STEAMED RICE WITH CHICKEN AND CHINESE SAUSAGE

Steamed Rice with Chicken and Chinese Sausage is what I call a meal in one. This is a dim sum dish in most Asian countries, usually served on an individual bowl w/ a lid, when you open it you get the whiff of all the ingredients, oh, I can’t even begin to describe it, all I can say is.... it’s heaven!!! I’m just baffled as to why this is not served in dim sum restaurants here in America. I’ve been to NY, San Francisco and Chicago Chinatown but haven’t seen this dish in the dim sum menu. Pls. let me know if ever you’ve eaten this at a dim sum restaurant and I’d love to go to that place and eat there!!!!

I have almost forgotten that this is one of my favorite until I saw Ming Tsai made this on his show East Meets West few years ago. Since then I have made some tweaking to his recipe and I’ve been making this to fix my craving. What I’m blogging is not the traditional rice that’s used for this dish. I’m using sticky purple/black rice called “Tapol” in the Philippines. This variety of rice could be used both in savory and sweet dishes. The end product was still delicious and the color of the rice definitely made the dish more appetizing, in my opinion.

I highly recommend that you give this a try. But it’s imperative; should you decide to give this a whirl, pls. don’t use instant rice. I don’t have anything against them but it will just not work w/ this dish. Also don’t be intimidated w/ the ingredients you can always substitute them.

Serves: 4

Ingredients:
3 chicken thighs, boned, ½ inch dice, with skin on
1 T soy sauce
½ T sugar
½ T sesame oil
½ C sliced scallions
½ T cornstarch
1 T minced ginger
4 lapchang (Chinese sausage) cut ¼ inch on a bias *I want a lot of these.
3 C white rice, washed until water is clear, drain ( I used “Tapol” )
1 t salt
1 T oil
6 C chicken stock or water

Combine the chicken, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, cornstarch, scallions, ginger and sausage and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes.

In a pot, combine the rice, salt and oil. On high heat, sauté briefly then add the stock to at least 1 ½ inches above the rice. (My Moms’ secret to a good ratio of water and rice to achieve perfect steamed rice is to deep the middle finger until it touches the top part of the rice and water should cover half of the finger, does it make sense?)

Bring to a boil then reduce to medium heat and simmer until the stock has evaporated to the level of the rice.

Add the chicken mixture, cover and cook for another 20 minutes or until chicken is cooked.

Stir well, cover, and reduce heat to very low. Add more stock if necessary.

Cook for an additional 10 minutes, then turn heat off.

Let stand for 5 more minutes to allow carry over cooking.

Serve on individual bowl and chopsticks.

TAPOL- A PHILIPPINE BLACK/PURPLE STICKY RICE. THEY CAN BE COOKED BOTH IN SAVORY OR SWEET DISHES. THIS VARIETY IS INDIGENOUS TO ASIA.

The rice turns red/purple when cooked.

Lapchang- Chinese Sausage (I love this fried too)

TANDOORI CHICKEN

Ingredients:

8 chicken drumsticks
2 T lemon juice
1 salt
1 inch fresh ginger, grated
3 cloves garlic
1 t coriander
1 t cumin
1 t chili powder
2 T paprika
Red Coloring (depends on how red you want your chicken)
1 t garam masala
½ t ground black pepper
1 lemon, sliced
1 sm onion, sliced

Instructions :

Cut/Slice chicken on both sides.
Rub chicken with lemon juice and sprinkle with salt.
Blend all spice ingredients until incorporated.
Marinate chicken in ref over night or 4 hours.
Bake or grill chicken until cooked.
Garnish with lemon slices and onion slices or cucumber and tomatoes.

Tandoori Marinade

Tandoori Chicken with Aloo Saag

ALOO SAAG (POTATO AND SPINACH CURRY)

Ingredients:

1 bunch of fresh baby spinach
1 clove garlic, chopped fine
1 small onion, chopped fine
1 fresh green chilli, chopped fine
2 thin slices of fresh ginger
3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into bite-sized chunks (I used yukon gold)
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 T garam masala
1 tablespoon canola oil (for saute)
Salt to taste

Saute garlic, onions, ginger and pepper. Add the chopped potatoes, cook until brown. Add little water if needed.

In the meantime, wash and rinse the fresh spinach repeat process until very clean. Chop spinach into small pieces.

Add the spinach into the potatoes. Stir in all the rest of the ingredients. And simmer for few more minutes.

Add salt and pepper to your taste.

Aloo Saag served with Dosas, Basmati Rice.

DARING COOKS CHALLENGE PART 2 - INDIAN DOSAS

As i have mentioned in my DARING COOKS CHALLENGE PART 1-INDIAN DOSAS I made dosas for the second time and challenged myself further to make a different kind of batter. I used the same filling and chutney so pls. check my Part 1 for the recipes. Yes, i made it again because we liked it.

I used AP flour with my first challenge and i was satisfied, this time i challenged myself to make my own batter from scratch, using the lentil/brown rice combination. It's definitely a make ahead thing. It took me 2 days to make the batter, from soaking both the lentil and brown rice to grinding them,to the fermentation.

The lentil/brown rice is way better. It had a nutty flavor and was crispy inspite of the coarse grind. I will grind my lentil and rice finer next time, maybe i can make the paper dosa! Nothing wrong w/ challenging myself again ha!ha!. It was worth doing this dish the second time around. Also i made aloo saag as a side dish.

I know there are a lot of versions to this kind of dosa batter, some calls for more than 2 kinds of grains and other ingredients. I decided to work on what i already have, brown rice and lentil.

Wash and rinse the grains. Fill each bowls w/ enough water to cover the grains. Cover the bowls and soak overnight.

Use a food process or use a blender to grind the grain mixture. Add little water. (I will be grinding this batter a little bit further to make the grains fine the next time i'll make this).

Cover and keep the batter in a warm place for fermentation about 5 hours. I kept mine beside the refrigerator. It should at least be foamy on the top. The batter should be ready for cooking or keep the rest in the ref for further use. Speaking of which, i still have extra batter in the ref waiting..i wonder how else could i use the batter aside from dosas. Suggestions will be appreciated.

Heat a nonstick pan or griddle with little canola oil until hot but not smoking. Pour a ladleful of batter and spread immediately into a circular motion just like you would a pancake or a crepe.
Flip the dosa over when the edges starts to curl up and turn golden.
Cook the other side for few more minutes.
The dosa should be crisp and golden in color.

These Dosas were crispy and has the nutty flavor. I prefer this than the AP flour batter.

I served my Part 2 Indian Dosa with Aloo Saag and Tandoori Chicken.

MUTTON ROGAN JOSH (MUTTON CURRY)

This is the side dish to my Daring Cooks Challenge-Indian Dosas Part 1. We finished the Indian dinner w/ Kheer.

Ingredients:

3 lbs mutton
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 inch piece of fresh root ginger, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tbsp garam masala
1 tsp each paprika, turmeric and chili powder
4 cardamom pods, crushed
salt To taste
1 cup plain yogurt ( I used Greek)
2 cups canned chopped tomatoes
fresh cilantro to garnish. (I forgot to garnish when i took the pics=:)

*Heat the oil in a large heavy based frying pan and add the onion, ginger, garlic, spices and a good pinch of salt. Fry over a low heat for 5 minutes, or until the onions have softened.

*Add the meat and 2 tablespoons of the yogurt. Increase the heat to medium and cook for 4 minutes or until the yogurt is absorbed. Repeat with the rest of the yogurt.

* Increase the heat to high, stir in the tomatoes and 1 cup of water and bring to a boil Reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 40 minutes or until the meat is tender, stirring occasionally and adding more water if the sauce becomes too dry.

*Uncover the pan, increase the heat to high and cook stirring constantly, for 5 minutes or until the sauce thickens. Garnish with cilantro. And a dollop of sour cream.

VERMICELLI KHEER -AN INDIAN DESSERT

This is one of the most common desserts in India. It is very quick and easy to prepare. This pudding, called "Kheer", is made with either toasted vermicelli or rice and is my favorite Indian dessert. There are a lot of versions to this dessert. Aside from rice or vermicelli, some add rose water, vanilla, almond or other kind of nuts. Sometimes saffron is added not only for taste but for color of course. Jaggery can also be a substitute for sugar. Others calls for condensed milk, I’ve used both but it does not make any difference, it still taste sweet and creamy.

Ingredients:

1 cup roasted vermicelli
6 cups milk
1 cup sugar
raisins
pinch of cardamom powder or 2 cardamom pods
cashew nuts or other nuts like pistachios

Boil the milk. Add roasted vermicelli and cook for 10-12 minutes.

Add sugar and, raisins cashew nuts and cardamom.

Mix well, boil for 2 -3 minutes and serve.

Could be served hot or cold. I like mine hot.


YOU CAN ROAST YOUR OWN BUT IF YOU CAN BUY THIS W/ THE PRICE...PLS..BUY THEM. THIS PACKAGE GOES A LONG WAY.