Quick Fix Meals : Butter Rice & Baked Fish (Part 1)

As a busy mom of four, I look to quick fix meals or one-dish meals for the family. While the cooking may be quick, it does not mean that the taste is compromised. So, in the spirit of encouraging other fellow moms to enjoy cooking for their family and for their family to enjoy home-cooked food, I am hereby announcing that I will be sharing some of my family's favourite quick fix meals with all other moms... and dads too! Enjoy!

PS. If you have tried any of them, do leave your feedback for the rest of us, yeah? :)

One of our latest favourite is the Butter Rice with Baked Fish Meal pictured below.

Here's sharing how to make the rice first. This is the Basmati Rice I used for cooking savory-type rice like nasi lemak, butter rice, tomato rice and even for the occasional simple briyani-like rice.


The rice grains are longer and they smell heavenly fragrant even when cooked/served as plain rice. The trick to cooking with basmati rice is to soak it first. Yup.. about 15 minutes. But if you have only 5-10 minutes still ok. As long as it gets some soak-time.

To make the butter rice you just need garlic and butter. Yup, just garlic and butter. I used this brand. 

$4.75 from Prime Supermarket or $5.15 from Cold Storage. Haven't tried buying anywhere else to make more comparisons. LOL!

DD2 bought this (butter, pictured above) on her way back home from school one of the days this week; requesting an encore of my successful first try on the Butter Rice sometime back.

I used this much (butter) for the rice. The small portion on the right. So about a one-third portion yah? I cooked about 3 cups of rice this time.

The rest of the butter, i used to massage the fish.

Heat a small pan. Add the portioned butter with blended garlic. If you don't have blended ones, i suppose no problem with chopped garlic or even sliced ones. When the rich aromatic smell of melted butter (like you are baking cookies comes up) and before the garlic turns brown, add hot water and turn off the fire. Pour into the rice pot with the basmati rice that was already soaked for btwn 5 to 15 minutes and washed. Since i used 3 cups of rice, the water level for my old rice cooker was put to about the number 5 mark. Slightly more water to cook basmati rice. So for new pots that can cook on the dot you + 1.5 for water... and for old rice cookers like mine + 2 for water over the number of cups of rice.

If you'd like some veg or some colour in your butter rice, pour some mixed veggies slightly before you turn off the fire when melting your butter in the pan... just enough to melt the ice. Yes, no need to thaw the veggies in advance. If you prefer to thaw then just add into the pot when the melted butter is done. No need to cook it. We like this brand as it has the cut long beans in them.

As this butter i used was already the 'salted' one, it's not necessary to add more salt. But if you prefer to add according to your taste, by all means go ahead. Use a small spoon to sample your melted butter+garlic+water portion in the rice cooker and consider if more salt is needed/wanted for your rice as to how you and your family likes it done. Add in the salt before you press the cook button.

It should smell super-dee fragrant as heck while it is cooking and would look like this once it is cooked. 

The butter rice should be soft and delicious smelling and the veggies softly cooked as well not mashed up.

I'll follow up with the Baked Fish next...

But a bit later as the boys are already up.