Loh Mai Kai (literal translation : Glutinous Rice with Chicken)

It has been a while since I last had this dish.  In Kuala Lumpur, you can get it at coffee shops throughout the day along with the char siew paos. It is one of the staples at dim sum restaurants. 

Loh Mai Kai is made from glutinous rice.  As kids, we were always told not to have too much because of the "wind" it can cause in the stomach.  Now that we are older, it makes more sense.  So, beware!  Too much loh mai kai is not too kind on the stomach.

Susan, my sister, actually started me on this dish.  Last week, she told me she made it and it was a success.  It actually is very easy, though a bit time consuming because you need to soak the glutinous rice, preferably overnight. I am never a favourite of delayed actions.  I am a now person - my food now, not tomorrow.  However, the Loh Mai Kai was worth the wait.

Here is the recipe for Loh Mai Kai (Glutinous Rice with Chicken)

Ingredients:
150g glutinous rice
2 cloves garlics, mashed
1 cup chicken stock (or sauce from chicken)
60g chicken meat
2-3 black Chinese mushrooms, soaked and cut into thin slices

Chicken Marinade:
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp oyster saucea dash of pepper
1/2 tsp Hua Tiau Jiu (Chinese wine)

1 tsp tapioca flour

 salt

Ingredients for glutinous rice:
1  tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp pepper

1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp dark soy sauce
1/2 tsp Chinese five spice powder

To prepare:

1)       Wash glutinous rice, soak it for two hours, meantime, marinate the

chicken.

2)       Heat up the frying wok, add in oil, garlic and soaked glutinous rice,

stir fry for 2 minutes. Add in all the ingredients for glutinous rice and stir fry till mixed well.

3)       Grease 3 rice bowls, arrange slices of mushroom and chicken.

4)       Top up with fried glutinous rice and press down to make it firm.

5)       Add in chicken stock into these filled rice bowls, make sure the water

level is at least 1 cm above the rice.

6)       Steam for 40 minutes.

7)       Remove the Loh Mai Kai from the rice bowl by turning onto a plate. 

P.S.  You can always add chinese sausages, after frying them lightly. 

Enjoy!

        



                 

Orange Cupcakes

I so love cupcakes these days.  They are so easy to make and pretty easy to
eat too.  Most cupcakes have topping or frosting on it.  Mine does not, partly because it's better for me cos it's less fattening and partly because I have not mastered the art of doing the topping.

My latest cupcake adventure is orange cupcakes.  I so love the smell of orange zest.   I even made an orange chiffon cake last month.  Check out my earlier post.

Ingredients

113 grams unsalted butter, room temperature

2/3 cup white sugar

3 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence

1 1/2 tsp orange juice

Zest of 1 orange

1 1/2 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup milk

Method

1.   Preheat oven to 180 degree  C.  Line a 12 muffin cup tray with

      cupcake liners.

2.   Blend sugar and orange zest in mixer till fragrant.  Add in butter and beat

      till light and fluffy.

3.   Add in eggs, one at a time.  Beat in vanilla essence and orange juice.

4.   Mix flour, baking powder and salt in another bowl.

5.   Add flour mixture and milk, alternately,  into butter mixture.

6.   Spoon mixture into muffin cups.  Bake for 20 minutes.

7.   Remove from oven when cooked.  Cool on wire rack.  Once cooled, top

      with icing.

Enjoy!!

Latest photos of my orange cupcakes.  That would be the 2nd or maybe 3rd batches.

Cupcakes

I recently saw a recipe for cupcakes which triggered my interest in baking them.  I have made heaps of muffins before and have a very good non-stick muffin pan which I use.  However, I have never made cupcakes before. 

I was interested to find out the difference between cupcakes and muffins.  Both of them looked similar in shape.  I always thought that the Americans called it muffins and the British called it cupcakes.  The wonders of the internet and Google!!.  One of the major difference is that cupcakes have toppings while muffins generally do not.  Also, cupcakes uses butter while muffins use vegetable oil.

For this cupcake, I use a small muffin tray.  Aren't they adorable ?

Cupcakes

Ingredients

2 cups self raising flour, sifted

¾ cup sugar

¾ cup milk

125 g butter, melted and cooled

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

Method

1.   Preheat oven to 180 degree C.  Line muffin tray with cupcake liners.

2.   Cream butter and sugar.  Add in eggs.  Add in vanilla essence and milk.

      Beat for 2-3 minutes.

3.   Fold in flour.

4.   Fill muffin tray to ¾ full.  Bake for 15-20 minutes.

5.   Stand in pan for 5 minutes.  Take out and cool on wire rack.

This basic cupcake recipe  is very easy and perfect for your own topping.  For the icing, you can try this.

Icing

1 ½ cup icing sugar

1 ½  tablespoon water

Colouring

Enjoy!