Claypot rice

Mom was sick today. So I thought I had cooked dinner instead. It was a last minute decision and I did not buy anything beforehand. Just ransacked the fridge to see what we had left inside. There were nothing much left as we were desperately clearing away our food stuff in the fridge since our CNY stock up. Nevertheless still found some ingredients. Decided to cook Cantonese Claypot Rice.

I had a packet of the Spice Paste for claypot rice. I had the mushrooms. I had small chicken wings and drumsticks instead of chopped boneless chicken cubes. I had pork slices instead of the chinese sausages or bacon. I prepared the garlic and some ginger slices and crushed some dried scallops for additional flavour. First I marinated the chicken wings/drumsticks and pork slices for a short while. Then I stir fried them and the mushrooms and scallops for 5 minutes. Then I added the uncooked rice, paste and both light and dark soya sauce, and stir fried everything for another 2-3 minutes or so. Then I threw everything into the cooker (since we do not have a claypot), added water and I was done. Just left it to cook. So easy.

Since we had some wrapped popiah in the fridge, I fried them in the pan as well. Then thought both fried popiah and claypot rice were a little heaty, so I brewed chrysanthemum tea from the dried flowers as well. Dinner was so fast, took me about an hour to prepare everything. I even had time to boil plain porridge for Mom. And fortunately the Claypot Rice turned out not too bad, the rice was soft and fluffy and full of flavour from the chicken and mushrooms and scallops. I did not have spring onions so I did away with it as a garnish.

Basically I like to cook, but I would not like to waste time laboriously in cooking meals that need a lot of effort and preparation. Bottomline is, there is food to eat in a short time. So my mantra is, fast to cook, good to eat. Maybe I should compile all the so-called "recipes" of all the meals I have cooked before and publish a book called "A Full Meal Within 60 Minutes". Young and working professionals will love it. Hiak hiak hiak.