Easy Chicken Porrige, the Comfort Food for All Ages 简易鸡丝粥，老少咸宜

The weather had been really bad lately, hazy, dusty and crazily hot that none of us feel like stepping out of the house. We opt to stay indoor unless we really have to go out. To make life easy, I decided to cook this simple chicken porridge with the leftover salted chicken prepared by my mom in law the night before. Since the chicken is already salted, I only used small amount of seasoning.

Preparation: 5 Minutes
Cooking: 30 Minutes (using uncooked rice) / 15 Minutes (using cooked rice)
Serving for: 3-4 person

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup rice (soak in water for at least 30 minutes before cooking)
Water (rice to water ratio of 1:6)
1 salted chicken breast / 2 chicken thighs (precooked)
A pinch of salt & pepper to taste
Few drops of sesame oil
Some spring onions, roughly chopped

The Making:
1. Using a fork or cleaned hands, pull out the meat from the chicken breast, the finer the better. Set them aside.

2. Soak the rice in a pot of water, bring to boil and let it continue to cook on high heat for about 5 minutes. (You may add the chicken carcass into the water and you have a chicken broth base)

3. Turn the heat to medium, let it simmer for about 30 minutes or until the rice all soften, keep the lid open. Stir the porridge occasionally to avoid them from sticking to the bottom of the pot, if it becomes to thick just add a bit more warm water.

4. Add in the pulled meat, let it cook for another 3 minutes, finally add some salt and pepper to taste.

To serve, add few drops of the sesame oil, sprinkle with some chopped spring onions or anchovies powder. Since I'm out of both, I sprinkled with some roasted anchovies for my duo while for myself, I topped mine with some crispy chicken floss, my favorite!


It's a simple yet nutritious meal for the lazy afternoon and I got to enjoy some leisure time with my duo while the porridge was cooking.. The little ones happily gobbled down 2 bowls each without needing any assistant, if only every meal is like this. *wishful thinking of a rather tired mom*


Just a note on the choice of rice..
I used brown long grain rice which is unbleached, more flavourful and has higher nutritional value, you may just use normal white rice depending your preference. When baby C was younger, I prepared her rice cereal / porridge using Pearl rice which is a type of short grain rice with soft texture.

You may read more about the benefit of brown rice here, it is really more than just the different in color.


Useful Tips!

• To shorten the cooking time and to achieve softer texture, you may pre-soak the rice with water for at least 30 minutes or longer. Otherwise, you may have to increase the cooking time accordingly. If you are using left over rice, you can also reduce the cooking time to about 15 minutes.
• The porridge will continue to absorb water if you left it in the pot, so it's best to consume while it's warm or it may dry up.
• This is an ideal way to used up left over meat, you may substitute the salted chicken with roasted chicken too.

{Quick Meal} Stir Fried Wanton Noodle 快炒三丝云吞面

The weather was crazily hot these days, with the continuous dry season, we are on the alert to conserve our water usage so I have been cooking really simple meal that requires minimal washing. For the weekend, I decided to cook this stir fried wanton noodle that both my kiddos love. Loaded with lots of vegetables (in fact there was more veggies than noodles), I can be assured they are getting the proper nutrition intake instead of ordering take away.

今天用了火腿丝，胡萝卜丝和大包菜丝, 快手的炒了这碟三丝云吞面。配合有咬劲的云吞面，容易好吃又健康。不需洗一大堆锅锅碟碟，就那么一锅煮，一家人也可以吃得开开心心。如果再撒上一些红辣椒丝那就更赏心悦目。

For the big ones..

For the little ones, I sprinkled some roasted anchovies, their favorite..

Preparation Time: 10 min
Cooking Time: 10 min
Serving for: 4 person

Ingredients  (材料):
2 clove garlic, smashed or finely chopped 蒜头两瓣，剁碎
1 medium size carrot, cut into thin strips 胡萝卜一根，切丝
2 sausages, cut into long strips 香肠两条，切长丝

1 1/2 cup cabbages, cut into long strips 大包菜，切丝 （大约一杯分量）

6 (organic) wanton noodles 有机干云吞面六粒

3 eggs, beaten and seasoned with salt & pepper 鸡蛋三粒，打散，加适量盐胡椒粉调味

Seasoning (调味料)：
1 table spoon Worcester sauce 一汤匙Worcester酱
2 table spoons soy sauce 两汤匙酱油
1 teaspoon sesame oil 一茶匙麻油
1 teaspoon dark soy sauce (optional) 一茶匙黑酱油
a dash of salt  盐适量
a dash of pepper 胡椒粉适量


The Making (制作过程）:

1. Soak the noodles in a pot of hot water for 1 minutes. Drain and soak briefly in cool water to maintain the crunchiness of the noodle.

把云吞面团浸在烧水一分钟烫熟，捞起后过冷水让面条保持咬劲。

2. Beat the eggs, seasoned with some salt and pepper, heat up a table spoon of cooking oil and spread the egg liquid into a big circle. Cook for about a minute then roughly chop it up using the spatula. Set aside.

把鸡蛋打散，撒上适量的盐和胡椒粉，烧热一汤匙的油把蛋液煎成蛋饼，用煎匙把蛋饼切散。置放一旁待用。

3. Heat up 2 tablespoon of cooking oil, saute the garlic till fragrance and toss in the sausage strips, carrot strips, long beans and lastly the cabbages. Add about 2 table spoons of boiled water (at room temperature), close the lid and let the veggies simmer for about 2 minutes. Season with some salt, pepper and Worcester sauce.

在热锅里烧热两大汤匙的食油，把蒜头爆香后加入香肠片，胡萝卜丝，长豆，大包菜丝和大约半杯的水，上盖让杂菜煮大约两分钟左右，加入盐、胡椒粉和Worcester酱调味。

4. Toss the blanched noodle, add the soy sauce, dark soy sauce and sesame oil. Use a chopstick to ensure the sauces evenly spread over the noodles, cook for about 2 minutes and turn off the heat.

把烫熟的面条倒入锅内，加入酱油、黑酱油（可免）和芝麻酱调味，用长筷子把面条和配料搅拌均匀。大火煮大约两分钟后熄火。

Sprinkle the egg omelet over the noodles, mix roughly and your stir fried wanton noodles is ready to serve! Add some chili sauce, some roasted anchovies (ikan bilis), or just eat as-is. Simple home cook meal full of rich goodness of fresh vegetable.

把蛋散洒在煮好的面条上，加些烘江鱼仔或香葱即可上桌。趁热配上一点小辣椒大口大口的吃下肚，我最爱的吃法！

温馨叮咛：

给小朋友吃的时候，记得把面条剪短方便小朋友自己喂食，比较大的小孩则可以教他们用叉把面条卷成一团来吃，干脆把它当意大利面来吃。小孩吃的开心，妈咪放心。

Tips:
• I used the water for washing vegetables and noodles to water the plant, one good way of avoiding water wastage, especially when water supply is limited. 

• When serving for young toddlers, do remember to cut the noodles into smaller strips using a clean scissors. For older kids, teach them to eat properly either using a pair of chopsticks or swirl it up with a fork just like eating spaghetti.