comforting rice porridge (spring 2014)

Porridge, also known as congee / Okayu お粥 / bubur, is comforting food for breakfast, lunch, or supper. It is easy to prepare yet generously fueling our days with energy and nutrients.



Baby Ren loves thick but not thin porridge, so I use a ratio of 1:5 or 1:6 of rice grain:water.

Hot, nutritious and comforting porridge is a happy choice of our breakfast this spring. Sometimes, I use slow cooker to cook porridge overnight so it will be ready in the morning.

Fish porridge
♥ 150g Haruan fish
♥ 1 tsp anchovies
♥ 3/4 rice cooker cup rice grain
♥ 1/4 rice cooker cup barley



Seafood porridge
♥ 150g Haruan fish
♥ 1 tsp anchovies
♥ 4 scallops
♥ 1 tbsp dried scallops
♥ crabmeat, to taste (optional)
♥ 3/4 rice cooker cup rice grain
♥ 1/4 rice cooker cup barley

Meat porridge
♥ 200g pork ribs
♥ 1 carrot
♥ 1 tbsp dried scallops
♥ 8 red dates, pitted
♥ 1 tbsp wolfberries
♥ 3/4 rice cooker cup rice grain
♥ 1/4 rice cooker cup barley



To enhance the flavor of porridge, consider adding the followings:
♥ white pepper
♥ sesame oil
♥ sesame seeds (white / black)
♥ fried red onion
♥ cilantro / coriander, finely chopped
♥ parsley, finely chopped
♥ nuts e.g. peanuts, pistachio, almond
♥ balsamic vinegar / wine vinegar

Sometimes I add any / some of these ingredients:
♥ millet: pearl millet, finger millet
♥ quinoa
♥ barley
♥ couscous
♥ oat
♥ lotus root powder / lotus root
♥ wild yam / 淮山 / Huaishan / Dioscorea opposita. I bought the powder form so it will dissolve faster while cooking.
♥ mushroom e.g. shitake
♥ sweet potato
♥ potato
♥ carrot
♥ celery
♥ onion
♥ peas
...
Do you have more suggestions? I would love to hear from you ♥



Tips:
♥ Once cooked, do not stir the entire pot of porridge to prevent them from turning thin / watery. If you want to add no-cook ingredients (e.g. sesame oil, pepper, chopped scallion), take a large scoop of porridge into a serving bowl. Then, add the desirable ingredients and stir.
♥ If possible, use freshly harvested rice grain, especially for babies.



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Porridge cooked with rice cooker:



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Check also our other #5minutemeal recipes.

With love,
ServicefromHeart
20140501

X for XO for #AtoZChallenge: easy XO fried rice recipe

XO stands for eXtra Old for cognac - a variety of brandy liquor - that has been stored for a minimum of 6 years (from 2016 onward, a minimum of 10 years).

Cognac, named after the town Cognac in France, must be twice distilled in copper pot stills and aged at least two years in Limousin or Tronçais oak barrels.

Since brandy has been used for:
♥ cake & pie toppings
♥ steak sauces
♥ soups such as onion soup
♥ Christmas pudding
♥ XO fish head bee hoon (thick noodle) in Singapore 
May I recommend using XO cognac for simple home-cooked dishes like fried rice? 

Since I was using leftover rice for baby Ren - which I purposely cooked softer, my fried rice was slightly soggy.

For #AtoZChallenge on 2014 April 28 Mon, I lovingly present a recipe of XO fried rice by ServicefromHeart.

Colorful rice grains of mixed white, red, brown rice

Serving: 1
Preparation & cook time: < 15 minutes

Ingredients:
♥ 1 bowl pre-cooked rice, dried & chilled
♥ 2 tbsp olive oil
♥ 1 tbsp sesame oil
♥ 2 cloves garlic, minced
♥ 1 slice ginger, minced
♥ 1 tsp anchovies powder
♥ 1 tsp dark soy sauce (kecap manis)
♥ pepper, to taste
♥ 1 tbsp spring onions, chopped
♥ 2 tbsp XO cognac
♥ 1 egg
♥ 4 scallops (optional)
♥ 1 carrot, diced (optional)
♥ 1 stalk celery, sliced (optional)
♥ 1 tbsp peas (optional)

Directions:
1. Heat oil using high heat to stir fry garlic and ginger until fragrant.
2. Sauté vegetables (carrots, celery, peas)
3. Add scallops. After a side is cooked, turn them over.
4. Add rice, pepper, anchovies powder, dark soy sauce. Stir to mix well.
5. Coat with sesame oil and XO for a shiny look. 6. Stir thoroughly.
7. Garnish with spring onions.
Tips:

1. Use cold and dry cooked rice. You want to use firm rice grains because they are easier to separate while stir-frying them. This choice is important to prevent your fried rice turning out soggy or mushy. To remove moisture, you can either (A) air freshly-cooked rice and then refrigerate the rice for a minimum of two hours or (B) use leftover rice from the night before.

2. Use medium to long grain rice such as medium grain of jasmine rice. Choose the sturdy grains that don't clump together when fried. Avoid short grain sushi rice or glutinous rice, which is softer and tends to stick together.

3. To acquire the smoky, slight burnt flavor, use high heat: a blazing hot pan / wok if possible. Add sufficient amount of oil to prevent your fried rice ingredients from sticking to the surface of pan. While the heat to stir fry our home-cooked version of fried rice may not be as hot as restaurants' ones, we can pre-heat our pan with a lid before adding ingredients.

4. To ensure thorough mixing of flavors and aroma, cook 1 to 2 servings at a time.

5. To have a crunchy texture, include vegetables like celery or long beans as ingredients.

6. For a stronger taste, you can pre-infuse your oil with ginger and garlic overnight.

7. To prevent the fried rice from turning out mushy or soggy, I prefer to separately cook the egg into a sunny side up or an omelette that can be thinly stripped to garnish on top of the fried rice.

Check also our other #5minutemeal recipes.

With love,
ServicefromHeart
20140428

R for rice for #AtoZChallenge: steamed rice with peas wolfberries cheese recipe

Since my childhood, I have paid special respect to farmers worldwide, they are my heroes and heroines. My kiddy picture of farmers are grown-ups who brave the hot suns and cold rains, endlessly bending their bodies to plant paddies so that we can have a bowl of rice on our dining table for every meal. I love drawing such a scene for my drawing class assignments, with a backdrop of blue mountains, dancing coconut tree and the yellow orange sun. Not to forget a little hut (pondok) where the farmers can take a rest.



For #AtoZChallenge on 2014 April 21 Mon, I lovingly present a recipe of steamed rice with peas wolfberries cheese by ServicefromHeart.




Serving: 2
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes (depends on your rice cooker)

Ingredients:
♥ 3/4 cup white rice grain
♥ 3/4 cup frozen garden peas
♥ 1/4 cup wolfberries
♥ 1 slice cheese

Note: use rice cooker cup for measurement.

Directions:
1. Rinse garden peas and wolfberries. Soak to thaw and makes puffy, respectively.
2. Rinse and gently rub rice grains.
3. Add rice grains and water in 1:2 ratio into rice cooker pot. Add peas and wolfberries.
4. Once rice is cooked, quickly transfer the rice cooker pot out.*
5. Add a slice of cheese. Quickly cover the pot lid to melt the cheese. After 1 minute, gently stir the rice.

* I am using an antique rice cooker, this step is to prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pot.

Check also our other #5minutemeal recipes.

With love,
ServicefromHeart
20140421

easy kimchi fried rice recipe

Kimchi (김치 in Hangul) is a Korean national dish that has gone global. The most popular kimchi are fremented from napa cabbage, radish, scallion, or cucumber as a main ingredient. My favorite kimchi includes sweet lotus root kimchi, what are yours?

In Singapore, I bought spicy & sour kimchi from NTUC Fairprice. Perhaps one day we can also try the special low-calorie and vitamin-rich version of Korean space kimchi, publicized as starship kimchi, that was designed for the astronauts Ko San / 고산 / 高山 & Yi So-Yeon / 이소연 / 李素妍, the first Korean and the second Asian woman (defined as a female resident of an Asian country) to fly in space.



Please find here an easy recipe for kimchi fried rice / 김치볶음밥 / kimchi bokkeumbap.

It is ideal for breakfast to kick start a hot day at work or play. South Koreans believe that the invigorating qualities of kimchi has helped them to build their country’s economy into one of the biggest in the world in a matter of decades. You can build our lives excellently too with kimchi!



Servings: 2
Preparation time: < 5 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:
♥ 2 tbsp sesame oil (麻油)
♥ 1 tbsp dried shrimp (虾米) / anchovies (凤尾鱼)
♥ 5 cloves garlic (大蒜)
♥ 0.5 onion (洋葱)
♥ 2 eggs (鸡蛋)
♥ 8 tbsp kimchi (韩国泡菜), julienned / chopped into small pieces
♥ 2 East Asian rice bowls steamed rice (米饭), pre-fridge so less sticky
♥ pepper (胡椒粉), to taste
Optional:
♥ 1 tsp sesame seeds (芝麻粒)
♥ 1 scallion (葱), chopped

Directions:
1. Heat a frying pan with sesame oil. Meanwhile, break the clumps of rice using a fork.
2. Sauté garlic, onion & anchovies until aromatic.
3. Lower the heat & add eggs then kimchi. Stir quickly until the kimchi turns soft and deep in color, 5 - 6 minutes.
4. Add rice, pepper & scallion. Stir evenly & mix with a final tsp of sesame oil.
5. Garnish with sesame seeds.

Tips:
♥ You can add meat such as beef, chicken, pork, bacon, ham or tuna in accordance to your preference, but meatless version of kimchi fried rice is delicious and faster to cook.
♥ Once, we enjoyed kimchi fried rice with haloumi cheese. This combination goes well too!
♥ If you want sunny side up eggs, fry the egg first with 0.5 tsp oil, dish out & set aside.
♥ I use dried shrimps or anchovies to give the salty taste to the dish, you can also use 1 tbsp soy sauce as a substitute.

Other recipes that I love:
♥ kimchi fried rice by Bee @ Rasa Malaysia
♥ Kimchi Bokkeum Bap by Hyosun Ro @ Korean Bapsang
♥ kimchi fried rice by Debbie Lee @ Food Republic

Check also our other #5minutemeal recipes.

With love,
ServicefromHeart
20140301

easy sushi rice balls with balsamic vinegar recipe (ada Bahasa Indonesia juga)

What is sushi rice? It is vinegared rice used to make sushi. We remembered: once we were told, at an Asian restaurant that we managed to find open at a late winter night in Paris, that they were running out of steamed rice. "Would you mind if we use sushi rice instead?" Being hungry, we quickly nodded and accepted the offer. It turned out to be a very delicious meal - a meal to remember.

The choice of vinegar matters. Normally, rice vinegar is used to make sushi rice. Japanese rice vinegar normally contains ~5% acetic acid. For today's sushi rice balls, I used balsamic vinegar of Modena (Leonardi brand) with 6% acidity.



Do you love adventures? Sushi that we love has probably traveled from southern China to Japan - a country symbolized by sushi, in accordance to Marc Matsumoto.

In preparing our meals in simple and easy ways, we can be adventurous too. Perhaps, sushi rice can go with other not-so-common sushi ingredients.

Recently, baby Ren's Godmother introduced us to Nestle Cheerios cereals. Both ouf us love them. Besides eating them as a snack, with oatmeal, how else can we enjoy them?




Soft sushi rice can go well with crunchy cereals. Serve with goldfish made of cherry tomatoes and kids will like them!



Serving: 2
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes (depends on your rice cooker)

Ingredients:
♥ 1 rice cooker cup (newly harvested, if possible) rice grains
♥ 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
♥ 1 tbsp honey
♥ 1/4 tsp salt

Directions:
1. Rinse and gently rub rice grains (using sieve, if possible) to remove dirt. If you have extra time, soak washed rice for 30 minutes before cooking for fluffier texture.
2. Cook rice using rice cooker using rice:water ratio of 1:1.5 (normally, I will use 1:2 ratio for steamed rice).
3. Meanwhile, mix balsamic vinegar, honey, salt in a small bowl.
4. While the cooked rice is hot, add vinegar mixture over the rice (in a wooden container, if possible). Gently toss without destroying delicate grains of rice*.
5. Make into balls. I prefer to use thoroughly washed bare hands. Wet hands can minimize sushi rice get stuck on our hands.
6. Garnish sushi rice balls with cheese, cilantro, cereals, sesame seeds (optional).


* It is okay if you break some grains, so do I. We are learning, and even great sushi chefs practice over 10,000 hours to retain the original shapes of each grain of rice. 


  
Other recipes that I love:
♥ Marc Matsumoto's sushi rice at No Recipes
♥ Namiko Chen's sushi rice at Just One Cookbook
♥ Issendai's how to cook Japanese rice

Check also our other #5minutemeal recipes.



Brief ingredients and Directions in Bahasa Indonesia:
♥ 1 gelas (ukuran rice cooker) beras baru panen
♥ 1 sdm cuka
♥ 1 sdm madu
♥ 1/4 sdt garam

1. Bilas butiran beras dengan saringan untuk menghilangkan kotoran. Jika anda memiliki waktu ekstra, rendam beras  selama 30 menit sebelum dimasak supaya teksturnya pulen.
2. Masak nasi menggunakan rice cooker dengan perbandingan beras:air 1:1,5 (biasanya, saya akan menggunakan perbandingan 1:2 untuk nasi putih).
3. Sementara itu, campur cuka, madu, garam dalam mangkuk kecil.
4. Ketika nasi masih panas, tambahkan campuran cuka ke dalam nasi (dalam wadah kayu, jika ada). Aduk secara lembut tapi cepat tanpa merusak butiran beras.
5. Buat bola nasi sushi dengan tangan bersih. Basahkan tangan sedikit supaya nasi sushi tidak lengket di telapak tangan.
6. Hias nasi sushi dengan keju, ketumbar, sereal, biji wijen.



With love,
ServicefromHeart
20140222

Easy Soboro with pink steamed rice recipe by ServicefromHeart

When my mother visited us, she made me finely chopped dishes for my lunch box (bento). Now, whenever I think of Soboro (そぼろ), I would be happy and grateful for her and her tremendous love.

In brief, soboro is finely chopped dishes of meat, fish, egg or vegetables that are served sprinkled onto or mixed with rice.

Servings: 3

Preparation & cook time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

♥ 3/4 cup rice

♥ 2 eggs

♥ long beans / green beans

♥ 2 carrots 

♥ 1tsp anchovies 

♥ salt

♥ 2 tsp sugar

♥ 2 tbsp sesame oil 

Directions:

1. Steam rice with beet root to obtain pink / red colored rice. 

2. To make egg soboro (iritamago), mix eggs, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp anchovies in a bowl. Cook over a frying pan over medium heat. Use 2 wooden spoons (or 2 pairs of wooden chopsticks), keep stirring the egg mixture to allow them to form fine granules. 

3. Cut long beans into small pieces of ~0.7 cm in length. Boil in salted water until crisp tender. 

4. Place chopped carrots, 1 tsp sugar, pinch of salt in a small pan and boil over high heat. Lower the heat and simmer until the carrot is tender. 

5. Serve carrot, beans, and egg soboro with rice. Drizzle generously with sesame oil. 

Tips:

♥ For lighter pink tone of steamed rice, use beet roots that were used for cooking soup. For red tone of rice, use fresh beet roots.

♥ For better taste, add 1 tsp of rice wine / sake / mirin / white wine when you make egg soboro or carrot soboro. 

♥ For more variations and colorful soboro, consider sweet peppers soboro, tofu soboro (iridofu), meat (niku) soboro in soy sauce / oyster sauce. 

♥ Sesame oil really brings the fragrance out. Among all the sesame oil that I have tried, I favor the sesame oil of Ghee Hiang Baby brand (www.ghee-hiang.com) manufactured in Penang, Malaysia, using methods and techniques learned from Fujian, China.