The Science of Chicken Rice : Singapore Style

Chicken Rice is one of those universal dish. You can pretty much find a variety of chicken rice dishes from every culture in the world. Where I'm from, Singapore, chicken rice has raisen to the ranks of what best epitomized Singapore cusine despite our multi-cultural society.

Almost everyone I know back home loves a good chicken rice meal, but finding a good place for that is the toughest thing to do. Everyone has their favorites so it's not that easy to agree on one. There're many minute details that people look for in their chicken rice. It could be texture of the rice, the flavor of the rice, or the chicken, the type of chicken used....etc...the list goes on. For me, it's simple... I like my rice flavorful, not too oily and my chicken tender and smooth, not overcooked.



After years of making this dish at home, I finally come up with a method that actually ensure a tender and smooth chicken each time. The only problem to that is that is rather time-consuming. Nevertheless I still make this dish...knowing at the end of cooking I get to sit down and savor a seriously good meal!! That's what motivates me to make it! Oh that and the fact that I'm greedy!



These days you can take a short cut on making the flavored rice with a bottle of ready-made chicken rice sauce. It gives the same authentic Singapore Style chicken rice but you can take the long way if you want to..just for the sake. I usually focus on making the chicken the right way...coz it's nothing worse that eating tough to chew chicken coz of overcooking!

Due to health concerns and the fact I lost the vote, I made this dish with just chicken breast meat but it's best with a whole chicken. Remainding chicken could be used in other dishes; eg, chicken pasta salad. Somehow using just part of the chicken just doesn't make good chicken rice nor tender juicy chicken! *personal opinion* :)

Otak Otak

With the big Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, lots of people probably a little tired of hearing the word T-U-R-K-E-Y! I know I am!! So for all those turkey weary people out there, I've got something to take your mind off that dreaded bird.....



I made Otak Otak with some really fresh snapper that I can't resist buying. It was one huge fish, too big for one sitting and as we all know, with fish that fresh, it's better to consume it asap instead of letting it sit in your freezer forever (which I tend to do!).

I used banana leaves as the wrap but I stuck it into the oven to grill it to give that slightly charred flavor of Otak Otak. It tasted authentic enough but it could had been better...;) I followed the recipe from CyberKauli to the best I could with the availability of ingredients.

Overall, too much prep work to make this treat worthwhile to make on a daily basis...it's nice...NOT THAT nice...:)

Sugar Plums

I never had sugar plums before; plums, yes, but sugar plums...nope. You hear all about them during Christmas time, it's always sugar plums this and sugar plums that! I always thought they were just candy for Christmas! Little did I know that they are actually fruits?!?!?! And after all my years in the US of A, I'd never ever seen a REAL sugar plum. So when I saw that in my local grocery store, I bought a bunch of it! I mean, with a name like sugar plums, you really can't go wrong. And I wasn't....they were sweet!!

Unlike most plums, these sugar varieties have "sweet" skins instead of the tart ones on regular plums. A real and rare treat for me; who loves plums but just hate peeling the outer skin just to get to the sweet fleshy insides. With these sugar plums, all you need is to wash, dry and bite right into it! They are not that big either, smaller than the usual plums bigger than a grape, so you can really get carried away with the eating part.



However I found that they ripened really fast even if you try to keep it refridgerated. Solution to that, buy as much as you think you can consume within the next couple of days and finish it so you wouldn't have to keep. We don't have any problem with eating part since I've got a fruit bat for a son.


The only problem is that plums seems out of season now and I just can't find them in the store anymore!! It was such a short season too...:( Still I'm glad I finally can say, I'd eaten sugar plums and, boy, they were great, not just as a decorative piece!!! :)

Early Thanksgiving

These two weeks had been travelling to one place to another. It was our friends' wedding and it was held in two different places. One was in Oklahoma where they reside and the other was in Kansas City where her family is. We went to Oklahoma last weekend and just over this weekend we were at Kansas for the for big wedding dinner. It was exhilarating but it was also very tiring! In a way, I'm glad it's over.

This is also the friend who makes one great succulent, tender, and perfectly roasted turkey! I really mean it! I hate roasted turkeys at Thanksgiving coz the turkey ALWAYS turned up dry, flaky and really, not appetizing at all!! Eversince he found this recipe last year and made this wonderful roast bird, he has been "crowned" the official roast turkey host!! Which means that every year for Thanksgiving, he will be making his "famous" roast turkey!

However this year, he can't host Thanksgiving on the actual date since he would be having YET another wedding (his, of course)in his hometown, KL. So he decided that he will just have to host one earlier....what would be a better time than celebrating it in conjunction with his "first" wedding...:)

Seriously, check this bird out. Of course with the bird, there's always fixings! He had roasted garlic mashed potates (my fave!) WITH homemade gravy (WONDERFUL), asparagus wrapped with bacaon simmered in some Thai Chilli sauce (my husband's fave and our friend's original recipe), buns, green bean casserole, and bread pudding AND lots of wine!! I mean, loads!! I loved it!! Every thing was just wonderful, great food and most of all, great company! You can't beat that!



Just look at my greedy boy's face staring the turkey down and you know you did good!! Ethan's not very enthusiastic when it comes to meat but check out his bulging eyes on his gleeful face....he can't wait!!! He actually hopped into the chair on his own and waited for FOOD!!!



But my friend being the budding photographer that he is, decided that he want to set up his equippment to take the pppuuuuurrrrrrrfffeeeccctttt Thanksgiving picture. Ethan's remark on that...."NNNNOOOOWWWWWWWW......ON THE TABLE!!!!!!!!!!!" Oh yah...:)

Woody

Woody it is....I had mentioned that Ethan's Halloween costume was NOT to be Buzz Lightyear. Well....the next best thing, Woody from Toy Story. I didn't decide on Woody initially coz I just thought it was such a cliche. I mean, we live in Texas, and dressing as a cowboy, well, you know what I mean. :) But Ethan actually looked so cute in it!!

Recently Ethan has developed a real sense of self-awareness. It's really kinda of enduring but he seems to have taken a negative outlook towards it. So right now, we are teaching him that it's ok to laugh at oneself and it's not a bad thing to have a sense of humour. He's still working on it..:)



We tried to take a "good" pic of him but Ethan was just too "shy" to pose for the camera. In the end, we decided that the only way that we were only take ANY pics was just let him be and kept snapping at the camera and prayed we get at least ONE good pic!!!



Ethan suddenly got the case of the "shy-ness" and didn't really know what he wanted to do. He was so conscious of all of us making a big fuss over him. What with our gushing, fussing, outbursts of delights and squealing, it was just too much althogether for him to take. I guess he just didn't know what to make of it! hehehe



In the end, the only "good" pic of him came when we were at the Arboretum. He just loves pumpkins, just don't ask me why....hehehe.. Overall I think he enjoyed his Halloween, although he's still having some night terrors about some jack-o-lanterns he had seen somewhere......poor baby!

PS: For those curious about his missing cowboy hat. Well...it's extra which means it doesn't come with the outfit, to be bought separately. And knowing Ethan, that hat wouldn't be on his head but in my hands, I'll be carrying it!! So NO!

Apple Crumble Coffee Cake

 
  

First Timer's Wedding Cake

One week researching on the internet and books, three days coming up with the actual design on blueprint and planning, plus three more days of actually making it in various stages.....this is the outcome............

Yup, I made a wedding cake for a very close family friend. They are FINALLY tying the knot, so why not! This is also my first attempt of making a fondant type cake. I made everything from scratch, except for the flowers, I didn't grow them!!! :) I didn't tell them about the cake coz I don't want to dissapoint anyone if it turned out to be a disaster and I didn't have a cake to give when they expected it. Well...it turned out to be a lovely surprise for them...they didn't expect it...LOL



I did so much research on the type of cake that I was really really stressed out! It also had to be assemble over the course of three cakes. So lets say that I screwed up on day three...I'm pretty much done and over with!!! Didn't have the time to do any thing else...and all effort would have gone down the drain!

The toughest part, surprisely, was baking the cake itself. I guessed I was a little over confident with the cake part since I bake a fair amount of it with no major disaster. The part which I thought would most likely to fail turned out to be the "easiest".

Of course, by the end of the whole thing, I was totally exhausted to say the least and was not really paying a whole lot of attention to what I'm doing. Main goal at the end was just finished up with whatever and slap it aside!! Hehehhe...bad attitude but with barely six hours of sleep each day and having to do everything else...it was definintey a brain drain!



Ed thought it was pretty good especially for a first-timer and asked if I was gonna start a new profession. Sure....that and find a cure for Cancer and AIDS, end world hunger, create world peace...oh yah oh yah.....find time to sleep...:)

Just for you guys, N & K, congrats again!!!! See ya this weekend!!! :)

PS: Did I mention I LOVE FONDANT!!!! They are like foundation, pretty much cover up MOST "blemishes"!!! ;)

PSS: San, CONGRATS AGAIN on your baptism!! Sorry that I didn't know....I'm a lousy friend!! :(

Arboretum in Autumn