Super Simple Steamed Fish with Lemon and Garlic Recipe

After an exhausting session at the gym, I wanna be a good girl, but I don't wanna eat something (salad? fresh fruits?) that would make me hungry after an hour and end up eating a large bag of chips or a bowl of sinful instant noodles with more sinful frills. All of my hard work would be wasted!

I need to eat something savory, light yet satisfying, and easy to prepare.
This is perfect! I adore the classic soy sauce/ginger/chilli/garlic/fermented black beans/spring onion combo, but it's so tasty, it makes me end up eating a few bowls of rice with the sauce alone. This one is much lighter and brighter, but still flavorful.

Recipe
- your favorite fish (it can be with bone or fillet, I used pomfret)
- 1 lemon
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- white pepper, fish sauce
- hot water for steaming

Clean your fish, place in a dish you'll use to steam, squeeze juice of half a lemon, scatter the garlic around it or stuff some into the cavity if you're using whole fish. Pour some boiling water into wok, place a saucer or a small bowl with its bottom facing up, place your plate with the fish on top of it so that the water won't get into your fish dish (you can use a steamer if you have), cover the wok and steam the fish until it's just done (mine took about 8 minutes). Once done, drizzle a bit of fish sauce, and if you want, garnish with freshly chopped coriander (which I didn't use simply because I didn't have one in my kitchen).

I could just eat that for dinner, or with a bit of brown rice and vegetables.

I feel healthier already...
But I am sure I'll get back to the normal junk food programming soon.
I am weak like that.
T_T

Honey Lemon Basil Chicken Pie

Underneath this dramatic exterior...there's something sweet trying to come out.


I asked for some ideas for summer-friendly savory pies on twitter, and it's so amazing how V, a food loving pal and I shared the same thought! We both thought of lemon chicken pie! Sweet, savory and tangy at the same time. It's perfect!


The filling is very easy to make and I used some leftover puff pastry I had in my fridge. If you want to make your own pie crust from scratch, you can use Jamie Oliver's recipe that I've tried before.


Recipe
Filling
- 1 boneless skinless chicken thigh fillet, cut into bite sized chunks
- juice and zest of 1 lemon
- 1 clove garlic, crushed
- honey, salt, pepper, sugar, nutmeg, corn starch, water, cooking oil, butter
- fresh basil
Marinate chicken chunks in salt, pepper, sugar, nutmeg, lemon zest, a bit of lemon juice and corn starch for about 15 minutes. Saute garlic in a bit of butter and oil until fragrant, add chicken chunks, let cook for a bit, add honey, lemon juice, cook until the chicken's a bit caramelized, taste, adjust seasoning if necessary, add some chopped fresh basil, add corn starch which has been diluted in water to thicken the sauce, set aside.

Pie Crust
- Defrosted puff pastry
- 1 beaten egg
- butter/oil to grease pie pan
Preheat oven to 200C. On a lightly floured surface, roll puff pastry until it's about 2 mm thick and wide enough to cover the pie pan/pot, make two pieces, one for the bottom (bigger), one for the top (smaller).  Butter/grease the oven proof pie pan/pot, place rolled puff pastry gently, don't cut the excess yet, add filling, trim the excess pastry but leave about 1 cm. Brush the edges with beaten egg, place the topping, trim to fit the pan, seal with the excess pastry of the bottom, brush the top with beaten egg, poke a few holes, bake for about 40-50 minutes or until golden brown, serve with fresh basil.

Whew!
You can skip the whole pie-making extravaganza and just make the filling and eat it with a carb of your choice ;)

Back with Super Duper Simple Lemon Cheesecake

Oh gosh, it's been a while.
In fact, these last three months had been the longest time I've gone MIA from food blogging.

Whatever happened to me?

Did I get bored?
Have I been so crazy busy at work?
Have I been lazy? (Hmm, when have I not?)
Have I been sick?
...and some people guessed, was I broken hearted?

Uh oh, no.
None of the above.

So, what happened?
Hmm, let's just say....there's wonderfulness in my oven.

Now you're talkin'

(Another) roast bird?
(God forbid...another...) banana chocolate baked goods?
(Did I finally get on to making my own..) lasagna?

No, no, and...I wish.

It's something real easy this time.
No crust, no muss.
Just little plain ol' baked Lemon Cheesecake.

Recipe
- 1 block of cream cheese, room temperature, cut into cubes
- 1 egg
- 1/4 cup sugar
- juice of half a lemon
- zest of half a lemon

Preheat oven to 180C/350F. In a mixing bowl, beat egg and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add cream cheese cubes, beat until creamy. Add lemon juice and lemon zest, beat until creamy and well combined. Pour into 2 ramekins and bake for 15 minutes. You can use a small spring form pan, but I couldn't be bothered. If you use a different pan, baking time may be different. After baking, let cool and refrigerate. Bring back to room temperature before consumption, decorate with thinly sliced lemon or mint leaves, or anything you like.

Rich, creamy, lemony....and easy.

Now, if you still wanna know...
I've been away because of...
Let's just say, the word oven is not irrelevant.

If you really really wanna know...
I've been away because of........................this.

Lightly Pan Fried Pomfret with Ginger Lemon Honey Sauce

Pan frying fish with almost no oil?
What are you? Crazy?!!!

That was what I thought when I saw a shopping center demo of various non-stick, non-chemical coating woks and pans.

I hate pan frying fish.
It sticks.
It needs quite a lot of oil.
It splatters.
It stinks.

Blah!

My friend once asked me how to fry whole fish without splattering and all the other annoying things. I remembered my spontaneous reply...it was..."just don't cook fish". What a useful advice.

Then it started with one "innocent" window shopping trip to a nearby mall (is there such a thing?), I shashayed by a few demos of woks and pans...normally I'd stop by each counter for a couple of minutes, laughing at how expensive the pans are, murmuring that the pans probably won't work (in super low volume of course, I didn't want a heavy wok hitting my head), giggling and proceeding to the next counter.

But this time, I stopped at the last counter and watched a little closer.
I have been using cheap non stick pans and the teflon coating peels off after a while. I was tempted by the idea that these pans are non stick because of its uneven surface (they call this air cushion), without chemical coating. I need a saute pan to replace my old teflon, so I bought myself the cheapest of the bunch.

I didn't wanna bet big, in case it doesn't work. The 28 cm saute pan costs HK$498 (around USD64).
Hope it works!

The first test for my new pan....the dreaded pan fried fish!
I simply season the fish with salt and pepper (generously), rub it with teeny tiny bit of olive oil and drop it to the pan.

The moment of truth...flipping the fish. Whoa! It really didn't stick!
The fish is naturally curvy and the pan's flat. To ensure that the fish is cooked thoroughly, add a bit of water and cover the pan to let the fish get steamed for a bit. I also squeezed a bit of lemon juice from time to time.
Lemon and fish....they're good friends.

Set the fish aside after pan frying.

Ginger, Lemon and Honey Sauce
- 3 cm ginger, cut into match stick size
- 1 tiny clove of garlic, crushed
- juice of a lemon, a few slices of lemon for garnish
- 2 tbsp honey
- salt, sugar, olive oil, water

Saute ginger and garlic in a bit of olive oil, squeeze lemon juice, add honey, sugar and salt until you achieve the desired balance of savoury, sweet and sour. Add a bit of water to mix everything well. Pour sauce over pan fried fish.

So far, I am loving this pan and if it stays this way, my non stick wok needs to worry, it might get replaced soon.

White Wine, Sprite & Lemon Grilled Chicken

I seem to have a thing for eating my drinks...

which can be seen from my previous posts:
- Ginger Cola Grilled Chicken Wings
- Spam & Shrimps Virgin Colada

I haven't been adventurous enough to try incorporating coffee and chocolate in savoury dishes, maybe because I didn't wanna risk any single cell of chocolate and coffee goodness for my bound-to-fail experiments. Seeing them go to waste would make me totally heartbroken, worse than the sadness I felt when I broke up with my first boyfriend.

The idea of this dish started when I saw a bottle of chilled white wine, a sprite and a pack of chicken leg fillet (an aftermath from my last party). My hands itched to put them together. Plus, I didn't have other ingredients to work with the chicken, and the expiry date of the chicken is creeping closer. So I had to act fast.

White Wine, Sprite & Lemon Grilled Chicken

Recipe
(serves two)
- 2 boneless chicken thigh fillet, halved
- white wine
- sprite
- lemon zest, lemon juice (1 tbsp)
- white pepper
- salt (1 tsp)
- honey (1 tsp)

In a baking dish/pan, lay chicken thigh fillet, skin up. Pour sprite and white wine (50-50 mix) up to the level right it covers the chicken. Add salt, pepper, lemon zest and lemon juice, mix well, marinate chicken fillet for a few hours or overnight in the fridge.

Preheat oven to 220C, slather honey over chicken skin, sprinkle with a bit of salt, and grill chicken (with the marinating liquid, make sure the liquid doesn't cover chicken skin), until the skin turned golden brown. Serve with carb of your choice (rice, potatoes, pasta), and use some of the delicious juices from the grill as well.

Plus, I love the fact that eating my drinks won't give me a hangover....^_^

Lemon Lime Cake - My Ice Cream Photo on Time Out Magazine

This lemon lime cake is only a decoy, a bait to give me a chance to gush at how happy I am....because my ice cream picture is printed in a magazine!

Oh yeah! Oh yeah!

Please excuse how lame I am, it's just....I haven't had anything of me printed in a magazine, except for my contribution to my company's publications.

So, although the picture isn't exactly big, and I couldn't even find my name on the credit list without a microscope...I am so damn happy that some people found my picture useful. Yay! The graphic designer at Time Out magazine was very nice, she asked for proper permission to print and sent me a copy of the magazine, which I totally appreciate.

The picture was originally posted here:


Here's the cover of the magazine:


Here's the article:

...and here's my ice cream photo, with a tiny print of my name somewhere.

...now, as a token for my appreciation of your patience, having endured my lame overenthusiasm...

Lemon Lime Cake

It's just a humble quick and easy snack/dessert made from muffin batter, disguised in a cake form and whisked more than I normally do muffins. Don't be fooled by how ugly it looks, it is one of the most popular things I've baked and forced offered to my colleagues. But then again, they are Hong Kongers. They love receiving killing drinking and eating anything that includes lemon.

Recipe
- 1 cup all purpose flour (sifted)
- 1/3 cup + 3 table spoon sugar
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 egg, beaten
- 2/3 cup yoghurt
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 tsp vanilla
- juice and zest of 1 lemon and 1 lime

Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl, mix all wet ingredients in another, mix them well. Pour into a lightly greased loaf pan or muffin tray lined with muffin cups, bake until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean (based on my experience: loaf pan = about 20 minutes, muffin tray = about 15 minutes).

They are sweet, soft, moist and lemony, perfect with a cup of hot tea, while watching my current obsession.
Thanks for bearing with me, you guys!

Lemon Curry Grilled Pork Neck & Spicy Pineapple Zucchini Stir Fry

Maybe I am crazy, but I hate taking naps. When I took afternoon/evening naps, especially on weekends, it felt like I had wasted a good few hours sleeping when I could be doing something else (like updating this freakin' blog?). When I woke up from naps, I felt feverish, weak, tired, and not at all refreshed. Does anyone else feel the same? What's wrong with me?

I like to be out and about on Fridays. I need to shake the weekday feel off and unwind. Dining out, having a drink or two, out shopping with my girls, catching a show, or whatever. Just like how I planned today. We were supposed to have dinner, then go out cruisin' the hood. It didn't happen, and I'd like to blame it on my dinner.

Tasty dishes generally make us consume more rice...and put us to sleep. Sigh.

Lemon Curry Grilled Pork Neck & Spicy Pineapple Zucchini Stir Fry

Recipe
Lemon Curry Grilled Pork Neck
- 1 lb pork neck, poked all over with fork
- marinate with juice of half lemon, zest of 1 lemon, curry powder, ground cumin, ground corriander seed, salt, pepper, sugar for at least 30 minutes
Preheat oven to 250C. Grill pork neck until golden brown, slice and serve

Spicy Pineapple Zucchini Stir Fry
- 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 3 red chilli, chopped
- half onion, finely chopped
- 1 small pineapple, remove core, cut into bite sized chunks
- 1 zucchini, cut into 3 mm thick chunks
- olive oil, salt, pepper, sugar
Saute garlic, chilli, onion in hot oil until fragrant, add pineapple and zucchini, cook until zucchini pieces are softened, season, serve

The spicy, savoury, tangy, and sweet flavors of these dishes pretty much ruined my Friday. Hmm, but at least I got high.........on carb.

Honey Lemon Chicken - Improving HK Coffee Shop's Classic

I love Hong Kong Coffee Shop's style of lemon chicken (Sai Ling Gai). I know, it's unhealthy (nothing I love is healthy). The batter is greasy and the chicken skin's crispy from deep frying, the sauce is super corn starchy, sticky, sweet and tangy, sometimes even bitter from lemon overload....but eaten with a steamy bowl of white rice...gosh! It's a lil' piece of heaven.

Damn! I couldn't get it off my head! I spent all my weekend thinking...
in the shower...
- Gosh, I need to clean the shower room floor, before it changes from white to yellow...I want lemon chicken.
out shopping...
- I need another turtle neck tee to wear under my jacket. Maybe yellow?...I want lemon chicken.
washing dishes...
- Boy, this cleaning liquid is pretty powerful, it wipes away grease and it has a great citrusy lemony scent...I want lemon chicken.
gazing into sous chef's eyes...
- SC, I love....lemon chicken.

That's it! Enough already! I need to do something about it, and my version of lemon chicken needs to fit sous chef's low iodine diet, and it needs to be better than coffee shop's version (wow....isn't that a tad too ambitious?)

Honey Lemon Chicken

To improve:
- I used boneless, skinless chicken breasts instead of chicken leg fillet with skin
- I lightly dust them with a bit of corn starch and pan fried them instead of deep frying them with batter
- My sweet, sticky and tangy lemon sauce is a reduction of all natural lemon juice, honey and other goodies, instead of the normal super corn starchy one

Recipe
The chicken
- 1/2 lb of boneless, skinless chicken breast
Whack 'em flat to tenderize, marinate in a pinch of salt, black pepper, sugar, olive oil and 1 tbsp corn starch for minimum of 30 minutes. Pan fry just to get a bit of brownage in a bit of hot olive oil. Chicken does not need to be pan fried too long, or the meat will be dry.
The sauce
- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 1/2 onion, thinly sliced
- 1 cm ginger, crushed
- honey
- juice of 1 lemon, a bit of grated lemon zest
- salt, sugar, white pepper, olive oil, a bit of hot water
Saute garlic, onion and ginger in hot oil until fragrant, add few squirts of honey, add lemon juice and grated lemon zest, season with salt, sugar and white pepper, add hot water, cook until reduced and sticky, pour over chicken, serve.

Never thought this healthier version would taste better, but it did.

Check out other bloggers' posts on Chinese food take away classics at my Chinese Take Out Party Roundup


Now, where were we, SC? Sorry about earlier. Ok...again, (gazing into eyes)...I love...........KFC. Opps!

Lemon Cookies - Hong Kong's Meaning of Eat Lemon

The first thing you learn when you are learning a new language is...the bad language. Hehehe.

Despite my Chinese heritage, I don't speak Chinese. I know, I know. Shame on me. I find learning to speak a foreign language is not easy. For me, especially Chinese, where with every single tonal mishap I risk insulting the person I was talking to (and possibly including his/her mother or even the whole family. LOL). I've been living in countries where Chinese is widely used, such as Singapore, and now Hong Kong....and I still don't speak the language fluently. I've been living in Hong Kong for more than 6 years, for Dim Sum's sake!!!

I love Hong Kong and its culture to the bone, but my lack of courage and my lack of exposure to the language (my friends and my workmates are all English speakers and they feel more comfortable speaking to me in English) contributed in the slow progress my learning. Funnily, I can speak English in Hong Kong accent and fluently use some expressions such as "lar, lor, lei..aiya, and wor" every now and then, plus literally translating Cantonese slangs to English. When the locals listen to my Canto-influenced-English, they would either laugh their azz off, or think of me as a pretentious azz (why can't she just speak in Cantonese instead of this freaked up Canto-English?) and I can't blame 'em.

Naturally, I know quite a lot of Cantonese bad words *grin*. Those were the very first things my friends taught me. Hehe. I could expertly orchestrated an elaborate phrase consists of seven bad words or more, aimed solely for my friend's amusement. My good friend taught me her principals regarding bad language, which I think is very profound "I don't have to use it, but I need to know it, in case people use it against me" and mine was more like "Before someone else say it to me, I'd better say it to them first" LOL! Profound, eh? Anyway, I had a good time learning Cantonese bad words. Although they might be offensive to others (sorry about that), they sound really funny to my foreign ears. I bet you start to wonder what kind of good friends I have here...hehe...I can assure you that they don't only teach me bad words, they teach me so much more than that. They teach me some super-practical, always-used-outside-the-office slangs...and one of my favorites is: "Eat Lemon" (sik ling mung), which roughly means being rejected.
For example:
I like a guy, I asked him out for a date, he said no = he treats me to eat lemon
"Eat lemon" conveys the feeling of sourness from being rejected, for a gesture (asking someone for a date) that normally comes with deeper motives (I like the guy and hope he'd go on a date with me and like me too)

Although the phrase means something negative, funny thing is, Hong Kongers love their lemons. Lemon tea (hot or iced) is one of the most popular drink in local coffee shops. They don't just scent their tea with a tinge of lemon, they "kill the lemon" in their tea, as if stabbing the sliced lemon pieces in their tea fiercely as if it is their biggest enemy...making sure that their tea is heavily infused with lemon's sour taste. It is probably because most people believe that drinking sour stuff makes you slim. Yeah, right. I am snorting high sugar, highly lemoned iced tea outta my nose. HAHA!

Honoring my favorite Hong Kong slang, I've decided to bake my first cookies....
Lemon Cookies

The recipe is adapted from Jen Yu's Lime Meltaways and about.com. I switched the lime to lemon (lemons are easier to find at the market just downstairs my flat ^_^)

- 1 & 1/2 sticks of butter, softened
- 2/3 cup caster sugar
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1&3/4 cups, plus 2 tbsp flour
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- zest of 1 lemon
- a dash of vanilla essence
- a pinch of salt

Using a hand mixer, beat butter and 2/3 cup sugar until fluffy. Add lemon juice, lemon zest and vanilla, beat until mixed well. In a mixing bowl, mix flour, cornstarch and salt. Add to the butter mixture, and beat with a hand mixer on low speed until mixed well. I don't have parchment paper, so I rolled 2 logs with 3 cm diameter (1 round and 1 square-ish). Chill for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 175C. I lined my baking tray with foil, buttered slightly. Slice cookie log into 5mm slices, place rounds on buttered foil, spaced 2 cm apart. Bake until slightly golden, about 15 minutes. Cool for about 10 minutes. Store cookies in airtight containers.

I baked just half a log and keep the rest chilled. Baked cookies can be stored up to two weeks, frozen dough can be kept up to 3 months.

The original recipe calls for coating the warm cookies with confectioner's sugar...but I didn't bother. They were already fabulously buttery and lemony. My friends, the Hong Kongers, looooooved them.

Just this time, they were happy about being treated to eat lemons ^_^

I'm off to Manila for a few days for work, boys and girls. Hope I'll have some time to fatten my Manila colleagues up and report back with some deliciousness. See ya!

Soto Daging Babat - Indonesian Beef & Tripe Soup

What did you wanna be when you grow up? What was your dream job? Are you doing it?
These questions reminded me of my primary school days. We were always asked this question and the most popular answers were:
- For boys: a doctor, an engineer, or a pilot (I think at that time lawyers didn't make as much money as now, especially in Indonesia hehe)
- For girls: a flight attendant (uh huh!), a nurse (see how we grew up positioning ourselves as the assistance to men?), or a good mom
- A general answer which will get you an A in exams: I want to be someone who will glorify my country's name (Orang yang berguna bagi nusa dan bangsa). Yeah, baby, yeah!

I've never really been through the stage of wanting to be a flight attendant (that time I didn't realize how sexy and attractive this occupation sounds to guys hehe) or a nurse (I can't stand seeing people in pain, and I am wayyy too self centered to take care of others), but I always had good grades stating that I wanted to be someone who's useful for my country. Hahaha!

I've always wanted a creative job. First, I wanted to be an architect. There was a huge misconception that if you could draw a decent picture of a house by the mountains with flowers, a rising sun, some birds and a couple clusters of cloud, then you'll grow up being an architect. Yeah, right. Later on, I realized that there are many other jobs creative people could do, other than architecture. Everything needs creativity.

Although I am all grown up now (borderline old, only young at heart hehe), I still have my dreams. My current list of dream jobs are:
1. Taking pictures of fashion bloopers and bitching about it (I'd need a camera with a tele lens and camouflage outfits in colors of Hong Kong train station walls/Hong Kong skyscrapers)
2. Drawing & writing funny comics about life in Hong Kong
3. A good mom with a successful career
4. An immigration officer, so that I could be as rude as I like, and it will be considered a great performance. Hehe.

I am not sure if the dreams will ever come true, but this morning I spotted something interesting...and I didn't have my camera with me. So I'll just have to draw it down. Hehe...hope this isn't you, walking towards Hong Kong's most famous landmark office building, Bank of China Tower ^_^

Shoot. I almost forgot to talk about food.

I am a big fan of instant spice mixes. I wanted Soto, but I never have the wide array of fresh spices needed to make the paste from scratch. So I went for the short cut (as always. hehe) and the result was every bit as tasty as something made from scratch.

Soto Daging Babat (Indonesian Beef & Tripe Soup)

Recipe
- 2 packets of Indofood Soto Ayam Instant Spice Mix (you can buy it online here)
- half pound beef brisket
- half pound beef tripe (I bought a frozen pack, so it's been cleaned)
- half pound beansprouts (I bought HK$5 worth of it, and I think the guy gave me more than half pound. Add as much as you like)
- a sprig of corriander (chopped)
- 4 cloves of garlic (crushed)
- 4 cloves of shallot (thinly sliced)
- 5 cm ginger (peeled and bruised)
- hot water, salt, pepper, kecap manis, olive oil
- 1 lemon
- 2 small red chilli (chopped)
- 1 tomato
- fried shallot for garnish

Boil frozen beef brisket and beef tripe with half the ginger and shallot, 1 tsp salt and a dash of pepper for about 15 minutes, drain, cut into bite sized chunks. In hot oil, saute garlic, shallot and ginger, add brisket and tripe chunks, add hot water, add instant spice mixes, bring to boil then lower the heat, cook for 2.5 hours. Blanch beansprouts in hot water, drain. Add beansprouts, tomato, and a bit of corriander, cook for 15 more minutes, squeeze lemon juice and cook for 15 more minutes. Garnish with chopped corriander and crispy shallot, drizzle some kecap manis (sweet soy sauce) and serve with steamed rice, fresh sliced tomatoes, wedges of lemon and the chopped chilli on the side.

You can use other kinds of meat, such as chicken or lamb, and you can add boiled eggs and crackers. Feel free to jazz it up.

Dream job #5. Is there any job which involves enjoying deep fried food and/or bacon all the time?

My Chicken-Hater Converter: Lemon & Butter Chicken

This is my chicken hater converter dish.

I tried a lot of things to lure my sous chef the chicken hater to love home cooked chicken, from cooking the chicken with minimum herb and spices (no, not chicken sashimi, cooked it with ginger and soy sauce-didn't work), to covering the chicken taste with spices (corriander, chilli, tomatoes, curry, even my beloved kecap manis), distracting attention with low cut tops and mini skirts, nothing worked, the only acceptable chicken dish is anything KFC-esque (nobody loves KFC and deep fried chicken than me, but even I wanted a change, plus, my own selfish reason was: I can't eat deep fried chicken yet as of now-LOL)

I had my plan Q (almost Z), I fancied smothering chicken legs with lemon's strong citrusy scent and ofcourse, the richness scent of butter. Now who wouldn't love that...the dish is as simple as dumping things into the oven, I even threw in zucchini for my daily dose of vegetables, all in 1 pot, and hey! It worked! My sous chef went all finger lickin' and complained that I didn't buy enough chicken legs (fresh chickens are expensive lah!)

Ingredients
- the juice of 2 lemons and some zest (wahahaha depends on how citrusy you want it to be)
- 3 pieces of chicken legs (upper and lower thigh), cut half
- 1 zucchini, half, sliced
- 1 onion, 4 cloves of garlic
- salt, sugar, pepper
- 1 or 2 tbsp of butter, olive oil

Preheat oven to 250C, heat from top only, drizzle a little olive oil at the bottom of the pot, lay zucchini, some onions and garlic, lay chicken pieces of top, skin facing up, put some onions and garlic in between, grate some lemon zest, squeeze in the lemon juice, put some pieces of butter in between the chicken pieces, sprinkle salt, pepper and sugar, dump into the oven until skin is browned, shift the heat to be from both top and bottom (skip this step if you want the zucchini pieces charred). After 1.5 hr, the chicken's skin turned crisp and the meat is super tender. Scoop some of the juices onto the chicken from time to time if you want, to add the extra flavor and moisture onto the chicken skin.


I've successfully recruited my sous chef into my chicken-fanatic-cult. MUHAHAHAHA