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KY cooks – Garlic Fried Rice with Seafood

It’s been a while since I posted any home cooked dishes. So here’s one, a simple garlic fried rice with seafood recipe.

This is something that you can prepare in less than half an hour, garlic fried rice is a pretty classic Japanese dish, I just add some seafood to kick it up a notch a bit. While traditionally they also use spring onion, I replaced it with red onion due to availability and that worked out well to add that crunchiness and freshness element to the dish.

garlic fried rice with prawns and scallops

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cup of rice for 2 person
• 2 large eggs
• prawns (you can also add squid or other seafood)
• scallops(optional)
• 2-3 bulb of garlic, chopped or cut in slices
• 1 red onion, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon of soya sauce, some salt & pepper
• 3-4 tablespoon of cooking oil

ingredients – garlic, onion, rice, prawns, scallops

Cooking instructions:

• heat up cooking oil
• fry garlic till a shade before golden brown, remove and set aside
• using the same oil, fry prawns (with a dash of salt), then remove and set aside
• sear scallops with shells on, then remove and set aside

the key is to fry the garlic, seafood, and rice separately

Cooking instructions part 2:

• with the same oil, fry eggs till 80% cooked
• add rice, and stir for a minute
• add soya sauce, salt, and some pepper
• add garlic and continue to stir for another minute
• add garlic and prawns, stir for another minute
• serve while hot (arrange your scallops with best of your artistic ability)

start with the egg, then rice, onion, then everything

The key to this dish is to have the garlic and seafood fried separately. This allows better control and ensures that each ingredients are cooked properly since they have different cooking time. Try it!

More recipes from yours truly can be found here.

KY cooks – Bacon Fried Rice and Red Spinach Soup

Simple meal for two of bacon fried rice and red spinach soup. This is something that I cooked up last night because bacon was calling my name, and at the same time I wanted to fix something real quick instead of making elaborate dinners.

a complete meal – bacon fried rice and red spinach soup

Total preparation and cooking time is about an hour, but that is because you need more than half that time to boil the chicken bones (for soup) and making rice in the first place. Actual active cooking takes place in less than 20 minutes.

The result is a satisfying meal that has has all your essential dietary needs (I think). There’s meat, egg, vegetable, soup, and rice. As an Asian, that’s all I need.

bacon is the key ingredient here, obviously

Recipe for two plates of bacon fried rice, ingredients:

• streaky bacon (150-200 grams), cut them in squares
•  half a bulb of garlic, chop em up
• 2 eggs
• rice for two person (I cooked 1.5 cups)
• chili padi (optional)
• 1 table spoon of dark soya sauce
• 2 stalks of spring onion, chopped
• salt and pepper to taste
• minimal cooking oil

open up the rice and crack a couple eggs in there, stir

Instructions:

• heat up a table spoon of cooking oil (you don’t need much since bacon will release more oil)
• fry bacon, garlic, and chili padi at the same time till bacon is cooked and garlic is fragrant
• add rice, dark soya sauce, stir
• after 3-4 minutes, open up the fried rice at center, add half a spoon of oil and crack the two eggs into it
• let the egg cooked for a bit before stirring it with fried rice for another 3-4 minutes
• add spring onion, salt & pepper and keep stirring for another minute or two
• serve while hot

the red spinach soup is real simple to prepare

Ingredients and instructions:

• wash red spinach with plenty of water and pluck off the stems
• boil 3 bowls of water with chicken bones, wolf berries optional (you might want to pre-boil once to remove impurities, I use chicken bones from chicken chop cut)
• I boil it while rice is cooking, that took about 45 minutes
• add red spinach, keep boiling for another 15 minutes (while frying rice)
• add salt and a bit of pepper and it’s ready to be served

Do check out other recipes if these are thing stuff you like to eat, they are usually pretty simple to prepare. Good eating!

Maine Lobster Spaghetti by Chef Fabrizio at Favola, Le Meridien

Last month it was the Vietnamese cooking demo and Vietnamese promotion at Latest Recipe, Le Meridien. Now the very same hotel runs the Taste of Italy” culinary event featuring guest Chef Fabrizio from Westin Bejing Financial Street.

Together with a bunch of bloggers & members of media, we were treated to a cooking demonstration by the good chef, and here’s one of his recipe.

Now even I think I can properly cook a meal with lobster that will do the shell fish justice. Here’s the recipe.

glorious Maine lobster in frying pan with olive oil, herbs & cherry tomato

Ingredients:

• 320 g spaghetti
• 100 g olive oil
• 300 g cherry tomato (halved)
• 30 g garlic (chopped)
• 4 pcs maine lobster
• 100 g butter
• salt & pepper to taste

For the pesto

• 25 g basil
• 25 g marjoram
• 25 g parsley
• 75 g olive oil

here’s the spaghetti with lobster

The preparation method is pretty straight forward, and let me just copy verbatim from Chef Fabrizio’s text.

Roast garlic in large pan with olive oil. Add lobster, cherry tomato and cook with some water, add seasoning. Boil pasta in a large pot with salted water until the favorite cooking. Blend herbs with the olive oil for pesto. Take“` lobster out of the sauce, clean the tongs and half the tail. Arrange halved tail in a plate. Strain spaghetti and add sauce with herb pesto and butter. Arrange spaghetti beside the lobster, add lobster meat. Decorate with some herb leaves and serve.

fresh spring herb pesto, prepared with a blender

It’s pretty simple isn’t it?

Chef Fabrizio has a bit of flair and the lack of “seriousness” when it comes to preparation of his dishes. As he proudly said “I am not a pastry chef”, and cooking should involves a sense of flexibility and creativity. I like this style.

In fact, in a short span of 1 hour or so, the good chef prepared three dishes right in front of us, including the eggplant millefeuille recipe shared by Kim.

and we were served a very good buffet spread too, Chef Fabrizio & Chef Antoine

To get a taste of Chef Fabrizio’s creations, you can head to Favola at Le Meridien KL from June 4 to June 12, 2011. Ala carte goes for RM 25++ to RM 130++. Don’t miss out especially if you’re a fan of authentic Italian cuisine.

KY with Chef Fabrizio, Jon & Ciki, Cindy & Kim & Haze, Kim & Gareth

We were also fed an awesome spread of Italian dishes after the event (and after we sampled all three dishes prepared by Chef Fabrizio). There were cold cuts, clams, pizza, bruschetta, smoked salmon, salad, and more. It was a fantastic and certainly gastronomically satisfied session.

Address:
Favola
2 Jalan Stesen Sentral,
Kuala Lumpur 50470
GPS: 3.135631,101.686476
Tel: 03-2263 7888

KY cooks – Mom’s home cook “claypot” chicken rice recipe

This is easily one of my favorite dishes from mom when I was young. Every time mom made her signature chicken rice, I would take a second serving. I think if she had made this more often, perhaps I’d be 6 foot tall and weigh 80kg with pure muscle (or more likely, same height with extra 20kg fat)

awesome home cook chicken rice with chinese sausage

The ingredients are quite close to claypot chicken rice, but with a few extras that you typically wouldn’t find at hawker center.

While it does take a few extra steps to prepare, this isn’t a dish that is difficult to make at all, or have ingredients that are hard to source even if you aren’t reside in Malaysia (and crave for that claypot chicken rice). Here’s the recipe.

home cook chicken rice ingredients – chicken, mushroom, chinese sausage

The ingredients (for 2 pax):

• cooking oil
• 1 quarter chicken (thigh & drumstick)
• 2 Chinese sausage (lap cheong)
• mushroom of any type
• some garlic
• dark soya sauce, soya sauce, salt
• rice wine (optional)
• shallots  & spring onion for garnish

fry the rice and ingredients, then continue in rice cooker

You do need both a frying pan and rice cooker to make this dish, but no, there’s no clay pot or charcoal flame needed in this case.

Instructions:

• debone and chopped chicken into bite size
• heat up 2-3 table spoon of cooking oil, then fry chicken & diced garlic till chicken not pink
• add sliced Chinese sausage and mushroom into the pan
• add 2 tablespoon of dark soya sauce and continue frying for another 2 minutes
• add half a teaspoon of salt and a few shakes of soya sauce (a bit of rice wine if available)
• add rice and fry for a coupe minutes longer
• put everything in rice cooker, add 1.3 cups of water and complete cooking in rice cooker as you would cook normal rice

prepare the condiments – fried shallots and spring onion

While waiting for the rice to cook, prepare some fried shallots and chopped some fresh green onion as garnish. They will greatly add to the overall flavor and texture to the chicken rice dish.

One or two stalks of green onion and a couple shallots would be enough.

haze enjoying the chicken rice with ABC soup

The result is two plates of absolutely delicious home cook chicken rice prepared only in around one hour or so. The dish is best accompanied with some clear soup (ABC, radish soup, etc). Optionally, you can also add some salted fish on top, I would if I had some good quality ones to go with.

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KY cooks – Sambal Belacan Fried Rice

One of my favorite quick meal is fried rice, and of all the different versions, one of my favorites would be the good old fashion sambal belacan fried rice.

Since it isn’t exactly a popular dish at hawker centres or Chinese/Malay restaurants, I thought a simple recipe could be helpful for those who are a bit adventures in the kitchen.

sambal belacan fried rice with prawns

First of all, to make sambal belacan fried rice, you must make sambal belacan. No brainer right?

The ingredients couldn’t be simpler, I got them from local market

• red chili
• chili padi (optional)
• belacan (prawn paste)
• around 10 red chili to 2 table spoons of belacan (approximate)

sambal belacan’s ingredients – chili & belacan

Here’s how you do it

• roast the belacan in oven at about 200 degree till fragrant (or stinks, depending on your personal interpretation)
• cut chili in halves and remove seeds, chop them further to smaller pieces
• place belacan and chili into mortar and pestle and pound away

The mortar and pestle was obtained for RM 35 at a local market. You can use a blender but it won’t taste the same though. I keep the finished product in an air tight jar in the fridge.

Haze’s pounding it the old school way

So now that you have the sambal, here is how you make the fried rice, ingredients:

• 2 servings of rice, well duh! (overnight leftover’s the best)
• 4-6 prawns – peeled and marinate with a bit of salt
• 1-2 stalks of scallion, chopped finely
• 1 egg
• salt
• half a tea spoon of dark soya sauce
• 2 table spoon of sambal belacan

stir to perfection

Steps:

• heat up the frying pan with 2-3 table spoon of oil, then fry prawn for about a minute
• add rice and sambal, stir like mad
• add the dark soya sauce
• make an opening in the middle of the frying pan, add a table spoon of oil, and crack the egg
• add a squirt of soya sauce on egg, then stir like mad
• add scallions last

Salt is not needed since belacan provides the necessary saltiness to the rice already. The result is two servings of really spicy, fragrant, and rather delicious old school sambal belacan fried rice. Sambal took about 30 minutes to prepare, and fried rice another 15 minutes or so.

Of course, we made more than enough sambal for just cooking fried rice, the actual main intention was to use it as condiment for tau eu bak (braised pork belly with soya sauce), which will be the next recipe I publish here.