I am quite fond of Yam though I don’t eat it that regularly. There are many ways of cooking Yam – dessert, dim sum or stir fried but one easy dish to cook it would be Yam Rice. Yam Rice can be considered an all-in-one dish because you don’t really need to cook anything else with it, save perhaps a nice bowl of soup to further whet your appetite. The best part of cooking Yam Rice is that you only need a small portion of yam to cook this dish. Too much and you will be stuffing yourself silly unless you are cooking for a party. Perhaps you might want to consider saving some for Yam and Sago Dessert.

My mum advised that the Yam should be cut into small cubes and pre-fried separately from the rice. Overcooked Yam will turn mushy or break up and you might lose the flavour a bit. Just add the fried yam into the rice just as the rice is boiling in the rice cooker and you should have nice fluffy rice with fragrant fried yam cubes. As usual in these kind of rice recipes, you will need dried shrimps and mushrooms for the full flavour.

This is mum’s recipe for Yam Rice

Ingredients

• 1 cup of yam (cut into small cubes and pre-fried till light brown)
• 150 grammes of skinless belly pork
• 5 to 8 pieces Chinese dried mushroom (pre-soaked in 300 ml hot water to soften it, remove stem and cut into thin strips. Retain the water used for soaking)
• 50 grammes dried shrimps (pre-soaked in 100 ml water for about 5 minutes. Remove dried shrimps and retain the water used for soaking)
• Water for boiling
• ¾ rice bowl measure of white rice (rinsed)
• 5 shallots (sliced finely)
• 4 tablespoons palm oil

Seasoning

• 1 ½ tablespoons light soya sauce
• 1 tablespoon dark soya sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon of white pepper powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

Method

Fry shallots in oil till golden brown. Remove fried shallots and set aside. Remove oil separately into a bowl.

Bring a pot of water to boil and add belly pork. As the water starts reboiling, remove scum from surface till no more scum appears. Remove pork and allow to cool. Cut the pork into small pieces (just like the mushroom strips), retaining the fat.

Heat up 2 tablespoons of the shallot oil. Add pre-soaked mushrooms and stir fry for 2 minutes. Add pre-soaked dried prawns. Continue stir-frying for another minute or so till aromatic.

Add belly pork strips and stir well for about a minute. Next, add rice and continue stirring well whilst adding seasoning. Add the water previously used to soak mushrooms and dried prawns. Once rice is evenly coated with seasoning, remove and place into a rice cooker.

Add more water to cover rice mixture completely with about 1 cm above the surface of the rice. Switch on the rice cooker. Once rice starts to boil, add pre-fried yam and cover. Allow it to cook till done.

If you are cooking in the pot / wok, add water to cover the rice mixture, reduce heat to low, cover and allow it to cook slowly, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. Cook till rice is fully cooked.

Serve the Yam Rice with a sprinkle of fried shallots and scallions / spring onions.

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Yam Rice

It is mind boggling the variety of fried rice dishes out there. With rice as the main actor, it is left to the imagination of the chef to add the supporting acts to create a fried rice dish. One of my favourite fried rice dish is the Prawn Fried Rice. The prawns give the fried rice a nice seafood flavour and comes with a natural sweetness which cannot be substituted with the use of any form of seasoning.

For this fried rice dish, it is important to use the freshest prawns you can get for otherwise, you will get a “fishy” smell and will probably attract flies instead. Get prawns the size of about 2 inches in length (before shelling). Shell the prawns and cut them into smaller cubes. That is my preference anyway. You can leave it whole if you want… especially if you want to impress your guests with bigger looking prawns

This is my recipe for Prawn Fried Rice

Ingredients

• 3 rice bowls of cooked white rice (preferably left overnight in fridge)
• 1 rice bowl measure of medium prawns (shelled and cut into smaller pieces)
• ½ rice bowl measure of carrots (diced small)
• ½ rice bowl measure of French beans (diced small)
• 3 cloves garlic (chopped finely)
• 4 shallots (sliced thinly)
• 3 large eggs
• 4 tablespoons cooking oil

Seasoning

• 2 teaspoons dark soya sauce
• 2 teaspoons light soya sauce
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• Salt and white pepper powder to taste

Method

Heat oil in wok on and fry shallots on medium heat till golden brown. Remove and set aside fried shallots.

Add garlic, carrots and French beans and stir well for a minute. Add prawns and stir well till prawns turn red. Push ingredients aside by making a well. Add a tablespoon of oil in the center and break eggs into the oil. Once eggs are semi-cooked, add rice and push ingredients into it.

Stir evenly and press rice to separate grains from one another. Add seasoning. Fry the rice for about 3 minutes and until the seasoning is evenly distributed.

Dish out and garnish with fried shallots.

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Prawn Fried Rice

Pumpkin is a versatile vegetable which can be cooked in many ways. You can fry it, make cakes out of it, steam it or even bake a cake with it. One way of savouring the delicious sweet-tasting pumpkin is to cook it with rice in a rice cooker or claypot over charcoal fire (if you have one). You can also cook it in a pot over a gas stove or electric burner but care is needed to prevent burning.

Pumpkin rice ensures that every taste of the pumpkin is fully absorbed by the rice and the use of other ingredients like dried prawns, mushrooms and belly pork makes this dish a truly satisfying dish to make and eat. You don’t really have to cook anything else as you get your share of carbohydrate, protein, fat and fibre all in one dish. If you like pumpkins, you should try this.

This is my recipe for Pumpkin Rice

Ingredients

• 1 rice bowl measure of pumpkin (cut into cubes of approximately 3cm on each sides)
• 150 grammes of skinless belly pork
• 5 to 8 pieces Chinese dried mushroom (pre-soaked in 300 ml hot water to soften it, remove stem and cut into thin strips. Retain the water used for soaking)
• 50 grammes dried prawns (pre-soaked in 100 grammes water for about 10 minutes. Remove dried prawns and retain the water used for soaking)
• Water for boiling
• ¾ rice bowl measure of white rice (rinsed and soaked in water for 15 minutes)
• 5 shallots (sliced finely)
• 4 tablespoons palm oil

Seasoning

• 1 ½ tablespoons light soya sauce
• 1 tablespoon dark soya sauce
• 1/3 teaspoon of white pepper powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

Method

Fry shallots in oil till golden brown. Remove fried shallots and set aside. Remove oil separately into a bowl.

Bring a pot of water to boil and add belly pork. As the water starts reboiling, remove scum from surface till no more scum appears. Remove pork and allow to cool. Cut the pork into small pieces (just like the mushroom strips), retaining the fat.

Heat up 2 tablespoons of the shallot oil. Add pre-soaked mushrooms and stir fry for 2 minutes. Add pre-soaked dried prawns. Continue stir-frying for another 2 minutes or so till aromatic.

Add belly pork strips and stir well for about 2 minutes. Next, add pumpkin and continue stirring for another 2 minutes. Add a little shallot oil if combined ingredients are drying up.

Add pre-soaked rice followed by seasoning and stir till ingredients are mixed well.

Remove combined ingredients and place into a rice cooker. Add the water previously used to soak mushrooms and dried prawns to cover the rice mixture completely with about 1 cm above the surface of the rice. Switch on the rice cooker and allow it to cook till done.

If you are cooking in the pot / wok, add water to cover the rice mixture, reduce heat to low, cover and allow it to cook slowly, stirring occasionally to prevent burning. Cook till rice is fully cooked.

Serve with a sprinkle of fried shallots.

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Pumpkin Rice

Enjoy!

The Place
(updated 16102006)

Yesterday, I went further down Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman to see my tailor. It was around lunch time and it started to pour heavily. The tailor I go to, Astor Tailor, is located in the same block of building as K.S. Gill (specialty shop selling all kinds of pen) and I was basically stuck due to the rain. I then noticed that the end shoplot is a Penang Nasi Kandar Restaurant. Since I could not go anywhere else, I decided to check it out.

Choose your pick

The first thing I noticed was a newpaper review done on this restaurant. It must be good. Why else is it recommended as one of the top 5 places to have your Nasi Kandar in Malaysia? Let’s get started then, shall we?

Fried stuffs

This is Nasi Kandar Kudu bin Abdul. It is run by an Indian Muslim lady and appears to be a family business. Apparently, this family also runs the famous Nasi Kandars in Penang, the home of Nasi Kandar. Nasi Kandar is essentially white rice which comes with your selection of meat – chicken, fish, mutton, parts of chicken (neck, gizzard etc), crabs, prawns, fish roe, sotong and if I am not mistaken, beef lungs. What sets this Nasi Kandar apart from most other white rice dish is that upon placing the meat on the rice, the waiter / cook will pour a variety of curries over the rice so that the rice will have a most unique curry taste.

My superb lunch

I had the Nasi Kandar Ayam Kicap (Chicken in Dark Soya Sauce). The chicken drumstick / thigh is quite big in portion and tastes great. Has a nice hint of spice to it and not overpowering. It must be the family’s secret recipe. The meat is well-cooked though I would have prefered it slightly juicier. My Nasi Kandar Ayam Kicap comes with three pieces of steamed / boiled ladies fingers which were really tender, yet crisp to the bite. A couple of slices of cucumber and papadoms completes the dish.

Fried Sotong Nasi Kandar
(updated 16102006)

A plate of Nasi Kandar Ayam Kicap costs RM5.00 and is money well spent. You can always ask them to go easy on the curry but let me tell you, the mixture of the curries is the highlight! By the way, the curries are kept warm by the warmer underneath. Nothing beats warm curried rice on a rainy day!

Fried Pandan Chicken Nasi Kandar
(Updated 16102006)

Nasi Kandar Kudu bin Abdul is located at No. 335, Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, 50100 Kuala Lumpur. They are open everyday till about 8.30pm.

To get there, go to Maju Junction Shopping Centre along Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman. You will see a traffic-light cross-junction and Centrepoint Hotel across the junction. Walk across to Centrepoint Hotel and walk further down till you see Commerce Assurance Berhad. Nasi Kandar Kudu bin Abdul is across the street.

Technorati Tags : Nasi Kandar , Malaysian Food , Food

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Nasi Kandar Penang Kudu bin Abdul at Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Kuala Lumpur

Got left over rice in the fridge? Got luncheon meat in the kitchen cabinet? Why not fry them together for a delicious plate of Luncheon Meat Fried Rice? Throw in some carrots for added taste and colour and a couple of slices of cucumber as garnish and you will have a beautiful plate of fried rice to dig in.

This is my recipe for Luncheon Meat Fried Rice.

Ingredients

• 3 bowls of cooked rice (preferably overnight cooked rice) [bowl denoting rice bowl]
• 1/2 to 1 tin of luncheon meat (diced)
• 1/2 bowl of carrots (diced)
• 1 large onion (chopped)
• 5 shallots (sliced thinly)
• 1 stalk spring onions (chopped)
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil (preferably palm oil)

Seasoning

• 3 teaspoons of salt or to taste
• White pepper powder to taste
• teaspoon light soya sauce
• 1 pinch of msg (optional)

Method

Heat oil in wok and fry shallots till golden brown. Remove fried shallots and set aside.

With remaining oil in wok and at high heat, fry luncheon meat till beginning to brown. Set aside.

Stir-fry onion till aromatic, add carrots and stir fry for 1 minute. Add salt and pepper. Mix well.

Add rice and fried luncheon meat and stir-fry for 2 minutes.

Make a “well” in the wok by pushing the rice mixture aside. Break eggs into the “well” and fry it till semi-cooked. Cover with rice mixture and continue frying whilst adding light soya sauce. If wish to, add a pinch of msg. Fry for another minute and add chopped spring onions.

Dish up and sprinkle fried shallots over the fried rice before serving.

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Luncheon Meat Fried Rice

This is my 3rd recipe for rice cooked in a rice cooker. Prior to this, I have a recipe for Chicken Rice as well as Long Bean Rice. This is another one of the vegetable rice recipes which can serve as a meal on its own.

Cabbage Rice with Lap Cheong (Chinese Sausages) is quite mild in flavour but sweet in taste. The sweetness comes from the cabbage. The type of cabbage we usually use is the chinese cabbage, which is white in colour and longish in shape rather than round. Try not to leave the rice uneaten overnight as I believe that the cooked cabbage does not withstand being kept overnight that well.

If you don’t have lap cheong, you can even substitute it with ham or even salami! Do experiment. As I have emphasised many times before in my recipes, you can actually experiment with the ingredients once you get the basic idea of how the dishes are cooked. The presentation of the rice in the picture above could be much better but the taste definitely is!

This is my recipe for Cabbage Rice with Lap Cheong (Chinese Sausages)

Ingredients

• 2 cups rice pre-soaked for 30 minutes (measured using the cup that comes with your rice cooker)
• About 400 grammes of chinese cabbage (shredded roughly)
• 400 grammes of belly pork (try to get the 3-layered pork. Remove skin)
• 5 to 8 pieces dried chinese mushrooms (pre-soaked till soft. Remove from water and cut to slivers but retain water for later use)
• 50 grammes of dried prawns / shrimps (pre-soaked for 5 minutes. Remove from water but retain water for later use)
• 3 to 5 lap cheong (remove skin and slice thinly diagonally)
• 5 cloves shallots (sliced thinly)
• 2 tablespoons of cooking oil (preferably palm oil)
• 3 bowls of water

Seasoning

• 4 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper powder
• 2 teaspoon light soya sauce
• 2 tablespoon dark soya sauce
• A pinch of msg (optional)

Method

Bring water to boil. Add belly pork and let it boil till cooked. Remove pork. Cut into small pieces.

Heat oil in wok and fry shallots till golden brown. Remove fried shallots.

With remaining oil in wok, fry the cooked belly pork till beginning to brown. Remove pork. With remaining oil, fry the dried prawns and chinese mushrooms for 1 minute till fragrant. Add cabbage and put back the pork into the wok and continue to stir fry for 1 more minute. Add seasoning and a little bit of water (used to soak mushrooms / dried prawns) to keep it moist.

Add pre-soaked rice into the ingredients and stir well for 1 minute.

Transfer the ingredients into rice cooker and add water till it covers rice completely just like how you usually cook rice. Turn on the rice cooker. Check occasionally for water to dry out from the upper layer of the rice. Once that happens, place lap cheong on top of the rice, cover lid and wait for rice to cook completely.

Sprinkle fried shallots over rice before serving.

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Cabbage Rice with Lap Cheong

Rice cookers are not meant just to cook plain rice. Prior to this, I have a recipe for Chicken Rice cooked in a Rice Cooker. Apart from Chicken Rice, you can also cook other types of rice, one of which is Long Bean Rice.

Ingredients

A meal on its own, you will find out here that you can also cook a soup as a side dish arising out of the use of the ingredients here. I will give the recipe for the soup another day. Anyway, the fact that all the ingredients are firstly stir-fried and then cooked in the rice cooker gives the whole dish maximum flavour from the various ingredients used.

Place into rice cooker before turning on the cooker

Long Beans can be stir-fried on its own with belacan or even garlic and is highly nutritious. Eat too much, however, you may end up with too much gas in your stomach which is common among beans. Once you master this dish, you can substitute the long beans with other vegetables such as cabbage, pumpkin or even “kua chye” – I am still trying to find out what’s the anglo-name for this vegetable.

This is my recipe for Long Bean Rice.

Ingredients

• 2 cups rice pre-soaked for 30 minutes (measured using the cup that comes with your rice cooker)
• About 15 pieces of long beans (cut to 2 inch lengths)
• 400 grammes of belly pork (try to get the 3-layered pork. Remove skin)
• 5 to 8 pieces dried chinese mushrooms (pre-soaked till soft. Remove from water and cut to slivers but retain water for later use)
• 30 grammes of dried prawns / shrimps (pre-soaked for 5 minutes. Remove from water but retain water for later use)
• 5 bulbs shallots (sliced thinly)
• 2 tablespoons of cooking oil (preferably palm oil)
• 3 bowls of water

Seasoning

• 4 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper powder
• 2 teaspoon light soya sauce
• 1 tablespoon dark soya sauce
• A pinch of msg (optional)

Method

Bring water to boil. Add belly pork and let it boil till cooked. Remove pork. Cut into small pieces.

Heat oil in wok and fry shallots till golden brown. Remove fried shallots.

With remaining oil in wok, fry the cooked belly pork till beginning to brown. Remove pork. With remaining oil, fry the dried prawns and chinese mushrooms for 1 minute till fragrant. Add long beans and put back the pork into the wok and continue to stir fry for 1 more minute. Add seasoning and a little bit of water (used to soak mushrooms / dried prawns) to keep it moist.

Add pre-soaked rice into the ingredients and stir well for 1 minute.

Transfer the ingredients into rice cooker and add water till it covers rice completely just like how you usually cook rice. Turn on the rice cooker and wait for it to cook automatically.

Sprinkle fried shallots over rice before serving.

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Long Bean Rice

The rice cooker is a very useful kitchen equipment and is present in many Asian households. Whilst it is primarily designed to cook rice, newer versions of the rice cooker has enable cooks to use it for steaming and even boiling soup.

Recently, my mum cooked Chicken Rice using the rice cooker. It is actually another version of the popular Claypot Chicken Rice. The beauty of using the rice cooker is that the rice does not get burnt at the bottom unlike the claypot. However, for those who are fond of burnt bits of rice, you may have to try this using the claypot instead.

This is the recipe for Chicken Rice using the Rice Cooker.

Ingredients

• 3 cups of rice (measure using the cup that comes supplied together with the rice cooker)
• 2 large chicken drumsticks and chicken thighs (chopped to bit sizes)
• 5 chinese dried mushrooms (pre-soaked in a bowl of water and cut to half or quarters. Do not throw away the water used for soaking)
• 2 chinese lap cheongs (chinese sausages) (sliced)
• 4 bulbs shallots (sliced thinly)
• 5 slices of ginger (more if you like a stronger ginger taste)
• 2 tablespoons of cooking oil
• warm water

Marinade for chicken

• 3 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 2 teaspoon of white pepper powder
• 1 teaspoon of sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon of chinese cooking wine

Seasoning

• 5 teaspoons of light soya sauce
• 1 tablespoon of dark soya sauce

Method

Soak rice in water for about 1 1/2 hours. Marinade chicken for the same length of time.

Heat oil in wok and fry shallots till golden brown. Remove fried shallots.

With remaining oil in wok and at high heat, add pre-soaked chinese dried mushrooms and ginger and stir fry for about 1 minute. Add marinated chicken and stir fry for another minute.

Add pre-soaked rice and seasoning and continue frying for about 2 minutes. Sprinkle a little bit of warm water to keep the rice from drying out.

Remove rice with ingredients into the rice cooker. Place the lap cheongs over the rice. Pour water (previously used to soak dried chinese mushrooms) gently over the rice to cover the rice just like how you would usually cook white rice in a rice cooker. Add plain water if the water used to soak dried chinese mushrooms is insufficient. Turn on your rice cooker and let it cook.

Serve hot and sprinkle fried shallots over the rice prior to serving.

Note : As you learn to cook this dish, adjust the seasoning to your prefered taste. You can also sprinkle chopped spring onions over the Chicken Rice for added colour and taste.

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Chicken Rice cooked using Rice Cooker