Singapore Hainanese Chicken Rice

Chicken rice is one of the MUST TRY food when you visit Singapore, it is one of our national dishes in Singapore, well known and well known by both the locals and tourists too. It is also one of my daughter´s favourite food too! She could eat it everyday and never get tired of it.

My mum used to tell me, countryside chicken is best when making this dishes because this chicken are free-range chickens that are allowed to roam instead of being caged. Though scrawnier than their farmed counterparts, these chickens are generally considered to have higher nutritional value. Mum prefer older chicken because she prefer she think that they are sweeter in flavour and she like to chew the tough texture of chicken meat compare to young tender chicken. I remember once her false teeth flew out of her mouth when she was trying to get a big bite on the huge chicken drumstick!

Whenever Mum make chicken rice, I could smell it from far away. The unique aroma is very strong, the fragrance keep reminds me of Chinese New Year. Whenever I cook chicken rice here in Sweden, just imagine even 3 layers of glasses window could not keep the smell from escaping out of my house.

If you are at a food mall in Singapore and do not know what to eat, watch out for customer on qeue..if there are many people qeueing at a particular stall, this mean that most likely the food from that stall are good. Take a look at this chicken rice stall for example, the qeue are so long!! Singaporean will do anything to eat good food including waiting 2 hours for a donut!


Here´s a video I find quite easy to fellow if you like to have a better understanding of how to cook this dish.



And also the recipe for chicken rice if you like to experience this popular dishes without having to travel to Singapore. Good luck!

Ingredients (6 servings):
1 chicken drum stick ..about 2 kgs
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2" fresh ginger root, crushed
2 spring onions, chopped briefly
2 tsp salt
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil

Rice:
3 cups long grain rice
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon sesame oil
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 lemongrass, crushed
2 screwpine leaves
4-5 cups chicken broth
Salt to taste

Chilli Sauce:
2-3 calamansi limes, seeded
2 tbsp chicken broth
2 tsp sugar
2-3 red chillies
4 cloves garlic
1 inch ginger
salt

Garnish:
2 cucumbers, sliced
2 fresh tomatoes, sliced

Methods:

1.
Remove excess fats off and reserve for cooking rice IF DESIRED.
2.
Bring a large pot of water to boil with some sea salt (enough to submerge the whole chicken), add in garlic, ginger and spring onion.
3.
Submerge the chicken into boiling water, then cover and reduce heat down to slow poach. Let it cook for 30 to 35 minutes.
5.
When chicken is cooked, remove and plunge immediately into a bath of icy cold water, submerging the chicken for about 10 minutes. Remove chicken from the water, drain well and set aside.
6.
RICE: Rinse rice till water is running clear, drain well.
7.
Heat wok on high, add in vegetable oil and sesame oil. If using chicken fat, add in reserved chicken fat and cook until the oil is rendered. Fry chicken fat untill crispy. My cat was roaming around my leg while I was frying the fat..I gave her a few when it was done..she love it!



Add in some vegetable oil if oil to make up 3 tablespoons of oil if chicken oil is insufficient.
8.
Add chopped garlic, stir-fry for a few seconds or till browned lightly. Add in raw rice, stir-fry till the rice grains start to look translucent.
9.
Transfer rice into an electrical rice cooker, add 5 to 6 cups chicken broth (up to level "3" in the rice cooker pot), pandan leaves and lemongrass. Add salt to taste if necessary and cook as if cooking plain rice.



10.
Once the rice is cooked, turn heat off and wait for 10 minutes before opening the lid. Steam inside will gently finish steaming the rice.
11.
Fluffy up the rice with a wooden spatula, remove pandan leaves and lemongrass.
12.
SAUCE: Put all ingredients in the blender and pause the blender a few times to make paste. It does not need to be very smooth. I separated the chilli sauce because I like the strong clean sharp flavour of the ginger and garlic.



13.
SERVING: Line a serving platter with sliced cucumber, arrange chicken pieces on top and drizzle soy sauce and sesame oil over, garnish and serve with rice, soup and chili dipping sauce.

Do you like .. spaghetti al sugo :-) ?

spaghetti al sugo (with tomato sauce)

This is a classical spaghetti with easy to prepare tomatoes sauce.
Is quite fast to do , it need something more than half hour if you put to boil the water for pasta  during the sauce preparation.
I used the vegetables I had in the fridge, you can put what you have instead of carrots and cucumbers ;-) . Sometimes I make it with squash , potatoes , beens, egg plants or what else I have.
Usually I save half of tomatoes sauce in the fridge , it will be good for pasta for one week. So I can prepare again spaghetti or other pasta at evening very fast.

Part 1 .. the tomato sauce:
This is a very easy to prepare tomato sauce
Ingredients:
1 can of tomatoes pulp
1 carrot
half cucumber
half onion
1 garlic clove
salt
olive oil
a pinch of chily pepper
sugar

Cut and mince the half onion and the garlic clove.
Put olive oil in a little pot and add the minced onion with garlic.
Cook it for 5 min with middle fire (till the onions became golden).

Cut the carrot and the half cucumber in little pieces and add it in the pot, let it run with low fire for a couple of minutes. Add the pinch of chily pepper.

Add the tomatoes pulp and about two tablespoon of water (usually I use this water to clean the can of tomatoes pulp to take all the pulp!!).
Add a teaspoon of salt and less than half teaspoon of sugar and cook it for about half hour with low fire.

Now as your wish you can let the pieces of vegetables or mince it with handy mincer, I often mince it all to get a creamy sauce!!
PS: Taste it and add some salt or some water if is too salty ;-)

Part 2 , spaghetti.
Ingredients :
spaghetti (about 100 gr for person)
salt
olive oil
grated parmesan

(mm , is really necessary explain how to do ? :-) ) You' ll need your pasta pot , put water, let it boil , add half fist of salt (and a table spoon of oil) to the water , add spaghetti and let it cook for 11 minutes.
Then serve it with the sauce and add some fresh grated Parmesan cheese!!

Korean Sweet Potato Vermicelli

Ever heard of Korean noodle made from sweet potato starch?
As you can see , it is a thin long, translucent noodle with a chewy texture. They are perfect for steam boat, stir fired and even soup! They are similar to cellophane noodles, except they are slightly thicker and tougher.

To prepare: Place the noodles in a heatproof bowl, pour boiling water over the noodles, and let them stand for 10 to 15 minutes, until noodles have soften.
Cooking Time: When the noodles are added to a stir-fry or to soup, further cooking is accomplished during the cooking of the dish.

I have been sick these day, really no apetite at all! Soup is normally what I eat when I am sick. My Mum used to make bee hoon soup for me, it´s just like a comfort food where I only get it from Mum who specially prepared it just for me when I am sick! Nowaday, Mum not there anymore! But I have someone who are just like my Mum, he gave me alot of advise on what I should eat and how to prepared it. Yes, he is my savior, Doctor Fabio!

My chinese girlfriend had this Korean Noodle at her steam boat party some weeks ago, I thought I really like the consistence of the noodle, kids love it too! Even Nelina who is not so fond of noodles love it!

To make this wonderful noodles, I first cooked the noodle as stated from the packing..with hot boiling water and later cooled it in ice cold water to restore it´s elasticity. No oil is needed to spearate the noodle because it does´nt really stick to one another.


I then prepare the soup with chicken broth, soya sauce, seasame oil and lots of white pepper. I like it peppery so all my germs from my nostril could be clear once it and for all!
I also prepared some boiled vegetables and chicken meat. Instead of cooking together with the noodle, I like to stir-fried it separately. I know, this step is not typical chinese, I did this because the chicken are more tastier this way.
I marinated the chicken with ginger juice, soya sauce, corn floor and pepper..
then stir fried them for 15 mins in a hot pan till golden in colour.
To serve this, I reboil the noodle & vegetables in the soup for 30 seconds, I later pour everything in a big bowl and garnish it with stir-fried chicken, chilly sambal and more white pepper! Serve this noodle piping hot!!!

Wontan noodles

Ok, may be I was desperate..I badly needed a wontan noddle fix..so despite of what I do not have to make the "real" wontan noodle, I decided to make my own version with all the ingredient I can find at home. Wontan noodle is comfort food for me, I grew up eating that almost 3-5 times a week and I never got sick of it. If I am on my dead bed, I would request for the wontan noodle from Geylang.
To prepare this mouth watering dish, and without pork at home..I created this meal using minced beef as filling for my wontan. First I mixed all the 250 gm of beef, finely chopped leeks and black fungus with 1 egg yolk, 1 table light soya sauce, 1 teaspoon of salt & sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of seasame oil and white pepper. I then left them alone to make-out in the bowl.


Instead of BBQ pork, I used boiled chicken breast cooked with ginger,garlic and salt. After cooking for at least 15 min in medium heat.



I strained the chicken stock and use it to cook the cabbage,once again I do not have choy sum, so I replace it with some italian sallad.


Here in Sweden, it´s not so easy to find fresh vegetable like choy sum, pak choy, kai lan at supermarket. So far I could only buy it once a week at the local Asian food supermarket. This is consider very luxury compare to other part of Sweden inland,in which did´nt even had any Asian store.
I started to appreciate our Singapore wet market, it may not smell good there but you can buy all kind of fresh vegetable, meat, seafood etc.. I missed also the local dialect in Singapore, everybody is so causal..wearing short and t-shirt at market, speaking dialect like no body business..the atmosphere & memories is simply most memorable!
Ok, back to our dish..I wrapped the wontan with ready made wontan skin..and cooked them two ways..boil & deep fried! I like both, the boil one is more healthy of course.
Because I like to serve everything piping hot, I decided to make the gravy in advance so I can mixed it with the freshly cooked noodle once they are ready.
For the gravy, again I used what is available from my fridge..for 1 portion of 150gm noodle, I mixed half table spoon of light, a drop of seasame oil, half tablespoon dark soya, 2 tablespoon of chilly sauce, 1 teaspoon or 2 of ready made thai chilly padi if you like your face to be red, I also add 1 tablespoon of Ketchep..ok I know Fabio is definately gonna comment about ketchep in my food again, but this is exactly what they used in Singapore. So dont be mad at me ok Fabio? You can also add 1 table spoon olive oil if you are not afraid to grow horizontally.


It´s almost impossible to find freshly made noodle here..to get this dry wontan noodle..the chinese say..you have to 偷笑 "Steal a laugh" mean you should consider lucky! I cooked the noodle for 10 mintues, in really hot boiling water , once it is ready..I quickly removed access water & transfer it to my sauce mix.


End result, Nelina was at home when it was done..I quickly picked up my chopstick and dive in! Everything else seem unimportant anymore..just me & the wontan noodles!!! It was no doubt far from the one at Geylang but I enjoyed every bit of it! After 1 big plate , I settled down on my couch infront of the fire place with a my cup of espresso .. feeling satisfied!

Boiled wontan dumpling


Deep fried wontan dumpling

Risotto alle lenticchie ( Rice with lentils )

Risotto alle lenticchie ( Rice and lentils )

This risotto is quite fast to prepare, and easy to do. I think is a very good recipe for winter days. Lentils taste is quite good with rice.

Ingredients for 3 persons:
4 fists of rice
3 fists of lentils
1 garlic clove
olive oil
salt

Here in Turin people say that lentils can call coins and money, (maybe cos the shape of lentil is similar to a coin) , anyway I never get rich after eat lentils :-))
First thing to do is put lentils in a pot with water, add a pinch of salt and put it on low fire and let in cook for about half hour.

Prepare a large pan with some olive oil (sunflowers oil are also good) , mince the garlic in little pieces. (If you like you can also add half onion minced!)
Fry it for a couple of minutes, till the garlic will be golden.

In this recipe I'll boil the rice like how we do with pasta. So put water in a big pasta pot and let it boil.
When the water is boiling add half fist of salt.

Lentils must be ready now, add lentils in the large pan and let it fry for a couples of minutes, mixing it with a spoon.

Keep the water where you cooked the lentils and add it in the pasta pot water. It will gave colour and lentils taste to the rice!

Add the rice in the boiling water and let it cook for about 14 minutes.

When the rice is ready add it in the large pan and mix it with a spoon.

The rice with lentils is ready!!
Enjoy it! :-)

Penne tonno e olive

Penne Tonno e Olive (pasta with tuna and olives sauce)

Today at lunch I prepared this 'easy' pasta with home made sauce , the sauce was with tomatoes (a must!) , tuna and olives. this kind of pasta is called "penne" I like this kind of pasta very much. Usually I prepare this when I don't have a lot of time , anyway today I put more attention and care in sauce. mm this cos I was thinking about this article too :-) I think also it was a good start for this blog, something typical and easy to prepare.

Ingredients:
olive oil
garlic 1 piece
half onion
about 10 olives
100 g of tuna
a can of tomatoes in pulp
1 - 2 fresh tomato
salt , a tea spoon
a little pinch of sugar
a little pinch of red hot pepper
parmesan chees
penne pasta :-) usually I take flat plate of penne for each person.

Cut the onion and the piece of garlic in little pieces as in the picture .

Put some olive oil in a pot , then add onion and garlic pieces and the pinch of red hot pepper, put the pot in a low fire and let it get golden.

Add the olives , the tuna and mix it with a spoon for half minute .  (Save 3 olives and the fresh tomato in a plate, you ll need it later) At this point add the tomatoes pulp in the pot, the teaspoon of salt and I add half teaspoon of sugar. ( few sugar is optional, it will cut the acidity of tomatoes!! Have you ever seen godfather movie ? They prepared sauce with a few sugar too :-)) but this is not a menace! )
Mix it all, with a spoon , let it go for about 15 minutes on middle - low fire.
Start to prepare also the water for pasta, in pasta pot put water and put it on fire.

The sauce is almost done, at this point I took an handy  mincer and I mince the sauce to obtain a creamy sauce.
I put a cover on the pot and I let it go for 5-10 minutes more with low fire ,
aa don't forget, how the hell kitchen chef often say "taste it" :-) if it need more salt or similar.
Water for pasta must be boiling now, add a spoon of salt in boiling water.
Penne usually take 11 minutes to be ready.
While penne is cooking we have last duty..
We still have the fresh tomato and some olive remember?
At this point I took the fresh tomato and I cut it in little cubes, I took also some olive and cut in little pieces.

Ok penne must be ready now , put it on a plate , add the sauce , add parmesan cheese and decorate with pieces of fresh tomato and olive!!

I have also another fastest recipe to make penne and tuna sauce, I called this "survival pasta", very fast to prepare and done in 15 - 20 minutes maybe good material for another post in future.

Do you like penne ? I hope you enjoy it! ;-)