Dinner yesterday was a huge success as my celebrity chef wannabe and I whipped up two exciting items for the first time and they were SO delish! We had a great time bonding in the kitchen. If you like cooking and have a son or daughter who also likes cooking, the kitchen is the best place to foster closer relationship :)
Above:
1. Chicken stew with carrots, tomatoes, purple potatoes, big onions, garlic, Edamame beans, rosemary, parsley.
2. Homemade garlic parsley butter spread with wholemeal toasties. My 10YO celebrity chef wannabe made this herself
3. Sauteed organic spinach with garlic and onions
Directions for chicken stew
1. Slit chicken drumsticks with vertical lines and marinate with soy sauce, abalone sauce, sesame seed oil, cracked black pepper, ground coriander powder and palm sugar syrup. Pour contents into ziplock bag and keep in fridge for several hours.
2. Saute chopped garlic, onions and fresh rosemary. Then brown the chicken drumsticks. That will take about 15-20 minutes.
3. Add in the chopped carrots, potatoes, tomatoes and whatever veggies you fancy.
4. Pour all the marinate sauces from the ziplock bag and add water into the wok / crockpot / claypot and simmer.
5. I used a stainless steel wok and simmered the stew on medium to high heat for about 1.5 hours.
6. Finally add in the Edamame beans (removed from pod) and chopped parsley.
7. Test taste the sauce. Add more seasoning / water accordingly.
Below: I like mine without the chicken. After indulging in meat over the weekend, I am going easy on meat this week.
While I was busy cooking the chicken stew, my celebrity chef wannabe prepared this garlic parsley butter at her own initiative. She's been bugging me for months to whip this up. With the help of her side-kick - Cass, who helped to peel the garlic, Sherilyn chopped the garlic and parsley. Then mixed them with butter, avocado oil and some sea salt. Sherilyn did all the recipe googling herself. I did not help her at all with this, except for heating up the toaster oven.
When the wholemeal bread with the garlic butter were toasting in the oven, the aroma wafting from the kitchen inundated the entire house. For a moment, our house smelled like some sizzling hot intriguing cafe and bakery. I didn't want to turn off the toaster as I was feeling high from inhaling the resonant aroma of the garlic butter on toast :D The aroma does have a calming effect on one's soul.
The garlic butter would pair better with some artisan bread but we only had Gardenia wholemeal bread in the kitchen, so my innovative celebrity chef wannabe cut the square bread into four parts and spread the garlic butter generously over each slice. That was by far the yummiest garlic butter toasties I have ever tasted! The petite toasties were crispy and deliciously flavoursome. So garlicky, buttery and crispy. I should name Sherilyn's creation Petit Aglio Toastie :D
Above - garlic parsley butter with avocado oil and sea salt, spread on wholemeal squares and toasted. So yummy and healthy!
We will definitely be making more garlic parsley butter. Next time, I'll pulse the garlic and parsley briefly in the blender to make things easier.
And the chicken stew recipe is definitely a keeper. It's really easy to dish this up. You can cook extra portions and freeze them for dinners on busy week days.
