Hainanese Chicken Chop...Again!

Hainanese Chicken Chop made a comeback recently as we managed to get some cheap chicken at our local supermart.  So, we got busy cutting and marinating the chicken pieces.  A little history about this baby...

Hainanese Chicken Chop is not from Hainan.  I don't think the Hainanese ever heard of this dish.  This humble dish originated from Malaysia and Singapore during the British times.  According to my Grandma, a lot of Hainanese become cooks, chefs, kitchen hands, etc during the British colonial days. These superb cooks / chefs came out with the own local version of the chicken schnitzel.

This time around, we mixed some mixed veggies into the sauce and this forces our kids to eat it as its in the sauce... :)

Here's a photo of our Hainanese Chicken Chop

Will be posting more soon.....see you all later!

Nasi Paprik & Curry Fish

Been a little busy as my 2 precious are finishing their last semester before the school holidays, planning what we will be doing, where we will be going, doing some Christmas shopping, etc, etc, etc.  A Mother's job is never ending.  I even heard a Mom saying...she is Mom of all trades...haha! That's a good one...and of course, its the truth...a Mother is a wife, a sister, a cousin, a student, a teacher, a friend, a counselor, a mediator, a nurse, an IT expert, a magician, a nurse....the list goes on and on.

We have been doing our Christmas shopping and we walked pass a Thai Restaurant and voila....amazingly, we saw "Nasi Pataya" and "Nasi Paprik"....but when we saw the price....my other half decided that it would be cheaper to cook it ourselves.  So, we did just that.  Some people believe that Nasi Paprik comes from Thailand but others think that its from North Malaysia.  However, a buddy of mine who is from Thailand kindly informed me that Padprik is actually 2 words: Pad - Stir-fry & Prik = Spicy like chilli.  We have been eating Nasi Paprik since we were little and till now, we still love it so much.  Here's a photo of our nasi padprik.

A few days later, we met up with a friend of ours and he shared with us how awesome it was flying home to meet his parents and having so many yummylicious food and one dish just shouted to us - Curry Fish!!! My other half and I just looked at each other with "THAT LOOK" and we knew we had to cook it at home soon....you know how it is when you have been married for so long... So, here's the photo of our version of the Curry Fish which we ate with rice.

I know that my version of fish curry has a nyonya and chinese influence to it as this is my Grandma's recipe.  I love adding okra / ladies fingers and cabbage into the curry plus taupok.  Sometimes, we even add some indian drumsticks into the curry too....its really delicious!!!

Till next time...happy holidays!!!

Chicken Pie....

Chicken pies.....yummy....this is THE pie which I will safe up my pocket money to buy when I was young.  Oooo...the creamy gravy which oozes out when I bite into the pie....glorious!  I kept pestering my Grandma to teach me how to create these babies and finally, she gave in.  I must say its hard work for a 10 year old but I wrote the recipe down and I got working.  You don't know how I felt when I bit into my very first chicken pie.....I jumped, I screamed....I could still remember that day....haha!

Every since I mastered that pie, my Grandma made sure I made it whenever its on her "To Do List" but I didn't complain coz Chicken Pie was and still is my favourite pie.  I will make sure that I do the shortcrust pastry first and place it into the fridge.  Then I will make the filling.  My Grandma will make the Puff Pastry (her own secret recipe).  When I grew older, she decided to teach me how to create  puff pastry at home and I was impressed.

Here's my version of my Grandma's Chicken Pie.....my family loves it!!!

Have a wonderful pie-day, everyone!!!

Roti Jala (Malaysian Net Bread) with Curry Chicken

Roti Jala means Net Bread.  This is a special dish which my Grandma will prepare to celebrate a special occasion...like birthdays, baby fullmoon, wedding...the list goes on.  My Grandma will make the batter in a bowl, sift it and pour the batter into a special 5 hole ladle. Then she will swirl it round and round a flat pan till it looks like a fish net.  We will eat this roti jala with my Grandma's curry chicken. 

Since I wanted to introduce this special dish to my children, I decided to make it for dinner today.  However, I do not have that special 5 hole ladle which my Grandma used to make Roti Jala. Therefore, I improvised and use a squeezy bottle.  It may not look as professional as my Grandma's, but the taste it just the same....I miss my Grandma so so much.

Here's a photo of my Roti Jala and Chicken Curry.

I am so glad my children love it as much as I do....wohoo!!!

Busy in the Kitchen.....Cakes, Desserts, Noodles, Rice and everything nice...

I have not been blogging for a while as I have just started a new job and am trying to familiarize myself with my new position. Since today is my off day, I decided to blog a little.

Pongteh is a peranakan dish and when someone mentions pongteh, people who knows this dish will directly have an image of a non-spicy dish with pork, pig trotters cooked with preserved fermented soya bean paste.  However, as I had lots of chicken meat in my freezer, I decided to whipped up another version - Chicken Pongteh. Furthermore, my 2 kiddos love hard boiled eggs and I made sure I included that inside the dish.  I often add in stuff which are not suppose to be added in.  However, for a busy Mom like myself, as long as everyone in the family is happy and is eating well, adding or taking out an ingredient is not a big deal for me.  Here's a photo of my version of Chicken Pongteh.

A friend of mine just loves pandan chiffon cakes and she is willing to travel miles just to buy a couple.  As I had some pandan leaves and coconut in my cabinet, I decided to make a pandan chiffon cake for her. Pandan is actually known as Pandanus Amaryllifolius Leaves and chiffon cake is a light airy cake made from oil, eggs, sugar, flour, baking powder and flavourings ( in my case, its pandan).  I was quite fearful at first as I did not have a chiffon cake mold and I was using my silicon bundt mold but thankfully, it came out pretty OK.  Here's a photo of my pandan chiffon cake.

Noodles...that's like a staple food in my family.  My 2 kiddos just love noodles..just like their Mommy and Daddy.  So, what did I make recently?  A simple version of Wat Tarn Hor (Flat Rice Noodles in Egg Starchy Gravy).  This is a hit with my kids and I suppose its a much loved dish for a lot of kids.  Most of the time, I will just ask my kids what they want for lunch / dinner and then go searching for the ingredients in my fridge.  So, if I run out of one ingredient, I will substitute with another...haha!  Here's a photo of my simple version of Wat Tarn Hor.

I had a friend from USA visiting us recently and we were talking about General Tso's Chicken which is a famous chinese take-away dish in USA and we decided to make it at home.  I did some research and I found out that this dish is not originated from China but from New York, USA.  So, here's our version of General Tso's Chicken and its really yummy with white rice.  My friend gave me 2 thumbs up... :)

Moving on.... I had to do some cupcakes for a function.  They wanted chocolate cupcakes and it must be a little fancy too.  So, I decided to make chocolate cupcakes with a dallop of ganache inside of it and I pipe roses on top of it.  Thank goodness everyone loved it.  Here's a photo of my chocolate cupcakes.

My other half wanted some lor mai kai which is a popular item in a dim sum menu during yum cha hours.  Since I still  have 1/2 packet of glutinous rice left, I decided to make him some since dim sum also mean touch your heart. So, gonna make some lor mai kai to touch my other half heart...haha!!!  Here's a photo of my lor mai kai.

I also made some macarons for a friend of mine who is gluten free.  She just loves macarons and what better way to spoil her than make her a batch of her favourite cookies.  Here's a photo of my macarons.

Had some over-riped bananas in the kitchen the other day and I decided to do some Cokodok (Banana Fritters) which is a traditional Malaysian snack made of flour and bananas and its deep fried.  This snack is delicious when its hot or cold.  Here's a photo of my Cokodok.

And since I am on the topic of snack, here's another delicious snack which I often make when I want something Malaysian.  This is my version of cucur badak (lazy version) and here's my photo of it.

Lastly, I made cupcake bouquet for my lady boss. It's her birthday and I decided to make something so that she can share with her family when they celebrate her birthday with her.  Here's a photo of my cupcake bouquet.

These are some of the things which I made for my family and friends last month.  Most of the time, I just totally forgot to take photos of the things I made as I am always rushing, rushing, rushing...haha!!!  Will update soon.  In the meantime, have fun in the kitchen and see ya!!!

Mee Paprik (Paprik Noodles)

Everyone who has been to Malaysia will have if not eaten, heard of the word Paprik.  Most of the time, you will find Nasi Paprik (Paprik Rice) in any Malay hawker stall. Besides the rice, these hawkers have also come out with another dish - Mee Paprik. From what I know, Pad means stir-fry in Thai and Prik means chilli /spicy in Thai. So, I guess Mee Paprik will translate to Stir-fried noodles in spicy sauce, maybe?

Oh well....it really doesn't matter how this dish came about. What matters is that this one-dish-meal is delicious.  My other half can't get enough of it.  Here's a photo of out Mee Paprik.

This is a 1-dish-meal which will always keep us warm in a cold day... delicious!!!

June, June...busy busy month of June

It has been a while since I last wrote. Lots of things are happening in June....birthdays and I mean lots of birthdays and school holidays.  I have been so busy making cakes, cooking for friends and relatives and making plans for the school holidays.

Here's some of the things which I managed to take some photos of....busy, busy, busy...

Deep Fried Fish Soup with Rice

Cream Cakes for the June Birthday Boys and Girls

Winnie the Pooh Cupcakes and 2D Cake for my little Princess.  She turned 5...a big girl now.

Japanese Curry Chicken Rice

Prawn Noodles (Hae Mee)

Cream Sponge Cake for a Customer

Right now, I am busy baking cupcakes and a mudcake for my little Prince's 7th Birthday.  He wants me to create a Minecraft Theme and he wants to celebrate it in school...wish me luck!!!

Chicken Wrap, Chicken Tandoori Wrap and Ham Wrap with Salad

I love wraps as its easy to do and easy to eat. However, I never thought that I would do it at work since I am a Pastry Chef. Well, I guess never say never..haha! When I was younger, it was a special treat for me when my parents brought me to TGIF and I had the chicken fajitas with tortilla wraps. When I grew older, tortilla wraps were everywhere and it was so common. I remembered my parents telling me that tortillas are from Mexico and it means little cakes.  

Wrapping a tortilla wrap is pretty different from wrapping a popiah, but once you get the hang of it, its really easy.  At work, we have quite a number of varieties of wraps - roast chicken wrap, tandoori chicken wrap, roast beef wrap, corn beef wrap, lamb wrap, ham wrap, egg mayo wrap, etc... and all these wraps will be wrap with salads.  This is a delicious and healthy lunch I must say.  Here's a photo which I took at work...

Try a wrap today....it will really make your day!!!

Hainanese Chicken Chop

We have been eating chicken schnitzel and chicken parma for a couple of weeks now and we are quite sian (bored) with it.  My other half was thinking of the Hainanese Chicken Chop which we were so in love with when we were in Malaysia.  So, we decided to try out hands on it after I made several phone calls to my darling Aunty.

Hainanese Chicken Chop is not from Hainan.  I don't think the Hainanese ever heard of this dish.  This humble dish originated from Malaysia and Singapore during the British times.  According to my Grandma, a lot of Hainanese become cooks, chefs, kitchen hands, etc during the British colonial days. These superb cooks / chefs came out with the own local version of the chicken schnitzel.  I remember the good old days when my cousins who studied overseas will come back and correct us all whenever we the children will beg our parent to bring us for "chicken chop" and these cousins of ours will say "No, No, No...its chicken schnitzel, silly" or "No, No, No....its called a chicken cutlet".  We really didn't care if its called a schnitzel or a cutlet...to us, its good old chicken chop and its really sedap (delicious).

Firstly, we crumb the chicken exactly like how a chicken schnitzel is crumbed. Then we proceed in making the potato wedges which we deep fried. Now..the sauce is the one which makes this dish special and it consists of tomato sauce, HP sauce, worchestershire sauce, oyster sauce, chicken booster, seasonings and lastly thicken it with cornflour solution.

Some people eat this with rice and some just eats it by itself.  Here's our humble Hainanese Chicken Chop.

We are so happy to watch our 2 kiddos enjoying themselves and asking for me.  This really brings me back to the good old days when I was just a kid like my 2 children and asking for more too....

A Family Gathering...

It has been an exciting week in this household...firstly, my other half secretly baked a cake with our 2 kids and decorated it for my birthday.  I was so impressed and so proud of them...its one of my best birthday ever.  Secondly, we had a family gathering where our love ones came all the way from the city to visit us. We decided to cook some chinese food to tickle their taste buds. My little prince and little princess were so excited to welcome them.

Here's a photo of my birthday cake. My 2 kids were so proud to tell me all about how the baked the cake and decorated it with Dad.  I am so VERY proud of my other half and my two precious....*tears of joy*

Here's some photos of our family gathering.  This is a photo of the prawn crackers (keropok).  Keropok is a deep fried cracker made from prawns and flour. My little prince always call it "chinese magic" and he loves deep frying the keropok with me.

Here's a photo of the fried rice which we made. Fried rice is a very popular dish in SEA. We used plain white rice and stir-fry it in the wok, adding in eggs, peas, ham, onions and garlic.

Here's a photo of our finger food...sotong balls with sweet chilli sauce. This little babies are delicious. Once you take the first bite, you will want more...haha! Sotong balls are like meat balls, but instead of meat, its made with sotong (squid).

We also made sweet and sour chicken and mongolian beef.  Sweet and sour chicken or pork is a very popular Cantonese dish. This is a dish which is loved my adults and children alike. We have to deep fry the meat first. Then, we have to make the sweet and sour sauce. Once the sauce is prepared, we will add in the deep fried meat into the sauce, add in the green pepper, pineapple, etc. Here's a photo of our sweet and sour chicken.

Next the mongolian beef dish. This is a very popular dish in America and over here too. This dish consists of sliced beef and its stir-fried with veggies and a spicy sauce.  Here's a photo of our mongolian beef.

We had roll cake for dessert with tea.  When we finished our dessert, all of us couldn't move...haha!!!....too full...haha!!!  We also 'ta-pau' some so that they can bring it home for dinner...

It was an awesome week.... :)

Not Forgotten...

It has been awhile since I last wrote in this blog. We had to move due to job commitments....and from there, it was busy, busy, busy, hunting, searching, looking, deciding, etc.. Now that we are more settled, I finally have time to blog again.

Its spring now but we still have a little winter now and then. Just this morning, the temperature dropped to 9 degrees C...good golly. To make matters worst, my other half has fallen sick. My 2 kiddos have been under the weather for a week now and now that they have recovered, its my poor other half who is sick..sigh!!!  So, what can I do? what can I do?  One thing that came into my mind - asian porridge. Too bad I don't have any salted eggs, preserved veggies (kiam chye) and other stuff which we could easily hunt in chinatown. However, now that we have moved, it will take us more than several hours to drive down to chinatown. So, I will just have to make do with what I have.

Here's a photo of my asian porridge.  When my other half is ready to have his lunch, I will heat-up the porridge and knock an egg in it.  I managed to find some preserved vegetables...wohoo!!!

I think its time for me to make my own "homemade salted eggs" for emergencies such as this.  I really wish I can find some duck eggs but alas, I am not able to find it here.  So, I will have to use chicken eggs instead.  I have never ever done this before though...will give you guys some feedback after 30 days. Here's what I did with my homemade salted eggs:

An empty clean glass bottle
Duck Eggs or Chicken Eggs
Salt
Water
Sichuan Peppercorns
Star Anise
Warm Water
A dash of chinese cooking wine

Here's a photo of my homemade salted eggs in progress.

I also made hou yau kai (oyster sauce chicken) for my kiddos. Here's a photo of one of our main dishes for dinner tonite.

I will post an update after 30 days for my homemade salted eggs. Fingers crossed...hopefully it will be a success.

My Princess 4th Birhday

My little Princess is growing up so fast...she turns 4 today.  She wanted a Strawberry Shortcake cake and I was told that she wants the "new" Strawberry...not the old one.  I watched the DVD with her to understand more about this "new" Strawberry.  It looks like the Strawberry which I grew up with has gone for some major make-over or something as the "new" one doesn't look anything like the old Strawberry which I know so well.

I often have trouble with the eyes whenever I do the gumpaste figurines and this time there is no difference.  The first Strawberry which I made did not get the approval from my little Princess. Hence, I had to mould another head and tried my hands in making her look like what she suppose to look like.  I compared my figurine with the DVD cover and I must say it doesn't look like her much. However, thankfully, my little Princess loved the second one better.....wohoo!!!  To see the smile on her face and receive a hug and a "I Love You, Mummy" is the best gift ever.

Here's a photo of the approved Strawberry Shortcake Cake from my little Princess.

Till next time.....bye!!!

Mun Yee Mee (Braised Yee Mee Noodles) & Rice Cooker Chicken Rice

Mun Yee Mee (Braised Yee Mee Noodles) is an all favourite 1-Dish Meal in my family.  Its a really easy dish to do. Firstly, I will just "mun" which is a Cantonese word for braised the dried mushrooms with a stock made of chicken broth, oyster sauce, soy sauce, chinese cooking wine and seasonings. Once its ready, just add in the meat of your choice, fishcakes, fishballs, etc. Then add in the yee mee and vegetables. Lastly, break 1-2 eggs into the noodles and braise for another 1-2 mins. Voila...that's it! Lunch is ready!!!

Here's a photo of the Mun Yee Mee.

Hainanese Chicken Rice...this is another 1-Dish Meal which my family won't get jelak with. I can tell you this...they can eat chicken rice for breakfast, lunch and dinner if you allow them to.  Whenever I cook chicken rice for my friends, they will always associate it with Singapore. Hmm..I always wonder why they do that since there's also chicken rice in Malaysia and Thailand.
If you follow the old fashion way of preparing this dish, you will have to boil the whole chicken in a broth made from chicken bones and pork bones (optional).  After its cooked, it will be dipped into ice water and this type of chicken is known as "white chicken" (pak cham kai). According to my Grandma, to maximize the oil extraction, I should use old and fat (plump) chicken. This stock will be for the rice preparation besides garlic, ginger, lard (chee yau char) and pandan leaves. We also have to prepare the chicken rice chilli sauce which consists of red chilli, ginger and garlic with squeezes of lime juice. Some places will have cucumbers, tomatoes and even oyster sauce kai lan vegetable to complete the dish.  This is the method which I followed when I was younger. However, now, I will use any short-cut method I can find or come out with as I am always so busy with my DH and my 2 precious kids. It seems like 24 hours a day is just ain't enough.

How do I do it? Simple...just marinate the chicken with sesame oil and soy sauce for at least 1 hour. Prepare the rice like the old fashion way - fry garlic and ginger with oil and sesame oil. If you want to use lard, by all means. Then I will fry the chicken for a minute or two, scoop up the chicken and fry the washed rice till its coated with the oil in the pot. Pour in your chicken stock, some seasonings and place the chicken on top of the rice. Add in your pandan leaves and cook it in your rice cooker as normal. I am happy to say that this method works well for my family and my friends (they did try it at home and their families loved it).

Here's a photo of the rice cooker chicken rice:

Till next time, happy makan-ing!!!

Oyaku Donburi

My whole family loves donburi especially oyaku donburi. This time around, instead of cooking for each individual person, I decided to cook for a giant (family of 4). My prince asked me before what is oyaku donburi and I explained to him that its a japanese one bowl meal which consist of chicken and egg over rice. However, instead of an oversize bowl, I used a rice pot...cooking for a giant..ha!ha!

Guess what? I still taste as nice and its a hit in the family...wohoo!!!

Thai Padprik Chicken

My other half was commenting that we haven't eaten Thai food for a long time when he saw a bottle of tomyam paste at our local shopping centre. We bought the paste but somehow I ended up cooking Thai Padprik Chicken which we ate with white rice...ha!ha! Sometimes, we will do this into a 1-dish meal by adding yellow noddles into it. According to my Thai friends, this dish is known as Gai Pad Prik Pao. However, the ingredients are different...he laughed.  Oh well...I have to suit my family...ha!ha!  Here's a photo of my very own version of Thai Padprik Chicken which is still in the wok.  This is just yummylicious with plain white rice!!!

I just love Thai food....till next time...chok dee...

BBQ Chicken Lettuce Wraps

Spring is here but its doesn't feel like Spring. Too much rain and I was thinking of how to finish up my lettuce. So, in the end, I decided to make some lettuce wraps.  This can be an appetizer or a side dish with your main course. Most of the time, I will let the whole family do their own wrapping. There's so many recipes out there for these wraps.  This time around, I just made BBQ Chicken.  All I have to do is to shred the chicken and wrap it with lettuce. For the dipping sauce, you can use BBQ sauce, thai chilli sauce,etc. Here's a photo of my BBQ Chicken Lettuce Wraps.

Happy wrapping!!!

Curry Chicken

 

 Curry chicken or chicken curry...its a common meat dish in my household. However, I was quite surprised when my Caucasian friends called it a delicacy of Asia. I know that curry chicken is pretty huge in Australia, UK and of course all around Asia too.  In my household, our curry chicken tends to be more "lemak" (more creamy) which is from the coconut milk. Its a simple dish with simple ingredients.  Firstly, you will have to prepare the curry paste. If you are lazy, you can just buy the paste from the supermarket. However, I prefer to make my own paste. The ingredients are shallots, galangal, ginger, garlic, cinnamon stick, star anise, cardamon seeds, dried chilli & turmeric powder. Just use a grinder and grind it into a paste. Then you will fry it till its fragrant in your wok over low heat. Please open your windows and doors.  Once that's done, get your chicken, potatoes, slices of sweet onions (optional), coconut milk and seasonings and dump everything into a big pot and simmer till the chicken is cooked.  If  you feel that coconut milk is just too fattening, substitute it with carnation milk. However, the taste is just never there when I use carnation milk though.  This curry chicken can be served with white rice, glutinous rice (nasi kunyit), bread, roti channai / roti prata, naan, roti jala, etc... 

Kara-age Bento @ Tokyo Maki

I seldom eat out as I tend to cook at home. However, Tokyo Maki is one place which I will love to go to. Its really a "value-for-money" place to eat. You can get a huge bento box at $10. This is one of the bento boxes which is served there and this box is called the kara-age bento. 

So what is kara-age? Its fried chicken is japanese. The kara-age which is at Tokyo Maki is a little spicy. Not to sure if I am correct but I do taste "Thai sweet chilli sauce" in their kara-age. Its just yummylicious.

I seriously need to DIY this at home....when? when? when?
Soon! Soon! Soon!