Home-cooked: A Twist of Salad

What you need:

• A box of salad of your choice
• Olive oil
• Apple Cider Vinegar

As usual, salad is the easiest to make and very healthy too. Just toss salad with olive oil and apple cider vinegar. Easy peasy… tasted fresh with a tinge of sour. Definitely beats having the usual salad concoction.

Malacca Chicken Rice Balls by Coco Chiang

Taken from Astroview May 2010

• 1 cup of chicken oil
• 5 cloves of garlic, diced
• 3 shallots, diced
• grated ginger (amount should be roughly equivalent to the shallots)
• 2 strips of pandan leaves, folded
• fragrant Thai rice (enough for 10 people)
• 6 cups of chicken stock
• 3 tsp of chicken powder or granules (use crushed chicken stock cubes in the absence of granules or powder)
• salt to taste

Method:

1. Preheat your wok. Add about 2 ladles of chicken oil and set aside the remainder
2. Stir-fry shallots, garlic and ginger till fragrant
3. Add pandan leaves and butter
4. Once the butter has melted, add the rice and stir-fry
5. Once the liquid has been absorbed by the rice, transfer the contents of the wok to a rice cooker
6. Add the chicken stock, chicken powder and salt to taste
7. Cook for 30 mins
8. Once ready, stir the rice so that it doesn’t clump up
9. Scoop out individual balls of rice using a metallic spoon and lay them on a plate
10. Coat your hands lightly with the remaining chicken oil and shape the balls of rice into perfect spheres by rolling them to and fro between your palms
11. Serve the rice balls with steamed or roasted chicken

How to make a Chocolate Easter Egg

Taken from Astroview April 2010

What you need:

An easter egg mould from the supermarket, three bars of chocolate, a cooking brush.

1. Melt your chocolate in a metal pan. You can do this with a microwave (for one minute) or over a stove (stir slowly until chocolate melts)

2. Take a brush and dip it into your melted chocolate. Then apply it on the egg mould

3. Place the mould inside the refrigerator for 20 minutes

4. Take out of fridge and lightly tap the mould to remove the egg. You can decorate your egg and it’s ready to serve!

Tai Chi Teochew Mashed Yam by Vincs Huang

Taken from Popclub November 2009

Ingredients:

• 1 kg yam
• 100 gm sugar
• 1/2 bowl gingko (cooked)
• 5 shallot (shreds and fry with oil)
• 1/2 bowl fried chopped peanut
• 1/2 bowl white sesame

1. Peel yam and steam until cooked. Mashed it

2. Heat up fried shallot oil, fry the mash yam and turn it over frequently to prevent it from sticking to the pot

3. Add sugar, continue to turn it over until the mashed yam is not sticky and with shining surface. Remove

4. Place the mashed yam on a plate. Decorate with cooked gingko. Sprinkle with chopped peanut and white sesame on the left and right side of mashed yam respectively to form a Tai Chi diagram. Serve

Sambal Belacan Udang daripada Sangkan Paran

Dipetik dari Popclub November 2009

Bahan:

• 5 biji cili rawit merah tanpa biji
• 5 biji cili rawit tanpa biji
• 2 biji bawang merah
• 1 sudu teh belacan udang
• 1 biji tomato
• 1 sudu teh gula pasir
• 2 helai daun salam
• 1 batang serai (dilumatkan)
• 5 cm lengkuas (dilumatkan)

1. Tumbuk kasar cili merah, cili rawit dan bawang merah

2. Tumis dengan sedikit minyak bersama belacan dan tomato yang telah dihiris sehingga naik baunya

3. Masukkan daun salam, serai dan lengkuas

4. Gula pasir dan garam dimasukkan dalam masakan secukup rasan dan dikacau sebentar. Angkat dan disajikan untuk 10 orang

Home-cooked: herbal soup from scratch

What you need:

• Chicken bones
• Dang shen (tung sam or poor man’s Ginseng)
• Seedless red dates
• Kei chi (Goji berry or wolfberry)
• Dried longan
• Wai san (Chinese yam, Japanese mountain yam or Korean yam (Radix Dioscoreae Oppositae)
• Fook san – can’t find the alternative name in English but it’s the curled up pieces in the bowl

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add in all the ingredients and bring it to a boil in medium heat. Once boiling, lower the heat to low and let it simmer for an hour or two. Serve while it’s still hot. Easy peasy.

Chicken Salad by Tan Hsueh Yun

• 4 tbsps black vinegar
• 1 tsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp canola oil
• 3 tbsps honey
• 1 medium cucumber, about 400 gm
• 1 bunch coriander leaves
• 3 – 4 chili padi
• 4 chicken thighs and 4 chicken drumsticks, poached or steamed

Pour the vinegar, soya sauce, oil and honey into a glass jar with a screw-top lid. Cover and shake. Have a taste and add more soy sauce or honey if needed. Set aside.

Wash and pat dry the cucumber, skin it, cut it into quarters lengthwise. Scrape out the seeds, cut each quarter lengthwise in half and then dice into cubes crosswise. Spread the cucumber out onto a serving plate.

Rinse and pat dry the coriander, cut off and discard most of the stem, leaving only the leaves. Set aside.

Slice the chili padi, set aside.

Debone the chicken into large chunks, discard the skin, pile the meat on top of the cucumber.

Spoon all the dressing over it, and top with the coriander and chili. Serve immediately. Serves 4 to 6.