Sunday, January 20, 2013

Baby ε's congee

This congee is baby ε's favourite. The chicken and carrots gives it a sweet taste; the dried scallops, sesame oil, mushrooms and anchovy powder makes it umami!

Ingredients:
250g of chicken mince
1 cup rice, washed
5 cups water
1/2 cup of enoki mushrooms, chopped
2 medium carrots
1 t anchovy powder
1 large Japanese dried scallop
1 egg
2 t sesame oil
small dash of soy sauce (omit if your baby is <1 year)

(recipe yields 3 portions of baby food)

1. Marinate chicken mince with the sesame oil and a small dash of soy sauce
2. Wash rice and dried scallop in medium sized pot. Add water to rice and bring to boil.  Add chicken mince.
3. Lower heat and let simmer for 30 minutes. Do not close lid. Stir regularly (every 10 minutes).
4. Add carrots, enoki mushrooms, anchovy powder and let simmer for an additional 10 minutes.
5. Lastly stir in the egg.
6. Let cool and store in 3 baby food containers.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Baby chicken fingers with apple

This recipe was passed around in my moms group. It's a super easy and yummy snack for babies (suitable from 7+ months). Baby ε loves munching on it!

Ingredients
1 cup chicken mince
1 carrot, chopped finely
1 apple, chopped finely
1/2 garlic clove, chopped finely
1/2 brown onion, chopped finely
1 egg yolk, beaten
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
pinch of thyme
ground black pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 200 Celsius. 
2.Mix all ingredients in a large bowl.
3. Scoop small balls of mixture using an ice cream scoop (to ensure even size), and roll into 8 little sausages.
4. Place into oven and grill for 10 minutes on each side.
5. Allow to cool.
6. Serve, or store in freezer for future use.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Part 3: Nasi Lemak - Coconut flavored rice + condiments

One of the most important components of Nasi Lemak is fluffy fragrant coconut rice. I've tweaked this recipe many times, and it is now heavenly! My preference is to use medium grain rice, and have it all cooked in an electric rice cooker (not over a stove as it burns easily).



Coconut flavored rice

Ingredients:
5 cups of rice, washed
250ml thick coconut cream
2.5 cups water
3 pandan leaves, washed and tied into a knot
2 stalks lemon grass, bruised
2 kaffir lime leaf
4 t salt
(Serves 10)

1. Place all ingredients in a rice cooker and cook until all liquid has evaporated.
2. Allow rice to stand for 30 minutes.
3. Fluff rice up with chopsticks before serving.

Monday, January 14, 2013

Part 2: Nasi Lemak - BBQ Turmeric Chicken Wings

Sometimes, the simplest ingredients make the best dishes. Turmeric chicken wings is my favorite go-to recipe for no fuss accompaniment to Nasi Lemak. Absolutely perfect to put on a summer barbeque.

Easy BBQ Turmeric Chicken Wings


Ingredients
1 kg chicken wingettes
1 T turmeric powder
1 t coriander powder
1 T salt
Juice of one lemon
(Serves 6)

1. Marinate chicken wings with all ingredients in a large container overnight.
2. Cook chicken wings on a BBQ until golden brown and cooked through.
3. Serve with coconut rice.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Part 1: Nasi Lemak - Sambal Udang

A Nasi Lemak Feast

We had 40 guests over last weekend for baby ε's 1st birthday, 40!!! I almost went nuts with the overwhelming task of shopping + preparing food for so many people on my own. Luckily everything went smoothly. There were quite a few components to my Nasi Lemak feast, most of them could be prepared several days in advance.

Part 1:  Sambal Udang (Prawns n Sambal Sauce) *
Part 2: BBQ Turmeric Chicken Wings
Part 3: Coconut Rice +  Condiments (Toasted Anchovies and Nuts/ Cucumber slices / Hard boil eggs)
Part 4: Curry Chicken
Part 5: BBQ Satay chicken

Watch out for Part 2 -5 in the next few weeks.

* Part 1: Sambal Udang (Prawns in Sweet Sambal Sauce)



Master Sweet Sambal Sauce

Ingredients:
(A) 1 large brown onions, chopped
(A) 2 shallot, chopped
(A) 6 cloves of garlic
(A) 4 long red chillies
(A) 1 T toasted shrimp paste (belachan)
(A) 4 small dried red chillies (seeds removed)
4 T tomato sauce
1 T tamarind puree dissolved in 1/4 cup water
6 T caster sugar
1 T salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil

(The above ingredients yields approx 1 cup, I was catering for 40 people so I quadrupled the above ingredients).

1. Blend ingredients (A) using a stick blender into a rough paste (The traditional method would be to pound it using a large mortar and pestle).
2. Heat oil to medium heat, add rough paste, and reduce to low heat. Cook the paste for 15 minutes stirring regularly until the mixture is fragrant.
3.Add tomato sauce, tamarind liquid, sugar and salt, and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes, stirring regularly until red chilli oil appears.

Tips:
(1) When frying sambal, watch it like a hawk and stir regularly. I learnt this the hard way in the past by accidentally burning batches of sambal, one too many times.
(2) I toned down the level of chilli in the recipe. If you prefer your sambal spicy, I suggest replacing the dried chillies with 6 heap tablespoons of chilli powder.
(3) You can cook this days in advance and store it in a sterilised jar in the fridge.

Super Easy Sambal Udang (Prawns in Sweet Sambal Sauce)

Ingredients:
1 brown onion
500 g prawns peeled with tail left intact, diveined
1 cup of Master Sambal Sauce
2 Kaffir lime leaves, rolled and sliced finely
2 t vegetable oil

(Serve approx 8-10. To serve 40, I quadrupled the above ingredients).

1. Heat oil, and fry prawns and onions until prawns start to cook (turn opaque).
2. Add sweet sambal sauce and toss with kaffir lime leaves, let simmer until cooked.
3. Garnish with sliced kaffir lime leaves, and serve with rice/coconut rice

Enjoy the beautiful (to me at least, pungent to some :p remember to close your kitchen doors and air your house thoroughly) south east Asian flavors wafting through your kitchen! ;) 
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