Rice Dumpling

Rice dumplings (Zong zi) are eaten mostly during Duan Wu Jie which is also known as the Dragonboat festival. It is said that to commemorate Qu Yuan (some famous chinese poet from ancient times), people eat dumplings on the 3rd week of June. According to them, these rice dumplings are thrown into the river where he was drowned to prevent fishes from eating him. Well, there are many versions to this story. All I know is that rice dumplings are super yummy!

Since Dogs require more protein than carbohydrates, I've altered the ingredients and the dumplings now consist more meat than rice.

Ingredients
500g rough minced salmon
2 carrots, cubed
2 cups of brown rice soakd overnight
20 pieces of bamboo leaves soaked overnight
Raffia strings

Steps:
1. Take 2 pieces of leaves and place them facing an opposite direction, cut the tips of both leaves.
2. Form a cone, add about 1 tbsp of salmon.
3. On the top of the salmon, add 1 tbsp of rice and a cube or 2 of carrot.
4. Cover it with another tbsp full of salmon.
5. Press it down lightly. You want the dumpling to be tight.
6. (This step is harder to explain, you can follow the video above, it should be much clearer.) Cover the ingredients using the longer side of the bamboo leaf and form a triangular shape.
7. Tie the raffia string around the dumpling.
8. When all are done, Boil them in boiling water for approx. 1 hr.

Serve at room temperature. Dumplings can be kept in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.

Beef Liver Brownie

A brownie so easy to make, preparation time only takes less than 15 mins!!

Ingredients
500g beef liver, grounded
2 eggs
100ml wholewheat flour
2 tbsp coconut oil
1 tsp manuka honey
handful of coconut flakes, optional

Steps:
1. Preheat oven at 180C for 15 mins.
2. Sift flour,
3. Add in eggs, coconut oil, and manuka honey. Using an electric mixer or a spatula, mix it evenly.
4. Add in beef liver. Continue mixing until well combined.
5. Place baking sheet onto baking tray. Put the batter into it.
6. (Optional) Sprinkle coconut flakes onto the batter before baking.
7. Bake for 30 mins.
8. Let the brownie cool down before cutting.

Brownie can be kept in the refrigerator for 3 days.

Coconut cheese cream puffs

HI!!!!! To celebrate our comeback, I've decided to make some cream puffs today!! It's so delicious, you would even think of snatching a puff from your dogs!!! =D

Ingredients
(for choux pastry)
1/4 cup wholewheat flour
1/4 tsp white sugar
1/8 tsp salt
30g butter- room temperature
1/4 cup water
1 egg

(Fillings)
100g cream cheese- room temperature
50ml rice milk
50ml coconut flakes

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 200C and lline baking tray with baking paper
2. Sift flour and mix it together with sugar and salt. Set aside.
3. In a small pot, add butter and water over low to medium heat. Mix it constantly and bring to a boil. Make sure butter melts before the water boils.
4. Remove the pot from the heat and add in the flour mixture. Using a wooden spoon mix it evenly.
5. Bring the pot back to the heat and continue stirring until the dough comes away from the sides of the pot.
6. Using an electric mixer, beat it on low speed until the dough is lukewarm.
7. Add in the egg and continue beating until it forms a thick paste.
8. Pipe 6-8 small moulds of dough onto the baking sheet.
9. Bake for 15mins on 200C then reduce the heat to 180C and continue baking for 30mins or until golden brown.
10. Leave it to cool in the oven with the oven door slightly ajar.

Fillings:
1. Beat cream cheese, ric milk and coconut flakes on low speed until well blended.
2. Split the choux pastry into half and pipe the fillings on the bottom half of the pastry and cover the top half of the pastry on the fillings.

You may store it in the refrigerator for 2 days. I hope you'd enjoy it just like my poochies in the above. =)

Saver's Pot #3

I apologise for the lack of posts recently, my current kitchen is under major renovation. I will definitely post more yummy recipes once it is all done up! =)

Today I will be introducing another saver's pot since everybody loves it so much! This recipe comes in handy whenever we are busy or... lazy. haha!

Today we will be using barley. Do you know it is actually good for dogs? Because it contains active enzymes which plays an important role in their digestive system.

Ingredients

2 kg minced pork

100g pig liver, sliced into small pieces

200g broccoli, chopped

10 water chestnuts, chopped

2 tomatoes, chopped

2 cups butterhead pumpkin, chopped

1 capsicum, chopped

1 cup barley, soaked

2 1/2 cups water

Steps:

1. Add barley and pumpkin into the pot, fry a little and add in 1 cup of water. Let it simmer on medium heat.

2. Once pumpkin softens, add in the tomatoes and continue to stir until the tomatoes are all mashed up on high heat.

3. Add in another cup of water and water chestnuts. Let it simmer for 2 mins.

4. Now, add in your minced pork and mix all the ingredients evenly.

5. After you mixed in your minced pork, you can now add in the liver. You can add in the remaining 1/2 cup of water if you prefer your stew to be more soupy.

6. Just before the meat is cooked, add in the broccoli and capsicum and continue stirring.

7. The stew is done once all the ingredients are cooked.

8. Serve at room temperature.

Hainanese Chicken Rice

By altering the ingredients used, dogs can also enjoy the food we love! Today we will be making a meal that most Singaporean loves, CHICKEN RICE!!!

Do you know ginger helps calm stomach upsets and helps prevent motion sickness? It also helps reduce the pain caused by Arthritis.

Ingredients

6 chicken fillet

3 chicken liver

3 chicken heart

5 thin sliced ginger

1 clove garlic

10 pieces holland beans

3/4 cup brown rice, soaked in water

2 cups water

Handful of dried cranberries

Steps:

1. Bring water to a boil and add the ginger and garlic in.

2. Once you are able to smell the ginger's aroma, add in the chicken fillet.

3. When it's just about to cook, add in the chicken innards.

4. Remove the meat and innards from the pot once it is cooked. Throw the garlic and ginger slices away.

5. Boil the holland beans in the same pot of liquid which you used to cook the chicken.

6. Remove the vegetables from the pot once it is cooked. Do not throw the chicken broth away.

7. Remove water (used to soak the rice) from the brown rice and pour it into the rice cooker and pour the broth (water used to cook the chicken and vegetables) in as well. Cook the rice.

8. After rice is cooked, mix in the cranberries.

9. Cut chicken into bite size and serve it together with the rice at room temperature.

Peanut Butter & Banana Cookies

Heard of dogs eating their own poop? One reason is because their system lacks potassium. Banana is rich in potassium, vitamin K and other vitamins and minerals and it helps getting rid of the ever disgusting poop eating habit, try adding bananas to their diet. Generally, most of the dogs love this fruit because it is sweet.

Today we will be adding bananas to the cookies and home made peanut butter which I showed you on the previous post. You may also click on this link here.

Ingredients

4 tbsp wholemeal flour

1 banana- mashed

2 egg yolks

2 tbsp peanut butter

Few drops of vanilla essence

* 1 tbsp of yogurt drops- melted for decorations (optional)

Steps:

1. Sift wholemeal onto the table.

2. Create a valley in the middle and add the egg yolks.

3. After the flour forms into bread like crumbs, add in mashed banana. Knead it until it forms an almost dried dough.

4. Add in the peanut butter and continue kneading. It should form a firm dough. Add few drops of vanilla essence. Knead till it is well mixed.

5. Dust the table and rolling pin with extra wholemeal flour to prevent the dough from sticking.

6. Roll the dough until 0.5cm thick. Using a cookie cutter, cut the dough into shapes.

7. Place the cookies onto the baking tray.

8. Preheat oven for 10 mins at 180C and bake it for 30 mins.

Decoration (optional):

1. Melt the yogurt drops a metal bowl over a pot of boiling water.

2. Place the melted drops into a plastic bag and snap a small hole.

3. Decorate

Serve at room temperature. Can be kept unrefrigerated for 3 days in an air-tight container.

Homemade Peanut Butter

Do you know what peanut butter has its share of health benefits for dogs? It contains vitamin B, E and Niacin. It is also rich is protein as well as FATS! High in fats... hmm.. that's partly because those sold in supermarkets contain a high amount of oil and sugar. And not forgetting, a great amount of sodium too.

This homemade peanut butter is much healthier. I wouldn't say that it's fat free but much of the fat (from the peanut itself) is monounsaturated which improves blood cholestrol level. More importantly, no preservatives and all natural!

Ingredients

2 cups shelled peanuts

2 tbsp coconut oil

1 tsp manuka honey

Steps:

1. Roast the peanuts in the oven for 30 mins at 160C.

2. After roasting and while hot, split peanuts into 2 portions. Place 1 portion into the grinder.

3. Add 1 tbsp coconut oil and start grinding.

4. When it almost form a paste, add in 1/2 tsp of honey. Continue grinding.

5. Do the same for the second portion.

6. You will know it's done when it forms a paste. Keep it in a container.

Because no preservatives are added, it can only be kept for 3 days in the fridge. Peanut butter can be used for cookies, cakes, etc.