Ingredients

100g butter plus a knob
2 shallots finely chopped
450 gms Arborio rice
750ml – 1 litre fish or light chicken stock (hot)
350 – 400 gms raw peeled prawns
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
3 tbsp mascarpone
12 scallops, orange roe and side muscles removed
1 bunch chives finely chopped
½ bunch basil chopped

Directions

Melt the butter in a large heavy-based pan and cook the shallot gently until soft but not coloured. Add the rice and stir until the grains are well coated in butter.

Add the hot stock gradually, about 200ml at a time, stirring each addition in well, until the rice is just tender, this will take about 20 minutes. How much stock you need will depend on the type of rice you use. Add the prawns when the rice is done but still al dente, then season and add the lemon zest and juice. Turn the prawns over so they cook on both sides, and when they’re done, add the mascarpone and fold it in.

Leave the risotto to sit for 5 minutes while you fry the scallops for a minute on each side in a knob of butter in a frying pan. Add these to the risotto and sprinkle with chopped chives and basil.

But when you’re thousands of miles away from home, you just have to cook it!  Not that people don’t cook these dishes at home in Malaysia, they do (well, maybe except for roti canai which is easily bought frozen) especially at the weekend.

Having lived away from home all these years, I’ve been on a mission to continually perfect my own rendition of chicken rice which had no recipe really ?. So I learned to cook it the way my mum did…And my mum’s chicken rice is  simply THE best! It is so good I can eat it on its own!” Sounds almost like the Malaysian radio commercial for Gardenia bread!

Hainanese chicken rice usually comes “steamed” or “roasted” and since I’m not at all fond of the steamed version, my recipe here is for the roasted chicken. 

INGREDIENTS

For the chicken soup
Chicken bones from 1 chicken carcass
5cm chunk of ginger
2 cloves garlic
1.5 litres water

For the chicken rice
2 cups (rice cooker cup) jasmine rice
1/4 medium-sized onion or 4 shallots
2 cloves garlic
1.5 cm chunk of ginger
1 tbsp Canola oil
5cm long cinnamon stick
1 Maggi chicken cube

For the roast chicken
1 kg whole chicken
1 tbsp ginger juice
1 tbsp dark soya sauce
2 tsp honey
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp white pepper powder
1/2 tsp 5-spice powder (optional)
Canola spray oil

For the chilli sauce
6 red chillies
3 cm chunk of ginger
2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp salt

Garnishing
A sprig of spring onions
A bunch of fresh coriander leaves
Cucumber
Lettuce

DIRECTIONS

Marinade the chicken
Remove excess skin at the neck and bottom of the chicken and cut into quarters. Wash well and drain. Prick with a fork all over, then dry with a paper towel. Place all the marinade ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Taste the marinade for salt then add the chicken quarters to the bowl and rub the marinade all over. Cover the bowl with cling film and set aside in the fridge to marinade for at least an hour.

Prepare the chicken soup
Wash the chicken bones and place in a pot with the water. Peel the ginger and garlic and smash with the sides of a large knife. Add to the pot of water and chicken bones. Bring to the boil on high heat, then let it simmer for 20 to 30 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand.

Prepare the chilli sauce
Wash the chillis, cut into 3 cm pieces and boil in 1 cup of water until chilli turns orangey. Drain and set aside. Peel the ginger and garlic and slice into small pieces. Place boiled chillis, ginger, garlic and salt into a container, add 1/2 cup of the chicken soup prepared earlier and blend using a hand blender until fine. Set aside.

Prepare the roast chicken
Preheat the oven at 180C. Spray Canola oil onto a baking dish. Remove chicken from the fridge and arrange the chicken quarters onto the dish spreading any marinade left in the bowl all over the chicken pieces. Spray the tops of the chicken with Canola oil. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, turn the chicken pieces around and roast for a further 15 – 20 minutes till brown and crispy but not burnt. Turn again and roast for a further 5 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand for 10 minutes covered in foil.

Prepare the chicken rice
While the chicken is in the oven, prepare the rice. Wash the rice under the tap to remove as much of the starch as possible. Drain and leave in colander to dry. Peel the onions or shallots, garlic and ginger. Slice the onion and garlic thinly lengthwise and julienne the ginger. Heat the oil in a non-stick pot. When hot, fry the cinnamon then add the sliced onions, garlic and ginger. Fry on medium heat till fragrant and the onions brown. Add the washed rice and fry till the rice is covered in the oil. At this point I usually just touch the edge of a knife in the Paella seasoning (basically saffron powder) then dip it in the rice to get a lovely light yellow colour. Add 3 cups (rice cooker cup) of the chicken soup prepared earlier and one Maggi chicken cube. Mix everything well and let the rice cook on medium heat. Taste for salt when most of the liquid is gone and add salt if necessary according to your taste. Turn the fire to low and insert a heat diffuser between the pot and and the gas fire to cook the rice slowly until all the liquid is dry without burning it.

TO SERVE
Cut each chicken quarter into two or three pieces and arrange on a bed of lettuce. Garnish on the side with sliced cucumbers and top with fresh coriander.

Add salt and pepper to the soup and serve with diagonal slices of spring onions.

Serve the rice, roast chicken and soup hot with chilli sauce on the side.

I finally had a chance to try and make it this week and I served it with my Nando’s Style Roast Chicken and a salad. It looks a bit different from Kim’s because I used organic mixed wild rice. It was nice and I guess I’ll be making it again!

Ingredients

1/2-1 bell pepper, any colour
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
1 stalk of celery
1 tomato
1.5 cups brown rice
3 cups chicken broth

Directions

Sauté peppers, celery, garlic and onions in a bit of oil until they’re translucent and a bit brown.

Add brown rice and stir to coat with oil. Sauté until it starts to brown a bit and smell nutty.

Add chopped tomato, and fresh black pepper

Add three cups of very hot chicken broth (you can also use veggie broth). Bring to a hard boil, cover  and turn down the heat as low as you can. Allow to cook for about 45 minutes.

If you are not yet ready to eat, turn off the burner and just leave it on the burner covered.

INGREDIENTS (For 6 persons in large – 41cm – paellera)

4 cups Egyptian calrose rice (600 gms)

1 chicken about 1 kg, cut into pieces
200gms large squids, sliced to 1cm thickness
600 gms clams
600 gms tiger prawns (about 30 prawns)
1 medium sole (optional)

8 roasted pimientos (preserved pimientos del piquillo) or 2 large roasted pimientos
1 large onion
8 cloves garlic
2 tomatoes
200 gms French beans
200 gms baby peas

2 tbsp tomato puree
1 sachet Paella seasoning
1 cup oil
3 tsp salt
1.3 litres water

DIRECTIONS

As per my paella recipe here.

When I started cooking it myself, I used to add sliced string beans and I would garnish it with sliced telur dadar (like a crepe made of eggs).

The last time I was in Malaysia, my son asked me to cook it so he could learn. He said that when he tried his hand at making his own fried rice, it was “horrible and tasteless”! LOL

We discussed the various ways people make Nasi Goreng Kampung (“Kampung” means “village”) and he told me that in the “warungs” (I would define them as coffee shops that sold specifically Malay food) and “Mamak stalls” (kiosks that open till late night selling hot and cold beverages and cook-on-the-spot local favourites), they put chicken and kangkung (water spinach or convolvulus)! I said that that sounded a bit ridiculous as I had never ever had Nasi Goreng Kampung with kangkong in it! Chicken, maybe, but kangkung??

We wondered if this originated when the “chef” misheard “kampung” for “kangkong”! 

Anyway, we concluded that Nasi Goreng Kampung must be like the Italian pizza, where every household had their own way of cooking a spicy rice dish with leftover rice and whatever was in the fridge.

Here is how I make it.

INGREDIENTS
Serves 2 – 3

2 cups Jasmine (Thai) rice (I use the measuring cup that comes with most rice cookers. If you don’t have one, use any standard measuring cup.)
5 cups water

*Note: Basically I always use the same measuring cup for the rice and the water. And the formula is 1 cup rice: 1.5 cups water.

10 gms dried chillies
30 gms onions
2 cloves garlic
8 gms belacan (shrimp paste) granules
30 gms string beans
30 gms ikan bilis (dried anchovies)
2 – 3 tbsp Canola oil
2 eggs for making the garnish, telur radar or egg crepe (optional)
Salt to taste

The best nasi goreng is prepared with rice cooked the night before and refrigerated! Wash the rice to remove the starch, add the water and cook in a rice cooker. Once cooked, remove from rice cooker and let it cool completely, then refrigerate overnight. Before making the fried rice, wet your hand with water and “play” with the rice until it is not lumpy. Don’t try making fried rice with freshly cooked rice because it will just be a lumpy mess!

Cut the dried chillies using a pair of scissors, rinse and soak for 5 minutes in hot water. Peel the onions and cut into cubes. Peel the garlic. Place soaked chillies, onions, garlic and the belacan granules with some water in a blender and liquidise.

Wash the string beans and cut in 1/2 cm lengths.

Wash the ikan bilis. Heat the oil in a wok and when hot, fry the ikan bilis, stirring constantly on medium heat. When they are golden brown and crispy, remove and drain on a paper towel .

Add more oil if necessary and fry the blended ingredients on medium heat. Stir well until fragrant and the oil separates. Add the cut string beans and stir fry until they are cooked. Add salt to taste, then add the rice. Stir well (use two spoons) until all the rice is evenly covered in the chilli. Taste for salt then add the fried ikan bilis. Mix well and remove from heat.

Make the telur dadar, if desired. Beat the eggs in a bowl. Heat a small frying and grease it with some oil on a paper towel. Pour 2 tbsp of the beaten egg then swirl the pan to cover the base with the egg. Pour any egg left back into the bowl. Let the egg crepe cook (the edges should start to curl up – don’t let it turn brown) then remove and repeat with the balance of the eggs.

Roll each crepe, then slice thinly.

To serve the rice, separate the sliced egg crepe and sprinkle them on top.

We all love Paella – which everybody says is the national dish of Spain! Well, its one of the national dishes in my household! It was one of the first dishes hubby taught me to make when we first got married. I soon recipised it and I think hubby has never cooked a paella in the house ever since! LOL

Its a lot of work and sometimes I break the task into 2 – preparations on the day before and cooking on the next day.

INGREDIENTS

300 gms (2 “rice cooker” cups) calrose rice, washed and drained
1/2 cup olive oil for frying
500 gms chicken pieces (600 gm chicken skin removed and cleaned)
150 gms squid, sliced 1cm thick
300 gms clams
300 gms tiger prawns (10 – 15 prawns)
100 gms french beans, cut into 3cm lengths
100 gms baby peas
1 large red / bell pepper (pimiento), roasted or 1 small can roasted pimientos
1 fresh tomato, diced
1/2 large onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp tomato puree
650 ml hot water
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 sachet paella seasoning, if available or a pinch of saffron

DIRECTIONS

Heat 1/2 of the olive oil in a paellera or heavy based frying pan and begin by frying the chicken pieces. When brown, drain and remove them into a dish.

Microwave the squid for 1 minute on high to remove the liquid if desired, then fry them in the olive oil until they brown slightly. Drain and remove. Next fry the prawns until they are pink and similarly, drain and remove. Lastly fry the clams until all the shells open.

Note: if you buy the clams a few days before, saute them in hot olive oil, them freeze them with their liquid. Take them out the day you are cooking and they’ll be just as good.

Add the balance of the olive oil to the pan. When hot, saute the chopped onions, garlic and tomato. Cut the roasted pimientos into strips. Add half of the pimientos to the pan and continue frying. When fragrant, add the beans and continue cooking till all the liquid dries up – about 10 minutes.

Add the tomato puree, mix well and fry till all the liquid is gone.

Add the salt to the hot water and mix well. Toss in the paella seasoning or the saffron, the rice. Mix well to coat the rice with the oil if desired then add the hot water.

Add the peas and all the fried ingredients except the prawns. Level the contents of the paellera, arrange the prawns on top and cover. Lower the heat to low and if desired, place a diffuser between the fire and the pan to diffuse the heat. Cook for about 20 minutes until the rice is done. It should still be “wet” with a bit of crust underneath.

Before serving, arrange the balance of the pimiento strips between the prawns. Serve hot with  lemon slices.

From time to time, you “discover” a favourite dish and this is one of them. Hubby had told me about this dish which he cooked one day after chatting with a fellow Spanish friend at work, Carolina. It was her grandmother’s recipe.

I instantly took a liking to it. You could say its a kind of cross between a “vegetarian” paella and risotto. That’s how I would describe it. Except for the garbanzos. No garbanzos in either paella or risotto!

Its a lovely, light dish and since we took a liking to low-calorie, meat-free dishes, this has become one of our favourites!

100 gms = 82 calories

INGREDIENTS

Serves 3

200 gms Garbanzos (dried chick peas)

100 gms rice

150 gms red pepper (after cleaning)

90 gms onions

120 gms fresh tomatoes

3 cloves garlic

3 tbsp olive oil

2 vegetable or chicken cubes

1 tsp paprika powder

DIRECTIONS

The night before, soak chick peas in enough water to allow it to expand.

To prepare the dish, drain chick peas and rinse. Cook for 30 minutes in a pressure cooker with the vegetable cubes and 1.5 litres of water. When cooked, drain the liquid into a measuring cup. You should have approximately 900ml of the liquid. Put the cooked chick peas aside.

Chop all the vegetables finely. Heat the olive oil in a non-stick pan and fry the chopped ingredients. Cook slowly over a slow fire for 15 minutes or until the onions are transparent. Add the paprika powder and continue frying over very low heat. After 5 minutes or so, add the rice and mix well.

Add the saved liquid, little by little, mix well and let it simmer on low heat. Stir from time to time  and when the liquid is absorbed, add more, and repeat until the rice is cooked. You should have used up all the 900 ml of liquid. At the end, add the cooked chick peas, mix well, heat through and remove.

Serve hot.

Update: TM6 version

Preparation time 30 minutes

INGREDIENTS

Serves 3

1/4 cup arborio rice or jasmine rice

500 ml fresh milk or UHT milk (you can also use low-fat milk)

2 tbsp sugar

Rind of 1 orange

Cinnamon stick

Cinnamon powder to serve

DIRECTIONS

Lightly wash the rice and place in a non-stick saucepan together with the orange rind, sugar, cinnamon stick and half the milk and cook on medium heat.

Stir often and keep adding the rest of the milk making sure that its always “SOUP not CONGEE”. Simple explanation – don’t let it get thick. If it becomes congee, it will stick to the pan.

When all the milk is used up, allow to gently boil for about 15-20 minutes until the rice is soft. It should be soupy – once it has cooled down it will be come thicker. If its not soupy, add more milk and heat again for awhile.

Remove cinnamon stick and lemon peel and allow it to cool. Once it has cooled down, place in a serving bowl or individual dessert bowls and chill in the fridge for at least an hour.

To serve, sprinkle cinnamon powder and decorate with a piece or orange rind or cinnamon stick.

This classic beef dish was invented by a chef working for a Russian general, Count Pavel Stroganov, in the 1890s. Apparently, Count Stroganoff, was also not just a diplomat but also a scion of a wealthy family that owned vast tracts of land and salt refineries in the Urals and later led the conquest of Siberia. It was Count Stroganoff who popularized the family dish in the rest of Europe. The dish is basically tender strips of beef and mushrooms cooked in a sour cream sauce and served over noodles, rice, or even French fries.

When we were in St Petersburg in 2005, we ate the dish in a restaurant right opposite the home of Count Stroganoff!

INGREDIENTS

Serves 2

• 300 gms lean beef (tenderlo9in or top sirloin)
• 1 medium sized bombay onion
• 300 gms canned mushrooms
• 50 gms butter
• a pinch of nutmeg powder
• salt and freshly milled black pepper
• 140 ml soured cream

“Wine substitute” :

• 1 tsp grape vinegar
• 1 tsp worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 150 ml water

DIRECTIONS

Slice beef into strips of 1.5 cm wide by 5 cm long. Its not necessary to wash the meat if you buy it packed from the supermarket but if you prefer to do so, wash then squeeze away the water and place in colander while preparing the other ingredients.

Peel onion and cut into 2 lengthwise then slice 1/2 cm thick across. Drain mushrooms, rinse and slice lengthwise. Prepare the “white wine” substitute by mixing everything in a small bowl and put aside.

In a shallow pan, melt 3/4 of the butter over medium heat – careful not to let the butter overheat and burn. Add the sliced onions and allow it to gently soften, turning it around until it turns a golden brown.

Remove from pan, turn the heat up a bit and add a few pieces of meat at a time to brown them.

When the last portion of meat is brown, return all the meat to the pan, add the onions, the “wine substitute” and salt and pepper to taste. Mix well, lower the heat and let it simmer, stirring occasionally.

While that is cooking, heat a smaller pan and melt the rest of the butter. When hot, add the sliced mushrooms and fry them well on medium heat until all the water is gone. (Careful – the mushrooms will jump about if its too hot!)

Add the cooked mushrooms to the meat and let it simmer on medium heat until the meat is tender. Test by cutting a piece and trying it out.

When the meat is cooked, stir in the sour cream and nutmeg, let it just heat through and remove from heat.

Serve hot.