Steamed Rice with Potato and Baked Bean

Top view: Bowl placed on a plastic plate on top of a table mat.

I must apologize to all my blog followers. I have not posted on this blog for some time. This does not mean that I am not experimenting with new cooking or exploring exciting food joints.

Side view of  stainless steel bowl for steaming food.

I was too busy with DIY and was also involved with community issues, so much so, to the extent of losing my inspiration to blog. I love to experiment with the various ways of cooking food.

This steamed rice with potato and baked bean was an instantaneous solution to my absent-mindedness. I have forgotten to prepare ingredients for cooking on that particular day. And I was alone at home during one blazing hot afternoon.  I used half a can of baked bean, diced one potato and rinsed half a cup of rice. Dump everything, except the baked beans, into a stainless steel bowl and steam it  in a small pot for 15 minutes. Thereafter, add in the baked beans and continue steaming for another 15 minutes.

Convention pot over gas stove fire used for steaming rice.

Ingredients:

(For one serving only.)

½ cup of rice (rinse once only)

½ can of baked beans

One piece of potato, diced.

¾ cup of water

½ teaspoon of salt

Sprinkle some white pepper powder

Sprinkle a few drops of Sesame oil

½  teaspoon of soy sauce

Baked Bean and Potato

This was cooked over a conventional gas stove with high flame. After half an hour of bubbling in the pot, the yummy yummy steamed rice was ready to tame my grouching stomach.

Simple and Tasty Steamed Rice. 

Double-boiled rice with canned Sardine & Onion Salad.

These are the ingredients required

Having tasted the goodness of rice cooked with canned fried fish and  black bean, I tried the Sardine fish with onion salad recently.

The onion is cut and mixed at home.

I love to eat canned Sardine fish with onion. The usual way of cooking canned sardine fish at home is to use a wok or frying pan. First, the onion is peeled clean of dried skin. Then, cut it into round slices. Rinse the cut onion. Sprinkle some salt onto the sliced onion and squeeze in some lime juice.  Mix thoroughly to get a savoury and sour onion salad. Heat up the canned Sardines (425gm) in a wok or frying pan and bring it to boiling point.  Pour the heated Sardine into the onion salad and mix it

Double-boiled the rice first.

This is one yummy way of preparing a canned sardines, as a dish for your regular meal for five persons at home.

I do not have this luxury in the office. So I improvise the method of cooking a canned sardines with rice and onion in one pot. Using my multi-cooker in the office.  I cook the rice first, using double-boiled (same method as cooking the canned fried fish). Once the rice is boiled but still have some pockets of bubbles in it, pour in a small can of Sardine fish and the savoury and sour onion salad. Let the multi cooker complete the job. 

Pour in the Sardines with the onion salad while the
rice is still bubbling

Double-boiling takes longer time to cook. About 45 minutes to one hour is required. But you need not worry about burned rice.

Ingredient for one serving:

1. One small can of Sardine(125gm).
2. One big onion.
3. One cup of rice
4. Two cups of water.

Look at the rice. Nice individual grain not sticking together.

See this wholesome double-boiled rice with Sardine and onion salad.

I cook and eat in my office room,
See the yummy rice with sardines and onion salad.

Where can you get this kind of food at the coffee shop or restaurants for lunch?

Double-boiled rice with fish and vege.

I ran out of instant noodle in the office. No eggs and chicken fillet in the fridge and it is too hot to go out for lunch. Don’t want to eat cereal or Musseli either.  What to do? 

Well, just make do with whatever I have with me in the office. I have some rice, a can of fried fish with black beans and two romance vegetable.  Can I cook a lunch meal with these items?  Of course I can.

Double-boiled rice with fried fish and vegetable.

Why double-boled? There is no risk of over-cooking the  rice (burned rice) or under-cooked (hard rice).

If the rice is under-cooked after 20 minutes, just sprinkle some water and continue cooking until it is right.

Ingredient:-

¾  Cup of rice

1 small can of fried fish with black bean(drained the oil).

1 small romancee vegetable (about 12 leaves), washed and rinsed thoroughly.

Preparation:

Blanch the vegetable and pour away the water.

Rinse 3/4 cup of rice and add 3/4 cup of water to the rice, in a bowl

Fill the multi-cooker with 500ml of water and double-boiled the rice in a steel bowl.

Once the rice is cooked (about 20minutes to cook) pour in the canned fried fish on top of the rice.

Continue double-boiling the rice with fish for another 10 minutes.

Add in the blanched vegetable.

Sprinkle some pepper powder and add a few drops of soy sauce to taste.

See this bowl tasty and wholesome double-boiled rice with fish and vegetable.

Try doing this yourself. It is easy to cook and nice to eat.

"Bak Kut Teh" Noodle( 肉骨茶面)

“Bak Kut Teh” is a herbal pork rib soup eaten with rice and hot Chinese tea. In the olden days, this dish was supposedly a healthy and “balanced” food for the poor Chinese coolies working at the ports and fishermen who were out in the windy open seas.

The herbal pork rib soup helps to increase the metabolism rate and also keep the body warm. The tea (teh)  balances and helps to  neutralize the heatiness and fats in the pork when consumed. The tea must be sipped in between bites of pork ribs to get the maximum effect. That is why Chinese tea is usually served in dainty teacups.

Tea is a solvent for fats/oil. For the “Bak Kut Teh” connoisseur, good Chinese tea is a must to go with the dish. If one drinks sufficient amount of tea, there is no health issue eating “Bak Kut Teh” frequently.

I prefer drinking the “Bak Kut Teh” herbal soup to eating the stewed ribs. There are many instant ‘Bak Kut Teh” soup packs in the market. Some are grounded herbs combination in paper bags for cooking. Others come in spray-dry powder form that just dissolves in boiling water.

I love  “Bak Kut Teh” noodles cooked with vegetables, “tofu pok” (deep fried beancurd) or fried pork skin, chicken fillet and mushrooms.

It is a wholesome meal that keeps me alert and I don’t even need coffee the whole afternoon after eating the “Bak Kut Teh” soup noodles for lunch!

Ingredients (for two servings):-

2 packets of “Bak Kut Teh” instant noodle.

250 gram of chicken fillet

200 gram of baby Pak choy( 小白菜)or Chinese romancee (Yeaw mak油麦) vegetable

4 pieces of Shitake mushroom( 香菇)pre-soaked

80 gram of fried pork skin(炸猪皮) pre-soaked & cut into 2” X 2” square

1 teaspoon of sesame oil(麻油).

¼ teaspoon of Ikan bilis( 江鱼)powder.

¼ teaspoon of pepper( 胡椒)powder.

Preparation:

Boil 500ml of water. Once boiled, turn the temperature to low. Blanch the noodles alone until it is springy and loose. Remove with a sieve and place into serving bowls.  Then blanch the vegetable. Drain the water completely after blanching.

Rinse  the cooker thoroughly. Boil 600ml of water. Once boiled, turn the temperatue to low. Add in the sesame oil, pepper powder, ikan bilis powder, chicken fillet, shitake mushroom, pork skin and bring it to boiling point. Finally, add the seasoning pack that came with the instant noodle. Stir thoroughly.

Pour the soup into the bowls and serve.

See the wholesome and appetizing noodle for lunch in office.

Fresh Prawn Noodles

Occasionally, my colleague will select and bring some choicest prawns from his father’s catch to the office.  Besides cooking fresh seafood porridge, I will cook prawn noodles. Just using the instant packet ‘Har Mee” to cook with the prawns is not good enough.  I will add some sambal belacan (fermented shrimp with chilli mashed into paste form) and ikan bilis (anchovy) powder.  And if kangkong or water convolvulus (vegetable) is available, this will complete the Penang prawn mee recipe.

Ingredients (for two servings):-

2 packets of “Har Mee” instant noodles.

6 pieces (250 gm) of large fresh white prawns

1 table spoon of sambal belacan.

1 teaspoon of sesame oil.

¼ teaspoon of Ikan bilis powder.

Preparation:

Boil 500ml of water. Once boiled, turn the temperature to low. Blanch the noodles alone until it is springy and loose. Remove with a sieve and place into serving bowl.  Then blanch the kangkong. Throw away the water after blanching the kangkong.

Rinse  the cooker thoroughly. Boil 600ml of water. Once boiled, turn the temperatue to low, add in the prawns, sambal belacan and continue to boil until the prawns are cooked. Next, add the sesame oil, ikan bilis powder and seasoning pack from the instant noodles. Stir thoroughly and remove the prawns. Do not over-cook the seasoning.

Pour the soup onto the noodles and serve.

This is the most delicious prawn noodles that I have tasted. The best prawn noodles in Penang only gives you a few slices of prawn or some tiny shrimps plus a few slices of pork. And it does not taste as good as this.   

Instant Noodles - it is not boring at all.

I will never go hungry in the office. I have a large drawer stocked with a variety of foodstuff, such as biscuits, chocolate,  oats, milk powder, sugar, cereal, 3in1 white coffee, chocolate and mueslli.  In addition to the instant food items, there are dried foodstuff like shitake mushroom, mussel, peanut, scallop, noodles and rice. Instant noodles is one item that one can find in every employee's drawer. 

If the weather is unkind or when I'm not in the mood  to cook lunch, I need not shout for help or go hungry. I can always fix a mug of cereal with milk or a cup of hot chocolate or white coffee with biscuits to fill my stomach.

Like all Malaysians, I love instant noodles. Instant noodles is not boring. How one cooks it and what ingredients added to it makes a great difference. Just twenty  minutes of cooking is required. I don’t go for the plain instant noodles with powder seasoning and flavour pack. I cook them with ingredients added and I get a bowl of 5-Star noodles. So far, I have cooked Prawn noodles, Chicken and Egg noodles and Bak Kut Teh noodles in the office. I will continue to experiment with other style of noodles.

Here is the Chicken and Egg noodles recipe for office cooking.

Ingredients (for one serving only):-
1 packet of oat noodles
1 fresh chicken egg
50 gm of chicken fillets
4 leaves of lettuce
Cut spring onion
Sesame oil
White pepper powder
Ikan Bilis powder


Preparation:-

Boil 500ml of water. Once boiled, turn the temperature to low. Blanch the noodles alone until it is springy and loose. Remove with a sieve and place into serving bowl. The water has turned yellowish and oily. This is the colouring and wax from the noodles.

Next blanch the lettuce (or any other vegetable). and place them with the noodles.


Now, the boiled water has turned yellowish green. Pour away the water and rinse the cooker thoroughly.

Boil 500 ml of fresh water.Add in the chicken fillet. Once cooked, transfer to a plate for shredding.


Turn the temperature of the cooker to low. Break the egg into the soup. Sprinkle some sesame oil, ikan bilis powder and pepper. Once the soup is bubbling, add in the flavour pack (from the instant noodle) and stir.


Pour the boiling soup onto the noodles and add in the shredded chicken and spring onion.

Lunch is ready. Look at my bowl of delicious and yummy shredded chicken and egg noodles! 


The picture above is chicken and egg noodles with lettuce.

The picture on the left is chicken and egg noodles with baby "pak choy".

Shreded chicken porridge with salted and century eggs.

On any cold rainy afternoons, a bowl of steaming hot porridge would be ideal for lunch. It has been raining for the last couple of days as I prepare ingredients for my lunch tomorrow.

I have cut some young ginger strips and spring onions the night before and kept them in a small container in the fridge. I have also placed three pieces of chicken fillet in a separate container in the freezer.

Ingredients required for two servings:

1.    One cup rice

2.    Three pieces of chicken fillet (defrost) 125 gms

3.    One salted duck egg

4.    One century egg (Chinese preserved egg)

5.    ¼ Teaspoon cooking salt.

6.    ¼ Teaspoon ikan bilis powder.

7.    ¼ Teaspoon white pepper powder

8.    ½ Teaspoon sesame oil

9.     spring onion, cut.

10. young ginger strips.

Preparation.

Remove the black mud from the salted egg and wash thoroughly. Boil the salted egg and let it cool before removing the shell. Pour away the water and rinse the multi-cooker.

Rinse and drain rice with water and place in multi-cooker. Add ½ litre of water and set temperature to maximum. Once boiled, change the setting to medium heat. Continue to boil the porridge for another 1 ½ hours, stirring and adding a bit of water every 5 to 7 minutes until the content reach the l litre mark with the required viscosity of the porridge.

Put the chicken fillets into the porridge and cook for 3 minutes. Dish out and shred them using two forks.

Remove the shell from the boiled salted duck egg and the century egg. Rinse the eggs and cut to small pieces. You can either use a knife and a fork or a fork and a spoon to cut the eggs.

         

Add salt, anchorvy (ikan bilis) powder and pepper to the  porridge.  Stir and bring to boil.  Finally, add in the shredded chicken and cut eggs.

The porridge is now ready to be served.  Sprinkle some sesame oil, spring onion and ginger stripes.

One sip of the steaming hot porridge and you can feel the warmth dispersing in your abdomen. The aroma and the taste are superb.