Grandma's "Chap Fan" (Mixed Rice)

Just thought i'd share another simple to cook recipe which my mom learned from my grandma. In case you don't get what "chap fan" means, in Cantonese it means mixed rice. My grandma was from Hong Kong and this was one of the dish my dad loved to have. Why mixed rice? That is because literally, you mix all sorts of stuffs into the rice and you cook it. Here's what you'll need;

- Vegetables of your own choice (the more the merrier). For mine, i have used the following vegetables; cabbage, lettuce, peas, carrots. My mom told me adding some chinese mushrooms would improve the taste but because i'm lazy to walk to the asian store to get some, i decided not to use it.
- Onions, spring onions and garlic. (the more the merrier as it gives more flavor to your meal)
- Chinese sausages (lap-cheong). Personally, i think this is the most important ingredient for me cause the taste of chinese sausage makes the rice taste so good. But if you don't like chinese sausages, that is fine. By the way, if you're a muslim, just so you know, this type of sausages are made of pork.
- Chicken breast
- Basic seasoning stuffs i.e salt, pepper, soy sauce, sugar. Additional seasoning if you want to add to give more flavor, fish sauce (the universal Asian sauce as people here would claim), dark soy sauce, maggi seasoning sauce.
- Sesame oil
- Cooking oil

First up! Chop, chop and chop! I used 1 whole garlic, 2 small baby onions and 1 leaf (?) of spring onion. Mince them up real good.

After that, cut up your chinese sausages into small pieces. The smaller you can cut up the better so it hides well with the rice. That way, when you eat the rice later, it has a hint of sweet taste when you're having your rice which gives your taste bud a bit of surprise. Do the same with the chicken breast of whatever meat that you are using.

Chop up your vegetables and mix them up real good. Make sure to wash them throughly cause you don't want 'extra ingredients' to crawl around your rice.

Once you've got all of them done, you're pretty much set to start cooking. Firstly, heat up your frying pan with oil, preferably a big one cause you're gonna need the extra space for mixing them. Once your cooking oil is all hot, you will need to cook your meat first since it takes a bit longer to get it cooked then the rest.

Once that is done, start throwing in your onions, garlic and spring onion to get the flavor out. If you're cooking with big fire, you might wanna be a bit more cautious not to get your stuffs burnt. 

Next up, fry your rice grains together with everything else first. If you're using white rice, the whole idea is to fry it to get it a bit brown-ish. But if you're using brown rice or other grain rice, just pan fry them till you think it's a bit more darker since you can't really see how brown it is anyway. As far as seasoning goes, what i've used it sesame oil to give the rice a bit more fragrance, dark soy sauce to make the whole thing look more darker. Taste wise it's really up to you. If you like your meal to taste a bit more saltier, add some salt and light soy sauce. I used soy sauce, pepper, a hint of fish sauce, chili powder and a bit of sugar. The whole idea is to give your meal a bit of flavor. Just remember if your meal taste a bit bland after it's done, you can still add a bit more stuffs later but if you cooked it with too much flavor, you cannot undo it. Once that is done, throw in your vegetables last and just toss them around for a bit. Vegetables usually go in last cause it's quicker to cook. 

Last but not least, put everything in a rice cooker. And cook with as though you're cooking normal rice. And if all turns out well, you should get this towards the end.

And you're ready to eat! Personally, i prefer having a bit of sweet soy sauce with the rice. I think it evens out the saltiness a bit if you think putting sugar in your food is kinda weird. But other people prefer eating it with more soy sauce. Have a go!