Squid Stuffed with Glutinous Rice

Had made stuffed squid with minced previously and dont quite work so nicely and remember seeing some recipe using glutinous rice. Hence, tried making it since I have some glutinous rice left.

Ingredients:
For the stuffing:

• 1cup of glutinous rice, pre soaked with hot water for bout 20-30mins
• 1 big clove of garlic, minced
• 1 small shallot, chopped finely
• 3/4 cup of fresh button mushroom (can be substituted with dried shitake or canned button mushroom), sliced to thin pieces
• salt and pepper to season
• 1tbsp of oil
• 1 cup of water

For the sauce:

• 3tbsp of soy sauce
• 1tbsp of sugar
• 1tbsp miri

Other ingredients:

• 3 cleaned nice big tubes of squid

Method:

1. Heat oil in the the pressure cooker using saute high mode. Add in the shallot and saute till almost golden before adding in the garlic and saute.
2. Next, add in the mushroom and saute till it is soft and add in the rest of the ingredients.
3. Choose risotto mode that has KPT 14mins time.
4. Once the rice is ready, let it slightly cool before stuffing it in the squid. Seal off with a tooth pick.
5. Place the stuffed squid in the air fryer, 180c for 12mins.
6. While the squid is cooking, place all the sauce ingredients on the pan and cook it till it is a bit thicken.
7. Once the squid is done, place it on the sauce and coat it all over with it.
8. Ready to serve. If you like, u can cut the squid up a little.. :D

Sweet Potato Balls stuffed with Nian Gao

Hub and the girls are not a fan of the traditional yam and sweet potato sandwich with nian gao, so I have to prepare something different. And I remembered I had made some sweet potato puff balls before and this time, I'll just stuffed it with the sticky cake instead.

This recipe uses tapioca flour instead of glutinous rice flour.

Ingredients:

• 230g sweet potato, steamed (I microwaved with water) and mashed
• 150gram tapioca flour
• 50g rice flour
• 15g corn flour
• 25g sugar
• a pinch of salt
• 2tbsp oil
• 1/4 cup of water
• oil to spray
• nian gao cut to small cube, roughly 1.5cm size, recipe for nian gao is here

Steps:

1. Mix all the ingredients except the sticky cake and knead till it forms a soft dough.
2. Once it is ready, scoop roughly a big tablespoon of it out and flatten it. Put a cube of the sticky cake and wrap it up, shape into a ball.
3. Place the balls in the air fryer and set at 160c for 5mins.
4. Then spray some oil on the balls and shake it around so that it is well coated and AF for another 5mins. Do not stuff too many balls into the basket to avoid them from sticking together.
5. Once ready, take it out to cool but do not stack them up yet as this will deflate the ball.

Nian Gao / Sticky Cake

This CNY, I had prepared something different from the previous year. No pineapple tart this year as I was too lazy to cut, blend and cook the pineapple for long time on the stove top. Not CNY cookies too, other than some Airfried crab stick and seaweed popiah crisps.

This is the special that I had made this year with my kitchen toy, the pressure cooker. Instead of the traditional way of steaming it for 3-4hrs, it now takes only 1hr in the pressure cooker.

Nian gal or the sticky cake is one of the nice stuff sold widely in the market during CNY. However, due to commercialisation, there are lots of "hanky panky" type in the market that I rather hesitate so decided to make it myself. Another reason it is expensive.

I had made two batch and think the second batch one tasted better and looks prettier too (btw the pic is from the first batch which is too pale and too soft). Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

• 300g glutinous rice flour 
• 200ml water
• 400g golden syrup (ready made from CSR)
• 2tbsp oil
• banana leaf (blanched in hot water to soften it)

Steps:

1. Line the container that you will like to use to steam the nian gao with the banana leaf. I had used the container from the tiffin carrier. Make sure you have sufficient layer to avoid the liquid from spilling out and sticking on the container after steaming. Spray the banana leaf with a layer of oil to make it easier to remove when you need to serve the nian gao.
2. Mix the water with the flour till it is well mix. The mixture will be quite hard as I had reduced the amount of water requested by the recipe. 
3. Now add in the golden syrup into the hard dough mixture and get a little amaze at how it all liquified. The entire mixture will now be a thick liquid. Add in the oil and mix till it is all evenly mix.
4. To avoid any lump, make sure you sieve the mixture.
5. Pour the the mixture into the carrier that you had provided and place it into the pressure cooker.  I'm using the Philips pressure cooker and a stainless steel inner pot. I'm able to fit in two layers of the tiffin carrier into it. If you are not using the stainless steel inner pot, make sure you put a layer of cloth to avoid it from scratching. 
6. Make sure the water level in the inner pot is at least half the level of the tiffin carrier's single layer. Set the pressure cooker to steam and KPT 59mins.
7. Once done, let the valve drop, remove the container out of the pressure cooker. If there is any water that I had drip on the nian gao, make sure u wipe off the water and let it cool. Once cool, let it set in the fridge for at least 2-3days before you remove it from the container.

Glutinous Rice Wrapped in Lotus Leaf and Chicken Stuffed with Glutinous Rice Wrapped in Lotus Leaf

My neighbour had given me some lotus leaf that she had bought and I had been having it in the kitchen for quite sometime not knowing what to use it for yet. And then I bumped into this recipe in FB and thought of trying it out with a tweak.

With the pressure cooker, I actually don't need to pre soak the rice but since I need to get rid of the phytic acid, so, I soaked it for bout 3-4hours prior to using it.

Here goes the recipe:

Ingredients

• 2pcs of lotus leaf, pre soaked with hot water
• 1 small young chicken (mine is 1.2kg)
• 2.5cups of glutinous rice, soaked for 3-4hrs
• 2tbsp shiao thing wine for chicken marinate
• 1tsp five spices powder for chicken marinate
• a small pinch of pepper for chicken marinate
• a big pinch of sea salt for chicken marinate
• 1 chinese sausage, skin removed and diced
• 2 pcs of chinese mushroom, reconstituted and diced (water used keep aside)
• 3 pcs of dried scallop, soaked and water keep aside, shred to small pieces
• 3tbsp dried shrimp, soaked, water disposed
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
• 1 big pc of shallots, sliced
• 1/4 cup of carrot, diced
• a small pinch of garlic powder for the rice
• a small pinch of sea salt for the rice
• a small dash of pepper for the rice
• 4tbsp oil
• some strings to tie
• 3 pcs of big aluminium foil

Methods:

1. Marinate the chicken and set it aside.
2. Heat up the oil on the cooking wok. Once hot, add in the shallot and saute till it is almost brown. Add in the sausage and garlic and fry till fragrant. 
3. Add in the carrot, mushroom, scallop and dried shrimp. Stir fry till the shrimp get crispy.
4. Add in the rice and the water retained and stir fry till the water dry up. Season with the seasoning listed for the rice and stir for it to mix evenly. Leave it to cool.
5. Stuff in as much rice as possible into the chicken cavity. Press it down and continue stuffing till it is full. Then use the string to tie the bottom of the drumstick to avoid the filling from falling out.
6. Wrap the chicken with a layer of lotus leaf. Then wrap it with the aluminium foil to ensure no leakage and to maintain moisture. I had left mine to heat for few hours coz I was out for school pick up and the chicken is still moist and just right.
7. Then place the rest of the rice onto the other piece of lotus leaf. Fold it up from the top, bottom then right and finally left. Tie the parcel up with the leftover string.
8. Place 2 cups of water into the pressure cooker, then the aluminium foiled wrapped chicken and finally the rice wrapped in lotus leaf. Cover the pressure cooker's cover, set to bake mode (which is 45mins) and start. Remember to set the valve to bake mode.
9. Voila, once pressure released, the food is ready to be served. :D

*Note: I'm using the Philips electric multi cooker which has the pressure cooker and bake mode.

Pressure Cooked Glutinous Rice

Since I gotten my Philips Multi Cooker, I just loved how easy it is to make steam glutinous rice, one pot, quick and fast, no mess way of doing it.

So, for the benefit of those who are interested to do it with their pressure cooker, here is the step by step guide and hopefully it is clear enough.

Btw, the original recipe the traditional way is here.

Ingredients:

• 1kg glutinous rice (I uses the thai one this time), I didn't pre soak, but if you want, you can soak it for bout 10mins

• 2pcs of medium size shallots, chopped

• 2 cloves of chopped garlic

• 4 pieces of lap cheong (waxed sausage), cut to small slices (roughly 0.5cm each) 

• 8 pieces of chinese dried mushroom, soaked and cut to small slices

• 4-5 tbsp of minced pork
• 3pcs of dried scallop, soaked 
• 1 big handful of dried oyster, soaked

• 1 tsp of five spice powder

• 3 tbsp of oyster sauce
• 2 tbsp of dark soy sauce
• 1 tbsp of

• 1 tsp of salt

• 1/4tsp  of pepper

• 2 tbsp of oil
• roughly 4cups of water

• a big handful of chopped spring onion for garnishing

Steps:

1. Turn on the PPC and press the saute on high button. The original preset time should be 2mins but I had set it to 7mins. Let it heat up for bout 15-20seconds.
2. Pour in the oil and salute the shallots first. Once it is a little soft roughly 1-2mins, add in the chinese sausage and garlic. Stir it around for about 2mins and next add in the minced pork, dried scallop, oyster and mushroom. Stir fry for another 2mins.
3. Next add in all the seasoning and stir till it is even before adding in the rice to fry it for 2-3mins. 
4. Last, add in the water and make sure it is enough to be slightly above the rice level. 
5. Then press the rice mode, and cover the lid, valve at seal and cook just like how you cook your rice. This should take 14mins and 15mins for pressure release (this is estimate). And ready to serve... yum.

Enjoy!