Pandan Chicken Goodness!

Long weekends = kitchen experiments

I was at the Asian store yesterday and saw a pouch of powdered coconut cream.  I remembered my friend Judy asking me to buy her some a few months ago.  So of course I texted her and asked if she still needed it.  She said she had some already but I should definitely try it.  The natural reaction of course was to ask her for a recipe to try.  She texted me her recipe for pandan chicken based off Casa Veneracion's site.

Here's what I used:

1.5 lbs chicken thighs (boneless and skinless), halved

2 tsp minced garlic

2 tsp ginger paste

6 Tbsp oyster sauce

2 oz (1 packet) coconut cream powder

pinch salt and pepper

pandan leaves

I'm a big fan of no-mess marinating in Ziploc bags so that's what I used for the process below:

1. Mix garlic, ginger, oyster sauce, coconut cream powder, salt and pepper directly in the Ziploc bag.  
2. Add washed (and patted dry) chicken pieces to the bag.  "Massage" until all pieces are coated with the marinade. Seal and refrigerate overnight.
3. Wash pandan leaves and carefully wrap each piece of chicken. I wrapped mine like suman but the other recipes I found exposed more of the chicken. This takes quite a bit of time so I suggest preheating your oven to 350F in the process.
4. Arrange wrapped chicken in baking dish and bake for 45 minutes (this will vary depending on the thickness of the chicken and how much of it is exposed or wrapped).
5. Switch oven on broil and cook until pandan leaves get some color but not burnt (about 3-5 minutes).

before and after (served with garlic fried rice, of course)

While the chicken was on broil, I fired up some garlic fried rice just because it seemed like a good idea.  It made for a delicious lunch with a tall glass of chilled kalamansi juice.  I think the next time I make it, I'll add some Thai red curry in the marinade for a little kick.  The sweet and hot pepper relish I served it with did the trick too, but perhaps it would taste even better if the spices were in the marinade. 

Hugs & Kisses

It's really quite simple...choose your favorite hershey's hugs or kisses, lay it on top of your favorite mini pretzel, melt in a 350F oven for 2 minutes, then top with another pretzel. Let cool until chocolate is set.

So good! Thanks to my friend Anne for sharing her recipe!

Tres leches cake @ Crave (Minneapolis)

It was so good. The berry sauce gave it a good twist...a welcome change.

The cake itself was superb.

Happy tummy!

Thankful for good Asian food without having to drive very far:)

Lunch @ Doolittles

Chicken flatbread is delish...super love portabella mushrooms.

Chipotle shrimp and bacon skewer

My students made this today during their recipe testing. It looked delicious...smelled wonderful too. Since I couldn't taste it, I took a picture instead.

* I grew up eating shrimp but when I moved to the US, I developed an allergy. Boo.

Life is good!