 Mainly called the Ruby Chicken Salad due to the use of either strawberries or pomegranates in this recipe. Made once, was blown away, made a few more times a delight each time. There’s the slightly cooked greens, the absolutely raw greens, the crunch from the almond, the substantial chicken pieces and the bright notes of fruit all in one. The balsamic dressing goes perfectly with the fruit. I absolutely loathe boring salads and have a strange disdain for large leaves of salad in my bowl. You’ll find neither in this one. What You Need: Kale (any kind you like), thinly sliced Brussel Sprouts, thinly sliced Baby Spinach Shallot, peeled and thinly sliced into half moons Strawberries (sliced) or pomegranates Chicken breast Any choice of dried mixed herbs/ras al hanout Some grated parmesan Almond slivers, toasted The dressing: Chopped garlic Dijon mustard Balsamic vinegar Salt Extra virgin olive oil *how much of these things to do you need? Oh man, I don’t know. It’s a salad. Free and easy I guess. Like kale? Use more kale. Want a lot of chicken? Use more chicken. As for the dressing, taste and adjust as you go. What You Do: 1. First, preheat the oven at 180degC. Turn up the heat of your pan/griller too. 2. Slather the chicken breast with your choice of herbs and salt. Any type will do, although I prefer either rosemary or ras el hanout for stronger flavour. When pan/griller is hot, start grilling the chicken. Only for a few minutes until chicken is cooked through (no dry breasts please). Remove, and let cool before you chop into rough bite-sized pieces. 3. Place the kale and brussel sprouts as a layer in your baking tray, and into the over for about 10 minutes. You want them to be slightly cooked down, with slight brown edges. Don’t burn them. 4. Place the kale and brussel sprouts in a large mixing bowl, together with the shallots, spinach, strawberries/pomegranate. In the picture, I was using strawberries. 5. Add a two tablespoons of the dressing and toss well. Then add the chicken pieces and grated parmesan, one more tablespoon of the dressing and toss again. The secret to good salads is the tossing time. Spend at least a minute doing this. 6. Tumble everything on a large plate, and sprinkle over the toasted almonds. Serve as a big sharing platter, or it always tastes good as a TV dinner.  I used to love KFC Chicken Nuggets. They were my favourite things from KFC, even more so than the fried chicken. One day, a healthy friend said to me, "why do you eat those things? They're made from cardboard and rat meat." Upon research, I found this to be untrue. But holy moly, fast food chicken nuggets contain so much crap that they may as well be cardboard and rat meat. I no longer eat those delicious albeit poisonous KFC specialty, which means that sometimes, when they sky is grey and and I'm on my period, I start missing them very badly. These homemade nuggets are natural, healthy and delicious, and they definitely help me move on from KFC. But of course they don't taste exactly like KFC chicken nuggets. There are no chicken skins, chicken bones or slabs of chicken fat in them. This recipe makes enough nuggets for 3 people. What You Need 300 grams chicken breast A few florets of broccoli 1 carrot 1 onion 1 clove garlic 1 egg 3-4 tbsp polenta, plus more for coating Garlic powder (WTF is Polenta? It's grounded dried corn. You can also substitute with breadcrumbs.) What You Do 1. Using a food processor (get a food processor! It saves lives), blitz chicken until they become minced. Transfer to mixing bowl. 2. Blitz together broccoli, carrot, onion, and garlic. Add to mixing bowl. 3. Add egg, polenta, garlic powder, pepper and 1 tsp salt. Mix everything thoroughly. 4. Using wet hands, shape the mixture into nuggets. Refrigerate the ones you want to eat for at least 1 hour. Freeze the rest, for one of those later nights (you know they're coming). 5. When ready to eat, take them out of the fridge. Coat them with more polenta. 6. Shallow fry in some oil, until the outside is golden and crunchy. Remove onto some kitchen towels. 7. Eat with some ketchup, or a yogurt dip. Also, post them on Instagram. If there is no picture, then it's not real.     Last year, one of my bigger goals for 2018 was to learn how to properly roast a whole chicken. A roast chicken is one of those things that sounds simple enough, but when you do make it you’ll realize it’s hard to achieve the criteria that makes a roasted bird perfect – crispy skin, thighs that are cooked through, juicy breasts, and of course, full on flavor. I hate bland roast chicken (I hate bland food full stop). I wanted to have roast chicken in my amateur cooking repertoire, and after a few trials, recipes and errors, I think I nailed it, guys. This one is slathered in herbs and lemony, juicy with crispy skin. You can use the leftovers in your aglio olio pasta, make a chicken sandwich, boil the bones to make stock, or top your salad. But to be honest, it’s hard to have leftovers for this one. This recipe makes one whole bird. What You Need 1 whole medium-sized chicken, cleaned 1 whole lemon 1 bunch fresh herbs – a mix of rosemary, thyme, dill, basil, whatever 2 tbsp unsalted butter 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 3 large onions 1 clove garlic Some rope to tie the chicken What You Do
     Eating in Japan was like a dream. In fact, right now I’m sitting at my writing desk in the blistering hot weather of Kuala Lumpur and just daydreaming of walking down the clean streets of the Tokyo suburbs on a chilly evening and popping into a small, random, I-don’t-know-what-the-signboard-is-saying neighbourhood restaurant, sitting down at the bar seat and eating a bowl of rice with grilled freshwater eel (unagi) slathered in sticky, caramelised soy sauce marinade, with a bowl of steaming miso soup with some fresh clams. What was that? Oh yeah. Anyway. I like to cook, but I’ve never really tried making anything Japanese (except for some dressed soba noodles). So for a while there I practiced making some simple Japanese grub for starters. My favourite has always been gyoza, or Japanese dumplings. It’s made with a filling of white meat and some veg, and what makes it different than the usual dumplings is that it is lightly pan-fried at the bottom before getting a steam – this gives it a crispy, brown bottom that adds more texture to the whole thing. This recipe makes almost 2 dozens gyozas. What You Need: 1 packet gyoza wrappers (at the frozen section of the grocery store) 250 gm minced chicken (I make my own, using chicken breasts) 1 handful cabbage, shredded 1 tsp grated ginger 1tbsp grated garlic 1 tbsp soy sauce Salt The dipping sauce – minced garlic, chopped chili, light soy sauce, a dash of vinegar What You Do:
     There’s a local all-natural healthy meat patty in town, did you know? It’s called Jack O, and you can either get the full vegan version or the patties which are made of only 30% meat (no bones, skin, or organs) and 70% plant-based. They also don’t include any colouring or preservatives (lets face it, this is loads better than the conventional patties you're used too!) If you want to check them out (and they do delieveries!), visit their page at https://www.facebook.com/JackOBurgerBiotrampil/?pnref=story Sure, I do make my own minced meat now and then, but for other days when I'm in no mood to be the Stanford Wife, I love these kinds of alternatives. So here’s my version of Jack O’s baked meatballs, which are really delicious with homemade marinara sauce, a side of grilled vegetables or even on their own as a snack. What You Need: 1 pack Jack O Veggie Patties (full vegan or chicken) 1 cup of wholegrain breadcrumbs 1 tsp. dried rosemary 1 clove garlic 2 eggs Salt and Pepper What You Do:
 Before they go into the oven!
 I am a huge fan of the one dish wonder. On weeknights I want speedy, warm meals of rice with a single dish that has both protein and veg in it. Ginger chicken is a popular staple around here, with different variations and different tweaks in each household. Here is my favourite by far, as it takes the least amount of time to cook but doesn’t seem to sacrifice taste. This recipe serves 2. Here’s what you need: 400 gms of boneless chicken, diced or roughly minced 2 inches ginger, peeled and sliced ½ tsp. turmeric powder 2 tbsp. oyster sauce 1 tbsp. light soy sauce Black pepper to preference 2 cloves garlic, sliced 1 red chili, sliced (for more heat, add some sliced bird’s eye chilies) Some long beans, sliced (options: broccoli, capsicum) Here’s what you do:
  This recipe was totally made up by a huge craving I had one night for a giant bowl of pasta and some kind of crispy meat and cheese. It’s an adaptation of Jamie Oliver’s sausage fusilli recipe, but since I didn’t have English sausages and I don’t take any form of alcohol and I love my veggies, here’s an improvisation. The chicken bits are nice and crunchy especially if you chop them up small enough, but not too fine that they resemble minced chicken. The trick is to also really use the pasta water to get silky, shiny pasta. It’s one of my favourite weekday dinner options, as it’s protein and veg all in one pan. One of those key occasions where the stars align and you can be lazy AND still make/eat awesome food! This recipe serves one. What you need: Fusilli pasta 100 gm of chicken fillet, roughly chopped 1 tsp ground aniseed 1 tsp chili flakes 2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar 1 tsp oregano flakes 1 handful spinach Juice from ½ lemon Parmesan, amount according to preference What you do:
     I’ve probably made this more than 50 times. The first time I tried this recipe was when in college. I was never the instant noodles kinda girl – I liked proper good food, so as a student I was always looking for cheap, healthy delicious food that wouldn't burn a hole in my purse. So far, out of the roast chicken recipes I’ve tried (and believe me, I’ve tried many), this one still stands as the best, takes zero effort and is just completely gratifying. I still make this now and then, especially for cold, weekday dinners when work is giving me a hard time.
This recipe serves 2. Here’s what you need: 2 chicken legs, cut ¼ from a whole chicken ½ a bulb of garlic 2 large potatoes, cut into golf ball sizes 2 handful tomatoes, whatever size, halved or quartered 1 tspn dried basil, or a good bunch of fresh chopped basil 1 red chilli, roughly chopped Here’s what you do:
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