Homemade Chinese Takeaway Style Chicken & Mushroom Curry.

Here's a guide on how to make a homemade Chinese takeaway style chicken and mushroom curry using Mayflower curry sauce powder.

What you need for 2 servings.

• 85g Mayflower Curry Powder, Heron, B&M, Farmfoods & Home bargains all sell this in 225g tubs
• 170g chicken breast, diced or strips.
• 150g Mushrooms quartered.
• 460ml Water
• 55g frozen peas
• 55g diced onion
• Vegetable oil

Start by heating the oil in a wok/pan then adding the chicken letting it sizzle away for 3 minutes.

Then add your frozen peas and onion and stir fry for a further 1 minute. As you can see i didnt use onions due to a onion allergy that my partner has. Once done remove from the wok and keep warm.

Your next step is to cook your mushrooms, i prefer to do mushrooms separate for they all get a even browning. If you have a lid for the pan even better!

Now you want to put your mushrooms to the side, in the same bowl and your already cooked chicken, peas and onion.

Then put your water and curry sauce powder into the pan and whisk constantly until the sauce starts to form, become thick and finally boils.

As soon as the boil starts add back your mushrooms, chicken, peas & onion. and sitr, Lower the heat and simmer for a minute.

Your last step is to serve with chips/rice, though i did cheat and bought prawn crackers from the local takeout, our secret :).

Yogurt Sauce to compliment Shish Kebabs by Tongmaster

This recipe is taken directly from the packet of Tongmaster Seasonings: Shish Kebab Seasoning Spice. 

The recipe is easy and only requires a few basic ingredients.

• 150g Greek Style Yogurt.
• 1tbsp Tahini Paste (Most supermarkets sell this, here is a link to ASDA & Tesco).
• Handful chopped FRESH mint leaves.
• 2tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped.
• Salt to taste.

Simply mix everything together and chill till needed.

I would recommend you add the mint last to save it over bruising.

Another tip that i like when making a sauce with yogurt and mint, take some cucumber, usually around half, slice it lengthwise and scoop out all the watey seeds, dice and add to the sauce, this adds a really good crunch, now all you need is the kebab. Checkout my Shish mix review.

Let me know if you try it, or if you have ideas to twist it up.

Quickly defrosting chicken breast.

Chicken breasts defrosting in a bowl of water.

We have all been there, about to start preparing a meal and the chicken breast is still frozen. When i was younger i worked in a Chinese takeaway. Not the most glamours of jobs but i did learn this neat trick, 

Simply place as many chicken breasts you need in a bowl, place the bowl in the sink and turn the cold tap on to run slowly. Just keep checking every 20 mins to see if its defrosted.

Do remember any meat you defrost like this should be used as quickly as possible.

Tongmaster Seasonings: Shish Kebab Seasoning Spice Review

Who don't love a Shish kebab, a warm evening in Turkey and freshly cooked kebab, Yes please! Unfortunately i live in Birmingham, so i cant exactly pop to the kebab hut on the sea front. So when i saw this NEW product from Tongmaster Seasonings i knew i had to try it.

Like there other seasoning mixes this came in a vacuum sealed bag with a nice lengthy best before date. Feb 2017!

Tongmaster Shish Kebab Seasoning TM01693

I'm trying it with chicken first, don't cringe I know it should be lamb but nobody ever told Thomas Edison to stop experimenting. All the steps would be the same for any meat.

First as i was not using the amounts of ingredients recommended. I had to mix up the packet which makes , this is highly recommended. Just place into a grip seal bag and shake it around to get the seasoning all mixed up.`

Now to calculate how much mix to use i have made this simple table so you can use as a guide depending how much meat you are using.

When weighing out my spice mixed I've been using these scales, they weigh in points of a gram from 0.1 upto 350g,

I got these from my local market on the smoking accessories stall. But I've seen them on ebay too, Clicky.

I cannot recommend these enough they are perfect for when standard kitchen scales are not delicate enough to handle points of grams.

Now to get started on the recipe i simply diced 200g of chicken breast around 1 inch. 

and added 10g of seasoning to a grip seal bag, and simply massaged the chicken for a moment and placed into the fridge for 2 hours, halfway through i gave the bag another shake.

 If you have the time to do overnight that's even better.

While i while waiting for the chicken to marinade i soaked my wooden skewers after always struggling getting them fully submerged i came up with this idea.

Fill a clean sided baking tray with water and add your skewers, better then trying to get them all soaked in a vase!

WOW

I stopped writing here to go and make them..... W O W is all I'm saying!

Once ready to use i had the task of turning them into a kebab. I used yellow pepper, onion and cherry tomato's. After having a quick google this seems to be the most used combination for chicken shish.

I think that next time i will add a 2nd piece of yellow pepper, just to balance it out a little more.

I cooked them under the grill, turning regularly and checking the temperature before removing from the grill. I simply cannot wait to offer these at my next BBQ.

The finished skewers.

As you can see my onion cooked before my chicken, the problem being the clearance between my grill and the grill rack, but dont let that fool you, that chicken was amazing.

I served it with some shredded iceberg and chopped onion, wholemeal wraps and a mayo dip.

This beats any pre-prepared kebab ive had. The taste that the seasoning gave the chicken was immense. Roll on the lamb shish! Remember to made your own you'll need this seasoning.

SHISH KEBAB SEASONING SPICE 100G - BUY 1 GET 1 FREe TM01693 

Don't forget to check out this recipe for Yogurt Sauce that will go perfect with Shish Kebab.

Tongmaster Burger Seasonings Review

I came across tongmaster recently while looking at videos and guides on how to make your own burgers. After ordering just some burger discs, I was just too tempted by the customer service to order some seasonings.

Delivery from Tongmaster Seasonings.

• Basil and Sundried Tomato Complete Burger Mix 250g
• American Complete Burger Mix 250g
• Oriental Chinese Glaze 250g
• Tikka Glaze 250g
• Doner Kebab Seasoning 100g

Without the ability to wait i had to get started i decided to just try out the burger mixes. I had already purchased 500g of standard 80/20 mince in anticipation.

The packet only tells you instructions for using all the 250g of mix at once so after some calculations i came up with the following which i think would be suitable for all the complete burger mixes.

Tip: If you are going against the manufacture guidelines and not using the whole pack as i did. Be sure to give the pack a good mix to blend all the flavors back together, if you don't you may end up with a poor burger. To do this i placed them in a large sandwich bag and give them a good shake.

It was strange weighing water but was easy enough with digital kitchen scales and if you don't 1ml of water should weigh 1g at sea level. As i only had 500g of mince to do both i went for the 12g of mix option making a 240g once everything was added. It was easy to mix although i did use food safe gloves (also from Tongmaster on eBay) to to save getting it all under my nails. 

Tip: It's advised to use iced water, i simply weighed the water then used those plastic ice cubs that dont melt to cool the water down for a while, It worked well :D. 

Once all mixed i weighed out 80g of mixture placed it between 2 cellophane burger discs and used a cheap hand press (£6 Asda uniflame bbq section) to press them out. I found that the added rusk and water made the bind really well making a stronger patty. Into the fridge they went, 30 mins minimum, but the longer the better.

After many past experiments i have learnt that 80-85g is a good weight for burgers, everyone seems to go for the good old 1/4 pounder but i think that's overkill for a home burger. The choice is yours. My chart above shows how many 80g burgers can be made from each mix (rounded up).

Tip: Cook straight from chilled, this helps the burger keeps its shape. 

After tasting both i can say they are a vast improvement on just salt+pepper and the Herb & Sundried tomato one is my best from the 2 mixes i tried. 

Ill follow up shortly with a review of the glazes and the doner mix.

NOTE: This review was funded by myself, in no way was a sponsor received from the manufacture. Just a good honest review. 

  

The Big American Grill BBQ - Purchase & Assembly

Catalog image taken from Asda Direct

March 28th, a nice sunny day, Nothing completes a sunny day better then a BBQ.

Out in the garden i'm uncovering my oil drum BBQ i got from Argos last year, what a mess it was, the cover that came with it was all ripped and the drum part rusted as if left uncovered. It was only £40 at the time though so one cant complain too much. To view it click here.

Anyway that left me pondering with what BBQ to buy next, with a £200 budget i set out on the internet researching which BBQ to buy and came across a good selection from many retailers.

What i did notice is that Asda, Tesco, The Range, Argos, Amazon, Ebay all sell the "The Big American Grill" but with a slight feature change but higher price, the one from Asda has built in utensil hooks while The Range comes with a small chimney attached. All with a slightly different name, Tennessee, American & Toronto.

Asda being £99 and on display in my local store gave me a chance to check it out rather then hope for the best.

The Big American Grill is made from a thicker metal then other BBQ's even those from B&Q the grills are enamel coated perfect for easy clean and non stick.

Specs taken from Asda website:

"Capture the essence, practicality and fun of classic American barbecuing with the Big American Grill, designed for up to 10 people. Youll be able to create slow cooked, authentic barbecue food with the lid down and make use of the large 58 x 42cm grill for classic barbecuing. The sturdy design, including a front door for adding more charcoal, gives this grill a truly stylish look. 

• 58 x 42cm cooking grill
• Hardwearing, easier clean porcelain enamel cooking grill
• Height adjustable charcoal tray
• Warming rack
• Hinged lid
• Height adjustable charcoal tray for temperature adjustment
• Access door for loading charcoal without disturbing your cooking
• Temperature gauge
• Folding side shelf
• Base storage shelf
• Removable sliding drawer ash catcher
• Ideal for up to 10 people I think more like 20 people if your cooking smaller items such as burgers.
• Suitable for use with all types of lumpwood, briquette and instant light charcoal"

As i said above the estimate for 10 people seems far under calculated, a 58x42 grilling area is huge. Just think thats 20 burgers at once. Or even 10 burgers 10 sausages and room for corn all at the same time. Never mind reloading and cooking the next batch.

Once i knew that this was the BBQ to go for i went to my local branch, picked it up and got it home and thats where the fun began.

The instructions say 2 hours to assemble with 2 people. Looking at the parts i thought no way will it..... It did! 2 hours from start to finish and that was a struggle, the instructions are not very clear and i think some steps are the wrong way around. If your reading this and are about to buy one. assemble the main body first then attack the legs to the body, then go back to step 1 in the book will save you loads of time.

Once assembled i noticed that one of the grill plates was damaged but a quick call to CS @ Asda and a trip to store with only the damaged part i received a replacement from another box.

The grill certainly looks the part and is very strong feeling once up. The hooks are perfect for hanging tools but the "front door" seems a gimmick, i cant think when you would use it. Unless smoking?
If you have a suggestion for the door please comment below.

Im due to use it properly for the first time soon and will follow up with another review then.

A bargain at £99!