Salt and chilli chicken recipe

 What a fantastic way to get my blog started again.  I haven't posted for such a long time And I'm quite excited to post about Salt  and chilli chicken.

 I'm sure I've spoken about how fussy my boy is at eating but this is one of the few dishes that he absolutely loves.  I serve it with egg fried rice and it is gone within minutes.

 This is such a lot better than any of those takeaway dinners.  This is such a lot healthier,  i'm not saying that this is slimming by any means though! Lol.  I love to cook this on a Friday or Saturday night,  so that we can all sit together and watch rubbish on telly.  It really does feel like we having a takeaway.

King Prawn Cheong Fun with photo tutorial

mmmm cheong fun................ im sure that it is one of your must haves at the dim sum restaurant? Well, it definitely is mine!!

Indian food is my all time favourite, but sometimes you need a break from all of the complex  flavours and just need something nice and plain and simple. Cheong fun is one of those dishes that I crave at times like this! I have had this dish many times in restaurants, but if you have the time, then it is well worth making it yourself.

If you are not familiar with this dish, I could best explain it as a noodle roll with whatever filling is on offer, but my favourite filling is king prawn by far!!!!

It has taken me many attempts to make cheong fun with a smooth and silky texture, but if you follow my recipe, you will be sure to get some success!! Let me know what you think?

I forgot to mention how healthy it is too. It is steamed and the only oil you will need is some oil to grease your trays and a few drops of sesame oil in the sauce for flavour. And not forgetting how nutritious prawns are anyway.

Ingredients:-

165g rice flour,
3 tbs wheat starch,
2 tbs tapioca starch,
200 ml cold water,
300 ml boiling water,
just a touch over 1/2tsp salt
25/35 fresh king prawns or gambas.
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

sauce ingredients:-

5tbs light soy sauce,
1/4 tsp sesame oil,
2 tbs water,
2 tbs sugar

Directions:-

If you know that you are starting to get a craving for some cheong fun, then I would do this part ahead of time like the day before, or that morning.

1) Prepare a steamer for the rice flour. The rice flour needs to be cooked before hand. this gives the cheong fun a nice silky texture.

2) Sieve the rice flour into a heat proof bowl ( preferably metal ) and cover tightly with cling film as so that the flour keeps completely dry during the steaming process. Steam the flour with a lid, on a medium heat for about 45 minutes.

3) Once the time has gone, remove the flour and let it cool slightly, before you sift the flour again. Once the rice flour is cooked, it should be quite hard.

4) While the rice flour is cooking, de-vein and butterfly the prawns, thoroughly dry them and put them in a container or a non metallic bowl and sprinkle on the soda bicarb. massage in thoroughly. leave to marinate, in the fridge for at least an hour. the longer that you do this, the more tender but crisp the prawns turn out.

5) At this point, boil the kettle for the boiling water and mix all of the other ingredients for the batter thoroughly. Add the cold water slowly ensuring that there are no lumps. Then slowly mix in the boiling water and leave in a warm place for about 1 hour-1,1/2 hours.

6) Set up the largest sauce pan that you have and if you have a steamer then great, but just make sure that you have enough trays that fit into your steamer. my trays don't fit inside my steamer, so this is why I do it this way. First, fill up your large pan or wok even and place it on to boil on a medium to high heat. Place a steamer stand or a metal bowl or something in the middle of the sauce pan. This is to act as an elevation stand or platform for your tray. Grease your trays.

7) Once the water is boiling, place one of the trays onto the platform to get hot, stir the batter well again, because rice flour has a tendency to settle at the bottom. Thoroughly rinse and dry the prawns.

8)Once the tray is hot, ladle a small amount onto it and tilt the tray around as to spread a thin even layer of the batter.

9) Steam for 3 minutes and then remove the lid and place 3 prawns slightly to the side. Steam for another 2 minutes. Leave the tray to cool completely before trying to roll.

10) Repeat the process for the rest of the batter in rotation.

11) Take a spoon or a spatula and loosen the sides of the cheong fun away from the edge of the tray. Very gently roll the noodle sheet over the prawns once, then fold in the edges, then continue to roll.  Place the finished roll to one side on a plate and continue to roll the other rolls.

For the sauce:-

Mix all of the ingredients together ensuring that all of the sugar has dissolved. Taste to test the balance of the sugar salt and sesame oil.


Serve the cheong fun hot with the sauce pored over the top.

Please, let me know what you think? 

Simple egg fried rice recipe

I thought that I would share a few different recipes that I cook at home on regular basis. Even though Indian food is my first love, I am just simply head over heels for all Asian cuisine. I suppose if I was to have some sort of order, of cause my favourite would be Indian, then Chinese (e.g dim sum,) then a very close third would be Thai food, then again very close would be Japanese food. If I have ever been to a restaurant and really enjoyed the food (practically every time :-) I love to try and re-create the food that I have enjoyed. I suppose it is almost like a quest to cook all of my favourite food. I'm sure that I will never complete my quest because there are just too many of my favourite dishes!

Any way I thought that I would share this simple recipe with you all, because it brings back lots of happy memories for me.
When I was a young girl, my Mum would take me down to the local video shop and we would hire out a video to watch over the weekend. I used to love going down to this shop as the man who worked in there had been on the telly staring in a program called countdown. I used to think that because he had been on the telly, that he was a real famous person that we actually knew! Hahaha! God things were so different then!! His shop was nothing like the dvd shops that you get these days. I was a small shop, but the walls were covered with videos. My mum used to let me pick the ones that I wanted to watch, so it is a real simple but fond memory.
My Mum and my Dad would get a Chinese take-away on the Saturday night. I would already of had lots to eat, but I used to lay there in bed, awake and the fabulous smells from downstairs would travel up to my room. I would sneak onto the upstairs landing and listen to their conversation and listening in on the telly. I When the amazing smells were just too mush for me to handle, I would slowly creep downstairs to my parents in the front room. I'm sure they must of told me to get back up stares but I cant remember that bit. I can just remember going round to both of my parents and pinching food off their plate.

When I was a bit older my Mum would go out to the bingo and my dad would babysit for me. As a treat, he use to either cook for me, or we would get a take away!
Eating egg fried rice to me is like having a big comforting hug on a plate.

When cooking egg, fried rice, there are a few things to remember. It is always best to use old rice that has been in the fridge, at least overnight, so it is a really good recipe to use up your leftover rice.

In this recipe I have just kept it simple for everyday use, but feel completely free to add what ever you like. Sometimes I will add sweetcorn, pea's, onion, prawns, pork, chicken, well in fact, anything.......


Ingredients:- serves 4-5

2 cups of uncooked rice,
2-3 tbs sunflower oil,
3 eggs,
a handful of frozen peas, boiled.
soy sauce 1-3 tbs - to taste
2-3 spring onions for garnishing.

Directions:-

Great if you have left over rice and if you have you use all of the ingredients above, so if you do, you need to adjust the above ingredients.

1) Wash the rice under the tap until the water runs clear. Drain and leave the rice in a warm place for the rice to dry out. this will probably take about 1 hour.

2) In the meantime, you can be preparing all of the other vegetables or meat that you want to use.

3) Once the rice is dry and the rest of the ingredients are prepared. Heat up a wok on a very hot heat.

4) Add some oil and scramble the egg. If you are using cooked meat, you will need to add it now. (Tip. if you are using raw meat, then fry it and keep it to one side until now)

5) Add the peas's and stir fry for a moment.

6) Add the rice and fry on a high heat for 2-3 minutes

7) Sprinkle the soy sauce and mix in well.

Sprinkle the spring onions and serve hot with your favourite stir fry.

ENJOY!! :-) :-) :-)