Mushroom Porridge & Chicken

 

Last month, we've attended a Gourmet Abu Dhabi Culinary Masterclass with Chef Daniel Patterson. The session was fun and informative about food, types of ingredients available, a bit of history about his restaurant, his home in California, and most importantly his idea of food.

What we took back with us is a porridge recipe, which is rather interesting and one which I have somewhat modified here with the available ingredients we have and simplified for convenience. I've also added some protein here - chicken -  to make it a savoury course, another modified recipe from my home cooking.

Here are a list of ingredients needed:

For the Porridge:

1. Butter
2. Chopped Garlic
3. Chopped Mushroom & Carrots
4. Rice
5. Mushroom Stock
6. Salt and Pepper
7. Chopped Onions

For the Chicken


1. Chicken Meat (with bone)
2. Shitake Mushroom
3. Potatoes
4. Garlic & Onions
5. Oil & Butter
6. Chicken Stock

Cooking Methods:

Mushroom Porridge 

1. Heat Butter in Pan - very slow fire and let it melt gradually
2. When Butter melted, pour in chopped garlic & Onions
3. Pour in mushroom and Carrots
4. Add salt to taste
5. Rest on slow heat to keep warm
6. In a mortar and pestle, crush the rice grain, but not too fine. This will help to release some of the starch and smoothen the texture of the porridge.
7. In another pot, pour in rice with water & mushroom stock - boil slow
8. Add mix of butter, garlic, onions, mushroom and carrots into the pot of water&rice  
9. Add adequate water to come up with porridge texture
10. Boil in slow heat till the desire texture is achieved, add more water when necessary.

Shitake Mushroom Chicken:

1. Boil water and soak the Shitake Mushroom for about 15 min. Removed from water, and chop them into slices.
2. Chop up potatoes in small cubes
3. Heat up pan in medium fire
4. Add butter/oil
5. Saute Onions and Garlic
6. Add chicken and saute till brown  
7. Add water + chicken stock
8. Add potatoes and chopped shitake mushroom
9. Boil in slow fire till water becomes thick and well cooked - approx 15-20 min

 

Serve both warm. Easy and enjoyable!

Spicy Lemongrass Prawns

Thai food has always been our favourite type of food and lemongrass is a core ingredient in Thai food recipe. Here is an experimental Thai inspired recipe that’s easy and quick!

 diced lemongrass

 prawns

Ingredients

1.       Prawns – shell and head removed 3 cups

2.       Cook and shredded chicken meat – ½ cup

3.       Lemongrass – diced – 1 cup

4.       Onions – diced – 5 tbsp

5.       Red Chili – diced, and also cut for garnishing – 5 tbsp

6.       Garlic –diced – 5 tbsp

7.       String beans – cut into 2-3 inches ½ cup

8.       Cooking oil – 5 tbsp

9.       Sugar and salt to taste

10.   Prawn stock – ¼ cup

Methods-

It is important to get all the above ready when the wok or frying pan is ready as this is a quick dish to prepare and best served warmed.

1.       Heat up oil on medium heat

2.       Pour in diced garlic, chili, onions and lemongrass, 1 tbsp sugar and sauté

3.       Prawn goes in and get a good coverage of the ingredients over it.

4.       Put in String beans and shredded chicken meat

5.       Add stock slowly and gradually to mix it even while stirring

6.       Add salt to taste

7.       Remove and serve immediately.

There you go, quick and easy!

Dry Curry Noodle

Craving for some of the food we used to taste back home, my wife and I decided to try to make our own Dry Curry Noodle dish. It's really a simple dish that you can do at home and can be easily improvised to suit your taste.

Ingredients:

Essentially the ingredients can be divided into 3 categories:

A. The Curry Stew

1. Shrimps
2. Instant curry chicken mix
3. Coconut Milk
4. Cockles or Clams
5. Fishcake and Fishball
6. Tau Foo - Firm type, preferably fried

B. The Garnishing 

1. Bean sprout
2. Egg plant
3. Long Beans cut into 2 inches
4. Boiled/cooked sliced chicken meat
5. Caramelized Onions

C. The Dry Noodle 

1. Yellow Noodle - Fresh
2. Oyster Sauce
3. Sweet Soya Sauce
4. Dark Soya Sauce
5. Vegetable Oil

As the ingredients are divided into 3, the right order is that A and B can be prepared together as they take time, C should be the last as this dish has to be eaten warm and fresh when put together.

Methods:

Preparing the Curry Stew
This is a simple curry stew and to save time, we would recommend using a quick mix of curry chicken mix to ease the process.
1. Remove heads from shrimps
2. Braise the heads in water to make stock
3. Heat oil in another pan and heat the instant curry mix
4. Pour in shrimp stock and coconut milk
5. Salt to taste
6. Add in clams/cockles, fish cake and fish ball and tau foo and cook in slow fire.
The stew is then ready to serve when the noodle is ready.

Preparing the Garnishing
Though I call it a garnishing, it is essentially part of the meal that completes it
1. Wash and drain bean sprout - ready to be eaten fresh
2. Egg plant to be cut into small slices, set aside on a try, sprinkled with salt and let it sit for about half and hour. You'll notice water is being drained out, after which use a kitchen tower to dab and dry it as much as possible. Saute it together with the cut up long beans until slightly browned - set aside and ready to serve. Salt to taste if you like.

Preparing The Dry Noodle
1. Prepare a pot of boiling water
2. On a mixing bowl, add vegetable oil, oyster sauce, sweet and a little dark soya sauce to stand by.
3. Blanch the fresh yellow noodles and drain them quickly when starting to soft
4. Mix the noodles into the mixing bowl.
5. Add a bit of pepper powder if you like

Putting the Dish Together 
As soon as the noodle is mixed, place them on the serving plate and have the garnishing over it. The curry stew should be served along side with it. Sambal sauce goes very well with it as well.

Enjoy!

Confinement Food, Ginger Chicken - Mom's recipe

The joyous season of this Christmas was further blessed with the coming of a new family member. My sister in law just gave birth to a healthy new baby girl that has been the centre of attention for the past couple of weeks.

With the new mommy and daddy busy getting into the rhythm of parenthood, we the family members are contributing as much as we can to help them with their daily chores. I got from my mum her recipe for confinement food to help with the dietary needs of a nursing mother. There are a lot of do's and don't s of what to eat and things to avoid but I won't elaborate much on that here.

I shall just document here a simple recipe for confinement food which I have prepared for the new mummy.

GINGER CHICKEN - One serving

Ingredients -

1. Quarter Chicken - cut into pieces
2. Muk Yee (Jelly Fungus) - cut into smaller pieces
3. Ginger - sliced into strips
4. Cooking Rice wine (no more than 15% alcohol) - 1 teaspoon
5. Cooking oil, corn preferred - (no peanut oil!)
6. Sesame oil (optional) for taste

Ginger - sliced into strips

Muk Yee (Jelly Fungus)

 Chicken 

Cooking Rice wine

Methods -

1. Heat up frying pot with medium fire with one table spoon of corn oil.
2. When hot, place in sliced ginger into the pan and stir
3. When ginger emits fragrant, put in pieces of chicken and stir until partially cooked.
4. Put in the Muk Yee and stir fry , still in medium fire.
5. To ensure that no flavour is lost, reduce to slow fire and pour in half a cup of water to complete the stew mix
6. At this point before continue boiling, pour in a teaspoon of rice wine
7. Cover the pot and leave it boil in slow fire for about 45 mins to an hour
8. Before serving add a few dash of sesame oil for flavouring (optional)

Step 1 and 2

Step no. 3

Step no. 4

Stew boiled in slow fire

Note that there are no sugar or salt in this recipe. The intention is to use the natural flavour of the ingredient as much as possible.

The prepared ginger-chicken

Broccoli Leaves serves as a good side, also with ginger and garlic

brown rice is recommended as part of the meal

The complete meal ready to be served.

Ayam Masak Merah & Nasi Tomato

One of my wife's best recipe, Nasi Tomato with Ayam Masak Merah (Tomato rice with Chicken in Red Sauce). Here I'd just like to post up some pictures on the experience we have in the kitchen preparing this fantastic dish...

!!CHECK OUT ALSO MY NEW RECIPE FOR DRY CURRY NOODLES!!
http://sidestreaker.blogspot.com/2012/02/dry-curry-noodle.html

TOMATO RICE:

Onions, garlic, ginger, cinnamon along with some spices are stirred fried with vegetable oil and butter.....

in the same time, rice is washed and mixed with enough water and a mix of tomato purée, ketchup, coconut milk, sugar and salt in the rice pot....

The fried onions and spice mix is then mixed into the rice and let to boil... add enough water...

and the rice is done!

Chicken in Red Sauce

Garlic, onion and ginger in the food processor...

... until really fine....

chicken is then cut into sizeable pieces....

marinate for a short while in chilli and turmeric powder and salt....

Deep fry the chicken until almost 80% cooked... remove oil....

... heat up the blended mix of union, garlic and ginger along with some red chilli paste and tomato, puree, sugar, salt and honey....

Chicken is then added into the sauce and let it sit on slow fire for about 15 mins....

And the whole meal just come together nicely here... :) bon appetit

Yemista - Home cooked food

Our trip to Greece last year was a fantastic experience. One of the favourite food we have tasted there is Yemista and here are some pictures of our very own attempt to try out this healthy and delicious dish.

tomatoes and bell peppers, emptied out and ready for the fillings

the spice and ingredients for the filling....

... mixed with rice....

stuffed into the peppers and tomatoes....

drenched in tomato puree and a bit of olive oil....

... into the oven...

and voila....

Hungry yet?

of course, our little reef wanted to help in the kitchen, but as it was vegetarian, she paid little interest in testing the result of the cooking....