ingredient is simple,, nothing too fancy or exotic. I admit that these herbs are essential for the strong and rich aroma that characterize a heavenly good curry, yet with a good quality curry powder, the result is still good.

now lets start;

you will need
curry powder for meat, preferably Indian curry powder.
Coconut milk, but this can be replaced by sour cream
1 onion. whatever type is fine, usually I just go with the cheapest one
potatoes
tomatoes
carrot
and of course, Chicken. *breast, tigh, drumstick. All are fine.

1. first, cut potatoes, tomatoes, carrot, and onion into small pieces
2. add oil into saucepan, stir it on medium heat until become brownish
3. put the chicken inside and stir.
4. while the chicken become white on the outside.(cooked on the outside but raw inside), add the curry powder and appropriate amount of water to dissolve it.
5.Add the potatoes,tomatoes, and carrot.
6. Add water until it covers all the ingredients
7. Add coconut milk or sour cream to thicken the curry
8. Add more curry powder if it appears "diluted"
9. Stir to mix well.
10.cover, and let it simmer on med-low heat for 40 minuetes, test chicken.
11. If curry run dry, add some water.
12. add salt and sugar for tasting.
13. Serve with rice.

how to sweeten sour oranges

I don't like sour oranges, Most of them usually end up in fridge. I came across this nice little tip that promise to reduce the sourness in oranges. The trick is to induce the production of juice in oranges so that the soury taste can be reduced through dilution before you actually eat them. Place the orange inside a container and shake it hard. The impact which the sour orange suffers will lead to production of juice inside, which will then reduce the sourness of the fruit.

I don't actually know if it works, but I guess the orange will become very watery or juicy. Not actually turning the orange from sour to sweet, but just reduce the level of sourness so it is bearable.

how to get the most out of pizza deal

As a college student, pizza is one of the essential survival food source. There's often pizza deal around the neightbourhood, and it become kinda hard to decide which one gives the best deal, until I came across this article on consumerist today.

It appears that the problem can be solved by using some simple geometry by calculating the total surface area of the pizza. Using the equation Area=pi*radius^2.

so for 2 medium 8inch pizza, the total area is 2 * pi* 4^2 = 32*pi inch square
for 1 large 12 inch pizza, the area is pi *6^2 = 36pi inch suqre
the difference : 36pi - 32pi = 4pi inch square , approximately 12 inch square , that is equivalent to an extra 4 inch pizza! ( if u wonder how i got it, that is square root of 4 for radius)

a nice trick if u cant make up your mind. :)
source

how to soften rice using sake

There are times when I added not enough water while cooking rice ( I'm a cooking noob anyways :p) , the rice become hard and "raw". Raw rice is harder, smaller, and whiter than the properly cooked rice. A nice little tip to save myself from that situation is by adding some sake.
Use a chopstick or fork to make small holes on the rice, put a few drops of sake into it.
Contine to steam the rice for a while. The uncooked rice will become softer.

Please share your experience if you happened to find this tips useful.

how to cut a cake using dental floss

I saw this real nice trick on how to cut a cake easily thru Lifehacker.
If you haven't known lifehacker, lifehacker is a webblog that introduce useful tips that makes your *multi aspect* of life easier, from dealing with crayon drawing on wall to preventing spyware in your PC.


If you've ever had to slice a piece of cheesecake, you know it can be a bit messy. RealSimple has a way to get around this little problem - simple dental floss:
Use unwaxed, unflavored floss to slice any soft cheeses, layer cakes, or homemade cinnamon buns from a roll.
All you do is hold the floss tightly between two fingers and bear down with just a bit of pressure; the floss will slice cleanly through most any soft cake or pastry. — Wendy Boswell
Unexpected New Uses for Bathroom Items [RealSimple via DIYHappy]

visit:
http://www.lifehacker.com
http://www.realsimple.com

How to prevent overflowing while cooking noodle

Add some butter of oil into the boiling water while cooking noodle will prevent overflowing.

9 habits that save money and time cooking

Below tips don't really coherent with Principles of lazy recipe, in fact some of takes extra work. Yet the extra work invested worth the time and money saved in the future.

1. Plan meals at least a week in advance to incorporate the use of leftovers. you then can cook more (save time) and since you have well planned meal, you won't waste food (save money)

2. If you know you're not going to have time to cook one evening, prepare two dinners the night before and just reheat one the next night. During Tuesday and Thursday, I will be having lab classes until 9pm. I won't have the energy to prepare my dinner. I prepare 2 dinners during Monday and Wednesday, then I reheat them after I came back from class. Generally cook multiple meals at a time is time-saving. Less cleanup needed.

3. When preparing a meal using grated cheese, chopped onions, etc., prepare more than the recipe calls for and refrigerate the rest for another meal. By using this method you will be able to save lots of time. But you'll have to plan your future meals in order to use up the extra ingredient.

4. Clean your kitchen workspace as you go. Save time. Multitasking is the key. Try to clean up bench top, wash some dishes etc while waiting for your soup to be cooked. When you're done with your dinner there will be little left to clean. If you have greasy pans to be cleaned, consider this effortless method.

5. On grocery shopping day, have your children help individually wrap their cookies, snacks, etc., for their lunches. Makes lunch preparation for the rest of the week a breeze and snacks don't disappear before lunches are made.

6. Don't hide your cookbooks away. Organize them where you can get to them easily, and you will use them a lot more: I don't usually use cookbook, in fact I don't own any cookbook. I use google and my cookbook software - Yum most of the time. But this is a good tip.

7. Keep a notepad on the front of the refrigerator for your shopping list. When you run out of something write it on the list right away. Encourage family members to do the same. Plan your grocery list according your meal plan, then you won't spend too much on unnecessary stuff. (save time and money). I use thethriftshopper for meal planing and grocery shopping.

8. Prepare favorite beverages like lemonade, tea, or Kool Aid in gallon-sized pitchers, and you won't have to make them as often. Same reason as cook more on tip2. Save time and money. Less cleaning needed which is always a good thing.

9. Use a suitable kitchenware. Before I go for class, I just put all the ingredients needed into the cooker. I then can enjoy a delicious dinner after class. I use non-stick pan to cook, so I don't have to spend too much time cleaning.

What's your special habit? Share them in comments. :)