Thursday, February 23, 2006

Another Chinese dinner

I spent a painstaking 1.5 hour the night before yesterday to skin and remove fat from the chicken thighs we bought last week. There were so MUCH fat hidden beneath the thigh muscle... And I know, even after the 1.5 hour of effort, not all the fat has been eliminated. I decided to bake them on the following day, hopefully the fat would melt on its own in the high temperature.

I tried another new marinate combination: curry powder, sugar, salt and white pepper. Ok, maybe this is nothing new to you people out there, but this is my first time to add more than 3 tablespoons of curry powder to my marinate. I have very sensitive taste bud, and hence can not take too spicy food. So, the chicken thighs were marinated overnight in the fridge while I dragged my body to bed. For that night's bed talk, I asked OCT why he chose to buy chicken thighs during our last grocery shopping trip. (FYI, he is the BUYER, while I am the cook in this family. For he claims to have "an eye" for fresher meats and veggie, and more aware of what is "value for money"......who cares, I find myself happier in the junk food aisles, haha)
Here goes the conversation:

"Why did you buy chicken thighs?"
"You asked me to buy chicken thighs ma~" He defended himself.
"Where got? (na li you- mandarin)"
"yes~ you said you need it for one recipe...."
"really? but how come the chicken thighs we bought last time was not so fat?"
"Emm....maybe this chicken was fat?"
"No! there are many thighs, and they are all fat!"
"Maybe all the chicken that we bought were from the same fat family?"
"......hahaha, very funny."
"oh, i know, last time we bought chicken leg quarters, not chicken thighs..."
"Oh....ya, you are right."I paused for a second. "Next time you shouldn't buy chicken thighs anymore"
"You were the one who asked me to buy ma~"
"......"

Anyway, we were delighted that the oven baked curried chicken thighs came out nicely and yummy yesterday. They were a bit too dry having baked at 400F oven for one hour. Other than that, we find ourselves enjoyed the not spicy and not oily at all chicken thighs.


I paired this with stirfry leeks with ribbon-carrots, which was very simple. (Just add white wine and salt + pepper to taste)This is somewhat of a warm salad, and stirfry brinjals with spicy soy bean paste. It tasted like yu xiang qie zi 魚香茄子- spicy mince meat with brinjals.

OCT has a very yummy lunch box to bring to lab today...
(For some reasons, he likes to arrange his food in very presentable manner, unlike his wife who doesn't care the slightest about presentation). This applies to my grooming philosophy, if you know me. Come to think of it, doesn't it also apply to the philosophy OCT and I adhere, when comes to looking for a life partner?! Hmm...Good call, OCT!!

1 comment:

  1. i'm so gonna try your recipes! they seem so simple and easy to do. I bake too much! now its time for me to cook more. your site will sure come in handy for me! :) keep up the good eats ya.

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