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!

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