Hainanese Chicken Rice

Updated 21 June 2012

Ok Zoe, the ingredients are all loaded up today:-p

As I had mentioned, I hadn't been able to post up using my office PC... (hope my boss doesn't see this, else she will knows that I have been blogging.... hahahaha)

I was just trying out my luck today to see if I was able to post the recipe up using my office PC. A couple of times when I had keyed in everything, and tried to publish my post, the whole screen just gone blank. I told it was just my office PC that I can't blog anymore... that puts me off, as I can only blog when I am in the office, otherwise back home, it is totally impossible to do so with my 3 kiddos... hahaha... that is where I can find PEACE when I am in the office... ooopsie... hehehehe.....

Here is the Hainanese Chicken Rice, a very long to-cook-dish... finally, tried, tested and tasted... Yummy indeed...

My mum made very delicious chicken rice too, but everytime when she cooked them, I had never really pay attention to what she was telling me, how to cook it, how to prepare and what were the ingredients... hahaha.. Lazy me, well thinking, after all mum makes the best chicken rice, so I won't need to know anyway... kekeke... Eventually, now at my own comfty nest, buying my small tiny oven, I had started to bake last year and started to cook eventually during the weekends when the mood comes...

OkOk, back to the chicken rice topic... I just trial & error on this chicken rice, getting back of what my mum had used when she cook hers and asking my friend of how she cooked. My mum used the steaming method while my friend used boiling method. So i have 2 options, but the options lies beneath my pots... hahahaha!!! As my pots aint too big, so I had opted for boiling method. It was a tough one too as I couldn't decide what size of chicken I should buy... gosh... typical blur aunty. :-p
So off I went to the market to buy a kampong chicken as it is supposed to be more tender and juicier, price range of course slightly more expensive than the normal chicken. Finally went back home with all the ingredients, ready to start my battle with the chicken...!!!

Here are the ingreients that I had used:

(Gathering all the ingredients from Peng's Kitchen, my mum's and my friend's)

Ingredient
Stock

3 liter water

1 large chicken

(I had forgotten to ask the chicken seller how heavy the kampong chicken was, but a big kampong chicken)

few stalks spring onion

1 large onion, sliced

1 head garlic, smashed
30-50gm ginger, sliced

2-3 leek, chopped
2 carrots, chopped

2-3 lemongrass, chopped & smashed

Method
1. In a large pot, bring water to boil. Add garlic, onion, leek, lemongrass and carrots. Boil about 20mins.

2. Add chicken (stuffed with ginger & spring onion-I will opt for more ginger & more spring onions). Bring to boil. Turn down heat to simmer for 35mins. Meanwhile prepare a large bowl of iced cold water. It must cover the whole chicken. This is to keep the meat tender and moist as it stops cooking immediately.

3. Remove chicken and drain excess water from cavity. Place the chicken into the cold water for 10 mins. Drain and rub some sesame oil over and let the chicken cool to room temperature.

4. Reserve stock to cook rice.

5. Cut chicken into pieces. Arrange with sliced cucumber and tomatoes on a plate. Mix together 2 tbsp light soya sauce and 1 tsp sesame oil. Drizzle over chicken.

Rice

500gm raw rice (abt 3 cups of rice)

3 tbsp oil

30-50gm shallots, finely chopped

6-10 cloves garlic
35-50gm ginger

pandan leaves, tied in a bunch (put more for the fragrant)

1-2 lemongrass, chopped & mashed

750ml chicken stock

1 tsp salt

Method1. Wash rice 2-3 times and drained dry.

2. Heat oil in wok, fry shallot, ginger, garlic & lemongrass, fry until ingredient turn light brown and fragrance. Add raw rice and stir-fry for 5 mins to bring out the fragrance.

3. Transfer fried rice into rice cooker. Add chicken stock, pandan leaves and salt to taste.

Balance stock can be used as soup or refreezed them for future used:)

Bake Along # 26 - Pear & Maple Crumble

Time had passed by so quickly... Weekends are gone, and back to office tomorrow... *yawn*...

I was hoping I could make it in time to submit my bake in the Bake Along #26. I had came across Lena's post about her Pear & Maple Crumble, and I saw that the link closed in 1 day's time... I was like, should I try baking this today... And I did...

Using whatever I had in my fridge, I managed to make these crumble... just in time before the submission of Bake Along #26 ends...

I had bought the Bon Appetit book from online, and I had gotten it for a very good price. Kinokuniya was like selling it for about S$60+, and I tried to get them from Amazon, which will cost me S$50+... But I got this book from Fishpond at S$30+ plus a S$10 coupon off. It was such a good deal...

I had bought some pears, can't remember what pears they are called, but from China, rather sweet pears. So I reckon these pears will do fine for these crumble. Also I do not have the crystallized giner, I had replaced them with ginger powder. And of course, using almonds...

These pear & maple crumble were very easy to make... No fuss nor mess..:-D

And they were awesome and delicious... The crumbles alone were a good one, I love crumbles very much...

 Hubby and the gals did not really fancy these... not their favourite... I do quite like it very much. While taking the pictures of the crumbles, I had taken a few teaspoons of the crumbles... Yummy as it should be...mmmmm.....

I had used Lena's portion of ingredients as I was rushing for time... By the time I had gotten back home, it was already 5pm. Quickly prepared the ingredients and set them off to the oven. The portion was enought for my 4 ramekins as shown below.

The pear in maple syrup and then, cover with the crumbles, ready to be baked.

Topped with the fresh blueberries, they do go very well indeed... The sweetness of the pear, plus a bit sourish of the blueberries, blends very well... 

 I was glad that this crumble turns out very well. A very surprisingly delicious tea-time snack or dessert. Most of all, it was very easy to prepare:-D

 I had taken the ingredients from Lena as I do not have much time to go through the book, plus my book is in the office... hahaha... pardon me...

I have make some slight modifications to suit my own taste, other then that, you may wish to follow what Lena had used for her ingredients.

Recipe from Bon Appetit

Topping:
83gm plain flour
1/3 cup pistachio nuts, coarsely chopped (I used almond nuts)
30gm castor sugar
38gm cold butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

Combine flour, nuts and sugar together and rub the butter in till moist clumps form. Chill them for about an hour.

Filling:
2 small pears, peeled, quartered, cored and cut into cubes
2 tbsp raisins (I omitted as I do not fancy raisins:-p)
1/2 tbsp plain flour
1/4 cup of maple syrup
3 finely chopped crystallized ginger (I used 1 tsp ginger powder)

Method:
1.Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350F/170C. Place pears, maple syrup. flour and ginger in large bowl, toss to coat. Let stand 15 minutes, tossing occasionally.
2.Divide the  pear mixture to 2 separate oven proof bowls, sprinkle topping over. Bake crumble until topping is crisp , about 30 minutes. Let stand at least 10 minutes before serving.

 While waiting for the crumble to be baked, I have helped the gals make some animal masks. Nat has a school assignment, to make an animal mask. So end up the other 2 gals wanna make one as well. Mimi was so enthusiatic about making her mask, ended up she got bored and restless, she took something else to play...

Do click on the links below to find out what have the Bake-ALong Hosts had did and also the other bakers, on their wonderful works too:-D