Pan-Fried Chicken with Salted Egg yolk & Marble Cupcakes

Yes, I'm slagging again. Have not been baking as much as I hope to lately. Can't really blame it on anything...somethings baking needs mood to do it. Lacking the mood? Yeah, perhaps. It almost sounds like I'm falling out of love, hahaha! Nah, ....I don't think I will give up cooking / baking ever. Anyway, I hope I'm not disappointing some of my regular readers / followers out there. For today, let's do something "homey", something simple, something that you can whip up anything time of the day without having to toil over it. First up is Pan-Fried Chicken with Salted Egg yolk, or 咸香煎焗鸡. Yes, another delicious recipe from "大牌檔菜" Book 17. You can very well save your money from buying this book and just get the good recipes from my blog, hahaha!

You must be going "Eee...so unhealthy, salted egg yolk again!" Wait there, I have actually reduced the egg yolk to one instead of 2 for the recipe and removed all skin and visible fats on the chicken meat. Or you can opt to use chicken breast for this recipe to reduce the calories / fat further. But...live a little!! Here's the slice:

Ingredients for Pan-Fired Chicken with Salted Egg yolk:
2 chicken whole leg, debonded and skinned and cut small
2 tbsp cooking oil
2 salted egg yolks, steamed and mashed (I used 1)
1 red chilli, seeded and diced small
100ml water
2 stalk of green onion

Marinate:
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp corn flour
1 tsp sesame oil
Dash of pepper

Method:

• Mix chicken pieces with marinate and let season for at least 30 minutes.
• Heat up oil, stir fry the salted egg yolks until fragrant. Add chilli, chicken and stir well. Pour in water and stir fry until the sauce as thicken and the chicken is cooked through.
• Add in the spring onions and stir well. Dish up and serve with steam rice. YUM!
  

This salted egg yolk style of cooking is relatively new for home dishes and I am actually loving it, haha! The savory salty taste from the yolk goes really well with steam rice, plus the tender chicken meat was really great too. Even my girls ate a few pieces when they tasted the spiciness in the dish! You can even replace the chicken with prawns , should be a great dish as well. So try it out...it should be a sure hit for the family. ;)

Desert of the day: Marble Cupcakes. Again I wanted something simple to make for my girls to snack on. And since I just bought a new book over the weekend...which by the way is my new favorite book at the moment : "Martha Stewart's Cupcakes". It is such a wonderful book bursting with great ideas for dressing up a cupcake and along with it are numerous great cupcake recipes...totally in love with it, hahaha! I settled for something real simple which turned out to be a great choice because the cupcakes taste heavenly. ;)

Can't wait to try them out, here's the recipe:

Ingredients for Marble Cupcakes:
1 & 3/4 cups cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup milk, room temp
1/3 cup heavy cream, room temp
115g (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temp
1 cup caster sugar
3 large eggs, room temp
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup boiling water
Confectioner's sugar for dusting (optional)

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 180°C. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Sift together cake flour, baking powder and salt. Combine milk and cream.
• Using an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar together till light and fluffy. Add one egg at a time beating until each is incorporated. Add in vanilla. Add in flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with 2 additions of milk mixture, and beating till combined.
• To make the chocolate batter, measure out 1 cup of the batter, and transfer to another bowl. Combine cocoa powder with boiling water in a small bowl and stir into the 1 cup batter.
  
• Filled the prepared cupcake liners with alternating spoonfuls of vanilla and chocolate batter, filling each 3 quarters full. Run the tip of a toothpick through the batter to create swirls.
• Bake, rotating the tin half way through until tops are golden brown and the tester comes out clean, about 20 mins. Remove from oven and let cool on rack.
• To finish, dust with confectioner's sugar just before serving.

Biting into one can be such a pleasant surprise. :) The texture is soft and moist and almost melt in your mouth! I can say this cake is a cross between a Japanese soft cheese cake (no cheese in it!) and moist butter cake. ;)
This cake is strangely addictive! And with the suggestion of my friend, chilling it in the fridge makes it even better...YUM! Definitely a simple and yet delicious treat to make for your family and kids on a lazy weekend. Do try and let me know how you like it. Cheers!