One-pot steamed Chinese chicken mushroom rice

A classic Chinese comfort food is steamed chicken with winter/shiitake mushrooms (冬菇蒸雞飯). There are variations with dried lily flowers but I like the ones with mushrooms best. In Chinese cooking, shiitake/winter mushrooms are more commonly used dried than fresh. The dried ones have a stronger, more umami flavor to them that the fresh ones don't, and the best dried winter mushrooms can be quite expensive!

I adapted my recipe from this one I found online.

The only specialized equipment you will need is a rice cooker (found throughout Asia). Rice cookers are amazing things - see this blog post by Roger Ebert (yes, the film critic) if you need to be convinced of its usefulness.

Notes:

• Rehydrated winter mushrooms (or you can use any fresh ones that you prefer. A "meatier" mushroom would probably work better here.
• I used boneless chicken thigh, cut into small pieces, because my boyfriend doesn't like bones. In cheaper restaurants in Hong Kong, the chicken in this dish can have a lot of bone splinters :(
• Didn't have spring onion so I substituted coriander/cilantro - not strictly traditional but I feel that you have a lot more flexibility for savory dishes than with baked desserts.
• Rice + about 2/3 of the normal amount of water you would normally use in your cooker because the soy sauce marinade for the chicken will make up the remaining liquid.
• If you don't have Shaoxing wine you can use cooking sake/mirin/pale dry sherry/gin. Not quite the same but close enough.
  
• It's OK if your rice gets a slightly burnt and crispy crust - that's the BEST part!
• The main point is, don't worry about following the recipe too strictly, play around with it depending on what ingredients you have on hand and ENJOY. It will be yummy.

Yaki-onigiri (Grilled rice balls) 焼きおにぎり

Equipment: Short-grain Japanese rice (or risotto rice), soy sauce, non-stick pan, clingfilm/glad wrap, oil (may be optional), rice cooker (optional), mirin (optional), sesame seeds (optional)

More about yaki-onigiri at Momofuku for 2 or else you can Google it, there are plenty of sites out there discussing the various methods available.

Rice must be freshly made and warm so that it adheres and holds its structure when shaped.

Clingfilm is a great cheat, so the rice does not stick to your hands.

Lightly oil the plate, gently flip the onigiri so that it has a slight coating of oil. This will help when grilling the onigiri.

Only soy sauce is strictly necessary.

Grill lightly over low heat until a crust forms. Flip.

Brush the first (crispy) side with soy sauce. Be gentle so the onigiri does not fall apart.

Keep flipping, brushing and grilling until beautifully crispy and golden.

Eat. Goes well with beer or sake.

Trip to Hanoi, Vietnam

I can't believe I forgot to post these photos earlier...they've been up on my Facebook for a while, though.

My boyfriend and I went to Hanoi for 4 nights over the Lunar New Year holiday in January. Unfortunately, what we didn't realize until after we booked the trip was that Vietnam also celebrates this holiday (called Tet over there) and that many stores would be shut...it was also bloody freezing, like 10-15 Celcius everyday, windy and grey.

I think we were a bit unprepared for the crazy traffic and incessant honking, too. Ah, well. We ate a lot of good food and walked around a lot. Hanoi is an amazing and beautiful city in terms of history, architecture, vibrancy and food. Next winter, it's definitely a bit of R-and-R at a nice sunny beach for us! Still, I'd like to go back to Vietnam sometime, visit Halong Bay and see the country when it's not half-shut-down for the annual vacances.

I took quite a lot of photos, and we did eat at a lot of places, but here are a few snapshots that I think turned out well. We had a drink at the bar in the Metropole (I had the Somerset Maugham cocktail, Jon had the Charlie Chaplin cocktail, but not the Graham Greene cocktail) and we also visited the famous Fanny's glacerie for some exotic ice cream (green tea, coconut, young rice..). We didn't visit the Beaulieu restaurant in the Metropole (too expensive) or the Bobby Chinn restaurant (heard mixed reviews).

Our first night in Hanoi. We arrived after dark, dishevelled and hungry. We had dinner at a streetside pho stand run by a taciturn middle-aged woman. Neither of us spoke Vietnamese, so we resorted to gestures and pointing. Cost of dinner? 20,000 dong for a fresh, steaming bowl of pho. (The going exchange rate was 17,000 dong to US$1 when we went.)

Jon's a real coffee addict, so in the morning, we went to try the real Vietnamese coffee. A bit gritty with coffee grounds, a bit too sweet with condensed milk - but boy, was it smooth and rich.

We ate a lot at streetside stands, squatting on tiny plastic stools that looked more for stepping on than sitting on. This lunch was from a restaurant in an alleyway near the big statue of Vladimir Lenin, and near the Hanoi Hilton.


Bánh cuốn (steamed rice rolls/crepes with pork, mushroom, spring onions) restaurant. It's like a variation of that staple Cantonese dim sum item, "cheung fun".

Close up of the Bánh cuốn. The one in the foreground had a whole steamed egg inside, silky and rich. It went well with the fish sauce, chili, lime and herbs. Yum.

We did try the infamous civet cat/weasel coffee. It was pretty strong and smooth, but cost about 40,000 dong (US$2.35) for a tiny cup of espresso, which is quite ridiculously expensive by Vietnamese standards (compared to 20,000 dong for a bowl of beef pho) - but in the US I heard it goes for US$30-60 a cup, a huge markup. To be honest, it tasted like a really smooth and rich espresso. Not poopy at all.

Using up leftovers for a weekday dinner

2/19/2009 dinner.
Mission: use up left over wine, basil, grana padano cheese, squash, onion and garlic from 2/14 dinner.

I already had some arborio rice in my kitchen cupboard, so the only new item that I bought were the mussels from the supermarket below my apartment.

Nigella's risotto recipe from "How to Eat" inspired me, but I only used the liquid-rice ratios from it. I don't like to stick rigidly to recipe instructions, especially for non-baked dishes -- a bit of creativity makes cooking more exciting.


Round 1: Roasted butternut squash with honey and balsamic glaze

Round 2: Vegetable risotto, mushrooms, sugar snap peas


Round 3: New Zealand mussels with white wine, red onion, garlic, and basil.

Mos Burger

Yakiniku (beef) rice burger
"Fresh" burger

Mos Burger official website

Rice Pudding with Nutmeg, Lychees, Longans, Cinnamon and Graham Crackers

Ingredients:

• Carnoli or Arborio rice (i.e. the shortgrain kind used for paella/risotto)
• Butter
• Milk
• Dried fruit (in this case I used dried Thai lychees and longans but I think figs, dates or apricots would work too)
  
• Honey, nutmeg and cinnamon to taste
• Graham cracker (store-bought)
  

Recipe:

1. Melt butter in pan over low heat.
   
2. Add rice (no need to wash or pre-soak); stir until coated in butter and semi-translucent (just as if you were making risotto).
   
3. Add milk until it covers the rice. Stir until liquid has been absorbed.
   
4. Repeat Step 3 until the rice is fluffy and looks like pudding (should take about 15-20 minutes).
5. If you're using fresh fruit, add it at the end; otherwise, if you're using dried, add it about 1/2-way through the cooking process.
   
6. When the rice is done and the dried fruit is plump and cooked, take it off the heat. Spoon into bowls, drizzle honey over it, grate some nutmeg and cinnamon as desired. Serve with graham crackers, ginger nut cookies, almond biscuits, or whatever takes your fancy. Best eaten curled up on a comfy sofa with a good book.