Having to create lesson packages for Emily of Emerald Hill ignited my obsession for Peranakan food for a while. For quite some time, I was craving Peranakan dishes. I made my mother cook mee siam and then bought kueh pie tee shells from Cold Storage so that my mother is forced to make the filling for it. To be fair, the first time I did compensate her but when the craving came again, I just bought the pie tee cups and asked her ever so sweetly to make the filling. Again.
Then one night I decided to open up my old Peranakan cookbook written by a famous Malaysian cook – Florence Tan – and found a recipe so simple that it begged to be cooked that very night. Yes, that very night (anyway, I had a defrosted chicken lying around in the fridge) I made this simple simple dish, following exact measurements given (using my baking cups to measure out my taucheong!) and it was a success. The kids and the adult loved it.
One day, I decided to make something cheesy using leftovers. So I did. I had some burritos, some chicken breasts and cheese. So I decided to wrap all these things together and make some sort of a sauce and bake in the oven.
For the sauce, I roasted all these vegetables and then blended them, adding salt.The result was this spicy sauce. The spiciness came from the small Indian green chillies that I had bought at Mustafa weeks before.My filling assembly line. The chicken breasts were roasted in the oven simply with salt, black pepper and a bit of olive oil. And then I shredded them. The thick brown sauce is actually vegetarian refried beans.Put a burrito in a hot pan for just a few seconds. And then place it on a board. Spread the refried beans, top with chicken and the sauce. Put cheese on top (I used one slice of emanthal cheese).Just roll it up and place it in a baking dish, seam side down.Pour all the sauce on top, top with mozzarella cheese and bake till bubbly.This really has to be eaten hot. And one is already a lot. I was ambitious by plating two. It was rich, spicy and completely delicious. One success story here after quite a few bad attempts at some other dishes the previous days.
It truly has been ages since I last update but it’s not because of laziness. My MAC was completely spoilt. And while now it seems to be A-OK, it is working at a very slow speed.
So I shall resume by sharing about my latest craze: making my own chicken rice – the authentic way. Including how to chop it up chinese style.
It’s all very simple actually. For the white chicken version, I boiled one whole chicken cut in half for easier handling in a pot of water that has lots of sliced ginger and one or two (if small) whole onions. After 20-25 minutes of cooking under high heat, I turned off the heat off and let the chicken just stay in there for a further 20-30 min. And then when I am ready to take the chicken out, I stand by a basin of ice-cold water and dunk the chicken in there. This step is extremely crucial in achieving a gelatinous, firm skin.
For the rice, I used the same water that I had boiled the chicken in, but before that, I used ready-made Chicken rice paste from the shelf to fry my rice (basmati) in. I also added a pandan leaf. Next time, I will try just using garlic and ginger and nothing else.
For the chilli sauce, plenty of fresh red chillies, loads more of chilli padi (red), lime juice, sugar and salt.
Then I decided to make a roasted version just a few days ago. I marinated the chicken with light soya sauce, sweet soya sauce, honey and garlic/ginger paste. The next time, I will also use five spice powder. The real roasted variety found in hawker centres is actually fried but I’d rather roast mine in the oven. The result is OK but the skin will not be as crispy.
And then, I cloned my chicken rice by assembling it the same way as in my favourite halal chicken rice stall -Tang’s Tea house. I sliced cucumbers thinkly the same way and drizzled a mixture of light soy sauce and sesame oil over my chopped chicken.
I made this for breakfast for the girls the other day. I used ready made crepe. I spread Hoisin sauce over the crepe, but then afterwards I realised that I should have used plum sauce. I did have plum sauce in the fridge. I love this.
On top of the smoke duck, I added chopped lettuce and carrots, and strips of Japanese cucumbers.Delicious crepes.
I just had this two minutes ago. Yummy. And cheap. If you think about it, one packet of ground beef costs about $5 plus a packet of burger buns (four inside) costs about $2. Cheese is what? A few cents. Let’s say everything is about $8 and you can make about 5 patties; why, that’s about $2 per burger! And, you get a super thick burger meat for that instead of that paper thin burger meat they try to pass off at fast food outlets.
I’ve watched Diners Drive-Ins and Dives plenty of times and one thing I noticed is that the diners in America only season their meat with salt and pepper. Nothing more. It’s the other extra stuff that makes a burger good.
So this is what I made for our family dinner:
Season with salt and pepper and form thick patties. Use this kind of spatula to flip your burgers. Any thicker and chances are you will break the patty. This is patty no. 5. So if you make smaller patties, you can make more burgers!Oil a griller pan (I used olive oil) and cook the patties. Don't overcook. Once the bottom of one side has browned, flip over and continue cooking till required doneness.Once you are almost ready to take the patty out, slap on a good quality cheese. Or any cheese for that matter. I used smoked cheese.While the patty is still cooking away, slather some mayo and any condiment onto bread. I used this chilli chutney. It turned out to be deliciously sweet. A great ingredient for meat.Eat it while it's hot! Of course you can add whatever toppings like lettuce, tomatoes, onions, etc etc but for today, I just wanted a simple juicy cheeseburger. And juicy it was!
The Occasional Cook 