Chicken wrapped in bacon

This is one of the staple dishes in my kitchen. I like to prepare these beforehand and keep them frozen and when I need to cook them, I just pop them straight from the freezer to the turbo broiler

Ingredients:
Boneless chicken breasts / thighs, sliced thinly
Bacon slices
Egg
Bread crumbs

Filling: Butter, parmesan cheese, parsley, salt & pepper (or garlic salt, for more flavor).

I usually just mix the ingredients for the filling and make "tantya". Spread the filling over the chicken slices, place a slice of bacon, and roll it up and stick a toothpick to allow the roll to retain its shape.

[edit: These days, I don't roll in breadcrumbs anymore but instead, we wrap the outside of the chicken roll with yet another slice of bacon and sort of tuck the end in to hold the roll in shape. This is way better than breadcrumbs].

Dip the roll in egg and roll in breadcrumbs and then, I just wrap them up in foil and freeze.

To cook, bake in 375 degree oven (turbo broiler) . Cooking time varies.

Roast Pork in Soy Sauce

It's been a while since I last posted a new recipe. I've tried a few recipes but those didn't make it to this blog because frankly.. uh, they didn't turn out too well and I didn't really want to bother posting if it wasn't good enough to share.

We got a huge piece of pork loin on sale from the grocery store last week and figured that this was a good time to try out this recipe from my cookbook that I've been eyeing for a long time.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb lean pork fillets

Marinade:

• 6 tablespoons dark soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons dry sherry
• 1 teaspoon five-spice powder
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 inch piece fresh ginger, finely chopped

Glaze:

• 4 tablespoons superfine sugar
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

1. Mix together the ingredients for the marinade. Spoon over the pork, cover and marinate in the refrigerator for at least an hour.


2. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Drain the pork, reserve the marinade.


3. Place the pork on a roasting rack over a roasting pan. Cook in the oven, occasionally basting with the marinade for 1 hour or until cooked through.


4. Place the superfine sugar and vinegar in a saucepan and heat gently until the sugar dissolves. Bring to a boil and simmer for 3-4 minutes, until syrupy.


5. When the pork is cooked, remove from the oven and brush with the sugar syrup. Leave for about 5 minutes, then slice.

Verdict: This recipe turned out quite good - not exactly like how my Ama used to make it, but close enough. Next time, I would use a different kind of dark soy sauce. For this recipe, I used Mushroom flavored dark soy sauce and the roast pork turned out too dark. I would use Silver Swan soy sauce next time.

Japanese rice rolls

We always make sure that we have a few packs of Rice Seasoning (Furikake) at home.

If we find ourselves without anything for dinner, we could just cook a batch of sticky rice, and mix in a packet or two of Furikake. Optionally, you could drizzle a little sesame oil in the rice mixture too.

If you're concerned about the presentation, you can use a sushi form (or rice form?) to form the rice into sliced rolls like we did.

Note though that Furikake comes in many different flavors and is made from different ingredients. The most difficult part is choosing as we find ourselves unable to translate the ingredient list from the product label most of the time.

Fortunately, we were able to try this one out - a Korean brand - at a Korean supermarket. Surprise, surprise!

We've tried other brands and flavors but so far, this is the only one that we like.