Air-fried Baked Rice

Michelle shared a fantastic idea to bake rice using air fryer for whatever leftover from the previous meal. So I purposely cooked additional rice and made more creamy butter sauce for the previous meal, I also kept some broccoli and carrots to be used. Here's my version of baked rice using another Philips accessory, the baking pan.

Ingredients
2 pax overnight cooked rice
1 tbsp butter
4 garlic cloves (minced)
3 tbsp of broccoli florets
2 tbsp of carrot cubes
1 veal sausage (sliced)
8-10 tbsp of creamy sauce (I used the leftover from creamy butter sauce)
3 tbsp of shredded cheddar cheese
2 tbsp of shredded mozzarella cheese

Methods
1) Preheat air fryer for 3-5mins at temperature 180 degree C.
2) Melt butter inside baking pan for about 1-2mins.
3) Saute minced garlic for about 1-2mins or until fragrant.
4) Add in broccoli florets and carrot cubes to fry for 3-4mins. Add a little water will help to speed up the softening.
5) Add sausage slices and cook for 2-3mins or until they turn slightly browned.
6) Add in the rice and mix well.
7) Pour in the enough creamy sauce and mix well, level the rice with a ladle.
8) Sprinkle cheese evenly and air fry for 8-10mins. Above photo was done in 8mins.

Tips: You could use whatever ingredients you have and any store bought pasta sauce.

Year End Parties (with Pasta Salad & Air-fried Roast Chicken recipes)

Hosting a party can be pretty stressful especially when you need to cook for many people. Planning is important and if things can be done in advance it does help a lot so that you being the host is able to mingle with your guests. Honestly speaking I am very lousy when it comes to cooking for a big crowd as normal days I only cook for my hubby and I. Hence I still have a lot to learn on the art of hosting parties. For example a cake or cream puffs could be done a day in advance. Freshly baked bread is an ideal starter especially if you have a bread machine. Start the machine 3 hours prior to the meal time and when the timer beeps you that the bread is ready, that's the ring for the meal commencement. Serve with some butter, cheese or balsamic vinegar over some wine. Doesn't that sound great? If you have more time, soup will definitely be a crowd-pleaser when served with bread.

Another item that you could prepare earlier is the pasta salad. It has carbohydrate being the staple food and vegetables to balance the diet. If your party is for dinner, you could prepare this as early in the morning and leave it in the fridge. Recipe of Pasta Salad is found in this page.

For meat item I will go with a roasted whole chicken and this can be done in 30mins in a air fryer and an hour in the oven.

PASTA SALAD

Ingredients

1/2 box of pasta (any shapes, I used bow tie)
2 hard boiled eggs (boiled, remove shells and sliced)
2-3 potatoes (boiled till soft and cut into big cubes)
1 box of cherry tomatoes (halved)
1 Japanese cucumber (1/2cm sliced)
100g streaky bacon (cut into small pieces, rinse with water, squeeze dry and fry/air fry till crispy)
10 grey prawns (remove shells & veins, boiled till cooked)
1 box of raisin to sprinkle

Salad sauce
1/2 bottle of mayonnaise
About 5 tbsp of fresh milk (depends on how runny you want the sauce to be, amount can be adjusted)
Pepper
Few drops of fresh lemon juice

Methods
1) In a pot of boiling water with few drops of olive oil and salt, cook pasta till Al dente. Drain the water and leave aside to cool.
2) Separately prepare all other ingredients.
3) When all ingredients are cooled, prepare the salad sauce and toss everything together lightly in order not to mash the potatoes.
4) Keep in fridge until ready to serve.

These ready-cooked baby back ribs are so good, they are tender and flavorful. I got them from Foodie Marketplace and all you need is to defrost them and bake at 160 degree for 20mins. If you don't tell your guests these are store-purchased, they couldn't tell. All they will see is you bringing the tray out from the oven and serve right to their table ;) Shhhhhhhh.....

 AIR-FRIED ROAST CHICKEN

The air-fried roasted whole chicken is easy and quick. About 30mins at 180 degree C and another 5mins at 200mins C is all it takes to impress my guests. Timing varies according to the size of the chicken. The advantage of air fryer is having the flexibility to pull out the basket and check as often as you like.

Ingredient
1 spring or small chicken (that can fit into Air fryer)

Seasoning
1 tsp Oyster sauce
1/4 tsp Dark soya sauce
1/2 tsp Chinese cooking wine
1/2 tsp Sesame oil
Pinch of pepper

Note: I am using kitchen measuring spoons, they are bigger compared to cutlery spoons.

End year is all about parties and food, from Christmas's eve all the way to New Year day. One whole week to celebrate with food. Here are some photos of what I had cooked up with:

Laksa Angel Hair

Infused your Italian pasta with an Asian flavor. 

Easily whip up in 20 mins.

Ingredients
Angel Hair
10 prawns
8 small tau pok (cut into quaters)
3 garlic cloves (cut into slices)
3 tbsp cooking white wine
1/2 pack Hai's brand instant laksa paste
60ml coconut cream (I use Kara brand)
60ml water
Laksa leaves (garnish)
Black pepper

Methods
1. In a pot of boiling water, add some salt and a little olive oil. Measure angel hair for 2 portion and cook till al dente. Drain away the hot water and rinse using cold water. Set aside.
2. Heat pan, add cooking wine and garlic. Fry for a min and add 1/2 pack of instant laksa paste. The paste is good for 4 pax, hence I used 1/2 packet. Fry till fragrant.
3. Add coconut cream and water, mix well and add prawns & tau pok.
4. Once the prawns are cooked, add in the cooked angel hair and give a good mix. Off flame and serve with laksa leaves and black pepper.

Where to get the ingredients?
Hai's instant laksa paste - NTUC supermarket
Tau pok - Both wet market & supermarket
Laksa leaves - Wet market

Shabu Rice Burger

Instead of rushing to MOS burger for their rice burgers, how about making it a home and add in as much meat filling as you like ;) Surprisingly easy recipe and I have adjust the seasoning to suit my taste bud, I don't like my stuffs to be too salty.

Ingredients
2 portions of cooked rice
100g pork shabu or sukiyaki (I used pork belly)
1/2 small onion (cut into thin slices)
Sesame seeds
Lettuces
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp Chinese cooking wine
1/4 tsp cornflour
1 tbsp teriyaki sauce

Methods
1. Marinate the pork shabu with light soy sauce, sugar, cooking wine and cornflour.
2.  Divide the cooked rice into 4 potions, use a cling wrap to make 1 portion into a firm ball and flatten it like a patty. Set aside and repeat the same for the remaining 3 portions.
3. Lightly brush the rice patties with teriyaki sauce on 1 side. Pan fried with little oil using low fire until the side with sauce browned. Brush the other side with teriyaki sauce and flip over. Dish out.
4. Using the same pan, fry the marinated pork shabu until cooked. Pour in the balanced teriyaki sauce and sprinkle some sesame seeds.Give a few stirs and its ready.
5. To assemble the burger, use a waxed wrapper and place a rice patty, lettuce, followed by pork shabu and lastly another rice patty.
6. Viola! Your own easy and yummy rice burger!!!

Notes
1. 100g pork shabu is equivalent to 8 pieces. I suggest to cut the long strips of shabu into half, easier to eat with rice patties.
2. It is not necessary to marinate the pork shabu for long, just do it before you got busy with the rice patties. As the shabu are very thin slices they absorb the marinade very quickly.
3. Waxed wrapper is from Daiso, it comes in very handy for burger.

Balsamic Chicken with Butter Rice

I fell in love with balsamic vinegar when I was in Europe. I dipped my bread in it and used it as salad dressing for cherry tomato and mozzarella cheese. Over here mozzarella cheese is very expensive, it costs me about SGD7+ to get a small tub of 125g. The next time I go to Europe I will make sure I eat more of the cheese. One of the best deals I discovered is McDonald's salad cup. The salad comes in a cup and the toppings are 5 cherry tomatoes & 5 mozzarella cheese, it only cost me EUR1.99 if I remember correctly. Ask for balsamic vinegar dressing ;) Oh I had this at Austria, not too sure is it common in other parts of Europe. Ok back to recipes, recently I spotted this balsamic chicken recipe and it really taste good, have modified the recipe to share.

Balsamic Chicken

2 thighs or 3 drumsticks

1/2 cup balsamic vinegar

4 tsp brown sugar

1/2 tsp olive oil

Methods

1. Marinate the chicken with 3/4 of the seasoning (vinegar, sugar and oil) for few hours or overnight.

2. Heat pan (using happycall pan) with a little oil and cook the chicken together with the marinating sauce over low fire.

3. Once the chicken is cooked, serve.

4. Pour the remaining 1/4 seasoning into the pan, once boiled drizzle the sauce over the chicken.

Note

Recipe modified from http://munchministry.com/recipe/balsamic-chicken-with-roast-vegetables-2/

(Recipe calls for 4 tbsp of olive oil but I only used 1/2 tsp as I don't want my dish to be so oily. It turns out fine)

Butter Rice

1.5 cup rice grain

1.5 cup water

30g butter

4 garlic cloves (minced)

1/3-1/2 carrot (grated)

1 tbsp golden raisin

1 cinnamon stick

Pinch of turmeric powder (as coloring)

Methods

1. Rinse rice grain.

2. In a rice cooker, add in rice grain, water, carrot, raisins and turmeric powder.

3. Heat pan with butter, once melted add garlic and saute till fragrant. Add cinnamon and give it a few good stirs before transferring to the rice cooker. Stir well and on the power of the rice cooker.

4. Once cooked, fluff the rice and serve.

Note

I am using the rice cooker's measuring cup to measure my rice grain & water.

Ee-fu noodles with seafood & mushroom

Now you don't have to wait till a wedding dinner to be able to eat this, just buy a pack of Ee-Fu dried noodles from supermarket and cook it whenever you want it.

Ingredients
1/2 pack of Ee-Fu noodles
3 garlic cloves (minced)
3 Chinese dried mushroom (soak soft with warm sugar water)
Handful of brown oyster mushroom
6-8 prawns (deshell, devein)
Few florets of broccoli
2 crabsticks
Chilli (optional)

Seasoning sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp Hua tiow jiu (Chinese cooling wine)
1/4 tsp black soya sauce
1/4 tsp sugar
Dash of pepper
1.5 cup water
3-4 tbsp mushroom water

Methods
1) Heat pan with 2 tsp of cooking oil and 1/2 tsp sesame oil. Sauté garlic till fragrant and add in mushrooms, prawns, crabsticks, broccoli. Fry till prawns are almost cooked.
2) Add in the seasoning sauce and using med-high heat bring to boil.
3) Remove the cooked prawns and crabsticks, set aside so that they will not be overcooked. Add chilli slices if you prefer your noodles to be a little spicy.
4) Add noodles, they soften with the sauce. Use spatula to loosen the noodles but do not cut through. Make sure the sauce covers the noodles, add more mushroom water if not enough. Cover lid and cook for about 5 mins or until noodles soften. The sauce should left with only a little by then. Serve.

Prawn Mee 2 styles ~ Soup or Fried???

Prawn lovers like me will sure to enjoy both local dishes, the soupy prawn mee and the fried Hokkien prawn mee. And I want to try making these two dishes from scratch, I have saved up a bagful of prawn heads and shells to make prawn broth. Last Saturday, I started in the morning boiling the broth so that it will be ready for dinner. I am using a recipe found on-line to make my prawn broth.

Prawn Soup Noodle

Recipe adopted from http://www.soshiok.com/article/4576. This is how my sinful prawn broth looks like during the process of making.

As there're only 2 of us, I didn't use up the broth. I freezed the balance into 2 bags approx. a soup bowl size and reserve for the next dish ~ fried hokkien prawn mee.



 Fried Hokkien Prawn Mee

Ingredients
6 medium prawns
50-70g pork belly
1 squid (cut into rings)
3 garlic cloves (minced)
1/2 medium pack yellow noodle
1 small pack thick beehoon
2 eggs
Handful of chives or spring onions
Bean sprouts/ Fishcake (optional, I didn't put)
Fish sauce or sugar to taste
Pepper
Sambal chilli and lime

Prawn Broth
I used a bag of my prawn broth made the other day, you could do it instantly if you don't have the broth pre-made. Use about 20 prawn heads and shells (the more the better) and boil with 2 soup bowls of water for 30 mins over low fire. Drain the broth and standby, it should be the size of a soup bowl.

Method
1) Heat 1-2tbsp of oil, sautee garlic and add in pork belly. Stir fry for a while and add in squid rings and prawns.
2) When the prawns start to turn pink, ladle in half portion of the prawn broth. Simmer for a min.
3) Add pepper and either fish sauce or sugar to taste. This depends on whether your broth made is sweet enough. If it is sweet, add a little fish sauce to enhance the taste. Otherwise add sugar to sweeten the broth. Personally I prefer my fried hokkien mee to come with a tinge of sweetness.
4) Stir in yellow noodles and thick beehoon, ladle the balance broth and simmer for 1-2 mins over medium fire. Becareful not to dry up the noodles.
5) Pour in beaten eggs, wait for awhile and scramble them. Throw in chives/ spring onions.
6) Serve with chilli and lime.

Note
I didn't use the full pack of yellow noodles. I noticed they come in various pack sizes so it depends on how much you want to cook. The above recipe is good for 3 pax. I go by guts feel when throw in both the noodles.

Risotto alle Vongole

Ingredients
1 cup Aborio rice (unwashed, uncooked)
1 pack of white clams
1 king oyster mushrooms (sliced)
1/3 red onion (finely chopped)
2 garlic cloves (minced)
1/2 cup white cooking wine/ dry white wine
2.5-3 cups chicken broth
1/2 tbsp parsley (chopped)
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1 knob of butter
Dash of Pepper

Garnishes (optional)
Parsleys
Sliced red chilli
Black pepper
Mixed cheese (mozarella and cheddar)

Servings
2 adults

Appliances
Steamer
Kitchen Art ceramic 20cm pot

Methods

1. Soak clams with salted water to spit out the sand and grit.
2. Steam the clams with white cooking wine until the shells are opened. Remove shells from the clams and set aside.
3. Use a fine siever to remove any sand from the white wine gravy, set aside.
4. Make the chicken broth hot but not boiling to standby.
5. Heat the pot with olive oil and butter, saute onions and garlic till soft. Add in mushrooms and stir fry for awhile.
6. Add in the rice and white wine gravy, stir until the gravy evaporates.
7. Lower the flame and slowly add in the chicken broth, one cup at a time and stir.
8. Cover the pot and let it simmer, give a few stirs occassionally and when the water level runs low add in the next cup of broth. Repeat until the rice reaches al dente stage.
9. If the broth runs out before the rice is ready, just add in some hot water to continue cooking.
10. Add in chopped parsley and pepper, give a few stirs and serve with the garnishes.

Notes
Aborio rice is Italian short-grain rice.When cooked the rounded grains are firm, chewy and give a creamy consistency due to its higher starch content. Do not rinse to retain the starch.