Saffron Chicken Rice

Chicken rice have establish itself as one of the staple cuisine for general singapore populace that you can practically find a Chicken Rice stall in every foodcourt or hawker centre. The default taste for chicken rice more or less is cast in stone. Being a foodie that challenge the norm, I decide to up the ante by adding to saffron (one of the most expensive spice in the world) to this defined cuisine and manage to bring out a whole new taste spectrum.


Saffron Chicken Rice

• Yamie Chicken Rice (available in leading supermarket)
• 5 Saffron strands
• Water

Old School Version

• 1 to 2 cups of Thai Fragrant Rice
• 1 to 2 cups of Chicken Stock
• 1 Pandan Leaf crush and tied to knot
• 5 slices of Ginger
• 5 clove of Garlic crushed
• 5 Saffron strands
• Oil
• Salt

If you want to have quick chicken rice, simply go to leading supermart and purchase the Yamie Chicken Rice as it is rice that is pre-flavored. You simple need to add water and powered up your cooker and you have your chicken rice ready. For this instance, you just need to add in the saffron before you flip on the power switch. To approximate the amount of water needed, you can use the plastic bag that house the rice grain as a gauge. Once it fully cook, you see naturally orange tint in your chicken to indicate that saffron had infused into the rice grain.


For old school who like to do all the nitty gritty steps, simply heat up fried pan with oil and pan fry the garlic and ginger for 2 mins till you smell the aroma release from the ginger and garlic. Add in the rice grain and fry for another 5 mins to let the garlic and ginger infused into the rice grain. Turn off the flame and empty everything into the rice cooker and add in chicken stock accordance to the amount of rice used. Add in the pandan leaf, saffron and pinch of salt and powered up the rice cooker. Once it is done, you have your lovely saffron chicken rice.

Sichuan Mala Noodles With Prawn Gyoza & Sliced Roasted Chicken

My visit to Kim Gary normally is solely restricted to their curry rice as their curry is uniquely different and I'm unable to emulate. But I'm amused that there are patrons order their noodles dishes as they are generally concocted from instant noodle. Today is cold rainy second day of F1 2010, I intend to cook up instant noodle dish - Sichuan Mala Noodles for dinner that is comparable to those serve in Kim Gary.


Sichuan Mala Noodles With Prawn Gyoza & sliced Roasted Chicken

• Sichuan Spicy Seaweed Instant Noodle (currently on offer at $3.15 in NTUC)
• 1 teaspoon or 1 tablespoon of Chongqing Mala Paste
• 2 Frozen Prawn/Pork Gyoza
• 5 slices of Roasted Chicken (available in major supermart)

Boil the sufficient water in a pot and add in the instant noodle seasonings and Chongqing Mala paste. Next add in the frozen gyoza and cook it for 10mins then remove it from the broth and place it in a bowl together with the roasted chicken slices. Add in the instant noodle into the boiling broth. The trick to having an el dente instant noodle is removed the noodles from the boiling broth before it fully soften and set it aside in the serving bowl. After that, let the broth boil until it bubbles and pour it into the serving bowl. The residual heat in the broth will cook the noodles further to the texture of your liking.

Mushroom Sloppy Joe Pizza Naan

I normally dun like the standard pizza base sold in local supermart as most are not partial cook therefore it will take you significant amount of time if you suddenly have pizza craving. Naan is the perfect pizza base alternative as it is readily frozen partial baked and relatively cheaper (you can get 12 frozen partial baked naans at the price of $5.95 at Mustafa) than the frozen pizza base. Sloppy Joe Pizza Naan is the easiest to cook and fastest to make among all my pizza recipe as you do not need to deal with much toppings.



Mushroom Sloppy Joe Pizza Naan

• Delmonte Sloppy Joe Sauce (available in Jason's Market or Cold Storage)
• 300gm of Minced Beef
• 1 Medium Red Onion diced finely
• 1/2 cup of peas
• 1 Brown Mushroom thinly sliced
• 1 Partial Baked Naan
• 2 Cherry Tomato thinly sliced
• Mozzarella Cheese

Sloppy Joe is a thick meat sauce similar to chili con carne or bolognese that can be use as topping for hotdog or filling served with burger bun. Rarely is it used as pizza based sauce as well as a pizza topping. The fastest way to make Sloppy Joe is to grab the really made sauce from supermart. First, you need to brown the onions then add in the minced beef and brown the beef for 10 mins. Add in the Delmonte Sloppy Joe sauce and green peas into the minced beef and onion. Gently stir until the sauce is fully incorporate into the beef. Turn down the heat and let it simmer for 10 to 15 mins then turn off the stove.

Take one naan and spread the Sloppy Joe evenly on the naan surface. Add in the cherry tomato follow by mushroom slice and finally top it off with mozzarella cheese. Pop it into the toaster oven and toast it for 10 mins till the mozzarella start to brown and it's really to serve.

Prawn/Pork Fried Gyoza

Lately, I have been craving for fried gyoza and I decide to have it for breakfast today. For those “十指不占阳春水“ translate literally to those who doesn't do household chores like cooking or cleaning would suggest going to foodcourt or restaurant Ding Tai Fung "鼎泰豐" to settle the craving. Unfortunately, the gyoza offered by the foodcourt or restaurant are unable to satisfied my palate for a more personalized and customize gyoza. I had experiment with many combination of gyoza fillings and by far this is the most flavorful combi that I had concocted. Without further ado, let proceed with the recipe.


Prawn/Pork Fried Gyoza

• 240gm of Minced Pork
• 1 bowl of De-Shell Raw Prawn
• 4 Brown Mushroom finely diced
• 1 tablespoon of finely diced Garlic
• 1 tablespoon of finely diced Ginger
• 2 stalk of finely chopped Spring Onion
• 1/2 slab of firm Tofu
• 2 teaspoon of Knorr Hao Chi powder
• 2 teaspoon of Maggi Chicken essence
• 1 teaspoon of light soya sauce
• 1 packet of gyoza skin (available at Shen Siong Supermart)
• 1 tablespoon of Mirin

For my previous gyoza filling recipes, I always add egg as a binding agent to hold the gyoza filling. From my experience, pan fry egg-bind gyoza filling tend to be quite dry. This time, I decide to replace it with tofu as the binding agent. In a big mixing bowl, mash the firm tofu and add in the rest of the ingredients - minced pork, prawn, mushroom, spring onion, garlic, ginger.

Next add in the flavoring agent - Hao Chi powder, Maggi Chicken essence, soya sauce and mirn into the mixing bowl. Now it is time to get your hand dirty. With a circular motion, blend the mixture until it sticky enough to form a ball. Next it time to fold the gyoza, you can follow the instruction in this video to fold your gyoza. You can fold all your gyoza and place them on tray with wax paper and freeze them in batches and store them in plastic bag. This allow you to take out the amount you need.


Fire up the non-stick frying pan with drizzle of cooking oil, and add in the frozen gyoza let it pan fry for 5 mins then add in 1/4 cup of water and cover with the fry pan and let it steam until the water dry up and wait for another 10 mins and serve. If you prefer much crispy base, leave it for addition 5 mins or more.

Saturday Cookout Afterthought

It had been months since I last update the cookfreak blog as working life (as an IT professional) had taken a toll in both my mental and physical well-being that I took a 3 month sabbatical from work and cooking (including blogging as well).

With current economic situations and inflation, it take one to wonder how one can appreciate the things around you and the things you do in life. I have friends everyday telling me how "sian" they are with their life even those well-to-do friends showing signs of weariness due to stress. Even now, I do not have any answer to this never-ending rat race that seem to entwine everyone including myself.

But one thing I know for sure is my passion for food and cooking never wanes despite all this. As my friends always made fun of me that - "I live to eat" not like them - "eat to live". Truth to their words, I constantly re-invent ways of cooking common cuisine as well as complex one in an economical way everyone can enjoy. I will be sharing in coming post on how one can roast and grill chicken/fish with toaster oven without the need to purchase expensive conventional oven.

"Twilight Killer" Ramen - NANTSUTTEI Ramen

Being a ramen fanatic, I always take the opportunity to try new Japan ramen restaurants that had set its root in Singapore. Nasutte is among the few that I chosen for my taste test as I absolutely adores Tonkotsu soup based ramen and its well known roasted garlic oil topping.



NANTSUTTEI is located at the 3rd floor of new Millenia Walk extension - Parco Marina. I had the chance to try out NANTSUTTEI's garlic oil tonkostu ramen during their initial first week of operation. If I had the time, I normally would like to grace newly open Japanese restaurant during the first 2 weeks as this is the time you get to taste authentic Japanese cuisine as the Japanese cuisine are prepared under the watchful eye of main store chef from Japan.



I decided to go for the full work and order the Charsiew Ramen ($16.00) and additional topping of ramen egg ($2.00). About 15 mins later, steaming hot Charsiew Ramen was served up to me. Without further ado, I took a sip of the soup and was struck by how full bodied the ramen soup was brewed. It is the best tonkotsu soup base I have ever taste shaming even the popular Ippudo, Tampopo or Ichibantei. The black garlic oil further enhance the richness of the Tonkotsu soup to a new level. If your averse to Garlic, you might want to give this ramen a miss if you happen to be Robert Pattinson of Twilight or Twilight fan.


NANTSUTTEI serve thick curly noodles that doesn't lose it el dente despite soaking in the soup. The ramen egg is perfectly cooked with liquid-center yolk that not much ramen restaurant able to attain. I definitely give 2 thumbs up for impeccable attention in making such delectable ramen.

Saturday Cookout Afterthought

I give advice to my friend's mum over Live Messenger on how to go about using the microwave to cook marinated chicken. As reported by my friend, the outcome was pretty successful. However, he commented it seem so tedious and difficult despite the process of using a microwave to cook the marinated chicken is pretty effortless and simple. I cannot comprehend why so many people perceive cooking as tedious and complex.  

I have a friend that say why you can effortless cook dishes that seem so complex and tedious. Well I have my fair share of failure and this saturday cookout is a failure despite it aesthetic appearance. My dutch rendition of Stampot is too dry and the pan fried skewered bacon wrapped dory fish isn't crispy enough. It would be ideal if it is deep fried.
 
Even in failure, you can learn what could be done to improve the failed recipe. As I always say no one is born a cook, it is only whether you have a heart to cook.