Purple Carrot Soup

I spotted the purple carrot during my grocery shopping. It was imported from Australia. Thinking of giving it a try on my home cooked dish, so I bought a packet of 2. 

This is what I cooked the purple carrot into. The purple carrot soup with lean pork slices, onion and garlic. The kids are inspired by mummy's magic purple soup.They poured the soup into white rice to make their magic purple rice. Kids, it's not magic, but it's the Iodine. 

Purple Carrot Soup (Serves 4)

Magic Cooker Recipe

Ingredients:

1 purple carrot, peeled and cut into cubes
1200ml water
100gm lean pork slices
1 onion, peeled and quartered
5 cloves of garlic
half tsp of white pepper, mashed

Seasonings:
Sea salt and light soy sauce to taste

Seasonings:
Sea salt and light soy sauce to taste

Method:
1. Bring the water to boil in the internal magic cooker pot.
2. Add all the ingredient and leave it simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Put the pot into magic cooker. Leave it for 2 hours.
4. Remove the pot from the magic cooker, and heat it up on the stove.
5. Add seasonings to taste and it's ready for serving.

Prawns and Veggie Tortilla Wrap

Tortilla wrap is my favorite bento lunch. This version of tortilla wrap takes longer time to prepare compared to the Chickenand Veggie Tortilla Wrap that I shared earlier. I get what I gave. I spend more time in the cooking and preparation, and I got the better taste tortilla wraps.

Prawns and Veggie Tortilla Wrap 
Yields for 2 to 3

Ingredients:
3 tortillas
3 eggs

1/2 tomato, sliced

1/2 Japanese cucumber, sliced

1 stalk of spring onion, chopped

1 small onion, diced thinly, soak in cold water and drained
prawns, shelled, steamed and sliced into 2
Mayonnaise

Cooking oil

Steps:
1. Crack an egg in a bowl. Add a tbsp of chopped spring onion. Beaten it with a fork.

2. Heat up a pan or wok with some cooking oil. Pan fry the egg. When it is almost cooked at the bottom side, top it with a Tortilla. Leave for a few seconds and flip to fry the other side. You’ll get the egg and tortilla stick together. Dish out.

3. Repeat step 1 and 2 to prepare the other 2 sheets of “egg-tortilla”.

4. Allocate a sheet of “egg-tortilla” on a chop board with egg facing up. Spread a layer of Mayonnaise on the egg surface. Top up all the ingredients – tomato and cucumber slices, prawns, onions at the bottom area of the tortilla sheet. Roll it up tightly and cut into two.

5. Repeat step 4 to get the rest of tortilla wraps done.

Fried Angel Hair

My daughter loves noodle. For example, she likes rice flour noodle (mee suah) and vermicelli (bee hoon). I try to discover more kids recipes to please her palate. This fried Angel Hair is whipped up for that purpose. Not only the kids need a healthy diet, the adults gain the benefits too. She likes the noodle. But she eats pretty slow since she is learning to chew her food. Her teething is still in progress. 

I just wonder if kids have problem to digest the angel hair since it is made of Durum wheat? 

By the way, this recipe is modified from the Fried Noodle with Minced Pork and Fungus. 

Fried Angel Hair with Minced Pork and Fungus 碎肉木耳炒面
Serves 4

Ingredients:
4 servings of angel hair, cooked per the instruction on the packaging (remark: salt is added to the hot boiling water)
200g minced pork 5 stalks of chives, cut into 1.5” length
a few florets of black fungus, soaked, drained and cut into strips
5 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
1 onion, peeled and chopped
3 Shiitake mushroom, soaked, drained and cut into strips
cooking oil
water (retained from the angel hair boiling process)

Seasonings (Mix-up):
1.5 tbsp of dark soy sauce
1 tbsp of oyster sauce light soy sauce to taste
dashes of white pepper powder
150ml water

Steps:
1. Heat up oil in a wok.
2. Add minced pork and leave it to fry for a while before stirring. Fry and get the minced pork separated.
3. Add onion sauté for a few minutes, stir in garlic to sauté till fragrant.
4. Add mushroom and black fungus. Stir-fry for few minutes.
5. Toss in angel hair. Add seasoning to mix well. Stir-fry for a few minutes. Add more water if needed.
6. Add chives to mix well with the noodle. Stir-fry for another 1 minute before done.

Baby Food - Apple and Carrot Porridge

My babies are fed with savory meat and veggies porridge on weekdays. My 22M girl prefers rice noodle soup than savory porridge. Cooking up a meal for 2 babies pose new challenges, as both have different preference in taste. I was thinking of something else to feed them over the weekend to simulate their taste buds. With the available ingredients, I make a twist to cook up a sweet porridge instead of savory porridge. My girl didn't seem like it, but she still finished up her portion. As for my 11M boy, I fed him the puréed version. Seems like he can accept the taste.

Baby Food - Apple and Carrot Porridge
Serving: 2

Ingredients:
half of a corn, chopped into 2 pieces
5 red dates, rinsed and pitted
2 red apples, peeled, cored and sliced into 8 pieces each
3 ½ tbsp of rice, rinsed half of a carrot, peeled and cut into bite-sized
500ml of hot water

Steps:
1. Add rice, red dates, corn and hot water into slow cooker. Cook for 1 hour.
2. Add carrot and apple. Cook until you get the desired porridge texture.
3. Discard the corn and red dates.
4. Leave the porridge cool down a bit.
5. Mash the apple and carrot and serve together with the porridge.

Capsicum, Eryngii Mushroom and Chicken Stir-Fry

This is another quick and easy one-pan-meal. It is something similar to one of the earlier dish – Capsicum, Shiitake Mushroom & Chicken Stir-fry. I found that chicken, mushroom and capsicum are a delicious combination that suits my taste buds. The quick stir-fry just required fermented bean paste, soy sauce and oyster sauce as seasonings. The dish is full of flavors and one dish is good to go with steamed rice. Never the less, it is a balanced diet too.

Capsicum, Eryngii Mushroom and Chicken Stir-Fry
Serves 4-5

Ingredients:
1 chicken breast, skinned, deboned and cut into strips
1 red capsicum, cored and cut into strips
½ carrot, skinned and cut into thin pieces
1 onion, skinned and diced
1 tbsp of chopped garlic
5 Eryngii mushroom, cut into strips
Cooking oil
4 tbsp of water

Chicken Marinades:
1 tbsp of light soy sauce
Dashes of white pepper powder

Seasonings:
1 tbsp of oyster sauce
1 tbsp of fermented bean paste (mashed)

Steps:
1.Marinate the chicken strips for 5 minutes.
2.Heat up oil in a wok. Fry the chicken trips to golden yellow. Set aside.
3.In the same wok, stir-fry the mushroom till it turn soft and moist.
4.Add a tbsp of oil. Fry the onion and garlic.
5.Stir in carrot.
6.Toss in fried chicken strips and capsicum to mix well. Add seasonings and few tbsp of water. Stir-fry for 1 minutes.
7.Dish out and serve hot with steamed rice.

Baby Food- Fish and Vegetable Porridge

I did a simple statistics on my blog posts. 

My effort on this blog reduced from 120 posts in 2010 to 78 posts in 2011. Then the post dropped tremendously from 78 posts to merely 33 posts in 2012. 

Assume my blogging effort is 100% in year 2010, I sacrificed 35% of my blogging effort on my daughter in year 2011. Again in 2012, additional 37.5% of my blogging effort is delegated to my son. So now at the beginning of 2013, my blogging momentum left only 27.5% compared to 2010. 

In return, I have less readers visiting my blog, I have very less comments in my latest posts. 

Okay, feel free to correct me if my statistic study is wrong. :P 

New year new resolutions. Ahem, my 2013 new year goal is nothing new, but to continue cooking healthy and delicious food for the family of 4. Each meal need to be as simple as possible, and as delicious as possible. Happy New Year 2013 to all my readers! 

To achieve my new resolutions, my first 2013 post is started with this Fish and Vegetable Porridge. It’s so nutritious, right?

 

Baby Food: Fish and Vegetable Porridge 
Serves 2 

Ingredients: 
fish fillet, skinned
4 tbsp of rice, rinsed
carrot, cut into thin strips
choy sum, chopped
hot boiling water

Seasonings (optional): 
half tsp of fried garlic oil

Steps:
1. Add rice and hot water to a small slow cooker. Cook it for 2 hours.
2. Add fish fillet. Once the fish is cooked, dish it out.
3. Add vegetables and cook for 15 minutes.
4. Mash the fish fillet in a bowl. Pour the porridge over the mashed fish fillet. Mix it up with fried garlic oil.
5. Leave it cool for a while and serve warm.

Fried Noodle with Minced Pork and Fungus 碎肉木耳炒面

I’ve been cooking this for a couple of times. It’s definitely a simple and delicious meal to warm up your tummy. What’s more is it can be made in less than 30 minutes. I just learned to add more healthy ingredients in our daily meal. In this case, I have black fungus added. For a healthier version, I would suggest you to substitute yellow noodle with organic wheat noodle. In this way, you won’t feel guilty of consuming yellow noodle.

Fried Noodle with Minced Pork and Fungus 碎肉木耳炒面
Serves 5

Ingredients:
600g yellow noodle, blanched in boiling water
bean sprout
200g minced pork
5 stalks of chives, cut into 1.5” length
2 florets of black fungus, soaked, drained and cut into strips
5 leaves of napa cabbage, cut into strips
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 Shiitake mushroom, soaked, drained and cut into strips
cooking oil

Seasonings (Mix-up):
2tbsp of dark soy sauce
1 tbsp of oyster sauce
2 tbsp of chili paste
4 tbsp of light soy sauce (or adjust to taste)
dashes of white pepper powder
150ml water

Steps:
1. Heat up oil in a wok.
2. Add minced pork and leave it to fry for a while before stirring. Fry and get the minced pork separated.
3. Add onion sauté for a few minutes, stir in garlic to sauté till fragrant.
4. Add mushroom, black fungus and napa cabbage. Stir-fry for few minutes.
5. Toss in yellow noodle and bean sprout. Add seasoning to mix well. Stir-fry for a few minutes.
6. Add chives to mix well with the noodle. Stir-fry for another 2 minutes before done.

Capsicum, Shiitake Mushroom & Chicken Stir-fry

Time flies. I have abandoned my blog for quite some time. I’m away for good happenings. Officially, I’m a full time working mummy for two now. What a challenging role. What’s more the two little ones are just one year apart. Life is hectic, but very fulfilling. Despite the 2 kids, my life still goes on with cooking. However, I rarely have time to dress up my home cooked dish for photography. I will blog less till the situation allows me to do so. 

This dish is a complete dish and balanced diet to serve with steamed rice. Just a quick stir-fry all the ingredients together, and our meal settle. Nonetheless, it is flavorful.

Capsicum, Shiitake Mushroom & Chicken Stir-fry

Ingredients:
half of chicken breast, cut into strips
1 onion, peeled and sliced
1 tbsp of chopped garlic
3 fresh shiitake mushroom, stalk removed and cut into strips
cooking oil
4-5 tbsp of water

Seasonings:
1tbsp of fermented soy bean, chopped
1tbsp oyster sauce

Chicken Marinades:
1tsp light soy sauce
dashes of white pepper powder

Steps: 
1. Heat up oil in a wok. Fry the marinated chicken strips till golden yellow. Set aside.
2. With the remaining oil in the wok, stir-fry the onion and garlic.
3. Add mushroom and fried chicken strips to sauté with the seasonings and a few tbsp of water.
4. Stir-in the capsicum and mix well all the ingredients.
5. Dish out and serve hot with rice.

Spinach and Meat Porridge

This is a scheduled post.
A good way to add iron to baby’s diet is by feeding her spinach. The iron content in this green leafy vegetable is the richest among the others. From the info I got from a program, a newborn baby is having iron in her body through her mother. The iron will be used up for red blood cell production by the time the baby is 6M. So, it’s necessary to add this element to baby’s diet after you start feeding baby solid food since the source of iron in infant formula is no longer able to fulfill her needs. 

Spinach and Meat Porridge 

Ingredients: 

1 tbsp of white rice, rinsed
1 tbsp of millet, rinsed
5 pieces of soft lean pork (you can substitute it with another type of red meat or white meat)
spinach, chopped
200ml hot boiling water

Steps: 

1. Put all the ingredients into a small slow cooker, except the spinach and meat.
2. Add the meat when the porridge starts boiling.
3. 15 minutes before the porridge is ready, add spinach. Stir to mix up all the ingredients. Continue the cooking.
4. Off the power and leave it cool for a while.
5. You can either remove the meat from the porridge before feeding, or retain 1 or 2 pieces of the meat and puree the porridge before feeding.

Baby Food- Organic Pumpkin Millet Porridge 金瓜小米粥

This millet porridge was introduced by Wendy. She is very creative in preparing nutritious baby food. I'm a new mum who is still in the progress of discovering food that suits my baby's taste buds. So far, I know she loves red apple, banana, and carrot. She hates potato, yes very much indeed.

My girl at 10 months plus, still not ready to consume the normal savory porridge which is not pureed. She prefers smooth puree that is not too thick. For this pumpkin millet porridge, it is pureed before feeding.

Now a days, my baby is fed on savory meat and veggies porridge on weekdays by my mum, while on weekends, I'll introduce new ingredients to her diet.

Organic Pumpkin Millet Porridge

Ingredients:
2tbsp of organic hulled millet
20gm organic pumpkin flesh
2 cups of water or more (I top up additional water when the water reduce throughout the cooking)

Steps: 
1. Bring water to boil in a saucepan.
2. Add pumpkin and millet. Bring to a boil.
3. Leave it simmers under medium flame. Top up additional water if needed.
4. The porridge will be ready after cooking for about 40 minutes.
5. Leave it cool a bit before feeding baby.

Optional:
Blend the porridge into smooth puree.

Bitter Gourd and Pork Stir-Fry 苦瓜炒猪肉

Some useful tips were picked up from a Chinese cooking show on how to reduce the bitterness of bitter gourd. First, the cord need to be removed thoroughly. Second, after cutting the bitter gourd, marinate it with a pinch of salt. Lastly, blanch it in boiling water with salt and oil added. I applied the tips while preparing this dish, and the bitter gourd tastes less bitter. 

Bitter Gourd and Pork Stir-Fry 苦瓜炒猪肉

Ingredients:
half bitter gourd, cored and cut into thin slices

1 red chili, seeded and cut into strips

1 green chili, seeded and cut into strips

200gm pork belly, cut into 0.5mm thickness

1 tbsp fermented soy bean

4 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced

1 tbsp fermented soy bean

500ml water

cooking oil
half tsp of salt

Seasonings (Mix up):

1 tbsp of oyster sauce
light soy sauce to taste

1/2 tsp of sugar

1 tbsp corn flour

100ml water

Steps:

1. Marinate the bitter gourd with a pinch of salt. 

2. Bring 500ml of water to a boil. Add 1/2 tsp of salt and a tsp of cooking oil. Blanch the bitter gourd for 2 minutes. Drain the water.

3. Fry pork belly in a non-stick pan. 

4. Add bitter gourd and stir fry for a while. Add fermented soy bean to mix well. Stir fry for 1 minute.

5. Pour in the seasonings. Leave it a while without stirring. 

6. Lastly stir-fry till the sauce is thickening. Dish out and serve hot with steamed rice.

Thai Chicken Chop (Air-Fryer Recipe) 泰式鸡扒

It’s so easy to make chicken chop at home with the good kitchen helper – the air-fryer. My current goal is to create several versions of homemade chicken chops. The idea comes from my food explorer while dining out. I used to memorize the flavors of my liking, then experiment the cooking per my own way. So far, this has become my hobby which I can fill up my family’s tummies. Does it sound good? 

Happy Father's Day to all fathers!

Thai Chicken Chop (Air-Fryer Recipe) 泰式鸡扒 
Serves 2 

Ingredients:
2 chicken thighs, deboned and fat discarded
potato flour

Marinades: 
1 tbsp of light soy sauce
dashes of white pepper powder
4 shallots, peeled and chopped

Thai Sauce (mixed up everything): 
1 and a half tbsp of Thai chili sauce
1 tbsp of sugar
5 coves of shallots, peeled and sliced
1 calamansi, juiced
6 bird's eye chilies, chopped
salt to taste

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 potato 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. Remove from the air-fryer and top with the Thai Sauce. Serve with your favorite side dishes.

Stuffed Bitter Gourd Soup 酿苦瓜汤

I’m not fancy over the bitter gourd soup boiled with pork ribs. Instead, my favorite is stuffed bitter gourd soup. I learned this from my mom. The secret behind this dish is the fermented soy bean used to marinate the grounded pork. It neutralizes the bitter taste of the bitter gourd and it brings out the flavor of the bitter gourd soup. Yummy!

Stuffed Bitter Gourd Soup

Ingredients:
half bitter gourd, core removed 300gm
grounded pork
1 tbsp goji berries, soaked in water for 5 minutes and drained
salt or light soy sauce to taste
600ml water

Pork Marinades
1 1/2 tbsp fermented soy bean, mashed
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp oyster sauce
2 cloves of garlic, minced

Steps:
1. Marinate the minced pork for 2 hours in the fridge.
2. Stuff the bitter gourd with marinated minced pork. Shape the left over minced pork into meat balls.
3. Bring water to a boil. Pour the water into the inner pot of slow cooker.
4. Add the stuffed bitter gourd and the meat balls. Boil the soup over high heat for 1 hours.
5. Turn the cooking mode to slow cook. Continue the cooking for another 2 hours.
6. Toss in goji berries. Add salt or light soy sauce to taste.
7. Serve hot with steamed rice.

Pork Belly with Chilies 辣椒炒肉

This is a quick oriental dish. The pork belly is paired with green and red chilies. It contains animal Protein from the pork and vitamins from the chilies. And not to forget about the source of antioxidants from the garlic and chilies too. Yes, provided they are not cooked under high temperature. With just little bit of light soy sauce and oyster sauce, you’ll have a tasty and flavorful pork belly dish. 

If you are facing problem on how to cut the pork into thin slices, here’s the useful tips. First, you freeze the pork for about 20 minutes. Then, you remove it from the fridge. The pork is semi-frozen, so you can easily cut it into thin slices. 

Pork Belly with Chilies 辣椒炒肉

Ingredients:

300gm pork belly, sliced into ½ cm thickness
2 red chilies, seeded and cut into strips
2 green chilies, seeded and cut into strips
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
spring onion, cut into 1.5" length
1 tbsp cooking oil

Seasoning:

1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce

Steps:

1. Heat up oil in s non-stick pan. Pan-fried pork slices at both sides. Add light soy sauce and stir to coat the pork slices. Dish out on a plate.
2. Leave about 1 tbsp of oil in the pan. Sauté garlic till fragrant. Stir in spring onion, green and red chilies.
3. Toss in pork slices. Stir-fry all the ingredients with oyster sauce.
4. Dish out and serve hot with steamed rice.

Mixed Veggies Stir-Fry 炒杂菜

Besides eating the crispy fried tau kee as a dish complement, it can be used in cooking vegetarian food. This mixed veggies stir-fry is one of a good example. It's flavorful with combinations of all ingredients. I'm learning to appreciate this type of meatless dish.

Mixed Veggies Stir-Fry 炒杂菜


Ingredients:
1/4 cabbage, cut into strips
1/4 carrot, peeled and cut into strips
3 dried shiitake mushroom, dehydrated, stalk removed and cut into strips
3 florets of black fungus, dehydrated and cut into strips
Some fried sweetened bean curd stick (tau kee)
cooking oil
some water
1 tbsp of vegetarian oyster sauce

Steps:
1. Heat up oil in a wok. Sauté mushroom till fragrant. Add carrot strips to stir-fry.
2. Stir in black fungus and cabbage. Mix well. Add vegetarian oyster sauce and some water. Leave it simmers for a while.
3. Toss in fried sweetened bean curd sticks. Stir-fry a while till the sauce reduced. Dish out.

Agar-agar With Coconut Milk

I'm making agar-agar jelly for the first time. My sister in law used to make this, so I asked her for the recipe. Basically her measurement is 8 bowls of water for a packet of 25 grams agar-agar powder. Usually she makes 4 bowls of water with half a packet of agar-agar powder into the red colored agar-agar jelly as the bottom layer. While the other half packet of agar agar powder to mix with coconut milk to make the top layer.

As for my version, I didn't use the full packet of agar-agar powder. All the ingredients was just estimation, so no recipe sharing for this post. What I'm going to share is the secret of making this traditional agar-agar jelly with full of fragrant. The first secret for the bottom layer is to boil water with lots of pandan leaves. So, the jelly is infused with natural pandan fragrant. The second secret is for the coconut milk layer. Add some salt to the mixture. A pinch of salt will bring out the coconut taste to a higher level. It's so magical. This secret works for all desserts with coconut milk.

Enjoying a cup of cold agar-agar jelly on a hot afternoon is a kind of happiness.

Air-Roast Chicken with Tomatoes (Air-Fryer Recipe)

The other day, I saw Tesco ran promotion on its own brand of dried herbs and spices. I eyed on a bottle of Thyme that just cost for RM3.99. So, I bought it and started to use it in my cooking. For a start, we had Thyme roast chicken that was prepared in air fryer rather than electric oven.

This was my first experience of using air fryer to roast chicken. To roast chicken in air fryer, I brush a layer of cooking oil onto the chicken skin. The roasting process just took around 15 minutes, compared to 45 minutes or more in an electric oven. So, it’s less time consuming. The result was impressive. The chicken skin was brown nicely, and the meat remained tender and juicy. So, here’s another success air fryer recipe. Yay!

Air-Roast Chicken with Tomatoes (Air-Fryer Recipe)
Serves 2

2 chicken thigh, deboned and excess fat removed
tomatoes
1 tbsp of cooking oil

Marinades:
1 tsp of Thymes (dried herbs)
1 tbsp of light soy sauce
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and grated

Steps:
1. Marinate chicken for 1 hour.
2. Preheat air fryer at 180 deg C for 2 minutes.
3. Brush cooking oil on the chicken skin. Roast it in air fryer at 180 deg C for 15 minutes with skin facing down.
Remark: The 2 chicken thighs that I cooked are pretty small in size. You may need longer time if you use bigger chicken thigh).
4. Remove the chicken thigh from the air fryer.
5. Drizzle the collected chicken oil over the tomato. Roast the tomato for 6 minutes under 160 deg C.

Leek and Roasted Pork Stir-Fry 蒜炒烧肉

Leek and roasted pork stir-fry is almost an instant cooking. I omitted the fried bean curd for my simple version. This is so simple and yet satisfying home cooked dish.

Leek and Roasted Pork Stir-Fry 蒜炒烧肉

Ingredients:
2 stalk of leek, rinsed and sliced diagonally
Roasted pork, cut into bite-sized
1 tbsp of chopped garlic
1 tbsp of cooking oil
50ml water

Seasonings:
1 tbsp of oyster sauce

Steps:
1. Heat up a wok. Dry-fry the roasted pork till fat released from the pork.
2. Top up 1 tbsp of oil. Saute garlic till fragrant.
3. Add leek and stir fry for few minutes. Pour in water and bring to a boil.
4. Season with oyster sauce. Mix well and stir for a while and dish out.

Baby Food - Mashed Potato with Infant Formula

My baby girl just turned 6 months. It’s time for her to discover new tastes in solid food. I let her try NESTLÉ® CERELAC® Infant Cereal Rice & Mixed Vegetables for a start. Not disappointing me, she loves it. The flavor suits her taste buds perfectly. Now, she is fed cereal rice twice a day, and infant formula in between.

After 2 days of cerelac meal, I thought of preparing her baby food with fresh ingredients. First, with the potato. All ingredients were mixed into cereal rice form. The feeding was not went on smoothly. My baby didn't seem to like it at all. She felt reluctant to swallow it. Sigh......I gave up and continued to feed her with the cereal rice. So, this is an unsuccessful baby food recipe.

Baby Food - Mashed Potato
serves 1 (for baby 6M and above)

Ingredients:
1 small-sized potato, cleaned
2 tbsp of infant formula
2 oz of warm water

Steps:
1. Steam the whole potato till soft. Leave it cool, and peel off the skin. Mash it.
2. Prepare the milk with 2 tbsp of infant formula and 2 oz of warm water.
3. Mix up everything into cereal rice form.

Tomato Rice 番茄饭

I’ve been thinking of tomato rice lately. Back in university days, my friends and I used to dine in at a stall near the hostel. A Malay uncle was selling nasi tomato (tomato rice) there. His tomato rice was served with a chicken drumstick and few slices of cucumber. It was the only tomato rice I tried.

One day, while chatting with a Malay friend on a cooking topic, I brought up a question to her on how to cook tomato rice. She taught me on the steps and ingredients, I memorized it, shopped for ingredients that evening, and cooked it on the next day. My friend’s recipe calls for evaporated milk and coconut milk, but I substituted it with creamer powder instead. The outcome? I got very fragrant and moist tomato rice to serve with air-fried chicken chop, vegetarian mutton curry and Japanese cucumber slices. It’s delicious!

Tomato Rice

Serves 4-5

Ingredients:

2 cups of rice, rinsed
2 cup of water (add a little bit more if your rice tends to absorb more water)
60g tomato puree
1 tomato, peeled and cubed
1 thumb-sized ginger, skinned and bruised
1 Cinnamon stick
1 star anise
4 pandan leaves, tied in 2 knots
Salt to taste
2 tbsp of creamer powder
Cooking oil

(A)

Blend together:

1 onion, peeled and diced
4 shallots, peeled
5 cloves of garlic, peeled

Steps:

1.Heat up oil in a wok. Add ginger, star anise, Cinnamon stick and (A) and sauté till fragrant. Add tomato puree and fresh tomato cubes. Stir-fry for a while.
2.Pour in rinsed rice. Stir to mix well.
3.Pour in water and bring to a boil.
4.Transer it to the rice cooker pot. Add salt, creamer powder and pandan leaves. Cook in rice cooker. Remark: I cook in under white rice program for 15 minute by using microcomputer rice cooker.
5.Once done, keep it warm in the rice cooker for another 10 minutes before serving.