Recipe: Keto Chicken Curry

If you are same like me, on a keto diet and looking for more ideas to prepare your keto meals, then here it is with the recipe! Bored of omelette, boiled egg, grilled chicken? Well, I made myself a thick creamy Keto Chicken Curry with high fat low carbs, you should try it too! 

Keto Chicken Curry

Read here on my Keto Diet Journey where I lost almost 10kg!

Yield - 5 servings
Prep - 10 minutes
Cook - 30 minutes

Ingredients:
4 Tomatoes cut into wedges (Giant - RM1.99 per pkt with 8 tomatoes) - RM1
2 whole bulbs of crushed Garlic (Giant - RM1.54 with 5 bulbs) - RM1
8 tablespoons of Olive Oil - RM1
2 tablespoons of Unsalted Butter - RM1
1 packet of A1 Instant Chicken Curry Sauce (Giant - RM5.04 per pkt) - RM5.04
1.5kg of Chicken (Giant - RM5.89 per kg - Weekend Fresh Saver) - RM8.84
1 head of Broccoli (Giant - RM2.49 per pc - Weekend Fresh Saver) - RM2.49
1 head of Romaine Lettuce (Giant - RM1.99 per head) - RM1.99
250ml of Coconut Milk (Giant - RM1.99) - RM1.99

Total Cost - RM24.35
Cost per serving - RM24.35 / 6 = RM4.06


Instructions:

1. Cut tomatoes into wedges, crush garlic and cut the chicken into all equal size.
2. Heat up olive oil and butter in a large pot and fry garlic until brown to release the flavor. 
3. Add tomatoes wedges into the pot as the heat increases the lycopene (茄红素) content, as well as the antioxidant levels. 
4. Mix in a packet of A1 Chicken Curry Sauce and all the chicken into the pot until aromatic. 
5. Add in 250ml of water (depending on the curry thickness of your liking) and let it boil.
6. Add broccoli and coconut milk into the pot.
7. Simmer over low heat until the chicken becomes tender. 
8. Serve with romaine lettuce as the side dish. 

I got most of my ingredients from Giant Malaysia because it is located very near to my house. As a frugal #YourFinanceDoctor , I only buy when it is a good bargain, especially the chicken, which only limited to 3 birds per customer! 😎😎😎

As it is quite a last minute decision to cook Chicken Curry, I ended up buying the ready made A1 Instant Chicken Curry Sauce, which could be contributing to the carbs. After checking from the nutrition facts at the packaging, I was shocked to find that the Carbohydrate consists of 58g, while 20g of fat and 8g of Protein.

Although it is still high fat, but the carbohydrate certainly at max level (recommended at 20g maximum). In other words, the other meal of the day would have to be all fat and protein without carb, which means back to egg again! 😂😂😂

Anyway, I hope you like my recipe! Do take out the A1 Instant Chicken Curry Sauce and replace with curry powder, paprika, chili, onion, ginger. This way you can control on the carb level! 

Happy Keto-ing! 

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Recipes: Pan-fried Chicken Breast

Trying to be healthy by having low carbohydrate high protein food such as chicken breast? Well, here's a way to make yourself healthy and yummy Pan-fried Chicken Breast! Forget about the bad impression of dry and tasteless chicken breast because this recipe will change your perception! 

Recipe for Pan-fried Chicken Breast! 

For those who have seen me in person, you would know that after so many years of food reviews, now I have thin limbs with fat tummy just like a snowman. I have always been thinking to cut down on my waist line, especially those flabby fat. And we all know exercise and diet are two main important factor, so let's see what I have done towards my diet. 

Here're the ingredients I used:

Serving for 2

2 chicken breast 

4 tablespoon of McCormick Chicken Seasoning

10 tablespoon of wheat flour

1 egg

Easy to Follow Procedures:

I bought my chicken breast from Giant for Rm14.99 per kg, so per piece is around RM3.50. Remove the skin as well as some yellowish fat since this is for the healthy meal. Mix the chicken seasoning and wheat flour together. Crack an egg into another bowl and beat it. 

Next, soak the chicken breast into the egg liquid and then transfer it into the flour. Mix them well and make sure it is coated thoroughly. Heat the non sticky pan and drizzle in some olive oil. Once the pan is heated, place the chicken breast on it. 

Sear both sides of the chicken breast with high heat until the color turns into brown. Try not to press the chicken breast with your wooden/silicon spatula to avoid losing the juiciness. Cover with a lid and switch to medium heat so that the inner part of the meat can be well cooked too. 

Leave it for 5 minutes and it is done! You can eat it with almost anything as the side dish. So far I have tried lemon to kick start your appetite, cheese to give the extra saltiness (not so healthy tho), garlic to give the intense flavor and many more!

How to Make it Better?

I like my chicken breast as it cooked to perfection so far since the meat is still tender, juicy and doesn't loose the sweetness. But I would like to try with some even simple method like oven-baked or maybe steam? Just hopefully they don't end up dry and tasteless which makes me hate chicken breast again. 😁😁😁 

How would you do it differently? Share with me! 

Happy cooking! ;)

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Recipes: Garlic Chicken Soup

The best comfort food when you are sick probably is a bowl of warm soup. But what could be better than Garlic Chicken Soup which can acts as a immune-system booster! Few weeks ago I was not feeling too well and get sick easily, coincidentally I stumble upon "阿基師 59元出好菜 蒜頭雞湯" on Youtube. As you may know, besides Gordon Ramsey, my other self-proclaimed cooking master is the famous Taiwan chef, 阿基師. So, read on to find out more about the recipe from my sifu! 😂😂😂

阿基师蒜头养身鸡汤

Garlic is consider as one of the superfood with many beneficial health effects. One of the active compound is the allicin, formed only when it is being crushed, chopped or chewed. The allicin also responsible for the distinct garlic smell. Not only it can boost the function of the immune system, garlic also may lower the risk of heart disease and prevent Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia (high anti-oxidant!). This is why the price of garlic has been skyrocketing! 

The recipe for Garlic Chicken Soup is pretty simple, garlic and chicken, literally. I bought both of them from Giant Hypermarket since it is nearby to my house. As you may see in the photo, the price per kg of garlic (RM13.99 per kg) is even more expensive than chicken thigh (RM9.49 per kg)! FYI, for bigger garlic bulb that you can get from morning market, the price even crosses RM20 per kg!  

Here're the ingredients I used:

Serving for 5

5 Chicken Thigh - around 1kg

5 Big Garlic Bulb - around 0.22kg

The amount of garlic supposedly to be 1/3 of the chicken, which means 1kg of Chicken with 0.33kg of Garlic. But again, you are the chef, you can do anything you like! 😁😁😁

Easy to Follow Procedures:

Deep fry 1/3 of the garlic so that when you mix it in your soup will be having a pleasant smell of garlic, rather than a bland chicken soup. Then put in your chicken thighs and garlic into a pot with boiling water (just enough for your chicken thigh to rest in). You may want to remove the top layer of chicken oil floating in the pot. Or you may choose to use 菜鸡 (free range chicken) which will be less fat or less oily.  

Depending on your personal preference, some times I do add in goji berries or wolf berries, or anything that is left inside my fridge. I always think that the best thing about cooking yourself is that you have the freedom to play with your ingredients.

Keep it boiling in medium heat for 45 minutes. Depending on the size of the chicken thigh as well as your personal preference. 45 minutes is about right to cook the meat thoroughly where the meat comes off easily from the bone yet the sweetness is retained. Drizzle with few rounds of 绍兴花雕酒 (Shao Hsing Rice Wine) just before serving and voila! Simple and heart-warming soup, just the way I like it! 

How to Make it Better?

One thing to improve is that I found out that garlic should be crushed, let it seat for 10 minutes and add it towards the end of cooking so that we can preserve the maximum healing benefits. But of course if you could not withstand the pungent of garlic, then you just follow the procedures above. 

That's all! Simple right? Go try it out and let me know your version of Garlic Chicken Soup right below at the comment section!

Happy Cooking! :D

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Recipes: Drunken Clams

It has been a while since the last recipe - No-Bake Oreo Cheesecake being posted here. This time around we will share on a dish that we recently made - Drunken Clams! Soaking with the beer, these succulent clams are bursting with natural sweetness of the shellfish. Best of all, just follow some simple steps and you can do it yourself at home too! 

Drunken Clams Recipe!

As you may know, yours truly is also #YourFinanceDoctor, so frugality is my middle name. We only made these when there's promotion where they were being sold cheaply. The only thing that is expensive is the ever-rising-price of garlic! A kilogram of garlic can costs up to RM18 in Bayan Baru Market and RM14 in Giant (smaller in size), thanks to their wide range of benefits as a superfood. 

Ingredients for Drunken Clams

Here's the ingredients I used:

Serving for 5

2 kg of Clams (Manila clams, thin shell compare to hard-shell clam like Kappa)

2 tins of 320ml Lager Beer (Tiger Original)

4 big head of Garlic

2 big red onion

1/2 slab of butter

1 French Loaf

1/2 of lemon

1 small bunch of fresh parsley

Easy to Follow Procedures:

As usual, after buying the clams from the market, you should clean, rinse and soak them in salt water for few hours for them to purge sand and grit. Lightly tap on the clams, if they hold their shells tightly back together then they are still fresh and alive, otherwise, throw them away. I got it from the trusted fishmonger in Bayan Baru, so out of 2kg that I bought, only 2 were unusable (1 dead 1 full of mud). 

Next, coarsely chop all the garlic and roughly slice the red onion. If you do not fancy red onion and garlic, then finely chop them. Then, heat olive oil and butter together in a large pot, add garlic and onion, sauté until they are all soft. Add 2 tins of beer and bring to a simmer. Aroma of the garlic butter and the alcohol from beer will spike your appetite! 

Add in the clams, cover with the lid and let it simmer until all shells open, which is about 5 minutes. Once they are all opened, remove the pot from heat and stir them around using tongs. Make sure you don't overcook them, as you want the sweet juice from the clams. 

That's all! It's done and serve it right away with French loaf. Personally, I like getting my hands dirty. Dip the bread with the clam beer soup while slurping in the clam meat one after another. Speaking of which, the 2kg serving is huge as in each of the 5 person gets a plate of clams like this! That's how I eat as a seafood lover! 

How to make it better?

One thing to improve is the soup. The soup was too watery and taste a little bitter. Perhaps I should let the beer simmer for a longer time to take away the bitterness from the alcohol before adding in the clams. Or maybe just use a tin of beer will do as thicker soup would make the bread taste better! 

That's all very easy right! Go try it yourself and let me know your experience too!
Happy cooking! ;)

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Recipes: No-Bake Oreo Cheesecake

Baking is not hard at all especially one that doesn't require you to bake at all. Best of all, you just need 6 ingredients only to make this No-Bake Oreo Cheesecake. This is definitely the fast and easy way to impress a girl, after all, nobody would say no to Oreo cookies and cheese, right?   

There are a lot of No-Bake Oreo Cheesecake Recipes out there, but basically all are using the same ratio which is 50-50 of cream cheese and whipped cream. Same like our previous Angel Hair Vongole Recipe, we made this because Tatura cream cheese was on promotion in Giant Hypermarket! We bought 500g at RM12 where normally costs RM16.

So here's the ingredients I used:

Serving for 16 pieces

Oreo Crust

20pcs - Oreo (finely crushed)

5 tbsp - Melted Butter

Cheesecake

500g - Cream Cheese

250ml - Whipping Cream

200g - Powdered Sugar

1 Teaspoon - Vanilla Extract

10pcs - Oreo (coarsely chopped)

Topping

10 pcs - Oreo (finely crushed)

Easy to follow procedures:

Start with the Oreo Crust as the base for the No-Bake Oreo Cheesecake. Split the Oreo cookies and remove the vanilla cream. Crush them with food processor or with wooden dough roller until they become fine crumbs. 

Add in 5 tbsp of melted butter so that they are moistened. Mixed well so that all of them sticks together. This helps to create a solid crust at the bottom of the cheesecake. 

Place a parchment paper in the 9-inch pan and add in the mixture. Make sure they are firmly pack with a flat surface. Place them into the fridge to chill while preparing the filling for the No-Bake Oreo Cheesecake. 

For the cheesecake, simply add in cream cheese and whipping cream to beat in a mixer. Then fold in powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Beat until they are very well combined and smooth. Lastly, add in the chopped Oreo cookies to the mixture to mix.

Take out the pan from the fridge and pour the cheesecake filling into the pan. Gently spread it on top of the Oreo crust until they form an even layer.  

Cover the surface of the cheesecake filling with the finely crushed Oreo topping. Gently press it down so that the topping will stick to the filling. By now, it should look pretty much like a No-Bake Oreo Cheesecake! 

Cover the pan and place it in the fridge for 4 hours. After that remove from the pan, slice and enjoy! 

As I used unequal amount of cream cheese to whipping cream (500g - 250ml), the No-Bake Oreo Cheesecake tends to be thicker, stickier and rich of cheese flavor. Thankfully, my Oreo cookies crust and topping was enough to balance it with some crunch in it as well. 

How to make it better?

As you can see from the photo, my coarsely chopped Oreo cookies could not be found in some part of the cheesecake filling. It could be better if I fold it into the mixer and let it mix evenly so that there's the Oreo cookies in every bite! 

That's all very easy right! Go try it yourself and let me know your experience too!
Happy baking! (Ops, No-Baking!) ;)

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Recipes: Angel Hair Vongole

Most of us would be familiar with Spaghetti Vongole, which is an Italian spaghetti with clams. Instead of using the thick spaghetti, I opt for angel hair, also known as Capellini, which is the thinnest round pasta strand. For my personal preference, I always like my spaghetti to go with thick creamy sauce, while angel hair would be better to go with watery soup. 

Here's my Angel Hair Vongole recipe! 

You may have heard from news that recently it is the season for clams! So baby and I decided to cook Angel Hair Vongole at home. I bought the clams (we called it Kappa in Hokkien) at Sungai Ara morning market which is just within walking distance to my house. The uncle was selling at a price of RM5 per kg. Since it is a bit overproduction now, they are cheaper than usual! Which is also another reason for you to try it now! 

So here's the ingredients I used:

Serving for 5 pax
2kg of fresh Clams (Kappa)

500g of Angel Hair (1 packet)

1 big head of Garlic (around 15 cloves)

5 dried chilies

1 small bunch of fresh English Parsley

Salt

250ml of KaoLiang/Sorghum Wine (supposed to be white wine)

Extra Virgin Olive Oil 

Youtube video at the end of the post for reference!

Easy to follow procedures:

Soak the clams for few hours in salt water. This should give clams enough time to purge sand and grit. Use a knife to slice through the shell to make sure they are fresh and alive. Once you slice thru with a knife, a fresh clam should be able to hold their shells back together tightly. 

This technique can also ensure that the clam is clean and does not contains any sand or mud. Even though it is a bit tedious to do it one by one, but it is worthwhile as the last thing you would want is to find sand or mud in your spaghetti! 

Wash the clams thoroughly and keep it aside. Start preparing other ingredients by dicing them with knife. Well, since I recently got my Tefal Manual Chopper (Get it here!), so it's time to make good use of it without going thru all the hard work. 

1 big head of garlic, 5 dried chilies and 1 small bunch of fresh English Parsley were all chopped within a minute! Tefal Manual Chopper (Get it here!) certainly makes my cooking process so much easier! But do take note that if you want it to be faster, you can slightly tear them into smaller pieces first before putting into the chopper. 

Next, boiled a big pot of water to cook the angel hair. Add the pasta to the boiling water with a few pinch of salt and cook according to packet instructions until al dente. Do remember that for angel hair, it takes shorter time to cook as they are thinner than the spaghetti.

While waiting, get a hot pan or pot (in my case as I'm serving for 5!) to kick start! Drizzle some extra virgin olive oil into the pot until it covers all the surface area. Add in all the chopped garlic, dried chilies and English Parsley. Stir everything around constantly and just as the garlic starts to color, add in the clams and pour in the wine.   

Shake the pot to make sure all the clams are cooked evenly. Once most of the clams are opened, take the pot off the heat. By now the angel hair should be about perfect. Drain and add them into the pot of clams along with an extra drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. I also drizzled in a few round of Benedictine DOM to give the extra kick!

Stir and toss for another minute or two to let the appetizing seashore juices from the clams to be absorbed into the pasta. Some leftover starch from the angel hair can help thicken the soup a little too. Done! Serve it right away! 

How to make it better?
As you can see from the photos, it is not all perfect. The angel hair actually became too soft and broken easily when stirred with clams. So it could be better if I cook the pasta for shorter time even before it became al dente. 

Another suggestion is to separate out the clams from the pot before adding in the pasta. This way you can soak the pasta easily in the clam soup while it is also easier to serve with a better food presentation. 

That's all very easy right! Go try it yourself and let me know your experience too!

Happy cooking! ;)

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Recipes: Ambarella/Ambra Smoothie

Ambarella juice, or more commonly known as Ambra or Kedondong juice, is a common drink to order in Malaysia especially given its ability to stimulate one's appetite. I used to eat it too with some sprinkle of salt all over it to balance the sourish taste. Thanks to my uncle and aunty, we were given a bag of fresh ambarella recently. Instead of eating it or juicing it directly, I made it into Ambarella Smoothie with the new blender. 

Ambarella/Ambra Smoothie Recipes:

Serving for 2

12 pcs - Ambarella (Scrubbed and sliced)

300ml - Water

4 tbsp - White sugar

12 pcs - Ice cube

3 pcs - Dried sour plum

Instructions:

1. Wash and scrub each Ambarella with salt thoroughly to remove the stains on the skin.

2. Blend Ambarella with water, white sugar, ice cubes and 1 pcs dried sour plum.

3. Pour into 2 glasses.

4. Add 1 dried sour plum into each glasses.

5. Ready to serve!

Ambarella/Ambra Smoothie - Ambarella need scrubbing too!

You will be surprised how shinning clean it could be after scrubbing with salt. FYI, I used a new dish-washing scrub sponge to scrub the Ambarella and trust me, it is hell lot of effort! I know most of the recipes would call for a skin peeled, but by doing this way, we could fully appreciate the hard work of planting!

Ambarella/Ambra Smoothie - Ready to blend!

Then again, most of the recipes would call for sieving, but for my personal preference, I go with the fiber which could help with our digestive system. Just make sure you blend it just enough to break it down to tiny bits without overheating the blender and destroying some of the heat-sensitive nutrients such as pantothenic acid and vitamin C. 

After a quick check in Google (actually I was trying to find what's the correct spelling of "Ambarella"), I found that Ambarella was quickly gaining popularity especially given that the recent studies proven Ambarella is one of the richest known sources of Vitamin C containing about 30 times that in oranges! So here's a quick list of the benefits.

Benefits of Ambarella:

1. Vitamin C - 30 times of oranges 

- boosts the immune system

- accelerates the wound healing process

- helps in tissue repair 

- acting as natural anti-oxidant to nourishes the skin

2. High content of dietary fiber

- facilitates digestion and helps clear the bowel

3. High level of Vitamin A

-  helps distribute images that are received by the retina of the eye

4. High level of Iron

- help the body produce red blood cells to avoid anemia

5. High in sucrose

- provides instant energy and boost vitality and endurance

Well given all the benefits mentioned above, surely it is a good reason to drink it more often! Just hope that with the demand increases, the price does not goes skyrocketing. 

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Recipes: Overnight Oatmeal

Recently I tried a healthy yet simple Overnight Oatmeal recipes.
So here are two types that I made :
1. Dragonfruit Overnight Oatmeal
2. Mango Overnight Oatmeal.

By the way, I just realized that I didn't post about recipe for such a long time!
My last recipe post :

Recipes: Mini Meat Floss Spring Roll

Okay so let's start!

This is the most basic ingredient : Milk and Rolled Oats.

Milk could be anytime as per your liking.

While rolled oats in major stores.

I bought it from Sunshine Square. =D

Typically, the ratio of milk to rolled oats would be 1:1.

Which means it would be half cup of rolled oats and half cup of milk.

But again, it is still up to you.

As long as the milk is enough to soak the oats.

Here's my Dragonfruit Overnight Oatmeal!

Look at the color! Absolutely delightful! =D

I have added with raisins!

If dragonfruit is not sweet enough, you could opt to add honey.

And my Mango Overnight Oatmeal!

Always use ripe mango as they would be sweet and soft!

After mixing all the ingredients together, leave it overnight in the fridge!

That makes a perfect breakfast meal! =D

That's all! That's how simple it is!

You don't really need a recipe!

All you need is creativity to mix and match! =D

Do try it out and let me know the outcome!
Recommend me some combinations that you think is yummy too!

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