Coq Au Vin 紅酒燴雞

This was dinner on Mother's Day, the result of spending hours in the kitchen on "my" day trying to cook a special dish for the family. I'm not complaining for having to cook on Mother's Day... but it's stressful when you still can't have dinner served by 7pm and have a child roaming in the kitchen trying to open every drawer and cabinet, pressing the buttons on the dish washer and washing machine, and give you a cheeky grin when you tell him off.

On a side note, I received a small gift from my one-year old when I picked him up from the childcare centre on Friday - a painted photo frame (painted by Bryan with the carer's help). Sweet! :D

Recipe to follow soon... time to hit the sack! Night.

Recipe - Updated

Ingredients
1.2kg whole chicken, chopped into pieces
200g button mushrooms
4 rashers middle bacon, cut into strips
1 carrot, cut lengthwise
2 stalks celery, cut lengthwise
5 shallots, peeled and left whole
5 cloves garlic, peeled and left whole
White and black pepper
1/2 cup Plan flour
1 cup red wine
1 cup chicken stock
Cooking oil

Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Cook bacon slices in a cooled pan to render some fats. Add shallots and garlic and cook for 5 minutes or until browned. Add the carrots, celery sticks and mushrooms and cook, stirring for about 8 minutes. Remove and set aside.

Pour flour on a plate, season with salt and pepper. Coat the chicken pieces thoroughly in the seasoned flour. Brown the chicken pieces on both sides in a large frying pan heated with oil. Brown the chicken in batches to prevent overcrowding the pan. Transfer the bacon and vegetables back. Stir in red wine and chicken stock. Bring to boil and lower heat to simmer for 10 minutes.

Transfer everything to an ovenproof casserole (with lid) and cook in oven, covered, for about 45 minutes to an hour. Serve with rice or potatoes if desired.

Mushrooms & Pork Ribs Claypot Rice 冬菇排骨煲仔飯

It's been 2 months since I last updated the blog, am I lazy or what? :)

I have always wanted to cook chicken claypot rice but I don't have a claypot. Last weekend I finally went ahead to get one and cooked the mushroom pork ribs claypot rice. I didn't use chicken because I wanted to clear the packets of pork ribs in the freezer.

Traditionally the marinated meat is placed on top of the near-cooked rice and the steam will cook the meat. I have decided to cook the pork ribs separately before adding to the rice, for fear that the pork ribs will not be tender enough while my rice burned at the bottom. It's alright for the rice to form a crusty layer at the base but not too charred or you will have a hard time cleaning the claypot later on.

Alright, recipe to come later on. Bed time now...

Update - Recipe

Ingredients
2 cups rice, soaked for 15 minutes (i used the rice cooker’s cup)
3 cups water - cooking rice
400g pork ribs
5 Chinese mushrooms, soaked
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Cooking oil
200ml water

Marinade
2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp Shaoxing cooking wine
1 small piece ginger, grated
1 tsp sesame oil
Dash of white pepper
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp corn flour

Method
Marinate pork ribs and mushrooms with seasoning. Set aside in a container and refrigerate for at least an hour. In a pan, heat oil and saute garlic till fragrant. Add pork ribs and brown them to seal in the juice. Stir in water and allow to simmer over a gentle low heat until ribs turn tender, about half an hour.

Put rice, a little oil and water into a clay pot, cover and bring to boil. Stir to mix every now and then so it will not stick to the bottom. Turn down the fire and cook with low heat until bubbles start to form on the surface.

Spread the pork ribs and mushrooms on top of rice, cover and cook with low heat till rice is dry. Turn off the heat and let rice sit for further 10 minutes. Garnish with spring onion. Serve hot.

Mee Siam - Singapore style

It's been a long week and I am so glad that the weekend has finally arrived. My ADSL connection has been a total let down! The crawling speed was worse than a dial-up! It appeared that there were some problems with the Dlink wireless modem, which was pronounced dead this afternoon when B tried to upgrade the software in an attempt to resolve the internet issue. T__T We bought a new router-modem today and the internet connection seemed to have improved but still not very stable.

A lot of things have happened over the week but that will be story for another time. Let's move on to more interesting stuff shall me? Food always excites me and I hope you share my sentiments.

Today I am going to share with you one of my Singapore hawker favorites - mee siam. Don't confuse this with the mee siam we have in Malaysia that is stir-fried and dried. This is the "wet" version of rice vermicelli in a sweet and sour tangy gravy with a hint of spiciness. It is a very appetizing dish, just writing this post is enough to make my salivary glands kick into overdrive.

Thanks to Prima Taste (again!), I could have this whipped up in 15 minutes time. Click here for the cooking instructions of mee siam from Prima Taste.

Besides mee siam, I have also tried Prima Taste's Hainanese Chicken Rice and Curry Chicken, both of which I highly recommend. I am going to stock up more Prima Taste "ready-to-cook sauce kits" next weekend, will probably try out their mee rebus and prawn mee. I'll be back with reviews!

Hainanese Chicken Rice 海南雞飯

This was my first attempt in cooking Hainanese chicken rice and the soft poached chicken turned out better than expected. The skin was silky and meat moist and juicy. But I need more skill and practice in carving the chicken, perhaps getting a Chinese chopper will make the job easier.

I used Prima Taste ready-to-cook sauce kit, which saved me the trouble of chopping and blending the ingredients like ginger, garlic, shallots and such. The kit even came complete with the dipping sauces - chilli, ginger and dark soy sauces.

Click here for full ingredients and cooking instruction from Prima Taste.

I did not exactly follow the cooking instruction on the packet, which suggests to cook the chicken in the stock by simmering in low heat for 30 minutes. Instead, I immersed the chicken in the boiling stock, turned off the heat and let the chicken stand in covered pot for 20 minutes. I repeat the process and bring the water back to a boil, turned off the heat and let chicken cool for another 20 minutes. (This process is done 3 times in an hour to make sure the chicken cooks inside as well as outside.) The chicken is then removed and immersed in ice water for 15 minutes to stop the cooking process. The final step involved pouring PT's sesame soy sauce oil over the chopped chicken pieces.

For chicken rice, I mixed 3 cups of rice with PT's premixed fragrant oil and chicken stock (for boiling the chicken) and cook in an electric rice cooker.

Serve the chicken with rice, soup (from the chicken stock) and the condiments. Bon Appétit!

Fried Noodles with Prawns 大蝦炒麵

Up next is stir fried noodles with prawns. This is a long overdue post as it was dinner many months back. Yeah last year, how long ago was that eh? :)

Will share the recipe soon. Good night, yawn...

* Updated - recipe *

Ingredients
1 packet yellow noodles (Hokkien Mee), 400g
6 large Banana prawns, peeled shell, retained head and deveined
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1 small quarter cabbage, julienne
1 egg, beaten (optional)

Seasoning
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
1.5 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
Dash of white pepper

Method
Heat some oil in a wok or large frying pan over a medium heat. Saute some garlic till fragrant. Add prawns and stir fry them till cooked, remove and set aside.

Heat oil in wok again and saute remaining garlic. Add cabbage and a little splash of water. Stir fry cabbage for about 
2-3 minutes until just wilted.

Meanwhile, mix oyster sauce, pepper, light and dark soy sauce in a small bowl.

Add noodles to the wok/pan and stir-fry for a minute, then pour over the sauce. Toss the noodles and mix all ingredients well. If you are cooking with egg, make a well in the centre of the wok/pan and stir in the beaten egg. Lightly scramble it.

Finally, add the prawns and stir-fry for 1-2 minutes until everything is heated through.

Dish and serve.

Stir-fried mixed vegetables with glass noodles 雜菜粉絲

I love anything with glass noodles, like the springy texture and that they readily pick up and absorb the flavours. This dish is versatile as you can choose from a wide array of vegetables like cabbage, mushrooms, snap peas, carrots, zucchini to go with the glass noodles, mix and match them to your liking.

You can have it an all vegetarian dish if you like, or add some mince or sliced pork for the meat lovers at home. Cooking is fun as you mix and match ingredients, combine seasonings to achieve a harmonious flavour and taste.

Will update the recipe soon. Good night everyone.

* Updated - recipe *

Ingredients
1 cup cabbage, coarsely shredded
1 small carrot, julienned
2 small packets glass noodles, soaked in water till soft (I prefer Thai brands than Chinese)
200g pork mince
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 dried Chinese mushrooms, soaked in water and retained liquid
Handful of black fungus, soaked in water till soft
Corn starch water (optional)

Seasonings
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil

Method
Heat oil in wok and saute garlic till fragrant. Add pork minced and stir fry till brown. Push mince aside, stir fry carrots and cabbages for 5 minutes till wilted. Add sliced mushrooms, black fungus and water used to soak the mushrooms, followed by the seasonings. Mix to combine and cook for another 3 minutes.

Add the glass noodles and toss to blend well. The water will soon dried up as the noodles absorb the flavour. If you like to have a thicker sauce, add some corn starch water.

Dish and serve.