Beef with egg and rice - Japanese & Korean Inspired

This is one of the dishes I enjoy preparing for my family as it is not only easy for the cook, it also makes the family happy. A win-win situation! How ideal!

It is also a versatile dish as it works for other meats like pork and chicken.

Ingredients
- beef (I bought the shabu shabu type in the frozen section. I like it because it is sliced thinly for me already and it has a bit of fats. You can also get pork/chicken)
- Korean/ Japanese sauces for marinade
- Onions
- Eggs
- Rice
- Lettuce (saves on cooking as you can serve this raw. Woo hoo!!)

Steps
1) Marinade the beef for at least 3 hours with the Korean/ Japanese Sauce. I used this last night when I cooked this dish.. But other times, I usually use the Japanese marinades. For me, I use whatever I have in my fridge and is in need of clearance.

2) Slice up one large yellow onion. Last night, I used shallots as I didn't have yellow onions at home. So once again, its still fine. Don't beat yourself up just because you lack an ingredient. Cooking is meant to be fun and creative. If you lack something, just be flexible and think of another substitute. The shallots work beautifully too!

3) Add butter into the pan and then add your onions. Caramelise first by tossing it around. I add a splash for Jap sauce on it too. It's to quicken the process of cooking the onions and making it tastier.

4) Add the sliced beef in it. This would not take too long. You would not want to overcook the beef and dry it out. I pour all the marinades in as well so that there will be gravy for my rice.

5) Fry the egg with butter on another pan separately. Sunny-side up!

6) Finely chopped the lettuce

7) Lastly, assemble everything together

8) Add your rice, sunny side up egg, lettuce on one side with the beef on top of it to cook the lettuce a little. Then top the rice up with some Japanese seasonings which I bought and gravy from the beef.

 (By the way, I used normal rice instead. Save cost and trouble from going out to buy specially for Japanese rice. To my hubby and children, it wont make a difference. Still tasty and enjoyable!)

Enjoy!

Lo Mai Gai (Chicken Glutinous Rice)

This dish has been my son's favourite. He simply loves glutinous rice. So decided to make him this. Be warned that the ones sold in shops are really oily. So don't expect that when you make it at home. This is a healthier version since you get to choose what kind of chicken part you want and how much seasoning to add. It is basically quite a straight forward dish to prepare. Have fun!

What you need
- Chicken fillet / De-boned Chicken thigh
- small aluminium trays to put it in
- glutinous rice
- chicken stock
- dried mushrooms/ Chinese sausage (optional)

Marinade the chicken
- sesame oil
- soya sauce
- oyster sauce
- corn flour
- white pepper

Seasoning water for rice just before steaming
- sesame oil
- light soya sauce
- salt
- chicken stock
- water

Steps
1) Rinse and soak the glutinous rice for at least 2 hours
2) Slice the chicken and marinade it
3) After soaking the rice, discard the water
4) Layer the chicken (and dried mushrooms/Chinese sausage) inside the tray first as the first layer
5) For the next layer, cover the tray with rice, packing it tightly
6) Put the seasoning water in the tray till it covers the rice
7) Finally steam it

If you find the chicken dry, I suggest you either use chicken thigh (since it is more tolerant to heat) or steam the glutinous rice first before you assemble into the tray

Some recipes soak the glutinous rice overnight together with the seasoning water in it already. I haven't tried that but I can imagine the rice to be darker in colour and more tasty.


Anyway, just grasp the main idea and tweak it to whatever suits you and how much time you have!

Enjoy!

Seafood Mui Fan 海鲜烩饭 (Asian Stew with rice)

There are times I crave for this as its simple, tasty and comforting to eat. To me, this dish is like a stew which goes well with rice or noodles. I simply love stews!! Perfect for rainy weathers.

So if you are new to cooking, try cooking stews first as it is basically 'throw-everything-in' kind of dish. It is also easy to wash up too!

Anyway, here's the ingredients

- garlic
- fish cake
- pork slices/Chicken diced/fish slices (marinate with , soya sauce, salt and pepper)
 (I omitted it this time round as I cooked a pork belly dish separate)
- Squid
- prawns
- Any leafy vegetable / cabbage
- egg
- cooked rice
- Chicken stock
- white pepper
- soya sauce
- crab meat (optional)
- carrots ( I didn't add as I figured it was enough dishes)
- corn flour

By the way, I use the concentrated chicken stock as just one drop and it gives so much flavour already. Can last very long as I leave the bottle in the fridge and take it up in times like this.

Basically, work with whatever you have in your fridge and would like to add in your dish. I didn't have any cai xin at that time when I cooked this, so I used cabbage by slicing it thinly.

Steps
1) Prepare (Wash and Cut up) all your ingredients separately
2) Add oil to your wok, very high fire
3) throw in the garlic and fish cakes. Toss
4) Put in the meat at this point
5) Throw in the veggies (As you can see, you are basically throwing things in one by one starting from the one that cooks longer first or wont make a difference if 'overcook')
6) Add soya sauce and toss
7) Add water to cover the food in the wok and stock. Close up the cover
8) Throw in the fish/prawns/squid last as those cook very fast
9) Have a bowl of water and corn flour ready to throw in to thicken it slightly (your preference to how thick you want your gravy to be)
10) Always taste to see if you are satisfied with it. Balance with whatever sauce you need. It may be more taste. So you add stock or even oyster sauce if you like.
11) Finally, throw in the beaten egg and swirl it one time before switching off the fire


You pour the gravy over the rice/ noodles and sprinkle some white pepper! Enjoy!

Sushi, the easy and cheap way

Sushi has been enjoyed with my children ever since my 4 year old daughter saw her cousin eat it. Yes, kids are rather impressionable.

Anyway, sushi making is really fun to do it together as a family and it encourages creativity as well!

It is also very easy to prepare and the best thing is that the leftovers can be PERFECT for fried rice! So, very minimal wastage!

Ingredients: (Basically, it is whatever you like to add in your sushi or where ever your creativity takes you. But here's my list)

- Sausages (1 sausage per pax is more than enough)
- eggs ( 1 egg for 2 people)
- Japanese cucumber (any cucumber works as well)
- mayonnaise
- Seaweed sheets (Nori sheets)
- cooked rice (I have used normal Chinese rice for my sushi and it works fine. But if you are more particular, then go for the Japanese or Calrose rice)
- crab sticks

Many recipes state to put vinegar inside the rice. But I found that it is not necessary if you just want to keep it simple!

Preparation:
1) Cook the rice way in advance. If you are having it for lunch, cook it in the morning to allow it time to cool down. I just cooked it normally in the rice cooker as how I would cook my usual rice. Except that I would add more rice than usual as sushi making does take up more rice. So I would add about 1/2 cup to 1 cup more than usual.

2) Cook the sausage in whatever method you want. I opt for boiling in a pot of boiling water as it is 'healthier' and easier to wash after that.

3) After that, thinly cut the sausages in strips.

4) Thinly slice the cucumber as well. If you are using Japanese cucumber which I normally use, I would retain the skin. But otherwise, remove the skin.

5) Beat the eggs and fry them in a pan of hot oil. Then remove from pan and cut it thinly as well.

6) For the crabsticks, I did not cook them. I just thaw it, remove the plastic and thinly strip it as well.

Steps:
1) Lay the nori sheet on top of the bamboo roller. Then scoop rice on the seaweed by pressing it down and spreading it. Most places make sure that there is rice on every part of the seaweed. So it is really compact and compressed. However, I didn't want to fill to full..so I opted for less rice. So there are gaps in between.

2) Place whatever ingredients you want to put in your sushi. My girl likes sausage and eggs. So here's how I put it. Place them only in the front portion of your seaweed. I also spread mayonnaise on the rice first.

3) Then you start taking the bamboo roller and push in your ingredients to roll it up

4) Each roll you do, you compress it tight

5) Then finally you complete the whole roll of seaweed

6) Then remove the bamboo roller onto the cutting board

7) Next, you take a sharp knife to cut. When cutting, please take note NOT to press your knife down. You just slice gently, allowing the knife to do its work. If not, your sushi will end up in a mess.

8) Because I did not add too much rice, the ends of the sushi are a little hollow. But I kind of like that actually as it is more crispy since there's more seaweed at the ends. So it's really up to you how much rice you want to put and squeeze on top of the seaweed

You can have other ingredients like raw salmon. Here's my son's work

 

 

Enjoy and have fun! I had leftovers for my sushi. So I used them for dinner as I cooked my children's another favourite- fried rice! Here's my fried rice recipe !

 

 



Chinese Fried Rice

My helper used to cook a delicious and tasty plate of fried rice, with the 'wok hei' smell. There are a few 'secrets' to cooking the perfect fried rice and here's where I would share with all you as I learnt from my Indonesian helper.

1. Your rice needs to be cold. So you either used leftover rice in the fridge which was inside overnight or if you don't have leftover rice, you cook that very morning and put it in the fridge for dinner or put it in the freezer for lunch (for quick cooling). This is to let the rice grains firm up, making it easier to separate while cooking and not end up mushy
2. Your wok has to be very hot and smoky. So turn up the fire to maximum!
3. Don't overdo your saucy seasoning. This is to prevent your rice from becoming mushy.

Here's my simple recipe which I basically used the leftover ingredients from my sushi lunch.

Ingredients
- sausages
- crab roll
- egg
- oyster sauce
- soya sauce
- garlic (minced)
- spring onions and shallots (optional)

Steps:
1) Put your biggest wok on top of the stove using your biggest fire

2) Wait for the wok to be smoky before putting in the oil and garlic, shallots.

3) Keep stirring so that the garlic does not turn black.

4) Throw in the chopped up ingredients. Keep tossing.

5) Then put in the cold rice. Season with a little of  light soya sauce and oyster sauce.

6) Break up the rice and make sure its all separate while tossing

7) Lastly, throw in the spring onions and toss a little bit before turning off the fire. Taste it before you off the fire to see if it suits your taste. I also like adding white pepper to my fried rice for extra flavour and kick.

Enjoy!

Rice Cooker "Claypot" Chicken Rice

This is the kind of food I love- tasty, easy, one-pot meal! I opted to use my rice cooker as my claypot was too small for 3-4 people and moreover, it is definitely more healthy to use the rice cooker as the rice would get charred and stick to the claypot. So in the end, you will be eating the crispy burnt bits of rice and wasting lots of rice (though I have to admit, I love the crispy bits).

Ingredients (for 3-4)
- Dried Mushrooms (9 small ones)
- one whole chinese pork sausage finely sliced
- half chinese pork liver sausage finely sliced
- 6 chicken wings (cut to separate the wing from the drum)
- ginger (about size of 2 thumbs)
- rice

There are some who do not like to eat the pork liver sausage. My hubby and children do not like too, that's why I add only half a sausage. It really makes the rice more flavourful. So I suggest if you don't mind trying it but scared that you will not be able to take it, you can cut them really fine and small so that you can't see the sausage when it is cooked with the rice. In the end, my hubby and children just slurped up the whole thing without complaining anymore about pork liver sausage as if they didnt know it existed. Woo hoo!

Steps
1) Marinate the chicken wings with 1-2 TB of dark sauce and 1TB of oyster sauce. Bruise the ginger and try to squeeze whatever juice you can for the chicken. Then dump the rest of the ginger with the chicken.

2) Soak the dried mushrooms in a bowl of water

3) Wash your rice in the rice cooker. Use the water of the dried mushrooms to add to it after you washed your rice and when you are done soaking your dried mushrooms. So instead of the usual water for cooking your rice, I used the dried mushrooms water and if not enough, you can either top up with water or chicken stock.

4) Then place all your ingredients inside.

5) And once your rice cooker says its done, it is done!

Enjoy! Your children will definitely love this!

Spinach Pork Congee (Porridge)

This dish is perfect for those who are sick, for cold weathers or simply, just to cook a healthy meal for the family. For the record, my kids, including myself slurp this whole thing real fast as it is very sweet and tasty!

A nice, simple, economical and tasty meal for the family. How can you not try it?

Ingredients
- Spinach (chopped)
- Dried Anchovies/ Chicken bones of one chicken
- Minced pork to make pork balls/ sliced pork
- rice (I use only one cup of rice for 2 adults and 2 children)
- water
- salt and pepper to taste
- ginger (3-4 slices)
- sliced fish cake (optional)


Steps
1) Boil the dried anchovies/chicken bones in a pot of water (filled 3/4 of the pot) under medium high fire

2) Then let it cool down after about 30 mins of boiling and drain to use the stock.

3) Wash your rice and boil them in a pot with only the stock you use from Step 1. Add the ginger slices as well. If you did not boil enough stock, and you find that you need more liquid to make the rice soft, then use normal water and add it into the pot. Main thing is try to use as much of the stock as possible as that is the one that makes it sweet.

4) Boil using low fire till you are satisfied with the water to rice ratio (not too watery or not too thick) and you see if the rice is of the softness you want. (Check out the picture closely to see how the rice should be like) Keep stirring so that the bottom does not get burnt or to prevent the rice from sticking below.

5) During the last 15 mins or so, you add the chopped spinach and pork slices/pork balls.

6) Season with salt and white pepper to taste.

I added my favourite pickled cabbage for the crunch to the porridge. Another of my favourite compliment dish would be the fried dace canned food with black beans.

These are two pictures of the times I cooked this dish. One was pork balls, and the other was pork slices.

Look healthier as I was sick then

Had this bowl when I was craving for porridge. Not sick

Enjoy!

Glutinous Rice (糯米饭) -Easy Method

I have always loved and cooked dishes numerous times as long as they are easy to prepare and tasty to eat! Cooking glutinous rice is one of those dishes. It is basically like a one-pot meal where you simple throw everything in, go and do your stuff and just come back when its about time to eat!

Here's the ingredients you need:
- dried shrimps (soaked in water. Reserve the water)
- dried mushrooms (soaked in water, then sliced. Reserve the water)
- finely sliced shallots (about 3-4)
- 2 cans of braised peanuts
- glutinous rice (soaked)

Steps:
1) Pour a little oil into the hot frying pan
2) Add the shallots and stir fry till its translucent or when you can smell the fragrance
3) Add the dried shrimps. Stir fry till its fragrant
4) Add the dried sliced mushrooms
5) Pour in the glutinous rice and braised peanuts, together with the gravy from the can. Keep tossing and stirring
6) Then add a little soya sauce, dark soya sauce. No need sugar as the gravy from the peanuts is sweet already.
7) Then after frying it up, you transfer into the rice cooker. The traditional method is to steam it, but I prefer the simple method where I don't have to worry about the water drying up in my wok.
8) Cover the rice with water from the dried mushrooms and shrimps. Use the same amount of water you use to cook normal rice.

9) It should take about 30-40 mins to cook.
10) Finally you can garnish with fried shallots and spring onions.

Variation:
- you can add slice pork belly or chinese sausage in as well. Throw it after you fry your shallots.

My whole family all love this simple and tasty meal!

Enjoy!

Ayam Penyet

Ayam Penyet also known as 'smashed fried chicken' is an Indonesian dish consisting of fried chicken, rice, cucumbers, fried tofu, sambal chilli and tempeh. However, for the following recipe, I did not add tempeh as I couldnt find it down at my supermarket at the point I wanted to cook this dish. Its optional as some do not like eating tempeh, which is actually made from soybeans, through a controlled fermentation process. Anyway, cook it the same way as the fried tofu if you want to eat that!


Marinate for the chicken legs/tofu/tempeh (serves 4):
garlic
coriander seed
salt (2 tsp)
white pepper seed (1 tsp)
tumeric ginger

Look at picture for the quantity

For the above ingredients, you blend it together with a little of water. 

After blending, use half of it for marinating the chicken, some for marinating the tofu and tempeh and the rest for boiling the chicken. So please remember to set aside.

Marinate the chicken legs for as long as you can. Preferably overnight but if you don't have time, then at least 2-3 hours.

Next, put the following ingredients into a pot to simmer together with your chicken legs,

ginger

blue ginger (galangal)

kaffir lime leaves

lemon grass

the marinade paste made earlier

about 100ml of water

Put all in the pot and top it off with the chicken legs prepared earlier. Cover the pot and let it simmer, low fire till the water has almost dried up or when you feel your chicken is almost cooked.

After boiling, please keep the remaining water left from the boiling and mix it with tapioca flour to make the crispy bits on top of your chicken. Just pour with your ladle onto a frying pan like a pancake and fry it till golden brown, then mash it to create the crispy bits.

Next, is the recipe for making the chilli.

Ingredients:

Chilli- fresh chilli and chilli padi

Shallots (whole)

Garlics (whole)

tomatoes (1/2)

Belachan (2 tsp)

salt

sugar

Fry the above ingredients in oil

Fry till its fragrant before you blend everything. The quantity to how much you put is roughly in the picture. The rest is up to your preference. 

Then finally, you can deep fry your chicken, marinated tofu (tou kan) and tempeh till golden brown

To serve your chicken after frying, you will need to stretch and pull open the joints of the chicken and use the back of your chopper to beat the chicken and flatten it.

Then you add the crispy bits on top of the chicken. The rice is just normal white rice.

Enjoy!