Fried rice is always an easy but boring dish to prepare.. I mean, how interesting can fried rice be? Using essentially the same ingredients as regular fried rice (minus the ketchup), I made Omu Rice for lunch one afternoon. Ah-mm, 88 and Jason raved about how delicious this was, although I don’t think it differed too much from normal fried rice. Don’t tell me the ketchup has super power?! And suddenly I think of the way I used to write in Pink-Pink!!. I guess only “oldies” will understand what I mean.

Makes 4 servings

What I used:

For fried rice (4 servings)
3 rice bowls cooked rice (best if leftover from yesterday)
A handful of frozen vegetables (corn, peas, carrots), defrosted–> this ingredient is such an oxymoron
5 slices ham, sliced into 1-cm squares
100g minced meat
Some prawns, cut into 1-cm pieces (optional)
1 onion, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
Black pepper
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
1 tablespoon ketchup and some to decorate

For omelette (per person)
1 beaten egg
2 tablespoons milk
1 slices cheddar/ normal cheese, cut into small pieces (or use mozzarella)

1. Use a non-stick pan!
2. Heat up the oil and fry onion til translucent. Add minced meat, ham, and prawns (if using) and fry til meat is cooked.
3. Add the vegetables, rice, light soy sauce, ketchup and black pepper. Mix well and remove from pan. Set aside.
4. Beat 2 tablespoons milk with one egg in a bowl. Clean the pan and oil it with olive oil using paper towels so that the omelette slides right off later. Once the pan is hot, pour the beaten egg and swirl it around the pan quickly. Lower the heat once the egg is half solid.
5. Layer the cheese in the middle of the egg, then put one portion of fried rice on top. Leave some space at both sides of the omelette as you need to fold in both sides quickly once the cheese and rice are added.
6. Fold in both sides of the egg to envelope the rice. Don’t worry, the egg won’t have to “meet” and it is ok for some of the rice to show. Remove the pan from the stove, then flip it onto a flat plate. Shape up the omu rice with paper towel to make it neat. Continue to make another omu rice until you’ve used up all the rice. Decorate with ketchup and tuck in!

For an extremely useful step-by-step guide, please go to this page from Just One Cookbook which I adapted this recipe from. The amount of time and effort Nami spends on each post makes my jaw drop.

How much I spent: 

$1.50 for breakfast ham
$1 for minced meat
$1.40 for cheddar cheese
Everything else from my pantry!

Total cost per serving: $0.98

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I’ve been wanting to make omu rice for some time now because I love tomato ketchup rice, but simply serving ketchup rice is uninteresting. The amount of rice in this one serving is less than your regular rice bowl. Initially I thought it wouldn’t be enough per person, but I guess they were too distracted by the novelty that they said they were extremely full. It was just a little bit of rice and one egg- the same ingredients you would use to cook fried rice. The only difference is, if I had served the fried rice with egg as it is, they would most probably eat double the amount. If a dish is familiar or boring, you’ll tend to eat more without thinking.

Presentation really does make a difference.. I’m going to experiment with more colours and more interesting ways to dress up my dishes! Who says you can’t play with your food?

The post Japanese Omu Rice ~ with cheese, ham and ketchup appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.

Who doesn’t like creamy gravy over rice? This afternoon, I made a variation of Chicken Stroganoff, cooked Asian style without sour cream, with plenty of sliced onions and button mushrooms in a creamy Carnation white sauce. Oh yes, I airfried the chicken pieces. They’re so tender and juicy.

Many people associate Carnation evaporated milk with Teh-Si, and rightly so. Most would be surprised at the savoury dishes you can whip up with a can of Carnation milk! You can cook mac and cheese, shepherd’s pie, butter chicken, potato soup, baked fish, and lots of other breakfast, lunch and dinner options you never thought possible. And with a 330ml can just costing $1.80 thereabouts (I use low fat. The regular can is even cheaper), it is a budget alternative to cooking cream that comes in little tiny cartons.

For mind-boggling recipes with Carnation milk, go to http://www.carnationmilk.ca/recipes.aspx

Try this recipe over the weekend with a side of crunchy asparagus. You’ll love it as much as we do.

Makes 4 servings

What I used:

16 strips chicken fillet (or you can use chicken breast cut into strips approx. 1- 1.5 inch in diameter)
Garlic powder, a dash of salt and black pepper, and optional italian herb flakes/ paprika (for seasoning)
Half a can of Carnation low fat evaporated milk
1 knob butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large yellow onion
1 can button mushrooms
1 tablespoon Djorn mustard
Cornstarch solution (1 tablespoon corn flour dissolved in 2 tablespoons room temperature water)
200 ml chicken stock
Scissors-cut spring onions

1. Season chicken with garlic powder, salt and pepper and airfry at 160 degrees for 12 minutes. Alternatively, pan-fry them in shallow oil til just done.. don’t over brown them.
2. If panfrying the chicken, remove chicken pieces and add butter and olive oil. If airfrying, heat up your frying pan and add butter and olive oil.
3. Add sliced onions and cook under low heat for about 5 minutes, til onions are soft and fragrant. Add Carnation milk and cook til bubbly, then add chicken stock. Bring to boil and lower to simmer. Stir in the Djorn mustard and continue to simmer for 2 minutes.
4. Add in cornstarch solution, stir to combine. Add button mushrooms, mix well and cook til sauce is thickened. Do a taste test and add some salt if needed.
5. To serve, arrange 4 chicken strips on top of rice and spoon creamy sauce over. Sprinkle spring onions on top and tuck in while hot!

How much I spent:

$5 for chicken fillet
$0.30 for onion
$1.30 for button mushrooms
$0.90 for carnation milk
Everything else from my pantry

Total cost per serving: $1.88

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The best thing about this recipe if that you don’t have to spend lots of money on exotic ingredients rarely used in an Asian kitchen. Sour cream and cooking cream are not essential in this dish.. when you don’t have what a recipe calls for and don’t see yourself using that ingredient frequently, substitute!

If you’ve cooked this ahead of time and want to heat up the sauce for dinner, add some chicken stock to the hot pan and stir to “loosen” the milk and starch. Enjoy!

White sauce cooking on the stove top:

The post Creamy Chicken Stroganoff appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.

Guess which component of this dish I grew up eating? The fried chicken? Yes in a way, I’m such a fried chicken fan, but it is the salad prawn with Heinz salad cream that hits home here. This was a childhood dish. Ah mm used to make portions of chilled salad prawns with just three ingredients: cooked tiger prawns, cucumber and Heinz salad cream. Not mayo, not miracle whip, not just any salad cream, but Heinz salad cream.

I always looked forward to this dish, i.e, eat up all the prawns and leave the cucumber to everyone else cos I hate cucumber. Just kidding, though I secretly wished I could do that. My version for yesterday’s lunch was with the addition of crunchy Fuji apples- they really do go well together. This was also a way to sneak some fruits into Ah-mm’s diet- the only fruit I’ve seen her eat in a long time is the durian, so I try to cook with fruits if I can. Sometimes I add grapes, sometimes pear, but we had apples in the fridge yesterday.

The vegetable medley is delightful and very easy to whip up. I am addicted to broccoli and can polish off a whole head (or more) by myself in one sitting. The best way I like to enjoy my broccoli is have them boiled or steamed to just the right crunchiness, plain. Bliss, to me, is just me and my broccoli, for lunch or dinner. Unfortunately, my aunts don’t really fancy lightly cooked vegetables. I still cook the broccoli and cauliflower cautiously though, but add a pat of butter and saute some sliced onions for flavour whenever they need some florets in their diet.

The fried chicken? I don’t deep fry things but once in while (after I got the most amazing kitchen appliance in the world- the Airfryer), I buy pre-cooked packages of fried chicken and serve them with lots of greens as a treat for my family. With the Airfryer, I don’t have to cook them in hot fat a second time, and additional fat actually gets forced out from the fried stuff. The evidence is collected at the bottom of the Airfryer everytime I reheat something deep fried. Trust me, I reheated a Cronut in there on Monday. The amount of oil collected was more than this fried chicken.

Serves 2

What I used:

1/3 broccoli
1/3 cauliflower
1 tsp butter
1 onion, sliced
4 tiger prawns
1 Fuji apple, cubed
1/2 cucumber, cubed
1 tbsp Heinz salad cream
1/2 tomato (optional, for added vitamins)
2 precooked chicken drumsticks

For the salad:

1. Boil prawns in hot water til just cooked.
2. Mix with cucumber, apple and salad cream, then chill.

For the vegetables:

1. Heat butter in pan, then add onions and saute til soft.
2. Add lightly blanched broccoli and cauliflower, mix well and cook for 2 mins.
3. Add a pinch of salt to taste. (you can leave this out. I didnt use soy sauce for this cos I needed this to be dry)

For the fried chicken:

1. Buy this, then airfry at 180degrees for 12 mins:

How much I spent:

$1.75 for drumsticks (2 packets of total 16 drumsticks- 1 for 1 at Giant for $13.50)
$1 for broccoli and cauliflower
$0.15 for tomato
$0.20 for cucumber
$0.40 for Fuji apple
$1 for prawns
Everything else from my pantry

Total cost per serving: $2.25

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I usually serve a protein and a vegetable dish for every meal, but more vegetables are good for you and I have cucumber I wanted to use up. If it were just me eating, I’d leave out the rice, since the broccoli and cauliflower are really filling enough. I made this for my aunts yesterday when Jason was at work and they loved their lunch. Cant say the same for Jason as he cant/ refuses to eat/ has a phobia for chicken drumsticks. I know right, he’s just really strange like that.

The post Fried Chicken with Vegetable Medley and Salad Prawns appeared first on Budgetpantry | Singapore Mummy Blog on Food, Recipe & Baby.