Malacca Hainanese Chicken Rice Balls

I've been to Malacca once, long time ago, and this dish is one of the most memorable dish I enjoyed during my stay there
It's basically the usual chicken rice easily found in Singapore, but rice shaped in balls
But somehow the shape affects the texture of the rice and the overall taste
Nice! :)

Recipe is from Kuali via yummylittlecooks

What you need:
(with slight modification and I didn't make the ginger juice which we don't really fancy)

For the chicken:
1 chicken (about 1 kg)
5 cloves of garlic, crushed
2cm fresh ginger, crushed
1 stalk spring onion
1 tsp salt
1 cube chicken bouillon

For the rice:
2 cups long grain rice, washed and drained
2 tbsp oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp salt and 1 tsp light soya sauce
2 pandan leaves, knotted
2 1/2 cups (600ml) reserved chicken stock

Garlic chilli sauce:
5 red chillis
2 red bird's eye chillis
15g fresh young ginger
3 cloves garlic
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp chicken stock
juice of 2 limes

1. To prepare chicken: Rub chicken inside out with salt, stuff with ginger, garlic and spring onion. Boil water in a deep pot and put in the chicken. Make sure the water covers the whole chicken
2. Lower the heat and simmer the chicken for 20 minutes. Turn off heat and soak chicken for 45 minutes in the stock. Remove chicken and set aside to cool. Reserve the stock for the rice
3. To prepare the rice: Heat oil and saute garlic til fragrant. Stir in rice and fry for around 3 minutes. Place rice in rice cooker. Add in stock, salt and pandan leaves. When rice is cooked and fluffy, scoop out with a ladle and roll into balls while rice is still hot. Set aside
4. To make garlic chilli sauce: Pound chillis, ginger, garlic. Mix with salt, chicken stock and lime juice
5. To serve chicken: Cut chicken into serving pieces and drizzle with sesame oil and light soya sauce. Serve with chicken rice balls and garlic chilli sauce and dark soya sauce. Some slices of cucumber will be nice too

I'm submitting this post to Malaysian Food Fest, Melaka month hosted by Cindy of yummylittlecooks

 

Malacca Sambal Prawn Belimbing

The next and last dish I cooked using belimbing fruits, so mouthwatering! Delicious! :)

Recipe is from Joyce's site, and I saw Bee Bee also cooked this dish :)

What you need:
(I modified a little to suit my liking)

20 medium size prawns - deshelled and deveined
50g chilli paste
300g shallots - chopped
2 cloves of garlic - chopped
1 tsp fried belachan (shrimp paste)
15 belimbing fruits - cut into 2 (I used all the balance I had, around 18)
4 pcs lime leaves
1 tomato, sliced to wedges
1 medium onion, sliced to wedges
1/4 cup water, more to add if it's too thick (I did add a little more)
2/3 cup canola oil
2 tbsp tomato ketchup
salt, sugar to taste

1. Blend shallots, garlic, chilli paste, belachan to a fine paste
2. marinate prawns with 1 tsp of sugar, stir well and set aside
3. Heat oil on a saucepan, add blended paste and fry around 10 minutes over medium low heat, stir frequently to avoid burning
4. Add in lime leaves int othe 5 minutes of frying, keep stirring til paste is fragrant and separated from the oil
5. Add in belimbing fruits and stir for 2 minutes, Add in water, stir and simmer for 2 minutes to soften the belimbing
6. Add in prawns, tomato, salt, sugar, tomato ketchup
7. Let boil and stir til prawns cooked through, around 5 minutes
8. Off the heat and serve warm with many bowls of rice LOL

I'm submitting this post to Malaysian Food Fest, Melaka month hosted by Cindy of yummylittlecooks

Indonesian Style Chicken Garang Asam & Bloggers Gathering

To share what I cooked using belimbing fruits from Alan

The first dish is garang asam - Indonesian style

We cook garang asam using chicken, instead of fish - it's spicy, sour, fragrant and so addictive that can make one eat bowls of rice :)

 

 

Having said that, I can't deny that peranakan fish garang asam is really delicious, too

After eating Alan's at the gathering, I feel like cooking that, too - soon :)

Speaking about gathering, I just had my very first bloggers gathering last Sunday
I prepared pandan steamed brownies and chocolate pudding to share with them
Such a fun time we had, what a feast we had, too! :)
I wonder why I didn't take a single snap while I was there, but luckily Wendy took many pictures and did a nice collage for each sweet and savoury goodies we enjoyed
Thanks Wendy :)

The savoury

 

 The sweet

 

Big thank you for Edith for being a great wonderful host :)

Oh and thanks to Alan too, shared some belimbing with me and gave out cute adorable containers :)

So glad I could meet face to face with many bloggers whom most of the blogs I visit frequently, and learn so much, too

Really looking forward to the next one :)

 

Now, the recipe for my chicken garang asam...
The recipe is from my mum

What you need:

1 free range chicken, cut
7 chicken liver / gizard, boil til soft (I used only chicken liver, I don't really fancy gizard)
5 bay leaves (daun salam)
1 tsp fried belachan (shrimp paste)
8 candlenuts, chopped
10 belimbing fruits, cut
1 large tomato, cut
300ml coconut milk (100ml coconut cream + 200ml water)
2 large red chillis - cut thick
3 large green chillis - cut thick
salt, sugar
banana leaves for the base

1. Preheat steamer
2. Blend together fried belachan and candlenuts til smooth
3. Lay cleaned banana leaf in a heatproof bowl and arrange all ingredients on it : chicken, liver, bay leaves, blended belachan and candlenuts, belimbing fruits, tomato, red and green chillis, coconut milk, salt, sugar
4. Mix all ingredients til well incorporated
5. Steam over medium heat for 30 minutes

Note: Don't forget to cook more rice! :)

 

 

I still have some belimbing fruits, will cook my second dish soon before it turns soft :)

 

Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri

Just a short note to wish all my Muslim friends...
SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDIL FITRI

And to all, enjoy the long weekend :)

Donuts - Another Recipe

Remember my first successful donuts?

This time, I tried another recipe. Result: as yummy, as soft and yes this also stayed soft til the next day

I thought I wouldn't be too lazy to melt chocolate buttons to make chocolate frosted donuts, but again, I was back to these three toppings - chocolate rice, grated cheddar and icing sugar
Hopefully I will be determined enough the next time I make donuts again :)

Recipe is from NCC Indonesia

What you need:
(below is 3/4 recipe)

375g bread flour
75g sugar
9g dry instant yeast
3 egg yolks
150ml water
75g butter
3/4 tsp salt

1. Put egg yolks and water in the bread maker pan, followed by flour, sugar, yeast and salt (make sure yeast doesn't come in contact with salt) and let the machine do the kneading
2. After 5 minutes, add in butter and let it continue kneading and also the first proofing - around 1 hour 30 minutes
3. Take out the dough from pan and knead briefly for a few minutes to let the air bubble out
4. Shape into big ball and leave it for 10 minutes
5. Cut dough to 40g balls arrange on lined baking sheet, proof for 30 minutes roughly
6. Cut a hole at the centre of each ball, and fry in a cooking pan with hot oil til golden brown
7. Let cool, brush the top with melted butter and sprinkle chocolate rice or cheese
8. For the balls, put in a bag with icing sugar in it, shake til the balls coated with the sugar thoroughly

Breakfast Parfait (Donna Hay)

Simple, refreshing and healthy breakfast!

Recipe is Donna Hay site, I replaced raspberries with strawberries instead

I believe any kind of berries will be as yummy

What you need:

125g strawberries, sliced

250g low fat plain yoghurt

1/2 tbsp icing sugar

70g toasted muesli

40ml honey

extra strawberries, for garnish

Lightly crush the sliced strawberries with a fork, fold through the yoghurt and icing sugar

Divide the muesli between 2 glasses. Top each with 1 tablespoon of honey

To serve, spoon over the yoghurt mixture, top with the extra strawberries and spoon over remaining honey

Serve cold immediately

Bake Along #30 - Gluten Free Apple Cornmeal Upside Down Cake

Among all, I guess my cake will be the thinnest one
First, I baked half recipe using 8" round cake
Second, I used gluten free flour mixture hence the lack of ability for the cake to rise as nice as those with plain flour
It's so thin that I couldn't really taste the cake itself cos it's a kind of mixed together with the apple mixture
Nevertheless, this is a yummy cake that's perfect to be served as dessert with a scoop of ice cream
I was not so prepared with the final touch, I realized just before I was about to take photos that I didn't have ice cream in my freezer and I only had mini Cornetto
( as you can see from the pictures below, I used only the top part LOL )

This recipe is from Epicurious
I followed exactly but only baked half of the quantity, replacing plain flour with gluten free flour mixture (the recipe for gluten free flour mixture can be viewed HERE)
Also replacing sugar with raw sugar and I used SA fuji apples
I still found it too sweet to my liking, perhaps my sweet apples were the reason

I am also curious to know the difference from the recipe from the book itself - Bon Appetit by Barbara Fairchild, whereby no boiling water and vanilla extract used

I'll try the recipe from the book the next time I bake this again, with some points to take note of:
* to use smaller pan if I bake this half quantity :)
* to reduce the amount of sugar or use granny smith apples which is more sourish in taste
* to use plain flour too so I can see whether or not there's some difference with this gluten free type


This is for Bake Along hosted by great bakers Joyce, Lena and Zoe

Please visit the wonderful blogs below baking this yummy cake too :)

At the same time I'd like to submit this post to Aspiring Bakers #22: Lightened Up Cakes (August 2012) hosted by Qi Ting of A Dessert Diet