Fast & Simple Chicken Rice

Yes.... I cheat ... 

Don't we all?  😝

The secret to my fast & quick chicken rice is stocking up my favourite paste. 

I have been using this for the last 12 years to make chicken rice and its awesome every single time and so hassle free !!

Boil a big pot of water a couple of garlic and ginger slices. Add your chicken pieces. Quarter your chicken and for us we like it with extra wings OR you can use 1 whole chicken just like Hainanese Chicken Rice. 

What we want is that chicken stock. Boil for about 7-8 minutes. Strain the chicken and keep the broth. Don't worry about undercooking your chicken. We will fry it after marinating them. 

Wash and strain about 3 cups of rice and set aside in the rice cooker.

Sauté 1 sliced onion, 3 sliced garlic & 1 inch sliced garlic in half the oil from the paste. Once softened, add half a bottle

of the paste in. Mix into the washed rice. Make sure you coat every single grain of rice with that paste and oil. Add 4 cups of chicken broth and 2 knots of pandan leaves. Taste and salt your rice water accordingly. It needs to be salty. Usually 1 teaspoon is enough since the paste is already salted. Cook in your cooker. Rice is done.

Now for the partially boiled chicken pieces, we need to season them with:-

5 tablespoons oyster sauce

2 tablespoons soya sauce

2 tablespoons sweet soya sauce 

3 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon sesame oil

Fry the chicken until golden brown. Since the chicken has been par-boiled already, you don't have to worry about the meat being undercooked.

I love how the marinade gives that gooey blackened skin after frying! 😝

Chilli Sauce 

Blend all the ingredients and sauté in oil for a short while, add chilli sauce, tomato ketchup, seasonings and vinegar and add water to get the consistency that you want.

10 stalks red chilli

3 stalks cili padi

2 garlic cloves

2 tablespoon chilli sauce

1 tablespoon tomato ketchup 

1 tablespoon vinegar 

1 tablespoon sugar

Salt to taste

1/2 cup Water

I also like drizzling extra sauce over the chicken before serving to give it that extra salty aftertaste. Just like when you buy your chicken rice at the stall and you see the Aunty sprinkling some sauce over your chicken before she wraps it up?! That!!! 

I used the same ingredients as the chicken marinade but a diluted one.

2 tablespoon oyster sauce

1 tablespoon soya sauce

1 tablespoon sweet sauce

1 tablespoon honey

A dash of sesame oil 

1/3 cup hot water

Mix all of seasonings and put it in a sauce jar next to your chicken rice chilli when serving. I know my kids loves it over their chicken! 

For the soup

None of us really eats chicken rice with much soup but it seem incomplete without it. Remember you have that balance chicken stock ? Just boil it with 2 cloves of garlic and a couple of ginger slices. Add 2 teaspoon of chicken stock granules, some chopped spring onions, chopped carrots, tofu if you like and season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with fried shallot before serving . 

Serve the rice, chicken with side salad, sliced tomatoes and cucumber. I like chopped coriander leaves over the chicken too. 

Sounds like a lot? Not really..  I can make this from start to end in under an hour and so can YOU..  if you strategize.. 

Creme Brûlée French Toast with Cherries

Sounds fancy doesn't it?? It's actually French toast that's baked and not fried just because ... I'm lazy ... Like that .. 

It's a deconstructed version of creme brûlée .. The usual caramelized crust is at the bottom, then goes your bread, and then followed by the egg mixture..

First, melt the butter, brown sugar & corn syrup. Once combined, spread the base of your baking dish .... Then lick your spoon 😆

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup salted butter

1 tablespoon corn syrup 

Then arrange your bread to cover all that brown sugar goodness! 

Add the cherries & raisins over the bread. Whisk the egg mixture and pour over the bread equally. 

3 eggs

1/2 cup cream

1/4 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla essence

A pinch of salt 

1/4 cup sour cherries, chopped

Sprinkling of raisins

Bake for 25- 30 minutes on 180 degrees or until the bread is slightly golden and puffed up.

Dust with icing sugar. I like serving mine with 2 slices on top of each other so that its nice and thick. Serve with vanilla sauce or simple maple syrup. 😍😍

Sour Cherries & Raisin Scones

Bought a huge jar of sourkirschen a couple of weeks back at the Women's International Bazaar .. It was over at the Germany Embassy stall and it was only Rp50k! Still have not made the Black Forest cake as I intended! Too many fancy schmancy cakes these days! Kinda crave for some old school ones.

So tonight instead of having dinner, we had Taiwanese seafood tempura from the Shih Lin Taiwanese snack counter but that wasn't very filling so that's why the scones came in... 

250g self raising flour

A pinch of salt

1 tablespoon sugar

75g cold butter, chopped

All you need to do is mix all the dry ingredients in a big bowl first. Then add the butter and pinch the butter with the flour until you get a really crumbly texture. You still want chunks of butter so don't overdo it! 

1 egg

2 tablespoon milk

Add the egg and milk into the centre of the dough. I find using a wooden spatula much easier until the mixture is roughly mixed. 

1/4 cup sour cherries chopped

1/4 cup raisins 

Egg + 1 tablespoon milk (eggwash)

You want a rough looking dough. Add the fruits and mix it in. Using your hands, press down on a floured surface about 3cm thick and use a round cutter to cut the dough. Place on a lined tray and brush with egg wash. Bake in a preheated oven at 200 degrees for 20 minutes. 

Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies

I actually am not a brownie person ... Weird I know .. Who doesn't like brownies ?? I however, am in love with peanut butter! I can eat peanut butter sandwiches anyday and my favourite chocolate is Reese's peanut butter cups .. No surprise there... :-) 

Dry ingredients in a bowl

2/3 cup flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp cocoa powder

Over a Bain Marie

140g dark chocolate, chopped 

1/2 cup butter, chopped (120g)

1/2 teaspoon instant coffee powder

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla essence 

2 large eggs

Once the butter and chocolate are nice and melted, pour the sugar & vanilla in. Remove from Bain Marie. Add eggs one by one whisking quickly so as not to cook the eggs.

Fold the dry ingredients into the chocolate mixture. Do not overmix! Else you'll get hard and tough brownie instead of fudgey ones. 

Pour into prepared 6 x 16 inch brownie pan with greaseproof paper lining the tin.

Peanut butter swirl

50g butter, melted 

1/2 cup icing sugar

1/2 cup peanut butter (I used Skippy chunky )

1/4 tsp salt

Mix all the ingredients and spoon in equal amounts.

Swirl using a butter knife for best result. 

Bake at 170 degrees for 30 minutes or until your your cake tester comes out clean. Cool and slice to serve. I love the crackled top that the peanut butter creates! 

Easy Lemang

What to do when you live away from home and you crave things like Lemang?? You make 'em yourself ...

250g glutinous rice, soaked for at least 1 hour

100g grated coconut

1 teaspoon salt

Just mix the rice, salt and grated coconut together. 

I made the plastic cover by halving a bigger plastic bag and sewing the edges. Or you can use a candle and running the edges quickly over the fire.

 

Fill up 3/4 way of the plastic and seal again with your candle.

I use a rice cooker to cook these babies, so fill your rice cooker 3/4 way with water and about 100ml of coconut milk and 1-2 teaspoon salt. Cover and cook just like you would cook your rice until the water boils. Add your lemang and cook the lemang for about an hour to 1.5 hour.

Drain and cool to firm. Slice into 1 inch pieces and Serve it with serunding daging or rendang! 

Acar Timun Rempah

I always make raita as an accompaniment to my pilaf or briyani but today I decided to go for acar timun... (Missing Malay weddings badly) :-(

3 small cucumber or 2 big ones, thickly julienned

1 carrot, thick julienned

A handful of small shallots

You need to soak the julienned cucumber and carrots with about a tablespoon of salt and 1 teaspoon sugar to "suck out" the moisture from the veggies. So leave that alone for about 15 minutes and drain the liquid 

Then blend the spices for the base.

4 shallots

1 garlic

1 tablespoon dried shrimp (udang kering)

5 stalks of dried chilli, soaked

Sauté in oil and then add the rest of ingredient and  :-

1 tablespoon tomato purée

1 teaspoon turmeric powder

1 tablespoon mustard seeds (biji sawi)-pop it in a bit of oil)

1 cinnamon stick

3 cloves 

1 star anise

2 tablespoon kerisik (fried coconut paste)

2 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon vinegar (more if you like it acidic)

1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)

Once the paste is throughly mixed, add your veggies and cook it lightly so that its not mushy nor too raw.

Country Fried Steak with Milk Gravy

The hubs and kids didn't want rice for dinner so rummaged the fridge and found some topside steak.

Pound the steak in plastic bag on your cutting board. This ensures you get a nice thin layer of beef that's tender to the bite. Whisk the eggs in a large flat plate. And prepare another plate with the dry ingredients.

4 topside or sirloin steak, pounded

1-2 eggs

1 cup flour

1 tsp salt

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon black pepper

Dip the pounded steak into the egg, then the flour mixture, into the egg and flour mixture again and pan fry in oil until nice and golden crispy on both sides. Serve with garlic mash, steamed veggies and milk gravy.

Milk Gravy

 

1/4 cup butter

2 tablespoon flour

2 cups milk 

1 teaspoon Beef stock powder 

A pinch of black pepper 

Salt to taste

Heat butter in a pan and once melted, add flour. Milk gravy is basically a roux based sauce. Stir quickly and once the butter absorbs all that flour, stir in your 1 cup of milk. Using a whisk, stir the mixture until thickened. Add more milk according to your preference of thickness . The gravy should be a nice thick consistency. Add your beef stock powder, pepper & salt. You can run it through a sieve if your sauce is lumpy. 

Drizzle over your beef!

Ayam Masak Merah

Every family have their own Ayam Masak Merah version. This is mine.. It's a favourite with kids too because its a great way to ease them into eating spicy food without the tears and sweat! 😝😝

A handful of dried chilli, soaked (more if you don't have kids and like it spicy)

2 large onions

4 cloves garlic

3cm ginger

1 lemongrass

2cm belachan

1/3 cup ghee

Oil

1 cinnamon stick

2 star anise

2 cardamom

Blend the following and sauté with oil and ghee until fragrant. Add the spices.

2 chopped tomatoes

1/4 cup tomato ketchup 

1 tablespoon tomato paste

1 cup water

2 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoon salt (to taste)

1 carrot cut, lengthwise and blanched

2 potatoes, wedges and fried 

1/4 cup processed peas

1kg chicken pieces or wings, seasoned with a bit of turmeric & salt and fry lightly

Add the chopped tomatoes and then the tomato paste and tomato ketchup. Add water and season your gravy with sugar and salt. 

Add the semi fried chicken and mix the gravy throughly.

I like these Ayam brand processed peas. Really tender!

Add the fried potato wedges, peas and carrots. Once all are throughly cooked, serve with nasi minyak & acar buah! Boommzz!

Nasi Minyak

Nasi Minyak goes so well with Ayam Masak merah & acar buah!! The stuff i look forward to every wedding I go to! 

 

1 large onion 

4 cloves garlic 

3cm ginger 

1/4 cup Ghee

1 cinnamon stick

3 cloves

3 cardamom 

2 star anise

3 cups rice 

A handful fried shallot

1/4 cup raisins

1/4 cup cashew nuts, halved

Salt

2 cups Evaporated milk 

2 cups water

Blend the onion, ginger & garlic and sauté in ghee.

Sauté the blended items and add in the spices. Once fragrant, add into 3 cups washed rice.

Mix throughly and add milk, water and salt to taste. I always go with 1:1.5 rice to water ratio which never fails. But with 3 cups of rice, I lessen the water a bit. 

Cook it in the rice cooker witha sprinkling of fried shallots. Once cooked, sauté the raisin, cashew nuts and a bit fried shallots in a bit of ghee and add in to the rice. Serve with more fried shallot on top

Roti Boyan with Sambal Tumis

I miss these!! Obviously I had no choice but to make it from scratch here in Jakarta!

Dough

In a bowl, just add the following ingredients and knead until smooth. Cover and leave the dough to rest while you make the filling. 

200g flour

2 tablespoon oil

2 1/2 tablespoon ghee 

1/2 cup warm water

1/2 tsp salt

Filling

1/2 onion, roughly chopped 

2 garlic, chopped 

4 large potatoes, boiled and chopped

2 stalks parsley or spring onions, chopped

1/4 cup fried shallot (bawang goreng)

1 tsp Chicken stock powder

A dash of pepper

Salt to taste

2 eggs 

Sauté the onions and garlic in oil until softened. Add the chopped potatoes, parsley or spring onions and fried shallot.

 

Season with chicken stock powder, salt & pepper and crack the 2 eggs on the side. Stir the egg into the potatoes once the egg is slightly cooked. Cool before filling.

There's many ways of assembling the roti. You can roll the dough, cut into 2 circles, fill and crimp the sides. Or you can roll into small squares, fill and fold into squares. Or you can just fill it just like an epok-epok (which I did with the rest of my dough) :-) and freeze it for you to fry on another day 

Nothing beats roti boyan with sambal Tumis. Of course you can have it with chilli sauce but less oommpphh! Make your own sambal Tumis which you can then later use for prawn sambal, sambal ikan bilis and lots more!

Sambal Tumis 

2 large onions

A handful of dried chillis, soaked

3 cloves of garlic

A thumb size belachan

A bit of water to blend

A walnut size of asam or tamarind, mixed with water to get the juice 

1.5 tsp of salt (or to taste)

2 tablespoons sugar

Just blend the above items in a blender until smooth. Sauté in about 1 cup of oil and make sure the ingredients are really fragrant and "crispy". Add your salt, sugar and tamarind water. Add a bit more water if preferred but for the roti boyan accompaniment, a thick sambal is preferred. 

Yin Yang Cookies (Peanut Butter & Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies)

After an exhausting day cooking, the kids sweetly asked me when am I baking them cookies.... ?! Oh my.... Just when I'm about to call it quits and enjoy my cup of tea while watching AFC.. Sigggh

And they want Yin Yang cookies no less!!  I'll be honest, I'm not a cookie person unless its Famous Amos.. But the kids love that they get both of their favourite flavours in one bite after dunking it in milk.. So here goes ...

Chocolate Chip Dough

1/4 cup butter (58g)

1/4 cup brown sugar 

1/4 cup sugar 

1/2 tsp vanilla essence 

1/2 egg

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/4 tsp bicarbonate soda 

1/2 cup flour 

1/4 tsp salt

1 tablespoon milk

1/2 cup chocolate chips 

Peanut Butter Dough

1/4 cup butter (58g)

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/8 cup sugar

1/2 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla essence 

1/3 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup flour

1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add egg, vanilla and then the dry ingredients. Just like how you would do for any cookie. Same method. Chill the dough for about half an hour in the fridge so that it's firmer to roll into balls.

Take each ball of peanut & dark choc chip and roll them into 1 bigger ball. Flatten the dough slightly on a greaseproof paper and sprinkle more chocolate chips on top. 

Bake for 25 minutes on 180 degrees. Cool these cookies and dunk them in cold milk! 

Chouquettes

Don't you just adore these simple tea time treats? I do.. Very simple to make, easy on the pockets. The only thing that might be hard to find are the pearl sugar to sprinkle on top. 

Basically all you need to add all the ingredients except the flour & eggs in the pot and heat on low.

1 cup water

90g butter (unsalted)

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

1 cup flour

Once the butter is melted, add the flour and stir until well combined and the dough stops sticking to the pot and into a ball. Turn off heat only when the dough is cooked.

4 eggs 

Cool the mixture slightly and stir in the eggs one by one.

 The mixture will be a nice texture for piping. Use a cloth piping bag or ice cream scoop and pipe into circle balls the size of golf balls.

1 yolk + 1 tablespoon milk 

Brush with egg wash and sprinkle pearl sugar on top. Sprinkle generously !! 

Pre-heat your oven. Let it bake for 25 -30 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius or until golden brown. Do not tempt to open your oven door while it bakes!!