If you insist on cooking erm, “authentically”, I suggest you get peeled chestnuts from the chiller department of Sheng Siong. They’re $2 a packet, uncooked, untreated, but already naked for convenience. I was gonna get them but they ran out. See what I mean about NO ONE wanting to get those nuts outta their shells manually? So I got the next best thing: ready-to-eat vacuum-packed chestnuts. The dish turned out great anyway.

I marinated the chicken fillet overnight because I don’t like to spend a long time in the kitchen at any one time, prepping and prepping. It makes me feel like cooking is a chore, which it isn’t, and I love cooking! If you don’t usually cook and want to devote more time in the kitchen, simple marinate the chicken for 20-30 minutes on the day itself just before cooking. This dish is also great with chicken wings.. but I don’t normally feed my family chicken wings for health reasons even if they do taste so good. Chickens are often injected with steroids at the neck or the wing.. so I believe that the level of steroids is higher at these areas. I’m not a doctor or healthcare professional, but this is the way I choose to eat! And chicken fillet has less fat and they still taste so good.

Makes 4 servings

What I used:

600g chicken fillet, cut into bite sized pieces, marinated with:
a) 1 tablespoons soy sauce
b) 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce (not the runny, very salty kind)
c) 1 satchet sugar
d) 1 tablespoon chinese cooking wine
e) 1 tablespoons corn flour
f) a dash of white pepper
g) 1 tablespoon finely chopped ginger

1 carrot, chopped to bite sized pieces
2 packets of vacuum-packed chestnuts
a few cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed lightly (optional)
1 tablespoon chopped shallots
2 slices ginger
1 teaspoon olive oil
700ml chicken stock (dissolve one chicken stock cube in hot water, then add 1 tablespoon oyster sauce + a dash of sesame oil)

1. Heat up your saucepan. Add oil and fry ginger and shallots til fragrant.
2. Add in the garlic pieces and chicken. Discard leftover marinate juices. Fry for 4-5 minutes then add carrots and chestnuts.
3. Add the chicken stock, sesame oil and oyster sauce. Bring to boil then lower flame to simmer for 20 minutes til chicken is tender.

How much I spent:

$4 for chicken fillet
$3 for chestnuts
$0.30 for carrot
Everything else from my pantry

Total cost per serving: $1.83

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When I tasted this during cooking, I thought to myself.. “wow.. this is just like homecooked food!” Then I realise how silly that sounds cos this is homecooked food! If you’re thinking of cooking something for your family today, why not try this simple dish? All the ingredients are combined together to cook slowly.. the chicken pieces become so tender and the chestnuts break down and lend a sweet, nutty flavour to the dish. Plus, if you choose to add garlic (I love them!), you’ll get little surprises when you bite into one.

Because everything cooks together in one saucepan, there is minimal clean up and because this is a braised dish,you don’t have to worry about temperature, whether the meat is overcooked or not. Nothing gets easier than this (erm ok except some of my idiot-proof recipes), and I promise, you’ll get a sense of satisfaction dishing this up!

The post Braised Chestnut Chicken Casserole appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.

A hearty stew is usually made up of a few core ingredients- potatoes, onions, a type of meat (beef and pork are common and impart great flavour) and (surprise!) celery. I know how most of you feel towards celery. Trust me, no one knows celery better. In a desperate attempt to lose weight (the wrong way) more than ten years ago, I survived on ONE stalk of raw celery per day. I hated celery. I lost a lot of weight (so would anyone, on the crazy diet) and lowered my blood pressure to a healthy range (it was 160/100 at my peak- very scary) and still hated celery. But I knew it was, and still is, good for me. What I want you to know, though, is that cooked celery tastes NOTHING like its raw form. It tastes earthy and potato-ey if cooked in a stew, and is essential to making a great stew. It is also used in chicken pie fillings.

Please do not leave out the celery if you decide to cook this dish. Please do not cook this dish if you intend to leave out the celery- it will not do this stew justice.

The version I’ve done above is a cross between a soup and stew because today I decided to serve this with rice instead of bread. This was after about 1.5 hours of slow cooking on a lowered flame. The stew gets thicker as it simmers. After two hours of slow stove-top cooking, this is what you’ll get:

A beautiful comforting soup, great with some warm crusty bread roll.

Makes 4 servings

What I used:

500g pork shoulder, chopped into 2-cm pieces (use beef if whoever you’re cooking for takes beef)
1 large onion, wedged
5 cloves garlic, crushed
1 litre chicken stock (use beef stock if whoever you’re cooking for takes beef)
1 small Beijing cabbage, chopped
2 potatoes, chopped into chunks
2 carrots, chopped into chunks
1 tomato, wedged
4 stalks celery (leaves and white stems removed), chopped to 1-cm pieces
1 can mixed beans (kidney beans, chick peas etc, optional)
5 tbsp ketchup
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp oil
2 tbsp corn flour

1. Marinate pork pieces in some oyster sauce, soy sauce and corn flour for 15 minutes.
2. Heat up the oil in a pot, brown meat on both sides then set aside.
3. In the same pot, fry the onions til slightly soft, then add the garlic. Fry for 1-2 minutes then add the celery.
4. Fry for 5 minutes. Add stock if too dry.
5. When the celery is softer, add the rest of the stock and return the meat to the pot. Scrape the sides of your pot with the stock to get all the goodness.
6. Add in the carrots, potatoes, tomato, cabbage and bring to boil. Lower flame and simmer for 1 hour.
7. Stir in tomato ketchup and oyster sauce. Continue to cook for 30 minutes or til consistency is to your liking.

How much I spent:

$2.35 for pork
$1.20 for Beijing Cabbage
$0.60 for potatoes
$0.40 for carrots
$0.30 for tomato
$0.40 for celery
Everything else from my pantry

Total cost per serving: $1.32

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Because this is so good, I recommend that you make a batch of this in a large pot. Cover leftovers and refrigerate.. heat it up for dinner the next day. You can also freeze leftovers in an airtight ziplock bag (keeps for 2 weeks if frozen properly) and reheat when you feel lonely.

The post Rustic Pork and Cabbage Stew appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.