Luncheon Meat, Cabbage & Dried Small Shrimps Fried Rice

My bowl of fried rice

A few weeks ago, I found this dried small shrimps 虾皮 at Seremban market, I didn't buy it until last Sun, decided to get a little to try out the taste.  MIL was worried when I said I wanna buy it, she even asked the shopper could it be edible by human :p

I sauteed the dried small shrimps with a bit of oil with medium flame, they got crispy & fragrant after the heating process with a nice golden brown color.

I simple put together luncheon meat and cabbage for the fried rice and top it with the cooked dried small shrimps, it was so fragrant & yummy!

The cooked dried small shrimps

Little girl's fried rice wrapped in rice paper

Squid, Dried Scallop & Fried Salmon Porridge

Bought 3 fresh & beautiful squids from the night market last night, as I still can't decide on how to cook the squids for dinner, I used 1 to cook this porridge for lunch.

Little girl loves seafood and porridge, that was why I cooked this.  But whenever I cook porridge, she'd demand to have dried scallop added, else she'd definitely pull a long face.

Have I ever mentioned on the tip to speed up the porridge cooking process?  Well, you just need to leave the washed and drained uncooked rice into freezer until it harden (I leave it overnight as I cook it in the morning), then cook with boiling water for 10 minutes and done.

The lazy me threw the frozen rice & dried scallops into rice cooker so that I was able to continue with other tasks (prepared bento and fried the salmon) and don't have to check upon the fire or porridge at all.  When 10 minutes b4 the rice cooker ends the cooking process, put in the cut squid to cook.  Season the porridge with salt once it is ready.

Serve the squid and dried scallop porridge with fried salmon flakes, 

top with some shredded lettuce and fried garlic oil

(Oops, I'd forgotten to add the fried salmon flakes, sorry :p)

Loh Mai Kai

Everyone in this household love to consume glutinous rice, be it rice dumpling (粽子), loh mai fan (糯米飯) or loh mai kai (糯米雞) and even tang yuan (湯圓), etc.

While we did our grocery shopping last week, I was surprised to see a pack of 1kg glutinous rice in the trolley, hubby said he felt like eating the rice.  Since he already hinted me, no matter what I gotta cook it and satisfy his desire :p

I used the recipe from The Star online - Kuali, modified the recipe slightly and made it for dinner today.

Ingredients
300g glutinous rice
2 cups water (combination of water from soaking scallops and mushrooms)
1 whole drumstick, cut into bite size
50g char siew, sliced
1 chinese sausage
12 small dried scallops, soaked
4 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked
1 eryngii mushroom, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, diced

Seasoning (A)
2 tbsp sauce mixture leftover from char kway teow
1 tbsp ginger wine
pinch of pepper
1 tsp corn flour

Seasoning (B)
1 1/2 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt (I left out this)
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp dark soy sauce
1/2 tsp Chinese five spice powder (I did't add in as I stock it)

1. Wash glutinous rice, then soak it for 2 or 3 hours.  Steam it for 30 minutes.  Half way thru the steaming process, place chinese sausage and soaked scallops on top of rice, continue steaming
2. Slice chinese sausage thinly and remove scallops from rice, set aside
3. Marinate chicken with seasoning (A) for about 1 to 2 hours
4. Heat oil in a wok and saute garlic til fragrant.  Add mushrooms and chicken, stir fry quickly then dish up
5. Mix glutinous rice with seasoning (B) and water, cook for 5 minutes (I'd forgotten the cooking part)
6. Grease 8 rice bowls.  Put in some mushrooms, chinese sausages, chicken, char siew and scallops
7. Fill up with glutinous rice til 2/3 of bowl and press down with a ladle
8. Steam for 30 minutes
9. Turn over the rice bowl onto a plate
10. Serve while warm

"Oh... It is so soft and gooey", that's the statement little girl gave me after her first bite.  Whereas hubby passed me a satisfy look, :)

Shanghai Veggie Rice

I had seen the recipe at Carol's but I didn't follow it, just playing with the ingredients I had on hand.

Ingredients
1 cup rice & pearl barley
enough water to cook rice according to the rice cooker suggestion
5 stalks pak choys, chopped
1 handful char siew, chopped
1 shallot, diced
2 cloves garlic, diced

Seasoning
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
a dash fish sauce
1 tsp sugar
50ml chicken stock

1. Put enough water into rice & pearl barley, cook in rice cooker
2. Loosen the rice when it is cooked, set aside
3. Heat pan with a bit of oil, lightly fry shallot and garlic til fragrant
4. Put in char siew, stir fry til fragrant
5. Put in chopped pak choy, stir fry til soft
6. Add in seasonings, sauteed for a minute
7. Stir in cooked rice, mix it evenly with veggie mixture, cover the lid, heat for 2 - 3 minutes.  Serve.

As I am having yoga class at 8pm tonite, it was advisable not to eat (heavily til full) 2 hours before it, thus I gotta have a heavy lunch in order to last me til 9.30pm.  The rice, egg & some chili belacan are good to last me til the class over :)

This rice is easy to cook and still tasty when eating cold, it is ideal to pack into bento as well.

Stuffed Chicken Wing Bento (113)

I baked a batch of chicken wings last nite for dinner, and I stuffed 2 wings with fried tomato & spinach rice, as little girl's bento & breadfast today.

Therefore, this morning's preparation was speedy (only about 10 minutes), just blanched some edamame & artificial crab stick, placed a piece of cheese on the wings and heat it in the toaster oven. I took a few second to imagine what does the wing resembled, 1st a moose without the antler, 2nd a horse, finally I decided on a camel, so I cut some seaweed as its eye.

Once the bento was ready...

Me: Girl, can u come over pls?

LG: Yeah, mummy?

Me: Tell me what can u see from the bento?

LG: * look & start imagining * A whale! * slap forehead *

Me: No, it don look like a whale, I give u a hint, it is a animal live in dessert

LG: A camel? No, it is a whale!

Me: No, don u see, the camel is eating grass (edamame) and there are some flowers (crab sticks) near it.

LG: No, mummy, there r no grass and flowers in the dessert...

Me: Fine, this camel lives in the zoo...

LG: No, this is the whale's head (pointing to the chicken wing), here r some seaweed (edamame) and these r the sea anemones, it is a whale!

Me: Ok, ok, what ever... * surrender *

So, what do u see in this bento, a camel? a whale? or something else?

Zosui aka Porridge

Saw this recipe at About.com-Japanese Food yesterday, since the ingredients r so simple and r mostly available in my fridge, thot of making it for lunch today.

I modified the recipe slightly to accommodate what I had on hand, I left out chicken, but put in wakame. Also, I cooked the porridge slightly longer as I prefer porridge type instead of rice soup.

Verdict: Little girl told me not to cook this porridge next time, she preferred her usual porridge. As for me, not bad, just a bit too salty.

Clam, Dried scallop and Spinach Porridge

Sorry, there is no bento today, as little girl had fever yesterday, decided not to let her goto the extra class though she is going to pre-school today.  

This is the porridge I cooked few days ago - clam, dried scallop and spinach porridge.
 

Here is a little tip if u wanna cook porridge fast, freeze the washed rice for at least 4 hours.  I usually wash & freeze it a nite a head, then cook the porridge in the morning using the rice cooker, don have to 'jaga api' :)

Little girl loves dried scallop, and green vegetables, so decided on this porridge as that was what I had in my fridge ;p

She enjoyed the porridge very much with a bit of soy sauce and pepper, me too!

Tom Yam Fried Rice

The weather has been crazy lately, with super hot & bright sun, and sudden rain once or twice, oh well, it is so hot Hot HOT!!!!!

I'd a sudden crave of tom yam this afternoon, but having tom yam soup will definitely sweat me thoroughly, therefore, I substituted with tom yam fried rice.

My simple tom yam fried rice with fish cake and lots of shredded lettuce, wait...

...how can tom yam fried rice go without these super hot bird-eye chilis, yum...  ooh...  hot!

Peach Maki & Butterfly Maki

Brought this book from Hong Kong.  It shows ways to make fancy maki in details.  It was my uncle's birthday on Labour Day - 1st May, decided to make some maki for the birthday party.

Saw this page, well, Chinese believe peach is representing long life, this should please the birthday boy, and to remind him that he is old too (my uncle is just 10 years elder than me)

Peach maki made by me with great success!

With plenty of rice remaining, I tried out this page too -  the butterfly maki

Butterfly maki, for the kids

Do u like these maki?

Oyakodon 親子丼

Didn't feel well yesterday, feeling tire n sleepy for the whole day, don know what happen to myself?

I don have the energy to cook 2 dishes & 1 soup for dinner, then remembered having a whole drumstick defrosted in fridge, decided to dig out this recipe for a quick n simple dinner.

Dinner was siap (ready) in 30 minutes, including of all washing, chopping, and cooking time!  Lucky me to have little girl's help on getting the salad done (washing the coral lettuce and cherry tomatoes), while I was doing the cooking.

Little girl's bowl of oyakodon

The bigger bowl for us

Waxed Duck, Dried Duck Gizzards and Dried Scallops Porridge

After almost a week of non-stop drastic luxurious CNY dinners, hubby and me think light meal will help our stomach reducing it's work :)

I cooked this porridge last Fri for lunch, using my year old stored waxed duck and dried duck gizzards.  Sounds dahsyat (horrible), ya?!  Actually, I stored them in the freezer, so still edible, taste the same too.  (For those who followed my blog, u may know how important a freezer is to me and u can imagine how much things I stored :p )

Ingredient:

1 cup  rice

1         waxed duck drumstick

3         dried duck gizzards

5         dried scallops (little girl loves it, put a lot here)

3         shallots, skinned

3         garlics, skinned

1. Wash duck drumstick and gizzards, then soak them in hot water for 5 minutes, drained
2. Chop duck drumstick and gizzards to bite sizes
3. Throw everything to rice cooker, select porridge function and press start
4. Done when rice cooker beep, serve hot with some fried shallots or chopped spring onions

U don have to add any seasoning, cos the waxed duck drumstick is quite salty oledi.  I downed 2 bowls of it, so yummy!

P/s    According to the person who sold me the waxed meat, he said boiling dried duck gizzard and watercress soup will help reduce body heat (下火), may need to try this remedy one fine day.

Stewed Pork Belly Rice 鹵肉飯

Due to hubby's work, we'd stayed at Taipei for 2 months while little girl was 2+.  One of the dish or rice we ate quite regularly was this stewed pork belly rice, or the well known 鹵肉飯.  I had a chinese recipe book on this dish, going to give it a try and I believed hubby would be happy to have it for dinner.

(yield 6)

Ingredients:

600g        pork belly

300g        pork skin

10             shallots

3 stalks    spring onion

20g          dried shrimps

10 cloves  garlic

Seasoning ingredients:

2 tbsp       cooking oil

360ml       soy sauce

3 tbsp       sugar

1200ml     water

1 tsp         mushroom stock seasoning (substituted with oyster sauce)

1/2 tsp     salt

2              star anise (optional)

1. Boil pork belly and skin in a pot of hot water til color change to pale white (about 3 minutes).  Spoon out the meat and skin quickly, give them a cold bath under running tap water.  Cut thinly and set a side.
2. Slice shallots thinly.  Dice spring onion.  Soak dried shrimp in water for 5 minutes, drained and cut into tiny pieces.  Wash garlic, dried, set a side.
3. Heat pan, put in vegetable oil, turn heat to low, fry shallot, spring onion and garlic individually til golden brown.  Drain oil and set a side.
4. Heat pan, put in little vegetable oil, turn heat to low, stir fry dried shrimp til fragrant, add in soy sauce and sugar.
5. Put in meat and skin, stir fry for 5 minutes, add in water, boil, add in mushroom stock seasoning, salt and star anise, cook for 1 minute.
6. Add in fried shallot, spring onion and garlic into the meat mixture, stew under low heat for 30 - 40 minutes.
7. Serve with steaming hot white rice.

You may need to cook extra rice for this dish, as it's so delicious, u will definitely eat more!  If u r on diet, sorry to say, u have to skip this dish, it contains lot of fats but it was this fat that made it so yummy!

Made this for little girl, but she happily took out the furakake when she saw the white rice, dipping on furakake instead of savoring with the pork :(

A big bowl of rice top with the stewed pork belly and sauce  *  drooling  *

Simple Hainanese Chicken Rice

Little girl loves eating chicken rice lately, as I'm a lazy person who like to cook 1 dish meal, I cooked this simple version of chicken rice for our dinner tonite.

Little girl's plate of chicken rice

The recipe is very simple, just stir-fry the wings, whole garlics, whole shallots, 1 small piece of ginger in a non stick pan for a while, put in the pre-washed rice and the correct amount of water, season the mixture and give all a boil, then move everything into the rice cooker, let it complete the rest of the cooking, done.

Kuromi and My Melody Onigiri

Decided to make some onigiri for dinner tonite since there was some left over food in the fridge.  As to please little girl to eat more, I made her 2 of her favorite cartoon characters onigiri ==> Kuromi and My Melody.  

My Melody turned out so ugly, hubby teased at the little eyes it had, I'm really not good at cutting nori.

While I was busying in the kitchen, little girl was extremely excited when she discovered what I tried to make her.  She pulled her little stool over to check out clearer and asked bunch of questions on why, how and what, I gotta begged her out of the kitchen in order to finish my work, lucky me, she was distracted by Tom & Jerry on cartoon network til dinner time.

Little girl was pleased and kept admiring her plate when I placed it in front of her.  She started off eating away those heart tomatoes and corns, stole one round onigiri from us as she don wanna destroyed hers ;p.  

Finally she gave in to savor it, she was kind enough too to give us each the ears and kept the not-so-pretty My Melody for daddy's lunch 2moro!  You know why, she was quite full after eating the round onigiri, some roast pork and down with 1/2 bowl of miso soup, but she finished the whole Kuromi onigiri!

These were the not-so-interesting round onigiri for hubby and myself.

Another happy ending dinner without any fuss occurred!  Great 1st day of 2009!

Rice Cracker 仙貝

Have any left over rice (cooked) at fridge?  Good, u r able to make this rice cracker within 30 minutes. Got recipe from "Good Idea" (生活智慧王).

The ingredients are simply some cooked rice, a splash of soya sauce and sugar.  You may need rolling pin, sling film, cute molds, grease paper and a microwavable plate.

1. Preheat rice in microwave on High for 1 minute

2. Mash rice in between 2 sling film (best usuing hand)

3. Use rolling pin to roll mashed rice to very flat and thin, about 0.1 cm (still in between the sling film)

4. Mold out small pieces of mashed rice

5. Place mashed rice on oiled grease paper (the rice is very sticky)

6. Microwave for 3 minutes on High

7. Turn rice over, microwave for another 3 minutes

8. While rice cooking in microwave, mix soya sauce and sugar until sugar dissolve

9. Brush sauce mixture over rice, microwave for 1 minute

10. Turn rice over, brush sauce, microwave for another 1 minute.  Let cool, done

Be careful over (8) and (9), u may need to stand guard in front of the microwave oven, use less time if rice cracker turning dark.

Little girl let me had a piece only, she loves it, though she said it was very hard before that.

P/s   Hm....  U need very strong teeth to chew these cracker, be careful of your teeth ya!  

Gyudon

Gyudon, or beef bowl, was 1 of hubby and my favorite dish during our stay at Japan few years ago.  We went to Yoshinoya quite offen, usually a bowl of gyudon with onsen tamago (half boiled egg), salad and miso soup for our economical dinner.

I found the recipe at this site, not difficult at all.  The taste is exactly the same as those in Yoshinoya! Not bad!

This is little girl's, I had blanched broccoli and baby corn, also a slightly overcooked half boiled egg on top of the beef bowl.

Look at the runny egg yolk, look yummy?

Hijiki and katsuobushi rice

I got this recipe from a manga (漫畫), yes, you didn't read it wrong.  I love reading manga ever since I am a teenager, and lately I like manga on cooking.  The title of this manga is "天才廚師飯藏".  It is stories of a genius chef who operates an antique store.  He introduced lots of simple and money saving recipes.

Here is the recipe of Hijiki and katsuobushi (Dried bonito shavings) rice:

1. Wash rice and put in water  (use the usual water level for cooking rice)
   
2. Put in hijiki without soaking before hand (with the ratio of 1 cup of rice : 1 tsp hijiki), as for the katsuobushi you may place as many as you like
   
3. Add shoyu and mirin (1 tbs each, ratio of 1 cup rice : 1 tbs)
4. Cook or steam rice, and done

It tasted good and here is a pic of its looks, I made a few rice balls for little girl as dinner.  I thought of leaving some extra for little girl's bento tomorrow, but we finished all!

There are a few more recipes I wanna try out, will share with you soon.