Chicken Brown Rice Porridge



Simple ways to garnish a simple bowl of porridge.

Too busy or lazy to cook lunch during the weekend but even lazier to step out of the house to buy food from the crowdy foodcourt? Do try out this simple & healthy meal. By saving time preparing this simple meal, I am able to sew a bag up in the afternoon and my kids still gets to eat though simple yet healthy homecook meal. 

This recipes is enough for 4 person.

Ingredients and method as follow:

-  3/4 cup of brown rice(can mix with some pearl/jasmine rice)
** Washed, drained and put to cook in the rice cooker on the cook porridge function (follow the manual instruction)

-  Half a piece of chicken breast. Blanch with boiling water then when the rice starts to boil, add the uncut chicken meat into the porridge & let it cook together till ready.

-  One broccoli flower, cut into smaller piece. One small carrot, cut into slices. Blanched in boiling water with added pinch of salt & some oil. Drain and set aside.

- 3 eggs, beaten, add salt & pepper for seasoning and add some corn starch (1tbsp corn flour + 2 tbsp water). Fry the egg in a flat non-stick pan or wok, into thin pieces & cut into strips.

- fried some shallot slices in oil til slightly brown and set aside.

Once the chicken porridge is ready, scoop some into a large deep bowl or deep plate. Take out the chicken breast & wash with some plain water to get rid of the sticky porridge, peel/cut the chicken meat into thin strips. Garnish with the other ready ingredient, sprinkle some diced fresh spring onion/chinese parsley. Add a dash of white pepper powder & some soy sauce and serve while hot.

*** You may add in any other ingredients you desire, such as century eggs, chicken floss, sweet corns etc. Alternatively, just the chicken porridge & fried shallots with a dash of white pepper powder & some soy sauce is already very yummy. Or just plain porridge w/o the chicken meat with the other ingredients.

I am a teowchew lady, so porridge is my favourite.  So enjoy! Cook anyhow you like it, better than eating outside food which is oily, fattening and unhealthy.

Methods To Fry Chinese Glutinous Rice Cake - Coat With Simple Egg & Flour Batter.

That's when the nian gao is lightly brown and almost ready, I will turn the flame higher & by doing so, the fried nian gao will stay crispy and nice even when cooled.

This time, I used 2 pieces of different colour sweet potatoes with a piece of nian gao in between as I have run out of yam. Alternatively, can use 1 piece of sweet potatoes and 1 piece of yam with the nian gao in the middle.

This is the original one. Just nian gao coat with the egg & flour batter.

Methods To Fry Chinese Glutinous Rice Cake - Yam/Potato Balls

Yam ball with diced nian gao filling.

That's how the inside looks like when the yam ball is cut into half.

That's some different ways of wrapping. As long as the nian gao is nicely wrapped inside, dont be too persistant about the outlook. The big one is half potatoes, half yam with diced nian gao inside. The 2 square ones are yam wrapped around a rectangle piece of nian gao. Both ways are yummy.



I am sure seeing the picture is enought to tell whether its yummy or not. (Agree?)



If u prefer the stickiness of the nian gao, then this kind of frying should be the best choice. Wrapped a thick rectangle piece with either yam/potatoes only or a mixture of both, shape it nicely and and just coat with some corn flour and fry on medium flames. The richness of the sticky nian gao is simply hmm.... yummy!

As the glutinous rice cake is very rich and sweet, the natural sweetness of the sweet potatoes and yam will blend well together & there is no need to add extra sugar. Simply just shape the thing & coat with some corn flour & pat off excess flour before u put it to fry at medium heat.

Enjoy!

Methods To Fry Chinese Glutinous Rice Cake (年糕) - Wrapped In Spring Roll Skin

My mum will make her own nian gao every CNY and its only during this time of the year my kids get to eat it as I never like those ready made ones that are sold in the supermarket. I strongly believed those contains lots and lots of other unhealthy ingredients like preservatives, colouring and so on, which I wouldn't want my kids to consume. Of course I meant those they made for prayers. Plus for the homemade nian gao by mum is only made once a year. I always patronized the stall that sells this special fried nian gao at the Jalan Pengkai stall behind the bus station at BP, my hometown.

This is the one that were sold at the stall. 

I have tried many methods to prepare this sweet dish. This is one of the no mess frying but more work mehtod. Simply prepare some mashed steam yam & sweet potatoes for the filling. Wrap around the nian gao (I cut mine into small rectangles) and then wrap again with the spring roll skin. Use some beaten egg or flour starch to seal the skin. Prepare as many as u want and fry till golden brown. Remember to fry with lower flames so that the nian gao don't melt too fast & drip out from the skin.

A special request from an old friend asking for the recipe to be translated to Chinese. Oh, well, I might just put in some time doing it now. Honestly, writing using the chinese hanyu pin yin is really a much harder & slower job for me but i will just give it a try.

材料有： 蒸熟的番薯/芋头适量 （To be continued...)

Anchovies Fried Eggs

Fresh Anchovies



Fried Egg With Fresh Anchovies




Simple & nutricious lunch for Vance

 Just sharing with everyone a simple way to prepare a nutricious and quick meal for our little ones. Bought some fresh anchovies from the market this morning and fried with some eggs.

Ingredients :

Fresh anchovies
1 stalk of fresh green spring onion (cut finely) - optional
3 eggs

Marinate :
Pinch of salt
Dash of white pepper powder
Corn starch (made by adding 2tbsp of corn flour with 2 tbsp of water)

Mixed all ingredients together. Heat up the wok. Use a soup ladle or spoon, scoop some of the egg mixtures & fry over medium flame. This is to ensure that the anchovies is cooked & the egg is just nice. If the flame is too high, the eggs tend to get burn easily when the anchovies is cooked.

Serve with porridge and lightly blanched broccoli. Quick and easy to prepare. Enjoy!

Beet Root Butter Cake Part 3 (Blowing the candles)

See the Eee Pc at the background? Thanks to the wonderful skype, hubby is away overseas but still able to celebrate his birthday with us. Just that he was unable to get a taste of the yummy cake. Vance is so happy.

Nice and yummy. Too generous with spreading the fresh cream over the top.



The picture is enough to show whether the cake is delicious or not. Success!

Okay! Mission accomplished. Tummy full already. Time to start my sewing project. Enough of baking for the time being. Got to get some sewing orders delivered.

Sharing - Part 1

Pic 1

Pic 2

Pic 3

I am wondering if anybody has ever faced the same problem before.

If you refer to Pic 1 & Pic 2, you will see clearly that the extra ingredients like potatoes, raisin or chocolate chips actually sunk to the lower parts of the sponge cakes. I have tried all kinds of methods hoping to keep them spread evenly  around the sponge cake and yet I failed again and again. Everytime the results is the same. Since it doesn't effect the taste of the sponge cake, I really don't bother about solving the problem anymore.

Few days ago, I was so excited to see the inside of the sponge (Pic 3) when I sliced it. The mashed potatoes are so nicely spread around the cake and they don't sink to the bottom like always. I had to 'rewind' back from preparing the batter to putting it to bake. Then I realised that I had actually change one very important step.

In the Purple Sweet Potatoes Sponge Cake recipe,  we have to fold in 50ml of melted butter lastly after adding in all the other ingredients but this time, I had actually added in the the purple sweet potatoes only after the melted butter.

Hope to share this with everybody.

Quick & Easy Sushi Rice.

It's another busy afternoon. Just finished decorating a cake & I think I have to prepare something really fast & easy for lunch. I had put 2cups of rice to cook in the rice cooker earlier, before I starts with decorating my cake. Hmm... Take a look at what I have in my fridge & sushi  came into my mind. It's an all time favourite in my house.  Just get ready the ingredients as shown in the next 3 pictures with the cooked hot rice(I always mix Japanese sushi rice & brown rice together.)


Seasoned Bonito Mix

 

Our favourite Pork Floss From Lim Chee Guan (Famous in Singapore for its BBQ Pork)

Powdered Sushi Mix (Vinegar Powder)

Empty a packet of the powdered sushi mix  (easily available at Cold Storage/NTUC) to the hot cooked rice. You can adjust the flavour according to your own preference. Always taste and mix well. Fold in the bonito mix and mix well. You are ready to present the sushi rice any way you like.

Today, I decided to try wrapping some pork floss (chicken floss will do too) in a rice ball for myself and Vance requested for the shaped sushi that I made for him few weeks ago. (Refer to the last picture)

I am not sure about others but I am always creating foods that as long as its tasty & healthy, its enough. Give this simple & fast to prepare meal a try.

The ready mixed rice with pork floss wrapped inside.






The mini version for Vance. (Today I added the pork floss into the rice mixture & shaped, this way, we can prevent the pork floss from dropping everywhere when the little one eats.)






This is the earlier shaped sushi that I prepared for Vance & his good friend Kendrick. Isnt it nicer? I am too hungry to deco the sushi for today. Lol...

 




Beet Root Butter Cake Part 2 (Hubby's Bday Cake 2011)

The first birthday cake I made for hubby dearest.

Today is hubby's birthday & he already told me that he wants a birthday cake from me. Though he is not in town, we will be celebrating together later tonight through skype. As the butter cake is already very rich, I decided to make the icing simple. Its not an easy job. Though the icing is not done very evenly but I think its ok, its the thoughts that counts. Haha...

I halved the beet root cake & spread just cream cheese & sprinkled a handful of blended almond (should have added macadamia nuts as its one of the ingredient in the recipe but I have only almonds at home) nuts on the lower half & topped with the other half & spread with lots of fresh whipping cream. I must say I am very nervous while doing it & its really messy. Its the 2nd time I am decorating our cake with fresh whipping cream but still I am not good at it. The last time I did was during Vince's birthday last year.

Suddenly, I have an idea. Instead of decorating with fruits, I think I will just cut out a heart shape template using my baking sheet & dazzle some red sugar sprinkles through the hole. Once done, I searched inside my fridge for more inspiration. Oh, great! I still got some heart shape dark chocolate left. I just follow my heart & decorate the cake. Lastly, sieve some chocolate powder over the cake.

I am just finding back my 'oldself', my passion for arts & creativity. It's a great feeling!

Happy Birthday To You, Honey!

Lots of loves from me.

Jesley

Beet Root Butter Cake (Part 1)

I had been wanting to make a cake from this wonderful reddish purple, nutritious vegetable until tonight, when I saw it again at Ntuc. Had intended to make something from strawberries at first but couldn't get any today. So this is really wonderful when I found these fresh looking beet roots and its only S$0.72 for the one in the picture. (That's all I need for a 9" cake.) I just thought maybe I should try to bake a beet root cake then.

Fresh Beet Root.



Its the batter ready for baking. The beautiful pink colour is simply romantic & makes me smiles found the heart. What a wonderful natural colouring from the  vegetable(beet root) itself.



Was too anxious to take the cake out. Though the timer set for 50 mins is up & the outside looks really brown (maybe due to the redness, it looks darker, but the inside was still not ready. The step of checking whether its cook by poking through the cake (I always use satay stick) cant be skipped. In the end, the cake break in the middle as shown in the pictures above. But its okay as I will turn it into some surprise tomorrow.




Made some smaller one as I am too anxious to see what's the pink batter gonna turn out. It took only about 20 mins for the smaller one to bake. Actually, in real the top part looks very pink.

Part 2 to be continued ...

Cold, cold Ice Milk Chunk. (Another beautiful & unintentional mistake - Vance)

I was searching hi and low in my fridge for the 2 carton box of milk that I remembered clearly that I bought from NTUC yesterday. Where? Oh, don't tell me I had left it on the countertop & forget to store  away in the fridge. Must have turned bad by now. No, its not at the countertop neither.

Oh, dear! Must be in the freezer!!! True enough! Its in the new side-by-side refrigerator left freezer compartment. And who is the one that put it there? VANCE!!!!!!!! I think my neighbours must be thinking what the little monster did again to drive his mum so crazy again. Till now, Vance still dont know why we have to put food at difference side of the refrigerator. The frightened little fella is just being helpful.

What now? It suddenly occured to me that I can make something out of the freezed milk. Surely I am too thrifty to throw away the frozen milk. Indeed! I am sure I don't have to say much as the pictures attached tells all.

Enjoying my glass of cold-cold icy milk cube with fresh strawberries on a hot, hot afternoon. Squeeze some strawberry & chocolate syrup & add some chopped strawberries. Nice!

Thanks, Vance! You help mummy create something different today.

Purple Japanese Sweet Potatoes Sponge Cake

Its one of the easiest & favourite cake for me. Couldn't resist doing it over and over again because the whole family loves purple Japanese sweet potatoes. There is a shortage of supplies of the purple potatoes in the market since 2 months ago. I was so thrilled to see it last Sat eventhough the price of it for 1 kg actually rises to S$10 from S$4 (which is already considered expensive already). I simply have to buy some for baking. Missed the natural beautiful green colour of the cake that happened like art when the purple colour of the sweet potatoes are mixed with the yellow egg batters. Every cakes that comes out of the oven is just like a piece of art itself and I am always thrilled to see the cake when its baked.

The ingredients are :

Sponge cake :

250g Optima powder mix
4 medium size eggs
50ml water (I used milk instead)
50ml vegetable oil (I used 50ml melted butter)
1tsp of baking powder (optional)

Preheat oven to 180C.

Beat the optima powder, eggs & 50ml water together at high speed for 10mins or till perky. Lastly, fold in the oil evenly.

Add in mash purple sweet potatoes (any amount to suit your taste), chocolate chip or raisin, cranberries, any extra ingredients you want.

Bake for 40-45mins(every oven differs) or till cook.

Easy right? Give it a try.

Green Tea Souffle Swiss Roll

Simply loves green tea with red bean paste. Found this great recipe but its really complicated. As I ever encountered over baked sponge roll that resulted in breaking while rolling up, I was careful not to over- bake but I think this time, it backfired because I didn't bake long enough. I should have waited another 5mins longer before taking the souffle sponge roll out.

I am going to make it again. The batter resulted in a more spongy & moist roll. I believe its gonna taste better chilled. Spread it with cheese cream & red bean paste. Gonna try it many times so that I can practice more on my 'rolling' skill. I am very cautious so as not to break the sponge roll while rolling it up but still not tight enough.

Dorayaki?

Ha... its a beautiful mistake. Its a cream cheese mixture that turned too watery for piping but a waste to pour away. Instead of waffles (it will stick to the waffles maker due to the sugar content), I decided to make into pancake. Don't you think these looks like Doraemon's favourite food, the Dorayaki?

Mint Chocolate Brownies.

While waiting for my soup to boil, I decided to make chocolate brownies for tea-break later. I had all the nuts prepared few days ago & kept in an air-tight container, waiting for the right time to make my first brownies.

I have some Lindt Minty Chocolates in the fridge and decided to be more adventurous and make Mint Chocolate Brownies instead. It turned out great. I feel that it would be nicer if its more moisted but its really crispy on the outside though.

Umm... yummy.

Carrot & Corn 'Samba' Chicken Soup with "Seah's Herbal Chicken Soup Spices".



Corn and carrot chicken soup with Seah herbal chicken soup spices.

Usually,  I prefer to buy 'samba' chicken whereby the meat is more lean and tender rather than the normal fleshy chicken, for making soup. Then I will ask the chicken seller to separate the chicken into portions. First, the chicken breast, deboned & cut into 2 big piece(to be used later for different dishes). The rest to cut into big even pieces and the carcass & chicken feet will be used for boiling vegetable or miso soup. And I'll keep the skin instead of requesting for it to be peeled away because samba chicken has less fat.

Today's soup is very simple and easy to prepare.

Ingredients :

- Chicken cut in big pieces (excluding the chicken breast)
- 2 corn on the cob
- 1 or 2 carrot
- 1 pkt of Seah's Herbal Chicken Soup Spices.

Method :

Bring a medium pot of water to a boil. Add in the soup spices pack, chicken pieces (lightly blanched) and all other ingredients. Bring to a boil then lower the flame and cook for 1 hr. Serves with piping hot steam brown rice.

 

Steam mixed brown rice & Japanese sushi rice. 

Whenever I boil soup, I will make steam rice on another steel tray stacked on top as my soup pot is those stackable pot whereby I can cook soup in the lower portion, make steam fish, rice or even chawanmushi on another tray. Saves a lot of times.