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.

Sizzling Chicken Noodle (铁板面)

My friend in Penang complained that I should have posted more Asian recipes. Eerrr?? I think I have been posting more Asian recipes..dear :-P

Tom bought me a cast iron sizzling pan few months ago. I like to serve my food in a clay pot or a sizzling pan because they keep your food warm longer. I especially like pipping hot. :-p

I like to order sizzling noodle if I dine in at the food court inside the shopping mall. I can say it is available in every shopping mall? It is because I seldom find a good noodle stall operate in the food court. If the sizzling noodle served to me is not good, I could just simply add in soy sauce and chili to "cure" them and it won't tasted too bad since the noodle served warm with the sizzling plate.



It is not difficult to make sizzling noodles on your own, here's my recipe and direction. Hope you like it. :-)


A) Noodle for 3~4 people.
1. I use ramen noodle - cook to about 80% doneness, as it will be cooked again on the sizzling pan. You can substitute ramen with Yi Mee.
2. 3~4 eggs
3. Some green onion or cilantro for garnishing.

B) Chicken
1. 600g boneless chicken leg meat - marinate overnight with :
i) 1tbsp soy sauce
ii) 1 tbsp oyster sauce
iii) 1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
iv) 1 tsp sesame oil
v) 1/4 tsp white pepper
vi) 2 cloves garlic - crushed
vii) few ginger slices

C) Gravy
1. 2~3 cloves of garlic - minced
2. Few ginger slices
3. 1 tsp soy paste (normal or spicy)
4. 3~4 dried chili - unseeded, pre-soaked
5. 2~3 dried mushroom - pre-soaked, sliced then rub with some sugar (a trick to make the mushroom more springy)
6. 250~280ml water.
7. 1 tsp oyster sauce
8. 1/2 tsp dark soy sauce
9. A pinch of sugar or to taste
10. Salt to taste
11. 1 tbsp spoon corn starch mix with 2 tbsp water to thicken the gravy.

Steps :

1. Heat and grease a frying pan.
2. Fragrant garlic and ginger slices.
3. Add in soy paste, dried chili, mushroom slices, stir for about 20~30 seconds, watch out the heat, don't burn the ingredients.
4. Stir in marinated chicken, cook for about 4~5 minutes.
5. Slowly pour in water, bring to boil.
6. Add ingredients C7~C10, thicken the gravy with corn starch liquid.
10. Remove from heat and set aside.
11. Heat up the slightly greased sizzling pan (about 2~3 minutes).
12. Add in noodle, immediately, scoop the chicken and gravy to the sizzling plate, cook for about 1 minutes.
13. Slightly stir the noodle to coat well with the gravy.
14. Add in egg, for another 30~45 seconds or the egg reach your desired doneness.

Summer Apple Salad

Hot!Hot!Hot!!!! The heat here drives me crazy!Couldn't just pack and run away from here.. lol!! It makes me just want to eat or drink something cold. Ice water, ice coffee, smoothies...! What about some chilled apple salad?? :-)



Another summer dish, chilled and refreshing. If you worry about it being fattening, use light mayonnaise (low fat), it tastes as good as normal mayo. And if you want to make your life easier, use canned or frozen corn instead of fresh corn and shuck with knife, I almost cut myself. :-p




If dried cranberries are not available, substitute it with raisins, or any dried berries or fruits you can get.

Simple and refreshing!

1. 1 Fuji red apple - cubed and soak in salt water for at least 10 minutes, drain well.
2. 1 Green apple - cubed and soak in salt water for at least 10 minutes, drain well.
3. 2/3 cup of cooled cooked sweet corn (or canned corn).
4. 1/2 finely chopped cabbage.
5. 1.5~2 tbsp light or normal mayonnaise
6. Some dried cranberries or raisins for topping.

Steps :
1. In a large mixing bowl, mix together ingredient #1~#5.
2. Chill for at least 6 hours before serve.
3. Serve cold, top with some dried cranberries.

Mini Pizzas

It has been a while since I last made my pizza. I don't like to just eat one kind of topping. This time, I split the dough into 4 portions, so I could make 4 different toppings - pepperoni, grilled chicken with onion, mushroom pepper and cheese.


Grilled Chicken Topping

I used the same recipe as last time but halved the volume. It yield 4 pieces of 4" size pizza. If you want to make more, just double the volume.


Pepperoni Topping


Pizza crust recipe :

1. 1/2 pack (3.5g)instant yeast
2. 1.5 cups all purpose flour (normal flour)- extra for dusting
3. 1/2 tbsp of sugar
4. 1/2 tsp salt
5. 1.5 tbsp olive oil/vegetable oil
6. 1/2 cup warm (110F/43C) fresh milk
7. 2 tbsp warm (110F/43C) water

Steps :

1. Sieve all the dry ingredients except salt in a large mixing bowl. Add in the salt in flour mixture after sieved.
2. Mix the milk, water and oil together, then pour into the flour mixture, stir until all the dry ingredients mixed well.
3. Dust your hands and working surface with some flour and slightly knead the dough for 3~5 minutes or until it forms a soft ball.
4. Put the dough in a slightly greased bowl, cover and let it rest for 30 minutes.
5. Remove the rested dough and place it on the working surface and knead about 4~6 times.
7. Split the dough into 4 balls, and roll to about 4" round piece.
8. Let the dough rest 5 minutes before you top with your favorite sauce and topping.
9. Bake in an oven preheated to 425F/218C for 12~15 minutes.

Steamed Tofu (bean curd) with Ground Pork

Tofu (bean curd) is commonly used as a substitute for meat in Asian vegetarian meals, it contains large amounts of iron and protein. It is also very popular for people on diets. I am a tofu lover, I used to consume tofu (soft or hard) everyday - steamed, stir-fried, deep-fried, tofu soup, tofu dessert..., whatever dishes that made by tofu, I would surely love it, and never feel sick of it.

Tofu has very little flavor. In order to keep Tom eat healthy, most of the time, I cook tofu soup with sea weed. He always said that tofu tasted bland. To make him consume more tofu, I came up another recipe - steam tofu with some ground pork, mushroom and carrot topping. He is more happy to eat tofu now. :-)



The ingredients are adjustable to personal desire.

A)
1. 1 pc of soft tofu (approx. 1.5" thick, 2.5"W X 6"L)

B)Topping
1. 1.5 tbsp ground pork (if you want to make a meatless meal, you may substitute it with bamboo shoot or vegetarian meat)
2. 1 dried mushroom - pre-soaked - finely chopped
3. 1 clove garlic - minced.
4. Few slices of carrot

- again finely chop the ingredients # 2~5 until well combined, season with 1/2 tsp soy sauce, 1/4tsp oyster sauce, a few dashes of white pepper, a few drops of sesame oil and garlic oil.

C) Sauce
1. 1 tsp soy sauce
2. 1/2 tsp oyster sauce
3. A pinch of sugar
4. 1 tsp hot water
5. Some cilantro for garnishing (Unless you hate cilantro! -Tom)

- mix the sauce ingredients in a sauce bowl.

Cooking :
1. Boil the water.
2. Spread the topping evenly on top of the tofu.
3. Steam for 12~15 minutes.
4. Before remove from heat, add in the sauce C as needed. drop a little sesame oil and garlic oil. Garnish with cilantro
5. Serve warm

Grilled Italian Squash and Zucchini

We have had too many heavy meals recently. I have to consume more vegetables to balance my diet, because my figure (weight) is growing!! LOL...umm, it is very hard to get the balance between good food and your body figures!

I previously didn't like Italian squash or zucchini, as I was not impressed by its taste and texture after being stir fried. I was wrong, ti shouldn't been stir fried - it tastes awesome for grilling. I learned this from our friend's gathering. Jim Wilson showed me how easy for the preparation and seasoning. I will definitely make
this again and again for our meatless meal.



Recipe & Steps :


1. 2 each Italian Squash and Zucchini - cut to about 3" strips.
2. Some Sweet Onion Slices.
3. Some red or orange pepper slices - optional, I used whole sweet peppers.
4. 1 tsp of olive oil.
5. Some parsley flakes.
6. Salt and garlic to taste.
7. Some black pepper.

Steps :

1. Preheat the grill, place a sheet of perforated heavy duty aluminum foil on the grate.
2. Rub the squash, zucchini, onion and peppers with olive oil.
3. Sprinkle some parsley, salt and garlic, toss to season evenly.
4. Grill for about 4~5 minutes with cover on, turn once or twice.
5. Sprinkle some black pepper, salt and garlic again (if needed) to taste before remove from heat.

Asam (Tamarind) Fish Soup

The heat of the summer is really cruel, 45C yesterday!!!! Make me almost melt in the air. LOL!!

I was looking for something sour and spicy to open up my appetite. If I were still in Malaysia, I could simply get a bowl of Asam Laksa anywhere. Here, you've got to be hands on for everything. No choice, "tham chiak" - greedy for food - is my character, I would do everything possible I can just to stop my craving. :-p

My friend gave me 2 bags of fresh caught trout from her camping trip, and I immediately thought of making Asam Fish soup, because one of the major factors to make the sou taste good is the freshness of the fish, I couldn't get fresh "kembong" fish here, live Tilapia just cost too much!!




I can get almost every ingredient for Asam Fish here except the tamarind skin and bunga kantan (ginger flower), so, I substituted the tamarind skin with tamarind paste and omitted ginger flower, it tasted good too...yumyum!!!

Tom didn't like it the first time I made this soup for him few years ago, it was too fishy for him because he is from Ohio, middle part of the states, never had a chance to eat seafood until he was 34 years old. Now -- he loves it. Yay!!!

Here's my recipe and steps, the spiciness and sourness are adjustable according to personal desire.

1. 300g fresh trout (body about 5~6" long) - (use "kembong" fish it it is available)
2. 900~1000ml water.
3. 1 bunch (about 50g) "kesom" leaf (some people call it Vietnamese coriender or Vietnamese Cilantro) - can be easily found in Asian supermarket here.
4. 25~30 pearl onion (small onion) coarsely sliced.
5. 6~8 dried chili - unseeded.
6. 2~3 frese chili padi - smashed.
7. 1 tsp of tamarind paste - or as desired.
8. 1/2 tsp pre-fried belancan.
9. 1~2 tsp fish sauce - optional.
10. Salt to taste.

Steps :

1. Boil the water, add in ingredients #3~6.
2. Return to boil, simmer for about 30 minutes.
3. Add in tamarind paste and belacan, simmer for another 10 minutes.
4. Add in fishes, fish sauce. Return to boil and cook until the fishes are done. (Don't over cook the fishes for best texture.
5. Salt to taste.
6. Serve warm.

"Kesom" Leaf