Chicken Mushroom Salad

This is something I whipped up some time ago when we all felt like a healthy lunch. You all know about my love for mushrooms and how the family loves them too. Both my boy and girl love anything with corn in it and The Lovely Wife just adores anything that has to do with vegetables - especially if the word Salad is in it.

Salads are always great to have on a hot day - which is practically every day in Malaysia. The thing about salads is that you can eat a lot of it and not feel guilty. Aside from that, its really nutritious and wholesome and best of all it doesnt take long to make!



The real beauty about a salad is that you can add anything and everything to it and it tastes just great. To add more body to my salad, I added in some chicken.
This is what I did:

Ingredients
200g chicken breast - sliced
200g brown mushrooms - sliced
1 onion - sliced
1 clove garlic - chopped
1 tsp oregano
Salt
Pepper
1 Head Lettuce Leaves
1 Orange Capsicum - sliced
1 Red Capsicum - sliced
1 Cucumber -sliced
1 tin corn

Method
Sautee the garlic and onion and then add in the oregano. Put in the the mushrooms and chicken and cook till tender. Season with salt and pepper.
On a separate plate, combine the lettuce leaves, cucumber, capsicum and corn. Arrange the chicken on top and toss before serving.

Very tasty and very wholesome. I didnt add any dressing but you could add in a little vinagrette dressing if you like. The mild flavours from the chicken and mushroom provided enough of a dressing for me and you could get the real taste and flavour of the vegetables.



Fresh, crunchy, tasty and perfect for a quick meal!

Lemon and Honeydew Chicken

This post has been one that should have been posted a long, long time ago. The Lovely Wife has been making this dish for quite a while and it has sat in my list of to-do posts for ever so long! That explains why I have two different shots of the food as well.

This dish ranks as one of my son's favourites. It's not just him that loves this dish though, it's the whole family. The trouble with this dish is that you can't quite stop eating it. Eat. Eat. Eat. That's what happens everytime The Lovely Wife makes this dish.

The best thing about this dish is that the Chicken tastes great with our without the sauce and the sauce tastes great with or without the Chicken! It goes really well with rice and I'm not having you on when I say you just can't stop eating this!



The recipe is based on the recipe from Simply Sedap by Chef Wan with just a little modification where The Lovely Wife leaves out the chicken stock granules that Chef Wan puts in the sauce.

Ingredients
4 boneless chicken breasts - cut into strips
2 Tbsp Oyster sauce
1 Tbsp Cornflour
2 Tbsp plain flour
1 egg - beaten
3/4 cup breadcrumbs
Lemon and honeydew sauce


Lemon and Honeydew Sauce
1/3 cup water
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup honey
2 tsps light soya soauce
2 tsps cornflour
200g honeydew melon balls

Method
Marinate the chicken in oyster sauce and cornflour. Dust the chicken piece with plain flour and dip into the beaten eggs and then coat with breadcrumbs. Deep fry until golden brown. Drain and arrange on a plate.
Cover the chicken with the Lemon and Honeydew sauce.

Lemon and Honeydew Sace
Combine all ingredients except honeydew in a saucepan and mix together. Simmer till thick. Add in honeydew balls and heat through

The kids love to help by coating the chicken in the breadcrumbs and it's a lot of fun with the whole family in the kitchen helping out. As I mentioned earlier, the chicken on its own is really tasty and it has become The Lovely Wife's version of chicken fingers. The sauce can be served as a dip for the chicken although tomato sauce and chilli sauce go really well as a dipping sauce as well. This is great finger food!



It can be quite cumbersome to scoop out honeydew balls so sometimes, we just cut the honeydew into pieces. It doesn't affect the taste at all although it does look a lot better with honeydew balls.

No matter how you serve it, this dish has become a firm favourite in this household and it has become one of our comfort foods!

Honey Chicken and more cultural exchange

My son's favourite dish to order at Nasi Kandar restaurants is Honey Chicken. For my foreign readers, Nasi Kandar is basically rice with a variety of dishes, usually curried or spicy. Nasi Kandar is thought to have originated from Penang and is is basically food with a strong Indian Muslim influence.

Literally translated, from Malay, Nasi is Rice while Kandar is a yoke or to carry with a pole on the shoulders. Picture a vendor in days of yore, balancing a pole on his shoulders with each end of the pole attached to containers of rice and curries! Today, Malaysia is full of Nasi Kandar shops and the key or trick to a good Nasi Kandar is to mix a little bit of curry/gravy from every dish in addition to the main meat dish that you choose. Ergo, if you chose to have a chicken curry with rice, you would take a serving of chicken curry but you would also add a litte of the gravy from the mutton curry, the fish curry, the chicken kurma, the chicken sambal... you get the idea.

One of the specials at most Nasi Kandar restaurants is the Honey Chicken. This is basically chicken cooked in a honey sauce flavoured with spices. Some shops add a bit of chilli powder to make it a little spicy. Most times, the chicken is fried first and then coated in the sauce.





Any time we go to a Nasi Kandar restaurant, my son will order Honey Chicken. Since my son loves his Honey Chicken so much, The Lovely Wife decided she was going to try and make this at home - without frying the chicken first so that it would be healthier. This is what she did.

Ingredients
Chicken
4 cloves garlic
1 inch ginger
1 onion - sliced
cinammon stick - broken into pieces
1 Tbsp Dark Soya Sauce
1/2 Tbsp light soya sauce
3-4 Tbsp Honey
Method
pound ginger, garlic and marinate the chicken together with the dark soy sauce. Fry the cinammon until fragrant. Add onion and cook till soft. Add in chicken and cook well. Add light soya sauce to taste and then add in the honey. Continue to cook until chicken is well coated and honey is caramelised.

It turned out really well and we all really enjoyed this. I guess the true test of the success of this was my son licking his fingers and declaring. "No need to go to Nasi Kandar shops anymore Mummy!"

BloggerAid Culinary Olympics - Ayam Goreng Sri Wangi (Fragrant Fried Chicken)

The Malaysian Flag is raised at the Culinary Olympics 2010 hosted in Canada...


If there is one thing that symbolises Malaysia, it would be its veritable assortment of food. Assortment doesn't quite give you the right picture though. Think more along the lines of multifariousness, multiplicity, mélange, potpourri, mishmash, range, variation and you get more of an idea. With three main cuisines of Malay, Indian and Chinese, interspersed with Portuguese, Dutch and English, you get an idea of what true Malaysian food is. Throw in a fetish for Japanese, Italian, French and German cuisine and Malaysia is a melting pot for all kinds of food. Want a foodie holiday? Come to Malaysia! Sadly, the same can't be said about our sporting prowess.

That brings me to the BloggerAid -Changing the Face of Famine Culinary Olympics. This cyber event is being held to coincide with the Winter Olympics in Canada. The aim of this event is to promote food (might they make it an official sport?) and BACFF's mission to actively promote the alleviation of World Hunger. This event is only open to members of BloggerAid Changing the Face of Famine (BACFF). Since I am a member of BACFF, I have decided to take part in these the inaugural Culinary Olympics!




Malaysia only ever takes part in the Summer Olympics - for obvious reasons. However Malaysia has never won a Gold medal at the Olympics. We've won Bronze and Silver (for Badminton) but that is all. Our Football (soccer) team hasn't made it to the Olympics since the 80's and our Hockey team, once sure bets for the Olympics, have failed to qualify in recent times. Sad, sad indeed.

Never mind about the Olympics though, we STILL have the Worlds Tallest PAIR of Buildings!! It used to be the Worlds Tallest Building but that has long been superceded most recently by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Good thing we built the towers as a pair...



We also have the Sixth tallest Communication Tower in the World in the form of the Kuala Lumpur Tower.



In deciding what dish to submit, I wanted it to be something distinctly Malaysian as well as something that is well liked in our household. I'd already posted about Satay previously as well as Nasi Lemak. Then it struck me. One of The Lovely Wife's favourite dishes to make and that we all love to eat, comes from Malaysia's very own Chef Wan. I had photographed this dish quite a while ago and so decided to finally get the writeup done for the BloggerAid Olympics!




The recipe comes from Simply Sedap by Chef Wan and this is how it goes:

Ingredients
4 Chicken breast fillets - cut into strips
2 stalks lemongrass (serai)- finely sliced
1 torch ginger bud (bunga kantan) - finely sliced
10 birds eye chillies (Chilli padi)
2 Tbsp Tom Yam paste
1/4 cup water
1 tsp honey
1 1/2 Tbsp mayonnaise
3 kaffir lime leaves - finely sliced

Marinade
1 1/2 Tbsp Oyster sauce
1 medium egg - beaten
3 Tbsp cornflour


Method
Combine the chicken with the marinade and set aside for at least 15 minutes. Deep fry the chicken until it is golden and crisp. Drain
In a separate pan or wok, heat a little oil and saute the lemon grass, torch ginger bud, chillies and tom yam paste until fragrant
Add in the water, honey and chicken. Mix well. Remove from the heat and stir in the mayonnaise. Stir in the kaffir lime leaves.

This chicken dish is rather spicy what with the addition of chilli padi as well as the tom yam paste. It goes really well with rice and although it is piquant, you sort of keep wanting to eat more and more...and more still!



Members of BACFF have also been asked to do a little promotion for the BloggerAid Cookbook, available online. All proceeds from this book will go to the United Nations World Food Program. One of my recipes is also featured in that book and I received my order of the book just a few weeks ago. So do what you can for a good cause.

All entries for the Olympics will be posted on the BACFF website on the 5th March so don't forget to check out all the awesome entries!

And when are you coming over to visit this wonderful country of mine?

Rice Porridge and more cultural exchange

In Malaysia, a dish that you will find in many hawker stalls and in fact even some Restaurants is Porridge. It's also a great dish to make at home and many a household would have their own variation of a rice porridge. This porridge is savoury rather than sweet and is known by many a different name, depending on which culture you are referring to. The Chinese call it Chiook, the Indians may refer to it as Kanji, the Malays call it Bubur while the English would call it Congee. These are the names that I am familiar with anyway. A quick check on Wikipedia will show you that there are many other different names and variations for this simple rice dish. As Shakespeare might say, a porridge by any other name would taste just as great!


I really enjoy a good porridge and it can be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Many a Malaysian hotel will serve Porridge as one of the items on their buffet spread. The porridge will be in a large steaming pot while the condiments and 'fillings' would include shredded chicken, liver, sesame oil, spring onions, soy sauce, pepper, salted egg, fried onions and a whole host of other ingredients for you to customise the porridge as you wanted to.

Chicken Porridge is also a great dish to eat as comfort food and as a substitute for chicken soup when one is not feeling well. The rice in the porridge means you have a far more substantial meal while it is still easy to eat and provides all the necessary nutrition to fight off the fever and chills body!

The Lovely Wife has often made porridge but recently realised that the secret to a good porridge is in making a good stock first. The best thing to make a good stock is the carcass if a chicken or chicken bones. For the vegetarians out there, just make a good stock out of vegetables.



The secret to a good porridge is also not to make it too salty as it is best served with Soy Sauce - with the 'eater' adding in as much soy sauce as they like. Soy sauce has a slightly different taste to salt and adds some colour to the bland looking porridge. Garnish the porridge with spring onions and coriander for some extra colour too.

Ingredients
carcass of 1 chicken
2 cups rice
3 inches ginger
6 cloves garlic
200g chicken fillet - cut into strips
2 tsp sesame oil

Method
Put chicken carcass in a large saucepan and fill with water till carcass is covered. Bruise 3 cloves of garlic and add half the ginger strips. Reserve the rest. Bring to the boil and allow to simmer for about 15 minutes to make nice stock. Season with salt and pepper. Remove the carcass and set the stock aside. In a separate saucepan heat a little oil and sautee the remaining garlic and ginger - cut into strips. Add in the rice and mix well. Add the stock into the saucepan and cook until rice becomes a porridge. Add in the chicken strips and continue to simmer until the chicken is cooked. Add in more water if needed. Stir in sesame oil before serving. Garnish with onion leaves and coriander.Serve with Soy sauce and Pepper.

The thing I really love about a porridge is that you can use any type of meat with it or even just vegetables. Some people even eat a spicy version of porridge where they would add in some chicken curry or beef curry into the porridge. With porridge, the possibilites are practically endless.



Home made Porridge is also something that many Asian families make to feed their infants - once they start eating solids. The porridge will be cooked with carrot, potatoes and other vegetables and then mashed together to make it even finer and easy to eat for baby!

Porridge - a yummy, timeless food that feeds everyone, young or old!

Curry Leaf Chicken and more Cultural Exchange

With a name like Curry Leaf Chicken, you would automatically assume this is an Indian Dish. However, you would never, ever find this dish in an Indian shop or restaurant. You WOULD however, find it in a CHINESE Restaurant! This is how Malaysian food has evolved with Chinese Cuisine borrowing from Indian as well as Malay cuisine - giving you a dish that is authentically and uniquely Malaysian.

The Lovely Wife and I both enjoy this dish and we order it rather often whenever we go out with family and friends for Chinese Food. Regular readers of my blog would know that The Lovely Wife has caught my disease of trying to replicate food that we have eaten outside in our own kitchen. She has become very succesful in not only replicating dishes without the aid of a cookbook, but doing even better than what we eat outside.


Getting Chinese Food to taste as good as you get outside is particularly difficult du to the high heat used and the heavy wok that distributes the heat so well - thus enabling the food to be cooked so fast. Most chinese shops also love to use MSG - Monosodium Glutamate - that although makes the food taste good, leaves a drying feeling in the mouth long after the meal has been consumed. That's another reason why home cooked food is always better!

This chicken dish is spicy, with loads of chilli padi (birds eye chilli) and even dried prawns to give it an added crunch and flavour!



This is what she did:

Ingredients
1 inch ginger
6 cloves garlic
2 big onion - sliced
400g Chicken Fillet - cut into strips
5 stalks curry leaves
10 birds eye chillis (chilli padi) - chopped finely
1 tsp chilli powder
1 Tbsp curry powder
1 Tbsp Dark Soya Sauce
25 g dried prawns - soaked and pounded
1 Tbsp Honey (if needed)
Salt and Pepper to taste

Method
Marinate chicken with salt and pepper. Blend together ginger and garlic then Sautee
in a little oil. Add onions, chilli powder, curry powder and cook well till fragrant. Add in curry leaves, chillies and prawns. Cook well and then add in chicken. Add a little water if needed. Keep stirring until chicken is cooked through and liquid is reduced. When half dry, add soya sauce and continue cooking till mixture is dry and the chicken is well coated. Add the honey if too spicy!

This dish goes really well with rice. She also served it with some Yau Mak that also happens to be my son's favourite vegetable dish. The Yau Mak goes really well as the oyster sauce and crunchy greens help to tone down the spiciness, or rather piquancy (is there such a word?) from the chillis.



A highly tasty and succesful replicating endeavour from The Lovely Wife. As has become the case of late when either one of us replicates something succesfully, the kids will pipe up - "Another dish that we dont have to eat outside anymore!"

Better than or at least as good as Chilli's

A close friend, Lynn, remarked the other day that I am a 'kill-joy' because I always want to try and make something that the kids like at restaurants. She says that if I keep doing this, the kids will never want to eat out anymore and will never enjoy food outside. I replied that it wasn't actually a 'want' but more of a 'need' - I need to know that I can do it better or at the very least, as good as what you get outside!

I kind of see her point though, but at the same time I dont see any reason why they shouldn't realise that Daddy (and Mummy) make food that is just as tasty, if not better, than what they would get at eateries outside. Furthermore, at least we know what goes into homecooked food, it is definitely more wholesome and also cheaper.




One of our favourite places to eat out is Chilli's Grill and Bar I find it rather interesting that this American Food chain is almost a worldwide name now as they have outlets all over the world. There are Four outlets in Kuala Lumpur alone and I believe one in Penang.

We love going to Chilli's as not only is the food good, it is value for money as Kids eat Free with every Adult Meal, How's that for Free Advertising for Chillis!! I also love the Bottomless drinks, otherwise known as unlimited refills, that you can order there. I usually make sure I finish at least 5 glasses of Coke when I order the bottomless drinks - much to The Lovely Wifes disenchantment! These days though, I try and stick to just water.



When the kids were younger, they would be happy with their own kids meals but nowadays they enjoy sharing the food we order as well. We all enjoy the salads at Chilli's as not only are they tasty, the portions are large and salads are always best eaten shared!


So since we all enjoy the salads there, can you really blame me for trying to make something similar at home? I think not! This is what I did.

Crispy Chicken Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing

Ingredients
4 chicken breasts
1 egg
1 Tbsp Honey
Pepper
Salt
6 Tbsp Corn Flour
3 Tbsp Plain flour
Oregano
Basil


Salad Leaves
Carrots
Cherry Tomatoes
Capsicum
Japanese Cucumber

Dressing
2 Tbsp Mayonnaise
Splash of lemon juice
1 chopped Gherkin
1 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
1 tsp yellow Mustard (English if you want it a bit piquant)
2 Tbsp Honey

Method
Mix the flour, salt, pepper, oregano and basil together. Set aside. Beat the egg with the honey and set aside. Dip the chicken into the egg mixture then into the flour mixture and fry till well cooked. Cut the breasts into pieces.

To make the dressing, mix all the ingredients together till smooth. Adjust it to your taste.

On a serving platter, arrange the salad leaves, cut Carrots, Cherry Tomatoes, Capsicum and Japanese Cucumber. Place the chicken over it and serve with the dressing

This salad not only looked like the real thing, it also tasted like the real thing - perhaps even better. The Chicken came out a lot better than I expected. It wasnt as cruncy as the chicken you get at Chillis, but it was certainly very tasty.



What I really like about this Salad is how you can customise it with whatever vegetables you like. Add more salad leaves or more tomatoes - just the way you like it!


The kids loved it and both The Lovely Wife and I thoroughly enjoyed it. A Simple, Tasty and Healthy dish - what more could you ask for! My son and daughter both remarked that although they still like Chillis, what we cook at home is just as good!

More about Dinner for the girls...

I posted in my previous post about how The Lovely Wife had a few of her old school mates (nothing old about them though so I guess I should reword that) Ex school mates over for dinner. I didn't take pictures of all the food as I've posted about most of them before.

Lynn however, did take pictures and I am sharing her pics here! It also gives me a chance to be lazy and not write too much of a story as sometimes pictures are better than words!

Thanks Lynn for the photos!

The rice tarts - still in their moulds. I should really have taken them out while they were still hot as some of the rice stuck to the bottom and it didn't hold its shape up as well as they did the last time.




The Peppers that I had to bake in a muffin pan so that they stood up properly! I'll post the full recipe and more pics soon.





The Olbigatory Salad - compliments of The Lovely Wife...



The Chicken Pie that was very well received. The Lovely Wife still says this is one of her favourite dishes. Somehow, I find that it seems to taste even better the next day. It certainly cuts better after a night in the fridge!





And Dessert was featured and explained in the last post as well! Come back again anytime girls!

Creamy Tomato Chicken Pasta

Last weekend, The Lovely Wife went for her old school reunion. One of her close friends organised the brunch meeting so she left early in the morning to help out. The kids and I started off our 'Mummy free day' by going to the supermarket to get some ingredients for their choice of lunch. No surprises that they wanted a pasta. I sometimes wonder why the kids love their pasta so much!

I had decided I was going to make a creamy tomato based pasta and there was some chicken in the fridge as well as some capsicum. So all we really needed to get was some mushrooms and a few other groceries.

I was also busy doing the Daring Baker's challenge for this month - but of course I cant tell you what it is yet! So in between doing this and that for the challenge, I made this pasta sauce.

Ingredients
4 cloves garlic
1 large onion
2 bay leaves
2 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
500g Chicken breast - cut into strips
200 g portobello mushrooms - cut into strips
3 yellow capsicum - cut into strips
1 can stewed tomatoes
1/2 cup cream
Salt
Pepper
Method
Season the chicken with salt and pepper. Set aside. Sautee garlic, onion, bay leaves and oregano till fragrant. Add in chicken and cook well. Add in mushrooms and mix well. continue cooking until juices are released. Add in can of tomatoes and allow to simmer. Add in capsicum, mixing well. Pour in the cream and mix well. Allow to simmer. Add a little corn flour mixed with water if needed to thicken the mixture.

I served this with Spaghetti although I contemplated using Penne. I think I made the right choice as the Spaghetti went really well with this sauce.

The dish turned out better than I expected and the kids really loved it. They said this was one of the best pasta's they had ever eaten but I take that with a pinch of salt simply because they were really hungry. We all know that food tastes better when you are really hungry!

The Lovely Wife came home later in the afternoon and she admitted she was a tad hungry as she had eaten brunch rather early and then had only had coffee after that. She proceeded to eat the pasta sauce with some bread and she too declared it a winner in her books.




Well, if everyone in my family loved it, that means it has got to be pretty darn good right?!

It's been a while since I contributed to Presto Pasta Nights the brainchild of my friend Ruth and hosted this week by Kait of Pots and Plots so this is my contribution this time around.

Dumpling my way to be a Daring Cook!

For those of you not in the know, The Daring Bakers have formed another group known as the Daring Cooks and there is a whole new website called The Daring Kitchen. Now how cool is that?!!

The Daring Cooks had their first challenge last month which I sadly missed. I almost missed the challenge this month too but managed to sneak in in - just under the wire. So I guess that makes me a Daring Cook - and only one challenge late!!

Now the beauty about being a Daring Cook is that it gives you the opportunity to make something that you wouldn't normally do. Take this month's challenge for example. I'd happily make dumplings. In fact The Lovely Wife has made them before BUT, and this is the important point, I would always use ready made wrappers or wanton wrappers. NEVER would I have ever dreamt of attempting my own dumpling wrappers!

So I need to thank my friend Jen from use real butter for picking this great challenge.


I have to admit that when I saw the challenge posted, I was really excited. As I mentioned before, never would I have thought of making my own dumpling dough. As excited as I was though, I couldn't find the time to fit this in. It didn't help that I was a little unwell for a while nor that we went on a short vacation during the school holidays. Before I knew it, it was the 13th of June only ONE DAY before the posting date! Aaaarrrggghhhh!!

I actually, seriously contemplated just throwing in the towel and waiting for next months challenge. But that wouldn't be very Daring would it...

So I stuck in, and just after lunch, I made the dough. For the filling, I decided to mince some chicken, toss in some soy sauce and sesame oil and some chopped spring onions. Pretty basic I know, but I just wanted to test these little babies out.

The dough came together fairly easily and I used method 2 - Jen's mother's method - of adding 1/4 cup water to the flour and then slowly adding in more water. I ended up with slightly more than 1/2 a cup of water and the dough seemed fairly dry although after resting, it became a bit more supple.

Rolling it out was fairly easy and I didn't have too much trouble with folding the dumplings. I actually contemplated making potstickers as well as steamed dumplings but I was feeling a little lazy - not to mention an itchy throat and nose with flu symptons!



I also used lettuce to line my steamer rather than the napa cabbage called for in the recipe.

After placing the dumplings in the steamer, I was feeling rather proud of myself and waltzed out into the living room where the kids and The Lovely Wife were watching tele.




The Cocky Rooster in me puffed out its chest and jiggled a jig as I proudly raised my arms and crowed "I can make dumplings now, I can make dumplings now!"

Tghe Lovely Wife looked up at me strutting and puffing and brought me down to earth. "You dont know how it will turn out . Remember Pride comes before the Fall" she said. The Lovely Wife is always keeping me in check.

My son however, had other ideas. He quickly retorted. "Mummy, Daddy said he CAN make dumplings. It doesnt matter if it is nice or not. He didn't say he can make nice dumplings." That's my son, Michael, ever the genius!

My Princess Sarah though had the most faith in Daddy.

"Mummy, if Daddy makes it, then it WILL be nice." she stated with a smile. Ahhh, my ever trusting Daughter!

6 minutes later, I took the dumplings out and plated them.


The kids were very eager to try them out...



They both proclaimed that the dumplings were indeed nice! Only problem though was that some of the plated bits were a bit tough and rubbery. Still tasty though as we all polished them off very quickly! We ate them with Chilli & Garlic sauce and it was very, very tasty.



Lessons learnt would be to roll out the dough a little more thinly the next time. My pleating would need some improvement too as although it looked fine the pleated area was a little tough and rubbery, as mentioned earlier. All in all though a very succesful and tasty effort. Still tasty though!

Once again, thanks to Jen for this great challenge!

Ingredients
dough:
2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (113g) warm water
flour for worksurface

meat filling:
200 g mince chicken
3 stalks green onions, chopped
1 inch ginger - pounded
1 - 1.5 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp (28g) sesame oil



Method

Filling:
Combine all the ingredients together and set aside.

Make the dough, Method 1: Place the flour in the work bowl of a food processor with the dough blade. Run the processor and pour the warm water in until incorporated. Pour the contents into a sturdy bowl or onto a work surface and knead until uniform and smooth. The dough should be firm and silky to the touch and not sticky.[Note: it’s better to have a moist dough and have to incorporate more flour than to have a dry and pilling dough and have to incorporate more water).

Make the dough, Method 2 (Jen's mom’s instructions): In a large bowl mix flour with 1/4 cup of water and stir until water is absorbed. Continue adding water one teaspoon at a time and mixing thoroughly until dough pulls away from sides of bowl. We want a firm dough that is barely sticky to the touch.


Both dough methods: Knead the dough about twenty strokes then cover with a damp towel for 15 minutes. Take the dough and form a flattened dome. Cut into strips about 1 1/2 to 2 inches wide. Shape the strips into rounded long cylinders. On a floured surface, cut the strips into 3/4 inch pieces. Press palm down on each piece to form a flat circle (you can shape the corners in with your fingers). With a rolling pin, roll out a circular wrapper from each flat disc. Take care not to roll out too thin or the dumplings will break during cooking - about 1/16th inch. Leave the centers slightly thicker than the edges.

Place a tablespoon of filling in the center of each wrapper and fold the dough in half, pleating the edges along one side Keep all unused dough under damp cloth.

To boil: Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add dumplings to pot. Boil the dumplings until they float.

To steam: Place dumplings on a single layer of napa cabbage leaves or on a well-greased surface in a steamer basket with lid. Steam covered for about 6 minutes.

To pan fry (potstickers): Place dumplings in a frying pan with 2-3 tbsp of vegetable oil. Heat on high and fry for a few minutes until bottoms are golden. Add 1/2 cup water and cover. Cook until the water has boiled away and then uncover and reduce heat to medium or medium low. Let the dumplings cook for another 2 minutes then remove from heat and serve.

Chicken Mushroom Casserole

This is one of my favourite dishes to make. Its easy and yet so tasty. I make this fairly often, especially when I want something that is hearty, will fill everyone up but yet simple.

I was quite sure I had posted about this before, but a quick check shows that it has never seen the light of cyber space!!


I made this for dinner the same day that I made the Daring Cheesecake, so I wanted something quick and easy. We had invited Raymond and Priya for dinner as well so The Lovely Wife made a Tuna Pasta Casserole (that is another favourite that hasn't been posted) for our non meat-eating friend.

Ingredients
1 Chicken
1 tsp turmeric
4 garlic cloves - chopped
1 onion - chopped
2 tsp basil
1 tsp oregano
200 g button mushrooms - sliced
2 carrots - pared and sliced
125 ml cream
Paprika
Black Pepper
Method
Wash and clean the chicken. Rub with some turmeric and then cut into pieces. Fry Black pepper, oregano and basil till fragrant. Add in the onion and garlic and cook till tender. Add in the chicken, mixing well till nicely browned then add in the mushrooms and carrots, cooking till slightly softened. Add in the cream and season with salt and more pepper. Pour into a baking dish and bake in a 180C oven for about 40 minutes or till chicken is very tender. If sauce is too watery, pour back into the pan and add some corn flour diluted with water. Put back into the baking dish before serving. Season with paprika.

This dish is especially tasty with rice but I see no reason that it wouldn't taste just as good with pasta of even with loads of bread to mop up the sauce. All that matters is that the kids enjoyed it and that, to me, is a success in my books!

Savoury Glutinous Rice

This recipe was featured in the food section of one of our local newspapers and The Lovely Wife wanted to try it. The recipe is from Amy Beh - one of Malaysia's well known cooks and author of many cookbooks.




The Lovely Wife made two versions of this - one with Chicken and one with Pork. It turned out really well indeed and tasted a little like the Fried Rice in Lotus Leaf that is served at Chinese Restaurants - especially during Weddings. It also tasted very much like Loh Ma Kai! That's why I photographed it just like how Loh Ma Kai is served.




This is the recipe as per Amy Beh.

Ingredients
400g glutinous rice, soaked overnight and drained dry
2 tbsp oil
2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp chopped shallots
1 tbsp chopped garlic
2 tbsp dried prawns, soaked and chopped
150g pork belly, diced
3 dried Chinese mushrooms, soaked and shredded

Seasoning
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp light soy sauce
Salt to taste
1 tbsp sugar
1½ tbsp thick soy sauce
½ tsp pepper
80-90ml water

Garnishing
Some fried shallot crisps


Method
Wash and drain glutinous rice, then steam for 35-40 minutes.
Heat oil and sesame oil in a wok. Fry shallots, garlic and dried prawns until fragrant. Add pork belly and mushrooms and fry well.
Add the steamed glutinous rice and seasoning to mix. Toss and fry until the rice is dry. Dish out and serve with a sprinkling of shallot crisps.





The Lovely Wife's parents came over when we served this and no one could believe that it was home made. I wouldn't have either if I hadn't had seen her make it herself - it was that good!

This is now a favourite of The Lovely Wife's to make and of course a favourite of ours to all enjoy!