Three Cheese Creamy Baked Rice

On weekdays when I'm not at work, I would be thinking what to bake for my family. It will relieved my helper on what to cook for the evening. One Friday evening, I decided to make baked rice for them. It's a versatile dish. You can add whatever ingredients you can find in your fridge/pantry. This time, I mixed my own cream sauce instead of the usual 'Cxxxbxxx' canned soup which I would usually use. I'm very happy that it turned out to be really nice. One tip I would like to share is the addition of mixed herbs. It really made a lot of difference to a great tasting baked rice!

Recipe for Three Cheese Creamy Baked Rice
Makes 6 servings

Ingredients:

2 cups Rice grains, cooked
6 pcs Prawns, deshelled and cut into 3 pieces each
2 medium Squid, washed and cut
1 cup Mixed vegetables
200g Chicken pieces, shred
1 Large Onion, sliced
3 Clove garlic, chopped
3 tbsp Cooking oil

Sauce:
30g LIV Salted Butter
1 1/2 cup Whipping Cream
1 cup Whole Milk
2 Eggs, beaten
2 tsp Rock Salt (or sea salt)
2 tsp Dried mixed herbs (or fresh herbs like rosemary, or other mixed herbs)
Dash of black pepper

Toppings:
100g Parmesan Cheese, grated
150g Red Cheddar Cheese, grated
150g Mozzarella Cheese, grated

Method:

1. Heat a large pan over medium heat. Add cooking oil.
2. Add garlic and fried till fragrant. Add in onion and fried till caramelised and soft.
3. Add in prawns, followed by chicken and stir fried till just cooked.
4. Add in mixed vegetables and stir till cooked.
5. Remove them from the pan and put aside.
6. Add squid and stir till just cooked. Remove and put aside.
7. Turn the fire to low heat, then add in the salted butter. Stir till it melts.
8. Add in the whipping cream, followed by whole milk.
9. Gently stir over low heat.
10. Add in salt, pepper and mixed herbs, then stir well.
11. Once the cream started to bubble a bit, dribbled beaten eggs steadily into the cream and stir well in the low heat.
12. Add in the cooked rice, followed by all the cooked vegetables and meats.
13. Stir well and ensure that all are covered well in the cream.
14. Scoop them into a baking pan. Layer Parmesan cheese between the rice.
15. Finally, topped the rice with a layer of cheddar cheese, followed by mozzarella cheese.
16. Baked it in a preheat oven of 200C for 20mins, or until the cheese turned browned.
17. Serve it with side salad or grilled vegetables.

Happy 47th National Day, dear Singapore!!

Pilaf Rice

"Pilaf (or pilau) is a dish in which rice is cooked in a seasoned broth." - Wikipedia

There are many variations of pilaf rice, some cooked in the wok, some cooked in rice cooker, while others baked them. Wanting to try out something new with rice, I decided to cook mine in the oven.

It was one of those rare days when my house was in a total mess due to re-painting works. My helper was busy clearing, cleaning and packing the stuff. So as a good employer (ahem!) I decided to prepare dinner instead.

And so, I decided to make Pilaf Rice. Unfortunately, I didn't stir them to the right stage and some of the rice was not totally cooked. Fortunately, the taste was not too bad. No complaints received from the diners though. I shall try it again, it's not too difficult and the mixture of the nuts and raisins gave it a good mix of texture!

Recipe for Pilaf Rice, modified from Cooking-Ez.com
(Makes for 6 people)

Ingredients:
1 large Onion, chopped
2 cups Rice
2 1/2 cups Chicken stock
2 tbsp Olive oil
Some salt
Some pepper
Some paprika
50g Raisins
50g Cashew nuts, coarsely chopped

Method:

1. In a large saucepan, put in the olive oil over moderate heat. When the oil is hot, add the chopped onion, mix well. Add in salt, pepper and paprika and stir well.
   
2. Add in the rice all at once and stir continuously until the rice turned translucent. That will take about 5 minutes or more.
   
3. Then transfer them to a baking dish.
4. Add chicken stock in one go and mix thoroughly.
   
5. Add in the cashew nuts and raisins on top.
6. Cover  with a lid or aluminium foil, and put into the preheat oven of 190C for 30 minutes or until cooked.
7. Serve hot with vegetables or fish or meat of your choice.

Before I end, here's the before and after of my living room.

Chocolate Twist Bread and Salmon Dinner

When the helper goes on her off. When the kids are confined at home. Who will prepare dinner and take care of the kids? No prize for the correct answer.

Actually we had the intention to bring the kids out on Sunday. Unfortunately, my youngest boy contracted the HFMD from his elder sister. Twins are really connected. They seemed to share the goods and bads, ups and downs and thick and thin together. I remembered there was once, when my boy got a blue-black just below his left eye, his sister got some pus on her right eye-lid. Both were due to take their portrait pictures for their school EZ link card. And their "blacken" eyes were captured. What a coincidence it was! Somehow, I always feel that they are very connected in a very special way.

Ok, back to my baking spree. Like I mention to Bee Bee, my children don't usually eat what I bake. Mainly because what I bake is what I like to eat. So instead, I chose to baking something which I think they will like - Chocolate Twist Bread from Honey Bee Sweets blog. I am very sure they love chocolates.

I wasn't sure if I had over beaten the bread dough, it didn't grow too much.  Therefore, I ended up to have very small proofed dough. I wasn't able to roll out that long like what Bee Bee did. So I decided to cut it smaller and bake them in a muffin tray. I also added melted compound chocolate to the cocoa mixture to make it more chocky. Overall, I really like the taste of the chocolate twisted buns! I would probably try making it again.

After lunch, I had some time to rest and plan for my dinner. Initially I wanted to take a short nap and to make my youngest boy sleep. However, my other two children were just too noisy. In the end, I only get 40 winks (10 mins power nap). Then I was up again, preparing for dinner.

My hubby and I went to "grab" cheap whole salmons in a hypermart on Saturday morning. It was selling at $9.90/kg! We love salmons. We have the patience to queue up to take advantage of the cheap deal (for salmons only). You won't believe how much we bought. I think nobody will buy as much as us. We bought two big salmons - 4.5kg and 3.5kg. That will feed us for...3-4 weeks though. We will finish all the parts- heads, bones and the skin. I like it when my helper fries them till crispy. My eldest son usually goes for the skin...he'll eat up the skin and leave the salmon "naked". Sometimes, both of us will fight for the skin! Hahaha...

Anyway, with abundance salmon in stock the fridge, I decided to bake them for dinner. Overall, it wasn't as tasty and good as I hope, but the family members did dare not complaint. They'd better not, otherwise, no mum-made dinner for them next time. *so petty*

I made baked butter rice to go with the baked salmon with vegetables. In a baking tray, I layered portebello mushrooms, carrots, broccolis and salmons on top of one another before I topped up with cheese. Actually, the cheese that I used wasn't that suitable. It didn't melt right and wasn't mean for baking. I shall not stinge on mozzarella cheese in future. Each of them get a "set meal" of the below, where the kids have a smaller portion of the salmons.

Baked Rice and Orange Butter Cake

With more cheese in stock, I instructed my helper to prepare Baked Tomato Rice for dinner one evening. She used the leftover tomato paste I prepared from the pizzas last week. It was really nice with the tomato and basil leaves. I think I should ask her to bake this more often as it was very well received by the children.

Whenever I see some recipes with bananas or oranges, I just cannot resist the temptation to bake them when I have one of these fruits at home. So the moment when I saw Ju with her Orange Butter Cake, I just had to bake them. It just can't go wrong to give this as a gift for a friend. The zesty orange fragrance that filled the room when it was baking made me want to eat it once it was baked! I used 1.5x of the recipe, three oranges, reduced some sugar and baked it in a 9" round pan. I still find the cake a bit sweet. Shall reduce it the next round I bake again.

The texture, the fragrance and the taste of this cake is really wonderful! Everyone who tried this cake just raved about it! Hop over to The Little Teochew to try this out! Thanks Ju!

I got a bunch of these citrus fruits from my father-in-law lately. I have no idea what this was. It looked to me like over-ripen limes. Anyone has any idea what this is? :p

Valentine's Feast

It was "entertainment" at home on Valentine's Day again. It was yet another feast. I hope I didn't sound like boasting, but I did a 6-course dinner on Valentine's Day for our family friends. Actually, it's really achievable if you "renouned" the world, and roped in the help of whoever at home. A lot of food can be prepared way before the actual day. For example, desserts, crust doughs, puff pastries etc.

I think I was quite ambitious also, to bake lunch for my family members despite having to prepare a feast for dinner. Okay, I managed to make chicken burger for lunch for all. I baked the hamburger buns, which fortunately was finished up during lunch, otherwise, it would have been stone-hard the next day! Hahaha... I made the chicken patties, and the herb butter mayo to accompany the burger. I'm so glad it was a "SOLD OUT"! Another good decision made for lunch. :p


Here were my 6-course Valentine's Dinner for family & friends.

1. Appetiser 1: Garlic & Herbs Bread
Tasked my hubby & Aloysius to use heart-shaped & bear cookie cutters to cut out the bread pieces for garlic & herbs spread. I mix (salted) butter with chopped rosemary and minced garlic. Then toast them. I like these very much.

I also prepared some greens (salads). As I only had butterhead lettuce, I added some olives, raisins and pinenuts too! I made my own dressings by mixing olive oil with balsamic vinegar, and some sugar & a pinch of salt. Then topped the greens with some parmesan cheese.


2. Appetiser 2: Cauliflower & Potato Gratin
Discussed with my sister after last week's bake. I came to realise that it's called Gratin. Great. Same as last week, baked this for dinner as requested by my hubby & Aloysius.


3. Main Course 1: Rosemary Salmon Olive Oil Baked Rice
As I bought a lot of whole salmon over these two weeks, I was rather "generous" with my salmon. ;p I poached salmon in red wine, and shredded them to get flakes. I cooked my rice with garlic, onions, french beans, button mushrooms, rosemary, olive oil and finally added salmon. This was quite bland and most of them didn't like it and found it to be tasteless. I thought olive oil would have been quite nice. Lesson learnt: must add add salt or light soy sauce for better tasting baked rice! ;)


4. Main Course 2: Chicken & Mushrooms Puff Pastry Pies
This was most people's favourites! So was mine! ;) The base crust is normal, while the top is covered and baked with puff pastry. Romantic me had to cut and add heart-shaped to the top to give it some ambience of Valentine's Day! Hahaha... At least they were noticable!




5. Dessert 1: Egg White Brownies
Previously, Aloysius said he didn't get to eat this brownie. So I baked it again (the night before) since I still have egg whites left. This time, I used walnuts instead of almonds. It's as nice. I like it too!


6. Dessert 2: Blueberries Panna Cotta
I was complatemping between panna cottas and creme brulees. Finally, I decided on panna cottas as it was slightly easier compared to creme brulees because I don't have to caramelise the sugars! I followed Yochana's recipe and used Blueberries instead of Raspberries as they were abundance now. This was the first time I tried making this, and I really like it! My friends love it too! One of them said it was "exotic" and tasted something like tiramisu. (huh??)


As usual, with this group of friends, they enjoyed drinking red wines. Over five hours, they finished 5 bottles of wines among mainly three males (including my hubby). I had to borrow X-box from my father-in-law so as to keep the children entertained, otherwise, I don't know how else to entertain them! As they enjoyed their wine, my "bak kwa" also finished! That was the finger food for them. It was fun baking for me, while they had fun eating & drinking, and for the kids, it was playing! ;)

Seriously, before preparing any food, careful planning has to take place, and preparation actually start way before the actual day. So, really, if I can achieve this, I'm sure everyone else can! :))

Celebrations Weekend!

It was a celebrations' weekend for me. Saturday, my parents & siblings came to my place for a pizza dinner, and celebrate Singapore's 43rd National Day. Sunday, will be another celebration, my dad's 65th birthday!

Here are the food I prepared for Saturday. Will try to post up the recipes later. Meanwhile, enjoy the photos! :)

Baked Rice & Pizzas

Baked rice recipe extracted from Happy Home Baking.

Mango & Passionfruit Cake

Recipe for the Traditional Sponge Cake extracted from Alex Goh's "Creative Making of Cakes".
Ingredients:
(A): 5 Eggs, 150g Sugar
(B): 120g Cake flour
(C): 80g Melted butter

Method:
1. Put (A) in the mixing bowl.
2. Whip (A) till light and fluffy.
3. Fold in (B) and mix till well blended.
4. Stir in (C) and mix until well incorporated.
5. Pour batter into a 8" round mould. Bake at 180C for 30 minutes.
6. Remove it from the mould immediately when baked.