New Year celebration

Since my family all likes my Christmas Eve dinner, new additions: rice, bacon, apricots, pine nuts, mushrooms, butter, truffle infused oil, dried oregano, Italian seasoning, and parsley. I decided to make another batch as my three friends are coming over; wanting to meet up since we last met about 4 years ago. One of them is bringing roast chicken, another is bringing salad, and the other is bringing ice cream, wine, and chocolate.

Google: “Truffle-infused oil is an oil that has been infused with the flavour and aroma of truffles. It’s typically made by infusing a neutral base oil, like olive, grapeseed, or sunflower oil, with white or black truffles. Truffle oil is often used as a finishing oil to add flavour to dishes. Truffled olive oil adds a distinctive earthy and aromatic flavour to dishes, often used as a finishing touch to enhance various foods from salads to meats. Truffle oil is rich in polyphenols, which are natural compounds with antioxidant properties that can prevent oxidative stress and damage to your cells. Polyphenols can also help reduce inflammation, which is believed to be linked to a long list of chronic conditions, including coronary heart disease.”

I’m glad my friends came over to meet up, and we could share what we have and did have a great time. Thanks to God for another miracle: bringing three more friends to visit with lots of food to share. This is what Christmas celebration is about: loving one another, sharing, and enjoying the meals with laughter. It was colourful, comforting, flavourful, and delicious, accompanied by salad, chicken, and dessert. Let’s cook!!!

Ingredients

3 cups uncooked washed rice; long grain
5 Tbs olive oil
20-25 g butter
4-6 finely chopped garlic
1 L chicken stock
2 chicken cubes or 2 Tsp powder stock 
1 1/2 thumb of ginger cleaned sliced into matchsticks or finely chopped
1 Tbs olive oil
1 1/2 Tsp salt to taste

Roasted bacon mushrooms apricots and pine nuts

80 g dried apricots, cut into 4 pieces, plus 20 g extra
10-12 medium-sized button mushrooms, cut into 4 pieces, plus 8 extra
8 rashers of bacon, cut into bite-sized pieces, plus 3 rashes extra, slightly pan cook
1/2 c finely chopped parsley, plus extra
200 g pine nuts, toasted in a frying pan until lightly browned
6 Tbs melted butter, divided
1 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs Italian Seasoning
1 Tbs dried oregano
Truffle infused oil

Method

To do one day in advance

Cook rice

Heat oil and butter in a saucepan for 1 minutes until butter melted; cook ginger and garlic till fragrant and golden. Then add rice and stir well to coat in oil and butter. Transfer rice mixture to rice cooker. Next add chicken stock, chicken cubes, 1 Tbs oil and salt into rice mixture. Cook according to rice cooker’s manual instruction. (Note: make sure enough water). Once cooked open the cover of rice cooker to cool the cooked rice and set aside.

The next day prepare bacon mushrooms apricots and pine nuts

Heat up the oven to 200 degrees C. Toast pine nuts in saucepan until light brown. Set aside. Next cut apricots, mushrooms, and bacon. Then finely chopped parsley. Now spoon the cooled cooked rice into a big deep tray and mix well with roasted bacon ingredients. Season well with 2 Tbs melted butter, oil, salt and pepper. Set aside until needed.

Drizzle truffle infused oil lightly on the baking tray. Spoon the bacon rice mixture on to the tray. Toss to mix well with truffle infused oil. Add 4 Tbs melted butter, dried oregano, Italian Seasoning, some extra parsley and drizzle some truffle infused oil, gives a couples of stirs. Now put the bacon rice into the oven. Roast it for 20 minutes.

Remove bacon rice and feel if it’s warm enough. Reduce temperature to 180 degrees C. Put back in for about 5-10 minutes and cover with foil. When it’s warmed up, transfer to a big bowl and add the extra apricots, mushrooms, and slightly pan cooked bacon. Then gives a couples of stirs to mix well. Garnish with extra parsley. Enjoy!!!!

https://helenscchin.com/2024/12/30/roasted-bacon-rice/

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