Messy Gracie's Chicken MeatLoaf Muffin

When I was big last time, I went for a diet where I did not eat any carbo like rice or noodles or pastry. I have not eaten rice or noodles since 2007..and also I ate a little...GUESS WHAT..ta ta...my weight went down and I was damn happy...BUT...is it the right way? RIGHTTTTT Sorry...NOPE..not the right way..if we do that, when we eat a little bit of carbo we will gain weight fast. We need to eat..if possible 5 times a day but small portions...PLEASE READ the small portions part because if you eat 5 times a day and eat eat a lot...you will still get fat..ha ha...eat 5 times a day small portions and eat healthy things...Healthy things...YUCK....i know i know..not everybody is into oats, whole meals and etc....You all prefer KFC, Macdonalds, KOLO Meeeee...Chicken Rice, cakesss...and etc...So I did a bit of research on healthy yummy food and guess what I am hooked to trying them out one by one...

I bought a new oven the other day and decided to try out a new healthy yummy dish..for the very first time using an oven. It is called Chicken Meatloaf muffin...Chicken Muffin? eeewwww...normally is chocolate or vanilla muffin but chicken....no worries...i tried it out and guess what it is yummy and I am still alive..not dead yet...so for those who are into healthy yummy recipe, you can try this one...only around 80 calories give or take...I got the recipe from Jamie bodybuilding.com...and improvise it a bit. Not easy staying in Malaysia and cooking healthy food. Not easy to get all the ingredients so we play around with what we have...This recipe is EASY, FAST and healthy as well...

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INGREDIENTS

• 600 gm to 1 kg of chicken breasts-boneless (you can change to turkey if you want but expensiveeee...so chicken is good)
• 1 cup of quick cook oats (Not really sure what the heck is that but I saw quick oats so can do lar)
• 3 eggs white - unless you want a bit of fat than you can put the yolk in but remember high cholesterol...
  
  
• 2 tsp black pepper
  Bought this from GIANT...big bottle..only 6.90..not bad...pretty spicy as well...Giant is always expensive..eventhough they put a big huge sign "JUALAN HEBAT or HARGA MURAH" but when you see the price..aiyahhhh...RM3 more expensive...tsk tsk Giant...but this black pepper is not bad..a good bargain..
  
  
• 2 tsp dry yellow mustard
• 2 tsp Cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp Thyme
• 1/2 tsp Cumin or I use Mexican Chilli powder (saw this at the supermarket and is kinda interesting, it has oregano, cumin and chilli and a few other spices sooo decided to try this)
  
  
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 Stalks of celery or 1 red/yellow/green capsicum (diced) or spring onions
  
  
• 1 small onion - no need to put in if you use spring onions because later on way tooo much onion and everybody will be running away from you
• 2 cloves of garlic (dice them finely) or garlic powder (2 tbsp)

STEPS

Before you start anything, please preheat the oven to 375 Fahrenheit or 200 Celsius

Step 1

• Mince the chicken. I have a special machine that does the mincing and also a special helper....ha ha.. Bought this machine for only RM20 and it is hand driven..ha ha so mincing not that fast. But then again if you are lazy you can always buy ready made mince chicken from the supermarket but no FUN lor and more expensive...and not that fresh also.
  
  
• Cut the spring onions or whatever vegetables you use..dice them into small pieces
  
  

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Step 2

• Separate the whites from the egg yolk and place the white eggs into a cup or a small bowl to make sure that they are not spoiled. Spoiled eggs will spoil the entire muffin....yuck...unless you want to go for detox..
  
  
• Take a bowl, pour the oats, spices, black pepper, salt, garlic, mustard, spring onions or veges and the white eggs into the bowl.
  
  
  
  
  
• Put the minced chicken into the bowl as well and then
  
  
• Mix them properly using your clean hands..remember to wash them now...
  

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Step 3

• Take a muffin or cupcake pan (I purposely went to buy one from a DIY shop which cost me RM19.80)
  
  
• Spray olive oil or canola oil onto the holes...I did not have a spray so I used my finger and spread them all over..ha ha..like playing toys...
  
  
• Roll the mix ingredients into a ball using your hand. A size of a tennis ball..or smaller if you want and put the ball into each hole..
  
  
  
• Place the pan into the oven and let it cook for around 40 minutes...
  
  

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Doneeee...

Let it cool down and then you can also keep it in individual plastic bag and put it into the freezer. When you want it, take it out and pop it into the microwave....wala DONE...

Messy Gracie Bak Chang....

Bak Chang (in hokkien) where Bak means meat and Chang means dumpling..ha ha..I think..anyway Bak Chang is known as rice dumpling. It is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month and this year is on 23rd June 2012. Normally in some countries these rice dumplings are eaten during the dragon boat festival. According to wikipedia, there is a history behind bak chang is about a poet who drowned himself in a river (his death was nothing to do with women some more..is because of some neighbour country of his took over his country. I salute him) and people threw rice over the river to prevent the fish from eating his body. Now I do not know how they relate the dumpling with the rice thrown over the river lar...Anyway Rice dumpling is where they use either bamboo leaves or pandan leaves to wrap glutinous rice with either meat, red bean or yams or whatever they think taste nice with glutinous rice..ha ha...Normally if you are lazy to make them you can actually buy them from the market which cost around RM2.50 or RM3.00. But ar...I was walking at Mid Valley one day and I saw GOLD Bak Chang..They sold it for RM60..walllau leh...I think you will need to savor each bite...and Do not drop any crumbs at all..the have abalone or some expensive filling inside...

One day I said "I want to make bak chang"..but of cos my friends and including my mum do not believe that I can do it. My mum said "you better buy lar"...not only my mum. When I went to the market to buy the ingredients for my bak chang, they also encourage me to buy..Whats wrong with my face? Hmmm..so I vow to myself I am going to proof them wrong...This year I manage to make my own BAK CHANG...yahooooooo

Bak Chang is not easy to do. Cooking the rice, the ingredients are relatively easy but wrapping the Bak Chang require skills because if you do not know how to wrap it, everything will come out from the wrap when you cook it at the end....

Today I am going to post out my Messy Gracie Bak Chang Way :-

INGREDIENTS

For Marinating the Meat
• Pork Meat -1 kg enough lor - chop into small pieces. Now obviously I did a booboo in chopping them not too small so my pork meats are big and fat...oh well..next time
  
• Pepper
• Dark Soya Sauce
• Sesame Oil

For Cooking the Meat
• Sugar
• Some more Dark Soya Sauce

Other ingredients
• Glutinous Rice - 1 kg or more
  
• Dry Chestnuts - Buy more if you want to have more in the bak chang.
  
• Black Dry Mushrooms - Soak them to make them soft first
  
• Pandan Leaves - can buy from market
  
• Rope to tie the Bak Chang - can buy from market. Tie 20 to 30 ropes in a bunch like the one in the picture
  
• red onion - chopped finely
• garlic - chopped finely
• sugar - 2 to 3 tablespoons

STEPS
The night before you wrap the bak chang

Step 1 - Marinating Pork

• Marinate the pork meat with dark soya sauce, pepper and few drops of sesame oil. You can actually put other herbs into the meat depending on your taste. Some people put 5 spices, some put ketumba, some put curry powder...I leave it to your imagination.
• Cover the bowl with food wrapper and put the meat into the fridge

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Step 2 - Preparing the rice and dry chestnuts

• Soak the rice and dry chestnuts in water so they will be soft the next day....aaahhh..

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Few hours before you wrap the bak chang

Step 3 - Preparing the red onion, garlic and mushrooms

• Chop red onion and garlic finely
  
• Soak Mushrooms till they are soft, cut the stalk and then cut them into strips..not too small now..

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Step 4 - Preparing Pandan leaves and Ropes

• Fill a pail with water and soak the ropes for one to 2 hours
  
• Cut the pandan leaves (we only need the first big half of the leaves)
  
• Remove the thorny part of the pandan leaves
  
  
• Wash the pandan leaves with a clean cloth
  
• Boil water in a big wok and when it is boiling, put the pandan leaves (3 each time or 2 if you cannot handle 3) into the wok and use a wooden spoon and slowly flatten it. This process will help make the leaves softer so it is easier to wrap.
  
• Use the same hot water and dip the entire rope into the water and let it boil for a while to get rid of the husky smell of the rope...OPTIONAL though
  

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Step 5 - Cooking The Pork

• Heat up a wok and pour some oil into the wok. Throw the chopped garlic and red onion into the wok. More red onion than garlic if possible and stir fry it for a while. Please make sure they don't get burnt.
• After that, pour some soya sauce and sugar into the wok and mix them all up
  
• Throw the pork into the wok and cooked it for a while.
  
• Pour the drained chestnut into the work and mix them well
  
• Throw the mushrooms into the wok and fry them
• Pour some hot water into the wok and close the wok and let it cook for like 20 minutes or more.
  
• Take the meat out and let it cool
  

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Step 6 - Cooking The Rice

• Heat up the wok (Make sure you clean it okie) and pour some oil into the wok.Throw the chopped garlic and red onion into the wok. More red onion than garlic if possible and stir fry it for a while. Please make sure they don't get burnt
• Throw the drained rice into the wok and then fry it. Mix it well with the onions and garlics. Take it out and let it cool
  
  

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WRAPPING TIMEEEEE...

Step 7 - Wrap the Bak Chang

• Prepare the BAK CHANG WRAPPING STATION. Put used newspaper on the floor so oil will drip onto the paper rather than the floor yeah
  
• Fold the Pandan leaves into a cone shape
  
• Scoop some rice into the leave
  
• Scoop some meat, one chestnut and one mushrooms depending on your mood and your taste. ha ha
  
• Then Scoop some more rice to cover the meat
  
• Fold the leaves down
  
• Fold the side and then fold and wrap it around. Very difficult to explain in words but please do look at the pictures. If still cannot, well if you stay in kuching, we can make a face to face tutorial..ha ha ha ha
  
  
  
  I know is not easy. If you fail, just dump the content into a bowl and rewrap again. ha ha ha..that is what I did..try and try again cos practice makes perfect..well almost perfect..or was it 50% perfect...aiyah as long it looks like Bak Chang..ha ha
• Then use the rope and tie it around once, tie a knot and then tie another time and then tie a bow..ha ha. Make sure is a bit tight but not too tight so we let it expand when we cook it later..
  
  
• Sometimes, when we get a bit tired of wrapping, we tend to wrap it become a Korean triangle rice dumpling..ha ha not sure what is the name...ha ha but can still eat lar..
  
  With the help of my best friend's mother who is also my SIFU..thank you Auntie, we manage to wrap all these. NOTE:I am not allowed to take her picture because she said she will KILL me if I post it in the Internet..waaaisehhh...
  

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Step 8 - Cook the Bak Chang

• Boil water in a big pot. Make sure the water is enough so when you put the bak chang inside, they will submerge it.
• When it is boiling, put the entire back chang into the pot
  
• Cook it for 3 hours. Make sure to open the lit to check whether the water is enough. Not enough please put in some more hot water into the pot.
  
• After 3 hours, take all of them out and let them cool on some pieces of paper...Do not eat immediately..The rice will slowly harden a bit rather than being mushy....
  

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DONE

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My Small Bak Chang - Rice Dumpling

I tied a nice cute little ribbon as a gift for my babysitter..ha ha