Cebu Style "Steamed" Fried Rice

My sweet friend Cally asked me whether I know how to make this Steamed Fried Rice sometimes ago. She said that the sauce was to die for and the rice so yummy. It got me curious and I recalled something I have read on a blog of a Philippino foodie - Dinner at Six Thirty, the writer also mentioned about this steamed fried rice and how yummy it was.

With the intention to know more about this dish, I started researching online and learnt that this is a Philippine version of "Chinese Dim Sum". Here is something I found online about the origin of this dish from this website :

"The Steam Fried Rice of Cebu is fried rice topped with shrimp and pork, and steamed in a rice cooker with its secret sauce. This was an original creation of Mr. Henry Uytengsu of Ding Qua Qua Dimsum House in Cebu, which pionereed the all-day dimsum dining in 1969.

After Ding Qua Qua (1 branch) which offers a signature dimsum buffet, Mr. Uytengsu's group created Harbour City Dimsum House (3 branches) which featured the traditional dimsum carts wheeled to the customers' table-sides. They then created the mall-based Dimsum Break outlet (13 banches) to originally address the dining needs of the mall's late night foodies from the bowling alleys and cinemas.

True enough, the name "Dimsum Break" was inspired by taking breaks to eat dimsum during a bowling session. It is considered the Philippines' version of Panda Express."

As a Malaysian, I know only too well how interesting food could be with some local influence. As part of my effort to recreate this dish at home, I found a few recipes online and tweak my version based on my understanding of Cantonese dishes (which, is the origin of dimsum dishes.) .

The result is great and the taste superb! Though I never did try the original, this version I created is definitely satisfying and I will surely make it again!

Chili Leaves Egg Drop Soup

This summer we had our backyard cleaned and have someone built two raised bed for my vegetable garden. I had been composting all the waste from juicing into the soil I had the last few months, when I transferred the soil into my brand new raised bed I also added a couple of bags of organic soil. The results of good soil are really clear to see, my tomato plants are bearing fruits galore and we already harvest couple of cucumbers and peppers before mid of June, real early considering where we are.

My pepper plants really thrive well, it flowers a lot and bearing fruits already, its leaves are healthy and huge! I mean, really huge, as big as the size of my palm!

Chili leave is also a very good green to add on to cooking I harvest a bunch and made into this egg drop soup, it taste almost like spinach, only better.

Rice Cooker Chicken Rice 【电饭煲蒜香鸡饭】

The original recipe was posted on Wenxuecity years back as rice cooker chicken and immediately became a hit, as it is very easy to follow and is really tasty...

I was in India then and was fascinated by the recipe, as I could find all the ingredients easily, I later modified it a little and added rice, it immediately turned into a one pot meal, so simple and yum!

很多年前，文学城私房掀起了一阵电饭煲蒜香鸡热，当时是哪个聪明的姐妹发的食谱和做法我已经不记得了。

只记得当时我在印度，看见帖子惊为天人，因为材料简单印度也都找得到，所以就经常做，让我在无数个想家的夜晚能够吃上熟悉的味道，着实难忘。

后来我稍微调整了一下，做成电饭煲蒜香鸡饭，更简单，再弄一道沙拉或者炒菜，就是一顿丰富的午饭啦！

原食谱因为换过几个电脑已经丢失了。这会儿因为带孩子，做饭也越来越简单，突然想起这个曾经一度非常喜爱的电饭煲蒜香鸡饭。就把已经束之高阁的电饭煲取出来，做一顿电饭煲鸡饭就可以吃好几顿。实在要感谢发明这个做法的那位姐妹啊！又再一次解救没时间做饭的带娃的妈！

Banana Muffins

It has been a challenge to go shopping with A lately, not only his curiosity is at its height, he is also starting to have a lot of opinions and really enjoys putting things into my shopping cart, and will waste no time to protest if I take his choices out from the cart.

Result to that, our shopping trip always lasted much longer than anticipated, last week I had to make two big rounds in the supermarket to put back 3 bottles of hand wash soup ( yes, you heard it right, A wanted purple, red and orange colors!), the two rounds is to make sure he had enough distractions and long enough gap in between to let him forget about those items.

Together with those hand soups, some chips and lots of different types of candy, he also chooses a bunch of banana, which, I decided to keep and purchase while others go back to display isles. The only thing is that he realized that he didn't really want the banana once it was brought home.

As the bananas ripe fast and I have sometimes to spare today, I made 2 batches of banana muffins today, one with cocoa powder and one without.

Happy Diwali 2014 -- Besan Ladoo

The draft of this Besan Ladoo's recipe has been sitting in my draft folder since the Diwali day. I didn't had a chance to post it due to the festive season get together, followed by A under the weather and me got the nasty bug from him the day after. So here it is a little catch up on my post.

These yummy ladoos were made with homemade ghee and the residue from the making of Homemade Ghee, the residues gave the character of brown and white bits in the ladoos. It also gave the ladoos a slight twist in taste and texture, a true surprise and real yummy treat.

Diwali Count down -- Gulab Jamun

With Diwali (the Indian festival of light) being tomorrow, I had gear up on preparation and made a few sweets today.

One of them is this Gulab Jamun. It is a very popular Indian/Pakistani/Nepali/Arabian sweet dish, most often eaten as a dessert, and usually eaten at festivals or major celebrations, such as marriages and Diwali.

Teriyaki Sauce & Teriyaki Chicken

Teriyaki Chicken was my all time favourite when I was an exchange student in Japan back in the 90s, my liking for it extended to everywhere I go, I kind of like subconsciously looking for the "wow" effect it got on me the first time I had it in Japan.... with no avail....

And guess what, the way I am with things and life... I made it at home!

Vegetarian Roasted Duck Rice

Years back when I used to work in Jalan Ampang, KL, Malaysia. Among all the tall office buildings around Jalan Ampang, right opposite of my then office hides a small heritage Chinese temple. It is a very interesting scene to see white collars visiting the temple and do their prayers during lunch break or after working hours.

The temple also has a small canteen that sells delicious vegetarian/vegan meals. I loved their vegetarian wonton noodle and also the vegetarian chicken rice that they sell every Friday. Their Vegetarian roasted duck was also one dish to die for. Just like my hometown friend Stephanie said: " I don't mind being vegetarian eating this everyday!"

I was searching for recipe for this vegetarian roasted duck online and most of the recipes called for stuffing like mushrooms and shredded carrot. I liked that version too but it was not the ones that I really missed. I like my vegetarian roasted duck a little crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside.

So I decided to create my own version and this comes quite close to what I remembered!