Roasted Chicken With Brown Rice And Chestnut Stuffing

  Today is Christmas and as a Christian we do value this special and meaning day in December Calender. For the past two years, our church has planned outdoor Christmas Party in the neighbourhood area so that more residents can join us to celebrate this special occasion at the eve of Christmas. So since today is a rest day for family gathering, I decided to try my hand on preparing my very 1st Christmas Lunch.

To be honest, I seldom prepared western dishes because I do not own many of those spices or herbs which we hardly used in our daily Asian cooking. And this Roasted Chicken Lunch that I prepared is also not a fully western dishes too. As when you read the rest of the post, you would notice that I replaced the usual herbs stuffing with brown rice and etc.

Here are some collage photos to show the ingredients and steps on preparing the Brown Rice Stuffing which is quite similar to what I did a few years back on the Baked Pumpkin with Rice Stuffing (link HERE).

Ingredients: (for 1 quantity)

1 Cup of Uncooked Brown Rice Mixture
2 Tablespoons of Frozen Green Peas
6 - 8 Whole Ready to Eat Roasted Chestnuts
1 Tablespoon of Mixed Fried Fruit/Golden Raisin
1 Teaspoon of Minced Garlic
1/2 Teaspoon of Minced Ginger
1/2 Tablespoon of Oil
Seasonings:
Dash of Pepper and Sesame Oil
1/2 Teaspoon Light Soya Sauce

Method:

1. Rinse the rice mixture two to three time then soak in water for about 30 minutes before cooking.(soaking the brown rice prior cooking can decrease the cooking time)
2. Cook the brown rice in rice cooker with the usual method and once it is cooked through stand it rice cooker for another 10 minutes.
3. Next scoop the cooked rice to a place and let it cool off to room temperature while preparing the ingredients for the fried rice and get ready the chicken.
4. When done, preheat a non-stick pan with 1/2 tablespoon of cooking oil, saute the minced garlic and ginger till fragrant then drop in green peas and give it a quick stir before adding the cooked brown rice.
5. Use the back of the spatula, loosen all the lumps of the cooked rice till grains are formed.
6. Stir-fry the rest of the ingredients such as chestnut and mixed dried fruits then follow by the seasoning till well mixed.
7. Transfer the rice mixture to a plate while handling the chicken.

Note:-

~ Mix 1/2 cup each of Brown Rice with normal Long Grain Jasmin Rice. (I do encourage you to try brown rice as it will give this dish a very nutty fragrant and taste)

This is the final Brown Rice Stuffing with Chestnut, green peas and dried mixed fruit mixture which is ready to be used. Since this is used as a Christmas theme stuffing you could realise that the colour that I used seems t be circling with green, red, golden and etc. I am sure this would be something new to you as to add dried mixed fruits into rice stuffing.

Here is another set of collage photos showing the ingredients of the roasted vegetables and steps on stuffing the chicken.

Ingredients For Roasted Vegetables: (Serves 4)

1 Medium Carrot, cut into 2cm thick chunks
2 Medium Potato, removed skin and cut into 6 chunks each
300g of Pumpkin, removed skin and cut into chunks
1 Fresh Sweetcorn, cut into 2cm thick ring, halves
Seasonings:
1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
1/2 Teaspoon Freshly Ground Black Peppercorns
1/2 Teaspoon of Dried Chilli Flakes
1/2 Tablespoon roughly chopped Coriander

Method:

1. Mixed all the vegetables together with the seasonings in a bowl and set aside while preparing the chicken.


Since I still have some Seah's Spices available from their complimentary gift (link HERE) set, I decided to use one of this "Seah's Salt-Roasted Chicken Spices" for our Christmas Roast Chicken Lunch. There are two small 20g sachets of spices in each packet where you can roast up to 2 chicken of 600g each.

Ingredients: (Serves 4)

1 20g Sachet of Spices(Seah's Salt-Roasted Chicken Spices)
1 Sakura Chicken, around 1kg size
1 Tablespoon of Olive Oil
1 Quantity of Prepared Brown Rice Stuffing
Prepared Vegetables Chunks for roasting

Method:

1. Before stuffing the chicken, trim the extra fats, emptied and cleaned the cavity, removed the head, neck and feet. Rinse and pat dry using kitchen paper towel.
2.Next brush the olive oil evenly around the chicken before rubbing the powder spices all over the chicken include the cavity of the chicken and under the skin layers.
3. Scoop the rice stuffing into the cavity and pressed tightly using the back of the spoon until all all or most of the stuffing are used up.
4. Place the stuffed chicken in a baking dish, secure the chicken thighs and wings to its body by using some kitchen string.
5. Arrange the prepared vegetables chunks around the sides of the baking dish and roast in a pre-heat 220 degree roast for about 20 minutes.
6. Remove the baking dish from the oven, quickly brush over another layer of olive oil all around the chicken and also give the veggies a quick toss before putting back to the oven to roast for another 20 minutes.
7. To get that nice and crispy outer skin, you can switch the oven function to fan-force mode on the last 7 - 10 minutes of cooking time.



In about 1 hour time, we could enjoy a hearty Christmas Roasted Chicken Lunch with rice stuffing and mixed veggies at our comfort home without need to eat in rush and wait for the festive season queues in the eateries. You can also re-heat some ready served chicken gravy pack or festive cranberry sauce from the supermarket to go with the roasted chicken.

This photo shows the inner cut of the roasted chicken where you can see the colourful brown rice stuffing in the cavity. The rice is so yummy and fragrant by the spices and juice from the roasted chicken too.

Roasted Chicken will be great to serve with Caesar Salad that consists of the crispy romaine lettuce and croutons which dressed with Parmesan cheese, lemon juice, olive oil and etc.You can easily prepared this by getting some fresh romaine lettuce and ready salad dressing pack from local supermarket such as Cold Storage.

This is the 1 person serving portion of our Christmas Lunch. Everyone enjoys this simple and wonderful meal with accompany of white wine and sparking drinks.

Although this year Christmas has almost come to an end in another few hours time but I would still like to wish everyone of my blog readers a wonder and blessed Christmas. Hope you have enjoy this festive season with your loved to ones and Merry Christmas everyone!!!!

And also I am submitting this post to "Aspiring Bakers #2: Christmas! (Dec 2010)", hosted by Passionate About Baking at this link HERE.

Spooky Halloween Trick or Treat

What are you planning on this year Halloween which is just two days away on Sunday, 31 October 2010? This year there are a lot of exciting Halloween activities found in most tourist attractions such as Singapore Night Safari, Sentosa (spooky event) or even some restaurants or pubs are having Halloween parties and special dining menu to brings up the spooky atmosphere.

For this coming Halloween, I would like to share with you our quick and easy "not so" spooky Halloween treat which is the "Pumpkin Soup" and "Spooky Pizza".

Making Nyonya Rice Dumpling

Every year during the "Five-month, Five-day" of Lunar calendar is known as the "Dumpling Festival". In Singapore, this traditional Chinese festival is celebrated by the eating of a variety of steamed glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo leaves call "Zong Zi". Dumpling Festival (Duan Wu Jie) is also known as Dragon Boat Festival. It is celebrated in rememberance of Chinese poet Qu Yuan, who was a loyal official in the court of the Chu Kingdom in old China.

Fishermen who heard that Qu Yuan drowned himself in the river set sail on boats to look for his body When they could not find it, they threw rice wrapped in bamboo leaves into the river so that the fish in the river would eat the rice instead of his body. Thus began the tradition of dragon boat races (creating a din to scare away the preying fish?) and eating rice dumplings on Duan Wu Jie.

The usual local favourites of rice dumpling in Singapore are - Bak Chang(with salted egg), Nyonya, Mung Bean Rice Dumpling, Red Bean Rice Dumpling, etc. So for today we are making the Nyonya version which is towards the sweet side of Rice Dumpling.

The process of making Rice Dumpling can be consisted as tedious preparation. Because from the boiling,washing and soaking of bamboo leaves and strings to prepare all the necessary ingredients. It could take up to a few days to prepare ahead and after the wrapping up the dumpling, you still need to boil it in water for about at least 1.5 hrs to 2 hrs in order to get it cooked. But it's always good to make your own dumpling because you can add in whatever ingredients you prefer. I had include a short video clip for those who is interested in wrapping the dumpling, hope it helps.



Ingredients: (make about 35, depending on the size)
2Kg Glutinous Rice
1 Tablespoons Salt
3 Tablespoons Oil
3-4 Cloves Garlic
2 Tablespoons Bunga Telang Juice/Blue Food Colouring
12-15 Pandan Leaves,cut into 1.5" length

Methods:
1. Soak Glutinous rice for at least 3 hrs or overnight, drain and set aside.
2. Preheat pan with oils and stir-fry garlic till frangrant then add in the drained rice and stir for a few minutes then add in salt, stir till combined.
3. Divide the rice into 2 portions, mix 1 portion of rice with colouring then set all aside to cool.

Bamboo Leaves
50-60 Pieces Bamboo Leaves
3-4 Bunch of Hemp Stings

Methods:
1. Bamboo leaves and hemp strings have to be pre-treated in advance too.
2. Heat a large pot of water, when water starts to boil, place bamboo leaves and hemp strings in. Make sure bamboo leaves and strings are fully immersed in water.
3. Continue boiling for 5 minutes, turn fire off remove the leaves and strings.
4. Roughly wash them in water then soak it in a pail of water overnight.
5. Remove leaves and strings from water before you need to use them.

Fillings:
800g Pork Belly/Chicken
300g Candided Winter Melon
30g Dried Mushrooms,
150g Dried Shrimps
150g Dried Chestnut, optional
50g Chopped Garlic
200g Chopped Shallot

Seasoning:
2 Tablespoons Black Pepper
6 Tablespoons Coriander Seeds
2 Tablespoons Dark Soy Sauce
2 Tablespoons Sugar
Pinch Of Salt
8 Tablespoons Cooking Oil

Methods:
1. Soak the dried chestnut overnight and drained.
2. Soak dried mushroom and shrimps separately until soft.
3. Dice the mushroom finley then chopped the shrimp.
4. Cut pork or chicken into small cubes/thick strips.
5. Heat 8 tablespoons of oil in a wok, fry shallots and garlic until fragrant then add dried shrimps, chestnut and mushroom.
6. Fry further till fragrant, stir in pork and seasoning and fry till pork is cooked.
7. Turn off heat and add in candied winter melon and mix well and set aside to cool.

Notes: If you are making Bak Chang, then you can omit the candied winter melon and add in 1 /2 Tablespoons of 5 spices powder when frying the filling.

You can either cooked all the ingredients together or you can separate the chestnut, dried shrimp and meat & mushroom in 3 different sections.

Wrapping the Dumplings:
1. Overlap two bamboo leaves and fold into a cone.(wipe the leave if it's too wet)
2. Put 1 tablespoon colour glutinous rice, 1 tablespoon plain glutinous rice, 1.5 tablespoons of filling and another 1 tablespoon plain glutinous rice on top.
3. Press gently with a spoon and top with a small pices of pandan leaves and wrap dumpling into a pyramid shape.
4. Tie with a string.
5. Boil some water in a pot, add 2 tablespoons of salt to the water, put in the tied dumpling and cook over high heat for 1.5 - 2 hours until rice is cooked through.
6. Remove the dumpling and hang it up to drip away any excess water and you can leave it at room temperature over night or keep unfinished dumpling in the freezer for a few weeks.

Notes: The ingredients and taste of the fillings are depend on individual, you can add in different kinds of meats(eg: chicken instead of pork) or beans(black-eyed bean, mung bean or red bean) and even salted egg) according to your taste.

There is no bean, chestnut or salted egg for traditional Nyonya Rice Dumpling, but you can create any favour when you get the hand on how to prepare the filling and wrapping.

Snowskin Mooncake

Managed to make these assorted mini Snowskin Mooncakes today with my mum. Snowskin version is rather easy when compared to those traditional bake mooncake where you need to prepare the dough, wrapped it with filling in the mooncake mould and bake in the oven.

Likewise for snowskin version you can do a short-cut by using premixed snowskin flour mixture with shortening and liquid such as juice, red wine, and etc.