baked portuguese chicken rice (po gok gai fan)

As my mom grew up in Macau, baked Portuguese chicken rice is one of my favourite things to eat.  It’s not really a Portuguese dish but originates from Macau.  If you’ve never had it before, its basically chicken and potatoes on top of fried rice, smothered in a creamy yellow sauce and then baked.  (And when my uncle took me to my grandpa’s favourite restaurant in Macau to eat this dish, it had chorizo in it too.)  You can easily find this in any Hong Kong style restaurant.  Sounds simple but I had never been able to pinpoint what the exact flavours in it are.

I’ve been craving this dish but short of a plane ride to Vancouver, I was not very close to getting it.  I’ve researched recipes online on and off for months (apparently I have way too much time on my hands!) but none of them sounded quite right to me.  There were certain ingredients which I agreed on but that was about it.  Some have curry powder in it but I’m pretty sure there’s not supposed to be any actual curry; it’s just that the sauce is yellow!  I had the same experience when I wanted to make hong kong style baked pork chop rice and couldn’t find a recipe I liked so I had to come up with my own.  And what’s super exciting (to me anyway) is if you google this dish now, my recipe is the very first link that comes up and I get multiple hits on that recipe from all over the world everyday!  Hopefully this recipe will be just as popular!

This recipe has 3 parts; the fried rice, the chicken, and the sauce:

~ 4 cups of cooked rice that has been refrigerated for at least a few hours, preferably overnight  /  2 large eggs  /  canola oil /  salt and pepper to taste

~ 6 skinless and boneless chicken thighs  /  1/2 medium yellow onion  /  2 cloves garlic  /  1 medium white potato  /  1/2 link of chorizo  /  canola oil  /  salt to taste

1 can coconut milk  /  1 cup chicken broth  /  1 pinch of ground cumin  /  2 tsp ground turmeric  /  3 tbsp cornstarch  /  salt to taste

First, preheat the oven to 350F and then start on the fried rice.  The way I like to make it is just heat up some oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat then add the cold rice in.  Stir around and let it heat up then make a little well in the middle of the rice.  In a small bowl, scramble the eggs with a bit of salt and pepper and then pour into the middle of the rice.  Let it cook for just a little bit then just stir fry it all together until it’s cooked to your liking and then set aside in a large pie plate or casserole.

Next, cube up the potato into roughly 1 inch pieces and bring to a boil in a small saucepan of water until fork tender.  In the meantime, mince the garlic, roughly chop up the onion, slice up the chorizo and cube the chicken thighs again into roughly 1 inch pieces.  Heat up some oil in the frying pan over medium to medium-high heat and toss in the garlic and onion and let it cook a bit.  Add in the chicken and let it brown up a bit and then add the chorizo and potatoes.  Let it cook, giving it a stir every now and again for about 8 to 10 minutes.

Next, throw together the sauce.  In a medium size saucepan over medium heat, mix together the coconut milk, chicken broth, turmeric and cumin.  When it’s heated up a bit, mix the cornstarch with some cold water (it should have the consistency of milk) and then pour that in and bring it to a boil while constantly whisking for at least a minute.  It should thicken up quite a bit.  Season to taste with some salt.

Now assemble it all together.  Layer the chicken, potatoes and chorizo mixture over the rice.  Then pour the sauce all over top.  Toss into the oven and let it bake for about 20 minutes and you’re done!

I’m quite happy with the results!  The sauce tastes really close, I think, to what you can find in restaurants and I think that’s the key part.  If anyone has any suggestions for making this dish, I would love that but overall I’m happy with this.  Rock says it’s very good and tastes like what he’s had out in Vancouver. Yay!

rock’s post: hummingbird cake

We were watching Jamie’s Comfort Food show one day and his main topic was the Hummingbird cake.  At the precise moment, the cake was haunting my mind…  I needed to bake it.   This cake is a mix of many layer of delicious flavours; fruits, cream cheese and pecans.  It is soft but has crunchy on top…  Do I have your attention now?

for the cake:  4 ripe bananas  /  about 2 cups of pineapple / 1 cup regular olive oil  /  3 cups berry (super fine) sugar  /   ~ 2 oz (60 grams) pecan pieces  /  2 1/4 all-purpose flour  /  2 tbsp of baking powder /  1tsp ground cinnamon  /  1 tsp vanilla  / 2 large eggs

for the frosting:  2/3 cup butter (at room temperature)  /  200 grams of cream cheese  /  3 cups icing sugar  / 2 limes

for the pecan brittle topping: ~ 2 oz (60 grams) pecan pieces  /  1/2 cup berry sugar

Pre heat the oven to 350F.  Mix the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, sugar and a good pitch of salt into a mixing bowl.  (don’t forget the sugar…  I did that at first)  In a bigger mixing bowl, mash the bananas.  Then add finely chopped pineapple pieces, oil, eggs and the vanilla extract. Combine the dry mic into the wet until smooth.  Finely chop the pecans and add it to the batter.  Grease two 9inch spingform cake pans.  We have just one, so we did it in 2 phases…  Divide the batter between the two cake pans.  Bake for 35 to 40 minutes or until risen, golden and  the sponge spring back when  touched in the centre.

SO now you have 40 minutes to mix the frosting.  Put the icing sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer and add the butter.  Before turn it on, cover it with a kitchen towel, if don’t, you will have a icing sugar fog into your kitchen…  Beat the sugar/butter until creamy.  Add the cream cheese, finely grate the zest of one lime and a good part of its juice.  Beat until smooth.  Don’t over mix it.   Keep the very sweet mix into the fridge until you are ready to assemble the cake.

At that moment, we were finish to bake the first half of the cake.   When the second half was in the oven, I had 40 minutes to do the brittle!  In a frying pan, set the sugar in the middle with 1/4 cup of water.  Set the heat to medium.  Shake flat but it is important to not stir.  Swirl the pan occasionally until dissolved.  Wait until the sugar turn golden.  Then add the pecans and a pinch of salt.  Make sure the pecans are well coat and nicely golden.  Poor over a sheet of parchment paper.  It is very hot, let it cool down.  You can try the pecans, it is very nice. Once cool, smash up to a dust.

Now you have all he pieces to assemble the cake.

Set the first cake on a cake stand and spread half the icing.  Set the second cake and spread the remaining icing.  Grate the zest of the remaining lime over the cake.  Sprinkle the pecans dust over…

 

This cake is  amazing, so much flavours.  But don’t be surprise, it is a very RICH cake.  If I was planning an hunger strike, this cake will be part of my last meal; I will be able to make my hunger strike last for awhile…

okonomiyaki: japanese savoury pancake / ‘pizza’

I can’t even remember the last time I had okonomiyaki but I found a okonomi sauce at the one Asian supermarket in Regina over the weekend so I just had to try and make it.  I’m pretty sure my friend Julia introduced me to okonomiyaki when we were backpacking around Japan together all those years ago (I just found an old picture of us having okonomiyaki with a bunch of guys from our hostel in Kyoto!) and it’s too bad that it’s not something you can usually find in your everyday Japanese restaurant because it’s really yummy!  I looked through lots of recipes online and there’s definitely no one way to make this other than that the main ingredient is cabbage and there is some sort of batter that binds it all together.  I decided to use bacon, green onions and carrots but seafood seems to be very popular so feel free to use whatever you’d like.

I made 2 and neither of us could finish our dinner so this amount of cabbage/batter mixture could definitely make 3 servings.

~ 4 cups of shredded cabbage  /  1 cup all-purpose flour  /  ~1/4 tsp baking powder  /  3/4 cup water  /  2 large eggs  /  couple pinches of salt  /  4 strips of bacon  /  ~1/4 cup sliced up green onions  /  1/2 a carrot, grated  /  okonomi sauce  /  kewpie mayo (is this called Japanese mayonnaise? it’s the squeeze bottle with the kewpie doll on it, love this stuff)  /  1 sheet of dried seaweed  /  (I also wanted to use bonito flakes to top but couldn’t find any… I’ll keep hunting)  /  avocado (or whatever!) oil

Mix up the flour, baking powder, eggs, water and salt until it forms a batter.  Then mix in the cabbage, green onion and carrot.  Heat up a few splashes of oil in  large frying pan over medium heat.  Depending on how big you want your okonomiyaki, scoop some batter into the pan and press down into a circle shape.  Drape a couple strips of bacon over top and then partially cover the pan and let it cook for about 5 minutes.

Using 2 spatulas, just to make your life easier (1 under and 1 on top), carefully flip the whole thing over and partially cover again and cook for another 5 minutes.  When it’s done cooking, flop onto a plate and brush on some okonomi sauce (however much you’d like), squeeze over some kewpie mayo, and sprinkle some shredded seaweed on top.  If I had bonito flakes, I’d sprinkle some of that on (I love how that stuff looks like it’s dancing around!)  That’s one down, another (1 or 2 to go!)

Rock had never tried okonomiyaki before but he says it’s surprisingly good.  He says he wasn’t sure at first because it was just a bunch of cabbage in a pancake but it tastes very good.  I’m happy ‘cus it tastes like how I remember. Yay!

tommy burrito

I am totally obsessed with the tommy burrito from Steamrollers back in Vancouver and have been for years.  Basically everything is steamed and its chicken and spanish rice rolled up in a spinach tortilla, topped with monterey jack cheese and garlic yogurt sauce and then drowning in a warm tomatillo sauce.  It is SO good!  I couldn’t find any copycat recipes online but I decided to try and wing it and see what happens.  I’d never cooked with tomatillos before and it’s not a salsa verde that’s in this burrito but being a tiny bit adventurous worked out because the burrito turned out great and pretty damn close to exactly how the steamrollers one tastes!  This recipe will make enough for 4 burritos.

tomatillo sauce:  ~ 10 tomatillos (husked removed and rinsed) /  2 cloves garlic  /  1/2 yellow onion  /  3 cups vegetable broth  /  1-2 jalapeños (with most or all of the seeds removed, depending on how much you like heat! I kept the seeds from half of 1 jalapeño)  /  1 lime  /  (I wanted to use some chopped fresh cilantro but they were out at the shop.  I’m sure cilantro wouldn’t hurt!)  /  salt and pepper to taste

spanish rice:  2 cups long grain white rice  /   2 cups crushed tomatoes  /  2 cups chicken broth  /  1/4 yellow onion  /  2 cloves garlic  /  a few pinches of ground cumin  /  2 bay leaves  /  avocado oil

~ 4 cups shredded cooked chicken  (I just bought a rotisserie chicken because it was cheaper aaand because i’m kinda lazy)  /  4 large spinach tortillas  /  ~ 1 cup plain fat-free yogurt  /  3 cloves of garlic  /  grated monterey jack cheese

The rice takes the longest so start with that.  Finely chop the onion and mince the garlic and toss into a large pot over medium-high heat along with a few splashes of avocado oil, the cumin and the rice.  Stir around a bit and then add in the chicken broth, the crushed tomatoes and the bay leaves.  Bring to a boil and then cover and turn the heat down and let it simmer until cooked.  I still have trouble cooking rice without a rice cooker (Asian problems) and learned the hard way to not keep taking the cover off and fiddling about with the rice.  Just keep the lid on and let it do its thing.

In the meantime, make the tomatillo sauce.  Roughly chop up the onion and the (mostly) de-seeded jalapeños.   And if you wear contact lenses like me, make sure you wear gloves for the jalapeños or else you’ll end up burning your eyeballs later on!  Toss the onion, jalapeños, the whole tomatillos and garlic cloves into a large saucepan and add in the lime juice and vegetable broth.  Bring to a boil and let it all simmer until the tomatillos are soft.  Then, using a hand blender, puree the whole thing until smooth and season with salt and pepper if you want.

Then just mix up the garlic yogurt sauce by pressing the garlic cloves through a garlic press into the yogurt and mixing together with a bit of salt.

Now just heat up the chicken and tortillas in the microwave and get rolling.  In the middle of each tortilla, put some of the chicken and the rice and roll up and turn over.  Top with some of the yogurt sauce and the cheese and then ladle over the tomatillo sauce.

I’m really happy with how this turned out!  I was pretty weary of how the tomatillo sauce would work out but it was really good.  Not too shabby for total guesswork.  Now we are both super full and have yummy leftovers for tomorrow!

greek moussaka

I love moussaka but I’ve only had good moussaka a handful of times in my life.  When I first moved to Moose Jaw, I tried the moussaka from the one Greek restaurant in town and it was absolutely terrible so I won’t be doing that to myself ever again.  I never attempted to make it myself because I knew it’d be quite a bit of work but I finally decided to give it a go and it was well worth it!  This one has layers of potato, eggplant, beef and béchamel.  So good!  Just know that this is a pretty time-consuming process; it’ll be at least a solid 3 hrs from the time you start to prep until the time you get to eat.  But it’s quite rewarding and turns out great so you should still give it a try when you have the time.

for the beef: ~ 750 grams lean ground beef  /  1 x 28 oz can whole tomatoes (preferably plum tomatoes but the shop was all out and regular ones worked out fine)  /  1 large yellow onion  /  3 cloves garlic  /  a few shakes of ground cinnamon  /  2 dried bay leaves  /  ~ 1 tsp dried oregano  / ~ 2 tsp chopped fresh sage  /  ~ 2 tsp dried rosemary  /  avocado or olive oil  /  (optional: a lot of recipes call for red wine but I skipped it because I didn’t wanna get stared down in the liquor store with my 8 months pregnant belly! but if you’d like, add in maybe 1/2 cup red wine of your choice)

4 medium white potatoes  /  2 large eggplants (i’ve only cooked eggplants a couple times so it’s not an ingredient i’m very familiar with.  the eggplants I got from Superstore seemed extremely big to me!  if you’ve got smaller ones, just know that you’ll need however many to make 2 layers in the moussaka)  /  salt and pepper

for the béchamel:  3 cups 2% milk (I used lactose-free milk to appease my selective lactose intolerance and it worked well! so that’s a good option if your belly hates milk like mine)  /  1/4 cup butter  /  1/3 cup all-purpose flour  /  2 large eggs  /  a few splashes of lemon juice  /  1 tsp ground nutmeg  /  2 dried bay leaves  /  pecorino cheese (to grate over top)

Start off by chopping the onion and mincing the garlic.  In a large saucepan over medium to medium-high heat, fry up the beef, onion and garlic with a bit of oil until the beef is cooked through.  Add in the cinnamon, bay leaves, oregano, sage and rosemary and let it cook for another 5 minutes or so.  Then toss in the whole tin of tomatoes, liquid and all (and if you want to use wine, toss that in there now too).  After it comes to a boil, lower the heat and let it simmer partially covered for about an hour.  When it’s ready, remove the bay leaves and season with some salt and pepper.

In the meantime, preheat the oven to 350F and prepare the potatoes and the eggplants.  Slice up the eggplants lengthwise into 1/2 inch thick slices.  Sprinkle with sea salt and let them sit over some paper towels for about 20 minutes.  I think this is to both draw out liquid from the eggplant and prevent them from sopping up too much oil when pan-frying.

While the eggplants are doing their thing, slice up the potatoes also lengthwise into 1/2 inch thick slices.  In a pot of boiling water, parboil them for about 5 minutes then layer them, slightly on top of one another, in the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch baking pan.  Drizzle over some oil and season with salt and pepper and then toss into the oven to roast for 40 minutes.

In a frying pan over medium-heat, fry up the slices of eggplant in small batches with a bit of oil on both sides, just until a bit golden, about 2 minutes on each side.

OK!  So that’s 3 of the layers done and finally it’s time for the béchamel.  In a large frying pan over low-medium heat, melt the butter and then whisk in the flour to make a smooth paste.  Then gradually, while whisking, add in the milk until it’s all combined.  Add in the nutmeg, bay leaves, and a bit of salt and pepper, and keep whisking over the heat for about 15 minutes.  I don’t know if it’s really necessary to continuously whisk it, but I was just worried the béchamel would burn.  When it’s done, remove the bay leaves and take off the heat (so you don’t end up with scrambled eggs when you add the eggs in!).  In a small bowl, whisk together the eggs and the lemon juice and then slowly whisk into the béchamel.

And it’s finally time to layer the moussaka.  The potatoes are already on the bottom so carefully spread over the potatoes roughly half of the beef.  Next place over top a layer of the eggplant.  Follow that up with the rest of the beef and then a final layer of eggplant.  Scoop and spread on top the béchamel and then finely grate over some pecorino cheese and drizzle with a bit of oil.  Put the whole thing in the oven to bake for 40 minutes.  But then it’s still not time to eat!  You have to let it sit for about 30 minutes or else apparently when you cut into it, the layers don’t stay set.  And THEN you get to eat! Enjoy!

rock’s post: incredible pumpkin spice muffins

Fall is upon us… So it is time for pumpkin spice stuff!!!  Pumpkin spice latte, pumpkin pie and, of course, pumpkin spice muffins !!

After some very intense researches, I found a healthy recipe who mixes pumpkin and maple sirup…  What about mixing fall and spring?   This is a very easy recipe.  You will need:

2 cups whole wheat flour (so it makes this whole recipe healthy!)   /  1½ cups all purpose flour  /  2 teaspoons baking soda  /  1 teaspoon baking powder  /  3 teaspoon of Pumpkin pie spice (or 1 teaspoon each cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg)  /  ½ teaspoon salt  /  ¾ cup granulated sugar  /  2 cups pumpkin puree  /  ½ cup avocado oil (or olive oil)  /  ¼ cup real maple syrup  /  3 tablespoons milk  /  3 large eggs

Pre heat the oven to 350F.  Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix the wet ingredients in another bowl.  Still very simple…  Add the wet ingredients into the dry one with the help of a mixer until just combined.  Scoop this great orange mix into the muffin pan.  Cook for about 20 minutes.

Now you have 20 minutes to do the glaze.  You will need:

2 tablespoons butter  /  1¼ cups powdered sugar  /  1 teaspoons vanilla  /  1 tablespoon maple syrup  /  1-2 tablespoons water

Melt the butter in a pan, add the sugar, vanilla and the maple sirup.  Add water to the desire thickness.  I honestly add more maple sirup… until a really taste maple sirup; the result was very tasty!

I applied the glaze over the warm muffin and I was ready to eat them all…

I baked 15 muffins and they were all gone in a matter of minutes…  Can’t argue with success !!!