Semi-homemade Simple Frills, A Bakmi Mewah Story

Imagine being newlyweds, nestled into a new house with boxes all around you. While it’s exciting to start a new life with someone special, but unboxing your belongings aren’t as fun. You couldn’t find things you want to use and you didn’t know where you put the clothes you want to wear. Needless to say, when it comes to food, eating out and take away have always been the options.

That’s Fiona’s life for the past three weeks. 

How about cooking instant food, or what we love to call, semi-homemade? So, the other day, Fiona gave it a try. “The key ingredient is meat, because I love meat. The others are things are easily available at Supermarket shelves. Plus a bit of leftover veggies in the fridge.” To this, Ruth is frowning, “Don’t tell me, you’ve been living off salads as emergency food.” Well, marriage life supposed to be romantic and fairy-tale like, especially when you finally have your own kitchen after years of using your mom’s. But apparently it’s not as stress-free.

So here it goes, creating a simple meal, without sacrificing luxury.

Rosemary Chicken Wings with Pineapple and Lemon Sauce

A care package with Morisca Pineapple Jam arrived the other day at Fiona's house and suddenly, she was inspired to cook something with it. We're sharing the recipe here. Let's call it pineapple miracle.

But what can you make with pineapple jam?

The first thing that comes to mind is, of course, Nastar. It's that Indonesian sweet baked goods filled with pineapple jam, usually comes in beautiful packaging right on time for special celebration like Idul Fitri. But that would be too complicated and require a lot of time. So, shifting to the more practical and easier set of recipe, pineapple sauce is selected. It can go with your main course like fish or chicken and can be stored easily for future use. Whenever steamed fish or grilled chicken comes on the menu, the savory and sweet hint from the sauce can help compliment the flavor. We can even use it on salad... who knows?

Rosemary Chicken Wings with Pineapple and Lemon Sauce

Ingredients:
Chicken wings, 3 pairs, cleaned and washed
Garlic, minced
Lemon, squeezed for juice
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Rosemary
Pineapple Jam

Cooking direction:
Start with garlic, sauteed until yellowish in color. Then fry the wings. Pour the rest of the ingredients in, add water and cook in medium heat until the chicken is soft. Keep what's left of the broth and mix them in the blender to create the sauce. Decorate as you wish.

Decorating is fun!
Insert the sauce in piping bag and don't forget to filter the rough part out so it doesn't get stuck and block the sauce. Polka-dot seems like a good idea so this one is decorated with different sizes of dots. Apparently, creating the perfect ascending sizes of dots require patience and balanced pressure. Otherwise, you'll ruin the dots pattern. Or, you can "cheat" with small pippette to ensure the clean and sophisticated look. Looks better than just pouring the whole sauce on the chicken, right? Rosemary is added for rustiness look and feel to the dish.

Where to find Pineapple?
Originated from South American countries, Brazil and Paraguay to be exact, this tropical fruit is widely used for cooking in Asia. The Chinese use it for sweet and sour sauce, while Hawaiian Pizza is known for adding pineapple on top. Thai recipes also often include this yellow fruit with spiky skin in their ingredients list.