Simple Fare for Busy Day

Today was a day full of 'activities' for me. Haha. Woke up at 7am in the morning to prepare a simple sandwich for Ken to bring as breakfast. Took my daily supplement of Vitamin C and Collagen. Went back to sleep around 8am to 12noon cause I only slept at 3am this morning. zzz...

Anyways, after I woke up (in the afternoon), I had a bowl of cereal. Then I went out about 1 plus to shop! Not forgetting to bring my trusty granola bar with me. I had to use it around 3.30pm to sustain my outing. Hehe. I reach home about 4.30pm and had half of the blended green apples with celery (the other half still sitting in the fridge). Also had 3 small spools of haw flakes.

Dinner was real easy and fast today. Did an upgraded version of ABC soup and fried chicken rice. I usually cook lots more chicken rice and then use it for fried rice tomorrow. Easier and dun have to keep thinking what to cook.

Chicken Rice

Today we had chicken rice for dinner. On the top left corner is avocado milk with honey - just an avocado, milk and honey put into blender and blend. The result - yummy and nutritious drink. Top right is the chicken rice itself. Misc in the bigger pic is plate of cut chicken (ugly, cause I anyhow cut). The green mixture is a blend of spring onions and ginger mixed with the chicken soup, sesame oil and light soy sauce. You should not blend it too much like me, but my blender is too powerful liao...haha. The bottom left is lady's fingers with he bi hiam. And the oily corning ware is the chicken soup (very oily :p). Not bad but Ken commented that the chicken a bit dry, guess I cooked it too long in the pressure cooker. Need to use a lower pressure and cook in a shorter time too.

叉烧肉 - Non-bake Version

Today I tried the non-bake version for 叉烧肉. Ken likes it and it is easier to make than the oven-baked one, not to mention that the cooking time was shorter too. I think one strip of the 五花肉 was not enough, cause it was nice. Haha. When I do it again, I shall add another half portion and I could use the balance for 叉烧云吞面 the next day.

Monday, 24th September 2007

Yes, we had 生面 for dinner again. I used the pressure cooker to cook the sauce, only 2 to 3 mins, however, the broccoli and carrot become too cooked and melted in my mouth. Eh, think vegetables cannot use the pc (pressure cooker) to cook. Had to cook this as the balance half pack of the noodles were sitting in the fridge. The last time it sat in the fridge, some mushroom got to it before we did. :p

Sunday, 23rd September 2007

So I finally gave up my fear and trade it in for a Fagor Express 6-qt Pressure Cooker. I have heard horror stories of how they 'explode' from my mum...haha... so I grew up with this huge resistance to using a pressure cooker. Many of my friends have told me about the benefits of cooking with a pressure cooker. Ken wanted me to get one so that I can cook in a fraction of the time and also his colleague told him that the meat falls off the bone...blah blah blah...

Anyways, here was our first attempt at using it. Notice the 'our' in the former sentence. Haha... I prepared all the ingredients and insisted that he does the actual cooking cause of my worry of the 'explosion'. :p We used it to cook 肉骨茶, which cooked in about 20 mins. Could have taken a shorter time but we were too cautious and used the lower heat and the dish took a long time to boil. zzz.... haha but the result was amazing. The meat really fall of the ribs, and it was soft and the soup was flavourful. But we got a scare, or rather me, when we released the pressure and the thing went hissing... haha... I have to use to cook dinner later. Wish me luck!

Ken's Birthday - Saturday, 22nd September 2007

We had lunch at Miss Saigon, which is a Vietnamese Restaurant. The food is nice and the price is pretty reasonable for us to eat out here. We enjoyed the lunch very much.

We always said we wanted to try out this restaurant. We practically lived next to it on our 1st trip here. So we thought we would probably try all the restaurants near our old place on this trip. The food was nice and not at all salty, which is kinda hard to find here.

Makan Time - Friday, 21st September 2007

We had Nasi Lemak for lunch... with the coconut rice, fried ikan billis, fried egg, fried wings and fried cabbage, accompanied by homemade Nasi Lemak Sweet Chilli.

As tomorrow is Ken's birthday, I baked Pandan Chiffon Cup Cakes. The attempt was not so great as I failed to adapt the baking temperature and time to cup cakes, I followed the instruction for the regular-sized cake. But it tasted good, so all was not in vain after all.

卤肉 for Lunch

Here's what we had for lunch

卤肉

Lady's Finger with Heh Bi Hiam

Today's Menu

Breakfast

• Cantaloupe (Rock Melon)
• Dan Active (something like Yakult, but more like yogurt drink)
• Milk

Lunch

• 生面

Dinner

• Salad

生面

Not too sure if the chinese characters are correct. Hmm, but here is how I did my version of it for our lunch + his dinner today.

生面 (3 Servings)

Ingredients :

• Half pack of Chow Mein
• Garlic
• Olive Oil
• Vegetable of your choice (washed and cut into serving size, separate stem and leaves)
• Carrots (sliced thinly)
• Medium-sized Shrimp (about 10)
• Chicken Breast
• Imitation Crab Meat (shredded or sliced)
• Button Mushroom (sliced)
• Baby Corn (sliced into half)
• Fresh Scallops (a handful)
• Fishball or Fishcake (sliced) * Optional Item
• Some starch dissolved in cool water
  
  

Method :

(A) Noodles :

1. Heat oil in wok. When thoroughly heated, take a small portion of the raw noodles and put in wok while 'loosening' it.
2. Once noodles turn brown and feels crispy (use your spatula and test), remove and place on a plate with kitchen towels to soak up any excess oil.
3. Repeat for the total portion that you wish to consume. I used half of the bag for 3 servings. Leave the fried noodles aside for later use.

(B) Brooth :

1. Wash and clean chicken breast. Cut into 4 portions.
2. Wash and devein shrimps. You may choose to leave the shrimp whole.
3. Heat about 2 cups of water in a saucepan. I usually use organic chicken brooth (without MSG) which is really light to replace the water.
4. Once the water starts to boil, add in the chicken breast.
5. Once the chicken breast is thoroughly cooked, remove and set aside to cool. Once cooled, shred it and leave aside for use later.
6. Add in the shrimps and remove once they are cooked. Leave aside for later use.
7. Leave the brooth aside for later use as well.

(C) Gravy :

1. Heat oil in a pan. Add garlic and stir fry until fragant.
2. Add in the rest of the ingredients one by one (except the vege leeaves), according to what you deemed the cooking time for each will take. Add the ingredient which takes the longest time to cook first. Eg, carrots first, then vege stem.
3. Once all the remaining ingredients are somewhat cooked in the pan, add the brooth (B) and let it simmer. Once simmer add in the starch solution, the vege leaves, the cooked shrimp (B) and shreded chicken breast (B).
4. Once the vege leaves cooked, stir just a bit to mix all the ingredients, not too much or the gravy will turn watery and not thick.
5. Once done, just pour the desired amount of gravy into each serving of the fried noodles (A). You may like to serve it with homemade balachan chilli. (recipe also available on this blog)

Chilli 虾米

After I did the "Balachan Chilli", I proceeded with the "Chilli 虾米" a.k.a. "Heh Bi Hiam".

"Chilli 虾米" a.k.a. "Heh Bi Hiam"

Ingredients :

• Minced Dried Shrimp
• Garlic
• Sugar
• Balachan Chilli
• Olive Oil

Method :

1. Heat oil. Add garlic and stir fry until fragrant.
2. Add the minced dried shrimp and add some sugar. (Cause the dried shrimp can be quite salty depending on how long you have soaked it to soften it before mincing). Stir fry until fragrant and a bit brown.
3. Then add the balachan chilli. Fry until dry, a bit brown and fragrant.
4. As with the chilli, let it cool before storing. Pack into separate containers for freezer, fridge or office. Always use a clean spoon to take out the portion you need to prevent pre-mature spoiling.
   

Balachan Chilli

Today I also made my mum's famous "Balachan Chilli" and "Chilli with 虾米". My friend requested that I post the recipe, so here it is.

Btw, I cook using "agaration", I dun really measure the ingredients.

Balachan Chilli

Ingredients :

• Minced Shallots (can replace with minced red onion)
• Minced Chilli (mix some really hot and some not so)
• Balachan (roast it if u can, use aluminium foil over your stove to roast)
• Sugar
• Olive Oil

Method :

1. Heat oil. Once heated, add minced shallots and keep stir-frying until dry.
2. Add some sugar. (Cause the balachan is salty, but not too much)
3. Lower heat to medium. Add in balachan and smash it with your stirrer. Mix well and keep stirring until dissolve.
4. Add minced chilli and stir thoroughly. Let it bubble some then fry until fragant.
5. Turn off and leave to cool before storing.
6. If you make a lot, then store it in separate containers. You can keep some in the freezer, some in the fridge and bring some to keep in the office's fridge. Remember always use a clean spoon to take out small portion for use. If you use a stained spoon, the whole container will be contaminated and will become mouldy in a couple of days.

家常便饭

Here are the pictures of our meal today. Each dish is about 4 servings - 2 for lunch, 1 for his dinner and 1 for my dinner.

Must-Haves for My Kitchen

The picture below shows the array of stuff I need to have in my kitchen.

Gotta go cook now, already prepared the ingredients. Hubby wake up liao so can go cook now. Here are the "before" pictures of our lunch today. Will post the "after" pictures tonight.

Bean Sprouts, Bean Curd, Dried Salted Fish, Spring Onions, Thai Chilli

Pork, Ginger, Spring Onions

Cooking Blog

As this blog description says, I gotta cook almost daily. So i decided to post pictures or recipes of the stuff I cook. (Motivated by my friend, Li Lian)

So here is what I plan to cook for lunch/dinner tomorrow :

• Salted Fish with Fried Bean Curd and Bean Sprouts
• Fried Wonton
• Sesame Oil Pork

Other things I plan to do tomorrow :

• Balachan Chilli
• Balachan Chilli with Dried Shrimp
• Buy the baking stuff for Pandan Chiffon Cake