5 Other Ways of Using the Oven Besides Baking

It wasn't till I was in secondary school that I had a chance to bake something out of an oven even then opportunities to operate an oven was rare. We didn't have an oven at home during my younger years, naturally I wouldn't have imagined the oven is such a wonderful kitchen appliance.

Fast forward to recent years, I'm now an owner of a counter-top oven and a toaster oven. Both work wonderfully well and are the appliances I've used more often than even my rice cooker!

Photo Credit Link

I love that preparing meals with an oven could save me loads of trouble - it's one of the easiest kind of cooking I've ever done! Best of all, the end result of this simple cooking method is healthy and flavourful food. What's more, it saves me the trouble of standing before the stove stirring/frying or keeping a lookout at the heat. The best part of it all is I save loads of time and water from washing! Here's how I ensure that I minimize washing as much as possible when using the oven to prepare food.

I am listing the 5 main ways I've used my oven/toaster oven since I started preparing regular meals for my family.

GRILL
I love grilled chicken winglets and using the oven for grilling can't be any easier. When preparing grilled chicken winglets, remember to dry the chicken winglets with kitchen paper towels thoroughly. Marinate the meat well and all you need to do is just prep the baking tray and pop the meat into the oven. It'll save more time if you use a toaster oven because a toaster oven takes a shorter time to heat up.

Grilled Chicken Wings (click link for recipe)

SLOW COOKING
Preparing stews or casseroles the oven makes the best of these one pot meals! An all-in-one meal always saves the day when you need time to focus on other matters at home while the oven does the cooking.

Boeuf Bourguigunon (click link for recipe)

STEAM
I always find steaming with a pot of boiling water troublesome because I need to wash so many items after the food is cooked. When I discovered that the oven can be used to steam meat or fish too, Oh! I didn't look back at the days of using the pot of boiling water to prepare steamed food anymore!!! Besides, I need only to rinse my baking tray after the entire process and wrap up & discard the parchment paper and aluminium foil after the food is served. You can imagine the glee on my face!

Steamed Chicken (click link for recipe)

Teochew Style Steamed Fish

FRYING
In view of developing a healthier eating habit I try to make chicken katsu (deep fried Japanese chicken cutlet) and potato wedges by "frying" them in the oven. I wasn't disappointed by the end result!

Oven Baked Potato Wedges

Oven Baked Chicken Katsu

GRATIN
My children love anything with pasta sauce and in order to interest their palate I try to vary the different uses of pasta sauce. So lately, we have been having these for lunch. One pot meals never fails! *grin*

Baked Pasta

Ratatouille in Meat Sauce 

Lasagne 

Cottage Pie (click link for recipe)

I am sure there are many other ways of using the oven besides just baking. The above 5 ways of usage are my favourite ways to prepare meals for my family. I hope you've found the sharing useful.

[Recipe] Char Siew Pastry (叉烧酥）

The idea came upon making Char Siew Pastry (BBQ Pork Pastry), when I stopped by Phoon Huat for some shopping and picked up a package of puff pastry.

I've been thinking of making Char Siew Pastry for a while now, after reading this blog post by Christine of Christine's Recipes and finally got my act together. You can imagine how gleeful I was when I can have a taste of one of my favourite tim sum snack, yet have it homemade within a short time.

I am not a purist and really, I DO NOT enjoy rolling, folding & turning the dough to make my own puff pastry, it's simply too tedious and time consuming. So thank goodness for ready made puff pastry sheets. You really can't go wrong with store bought puff pastry sheets. The savings of time and energy will definitely motivate me to make more puff pastry snacks in the future.

So without further adieu, here's the recipe for making that Char Siew Pastry (叉烧酥）

Ingredients
Pastry
1 pack puff pastry sheets, thawed in the refrigerator (I used only 9 sheets of puff pastry)
1 egg beaten (add approx 1Tbsp milk and mix well); for eggwash
2-3 Tbsp Sesame seeds (optional)
*Tip: Always store the rest of the puff pastry sheets in the fridge as you work on one sheet at a time. Maintain the puff pastry in a low temperature will make it easier to handle in addition, the pastry will turn out crispy.

Filling

500gms BBQ Pork*, (叉烧), diced into small cubes
130ml Water
2-3 Tbsp of sweet char siew sauce (you can request for this from the stall owner; be sure to ask for only the sweet char siew sauce)
2 Tbsp Corn Flour
1 Tsp Dark Soya Sauce
2 Tsp Sugar
3 Shallots minced
*Note: I bought ready made char siew from the roasted meat stall at the wet market. You may make your own char siew if you like, here's a recipe for homemade char siew. To obtain the char siew sauce just follow the recipe accordingly.

Process

• Mix all the filling ingredients, except the char siew & minced onions, in a bowl till well combined, set it aside.
• Heat up a frying pan with 2 tsp of olive oil and fry the onions till fragrant.
• Add the filling mixture (without the char siew) into the pan and stir constantly under low heat till the mixture thickens. 
• Turn off the heat and tip in the chopped char siew into the mixture, mix till well combined then set it aside till it cools down completely.

• Preheat oven to 200C, prepare baking trays with parchment paper laid.
• Flour your work surface lightly with plain flour and lay the sheet of puff pastry down, cut the pastry sheet with a circle cutter or you may use a knife to cut the puff pastry into triangular shape. (I was able to cut approximately 5 circles out of 1 sheet of puff pastry).

Note: Ignore the 9 circles I've cut out in this photo, I realized it was too small hence changed to a larger circle cutter after which 

• I used approximately 2 teaspoonfuls of filling to 1 circle of pastry.
• Brush the egg wash on the edge of the pastry before folding it into half and use a fork to press down on the outer edge of the pastry (see photo below) to seal the side. Do bear in mind not to fill the circles with too much filling otherwise the sauce will start leaking out of the pastry half way during the baking process.

• Before sending these 'babies' into the oven, brush the surface lightly with egg wash and sprinkle some sesame seeds on top.
• Bake for approximately 15-19 mins (that was the time the pastry took in my oven to turn golden brown and puffy).

• Once baked, take the char siew pastry out and let them cool on a cooling rack.
• Store them in air tight containers after they are completely cooled. It didn't take more than 24hours the Char Siew Pastries were all GONE *smile*
• The pastry will turn soft after a few hours so to have the crispy crunch again on the pastry, simply heat up your toaster oven for just 5 minutes, place the char siew pastry into the toaster oven for approximately 5 minutes it should turn out crispy again.

I have shared a few other ideas on how to use the puff pastry sheets, so be sure to check them out -

Sardines Pocket Pies

Sweet & Savoury Twistables

Pigs in Blanket; Bacon, Spinach & Cheese Swirls

[Recipe] Quick & Easy Dishes

I am no gourmet chef, neither have I the luxury of time to prepare elaborate meals on a daily basis. I'd usually go for simple quick-fix or easy dishes to make up our daily dinners.

Over time, I've picked up on the experience of meal prep with the least amount of time and effort. What's more important is not compromising on the nutritional value of the food while keeping the budget in mind at the same time.

So here's something I prepare regularly on our daily dinners. Oh, in case you didn't know, I only cook one meal a day (well usually, unless I am in the mood for "slaving" in the kitchen, which is rare these days).

I love to use ready teriyaki sauce, I used to buy Mizkan's thick teriyaki sauce until they stopped production, I then found this other thick teriyaki sauce by Kikkoman to be somewhat as good as Mizkan's.

Life gets easy in the kitchen when you have this bottle of sauce on hand. I make grilled teriyaki chicken and salmon a lot and they have been a hit with my family ALL the time!

All you need to do is to clean the chicken or salmon fillet thoroughly, pat it dry, sprinkle some pepper on top and spread this luscious thick sauce generously on the chicken or salmon marinate it for just 15mins. Pop it into the oven (preheated to 180C) or toaster oven (I love my toaster oven, as it heats up much faster than a regular oven), grill it for 20-30mins and voila! Serve it with a sprinkle of sesame seeds if you like and you are good to go!

Teriyaki Chicken Thigh

Teriyaki Salmon Fillet

Best part of preparing this, is I only need to rinse the baking tray with water, hah! Because, I laid a piece of aluminium foil on the tray and place the meat/fish on a piece of parchment paper before sending it into the oven. Talk about time & effort saving! 

Grocery Haul This Week at $60!

The total cost of our groceries for this week's dinner is slightly higher than last week's as I've worked in pork and beef dishes into the meal plan (so fresh pork and fresh beef are the ones that increase the cost).

I have in our dinner meal plan this week as follow -
Monday - Taiwanese Braised Pork Rice with Green Vegetables
Tuesday - Pan Seared Fish Fillet in Garlic Cream Sauce with garden greens
Wednesday - Ayam Pongteh and Stir-fry spinach
Thursday - Fried Kway Teow
Friday - Beef Carrot & Potato Soup with Long Bean Omelette

In the course of grocery shopping, the thing that caught me was the cost difference between fresh meat/seafood vs frozen meat/seafood. A pack of frozen 4 slices of Tilapia fillet cost only $8.90 (sold in FairPrice), while a fresh Tilapia fish easily cost approximately $6.00. A pack of frozen sliced beef (approx 200gms) cost $4.90 while fresh sliced beef cost about $6.00. It's no wonder the cost of my grocery bill this week is slightly higher than last week's in spite of us having beef in our menu last week.

But to go for frozen food or not it's a personal choice. I've enjoyed frozen food lately (just started buying more frozen meat/seafood) and haven't find them inferior in any way. In fact, I find frozen prawns to be crunchy and fresh. If you have a concern if frozen food has equivalent nutrients you might want to read up here on the benefits of frozen meat and here on a test between fresh & frozen food.

Stay tuned for my updates on the meals I've prepared for this week!

Grocery Haul This Week

Grocery shopping is a weekly routine for me. Due to a lack of inspiration, I haven't been preparing any fancy dinners for the past week or so. All we had was just one pot meals on most days of the week, with a few nights of take-away dinners (oops! definitely guilty as charged!).

Now that we are back to a regular school week, I have a wee bit more time to make plans and work on a proper meal plan and grocery shopping list. Life is more organised when I get to sit down to do some planning.

Inspiration has been mainly drawn from these cook books for our dinner this week. Simple is the key, easy to prepare is of utmost importance, best if it requires the barest minimum cleaning and washing!

I enjoy the process of cooking and baking but seriously, I detest all that washing and cleaning it takes a toll on me. I have to spend a good 20-30 minutes washing pots, pans, plates/bowls, cleaning up the stove area and counter tops... oh I am exhausted with just the thought of that.

Anyways, let's talk about something that excites me more than the washing up!

I relish days where proper meal plans are done up and grocery list are in place because that means there can be loads of savings made! Since the groceries are done for the week, it's a load off my chest.

This week's groceries only cost me not more than $50!

And I am so proud of myself for not adding into my basket things I didn't account for! *yaay*

How can grocery shopping be complete without a nice fancy grocery bag? I love my handmade grocery bags. They are simply useful and best of all, I love how these grocery bags are reversible!

Oh! Just in case you are curious, here's the meal plan for this week's dinner (not fancy, I know) -

• Monday - Prawn Paste Chicken Wings and Chinese Spinach with Oyster Mushrooms stir-fry
• Tuesday - Vegetable & Tofu Medley (a variety of 10 different ingredients) and Prawns with Glass Noodles
• Wednesday - Steam Fish in Lemon Sauce and Stir-fry Broccoli & Beef
• Thursday - Taiwanese Style Bento: Grilled Chicken Chop, Stir-fry Mushrooms and Bok Choy
• Friday - Vegetarian Ee Fu Noodles

Will share the recipes as the week goes along or maybe I'll have them typed out by the end of this week.

Kitchen Tip: The Use of Parchment Paper

I love to bake, grill, roast and even steam using the oven! It's my way of saving myself the trouble of cleaning up pots and pans laboriously that's because I don't have a helper and neither do I enjoy standing before the kitchen sink for long periods of time whenever I have to prepare and clean up after each meal.

I love my oven to bits! Therefore, I use it heavily. But because I detest all that washing and cleaning up, I'd tend to find ways of minimising the cleaning up process! So I use a lot of these -

Top two rolls of cooking sheet were bought at Daiso, Glad Bake was bought at local supermarket, the bottom roll of parchment paper (with Korean words) was bought through Taobao.com

Yes! Parchment paper. It's a life saver! I've read up and also heard a lot of horror stories about aluminium poisoning that causes brain and nerve issues (read more details here), I try as hard as I could to reduce the contact of aluminium foil on the food that I prepare.

Those are the various brands of parchment paper that I use for oven-cooked/baked food. There's a difference between wax and parchment paper as I've read here and here, so read in detail if you are interested.

Nonetheless, I still use aluminium foil to save me from cleaning the baking tray/sheet in case there's spillage in the process of cooking/baking in the oven.

Baking Tray wrapped in aluminium foil to save from washing

How I use the parchment paper -

Ingredients wrapped up in parchment paper to prevent direct contact with aluminium foil

Here's a quick and easy way of preparing salmon or even cod fish -

Oven Baked Miso Glaze Fish

Ingredients:
200gms of fish fillet (salmon or cod)
1 Tbsp Miso Paste
2 tsp Sugar
1 tsp Mirin
1 tsp Sake
1 Tbsp Water

Process:
1) Mix Miso Paste, Sugar, Mirin, Sake and water till well combined
2) Prepare baking tray with aluminium foil and parchment paper
3) Place the fish fillet on the parchment paper
4) Coat fish with the miso mixture evenly
5) Preheat oven to 180C
6) Grill fish (on middle rack) for approximately 20mins
7) Remove tray from oven and glaze the fish fillet with another thin layer of miso mixture
8) Place the tray of fish just below the heating element in the oven to grill it for 5-10mins or till surface of fillet is nicely browned (the fish should turn brown very quickly so beware to standby the oven)

Serve immediately with steamed rice! It's so simple and tasty, try it some time!