Sticky Rice with poached chicken

A play on Hainanese Chicken Rice. Instead of plain rice, I've switched to sticky/glutinous rice. Since sticky/glutinous rice is heavier than plain rice, you don't need too much. In this pic., I've served with green chilli+parsley sauce. The spiciness of this Hungarian green chilli is almost rival to the Asian's bird's eye chilli.

Sticky Rice with Poached Chicken
serves : 2
Ingredients
1/2 cup glutinous rice, cleaned and soaked over night
4pcs of chicken thighs or drumsticks
1 knob of ginger, bashed
2 cloves of garlic, bashed
1 spring onion

cooking oil, for sauté

Chilli sauce
2 chillies, finely chopped
1cm pc of ginger, minced
1 shallot. minced
3 cloves garlic, mince
soy sauce, to taste
cooking oil, for sauté

Method :-
1) Clean and soak rice with enough water to cover rice, overnight.
2) In a pot, stir fry the ginger and garlic until fragrant. When fragrant, pour in 1.5 cups of water. Bring it to boil.
3) When water is boiling, put in chicken thighs and only boil it for 1 min. When the chicken thighs have gone white, quickly remove from chicken pieces from the pot, give it a cold water bath. This is to tighten the skin. After bath, return chicken thighs back to the pot , add some salt and cook for another 15 mins.
4) After 15 mins. switch off heat and leave chicken in pot for another 30 mins. 
5) After 30 mins. give chicken thighs another cold bath. Then leave chicken thighs on wire mesh to dry.
6) Cook down the chicken stock for 15 mins. 
7) Meanwhile, get the steamer ready, drain glutinous rice and place rice in steaming dish. Once the chicken stock has been cook down a little. pour it over glutinous rice, just enough to cover rice. Be careful you don't want to drown the rice. You can always add more stock if needed.
8) Steam glutinous rice in high heat for about 15 mins. check for doneness. If needed cook longer r add more stock if too dry. After than check every 5  mins. until rice is done.
9) While waiting for rice to cook, cook the chilli sauce. Heat some in sauce pan, put in minced shallot, garlic and ginger. Cook until fragrant, add in chilli, cook down the chilli and it is ready. Remove onto serving dish , with oil, season with soy sauce.
10) Serve immediately.

Crispy Oven-baked chicken

Before the opening of KFC in our town, whenever we crave the famous fried chicken, I make my version of it. Not with 11 herbs and spices, just with 5-spices including salt and pepper.

Crispy oven-baked chicken

Ingredients
chicken pieces

Marinate:-
salt, to taste
white pepper, sprinkle all over
ground cumin, sprinkle all over
smoked paprika, sprinkle all over
garlic powder, sprinkle all over
flour, sprinkle all over
an egg

To coat
bread crumbs

Method
1) Marinate chicken pieces in fridge for at least an hour.
2) After an hour, take out marinated chicken pieces from the fridge, pre-heat oven at 200°c/400°F/Gas 6 for min. of 20 min.
3) When 20 mins. is up, start coating marinated chicken pieces in bread crumbs. Place chicken pieces skin side down on baking dish.
4) Bake for 25 mins. Take out the chicken, turn over and bake for another 15-20 mins. until fully cooked and golden brown.
5) Serve immediately.

Steamed bean curd (tofu) with minced meat

 

When come to bean curd / tofu, I only a make them a few ways. My all time favourite is this simple ingredients tossed together. You can of course make it meatless.

Steamed bean curd (tofu) with minced meat

300gm white bean curd, cubed

1 purple onion, sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

white pepper, to taste

soy sauce, to taste

toasted sesame seeds

spring onion, to garnish

150-200gm minced pork, Optional

Method
1)  In a steamer, put cubed  bean curd on heat proof serving dish. Steamed for about 10 mins.

2) Meanwhile, In a pan, heat some vegetable oil, sauté sliced onion until golden brown, add in the garlic and continue to sauté a little. Remove from heat and season with soy sauce and white pepper to taste. Pour this seasoned oil over the steamed bean curd. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds spring onions. serve immediately.

3) If serving with minced meat, just sauté and season mince meat. set it aside and just sprinkle over bean curd.

Sweet and sour sesame chicken

Whenever we order for Chinese take-out, the sweet and sour sesame chicken is always on top of our order. So, when I came across this following recipe, I have got to give it a go. Turns out pretty good and two thumbs up for this recipe!

Sweet and sour sesame chicken
via Aprosef

Ingredients
400gm Chicken breast

For batter
200gm plain flour
1 egg
12gm baking powder (I used less)
1 Tbsp corn flour (sub. with rice flour)
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
7 Tbsp water
salt, to taste

For sweet and sour sauce (adjust to taste)

4 Tbsp vinegar (I did not follow this exact qty.)
4 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp Honey (we dislike strong honey taste in savoury food; hence we adjusted to taste)
2 Tbsp oil
1 heap tsp sambal oelek
4 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds

Preparation


For the sauce
1) In a sauce pan, mix in all ingredients for sauce, check and balance the taste. Bring it to a boil.
2) Set aside.

For Chicken

1) Cut chicken breast into medium cube size.
2) In a bowl, mix all ingredients for batter except for water. Add water slowly to get a very thick batter.
3) Heat oil for frying.
4) Dip each chicken cube into thick batter. Make sure to fully coat it.
5) Fry in hot oil until golden brown and chicken is cooked through.
6) Place on wire mesh to drain away excess oil and keep it crispy.
7) Then immediately dip the cooked chicken into sauce and place on serving dish.

Hungarian Stuffed Pepper { Töltött Paprika }

Considering this is my first attempt at the Hungarian classic stuffed pepper, I'm happy with the results. As usual, to cook this is simpler than I imagined. I did not follow an exact recipe but followed this helpful video.

++ Additions of celery roots.

Vegetable Curry { Sayure Lodeh }

Chinese "Roasted" Chicken Rice / 烧鸡饭

The word "roasted" is the result of direct translation from Mandarin. The cooking method of the chicken is actually first braising and then deep fried.

Go to Singapore Local Favourites for the complete recipe.

For my own notes, I have made these tweaking :-

1) Instead of ginger juice, I have just used the ginger slices.
2) Since I have no lime, I have omitted it.
3) Again I have no maltose in my storage, I have omitted it.

Korean-Style Steamed savoury Eggs custard

Steamed eggs custard regularly appear on my mom's diner table; however, I have never have the urge to make one since moving out. Then I stumbled upon this recipe ; which looks so simple and manageable plus promises a smooth silky finish, so I say why not make it?

Verdict : wow, so smooooth plus an extremely easy recipe! The most attention you need is making sure the water do not get too hot. That only takes up 15 mins. of your time.

Go here for the recipe at The Kitchn

Congee / Rice Porridge / Jook / 粥

Congee is really not for everyone. You either like it or don't. I, myself, is not a fan! Perhaps that's the reason why I've never have the urge to cook this dish since I started cooking. My mom is the cook back home, so I eat what's serve to us. No question asked!

I have to say, this bowl of congee was very comforting. I'll sure to make this again in the future. Although maybe not when it's 30°c outside , like today!

Basic congee
serves 4-5 pax

Ingredients
1 cup long grain rice, rinse and drain well
4 cups of liquid, I used 1/2 bone broth 1/2 water
salt, to taste
white pepper, to taste

Basic condiments to serve (any combo)
Fried shallots
Fried garlic
spring onions
parsley
coriander leaves
chicken slices
ginger, julienned
peanuts
hard /soft boiled eggs
soy sauce
chinese sausages
fried anchovies (ikan bilis)
bacon/ham
seafood
anything to contrast the texture of congee

Method :-

1) In a pot, pour in rinsed rice and liquid and salt to taste.
2) Cook on medium heat, stir occasionally.
3) Cooking time depend on the texture you liked. I cooked mine for about 30 mins.
4) serve sprinkle with condiments of your choice and white pepper.
** you may add additional liquid if it becomes to thick.

Tips that I just learned :D
1) To reach smoother texture, soak rice over night or even blend the rice before cooking it.
2) If choose not to soak, cook rice as per stated, keep adding water during the course of cooking until reach creamier texture. I guess like risotto.

Hortobágyi Pancake { Hortobágyi Palacsinta }

The other day I taste for the first time Hortobágyi palacsinta. It was melt in the mouth pancake and filling, drizzled with velvety sauce. The next day I've decided to recreate it in my own kitchen. I've got to say, it wasn't far from what I remember!

Hortobágyi pancake
serves 4 pax
Video tutorial by Miele cooking school http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO8_maUoWEc
Crepe/ Pancake via No salty

Ingredients

Filling (Chicken paprikash/stew)

Vegetable oil, for cooking
5 pcs of chicken thigh meat, bone-in, cleaned
1 onion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
4-5 tsp smoked paprika, to taste
1 tomato, diced
1 Hungarian wax pepper
salt, to taste

water, just enough to cover meat

To thicken
100ml sour cream, room temeprature
1 Tbsp flour


Crepe/pancakes
2 large eggs, room temerature
125gm flour
a pinch of salt
250ml cold milk, room temperature
40g butter, melted
oil for cooking

Method


For stew :-

1)  Heat oil in sauce pan, sauté onion and garlic until translucent. Add in diced tomato, diced paprika and smoked paprika. Stir it a bit and put in the chicken thigh meat and salt to taste. Pour in enough water to cover meat, not too much as the meat will release some juices as well. Put on the cover and cook for 30 mins.

2) Once chicken is fully cooked and tomatoes and paprika have cooked down. Remove chicken thigh meat from the sauce, and by using a strainer remove the bits and pieces of onions,tomatoes etc from the sauce. Put the sauce back on the heat. We need to thicken the sauce by mixing together soul cream and flour, mix well before pouring into the chicken stew sauce. Bring it to boil for few minutes. Once thicken the sauce is ready.

For crepe/pancakes
1) In mixing bowl, crack in the eggs, mix in the salt. Then gradually add in flour and milk , alternately until the mixture is well combine, no lumps. Finally pour in the melted butter. Let the batter rest in fridge for at least 30 mins.
2) Take out batter from fridge after 30 mins. Mix it a little. Heat a flat pan over medium heat with some oil. Brush away excess oil. Use a ladle, pour the pancake batter onto the hot pan and swirl it around the pan to get a thin and even batter around the pan. Cook the pancake until just colour, not too much as the pancake should be soft with just a little bite to it. Cook until the batter is finish.

Assembling :-

1) Warm up the chicken meat and sauce by using microwave or stove.
Place chicken pieces onto pancake. Not too much. Wrap it. up and pour sauce over the pan cake, and serve immediately!

Baked Turmeric and Curry chicken wings

I had defrosted some chicken wings but has absolutely no inspiration what to do with them. Based on the main gravy going with it (carrot and parsnip sauce) I've decided to pair the sauce with turmeric as carrot and turmeric have been proven to pair well from experience. This turned out Good!

Baked Turmeric and Curry chicken wings

Ingredients
Chicken wings, cleaned

Marinate, quantity not exact, sprinkle the spices all over making sure each wing will be well coated
ground cumin
turmeric
curry powder
chilli powder
garlic powder
salt
black or white pepper
yoghurt, just enough to coat the wings

1) Marinate chicken wings in the fridge for minimum 30 minutes
2) After 30 mins. remove chicken wings from fridge and start to pre-heat oven at 200°c/400°F/Gas mark 6.
3) Let oven heat for 20 mins. while wings sit in room temperature.
4) Once oven is hot enough, place chicken wings on greased baking tray in one layer.
5) First bake for 25 mins. and remove from oven. Increase to gas mark 7 and flip wings over and bake for another 20 mins. until skin is browned and crispy and you're ready.

Oven Baked Lor Mai Fan { Glutinous / Sticky Rice }

Oven Baked Glutinous Rice

Ingredients
Glutinous rice, washed 2.3 times, soaked over night
1 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic, minced
cooking oil

seasoning
Light soy sauce
Dark soy sauce
Anchovy paste
Garlic powder
stock cube
white pepper

 Method :-
Oven baked following method from http://www.jemsrecipes.com/how-to-make-kao-niao-sticky-rice-in-the-oven/

What I did differently was I stir fried the glutinous rice for a few minutes in sauté onion and garlic.
Remove the rice from heat, I start seasoning to taste without ingredients stated above. Then add water slight more to cover the rice. Pour into baking dish and the rest I followed the instruction from link.

Quick Pork & Noodle soup

A rather quick noodle soup for when the days you want something really simple.

Quick Pork & Noodle soup
4 pax

Ingredients

Soup base
1 inch ginger, bashed
1 stalk spring onion, bashed
1 garlic, bashed
a little oil
Root vegetable (I used parsley root, celery root)
1.5 litre water
salt, to taste

Noodle
4 pkts x 60g pho instant noddle
2 sachets seasoning from instant noodle

Protein
200g Pork liver, sliced thinly
200g Minced pork, seasoned and form into meat balls

Garnish
toasted sesame
spring onion , chopped

Method
1) In a soup pot, saute bashed garlic, ginger and spring with a little oil for a few minutes. Peel and chop up root vegetable in small pieces for faster cooking. Add water to the soup pot and the root veg., Let it boil and simmer til root veg. is soften.

2) Prep. protein. When soup base is ready, throw in the meat balls to cook. When it is cook, start putting in the noodles. and liver. Be careful not to overcook the liver.

3) Serve immediately  sprinkle with toasted sesame and spring onion.

Sticky Yellow Rice {Nasi Kunyit}

Sticky rice or Glutinous Rice is commonly featured in SE Asian cuisine. It could be used in both sweet and savoury dishes. As the rice could be quite rich, we consume only in small quantity, and even on special occasions.
I followed the easy instructions given in the video below. I think I added too much water; hence, a bit too sticky. Since I didn't have a proper steamer, the result is satisfactory for now.

Yellow Sticky Rice

For soaking overnight :-
Glutinous rice
turmeric powder, to taste
tamarind pieces (sub. with lemon juice)

Seasoning
white pepper corns (sub. with white pepper powder)
coconut milk (see video)

1) Clean and soak rice in soaking ingredients with enough water to cover rice, overnight.
2) Drain rice, place rice on steaming dish. Heat up steamer.
3) Cook rice as per video instructions.

Jamie Oliver Roasted Pork Belly {燒肉}

The last time and also the first time I roasted Chinese-style pork belly was in 2007! although nothing wrong with the recipe and the taste, I failed in achieving the crackling skin. So, when this week the pork belly goes on sale, I thought why not try a different recipe and see how it goes. 

The verdict : I did it, I  achieved the crispy crackling! Also, seasoning with just salt and pepper were the perfect way to eat this. I'll definitely be using this recipe again!

Jamie Oliver Roasted Pork Belly
adapted from http://julesfood.blogspot.hu/2010/08/jamie-olivers-crispy-skin-pork-belly.html
for 2-3 pax

Ingredients
600gm pork belly
Sea / kosher salt
fresh ground pepper

Method
1) Pre-heat oven 220°c / Gas 7
2) Clean pork belly and pat dry with kitchen towel.
3) Start by scoring pork rind, in a criss cross manner, 1cm apart. *Do not score to deep, just until the fat not meat*
4) Rub salt all over the scored skin well. Get rid of excess salt.
5) Season the underside of the meat with salt and ground pepper.
6) Place pork belly, skin side up on baking dish. Bake in the oven for 1/2 hour until the skin of the pork has started to puff up and you can see it turning into crackling.
7) After 1/2 hour, remove pork belly from oven and reduce temperature to 180°c/Gas 4. Put pork belly back into oven and cook for another 1/2 hour. *At this point, you may add onion, garlic, any vegetables and herbs to roast* 
8) After the second 1/2 hour, remove pork belly again, baste the drippings on pork belly and put it back in the oven to cook for final 15-20 mins. or until meat falling apart.
9) Let it rest before serving.

Chinese-style Fried Rice

Fried rice is best from left over rice; so, when you have plain rice left over from Chinese take-outs, keep it in the fridge and use it to cook fried rice. In the case where you would like to try this using fresh rice, then before cooking store your cooked plain rice, uncovered, in the fridge for at least 2 hours to dry it out a little.

Chinese-style Fried rice

Ingredients
Day-old cooked Rice or freshly cooked, quantity according to portions you need
1 shallot or red onion, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, minced

1 cm ginger, minced or slice
1-2 tsp sesame seeds
mix vegetable, according to portions you need
few dashes of oyster sauce
few dashes of light soy sauce
white/black pepper , to taste

Method
1) Heat oil in a wok, put in minced onion and ginger. Cook until fragrant. Then add-in minced garlic & sesame seeds, cook until browned. Be careful not to burn garlic or it will taste bitter.
2) When aromatics are fragrant, add in mix vegetables. Stir-fry for a few minutes.
3) Add in rice, seasoning and mix everything well. Stir fry until rice is "jumping" in the wok because you want to achieve the "char" (not burn) flavour in the rice.
4) Serve hot as side dish or main.

Chinese Style Angel Hair Pasta

Fried vermicelli rice noodles is comfort food for the Cantonese. We eat them in the morning, afternoon, night and sometimes even during parties as the noodles could be pair with endless flavours. Since it is harder to get vermicelli made of rice flour in my area, I have learned to substitute with angel hair pasta whenever I crave the Cantonese staple.

I will not be including a recipe in this post. What I do is I toast the pasta first either on a skillet or in the oven for maximum 10 mins. on medium heat or until pasta is browned. Next you simply cook the pasta per package's instructions, once cooked to al-dente, you toss it in Asian-inspired aromatics and you're good.

Over baked sesame meat balls

Oh, baking meat balls is so easy! Just pre-heat oven at 204°c/400°F/Gas mark 6 for at least 20 mins. before putting your meat balls in. Bake for 20-25 mins. and it is ready! No oil splatters or greasy kitchen to clean ;)

Ingredients
500 ground pork, or your choice of ground meat , you can also mix 2 types of meat
garlic granule, to taste
1/2 tsp cumin,
1 tsp ground paprika
salt & pepper , to taste
1 egg
1 day-old bread
bread crumbs & sesame seed, for coating

Method :-
1) Soak stale bread in milk/stock/water for few minutes. Squeeze out the excess liquid after few minutes and tear into pieces
2) Put ground meat in mixing bowl, add cumin, garlic granule, ground paprika, salt, pepper, torn bread and crack in the egg. Use your hand to mix the ingredients until well combine. Let it rest for 30 mins.

3) While meat is resting, start to heat oven at 204°c/400°F/Gas mark 6 for 20  mins.
4) Shape meat mixture into balls, coat with bread crumbs+sesame seeds. Place on well-greased baking dish. Bake first for 10 mins. After 10 mins. take out from oven , flip over the meat balls and bake for another 10-15 mins., until meat is fully cooked.

Canned sardines fish curry

I love sardines! Fresh sardines are of course better than canned but I have been eating canned sardines since I remember. Anyway, canned sardines can be very versatile. You can use them as filling for sandwich or empanadas, serve them with rice and make into curry like I did recently.


Canned Sardines Fish Curry
serves : 2-3 pax

Ingredients
2 cans x 90 gm sardines in tomato sauce
1 medium onion, slice
3 cloves garlic, mince
cooking oil
red or green chilli, slice, to taste
1 dried bay leaf
salt & pepper
lemon or lime

spice paste
2 tsps ground paparika powder, spicy
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 dash of fennel seeds
a little water

Optional2 medium potatoes, diced
Hard boiled eggs

Method
1) Mix ingredients for spice paste together with a little water. Set aside.
2) Heat a little oil, sauté sliced onion until translucent and then add in the minced garlic. Cook until garlic is fragrant. Next pour in the spice paste and bring it to a boil. Be careful not to burnt it.
3) If you're using potatoes, add in now, and pour in tomato sauce from canned sardine (not incl. the sardines) , if the liquid is not enough to barely cover the potatoes, add in some stock or water. Throw in the red / green chillies and dried bay leaf. Let this cook for a bit until potato is ready.
4) Once potatoes is ready add in the sardines and simmer for 10 mins. and it is ready.
5) You can add hard boiled eggs into the gravy before serving with your choice of carbs.

Easy homemade "barbecued" Pork {Cantonese Char Siu}

If you are familiar with Cantonese cuisine, than Char Siu is no stranger to you. To those who has no idea what it is , you can read it here here
I have found a way to imitate that barbecued taste with just 2 ingredients.

Ingredients :-
Smoked ham
Sour cherry jam (50% fruit content), to taste

Method :-
1) First soak the smoked ham in cold water for about 4 hours to get rid of some of the saltiness.
2) Once ham has been soaked, dry it with kitchen towel and slice into preferred thickness. Set aside.
3) Heat a sauce pan with a few table spoons of sour cherry jam. Let it simmer until intense red colour.
4) Place ham pieces all over the sauce pan to absorb the jam flavour, flip it a few times to let it completely infuse in the sauce. When the ham has picked up the colour of the jam, it is ready.
5) You can serve with rice, cucumber and some of remaining gravy. Or simply eat it with plain bread :)