Easy porridge recipe using rice cooker by ServicefromHeart

This Chinese style porridge recipe takes only ~ 5 minutes to prepare. Very convenient yet healthy & filling! Highly recommend this meal for breakfast or brunch to kick start a productive day. Children surely like this one-dish meal too, so this recipe is one of mothers' favorite choice.

Servings: 2

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes (depends on the type of rice cooker)

Ingredients:

♥ 1/2 cup Jasmine rice grains

♥ 1 tbsp anchovies*

♥ 2 tbsp sesame oil  

♥ 2 carrots 

♥ 2 tbsp minced meat 

♥ 1 tube tofu

* I prefer to use anchovies to substitute for salt. 

Directions:

1. Wash rice grains. Instead of adding water to reach only the first line of your index finger when you immerse it on top of rice grains, add more water to reach halfway of first and second line. 

2. Wash and chop carrots, minced meat, tofu into bite-size chunks. Add all cut ingredients and anchovies to the rice cooker.

3. Cook slightly longer than the rice cooker takes to cook rice, until you get desirable soft texture. Since I am using an antique rice cooker (a gift from mother in law), it takes me ~ 40 minutes. 

4. After the porridge is cooked, quickly take the rice pot out. Quickly add sesame oil and mix*. Be careful, it is hot! Then, cover the lid for a while to let the sesame fragrance sip in. 

* If you open the lid for too long, without mixing in oil, the porridge will stick to the bottom. 

Tips:

♥ The 3 main ingredients are rice grains, anchovies and sesame oil. For more nutrients, add at least a vegetable (e.g. carrot, beans) and a protein source (e.g. minced meat, tofu). If you have more time for preparation, you can always add more ingredients to create bowls of colorful porridge. 

♥ Sesame oil is really the secret of jazzing up simple and relatively plain meal. 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. 

♥ This porridge appears similar to Cantonese style congee, but this rice cooker recipe is more convenient to prepare as it does not require constant stirring.

♥ If you want tastier porridge, serve with crunchy peanuts, crispy fried shallots or chopped chili (which can be prepared in advance and stored in a screw top jar). My Teochew mother in law prefers less salty option, so porridge straight from the rice cooker pot made her happy. 

This recipe has been inspired by:

♥ http://www.mummyicancook.com/2013/03/teochew-porridge-and-basics.html

♥ http://kitchentigress.blogspot.sg/2009/08/teochew-porridge-best-comfort-food-bar.html

♥ last but not least, baby Ren

Thank you very much!

Check also our other #5minutemeal recipe. 

With love,

ServicefromHeart

20140206

Sign up for #AtoZChallenge 2014

I sign up for A-to-Z Challenge 2014. 

What is AtoZChallenge? 

In brief: 26 posts. 26 days. 26 letters of the alphabet, one post beginning with each letter, in April.

In more details:

The A to Z Challenge is posting every day in April except Sundays. The challenge was first started by Arlee Bird, @Tossing it Out (http://tossingitout.blogspot.com/) in 2010.  

I first learned about this challenge through Damyanti who likes my Life Map.  

Thank you Dear! 

Please follow 543. "Service from Heart (CU)"

CU stands for Culinary category. 

Fun is important! Hopefully, we also learn to be more committed and practice discipline through this challenge. 

Inspirations:

♥I have been sharing alphabets with baby Ren every night, from A to Z. Flashing him cards and noticing how attentive this little boy is very encouraging. I want to go further to learn together using the alphabets, explore new experiences for us through multi media and multiple senses.

♥ Every time I sing "A B C D E F G ...." to baby Ren, it flows effortlessly from my mouth. How is about singing in reverse, "Z Y X W V U T ..."? It is not as easy as the former. Can you quickly say Z to A as fast as A to Z? Honestly, I cannot (at least for now). How is about also doing A-to-Z Challenge in reverse order? 

Ideas: 

♥ For A-to-Z Challenge, each of my post will be related to food or recipe. The food is ideally inspiring, healthy and natural. 

It is relatively challenging to get baby Ren to eat and I hope that these efforts will grow his interests on food. Simultaneously, I also plan to share with him the names of the food in Indonesian and Chinese Mandarin. Learning about food also stimulates almost, if not all, our senses (visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory, tactile).  

♥ For Z-to-A Challenge, each of my post will be related to concepts or ideas that can enhance our happiness, especially simple happiness. 

Think of G for Gratitude, S for Smile, or H for humility. Thinking of them brings smiles to me. 

Finally not to forget 3 little tips:

1. KISS : Keep It (our post) Simple & Short. I aim for a visual (images / photos / videos) and ~ 300 words per post, simply because an adult reads prose text on average at 300 words per minute.

2. Use a spreadsheet to brainstorm and pre-schedule for our posts. This little effort is like building a quick blueprint for our little toy castle. It serves only as a guideline, not a hard rule. Imagining possibilities can be very fun! Please feel free use and modify my spreadsheet to suit your preferences. 

3. Visit other blogs participating in A-to-Z Challenge. Give supports, comments and likes. A sense of community and friendship can synergistically motivate us to create better things in life for ourselves and others. 

Thank you post to Tina of "Life is Good"

Thank you Tina @Life is Good of #atozchallenge for your constructive suggestions and comments. I greatly appreciate them, you are really an angel sent. 

Tina suggests that I turn off word verification. 

By default Blogger blogs are designed to show word verification when visitors comment in a post. Since my blog is relatively new (since January 2014), I am not aware of the requirement of word verification before visitors can comment. Although this is a very useful tool to avoid spam, but kind visitors may find it a hassle to express their opinions easily. Besides blogger has an automatic spam checking tool. 

♥ How to turn off word verification from Blogger? 

Directions:

1. Sign in to your Blogger account. 

2. Go to "Settings", on the left panel. 

3. Go to "Post and Comments"

4. Switch "Show word verification" to No. 

5. Remember to click "Save Settings" in orange on upper right, next to a grey wheel icon. 

Tina also suggested me to include tools for others to easily follow my blog. 

♥ Google+ Follower Gadget (done!)

Please feel free to join my circle in Google Plus : https://plus.google.com/105149472590479927796

♥ Google Friend Connect (done!)

How to Put the Google Friend Connect Gadget on a new Blogger Blog? 

Directions:

1. Sign in to your Blogger account. 

2. Go to "Layout", on the left panel. 

3. Click "Add a Gadget" in blue. 

4. Click "More Gagdgets".

5. Search "Google Friend Connect". 

6. Select "Members" and rename to "Google Friend Connect". 

7. Remember to click "Save Arrangements" in orange on upper right. 

♥ Follow by Email (done!) 

My Feedburner URL is http://feeds.feedburner.com/ServiceFromHeart

Finally, please feel free to give suggestions or simply say Hi! I love to hearing from you. 

Sesame salad dressing recipe by ServicefromHeart

Sesame dressing is nutty and warm to our delicate tongue and comforting to our stomach. The fragrance of sesame reminds me on many beautiful memories in the East. Hope you like this recipe! 

Servings: 3

Preparation & cook time: ~ 5-10 minutes

Ingredients: 

♥ 3 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted

♥ 2 tbsp plain yogurt*

♥ 2 tbsp rice vinegar

♥ 1 tbsp honey

♥ 1 tbsp sesame oil 

♥ 1 tsp soy sauce

Directions:

1. To maximize flavor, dry toast sesame seeds on a frying pan over low heat until they turn golden brown and start to vibrate and pop.

2. Grind the sesame seeds. 

3. Combine all ingredients in a screw top jar. Mix.

4. Drizzle on our favorite salad (lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, boiled eggs).

This recipe has been inspired by:

♥ http://dailycookingquest.com/by-category/vegetarian/sarada-no-gomae-salad-with-sesame-dressing

♥ http://justonecookbook.com/recipes/sesame-dressing/

Thank you very much!

 

* I love to use plain / Greek yogurt instead of mayonnaise.

Check also our other #5minutemeal recipe. 

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.

Simple and easy pasta with creamy yogurt sauce by ServicefromHeart

This recipe is cream-free but creamy enough thanks to the yogurt. 

Try different types of pasta for fun! Besides the common spaghetti, linguine and macaroni, how is about pasta in interesting shapes and sizes? Kids will surely like them. 

Two things serve as inspirations for this recipe:

♥ Looking at a container of yogurt in our refrigerator this morning, has encouraged me to think of a new meal for our family. It is always good to finish our food before their expiry dates. 

♥ I really love Guesteau's motto, "Anyone can cook", from the Disney movie Ratatouille. It is very encouraging to you and me! The movie is about Remy who is dying to become a chef and features heart-warming delicious treats to our eyes.

Servings: 2

Preparation & Cook time: 15 minutes 

Ingredients:

♥ ~150g dried pasta 

♥ 1 tbsp olive oil

♥ 1 cup plain / Greek yogurt

♥ 6 cloves minced garlic 

♥ 1 tsp anchovies (preferred) / pinch of salt

♥ 1/2 onion / red onion (optional)

♥ 1 tsp dried shrimps (optional) 

♥ 1 tbsp herbs, chopped (optional) 

♥ pinch of pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Boil water in a pot to cook pasta.

2. Meanwhile, wash and mince garlic, onion, dried shrimps.

3. Heat olive oil on a frying pan. 

4. Sautee minced garlic, onion, dried shrimps, anchovies. 

5. Over medium heat, add pasta, yogurt, herbs, pepper. Mix well.  

Tips:

♥ Try whole wheat pasta that contains minerals such as magnesium, iron, calcium, potassium, zinc, selenium and manganese.

♥ You can substitute olive oil with butter for creamier texture. 

♥ Instead of weighing ~70g of dried pasta per person, I use my palm to wrap around a bunch of long pasta as a quick measurement. 

Check also our other #5minutemeal recipe. 

Mediterranean inspired Cherry tomato Grape salad recipe by ServicefromHeart

The Lunar New Year 2014 presents hot days in Singapore, how is about a refreshing, crunchy salad of cherry tomatoes and grapes to welcome our relatives or friends? 

Servings: 2

Preparation: < 5 minutes

Ingredients:

♥ 12 cherry tomatoes

♥ 12 grapes

♥ 1/2 tsp herbs (e.g. parsley, fresh mint leaves), chopped

♥ 1 tbsp olive oil (extra virgin) 

♥ 1 tbsp lemon juice or 2 tbsp orange juice

Directions:

1. Pour olive oil first into the bowl to later immediately cover the cut tomatoes and grapes with oil. 

2. Cut cherry tomatoes, grapes into halves. 

3. Add herbs, orange juice. Mix well. 

4. Keep in refrigerator for few hours / overnight to marinade for maximum flavor (optional). 

5. Serve cold as an afternoon snack or a side dish with hot oatmeal or steamed rice. 

Tips:

♥ I recommend using fresh herbs, but in these few days, groceries shop have been closed due to Lunar New Year holidays, so dried herbs are fine too. 

♥ Squeeze orange juice as a companion drink so we can use 2 tbsp of it to add flavor to the salad. 

♥ You can also use large tomatoes to substitute for the cherry tomatoes. For me, if I use large tomatoes, I will use the seeds for pasta base. 

Check also our other #5minutemeal recipe.