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!!!