Rice Archives • Mushroompride

Japanese Curry Fried Rice with Chicken Katsu – Delishar

The husband is a big fan of Japanese curry. I mean, who isn’t? That distinctly rich, thick, and mildly spicy curry with a hint of cocoa. Sooooooooooo good, and so simple to make! This dish was inspired by Pepper Lunch. That delicious sizzling Japanese cast iron hot plate meal. My go to is always the curry beef rice with cheese. Darn, my tummy is growling again!

Anyway, with that in mind, I added the Japanese curry roux to my fried rice. Then jazzed it up a little more with more curry powder, and cocoa powder. Yes, cocoa powder. For a richer, deeper flavour, and colour too. Do you know that Japanese curry has cocoa powder added to give you that rich colour? So why not a little more? 🙂

I used a mix of cornflakes and panko for my breading to make it extra crispy. But you can also just all panko to safe some time from crushing the cornflakes. Which I find extremely therapeutic when I’m feeling stressed! Almost like popping bubble wrap. 😀

Check out my other recipes using Japanese Curry: Baked Curry Katsu Don, Japanese Curry Beef Baked Rice.

Don’t forget to participate in the current giveaway!! 5 pairs of Each-a-Cup drink vouchers to giveaway! Click HERE for details!

Chicken Katsu Process

Curry Fried Rice Process

Japanese Curry Fried Rice with Chicken Katsu

Sharon of Delishar

Japanese Curry Fried Rice

2 cubes of curry roux melted
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp cocoa powder
3 cups cooked rice preferably cooked a day before
3/4 cup frozen mixed vegetable thawed
1/2 yellow onion diced
2 cloves garlic minced
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp cooking oil

Chicken Katsu

3 chicken breast butterflied
1 large egg lightly beaten
1/4 cup plain flour
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup crushed cornflakes
1/4 cup cooking oil
Salt and pepper to taste

To serve

3 eggs
1/4 cup Japanese mayo
1-2 tsp wasabi or to taste

Japanese Curry Fried Rice

Heat curry roux in microwave for 40 seconds to melt.
Heat pan on medium high, and add 2 tbsp oil.
Saute onion until soften, then add garlic, and mixed vegetable.
Add rice and use a spatula to break up the clumps.
Sprinkle the cocoa powder and curry powder.
Add in the curry roux.
Mixed until combined.
Season with salt and pepper to taste, then remove from heat.

Chicken Katsu

Season chicken with salt and pepper on both sides.
In a plate, mix cornflake and panko together.
Dredge chicken in flour, then dip in egg.
Coat chicken with panko and cornflake mix.
Heat pan on medium high, add oil.
When oil is hot, shallow fry chicken until golden on both sides. (about 3 minutes)

Curry Katsu

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Thai Rice Soup (Khao Tom Goong Moo) – Delishar

The family hasn’t been feeling all that well lately, probably due to the haze. There’s a lot of coughing going around at home. Appetite hasn’t been all that great, so making food that are both easily consumable, and nourishing was my way of helping the family feel better. The Thais have this as part of their breakfast, very much like how we will eat congee in the morning.

We are not a family that likes congee, especially the girls. The girls prefers something with more of a bite as compared to the mushy texture of congee. Plus, who doesn’t like slurping on soup? The broth was made with ginger and lemongrass. Ginger has many healing benefits, to aid digestion, fight flu/cold, reduce nausea, has anti-inflammatory properties, reduce muscle soreness and aches, lower blood sugar, decrease risk of heart disease, fight infections… just to name a few. And lemongrass has many therapeutic properties too. It is a good source of vitamins A and C, folate, folic acid, magnesium, zinc, copper, iron, potassium, phosphorus, calcium and manganese. Some of it’s medicinal properties includes analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antidepressant, antiseptic, antibacterial, antifungal, astringent, insecticidal, sedative, and that’s not the whole list.

When herbs and spices such as ginger, garlic, and lemongrass comes together. You can be so certain that it will be a dish packed full of flavours. The husband was dubious when he first saw a bowl of rice with clear broth. However, when he took his first spoonful, his eyes opened wider as it lit up. Looked at me and said, “Wow!”. And his face was inseparable from the bowl. lol! I used prawn and pork as my protein here, because that is my family’s preference. You can also use chicken, fish, beef, seafood, or even tofu slices with vegetable broth and soy sauce to make it a vegetarian alternative.

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1 Skillet 26cm in Dijon Yellow
1 Spatula medium in Caribbean Blue
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1 Bowl in Dijon Yellow
1 Bowl in Caribbean Blue

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Thai Rice Soup Process

Thai Rice Soup (Khao Tom Goong Moo)

Delishar

250 g pork fillet sliced
16 shrimp peeled and cleaned
6 cups pork or chicken broth
3 cloves garlic minced
2 lemongrass bruised and cut to 2 inch pieces
6-8 slices of ginger
2 tbsp fish sauce or to taste
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp shaoxing wine
1 tsp corn flour
white pepper to taste
1/4 cup chopped chinese celery
2 tbsp chopped spring onion
2 tbsp chopped coriander
Juice of 1 lime
1 heaping tsp of sugar or to taste
2 tbsp sesame/peanut oil
4 servings of cooked white rice
Fried shallot to garnish
Thai chilli flakes optional

Marinate pork in soy sauce, shao xing wine, white pepper, and corn flour.
Heat pan, and add sesame oil.
Stir-fry garlic, and ginger until garlic begin to turn golden.
Add pork, and stir-fry until pork is no longer pink.
Pour in stock, lemongrass, and season with fish sauce.
Bring to boil and allow to simmer for 3-5 minutes.
Then add prawns, lime juice, and sugar.
Allow to cook for a minute.
Add celery, parsley, and spring onion, then allow to cook until prawn is done.
Remove from heat and serve over cooked rice.
Garnish with fried shallow and thai chilli flakes.

Vegetarian variations:
Use tofu instead of pork and shrimp.
Substitute stock with vegetable stock, and use soy sauce instead of fish sauce.

3 thai rice soup

To take part in this giveaway, simply complete the rafflecopter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This giveaway ends on Tuesday, September 22, 2015 at 12:00 a.m. Singapore time (GMT+8). Giveaway bundle includes: Skillet 26cm in Dijon yellow x 1, Spatula medium in Caribbean x 1, Silicone handle sleeve in Caribbean x 1, Bowl in Dijon x 1, Bowl in Caribbean x 1. The winner will be selected by random.org and will contacted by email. The winner will need to respond within 48 hours. If there is no response from the winner after 48 hours, another winner will be selected. The winner will need to self-collect the prize at Le Creuset’s office; therefore, it is open to Singapore entrants only.

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Thai Spatchcock Chicken with Fragrant Rice – Delishar

When Mekhala Living sent me the care package, I was over the moon when I saw a bottle of Thai Fragrant Seasoning. I though to myself, “Finally, my prayers answered!”. A walk down the supermarket aisle, and on the spice rack you will see Italian spices, cajun spices, garlic & onion spice mix… etc. But what you will not find is a Thai spice mix. Dried spice mix like this makes life so much easier, no mincing and chopping of spices. Plus, I can bring it to the USA with me and still have Thai spices readily available!

The Thai Fragrant Seasoning is made from the usual Thai herbs and spices such as basil, kaffir lime leaves, galangal, and lemongrass. Mekhala uses only the best organic produce from Thailand. And since I was making a spatchcock chicken with Thai seasoning, I took it a step further by using the Organic Cold Pressed Virgin Coconut Oil to give it extra fragrance. Coconut and thai spices are a match made in heaven!

Thai Spatchcock Chicken 3

I love roasting spatchcock chicken, simply because it cooks faster and more evenly. Do not know how to Spatchcock a chicken? Click on this link here to watch the video. I can stare at the crispy skin all day, and when you cut into the chicken, the juice… oh, the juice…Succulent chicken with crispy skin, what’s not to love? My girl kept saying, “Mom, I want the skin, please?”

I served the Thai chicken with Fragrant Coconut Rice, using the Lemongrass Turmeric Paste also included in the care package. That added a lot of flavours to the rich coconut rice! My youngest could not stop going on about how much she love the ‘yellow’ rice. I had 2 portions myself that night. The paste will make an awesome marinate, or simply fried rice. It’s a very good alternative to use if you love the Thai flavours but could not handle the heat. Great for kids to have very little spice tolerance too! Overall, this was an excellent meal! Thank you Mekhala Living!

Also see Crispy Tom Yum Chickpeas using Mekhala’s Tom Yum Paste

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Thai Spatchcock Chicken with Fragrant Rice

Delishar

Thai Spatchcock Chicken

1.6 kg whole chicken cleaned
1 heaping tbsp of Mekhala’s Thai Seasoning or you can use cajun/italian/curry etc
1-2 tsp sea salt or to taste
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 tbsp coconut oil or olive oil

Turmeric Ginger Coconut Rice

2 tbsp of Mekhala’s Turmeric Ginger paste
2 cups of rice rinsed
200 ml coconut milk
2-3 tsp grated ginger
1 knotted pandan leaf
water to fill up to your rice cooker mark for 2 cups rice

To Serve

Lime wedges
Chopped cilantro

Thai Spatchcock Chicken

To spatchcock a chicken, lay it on a cutting board with breast down.
Use a kitchen spears to cut and remove the back bone.
Flip chicken over, open and lay it as flat as possible on the cutting board.
Press firmly on breastbone to flatten.
Transfer to lightly greased baking tray.
Make a paste by mixing coconut oil, salt, pepper, and thai seasoning.
Massage the paste all over the top and inside part of the chicken.
Cling wrap it, and allow to marinate for an hour to 24 hours.
When ready, bake in middle rack of preheated oven of 200C for 50 minutes or until cooked.
Check by piercing leg, the juices should run clear.

Turmeric Ginger Coconut Rice

In your rice cooker, add rice, ginger, and coconut milk.
Top up enough water till your rice cooker marked 2 cups.
Stir in turmeric ginger paste.
Add pandan leaf.
Press cook.
Remove pandan leaf and fluff rice before serving.

Substitute for Mekhala’s turmeric ginger paste: 1 tbsp grated ginger + 2 tsp grated turmeric / 1 tsp turmeric powder + 2 garlic cloves minced + 1/4 tsp salt

Thai Spatchcock Chicken

Disclaimer: This post was made possible by Mekhala Living. However, all opinions are of my own.

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Hainanese Chicken Rice – Delishar

Can you believe that I made this whole meal all in one machine? That means less clean up, no poaching the chicken in a large pot of hot water, no hand mincing of herb (My hands does not have to smell like shallot and garlic!), but still the same delicious meal! From chopping of the spices to steaming a whole chicken, making of the chicken rice, and you can make the chilli dipping sauce with this machine too!

If you are thinking of that one brand of machine that may break your bank, then you are wrong. Well, partly right and wrong. Right because it is also a multi-function cooking machine that allows you to do most of your prep work to cooking with the machine itself. Wrong because it’s not the machine you are thinking of, and it’s definitely not going to cost you S$2500 or more to own one. This cooking machine I’m talking about is a new kitchen machine that is coming to Singapore very soon.

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This is the Bellini SuperCook Kitchen Master, a German engineered cooking machine that will be available in SG soon. Both sales and service centre will be located in Singapore for your convenience. Plus, it’s only going to be retailing at almost half of what you will pay for competing brand!

Here are the Specifications of the Bellini SuperCook:

2 Liters Stainless Steel Jar
13 functions including steaming, blending, kneading, pulverising and chopping
Cooking temperature: 40 ° – 130 °C, in 5 °C steps
1000W heating for cooking, 500W for mixing
10 speeds + turbo mixing functions
Libra Weighing scale
Standard accessories: Vapore steam trays, measuring cup,  stainless steel knife (Sharp),  stainless steel knife (Blunt), stainless steel jar, cooking basket, whisk paddle, spatula, recipe book, Yumi App with SD card.
Yumi Control System with 36 installed recipes collection and access to over 3800 free online recipes that you can download and save on the system.
Wifi synchronisation between the Yumi Control System and SuperCook Yumi App on your mobile phone. Your phone would then guide you through the precise steps of cooking your favourite dish. You can either create your own recipes and upload them or you can download the free recipes and use them at your convenience

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For comparison sake, I placed a bottle of wine beside the machine to let you have a visual of the size of the machine. No, it’s not because I was drinking while cooking. But then again, it’s not wrong to have a little drink, dance around, and be merry while cooking. Am I right, or am I right? So as you can see, it comes with 2 Vapore steam trays. A shallow tray and one that is deeper. In this recipe, I’m using the deeper tray for my whole chicken. You could stack the shallow tray on top and steam some vegetable for this meal as well.

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The 2 blades that comes with the standard package are the blunt blade that acts like your cooking spatula you use to saute food, and the knife blade for food processing. These blades will be your personal sous chef, doing all your chopping, mincing, mixing, and sautéing for you. It comes with a whisk paddle for you to whip up some gorgeous meringue too! You see that little hook at back of the spatula there? It’s for you to slide it into the basket to pick it up without burning yourself. Kudos to paying attention to such details!

You can pretty much do everything in this machine. With the exception of deep-frying, which to me wasn’t a limitation since the society is moving towards healthier eating without all the deep-fried process food. I was pretty impressed with what this machine can do. However, it takes a little getting used to. Such as how much time to set for cooking, and what temperature setting to use. But once you get the hang of that, using this machine will be easy peasy. Oh, did I also mention that I think this machine will be great at making baby food? Just chop, cook, and puree.

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So back to this recipe, I understand how important it is to use the ‘essence’ of the chicken to make the chicken rice. Thank goodness the SuperCook comes with a tray to catch all the lovely chicken essence released while it steams. I was able to collect a good amount of it, and topped up some chicken broth to steam the fragrant chicken rice. Which was perfect because the chicken needed time to cool before I was able to chop it up into pieces to serve. As you can see, the steamed chicken turned out to be succulent and moist, yes even the breast was nice and moist!

Don’t worry if you do not have the SuperCook, yet. I’ll include an adaptation of this recipe in the note section of the recipe card. The Bellini SuperCook Kitchen Master will be available in Singapore sometime between late February to March. If you are interested to learn more about his machine, please go to SGSuperCook.com to register your interest, and like their Facebook Page to keep abreast to tips, and promotions.

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Hainanese Steamed Chicken

Delishar

Hainanese Steamed Chicken

1 kg whole chicken
1 tbsp chinese cooking wine
1 tsp sesame oil
1-2 bunch spring onion
5-6 slices of ginger
2 cloves garlic minced
1/2 tsp salt
1.5 litres water
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sesame oil for brushing

Sauce to drizzle

1 tsp sesame oil
1-2 tbsp soy sauce to taste
4 tbsp chicken stock / left over water from steaming chicken
1 tsp sugar

Hainanese Steamed Chicken

Rinse and clean chicken.
Remove head and feet using your kitchen shears.
Lay chicken breast side down.
Using your kitchen shears, cut along backbone of chicken and discard (or save it to make chicken broth)
Flip chicken over, breast side up, spread it open, and using your palm push onto the middle of the chicken breast to break breastbone.
In a mixing bowl, add wine, 1 tsp sesame oil, garlic, and salt.
Rub the wine mixture on the cavity and outside of chicken.
Place the deeper vapore tray on top of the catchment tray.
Lay out the spring onions and ginger on the vapore tray, then place chicken breast side up on top of the spring onions and ginger. Cover tray.
Add 1.5L of water into the stainless steel jar with knife blade, and add 1 tsp salt.
Cover and set temperature to 125C for 45 minutes, speed 2.
The machine will start counting down.
At the 36 minute mark, remove the top measuring cup of the machine, and place the vapore tray on top. Be careful of the steam.
Allow to steam for 35 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink. About 35-40 minutes.
Remove chicken from vapore tray, reserve jus collected in the catchment tray.
Brush on some sesame oil on the chicken skin.
Allow chicken to cool for 15 minutes before chopping.

Prepare chicken the same way, but place seasoned chicken on stainless steel plate.
Steam over high heat for 35-40 minutes.
Drain and reserve all the jus collected on the plate for later use.
Brush on some sesame oil on the chicken skin.
Allow to cool for 15 minutes before chopping.

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Hainanese Chicken Rice

Delishar

Chicken Rice

400 g rice
Reserved chicken jus / essence + enough chicken stock to make 1 liter
2 tsp sesame oil
4 shallots
5 cloves garlic
1 thumb ginger peeled
2 pandan leaves knotted
1 lemongrass bruised and cut into parts
salt to taste

Chilli Sauce

3 chilli padi seeded
4 cloves garlic
1 inch thumb ginger
¼ teaspoon sugar
4-5 tablespoon chicken broth

Chicken Rice

Rinse rice in rice basket.
Add garlic, shallots, and ginger into the jar with knife blade on.
Process at speed 6 for 20 seconds, scrap down with spatula and process again at speed 6 for 10 seconds.
Scrap down sides with spatula, add sesame oil.
Saute at 100C, speed 2 for 2 minutes.
Add rice, season with salt, and saute at 100C, speed 2 for 2 minutes.
Pour rice into rice basket.
Pour the reserved chicken jus/essence and top up with enough chicken stock till 1 liter mark.
Insert rice basket into jar, top with lemongrass, and pandan leaves.
Then cook at 125C, speed 2, 18 minutes or until rice is done.
Remove rice basket and set it on a plate to rest.
The rice will look slightly wet at first but will firm up when rested.

Process garlic, ginger, and shallot until you get a rough paste.
Saute spices with sesame oil in a frying pan.
Add rice and saute for 2-3 minutes.
Transfer rice to rice cooker and add enough reserved jus + chicken stock to cook rice.
Top with lemongrass, and pandan leaves.
Cook as per rice cooker setting.

Chicken Rice 8

Disclaimer: While this review was a made possible by SGSuperCook.com. All the above opinions are of my own.

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Cauliflower Fried ‘Rice’ – Delishar

After all the festive feasting, it’s time for us to lose the carbs that are clinging on to dear life around our belly. Using this cauliflower ‘rice’ method, I was successful in tricking the kids into eating cauliflower. Which for some weird reason, they do not like. They seem to think it’s a defected broccoli, and it’s just not right to eat.

While we were having dinner at the dining table as a family, I asked if they knew what they were having. Excitedly, the girls exclaimed, “Fried rice! Mmmm I like fried rice! It’s very yummy, mummy!”. The husband looked at me with a puzzled face thinking I’ve gone crazy asking him such a silly question. He said, “Isn’t it fried rice? Or has it got some magic?” so I whispered to him that it’s actually cauliflower. His respond was, “Wow! Smart move.” knowing that the girls doesn’t like cauliflower, he kept the secret.

Cauliflower is one of those vegetables that is very often under-appreciated. Perhaps it’s because it’s not green? In actual fact, cauliflower has an abundance of health benefits. It contains sulforaphane which has been shown to slow tumour growth and fight cancer. It is rich in vitamin and minerals, especially Vit-C. Good source of Vit B which is good for the brain. Cauliflower is also an anti-inflammatory, and contains antioxidants that’s great for detox. It is also heart healthy and is an important source of dietary fiber for digestive health. It is listed as one of the world’s healthiest food. So if you are looking for an alternative low-carb source of food, cauliflower may be your best bet. 🙂

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Califlower Fried ‘Rice’

Delishar

650 g Cauliflower cut into florets
2 eggs lightly beaten
1 cup mixed frozen vegetables
2-3 tbsp soy sauce
Salt & black pepper to taste
1-2 tbsp cooking oil
2-3 tbsp chopped spring onions.

Place cauliflower florets in food processor, process until you get fine rice-like pieces.
Alternatively, you can grate a head of cauliflower to get cauliflower ‘rice’.
Heat wok on medium high heat, add oil.
Add cauliflower ‘rice’ and stir-fry for 5 minutes.
Add frozen mixed vegetables and stir-fry until heated through.
Season with soy sauce, salt & pepper.
Create a crater in the middle of the cauliflower rice, and pour in eggs.
Scramble until almost set but still wet.
Toss with cauliflower ‘rice’ to coat.
Remove from heat, and stir in chopped spring onions.

Cauliflower fried rice 1

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Kimchi Fried Rice – Delishar

Fried rice is my best friend when I’m fighting for time, and have plently of leftover rice laying around in my fridge. It is such a great meal on it’s own to use up whatever leftovers there are in the fridge! Add some chicken cubes to this recipe for some protein, and it’s good to go as a complete meal on it’s own.

I served this super simple 15 minutes dish with Korean Fire Chicken with Cheese that I shared last week. I love the slight tangy-ness from the pickled kimchi, and the lovely spices definitely helped kick this fried rice up a notch, or even two notches! Even the husband who is not a big fan of Korean food helped himself to his second serving that evening. If you are one who love your food with some kick to it, you will definitely enjoy this one. 🙂

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Kimchi Fried Rice

Delishar

1 cup kimchi chopped
1/2 cup kimchi juice
1/2 yellow onion diced
3 cloves garlic minced
2 tsp grated ginger
2 tbsp gochujang Korean hot pepper paste
1 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp vegetable oil
4 cups cooked rice
2 tbsp chopped green onions
Salt and black pepper to taste

Toppings

4 sunny side up eggs
Chopped spring onions
Toasted sesame seeds

Finely chop up kimchi and squeeze to get juice.
Reserve juice for later.
In a bowl, mix gochujang, kimchi juice, grated ginger, soy sauce, and sugar.
Heat pan on medium high, add sesame and vegetable oil.
Saute onion until soft, and add garlic to stir fry for another 30 seconds.
Add Kimchi into pan, and stir fry for a minute.
Then add rice to the pan breaking it up with your spatula.
Pour in kimchi juice mixture, and toss to coat evenly.
Season with salt and pepper if needed, and remove from heat.
Sprinkle chopped green onions, and toss to combine.
Serve with sunny side up egg, chopped spring onions, and sesame seeds.

Kim Chi Fried Rice 1

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Pulut Hitam Rice Ball in Coconut Sauce – Delishar

I’m obsessed with Bubur Pulut Hitam, that sticky & gooey warm black glutinous rice porridge that’s sweetened with gula melaka and finished with a slight drizzle of rich fragrant coconut milk. If there is one Asian dessert I can have every single day without having to worry about weight gain, it has to be Pulut Hitam. Just writing this post is getting my mouth all watery, and tummy all rumbly.

The other thing I like next to bubur pulut hitam is tang yuan or glutinous rice balls. I prefer the plain ones with no filling/stuffing as compared to the ones with it, and I like to have mine with warm and thick almond paste. There’s something about the thick and rich consistency that I really enjoy. So when I chance upon this recipe, I was elated!

Putting the 2 top Asian dessert on my list together as one, and a darn easy one to make too! Although I prefer plain glutinous rice balls more than the ones with filling in it. It keeps ringing in my ear that it’ll be nice to wrap a little piece of gula melaka in it. Maybe next time, I might might just do that, for that ondeh ondeh effect. But for now, I’m really enjoying this lovely dessert.

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Bubur Hitam Rice Balls

Delishar

Rice Balls

125 g white glutinous rice flour
75 g black glutinous rice flour
40 g granulated coconut/palm sugar or fine sugar
1/4 tsp salt
150 ml luke warm water

To cook rice ball

1 pandan leaf knotted
Gula melaka/palm sugar to taste
Water

Coconut Sauce

400 ml coconut milk
1 pandan leaf knotted
2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt

Coconut Sauce

In a saucepan, add coconut milk, pandan, salt, and sugar.
Bring to a simmer, stirring frequently until fragrant and thickened.
Remove from heat and set aside.

Rice ball

Combine all the rice ball ingredients into a bowl, and knead until dough comes together, and is smooth.
Roll dough into 1 inch size balls.

To cook rice ball

Bring water to boil, sweetened with gula melaka to taste. (this just adds a bit more flavour to the rice ball.)
Add pandan leaf.
Add rice balls, and cook until done. When it’s done, it will float to the surface.
Place cooked rice balls in a bowl of tap water to stop cooking process.

The glutinous rice ball isn’t very sweet, you can add more sugar to the mix if you like it a little sweeter.
Adapted from Daily Cooking Quest

Black Glutinous Rice Balls 4

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Saffron Basmati Rice – Delishar

So in my last post, I shared with you a recipe of my Spatchcock Tandoori Chicken. I mentioned that I served it with Saffron rice and will be sharing with you the recipe. So as promised, here is the recipe.

I, or perhaps I should say… the whole family fell so deeply in love with saffron rice that I knew I had to re-create it at home. As a family, we would eat out some times and one of out favourite restaurant to have dinner is an Indian joint. My girls will always request to have naan and ‘yellow rice’ which is saffron rice. I secretly rejoice when they ask for it because the husband and I are huge fans too.

Loaded with aromatics, warm Indian spices, luxurious saffron, and flavourful ghee. The fluffy, and gorgeously tinted rice turned out to be light, fluffy, and loaded with so much oomph in each bite. Just typing about it is making me salivate quite uncontrollably! Let’s get to the recipe shall we?

Saffron Rice

Delishar

2 cups basmati rice rinsed
2 pinches of saffron thread
1/4 cup of boiling water
2 tbsp ghee / clarified butter
3 cloves garlic minced
3 cardamom pods lightly smashed*
1 cinnamon stick*
4 cloves*
1/2 tsp cumin seeds*
1/2 tsp mustard seeds*
1/2 tsp turmeric powder*
2 bay leaves*
1 star anise*
4-5 black peppercorn*
1 shallot chopped
1/2 cup frozen peas
Chicken stock
Raisins optional

Steep the saffron in the 1/4 cup boiling water.
Heat pan on med high, melt ghee in pan.
Saute onion until soft, then add spices marked *.
Saute for 30 seconds, then add garlic, and saute for another 30 secs.
Add rice and toss to coat, and remove from heat.
Transfer rice to rice cooker, pour in saffron mixture, and add enough chicken stock into rice cooker as indicated in your pot indicator.
Add frozen peas, and cook as per normal.
When rice is cooked, remove bay leaves, star anise, cardamom, cinnamon, and cloves.
Fluff rice before serving.

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Mango Chicken on Cauliflower Egg Fried Rice – Delishar

The husband came home one day, rather excited to discuss a brilliant idea he had.
Husband: “Do you know of the Whole30? I would like to go on it, would you do it with me? Please? I really need you.”
Me: “Hmmm, to be your personal cook I suppose? Let me do a little research and let you know.”

Next day, I went to the library to read up on this whole 30 program. I was intrigued, and checked out the book to go a little more in depth. After I’m sped through the first half of the book, I told the husband, “I’ll do it if you read this book too. Skip the recipes, just read what this program is really about and the rules that follows.”

If we are doing this I need commitment. Why? This is going to be the toughest challenge that we will be embarking on. Basically, the rules are no sugar (real or refined), dairy, legumes, grains, alcohol (not even for cooking), carrageenan, MSG, or sulfites, and no baked goods, junk foods, or treats with “approved” ingredients. So in short, no soy sauce, pasta, rice etc. What do we eat then?!

After researching, I was pretty confident that I can make Whole30 compliant food using the approved food list, this is one such recipe. Made it as a test-run. It was so goooood, that we felt pretty confident diving into this program! So we agreed on a date, the Monday after my youngest daughter’s birthday party.

Why? Because we all wanted cake! Lol A little diversion. This is the bear cake I made for her. Quite proud of myself as it was my first time making a bear cake and with modeling chocolate too. I had a tiny sliver of cake that day to celebrate her birthday, and mark my sugar-free journey.

Focus. Whole30 in short eliminates food that causes allergies, addiction, or mess up our gut health. Thus, programming the body to reset itself, and slowly re-introduce food to find out how the body reacts to it. I’m hoping this will help with my daily sinus and hive problem. I’ll blog more about our Whole30 journey, and share the recipes that comes with it as well. For now, let’s just hope I can survive my mornings without my Kopi Kau (thick coffee with condensed milk). That hit of sugar in the morning is probably what has been keeping me from biting off people’s head. lol!

Mango Chicken on Cauliflower Egg Fried Rice

Delishar

Chicken

5 tbsp Tapioca flour
400 g Chicken breast patted dry and cut into one-inch cubes
Salt & black pepper to taste
3 tbsp Coconut oil

Mango Sauce

4 tsp coconut oil divided
1 tbsp ginger grated
3 cloves garlic grated
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp chilli flakes optional
1 1/2 cup 360ml mango juice (100% pure juice)
1 tbsp coconut aminos*
3 tsp tapioca flour

Cauliflower rice

6 cups cauliflower cut into bite-sized pieces about 620g
3 tsp coconut oil
2 eggs lightly beaten
1/4 cup spring onion chopped
1 tbsp coconut aminos
salt and black pepper to taste

Baby Beans

300 g baby beans ends removed
2 tsp olive oil
Salt and black pepper to taste

Garnish

Chopped spring onions
Toasted black sesame seeds

Chicken

Place chicken, flour, salt & pepper into a ziplock bag. Seal and toss to coat chicken with seasoning and flour.
Heat pan on medium high heat, add oil.
Shake off excess flour, and pan fry chicken until golden on all sides. You may have to do this in batches.
Remove and set aside.

Mango Sauce

With the same pan, give it a wipe with kitchen towels.
Add oil and heat on medium heat, melt coconut oil.
Add in the ginger, garlic, chilli flakes, and cumin. Cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.
Add in the juice and coconut aminos.
Bring to boil at high heat.
Add 1 tbsp of sauce liquid to 1 tbsp of tapioca flour in a bowl, and whisk until smooth.
Pour mixture into sauce while stirring constantly, and cook for 2 minutes.
Reduce heat to medium low and simmer for 6-7 mins, stirring frequently, until the sauce reduces by about 1/4.
Remove from heat, and add in chicken.
Toss to coat.

Cauliflower rice

Process cauliflower in food processor until you get rice size pieces.
Heat wok on high heat, and add coconut oil.
Add cauliflower to stir fry for 6-8 minutes.
Create a well in the middle of the cauliflower and add in eggs.
Scramble until almost set, and toss together with cauliflower.
Season with coconut aminos, salt, and pepper.
Remove from heat, and toss in spring onions.

Baby Beans

Heat pan on medium high heat, and add oil.
Add beans to saute until desired done-ness.
Season with salt and black pepper half way through.

I made my own mango juice by pureeing a fresh mango and some water.
Coconut aminos is a whole30 compliant ‘soy’ sauce.
Adapted from LAMuscle

…

Pineapple Cauliflower Fried ‘Rice’ (Whole 30, Paleo) – Delishar

Day 17 of Whole 30. Still, no tiger blood. Perhaps, I’m just one of those who will never get it. That would kind of suck, because I could really use that burst of energy. The husband’s energy level has been pretty low as well. He mentioned that he felt slightly light-headed when he was playing at the softball field over the weekend. This could be due to the body working extra hard to convert reserved fats in the body into energy rather than feeding off the refined sugar & simple carbs that a regular diet would have.

He also broke one rule and stepped on the scale on Sunday. I honestly don’t think that’s a make or break and have to restart the whole program. But he did tell me that he lost 4kg! His biggest fight is with his sugar dragon. I’m not sure if he would ever be able to slay that dragon. He snacks on a date and fruits whenever he feels the need for something sweet. Still better than him eating chocolate, or cake. Other than that, he has been really good about the diet. I’m very proud of him!

One thing I miss most is Asian food. You know, rice with several dishes laid out on the table. I miss Thai food too, so I made this whole 30 variation of Thai Pineapple Fried Rice using cauliflower ‘rice’. I served it with a side of Thai Basil Beef Lettuce Wraps. It definitely satisfied my need for Asian food that night. 🙂

I honestly can’t wait for the diet to be over so I can go get some blood work done to see if my body chemistry changed. Believe it or not, my cholesterol level is borderline high, and I suffer from hypo hypothyroidism too. I tried eating bland soupy food, mainly soy, vegetables, and fish for 2 weeks and re-took the test, but it was still borderline high. Attributed it to genetics. Everyone in my family has that problem.

I’d be very surprised if I’m able to lose a couple of pounds with this diet given my under-active thyroid condition. My metabolism rate is pretty low, and I have been struggling with losing that extra 3-4kg to get to my ideal weight. During the re-introduction phase, I’ll get back to fitness routines as well which i’m sure will help burn the extra calories and help me feel better.

Thai Pineapple Fried Cauli-rice

Delishar

1 kg cauliflower cut into florets
1/2 pineapple chunks
12 large prawns peeled & cleaned
2 eggs lightly beaten
2 cloves garlic minced
1/2 yellow onion diced
1/2 cup shredded carrot
1 cup diced french beans
1/2 red pepper diced
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp coconut aminos or soy sauce if not whole30
1 tbsp fish sauce
Salt & black pepper to taste
3 tbsp coconut oil
Chopped spring onions to garnish
Sliced lime wedges to serve

Place cauliflower into food processor and process until you get rice like size.
Heat pan on medium high heat with 1 tbsp oil.
Season prawns with salt and black pepper.
Pan fry prawns until until cooked, about 1-2 minute each side.
Remove and set aside.
Add remaining 2 tbsp coconut oil into pan.
Stir-fry onions until soft and translucent, then add garlic to cook for 30 seconds.
Add french beans, carrot, and red pepper to cook for a minute.
Then add cauliflower rice.
Stir-fry for 4-5 minutes.
Season with turmeric powder, fish sauce, coconut aminos, black pepper, and salt to taste.
Create a well in the middle and pour in eggs.
Scramble until set and toss it together with cauli-rice.
Add pineapple chunks, and cooked prawns.
Add
Serve garnished with chopped spring onions, and a wedge of lime.