What's For Dinner Tonight?

Yam Rice and Watercress Soup.  Comfort food that is simple, easy and extremely satisfying.  For a change from our regular standard dinner, usually a vegetable dish, a meat or fish dish, soup and of course, plain white rice, I decided to cook Yam Rice instead. Yam Rice has always been a favourite.  I love eating yam, delicious in both sweet and savory.  Watercress Soup is nutritious and delicious. Usually when the weather is hot, the Chinese would boil this soup as it helps to reduce heatiness  and detoxifies the body.   This is one of my family's favourite soup.

Here's the recipe for the rice :

Yam Rice

(serves 4 to 5)

Ingredients

2 cups basmathi rice

3 cups hot water

400gm yam, cubed (approx. 2 cups)

200gm lean pork meat

50gm dried prawns

2 clove garlic, chopped

1/4 tsp chinese five-spice powder

1/4 tsp white pepper powder

2 tsp chicken stock seasoning

1 tsp salt or more, to taste

3 to 4 tbsp cooking oil

crispy fried shallots for garnishing

chopped spring onions for garnishing

Method:

1. Wash rice and soak in water for about 20 minutes. Drain.
2. Wash dried prawns clean and soak in water for about 20 minutes.  Drain and pound coarsely, or chop to small pieces.  Retain water from soaked prawns.
3. Clean yam and cut to small cubes. Keep aside.
4. Slice pork meat to thin slices.
5. Heat oil and saute chopped garlic until fragrant. Add in dried prawns and stir till dried prawns are crispy and fragrant. (It will start to crackle a little when crispy). Add in pork slices and stir for about 2 minutes. Stir in the yam, 5 spice powder, pepper and continue to fry for 2 minutes.  (It should smell aromatic by now). Add in the drained rice and stir for about 2 minutes. 
6. Scoop the yam rice into a rice cooker. Place retained water from (2) above in a cup and add hot water to make a total of 3 cups. Pour into the rice cooker, add chicken stock seasoning and salt to taste (It should be slightly saltier than you would like it to be).  The rice would have absorbed some of the saltiness when it is done. 
7. When rice is cooked and rice cooker switched to "Keep Warm", leave it for about 15 minutes for the rice to settle, then fluff it with a fork or spoon. 
8. Spoon onto a plate and garnish with crispy fried shallots and chopped spring onion. (Crispy fried shallots and the chopped spring onions really do make a difference in this rice dish, it will taste so much tastier and more fragrant, so I would advise you not to skip these garnishings!).

Here's the recipe for Watercress Soup :

Watercress Soup

Ingredients :

600gm pork ribs

400gm watercress, cleaned and snap to large pieces

15-20 red dates

2 honey dates (optional)

40gm dried squid, washed and drain

salt to taste

3-1/2 litres water

Method :

1. To get rid of the smell and scum from the pork ribs : Boil some water in a small pot.  Put the pork ribs and let it simmer for about 2-3 minutes. Drain. Discard water.
2. Boil 3-1/2 litres water in a stockpot. (I use a big claypot for soups).  Add in pork ribs, red dates, dried squid and let it boil at medium heat for 30 minutes.
3. Add in watercress and turn heat to low. Let it simmer for another 2 hours, stirring once or twice in between. If water evaporates, some hot water may be added.  Add salt to taste.
4. Serve hot.

Corniest Corn Muffin

Corniest Corn Muffin. Dorie Greenspan sure picked a suitable name for this muffin. The best description of this muffin is from Dorie herself, "These muffins have an alluringly old-fashioned look.  They're flat, firm-topped and cheerfully yellow, with an equally old-fashioned texture - grainy with small holes running through the crumb - and a wholesome, straight-from-the-farm flavor.  They're tangy from the buttermilk and sweet from both the cornmeal (try to find some stone-ground) and the corn kernels.  You can make these muffins with canned or frozen corn kernels, but if you scrape fresh kernels off the cob, you'll have something even more delightful ; because the niblets will get only semisoft in the oven, every bite will offer just a little resistance, a little more "cornfulness" and a lot more pleasure".

Well, I couldn't agree with Dorie more!  Use the fresh corn kernels, just as she described it, you will bite into the crunchiness and then the soft sweetness of the kernels.  I ate two of these the minute they are out of the oven (well, about 5 minutes!).  Yum.... it is not overly sweet at all, it uses very little sugar, and  this is just right! The colour is a beautiful sunny yellow! It is very easy and quick to prepare, perfect as a weekend breakfast or as a tea-time snack in the late afternoon with a cup of tea. 

I'm linking this to Recipe Swap Thursday at Prairie Story.

"Making It With .... Mondays" over at Couscous & Consciousness

Corniest Corn Muffin

(adapted from "Baking From My Home To Yours" by Dorie Greeenspan)

Ingredients :

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup yellow cornmeal, preferably stone-ground

6 tablespoons sugar

2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

pinch of freshly grated nutmeg (optional)

1 cup buttermilk

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

3 tablespoons corn oil

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1 cup corn kernels (add up to 1/3 cup more if you'd like) - fresh, frozen or canned (in which case, they should be drained and dry)

Getting Ready :

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.  Butter or spray the 12 molds in a regular-size muffin pan or fit the molds with paper muffin cups.  Alternatively, use a silicone muffin pan, which needs neither greasing nor paper cups.  Place the muffin pan on a baking sheet.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg, if you're using it.  In a large glass measuring cup or another bowl, whisk the buttermilk, melted butter, oil, egg and yolk together until well blended.  Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients and, with the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently but quickly stir to blend.  Don't worry about being thorough - the batter will be lumpy, and that's just the way it should be.  Stir in the corn kernels.  Divide the batter evenly among the muffin cups.

Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, or until the tops are golden and a thin knife inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean.  Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes before carefully removing each muffin from its mold.

Serving : The muffins are great warm or at room temperature and particularly great split, toasted and slathered with butter or jam or both.

Storing : Like all muffins, these are best eaten the day they are made.  If you want to keep them, wrap them airtight and pop them into the freezer, where they'll keep for about 2 months.  Rewarm in a 350 degree F oven, if you'd like, or split and toast them - do that, and they'll be that much more delicious with butter.

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Special announcement : Please join in, the more the merrier!

There is a  "Culinary Smackdown Battle Chile October 2010" at "At Home With Rebecka", with a beautiful hand painted tea pot and cup together with a tin of Apple Spice Tea as the winning prize! Go on, get some hot stuff smoking and head on down to Rebecka's.  Please do drop by her wonderful blog for more info.  Have fun!

Mustard Prawns the Copycat Version / Garden

This will be my first entry to The Copycat Club's debut!. Have you heard of The Copycat Club? If not, then it is about time you do. The Copycat Club is a club that features copycat recipes from your favourite restaurant, favourite fast-food, famous bakeries, just about anything that can be eaten, as long as it is a copycat! The person behind this is Tia from Buttercream Barbie. For more details about this club and how to join in the fun please do visit Tia's fantastic blog.   My first entry will be Mustard Prawns from the Taj Group of Hotels.

Taj Group of Hotels is famous, right? This recipe is taken from the book, "The Best of Indian Cooking : A Selection of Recipes From The Taj Group of Hotels", edited by John Mitchell.  This book was published in the year 1994, oh gosh, I was just a sweet young twenty something at that time! Boy, time really flies in a blink of an eye! Well, I bought it maybe not in 1994, but certainly not far from that year! And all this while, I have only tried maybe two recipes from this book.

The recipes from this book, according to John Mitchell, was edited with some changes from the original ones, with approval from the chefs, to make the recipes practical for use in the domestic kitchen.  So this is the copycat versions from the originals! Perfect! And to think that I do not have any copycat recipe on hand, it has been sitting on my shelf for years!

This is a very tasty dish. I have not been to any of the Taj Group of Hotels, obviously have not tried any of their food, but this is delicious with plain white rice. (My hubby had second helpings!). This is very simple and easy, just get everything cut and ready before you start cooking. Give it a try. For an authentic Indian style of serving, serve it on a banana leaf, on a plate. 

I'm linking this to Cookbook Sundays at Brenda's Canadian Kitchen and Potluck Sunday at Mommy's Kitchen. 


Kaduku Eral (Mustard Prawns)
(adapted from "The Best of Indian Cooking - A Selection of Recipes From The Taj Group of Hotels" edited by John Mitchell)
600gm prawns
1 large onion
2 tomatoes
4 cloves garlic
2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp mustard seeds
8 curry leaves
1 heaped tbsp chilli powder
salt to taste
chopped coriander leaves

Shell and de-vein the prawns, then wash under running water, pat dry and set aside.  Chop finely the onion, tomatoes and garlic.  Heat the oil in a pan until very hot, then add the mustard seeds and curry leaves.  When they start to crackle,  immediately add the onion and garlic and saute until softened.  Next add the tomato and cook for 4-5 minutes, then add the chilli powder and stir well.  Lower the heat and add the prawns.  Cook for 10-12 minutes, stirring frequently, then season with salt to taste.  To serve : transfer to a large plate and garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

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A little post on my garden...... continuation from last post

Ever seen this flower?  Can you name the plant of this flower?

Cannot guess the name of this plant with this pretty flower?  Not many people do!  These pretty flower belongs to the Curry Leaf Plant!  Are you surprised? The flowers has a light jasmine-like fragrance, it will turn to small round red berry-like fruits, which will eventually changed to black.  According to Wikipedia, the fruits can be eaten but the seeds inside are highly poisonous.  Would you dare to try the fruits? 

Curry leaves are very aromatic and extremely important in curry dishes.  It is used worldwide in various cuisine. Over in our multi-racial Malaysia here, it is used by all races, even the  Chinese restaurants use the leaves for extra aroma in many delicious fried dishes, not necessarily spicy.   But, not many of us have seen or even aware that the ever popular curry leaves has flowers just like any other plant. So the next time when you pick a bunch of these leaves from the store, think about the pretty flower! Hope you have enjoyed reading this little post!