Glutinous Rice In Lotus Rice

I still have some glutinous rice left from making the Mango sticky rice. I didn't want to waste that 800g of glutinous rice until the next mango season!

I was thinking what I can make with glutinous rice. Ok, why not glutinous rice in lotus leaf? And I have a nice pot of braised pork belly simmering in the kitchen. So I decided to mix the rice with the braised pork belly and let them steam for an hour. Wow, it was really fragrant with the lotus leaf. Oh yes, please add some salt, oyster sauce or soy sauce (with the glutinous rice, braised pork belly and sauce), otherwise it will taste bland as the pork belly sauce isn't salty enough to cover 500g of rice! That is why I added 1 tsp of salt while mixing everything.

Ingredients:

500g glutinous rice (soaked for 3 hrs)
30g dried shrimps (washed)
4 lotus leaves (cooked with hot water for a minute and continue to soak for a minute before removing)
6 dried mushroom (soaked till soften, sliced thinly)
8 pieces of braised pork belly (pls look at my Braised Pork Belly Recipe)
400ml of braised sauce (pls look at my Braised Pork Belly Recipe)
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp cooking oil

Garnish:
Fried shallots
Chopped spring onions

Methods:

1. After soaking for 3 hours, drain the glutinous rice and set aside.

2. Heat the oil in a non stick pan. Sauté the dried shrimps.

3. Add the dried mushrooms and sauté.

4. Add the braised pork belly, sauce and salt into the pan. Let it boil and turn the heat.

5. Add the glutinous rice into the pan and mix well. After a while, the sauce should have dried up in the pan. Turn off the heat and let it cool.

6. Wipe the lotus leaves dry. Divide the rice mixture into 4. Carefully place 1/4 of the rice onto each leaf. Wrap like an envelope. You may secure it with toothpicks.

7. Steam for an hour. Sprinkle with fried shallot and spring onions!

Steamed Tofu With Yifon Assorted Mushrooms

This is a light and simple dish that can whip up easily. As Yifon Assorted Mushroom is a little brand to go with tofu, so I added some oyster sauce.

Ingredients:

1 box of soft tofu
1 bottle of Yifon Assorted Mushrooms
1 clove garlic (minced finely)
1 tsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp yellow bell pepper
1 tsp cooking oil

Garnish:
Spring onions
Coarse Black Pepper

Methods:

1. Cut the tofu into 10 square pieces.

2. Steam the tofu for 10 minutes.

3. Heat the oil in the wok.

4. Saute the garlic and pour in the Yifon Assorted Mushroom.

5. Add the bell pepper and cook for 1 minute. Add the oyster sauce and mix well.

6. After steaming the tofu, drain the water away from the tofu.

7. Pour the mushrooms and sauce onto the tofu.

8. Sprinkle spring onions and black pepper.

Steamed Whole Fish - Sea Bass (金目鲈)

I didn't manage to take a photo of the fish after steaming the fish because everyone started eating it as soon as it was placed on the dining table!!! Luckily I took a picture before the fish was sent into the hot steaming wok! It has been a long time since we ate 金目鲈. Mainly because my son prefers white pomfret than other fishes. Today the fish was really fresh and tender. I was surprised that my son ate most of the fish. Indeed, the freshness of the fish makes lot of differences.

I think from now on, we will start buying 金目鲈 instead. Cheaper and bigger than white pomfrets lah!! Lol!!!

Ingredients:

1 medium sea bass (金目鲈)
8 slices ginger (thumb size)
2 stalks spring onions (snapped into 5cm length)
2 chilli padi (chopped)
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp cooking oil
1/2 tsp salt

Optional:
Pepper

Methods

1. Clean the fish. Rub the fish with the salt. Rinse off the salt with water after 30 minutes.

2. Place 4 slices of ginger on the steaming plate. Put the fish on the top of the ginger.

3. Place the remaining ginger, chilli and spring onions on the fish.

4. Put the tomatoes beside the fish.

5. Drizzle the oil and soy sauce on the fish.

6. Once the water starts to boil in the wok, put the fish in and cover. Steam for 15 minutes depending the size of the fish.

7. After steaming, sprinkle some pepper before serving.

Steamed Fish Fillets

I didn't have the time to go to the wet market this morning as I need to go back to the office today. Finally I finished work and knocked off at 3pm. So I rushed to the NTUC Finest to grab some groceries for dinner tonight. Actually I wanted to buy red grouper fillets but sold out. So I got Toman fish instead. I don't really like to buy Toman fish fillets as there are lots of bones. Unless whole fish, otherwise we prefer boneless fillets. We had bad experiences... That my son was admitted to hospital because he swallowed a fish bone years ago. Luckily, few months after the awful incident, he started to consume fish again. For the first few months he refused to eat fish, including fishballs!

Ingredients:

2 fish fillets
1 tomato (quartered)
8 slices ginger
1 chilli padi (chopped)
1 tsp cooking oil
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp water
10 stalks (length about 5cm) of spring onions

Garnish:
Spring onions
Coriander

Methods:

1. Put 4 slices of ginger on a steam plate.

2. Place the fish fillets on top of the ginger. Put 2 slices of ginger on top of each fillet.

3. Place the tomatoes at the sides of the fillets.

4. Drizzle the oil, soy sauce and water on the fillets and top with the 10 stalks of spring onions and chilli.

5. Once the water starts to boil in the wok, place the fish in and cover. Steam for 10 minutes.

6. Remove the plate from the wok. Discard the spring onions. It should be limp after the steaming.

7. Garnish with fresh spring onions and coriander.

Steamed Egg Custard

I have tried steaming eggs few times but always failed. The eggs usually turned out too watery! Even I followed the exactly recipes, the results was.... Sigh... I almost gave up until I saw a post from Kokken69! So today, I braved myself for another try! Hehehe... This time I made it! Yes!!! The custard was really smooth and soft. My sister and I couldn't stop eating it...

Recipe mainly adapted from Kokken69.

Ingredients:

3 eggs
400ml chicken stock
Pinch of salt

Methods:

1. Beat the eggs and add salt into the mixture.

2. Add the chicken stock and stir.

3. Using a filter, pour the mixture into a steam bowl.

4. Steam with boiling water for 20 minutes until it has set nicely.

I topped the egg custard with minced meat and spring onions.

Steamed Toman Fish With Taucheo

The other day I was telling my colleague that I was sick with the usual way of steaming fish (ginger, spring onions, cut chilli, tomatoes and soy sauce). And she taught me to steam fish with taucheo instead!

We simply love it! Yummy!!!

Ingredients:

1 piece of Toman fish fillet (Snakehead)
3 cloves garlic (minced finely)
3 pieces ginger (stacked and sliced into matchstick sizes)
2 tbsp taucheo (minced finely)
50ml water
1 tbsp oil

Garnish:
Spring onions

Methods:

1. Wash the fish and pad dry. Set the fish on the steam plate.

2. Heat the oil in the hot wok. Sauté the ginger and garlic until nicely crisp. Drain and set aside.

3. With the remaining oil, sauté the taucheo and add the water. Cook for a minute. It should look like a thick paste. Remove and set aside.

4. Put the plate of fish in a steamer (water boiling) and steam for 7 minutes.

5. Put the taucheo on the fish. Top with ginger and garlic. Steam for another 3 minutes.

6. Turn off the heat and sprinkle with spring onions.

You may use whole fish or fish head to steam.