May 13, 2012

Roasted Chicken Rice

Category: Food

Swept by a sudden craving for Chicken Rice, I knew there was no way of banishing the thought off my mind, despite being acutely aware that I may have to spend more time in the kitchen than I was prepared for.

I last made one a couple of years back, and I seemed to remember that I spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen…which explained my inertia of making it in the first place for  along time to come.

But.

The image of succulent roasted chicken on top of fragrant rice with tangy chilli sauce, continued to dance around in my mind for a few days! And so, being weak-willed,  I finally caved in and bought all the necessary ingredients over the weekend for my Roasted Chicken Rice Mission.

With a little bit of twist to the recipe, I actually surprised myself that all it took was less than 40 minutes of prep time in the kitchen. It does look like a lot of ingredients, and therefore seems to be a lot of work. But as I found out, roasting the chicken in the oven saves a lot more time (DUH!) than having to marinade and then fry them.

And I stand corrected: A chicken rice is NEVER just chicken with rice!

Here’s what I came up with:

Roasted Chicken Rice
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Ingredients
A) Roasted Chicken
  1. 1 whole chicken (about 1-1.5 kg)
  2. 2 inch ginger, pounded
  3. 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
  4. 2 tbsp honey
  5. 1 tspn salt
  6. 1/2 tspn ground white paper
  7. 1/2 tspn five spice powder
  8. 1 tspn cumin powder
  9. Pandan leaves
  10. 1 inch ginger sliced
B) Chicken Rice Soup
  1. 2cm ginger
  2. 1 clove garlic
  3. 1 medium sized shallots
  4. 1/s tspn tumeric powder
  5. Chicken neck and feet from the whole chicken
  6. Half a cube of chicken stock
  7. 2 tbsp chives, chopped
  8. Some parsley
  9. Salt and Pepper to taste
C) Rice
  1. 500 g basmati rice
  2. 2 tbsp butter
  3. 1.5 cm ginger, peeled
  4. 4 mid-sized shallots
  5. 2 cloves garlic
  6. Chicken stock water
  7. 1 cube of non-MSG stock cube
  8. Pinch of salt
  9. Pandan leaves
D) Chicken Rice Chilli Sauce
  1. 5-6 fresh red-chillies
  2. 2 cloves garlic
  3. 3cm young ginger, peeled and sliced
  4. 1 1/2 tspn fresh lime juice
  5. 1 tbsp brown sugar
  6. Half a tspn salt
  7. 5-7 tbsp chicken stock
Sides/Garnishes
  1. Cucumber, sliced
  2. Lettuce
Instructions
  1. Cut the feet and the neck off the chicken (set this aside to use it for soup). Trim the fat from the chicken, rinse and pat dry. Pre-heat over at 200°C.
  2. Combine pounded ginger, dark soy sauce, honey, salt, ground white paper, five spice powder and cumin and rub it all over the chicken. Leave it to marinade for min. 30 minutes.
  3. When done with marination, stuff the pandan leaves and sliced ginger into the chicken and then put it on an aluminium foil.
  4. Crimp the edges of the foil loosely and stuff it into the oven for 20-30 minutes. Then reduce heat to 170°C and roast for 30-40 minutes. To make the skin a little crispier, I would open up the aluminium foil for about 20-25 minutes (Make sure you check often or there’s a risk of the skin being completely burnt!) before covering it up again and let it roast for another 20 minutes.
  5. While the chicken is roasting, prep up the soup by pounding the ginger, garlic and shallots together. Heat up some oil and stir fry the pounded ingredients till fragrant. Add in tumeric powder and stock cube. Stir fry them all together before adding in some water
  6. Add in the chicken neck and feet and boil together (for as long as you want to get a nice broth-like taste)
  7. Then add in parsley, chives and salt and pepper to taste
  8. Wash and drain the rice. Blend/pound the ginger, shallots, garlic together.
  9. Melt the butter in a pot and add in the pounded ingredients till a little browned and fragrant.
  10. Stir fry the rice into the mixture for 5 minutes and transfer it into the rice cooker. Add in chicken stock, pinch of salt and enough water to boil the rice in (you can use the broth of the chicken soup if it is ready). Throw in the pandan leaves into the rice cooker as well.
  11. While waiting for the rice, prep up chilli sauce by blending all of the ingredients in a blender.
  12. Set aside to be served together with the rice.
  13. Here we go! I’ve got soft, juicy and succulent chicken almost falling off the bones when it was ready to be served.
Grubbs n Critters https://grubbsncritters.com/
Here we go! I’ve got soft, juicy and succulent chicken almost falling off the bones when it was ready to be served.

Certainly a very toddler-friendly dish as well, as Spud decided that it was perfectly fine by her to live on Chicken Rice and Soup for several days from then on.

 

CRIMG_1273
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May 11, 2012

So done being nice!

I came home on a Friday late afternoon in a pretty good mood; happy after a surprisingly unexpected, but pleasant outcome of a meeting which I expected to end with a “no”.  I could feel myself bouncing in delight and was looking forward to a good weekend.

After a quick hello kiss to Spud and being my friendly self to the Nanny, I decided that I was going to go for a quick shower whilst Spud was being fed her dinner. 
While showering, I realized 3 of the usual things in my bathroom were missing – my  precious treatment conditioner and my shampoo  (both of which I had hauled back from my hairdresser in Singapore) as well as my feminine cleanser,  were not where they usually are. My shower gel and another type of shampoo were still where they belonged.
I search high and low for them in the bathroom, but could not seem to figure out where they were. Thinking about it, there was no way I could have misplaced them and I was left in a puzzled-mind  throughout my shower.  I decided I was going to ask my Nanny about it, thinking that perhaps she may have placed it somewhere while cleaning the bathroom. 
Now this is where I got annoyed. Royally, pissed-off annoyed!
When I asked her about it, she, in jest (and giggling too!)  told me that oh! She has put them in herbathroom and used them because her shampoo is finished.
Oh? Really? Fucking really?
You should have seen my face. It turned black in a spit second and I immediately raised my voice with a , “YOU WHAT?!” I literally flew off the handle. 
What do you mean her shampoo is finished? And since when did the guest bathroom become HER bathroom? 
And I KNOW for a fact that in that bathroom, there is still a leftover bottle of shampoo, a shower gel as well as a FEW tubes of conditioner. Why would she suddenly see the need to use MY stuff? And guess what! without my permission too!
So, NO –  I did not take that too well. I know it is just a shampoo and conditioner and some feminine wash for crying out loud. (whoever shares feminine wash?!) Not only those things are expensive, and apart from the feminine wash, I actually cannot get them in Bangkok. But that is not the point. The point is that she does not have any right to use ANY of my stuff without my permission. For fuck’s sake, I even ask permission if I can please take a sanitary pad from my own mother!
There and then, I immediately let her know that I was none too pleased. In fact, I told her off that under no circumstances can she ever use my stuff again without my permission. I then proceeded to tell her off in her face that I DO NOT LIKE HER USING MY STUFF.  She did apologize, but the damage was done and I was fuming. 
I don’t care if she just wants to prettify herself because it is her birthday and that she wants to look her best. She, THE NANNY, needs to know her place and that I do not tolerate such behaviour.   
Perhaps we have been too nice to her. and at this juncture, I’m thinking that sometimes, it does not pay to be kind.   
While we do keep an employer-employee relationship and maintained our distance, we have been very nice to her. We even granted her request to take Monday off despite it being a working day for us because it is her birthday and Silver Bullet agreed to stay home to mind Spud.
You treat them as a deserving human being and then they take advantage of your kindness.  3 hours later after that incident, I was still pissed off. I almost did not want to give her birthday present which I bought for her before I got home.  
So much for showing kindness!  You give a finger, and she takes the arm. What she did was effectively betrayed my trust. Of course it is easy for people to say that I may have over-reacted. After all, she was only using my shampoo, conditioner and feminine wash right? Small things. Negligible.Right?
WRONG! Like I said it was not about using my stuff, but rather about the fact that she just took my stuff without asking for my permission prior and treated herself to my things as her right.
And you know what? It sparked off even worse thoughts  as with this incident, I can’t help but be suspicious of what else has she done that I did not know of or what other sneaky stunt she will pull afterwards.
I know this seems a bit far-fetched given that she has been a fairly decent nanny to Spud, but I can’t help but wonder as it begs the question of to what extent is my daughter safe under her care?
This incident shattered my trust big time, and she’d have to try very hard to gain that back again. One thing for sure, I’m not going to be so kind anymore.  7 hours later, I am still frickin’ fuming. I am so livid that I can’t sleep!
And oh! Did I ever tell you that I can bear quite a grudge?! And that unfortunately I am unconsciously finding excuses to nitpick on her for one slightest mistake?
So I over-react. And so be bloody it. And you know what? I am so done being nice here.

[Actually partly ranting away on this space here so that I can get it off my system,in the hope that I’ll be able to get over this pissy mode, move on and stop dwelling on it!]
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May 10, 2012

Hug Me Machine

Category: Ads

Another yet inspiring campagin from Coke where a Hug-Me vending machine was installed at the National University of Singapore. The machine responds only to hugs and you get a free Coke!

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