Herb Butter Chicken

A roast chicken recipe with a difference! I saw this recipe on Jamie Oliver's show, so this is based on what I vaguely remember. All you need is the usual stuff like...

A whole chicken
Your choice of vegetables to be roasted together with the chicken.
Herb butter!



Herb butter is very easy to make. Using soften unsalted butter, (not melted, softened) add in herbs like thyme, rosemary and parsley. Add in salt and pepper, mix well, and you're ready to use it!

Use a spoon to create space between the skin and the flesh of the chicken before you stuff as much of the butter inside.


Rub the remaining butter onto the vegetables and put them under the chicken. This way, the juices would flow from the chicken onto the veges while it roast!



Roast the chicken in a preheated oven at 200 degrees C for 45mins. The skin would be crispy, the meat juicy and delicious, you will love me, you are welcome! :)

Mandarin Orange Chiffon Cake

My daughter loves Pandan Chiffon Cakes, but since the Chinese New Year was coming to a close, I was inspired to find a way to get rid of some of my Mandarin Oranges. I found this recipe on My Kitchen Snippets, and it turned out beautifully!. As usual, I halved the ingredients and made a smaller version of the actual recipe. Below are the ingredients for the full sized 10" pan.

(A)
1 3/4cup Self Rising Flour
1/8 tsp of salt

(B)
6 egg yolks
1/2 cup of sugar
3/4 cup Mandarin orange juice
zest of 1 orange
1/4 cup of vegetable oil

(C)
3/4 cup of sugar
6 egg white
1 tsp of cream of tartar

1. Pre-heat oven to 160°C. Sieve all the (A) ingredients in a mixing bowl until well combined.
2. Mix ingredient (B) until well blended and then add in ingredient (A) and mix until smooth. Set it aside.
3. Under ingredient (C), beat the egg whites till they are fluffy. Add in the sugar and cream of tartar high speed until stiff peaks are formed. It should not fall out when you turn the mixing bowl over. Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the egg yolks mixture and continue to do so until egg whites is finish. Remember to fold in gently until well mixed.
4. Pour batter into ungreased 10" tube pan (about 3/4 full) and bake for an hour or used a bamboo skewer to test the cake. Just insert the skewer into the center of the cake and it should comes out clean.
5. Invert cake and let it cool complete in the pan. When it is cooled, loosen the edge of the pan and remove cake.

Like I said, I halved the ingredients so for my smaller version, so I used a 5" tube pan and baked for only 40mins. The end result is a slightly moist cake. If you like it more dry, bake longer. I think my cake pan was too full, so I ended up with a mushroom-like chiffon cake. Nothing wrong, just that it makes it more difficult to remove from the pan.



There was even leftover cake batter, so I poured the rest into muffin cases and baked for only 20 mins.



Turns out quite nice actually! Little chiffon cakes, no need to cut, great for tea breaks, perfect for little hands. :)

Dozo Japanese Restaurant

Happy Valentine's Day! Well, it's actually a day before valentine's day, but it's the thought that counts! This year, my hubby got a recommendation from a buddy of a Japanese fusion restaurant, on top of that, it's got pretty good reviews online. So he chose DOZO Japanese restaurant for dinner.



The restaurant is located in a quiet little shopping centre, so I wasn't too impressed. Besides, when we got inside the restaurant, there seemed to be a musky smell in the air! But then, as long as the food is good, everything else shouldn't matter right? So on with the food!

Upon settling down, we were presented with a bouquet of 'sticks'. Only after we tried nibbling it did we realise that they were cheese sticks!



It's pretty yummy, and no waiters ran out screaming at us on why we ate the table ornaments, so we're good. The menu is a fixed 7 course meal, where you can choose your own 7 dishes. The 1st dish is a chef's recommendation, appetizer.

The waiter asked us to eat from the lightest to the most flavor one. The scallop, the salmon, followed by the foie gras.



I looooove the foir gras, but the scallop was a little too raw inside. Still edible, but too raw I think. For the 1st course, the cold dish, I ordered the sashimi platter. I love the roe!!! I hoped the sashimi to be more cool instead of room temperature, but they were still very sweet and delicious.



Hubby had the King Crab claw with mango. The meat was very moist and sweet and it goes very well with the chopped mango. YUMS!



For the side dish, I had the gratinated escargots with yuzu butter. I don't know what gratinated means or what is yuzu butter, but I know it was delicious! The cheese and butter was gorgeous, the escargot wasn't too chewy or salty, it was perfect!



Hubby's foie gras chawanmushi was, to me, quite ordinary actually. I think when you put the 2 together, each of their magic is lost. I'd rather have a normal chawanmushi with a slice of perfectly seared foie gras please.



So far my choices were pretty good, but my crap bisque turned out to be TOO MUCH! It's just TOO crab-by, the seafood smell was TOO strong!



On the opposite end of the scale, Hubby's double boiled beef consumme was very light and yet sweet. Very good!



Finally it's main course time! Mine was beef tenderloin on pu-ye and granite hotstone. The meat is served rare, so you can let it 'cook' a little longer if you want. But any way you cook it, it was deliciously tender. I thought the accompanying sauce was pepper sauce, but it was actually grainy mustard. It was a little sweet and tangy, and it was GREAT with the steak. YUMS~!



Cobby ordered the sushi platter as he wanted some rice in his meal. Looked so pretty!



Next up was my favourite, dessert! Mine was a warm chocolate cake with a liquid centre. Delicious and perfect with vanilla ice cream!



Cobby's dessert was a little sad. It's so sad, it's funny really. Look at the size of his plate versus the size of his miserable little slice of cheese cake! Whahaha!



I was worried that he would be hungry still, but surprisingly, we were both quite full! The meal has wasn't perfect, there were good dishes and not so good ones, but overall, we had a good time eating and talking and laughing. The service was pretty OK and the place was quite casual and comfortable.

Dozo Restaurant
491 River Valley Road
Singapore 248371
Tel: 6838 6966
www.dozo.com.sg