Foodelicious!

One of my favorite food in this world. Hahahahahaha.. yes, I am a rice person and I must have my rice no matter where I am. Anyway, recently was craving for a home cooked chicken rice for the longest time. The last time I had a home cooked chicken rice was yonks ago and it was made by a hainanese woman and it was awesome.

Anyway, since my cravings was getting really bad and coincidentally, was having a dear friend over for dinner, I decided to make my hainanese chicken rice. Kampung chicken nicely steamed instead of boiled. I  like to give the chicken a bit of treatment of sesame oil and salt scrub before steaming. Hehehe..and of course, a must have, pestle and mortar pounded chili sauce and ginger sauce and added on a peanut and lotus root soup with a blanched kai lan. Oh yes! the rice, I cooked the rice like how the Hainanese woman did yonks ago.. with a slice or two of ginger, a dollop of butter, lots of good quality chicken stock and a small piece of pandan leave. Hehehehe.. the rice smell so good when it was cooking and that made me so hungry.

So, my dear friend came and we sat down to have our Hainanese chicken rice dinner which she enjoyed tremendously.. and without shame asked if she could take home some! Hahahahhaa.. with great pleasure! I always like the idea of my guests requesting to take home the food I cook.

It has been raining nearly everyday for the past month and such weather are expected during end of the year. This is one of the best times for me.. hehehehe.. as I love the rain. Without the rain, the weather here is simply.. HORRIBLE! always hot and humid with terrible blazing sun. But with the rain.. aaaaaaahhh... it's just so lovely.. and always, during such weather, I crave for warm comfort food and one of them is chicken porridge with century eggs.

I have a few versions of chicken porridge. Hehehehe.. I have the simple and quick one that you can see here or the complicated one. For today, I made the simple and quick version plainly because, I was greedy and hungry! Hahahahahahaha. The simple and quick version requires very little work.. just dump the rice and water to boil, leave it to boil stirring occasionally to keep it from sticky to the base of the pot.. and once the porridge is nearly done, add in the cooked shredded chicken. Season it with the usual salt, pepper, sesame oil and garnish it with spring onion, julienne ginger with slices of century eggs. It's one of the easiest comfort food that one can make when one is terribly busy.

Where else, the complicated version requires steamed chicken that has been seasoned with lots of chinese wine and salt. The method of cooking is the same but the extra work comes from preparing the chicken way ahead, steaming it, rubbing every part of the chicken with chinese wine, salt and a bit of pepper and leaving it to marinate for a few days. This complicated version is super delicious and I learnt this from my grandma yonks ago. Didnt I say we never waste food?? Hehehe...

Anyway, back to this simple and quick chicken porridge.. this is best as it is or if you like, you can have this with chinese fried curlers (yau char kwai) which I dont fancy. Life is always beautiful with simple things and Praise the LORD that I am blessed with such simplicity.

Sometimes I just dont know what to cook or feel like eating and on such occasions, I will just let fate takes it course. And last Sunday, as fate has it, I bought some really fresh prawns and after shelling them, I was left with a big bag of shells and being weekend, throwing them into the bin will most definitely attract strays cats or dogs to dig into my dustbin. So, with a big bag of shells, I thought the best way was to just boil it for broth. I added some ikan bilis and some chicken bones into it to boil and the broth was super tasty!

With such a tasty broth simmering on the stove and the rain pouring hard outside, I decided to have a simple dinner of noodles with prawn dumplings and steamed chicken breast and chives from my garden. Technically, I am to fry up the prawn shells before boiling them but I was not in the mood to do so much work and clean up, so, plain tasty broth.. wrap up seasoned prawns with wanton wrappers, blanched the noodles and chives, arrange the chicken and you get a yummilicious bowl of prawn dumpling noodles! It's sure a delicious comfort food on a Sunday night..

The other day I walked by a restaurant and saw everyone was having sui kows, (dumplings) and instantly wanted to have some. However, as I dont consume pork, sui kows sold outside are not for me.. hehehee.. so, arm with mince chicken, prawns and fish paste, some water chestnuts, chinese mushrooms, spring onions and shredded carrots, I set out to make my own sui kows.. It's a easy peasy process that can be quite therapeutic....hehehehe.. A little bit of everything could give me quite a few sui kows which I kept the balance in the fridge in an air tight container for consumption as and when I like.. hehehe..

I had my first round of sui kows with lots of choy sum from my garden in a simple ikan bilis soup. Other times, I had my sui kow with some mee suah soup with lots of vege, or simply steam and eat it just like that or deep fried them is yummy too!! Nothing beats a home made sui kow.. I love it! Hehehehe..

I was approached by a lady over the phone one day and she enquired if I was keen to cook for her on Sunday and she drops by to pick the food up. I was taken by surprised!! Hahahahaha.. and so, from that day, I was thrown into the roller coaster of dinner catering ..there is the planning of the menu, the sourcing of ingredients and finally, the works. Tiring but a good experience and an opportunity to explore my cooking creativity. Heh! heh! heh!

As these food are kept in the fridge as most of my customers are working people, I am mindful that the food I propose have to taste just as good if not better after being kept in the fridge. Hence, a lot of times, I make sure I have a variety of meat and vegetables that can be kept for a few days in the fridge and taste as good as it was just freshly cooked.

 

Oh yes!!! I have always wanted to make these buns. Hahahahaha... Yes, those fluffy and empty buns which you can stuff whatever you like in it. It has always remain a dream until recently when I was lost of ideas as to what to cook for my monster...heh! heh! heh!

With that thought, I thought I will just go buy a few buns and make whatever I was thinking for her but when I saw the price of those buns... ooooohhh!!! that is not possible!! RM2.60 per bun?? I was very reluctant to buy instead, I pulled up my socks (so to speak) and get going...

I made these little buns from scratch and it was so much fun. Hahahahaha... my monster and I had loads of fun make them and she went on to name them as they sit there proofing.. Hahaha.. And like always, since these are handmade, I wasnt expecting a soft and fluffy bun.. I was rather "shocked" that they are... even without any enhancers or improvers. Oh yessss,.... another reason why I have not buy bread from the normal bakeries or bread producers is the high amount of preservatives and improvers and enhancers these factories uses are simply scary!! Compare this.. home made bread will turn moldy by the 5th day or sometimes, 4th day after making depending on the weather... but those store bought breads never seem to turn moldy... scary!! Imagine what have they added in those factories!!

Anyway, as bread making is not difficult and since I have been making my focaccia bread weekly, what is another loaf of bread?? Hehehehehe.. And if you are wondering what I made with these bunny buns, read on!! Hahahahahaa...

These can be ordered... you just need to call me to tell me..... wooo hooo!!

That was my dinner.. a teriyaki salmon steak with some boiled vegetables and home made mashed potatoes and brown gravy... Well, have been craving for salmon steak for the longest time and finally had the time to get it done. Hehehe.. yes, I have been very busy with my orders lately. Nothing new but a lot of repeat.. the bestseller is still the endless summer, sinful and Rio! cake.. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for all your support...

Now, let me get going with my salmon steak... nom.. nom.. nom.. nom.. nom... yummmms!

The weather has been very perfect for me lately.. rainy and cooling and that just inspire me to cook! Hehehe.. I am not a big fan of hot, humid and sunny weather. For some reason, such weather always makes me very irritable and sleepy. Hence, when the rain comes, I am very cheerful and creative!

The above was what I whipped up for dinner yesterday. Roast chicken leg with potato salad and loads of garden greens.. (iceberg lettuce, wild rocket and cherry tomatoes) dressed up in balsamic vinegar. I must say, such menu are easy peasy for working people like me.. boil the potatoes, mix it all up with herbs and mayo to make a salad while the chicken leg is roasting in the oven, make the gravy, clean the garden greens. When chicken leg is ready, just assemble and ATTACK! Wahahaha!

Scrumptious and in many ways, healthy too... All done in a mere 1.5 hours.

People call this "hey" mee, har mien, hokkien mee or simply prawn mee.... The story of why I made prawn mee was because I recently bought a big bag of really fresh and decent size prawns for a steal and thought it was a big waste to throw away those shells as I was shelling them. So, I got some chicken, ikan bilis, dried sotong, dried prawns and lots of shallots and made a pot of prawn mee stock! Waste not!

Anyway, the story goes, since I dont consume pork, the challenge was to create the prawn mee stock to be as good and authentic as it possibly can without the roast pork bones. And I must say, I did it! Yipppppppeeeee....

So, my guests and me had super delicious prawn mee garnished with lots of bean sprout, kangkung, hard boiled egg, shredded chicken and of course! prawns with a generous dressing of fried crispy shallots.

Oh.. we also had mango pudding.. pictures will be posted soon..