Hainan Chicken Rice

I got this recipe from another blogger. I haven't tried this yet but I hope I will soon. I forgot to ask her, but I think it's also called Hainanese Chicken. Maybe this one is simply Malaysian style.

Ingredients:

1.5 kg whole chicken
2 cups long grain rice
14 shallots
12 pips garlic
half inch long ginger
1 tsp salt
half tsp pepper
4 tbsp cooking oil

Ingredients for Chicken stock: I'll probably use a store bought one to save time
quarter kilo of chicken bones
750 ml water
salt to taste

Ingredients for Chilli Sauce:

5 red chillies
4 pips garlic
1 lime
1 Tbsp sugar
half inch long ginger
one-fourth tsp salt

Garnishing Ingredients:
1 cucumber
1 tomato
1 sprig spring onion
2 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp light soya sauce

Preparation:

Boil chicken bones with water to obtain chicken stock. Add salt to taste.
Smash 8 shallots, 6 pips garlic and ginger.
Clean the chicken and stuff it with the smashed ingredients. Rub the skin with salt and pepper.
Finely slice the remaining shallots and chop the remaining garlic.
Pound red chillies, ginger and garlic together. Extract lime juice. Add lime juice, sugar and salt to the pounded ingredients. Set aside mixture.
Finely slice the cucumber and tomato.
Cut the spring onions into 2 cm lengths.
Mix the sesame oil and light soya sauce together.
Wash the rice grains.

Cooking:

Heat oil in wok. Fry the chopped garlic and sliced shallots until golden brown. Then add in the washed rice grains and continue to fry until fragrant.
Transfer the fried rice grains into a rice cooker. Add in the chicken stock and continue to cook until rice is done.

Steam the chicken in a wok or steamer for about 20 minutes or until the chicken is tender.
Once the chicken is cooked, remove from heat and cut into bite-size pieces.

Presentation:

Arrange the cucumber and tomato slices around the edge of a serving platter. Then place the chicken pieces in the centre of the same platter. Sprinkle the spring onions over the chicken and pour the mixed sesame oil and light soya sauce over it.
Serve chicken with the steamed rice and chilli sauce.

I'm thinking about just having plain rice so my kids can eat this dish too.

There are more recipes on WanNo's site. Do check it out.

Chicken Vermicelli Soup

My toddler is starting to get picky with food lately, so I always make sure I cook something she'll enjoy. She loves eating noodles, any kind of noodles, that's why it's not uncommon to see a dish with noodles during mealtimes in our home .

With a quarter kilo of chicken, carrots, cabbage, vermicelli, garlic and onion, I can be assured that my 2 year old will enjoy her meal.

Saute the chopped garlic, then add the diced onions and then the thinly sliced chicken strips. Once the chicken turns brown, add the chicken stock and let boil. Add the vermicelli and wait for it to be cooked before adding the julienned carrots and shredded cabbage. You can add other vegetables if you like. Season to taste.

This is fast and easy to make, just the kind of thing for extrasuper moms who have lots of other things to do.

Saline Solution

I usually use a store bought saline solution for our family to save time and effort (an extrasuper mom has lots of things to do, you know). But you can actually make one in your home. Here's a very simple recipe to make a saline solution.

Mix a half teaspoon of salt (preferably kosher, canning, sea or pickling salt) and a pinch of baking soda to a cup of water (room temperature). Place the mixture in a clean container and use as necessary. It is better to make a new batch everyday, but you can actually store this mixture up to a week.

For my kids, I normally use 2 to 3 drops per nostril and then let them blow through their noses. For infants and kids who don't know how to blow their noses yet, a nose suction or aspirator is a handy tool. You can do this 3 to 4 times a day.