Chicken Rice

This is definitely a staple food for Singaporeans.

Whenever we leave Singapore for longer holidays, we will come back home and rush to get our chicken rice fix. Whenever we asked the brood what they would like for dinner, chicken rice will definitely be in the list. 

Naturally, this is one of the dishes that I have to master! Recently, I fumbled on the chicken rice blog spot on my favourite site for recipes, Rasa Malaysia and tried it out. It was the best recipe that I have tried!

(I have repeated the recipe below so that I can easily make reference to it when I need it. But please visit the site :)! )

Ingredients

For the Rice

3 cups uncooked rice

5 tbsp vegetable oil

4 cloves finely chopped garlic

4 finely chopped shallots

2 +1/2 cups + 2 tbsp chicken broth

4-6 blades of pandan leaves

1 small thumb of ginger, cleaned and bruised

1 tbsp of garlic and shallot oil

70g chicken fats

1 + 1/2 tsp salt to taste

For the Chicken

1 whole chicken

1 small thumb of cleaned ginger, cleaned and bruised

5-6 stalks of scallion, washed

10 bowls chicken stock

4 blades of pandan leaves

1 carrot, roughly chopped

2 + 1 tsp of salt

10 bowls of cold water

1 cucumber, peeled, halved and sliced diagonally

For the Sauce

2 tbsp light soy sauce

2 tbsp chicken broth

3 tsp sesame oil

3 tsp garlic and shallot oil

For Chicken Rice Chilli Sauce

90g red chillies

15 g garlic

50g ginger

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

50 ml chicken broth

60 ml lime juice, to taste

To Garnish

Few sprigs of cilantro 

Method

For the Chicken

1. Wash chicken, drain well, stuff ginger and scallion into the chicken's cavity, Using 2 tsp of salt as scrub, rub all over the chicken for smooth looking skin.

2. In a pot that fits the chicken, boil the chicken stock (enough to cover the entire chicken) together with pandan leaves, carrot and salt.

3. Submerge the whole chicken, breast side down in the boiling water for 35-45 min depending on size of chicken. Lower the heat to gentle simmer immediately.

4. When chicken is cooked, remove chicken and plunge it into cold water at once for 20 minutes. Keep the chicken broth for later use.

5. Drain the chicken, discard ginger and scallion from the cavity and set it aside the cool before chopping it neatly into desired serving size.

For the Rice

1. Heat oil in wok, fry chopped garlic and shallots till fragrant and golden in colour. Add rice and stir well. Transfer rice mixture into rice cooker.

2. Once transferred, add chicken broth, pandan leaves, ginger, garlic and shallot oil, chicken fats and salt into rice mixture. Cook according to rice cooker's manual instruction.

To Present the Chicken Rice

1. Line a serving plate with cucumber slices.

2. Arrange chicken pieces on top, pour in the prepared sauce before garnishing with cilantro

3. Serve chicken rice, side soup and chicken rice chili sauce
 

Notes:
1. I used ready-made 1L chicken broth to cook the chicken. Water is added till it covers the entire chicken.

2. For the chili, I tried using those packets of garlic chili that were always given with MxxDonxld meals. In order not to waste them, I will keep them and 're-use' them. With these packets of chili, I add rice vinegar, sesame oil, chicken broth, lime juice and some shallot oil. 

Tapioca Kueh

 COVID 21

My hubby loves this! He has been pestering me to do this for many many years! I procrastinated.... because this is something that I don't like to eat... :(

ok... finally I relented. Ta-dah !

This was the result from my mother's recipe. As usual, when you get recipes from old folks, they always go by xx bowls of water, some salt, xxx tbsps of sugar, a handful of xxx... there is no scientific measurement! 

So to make these, I had to base on my memory of how big the rice bowl she was talking about, the type of tablespoon she uses and so on... After my trial run, below is my recipe (will still be subject to slight amendments subsequently) 

Ingredients: 

1 kg of grated tapioca

750 ml of water

300g sugar

500g of grated coconut (for coating)

Method:

1) Steam the grated coconut with some salt. Set aside.

2) Mix the grated tapioca, water and sugar.

3) Pour the mixture into container for steaming purposes.

4) Steam for about 20 minutes. Set aside till cool.

5) Cut the tapioca into desired sizes and coat the pieces with the grated coconut

Notes:

1) When mixture is poured into container for steaming, do not exceed 3 cm in height 

Fried Sweet Potato Nian Gao Balls

 COVID-20

For the rest of the nian gao, I tried out this recipe and video can be found via the link.

   

hehehheh... doesn't look that nice right? But it taste just fine... crispy on the outside, soft and gooey nian gao inside. Recipe for keeps cos it's a different way of incorporating nian gao and it doesn't taste so sweet nor jelat :)

Ingredients:
350g purple sweet potato
45g sugar
2 tbsp cooking oil
90g glutinous rice flour
70g rice flour
water
Nian Gao (cut into 1/2 inch cube)

Method:
1. Steam the sweet potato till soft. (about 20 min)
2. Mash the sweet potato while hot and add sugar to mix well.
3. Add oil to the mixture and mix well
4. Add glutinous rice flour and rice flour to the mixture. 
5. Add water by the tablespoon. Add spoon by spoon till you knead to a pliable dough (about 12 tbsps of water ~ but dependent on the moisture level of the sweet potato).
6. Portion into smaller balls of dough.
7. Wrap each nian gao cube into the individual dough balls.
8. Deep fry the the nian gao balls under low-medium heat  

Fried Nian Gao

 COVID-19

Nian Gao is a must-have during Chinese New Year. However, year after year, I would be looking for recipes to "settle" my Nian Gao. This year, this is one of the two recipes that I have tried.

Ingredients:
4 tbsp plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 egg
1 tbsp oil
Pinch of salt
Cold water

Method:
1. Cut the nian gao into thin slices.
2. Add cold water to the flour and baking powder slowly to form a paste.
3. Add in the egg and mix well.
4. Add in the oil and mix well.
5. Dip the sliced nian gao into the batter and fry on medium heat till golden.

Black Pepper Shrimp & Squid

 COVID-18

The family started to grumble about the same old dishes that the helper has been putting on the dinner table. They rarely grumble.... so, I think I really need to make some different dishes to satisfy their palate.

Came across this Black Pepper Shrimp recipe on Rasa Malaysia website but I have limited shrimps in my fridge so I decided to dump my sotongs into the dish instead. It works as well! (The recipe below is a direct instructions from Rasa Malaysia - link as above. For my dish, I just added some sotong)

Ingredients:
340g prawns
1 tsp black peppercorn
2 tbsps melted butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp Chinese rice wine
1 tsp sugar
1 pinch salt
1 tbsp chopped scallion

Method:
1. Deshell prawns but keep tail on
2. Lightly pound the black peppercorns using a mortal and pestle until they are coarsely cracked. 
3. Heat up a skillet and add the melted butter on medium heat.
4. Saute garlic and black pepper until aromatic. 
5. Add prawns and stir to combine
6. Add oyster sauce, stir a few times. Add sugar and then wine. 
7. Stir fry until the prawns are cooked. Add scallion. Stir to mix well and dish out. Serve immediately.

Notes:
- I tend to add the wine at the last second before dishing out.
- For my sotong, I would cook them first before the prawns.

Three Cup Chicken

 COVID-17

I have seen this dish many many times and wondered many times in my heart whether it will be difficult to master. The name 三杯鸡 sounds so complicated. 

However, recently, managed to come across this recipe on Rasa Malaysia ...... it was so easy and flavourful!! Definitely a receipe for keeps!

I am replicating the recipe on my blog for easier reference but do check the website out! They have a lot more easy recipes for various cuisines.

Ingredients
0.4kg chicken (Drumsticks/thighs/chicken parts)
1 tbsp baking soda (to tenderize the chicken)
2 tbsp dark sesame oil
2 inch old ginger (peeled and cut into thin pieces)
6 cloves garlic (peeled)
1.5 tbsp soy sauce
1.5 tbsp dark sweet soy sauce (Kecap Manis)
1.5 tbps Shaoxing wine

1 bunch Thai Basil leaves

Method
1. Cut the chicken into pieces and rub them with the baking soda. Set aside for 10 minutes before rinsing the chicken with water. Make sure the baking soda is completely rinsed off. Pat dry the chicken pieces and set aside. 
2. Heat up a clay pot on high heat and add the sesame oil. Add the ginger and garlic and stir-fry until aromatic. Add in the chicken and do a few quick stirs.
3. Add in the soy sauce, dark sweet soy sauce, Shaoxing wine and continue to stir-fry the chicken. Cover the lid, lower the heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes.
4. Add the basil leaves and stir well with the chicken, dish out and serve immediately. 

Ham and Cheese Bun

 COVID 16 

The COVID situation has lasted longer than what most of us could have ever imagined. 

The habit of purchasing from internet is getting addictive. There are also many many platforms where you can buy all sorts of things. There was this online FB live show that I bought some baking products and learnt how to bake some bread online! To me, the sharing by the chef during the demo was informative and beneficial as some crucial knowledge for bread baking was imparted.

I managed to bake some decent breads after that... The plus point was that the chef had also demonstrated how to use that single bread dough to create into a few different types of bread.

Ingredients
1kg Bread flour
150g Fine Sugar
12g salt
10g yeast
30g milk powder
150g eggs
420ml water

150g Unsalted Butter 

 
Method 
1) Add water into mixing bowl, followed by eggs, flour and milk powder 
2) Next, add salt and sugar, followed by yeast (remember the yeast cannot come into contact with the salt or sugar as it will reduce the yeast's effectiveness)

3) Start the mixer at low speed and mix till all the flour comes into a dough. Then increase to higher speed and knead for about 3-5min or till dough in shiny (elastic dough but window pane stage is not met yet)

4) Add the butter at this moment

5) Start the kneading at low speed again. When no big piece of butter is visible, increase higher speed. Knead till the dough no longer sticks to the bottom of the mixer bowl, then the dough is done. (Apply window pane test)

6) Remove the dough from the bowl and shape the dough into a tight ball (Fold in the edges underneath, pull and shape till dough has a shiny surface). Put the dough into bowl and cover with clingwrap. Place in a warm place. Proof for about an hour / double in size.   

7) Remove the dough and degas

8) Portion out dough into 80g balls.

9) Roll and shape into small balls (seams under). Cling wrap over the balls and proof for 30 min (at this moment, dough will expand a little only. Purpose was only to relax the dough)
10) Use rolling pin and roll out the dough into a squarish shape. Put cheese slice, ham.

11) Fold the dough into about four parts. Seams side up, fold the dough to cover the seam. Pinch down the ends to seal the dough. Holding onto the sealed dough end, use a cutter and slice the dough into half without slicing through the end. Then, open up the sliced part.

12) Proof till double in size
13) Put in oven 200deg 12 min
 

Notes: 

- For half of the amount required in the recipe above, I could make about 12 hotdog buns (dough size @ 70g)

Flatten dough. Fold 1/3 of dough and fold again. Roll the ends a bit thinner with a fatter middle.