TOP 5 HOBBIES STUDIOS
· 400 grams (16oz) Chicken Breast, cut into pieces
· 2 tablespoons Curry Powder
· ½ teaspoon Salt
· ¼ teaspoon White Pepper
· 1 nos Egg
· 1 ½ cups Flour
· 1 tablespoon Corn Flour
· Enough for frying Peanut Oil
· ¼ cup Butter
· 1 ¾ cups (410ml/can) Evaporated Milk
· 2-3 sprigs Curry Leaf
· 2-3 (according to taste) Birds Eye Chilli (green/red)
· To taste Salt & Pepper
Directions :
· Chicken
1. Marinate the chicken in curry powder, salt and pepper for at least an hour. If short of time, 15minutes willdo.
2. Beat an egg and mix well with the chicken pieces.
3. Heat up enough oil in a pan or wok for frying.
4. Coat chicken pieces in flour and fry till golden brown. Keep aside.
· Sauce
1. In a separate pan, heat up butter.
2. Add curry leaves and fry till fragrant.
3. Mix in evaporated milk and reduce heat. Let simmer till slightly thickened.
4. Add chillies and continue to simmer till thickened.
5. Mix in chicken and serve immediately with steamed rice, veggies of your choiceor asimple cucumber and pineapple salad.
Tips:
· I prefer using peanut oil for this as the chicken pieces stay crunchy till serving time.
· Fried chicken pieces are also great on it’s own, which is known as popcorn chicken.
Enjoy!
Ingredients
Instructions
1. Boil chilies in a small sauce pot with water. Simmer for 10-15 minutes until chilies are soft. Drained
2. Puree boiled chilies, 200 gram onion, garlic, candelnuts/macadamia, and water in a blender until smooth.
3. Transfer blended chili mixture into a wok or a large frying pan. Cook on medium heat until the chili mixture turns into a thick paste.
4. Add oil and tomato paste (if using, see *) to the wok/frying pan, stir to mix well. Add tamarind, and stir again. Continue cooking for 30 minutes,stirring every so often.
5. Add the remaining 200 gram onion, toasted shrimp paste, palm sugar, and salt. Cook and stir for another 30 minutes, or until the chili sauce is darkred, and the oil separates from the chili mixture.
6. Adjust the amount of sugar and salt to suit your taste. Once you are satisfied with the taste, add the kaffir lime leaves, and stir for 30 seconds.Turn off the heat, and transfer the chili sauce into clean jar(s). If you use sterilized glass jars for canning and store the unopened jars in the fridge,they can easily last for 2-3 months.
Notes
I don’t know about you, but at work, I usually spend my time working in front of a computer all day long with stressful clients sometimes so when I go back home, I can feel mentally drained and exhausted.
That is why I need something to clear my head. Cooking is definitely the activity that will help me get rid of the tension or the stress built up. When you cook, you need to get your hands dirty, you do something more physical, which really helps you to break up the routine of your day and kick your mental exhaustion.
This is indeed an activity that will require your whole attention. When you weigh the butter or sugar, or when you whisk the eggs, you get calmer. I would even say cooking can have that meditative or soothing quality because you get to slow down and focus.
I can guarantee you that at the end, when you get your end product (for me it was mostly breads, cakes etc..) you feel much more serene and relaxed. And the good thing is that you can then enjoy the food you prepared with your family or friends.
In fact, this goes beyond your stress issue. Studies have shown that cooking can really be a therapeutical activity. Even just baking cupcakes or something simple has shown to improve an individual’s mindset.
The reason is simple: when you cook, you stimulate your senses. The feel of the new flour you bought at the market, the smell of those fresh strawberries, the sound of the whisk beating, all those things can stimulate your senses, which contributes to get more endorphins, those feel good hormones that put a smile on your face.
The other reason is that when you focus on the present moment, on your ingredients, you cannot ruminate over your problems; you have to leave them aside (even if for a few minutes). This really helps you be more emotionally stronger and as a result, happier in general.
Besides, if you think of it, you spend hours baking a cake, getting the measurements of each ingredient exactly right, and preparing your icing to decorate it.
Once it’s baked and cooled down, you start icing your cake and decorate it exactly as you want to. In the end, you feel a strong sense of accomplishment and when you finally cut into the cake to share it with your family, you can be proud that you were the one who made it.
That is a bit like when your get that surge of confidence everytime you finish a project and you show the results to others.
This simple accomplishement can boost your self esteem and build up your confidence to try new things in life especially if you were not a good cook to start with because you know that with a little effort, you can do things you were not good at to begin with.
On a more serious level, the previous benefits of cooking are so powerful that cooking is also used, in many mental health clinics, as part of the treatment for a bunch of mental conditions such as anxiety, depression and addiction.
When cooking, patients can really focus their mind on something more positive. This whole process helps to curb negative thinking and boost their confidence.
