I hate vegetables with a passion. Growing up, you couldn't get me to eat anything green. Over the years, I've become more sensible. As long as they are cooked with meat or flavourful spices to mask the taste like sambal belacan, I'll eat it.
I decided to make lamb saag for dinner one day and the recipe called for 2 full bowls of spinach to be shredded into ribbons.
To save the extra step of plucking leaves off a bunch of spinach stems, I did the easy thing of buying pre-packaged spinach leaves. Though the box says 'washed and ready to eat', I don't trust industrial cleaners of doing a thorough job. For a very good reason. Look at the number of bugs I found while washing the vegetables!
Still have appetite for lamb saag?
All packaged vegetables states they are 'washed and ready to eat', which would be great if I wanted extra protein! My regular brand was sold out so I bought the store's in-house brand thinking it wouldn't matter. This was the worst cleanup job I've seen. Even with the soiled bunches of spinach from Asian supermarkets, I've never encountered bugs. I'm never buying the in-house brand again.
My attempts at making Penang Char Kway Teow. Colour and taste could use some improvements but I managed to get that smoky flavour (wok hei)!
Because it gets dark at 5.30pm. But I saw a recipe for Indonesian sate and was curious about how it differs from Malaysian satay.
Skewers of marinated meat. The meat is drowned in Kecap Manis (sweet soy sauce), hence the darker colour compared to its Malaysian cousin.
We had to shine a torch on the grill to check if the sate was ready. Most of them ended up with a burnt crust. The sate was sweet with a strong taste of cumin,very Middle Eastern kebabs-like. I still prefer the savoury note of Malaysian satay.
The whole time I'm here, I have never made Chinese soups. Despite the awesome culinary credentials of my family, I'm the black sheep. But life is such a comedy that my mum's exhortations of "How are you going to cook for your husband if you never learn?" and my excuse of "We can eat out at hawker centers." has only proven her right. What else?
And so thanks to the Internet, I have 'learnt'. By that, I mean look up a recipe online and follow instructions. I'm proud to say that in the last 365 days, I have conjured up a different dish for 300 days. Multiply 2 for lunch and dinner, I have made 600 new dishes. Which also means I haven't memorise any. Why bother when there are so many yummy dishes?
Sorry for meandering. I made Chinese prime stock (上汤) today. It is damn good but such a waste of meat. I used 1/2 lb pork, 1/2lb chicken and 3/4lb chinese ham just to make one bowl of stock. After that the meat has to be tossed out cos all the flavour has seeped into the soup. Such a waste. But I am looking forward to making Hong Kong style wanton soup with the stock tomorrow. My mum would be proud.
Pork floss bagel would be more accurate since that is the only bread I have in the house. You know that transparent mayo thing in the bun? That's not really mayo!
There is no exact name for it so I shall call it glue. Got the recipe
here and it's good for slatering 20 buns at least.
Converted to US Measurements: Ingredient A7/8 Cup or 14 Tbsp Fine Sugar
4 Tsp Salt (Still tweaking)
3.5 Tbsp Butter
2 Cups Water
Ingredient B1 3/4 Cup Fine Sugar
6.5 Tbsp Corn Starch (Still tweaking)
0.8 Cup or 13.5 Tbsp Water
1. Combine Ingredient A into a big bowl and cook in a pot over low heat. Stir constantly until suger and butter is integrated completely.
2. Combine Ingredient B in a bowl. When mixture A starts to boil, pour Ingredient B into the pot. Continue to cook over low heat. Mixture will thicken and get transparent.
3. Cool before using glue.
A warm tomato & goat cheese tart.
Bliss.
The soldiers are ready. They had undergone the most rigorous training and are now a highly-skilled army. Their name inspires fear in the enemy.
The brave men line up in their ranks and file. Eager to fight the enemy to defend their land.
The soldiers are made of good stock. They did not crumble under pressure and were not afraid to go through fire.
Yet in the long battle, men were massacred.
Some fell,
and were buried in the grounds.
It was a long weary battle. Men were lost but many more survived.
The war might be won but the loss never forgotten. May the world never see another great cookie war again!
*i cheated. these were not made from scratch but from an oatmeal cookie mix. all i had to do was add butter, egg, water and raisins. hee! next time, i will try to make from scratch but i need to get a weighing machine first.
HAPPY RAT YEAR EVERYBODY!
Have a prosperous year of good health, wealth and laughter!
My own reunion dinner was a dish I made with Mandarin Oranges. These oranges sound like 'gut' in Cantonese which means fortune. So here's wishing all of us 'dai gut dai lay' or 大吉大利!
hee, I really like sauce so my pork chops are smothered in it. Bon Appetit!
Pork Chop in Orange Sauce
INGREDIENTS
Pork Chop - 400 g
Orange slices to garnishSalt - 1/2 tsp
Sugar - 3/4 tsp
Pepper - a little
Light soya sauce - 1 tsp
Cornstarch - 2 tsps
Orange juice - 2 tbsps
Orange - 1
Orange juice - 1/2 cup
White vinegar - 1 tsp
Sugar - 2 tsps
Cornstarch - 1 tsp
Ketchup - 1 tbsp
PREPARATION
1. Rinse and wipe dry pork chops, pound to tenderize, mix with marinade and set aside for 20 minutes.
2. Grate zest from 1/2 orange, mix with sauce ingredients.
3. Heat 3 tbsps of oil, fry pork chops over medium heat until golden brown on borth sides, remove.
4. Add sauce to wok, cook until thickened, toss with pork chops. Dish and garnish with orange slices.
Source of Recipe
Yay! I scored another cooking touchdown. A very simple
recipe and the result is delish! I love the white wine sauce, slurp! I used Riesling for a sweeter flavour.
My only teeny boo boo was that I chopped the scallops. They are supposed to be whole. Hee, this is what happens when you watch TV while preparing dinner.
Such a beautiful dish deserves a better name than Spinach-Filled Fish Rolls so I sought the help of an expert (Kelly) to rename it.
*drum rolls* Introducing
"Le Fillet Ooh La La!" 
Pièce de résistance
Spinach, goat cheese and cherry tomatoes salad
My winning combination
I took some liberties with the
original recipe due to a lack of ingredients.
Garlic salt -> The usual salt
Mayo & mustard -> Horseradish & mentaiko sauce
Garlic croutons -> Lemon & Herb seasoning
After 15mins in the oven, VOILA. Le Fillet Ooh La La!
confident in whipping up better fried rice the 2nd time, I decided to cook for him!
I had finished chopping up most of the veg and garlic when K came in to ask if he could help. He ended up doing some cutting and the frying. K says I am the master chef and he's the sous chef. If being master chef means I don't need to clean up after, then yay!
Ta-da! Our piping hot fried rice! Mmmm ...
Kelly taking his first bite
See the difference?
Left: Our 2nd attempt. Right: My 1st attempt.
Yummy! It's definitely better this time round with nicer-looking rice, more ingredients and the fun of cooking together!
I can't cook fried rice!
I haven't made this dish since home econs in secondary but how difficult can fried rice be right? So I found a simple 4 step instruction from the web that says:
1) cook garlic, onion and ginger in high heat for 1 min.
2) turn down to medium heat and put in meat, vegetables and rice. Stir constantly for 5 mins.
3) make a well in the centre of the rice and stir in egg. cook for 1 min, then gently push rice into egg. fry for 2mins.
4) Season with soy sauce, salt and pepper.
My 1st big
UH-OH came when I threw in my veg, shrimp and rice. Stirring the rice about, it dawned on me that my veg and shrimp will never get cooked with all the layers of rice.
My 2nd
UH-OH came when I put in 2 eggs which was way too much for the amount of rice I had and my rice became mushy.
This is the result.
looks like cous cous?
My rice got no wok hei, really need to get a wok for that. This skillet is so heavy I can't toss my rice plus there is no space to fry the rice. 
For all the UH-OHs, the rice tasted quite yummy. Oh, I have a second revelation. They don't sell long beans in the grocery stores here! I sub with string beans.
I cheated by using Prima Taste pre-mix. It's soooo easy and yummy! Even better than some hawkers'!
This is Lemon & Herb salmon with baby carrots and tomatoes.
I only have soy sauce and sesame oil in the house so I marinated the salmon with both. When it was time for dinner, I melted some butter and flipped the salmon into the pan. Added a sprinkle of lemon & herb and voila!
This proves how good Haagen Dazs ice cream is. It melted as I was taking this picture! Dessert that is pleasing on the eye. Hee!
Of course I have bay days too. Tried to thaw this chicken in the microwave and parts of it ended up cooked. So I cut it into pieces, threw in some ham and rescued my lunch. At least it was good enough for me.
I make my first breakfast for Kelly! Thank God for Home Econs class! Do you guys remember the 'Bombay Toast'?
We visit Kelly's granny who's staying in the desert. It is evening when we leave and the setting sun creates a mystical effect on the mountains.
