Cooking for Granny's 87th

I made these 2 dishes (+ 1 dessert) for Granny's birthday dinner!

Mango Teriyaki Chicken

Grilled Mushrooms with Cheese Sauce

Mango Jam Bread Pudding

Here are my recipes :)

Mango Teriyaki Chicken Ingredients -       About 1.2 kg (5 packets) boneless skinless chicken breasts and/or fillets  -       2 medium-sized ripe mangoes  -       1 red onion (or more if you prefer) -       Mirin -       Soy sauce -       Brown Sugar -       Rice wine vinegar -       Hot red pepper flakes -       Olive Oil Preparation -       Cut chicken into small bite-sized cubes. -       Make sauce (approximately, to taste):  o   3-4 tbsp mirin o   5-6 tbsp soy sauce o   2-3 tbsp brown sugar (mixed till dissolved) o   1-2 tbsp rice wine vinegar -       1-2 tbsp water (if too salty/sweet) -       Coat chicken with sauce, cover in fridge for at least 1 hour. -       Meanwhile, Slice red onion thinly lengthwise. -       Peel, pit and cube mango Directions -       Heat 1 tbsp olive oil over medium-high heat in large pan -       Add onions, and saute for about 2 minutes until slightly softened.  -       Remove chicken from fridge, pour in the marinade sauce and bring to a full boil -       Add the chicken, lower heat to medium, and saute for about 5-6 minutes (stir occasionally) -       When chicken is cooked through and the sauce has reduced slightly, add mango and red pepper flakes to taste. -       Cook for another 2 minutes, stirring gently but constantly until the ingredients are warmed throughout. -       Serve!

Grilled Mushrooms with Cheese Sauce Ingredients -       400 g white and brown button mushrooms -       1 large onion (more or less) -       150 g Shredded Chedder Cheese (more or less, to taste) -       Dried Rosemary (or fresh) -       Dried Thyme (or fresh) Mirin -       Chopped Garlic -       Olive Oil -       Salt and Pepper -       3-4 tsp butter (to taste) -       2-3 tbsp Tomato Puree (to taste) -       Toothpicks (for mushrooms) -       Mini saucers (for sauce) Preparation -       Marinate mushrooms with (approximately): o   Rosemary (to taste) o   Thyme (to taste) o   3-4 tsp chopped garlic o   Salt and pepper and oil Directions -       Grill mushrooms in oven at 160 deg for 10-15 min till cooked. -       Meanwhile, make sauce: o   chop onion and saute in butter. o   Add to pan 2-3 tsp garlic, tomato puree, pepper and thyme and more butter (to taste) o   Cook for some time, off the flame then add cheese to the sauce. o   Mix well, then put into blender (add a bit of water else too dry to blend). o   Add more cheese/spices to taste if necessary. -       When mushrooms are ready, put in toothpicks -       Pour cheese sauce into mini saucers. -       Coat mushrooms with sauce in the saucers and serve!

Behind the scenes:

My task was to cook 2 dishes for Granny's birthday dinner.
She asked me to make a mushroom dish and another dish.
I gave her a few options, and she thought a mango chicken dish would be interesting.

The story goes is that my first spiced mango chicken dish was a flop. (Too much cinnamon/too sour) And the mushroom with spinach was too bitter/mushroom-y and I don't know what spinach is best? So I am not going to try those again... Until.. I don't know when. Haha. 
Here's pictures of my flops..

Spiced Mango Chicken (Flop)

Stir-fry mixed mushrooms (Flop)

So I had to restart:

• I was thinking of a teriyaki style, because initially I was already thinking of doing a teriyaki fish dish, until my recent cravings for mango came about. Hehe. 
• But mango chicken is very Thai.. so I started to look out for Thai style mango chicken recipes.
• Western style/Mexican style with lots of spices seemed too fusion, and my first flop scared me to try that again.
• I finally chose to do a mango-teriyaki chicken over a chili-mango chicken because the chili-mango one seemed more tedious.
• I modified the mango-teriyaki chicken recipe by using my own teriyaki-sauce marinade recipe instead of a bottled one.
• As for the mushrooms, I can't seem to do Chinese-style mushrooms. I decided to just go ahead with a simple grilled mushroom recipe... but with something more flavourful.
• I chanced upon a herb mushroom with cheese sauce recipe, and decided it was quite simple and went ahead with it. 
• I followed it quite closely, except that I used dried thyme/rosemary leaves instead of fresh ones, and I changed the proportions a little along the way while I was making the cheese sauce.