Parmesan Chicken

Main:  Chicken Dish

It was Tita Ninang who taught this dish to us when they visited us in Singapore.  I have served this easy-peasy dish to guests numerous times and it always gets rave reviews.

Tita Ninang, Uncle Vlado and then toddler, Jacob.

Recipe (enough for four):

• in a sturdy plastic bag, place 3/4 cup flour, heaping teaspoon each of salt and paprika powder
• drop in the bag 16 pieces of chicken drumettes
• hold one end of the bag tightly and shake bag well so that the flour mixture will lightly coat all the chicken pieces. Set aside.
  
• thinly slice 2 big onions.  You need the touch of sweetness the onions will provide.
• shave 250 grams of parmesan cheese (grated parmesan in packs aren't that cheesy enough). Divide into 2/3 & 1/3 portions.

  

  I used a cabbage shaver (you can find this nifty
  gadget from Japanese dollar stores) to speed up
  the tedious process. You can also use a regular peeler.

• heat oil in a frying pan and brown the chicken.  Drain on paper towels set aside.  
  
• you can use the same pan for the next step.  Throw away the oil and rinse it well.  Wipe pan with paper towel.
• pre-heat oven 350 degrees
• melt a stick of butter in the pan
• caramelize onions, adding a little water or stock at a time so the onions won't burn.  Along the way, I add a teaspoon of chicken stock powder, a few splashes of tabasco and liquid seasoning.
  
• when the onions have caramelized properly, pour a cup of stock or water. Sprinkle about a teaspoon of paprika and the 2/3 portion of parmesan cheese.  Cook until the cheese melts, about 2 minutes.  Stir constantly to spread out the cheese.
  
• distribute the drained chicken on your baking dish
• pour the onion/cheese sauce over the chicken. Sprinkle with the remaining parmesan cheese.
  
• cover the baking dish with tin foil and bake for 45 minutes
• when it's done, let it rest for 5 minutes before removing the tinfoil and enjoying the tender goodness of the chicken

  

  For carbo, we had steamed brown rice because generously drizzling
  the buttery/cheesy sauce over it is heavenly.
  To somehow counter-act the richness,
  we had vegetable pasta on the side.
  

Chicken Wings with Sherry

Main:  Chicken

I have an affinity for "rustic" dishes because it is "forgiving" to lazy cooks.  Not too many steps and not too exacting on proper cutting or slicing but still delivers satisfying dishes.  The following family favourite comes under said category.  

Sherry is a fortified wine produced in the Andalusia region of Spain. Aside from being the perfect accompaniment to tapas, it can be used for main dishes and dessert too.  In fact, in a pinch, I use it as a substitute for sake (believe me, it works for Buta No Kakuni - Japanese braised pork belly dish).  There are 2 main categories for sherry.  The lighter & drier style have: fino, manzanilla and amontillado (remember Edgar Allan Poe's short story?). While those which have higher alcohol content are called oloroso or fragrant sherries.

For this dish, I used the more affordable fino sherry from Jerez.

Medium sherry from Jerez.

Process & Ingredients (enough for a hungry family of 4):

• slice into slivers 10 - 12 cloves of garlic; set aside
  
• roughly chop parsley; set aside
• in a hot pan with a little cooking cooking oil, brown chicken drumettes in small batches; officially, the chicken should be browned as is/naked but since I'm afraid of getting splattered on, I coat the chicken drumettes with a little flour seasoned with salt and pepper; set aside
  
• if there is too much oil left in the pan, remove some until you have left about 3 tablespoons of cooking oil 
• quickly brown the garlic slivers, not fry! This would take less than a minute.
• add your browned chicken and toss it around so that the browned garlic is distributed
• for 16 pieces of chicken wings, I pour 3/4 cup of sherry plus 1/4 cup stock or water - just enough to cover the chicken wings
• boil then simmer until tender.  About 30 minutes.
• place your tender chicken drummettes on a serving dish and pour the thickened sauce and garlic over it
• sprinkle chopped parsley. Vamos a comer!!!!
  
  
  
  

Anna's No-Fail Pork Spareribs

Main:  Pork Dish

During our first round of living in Singapore, I met +Anna Castro who used to be my hubby's ad agency colleague and so with her husband, +Ron Castro, who was more senior.  Anna became my regular ciggie + coffee companion and really energetic retail therapy partner.  We were each others' rocks too going through the emotional roller coaster of going to a fertility expert doctor to have our second child and their first-born.

After a few years and residing in different countries,
our families meet yet again in Singapore part II and we
even lived in the same condo complex.

Every Friday afternoon, we would all meet up at their condo for tennis matches.  The piece de resistance was the pot-luck dinner after the friendly, albeit competitive, tennis matches.  A consistent favourite was Anna's Pork Spareribs which she perfected during their stay in Sydney.  It was such a low-maintenance recipe.  She just left the tray of ribs in the oven on low while we play tennis and it was tenderness perfection when we've all freshened up for dinner.

Chicken in Oyster Sauce

Main:  Chicken Dish

This simple sounding dish actually pushed me to finally start this food blog. My husband has been describing this dish to me ever since I started cooking.  How can I cook it if his father never served it to me?  Am just dependent on how my hubby verbally illustrates it, and you do know how very limited males are in this department :-) When I served this last December and has finally passed the memory/standards of my hubby, he had a rejoinder statement which finally made me, after so many years of making excuses, to start MMK.  He said all these failed attempts could have been avoided if his father collated his recipes.  Do I want the same thing to happen to all the recipes I have honed? Gulp.

My father-in-law, Renato H. Bautista (RIP)

As award winning chef +Nadia Santini said, why reinvent
the wheel if we can all learn from tradition? A trained scientist,
Nadia learned the ropes from her mother in law, Bruna.