Nasi Lemak

Except for the rice, (which wasn't cooked with enough coconut milk), I thought I did a pretty good job in replicating the Nasi Lemak sold outside! :D



Ingredients

• Rice (1 cup)
• Coconut milk (1 packet of Ayam brand coconut milk)
• Peanuts
• Ikan bilis
• Long beans
• Egg (mix with a pinch of salt and a dash of pepper)

Method

Mix coconut milk with water to make up 1 cup and 20ml of liquid and use it to cook the rice.

1) Stir fry Long Beans with Chili Dou Ban Jiang
2) Fry Egg
3) Deep fry ikan bilis and peanut

Yes, as simple as 1, 2, 3! ;)

Chicken Claypot Rice

I tried, for the first time, to cook the claypot rice in the claypot from scratch as I thought it might taste better.

But no, it not only tasted the same as when I cooked in a rice-cooker, but it also created more work for my hub, whom had use so much strength to scrape off the rice off the claypot. :P

It tasted as good (and moist) as before. :) The only thing I must remember is to make it drier next time as my hub prefers it that way.

Crispy Hotdog and Meatballs

I didn't have the chance to buy meat over the weekend and I knew my hubby would not be satisfied (in terms of volume and variety), if I were to serve fried rice and soup only.

So I 'ransacked' my fridge and found some meatballs and hotdogs. *eyes lit up*



Ingredients

• 1 strip of hotdog cut into bite-sized portions
• 6 meatballs
• Flour
• Egg (beaten)
• Cream crackers (crushed)

Method

1) Coat the hotdog and meatballs with flour
2) Dip into egg mixture
3) Roll in crushed cream crackers
4) Grill in Healsio for 15 minutes or until it browns.

I was so glad that I tried this because the taste of the hotdog resembled the hotdog fritters I had back in my Primary School days. I have been searching for this food item ever since I left Primary school, but no one cook hotdog the way the stall vendor did. I really didn't expect that I will be able to taste something similar from my own cooking.

I am pretty sure that I am going to try this again soon. :)

Fried Rice with beansprouts

I have been cooking fried rice far too often because my hub kept asking for it. :P For some variation, I added beansprouts to the recipe and it tastes even better with the 'crunch' from the beansprouts. :)



The combi

Chicken Rice

Cooking chicken rice is definitely tougher than me thinks. The most difficult part is separating the chicken meat from the bone. I am really bad at that. :P

Chicken Claypot Rice

I decided to follow (with some slight variations), the recipe on the package of the chinese sausage I bought and the end product turned out quite tasty! :) As a bonus, it's even easier to prepare than the chicken flavoured rice.



Ingredients

• 2 chicken thighs
• 1 chinese sausage
• 1 cup of rice

Seasonings (A)

• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1/2 tbsp sweet sauce
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp rice wine
• Sesame oil
• Pepper

Method

1) Marinade the chicken thighs with Seasonings (A) and leave for an hour.
2) When the rice is half-cooked, add the chinese sausage and chicken thighs
3) Add some sesame oil and 1 tbsp dark soy sauce and mix well before serving.

Fried Rice with Pork Cutlet

Both of us had our own appointments on Monday and that means that I will only need to cook once this week. My hub tried to make keep things simple for me and suggested having a one-dish meal - Fried Rice. He didn't want the vegetarian version I have cooked for him before as he wanted some real meat in it.

Before he carried on with his next sentence, I knew that he wanted to ask for Pork cutlet. Somehow, he just loves the pork cutlet that I have made. Feeling that this combination would turn out quite heaty, I suggested adding a vegetable dish to 'balance' the meal.

So it turned out that I still have to cook 3 dishes. *pengz* So much for keeping the meal 'easy and simple'. >_<"



Click here for pork cutlet recipe.

Ingredients

• Steamed Rice (1 cup of uncooked rice)
• Mixed vegetables (carrot/pea/corn)
• 2 eggs (beaten and with 1 tbsp of light soy sauce and a dash of pepper added)
• 2 tbsp cooking oil

Seasonings

• 3 tbsp light soy sauce
• a pinch of salt
• a dash of pepper

Method

1) Add mixed vegetables to 1tbsp of heated oil
2) Add a pinch of salt and stir-fry
3) Set aside the mixed vegetables in the wok and add another tbsp of oil
4) Fry the egg
5) Before the egg is fully cooked, add the steamed rice to the mixture
6) Add the light soy sauce and stir until the colour is evenly distributed.
7) Sprinkle a dash of pepper over before serving

Oh, on a side note, I managed to fry rice without any burnt marks at the bottom of the wok today. It was so easy to manage the rice this time round, even though I cooked the rice on the spot (and not left overnight in the fridge).

I guess it has got something to do with keeping the fire to the minimal and letting it slowly and evenly heat up the rest of the wok. The salesman's comments on the nature of the wok suddenly start to make sense to me. After 1 year plus. :P

Chicken Baked Rice 2

Refer to the previous post. Added more cheese for my hub. Aww... just look at how nice the browned part of the cheese turned out to be... 'Cheesy'... :o~~~

Chicken Baked Rice

My hub is working overtime again today. I guess this gives me yet another opportunity to try a new dish. So what shall I cook with ingredients that were originally meant for a Chicken Cutlet Spaghetti meal? The title of this post says 'Chicken Baked Rice', so this has to be it. heh!

Notice how the chicken protrude out of the cheesy top? Try putting all the chicken slices (meant for two persons) into a single plate!



Surprisingly, the end product was pretty good and nothing like an 'experiment' to me. The rice was slightly on the saltish side (I shouldn't have stir-fried it with light soy sauce as the salt from the concentrated cream sauce will give it the necessary flavour it needs). Other than that, it was a yummy treat for me. :)

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup of cooked rice
• Mixed vegetables (carrot, corn, peas)
• Sliced Chicken breasts
• 1/4 cup of mushroom cream sauce
• 1 cup of mozzarella cheese

Marinade

• 1 tsp oyster sauce
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• Few drops of sesame oil
• dashes of pepper

Method
1) Cook the rice
2) Marinade the chicken and set aside for 30 minutes
3) Preheat oven to 200 degree celcius

While waiting for the preheating to complete,

4) Stir fry/blanch mixed vegetables and mix well with rice
5) Place the mixture of rice and vegetables in a casserole (or in my case, plate)

6) Spread 1/2 of cream sauce over the mixture
7) Stir-fry chicken pieces
8) Add chicken pieces on top
9) Spread remaining cream sauce
10) Sprinkle Mozzarella cheese generously to cover all the ingredients in the plate.
11) Bake for 20 minutes or until the cheese turns to a beautiful brown.

Flavoured Chicken Rice

This dish was intended to be a Claypot Rice dish. We had a craving ever since we first tried this. So I decided to give it a shot in cooking the dish myself.



It turned out that it was 'wetter' than it's supposed to be (thus the change in the dish name :P). I believe it has got to do with my subconscious mind of cooking the rice with more moisture (I love 'damp' rice). My hub, on the other hand, prefers 'drier' rice. He kept complaining that it is too moist. He finished the whole plate, though, leaving only a mushroom or two behind. Heh! It goes to show that the standard is still there ok! kekeke... Btw, I love the taste! I drool even by just looking at the picture. :p~~~

Ingredients

• Rice
• 2 Mushrooms (cut into halves)
• 1 prepacked chicken thigh from NTUC
• 1 Chinese sausage

Marinade (A)

• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp corn flour

Seasonings (B)

• 1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
• 1 tsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp concentrated chicken stock
• 1 tsp garlic oil

Method

1) Debone the chicken thigh and remove fats
2) Cut the chicken into small parts and and marinade with (A)
3) Cook the rice
4) Stir fry garlic in heated oil until fragrant
5) Cook chicken
6) Once the chicken has changed colour, add chinese sausage
7) Add seasonings (B) and stir until even
8) Pour the cooked ingredients into the rice cooker 5 minutes before the rice is fully cooked.
9) Stir well
10) Once the rice is ready, add another 1/2 tbsp of dark soy sauce and 1 tsp sesame oil to enhance the colour and flavour.

YUMS!

Sushi

Cook the rice, wrap it in the seaweed together with other ingredients and you've got yourself a sushi. Piece of cake.

That, was how I see sushi making before this evening. And you know what? I will never underestimate the work behind a piece of sushi again. :P

My mom used to say 'Kuar lin gorng ley jia kuay kean'. It means 'it's not as easy as what you think'. Sushi making is sheer hard work. I took a total of 2 hours in what I would think would be a 20-minute affair to prepare the dinner tonight.

Cook the rice and that's it? No way! You gotta mix it with rice wine vinegar, sugar and salt when it is COLD. Hmm... excuse me, how can I wait for it to cool when I need to whip up a meal within 45 minutes after I reach home from work? >_<

Just fill the beancurd with rice and that's an inari? Noo... You gotta boil dashi soup stock, sugar and dark soy sauce and simmer the beancurds in it for 15 minutes.

I wouldn't say that the dinner preparation is complete failure. Afterall,we managed to finish most of the sushi. In fact, I find that the Chawanmushi turned out pretty well! I would give a 80% resemblance to that of sakae's. :) Was so proud of myself on this. Hee!

However, there are still plenty room of improvement for the sushi, especially to my hub, who kept comparing it with the standard of sakae sushi. >_<'''. With the exception of chawanmushi, I will put up only photos to reward my efforts and for record purposes.

Tuna Roll



Crab Stick Sushi



Tamago Sushi



Inari

I couldn't find the beancurd skin used for Inari. So I used Tau Pok instead. This is so hilarious! LOL. But, but, it turned out quite nice too. No kidding. I had 3 Inaris in a row.

My hub's wasabi



Chawanmushi

Look! So smooooth.

Ingredients

• 250 ml cold dashi soup
• 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 mushroom (cut into strips)

Method

1) Blend dashi soup, light soy sauce, salt and eggs

2) Strain the mixture into two bowls

3) Add mushroom strips

4) Cover top of the bowl, leaving a small area exposed

5) Steam for 25-30 minutes in Healsio

Ok, I didn't cut it even and nice enough. But aw... just look at the soup residue. Always love that part when I have chawanmushi. Yums...



It will be quite a while before I make sushi again. But it will definitely be so much better than this round. Please say you have the confidence in me. heh! ;)

Vegetarian Fried Rice

I wanted to cook porridge today, but I had to choose fried rice instead.

Fried rice is especially useful when I am cooking dishes that I am not too confident of. To elaborate, if one of the side dishes I have cooked doesn't turn out good, I still have the fried-rice to fall back on. Fried rice is 'self-sufficient' and is a 'so good, you can even eat it on its own' staple. :P Most importantly, I have hardly gone wrong cooking this one-dish meal. It's a safe bet. :)



Ingredients

• 1 cup Rice (cooked overnight so that it will be easier to manage)
• 3 tbsp of mixed vegetables (comprising green peas, carrots and corns)
• 3 tbsp of mock ham cubes
• 5 tbsp of mock char siew (cut into cubes)
• 2 tbsp cooking oil

Mixture

• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp dark soy sauce (for colour)
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 6 tbsp water

Method
1) Heat oil in high heat
2) Add mock char siew and ham cubes, followed by mixed vegetables
3) Pour rice into the wok
4) Add mixture
5) Mix thouroughly