Brown Rice

In the effort to eat healthier, I thought that I should cook some brown rice. Being Asian, I grew up with rice and noodles, so even though I love my protein, being on a low carb diet was a serious struggle for me.

I don't just want to lose weight for the sake of losing weight. I want to do it healthy and develop healthy eating habits. And I just don't think a low carb, and extremely high in protein diet is healthy, OR sustainable.

But I digress.

What I'm really trying to say is that I've decided to start cooking brown rice. I remember Mom making it for me once, and it was delicious. So I woke up in the morning and soaked a cup of brown rice, ready for cooking tonight. Then I cooked with. 1.5 cups (the grains expanded) of brown rice with 0.5 cups of white rice (had to wean Luke and I into eating the stuff) and into the microwave it went (and yes, I'm a lazy Asian so I cook rice with the microwave). 

Only, it wasn't as tasty as I remembered. I think I might have stuffed up. Or maybe Mom put more white rice than she told me... sounds like something she would do. :) I still love her, the cheeky monkey.

But serve it with a saucy dish... it wasn't half bad!

From my old blog: Chicken Stew like my Mom used to make! (probably without the brown rice)

Enjoy! xoxo

Chicken stew

When I was younger, I used to love my mother's chicken stew. It had everything good and comforting in it - chicken, potatoes, onions, carrots and champignon mushrooms. I should emphasise that this is not your regular stew. This is chinese stew. A stew that you would eat with rice on a scorchng hot day. It's not comfoort food. It's just plain yummy.

Well, as I grew older and learned to cook, I would say that this dish should probably be called braised chicken. However, I will follow in my mother's footsteps and call this a chicken stew.

At the end of 2010, I took Mom to visit Nicole and Elizah in one of my favourite capital cities in Australia - Canberra (ok, I know I'm weird - lay off me! I like the Can!) Deb helped dogsit and as a thank you, I cooked a few meals for her - one of which was this chicken stew of mom's. She was watching, so there was a lot of pressure. My proudest (and funniest) moment was when she tasted the stew, turned to me and said "Can I have the recipe?" 

Deb later on told me that she loved loved loved it as well, and I thought that I should make that for dinner tonight. Unfortunately, I fell asleep on the couch and did not have time to cook the stew for as long as I liked. So I thought maybe I should attempt a quick version of the stew, so here it is:

400g of chicken thighs (free range if possible)
1 onion (cut into wedges)
2 carrots ( cut into chunks)
Two cloves of garlic - chopped
Oyster Sauce (about three table spoons)
1 tablespoon of cooking oil
Three shakes of sugar
A dash of white pepper
About half cup of white wine (whatever's left in the fridge)
Enough water to coover the chicken

1. Cooking oil in the pot, and fry the garlic and onion until the onions are transluscent.
2. Add the chicken and continue frying.
3. Add the rest of ingredients and simmer until the liquid is reduced (in this case, if you are making a QUICK chicken stew, add less liquid and simmer until thickened slightly).