Chayote (Chokos) with dried shrimps

I dunno about you but I've taken a great liking for chayote (chokos) and on Sunday, I found that I had no prawns in the freezer so I decided to fry it with dried shrimps instead.

I was very pleased with the outcome and in fact, I liked it more than the version I cooked with prawns. You're bound to love it too - if you're fond of dried shrimps :P

Anyway, I was lazy and took the shortcut - didn't parboil the chayote slices this time round and just fried them ... it was still ok. :P

Chayote (Chokos) with dried shrimps

Ingredients:

• 1 big chayote (chokos) - remove skin and seed and slice very thinly)
• 1 handful of very small dried shrimps
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• fish sauce to taste

Method:

1. Rinse the dried shrimps a couple of times. Soak them in about half a bowl of water for about 1/2hr. (Chop the dried shrimps into smaller bits if you're using the bigger dried shrimps)
2. Remove the dried shrimps from the water and leave to dry - you don't want oil to splatter everywhere when you're frying them later. Reserve the water for cooking.
3. Heat some oil in the wok. Fry the garlic and dried shrimps till fragrant.
4. Add in the chayote and stir-fry for about a minute.
5. Add in the water that the dried shrimps were soaked in and bring it to a boil. (Add more water if nec)
6. Simmer on low heat for about 5-7min (depending on how crisp you like the veg).
7. Add fish sauce to taste - you don't need a lot of this as the dried shrimp is already a bit salty.
8. Dish and serve.

For toddler's consumption (above 18mths):


Cut the chayote slices into smaller pieces to facilitate chewing.

Teriyaki salmon baked rice

I cooked this rather unthinkable dish: teriyaki salmon baked rice.

I bought the usual-sized slab of salmon (costs me about $8-9 at the wet market) the other day and being lazy to whip up a typical Chinese rice-with-dishes-meal on Saturday, I decided to be adventurous and try a 1-dish meal with it.

Well, it turned out ok and hubby gave the green light to cook this again next time. :P

Not marvellous. But it's still quite nice.

What I like about it? It's easy to prepare! :) So if you catch yourself feeling lazy, and not too particular about the food, you can always try this! lol.


Teriyaki salmon baked rice

Ingredients:

• 1 slab of salmon, about 400g (slice thinly and remove skin)
• 2-3 handfuls of frozen mixed veggies
• 1 cup rice grains (the cup comes with the rice cooker - not the usual 'cup' per se)

Teriyaki sauce:

• 2T cooking sake
• 1.5T light soy sauce
• 2T sugar
• 4T mirin

Method:

1. Marinate sliced salmon in the teriyaki sauce. 
2. Cook rice as per normal.
3. Once rice is cooked, add the mixed veggies into the rice cooker and mix evenly.
4. Dish out the rice into a baking dish.
5. Place salmon slices on top of the rice and drizzle the remaining teriyaki sauce evenly over the dish (see pic below)
6. Bake in a preheated oven at 180degC for 10min (the salmon was just cooked and still tender! The rice was still moist, but not soggy and tasted of the teriyaki sauce - phew!)
7. Remove from oven and serve.

That's what I call a quick meal! :)

Healthy(? - is it even possible?) curry chicken

I haven't blogged about my cooking in quite awhile, mainly because Alicia's been keeping me busy and I've not had the time and energy to think about new dishes to blog about. :P

Anyway, I realised that I don't have a curry chicken dish in my list so this post is dedicated to it.

I usually use the A1 curry spices but this time I decided to try something new:

This is produced by the same company as the instant paste I used to cook my sambal tunis prawns.

According to the chicken seller, this doesn't yield the normal a-lot-of-gravy type of curry and it's meant to be on the drier side. And the best part about this is that there is no need to add coconut milk to it so it's a healthier option!

I set off to cook this on Friday (and the weather was really perfect for curry that day).... and it turned out yummy, even without the coconut milk! :)

Cooking in progress!:

Curry Chicken

You can't really see the gravy from this angle... :P

Ingredients:

• 3 chopped chicken thighs (skin removed, visible fats removed)
• 3 egg-sized potatoes (skinned and chopped into quarters)
• 2 carrots (skinned and chopped into small chunks)
• 1/2 packet of curry spice (as shown above)
• 1 cup water (about 240ml)

Method:

1. Prepare the ingredients accordingly.
2. Heat wok and fry the curry paste for about 1 min till it's fragrant.
3. Add the chicken in and mix well.
4. Add the water and bring it to a boil.
5. Add the potatoes and carrots and bring the gravy to a boil.
6. Cover wok and simmer on low-medium heat for 20-30min (depending on how much gravy you like and how soft you like your potatoes and carrots). Stir every now and then for even cooking.
7. Dish and serve.