Hainanese Chicken (minus the rice) using the Magic Saver Cooker

Behold further wonders from the trusty magic pot!

Hainanese Chicken

Hainanese Chicken using the Magic Saver Cooker (40 mins)

Chicken drumsticks, or chicken wings or breast meat whichever you prefer
Ginger
Black sauce (thick caramel sauce)

Salt

1. Defrost the chicken and then peel off the skin. You can skip this if you like to eat chicken skin. 
2. Wash the chicken thoroughly and salt it all over, before rinsing it again. 
3. Peel and cut up some ginger. Then, mince it until it looks like, well, minced ginger. If you have a pestle and mortar, that would work better but as I don't, I just keep chopping it up with my chopper until it looked very well minced. 
4. Pour some water into the magic saver cooker for boiling. The water level should be about 1 inch high. If you are cooking a whole chicken, the water level should be about 2 inches high.
5. Once the water is boiled, put in the chicken, close the lid and boil for about 7 minutes (for a small chicken) or 10 minutes (if the chicken is bigger).
6. Turn off the fire and place the pot in the magic saver cooker for half an hour.
7. Remove the chicken and put a pinch of salt into the water, which by now should be some sort of chicken stock; boil for a bit.
8. Serve the chicken with the soup, ginger and black sauce.

ABC Soup

All nutrients in one good soup, perfect for the working person!

ABC Soup

ABC Soup for 2 (30 mins)

This is my "weekday soup", best prepared the night before and left to self-cook in my magic cooker so that by the time I come back from work the next day, it's ready to eat! For the record, the magic cooker is a pot, which has insulation to keep the heat in, just like a flask. You can use it to cook virtually anything from soups to stews to rice! The beauty of this pot is it saves ELECTRICITY and GAS, simply because it doesn't need either resources to cook your food! It virtually self-cooks - magic! Whatever you're cooking, just give it a boil over the stove for 10 mins or so and put it into the magic cooker. After a few hours, your food will turn out exactly as if you have left it on the gas continually. Mine is from Cosway, Malaysia, but nowadays I'm sure you can get this cooker from pretty much any shopping mall. 


Chicken drumsticks, however many you would like to have

2 potatoes
1 carrot
2 tomatoes
2 sticks celery
1 big onion

1. Defrost the chicken drumsticks. Once defrosted, wash them thoroughly by rubbing and rinsing it under running water. Rub the drumsticks with salt and then rinse them again.
2. Boil the UNPEELED tomatoes in a small pot of water - this makes skin removal as easy as ABC. 
3. Wash and peel the potatoes and carrots, then slice them into small cubes. 
4. The tomatoes should have been well boiled by now. Pour away the water and let the tomatoes cool. 
5. Wash the celery, then remove the fibrous bits. (Sometimes when I'm in a rush, I cheat by not doing this and honestly I don't feel much difference although my mum is inclined to disagree.) To do this, just sort of pinch a little wee bit of the end of the celery stick, then peel it, like peeling a banana. The fibrous bit will peel out and looks like a cellophane tape. Do this until you have removed as much of the fibrous bits as your patience allows you to. 
6. Slice the celery into smaller pieces.
7. For the next step, it's best to wear a pair of swimming goggles, ski goggles or whatever protective gear you have which covers your eyes thoroughly. Spectacles don't work. 
8. Remove the onion skin then slice it in chunky pieces. It doesn't have to be too small because it will crumble anyway when you boil the soup. 
9. Remove the goggles. If you didn't wear goggles, you should be unable to open your eyes now. 
10. Hopefully the tomatoes are cool enough for you to handle them. Else, just put it under cold running water to cool it. Then peel the skin with your hands. Just give the skin a little tug and it will all fall out obediently.  
11. Slice the tomatoes in half, then half it again. 
12. Put everything into the magic pot: tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, celery, chicken drumsticks and pour in 2.5 bowls of water. This scientific calculation is derived as such: 1 bowl per person, with approximately half a bowl of water extra to allow for evaporation. 
13. Bring the soup to a boil, then let it boil for another 10 minutes before placing it into the magic cooker. 
14. The next morning, before heading off to work, boil it over the stove for another 10 minutes and then place it in the magic cooker.
15. After work, just before eating, add a pinch of salt, and boil it over the stove for a few minutes. 
16. Serve.

Easy Peasy Long Beans Porridge

I like to go all vegetarian quite a bit when I'm home, 

because it's easy and healthy!

Warning: This dish is very vegetarian, so unless you 

love greens very much, I wouldn't recommend it.

Long Beans Porridge

Long Beans Porridge (20 mins preparation, Total = Min. 30 mins)

Long beans

Rice (1 cup per person, if you're a fairly big eater)
Eggs (1 egg per person)
Soya sauce

Salt

1. Wash the long beans by rubbing each bean individually, then cut off the ends.
2. Cut the beans into tiny sizes.
3. Beat the eggs and add in 1 teaspoon of soya sauce.
4. Get your magic saver cooker out and wash the rice in it.
5. Add in the eggs and long beans.
6. Bring the whole thing to a boil; every now and then before it boils, give it a few stirs to prevent the porridge from sticking to the pot. Once it boils, add salt, stir and let it continue boiling for another 5 minutes.
7. Put the pot into the magic saver cooker and let it self-cook for 30 minutes.
8. If in a rush, just use a normal pot and let it boil all the way until cooked. Stirring is a must to prevent the porridge from sticking to the pot and burning.
9. Serve.

Radish and Pork Ribs Soup

Everyone needs a cooking support system. 

Thank you for parents, sisters, aunts, in-laws and friends, 

who impart good cooking basics!

Radish and Pork Ribs Soup

Radish and Pork Ribs Soup (20 mins preparation, Total = Min. 2 hours)

Radish

Pork Ribs

Salt

The night before:

1. Defrost pork ribs, which have been cut into small pieces by pork seller. 
2. In the meantime, peel and cut the radish into your preferred size.
3. Once the pork ribs are fully defrosted, wash each individual pork rib thoroughly with water. Rub each piece with salt and rinse.
4. Boil the pork ribs in a small pot of water. Once it comes to a boil, let it continue boiling for another two minutes.
5. Throw away the hot water and rinse the pork ribs.
6. Get your handy magic saver cooker out and put the pork ribs and radish into the pot.
7. Pour in 2.5 bowls of water. The formula on how much water is the number of bowls of soup you'd like to drink + 0.5 bowls. Hence, if I want 2 bowls of soup, I need to use 2 + 0.5 = 2.5 bowls of water. 
8. Bring the whole thing to a boil and then let it continue boiling for another 5 minutes.
9. Put the pot into the magic saver cooker and let it self-cook.

Just before meal time:

1. Take the pot out of the magic saver cooker and boil it over the stove.
2. Add in a dash of salt and let it boil for about 10 minutes.
3. Serve.

Black Sauce Chicken

My parents introduced the magic saver cooker to me and 
it was the best present ever!

Black Sauce Chicken and veggie assortments

Black Sauce Chicken (1 hour)
Chicken pieces
Potatoes
Black sauce
Soy sauce
Sesame oil
Corn flour
Garlic
Ginger

1. Wash the defrosted chicken pieces under running water, rub them with salt, then rinse them. 
2. Marinate the chicken pieces by adding 2 tablespoons of black sauce, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of sesame oil and 1 tablespoon of corn flour. Mix it all well, then leave it for half an hour. Of course, the longer you leave it to marinate, the better the taste will be.
3. Skin and slice the potatoes into thin slices. 
4. Chop up the garlic and ginger. 
5. When the chicken is ready, heat up the non-stick frying pan, pour in some oil.
6. Fry the garlic ginger until they get a little golden brown.
7. Throw in the potatoes and give them a little stir-fry.
8. Add the chicken and stir-fry them until the chicken meat shrinks and changes colour.
9. Transfer the chicken to the magic saver cooker pot and pour in water.
10. Boil the whole concoction over the stove for about 10 mins, then let the chicken self-cook in the magic saver cooker.
11. When ready to eat, give it another boil before serving.

Chicken Porridge

When it's all cold and the wind is howling,
Porridge is just so comforting...

Chicken Porridge

Chicken Porridge for 2 (40 mins)

2 cups rice

Chicken pieces

2 eggs

Soya sauce

1. Wash the defrosted chicken pieces under running water. Rub them with salt thoroughly and rinse.
2. Boil the chicken pieces until cooked.
3. While waiting for chicken pieces to boil, wash the rice and cook it over the stove with lots of water depending on how watery you want the porridge to be. 
4. While waiting for rice to boil, beat the eggs. Add 1 teaspoon of soya sauce to eggs and beat till well-mixed. 
5. Pour the eggs into the rice. At this time, the rice should start to boil. Stir the rice and eggs to mix it up and avoid the rice from being burnt. 
6. Once the chicken is cooked, shred the chicken into the rice while occasionally giving the rice a stir.
7. Continue stirring the porridge until cooked. Alternatively, put the porridge into the magic saver cooker and leave it for about 30 - 45 mins.
8. Serve.

Pork Rib Herbal Soup

When it's winter, and you shiver;

All you want is to feel warmer...

And what better way to do it than through soup?!

Pork Rib Herbal Soup

Pork Rib Herbal Soup (20 mins preparation, Total = 24 hours)

1 packet herbs (packed by mother-in-law)

Pork ribs

Salt

The night before:

Make sure they're clean

1. Defrost pork ribs, which have been cut into small pieces by pork seller.
2. Soak the herbs for a bit and then rinse it. Separate the wolfberries from the rest of the herbs.
3. Once the pork ribs are fully defrosted, wash each individual pork rib piece thoroughly with water. Rub each piece with salt and rinse.
4. Boil the pork ribs in a small pot of water. Let it boil for about two minutes.
5. Throw away the hot water and rinse the pork ribs.

Start the boil!

1. Whip out the magic saver cooker and put the herbs (except the wolfberries) and pork ribs into the pot. 
2. Pour in 2.5 soup bowls of water and bring it to a boil.
3. Let it boil for about 5 minutes before putting the pot into the magic saver cooker.
4. Leave overnight and in the morning, just before going to work, boil it again for another 5 minutes before putting the pot back into the magic saver cooker.

Just before dinner time:
Time to eat!

1. Put in the wolfberries and bring the soup to a boil.
2. Throw in a dash of salt and let the soup boil for about 10 - 15 minutes.
3. Serve.