Garlic Fried Brown Rice with Fresh Mushroom

Fried Brown Rice is always a popular option in local vegetarian restaurant. Today, I am not doing the vegetarian version as I need to please the kids. However, you could omit the roast meat in the recipes if you want a vegan version fried rice. The highlight of this recipes is MUSHROOM & GARLIC. 

Ingredients:

3 bowl of  brown rice (it is ok to replace with white rice)

4 cloves of minced garlic

Handful of varieties fresh mushroom (cut into slices)

200g of roast pork (cut into little cubes -see pics below)

2 stalks of spring onion 

2 tbsp of light soya sauces 

1 tbsp of vegan oyster sauces

2-3 tbsp of water if needed

See Vegan oyster sauces below. It also included the dark caramel soya sauces. 

Method:

1) 1 tbsp of vegetables oil dry with the garlic in small medium fire together with the roast pork.

Do not let the garlic burn as it will taste bitter. Do not leave the non stick wok, keep stir frying.

2) In all the fresh mushroom & continuing stir frying. Add in the oyster sauces.

3) Add in the spring onion & brown rice.Keep on stir frying.

4) Add in the soya sauces,pouring the soya sauce in circular motion over the fried rice over medium high fire.

5) You can add around 2 tbsp of water if you think the fried rice is too dry. 

6) It is best served hot.

For those who are fans Japanese Garlic Fried Rice, you just need to change the recipes slightly:

3 bowl of  round sticky Japanese rice

4-5 cloves of minced garlic

3 stalks of spring onion 

3 tbsp of light soya sauces 

Pinch of salt if needed
2-3 tbsp of water if needed

**Tips: The ratio of water : brown rice is 2:1.

Pre-soak the brown rice 4-6 hours ahead before cooking in the rice cooker.

Let it cool down before frying. Normally, I will cook all the rice in the afternoon, half portion is for lunch consumption & the other half to be kept in the fridge for dinner fried rice.

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Nasi Lemak (Malaysia Style)

Nasi Lemak- Malaysian or Singaporean all time favorite. In the Malaysia language; Nasi means Rice; Lemak means Fat. These fat is from the coconut milk. The Nasi Lemak was classified a national dish for Malaysia. It is well loved by almost everyone includes the tourists, be it Japanese, Korean..etc. The Nasi Lemak is usually served with sambal (spicy condiments), crispy ikan bilis (anchovies), fried peanuts, cucumber, curry chicken or spice fried chicken (for those who can't take spicy food). I love Nasi Lemak for breakfast with spicy condiments.But, I can only eat once a week due to its "lemak" is making me fat.

Today I am going to show you how to cook the Nasi Lemak- the "Nasi" or "Rice" only. I will share with you the recipes on others sides dishes in the next post.

Don't worry. It is super easy to cook the Nasi Lemak.

Ingredients (3 servings):
2 cup of white rice (use the cup that come with the rice cooker)
2 cup of coconut milk* (use the cup that come with the rice cooker)
2 slices of ginger (slightly smash it)
2ea of Pandan leaves (tie to a knot)
1 stalk of lemongrass (slightly smash it)- i forgot to put this in.

How to extract coconut milk- The traditional way:
- Buy 1ea of young fresh grated coconut from the wet market, then, add 1 cup/150ml of hot boiling water.
- Let it sit for a while, it is too hot to handle it at this point of time
- Use a clean cloth to wrap up a portion the coconut mixture & squeeze all the liquid out.
- After a round of squeezing, pls check if you have enough of the coconut milk.
- You can add extra hot water to repeat the above steps again to squeeze extra coconut milk.

The modern way:
- Store bought coconut milk in packet. This is easily available in any supermarket.
- It saves time & avoid messy clean up.

Method:
1) Wash the rice & rinse it clean for 3 times.
2) Put all the ingredients in.
3) Let the rice cooker do the work.
4) After half an hour, you will have fluffy Nasi Lemak.

In South East Asia-Nasi Lemak usually serve with Sambal Ikan Bilis (spicy chili paste cooked with anchovies) & Curry Chicken. Enjoy~

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Kimchi Rice Roll (Kimbap)

The Korean Drama of Year 2014 - "My Love from the Stars" is a big hit in South East Asia Countries. The Korean food wave begin again in the whole region. Every lady in my office was telling me, who & who went for Korean food during the weekend. Heard someone saying they went for the fried chicken & beer, Korean BBQ, Kimchi pancake...etc.

Hmm...........when come to Korean food, I believe the 1st thing come into most of our mind is Kimchi. How can I make something very quickly that can fix my Korean food craves? Simple & easy, I need a quick fix.. So I decided to make Kimchi Rice Roll (Kimbap).

Good quality Kimchi need to strike a balance in between - sourness, saltiness & spiciness.I choose my favorite store bought Kimchi - Chongga - Poggi Kimchi (made by using the whole napa cabbages).
The positive point in buying the whole cabbage Kimchi is we can cut it into the size we want follow the recipes requirement.We can cut the Poggi Kimchi in long strips for the rice roll. Remember to drain the poggi kimchi before cutting.

Ingredients for 4 servings:
Simple Sticky Rice:
400g of Japanese rice or Korean rice (Fat short grain sticky rice)
50ml of sushi rice vinegar

Method:
1) Soak the rice for at least 30mins- 1 hours.
3) Rice to water ratio is normally 1:1.3
4) Cook the rice in rice cooker follow the white rice cooking instructions.Once the rice cooked, do not open the rice cooker immediately, let it sit for a while & cool down in the rice cooker for 30 mins. Then, mix in the sushi rice vinegar. Then, cool the rice further to room temperature. You can choose to use fan to make this faster.

Ingredients to assemble the Rice Roll;
2 Japanese cucumber , remove seeds, cut into long strips
Some Poggi  Kimchi cut into long strips. Remember to drain the juices of kimchi. Too much liquid is no good.
1 pkt of Seaweed sheet (usually come in 10ea)
Divide the cool white rice into 4 or 5 portion equally (each portion is about one bowl of rice)

Method:
1) Lay the seaweed sheet on the sushi mat, then lay one portion of the rice on the seaweed roll.
2) Use a fork to flatten the rice evenly on the seaweed sheet. Leave 1 cm at the end of the sheet.
3) Lay 2 strips of cucumber & 1 strips of Kimchi  on the rice at one edge. Put extra 1 strip of cucumber will make the flavor even better.
4) Roll from the edge firmly until the end. Press firmly when finish rolling.
5) Then cut the rice roll using a sharp knife.

Feel free to try with other ingredients for more variations e.g. eggs roll, crab sticks....etc. Enjoy!

Tips: How to keep the seaweed sheets to stay crispy for next round? The secret is to keep it in the freezer. Use a zipper bag to seal the balance seaweed sheets & keep in the freezer.

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