Hello Kitty Pancake Bentos

This is already the 3rd going to 4th week since school term starts. Finally I can start making bentos for the girls again after about 1mth of resting and there are so many new bento stuffs still unwrapped, waiting for me to try out on them！
This time I don't have to ask Messy what she wants for her bento, instead she told that she wanted french toast (AGAIN?). As I had already planned to make pancakes with the big Hello Kitty or Pooh Bear mold, I promised Messy that I'll make the french toast some other days. Lucky she wasn't unhappy about the change and in fact she was also very excited and happy to have a big Hello Kitty pancake！
Few days before sch term starts, I went to the supermarket to buy pancake mix. I don't have any particular brand that I prefer, I always like to try out different brands. Then I saw this interesting new brand whereby it comes in plastic bottle form, all you need to do is to add water to the water level indicated and shake for 1min. I find that very convenient, most importantly, so easy to mix the flour and water well. After finishing all the batter inside, I washed and kept the plastic bottle for future use. 

This is the fun 'Shake Shake' Pancake Mix I used

My Hello Kitty Mold from J-Mama & Baby

Messy's Hello Kitty Pancake with Honey Syrup in a small container

Cheeky's Hello Kitty Pancake with Honey Syrup in a small container

The girls are happy to see their Hello Kitty pancake and requested to have it again but maybe a different face of... Pooh Bear pancake? 
Hopefully I'm able to get more even tone of the pancakes the next time so that the Hello Kitty or Pooh Bear face don't look so ugly and patchy. 
*I made these pancakes on 29th June 2011, the second day when school term starts. From now on, I only need to prepare bento for the girls twice a week because Messy says that her school's time-table has changed, making her school bag too heavy to even squeeze in a small bento box? 
Hopefully this is just teeempooorarrrry... Otherwise, all my bento gadgets will be collecting dust！

My Dad's Hainanese Chicken Rice Recipe

We had Cauliflower Soup (3rd pic) using the chicken stock and the last pic is the *dipping sauce (my Mom-in-law's recipe at the bottom) for the chicken.

Today I'm going to share my Dad's Hainanese Chicken Rice Recipe. I'm sharing this recipe because one of my amazing friends, KEcker of Photos and Thoughts of My Home Cooked Meals+some restaurant ones thrown in... that I've known shortly after I started blogging misses the chicken rice in Singapore so much after her honeymoon 10 years ago and she couldn't find any tastier chicken rice back in Los Angeles.  So coincidentally, the few days before Kay's and my conversations in Facebook, my Dad cooked his own traditional way of chicken rice！ He seldom cook now, only when he feels like cooking, when he craves for certain dishes that both me and my Mom don't cook as well as him (he's quite a fussy eater) or when his lil precious, my daughter, Messy requested (we always tease Messy that we only get to eat delicious food because of her！). So I told Kay about it and I can ask my Dad for the recipe if she wants to try cooking her own but may needs some time because all his ingredients/seasonings are based on estimations (I didn't get to see how much were his estimated amount of ingredients he cooked on that day as I was busy with other stuffs). Kay was so happy and I was too！I just love the kinda feeling knowing that my friends are happy and it makes my day 
After about 1-2 weeks, I still haven't got the chance to cook the chicken rice, I felt very bad about keeping Kay awaiting so long for my promised recipe that I decided to post on the recipe first w/o the photos but Kay told me not to be pressurized about it and said, all of you would love to see those photos together with the recipe too, no hurry and no worries. 
Thank you Kay！Thank you for your patience and understanding！ Finally I can share this Hainanese Chicken Rice with all of you and myself too！  
Let me start with a little history introduction and what are the changes of the 'Star of the Day' before I go into my quite complicated recipe details.
Although Hainanese Chicken Rice is a mainstay in food courts in Singapore and Malaysia, it's a Chinese origin from an island of Hainan off the coast of China, which is based on the well-known Hainanese dish called Wenchang Chicken, 文昌鸡. It is often considered as the "national dish" of Singapore and was touted popularised  in the 1950s.
Hainanese Chicken Rice is not only served at stalls and food courts, it is also one of the few local dishes served on Singapore Airline flights. It is often served at international expositions and global events abroad, and in Singaporean-run restaurants overseas. 
In Singapore, there are so many stalls selling Hainanese Chicken Rice, practically everywhere you go. There are stalls that have established franchise or branch outlets so you can see that not every stall serves the same varieties i.e. majority of the stalls have a choice of the steamed white chicken and the roasted chicken with side-dishes of hard-boiled egg, chicken liver, firm tofu and different veggies in oyster sauce either bean sprouts, kailan芥兰 or xiaobai cai (Bok Choy) 小白菜. Some but rarely found nowadays served Ah Char, can consider as a spicy appetizer made up of long, thick strips cucumber, carrot, red/green big chilies and bite-sized pineapples soaked in white vinegar and sugar with crushed peanuts. Now quite a number of stalls are having a new add of Lemon Chicken Rice. It's fried chicken cutlet with rice topped with lemon sauce. Even canteen vendors in schools also sell chicken rice but in more simple style with sliced chicken with rice and soy sauce as a healthier choice. Hope you're not bored with all these. 

   Ingredients for 4-6 Pax :

• 1 Fresh Chicken (Cleaned & Washed)
• *4-6 Cups Uncooked Rice (Washed, Rinsed & Soaked awhile)
• 1 Bunch of Pandan Leaves (Washed, Seperated & Tie Knot Lightly)
• 1 Thumb-sized Ginger (Lightly Crushed)
• 10 Cloves Garlic (Lightly Crushed with Skin on)
• ½ Bowl of Chicken Fats (You can get it from the chicken stall when you buy fresh ones from them)
• #Stock from Boiling/Steaming the Chicken

   Ingredients For Oily Rice :

• 10 Cloves of Garlic (Minced)
• 10 Small Onions (Minced)
• 1 Thumb-sized Ginger (Minced)
• ½-1 Bowl of Oil from Chicken Fats   
• ½ Tbsp Salt
• ⅓  Cup Light Soy Sauce

*The amount of Oily Rice will be slightly lesser (almost 1 cup) than the amount of plain rice when cookedbut I guessed it could be because of the oil added to the rice. The same happens when you cook Nasi Lemak (Coconut Milk Rice). So whenever I cook these 2 kinda rice, I'll add about 2 more cups of rice. 

#There are 2 different methods of cooking the chicken and because I bought two, my Mom used both methods (to save time) so I can share with you. Usually we'll boil the chicken as we need quite a lot of the stock.

For this recipe, I'll guide you thru with all these step by step photos that I took on 2nd July, Saturday because I find this slightly complicated, you may not understand what I'm trying to explain so I hope all these photos can help. Enjoy！

   How to Cook :
   STEP ONE

• Clean and wash the chicken thoroughly together with the head. Stuff 1 thumb-sized crushed ginger into the chicken's stomach. You can do this the night before. Rub salt evenly all over the chicken, inside the beak too and inside of the cavity then put in the fridge covered. This is to let the salt absorbs into the chicken. We didn't do this because I bought the chickens in the morning on the same day we cooked. Request to clean up the inside of the chicken when you buy at the market.            

STEP ONE

   Boiling Method :
   STEP TWO

• Boil a pot of water enough to cover the whole chicken. When water boils, put chicken in for about 1-2mins. Turn off heat, cover and keep chicken inside the pot of water for about 30-45mins. *DO NOT OPEN THE POT THRU-OUT TO PEEK！Cooking time varies depending on how big your chicken is and also younger or older chicken you use. Young ones cook faster than old ones, you must know all these so that you won't over-cooked your chicken.
• After 30-45mins, use a chopstick to poke thru the thighs part. There should be no blood flowing out. Take out the chicken cautiously from the pot. Tie a plastic string around the neck to hang and drip dry. We didn't do this because I told Cathy to chop off the heads.  IF there is blood flowing out, turn on the heat on high again for about 1min uncovered, turn heat off and cover for another 5mins.

   Steaming Method :

• Fill up a large pot with 3 big bowls of water with a cooling rack inside, bring to boil. Put chicken on a big round stainless steel plate/mold (like the one in the photo below). When water boils, put in the plate of chicken on cooling rack in the pot and steam for about 30mins. After 30mins, off the heat and keep chicken inside for about 30-45mins. *DO NOT OPEN THE POT THRU-OUT TO PEEK！Cooking time varies depending on how big your chicken is and also younger or older chicken you use. Young ones cook faster than old ones, you must know all these so that you won't over-cooked your chicken. 
• After 30-45mins, use a chopstick to poke thru the thighs part. There should be no blood flowing out. Take out the chicken cautiously from the pot. Tie a plastic string around the neck to hang and drip dry. IF there is blood flowing out, turn on the heat on high again for about 1min uncovered, turn heat off and cover for another 5mins.

STEP TWO
*Pat lightly with salt all over chicken before hanging dry if you did not season the chicken with salt overnight.
CAUTION！CHICKEN WILL BE VERY HOT AFTER TAKING OUT FROM POT, SO THIS STEP MUST BE DONE VERY QUICKLY！

Ingredients for Oily Rice

   Frying the Chicken Fats :
   STEP THREE 

• Heat wok on high heat, put in all the chicken fats and fry. After awhile, you'll see some oil forming. Scoop away those oil and continue frying, stirring constantly until the fats start to shrink and turn crispy light brown around the sides. Turn off heat, set aside about half the amount of oil produced, leaving the remaining oil in wok. You should be able to get about 1 bowlful of oil.

STEP THREE

   Frying Ingredients For Oily Rice :
   STEP FOUR

• Add all the minced ingredients into wok of oil to fry on medium-high heat, stirring it constantly. When it starts to turn medium light brown color, add a little bit of oil that was kept aside, ½ tbsp salt and ⅓  cup light soy sauce. Continue frying and stir well for another min or two, turn off heat.

STEP FOUR

   Cooking Oily Rice :
   STEP FIVE

• Wash and rinse uncooked rice, drain off all the water. Transfer all the fried minced ingredients to the rice. Add in chicken stock to the desired water level for cooking rice, ratio is 1:1.25 (depending on how many cups of rice you cook) Add more light soy sauce if necessary. Add in the 10 cloves of crushed garlic with skin on, 1 thumb-sized crushed ginger and pandan leaves. Cook oily rice in rice cooker as usual. While waiting for the rice to be cooked, chop the chicken into pieces.  

STEP FIVE
*This may be very oily and unhealthy but the more oil and those minced ingredients you add, the tastier it is. 

I know that my Dad's Hainanese Chicken Rice Recipe is very long and complicated but hope you'll like this！Do let me know and give me your feed backs if you try this out. Enjoy！

P.S. Kay, I'm really sorry to keep you waiting so long for this recipe and truly appreciate your patience waiting for me to get everything ready, to write out this post. Hope you'll like this Hainanese Chicken Rice Recipe！


Updates on recipes for the Chicken Rice Chilli Sauce and Dipping Sauce I missed out when published on 9th July.


   Chicken Rice Chilli Sauce Ingredients :

• 10 Big Red Chillies-Use Small Chilli Paddies if you prefer more spicy (Washed & Rinsed)
• 5 Cloves Garlic (Peeled & Rinsed)
• 1 Slice Ginger About 2cm Thick (Peeled & Rinsed)
• 2 Tbsp Lime Juice
• 3 Tbsp Chicken Stock
• Salt to Taste

Very easy, just dump EVERYTHING into the blender and grind until very fine. 

Hainanese Chicken Rice Chilli Sauce

If you can't or don't like take spiciness, here is another dipping sauce recipe from my Mom-in-law. She's another great cook and all of us love her cooking！


   Chicken Rice Dipping Sauce Ingredients :

• 3 Tbsp Cooking Oil
• 1 Tbsp Light Soy Sauce 
• ½ Tsp Salt
• 2 Thumb-sized Ginger (Shredded)
• 2 Small Onions (Minced)
• 8 Cloves Garlic (Minced)
• 2-3 Stalks Green Onions (Chopped) *Add more will be nicer*

   How to Cook :

1. Heat wok with 3 tbsp oil, saute ginger and small onions until light golden brown.
2. Add in minced garlic, saute for about 1min, add in chopped green onions and stir well.
3. Add salt and light soy sauce, stir fry for 1min and off the heat.

I added too much small onions and not enough green onions, otherwise, it'll looks more greener if you follow the recipe above. I know... I know this sauce is VERY OILY but it's very tasty together with the chicken！Try it and you'll know... 

Cathy's Birthday with a Feast of Filipino Food

Finally this day has come and I'm so excited！I'd waited so long for it！ About 2 months ago, I had already planned to cook Filipino food on 28th June. I know all of you must be wondering why must I wait for so long, why can't I just cook it on any days I like?  This is because 28th June is Cathy's Birthday and I planned to surprise her with a few of her favourite Filipino dishes！
Cathy is our helper who has been with us for 1 year and 5 months. She is one year older than me and has a 9 years old only daughter currently in good care of her parents-in-law. Cathy is a very shy, polite and soft-spoken nice lady. She's also very thrifty and even helps me to save as much as possible (as in not wasting anything)！ She never spend on food for herself except on her off-days (once every month) for lunches. The only 2 things that she'll spend more on are her cellphone's top-ups and basic skin-care products. The most precious is her complexion！ As she's slightly more tanned (she hates it), she's always mistaken to be an Indonesian. 
This is Cathy's first time working in Singapore. Previously, she worked in Dubai for only 6 months and ran away from her VERY BAD employer because she couldn't take it anymore！Her ex-employer and 2 daughters are very nasty！They abused her and a few of the other helpers verbally and physically！ Some of them ran away after 2-3 months of torturing. There was once when the mother couldn't understand what Cathy said (she don't understand English and her daughters were not around), she got angry and splashed a kettle of HOT water at Cathy！ Luckily she missed！*PHEW* From then on, Cathy tried to find chances to run. With the help from another Indonesian helper who was kindhearted enough to give Cathy all her secret savings, she finally got outta that nasty house and went back home from the Philippines Embassy in Dubai. 
I was so angry and sad when I heard of her bad experienced and I assured her and her family that we'll treat her as one of our family members since she's staying with us now. From day 1 until now, Cathy is very hardworking, I don't really have to teach or tell her what to do, just simple instructions and although she tends to be very forgetful (nobody is perfect, not even myself), she works non-stop, always keeping herself occupy until after dinner！Now she even helps me with Cheeky's spelling learning. I'm really very lucky and thankful to have Cathy！
I got the idea of cooking Filipino Cuisine for Cathy's birthday when I saw Tina's post on Leche Flan from her blog. I remembered that Cathy did told me about this popular dessert that her Mom used to cook for her when she was still around. Too bad she doesn't know how to make the Leche Flan although she'd seen how her Mom cooked it but told me she can try if I want to eat. She too has the interests in cooking and trying out new dishes. We used to have lots of fun, chatting, joking around in the kitchen before we move over to my parents' house. We really missed those days we told each other and wish that our new house to be ready ASAP！ We're still having our fun in my Mom's kitchen with the 3 of us together！ Not everyday though because my cooking doesn't suits my Dad's taste buds. I only cook when I feel like cooking, when my girls request for certain dishes or when I wanna try out new dishes but I'll go and join in the fun when I'm free or bored. 
On Tuesday, which was Cathy's birthday, the 2 of us had the kitchen all by ourselves. My Mom just enjoyed her TV shows and waited for dinner to be ready. I did most of the cooking while Cathy helped to prepare those ingredients needed. Luckily I decided to cook on the actual day as Cathy already knew about it so it won't be a surprise anymore. We started cooking from 2pm and stayed in the kitchen all the way to 7pm！Gosh！I felt like staying inside a suana room that whole day but it was all worthwhile and happy！
Here are the recipes I chose from Pinay in Texas Cooking Corner with slight changes of certain ingredients while all the seasonings used remain the same and one recipe is from Adora's Box. Both Tina and Adora are Filipina and they cooked the most mouthwatering Filipino Cuisines！

Can you see that few pieces of papers full of words?
That's my way of writing down those recipes I wanted to try and I'll clip them all together, sticking on my fridge so that it'll be easier for me to refer when I want to cook the particular dish again. When Cathy just came over to Singapore, she did not know how to cook our dishes, just a few of her own simple family dishes. I'd to write down EVERY single steps and details like: How I want the ingredients to be cut, cook, boil etc... For EVERY single night before I went to bed but now, ever since moving in with my parents, she can cook very well and some dishes are even better than my mom！

 Lumpiang Shanghai from Pinay in Texas Cooking Corner
The fillings are almost the same as my mom's Signature Ghor Hiang, only the seasonings and the wrapper used are different. Messy likes this the most and she ate the most too！

Pancit Palabok from Pinay in Texas Cooking Corner
I used the egg whites left-over from the Leche Flan and added in the seasoned sauce strained from the Lumpiang Shanghai while wrapping. Mixed together to cook scrambled egg instead of omelette for the toppings and I couldn't find the annatto powder or seeds for the sauce's coloring. As for the ingredients, I used only minced pork and prawns w/o the rest because there were TOO MUCH dishes！This has to be served hot otherwise the aroma of the shrimp exact will be too strong. We still like its special taste and I quite like this. 

Tahitian Pork from Adora's Box
This is quite similar to our Sweet and Sour Pork (古老肉) and also the ONLY dish my Dad tried. All of us like this except Messy who seldom eat meat especially pork belly. Cheeky LOVES this and ate a lot of the pineapple cubes！

Pancit Canton from Pinay in Texas Cooking Corner
This is quite similar to Pancit Palabok but the egg noodles used has got much more flavor than the Bee Hoon which makes this more tastier.
Cheeky and my mom had a few helpings for this！

Leche Flan from Pinay in Texas Cooking Corner
Look at the bright orange color yolks！

I'm so sad and disappointed to see so many 'bubble' holes after chilled and over-turned on the plate. Maybe I poured too fast as time was running out. Anyhow, it tasted great and Cathy was SO HAPPY telling me that this is truly the taste of the Philippines Leche Flan！We find it too sweet for us so I added about 2 cups of water to the 2nd batch to dilute the sweetness.

This time, I POURED IN REAL SLOW hoping there won't be any bubbles and when I saw the smooth top after steaming done, I was quite confident but who knows THERE'RE STILL HOLES IN THEM！

A Feast of Filipino Food with Ice Cool Korean Honey Citron Tea
The last photo showing the left-overs after dinner. This shows that they like Filipino food especially the Lumpiang Shanghai！Messy ate the most of that！

Happy Birthday Cathy！
Cathy told me that she was so grateful to me and very happy that I cooked her long cravings of Filipino Food for her birthday. I felt very happy too！
Cheeky insisted to light a candle because she LOVE blowing candles so much and they sang birthday song to Cathy.
After singing, Messy grabbed hold on Cheeky preventing her from blowing out the candle and that made Cheeky CRIED SO LOUD and lasted at least half an hr！

This was the photos taken last year on her birthday, her first birthday spent with us. I bought her favourite mango fruit cake and really surprised her with it. The girls also made birthday cards for her themselves when she was busy doing her things. She was so touched and cried which got me a shocked！She told me that she had NEVER EVER cut a birthday cake before in her entire life！I felt so sad and my heart really sank at that moment but I was glad that she really appreciated it so much and she kept ALL the things on the cake - candle and knife. She even wanted to keep the ribbon that has got cream wordings (she wanted to wash and keep) but I told her not to because it's oily. So I replaced the ribbon with the red punched tags for her. We are really very lucky to have Cathy in our family and ever since she came, my life changed (of course as I don't have to do everything all by myself！), I'm happier and not so boring at home because there's Cathy to chat with me, to tease the girls together with me and everything！Thank you so much Cathy and I consider you as my friend, my family.
Too bad that she misses her daughter so much and wanted to go back but yet she wanted to earn more money for her and her daughter's future. She's still doubting to stay on together with us or just go back for good. Of course we'll be more than happy if she choose to stay and actually I'm praying so hard for that！