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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Malay cuisine ~ Paprik-style chicken & Pattaya fried rice

I needed to use up some chicken breasts and thought of Nasi ayam paprik (Paprik style chicken rice). I don't know why as I hardly eat it back home in Malaysia. Then I combined the chicken dish with another Malay favourite - Nasi goreng pattaya (Pattaya fried rice).

It was hard to make this plate photogenic ; but you can view here for some delicious looking photos.

Paprik-style chicken
Adapted from petitchef

500gm Chicken breast fillet , cut into chunks/strips
1 stick of carrot , sliced
1 lemon grass (1 used 1 tsp dried lemon grass)
2 kafir lime leaves , slice finely (didn't have any, substitute with dried bay leave)
1 Small Onions, chopped finely
2 Garlic
1 tsp Chili paste, or to taste (I used Hungarian spicy paprika paste)
1 Tbsp Tomato ketchup (added 1 fresh tomatoes, quartered)
1/4 tsp Oyster sauce (didn't have any in the pantry but substitute with anchovy paste)
2 Tbsp Chili Sauce (omitted)
1 tsp Soya sauce
Salt as taste
Oil

Method

Heat oil in pan,add chopped onion and garlic,fry till brown .Then add chili paste,fry till it leaves the oil ,now add lemon grass and chicken.

Fry for few minutes,then add carrots, bay leave and all the sauces and some water.Close with lid and cook simmer till chicken and veggies is cook.

Remove from heat and serve hot.

Risotto with peas - Risi e Bisi

I've read that risotto is quite an intimidating dish to cook. After a few recipes cooking risotto, I am really getting the hang of cooking this grain ; it is quite enjoyable!
How creamy the end result should be is still a a question mark for me, but this last risotto was a real treat.

I simply used the previous recipe as a base and substitute the squash with peas, served with camembert and sprinkled fresh dill .... yum!

Squash Risotto

In an effort to learn to cook risotto, we've been eating it once a week for the past three week! I have to say, this recipe is the best tasting thus far. I already planned to cook it again next week ;)

Simple Squash Risotto

recipe from BBC GoodFood

Ingredients

1 butternut squash

4 tbsp light olive oil
600ml vegetable stock
50g unsalted butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 celery stick, finely chopped **omitted, not avaulable
2 garlic cloves , crushed
1 bay leaf
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves, picked ** used a pinch of dried thyme instead
140g risotto rice (we like carnaroli) ** used 100g of arborio rice
100ml white wine
50g Parmesan, finely grated ** sprinkled with feta instead
** added fried bacon for sprinkling

Method

1. Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/ gas 6. Peel the squash and separate the bulbous seed-bearing section from the slender end. Chop the slender end into 2cm cubes, toss in half the oil, season lightly and roast in the oven, stirring occasionally, until golden brown on the outside and soft in the centre, about 30 mins. Cut the bulb in half and scrape out the seeds with a spoon - you can keep these to toast in the oven and sprinkle over salads. Chop the flesh into 2cm pieces. Warm the vegetable stock in a small pan, set over a low heat. Drop in squash and leave to gently poach.

2. While the squash is roasting, warm a medium-size frying pan over a gentle heat. Add the remaining olive oil and half the butter, followed by the onion. Cover and cook for 3 mins until the onion turns translucent. Stir in the celery, garlic, herbs and a few turns of pepper (no salt at this stage). Cover again and cook for a further 2 mins. Increase the heat slightly and stir in the rice. Stir, uncovered, for about 5 mins - this will help to develop the toasty aroma of the rice without burning the veg.

3. Turn up the heat, stir in the wine and let it bubble away to almost nothing. Reduce the heat and start adding the stock. Add one ladle at a time, stirring gently but constantly during each addition. The idea is to encourage the rice to absorb the liquid and soften, but also give up its starch to thicken the remaining broth. Don't stir too aggressively or you will end up with a pan of mush. When the stock has been absorbed, it's time to add the next ladleful and so on. It will take about 15 mins to reach the final ladle of stock. By this time the squash in the stock should have softened. Mash it up with the remaining stock and stir into the risotto.

4. Turn off the heat, dot the top of the risotto with remaining butter and most of the Parmesan, cover, leave to rest for 2 mins, then stir through and check the seasoning. Spoon the risotto into shallow bowls and sprinkle the roasted squash and leftover Parmesan on top.

Savoury Glutinous Rice (Lor Mai Kai) but using Arborio rice

Arborio rice was used in the absence of glutinous rice. In result, the dish doesn't have the sticky texture that cooked glutinous rice gives ; which helps bind the rice. But individual arborio grain does have that chewy-ness. Not bad at all.

Recipe from here

Pibim Pap imitation

You know sometimes when you see a dish that you really fancy in magazines, etc..but it didn't come with a recipe, what do you do? Me, imitate!! I'll lock that dish in mind or if i'm not tooo lazy to get a pen and paper, i'll quickly write down with guesses on what goes into the mysterious dish and hopefully be able to cook it as soon as possible ;)

So, the following dish was inspired under similar situation..Tadaa! my version of Pibim Pap!


Pibim pap is Korean and it simply means mixed (=pibim) rice (=pap) . After researching online, the way to eat this meal is to mix the rice/vege whatnots thoroughly with spoon or in this case, chopsticks. See here for the original serving of pibim pap.

I didn't bother to look for the actual recipe, the ingredient was "what you see is what you get" basis minus some bits which are not available in the 'super' i.e. a bit of Hungarian pickled cabage, 1 egg -sunny side-up, spring onions, toasted sesame and dash of soya sauce and its ready!

The crunchy soury taste of pickled vege. and everything else matches so well, an appetising comfort food, and a keeper for those lazy days.

Rice in cream

That's the translated name of "nasi lemak", the supposedly national dish of Malaysia. Nasi lemak is a dish of rice cooked in coconut cream/milk. Fried anchovies, egg, spicy chili sauce (sambal),peanuts and cucumber are the basic condiments to go with the rice. Of course you have the choice of more side dishes.

Believe it or not, this rich dish is one of Malaysian's favourite breakfasts! The breakfast version is lighter, with simpler condiments. It's usually not cooked at home as it's available at hawker stalls/restaurants and road side stalls at anytime of day. Some of the sellers are so famous that many don't mind travelling far just to sample their favourite food ;)

Enough of intro., already. The recipe I'm sharing is going to be for the spicy chili sauce that goes with the rice. ..pulling this photo from the archive made me crave the medley of creamy rice and spicy *drool* I can't wait to taste the authentic ones back home ..

Spicy Eggs (Acar Telur)
More like a sambal, the thick gravy is sweet, sourish and spicy. It is very appetising and takes off the heavy edge from the nasi lemak.

Ingredients
5 eggs, hard boiled

Ground ingredients:
5 cloves garlic
5 shallots
1 big onion
2cm knob ginger

2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons cili boh*
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 tablespoon tomato ketchup
1 tablespoon sugar, or to taste
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste

Method
1. Shell the hard-boiled eggs and heat enough oil in a wok to deep fry the eggs until golden brown. Drain on paper towels.

2. Blend, or pound the ground ingredients to a paste.

3. Heat oil in a wok and saute the ground ingredients until fragrant.

4. Add the cili boh. Fry until aromatic before adding the eggs, vinegar and tomato ketchup. Season to taste with sugar and salt.

*dried chili pound into paste