Century Egg and Chicken Porridge 皮蛋鸡丝粥

I'm not used to prepare breakfast at home. Our breakfast on weekdays are usually bread or cream cracker with oats or coffee. Breakfast during the weekend is usually fried koay kak or nasi lemak. Sounds boring? Last Sunday, I felt like want to have some simple home cooked breakfast. Hence, I cooked this century egg and chicken porridge. It's so fulfilling to have a bowl of home cooked porridge to kick start a day. I like smooth porridge, hence I get the rice blended up front. I'm glad the porridge texture turned out as per my expectation.

Century Egg and Chicken Porridge


Ingredients:
3/4 cup of rice, rinsed and slightly blended
1.2 liter water
250gm chicken ribs, skinned
salt to taste
sesame oil
dashes of white pepper powder

Garnishing
1 thumb-sized ginger, peeled and cut into thin strips
hand-pulled chicken (from the chicken ribs)
1 stalk of spring onion, chopped the green portion
1 century egg, peeled and chopped

Steps:
1. Bring water to boil in a pot or kettle.
2. Add chicken ribs to the slow cooker pot. Pour in the hot water. Cook under high for 1 and a half hour.
3. Remove chicken ribs from the chicken stock. Leave it cooled and keep it in the fridge.
4. Add rice and cook under low for 8 hours. (I cooked it over night)
5. Return the chicken ribs to the porridge to warm it up. Remove from the porridge. Off the power.
6. Add salt to the porridge.
7. Hand-pull the chicken into strips.
8. Serve the porridge with ginger strips, hand-pulled chicken, century egg, spring onion. Drizzle sesame oil on top and add few dashes of white pepper powder.

Rainbow Jelly

This rainbow jelly is suitable for any party. It's simple to make and yet appetizing. It's sweet, cool, and refreshing. I used egg shells as the jelly container, just like what I did for the dragon fruit jelly.

Rainbow Jelly

Ingredients:

10g Konnyaku jelly powder

1 liter water

200gm sugar

fruit cocktail

Steps:

1. Mix Konnyaku jelly powder with sugar.

2. Bring 1000ml of water to a boil. Gradually pour in the mixture in boiling water and stir well until mixture is dissolved .
3. Put fruit cocktail into moulds and pour the Konnyaku solution into the moulds.
4. Put moulded jelly solution in the fridge for at least one hour. Serve chilled.

Watercress Soup 西洋菜汤

Usually I boil soup with either Chinese herbs or root vegetables like carrot, potato, radish, nagaimo or lotus root. This time, I made a change to boil soup with green leafy vegetable, the watercress. My mom used to cook this soup with pork ribs, white pepper corns and red dates. So, I just follow her style and this time I cook it for my parents instead. However, you won’t taste the difference between my version and my mom’s version. This could be what I inherit from my mom. :)

The soup is refreshing, but not too cooling with added pepper corns and red dates. The watercress contributes lots of fiber. However, the vitamins may be partially loss throughout the simmering process.

Watercress Soup


Ingredients:
2.5 liter water
1 big bunch of watercress, rinsed and cut into 2.5” length
1 chicken carcass, blanched
300gm of pork ribs, blanched
12 red dates, rinsed and make a cut on each date
1tsp of white pepper corn, cracked
Salt to taste

Steps:
1.Bring water to boil in a pot.
2.Add cracked pepper corns, red dates, chicken carcass and pork ribs. Leave for simmering for 1 and a half hours.
3.Add watercress and bring to boil. Let the soup simmers for another 1 minutes.
4.Add salt to taste and serve warm.

Chicken Rice

The rice is infused with aroma of fried ginger and garlic. Also, the pandan leaves add fragrance to the rice flavor. It's best served with steamed chicken or fried chicken. Enjoy~

Chicken Rice

Serves 5

Ingredients:

2.5 cups of long grain rice

650ml of water (this amount is based on what type of rice you use, adjust accordingly)

2tbsp of cooking oil

5 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped

2 shallots, peeled and chopped

30gm of ginger, skinned and cut into thin strips

1 tsp of salt

3 pandan leaves, tie into knot

steamed chicken or fried chicken

Steps:

1. Heat oil in a wok, sauté ginger and shallots till fragrant. Add garlic. Sauté till golden yellow.

2. Add rice to stir-fry for 3 minutes. Off the fire.
3. Transfer the rice to rice cooker pot. Add salt, water and pandan leaves.
4. Cook under "white rice" program using micro-computer rice cooker.
5. When the cooking is done, leave it in "keep warm" mode for 10 minutes or more.
6. Serve hot with steamed chicken or fried chicken.

Father’s Day Special

Last year, I invited my parents to my house to celebrate Mother’s Day. This year I did the same for Father’s Day. On this special day, I prefer to spent some private time with families at home rather than joining the crowd.

Here’s what I cooked today. I got thumbs up from my parents. I’m glad they like it.

Watercress soup with red dates and pork ribs

Otak-otak aka spicy fish custard, this is my dad's favorite

Chili crab, my mom's courtesy

Fried Chicken Chop, that I experimented last week

And lastly, the rainbow jelly for dessert

Happy Father's Day!

Nagaimo Soup (Slow Cooker Recipe) 淮山、杞子、红枣汤

These days I don't have time to boil soup during weekdays. Soup boiling at home is only limited to once or twice a week over the the weekend. This Nagaimo soup was my creation last Sunday. I called up hubby to buy some Nagaimo when he was out to the wet market. I always have add on to my shopping list from my ad-hoc  inspiration. :-)

Nagaimo is good for girl's growth as it helps to generate female hormone that aids in breast and ovary forming. That's what I learned from a Traditional Chinese Medicine. If you are worried if the Nagaimo is too cooling, you can always add some white pepper corns or ginger to the dish. That is what I did for this soup. 

Nagaimo Soup

Ingredients:

180gm of nagaimo, skinned and cut into bite size

250gm of pork ribs, blanched in boiling water

8 red dates

1 tbsp of goji berries

1/2 tsp of cracked white pepper corns (optional)

2 slices of ginger

1.3ml of hot water

Seasonings:

salt to taste

Steps:

1. Pour hot water into the slow cooker pot.

2. Add all ingredients. Leave it simmers for 3 hours.

3. Add salt to taste and serve hot.

Air-Fried Chicken Chop (Air-Fryer Recipe) 炸鸡扒

Ever since I posted the Grilled Fish recipe using Air-Fryer, a couple of inquiries were brought to my attention. Many asked  on how effective the Air-Fryer is. Till now, I can't give much advice since I just use it to prepare some processed food like hash browns and fish fingers, besides the grilled fish. So far, it has not turn me down. I told my friends to stay tuned, as I will keep on experiment the air-frying using different type of fresh food.

Not long ago, my mom learned to make shallow-fried chicken chop and passed on her recipe to me. Instead of shallow-frying, I cooked the chicken chop in my air-fryer. With very minimal amount of marinades, the chicken chop turned out so flavorful.  The meat is tender and juicy, but not oily. The skin is crispy to every bite. If I have to comment, I would say the air-fried chicken chop taste as good as the oil-fried version. It is less oily, as the fat beneath the skin has been removed, there's no single drop of oil used for the frying, and the excess chicken oil was released through the cooking. Now, I can eat fried chicken without any guilt. :P

So, this is my second trial, and it turned out successful as well. I will carry on the mission to try on other fresh ingredients.

Air-Fried Chicken Chop

Ingredients:

2 chicken thighs, deboned and fat removed

Corn Flour

Marinades:

2 tbsp of light soy sauce

dashes of white pepper powder

3 shallots, peeled and chopped

Steps:

1. Clean the chicken thighs and pat dry with kitchen towel. Marinate for 2 hours.

2. Drain the excess seasonings and coat the chicken thigh with a layer of corn flour.

3. Arrange the chicken thighs on the air-fryer pot with skin facing down. Air-fry it under 200 deg C for 10 minutes. Turn the chicken thighs to the other side. Air-fry for another 10 minutes under 180 deg C.

4. Slice the chicken thighs into cutlets. Serve hot with rice or chips.

Meat Floss Noodle 肉松干面

This noodle inspired me when I watched a Taiwan cooking show that introduce meat floss in one of their series. I Immediately jotted down the cooking steps. Their version is using fresh Taiwan noodles, but it's hard to find it here, so I replaced it with dried organic noodles instead.

I'm sharing the noodle with Ruth's Presto Pasta Nights #217. The host of the week is From Kirsten's Kitchen to Yours. Stay tuned for the round up of the week.

Meat Floss Noodle 肉松干面
Serves 2

Ingredients:
2 pieces of dried ramen
meat floss
green veggies
2 eggs
salt
water

Seasonings:
light soy sauce
sesame oil
sha cha sauce (optional)

Steps:
1. Bring 1 liter water to boil in a pot. Off the flame and add 300ml of cold water. Add egg and leave for 6-8 minutes (depends on the size of egg) with lid cover.
2. In another pot of boiling water, add salt and cook the noodle .
3. In 2 serving bowls, add sesame oil, light soy sauce, sha cha sauce (optional) and pour half ladle of salty boiling water over the sauce in each bowl. Mix well.
4. Mix up the noodle with meat floss and the sauce.
5. In the boiling water that cook noodle just now, blanch some green veggies.
6. Top the noodle with green veggies and meat floss.
7. Take out the egg. Crack in a bowl and pour on top of the noodle. Serve hot.

Grilled Fish (Air-Fryer Recipe)

I would like to introduce you to my new kitchen helper - the Philips AirFryer. After considering for few hours, finally we brought back a unit of it, yesterday. So far, it's the most expensive appliance in my kitchen. Though, it is expensive, but I think it worths the price when comes to the healthy frying cooking. Now, I don't need to add oil to fry seafood, meat and snacks. We can savor more fried food that I don't used to cook at home.

I can't wait any longer to test its performance. My first attempt: Air-Fried Fish, or best described as Grilled Fish. Hubby and I are quite happy with how the fish tastes. It's crispy at the outside and juicy inside. I serve it with home made dips (bird's eye chili, tomato, shallots, calamansi juice, salt and sugar). Voilà!

Grilled Fish

Ingredients: 

Small fishes (I used kembung fish)

sea salt and turmeric powder for marinades

Steps: 

1. Cut and remove intestines from the fishes. Clean and pat dry.

2. Marinate the fish for 30 minutes.

3. Arrange fish in the airfryer basket. Air-fry at 180 degC for the first 5 minutes. Then, 200deg C for another 8 minutes.

4. Serve hot with your favorite chili sauce.

Strawberry Bread

This recipe was shared by a colleague. His wife invested a branded bread maker that is more high-tech than mine. He passed to me a hand written recipe booklet for my experiment. My first choice goes to Strawberry Bread. No specific reason, just the ingredients were easy to get. Since I just bought a non-stick chiffon cake pan, so I just use it to to mould the buns. 

The buns were soft and with mild fragrant of strawberry. You can replace strawberry flavored milk with chocolate milk in order to get chocolate buns. I'll give that a try too.

I'm submitting the strawberry buns to Aspiring Bakers #8: Bread Seduction (June 2011), hosted by Jasmine of The Sweetylicious. 

Strawberry Bread

Ingredients:

200ml fresh milk (strawberry flavored)

330gm of bread flour

1.5 tsp of yeast

25gm butter

40gm of fine sugar

1/2 tsp of salt

some beaten egg.

Steps:
1. Put all the ingredients into bread maker follow the sequence of liquid, semi liquid, and dry ingredients.
2. Select "dough" program.
3. When the dough is ready, divide it into 7 or 8 portions. Mould into balls and put on a greased pan.
4. Let the dough prove for another 40 minutes.
5. Egg-brush the top.
6. Bake at 180 deg C for 12-15 minutes