SPICED CHICKEN SERVED WTIH RATATOUILLE AND SPINACH

COOKING WITH DANGER MAN

SPICED CHICKEN SERVED WTIH RATATOUILLE AND SPINACH
This post is contributed by One Drop member – Johnathan Oh

Chicken is one of the most delicious ingredient to cook and does not require much imagination to make it good but with imagination, you can make hundreds of dishes out of this humble bird. This Spiced Chicken served with Ratatouille and Spinach recipe will definitely impress your guest(s) as the chicken is bursting with flavour and the ratatouille pairs wonderfully with the flavourful fat from the chicken. Its no wonder that this poultry is the most consumed meat in the whole world. Don’t be intimidated by the long list of ingredients, save this recipe for your special occasion!

Happy cooking, eating and eating well!

Ingredients (Chicken + Marinade)
  • 2-3 whole chicken leg
  • 1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon of cumin powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon of ground black pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon of ground white pepper
  • 1/8 teaspoon of smoked paprika
  • Salt
  • EVOO
  • Butter
  • 2 cloves of crushed garlic
Ingredients (Ratatouille)
  • 2 medium sized aubergines
  • 1 whole carrot – peeled and cubed
  • 1 cup of ripe Roma tomatoes – roughly chopped
  • 1 cup of butternut squash cut into cubes
  • 3 cups of spinach
  • 2 shallot – peeled and finely diced
  • 2 cloves of garlic – minced
  • 4 Tablespoon Apple cider
  • 2 Tablespoon of Tomato paste
  • 1 cup chicken/vegetable stock (I usually use Marmite)
  • *A pinch of fennel seed
  • *1/2 teaspoon thyme and oregano
  • A pinch of coriander powder
  • Ground black pepper (to preference)
  • Salt
  • Sugar
  • Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
    *Essential Oil: Lemon, Fennel, Thyme and Oregano
Directions:
  1. Wash and pat dry the chicken leg.
    TIPS: If the chicken is still wet, it will not marinade well. So pat it as dry as possible.
  2. Mix all the spices in a bowl. Add a generous pinch of salt to the mixture.
  3. Rub the dry chicken leg with the spices. Make sure the chicken is well covered with spices. Place the chicken in a zip lock bag and let it marinade in the fridge for 15 minutes.
  4. Heat up a non-stick pan. Do not add any oil.
  5. Wash and halve the aubergines lengthwise. Place them into the hot pan to sear till caramelised on both sides. Add some water into the pan, put a lid over the pan and off the fire. Let it steam/rest for 5 minutes and remove onto a plate.
  6. Using the same pan, add EVOO and shallots to fry. Add the garlic and 1/2 teaspoon of sugar for caramelisation.
  7. Add the apple cider to de-glaze the pan.
  8. Add the carrots into the pan and cook for 3-5 minutes.
  9. Add the butternut squash, chopped tomatoes, fennel seed powder, coriander powder, dry oregano and thyme into the pan. Stir and mix the ingredients together for 2 minutes.
  10. Add the tomato paste and stock to the pan. Season with pepper and salt. Bring to boil and then turn down heat to cook for another 5 minutes before you turn off the heat and continue cooking with the residual heat.
  11. Heat up a separate pan. Add EVOO and the chicken leg. Sear skin down around 3 minutes or until golden brown. Turn to sear the other side and add the garlic and 2 knobs of butter into the pan. Baste the chicken with the oil.
  12. You can either place the chicken in the oven heated to 200C for 5-8 minutes. Don’t have an oven, scroll down a bit to get other method of cooking.
  13. For the spinach, you can either serve it raw or blanch it with hot water (I did the latter). Dress it with tahini or Kewpie sauce.
Assemble the dish onto a plate and serve.

How to use Essential Oil (EO) for cooking:

First and foremost, please check and ensure that the essential oils that you intend to use are safe for ingestion. I got mine from here, so I know that I could use them with a peace of mind.

I use Lemon, Fennel, Thyme and Oregano Essential Oil for this dish. In order to use the EO to cook, please try to adhere to the following:

  1. DO NOT use EO from unknown, unspecified and unverified sources (Can’t stress this enough)
  2. DO NOT drip the EO directly on your dish
  3. DO NOT use EO on direct heat to avoid destroying the benefits of the EO
This is how you SHOULD do when using the EO for cooking this recipe. Pour some EVOO into a small bowl, then mix (dilute) the Essential Oil into the EVOO so that you can add the EO evenly and safely to the dish. By the way, dripping the EO directly on the dish will not cause you to die from EO overdose BUT it will definitely destroy your dish.

For this dish, I use ONE drop of Thyme and Oregano, a SWIPE of Fennel and TWO drops of LEMON Essential Oil diluted in 2 tablespoon of EVOO. I only add this mixture into the Ratatouille at the end of cooking and mixing them into the dish in residual heat
Photographers always say that “the best camera is the one in your hand”, it is only true if THAT camera is the only one available to you. The saying by no way negates the importance of having the right equipment on hand and most professional photographers will never go out on a subpar equipment. The same is true in cooking. While we try to make do with what we have in order to cook, it is important to have the proper equipment whenever possible so that we could achieve more. Yes we can improvise, but the results often does not turn out the way it was intended. Get your oven, it will help you create so much more delicious food for your family.

If owning an oven is not an option, you can either put a lid on the pan, turn down the heat and continue to cook the chicken for 8-10 minutes, then remove from the heat with the lid on to let the chicken rest (which may cause the chicken to dry-out and potentially looked un-appetising as well) or you can add 1/4 cup of water into the pan, close with a lid to steam the chicken for 5-8 minutes, then remove from the heat with the lid on to let the chicken rest (this will cause the nicely seared skin to become soggy and the chicken to lose some flavor to the steaming water).

While preparing the ratatouille, I usually have another pot of boiling water for cooking the spinach. Once the water boils, I will add all the spinach into the hot water and turn off the heat immediately. The spinach should be cooking in the residual heat less they become too soft and soggy. This speeds up the cooking time and I could also use the cooking water to add into the ratatouille when the liquid has started to dry out.

If you like Johnathan’s articles and would like to purchase the Young Living oils or have further clarifications, please email Johnathan here. If you are ready to sign up as member to purchase, you can click here to join Johnathan and his team.


TEMPURA MORIAWASE WITH UMAMI SWEET SAUCE

COOKING WITH DANGER MAN

TEMPURA MORIAWASE WITH UMAMI SWEET SAUCE
This post is contributed by One Drop member – Johnathan Oh

Don’t we all love tempura? The crispy texture when you sink your teeth into one of those morsels. The delicious dipping sauce that was served with it. The only thing that I ever hated about tempura is that they are so delicious I need to spend a lot of money to eat such quantity that actually satisfies me!  So what if you can make equally delicious tempura at home at a fraction of that cost? Go get your ingredients and let’s eat tempura!

This recipe is really simple and its a wonder why I didn’t do this earlier. Yeah yeah, the cleaning and all but hey, we are not going to eat it everyday right? Indulge in it once in a while by making a bigger batch and suck up the TLCs. I have developed a Umami sweet sauce that goes tremendously well with the tempura!

Ingredients (Batter):
  • 2 Tablespoon of Potato starch
  • 6-10 Tablespoon of Plain flour
  • 1 Cup of ice cold water (You can also choose to add 1 Cup of ice cold beer)
  • 4 – 5 ice cubes
  • Some plain flour for dusting the ingredients
  • Cooking oil (High temperature type e.g. Peanut, canola, coconut etc.)
Ingredients (suggestion):
  • Sweet potatoes
  • Eggplant
  • Pumpkin
  • Okra
  • Kale
  • Shiitake mushroom
  • Oyster mushroom
  • Prawns/Crabs/fish fillet
Secret Tempura sauce ingredient:
  • 1 Tablespoon Shoyu sauce
  • 2 Tablespoon of Yukon syrup
  • 1 drop Lime Vitality Essential Oil
  • Sesame oil
  • Salt to taste
  • Chilli flakes (your preference)
Direction:
  1. Cut up the ingredients into desired shape and size. For eggplant, halves it lengthwise and cut them into sections followed by fanning.
  2. Heat up the cooking oil.
  3. Dry the ingredients and dust them with plain flour. Shake off the excess flour. Set aside.
  4. Mix the batter ingredients together. Don’t mix it too finely, it is supposed to be lumpy.
  5. Drop some batter into the frying pan to check whether the oil is bubbling hot.
  6. If it is hot, coat the ingredients (one-by-one) into the batter and drop into the oil.
  7. Fry until slightly golden brown. Remove, shake off excess oil and place on a rack to cool down.
  8. Add the Shoyu sauce, Yukon syrup, ONE drop of Lime Vitality Essential Oil, a dash of sesame oil and salt into a bowl and mix well. Taste and adjust to preference.
  9. Drizzle some sauce on the rice, place your tempura on top the rice, drizzle with the secret tempura sauce, drizzle with some chili flakes or paprika (optional) and serve!

If you like Johnathan’s articles and would like to purchase the Young Living oils or have further clarifications, please email Johnathan here. If you are ready to sign up as member to purchase, you can click here to join Johnathan and his team.

CHICKEN ALFREDO

COOKING WITH DANGER MAN

CHICKEN ALFREDO (DEMO CLASS IN YOUNG LIVING SINGAPORE OFFICE)
This post is contributed by One Drop member – Johnathan Oh

Demo Class in YL SG Office: Chicken Alfredo


Chicken and cream sauce goes very well with each other especially the Alfredo sauce. Note that this recipe is different from a Chicken Fricassee (a dish of stewed or fried pieces of meat served in a thick white sauce) as we will be pan frying the chicken breasts to perfection and serves it with the Alfredo sauce instead of slow cooking or poaching the chicken in the white sauce. I have served this dish with egg Parpadelle pasta but you may also serves it with bread or on its very own. I hope that you will find it to be a keeper!

Ingredients:
4 Chicken breasts
Salt and black pepper
Unsalted Butter
2 cloves of Garlic
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
Essential Oil mixture (see below)

Ingredients (Sauce):
150ml Chicken stock
200ml cooking cream
5 teaspoons of plain flour
100g Brown mushroom
2 whole Leeks
2 teaspoons of Dijon Mustard
Salt
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)

How to use Essential Oil (EO) for cooking:
First and foremost, please check and ensure that the essential oils that you intend to use are safe for ingestion. I got mine from here, so I know that I could use them with a peace of mind.

I use Rosemary and Lemon Essential Oil for this recipe. In order to use Essential Oil (EO) for this recipe, please adhere to the following:
  1. DO NOT use EO from unknown, unspecified and unverified sources (Can’t stress this enough)
  2. DO NOT drip the EO directly on your dish
  3. DO NOT use EO on direct heat to avoid destroying the benefits of the EO
This is how you SHOULD do when using the EO for cooking this recipe. Pour some cooking oil into a small bowl, then add in(dilute) the Essential Oil so that you can add the EO evenly to the dish. By the way, dripping the EO directly on the dish will not cause you to die from EO overdose BUT it will definitely destroy your dish. No one likes a full mouthful of EO.

Essential Oil mixture
For this dish, add ONE drop of ROSEMARY Essential Oil and ONE drop of LEMON Essential Oil into a small bowl. Add 1-2 Tablespoon of EVOO in the same bowl and stir to mix. This Essential Oil mixture is to be added to the chicken breasts.

Direction:
  1. Season the chicken breasts with salt and pepper.
  2. Heat up a pan and add EVOO to fry the chicken breasts skin side down for 5-6 minutes. Turn the chicken breast over and add 2-3 knobs of butter and two whole cloves of garlic into the pan, baste and fry the chicken for another 5-6 minutes.
  3. Add a tablespoon of water into the pan, cover the pan and switch off the flame to let the chicken breasts cook and rest in the pan for 10 minutes.
  4. Wash and cut the mushroom and leeks into bite size.
  5. Heat up a big pan. Add 3-4 Tablespoon of EVOO into the pan and add in the mushroom and leek to fry for 5-6 minutes. Remove and set it aside.
  6. Using the same pan, add 2 Tablespoon of EVOO and a knob of butter. Add 5 teaspoons of plain flour into the pan to make a Roux.
  7. Add the chicken stock and whisk them into the Roux. Add the mushroom and leeks into the pan. Bring to boil and let cook for 3-4 minutes or until leek is slightly transparent.
  8. Add the cooking cream and juice from the fried chicken breasts into the pan. Turn down the heat and mix well. Taste and season if required.
  9. Mix 1 drop of Rosemary Plus EO and 3 drops of Lemon Plus EO with 1 Tablespoon of EVOO. Set aside to be drizzled over the sliced chicken breasts.
  10. Spoon the alfredo sauce over a plate. Slice the chicken breasts (or served whole) and place it on top of the Alfredo sauce on the plate. Drizzle the Essential Oil mixture over the chicken and serve with bread or your favourite pasta.


If you like Johnathan’s articles and would like to purchase the Young Living oils or have further clarifications, please email Johnathan here. If you are ready to sign up as member to purchase, you can click here to join Johnathan and his team.


PAN SEARED SALMON WITH MANGO SALSA

COOKING WITH DANGER MAN

PAN SEARED SALMON WITH MANGO SALSA
This post is contributed by One Drop member – Johnathan Oh

Salmon is one of the most common fish that we would pay to eat in a restaurant or eatery. I have always liked Salmon due to its sweet and delicate flesh but only as sashimi as I do not like the texture of cooked salmon. But that was an “Ignorant-me” speaking because I never had a properly cooked salmon served in a restaurant before. Now, knowing that when salmon is properly cooked, it is so much more delicious and if I may say so (pardon my confidence), home-cooked salmon is so delicious that I’d pay much more for it as compared to those salmon served while dining out! The good news is, you can also do it and at a much lower cost! Although we do not have the luxury of buying wild caught salmon or having a huge variety of salmon, farmed Norwegian Salmon is the next best thing available in the market and the price can sometimes be as low as S$16.00 per Kg (That is if you buy the whole fish), otherwise you can get a fillet (to serve 2) between S$7.00 and S$11.00! Give this recipe a go! The tanginess and freshness from the salsa, the sweetness from the mango and the fragrance from the Dill pairs tremendously well with the Salmon and I am sure this item would be engrained in your loved one’s memories. The only down side? They may request for it again and again!

Ingredients:
2 – 3 Salmon (steak-cut or fillet)
1 whole mango (I personally preferred Thai Mango)
9 ripe Cherry or Roma tomatoes
1 Japanese cucumber
1 small onion
2 cloves of garlic
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Ground black pepper
Salt
Tabasco sauce (optional)
2 Tablespoon of Apple cider

Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
Essential Oil: Lemon, Celery seed and Dill.

How to use Essential Oil (EO) for cooking:
First and foremost, please check and ensure that the essential oils that you intend to use are safe for ingestion. I got mine from here, so I know that I could use them with a peace of mind.

I use Lemon PLUS Essential Oil for my Salsa and Dill PLUS Essential Oil for the pan seared Salmon. In order to use Essential Oil (EO) for this recipe, please adhere to the following:

  1. DO NOT use EO from unknown, unspecified and unverified sources (Can’t stress this enough)
  2. DO NOT drip the EO directly on your dish
  3. DO NOT use EO on direct heat to avoid destroying the benefits of the EO
This is how you SHOULD do when using the EO for cooking this recipe. Pour some cooking oil into a small bowl, then add in(dilute) the Essential Oil so that you can add the EO evenly to the dish. By the way, dripping the EO directly on the dish will not cause you to die from EO overdose BUT it will definitely destroy your dish. No one likes a full mouthful of EO.

Essential Oil mixture
For this dish, you will need to prepare the following:
  1. Add TWO drops of LEMON PLUS Essential Oil into a small bowl and add 1 tablespoon of EVOO into the same bowl. This Essential Oil mixture is to be added to the Salsa.
  2. Add ONE to TWO drops of DILL PLUS Essential Oil into a small bowl and add 2 teaspoon of EVOO into the same bowl. This Essential Oil mixture is to be added on top of the Spanish Mackerel while it is resting or before serving.
Direction (Salsa):
  1. To make the salsa, finely diced the onion and set aside.
  2. Wash and remove the seeds from the tomatoes. Quarter the tomatoes and set aside.
  3. Wash the cucumber. Quarter them length wise and remove the seeds. Halve each quarters and diced the cucumber.
  4. Peel and finely mince 1 clove of garlic.
  5. Add item 1, 2, 3 and 4 into a jar with the juice of 1/2 lemon, 2 Tablespoon of Apple cider vinegar, salt, pepper, Essential Oil mixture (1) and a dash of Tabasco sauce (optional) for kick.
  6. Cover the jar and let the salsa season/ripen in the fridge (overnight if possible or for a minimum of 30 minutes).
Young Living plus essential oil
Salsa set into a jar for seasoning/ripening in the fridge.

Direction:
  1. De-scale any scale on the salmon skin and remove the bones. Cut the salmon into serving portion.
  2. Dry up the salmon with paper towels and season the salmon with black pepper and salt right before cooking.
  3. Heat up a pan to smoking point. Add 2 Tablespoon of EVOO and place the salmon, skin side down, into the pan.
  4. Sear for 3-5 minutes or until the skin is crisp, then turn the fish over, add in a clove of crushed garlic and 1 knob of butter then use a spoon to baste the oil over the fish constantly.
  5. Remove the pan from the heat after 3 – 6 minutes and let the fish rest in the pan. The residual heat will cook the fish through without over-cooking it.
  6. Spoon the Essential Oil mixture (2) onto the fish.
  7. Bring the salsa out of the fridge and spoon the salsa over the plate, then place the seared salmon on top of the salsa.
  8. Cut, score and remove the flesh of the mango onto the plate.
  9. Finish with a small spoon of salsa on top of the fish and drizzle with a dash of EVOO to serve.
     

The beautifully cooked salmon will flake nicely and as you can see from this photo, shows slight glister on the Salmon flesh. Over-cooked salmon will not only looked and taste dry, but will show egg-white like substance oozing out of the salmon.
If you like Johnathan’s articles and would like to purchase the Young Living oils or have further clarifications, please email Johnathan here. If you are ready to sign up as member to purchase, you can click here to join Johnathan and his team.

PEPPERMINT CHOC FONDUE


PEPPERMINT CHOC FONDUE

This post is contributed by One Drop member – Johnathan Oh

Cooking with Essential Oil

Chocolate and Peppermint has been a classic pairing for centuries so its a no brainer for coming up with this recipe when Young Living Singapore has released the Plus Peppermint Essential Oil to the public. I loved liquid chocolate but the problem is, I also have a sensitive throat that will bail on me whenever I eat “heaty” food especially one rich in Chocolate or melted butter. So with this recipe, the peppermint balanced out the heatiness from the chocolate and I have swap the melted butter with coconut cream and warm milk with milk. The end results is a delicious liquid chocolate that will not only not resulted in heatiness but also cut down on the fat level so that those calories counters can enjoy an indulgent and guiltless feast with this recipe!

Ingredients:
  • 250g semi-sweet chocolate chips
  • 4 teaspoons of honey (or to preference)
  • 100ml Coconut cream
  • 150ml Soymilk
  • Peppermint Plus essential oil
Suggested Fruits/Food for dipping:
  • Strawberries
  • Banana
  • Cherries
  • Pineapples
  • Grapes
  • Apple
  • Pears
  • Blackberries
  • Blueberries
  • Bread stick
  • Crackers
How to use Essential Oil (EO) for cooking:
First and foremost, please check and ensure that the essential oils that you intend to use are safe for ingestion. I got mine from here, so I know that I could use them with a peace of mind.

I use Peppermint Essential Oil for this recipe. In order to use Essential Oil (EO) for this recipe, please adhere to the following:
  1. DO NOT use EO from unknown, unspecified and unverified sources (Can’t stress this enough)
  2. DO NOT drip the EO directly on your dish
  3. DO NOT use EO on direct heat to avoid destroying the benefits of the EO
This is how you SHOULD do when using the EO for cooking this recipe. Pour some cooking oil into a small bowl, then add in(dilute) the Essential Oil so that you can add the EO evenly to the dish. By the way, dripping the EO directly on the dish will not cause you to die from EO overdose BUT it will definitely destroy your dish. No one likes a full mouthful of EO.

Direction:
  1. Place the chocolate into a double boiler (bain marie) and cook until the chocolate soften to a smooth consistency.
  2. Add the Coconut cream and honey (sweetness to preference) into the chocolate and mix well.
  3. Add the soymilk slowly into the chocolate mixture while whisking to incorporate them together. Repeat till you reached the desired thickness.
  4. Stir 2 drops of Peppermint Plus EO directly into the mixture.
  5. Remove from the double boiler and pour the chocolate mixture into a fondue fountain or bowl and serve with your choice of cut fruits.
If you like Johnathan’s articles and would like to purchase the Young Living oils or have further clarifications, please email Johnathan here. If you are ready to sign up as member to purchase, you can click here to join Johnathan and his team.

 
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