Rice – Page 4 – The Occasional Cook

Smoking rice

January 4, 2014March 3, 2021 7shasha7

Making any flavoured Arabic or Indian style rice, I discovered a few years ago that smoking them will give them an even more intense flavour and really bring life to it. I’ve tried one day cooking two batches of rice- the first smoked. The first batch received so many praises from my guests but when they were all gone, I had to serve the second batch. There was a marked difference. The taste of the rice mind you is the same. Same recipe same rice. But somehow when you smoke the rice…

Let me show you how to smoke the rice. It’s very simple. In a small bowl line it with aluminium foil. Heat a piece of charcoal till its flaming red. Place it in your aluminium bowl. Then, pour a small amount of ghee or butter on the coal and you will immediately see a big billow of smoke. Using thongs carefully place the bowl in your rice cooker. Cover the steam holes of your rice cooker so that the smoke do not escape. Leave for ten minutes and then remove. The rice will taste sensational. This only works for any Arabic or Indian type of rice; I strongly do not recommend Chinese rice like chicken rice for this 🙂

Asian Dishes, Japanese/Korean, Rice

Inarizushi

April 8, 2012March 3, 2021 7shasha7

Still going strong on a Jap theme here, I made inarizushi this afternoon. It’s pretty simple to make. The way I was taught by a relative who lives in Japan is to use konbu water, Japanese soy sauce and a teaspoon of sugar added last. The mixture must be thick and syrupy and the longer you boil the tofus in, the nice it’ll be.

My version was boil water, add light and dark soy sauce, and a bit of Indonesian kicap manis, and then boil it till the mixture is evaporated. Squeeze to get rid of the excess sauce once the tofus are done. But before that, make sure you boil the tofus to ‘de-oil’ them, if that makes sense.

Asian Dishes, Japanese/Korean, Rice

Onigiri for Bento

April 8, 2012March 3, 2021 7shasha7

Konnichiwa! What a long hiatus from blogging, and from cooking in general. But this long weekend, I managed to whip some new things. Well, not all of them old. Like these onigiri!

This time round, I know how to make them into triangles! The trick is to use plastic wrap. Yes, I read this in all the blogsites on onigiri. OK, that’s a hyperbole ;p

Anyway, for that day’s onigiri, I used brown rice. Short-grain brown rice bought from Cold Storage. And the filling was simply bonito flakes. The cute little kawaii smiles? Why, from Daiso of course! They actually have face stampers. So cute right?

IMG02832-20120406-1834 — Her new bento box.

Rice

Nasi Ambeng

September 24, 2011 7shasha7

It really has been ages since I last updated this blog. In the meantime, I’ve been reading other Singaporean food blogs, some of which I really like. I’ll add their links in my Pages tab.

I love nasi ambeng. It’s my one Malay food weakness. I decided to make one during Hari Raya when my mom wanted to pop over for a visit. Well, this is a rendition of the traditional nasi ambeng. A traditional nasi ambeng would consist of rendang (usually beef), begedil (potato patty), fried tempeh and tahu (tau kwa), fried fish, sambal belacan, cucumbers – all the good things that make life worth living ;p

My version was chicken rendang (which turned out to be more like chicken sambal), urap (vegetable salad), begedil, fried tempeh and tau kwa and sambal belacan. I served it all on a plate lined with banana leaf. And I got the helper to make asam rebus (vegetable sweet and sour soup) which I will make and share it with all of you.

This is what I served that day – individual plates for all who came that day to visit.

Asian Dishes, Japanese/Korean, Rice

Bibimbap…Sorta

April 16, 2011March 3, 2021 7shasha7

Last Sunday as I was browsing along the aisles of a huge NTUC, I chanced upon this…

I read the ingredients, checked the label thoroughly and saw the tiny halal logo but checked and re-checked the ingredients again…and then quick as lightning, I dumped it into my basket. It’s Korean bibimbap for goodness sakes! I was so excited that I couldn’t wait to go home and cook my version of bibimbap.

Why my version? I reckon what’s great about bibimbap are just three ingredients – the sweet chilli sauce, fluffy Japanese white rice and a fried egg. The other thing is that there must be something crunchy and a protein. I had leftover roasted honey chicken so I cut them into slices. I had broccoli that I intended to stir-fry al dente. And I had bonito flakes…

I loved it! I will not crave for bibimbap anymore coz I can cook one at home! Granted, it’s not authentic what without the funny Korean seaweed etc but I can add whatever I want into the bowl, dump the chilli sauce and an egg and I will be satiated.:)