Curry Chicken

So my sister brought me curry powder when she visited me about 3 weeks ago, but prior to this I had never used curry powder, neither did I know how to use it. Called home to ask, but no one could give me clear directions so I decided to try it my way anyway. Also, I did not have lemongrass, nor candlenuts, nor shallots so I was really skeptical about how this was going to turn out.

I remember thinking to myself in the kitchen that if this turned out good, its gonna be sheer luck and a lot of good guessing. Thankfully, it did! As usual, I used my 5-in-1 magic pot and that made the cooking and cleaning time so much shorter.

Ingredients: please note that ingredients are an estimate
- 600g of boneless chicken thighs (you can use other parts as well and with bones but as my husband is lazy with bone picking, this is his favourite option)
-1 tomato, cut in quarters
- half a clove of garlic and about a finger size of ginger, blended into a paste
- a handful of toasted pecan nuts, powdered (according to recipes online, cashew nuts were required but I did not have those so pecans were a substitute for me, they worked fine all the same)
- 1 medium sized brown onion thinly sliced (most asian recipes call for shallots, but this worked fine anyhow)
- a small packet of spices, 5g containing of star anise, cinnamon bark and fennel seeds
- 80g of curry powder (add another 5-10g if you prefer a spicier curry)
- 250g of coconut milk
- 5 potatoes cut into slices
- 4 hard boiled eggs, shelled
- 4-5 heaped table spoons of full cream milk, dissolved in 1.5 cup water
- salt and sugar to taste
- 2 carrots (if you prefer to have them in your curry, i usually don't but have found that there is no harm adding anyway)

Directions:
Using the brown function of my 5-in-1 cooker, I fried the spices in about 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil until fragrant. Alternatively, do this in a wok. Then add onions until brown and add the blended paste of garlic and ginger, by now, your kitchen should smell quite wonderful. Add in the tomatoes, potatoes and chicken and cover with 900ml of water and leave to simmer until chicken pieces are cooked. For me, I just put on high pressure cooking function for 6 minutes in the same pot.

Then add the curry powder, the powdered nut, both the coconut milk and full cream milk and stir to combine evenly. If you prefer to have carrots in your curry add it in at this stage too. Simmer again for around 5 minutes until potato is soft. (For me, I just turned the 5-in-1 cooker on low pressure mode and cooked for another 6 minutes). Then add sugar and salt to taste and finally add in the boiled eggs. Serve with rice or toasted french bread. Enjoy!

Hoisin pepper pork ribs

This ribs are so easy to do and doesn't involve pre-marination. Plus, it does not require many ingredients and you could serve the sauce with a healthy serving of greens as shown in the picture.

Ingredients:

- Hoisin sauce, 3 tbsps

- Light soy sauce, 3 tbps

- 1/2 cup runny honey

- Chinese cooking wine, 4 tbsps

- 1kg pork ribs, cut into pieces

- Garlic, 6-7 cloves, peeled and chopped

- Freshly cracked black pepper, 1 tsp

- Dash of salt to taste, if needed

Directions:

First, score the meat with boiling water to remove surface dirt and oil, then in mix hoisin sauce, light soy sauce and honey. In a pan, heat with some oil and saute the garlic till fragrant, then throw in the meat, when the surface of the meat is cooked, add the pepper and the cooking wine and then simmer on the stove until the meat is tender. How easy is that! Reduce the sauce in the pan prior to serving to glaze the meat with a thicker sauce just before serving.

For me thanks to my magic pot, I could brown the garlic and the meat in the same pot before pressing the pressure cooking function for 30 minutes. The result is delicious fall-off-the-bones ribs, delish when served with fragrant white rice.

Kiam Peng (Savoury rice)

Kiam peng, literally translated as salty rice in hokkien, is a savoury rice dish that I've loved since I was little. Perhaps its because its such an easy dish to eat, or the fact that its an all in one meal in itself with balanced portions of vegetables and meat, whatever the case is, it fills the kitchen with delicious smells of a welcoming meal.

The trick to cooking kiam peng well is being able to achieve distinct grains after cooking. (i.e. the rice grains are not all mushed up when it is too soggy, or undercooked where some grains are still hard.) Kiam peng may be a little tedious as there are numerous ingredients to cut up and prepared but it is healthy and an all-in-one tasty meal. What you wish to add to the dish is really up to you, it is a versatile dish in that the ingredients may vary.

Ingredients:
(optional)
- Shallots (small red onions), finely sliced
- Sweet chinese sausage, diced
- Snake/long beans, segmented
- Fresh prawns, peeled and deveined, chopped
- Chicken/ vegetable broth

(basic)
- White rice, 2 cups, washed and left to dry.
- 6 large chinese mushrooms, rehydrated and sliced
- 300g pork belly/loin (cut into bits and marinated with 3 tbsp light soya sauce, 1 tbsp sugar, 2 tbsp chinese cooking wine, 1/2 tbps sesame oil)
- 1 medium carrot, cut into strips
- 5 leaves of cabbage, chopped
- 5 segments of garlic chopped
- a handful of dried shrimp (hay-bi), rehydrated and chopped

Directions:
Note: As usual, do not throw away the water used to rehydrate the mushrooms and dried shrimp. This will be added to cook the rice later.

Making shallot oil
If you are using shallots, first make shallot oil by frying the shallots until brown in a generous amount of oil. Remove the shallots from heat when they are just about turning brown into a glass/ceramic bowl. Do not use plastic containers as hot oil may have interactions will the plastic causing harmful substances to be released. Do not wait until the shallots are very brown as they do continue cooking in the hot oil after you have removed from them from heat and will turn black if you keep them on the stove for too long.

Part A
Using the residual oil in the pan, saute half a portion of the garlic with the dried shrimp bits until fragrant then fry the meat with the mushroom, chinese sausage and fresh prawns(if applicable). When the meat is cooked, adjust taste with sugar/salt and then remove from heat.

Taking some shallot oil, fry the other half of the portion of garlic and add carrots cabbage, long beans and adjust the taste with sugar and salt. Return Part A to the pan and add the dried rice and fry together until the rice takes on a light brown colour from the ingredients.

Part B
Put all the rice and ingredients into a rice cooker and add the water saved from rehydrating the mushrooms and dried shrimp. When compressing the rice and ingredients with a spoon in the rice cooker, the liquid should only rise to about an inch above the contents. Top up with chicken/vegetable broth if available, if not just add water. Continue cooking as per normal in the rice cooker. Serve with the fried shallots, chopped coriander and red chili for extra colour.