My days of growing up in Kuching, Sarawak I only ever known cangkuk manis or mani chai cooked 3 ways. In Pan Mee soup, fry with eggs and masak lemak like this. I have seen people adding to BiHoon goreng (fry vermicelli) etc but that’s individual prerogative I believe, not traditional but I can stand to be corrected of course.

I was lucky that a friend shared half her pumpkin with me but boy was it tough to slice. I was so worried that I would cut my fingers. Very stressful. Next time I will ask her to please slice for me too. – kekekekeke I sliced and freeze them waiting and waiting for fresh mani chai. Luckily I found them yesterday at my local Asian shop! I was so happy. Finally I can cook Mani Chai masak lemak.

My mother often refers to this vegetable as Lakian Chai. We eat it quite often including Midin. When we eat outside, if mother believes we are heaty then she would order mani chai and if not we would have Midin goreng belacan. Ah…..those were the days. This is a super easy dish to cook.

Firstly, fry the shallots, remove and keep aside. Do the same with the dried anchovies (ikan bilis). Then using the flavoured oil add in mince onions, lemon grass, garlic and fry.

Secondly, add in the turmeric, pumpkin, chicken stock cube, coconut milk, sliced red chillies or bird eyes chilies and simmer.

Lastly, bring to boil and simmer till your pumpkin has soften. Taste, season, heat off and add in your mani chai. After a good stir topped with the crispy shallots and anchovies. Serve hot.

I decided we are having chicken this week but I have no idea what to cook with it. There is no point in asking the hubby as he will always say “curry!” I wanted to do something different and finally decided late last night I am going to cook it stuffed with glutinous rice.

Roast chicken with glutinous rice – I have not made this dish for a long time. This recipe is also not in this new blog. So I decided to cook, photograph and blog it, least I forget in my dotage.

As soon as I have made up my mind on what to cook, I washed and marinated my chicken overnight, soaked my glutinous rice and the mushrooms. This morning all I had to to was removed everything from the fridge and let all rest to room temperature before I started soaking the dried shrimps, peeling and slicing. Then it was a matter of just firing up the pan frying and stuffing.

When ready it was then placed in my convectional oven for 90 minutes because it is a very ‘Large’ M&S chicken. I preferred to use my single convectional oven over my big fan oven for this because it has a turn table and the chicken will come out evenly browned.

As usual my recipe is a guide. You do not have to add dried shrimps if you don’t want to, or you can use dark soy sauce, which I did not use in this case. You can use dried scallops or oysters even. It is entirely up to you. Today I also added chestnuts to mine as my hubby loves them. You know, sometimes less is really more. However I have used a bit more ginger because I really like the taste and ginger with sesame oil is a match made in heaven, according to my taste buds anyway. Here’s a few TIPs

TIP – When frying your rice, use the soaked mushroom water and make sure the rice is al dente and not too cooked for we do not want mushy rice. Hmmm….. well maybe one day, if I could be so lucky and live old enough to have that ‘toothless’ grin.

TIP – I did not wrap my chicken before baking because I actually like some of my rice ‘crunchy’ If you don’t then by all means wrap your chicken entirely after stuffing and bake for the first hour, then remove the covering and bake the last 30 minutes uncovered for browning the chicken. You may also like to brush your chicken with some honey at this stage (all optional) I brushed mine with a mix of sesame oil and more sherry.

Today I cooked Hainanese Chicken Rice, cooked the traditionally way. Both my children are at home today and my son though very western in his taste does enjoy chicken rice. So mummy is going to spoil everyone.

I have tried cooking and tasting this, with the chicken over rice steamed method but it is just not the same. The chicken is just not as smooth. The extra step of dunking the chicken in cold water does give the skin a smoother finish and a more enjoyable eat. I enjoy good food and it is not everyday I eat rice so it is a treat indeed!

As I have made some Loh Bak yesterday (Five-Spice Pork Roll), I decided to fry 2 rolls and served my Hainanese Chicken rice with them. My hubby is also a fan of garlic kai lan (broccoli shoots) but not cucumber, the norm vegetable served with chicken rice back home so we have that for our vegetable instead.

Hubby is a massive huge fan of the ginger dipping sauces both plain and chilli. He was making approving noises as he enjoyed his lunch.

I learned to cook this dish as a young teenager in Ipoh. My eldest Uncle came back from working in Holland after many years and he taught everyone how the place he worked make Hainanese Chicken Rice. He worked in a Chinese Restaurant there of course.

I listened to all his stories in awe. I remembered he said when the apartment he lived in had a fire drill or when a possession passes the street, the western ladies will ran out onto the street to watch naked!!! I am sure he enjoyed our shocked faces!

My TIP on the butter and the pinch of turmeric came from him of course. My Uncle chopped the chicken liver and gizzard and added to the rice when he fry them but here in UK chicken comes without either. So there is no choice for me.

We all enjoyed our lunch today but I did not give them any of the chicken broth as I am saving it for another special dish tomorrow.

I have been hankering for chicken wings for the past month. I have eaten twice outside but they left me wanting.

I did not want the fried ones thickly coated with batter nor do I want the Korean type smothered with sickly sweet sticky sauce. I didn’t feel like the KFC spicy ones either as they seems to make me very thirsty.

Bought a packet of chicken wings yesterday for only 2.70 (pounds) and decided to make my own. However I am torn between roast or fried as I recently bought the smallest deep fat fryer of 1.5L oil only. There is a special reason for buying it. Watch this space!

So I decided to split my chicken wings 50/50 and cook them roast and fried. The roasted wings have an extra touch of maple syrup and the fried ones are just dusted with tapioca and baking powder just before frying.

TIP – I dropped a handful of king prawns into my zip-lock bag, utilizing the marinate already in there and re-dusted with some tapioca flour before deep frying them lastly.

Stir fry rice vermicelli with dried shrimps. My comfort food. While away for the last 3 weeks this is the dish I wanted to eat most. A simple rice vermicelli stir fry.

Woke up early today and could not get back to sleep. So I was already frying this at 7am this morning.

Luckily my hubby is one that is happy to eat this for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He’s extremely good when it come to food. Every so often I asked him if he is just eating to please me and his answer is always ‘not at all’

He eats with such total enjoyment and gusto that I just have to believe him. In fact a friend’s husband, also an Englishman recently commented that if he had not met and seen my hubby eats he would never have believed it, if told an Englishman loves Asian food so much and can eat so spicy. My friend and her husband visited for a weekend and we ate at mine and at restaurants too.

TIP – Do not add water to your noodles as there will be liquid from your fresh vegetables and beansprouts. I hate soggy noodles.

TIP – Only soak the noodles in hot water quick, do not boil them if frying. Again I hate soggy noodles.

TIP – If you like to eat the bottom burnt bit turn your fire to high for a couple of minute at the very end with a a few drop of oil to the side all round the wok. This will give you the happy crispy bottom. These are the cook’s perk!

TIP – If you have pork lard use it!

One of my vices is chicken gizzards. It’s not often that I can buy them here in the UK. Sometimes I do not see any fresh ones for more than a year. They can usually be found in Chinatown but I seldom travel down to London.  However when I do get them this is how I like to eat mine. 

I have tried to convince my family that crispy chicken gizzards with a glass of cold beer and a good film is the bomb but I have yet to convince them. Thus whenever I cook this dish I have to eat them all by myself over a 2 day period but I am certainly not complaining. 

SEPTEMBER 11, 2017 BY ADMIN

Sometimes I have crazy fancy ideas. I blame it all on watching the never ending cookery programs on television.  As a housewife who has had no training whatsoever, if I can cook this at home I am sure everyone can. I really love doing this webpage to share my ideas. 

1) Deboned chicken wings stuffed with prawns with plum dipping sauce to cut through the richness.
2) Deboned chicken wings stuffed with glass noodles with chilli sauce that goes so well with the noodles. 
3) Deboned chicken wing lollipops with sticky honey glaze in it’s own sauce. 

SEPTEMBER 12, 2017 BY ADMIN