Cabbage Rice with Lap Cheong

This is my 3rd recipe for rice cooked in a rice cooker. Prior to this, I have a recipe for Chicken Rice as well as Long Bean Rice. This is another one of the vegetable rice recipes which can serve as a meal on its own.

Cabbage Rice with Lap Cheong (Chinese Sausages) is quite mild in flavour but sweet in taste. The sweetness comes from the cabbage. The type of cabbage we usually use is the chinese cabbage, which is white in colour and longish in shape rather than round. Try not to leave the rice uneaten overnight as I believe that the cooked cabbage does not withstand being kept overnight that well.

If you don’t have lap cheong, you can even substitute it with ham or even salami! Do experiment. As I have emphasised many times before in my recipes, you can actually experiment with the ingredients once you get the basic idea of how the dishes are cooked. The presentation of the rice in the picture above could be much better but the taste definitely is!

This is my recipe for Cabbage Rice with Lap Cheong (Chinese Sausages)

Ingredients

• 2 cups rice pre-soaked for 30 minutes (measured using the cup that comes with your rice cooker)
• About 400 grammes of chinese cabbage (shredded roughly)
• 400 grammes of belly pork (try to get the 3-layered pork. Remove skin)
• 5 to 8 pieces dried chinese mushrooms (pre-soaked till soft. Remove from water and cut to slivers but retain water for later use)
• 50 grammes of dried prawns / shrimps (pre-soaked for 5 minutes. Remove from water but retain water for later use)
• 3 to 5 lap cheong (remove skin and slice thinly diagonally)
• 5 cloves shallots (sliced thinly)
• 2 tablespoons of cooking oil (preferably palm oil)
• 3 bowls of water

Seasoning

• 4 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper powder
• 2 teaspoon light soya sauce
• 2 tablespoon dark soya sauce
• A pinch of msg (optional)

Method

Bring water to boil. Add belly pork and let it boil till cooked. Remove pork. Cut into small pieces.

Heat oil in wok and fry shallots till golden brown. Remove fried shallots.

With remaining oil in wok, fry the cooked belly pork till beginning to brown. Remove pork. With remaining oil, fry the dried prawns and chinese mushrooms for 1 minute till fragrant. Add cabbage and put back the pork into the wok and continue to stir fry for 1 more minute. Add seasoning and a little bit of water (used to soak mushrooms / dried prawns) to keep it moist.

Add pre-soaked rice into the ingredients and stir well for 1 minute.

Transfer the ingredients into rice cooker and add water till it covers rice completely just like how you usually cook rice. Turn on the rice cooker. Check occasionally for water to dry out from the upper layer of the rice. Once that happens, place lap cheong on top of the rice, cover lid and wait for rice to cook completely.

Sprinkle fried shallots over rice before serving.

Fish Ball Bee Hoon Soup

Once in a while, we will cook Fish Ball Bee Hoon Soup for lunch on a weekend. Bee Hoon is also known as Rice Vermicelli. The clear soup is refreshing especially on a hot day. We usually use Ikan Bilis stock for the soup as it makes the soup tastier.

I would advise that you buy the Fish Balls from the wet market and have it cooked the same day to enjoy its freshness. If you are unable to cook them on the same day, do keep them in the fridge and cook them the next day. I don’t think preservatives are added to these fish balls and so, they don’t last long.

This is my recipe for Fish Ball Bee Hoon Soup. Serves 4 people.

Ingredients

• 1/2 packet of bee hoon (approximately 150 grammes) (pre-soaked in water for 30 minutes to soften)
• 15 to 20 fish balls
• 100 grammes of pork tenderloin (sliced thinly) (optional)
• 200 grammes of choy sum (chinese mustard leaves) (washed and cut into 6 cm lengths)
• 5 to 8 shallots (sliced thinly)
• 100 grammes of ikan bilis (dried anchovies)
• a pinch of salted chinese vegetables (tung chai)
• 3 tablespoons of palm oil
• 1.25 litres or 5 soup bowls of water

Marinade (for pork tenderloin slices)

• 2 teaspoons of light soya sauce
• a couple of dashes of white pepper powder
• 1 teaspoon of corn flour

Seasoning

• 2 tablespoons of light soya sauce
• Salt to taste
• 1/2 teaspoon of MSG (optional)

Method

Marinade pork tenderloin slices for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, boil ikan bilis in water for at least 45 minutes. Remove ikan bilis when done.

Fry shallots in oil under medium heat till golden brown. Remove fried shallots from oil and set aside.

With remaining oil in wok / pot, stir-fry the pork tenderloin slices for 30 seconds. Add ikan bilis stock above and bring to boil.

Add pre-soaked bee hoon into boiling stock followed by choy sum and fish balls and let the ingredients cook for at least 2 minutes in boiling condition. The fish balls will float to surface when cooked. Add seasoning to taste.

Separate into individual bowls and sprinkle fried shallots and chinese salted vegetables prior to serving

Sambal Belacan Ladies Finger

Ladies finger, also known as Okra, is a fibrous pod full of round white seeds. Packed with vitamins and minerals, it is often used in Asian cuisine especially in India. Back home in Malaysia, it is commonly added to Assam Fish or Curry Fish. It is also cooked as a dish of its own and I usually stir-fry it with belacan sambal.

Ladies Finger or Okra

When choosing ladies finger, choose the younger pods which are usually lighter green in colour and smaller in size. Usually, the younger pods will have softer fur-like skin. These younger pods are more tender in texture and less fibrous.

And again, just like Kangkong Belacan, you should cook this dish using really high heat as you want to cook it in minimum time to preserve its juice.

This is my recipe for Sambal Belacan Ladies Finger

Ingredients

• Approximately 15 pieces of ladies finger (washed and sliced diagonally. Discard top / head)
• A pinch of sugar
• 50 ml warm water
• 2 tablespoons cooking oil (preferably palm oil)

Sambal belacan mix (pound / blended together)

• 50 grammes dried prawns / shrimps (pre-soaked for 10 minutes to soften)
• 20 grammes of belacan (buy from stores)
• 5 to 8 cloves garlic
• 5 to 8 cloves shallots
• 3 to 5 red chillis (remove seeds if you want the sambal to be less hot)

Method

Heat oil on wok at medium heat. Stir-fry the sambal belacan mix for about 2 minutes.

Increase heat to high and add ladies finger and sugar. Stir well for about 2 minutes or till the ladies finger is to your desired softness. Add a little water at a time if sambal belacan mix beginning to burn. As the sambal belacan mix contains dried prawns and belacan which are salty in itself, it may not be necessary to add salt.

Simplified Kung Po Chicken

Kung Po Chicken is a common dish found in most, if not all, chinese restaurants. This dish is basically diced chicken stir-fried with onions, dried chillies, cashew nuts and capsicum. Some even add water chestnuts to the dish. The aroma from the chicken which was marinated with chinese cooking wine blends well with the spiciness of the dried chillis. Meanwhile, the tender bits of chicken meat is contrasted with the crunchiness of the capsicum and onions. The cashew nuts lend a natural sweetness to the dish.

Dried Chillis

Anyway, I am not that good expressing how a dish tastes like, so I shall keep it short and simple. This dish is best eaten with plain white rice so that you can savour the full taste and aroma of the dish. Some have substituted the chicken with cuttlefish, which is quite a good alternative.

In my recipe, I have simplified the dish to my own liking. I have omitted the use of the capsicum and perhaps, the sauce is a bit different from the original recipes by professional cooks. However, I am still confident that you will like this dish if you try it out.

This is my recipe for Kung Po Chicken.

Ingredients

• 300 grammes chicken breast (cut into cubes / bite sizes)
• 2 medium sized onions (quartered)
• 10 to 15 pieces of dried chilli (washed and pre-soaked for 15 minutes prior to cooking)
• 20 to 30 pieces of cashew nuts
• 1 1/2 cups of cooking oil (preferably palm oil)
• 1/2 cup (70 to 100 ml) warm water

Marinade for chicken

• 2 tablespoons of chinese cooking wine
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of light soya sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon of white pepper powder
• 1 teaspoon of sesame oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons of corn flour

Seasoning

• 1 1/2 tablespoons of dark soya sauce
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of sugar
• A pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon of chinese cooking wine

Method

Marinade chicken cubes for at least 1 hour.

Heat oil in wok on high. Fry chicken cubes till golden brown. Remove from oil and place aside.

Remove cooking oil from wok leaving about 1 tablespoon in the wok. Add onions and dried chillis and stir-fry for 30 seconds to bring out the aroma. (If you wish to add capsicums which are cut into cube sizes, add them at this stage) Add pre-fried chicken cubes and cashew nuts and stir well for a minute.

Add seasoning and 1/2 cup water and close lid. Stir occasionally till water / gravy reduced by half.

Serve hot with plain white rice.