Rainy Days and Mondays and Arroz Caldo

...rainy days and Mondays always get me down.

No, not today.

It was very rainy today in Manila and most streets are flooded and not passable. My husband and I woke up early because he is going to work, while I will go to my former office to get my cheque and run some errands before we go to Palawan this week. We had a rough night -- it was raining cats and dogs (and dinosaurs!), not to mention the loud thunders and lightning. I couldn't sleep. I just kept waking him up because I was scared. My husband prepared to go to work while on his phone, trying to figure out how to get to the office in this kind of weather.

I watched him go back and forth. At the back of my head, I knew work will be cancelled. After thirty minutes, it was final -- no work today. Hurray! A whole day of snuggling with my husband! I asked him if he wants to eat anything and he said arroz caldo (rice in chicken broth). We told my parents-in-law that we will cook lunch and headed to the supermarket. We bought ingredients for arroz caldo as well as champorado (chocolate rice porridge) because he wants to eat that for merienda.

I love cooking for Jeff. And he loves it when I cook for him. It was a joy watching him dig in to his bowl of arroz caldo without any comments or complains. It was actually very easy to cook it. Unfortunately, I forgot to take some photos. Anyway, I will still share to you my recipe.

Arroz Caldo

Photo from www.sweetcherriepie.com.

Ingredients:
1 kilogram glutinous rice or malagkit
1/2 kilogram chicken, chopped like Tinola
8 eggs, boiled
100 grams ginger, sliced
1 onion, chopped
garlic, chopped
ground pepper
4 pieces chicken bouillon cube
fish sauce
onion leek, chopped (we were not able to get this because it was not available in the supermarket)

1. Wash the chopped chicken and boil in a big pot. When it boils, take out the chicken and set aside. Do not throw away the broth.
2. Pour the glutinous rice in the pot where you boiled the chicken. Let it cook. Make sure to mix it once in a while so the rice won't stick to the bottom of the pan. Add two chicken bouillon cubes. Boil another kettle of water and make sure to add water occasionally to make sure it doesn't dry up. I use hot water so it won't mess the temperature of the mixture.
3. On a separate pan, saute the ginger, onion, and garlic. Make sure you don't burn them because it will give a dark color to your arroz caldo. Add in the boiled chicken chops.
4. In another pot, boil the eggs. My mom told me to leave it without a lid because when the water boils, the eggs will bump into each other and will break. TIP: To know if the egg is already cooked, scoop it out of the water and if the shell dries right away, it is ready.
5. After the rice is cooked, pour the sauted ginger, onion, garlic, and chicken to the pot. Stir and taste. If it needs more taste, put it buoillon cubes and fish sauce. Put the ground pepper, stir, and turn off the fire.
6. Serve hot. Top it with chopped onion leeks and hard boiled egg. And maybe calamansi and fish sauce.

So that's how Jeff and I spent our rainy Monday. How about you? How did you spend your day? I heard Ria spent her day cleaning their house because the flood went inside. Aww.