Nasi Kunyit with Chicken Curry

I will just post the recipe for nasi kunyit (Turmeric Rice), the chicken curry is the same I made for my Nasi Lemak. Do you notice that my rice is not glutinous rice? Yes, I use sushi rice instead, because I am having indigestion problem with glutinous rice recently. It tasted not bad at all, but the texture is a bit different. May be it is healthier?

Here is the recipe for my turmeric rice (sushi rice version).

A)
1. 2 cup (approx. 300g) sushi rice - wash and rinse
2. 100g fresh turmeric
3. 3 shallot
4. Couple while peppercorns
4. water just enough to cover the rice

B)
1. 2~3 tbsp thick coconut milk
2. 80~100 ml water
2. 1/4 tsp salt
3. 1/2 tsp white peppercorn
4. 4~5 pandan leaves - knotted


Steps :
1. Pound the fresh turmeric, shallot and white peppercorn together, squeeze the juice, repeat few time with adding some water. Discharge the pulp.
2. Soak the rice with turmeric juice, add some water just enough to cover the rice.
3. Soak the rice for 60 mins.
4. Drain the rice, wash and rinse once.
5. Add in coconut milk, salt, white peppercorn, some water, pandan knotted.
6. Steam over high heat for 20~30 minutes, stir once for evenly cooked.

Spicy Roasted Pork Fried Rice

It is very common in Malaysian Taoist worship to offer roasted pork to the God for special occasions. Whenever there is an special occasion, there is always lot of leftover roasted pork, chicken or duck for my family. I love to use the leftover pork to make some fried rice with chili padi, the spiciness of the added chili really gives the taste a "kick".

I bought some roasted pork from Lee Lee yesterday, mainly just want to make this dish that I have been craving for so much!



You don't need to put so much effort for the seasoning, the taste of the roasted pork itself is already good enough to make you drool.


Recipe for 2 servings :

1. 2 eggs mix with a spoon of fresh milk - beaten.
2. 50g purple shallot - chopped or sliced
3. 3~4 chopped chili padi (or as desired)
4. 1.5 bowl cooked rice - cooled completely or overnight rice
5. 130g roasted pork chunks
6. some green bean or long bean cubed (optional)
7. Some green onion for garnishing

Seasoning :-
1. 1~2 tsp soy sauce
2. 1tsp oyster sauce
3. A dash of white pepper powder

Steps :

1. Make scrambled egg and set aside.
2. Fragrance the shallot in a greased heated pan.
3. Add in chili and rice, soy sauce and oyster sauce. Stir to mix well.
4. Add in roasted pork chunks, long bean cubes and scrambled egg. Continue to fry for approx. 3~4 minutes. Sprinkle some water if necessary
4. Shake in a dash of white pepper powder, garnish with some green onion, dish out and serve warm.

Nasi Lemak (Rice with Coconut Milk) and Curry Chicken

OK, back to cooking posts now.

It is July 4th weekend, we have 3 days off. There is no more reason for me to be lazy and find all kind of excuses not to cook.. :-p

It is not fair to Tom too, he has been eating too much of my lazy meals recently, fried rice, noodle soup, koey teow soup, beehoon soup, mee suah soup, fried noodle, pizza...etc. I feel a bit guilty...lol

We have a small pot luck party on this weekend, they ordered curry chicken from me, I decided to cook some additional ingredients for nasi lemak (coconut rice)just for ourselves and some of my friends I recently met here - they are from Singapore and Malaysia.

Recipe for Curry Chicken

Please keep in mind that this recipe is for 5lbs of chicken, adjust the amount of the ingredients if you cook for smaller portion.
It is impossible for me to find the fresh ground spices over here in Arizona. Hence I have invented my own version of curry chicken, I don't really like the typical Chinese curry chicken that with a lot of coconut milk gravy. I like curry Kapitan but it is too dry for me, so, I mix with a pack of curry rendang paste in order to produce more gravy to mix with the rice. Here's my version of curry chicken.


1. 1.5 pack (110g) of Hup Long curry Kapitan powder (see picture at the end of the post), it is available at local oriental supermarket (Lee Lee), I normally buy it from Penang (Carrefour or Tesco).

2. 1 pack (200G) of Mak Nyonya Rendang paste (see picture at the end of the post)
I brought this from Penang too, you can substitute it with any brand that is available at your local oriental supermarket)

3. 5lbs chicken, marinade with 0.5pack(35g) of curry Kapitan powder with 1/2tsp of salt for 1 hour.

4. 500g purple shallot - ground or blended
5. 4 stalks lemon grass - crushed
6. 8~10 curry leaf
7. 1000~1200ml water
8. 3~4 tbsp thick coconut milk
9. 2~3 tsp lime juice
10. 2pcs of lime peel (about 2" size) - optional
11. Salt to taste
12. 2~3 potato, cook until soft, peel and cut to chunks.

Note :
*** If I cook 1 whole chicken - approx. 3.5lbs, I will just reduce the Kapitan curry powder to 1 pack usage, reduce the water and coconut milk, I will keep the same amount of ground shallot.***



Steps :

1. Heat the pot, add in sufficient oil.
2. Quick fry marinated chicken
- Not to well cooked. About 2 minutes for a whole drum stick, less than 1 minute for the rest of cuts. I know this step may not sound healthy, but it prevents the meat from becoming mushy. And it makes the meat coat better with the curry gravy too. Split to few fries if you want to save the oil.

3. After quick frying the chicken, discharge excessive oil. Leave about 3tbsp of oil in the pot.
4. Fragrance ground shallot for about 5 minutes (adjust the heat if necessary), add in lemon grass, curry Kapitan powder (pre-mixed with some water), rendang paste and curry leaf.
5. Stir and fragrance for another 5~8 minutes.
6. Add some water water (I added 800ml first, then followed by small portion until it reached my desired texture, if you like thicker gravy, reduce the amount of water)
7. Bring to boil, add in pre-fried chicken, pre-cooked potato chunks. Simmer about about 10~15 minutes or until the chicken is tender.
8. Add in coconut milk, lime juice, salt to taste.
9. Bring to boil again then remove from heat immediately.
10. Add in lime peel - optional (I like it this way as it brings some tangy aroma to my curry chicken, the lime peel shouldn't be cooked, or it will bring bitter flavor to your curry gravy ).
11. Skim excessive oil if necessary.



Sambal chili- I made this 1 day ahead and forgot to record the volume of my ingredients. I believe a lot of Malaysians have their own homemade recipe. I made it simple just a combination of fresh ground chili, roasted prawn paste (belacan) and key lime juice.




Sambal Ikan Bilis (Sambal Anchovies and Peanut)- only mix the sauce with anchovies and peanut when serving to avoid soggy texture.

I make this for small portion only just for ourselves and my friends from Malaysia and Singapore)

1. 100g anchovies - rinsed then dried with paper towel, bake in the oven for 25~30 minutes at 300f. Juggling the baking sheet every 10 minutes to prevent burning. I avoid to deep fry it for health reasons (try to avoid too much frying now..lol)

2. 150 peanuts - saute without oil until golden brown (again, avoid frying it)

Sauce for ikan bilis

1. 1tbsp oil
2. 100g onion slices
3. 2tbsp homemade sambal chili
4. 2 tbsp sweet chili sauce
5. 1 tsp oyster sauce
6. 70ml water
7. 1~2 tbsp tamarind juice
8. 1/2~1 tsp dark soy sauce
9. 1/2 tsp sugar
10. Some corn starch liquid for thickening
****no need to season with salt because anchovies are salty enough****



Steps:
1. Fragrance onion slices with oil.
2. Add in sambal chili, stir and switch to medium heat.
3. Add sweet chili sauce, oyster sauce and dark soy sauce.
4. Stir for few second then add in water, tamarind juice and sugar.
5. Bring to boil then thicken the sauce with corn starch liquid.
6. Remove from heat immediately.

Lastly...coconut rice, just grab all the ingredients below into a rice cooker then press start. :-)

1. 3 cup jasmine rice - washed and rinsed.
2. 2.75~3 cup water (depends on which brand of the rice you use)
3. 5~6 tbsp thick coconut milk
4. 1/4 tsp salt
5. 1 inch of fresh ginger chunk
6. 6~8 pandan leaf (screw pine leaf) - I like it more-- :-)

************************************************************************


Curry Kapitan powder - it is also available at oriental supermarket here - Lee Lee Supermarket.











Brought it back from Penang, I found it tastes better. The one sold at Lee Lee is the brand from Singapore.

Fried Rice with Chinese Leek

Slowly...everything is getting back on track. This month is going to be an extremely busy month with parties! LOL, we have at least 5 parties to go for the next 10 days. Not sure how many more will be held until the end of the month!

As such, I won't cook too many complicated meals - got to let our stomach take a break after being stuffed with a lot of goodies from Penang and get ready for the marathon party.

Here's one of my meatless but tasty meals for our 2 vegetarian day practice every month. It is not Buddhism vegetarian, so, you will still see garlic and onion in my ingredients. For those whom just want a meatless meal, this might be one of your choices.

Ingredients :

1. 3 eggs - beat with 1~2 tbsp fresh milk or water and a dash of white pepper

2. 1/2 medium sweet onion - sliced

3. 1 stalk Chinese leek - sliced (split the white and green portion)

4. 2.5~3 cups overnight cooked rice (cooled)

5. 1 tbsp oyster sauce

6. 1 tbsp soy sauce or to taste

7. some salt to taste

8. Some water

9. some green onion or cilantro, red chili for garnishing

Steps :

1. Heat up a greased frying pan, scramble fry the beaten eggs until just cooked, remove from heat and set a side.

2. Heat up the pan again with some vegetable oil, sautee the onion slices and white portion of the Chinese leeks until fragrance.

3. Add in rice, oyster sauce, soy sauce, salt and the green portion of Chinese leek.

4. Sprinkle some water and stir fry for 3~4 minutes

5. Add in scramble egg and stir fry for another 2~3 minutes.

6. Garnish with green onion and chili slices.

7. Serve warm.

Clay Pot Chicken Rice (煲仔鸡饭)

I have some chicken leftover from making sizzling noodles. It can be used for clay pot chicken rice too. The ingredients and steps of the chicken and gravy are the same. You may refer to my sizzling noodle post. I will just post the steps of cooking the rice with other ingredients here.





A) Chicken & Gravy
1) 2 pieces of chicken chunks and some gravy (please refer to sizzling chicken noodle post)

B) Rice
1. 1/2 cup of rice for a small clay pot - washed and pre-soaked in water for an hour
2. 1/2 cup of water, save some extra hot water.

C) Other ingredients
1. Few slices of Chinese sausage (腊肠)
2. 1~2 chunks salty fish
3. 1 egg
4. Some sesame oil
5. Some green onion or Chinese celery for garnishing

Steps :

1. Boil the rice and water in a clay pot, simmer with cover on for 2~3 minutes over medium low heat.
2. Add in salty fish chunks, cook for another 1 minutes.
3. Scoop in chicken and gravy, continue to cook for 2~3.
4. Add in sausage slices and egg, cook for 2 minutes.
** Be careful to adjust the heat, sprinkle some extra hot water if needed**
5. Drop some sesame oil, garnish with some green onion or celery when serve.

Salty Fish with Meat Patty Clay Pot Rice (咸鱼肉饼煲仔饭)

There are a lot of Clay pot Chicken Rice recipes out there. I will post my version some day. I came up with the Salty Fish with Meat Patty flavor first.



I had this dish in a Hong Kong style express restaurant here few weeks ago. It tasted good, but it came with just few little pieces of salty fish. Hence, I decided to make my own version with a lot of salty fish in it. LOL!!! Like many Asian people, I couldn't resist the wonderful taste of salty fish. For western people, it may smells horrible for them. Once, I had Tom to help me pan frying the salty fish on the outdoor stove, he came back and asked me a very cute question " Honey, are you sure this can be eaten??" LOL... Anyway, he is doing better now, just not too much salty fish for him.


The rice after it's been mixed with the sauce!! See the big chunk of salty fish?? Yum yum!!

This recipe is for 1 small clay pot rice.

A)Rice
1. 1/2 cup of rice - wash and soak for 1 hour before cook.

B) Meat Patty
1. 75g lean ground pork
2. 1 clove garlic - mined
3. Some garlic oil and sesame oil
4. Few dashes of ground white pepper
5. 1/4 tsp soy sauce
6. 1/4 tsp oyster sauce
6. 1/4 tsp corn starch

C) Few chunks of pan fried salty fish

D) Sauce
Mix all the ingredients D below on the stove or microwave.
1) 1/2 tsp soy sauce
2)1/4 tsp oyster sauce
3) 1/4 tsp dark soy sauce
4) 3 tsp of water
5) A pinch of sugar
6) Some garlic oil and sesame oil

F)
Some cilantro, green onion and red chili slices for garnishing.

Steps :
1. Mix ingredient B together, use a fork to form a 1/3" thick patty.
2. In a small clay pot, cook the pre-soaked rice with 1/2 cup of water, bring to boil (about 3~4 minutes), simmer with cover on at medium low heat for about 3 minutes.
3. Place the meat patty on top of the rice
4. Cover and simmer for another 4~5 minutes or until the patty is done.
**Watch the heat and water, don't let the rice burn. Get some hot water ready, and add some water if necessary**
5. When it is done, remove the clay pot from the heat. Top with the pre-fried salty fish. Garnish some cilantro, green onion and chili slices.
6. Mix with some sauce from step "D" (above) in the rice.

Glutinous Rice Dumpling (粽子 - Zong Zi)

First of all, I wish for everyone to have a great Dumpling Festival (Duan Wu Jie), see more information here.

One of my cooking assignments over the weekend was dumpling wrapping. I had never done the wrapping. I just used to be a helper to prepare the ingredients when my Mom made them. I love dumplings so much, I can have dumplings all day long to substitute my normal meals, but the glutinous rice is a bit hard for digestion, so, I limit myself to have just 3 a day! hehehe..., and there is a MUST have ingredient for my dumplings --- salty egg yolk. My Mom wanted to omit it due to health issues, but I warned her that I wouldn't eat it if there are no salty egg yolk in it. So, she would make a separate bunch for me. LOL!!



This is my first attempt for dumpling wrapping, so don't laugh at me ya...! You will notice that shape is not so perfect (triangle), pentagon shape also got, sizes are not equal...LOL!! But as long as it tastes good, who cares?? Eventually, they all will go to our stomach, right?? :-p, umm...a very good excuse!




After I confirmed some of the ingredients with my Si Fu (my Mom), I started my adventure very carefully to make them taste right - I didn't want to ruin it after so much work. I was glad I was able to keep the right taste, I already ate 4 of them just after the photos taken, Tom and Cici had 3! Yummyyyyyyy!!!!

The steps to prepare all the ingredients are written just after each line, you may have to watch the steps carefully, because some of them will be overlapping.

This is for 18~20 dumplings (small size).

A) 50 bamboo leaves.

B) Rice - 700g glutinous rice - soak for at least 3 hours and rinse. While soaking the rice, proceed the filling ingredients below:

Use the same pan until the last step.

C) Filling :

1. 7 salty egg yolks - cut into thirds.

2. 2/3 cup peanut - dried pan fry (without oil) for about 8~10 minutes over medium heat, stir to prevent burnt. Remove the skin after cooled, pound it and add 1/2 tbsp of sugar then mix well. Set aside for wrapping.

3. 6~8 garlic cloves - thinly sliced, brown it with 4 tbsp of oil, saperate the garlic slices from oil with a strainer. Keep the oil to cook the rice and ingredients below.

4. 1/2 cup dried shrimp - wash and rinse

5. 7~8 dried mushroom - soak and cut to 2~3pieces chunks.

Step - In a same pan with garlic oil greased, saute the dried shrimp and mushroom chunks - add 1 tbsp of oyster sauce, cook for 4~5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

6. 400g pork rump meat - cut to approx. 1 inch chunks, marinate with the following ingredients for at least 2 hours :
i) 3 tbsp soy sauce
ii) 1 tbsp oyster sauce
iii) 1 tsp dark soy sauce
iv) 1/2 tsp five spices powder
v) 1/2 tsp ground white pepper
vi) 1/4 tsp sugar

- With the same pan, add in 1 tbsp of garlic oil, stir in the marinated meat, cook for 4~5 minutes, remove from heat. It should yield about 3~4 tbsp gravy for rice frying.

And last, for the rice frying :

1. 2 tbsp garlic oil
2. 2 tbsp sesame oil
4. 1/3 inch ginger - minced.
5. 1/3 cup crispy onion
6. 3~4 tbsp gravy C6 as above.
7. 2 tbsp oyster sauce
8. 1/4 tsp five spices powder or as needed.
9. 1/2 tsp ground white pepper or as needed.
10. Soy sauce to taste (about 1~2 tbsp or as needed)

- add in both garlic oil and sesame oil into the heated pan, saute ginger and onion until fragrant.
- add in the pre-soaked glutinous rices, and ingredients #6~10.
- stir to mix well, cook for about 5 minutes or until the water dry out.
- taste, and remove from heat.

I'm still clumpsy to wrap the dumpling, will write about it after I practice more. The most important is to make sure the cooking water wouldn't seep into the rice.

To cook the dumpling, boil the water, add some salt in it. Line 4~5 bamboo leaves at the bottom of the pot, put in the dumplings (the water should completely cover the dumplings), place another 3~4 bamboo leaves on top of it. Return to boil, simmer over medium heat for 2.5~3 hours.

Fried Rice in Egg Wrap (蛋包火腿炒饭)

Cici named this dish for me! :-) I am trying to consume the leftover honey ham from Easter day as soon as possible. Don't want to waste it. Besides using it for breakfast omelets, tortilla wraps, etc. Here is my honey ham fried rice. I served it with egg wrap so that it will not be too boring for Tom and Cici to have just fried rice.



There is a trick to make an unbroken egg skin. Mix some corn starch with some water, beat together with the eggs. Trust me, it works.

Method to make egg skin (for 3 serving)

1. 5 eggs
2. 1/3 cups milk/water - (this will result a softer egg skin)
3. 1 tsp of corn starch - mix in # 2.
4. Some salt and white/black pepper

Steps :

1. Beat together the eggs and milk/water corn starch mixture, salt and pepper. Divide to 3 portions.
2. Slightly grease a non stick frying pan.
3. Pour the egg mixture into the pan.
4. Tilt the pan with circular motion to make an approx. 7~8" diameter egg skin.
5. Brown both sides of egg skin over medium heat.
6. Remove from heat and set aside.


Ingredients and steps for fried rice.

1. 4 bowls of cold cooked rice (better use overnight rice)
2. 140g honey ham - cubed
3. 1/2 medium sweet onion - sliced
4. 1 tsp XO Sauce
5. 2 tbsp soy suace or as desired
6. 1 tbsp oyster sauce
7. Some salt and white pepper to taste
8. Some green onion and red chili for garnishing.

Steps :

1. Grease the frying pan with some oil.
2. Fragrant the onion slices over high heat.
3. Add in XO sauce then stir in the rice.
4. Add oyster sauce, soy sauce. Stir the rice for 3 minutes.
5. Add ham cubes, stir for another 3~4 minutes
6. Sprinkle some salt (if needed) and pepper to taste. Stir in green onion and red chile before remove from heat.

To assemble :

1. Place the egg skin in a soup bowl.
2. Spoon the fried rice into the egg skin
3. Fold the skin edge to the middle. Place the serving plate on top of it.
4. Flip over the plate and bowl.
5. Cross the top of egg skin with a knife. Open it like a pocket.
6. Enjoy.

Yam Rice

There are a lot of Yam Rice fans out there in Bukit Mertajam (BM). It has been one of the popular food in BM since 1990. It was started by a family in BM, and spread over BM and the Butterworth area by their relatives. I used to dine in at the stall that is close to my parent's food stall. There are always about 6~7 helpers there to run the business, and you can tell how good their business reputation is. I watched how the lady boss cooked the yam rice whenever I was there, and picked it up from watching. Then tried to cook for my family and friends - it was always in demand. LOL!!

It is not difficult to cook it. Just get the ingredients and follow the steps, serve it warm with a bowl of Kiam Cai soup , add your favorite pork ingredients and Chinese celery in your soup. It won't disappoint you.



Yield : 6~8 people

1. 350g 1" cube yam
2. 2 cups uncooked rice - wash and rince
3. 1/2 dried shrimp - wash and rince
4. 1/2 cup crispy shallot (油葱酥)
5. 3~4 tbsp vegetable oil
6. 2 tsp dark soy sauce
7. 2 tsp oyster sauce
8. Few dashes of 5 spices powder
9. Few dashes of whit pepper powder
10. 1/2 tsp salt or to taste
11. 2.5~3 cups of water



Steps :

1. Oil the heated pan.
2. Stir in dried shrimps, cook for 1 minutes.
3. Add the yam cubes and cook for 2 minutes (adjust the heat, don't burn the dried shrimp)
4. Add crispy onion and cook for another 30 seconds.
5. Stir in the rice, immediately season it with dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, 5 spices powder, while pepper and salt. Stir until rice evenly coated.
6. Remove the rice mixture into the rice cooker.
7. Pour in water and turn on the power of rice cooker, cook as usual white rice cooking.
8. Sprinkle some crispy onion on top when serve.