Easy One Pot Chicken, Chinese Sausage and Mushroom Rice

I love the idea of one pot dishes. It's easy to prepare and cook and best of all, less pots to clean up ! It is also a great idea if we are busy but still want to enjoy a good meal. The idea came about when I chanced upon Happy Home Baking's Claypot Chicken Rice. 

Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: Depending on your rice cooker. Mine takes 1 hour

Ingredients
210 gm of chicken pieces (leave the skin and bone attached)
1 piece of chinese sausage
1 piece of carrot
3 pieces of dark chinese mushroom
1 cup of rice (for 2 person)

Ingredients for marinade
3 cloves of garlic (grated)
1 small red onion (grated)
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 teaspoon of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon of chinese cooking wine
1 teaspoon of light soy sauce
1 teaspoon of dark soy sauce
1 teaspoon of corn starch

 Steps
1. Wash and clean the chicken.

2. Marinade the chicken with ingredients indicated for marinade. Marinade for at least 30 minutes.

                                     
                                      
3. Soak the chinese mushroom. When soft, cut into thin slices.

4. Slice the carrot thinly.

5. Slice the chinese sausage.

6. Wash the rice. Add in slightly less the amount of water you would usually use for 1 cup of rice. The sauce from the marinade will add on to the liquid.

                                     

7. Top the rice with the chicken, chinese sausage, carrot and mushroom. 
Optional: Sprinkle a dash of salt of you prefer saltier rice.

                                    

8. Put the rice to cook using the rice cooker.

9. Once done, serve immediately while hot.

White Radish Soup - Slow Cooker Style

It is great cooking with slow cooker. You do not need to watch the fire or worry that you will run out of gas. You just need to turn it on and it will work magic for you. Today, I have decided to make white radish soup using the slow cooker

Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 3.5 hours

Ingredients
1 piece of chicken breast with bones (You can opt for chicken bones)
6-7 red dates
1 white radish
1.4 liter of hot water
A dash of salt to taste

Pre-Steps
1. Wash and clean the chicken
2. Boil the chicken in a pot of hot water for about 5 minutes to remove scums.
3. Remove the chicken and pour away the hot water

Steps
1. Wash and peel off the white radish skin.

2. Cut the white radish into blocks of 2 cm thickness

3. Cut the red dates into half. Remove the seed.

4. Place the chicken, red dates and white radish into a slow cooker pot. Add in the hot water.

5. Turn on the slow cooker pot to "Auto" mode. Let it cook for 3.5 hours.

6. Once done, add some salt to taste. Serve while hot.

Mango Pudding

There are some left over pudding powder left from previous batch and I decided to make some mango pudding with it. What a great way to cool down from the extreme hot weather lately. From the local mart, I managed to get 3 normal sized fresh mangoes. 

Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients
3 normal sized mangoes (close to 1kg)
pudding powder (follow the measurement based on your pudding powder. Calculate the amount required for about 1 liter of liquid)
110 gm of sugar (you may need to add more depending on the sweetness and sourness of the mangoes)
800 ml of water 
1/2 cup of milk

Steps
1. Cut the mangoes into cubes. 

2. Take 1/3 of the cut mangoes and puree them. I managed to get 200 ml of puree from it.

3. In a pot, add water, pudding powder, sugar and puree and bring to boil on low fire. Stir continously.

4. Once it starts to boil, add milk and stir for a few seconds until mixed. 

5. Turn off the fire. Add in the cut mangoes and stir.

6. Pour the mixture into jelly moulds evenly. (I managed to get 11 mango puddings using my jelly cup).

7. Cool for 10 minutes before putting into the fridge for another 2 hours.

8. Once chill, remove from mould, and serve. 

Peach Jelly (Agar-Agar)

Fancy a quick and easy dessert with a refreshing taste? Why not make some jelly or also known as agar-agar. It's easy to prepare and a delight for everyone especially during the hot weather. This dessert has sweet and sour taste due to the peach.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

                                     

Ingredients:

1 packet of agar agar powder. (I used the Swallow brand agar agar powder)

1 large can of peach fruit

300 ml of peach fruit syrup (you can get this from the can of peach fruit. Reserve the syrup within)

700 ml of water

110 gm of sugar

a few drops of lemon yellow coloring (optional)

Steps:

1.  Mix the agar agar powder, peach fruit syrup, water and sugar in a bowl.

2. On a low fire, bring the mixture to a boil and the sugar and agar agar powder dissolved. (Remember to stir it occasionally)

3. While waiting for the mixture to boil, cut the peaches into any shapes that you prefer. I cut mine into crescent and cubes. Then place them into jelly mould.

4. When the mixture is ready, add in a few drops of lemon yellow coloring so that the jelly will not be a plain clear color. Boil for another minute. You can skip this step if you do not want to use any coloring.

5. Pour the jelly liquid into the prepared jelly mould.

6. Let it cool for about 10 minutes before putting in the fridge and let it chill for another 2 hours.

7. After 2 hours, remove from mould and serve chill. Delicious :)

Chocolate Chip Cashew Nut Cookie Recipe

My craving for chocolate continues with Chocolate Chip and Nut cookie.. with the adapted version from Chocolate Chip Walnut Recipe here. Instead of making them with walnut, I replaced them with cashew nuts. They are still super yummy, soft and delicious. 

 

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Cooking Time: 9-11 minutes per batch (depending on the size of the cookie and until it turned slightly brown)

Ingredients

250 gm of salted butter

1/2 cup of granulated sugar

3/4 cups of soft brown sugar

3/4 cups of brown sugar

2 eggs

3 2/5 cups of plain flour (my dough was still sticky even with extra flour..will probably need to add slightly more next time)

2 teaspoons cornstarch

1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips (I used mixed milk chocolate and semi sweet - ran out of semi sweet :D)

1 cup of raw cashew nuts

Pre-Steps

Preheat oven at 190 degrees Celcius.

Steps

1. Pan roast the cashew nuts for about 5 minutes on low fire until brown. 

2. Crush the cashew nuts into smaller size and set aside.

3. In a mixer, cream the butter, granulated sugar, soft brown sugar and brown sugar until soft and thoroughly mixed.

4. Add in 2 eggs, beating one at a time at low speed.

5. Add in plain flour, cornstarch, baking powder and baking soda and mix at low speed until thoroughly mixed. (Will need to add in more flour if the dough is still wet)

6. Combine with chocolate chips and cashew nuts using a spatula.

7. Prepare the baking tray and lined it with baking sheet. Roll the mixture into a ball about 1 inch in diameter. Ensure there are space between them as the cookie will flatten out as it bakes.

8. Bake in the oven for about 9 minutes.

Easy Oven Roasted Potato

Oven roasted potato are simply delicious.. I can eat it as a meal or even for supper. It is easy to do, less mess to clean up and simply satisfying.

Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 1 hour

Ingredients
2 Russett Potatoes
1 tablespoon of olive oil
a few dashes of salt
some butter


Pre-Steps
1. Preheat oven at 180 degrees Celcius.

Steps
1. Clean the potato skin. Wash out the dirt as you will be eating the skin too.
2. Pat dry the potatoes with a kitchen paper towel and put it in a baking tray. Give the potatoes a few pokes using a fork to prevent it from exploding in the oven.

3. Coat the potatoes evenly with olive oil.

4. Sprinkle salt onto the potato.

5. Put it in the oven and bake for 1 hour.
6. Once done, remove the potatoes from the oven. Using a small knife, give the potato a slit from top to bottom

7.  With hands on both end of the potato, press lightly into the potato to open up the slit. Use a dry towel to protect your hand from the hot potato.

8. Add in 2 - 3 slices of salted butter and sprinkle some grounded black pepper on it. Serve while hot.

Puppy Cookie

I was hunting for some easy but creative recipe one day, and chance upon an interesting cookies recipe at Horlicks Doggie Cookies that will appeal to the kids. I just had to try it and see how it turned out !

The kids loved them! And I noticed that they especially like to start with the ears and then followed by the nose before finishing off the rest of the cookie.

This is the second batch of cookies. In the first batch, I used 4 packets of Horlicks 3-in-1 instead of the Horlicks powder from the bottle. The cookie did not have a strong horlicks taste, slightly tasteless.

In the second batch, I used Horlicks powder and it has a better and stronger Horlicks taste. Definitely recommend to go with the Horlicks powder.

Preparation Time: 30-40 minutes

Cooking Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients

180 gm of salted butter (left at room temperature)

80 gm of Horlicks powder

200 gm of cake flour

20 gm of corn flour 

25 gm of milk powder ( I used Fernleaf)

some chocolate chips for the puppy "brain" and nose (I used mixed semi-sweet and milk chocolate)

some koko krunch for the puppy ear

some chocolate rice for the puppy eye

Pre-Steps
1. Preheat the oven at 140 °C.

Steps
1. Beat the butter for 1-2 minute on low speed. Slowly add in the Horlicks powder and mixed.
2. Sift in the cake flour, corn flour and milk powder mixture into the batter. Beat until it became a dough. It will take another minute or so.
3. Remove from mixer and knead the dough together.
4. To shape the cookie, take a small portion about of the dough and roll it into a ball about 1.5 - 2 cm in diameter. 
5. Put in 2-3 chocolate chips into the middle of the ball and ensure that it is completed covered. Roll into a ball to form the puppy head.
6. Decorate the puppy head with koko krunch for the ears,  chocolate rice for the eyes and chocolate chip for the nose.
7. Arrange the cookies on a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake for 25 minutes.
8. Remove from oven to cool before consuming.

Chocolate Butter Cake Recipe

I wanted to try a chocolate butter cake and to experiment a bit...by mixing the recipe I found for a marble cake at Joy of Baking - Marble Cake and see if I could make a chocolate butter cake out of it.

I reduced the amount of ingredients that is required as I wanted to make a smaller cake.

Preparation Time: 30-40 minutes

Cooking Time: 50-60 minutes

Ingredients used

210 gm of semi sweet chocolate (I only had semi sweet chocolate chips from Hersheys at that time, so I used that)

128 gm of salted butter (left at room temperature)

188 gm of granulated sugar

3 normal sized eggs

1 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla essence

222 gm of plain flour

1 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder

1/4 teaspoon of baking soda

120 ml of fresh milk (I used Farmhouse)

Pre-Steps

1. Preheat the oven at 180°C.

Steps

1. Melt the chocolate until smooth in a bowl using the double boiler method. Set aside to cool to room temperature

2. Beat the butter for 1 minute on low speed. Gradually add the sugar and beat at low speed.

3. Once the sugar has been mixed, increase the mixer speed to medium for about 5 minutes until the colour is lighten. You can still feel the sugar bits.

4. Add in 3 eggs, beating one at a time at low speed.

5. Add in the vanilla essence and mix at low speed.

6. Sift in the plain flour, baking powder and baking soda into the batter in 3 portions. Add in the milk and mix until it is all incorporated. Do not over mix.

7. Fold in the cool melted chocolate using a spatula.

8. Pour into a greased baking pan and bake for about 50-60 minutes (I am using a loaf pan. Adjust your baking time accordingly based on the type of pan you use. Do not open the oven during baking to prevent sunken cake).

Note: 

- Do not open the oven door during baking.

- Use a cake tester / toothpick to check if the cake is cooked. I used a small knife as the cake is too tall for a toothpick.

- At 35 minutes - the middle is still not cooked.

- The cake has a rich chocolate taste to it