Rice cooker dinners : Stewed pork, mushroom & cabbage rice

Ingredients

3 cups of rice, washed 

500g of cabbage, washed and chopped

10 small black mushrooms + 200ml of water, soaked and sliced, reserve water

20g dried shrimp, soaked and drained

5 cloves of garlic, minced

1 can of stewed pork chops, bones removed and roughly shredded

1 tsp of dark soy sauce

1 tsp of light soy sauce

1 tablespoon of oyster sauce

0.5 tsp of sesame oil + 0.5 tsp of cooking oil

A dash of white pepper

1 tbsp of chicken stock concentrate mixed with 250ml of water

Method

Set the rice cooker to cook function and fry garlic, dried shrimp in sesame + cooking oil till fragrant. Add in the roughly shredded stewed pork. 

Pour in the washed rice and mushroom slices with the reserve water.

Add in chicken stock mixture and the reserve gravy from the canned stewed pork.

Mix in the dark, light soy + oyster sauce and a dash of white pepper.

Add in the chopped cabbage and stir to mix well. Add more soy sauce here if needed.

Leave to cook.

Fluff up the rice and mix well to ensure that all the rice is cooked. 

From our kitchen to yours,

Brenda x

Orange Soy Glazed Salmon x Soba

Marinade for the salmon:

1.5 tablespoon of Kikkoman Soy Sauce

0.5 teaspoon of brown sugar (caster sugar works too :))

1 small knob of old ginger, sliced

A squeeze of orange

1 stalk of spring onion, whites roughly chopped

Place salmon skin side down into the marinade and coat both sides with the marinade. Then leave it flesh side down and set this aside for about half an hour or overnight in a ziplock. :) 

Buckwheat soba:

Boiled and drained, put into iced water immediately.

With a knob of butter in a pre heated pan, place the salmon skin side down and grill till the skin leaves the pan. Turn the salmon fillet around and sear it flesh side down. Pour the remaining marinade over the skin and fry up the ginger and spring onion slices on the side. 

Grill the salmon till well cooked and flip it skin side down to grill till crisp. :)

Serve with cold soba sprinkled with chopped negi, nanami togarashi and mentsuyu dipping sauce.

From our kitchen to yours,

Brenda x

Clarity in keeping focused

This was clarity. After all the soups I've boiled, this was by far the clearest pot. 

This was a medium sized chicken, chicken breast used for poached chicken slices on soba.

The thigh and the wings were used for sesame oil chicken.

Which leaves the neck, ribs and feet, aside from all the bones reserved.

So I blanched those, chopped up some carrots, corn and red dates and threw them all into my inner thermal pot for a fierce boil before I added a tablespoon of salt (4- 4.5L of water) and transferred it over to the outer pot to cook in its reserve heat for about 1.5 hours. 

And there we have it, chicken soup for the soul. Clarity in keeping focused. 

From our kitchen to yours,

Brenda x

Bittersweet Symphonies

Half a bittergourd, seeds removed and sliced thinly

(Soak the bittergourd in a heaped teaspoon of salt and water for 5- 10 minutes then remove and drain completely)

2 stalks of spring onion, chopped into 2 inch long slices

4 cloves of garlic, minced

3 eggs, beaten with half a teaspoon of soy sauce and half a teaspoon of white pepper.

20 ml of water + a dash of soy sauce

Heat up the pan and a tablespoon of oil. Fry the minced garlic and the white ends of the spring onion stalks till fragrant.

Add in the drained bittergourd slices and stirfry with the water and soy sauce. Let the steam soften the bittergourd slices. 

Add in the beaten eggs and sprinkle the rest of the spring onion generously. 

Turn off the heat and let the reserve heat cook the eggs. 

Serve with fluffy hot white rice :)

*Alternatives: Stir fry with dried shrimp, preserved black bean sauce 

From our kitchen to yours,

Brenda x

No Bake Matcha Cheesecake

This was the second attempt on the same recipe. 

Except with matcha powder this time. :)

http://monstrousappetites.blogspot.sg/2015/11/no-bake-strawberry-cheesecake.html

Exactly the same steps just replacing strawberry jam with 2 level tablespoons of matcha powder (I used the O'sulloc matcha powder from Jeju) and omitting the lemon rind. But don't forget the squeeze of lemon! :)

The green tea flavour was subtle. You might want to add more of it but I didn't want the bitterness to overwhelm the whole filling. The other way to do this would be to add a sprinkle of powder at the side to add as they wish.

From our kitchen to yours,

Brenda x

No Bake Strawberry Cheesecake

Ingredients

For the crust:
150g McVities digestive biscuits (I used wholemeal this time)
30g caster sugar
85g unsalted butter, melted and set aside to cool

Mix the crushed digestives, sugar and melted butter together. Press in FIRMLY onto the bottom of a 20-23cm pan. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator to chill while making the filling.

For the filling:
1 block of cream cheese (227g) at room temperature
2 tablespoons of no sugar added strawberry jam
40 g of caster sugar (less if the jam isn't a no sugar added jam)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 bottle heavy whipping cream 240ml (36-40% butter fat)
A few pieces of lemon rind, chopped into small bits and a squeeze of lemon.

Beat cream cheese until smooth, add strawberry jam, sugar and vanilla essence and beat again till light.

Beat the whipping cream separately until soft peaks form. Do not overbeat whipping cream or it will split and liquefy itself and the cream can no longer be used. 

Gradually fold in the whipped cream, a squeeze of lemon and lemon rind bits into the cream cheese.  

Pour in the filling into the crust base and smoothen the top. 

Chill overnight.

*I used the back of a chopper to crush up the biscuits but you could do it with a rolling pin or a simple food processor.

*I used a home blender with mill to do this. The cream cheese was a bit tricky. Remember to break into smaller pieces before turning on the blender. 

*Whipping cream was pulsed till the required soft peaks consistency and it turned out beautifully.

*I didn't use a springform pan and although the filling was a little hard to handle, it still came out easily in slices. This is really dependent on how well the crust was done. :)

Credits to https://www.joyofbaking.com

From our home to yours,

Brenda x

Double happiness steamed egg // 双喜蒸蛋

Ingredients: 

3 eggs

1 preserved egg

A dash of sesame oil 

0.5 tsp soy sauce

1.5 tsp of Knorr concentrated chicken stock 

9 half egg shells of water (water : egg // 1.5 : 1)

Garnish: 

Red chilli slices

Chopped spring onion

Method: 

Beat eggs till yolk and whites are well mixed. 

Add water in half egg shells, mix in the concentrated chicken stock, soy sauce and mix well. 

Strain the mixture through the sieve (don't hold it up too high or there will be bubbles created) Or you can simply remove the bubbles with a spoon :)

The sesame oil can be added at this point or after the steaming has been done. 

Cut the preserved egg into slices and slide the pieces gently into the egg mixture.

Bring water in the steamer to a fierce boil. Place bowl into steaming rack. 

**My steamer cover drips off water from the side so it's not required to put cling film over the bowl. Either use cling wrap or a flat dish to cover the egg mixture if you're worried. 

Turn it down to low heat and steam for 15 minutes or till done. Gently shake the bowl to check if the egg is ready. Or use the back of the metal spoon to gently slide on the surface of the egg mixture to check.

Serve hot with rice.

Credits: http://www.tastehongkong.com/recipes/steamed-eggs-how-to-make-them-smooth-is-no-secret/ (for the half egg shell measurements :))

From our kitchen to yours,

Brenda x

Chicken Bulgogi

Ingredients:

2 large pieces chicken thigh, deboned and skin reserved.

1/2 medium onion, thinly sliced

2 – 3 spring onions, roughly chopped

Marinade:

3 tablespoons Gochujang sauce

1 tablespoon Gochugaru/ Togarashi

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons soba sauce (this was the secret shortcut to eliminate sugar and mirin)

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon minced garlic

1 tablespoon grated ginger

a pinch of white pepper

Method:

Combine the meat, onion, and scallions with the marinade and mix well. Marinate for at least an hour or overnight.

Grill skinside down first to render the oil from the skin and turn over after the edges have crisped. Cook thoroughly.

I sliced it up before serving for easy sharing but feel free to be selfish and have the whole chicken leg to yourself! 　

Adapted from www.rasamalaysia.com From our kitchen to yours,

Brenda x