Stir-fry Glutinous Rice

First I would like to apologize for the long hiatus from blogging. I’ve been busy with my daily life, dealing with moving, home based business and also traveling. I guess after more than 10 years of blogging I slowing losing my momentous doing it. I mostly post my cooking on my Instagram now. You can follow me there if you want to. Anyway, here is a short update on a recipe I did some time ago. I made this dish with some left over steamed glutinous rice.

Chinese Glutinous Rice Rolls/Fan Tuan

This is a Taiwanese breakfast rice rolls. You can find some street vendors selling at near the bus stations or along the busy road side. In Chinese it is called ‘Fan Tuan’ it is compacted roll of glutinous rice that’s filled with eggs, fried dough (Chinese culler) meat and etc… It looks like a Mexican Burrito. The rice roll is roll up in a plastic wrap so you can eat it on the go. The first time I tried this was at a Taiwanese restaurant at Foster City. There were pretty good. This restaurant only serves this kind of breakfast on weekends. It is eaten with warm soy bean milk.

Anyway I am trying to replica it at home. I am doing the version that I’ve eaten before but I understand in Taiwan they do serve different kind of fillings so I guess you can basically put anything you want in it.

Salted Fish and Chicken Fried Rice

A friend of mine gave me a piece of salted fish and it has been sitting in the freezer since last year. I thought of using it to make Laksa Johor but change my mind and used it for fried rice. It has been the longest time since I have salted fish. I cook this fried rice for lunch on weekdays as I don’t think my husband can stand the stinky smell of the salted fish. I am sure he will ‘pengsan’ (faint) ha ha.. gosh they taste so good in fried rice. I still have half of it and maybe used it for claypot chicken rice.

Salmon Onigiri/Japanese Salmon Rice Balls

Onigiri is Japanese rice balls. In Japan you’ll find onigiri in supermarkets and convenience stores. Usually shape in round or triangle with finely chopped pickles, fish, meat, vegetables in it. Packed into a lunch bag, they are filling, nourishing and easy to eat on the go, whether you're on the road headed out of town or packing for a picnic. I usually make this when I have leftover sushi rice or fish or whatever I have in hand. You can basically put anything in it…. The sky’s the limit.

Salmon with Turmeric Pumpkin Rice

This is an easy one pot meal to prepare especially for busy weeknights. Just serve it with a vegetable alongside and dinner is done. I added some leftover pumpkins and turmeric powder to the rice as it gives some color to the boring white rice.

Assortment of Sushi

Carlos and I am a huge fan of sushi. Well, basically all types of Japanese food. We can eat them every day. Eating Japanese food at the restaurant is pretty costly so I will try to prepare them at home once a while if time permits. One of the things I like to make is sushi. I will make assortment Nigiri sushi, California rolls and maki rolls.

Good sushi starts with perfectly cooked rice. Soft and mushy rice is a big no no. I know some people like brown rice for health reasons but white rice has the requisite stickiness that holds together and they are great to make sushi.

Nasi Kerabu - Kelantan Dish 1

Nasi Kerabu happens to be my most favorite rice dish ever. I have this ex-colleague of mine name Jeff who used to live in Kampung Baru and I will get him to tapau (take out) for me every week. I've always wanted to make nasi kerabu but when I look at the long list of ingredients and the amount of afford putting into making a dish I tend to forgo it. Being overseas doesn’t help either as it can be quite difficult for me to get some of the ingredients but because of this MFF event I don't mind spending a few hours in the kitchen to cooked this meal as it is all worth it. The meal turns out great.

 

One of the key ingredients in Nasi Kerabu is the fish, specifically Mackerel. I was so confident I could head down to the Asian supermarket and buy some Mackerel, little did I know there is no such thing as a simple Mackeral here in the USA! I was confronted with Atlantic Mackeral, Pacific Mackerel, Indian Mackerel etc. I had no idea which one to buy as none looked familiar to me as they were huge..almost as long as my arm, I kid you not! The fish that I'm familiar with that normally accompanies my Nasi kerabu were all cute looking and petite. That’s just the first problem I faced. The second problem was that I could not find any budu (salted / fermented anchovy sauce). Nasi kerabu without budu is like Nasi Lemak without the Sambal or teh Tarik without the froth. You can do it but it's just not the same. These all changed when my good friend gave me half a bottle of budu brought all the way back from Terengganu. I just had to make this Nasi Kerabu by hook or by crook. No more excuses!

Not many people know that Nasi Kerabu comes in a few colors other than blue although blue is the most popular color. Variations can be white (normal white rice), yellow (turmeric and cekur / sand ginger) which is called Nasi Kerabu Tumis and grey (from Mengkudu leaves / noni / Morinda Citrifolia ) which is known as Nasi Kerabu Hitam although blue is also known by the same name. In reality, there are so many different combinations of accompaniments and styles of cooking that it is quite impossible to list them all here. If you are interested, remember 'Google' is your best friend.

Pork Jerky/Bak Kua and Shrimp Fried Rice

I’ve been very busy for the past 2 months. Flew to New York twice to take care of Diana and don’t have time to do much especially cooking, baking, blog posting or blog hopping. Meals at home are mostly simple salad, sandwiches or one pot meal. Just before I flew to NY, I wanted to finish up the few pieces of Bak Kua in the fridge. I am too lazy to turn on the big oven just to warm them up I simply cut them up and throw it into the fried rice. Carlos like it a lot and told me to cook our next fried rice meal again with it but I told him he might need to wait till the next CNY before I make another batch of bak kua again. So if you have any leftover of bak kua from CNY why not use it to make fried rice. I am pretty sure you are going to like it.

Kimchi Fried Rice

I am not familiar with Korean food except for Korean Pancakes or Hoddeok . All I know is kimchi will be on the dining table in most of the Korean meals. Personally I am not a big fan of Kimchi on its own but it is perfectly tasty when added into fried rice or stew. I made a batch of kimchi and I think it taste much better than the one that I bought from the Asian supermarket.

This batch of fried rice was made from multi-grain rice. I am slowly switching to brown rice or multi-grain rice but giving a cold turkey to the white rice and switching to 100% brown rice is rather difficult so I am doing it slowly ha ha. I still used white rice for my Nasi Lemak or Hainanese Chicken Rice . Here is how they look. There are suppose to have 7 different types of grain like brown rice, black rice, rice bran, split peas, oat, barley and millet in it.

Fried rice is one of those dishes that you can customize and make your own. Really, mostly anything goes and it’s a great way to revitalize that day old rice you have sitting in your fridge. Add some proteins or some greens to it and the meal is done within 20 minutes.

Kanji Kedah/Kedah Rice Porridge

I was talking on the phone with my good friend Shereen last week and we were discussing MFF theme for this month and I told her I don’t really know much about food from Kedah or Perlis. She gave me a few suggestions including this rice porridge. Well, since I have all the ingredients in hand I decided to do just that.

Every state in Malaysia will have its version of Rice Porridge also known as Bubur Lambuk. What make this heartwarming dish so popular? It is available during the Ramadan month and it is prepared and distributed to the public for free throughout the whole month of Ramadan in the spirit goodwill. Usually this rice porridge would be cooked at the mosque compound for easy distribution. Cooking this involves a lot of effort and many volunteers will help stirring many big pots of this rice porridge. This rice porridge is very similar to Chinese version except for the addition of coconut milk, lemongrass and fenugreek in it. I actually like it a lot and will definitely cook this again.

Long Bean Rice

My friend Roselind from PA mail me some organic home grown long beans not too long ago with some bitter gourd and it was just perfect to cook this meal. I remember growing up eating this long bean rice. My mom used to cook this so often. She was a seamstress back then and she teaches sewing at my grandfather shop lot 6 days a week so by the time she gets home it will be late evening. She will usually cook something quick like this one pot meal with bitter gourd soup and a sambal dish to go with the meal for us. She will stir-fry all the ingredients first and then cook it in the rice cooker. Once she pops it into the rice cooker she can cook the sambal. Once a while she will substitute the long beans with yam/taro, ‘kai choy’/mustard green, cabbage or pumpkin as it depends on what we have at home. I like this type of meal as I can cook a bit more and have it again for the next day.

Pandan Briyani Rice/Nasi Briyani Pandan

Since yesterday was Saint Patrick's Day let me serve you some green rice. Carlos is not a fan of plain white rice so if I cook rice for our dinner I always flavor it with some spices. Instead of using the regular long grain rice I used Basmati rice as I prefer less starchy rice. This rice is great to go with any type of curry. I added a few drops of green coloring to it and Carlos said the rice looks kind of funky ha ha... oh well, he always think the green color food I made like Kueh Ketayap , Pandan Chiffon Cake , Pandan Kaya Cake , Kueh Bakar and etc are funky. Anyway, I adapted this rice recipe from my friend Shereen’s Briyani Rice with some minor change.

Ingredients:

500 gram Basmati rice
2 tbsp butter
2 ¾ cups water
¼ evaporated milk
1 tsp salt

Steamed Savory Glutinous Rice/Loh Mai Fun/Chu Bee P’ng - Day 29

Actually I have no plan to make this dish but quite a few of my readers suggested that I make loh mai kai it so after giving it some thoughts I decided to make something similar. I really appreciate all your suggestions. I am not sure if this is a typical Hokkien dish but my mom always serves this dish on special occasion especially during our family get together. We practically grew up eating this. Each time I cook this dish it makes me think of home. Being so far away from home this is sort of like a comfort food for me. I made this before and the original recipe is here but I am going to re-post it again with some minor change as I find the one I made before had too much dark soy sauce in it. So the dish does not look so appealing.

Omurice/オムライス/ Rice Wrap in Omelet - Day 13

I feel like making something simple today without taking much effort. The easiest has to be fried rice with some leftover rice from two days ago. And how can I incorporate the Jelly Mould into this dish? Wrap the rice up with a cone shape omelet of course. There come the Omurice. Omurice is a Japanese word for "omelet and rice. The dish mainly consists of fried rice with whatever other ingredients you wish, wrapped in a thin sheet of fried omelets. Many restaurants serve the dish with white sauce, tomato based sauce or ketchup. Malaysia has a version of this rice too and it is called Nasi Goreng Pattaya .

Pulut Inti/Glutinous Rice with Coconut Sauce - Day 12

This is another version of Pulut Inti , Pulut is glutinous rice and inti means fillings. The rice is steamed with coconut milk and the brown filling is coconut cooked in palm sugar. I tinted some of rice blue with blue pea flower/bunga telang given to me by my friend Lesley. Instead of wrapping it in banana leaves I shape them with the Jelly mould and serve them in a bowl drizzle it with coconut sauce. This is one of Malaysian favorite tea time snacks or as dessert especially if you have guest over.

Yellow Rice/Nasi Tumpeng - Day 2

Tumpeng is a cone-shaped rice dish like mountain with plenty of side dishes from meat to vegetables. People in Java, Bali and Madura usually make Tumpeng to celebrate important event. However, all Indonesians are familiar with Tumpeng. The philosophy of Tumpeng is related to the geographical condition of Indonesia, especially Java as fertile island with numerous mountains and volcanoes. Tumpeng dated back to ancient Indonesian tradition that revered mountains as the abode of ancestors and gods. The cone-shaped rice meant to mimics the holy mountain. The feast served as some kind of thanks giving for the abundance of harvest or any other blessings. In gratitude ceremony (syukuran or slametan), after the people pray, the top of tumpeng is cut and delivered to the most important person. He or she may be the group leader, the oldest person, or the beloved one. Then, all people in the ceremony enjoy the tumpeng together. With tumpeng, people express the gratitude to God and appreciate togetherness and harmony. (from Wikipedia)

Unagi and Tamagoyaki Sushi Rice Bowl

This is my youngest nephew Eu-Xin absolutely favorite thing to eat. Each time he steps into a Sushi place of Japanese restaurant he will order this. He will be very happy if he get to eat this. I have to make it a point to prepare this for him when I go home. Making this rice bowl is so easy. You can find vacuumed packed pre-cooked unagi at the Asian store frozen section. All you have to do is take it out, bake or broil and serve it with some sushi rice. We will usually have this with some avocado or steamed broccoli but since I don’t have any in hand I just made some Tamagoyaki (Japanese rolled omelet) to go with it.

Rice Porridge/ Congee

I grew up with rice porridge, also known as congee or we Hokkien call ‘Ber'. My grandmother and mother will make this for our weekday’s lunch nearly every day. Our porridge is just the plain ones totally unseasoned where we will eat it with salted eggs, fried ikan bilis, some pickle vegetables, omelet or sometimes with some fried fish. I actually prefer eating porridge served at dim sum place when the rice grains are cooked down, thick consistency and full of flavor .

Carlos was having tooth ache a few weeks ago so I thought I prepared this type of porridge for him with the leftover chicken stock from my Poached Chicken but guess what, he refused to touch it. I can’t blame him as he never eat this before. I end up having it all by myself which I don’t mind at all.

Thai Coconut Sticky Rice with Mango (Khao Neaw Ma Muang)

Most of the Thai restaurants have this dessert dish on their menu. Not only because it’s traditional but they are pretty simple to make. With just a few ingredients you can creates a beautiful dessert that tasted great and appeals to the eyes too. Your guest will be impressed when you serve this to them. If you haven’t tried it, give this dessert a go. I am sure you will not be disappointed.

Blue Glutinous Rice Cakes (Pulut Tai Tai)

I always wanted to make this Chinese Baba Nyonya wedding specialty cakes. It is called Pulut Tai Tai or Blue Glutinous Rice Cakes. The blue stain comes from a flower name Bunga Telang or Blue Pea Flower. Since I still have some of the dried blue pea flowers given by Sonia I decided to made some when my friend Choy’s and her family came to our house for dinner not too long ago Traditionally, this cakes are served with kaya (coconut egg jam) and you can find the recipe here.

Ingredients:

600g glutinous rice – wash and soak overnight
350 ml coconut milk
150ml warm water
4 pandan leaves
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
12 - 15 blue pea flowers – soak in some warm water,crush it to extract the blue coloring.