KFC style gravy

Although not exactly healthy, I do like to serve this gravy occasionally when I make my oven-baked chicken

KFC style gravy
via PanlasangPinoy

Ingredients
3 tablespoons butter (only used 1 knob butter and vegetable oil)
5 tablespoons all-purpose flour (only used 2.5 Tbsp)
1 piece chicken cube or 2 teaspoons chicken powder (omitted)
1 piece beef cube or 2 teaspoons beef powder (half a cube of beef  stock cube)

2  1/4 cups water (only used 1 cup)
++ ground black pepper

Preparation

1. Dilute the beef stock cube in water.
2. Melt butter in sauce pan and add a little vegetable oil on low heat.
3. Add all-purpose flour and cook in low heat while continuously stirring for 7 to 8 minutes or until the color turns medium brown. There is a tendency that the flour might burn when overcooked or if high heat is applied. Be extra cautious.
4. Gradually add the beef stock (1) while stirring. Continuous stirring is needed to prevent lumps from forming.
5. Put the heat to medium and bring the mixture to a boil. Cook for 5 minutes more while stirring once in a while until the texture thickens.
6. Serve hot with fried chicken or mashed potato.

Homemade Peanut Sauce

By now, many have figured out the short cut in making peanut sauce. It's really not hard especially if you have peanut butter in your pantry. However, in my case, peanut butter is not regularly featured on my grocery list as I'm the only one who eats it and that's dangerous! :D
One day a dish really needed this sauce to make it complete, so I thought why not give it a go with  toasted peanuts in packet that I've got on hand. The recipe still needs tweaking but the result was very promising !

Homemade Peanut dipping sauce

Ingredients (estimate only)
Peanuts, toasted, it depend on how "peanutty" you want it
oil for cooking
onion, minced
dried red chillies, to taste
anchovy paste, to taste
salt and sugar, to taste
water, as needed

Method
1) Heat oil in sauce pan. Sauté minced onion until translucent. Add in the anchovy paste, dried chillies and peanuts. Stir it a bit. add water , not too much. you can adjust later. cook until peanuts are blendable.
2) Remove from sauce pan and blend to the preferred texture (smooth or chunky) , pour in back to pan . At this point, season with salt and sugar, also adjust water, if needed.
3) Serve room temperature or hot.

Homemade tomato ketchup

Homemade Ketchup
serves : 3 - 4 hamburgers

Ingredients
2 ripe tomatoes, peeled
caramelised onion
vanilla sugar, to taste
2 tsp tomato paste

Basil, a pinch
Garlic paste, small pinch
pineapple syrup, to taste
smoked paprika powder, a pinch
1 bay leaf
hot chilli , to taste
parsley, chopped finely

1) Heat up a sauce pan, put in caramelised onion, place tomatoes on caramelised onion, sprinkle vanilla sugar and cook until tomato starts to caramelised.
2) Next put in remaining ingredients and cook it down to preferred consistency. Check for seasoning. Use it as you would with ketchup
 

Quick Herb Aioli

Quick Herb Aioli
serves 2
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3746/open-swordfish-burgers-with-herb-aoli

Ingredients
4 tbsp mayonnaise
2 tsp Dijon mustard (used regular mustard)
1 tbsp lemon juice
shallot, chopped (to taste)
garlic clove , crushed (to taste, I used a squirt of garlic paste)
3 tbsp tarragon, chives, parsley , use 1 or a mixture (used only 1 small bunch of parsley)

Method
Mix together all the ingredients for the herb aïoli in a small bowl and set aside. Serve at room temperature.

Hungarian Cottage cheese spread { Körözöt }

Körözöt is something that my FIL whipped up whenever we return to visit on weekends. He has kindly written down the recipe recently as below. Now I can make them at home !

Simply mix together the ingredients :-

100-150gm Cottage cheese (I think Ricotta cheese should be fine ,too)
165ml sour cream
3-4 Tbsp butter, room temperature
1-2 tsp sweet / spicy paprika powder
pinch of cumin, ground or whole
salt & pepper, to taste

At this point, you've already made a basic Körözöt ; however, my FIL makes it special by adding ...

Hungarian green pepper, chopped finely
1-2 hard boiled egg(s)
1-2 tsp mustard
Onion, finely chopped , to taste
cold cuts, chopped finely

Garnish with dill , parsley or paprika powder. I think a drizzle of olive oil would be nice, too :)

Note that sour cream and butter (or margerine) are crucial in this recipe ; while the rest of the additions can be to your taste.

My first Guacamole

And my first purchase of avocado!
The last time I had mexican food was about eight years ago (I think..). Although it was a nice experience , it didn't inspire me to cook it at home (also because I hardly cook those days!). Tortilla chips during movie sessions don't count ;)

The recipe for the dip is from Recipezaar. It was good! However, I'll probably leave out the onion the next time. It's just too overpowering for my taste.

Easy Guacamole

Ingredients
3 ripe avocados (ripe as in really dark in color and super soft when squeezed)
1 small onion, finely diced
1 medium tomato, diced
sour cream *optional
salt and pepper, to taste

Directions
1Take avocados and cut into the avocado until you come to the large seed inside.
2Cut around the circumference of the seed.
3With both hands twist the two halves in opposite directions and pull apart.
4Now if your avocados are ripe enough they will separate easily.
5Now carve out each half with a tablespoon.
6Place avocados into a medium bowl and mash and stir until moderately creamy.
7Some people like the avocados more chunky than others-- either way it tastes great.
8Add diced onion and tomatoes to the avocados.
9Add your preference of salt and pepper and taste to see if salty enough.
10In a separate small bowl put in 2 tablespoons of the dip.
11Add 1 tbsp of sour cream and salt again.
12Taste it.
13And decide if you prefer your guacamole with or without sour cream.
14If you like with sour cream add 4 tablespoons or more to the avocado mixture and salt again.
15If not, do nothing and leave it like it is.
16You can do the same with the Tabasco sauce if you like Tabasco sauce.
17Serve chilled with chips or add a little to your taco salad.