Category: Yelly Eats

Everything and anything about food, cooking, baking, and recipe-testing

Yelly Eats

Chicken Licken

Yelly

I love chicken.  I love it fried, braised, barbecued, stewed, roasted.  Chances are as long as it’s chicken, I will eat it and I will love it.  I could probably eat chicken all year without complaining.  You could probably say I am slightly pollo loco!

I’m lucky that most of the fast food restaurants in the Philippines serve chicken.  While it may sound weird to some people, chicken is almost always served with rice and some sort of gravy or sauce.  But most places that serve fried chicken will almost always have mashed potato and gravy on the menu as a side.  It probably seems very American but there you go.  Fried chicken and mashed potato in gravy is, in my opinion, a match made in fried chicken heaven!

When I lived in Atlanta for a while, my love for Southern fried chicken grew.  Chicken in the South was so much better than KFC (and don’t get me wrong, KFC in the South seems to be even better than the usual, but that may just be me!) and the mashed potato was even more amazing than the mashed potato that you got in those little styrofoam tubs that you got from fast food restaurants.  I was in chicken heaven.  Every single element of southern fried chicken made me smile: from the crispy fried chicken batter to the juicy chicken pieces!  To borrow KFC’s slogan, PROPER southern fried chicken was of the finger-lickin’ good variety.

I moved to England nearly 4 years ago and I think I spent nearly that much time looking for great fried chicken.  Don’t get me wrong, the various southern fried chicken take away places do have their merits, particularly the ones near us.  They’re okay, not amazing, but okay if I needed a fried chicken fix.  But obviously, it was chicken and chips (I used to call them fries) and not chicken and mash…and I almost always had to make my own gravy.  No one seemed to think that mashed potato and gravy was a good flavour combination.  I even went to my old standby KFC, expecting to see the same things on the menu but boy, was I disappointed!  There was no mashed potato and there was no gravy and the chicken wasn’t as good as I thought it was.  And so began my quest for the perfect southern fried chicken.

I’ve bought chicken from lots of places, from different supermarkets, had meals in a lot of restaurants but I’ve never really found the kind of chicken that I really enjoyed: crispy, flavourful batter, slightly salty and juicy chicken.  Until that fateful day in July.  Alan had read about Roost who served chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy.  And not just any chicken, it was chicken marinated in buttermilk, battered and fried!  It was proper southern fried chicken, the way southern fried chicken is supposed to be made!  Or at least that’s what it said it was.  After looking for nearly 4 years, I think you wouldn’t blame me for being slight skeptical.

We made our way to the Dalston location Friday after work where that week’s Street Feast London was happening and ordered a serving: 2 pieces of buttermilk chicken with gravy and mash.  I was prepared to be disappointed.  But as I stabbed my fork into that crispy batter, the crackle that I heard calmed my doubtful heart.  Batter that sounded like that had to be some sort of good!  And bite of juicy chicken with a little bit of batter made me smile.  It was SO good!  The next bite had to be a fork-full of chicken, batter, mashed potato and gravy had me closing my eyes in absolute enjoyment.  I’m salivating while thinking back to that first mouthful of chicken-mash-gravy.  The chicken was perfect and the mash was creamy-buttery.  I made the decision to share a 2-piece chicken meal with Alan (yes, I have been known to demolish a 2-piece chicken meal with gravy and rice in the Philippines!) because we were at Street Feast LDN and there were other food places to try (and, if I’m honest, because I had prepared for disappointment, I didn’t want to have too much of the chicken left over if I didn’t like it!  I am, apparently, a fussy eater!).  But as we walked away from that parking lot in Dalston, I was thinking about the chicken.  I wanted to turn around and order another chicken with gravy and mash to take back with me!  It was THAT good!

We had our next taste of chicken when Eat Street was at Exhibition Road 2 weeks later (a little thing called the Olympics had descended on London).  This time we each had a 2-piece meal, absolutely no sharing!  And I’m very glad to report that the chicken and gravy and mash were as perfect as I remember.

If you’re ever in London and in a street food market, and you spy the Roost truck, run, don’t walk, to it and ask for a 2-piece chicken meal with gravy and mash as a side.  You won’t regret it!  To find out where Roost are, follow them on Twitter.  They are @weareroost.

I cannot wait until the next Roost fix!

Yelly Eats

Testing 1-2-3

Yelly

I’ve been working on a muffin base recipe.  I’m almost there I think, because the series of banana muffins that I’ve been baking seems to turn out the same way each time now and they all look the same.  The next step is to try another fruit and then ask my friends to try the recipe to see if it works for them in the same way!

After I perfect the muffin recipe, I’m going to work on a cupcake base recipe next!

Yelly Eats

Luxurious oatmeal cookies

Yelly

I love oatmeal cookies.  I remember late nights with warm cookies and a large glass of milk. Oatmeal cookies are comforting and they remind me of home.  There’s something about the smell of cinnamon wafting from the oven that just brings out the happy hormones.

This recipe is slightly more luxurious because of the amount of butter that is used in the recipe.  But it is definitely worth it.  The cookies are yummy and chewy.  I try to justify it by saying it is oatmeal, and oatmeal IS healthy and good for you!

Oatmeal CookiesIngredients:

  • 270g unsalted butter, at room temperature
  • 160g caster sugar
  • 160g soft dark brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 380g plain flour
  • 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • 200g quick cooking oats
  • 225g raisins

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 180°C (360°F).
  2. In a bowl, mix flour, oats, salt, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon together with a balloon whisk until well-combined.  Set aside.
  3. In another mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars together (I use a rubber spatula but you can always use a handheld mixer) until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well and making sure that you scrape the sides of the bowl so that you mix all the ingredients well.
  4. Add the flour-oats mixture to the butter mixture in thirds, mixing well eat time.  Stir in the raisings until evenly distributed.
  5. To make relatively uniform sized cookies, I use a 18/8 gauge ice cream scooper.  If you use the scooper, this makes about 42 cookies.  Arrange the cookie batter scoops on a tray, evenly spaced.
  6. Bake for about 12 minutes, make sure that you check the cookies at the 10 minute mark to make sure they aren’t burning.
  7. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly on trays before turning out on wire cooling racks to cool completely.
Yelly Eats

Indulgence

Yelly

Chocolate is indulgence!  And the best chocolate indulgence is a chocolate cake.  There’s nothing more satisfying than baking a chocolate cake yourself and enjoying the fruits of your labour!

This is my version of Hummingbird Bakery’s Chocolate Guinness cake.  This is my chocolate cake with morello cherry filling and it was dee-vine! 🙂

Hummingbird Bakery's Chocolate Guinness Cake with Morello Cherry Filling

Yelly Eats

We have bread!

Yelly

I have the biggest grin on my face at the moment as I have made bread!  Well, focaccia is a kind of bread, so I guess I can claim that right?  Virtually speechless as am really, really, really pleased with myself!

This was the dough being coaxed to rise a second time.  I was a bit worried as the dough was really wet.  The book did say that the dough would be wet but I wasn’t sure it was meant to be THAT wet!  I was very worried.  I’d tried to make bread before and failed, quite miserably.

focaccia dough

But it did come out beautifully I think!

Salt and pepper focacciaThis was the salt and pepper focaccia.

FocacciaRoasted vegetable focaccia on the left and the salt and pepper on the right.

 

 

 

Yelly Eats

Leftovers anyone?

Yelly

As the old adage goes, “waste not, want not.”  Am all about recycling so I thought I’d share a post from my old blog.  It’s a bit too early for a Christmas-themed post but c’est la vie, eh?

***

We’re all plagued with leftovers after Christmas.  There’s only so much turkey you can take.  So I thought I’d do something with the turkey that wasn’t a sandwich.

So armed with pastry and leeks, I made this beautiful turkey and leek pie.

Turkey and Leek Leftover Pie

But, in making the turkey and leek pie, I had leftover pastry, which I was determined not to waste.  The answer to that particular dilemma was mince pies!

Mince pies!

Dinner tonight is going to be GOOD.  If anyone wants the recipes to these, let me know!  🙂

Yelly Eats

Cheese and bacon twisties

Yelly

I’m being very lazy and am simply posting food pictures.  I think this might be a theme for the next few days!

This was my take on Lorraine Pascale’s recipe for the twisties.  I love her shows and her books!  I love how to recipes are simple, quick to make and they turn out well.  The recipes are very easy to follow.

Now these twisties were very easy to make and were very easy to eat!

Cheese and Bacon Twisties

Yelly Eats

Neiman Marcus Cookies

Yelly

This recipe has been making the rounds for ages.  My aunt sent me the recipe a few months ago with a request that I try out the recipe and perfect making it, so that when I went home to Manila for a visit, I could bake the cookies for her.  I’ve been planning the cookie bake for ages, but have had other baking projects in the works.  But tonight was the night for the so-called Neiman Marcus cookies.

The recipe calls for nuts, and I chose to use 2 kinds: pecans and hazelnuts.  I didn’t add the Hershey bar shavings anymore because I felt that there were enough chocolate chip cookies for it to be oh-s0-chocolatey already.

Here’s the recipe, as I received it.  I halved the recipe and it yielded 50 cookies already!

NEIMAN-MARCUS COOKIES (Recipe may  be halved)Neiman Marcus Cookies
2 cups butter
24 oz. chocolate chips
4 cups  flour
2 cups brown sugar
2 tsp. soda
1 tsp.  salt
2 cups sugar
1 – 8 oz. Hershey Bar (grated)
5  cups blended oatmeal
4 eggs
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp.  vanilla
3 cups chopped nuts (your choice)

Measure oatmeal,  and blend in a blender to a fine powder. Cream the butter and both  sugars. Add eggs and vanilla, mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt,  baking powder, and soda. Add chocolate chips, Hershey Bar, and nuts. Roll into balls, and place two inches apart on a cookie  sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes 112  cookies.

Yelly Eats

Banana cupcake

Yelly

I was craving a banana cupcake (with peanut butter!) and, as luck would have it, I had just enough bananas to make up a batch of 12 cupcakes!

Sometimes, it’s the simple things that make me really happy.  And sometimes, it’s just a banana cupcake!

It’s the easiest cupcake recipe that makes the moistest of cupcakes!

Ingredients:

  • 180g of plain flourBanana Cupcake
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon of baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 3 ripe bananas, mashed
  • 150g light brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 75ml vegetable oil (or softened butter if you want a more luxurious treat)

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 190°C (180°C for fan ovens).
  2. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl and mix with a balloon whisk.  If you’re making a Christmas version of this recipe, you can add 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and ½ teaspoon of nutmeg.
  3. In a separate bowl, mix oil and sugar.  Mix until sugar granules appear to be smaller.  Add the egg and mix until the mixture is smooth.  Add the flour mixture in thirds.
  4. Mix in mashed bananas and stir until mashed bananas are well-distributed.  Scoop into a muffin pan lined with cupcake cases.
  5. Bake for 18-20 minutes.  The cupcakes are completely cooked when a toothpick is inserted in the centre of a cupcake and it comes out clean.
  6. Makes 12 cupcakes exactly.  I use an ice cream scooper to distribute the batter equally.
Yelly Eats

Breakfast

Yelly

One of my favourite restaurants in London serves all-day breakfasts.  As a Filipino, breakfast is a very important meal.  We were raised to value breakfast.  I remember being continually scolded by my mother when I try to skip breakfast.  When I discovered the Breakfast Club, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.  While they don’t have the traditional Filipino beef tapa or longganisa with garlic fried rice,  I am a fan of the full English breakfast and they have the best spread I’ve seen so far!  But they’re not limited to just English breakfasts.  They have Huevos Rancheros and a really good Chorizo Hashbrown plate.  They have the most amazing Eggs Benedict and their Green Eggs and Ham is dee-lish.  You also have a choice of the divine French toasts and amazing stacked pancakes.  But you do have the healthy option too, because they serve oats and fruity options as well.

If you’re ever in London, you must find a way to have a meal at the Breakfast Club at one of their locations.  The service is friendly and the food is amazing!  Worth every penny!  And mind you, you don’t have to shell out a lot of pennies to enjoy the HUGE breakfasts 🙂

Chorizo Hashbrowns by Breakfast Club