Bacon Broth

Bacon is one of the most celebrated ingredients. The smokey meaty flavour is able to lift the taste of your dish to another level. You can use it almost anywhere (not vegetarian food of course!) and it'll usually turn out lovely. I have been wondering what else I can do with bacon apart from breakfast, rolling up a whole chunk of sausage and chicken breast within layers of it, or just crisping them up for a savoury snack. I have found another use for the much loved cured meat–broth preparation.

As with other broths, this one is packed with flavour and goes well with noodles. I'm giving this version of the broth more of a Japanese edge by incorporating katsuobushi and kombu.

Cha Soba served with warm bacon broth and topped with bacon 

Ingredients:
1. 5 strips of back bacon, sliced up into 1-inch wide pieces
2. 3 pieces of Kombu (kelp)
3. 50g Katsuobushi (smoked skipjack tuna)
4. A small thumb of ginger, sliced
5. 1l of water

Steps
1. Add all the ingredients into the water in a small stock pot and bring to boil
2. Skim the froth as and when needed
3. Simmer for at least 1 hour
4. Taste and season if needed
5. Serve

Note:
1. Katsuobushi can be hard to source. A good and cheaper alternative is bonito.
2. Never season the broth right from the start. Allow the flavour to build up and season with salt when it is almost done.
3. You can prepare the stock in advance and refrigerate it. Heat it up and use when needed.

Before serving, you may want to fish out the pieces of bacon and brown them in a hot frying pan. The browned bacon drizzled with sesame oil can be used as a topping to liven up the plain noodle soup.

Completion of The Taste Quest

It has been a few months since I embarked on my taste quest to find the perfect cup of coffee. At least a taste that I think is perfect. With the cafe culture growing in Singapore, it is perhaps only right to see more artisan and small roasters popping up here and there across the island.

I have been a somewhat loyal supporter of 40 Hands cafe at Yong Siak Street in Tiong Bahru. It is a cafe that is tucked away in a corner of the quaint yet hipster-filled Tiong Bahru estate. The coffee at 40 Hands is sourced from 5 Senses in Australia. Lately, they have been up to a partnership of some sort with Common Man in Singapore. I prefer coffee that tastes more fruity (think berries) and a slight hint of floral notes. Cocoa and caramel flavours are optional. With that in mind, 40 Hands has satisfied my taste palette pretty well. Acidic and complex coffee that is delectable and lip-smacking good. However, it is on the pricier side of things. Considering Starbucks as a benchmark for price, it's expensive. Frequenting 40 Hands means less allowance for other things. I have found my perfect cup with a good price recently.

Nylon Coffee Roasters is the answer. It was my first time there a couple of days ago. I can say that I'm in love with the coffee they serve and the service they provide. Nylon Coffee Roasters, as the name suggests, isn't a cafe per se. They roast coffee and they sell roasted coffee, evident in the massive PROBAT bean roaster when you enter the shop. Selling the caffeinated beverage isn't their main business and you will not find any cakes or pastries at the cafe. Their coffee menu is simple too. You have a choice of Black, White, or Iced. The coffee they serve leans more towards the acidic side and has a rather rounded finish. It has sweet overtones that leaves you asking for more! Price-wise, it's a fair bit cheaper than 40 Hands, somewhere around $2 more affordable. Same for the beans, they are fresh and more affordable too! 

I think my taste quest is more or less considered complete for now as I have found my perfect cup. Either way, 40 Hands and Nylon are both good coffee places to head to for an afternoon beverage. Or if you're like me, head there after church service on a Sunday afternoon to let your mind drift into some coffee goodness before prepping for the week to come. 

Ditch It–my take on store bought pasta sauce

I started out cooking pasta the typical Singaporean way–buy some spaghetti and a bottle of tomato or cream based pasta sauce and put them together. It is a quick and fuss-free way to get your lunch or dinner settled, in a 'home-cooked' way. Well, it's not wrong to do so. But there's so much more to good pasta sauce that those bottled stuff can't give. I have since stopped using those bottled stuff and have created plenty of flavours that go well with pasta. Let me give you a few reasons to ditch them.

1. You have no control over the quality and taste of store-bought sauces.
2. You take out the fun of preparing a good pasta dish!
3. Home-made sauces taste much better and do not take long to prepare
4. You can have so much more variety with home-made sauces

It's pointless to say how good home-made stuff is if I don't provide a simple recipe to follow.

Spaghetti tossed in a slightly spicy tomato and vodka sauce, served with pan seared chicken breast.

Spaghetti with simple tomato vodka sauce.

Ingredients
1. 2 fresh tomatoes, quartered
2. A shot glass of vodka
3. 1 handful bunch of spaghetti. I only use Barilla, for the quality
4. Chicken breast
5. Salt and pepper
6. Olive oil
7. Crushed dried chilli

Steps
1. Bring some salted water to a rolling boil and add the spaghetti to it. Keep the heat high and let it boil. This will allow the pasta to not clump and stick together as you cook it. Keep time.
2. Heat up a pan and add some olive oil to it. Place the quartered tomatoes in the pan, and allow them to sear. Add a dash of salt and pepper to season.
3. In the same pan, lay the chicken breast skin side down and let it sear. Sprinkle salt and pepper evenly over the meat side as it cooks. Leave it to cook for about 4 minutes, depending on the thickness and size.
4. Sear the other side of the tomatoes. Turn the chicken breast over and cook for another 3 minutes.
5. Remove the chicken breast and let it rest on a plate. Do not slice it yet.
6. To the tomatoes in the pan, add the vodka. Tilt the pan to one side such that the alcohol catches fire. This burns off the alcohol in the vodka and chars the tomatoes a little. Add some crushed dried chilli to give some kick to the sauce, and a dash of the starchy pasta water.
7. Drain the spaghetti after about 8 minutes of cooking, or till al dente. Add the spaghetti to the vodka-tomato mixture. Give it a good toss and a dash of pepper.
8. Serve up the spaghetti. Slice the chicken breast and arrange it atop the pasta.
9. Drizzle some olive oil to finish it off. Serve and enjoy.

There you go! More sauce recipes and ideas to come, and stop buying those bottled pasta sauces!

Conceptualising Wraps

When I say wraps, what do you think of? Kebab? Or what you get at KFC? Maybe some random tortilla? I have been trying to conceptualise some flavours for wraps. One that I have thought of is leaning very far towards Mexican, while the other goes towards Japanese.

The Mexican one was much easier in my opinion. This is my plan to create it.
1. Season some chicken breast fillet with pepper, paprika, a dash of salt, garlic powder, thyme and rosemary. Rub it all over with the help of some good olive oil.
2. While the chicken is marinating, prepare a fresh chunky guacamole. Mash up a good ripe avocado, add a drizzle of lime juice and some crushed chilli for a bit of heat. Chop up a fresh tomato and add it to the avocado. Push some garlic through a garlic press. Add a handful of chopped parsley to it. Mix everything together with some extra virgin olive oil.
3. Pan fry the chicken in a frying pan. Cook it over high heat till it chars slightly. Let it rest for about 5-10 min after leaving the pan. Then cut the chicken up into smaller pieces. Basically just shred it or chop it up.
4. Shred some ice-berg lettuce as well.
5. Lay open a wrap on a flat surface. Spread some guacamole over it, be generous. Add the chicken and the lettuce. As you roll it up, fold in the sides.
6. It the wrap is of a good size and you aren't feeling so full, share it!

And here's the Japanese.
1. It's going to be seafood filling for the Japanese. So I am choosing salmon, a fish high in good fats and easy to create the Japanese flavour. Score and season the salmon only with salt, sear it and crisp up the skin in a frying pan as you cook it. Follow Ramsay's recipe and method to create the perfect crispy skin (you'll separate them anyway later). You want the fish to flake easily yet remain juicy enough.
2. Miso or wasabi sauce. If you're using miso sauce, thin it out with mirin to balance the saltiness with some sweetness and a tinge of sourness. For wasabi sauce, use mayonnaise.
3. Flake up the fish and add a dollop of mayonnaise, as well as a very generous serving of ebiko or tobiko to give it a different texture when you bite into the wrap.    
4. Crush some store bought fried fish skin snack to add some crunch to the wrap.
5. As for the fibre/veg, slice up an avocado (if you happen to buy a few more) and cut a japanese cucumber into strips. Lay everything on the wrap and roll it up.

So here it goes. Those are what I have thought of in preparation for the house picnic that is coming up next week. Hope they will turn out well!

New Knife Day!

I ordered a new knife for myself about a week ago, from www.chefknivestogo.com. It's a Zwilling J.A. Henckels Professional "S" 4-inch paring knife. I bought it while on discount so it's pretty affordable for this usually expensive range from Henckels. Technically speaking, this is my second knife from Henckels, though the first one was made in Japan for the Miyabi Kaizen range. This one is authentic German steel, made in Germany. 

Upon receiving it from the very efficient DHL, I unboxed it and put it into action in the kitchen right away. I was preparing lunch, so might as well. It's definitely very sharp out of the box, with excellent fit and finish on the whole knife. Not a single flaw spotted, and all the rivets are nicely flushed with the handle. Good weight and balance on this one, which makes delicate paring jobs much more manageable. 

One of the best purchases I have made this year, and not when I was in Germany searching around for knives that I can bring home. This knife should last me for ages. 

Sauce Fundamentals – Dips

A sauce can add a new dimension to what you have cooked, be it highlighting the natural flavours or to give the dish a bit more kick out of the usual flatness. There are generally a few kinds of sauces that you will find when having a dinner. But for now, I'll only talk about 1 of them. It's the dip. Dips are perhaps one of the most common sauces around. Do not underestimate how much more complexity it can bring to your cooking!

Dips
What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about dipping sauces? Ketchup, mustard, or chilli sauce? These are the go to sauces when you have bite size fried food. The aim of these sauces is to add more flavour to your fried chicken or sausages. The key when it comes to making such sauces is the intensity of the flavour and the consistency of the sauce itself. The sauce has to adhere to the food, so it generally has to be rather thick. The flavour should be able to cut through the mix if the sauce, instead of the food itself, is the star of the dish.

One of your best friends when making dips is mayonnaise. It can form the base of most of your dipping sauces. Store bought mayo usually has unknown and artificial stuff added to them. To ensure the best quality, make the mayo yourself. It is basically good extra virgin olive oil mixed with egg yolks in a stable emulsion. Just google it and you'll find recipes for homemade mayo. It's simple and will bring the sauce to another level.

Here's a recipe that is pretty much a more luxurious version of the Japanese mentaiko (cod roe) dip. It's recommended for deep fried seafood because the caviar will definitely enhance the flavour of the seafood. Chicken nuggets should work well too.

1.5 teaspoons of caviar (I use red lumpfish for the colour)
3 tablespoons of fresh mayo
1 teaspoon of Mentaiko sauce
1 teaspoon of Japanese citrus soy sauce
A dash of black pepper
A few drops of truffle oil (optional)

It's basically as simple as mixing everything together in a small mixing bowl. Prepare more as needed. The caviar will provide a popping sensation with each bite, along with a good and flavourful fishy kick. The truffle oil helps to lift the flavour and it smells fantastic.

Tip
Always mix your dip well and keep tasting it till you get the flavour you like. And be open to using new ingredients to break the boredom of the same taste all the time.

Cooking for friends

I'm finally back in Singapore after 8 weeks in Europe! It feels good to come home to my familiar knives and frying pans. I have learnt a lot more about authentic Italian cuisine from my 1 week in 4 different Italian cities. I made a few good friends while in Europe, and most of them will be back in Singapore before the new semester begins mid-August. In preparation to host them over to my place for dinner, I am trying out new flavours and making slight improvements to some of the tried and tested recipes that I already know. I'm leaning more towards the quality over quantity concept for this meal (not that I will serve large quantities of bad tasting food to begin with). Here's a sneak preview of 2 items that are likely to appear. No recipes for now.

Sauce preparation.

Pan-seared scallop with citrus soy sauce. Topped with red lumpfish caviar. Served as a starter.

Butternut-potato mash with a hint of white truffle. To be served alongside main dish. 

Chinese Braised Beef (Asian Beef Stew)

I cooked this dish for the second time yesterday. The first time I tried cooking it was in Brisbane last year with some good quality Black Angus beef. It's hard to find beef in Poland, because the staples for the locals are chicken and pork, not beef. I spent quite some time looking for a good butcher around Krakow just for cooking this dish with the right cut of beef. Tender melt-in-the-mouth beef with a ginger kick. One of the best stews to have on a chilly night. Here's the recipe.

Beef stew on the right. Photo courtesy of Ivy.

Serves 4-6.

Ingredients
A thumb of ginger, peeled and sliced
1 bulb of garlic, peeled and smashed
1 onion, chopped
2 large carrots, cut into chunks
2 full stalks of spring onion
5 star anise
1 stick of cinnamon
4 tbs of Chinese 5 spice
1-1.5kg of stewing beef (choose the round or chuck cuts, and cut into cubes against the grain)
1.5l beef stock
4 tbs of oyster sauce
2 tbs of dark soya sauce
2 tbs of sugar (rock sugar is preferred)
Olive oil
Chinese white rice wine (if available)

Steps
1. Marinate the beef cubes with the Chinese 5 spice, a good lug of olive oil, and the rice wine. Rub the spice into the beef.
2. Heat up a deep stewing pot. Add a lug of olive oil and brown the beef cubes in batches. The aim is to not let the pot lose heat. It's okay if the beef starts to stick to the base of the pot, but do not let it burn or else the stew will taste bitter. If necessary, add more oil before browning each batch. After browning each batch, set aside.
3. When all the beef cubes have been browned, add more oil into the same pot. Add in the chopped onions, garlic, and ginger. Fry till fragrant. Then add in the star anise, rock sugar and cinnamon, followed by the spring onion. While doing this step, scrape the base of the pot for all the delicious brown bits from the browning process.
4. Return the beef cubes to the pot and mix into the stuff in the pot. Add the oyster sauce and dark soya sauce.
5. Add in the chunks of carrot and stock. On high heat, allow the whole mix to boil. Using a skimmer, remove the scum and throw it away.
6. Turn the heat down and allow the whole stew to simmer and reduce for another 2 hours.
7. Remove the star anise seeds and cinnamon. Serve with steamed rice.
8. Enjoy.

Basic Stew

A good hearty stew always warms me up, especially when served with toasted bread or steamed rice. It makes a great meal when you have friends over. What's more, it's easy to cook and you'll get a balanced meal in a pot! Here's the basic recipe for the basic chicken stew. Of course, you can substitute chicken for beef or lamb, or add more stuff, such as sausages, to the stew.

Photo courtesy of Marilyn

Ingredients

1kg of chicken legs, bone-in or deboned. Keep the bones if you have deboned them

1.5l of chicken broth

3 mid-sized tomatoes, diced

5 potatoes, skinned and cut into chunks

1 large carrot, cut into chunks

1 onion, finely chopped

1 to 2 Bay leaves

Olive oil

Dried thyme

Ground paprika

Red or white wine (optional)

Steps

1. Heat up a pot deep enough for stewing. Add a good lug of olive oil and add in all the chopped onions. Fry till soft. 

2. If you have deboned the legs, add the bones to the onions. 

3. To the pot, add in the tomatoes, followed by carrots and potatoes.

4. Add all of the chicken stock into the pot. Use a long spoon to scrape the base of the pot. That is all the caramelized stuff with the best flavours. 

5. Add the bay leaves in. Allow the stew base to boil and let it simmer

6. Meanwhile, season the chicken with paprika and thyme. Brown them in a frying pan and add into the stew base. 

7. Allow the stew to work itself out as it simmers over low heat. Reduce the liquid till about 2/3 is left. Add some flour to thicken the liquid.

8. Serve together with toasted bread or steamed rice. 

Forest Risotto

Greetings from Krakow, Poland! It's so much cheaper to cook than to eat out here in Poland, especially so when I have friends to split the cost of the ingredients. There's generally a good selection of locally produced fresh tomatoes, dried and fresh mushrooms, things like rhubarb and parsnips (which are usually rare in Singapore). Oh, and the herbs too, excellent choices available. So for tonight, we decided on Forest Risotto, which is just a fancy name for mushroom risotto. Here's the recipe for fans of mushrooms and risottos, and for those who are interested in trying out.

Photo courtesy of Marilyn

Ingredients (Serves 4) Approx cooking and prep time - 1 hour
400g of Arborio rice (available at good supermarkets)
300g of fresh mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
50g of dried mushrooms (porcini is preferred), reconstituted in hot water
1 to 1.5l of chicken or beef stock
1 large onion, coarsely chopped
Olive oil
A knob of butter
Pinch of dried thyme
Grated parmesan cheese (optional)

Steps
1. Heat up an open pan on high heat. Add the knob of butter along with some olive oil. The purpose is to help control the browning of the butter. Add the chopped onions to the pan and fry till transparent and lightly browned.
2. To the onions, add the rice and fry till the rice becomes slightly translucent.
3. Add the liquid and the reconstituted mushrooms into the rice mixture
4. Add enough chicken stock to the pan till it just covers the rice. Keep agitating the rice by gently shaking the pan instead of stirring it to prevent the rice from releasing too much starch into the risotto, making the dish too sticky
5. Repeat step 5 till the rice is cooked through. Sprinkle some thyme over the risotto and fold it in.
6. Heat up another frying pan. Add the sliced fresh mushrooms and fry till the liquid from the mushrooms dry out. Add a small amount of butter and thyme to lift the flavour and aroma.
7. Serve the risotto direct on the pan, or on a warmed deep-dish. Top it off with the sliced mushrooms and grated parmesan cheese, or a raw egg yolk or poached egg. Drizzle some olive oil or truffle oil.
8. Enjoy.

Cold Brew

The weather has been getting a little too warm for comfort, and getting warm and sticky even in my own room in the afternoon has been rather unbearable. So, I started experimenting with cold brew, with the simple equipment I have in my tiny room in college. Cold brew does take a longer time than hot brew, but it yields a more pleasant taste because it lacks the bitter edge commonly found in hot coffee/tea.

Here's my recipe.

Coffee:
1. Add 6-8 scoops of med-coarse ground coffee, preferably medium roast (you can use espresso roast too) to a clean tumblr or flask (450-500ml). You can adjust the amount according to your preference of strength of the beverage.
2. Add water just off the boil and steep for 30 to 60s, just enough to cover the ground coffee. Give it a good stir. This step is to allow the coffee to 'bloom'.
3. Top it up with water at room temperature. Then leave it in the fridge for 12-24 hours, depending on how strong you want the beverage to be.
4. When the time is up, after some waiting, it's time to filter the mixture. For me, I will transfer the mixture from the tumblr to a french press, and follow the normal press procedure. Alternatively, pour it into a filtration system, such as the Hario V60 to allow the coffee to drip.
5. Enjoy, serve with some sugar or milk.

Tea:
1. 4 teabags for 450ml of water, or you can use 3-5 teaspoons of loose tea leaves. All done in a tumblr.
2. Add cold water and allow the tea to steep.
3. Let the tea continue to brew in the fridge, for between 4 to 12 hours.
4. Remove the tea bags (or filter if you're using loose tea leaves)
5. Serve and enjoy.

2 of the simplest recipes for a refreshing and comforting cold beverage. For those who stay in Cinnamon College and do not want to use the common pantry fridges, let me know and I'll gladly let you use mine. Just provide me with your tumblr. I have vanilla tea to offer too :)

Rustic Loaf with Smoked Salmon

Here's the recipe for this simple yet great tasting snack! It can be your light lunch too.

What you need:
Cold-smoked salmon (there's a hot-smoked kind that will look more pinkish, and is flakier and more dry)
Cream cheese spread (Philadelphia fat-free is a good choice)
Fresh rustic bread (Ciabatta, Sunflower seed, unbleached rye, etc)
Olive Oil (optional)
Capers (optional)

Steps:
1. Spread a good amount of the cream cheese over a slice of bread. If you're adding olive oil, drizzle on the bread before putting on the cream cheese
2. Lay a slice of smoked salmon over the side of bread with cheese. If you're adding capers, add them before putting on the salmon so they won't fall off.
3. Enjoy! It's really that simple.

Camembert Sandwich

A simple and light afternoon treat, yet not compromising on taste! Nice crusty bread with melt-in-the-mouth cheesy goodness.

The ingredients are here:
A few slices of Camembert or Brie Cheese
A wholemeal/rustic burger bun
Good extra virgin olive oil
A dollop of mayonnaise

Steps:
1. Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC. While the oven is heating up, cut the bun into 2 from the side.
2. Lay the cheese slices on the cut side of the bread. Drizzle some olive oil over the bread and cheese.
3. Once pre-heated, put the bread, cheese side up, into the oven for 5min.
4. When 5min is up, remove from oven and drizzle a slight bit more olive oil. Add a dollop of mayonnaise and put the top and bottom together.
5. Enjoy!

Kitchen Essentials–Knives

In this series, we are not going to look at new recipes, but at the important things you will need in the kitchen that will make your cooking experience much more enjoyable.

On the top of my list is a good knife, or even better, a good set of it. Good knives are not cheap, and there are a few things that you should know before putting the cash down for this worthy investment. 

First, you should know the different parts of a knife. The picture below illustrates them well enough.  

Above shows the type of knife that we usually see, with the various parts as mentioned. However, there are many variations depending on the purpose of the knife. The tip of the knife is usually pointed and helpful for cutting smaller items or cutting them into strips. The cutting edge is often straight, but some have a jagged edge–the bread knife. The heel is roughly about 2 inches from the edge of the blade nearer to the handle, and is usually used for faster cutting or when more strength is required when cutting harder items. When you look at the picture above, there's a think chunk of metal called the bolster. Note that not all knives have that part, usually only western blades have that. Further down the knife, the rivets. To ensure maximum comfort when handling the knife, the rivets must lie flush to the handle's surface. That's roughly all you have to know about the parts of a knife.

Next, let's look at the different materials used. For the blade, there are 2 main materials. The most common one is stainless steel, and it is the one that I'd recommend. Choose those with high-carbon content. When buying knives, sometimes they would include a Rockwell Hardness rating. That gives an indication of how hard the material is, with a higher number indicating a harder metal. Harder metals hold the edge and remain sharp for a longer time, but are harder to sharpen too. A rating of around 60 would be your best bet. The alternative is still a rather new material for blades. It's ceramic. I would not recommend ceramic blades due to the difficulty of sharpening them, because you will need special equipment to do so when it's blunt. However, you don't really need to sharpen them that often, at least not as often as steel. They are usually pricier too. 

There are 3 main kinds of handles available–wood, plastic, pakka wood (wood impregnated with plastic resin), and stainless steel. If possible, go for plastic or pakka wood for they are the easiest to maintain. Pakka wood is incredibly resistant to to moisture and looks great too! But I have to admit that knives with a stainless steel handle looks very good and classy. 

Last but not least, knife varieties. I am going to introduce 3 knives, but you will only need 2 of them. Read on to find out why. 

This is the santoku knife. As you see, it lacks the extra chunky bolster like the first picture. This is the Asian's chef's knife. As a chef's knife, it will be able to handle most, if not all, of your cutting tasks. A santoku knife has a more rounded spine profile as it approaches the tip. The usual length of the blade is 7-inches, though there are 6 or 6.5-inch models around. Next up, we have the western chef's knife. The purpose of the western chef's knife is the same as that of the santoku, which is basically a do-it-all knife. However, the tip is more pointed than the santoku and is usually longer with 8, 9, or 10-inch blades. With a longer blade means they are heavier too. 

Lastly, we have the paring knife. It usually has a 3 to 5-inch blade with a straight edge and is used for cutting smaller items or more precise cutting tasks that require more control of the blade, where a chef's knife would prove to be too clumsy. 

Now, I'll introduce what I use in the kitchen. It's a Miyabi Kaizen 8-inch chef's knife made by Henckels. It's a pretty knife with damsacus pattern on the blade. Japanese blade, Rockwell Hardness rating of 60, and an asymmetric pakka wood handle. Notice the D-shaped end-cap, which is the shape of the handle as well. It is designed to fit snuggly into smaller hands like mine. 

Some of the good brands to go for include Forschner (the most affordable), Henckels, Shun, Global, Tojiro, and Togiharu. I am not so sure about WMF knives, but they are overpriced in my opinion and you are paying for the good looks. 

If possible get yours when places like Tangs and Takashimaya are having their annual sales and they have a rather good selection too. If not, consider shopping online at www.chefknivestogo.com or www.korin.com. You will have to ship them via comgateway, or otherwise known as hopshopgo.com. Be prepared to spend between US$100-200 if you want a good knife. Trust me, it's a worthy investment to make for one of the most important pieces of equipment that you need in the kitchen. 

Chicken Rice

This is a slightly different take on the Singaporean classic-the chicken rice. Often, we would see shops selling 'steamed' chicken when they were actually poached in water and quickly cooled in ice water to make the skin springy. During the poaching, plenty of flavour would be lost and the chicken would not taste as sweet as it could have been. So, using the original ingredients in chicken rice (for both the rice and chicken) and a different cooking technique (steaming instead of poaching), I can assure that this would taste as good as, if not better than, any chicken rice sold elsewhere.

Sorry no photos for this!

Ingredients (Serves 2):
2 chicken legs
A good chunk of fresh ginger (5-8cm)
10-12 cloves of garlic
Half a red onion
1 stalk of lemon grass
1 good bunch of fresh pandan leaves, one stalk of it
Salt
Olive oil
Chicken stock
1 cup of rice, washed
Sesame oil (optional)

Paste
1. Remove the skin of the garlic and cut the ginger into smaller pieces. With the traditional mortar and pestle (you can use a food processor), pound the garlic, ginger and red onion into a paste. Flavour the paste, and eventually the dish, by adding salt to the paste. It would be good to add coarse grains of salt as it will act as an abrasive and make the pounding slightly easier.
2. Peel off the outer layer of the lemon grass. Using the pestle, smash the lemon grass slightly on a chopping board.
3. Heat up a pan using high heat. Add a few lugs of oil to the hot pan. Allow the oil to heat up and start to smoke slightly. Add in the smashed lemon grass first. When it starts to smell good, add the paste into the pan. Keep stirring the paste and add more oil if necessary to prevent it from sticking. After frying till fragrant, remove the paste from the pan. Make sure you remove as much oil as you can, because that is where the fragrance is.

Rice
4. To the rice, add 2 tablespoons of the paste, or the remaining paste if you are preparing the chicken first. If you do not like bits and pieces of stuff in your rice, spoon the paste into a herb bag. You will get the same taste without the paste residue. Add in 1 cup of stock. It will be best to use the water gauge at the side of the rice pot and add enough stock to match the number of cups of rice used.
5.Fold half of the pandan leaves into about 10cm in length. Using a couple more blades of leaves, tie the folded leaves together. Place the pandan leaves in the rice pot. Place the rice pot in the rice cooker and let it cook.

Chicken
5. Using the remaining pandan leaves, line the base of a steaming dish. Use a metal dish that is not perforated at the base because you want to retain all the juices from steaming. To each the chicken legs, add half a tablespoon of the paste. Rub the paste all over the legs but concentrate on the side not covered by the skin. Place the legs on the pandan leaves, skin side up.
6. Steam the chicken for about 10-12 minutes. The chicken should be fully cooked through by then.
7. If you prefer it, you can de-bone the chicken before serving. Either way, drizzle the chicken with sesame oil before serving.

8. Scoop the rice onto a plate and serve with the steamed chicken. Enjoy.