Nando's Spicy Rice a la Marina

If you live in Malaysia and you live eating at Nando's then you must know about the spicy rice. I like it sooo much but it could be pricey eating at Nando's daily .. at least with my salary. So I tried recreating the diah.. with little knowledge of Portuguese recipes. Nando's is Portuguese right?

I've made it a couple of times and I think it tastes nice. Lol.. for this recipe I'm using long grain rice. So I have to soak the rice first for at least 10 minutes before cooking.

Ingredients:

1 cup of uncooked rice (cleaned and soaked for at least 10 minutes)
Boneless chicken breast (skin removed)
1 green bell pepper
1 small onion
1 small tomato
Mushroom (i usually use swiss button mushrooms for this recipe but you can use any mushroom you'd like as long as it tastes good when grilled)
1 cup of water (or stock)
Coriander leaves
1 clove Garlic chopped finely
1 teaspoon Turmeric powder
chilli powder
2 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon lime juice

Method

1. Cut the chicken into small squares. Not too small and not too big. Marinade the chicken with salt, pepper and a few teaspoons of chilli powder. Cover and set aside.
2. Cut the vegetables (green bell pepper, onion,mushroom,tomato) to about the same size as the chicken. Bite size but not too small.
3.Heat the pan. Spray some cooking oil.
4. Brown the chicken. Not too long enough to brown it. Remove chicken. Set aside. Spray the pan again and brown the onion. Again not too long. We just need to have it charred. Repeat with the rest of the veges.
5. After the last vegetable has been charred, put the olive oil in the heated pan.
6. Stir in chopped garlic.
7. Add the drained rice. Stir. Add turmeric powder and the chilli powder. Stir the rice.
8. Add water (or chicken stock if you'd like). Stir the rice.
9. When the water reduced, add the charred veges and chicken. Stir.
10. Stir in chopped coriander, salt and pepper to taste.
11. Let it simmer.. when you don't see anymore water, turn off the heat and cover the pan fully. Let the rice sit for another 10 minutes.
12. Add the lime juice and stir thoroughly and serve warm.

If you like your meals hot eat it with peri-peri sauce. Baked sliced almonds would be great as garnish.

Enjoy!

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Dinner Milk Rolls

Wow... I'm on a roll here aren't I? 2 recipes in a row! I got this dinner rolls recipes from this bread book I bought a long time ago. I think I bought it when mph had a sale or something. Anyway I tried it and it's yummy! Real easy to make. I think the most excruciating part of making the bread is the waiting time. You have to wait a bit more than an hour for the rolls to really double their sizes. I didn't use the bread machine. I did it all by hand. Really.. it's darn easy.

I changed the recipe a bit. The original recipe should make 12 rolls. I halved the recipe and added a bit of butter and milk. So this recipe I'm giving is the one that I used to make 6 gigantic rolls. lol!

Ingredients:

3 cups flour
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp butter
1 tsp dried yeast
1 cup hand-hot milk
cold milk, for glazing

topping: up to you!

Method:

1) Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Rub in the butter, and add in the yeast. Make a well in the center. Add enough of the hand-hot milk to make a soft dough.
2) Knead the dough on lightly floured surface for 10 minutes, or until smooth and elastic. Shape into 6-8 rounds or fun-shapes such as knots, or mini cottage loafs.
3) Lightly grease the baking sheet
4) Place the shaped dough on the baking sheet, cover with plastic and leave in a warm place for about 1 hour or until they have doubled in size. Don't put them in the fridge. It'll take ages!
5) Preheat the oven to 230deg C / 450 F.
6) Glaze the rolls with milk and sprinkle over your chosen topping. Bake for 12 minutes, until the rolls are golden brown and cooked.
7) Cool on a wire rack.

Best eaten on the day they are made. Serve them warm.

Different topping you could try..

Knot shaped roll. Topped with brown sugar, sultanas and rolled oats

This one was topped with oregano and salt. ermm.. I shouldn't have added the salt. LOL

Soft texture. Nice!

These are plain - no topping - dinner rolls.. :) 

Chicken Rendang a la Marina

Hello... It's been a while. I haven't been cooking lately. I took up a job.. and it's taking too much of my time. huhu..

Anyway, someone actually requested that I post a youtube video on how to make simple rendang. The easiest rendang I could think of is Rendang Pedas Ayam. It doesn't require kerisik (grated coconut that is fried until it's brown and oily), and it's really easy. Blend all the ingredients and cook. Simple. I used to make it when I was a student. During Hari Raya time.. before Raya of course, we'd go to Chinatown and get the ingredients. That was back in.. the late 90s. Darn.. now everyone knows my age. LOL! The ingredients are really easy to get back then, I am sure it's even easier to get now.

Hope you'll enjoy the recipe. The youtube video is here... http://youtu.be/KUwGlC8SlBg

Chicken Rendang a la Marina

Ingredients:

Chicken ( I used about 1 kg chicken cut into small pieces)
shallots (I used about 15 - 20. More is good :D )
garlic (1 clove is enough)
ginger (1 cm)
Galangal (1 cm)
2 lemongrass
chili boh (dried chili - soak in hot water, tossed and blended - I used 1/2 cup)
milk from 1 coconut (about 1 cup)
1 turmeric leaf sliced thinly.. or you could just mince it (this one is hard to find but no worries, you may replace it with screwpine leaf (Pandan). If you're using pandan leaf, simply wash it thoroughly and make a knot with the leaf and throw it in about the same time i put in the turmeric leaf)
sugar & salt to taste
vegetable oil for cooking.

Method:

1. Blend the shallots, garlic, ginger, galangal, lemongrass till fine.
2. Heat vegetable oil in wok. Once hot, add the blended ingredients. Stir frequently until browned. Make sure they don't burn.
3. Add in the chili boh. Let the chili cooked. Stir in low heat.
4. Once chili is fully cooked, add the coconut milk. Stir.
5. When it looks red and reduced, add the chicken. Fold carefully so not to break the chicken to pieces.
6. When chicken is cooked add the sliced turmeric leaf. Stir and add sugar and salt to taste.
7. Chicken rendang is ready to be eaten when they turn slightly browned and the gravy is reduced to paste.


Serve hot with rice.

Yummy! Chicken Rendang a la Marina

Chocolate Pear Pudding...

I've had this recipe for years.. The first time I saw Nigella Lawson made this recipe was on Express. I fell in love with its simplicity and the fact that it looks as if I spent hours in the kitchen making it. Before this, I could never find canned pears. So I've substituted the pears with peaches, and the outcome is just as delightful. Recently, to the start of the new year.. a friend I met on twitter organized a Banana Leaf Tweet Up at her place in Puchong. And this baked sponge seemed a perfect present to take to a dinner party :)

It can be eaten as is... or with chocolate sauce. Or on a hot day like this, vanilla ice cream is match made in heaven for this pudding :D

I guess I've hinted earlier, it's one of Miss Nigella's recipe. Got it from her Nigella Express book. I followed her exact recipe.. except I used 1 825g can of pear halves instead of 2 415g cans. No biggie :) If you don't have pear halves.. try other canned fruits.. I've tried with peach halves... excellent! I've also used more cocoa powder than stated in recipe.. Everyone could use more chocolatey goodness every now and then right? ;)


Ingredients:

2 x 415g cans pear halves in juice
125g plain flour
25g cocoa powder
125g caster sugar
150g soft butter, plus extra for greasing
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200degC and grease a 22cm square ovenproof dish with butter
2. Drain the pears and arrange them on the base of the dish. I don't usually cut the pears but if you're bringing it to a party of 100 and you only brought enough for 8 servings.. then I'd advise you to cut the pears into smaller pieces.
3. Put all the remaining ingredients in a bowl and mix until you have a batter with a soft dropping consistency (I have no idea what this means but the batter was quite thick) I hand-mixed the batter. Nigella used the food processor. Same big difference :p 
4. Spread the brown batter over the pears, and bake in the oven for 30 minutes
5. Let stand out of the oven for 5 to 10 minutes and then cut into slabs
6. Makes 6-8 servings ;)

Very Fluffy Donuts :)

I eat them as is :D

When I first moved into my apartment, among the first things I learned how to make was these fluffy donuts. I learned how to freeze them and gave them to my sisters.. My nieces love them so I bought this really tiny donut mold and have been making frozen fluffy donuts since. :)

They are perfect for tea.. late night supper... those unexpected guests.... They are so darn easy to make.. but they take a bit of time to make as the recipe calls for yeast and you need time to let it rise.. but the result is very fluffy donuts.. who wouldn't want that? :D

I usually fry the donuts and eat as it is. My nieces do that also.. but feel free to sprinkle with icing sugar.. or dip it in chocolate.. ;) it uses condensed milk.. but you may substitute it with milk plus a bit of sugar. :)

Ingredients:

1kg flour
11g instant yeast (1 pkt)
2 tablespoon condensed milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup oil
550g water (room temperature)
oil for frying

Method:

1. Mix salt, milk and water. Use water at room temperature only.
2. Mix yeast and flour well. 
3. Add oil to the flour mixture well until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. 
4. Add the milk mixture to the oil-flour mixture and mix them well. It will become a very moist and sticky dough but no problem. Knead a bit and let it rest for 15-20 minutes
5. Knead the dough for 2-3 minutes. Add flour if necessary. Not too much or the donuts will be tough if too much flour is used. 
6. If you have a donut mold, roll the dough on a floured surface to about 1 cm thickness and cut out using the mold. Let it rest on floured plate before frying it. 
7. Otherwise divide the dough into mini balls. Press the dough balls and make holes using your finger. 
8. Fry the donuts until light brown. 
9. To freeze the donuts, fry the donuts quickly to stop the yeast from rising. Cool them and keep them in a tightly sealed container. Freeze them. It can last for a long time in the freezer. Defrost them completely before frying :D

Lightly fried so I can freeze them :)

Easy peasy...  Enjoy!

Easy Chocolate Pistachio Sultana Fudge

cut into little squares and keep in freezer. 

it tastes heavenly! 

I have a breakfast tweetup on Saturday and I thought I should probably bring something for the tweetup. Someone once told me it's polite to bring something if you go to someone's house.. and I've tried to that everytime ever since. I wasn't usually like this. haha :p but now it feels like a necessary thing to do.. :) At first I thought of buying some fruits or something.. as the main menu is Nasi Lemak.. but ermm.. that'd be boring. LOL. Then of course I flipped through Nigella Lawson's magical recipe book.. Nigella Express.. and I saw the Chocolate Pistachio Fudge recipe. It's so easy only the ingredients are quite expensive. But it's fudge. I doubt people would go for seconds. It's too sweet. Right? ermm.. I hope so. hihihi :D

I added some sultanas as I still had some in the fridge. I bought already shelled roasted pistachios. Definitely more expensive but it saves time.. and energy by like a mile. I am not sure if we can substitute the nuts.. why don't you try and tell me about it..? :D

I've altered the recipe a bit. The recipe can be found here.. :)

Ingredients

350g Chocolate Buttons
3/4 can condensed milk (1can = 505g)
30g butter
150g Pistachios
a handful sultanas
salt

Method

1. Put the Chocolate Buttons, condensed milk, butter and salt in the pan at low heat and stir until melt. 
2. Chop the nuts. I did what Nigella did. I put them in a bag, and bash them with a rolling pin. Not only it makes you feel great, it gives the nuts different textures.. :) cool :D
3. Add the nuts and sultanas into the chocolate and condensed milk mixture and mix well.
4. Pour the mixture into a foil tray (23cm square) and smooth the top.
5. Let the fudge cool and then put it into the refrigerator to set. Once set, cut into squares.
6. Keep the squares in the freezer. TO be eaten cold! 

Enjoy!