Rice Pudding

Another dish I've been craving for ages! The thing about living at home with a family like mine, is that no matter how much you talk about something you'd like to eat, it never gets made. This is probably the reason I started this blog in the first place. I crave things all the time, but if I wait until dinner time to ask "what's for dinner?", the answer is usually something along the lines of "salad," "carrot soup," or "fish." So anytime I crave anything, I just make it. If my family doesn't happen to be happy about it, I make it anyways, because it's good, and because it beats carrot soup any day of the week. Here's my rice pudding recipe, loosely following the Joy of Cooking cookbook (one of my faves!)

Ingredients:

3-4 Cups of cooked rice

4-5 Cups of milk

1/2 Cup of sugar

1/4 Tsp of salt

1 Tsp of Vanilla

Cinnamon Sugar to sprinkle on top (If you don't have any cinnamon sugar on hand, you're missing out. It's about 4 parts sugar, 1 part cinnamon)

1. Bring rice and milk to a boil, and reduce to a simmer until all the milk has been absorbed (around 30 minutes)

2. Stir in sugar, salt, vanilla, and even some cinnamon if you desire.

3. Serve warm or cold ( I prefer warm) and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar before serving.

Side note: I used leftover rice after making fried rice, which I had rinsed vigorously before cooking to remove excess starch. If you’re planning on making rice pudding, don’t rinse the rice, as it will result in a creamier pudding texture. My rice pudding was good on the first day but the milk sort of separated over a few days afterwards.

Bon Appétit!

Fried Rice

When there is nothing left in the fridge but two slices of ham, no cheese, no bread, no pasta... I am forced to turn to rice (always my last resort). My sister asked for it, so I tried my hand at Chinese fried rice. It should not, under any circumstance be considered authentic Chinese Food because I literally emptied the fridge into this dish and used the only sauce I could find. It actually turned out really tasty! So I recommend making my version, because if I ate it, it couldn't have been that terrible as I don't like rice to begin with...

Ingredients

3 cups of cooked rice (leftover rice is perfect)

2 green onions, chopped

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Some leftover veggies (I used chopped yellow peppers)

4 Tbsp of Canola Oil

3 Tbsp of Stir-fry sauce (I didn’t have any soya sauce)

2 deli ham slices

Salt and Pepper

Heat the oil in a wok on medium heat. Add the eggs and green onions and scramble until it is no longer creamy. Stir in the leftover veggies, and ham.

Once the ham and veggies are crispy, stir in the rice and raise the heat a bit Stir until the rice is crispier. Lastly, stir in the stir-fry sauce. Add some salt and according to your taste buds.

Serve immediately and enjoy!

Bon Appétit!

Chicken Stroganoff

Sorry for the lack of updates recently, I have absolutely no inspiration lately and had to force myself to make something remotely decent as a Mother’s Day meal for my mom because the night before I made the super delicious but extremely basic and bland “pasta with butter, cheddar and ham”. This Chicken Stroganoff recipe, which I sort of based on a few recipes I found online, is the ultimate comfort food and I ate way too much of it. I also added peppers to it so I wouldn’t have to make a vegetable dish… They are the biggest drag.



Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. All-purpose flour
2 or 3 Medium Chicken Breasts, cut into 1-2” chunks
1 Tsp. Ground Sage
1 Tsp. Ground Thyme
Salt and Pepper
2 Tbsp. Olive Oil
1 Tbsp. Butter
½ A Golden Onion, chopped finely
2 Cloves of Garlic, pressed
3 Cups White Mushrooms, sliced
2 Yellow/Orange Peppers, chopped
1½ Cups of Chicken Stock
½ Cup Heavy Cream
½ Cup Sour Cream (the best!)


1. In a bowl, toss the chicken chunks with the flour, sage, thyme, salt and pepper.
2. In a deep skillet, heat the olive oil and cook the chicken until golden brown. Remove the chicken from the skillet and set aside.
3. In the same skillet, melt the butter. Add the onions, garlic and mushrooms, toss to coat. Sprinkling some salt onto the mushrooms will help them release their liquid. Saute the vegetables until they are lightly browned over low heat.
4. Deglaze the bottom of the skillet with some white wine, or some chicken broth, pour in the rest of the broth. Simmer for 5 minutes.
5. Return the chicken to the pan, add the heavy cream. (If you wanted to serve the dish with egg noodles, now would be the time to stir 3 cups of Egg noodles, with an extra cup of chicken broth!) Stir in chopped yellow/orange pepper. Simmer 10 minutes or until sauce is thickened.
6. Remove from heat, take a few tablespoons of the sauce to mix into the sour cream to prevent curdling. Once the sour cream has been mixed in with some hot sauce, stir the sour cream into the final dish.
7. You may serve this chicken stroganoff with anything. I served it with rice for my parents, but ate it with macaroni. I think the best way to eat it is with egg-noodles.



Bon Appétit!