Alison-style Malay-ish all-day breakfast

Malaysian food is fantastic!  In the week I was there, I barely scratched the surface, but I loved everything I tried.

One of the most popular dishes in Malaysia is Nasi Lemak.  This is kind of an all-day breakfast for Malaysian people, so popular there are Chinese and Indian versions of it too.  Of course it was what I had for breakfast every morning, but it was sold at street stalls, cafes and restaurants too.  At its most basic it seems to be coconut rice, with boiled egg, cucumber, fried dried anchovies and peanuts and a powerful sambal which is a chilli condiment.  I often ate it with a beef or chicken curry too.

For the last week or so, I've had Nasi Lemak cravings ;-)
Of course, I know I could make a much more authentic version than this, but wanted to try and limit myself mostly to using up what is in my kitchen (just had to buy coconut milk and peanuts)...  So my version has Thai, Japanese and Korean ingredients too, but misses out the fried anchovies.  Best not to think about the calories too much in this, just enjoy it!  Nasi Lemak actually means 'fat rice' in Malay...

I made this today.  It's my day off so I could afford to spend an hour cooking breakfast (and generate an awful lot of washing up for one person!), and 'twas so filling and tasty it'll definitely serve as lunch too.  I'll have the other portion for lunch at work tomorrow, so that's sorted too!

Ingredients for the rice (1 portion)
75g dried rice
60g coconut milk

Ingredients for the sambal (2 portions) - not so powerful
one medium onion, sliced into quarter rings
1 tsp olive oil
2 tsp anchovy paste
1tsp ginger paste
juice of one yuzu
1-2 tbsp kimchi base
1-2tsp Thai sweet chilli sauce


Ingredients for the chicken curry (2 portions)
1 tsp olive oil
2 tbsp Thai curry paste
1 large chicken breast


Ingredients to serve 
Chopped cucumber
Natural shelled peanuts
Hard boiled egg



Method

• Cut the chicken up into pieces and marinate overnight in the Thai curry paste in the fridge.
• Boil the egg until hard-boiled and then cool under a cold running tap to avoid a grey yolk.  Peel and quarter.
• Chop the onion.  Chop the cucumber.
• Cook the rice as normal with a fraction less water.  When the rice has almost absorbed the water (after about 40 minutes in my rice cooker), stir in the coconut milk and continue to cook.
• Make the sambal.  Fry the chopped onion and anchovy paste in the olive oil until cooked.  Add the yuzu juice, kimchi base and sweet chilli sauce.
• Make the chicken curry.  Fry the chicken for 5 minutes until browned and sealed.  Put in a saucepan, cover with water and a lid and continue to cook for 10 minutes until the water is mostly absorbed.  Add 2 tbsp coconut milk.
• To serve, put the rice on the plate with the boiled egg, chopped cucumber, peanuts, chicken curry and sambal.  Enjoy!

Chicken, Bacon and Boursin Rolls in White Wine

This is absolutely delicious!  It's not an original recipe, and there do seem to be many variations on the internet.  It looks impressive, but is very easy!

Ingredients
2 small chicken fillets
2 slices of bacon
40g Boursin (soft garlic cheese)
80ml white wine
freshly ground black pepper

Method

• Preheat the oven to 190C.
• Put the chicken fillets flat in a plastic bag and flatten them as much as possible with a rolling pin or heavy tin.
•  In the middle of each fillet, put 20g of Boursin and roll the chicken up.
• Roll a slice of bacon around in the other direction to cover the cheese, and keeping the ends underneath the chicken roll.
• Put both rolls in an ovenproof dish (I use the Lekue steamer), and pour over 80ml white wine.
• Cover and bake in the oven for 15 minutes, and then uncover and continue to bake for another 10-15 minutes until the bacon is browned.
• Serve with new potatoes and a selection of vegetables.

Chicken and Brown Rice Meatloaf

Nutrition Data (for whole meatloaf, serves 6-8 with a salad or vegetables)
Calories 1094
Protein 101g
Carbohydrate 112g
Fat 25g
Dietary Fibre 11g



Ingredients
400g minced chicken thigh
380g cooked (1 cup dried) brown rice
1 medium onion
1 stick celery
1 egg, beaten
100g non fat yoghurt
1 tsp nutmeg
good grating black pepper

Method

•  Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
•  Dice the onion and celery.
• In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients thoroughly.
• Pack well into a loaf tin; I use a silicone loaf tin, so don't need to grease it.
• Bake in the oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes until golden brown on top.  Drain off the fat and cooking juices.
• Let it stand for 10 minutes, then slice. Serve hot or cold.

Tips
This can be frozen.  Once the meatloaf is cold, finish slicing it and wrap the individual slices in greaseproof paper and put in a freezer bag.  Freeze on the same day.

Cherry, Rosemary and Onion Chicken on Rice

I was going to make oyakodon for lunch again today, but realised that I hadn't put anything new on this blog for some time... A quick look at the fridge revealed that I had a large quantity of cherries that I needed to use up...





Nutrition Data
582 calories
Protein 25.5g
Carbohydrate 101.5g
Fat 11.5g
Dietary Fibre 5.5g

Ingredients
12 American cherries, pitted and chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
50g cooked chicken, sliced and cut into small pieces
1 tablespoon mirin
1 teaspoon soy sauce
100g brown rice, cooked

Method

• Cook the rice according to directions.
• About 1o minutes before the end, saute the onion and rosemary in the olive oil for about 5 minutes until golden brown, and then add the cherries and the sliced chicken and heat for another minute.
• Pour in the mirin and soy sauce, continue heating for about half a minute until the liquid has reduced.
• Serve over the rice.
  

Mixed Bean and Chicken Green Curry

This is in fact an 'everything' creamy curry! I wanted to make something delicious and easy, in a large quantity to freeze for work. This did the job very well!






Nutrition Data (per portion, excluding rice)
Calories 245
Protein 15.9g
Carbohydrate 25.3
Fat 9.4g
Dietary Fibre 7.2g

Ingredients
1 large onion, chopped
1 teaspoon olive oil
400g can red kidney beans, drained
400g can borlotti beans, drained (also known as cranberry beans or roman beans)
200g can sweetcorn, drained
130g frozen green peas
140g skinless cooked chicken breast, chopped
210g pack generic packaged green curry mix (I used S&B Green Curry)
150ml canned coconut milk
brown rice to serve
lemon zest for garnish

Method

• Cook the rice.
• Meanwhile, fry the onion in the oil until golden brown.
• In a large saucepan, add all the other ingredients except the green peas. Add the onion.
• Cook over a medium heat for about 10 minutes until hot. About 2 minutes before the end of cooking time, stir in the peas.
• Serve on a bed of rice and garnish with lemon zest.
• This freezes well.
  

Chicken and Egg Rice Bowl (Oyakodon)

Ingredients (serves 1)

This recipe can be multiplied as required.

100g brown or white rice
50g sliced cooked chicken breast
1 spring onion, chopped
1 egg, beaten
chopped seaweed for garnish
100ml stock (in Japan dashi stock)
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 desertspoon mirin

Cook the rice according to instructions. Meanwhile make the stock and heat. Add soy sauce, mirin, chicken and spring onion. Simmer for about 3 minutes until thickened, but there is still at least 2 or 3 tablespoons of sauce. Add the beaten egg and cover the saucepan for about 50 seconds until the egg is set.

Put the hot cooked rice in a deep bowl, and slip the chicken and egg mixture over. There should be just a little sauce to seep into the rice. Sprinkle with nori seaweed.

Optional: You can also saute half a chopped onion and add it to the rice before slipping the chicken and egg mixture on top.

Chicken and Mango Salad

A light, refreshing salad that can be prepared a few hours in advance to allow the flavours to develop.

Ingredients

· 200g Greek natural yoghurt (or set yoghurt strained through a coffee filter/several thicknesses of kitchen paper)
· 1 tbsp mild curry paste
· 2 tbsp mango chutney
· 350g cooked chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces
· 1 large firm ripe mango, peeled and cut into chunks
· 40g naturally roasted cashew nuts
· flatleaf parsley sprigs, to garnish
· 225g mixed wild and white/brown rice, boiled and mixed with chopped herb salad, to serve

Method
1. Mix together the yoghurt, curry paste and chutney in a bowl. Add the chicken and mango and toss gently to mix. Cover and chill in the fridge.
2. Boil the rice and allow to cool. Mix with the chopped herb salad.
3. Spoon the chicken mixture onto a plate and sprinkle over the cashew nuts; garnish with flatleaf parsley. Serve with the rice salad.