How to make Butter Rice

Serve this butter rice with curry, chicken roast or meat stew. Recipe for 6 people.

Ingredients for Butter Rice:

1. 2 cups rice - washed and drained
2. 3 cups water or chicken stock
3. 4 dessertspoons butter
4. 1 dessertspoons chopped onions
5. A small piece of cinnamon and 2 cloves or 1/4 teaspoon of powdered cinnamon
6. 1/4 to 1 cup raisins

Method:

• Put butter in pan and fry chopped onions till golden brown.
• Add rice and fry for about 2 minutes.
• Add water or stock, cover and cook on steady fire till water is absorbed.
• Lower flame and allow rice to cook slowly in its own steam. When rice is cooked, add salt, raisins, cinnamon and cloves. Add more butter if desired.
• Leave pan of rice on slow flame for about 10 minutes before serving.
• To serve, place butter rice on platter and decorate top with fried onions, blanched almonds - fried brown in butter.

Printable Version - Butter Rice

How to make Ikan Pepes

A slightly less risky snack of cooked fish, wrapped with pounded ingredients and grilled in a banana leaf parcel. Looks good, smells great, but wasn't anything special. Simple Singapore food.

Ingredients for Ikan Pepes:

• 4 medium sized fish (horsemackerel)
• 10 dried chillies (soaked in water)
• 6 shallots
• 3 garlic
• 1 thumb-sized turmeric
• 1 slice ginger
• 1 lemon grass
• 1 thumb-sized galangal (lengkuas)
• 1/2 grated coconut
• 1 tsp salt
• banana leaves

Method:

1. Wash and clean fish. Drain.
2. In a mortar, pound chillies, shallots, garlic, turmeric, ginger, lemon grass, galangal to a fine paste. Keep aside.
3. In a medium bowl, combine pounded ingredients, grated coconut and salt. Mix well and coat each fish with the mixture. Wrap each fish in banana leaf. Place in oven and bake (or grill over a charcoal fire) for 30 minutes, turning over once or twice during baking.
4. Enjoy!

Printable Version - Ikan Pepes

Image Credit by avlxyz

How to make Shark's Fin Soup

Shark's Fin Soup recipe.

Ingredients for Shark's Fin Soup:

• 300 g shark's fin
• 6 pairs of chicken feet
• 1 chicken breast - shredded
• 5 cups water
• Salt to taste
• 200 g crab meat
• 1 1/2 tsp cornflour mixed with 1 tbsp water
• 1 egg white - beat lightly
• black vinegar
• ground pepper

Method:

1. Wash shark's fin in warm water and strain. Keep aside.
2. Bring chicken feet and chicken breast to boil over high flame for 5 minutes, reduce flame to low and simmer for 20 mins. Strain the stock.
3. Bring chicken stock to boil with salt, add shark's fin, shredded chicken meat and crab meat. Simmer for 3 mins, thicken with cornflour.
4. Lastly add in egg white. Remove and serve with black vinegar and pepper.

Printable Version - Shark's Fin Soup

Hot Curried Crab

Hot and Spicy Curried Crab made with curry leaves, dried chillies, halba seeds, mustard seeds, black peppercorns, chilli padi and jintan manis.

Ingredients for curried crab:

• 2 kg fresh meaty crab - cleaned and halved
• Salt to taste
• 4 sprigs curry leaves
• 4 dried chillies, broken up
• Cucumber slices to serve with crab - optional
• 1 tsp halba seeds
• 1 tbsp mustard seeds
• 6 tbsp oil
• 20 twin shallots, sliced 
• 4 cm piece cinnamon stick
• 2 limes
• 1/4 litre thick coconut milk extracted from 1/2 scrapped coconut

Spices to grind:

• 1 tbsp black peppercorns
• 20 dried chillies
• 10 ripe chilli padi
• 1 clove garlic
• 3 cm piece turmeric
• 1 tbsp jintan manis

Method:

1. Heat oil in saucepan. Fry firstly the shallots till golden brown, adding dried chilli, mustard seeds and halba, cinnamon and curry leaves.
2. Meanwhile mix thoroughly the ground spices with coconut milk and salt, pouring this into the saucepan, stirring well.
3. Add the crab and cook quickly over high heat till crab is cooked and dry.
4. Lift from heat and squeeze limes over.

Printable Version - Hot Curry Crab

Image Credit by byte