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Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Actually, I tried this method and recipe before, but that was years ago, and with my sister's sudden enthusiasm to cook something together, I decided to make this simple yet superbly tasty dish again!
While there isn't the burnt/crisp cheesy top that you get from baking this dish in the oven, but I'm glad to say the texture of the rice remains the same - smooth and creamy, if not, even more moist since the dish retains more water.
I like speed, simplicity and yet healthy food that retains most of its nutrition, but feel free to tweak things here and there, according to your personal preferences! Otherwise, this is good too. :D
This recipe is family-friendly & feeds 4-5 people.
Ingredients:
1 pack of Oyster Mushroom pack
1 pack of Golden Needle Mushroom (or any other mushrooms of choice - Shiitake, button)
1.5 cups of Jasmine Basmati rice (for an even healthier option, swap 0.5 cups of rice for Brown/Red Cargo rice)
2.5 cups (approx. 1litre) of Chicken Stock (made from boiling 2 cubes of Maggi 50% less salt chicken stock cubes)
1 tbsp butter
1 pack of Perfect Italiano Pizza cheese (this is our personal fav as we love those long strings of cheese with every bite)
2 small shallots, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
Olive oil (Not EVO oil, as those are meant for dressings)
Black pepper, to taste
Salt, to taste (a pinch or 2 is good)
Topping (My sister loves prawns, but you can use chicken/minced meat cooked for a longer period of time in the same way) :
6 medium sized Prawns
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp of chopped garlic
How to do it:
1. Cut the garlic and shallots. Then, wash the rice, and drain. Set aside.
2. Wash the mushrooms, soak in salt water for 10 minutes if preferred.
3. De-shell and clean the shrimps, then marinate with a pinch of salt and black pepper. (Tip: poke the tint of a fork along the middle of the top of the shrimp, then pull out the insides in 1 swift motion.)
4. Boil 1 litre of water, then stir and add 2 cubes of chicken stock cubes. Add prawn heads if desired.
5. Add stock to rice, add in 1 tbsp of butter into the mixture, and cook rice for about 10-15 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, heat 1 tbsp of olive oil in pan, and stir fry garlic and shallots. Once golden brown, add mushrooms. Add some salt and pepper to taste. Once the mushrooms starts to lose water, turn off heat and set aside.
7. For toppings, add 1 tbsp of butter to heated pan. Add a dish of olive oil to prevent butter from browning. Add in garlic and fry till golden brown.
8. Add in prawns and let it cook on 1 side until it turns light orange. Flip the prawns, and when all sides are orange (prawns don't require that long to fully cook, so to prevent overcooking, make sure they don't start shriveling!), turn off heat.
9. When rice is slightly more than half-cooked, open rice cooker lid to add in mushrooms. Give it a little stir.
10. Leave the rice to cook somemore (depending on your rice cooker; if the rice grains looks relatively fuller and nearly all the water is gone, you're almost there!), and 5 minutes before serving, add in generous amounts of cheese and stir it in.
Ta-daa! Done. Though there are 10 steps, but I assure you, with 2 people you can split the workload and accomplish this within an hour, preparation time included! :D
Ultimately, just have fun! Cooking shouldn't be stressful, it should be an enjoyable process in which you know you're making something good eventually. ;)
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Saturday, February 27, 2010
today's TM session, where there was a Manners VS Etiquette talk with Ms Suzenne Zheng was so so fun!:D we all dressed up for it, as though we were and im glad i feel comfy in what i was wearing.i was really afraid of falling in those heels though, they looked so thin and insecure can! hahaha.and and, in asia, ladies are prioritized over men.muahahaha i like that alot. oh yes, emphasizing the point that im the founder of 'WE HATE BOYS,WE LIKE GENTLEMEN' CLUB.how i wish i had more of the latter in my life... (: who doesnt right! it alw feels gd to be treated with respect and when guys do things out of consideration of how u feel:D
we learnt alot about dining etiquette too(including how to peel a prawn in 2 strokes!),which made me really wan to go somewh for fine dining with mum soon! hahaha.i shld really be more productive!! i havent done much today,and its 3 weeks to march block.omgomgomg.a week to choir camp! a week to nrp presentation! wish me luck ppl.
Labels: the pressure's coming down...
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Monday, December 28, 2009
woke up to similar breakfast,just that the orange yest was changed to guava.oh man,im starting to feel abit sick of the breakf.xD different lady came to deliver tho,and she seemed so apologetic that she woke me up at 8.50,10mins earlier!! it matters when you sleep late know,every minute counts.HAHAHA.
first stop: went to grab an early lunch that i've alw wanted- bean curd!! there's like a million flavours,and 5 of us ordered a big bowl each for ourselves! i took the one w yam and sweet potato 'fen yuan',which is really ''Q'' as usual! hahah.everyth here is "Q" lah.xD the other 4 was mixed beans,tang yuan,pearls,beancurd in soymilk.i tried everyth and was the only one who REALLY finished her own serving!:D
second stop: dad's friend came to drive us to Bi Tan,which is another one of the lakes in taiwan,and there was a suspension bridge which we crossed! super colddddddd!! the bridge was shaky which scared us abit since we were directly metres above the lake! walked around abit,and there were little 'boats' tt u pedal on ur own to move around the lake,but since it was so cold (13 degrees!) we had to go back.
third stop: Zhongxiao Dun Hua.this place has loads of lil shops along the streets!! like NEVERENDING,so much to see and so much to buy!!:D i wanted boots,but they dont have my size): anw,lots of food as usual too! but,we wanted t try taiwan Mac's,so we went for their EVM. e lady who served us was v pretty(: and it was embarrassing cause we cant say wad we wanted to order! fillet-o-fish is not 'yu liu bao' but 'mai xiang yu' again,which was wad we dunno! i ended up saying 'i want fish'. xD
fourth stop: Din Tai Fung.we had xiao long bao!! yum yum :D and ordered alot of other food for tea break too,yup,that was tea break.HAHA.starters,wan ton,fried rice,chicken soup,vege! after tt,i saw some famous pepper bun and decided to buy it too.despite being uber full hahaha.greedy eh.
fifth stop: walked around abit more,and we were off to SHIHLIN NIGHT MARKET!! this place is amazing,there's even cheaper winter clothes,food of all sorts!! stuff gg at NT 290,390,2 pcs for NT 500..we tried the crispy chicken,oyster mee sua,bought almost a kg of peanut/almond/black sesame candy,had oyster omelette,pork ribs soup and 'lu rou fan' which is minced meat on rice,papaya milkshake,fruit juice,some soup called 'si4 shen2 tang1',meat in glutinous stuff that was so "Q"! haha.wanted t find the caramel corn but it was alr quite late at that time so we missed it!
and,that's all for today! walked around to see loads of stuff!:D
cant believe its our last night here alr.. ): i'll miss taiwan!
thinking about it,it'll be time to go back to all the troubles,work,stress etc etc etc.back to reality... ? ohwell.think about tt aft tmr,meanwhile,i love taiwan!!:D
Labels: fifth day in FUN Taiwan
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Sunday, December 27, 2009
we 'accomplished' much less today,hahaha.cause i slept only at 2 yest,guess the ppl knew we needed to slp abit more and ssent breakf only at 9.30! so we woke up then,and thanks to our uber slow bro,we only set off for the metro at 12pm!
first stop: our station is Xiao Bi Tan,and from there we changed here and there until we finally reached Taipei Main Station(: wanted to go up to Taipei 101 but it was too foggy,so we went t have lunch at their food court first.all the utensils are labelled Taipei 101! tried many diff food like fried rice,glutinous rice,soup,meatballs,oyster omelette,dried noodles w minced meat,and had 2 bowls of my beancurd w pearls! yum yum :DDD to end it off,went to get red bean milk tea.milk tea is like everyone's fav drink,its available everywh!:DDD
second stop: went shopping around SOGO,New York New York,once again,thanks to our bro who wanted to buy clothes and jeans,we spent alot of time in one place alone lol.was looking for some light winter wear for venice too,but dint get anyth in the end.walked out and saw a string of street food shops,went to buy sweet potato balls-there was fillings inside!,and a string of fried potato peel on a stick! chose cheese flavour which made it smelly tho.LOL.
third stop: time to eat again!xD went to a jap restaurant for curry rice,ramen and donburi,also went over to 7-eleven and tried their 'yong tau foo'.its sticks of food where u pick anyth u want,and after that,take some soup.there's also sauce to take,not bad(:
fourth stop: eslite-a building w 3 levels of books of all categories and has almost anyth and everyth u want! we spent the rest of our time there,so many books to read and quaint gifts to see! there was a weird cutlery one,where u can piece halves tgt to form forks,spoons,or chosticks.hahaha(: wanted to go t Shihlin Night Market,but it was drizzling and we dint wan t fall sick so we went back to hotel instead.
fifth stop: as we all love to eat so much, went for supper! ran along the rainy streets w/o umbrella looking for some hot food,and we found a 'lu3 wei4' little shop in an alley! he shld be happy me and dad chose to walk into tt dark alley seeing his little signboard LOL.we picked alot of items to be heated,and he cooked noodles too! it was NT260 altogether for a family of 5 for supper!:D I LOVE TAIWAN!:D
hope i'll get to eat mango ice,go to taipei 101,and my job is done!
Labels: fourth day in Taiwan
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Saturday, December 26, 2009
had my first ever BREAKFAST IN BED at 9am! she woke us up and i was frantically looking for slippers and jacket cause it was so so cold in the morn! gave up looking for specs cause she was waiting too long.LOL.there was toast w ham and egg (it tasted abit sweet but it was to my liking :D),with orange juice,and grapes&tomatoes! i ate another dorayaki too.muahahaha.then we set off at 11 for the loooong journey to SUNMOON LAKE.:D
first stop: brought alot of snacks etc along the journey,made food&restroom stops too,where we bought coffee,milk tea and more snacks for the 3hr journey!
second stop: saw fresh strawberries being sold along the way,and instead of buying picked ones,WE WENT DOWN TO PLUCK THEM FOR OURSELVES! cool eh! i was having so much fun and the sun was finally out! we also saw 'half-torn' mountains where half of them fell down after the 921 great earthquake 10years ago ): affected the WHOLE TOWN,90% of the land was not spared! :/
third stop: we reached SUNMOON LAKE! went to the temple there first to take a look,and also the front view of the lake where the sun was shining right in our faces,and yup,the long stream of reflection from the sunlight was pretty on the biggest lake in Taiwan!:D
next,we drove to another side of the lake for a different view (every single angle is different as said by dad's friend (: ) where we went to the food street again! taiwan is NEVER short of food serious.had milk ice cream,a mushroom fried bun which I MADE MYSELF cause the se-bibi uncle wanted me to!! serious! i wrapped my own and he wanted to take another photo where he pulled his shirt down.all of us were like 0.0, and i went 'eee! no!' HAHAHA! ran away aft tt,but the bun really tasted gd.xD 'shi shang wan jia' hosts are great at looking for yummy food! also had yam cake (told u they like yam!), duck meat bun, black tea, steamed corn, bought more snacks to munch!
fourth stop: drove back to our hotel, and of course, on the way, we had food stop and i went to buy local products like pineapple 'tarts'/cake, sa ki ma (made from egg), tried sun biscuit hahaha :D and xiao long bao!
fifth stop: took the boat ride around SUNMOON LAKE,and we were in gd time cause sunset was earlier in winter,and we caught it while we were on the boat! yay.. :D took video and loads of pic,met a funny man who spoke t us,and kept helping me take photos cause i asked him t.HAHAHA! we sat at the back which meant our backs were splashed wet,and the smell of engine engulfed us.price to pay for best seats i guess.LOL.
sixth stop: this was our yummy supper! we had sweet potato porridge w all the different yummy side dishes we picked! took at least 12 plates lah! it was yummy and soothing to eat sth hot and nice in the cold cold night!
bonus: walked out w dad to find gastric pills for mum,ended up taking a cab around lol! it cost us NT115 for a short trip lah! hahah.cant help la,its midnight.AND OMG ITS ALR 2.15 I NEED TO SLP.just snacked on yummy cow tongue biscuits tho.HAHAHA.
nights! anw,we're still at 'jiu ge' hotel,staying at the same place again! its new,less than a yr old,i like! taking the train around taipei plus, SHOPPING! cant wait!
Labels: 3rd day in TAIWAN
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Friday, December 25, 2009
okay,we woke up 'bright' and early, not so bright cause the room had no windows LOL.went down for a really home-y buffet breakfast where there was porridge and different side dishes,then toast w ham,bacon and sausage! i tried everyth hahaha!
next,went up to rest,we had until 12 b4 dad's friend came to pick us.so i went down t walk around w mum,and we bought authentic papaya milkshake.it was really gd! loveeeeeeeeeee it!:D also went to 7-eleven t buy chips,drinks etc(:
1st stop: xie4 ke4 huang2.we read it the other way round, as 'yellow shelled crab'! mum asked if i really wanted crab at 11am in the morn,and i said yes.
(translated)
'is there yellow shelled crab?' (cause all i saw were buns w diff flavours sold)
'no.there's xie ke huang which are all these.'
omg.it was so funny!xD i felt silly,but we still bought yam,red bean and sesame flavoured buns there.LOL :D
2nd stop: dad's friend sent us t eat this really special cuttlefish soup.it has pieces of cuttlefish,and also a plate of bee hoon.really LOCAL!:D
3rd stop: drove over to LIN mansion,which used to the place where this uberrr rich family stayed.its really huge can.and apparently,e land used to belong to the ethnic minorities,who were driven away when these rich Han ppl came ):
4th stop: drove down to Yi Lan, which is out of taipei, and visited another busy food street! ate 'fen yuan' which are yam,sweet potato,red bean flavoured glutinous rice balls.also bought kimchi tofu,ginger tea,went to a shop for bamboo shoots,fried tofu (made from black and white beans),and tofu soup.also bought alot of other local specialty products like 'popcorn' made from wheat,tomatoes in ginger..cool eh!
5th stop: visited a padi field,but as its winter,everyth has been harvested.Yi Lan is like a land in the mountain lol,fresh air,valleys after valleys!
6th stop:went to buy their local products! one of which is cow's tongue and chopstick biscuits.HAHAHA quite cool! then,we went to soak our feet at some hot spring,it open to public and it was quite heartwarming for everyone t sit around and relax... ahh,havent felt so gd for awhile(:
7th stop: continued the ride to Kee Lung which is another 1.5hr away, and went to Miao Kou.which really means a food area w aloooooot of stalls w gd food (called pai2 dang4) and had our dinner! we had sandwich (made of bread and mayo w loads of stuffings),unagi soup (similar to the cuttlefish one above), then BBQ corn tt was salty not sweet, some popiah similar 'run4 bing3',xian shui ji (salty chicken),a packet of fishcake mixed w tofu etc,a bowl of big white shark's fishball soup,HUGE FRIED CHICKEN CHOP (its really bigger than my face lah! like 1.5times!), nai3 you2 pang2 xie4 (butter crab), escargots,oyster omelette! OMG we really do eat alot!!
Labels: day 2 in taiwan
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Thursday, December 24, 2009
it started off w our flight CI 2752 which flew off at 1.57am! we reached taipei at 615am and spammed photos like crazy hahaha! the weird thing was that we were served food at 2.30am? i chose fish w curry,and they had log cake,fruits,bread,coleslaw too!:D i ate most of it all! tried to slp but it was really uncomfortable,ended up taking really short naps.towards the end of the flight,my ears really hurt like crazy!):
okay,moving on! found out tt dad was still slping at the hotel, so we cabbed down the 40mins ride to Royal Castle (Chengdu da fan dian) and ta-daa! we're at Xi Men Ding! loads of night life and food here!
we reached early,so took a nap b4 moving to
FIRST FOOD STOP: famous tian bu la (a mixture of food items w special sauce on top! served w great home-made soup later!)
SECOND FOOD STOP (15mins later): Chinese restaurant for a 10 course meal.vege,fish,prawn,hot pot,chicken,pork,tofu,u name it.I COULD HAVE BURST LAH.
THIRD FOOD STOP: went to chiang kai shek memorial hall, where there was a carnival! bought dorayaki (red bean's my fav!!) ,sweet candy,sour plum drink! i kept eating tho i was still bloated HAHAHA.after that,dad's friend drove us to Wu Lai, a place 1.5 hrs away,where there's mountains and a minority group, Tan Ya lives(: apparently these minority grps are all catholics/christians! cool eh.we spotted a cross on the top of 1 mountain! okay back to food.
over here, there was a WHOLE FOOD STREET.so we ate huge sausages, drank special almond tea, eggs cooked in hot spring water, mochi, special food items only produced there, 1 huge yam ball!
FOURTH FOOD STOP: came back to xi men ding, walked around abit and i bought a nice top!:DDD bought a HUGE (why is everyth gigantic sized lol) jap ice cream, starfruit w sour plum drink, OYSTER MEE SUA, FRIED CHICKEN CHOP, this special popiah w ice cream and peanut shavings, indian milk tea, carrot cake and oyster omelette for supper!
NOW THAT WAS A CRAZY DAY WASNT IT? HAHAHA!
stay in tuned for more tmr!
Labels: 1st day in taiwan
Be yourself[:
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