Nice & Easy Tomato Rice

It's fasting month, and one of a 'must-have' menu for my family is Tomato Rice :) No, we don't eat this every day, but my kids love this, they would eat a few helping. It's even nice on it's own. You could easily get the instant mixed packet, or could even do it yourslef, it's not that troublesome, really! The usually dishes that accompany it is Ayam Masak Merah (a mild chilli gravy chicken dish), or Kurma Daging (a brownish type of curry), or Ayam Madu (a sweeter version of Ayam Masak Merah which you add honey in the end), or Dhalca (a type of dhal curry with mixed vegitables, also could add either chicken, beef or lamb), and some veggies (sometimes added with pineapple) called Acar which is sweet and sour.

Here's my version of Tomato Rice:

3 cups of rice (preferably long grain)
3 diced fresh tomatoes
3 tbsp of tomato sauce/ketchup
1 can of tomato soup
1/2 can of evaporated milk
2 tbsp of ghee (could be replaced with butter)
3 cups of water
2 pandan leaves (if big size, just use one)
1 cinnamon stick
2 star anise
3 cardamom
3 clove
2 garlic and 1/4 onion blended
1 tsp salt

In the rice-cooker pot, melt ghee/butter, add in the mixture of blended garlic and onion, and all the herbs. Then, add in all the tomatoes (diced, soup and sauce/ketchup), mix them well before you pour in the milk. Mix again. Once nicely done, add in pandan leaves, salt and rice, and again you have to mix them well before adding in water. You can transfer the pot into the rice cooker and let it cook. Please remember to keep watching over it and fold the rice times to times so that it will mix evenly. Scatter some fried onions on the rice before serving.

Notes:
You could also replace 1 cup out of the 3 cups of water with chicken or beef stock, or else just use the instant cubes :) The original recipe include 1/3 cup of peas and and 1/3 cup of raisins, but my kids do not like them so they were excluded. You could add them in before transferring the pot to the rice cooker.

Double Strawberry Muffins

Another muffins that I've tried and my family simply lurrrrrrrrrrve these! The original recipe 1 cup of chopped strawberries but the first time I made it I used 2 and it was a hit! The 2nd time I made it I used 1 1/2 of quartered strawberries as I was too lazy to chop and also due to the size of the fruit since it's quartered. You can use strawberry or raspberry or orange yogurt drink to make it even tastier, or just use plain milk or yogurt if you prefer.

1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup milk or yogurt drink or yogurt
1 egg
1/2 cup brown sugar (can be replaced with white sugar)
1 3/4 cup of flour or self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder (if you are not using self raising flour)
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups chopped strawberries (can be reduced)

Mixed butter, egg, milk/yogurt and sugar. Then add in flour with baking powder and salt or the self raising flour. Using sifter, add in the strawberries and mix slowly and carefully. Bake for 18-22 minutes depending on your oven.

Herb Cheese Muffins

My lil sis complained that I've abandoned my cook blog *grin* so since I have some time today, I'm updating as much as I could first :) I'm passionate about muffins nowadays, due to it's very easy and my kids love them, been taking those as snacks to school.

I first tried this muffin when I was in Japan, it's my foster mom's original recipe which she said she created herself. Personally, I love her Maccha Muffins (Green Tea) more but my hubby loves these, and I really regretted not getting the recipe before returning to Malaysia. I tried creating this myself, but I used grated cheese instead of dried powdered ones like my mommy used. It turned out saltier, tasted also a bit different than hers, but I guess it's ok since my hubby still like it :) You can still replace the cheese with the powdered ones, it'll be drier and less salty if you like it that way like me, but if you love cheese buns, you'll love using grated cheese. Enjoy!

3 cups self raising flour
1/3 cup melted butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 cup milk
1 cup cheese (powdered or grated)
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
1 tsp parsley
* 1 tsp chives (optional)

Mixed butter, egg and milk together. Add in flour and spices. If you are using an electric mixer, turn it off before adding the cheese. Sift cheese in till all are mixed evenly. Bake between 17-25minutes depending on your oven, or when the toothpick comes out clean if you poke in the middle.

Moist Blueberry Muffins

Hey there!

Sorry, I've been kinda busy lately...well, being a Busy Mama :) I think I've neglected my blog for quite some time, but doesn't mean I haven't been cooking *wink wink*

Anyway, I'm in a 10 days vacation leave but instead of travelling, I just spend my time at home cuddling with the kids :) Nisa requested for blueberry muffin, and I must admit I haven't been baking for years! I do have some fresh blueberries, since Nisa loves eating them, but I've frozen them to store them longer...blueberries are hard to get here in Malaysia. As usual, I surf the web for the recipe, also reading some tips and comments by people who tried baking them, and here's my own recipe...I created it myself based on what people had tried.

Before you try this, please ensure all the ingredients are out from the fridge at least 1 hour prior to the starting point. I like moist-type of muffin, so this one is not the fluffy or crumbly type. I used orange flavor yogurt drink to replace milk in normal recipe, but you can also use strawberry flavor as these two flavor will compliment the blueberries. If you don't like moist type, you can stick to the normal mlik, and if you just like plain blueberry flavor but moist type muffin, you can use plain yogurt or yogurt drink. I don't like cinnamon or nutmeg tastes, so you can see here I don't put the powder in, but you can put them in if you like, half a teaspoon. Also, I used brown sugar instead of white, but you can use white sugar if you like, it'll be sweeter, and I don't really fancy sweets :) I only use the toaster oven with no temperature control, so I'm sorry I can't give you the exact oven temperature. Enjoy!

2 cups of flour
2 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup of butter
1 cup of brown sugar (can be replaced by white sugar)
2 large eggs beaten
1/2 cup orange flavor yogurt drink (can also use strawberry flavor or plain)
2 cups of fresh/frozen blueberries (please make sure they are dry out)

In the mixing bowl, use the mixer to beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy, then add in eggs followed by yogurt drink. In another bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt, then slowly added in the batter mixture. If you are adding in the spices, you can add it in now. Pre-heat the oven. Once the batter are well-mixed, slowly and carefully fold in the blueberries. Fill medium-sized cups 2/3 full and bake for 30 minutes in an oven toaster, or till the muffins spring back. You should also check if the middle are well-cooked by poking in, as this is a moist type and I used double blueberry volume, so it tend to be uncooked in the middle.

The recipe will make 12 medium sized muffins. You should eat them freshly baked, but if you can't finish them, you can store them in air-tight containers for 2-3 days. If you can't finish them still, you can individually wrap them with plastic wrap and put in air-tight containers or zipped plastic bags, and freeze them in the freezer. They will last for 3 weeks. To reheat them, take them out 8 hours before you are going to eat them so they'll defrost themselves naturally first. Then, unwrap them, and reheat either in the oven or microwave for 5-8 minutes, according to the type. It may take shorter time for certain types of oven/microwave.

Stir-fried Beansprout

This is another healthy and easy meal which my family love. You can eat this with plain rice or just on it's own (a good dieting food *wink wink).

1 pack of beansprouts - cleaned and toss to dry
A little chives - cut
1/2 onion - sliced thinly
2 tablespoon of sesame oil
2 tablespoon of light soy sauce
Sesame seed and pepper to taste

Optional:
1/2 stick of carrot - sliced thinly
1/2 green pepper - sliced thinly

Heat up sesame oil and fry onions. Toss in the beansprouts and other vegetables, adding in soy sauce. You could add a little water if you like, but not so much. Lightly stir-fry the ingredients and finally add in sesame seed and pepper to taste.

Egg Soup

This usually will be my last resort meal, if I really don't have any idea to cook, or don't have much time, or if my Nisa wanted to eat instant noodle which she call 'curly noodle' but I won't let her eat it due to MSG. So I invented this recipe and combine with the original egg soup recipe. You can actually eat this on it's own, it's very good specially when you or the kids are sick. Or else, you can combine it with noodles. If you thicken it more with cornstarch, you can turn it into some kind of hotplate me - some call it Hokkien Mee or Hong Kong Mee, I don't really know the exact, but they'll use the crispy egg noodle and top with this sticky gravy.

4 cups of chicken broth
1 tablespoon of cornstarch mix in a little water enough to dissolve it
1 tablespoon of light soy sauce
1-2 slice of chicken fillet cut into cubes or sliced thinly
Half a stick of carrot sliced thinly
1-2 leaves of chives sliced thinly
2 grade A eggs lightly beaten
5 Chinese Spices Mix and salt

Optional:
1-2 dried mushrooms sliced thinly
2 tablespoon of frozen peas
1 tomato cut into 8 slices
1-2 baby asparagus cut
2-3 baby corn sliced
A few prawns removed the shells
1-2 squids sliced into rings
Noodles

Heat the broth and once bubbly, add in everything except for the eggs. When everything is cooked, slowly add in the beaten eggs and keep on stirring the soup. You can thicken it more with cornstarch mixture up to your preference. Serve hot to warm your heart :)

Salmon Steak

The most flexible and not to mention easiest, nutricious, delicious, no hassle recipe of all must be salmon steak. My family just love salmon, it's a must-have fish in our freezer, either the steak or fillet, and the fish head with bones. Usually, I get my stock at Jusco. If they have a 50% discount on the rack, I'll grab a few but choose the best among those on sale. The quality is better than those at hypermarket even at lower price, but of course you can't beat the fresh ones, which is VERY hard to get in Malaysia.

There are many ways to grill a salmon, up to your creativity and taste. You can even grill it just own it's own but sprinkled lightly with salt on a non steak pan, or use a bit of butter/olive oil. The fish it self have lots of oil. Or else, you can use teriyaki sauce, or Japanese shoyu, or any herbs from pepper to paprika, parsley, basil, rosemary, cayenne, or just garlic salt. You can choose to marinate longer time or just sprinkle/roll the fish with the herbs/sauce. Fun isn't it?

150-250g of salmon (1 big steak or 3 fillets)
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Aluminum foil (if necessary)
Herbs or sauce of your choice

Pat the fish dry with kitchen paper. Depending on your preference, sprinkle/roll or marinate the fish with herbs/sauce of your choice. You can try mixing a few too. Heat the oil in a pan or you can use the grill pan, then cook the fish, about 1-2 minute for each sides. You can continue till the fish is cooked, or for me, I usually will scoop it out and continue grilling in the oven, either on the grill rack with the tray at the bottom as the fish oil will start dripping, or else you can wrap in aluminum foil with 1 slice of lemon and some vegetables like asparagus, mushrooms, potatoes, broccoli, beans, carrots, tomatoes and others. An great meal for the family!

Cheese Scrambled Egg

My husband loves eggs, though I have this silly notion that I will never serve my family just 'eggs'. I don't know why, I feel like it's humiliating to be serving my family with just a simple fried or boiled egg, even though my husband loves nothing more than rice with just fried egg!*Grrrrrrrrr* Even a simple plain scramble egg, which seems to be his daily food when he was a kid, I can't register this, so usually if I'm serving eggs, no matter how busy I am, I will have either another dish/food or else a 'hybrid' recipe :) I don't think this is an original idea, maybe someone had thought of this first, but I created this for my family breakfast, so maybe you could try this for your table too.

4 grade A eggs
8 tablespoon of milk (can also use evaporated milk)
4 tablespoon of any kind of cheese - cheddar, mozarella, parmesan (you can add in more if you like)
2 tablespoon of butter
Salt, pepper and dried parsley to taste
* Optional - chopped button mushrooms, chopped sausages, chopped green/yellow/red peppers

In a bowl, mixed eggs with milk and salt, pepper and parsley, whip well. Heat butter in the pan and pour in the mixture, turn the heat to medium to low then stir. Keep on stirring and add in the cheese, stir up to the texture you prefer. Some would like it to be dry and some a bit sticky-watery type. If you are using the optional ingredients, please fry them first before adding in the egg mixture.

Simple Tuna Spagetti

This is my fav food, and pass-down to my girl, Nisa :) I used to eat this almost daily when I was pregnant with her, so no wonder the taste stick to her, right? While in Japan, it's hard to get chicken, so you don't need to mention beef, I mean halal ones, since we are Muslims, so, it was my dad's idea to replace chicken with tuna! I like Campcell's Prego spagetti sauce, so I always use these - either the original Tomato sauce or Tomato, Basil & Garlic. The recipe is similar to Macaroni Gratin's but for this recipe, I'm using fresh tomatoes.  Don't forget your grated Parmesan cheese! It's very easy for a busy mama! You can also cook the sauce upfront and freeze it, then reheat it in the microwave for future 'emergency' use.

100g spagetti (you can also use any type of pasta - ribbons, elbows, fetuccini, etc)
2 garlic sliced
3-4 tomatoes chopped or diced
2 tablespoon of olive oil
1 can of tuna flakes
Sprinkles of oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary, black pepper and salt
A little water as needed
* Optional - other seafood such as prawns, squids, clams, mussels, etc
* Optional - 3-4 button mushrooms sliced or chopped

Heat up the oil and fry garlic till fragrant, add in tomatoes. Till will take some time as you need to cook the tomatoes till it became some kind of sauce, adding in spoonfuls of water as and when needed. Chopped tomatoes will take shorter time than diced, but alternatively, you could just blend them *grin* Diced tomatoes will look like the picture, not much of a sauce. Once the sauce is bubbly, add in tuna flakes and either mushrooms or other seafood if used. Once those are cooked, sprinkle in the herbs to your taste. You could add in the spagetti into the pan and mixed them, but my family like the sauce pour on top, and mixed it themselves.

Salmon Soup

The whole family just love salmon, as steak or any type of cooking, and this soup is well loved by my kids. It's actually my husband's recipe, mind you, and he never wanted to share it till he had to work further than us, in KL to be exact, and becoming weekend-husband a.k.a weekend-papa to the kids *grin* So, like it or not, he had to teach me, since my kids sometimes request for this soup on weekday, so that's how I got this well-guarded recipe of his :P It's a Japanese food, again, and this time, you need to use a special Japanese ingredient to make it - dashi. You can easily get Dashi in Jusco, and I prefer to use those pack with small packets inside, as you'll need 1 small packet in each soup pot, so easier to measure. Also, you can use any part of salmon, prerably the head with bone parts, which you can get very cheap at either Jusco or Carrefour whenever available. I usually got questions from curious eyes when I buy this, why do you buy the bones? My answer is to make fish soup and they looked surprised at first but curious enough to buy one to try *grin* You can also add in some flesh parts, it'll be yummier!

400g of salmon
200g daikon cut into cubes
1 potato cut into cubes
4-5 leaves of Chinese cabbage also cut
1 carrot sliced thickly about 1/2cm each
2 Japanese negi/spring onion sliced 2-3cm each
1 block of soft tofu cut into cubes
1 packet of enoki mushrooms
3 cups of water
1 small packet of dashi

Boil daikon, potato and carrot till tender. Then, add in dashi and stir well to mix. Add in salmon, other vegetables but avoid much stirring, make it very minimal. Finally, add in tofu. If necessary, add in salt and pepper to taste..usually I don't. Very simple and fast!

Cream Stew

This is another recipe which you can use the white sauce from the Macaroni Gratin. It's simple and nutricious, also something I learnt from Japan. In Japan, mothers will cook this during winter as it kinda warm you up. It's also good to make your kids eat up their vegetables without even realizing it :)

I use US or russet potatoes as they are softer once cooked, but you can still use other potatoes but may need to boil longer.

1 cup of white sauce (refer to Macaroni Gratin's recipe)
3 cups of water (use more if needed to)
2-3 spoon of butter
2-3 pieces of chicken fillet cut into bite-size cubes
1 green onion cut into 8 cubes
1-2 US or russet potatoes cut into bite-size cubes
1 carrot cut into bite-size cubes
1 stick of celery cut into bite-size cubes
5-6 medium size button mushrooms cut into 4 each (you can use fresh or canned ones)
Some broccoli cut into bite-size
2 cups of milk
1 cup of whipped cream (optional, you can always replace it back with milk if you don't like this to be so creamy)
Chicken stock (1 cup of broth or 1 cube of instant one)
Salt, pepper and dried parsley to taste

First, boil carrots and potatoes till tender and remove half of the vegetable stock (you can keep it to be used for other cooking). In another pot, melt butter and fry the chicken cubes with celery and onion. Once half cooked, add in mushrooms and broccoli, stir-fry a bit before adding in the carrots and potatoes together with the remaining vegetable stock. Stir in everything till all quite cooked. Add in the white sauce and stir well, you may use a whipper as the sauce tends to clump. Once set, add in milk and chicken stock. You can add in more milk or replace with whipped cream or cream cheese, according to your preference. If the stew is not thick enough, you can mix 1-2 tablespoon of flour with half a cup of warm water, then add in and keep on stirring. Finally, add in salt, pepper and dried parsley for taste. Serve hot!