Healthy Living in Singapore

Memories, Food and Love Series #1- Nasi Briyani

I’ve been wanting to do this for some time. Love and food are inexorably linked with each other and I’ve been so blessed by my interactions with the people around me, most of the time through food. It’s a strange thing in Asian culture. I think we are by nature shy with words and tend to express ourselves better through food.

I’ve been wanting to carve out a space where I can preserve all these wonderful food I’ve had the privilege of someone taking the time and effort to make for me. I didn’t just want to sit down with pen and paper and ask for the recipe. I wanted to be there when the cooking was taking place. To ask about the different ingredients, to help wash, to watch the water boiling and knowing just when to place that slice of ginger. More than anything, I wanted to preserve the memories of my (and other’s) culture and heritage- my mother’s cooking, my grandmother’s cooking, my malay neighbour’s cooking, my foreign friends who have stepped onto Singapore soil and taken the time to bless me with the tales of their land and the food they have made with their own hands. I wanted to share in the pride so evident in their voice as they showed me the food unique to their countries. These people have taught me so much (both of food and of life) and all I want to do now is keep these memories near and close to me so that one day when I’m feeling nostalgic and want to taste something of the past, I wouldn’t just be tasting something from a random recipe book but the taste of much love and memories from people I’ve been so richly blessed with.

I have been incredibly fortunate. Every request I have made of their time has been met with nothing but enthusiasm and sheer generosity.  I made no special restriction on the recipes. I told them it’s for this space which they knew to be something about vegetables but insisted they kept the recipe as true to what they usually prepare as possible. As always, they have gone ahead and surprised me. The recipes they have offered are all ones I have delightedly enjoyed in the past yet they have gone out of their way to make healthier tweaks to it to indulge me. Same taste, just slightly healthier. I’m a very lucky girl.

So first up in the series, I present to you a hot Singaporean (okay, mine!) favourite- Nasi Briyani! This was made by a woman who is matriarch of a family that I have had a privilege of knowing for only a little more than a year but I absolutely adore and love already.  The head of the household is non other than the very brilliant Yusnof Ef who really, can be considered the ‘grandfather’ of Malay songs in SEA and is definitely a pioneer in the Malay cultural scene here. I love hearing him share because his passion for the arts, heritage and community is so evident. This nasi briyani was made by his wife who is an amazing woman in her own right and I’ve often been so inspired by her patience and her sharings as well. We made this just before puasa started so I learnt (as I’ve been learning through the year) a lot on malay culture and of Islam. ( I must admit, I find the dedication and discipline wonderfully admirable and can only aspire to be as such!)

Anyway, enough talk! On to the food! 🙂
Mutton Briyani lovingly prepared by Jamilah Jaan (otherwise affectionately known as “aunty”).

Recipe:

Ingredients for the Mutton Briyani: 
1 large bunch of coriander
Handful of mint leaves
2 large onions
2 bulbs garlic
2 large old ginger
3 large red chilis
3 large green chilis
2 tomatoes
1/4 cup chilli powder
1 can tomato paste
1/4 cup Sunflower oil

Steps for the Mutton Briyani:

1. Blend the red and green chili into a paste
2. Blend the ginger into a paste
3. Blend the garlic into a paste
4. Set aside.
5. Cut meat into cubes and remove visible fat and skin

6. Sweat onions in a pressure cooker or normal pot
7. Pour ginger/garlic/ chili paste into the pot
8. Stir.
9. Add oil and stir
10. Add meat of choice and stir. Here we used mutton.
11. Add coriander and meat
12. Add briyani powder (Aunty told me she mixes the powder herself! but you can buy from mustafa)
13. Add chili powder and quartered tomatoes
14. Mix well

15. Cover with pressure cooker lid till indicator shows that it is done. Alternatively, if you are using a normal pot, simmer till meat is fork tender.

While the meat is cooking, you are prepare the rice.

 Ingredients for the Briyani Rice:
6 cups Basmati Rice
(Aunty was so sweet! She saw this brown basmati rice at mustafa and thought of me so although she has NEVER cooked this before, she decided to try for my sake! *touched* A healthier twist on traditional comfort food? I LIKE!)
12 cups water
Large spoonful of ghee
4 pandan leaves knotted
1 star anise
7 cardamons
2 cinnamon sticks
1/2 tsp cloves
2 bulbs of shallots sliced thinly

Colouring (optional)
1/2 tsp yellow powder colouring
mixed with
1 cup rose water till desired tone.

Steps:

1. Soak rice in water for 30 min
2. Drain rice and place in rice cooker
3. In a wok (big enough for the water needed for the rice), heat a generous pat of ghee (this is for 6 cups of rice so adjust accordingly)
4. Wait for ghee to melt and stirfry shallots in them till fragrant
5. Add all the spices and mix well till fragrant
6. Bring to a boil
7. When boiling, turn off heat and pour into rice cooker
8. Wait for rice to cook

While waiting for rice to cook, check on meat. When the indicator on the pressure cooker has gone off, add in tomato paste, extra chilies, half a large handful of fried shallots. Stir, bring to a boil and remove from heat. And you are done with the meat!

Back to the rice 🙂

Ta-dah! The smell when it is cooked is just AMAZING, seriously. I wish you could smell it!
If
you are going for the healthier choice, I would just stop at this step
but if you are going to impress your friends, why not just go all the
way?

9. Poke holes in rice with a chopstick when done
10. Mix a little food colouring with rose water and pour into the rice.
11. Wait 30 sec and mix rice gently. Not all the rice has to be coated with the colouring

(Auntie did ask whether I wanted to learn how to make it the ‘dum’ briyani way where the rice is cooked with the chicken in a single pot and absorbs all the flavours but I opted for this method instead because it’s easier to modify and make healthier since I would be able to control the amount of gravy to go with my rice and omitting the colour should I make this myself 🙂 )

12. Plate and serve!

And there you have it, amazingly yummy (healthier?) brown rice mutton briyani! Don’t be afraid of ghee because it’s all natural! Better than magarine but this is not something I recommend on a daily basis! It’s so so good though that when I brought it home it was gone in a few hours :/

Go try it today! Share the love with the people around you as well!

It’s the weekend! Have fun everyone! 🙂 Hope it’s a weekend filled with love for you!

Enjoy! 🙂

P.s To not over indulge, Have a few pieces of meat with just a little gravy and a fistful amount of rice. It’s really good though so some restraint is needed to try and not inhale the pot! 😉

Next up on the love series- Authentic dumplings from a dear friend from Tianjin, China! 😀

Healthy Homemade Chickpea/ Garbanzo bean Burger with Avocado creamsauce, caramelized onions and baked kale chips

Mhmm! Amazing chickpea burger that is dry and crispy paired with a lusciously creamy avocado- yoghurt sauce with just a hint of tangy. Topped with caramelized onions and served with crunchy kale chips, this sweet, savory, crunchy, creamy creation is a party in the mouth! Best part? Absolutely no additives, preservatives or chemicals. Just plain wholesome delicious food like how it should be! 

For the chickpea burger:

1 can garbanzo beans/ chickpeas in water
1.5 tsp cumin
1 tsp each of desired spices – for this recipe I used paprika, black pepper, chili flakes
1 cup all purpose flour/ panko crumbs. 
(For this recipe I used a blend of oat bran, wheat germ and flax meal in a ratio 3:2:1- still 1 cup) 
1tsp Dijon mustard (omitted because I couldn’t find Dijon mustard that wasn’t full of corn syrup or preservatives 🙁 ) 
1 tbsp coconut oil (I omitted this as well because I wanted to pair it with a wet sauce. Add this if you want your patty more moist) 
2 eggs 
Whizz everything in food processor. Shape mixture into flat patties. Place in containers, cover and refrigerate overnight. It might be a little wet at first but will be okay in a few hours.
Place patties on parchment lined oven tray and bake for 10-15 min or till brown and crisp on the outside. 

For the avocado sauce
1 ripe avocado 
1 marigold no sugar added natural yoghurt
1 tsp lemon juice
Whizz in food processor
Place in container and refrigerate till use. 
For the caramelized onions: 
1 large onion cut into rings
1 tsp coconut oil 
Spray pot with a tsp coconut oil. Place onions in pot and stir on medium heat for 2 min. Lower fire to smallest setting and stir every 5 min for about 45min or till onions are dark and sticky. 
Try not to eat it all while its cooking. The smell was so good I kept eating the onions that were stuck to my stirring spoon 😀
For the baked kale chips:
1 bunch kale
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 stp coconut oil 
Preheat oven to 180 deg for 5 min. Shred kale into bite sized pieces. Discard stem. Place kale evenly on oven tray. Spritz/ brush oil on leaves. Crack black pepper and salt to taste. Turn down heat to 60 deg and bake in oven for 2 min. Check to see kale is crisp but not burnt. 
Plate and serve. ENJOY!! 

Mini Broccoli- coconut flour burgers!

I have lots of (instagram, haha) friends who are gluten intolerant or on a wheat/sugar free diet either out of choice or because their bodies cannot handle it. So here’s a recipe for all of you out there looking to eat a little healthier and swap plain nutrientless flour out of your diets!

Made from broccoli, chia seeds and coconut flour, this burger is low GI, contains no added sugar and is packed with fibre and protein. Coconut flour is a great substitute for people who can’t/ choose not to eat carbs because it’s gluten free, virtually carb free and really high in fibre (coconut flour has the highest fibre count of all flours) and even protein! Also I love mini food because they are just cute and so easy to eat! I love packing them in my bento boxes! 🙂

Recipe:
(this makes 8-10 mini burgers)

For the burgers: 
5 broccoli florets
1 tablespoon coconut flour
1 teaspoon chia seeds soaked in 2 tablespoons of water
1 egg
2 tablespoons no sugar added yoghurt
Herbs/ salt
(optional. I omitted them for this recipe but on hindsight, I think a pinch of some would have been nice)

Method:
– Preheat oven at 180 deg 
1. Wash and rinse broccoli head and cut into florets.
2. Pulse 5 large florets in a food processor till it becomes flour-like with no large bits
3. Squeeze excess water out using paper towels/ cheesecloth/ tea towel
4. Place broccoli in a bowl/ blender cup
5. Add coconut flour, a tablespoon of the soaked chia seeds, egg, yoghurt,herbs and spices
6. Blend mixture till smooth (about 15 seconds)
7. Spoon batter into a mini muffin tin
8. Place in oven for 6-8 min or until the batter solidifies/ toothpick comes out clean
9. Pop out from muffin tray and leave to cool.

For the ingredients:
Caramelized onions:
1. Slice onions into large rings
2. Saute in a pan/ pot over low fire till dark and sticky, stirring frequently.

Salmon:
1. Place salmon on skin side on a hot pan.
2. Let it sizzle away till 80% cooked then remove from fire and leave to rest.

(Just realised I’m hopeless at writing recipes. Either that or the kind of food I make is so idiot-proof there’s nothing much to say about it haha)

When the ‘burgers’ have cooled, sliced each into half and place brie cheese and salmon on the base. Top it off with black pepper/ chili flakes and caramelized onions. Poke toothpick through to keep everything in place.

Enjoy! 🙂

P.s Oh, I know lots of you have been asking me to provide calorie counts/ nutritional information of all the recipes I post. That it’s extra work aside, I REALLY DON’T encourage looking at your food as a number or being too nitpicky about a DIET or whatnot. My general rule is that if it’s whole and natural, it’s going to be good for you, SO JUST EAT. 🙂 However, I do know that the carb/ protein/ fat counts are important for some looking for balance and counting macros so I’m including the breakdown for this recipe to see how it goes. 🙂

I use the nutritional calculator from myfitnesspal.com. Please just take each as an estimate as you never really know about such things. Also I try to find the item closest to what I used but sometimes it goes really out of whack. Like an egg has only about 70mg of sodium but I don’t know why I couldn’t find ‘egg’ on mfp ( I usually can) . So i used ‘poached egg’ which i suppose, the person added salt to.

I think it’s really funny that it ‘serves 8’ when it actually served one- me 🙂

In health and happiness 🙂

<3

Memories, Food and Love Series #2- Healthy Spinach/ Carrot/ Meat Chinese Dumplings

Hello everyone!

For today we have really Authentic Chinese Dumplings Recipe from a very dear friend from Tianjin, China. 🙂 When I first knew Aunty Zhang, my mandarin was so bad that we literally communicated through sign language and random sounds! It was really like a duck trying to talk to a chicken! But through the years, it’s gotten much better! I say “你好!” and she says “HI!” haha. Compromise/ Assimilation, aye. 😉

There is so much she has taught me as well but a particular event stands out in my mind. A mutual friend brought up a particularly gruesome topic. Apparently, some guy from China was skinning an animal alive for its fur and we were discussing how terrible it all was. I think someone brought up the question ‘why are the Chinese so terrible and disgusting?! How can they do that?!’ and Aunty Zang replied, ‘China is very big and by virtue of it’s size, it’s going to have a lot more people that would do strange stuff than other countries. It doesn’t mean that it’s representative of the whole country.’ And it has really stayed in my mind. I’ve since learned to keep an open mind about certain news and people objectively. I think sometimes we are too quick to tar every one with the same brush and often forget that there are a lot of people out there as well who are not the terrible stereotypes we’ve unjustly labelled them with. Also, I deeply admire her love for her daughter, their willingness to leave their comfort zones and survive together in a foreign land. Their tenacity, perseverance and sheer determination to succeed is really something we can all learn a little of. 🙂

Okay, enough talk 🙂 Here’s the recipe and tutorial for the Chinese Dumplings! 🙂 I love these dumplings! They are so good and they are coloured with vegetable juice and not unnatural food colouring! Aunty Zang said that when her daughter was young, she would make these dumplings in all sort of different colours and her daughter would have rainbow dumplings to eat! Awww! So cute!

Ingredients:

Filling
350gm of minced pork
3 Carrots
1 Pack Endives (or any other vegetable)
1 tsp oil
1 tsp soya sauce
1 tsp salt

Dumpling Skin
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2-1 cup water

[ Preparation of Ingredients]

1. Chop up/ grate carrots and endives into small little pieces.
(The smaller the better. The carrots were actually pulsed through a food processor for this recipe)
2. Pour oil into a wok
3. Fry grated carrots till fragrant
4. Remove from heat and transfer carrots into a bowl

    
 

5. Chop endives into small pieces
6. Squeeze endive juice into a bowl
7. Place dried endives into a bowl
8. Divide the meat into half and mix in with the carrots in one bowl and the endives in another bowl
(Note: If making only one type of dumpling, just mix desired fillings together)
9. Set aside.

[Kneading of dough]

10. Pour flour into a mixing bowl
11. Pour veg juice/ water and knead until dough becomes smooth and easy to manipulate

12. Roll dough into a long ‘snake’ and twist to break apart into small balls
13. Flatten small balls with palm
14. Using a rolling pin, roll ball into a flat circle
15. Fill circle with filling of choice
16. Fold skin into half and pinch to seal

 [ Rolling of Dumplings]
Watch the video! 
[Boiling of Dumplings]

17. Pour water into a pot till 3/4 full
18. Allow water to come to a bowl and place several dumplings to cook
19.
Allow water to come to a boil again and put in a table spoon of tap
water till water ceases bubling. Repeat x3 and dumplings are done! 🙂

 

Serve with slices of ginger and vinegar.

Enjoy! 🙂

SUPER YUMMY Low Carb High Fibre Cauliflower Crust Pizza

Hello everybody! Sorry about the long absence. Have been really lazy swamped with work lately 😉 But I’m really active on instagram so to see what I’m eating everyday and to swap healthy food inspiration (I LOVE LOOKING AT EVERYBODY’S INSTAGRAMS!) I can be found at @gracehenghm!

Anyway, today I have for you the MOST GUILT FREE INDULGENCE EVER!!! Even if you have never ever tried any other recipe here on this blog, you should totally try this one because it’s SO YUMMY and so amazing, you’ll be blown away by how ‘pizza’ can be so yummy yet so healthy!

This idea isn’t an original one by me. I first saw it on the Dr. Oz show but the ingredients they used were hard to find and the steps just plain convoluted so i never got round to trying it till today! A few tweaks here and there and VOILA! I present to you a super simple, low carb, high fibre healthy pizza for all you clean eaters out there!

Ingredients:

1. 1 head cauliflower (buy organic from The Organic Grocer at Pasarbella!)
2. 10 almonds (can be omitted)
3. 1 teaspoon each of spices (any kind)- my favourites are basil, garlic powder, crushed red pepper, black pepper, oregano
4. I teaspoon olive oil
5. Tomato Sauce
(I highly recommend Alce Nero’s Organic Tomato Sauce with Basil (pictured) because this brand doesn’t add salt or sugar. If you look carefully at other brands’ labels, the ingredient list can contain up to 8 ingredients in one bottle and is packed with salt and sugar!)
6. Mozzarella or Parmesan
7. Pizza toppings of choice.

Steps:

1. Remove cauliflower stem and cut the florets
2. Wash and remove any moldy bits
3. Pulse through the food processor till it becomes small and grainy

(If you used a VERY large head of cauliflower, you can always keep excess cauliflower to make carb free sushi)

4. Place cauliflower on a clean washcloth and wring all the excess water from it. 

5. When cauliflower is dry, place in a large bowl
6. If using the almonds, pulse it in food processor till it becomes fine powder and put in bowl
7. Add spices, oil and egg
8. Mix well. I recommend using hands so you can feel for large cauliflower bits.

 
9. Press mixture into a circular pizza shape on a piece of parchment paper. 
(Or square, or use cookie cutters to make fun pizza shapes for kids)
10. Place parchment in preheated oven for 10 min
11. Remove tray from oven and top with tomato sauce and cheese
(I made mine half with cheese and half without to see if there was any difference taste wise)
12. Send pizza back into the oven for another 5 min or till cheese melts
13. Top pizza with toppings of choice
Over here, I topped it with leftovers I found in the fridge like a small piece of salmon, portobello mushrooms, sundried tomatoes and lightly caramelized onions,
(This picture was just to show off my pretty pink pizza cutter because I love it a lot HAHA. $2 from Daiso!)

And tadah!

Bon Appetit! 🙂 This is a great meal to take the office as well. Maximum nutrition and low on the starch that gives you that post lunch slump. Also hello to lower levels of acrylamide!

Enjoy! 🙂
Lots of love, health and happiness 🙂

Despicable Me – Minions Bento Tutorial

Hi everyone! So I’ve been really excited about the new Despicable Me 2 Movie that is coming out and I decided to do a Despicable Me Minions Bento today! This was inspired by Tian Min Lim who is a fellow member over at Culinary Kitchenette which is an Fb group filled with the most loving, kind and AMAZING homebakers and cooks ever. Seriously, if you enjoy cooking/ baking or if you are like me and a total noob, you should check out the fb page because you can ask them things like HOW TO CHOP AN ONION and they wouldn’t laugh at you. Instead they would reply with so much love and patience (which side should I turn the onion?) that it’ll evoke more tears than the onion. (hehheh) Also, their bakes are seriously fantastic and most of them are full time working moms etc and yet them manage to churn out all these scrumptious creations. Absolutely inspiring, I say!( If you just want the recipes/ pictures, you can also just check out culinarykitchenette.blogspot.sg)

Ingredients:
1 cup rice
2 hard boiled eggs
Seaweed sheets
1/2 head of broccoli
1 carrot
Ham (optional)
Fillings for the rice balls (optional)

 Directions:

1. Cook eggs till hardboiled. Peel and separate yolks from whites.
2. In a bowl, mash yolk and rice until incorporated and rice has turned yellow.
3. On a piece of cling wrap, scoop a handful of rice and press down on the cling wrap
4. Add fillings of choice or leave plain. Over here, I placed a piece of fried chicken and several eggwhites but it made a fat and ugly minion so I took out the eggwhite. Other suggestions include mixed eggs, mushrooms, vegetables, fish, minced meat or half a nugget/ karaage.
5. Place another layer of rice over the fillings and mold the rice into an oval.
6. Make 2. I know one of the minions is supposed to be skinnier but I couldn’t fit my karaage inside so both my minions are short and fat. haha
7. Cut seaweed into an ‘I’ shape.
8. ‘Diaper’ the minion like how you would diaper a baby. Stick the seaweed down with a dab of water. Don’t worry if you cut your seaweed too small or it starts to crack, wherever it cracks, you can patch it up with little pieces of wet seaweed- not noticeable at all!
9. Make two!

10. On a piece of ham, use a small bottle cap to make eyes or draw freehand with a toothpick
11. Place on ‘minion’
12. Using a smaller bottle cap, poke out another eye using the leftover eggwhites
13. Cut/ punch out round circles from your seaweed for eyes
14. Cut/ punch out little strips for mouth


15. Place in lunchbox and fill with your favourite vegetables.

And there you have it- Your minion bento! 🙂

Enjoy!:)