Smoked Salmon Donburi

I bought a pack of Scottish smoked salmon to eat it with young salad leaves. I must say the smoked salmon here tasted fresh and really nice. Beside using it in salad, my friend advise me to make smoked salmon donburi. This is really simple and yet tasted so healthy and fulfilling.

Smoked Salmon Donburi
Ingredients (served 2)

• 60 gm smoked salmon slices- cut into bite size
  
• 2 large eggs
• 2 stalks of spring onion-finely chopped
• 1/2 of small carrot-finely chopped
• 1 tbsp of vegetable oil
• 2 bowl of cooked sushi rice
• 1 tbsp of shoyu(light soya sauce) - Kikkoman
• seaweed (optional)
• black sesame seed (optional)
  

1. Beat the egg in a bowl and add in the chopped spring onion
2. Heat a pan, pour in the cooking oil. Once hot, add the carrot and stir for a minute or so, then flattened it into a round circle.
3. Place the smoked salmon on top of the carrot. Pour in the beaten eggs from (1) onto the smoked salmon+carrot.
4. Swiveled the pan so that the eggs will coat well all the ingredients.
5. Let it cook for 2 minutes on medium heat. Before the egg is fully set, turn off the heat and cover the pan with lid to let it continue to cook. This step will ensure that the egg will not be overly charred and salmon is just nicely cooked.
6. Served it on top of rice. Drizzle with shoyu sauce, black sesame seed and seaweed.

Enjoy the healthy meal.

Here some picture I took this morning around 6am in my garden.

I love the little blue florets of forget me not mingling well with tulips

Spring Dutch Iris In full bloom

Fragant colorful wallflowers

I love the morning sun ray upon lupin flower spire. The lupin has just begin to flower

Look at the almost black color tulips-known as the Queen of The Night. My favorite tulips

Roasted chestnut rice ( Kuri-gohan rice)

As promised, here is a delicious Japanese dish I made with the picked chestnuts for lunch today. I really like having roasted chestnut especially in autumn/winter. The warmth smoky aroma and sweetness of the roasted nut on it's own is already a delicacies for me. This is my first attempt on cooking Kuri-gohan and it did turn out well. :-)
The only tedious part of this recipes is peeling the chestnut skin after roasting, the rest is as easy as ABC. But the effort is well worth it..... so healthy and so simply smoky delicious.


Kuri-gohan Rice(Roasted chestnut rice)
Ingredients (good for 2 persons)

• 1.5 cup Japanese short grain rice
  
• 1.5 - 2 cups of water
• 20 chestnuts roasted and peeled
  
• 1 tbsp of mirin
• 2 tbsp sake
  
• 1 tsp salt
• Some steamed carrot/pumpkin/sweet potato (optional)
  
• Claypot/ Nabe pot
  

1. First of all make a crossing on the flat side of chestnut before roasting. This will elliminate the chestnut from exploding during roasting. Place on a roasting tin and roast in an oven for 30-40minutes at 200C.
2. Once the chestnut is nicely roasted, peeled the skin when it's still hot and this will be so much easier compared when it is cold.
3. Wash the uncooked rice, then put them onto the pot. Add water, mirin, sake and salt. Cook on high heat until the water is boiling. Turn to low heat, and add in chestnut on top of the rice. Close the lid. Let it cook on low heat for 35minutes until the rice is cook. You can use rice cooker as well but I prefer claypot as it create a crispy rice crust that is smoky on top of the smoky sweetness of chestnut.
   
4. Served hot with carrot/pumpkin/sweet potato.
   
5. Enjoy of course :-)
   

Stay tuned for more autumn colors...............


Nutritional Tips:
Most people don't think of nuts as a low-fat food, but chestnuts are the exception. Low in fat, 100 grams or 3.5 ounces of cooked chestnuts, contain a mere 1 to 3 grams of total fat compared to the same quantity of almonds with about 50.6 grams of fat. You've probably guessed they're also low in calories with that same measure of cooked chestnuts containing between 57 and 153 calories depending on the variety. The Chinese chestnuts tip the scale with the higher figure.

Protein is not a highpoint for chestnuts that contain only minimal amounts, ranging from 0.82 to 2.88 grams for 3.5 ounces. However, unlike their other nut counterparts, they are very starchy, making them a little higher in energy-boosting carbohydrates. The Chinese chestnut tops the other varieties with 33.64 grams of carbohydrates for 3.5 ounces, while the Japanese variety measures 12.64 grams. It's their carbohydrates that make chestnuts, once dried and ground, into an excellent, highly nutritious flour.

Of all the nuts, chestnuts are the only ones that contain Vitamin C. One ounce of boiled or steamed chestnuts delivers between 9.5 mg and 26.7 mg of the vitamin, while the dried variety has double the vitamin totaling 15.1 mg to 61.3 mg for 3.5 ounces.

All three varieties, the Chinese, Japanese, and European, contain B vitamins including folacin. All have significant amounts of trace minerals including calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorous, manganese, copper, selenium, and zinc and are an especially rich source of potassium ranging from 119 mg to 715 mg for 3.5 ounces.

Clay Pot Chicken Rice

As weather getting cooler by the day, I always find it comforting to have warm food. Recently I brought a claypot over from Malaysia. Cooking with claypot can reserve the heat of your food, and stay warm for awhile after cooking. I used it quite a lot for cooking soup, curry and of course a piping hot clay pot rice. The thought of it, get me salivating and yearning for this one dish meal again....

Clay Pot Rice
Ingredients (good for 2 persons)

• 1 cup rice
• 1 1/4 cup of chicken stock/water
  
• 4-5 chicken wing drumlets
• 3 dry shitake mushrooms-soaked till soft
  
• some fried shallots
  
• 1 bird eye chillis
• 1/2 lap cheong-Chinese sausage-sliced thinly
  
• one small slice of salted fish (optional)
  
• spring onion for garnishing

Marinating for chicken

• 1 tbsp of ginger juice-extracted from pounded thumbsize ginger+1tbsp of water
• 1/2 tbsp of sesame oil
• 1/2 tbsp of shaoxing wine
• 1/2 tbsp of light soya sauce
• 1 tsp dark soya sauce
• dash of white pepper
  

Sauce for rice

• 1/2 tbsp dark soya sauce
• 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp of light soya sauce
• 1 tsp of garlic/shallot oil

1. Marinate the chicken and shitake mushroom with the marinating ingredients and leave aside for around 30minutes or so.
   
2. Cover rice with water/chicken stock in the clay pot and let it cook over medium heat until half the water has evaporated. This roughly takes about 10-15minutes. Then add in the lap cheong, marinated chicken and mushroom and continue to steam over the rice. Cover the lid and cook till rice is cook, this take about another 10-15minutes. Add additional cooking time of 5 more minutes on low heat to get a charred and crispy rice at the bottom of the pot. Remove from heat.
3. Drizzle the rice sauce onto it and garnish with fried shallots, bird eye chillis and spring onion.
4. Served piping hot with some sambal sauce too.

What a comforting food for autumn :-)

Stir fry black bean pork

I don't know whether any of you have this kind of feeling when daylight are getting shorter as one progressing through autumn and winter. I have a fake sense of time, i.e it gives me feeling that it's really late when I got back home from work. I tend to prepare simple one dish meal, eat it quickly and settle in front of my TV just to realise I've done all that in about 30minutes.... how can that be? Super efficient? Or was it really a super simple meal? :-)
Here it goes with my stir fry black bean pork recipes......

Stir fry black bean pork
Ingredients

• 150gm pork fillet-sliced thinly-marinate with 1/2 tbsp of sesame oil, 1tbsp of shaoxing wine, 1 tsp of white pepper, 1 tbsp of soya sauce, 1/2 tbsp of corn flour.
  
• 1 tbsp cooking oil
• 1 tbsp Ching Kiang black vinegar
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tbsp black bean sauce
• 5 tbsp of water/stock
  
• 1/2 big onion-sliced thinly
• 2 cloves of garlic
• few slices of ginger
• 1 bird eye chillis-deseeded
  
• spring onion for garnishing

1. In a wok, heat the cooking oil till slightly smoky, add in garlic, ginger and chilli and let it fry till aromatic. Add in the onion an stir fry for awhile, then add in the marinated pork, black bean sauce, vinegar and continue to stir fry till lightly cook.
2. Add in the water and turn the heat to medium to low. Add in the sugar and let it simmer for 5 minutes or so till cook. If the gravy is too thick you can add in another 2 tbsp of water.
   
3. Served on top of fragant Jasmine rice. Simple yet nice.
   

Saturday in the field

Tell you a secret, I just acquired a classic English bike - Pashley Princess Sovereign. She's such a classic, handbuild in Straford upon Avon. Me and my cycling buddy who happen to have a brand new slick mountain bike Giant R8, we decided to test drive our little new machine. Off we go for 30miles cycle ride through villages around north Cambridgeshire. This time of the year, one couldn't fail to notice the yellow field as far as your eyes could see. Rape seed oil field. Perfect setting for lovely photos. It was indeed splendid.

Tonite I made Oyakodon. This is a Japanese rice with chicken, eggs and onion cooked in dashi stock. Simple, healthy and deliciously in a bowl.



Oyakodon
Ingredients (for 2 persons)

• 2 chicken breast meat dices in 1 inch cube
  
• 1 large onion sliced
  
• 3 eggs (lightly beaten)
  
• 1 cup Dashi stock
• 1.5-2 tbsp Kikkoman soya sauce
• 2 tbsp mirin
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 tbsp sake (optional)
• 2 bowls of steam Japanese rice

1. In a pan, add in Dashi stock, soya sauce, mirin and sugar. Bring to a boil. Add in onion and let it simmer on low heat for 5 minutes.
2. Top the chicken on the onion and let it simmer for 3minutes, turn the chicken over and cook for a furthe 2-3minutes till just cook.
3. Add in the beaten egg and simmer for further 2 minutes. Don't overcook the eggs, a bit runny will be really nice on the hot steamed rice.
   
4. Pour them on top the rice in a bowl. Sprinkle with Japanese chilli flakes.
   

Khao Pat Sapparot ( Pineapple fried rice)

Having raised up in Malaysia, I'm lucky to have abundance of tropical fruits to choose from. One of my favorite is pineapple. I love it eaten raw dip with chilli and soy sauce, used in cooking especially in sweet and sour dishes, juiced for refreshing drinks, pinacolada cocktail, the lists are endless.
The sweet and a hint of sourness to this fruit make it a nice combination with rice as well especially fried rice. I'm gonna make Thai pineapple fried rice(khao pat sapparot)

Khao Pat Sapparot (Pineapple fried rice)
Ingredients (serves 4)

• 2 cup of jasmine rice cooked and leaved overnite
• 8 Thai sausages/frankfurter thinly sliced
• 10 medium prawns
• 4 tbsp coconut cream
• 5 cloves of garlic finely chopped
  
• 3 tsps Thai red curry paste/green curry paste
• 3 rings of pineapple, cut in cube
• 2 tbsp raisins
  
• 3 tsps soya sauce/salt to taste
• 2 tsp sugar
  
• 1 green chillis
• chopped coriander
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• 2 shallots finely chopped
• 1 stalk of lemon grass finely chopped

1. Heat a wok over high heat, browned the garlic, shallot, chilli. Add the curry paste and coconut milk and stir fry till fragant.
2. Add in prawn & sausages and stir fry for 2-3minutes. Add in pineapple, raisins & rice and stir fry to mix well.
   
3. Add the soya sauce/salt and sugar as seasoning. Stir fry for additional 2 minutes.
4. Turn off heat and add in coriander and mixed well. Serve onto the plate or use a hollowed out pineapple to add an exotic touch to this lovely Thai fried rice.
   

Impress your guess with Thai cuisines.

My Rice Bowl

Rice is considered the staple food for most Asians. When one speaks about rice bowl, it signifies the basic element required to live, which is related to ones employment. I must have rice at least twice a week, else I would think something amiss. Well called it psycology :-) .
So this evening am introducing my staple food.....RICE. The recipes I'm gonna show you is:

Premium King Prawn Fried Rice.


Ingredients (good for 2 persons)

• 100gm fresh king prawns peeled
• 1 cup rice cooked and left overnight
• 1 red pepper bell
• 2 shallots
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 chilli sliced
  
• 60gm spring onion finey chopped
• 5 cabbage leaves thinly sliced into strip
• 1 1/2 tbsp premium XO sauce
• 2 eggs lightly beaten
  
• a dash of white/black pepper
• 1 tbsp of soy sauce
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1/2 tbsp sesame oil

1. Heat a wok, pour in the 1 tbsp vegetable oil, once heated, add in garlic, shallots light fry till brown, add in chilli, pepper bell , cabbage and prawn and stir fry till prawn turned pinkish red. Removed from wok.
2. Pour in 2 tbsp vegetable oil in the wok and let it heat. Once heated, add in XO sauce and stir fry till fragant. Pour in the rice and stir fry for 2 minutes, add in the beaten egg and continue to stir fry. Followed by spring onion and stir fry for a minute, then add in (1) , pepper, sesame oil, soya sauce and stir thoroughly for a minute or so.
3. Ready to dish out and serve.
   

Your guests will give you a thumbs up for this rice dish. Please do not take my rice bowl away from me :-)