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!