Of Purple Flowers and All in them Pots

One of my all time favourite thing to eat is chicken. My 2nd all time favourite thing to eat is rice. I can eat a lot of rice. One of my sister thinks i am crazy to eat so much rice... and the chicken. I can have chicken rice every other day. Rice is the staple food of most Malaysian folks. We do eat a lot of rice.

As my nephew is home this week for his one week break, i'll have to cook dinner else my dad will give me the stinky eye. Some days i don't cook at all for a whole week because i am lazy because i do not really know what to cook. *LOL* My dad is quite a picky eater. He only eat a little... and if the food is not to his liking, he'll eat less. It doesn't help that my mom was a most wonderful cook.

Sometimes i don't have much time to cook as some of my workmates tend to be more annoying and send work late at about 5pm or 6pm and tells me that she needs it now. Doing those stuffs is not like frying an egg. It takes a while to get it done. My dad also prefers to eat his dinner by 7pm. Which don't really leave me much time to cook.

I rely a lot on my oven and steamer. I have parcel Tuesdays and all-in-the-pot Wednesday.. sometimes we do parcels the whole week. If i pace myself properly, i can get some stuffs ready during my lunch break and dinner can be ready by 6.30pm.

Today i decided to cook salty chicken. Salty chicken is easy to cook as i just have to clean the drumsticks... cut a few lines in the chicken thigh and marinate with salt. Then i'll dump them in a thick based pot and cook it without any oil over low fire. This is like the easiest thing to cook as i don't need to stir it or fry anything.

Then i decided to add mushrooms into the chicken as i still have a bag of fresh shitake mushrooms. These fresh mushrooms don't keep very long. Then i decided to dump some potatoes in... and since i needed some color... i added a whole carrot in.

I had some red spinach which is almost dying and wilted because its really cold in the fridge ^.^. So in goes the red spinach too.

What started as salty chicken became a pot of mismashed stew. *LOL* This is my all-in-the-pot Thursday.

I added some chili flakes and onions in the end. Its is considered a healthy meal as there was no oil involved... and we ate it with rice of course :) I was supposed to stir fry the spinach. But everything ended up in the pot. This happens sometimes. *LOL*

So far my dad hasn't complained much yet. One day he's gonna yell at me and say that he has had enough of the all-in-the-pot meals and parcel food from the oven. I think i might have to learn to refine my cooking and cook like a normal person soon.

Do you all cook like this? Do you follow a certain set of rules/recipes or improvise as you go along? I can't bake very well as i cannot follow the recipe properly. My cakes always end up weird and never quite the same.

I wanna show you what we have in our garden and why them kitteh kats love our garden.

 

This is our row of weeds in pots *LOL* They hold only weeds now. When my beautiful mom was still alive, these pots hold her very treasured bougainvilleas in many colors. Our city here is famed for Bougainvilleas. Ipoh is known as the Bougainvillea City.

This pot of weed flowers. Its a beautiful purple. The birds here do a lot of work transporting the seeds. Sometimes we do get a flower or two among the weeds.

I tried hard to have green fingers but its not happening. *LOL* The only other solution is painting them green with my paints :) When you are not good with planting, you get ready flowered pots of flowers.

do not know her name purple flowers

I got these at Tescos last week for 8 bucks. They are so pretty and still alive :) I got a pot of bird's eye chili plant too. It was full of bird's eye chili. I don't know how long these two will survive under my painted green fingers care. *LOL* Maybe over time, my painted green fingers will become green one day. We can hope :)

bird's eye chili

This is Charlie. He's the only kitteh kat here with a name. He's the one with the big mouth from yesterday's WW post which kinda got some of you spooked. *LOL* He was yawning in that picture. He's really a sweet lil kitteh kat. See.. he has a very small mouth when its closed.

Dommy doesn't have that big a mouth.. hehhehehe.. He still have a beautiful smile even with bad toofies. He had a very long shower today as he's beginning to really stink because of the heat. *LOL* He's not too happy about the long shower and the extra long blow drying thingy. But he's light as a feather now and smelling like a million buckaroos.

My mom loves purple flowers. Her anniversary is coming up next week. Dad's been extremely quiet these few days. Its gonna be five years since my mom left us.

Of Peep Toe Paws and Chocolate Cake

Time usually passes quickly when you are having fun. Most of the time it does. We are not really having a lot of fun lately. Monotony. Nothing of great interest happening here but time still goes by too fast.

I do get more walkies nowadays. Everyone's commenting that i am too fat to be a poodle. BAH! Every evening... SHE decides to take me for a walk to check out my mails and i get to leave a whole lot of mails for all my doggie friends out in the neighbourhood. Sometimes.. when SHE is in a good wakey up mood... i get a walk in the morning too. I bet this won't be lasting too long. SHE is a lazy bum you know. She rather be watching tv than taking me for walkies. But since i am FAT... i think i shall milk this as long as i can. Walkies are great for HER and for me too.

Last Sunday, SHE took me for a car ride. I was leaping with joy and doing my silly jumping jacks. (i don't think i am FAT cos i can do jumping jacks pretty well) Even Jack will be amazed at my flexibility. For an OLD and FAT poodle, i jump pretty well.

Since Piper is not here, i can to be co-driver. Hmmm... i wonder where we are going.

I am such a mess. I can't even see clearly with all my curly locks going wild everywhere.

Hmmm.. this is a very long car ride... and we are getting nearer to the mountains. Hmmmm.. i wonder if we are going to Kuala Lumpur to see my Piper. Did you forget to grab my luggage woman??

Oh yes... i got conned to go on a car ride and guess where this landed me. Grooming. Yes.. grooming. Can you believe it. Here i am waiting for my turn at the table.

Here i am getting sized up by this guy... but he's really a very nice guy. I like him. He's doing the final touches to my puppy dog face. Yes... i am OLD but FAT but i can still have puppy cute cuts :)

I am so so tired after this grooming session. I spent a total of 7 hours there. Check out my paws. I had the "chicken leg" paws cut this time. SHE calls it the chicken leg paws thingy since she don't know what they are called. I think i look like i am wearing peep toe shoes. She gotta fork out another 5 buckaroos for these peepy toes thingy.

Since grandpa's been complaining a lot about too much sand in the house and some curly was the bearer of sand in the house, SHE thought it would be wise to try this peepy toes thingy to see if i bring in less sand from the garden. I think if SHE gets up earlier each morning and give the house a good sweep and a good mop, there shouldn't be any sand in the house. I get blamed for everything here. Even SANDy house.

If i PRESS that red button, i wonder if SHE gets ejected out of the car... hmmmm... i've seen it happen on cartoons before.

Since i've been a good curly at the groomers, SHE got me a new polka dotted collar and FINALLY got my tag on it. I hope i get more nom noms when i am wearing this collar :)

Tomorrow is Good Friday.. ops! today is Good Friday and we shall be on the road to be with family. We shall be back soon but do check out a MOST IMPORTANT post tomorrow. We have scheduled a post for tomorrow.

SHE has asked me to post this recipe for you all who might love to bake.

As you all know, SHE cannot follow instructions very well but this chocolate cake turned out pretty well... and very sweet. You all might want to cut down on the sugar a little. She found (stole) this recipe from one of the recipe sites on the web but for the life of her, she forgot where she got it from.

This is one of the easiest chocolate cake to bake. Just melt the butter with the chocolate in a pan. Take it off the heat and mix in the sugar... then let it cool down a little and put in the eggs and the ONE TABLESPOON of flour. Yes.. only a round tablespoon of flour. Bake for 25 to 30 mins and let it stand in the oven for 10 mins. Its just very nice and gooey in the center. Very sweet too.

I am not too sure how it taste like since i cannot take any chocolates. But i think she is just hogging the cake all for herself. Hope she gets FAT and OLD soon.

Have a great Easter and see you all next week.

love,
Dommy

Something's Cooking...

1. some garlic
2. a few shallots
3. a knob of ginger
4. shaking salt n pepper
5. garlic powder
6. oregano flakes
7. orange zesty zest
8. the juice of an orange
9. soya sauce sprinklies
10. chicken wings about 18
11. olive oil drizzle

I wonder how it will taste like :D Picture of the cooked fella later.

Ahh.. we are back with the picture.. after two days of cake and party :)

The above was a recipe for orange chicken or chicken orange which don't quite look orange. This is baked chicken in foil. I don't know how it taste like. No one complained about the taste so i guess it was okay... *LOL*

I don't usually taste the stuffs that i cook for family parties. I love to taste other people's dishes instead :) Especially since all my aunts are great cooks. Why in the world would i want to eat my own cooking. *LOL* If i get a heaven forbid... don't ever let her cook chicken again... then i know that its real bad. Well... out of 10 cookouts... sometimes i get lucky.

I think it was not too bad... :) It could have been worse or burnt. Hope you enjoyed the picture.

The Salty Experience

Here's a recipe to share with you guys... from my best buddy :) The dish has a special name to remind me of my own folly with this dish.

Ikan Tauchu ala Jab

Ingredients you need:

1. 3 mackerels (ikan kembung)
   One tablespoon tumeric powder + half tablespoon salt. Mix them and rub a dub them fishes. Don't forget to make vertical cuts in the fish so that the tumeric can get in.
2.  Four tablespoon tauchu (fermented soybeans)
3. One tablespoon sweet soya sauce
4. One big onion cut into rings
5. One half cucumber, cut into long quarters
6. Two cloves garlic, chopped
7. Four shallots chopped
8. Three red chillies cut into large pieces
9. One inch ginger cut into matchsticks
10. One level tablespoon sugar
11. Half cup water
12. Half teaspoon tamarind paste to soak in a small bowl of water
13. One teaspoon cornflour mixed with three tablespoon water

Instructions:

• Deep fry fish until its crispy (to prevent the hot oil from dancing and jumping on to you, put some slices of onions in oil first). Set aside.
• In a pan, put some oil and fry the shallot, chillies, ginger and garlic.
• Put in the tauchu, water, cucumber, sugar, sweet soya sauce (no need salt as the tauchu is already salty). Put in the tamarind paste water. Then put in the large onion slices.
• Let the cucumber be soft To thicken the sauce, put in the cornflour mix if u want.
• Pour the sauce on the ikan and eat with lots of hot rice.

If you follow the instructions and ingredients closely, you will get something like this.

If you do not read instructions before you cook and leave out some key ingredients, you will get something like this... (don't laugh so loud la)

Do you see the vast difference and the follies you will get them fishes into if you don't read instructions BEFORE you cook. And not WHILE you are cooking :)

Anyways.. the darkkkkkkkkkkkk one was mine. It was pretty salty because i didn't add the cucumbers and i didn't follow the measurements properly. (I won't make a good baker). Tauchu and tamarind paste are salties, so cucumbers are important here to soak up them saltiness a little. We forgot about them cucumbers.

While dad and i were having that with rice, i had to hang my head in shame and told dad... urmm urmm.. you might need to go easy with the sauce.. scrape the sauce aside and just eat the fish *LOL*

Well... my dad loves to have his food pretty salty. Sometimes he will even have a small bowl of light soya sauce and chillies to dip his chicken or meat. His sodium intake is no good for someone his age. I am not quite helping much for coming up with such saltiness for dinner.

I bet his BP and his PSA levels went sky rocket high that night.

For the sake of my dad's health... i think its best that i stick to steaming fish or chicken for dinner :) Steaming dishes are the safest :)

Thanks to my buddy for the lovely recipe. If you are adventurous enough, you might want to try this dish. Its pretty good :) Just follow them ingredients and instructions. Its a tried and tested dish. Not by me because i don't do instructions well :)

As for dinner tonight, i'm just going to go to the Pasar Ramadhan stalls and get some real delicious food :) Its the fasting month for our muslim friends. Every evening, we have quite a big selection of things to buy to eat. I am gonna get some mini murtabaks :D I'll catch some pictures for you if it doesn't rain this evening.

We might be going on the road this weekend :) I promised someone i'll check out her exhibition before it ends... and its gonna end soon. The little one above misses home too. Probably we'll be away.

Now we got to go back to looking at some crummie codes. I am not even a programmer. I do not understand basic logic for codes. *LOL* Some people do ask for the moon.

Burp!

Ops! Please forgive my bad manners. I ate too much and am too lazy to even roll over. Ops lagi!.. i've been mixing with Dommy too much. What am i doing rolling over for? :D

As promised.. here's the chili dish i cooked just now. Good thing it turned out okay since i can never cook the same thing the same way with the same taste again.

It doesn't look very red hot spiffy.. i mean spicy.. hahhahaha.. but it is spicy. The chili paste i got from the market from this nice old lady is a real knocker (chili paste is very useful when you don't have time to grind your own.. and when you are lazy). I think she grinds all the chili padi (bird's eye chili) that she cannot sell for the day into this chili paste.

Anyways.. here are the ingredients.

There's only 6 big praws (because there's only dad and i eating dinner) *LOL* which is marinated with salt and tumeric. Chili paste from the makcik at the wet market. Cucumber sliced and to be eaten raw. One bombay onion. One tomato. Ops! And two cloves of smashed garlic (yea.. they are not there in the above picture).

Fry the prawns in a some oil for a while. Not too long else the prawns get too tough. Then dish it out.

Using the same oil, sauté the onions and garlic. Drop in the tomatos. Stir stir stir. Pour half of chili paste since i only have six prawns *LOL* Stir it a bit.. add a bit of water.. and a bit of sugar to balance the taste. Put the prawns that are fried into the pan and stir stir stir. Dish it out immediately when its mixed nicely with the sauce.

This portion is for two people. And dad and i are not big eaters. The chili prawns are nice with hot rice. Loads of rice. Don't think i can do a website on recipes. I just remember to stir stir stir and forget to take the picture of the sauce when its cooking. *LOL*

Here's the pot of chicken breast meat i cooked for Dommy in the morning. Sometimes i add one carrot and one potato in. Today's pot is just chicken. I just boil it with some water over low fire until the water almost runs out. When the meat has cooled off, i smash it up with my hands and mix it around.

Then i pack it into daily portions and freeze it. The packed meat lasts about 2 weeks as there are only 14 packs. He only eats one meal a day (and he is overweight at 9.3kgs). The vet says he's overweight a bit. Usually he has a pack of chicken meat that is warmed up and mixed into a 1/2 cup of kibbles for dinner. He has 2 biscuits in the morning and sometimes a treat in the afternoon. Do you think i am overfeeding him?

Dommy's packed chicken for the freezer

That's all for today. Tomorrow... i want to tell you about "The Fool". Goodnight people :) Dommy sends a *woof* too. He's dozing off already.

Snoozing away on his own ole poang. Its a cold night *hehe*

The Roads Are Kind Today

We began our day pretty early today. Both Boy and i left the house at 7am. Both Dommy and PP went back to sleep. We reached his college at 7.30. We made good time. The roads are kind to us today. We have to keep up with this timing to avoid the early morning massive jams.

I figured we can do this. Sleep early and get up early. I could do with a early morning drive to get out for a while. Maybe i'll drop by my office tomorrow.

Checked out a new market which i am not quite familiar with. I somehow like wet markets more compared to hypermarkets. The people seem friendly enough. Prices are not too steep too. Most of them speak to me in Mandarin. All i did was just nod and nod away. *LOL* I can understand a little bit of mandarin. My sister's kids have taught me.

My niece used to speak only in Mandarin. We sure had a hard time conversing then as i only know so much and so few words. She used to ask me questions and i'll ask her the same question back. She was little then.

Today we are going to have burnt roast chicken ala boo for dinner. Some garlic toast. A big blob of mashed potatoes. And brown gravy. Here's our almost burnt dinner. hehehhehee.. Its been a while since i use an oven again. Enjoy :)

burnt chicken ala boo

mashed potatoes ala carrots

brown gravy ala too brown

piper ala blurr

That's about all our dinner (piper not included). Have a wonderful evening everyone :)

Footnote:

If anyone would want our recipe for burnt chicken ala boo... please leave a comment here :D We would be most happy to teach you how to burn chicken.. very fast :p

To Tease

Turmeric and i go a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong way. Lately, i've been using a wee bit of turmeric in some of the things that i cook. Turmeric is actually quite good for us. Its quite a common spice in Asian cooking.

My favourite is marinating chicken with turmeric and salt. After a while, just fry it and add a dash of light soya sauce. A simple dish which has a very aromatic smell to it. I love its simplicity and the aroma that turmeric adds to the chicken.

Mom used to make it too. Her chicken are cut in small pieces. Dainty dishes. My stuffs are cut never daintly.. hahahhahaha.. I am always in a rush for time. Sis will always complain about the size of the carrots and potatoes in my dishes *LOL* She will complain that i am trying to choke them all.

I remember my yoga master telling me that he bathes with turmeric. I didn't really have a chance to ask him properly on the benefits. Circumstances that surround the very life of mine... and i had to stop classes and go home. He's still the best yoga teacher i had. I haven't found one quite like him here. He has charisma.

Stormy gave me a recipe last week which i didn't follow properly as usual. Its quite hard for a cook to teach me as i don't follow instructions properly. *LOL* It was just another simple dish. But as usual, i did it my way.. and it tasted yucky.. hahahhahahaa.. It was also because i didn't have a certain dark sweet sauce.

Last weekend i got a big huge bottle of the dark sauce as i couldn't find the smaller bottle on the shelves. This time i was a little bit smarter and cook in smaller portions :)

And because of the dark sauce... it was a helluva of a success. Stormy was blinking proud of me and the master chef could only salivate over the pics *LOL*

nice or not? it was a bit sweet... but the sauce made it really nice. Now this sauce is kinda like my besty sauce.. hahhahahahhaa

Oh ya.. i marinated the chicken with turmeric too.. hehehhe.. and a tad of chili powder and salt. The end good results went to the "secret sauce".

Guess what is the secret sauce... :)

I kinda stumbled upon this 20 Health Benefits of Tumeric a while ago. Go check it out if you wanna find out more about turmeric.

An Adventure With Mr Tumeric

Last week, i had an encounter with a Tumeric and brought it home. It was a wicked, bright orangey yellow and i love it. I named it Mr. Tumeric and it went on many adventures with me.

If you all can remember my near disaster with last week's Fast Forward Rendang which turned into Yellow Curry... you'll be wondering why am i messing with tumeric again :D

Ahh... i am a person who never follow instructions in recipe books. I never read manuals of digital cameras... (and i have been labeled stupid once for not knowing the ins and the outs of the camera i am handling) and i am never much of a follower.

And so.. today.. we decided to drag Mr. Tumeric out again and try another dish. How wrong can i go right? How many deja vu would i encounter in a lifetime of near disaster cooking.

Today's curry... looks better with a tinge of red. Here it is.

It looks better than last week's one right? Still with a tinge of yellow hehhehee.. I hope it taste much better too. But the itchy hands of mine drop a blob of tomato paste in this curry. It kinda have a sweet tomato taste.. urmm.. i'll let the experts try first and i'll come back and tell you the outcome :)

Good luck to me and hope i don't try anymore tumeric dishes for a while or just stick to tumeric fried chicken for safer bets. *LOL*

Btw.. one of the other dishes... was a disaster. *LOL* I am too ashamed to show you the pictures here.. hehehehehehehe

This week i've been labeled Tumeric Queen. TQ very much ^.^

Fast Forward Rendang

Rendang is made from beef (or occasionally chicken, mutton, water buffalo, duck, or vegetables like jackfruit or cassava) slowly cooked in coconut milk and spices for several hours until almost all the liquid is gone, allowing the meat to absorb the spicy condiments. The cooking process changes from boiling to frying as the liquid evaporates. The slow cooking process allows the meat to absorb all the spices and to become tender. The spices may include ginger, galangal, turmeric leaf, lemon grass and chillies. Chicken or duck rendang also contains tamarind and is usually not cooked for as long as beef rendang. (excerpt from Wikipedia)

That's quite a good explanation of what rendang is from Wikipedia. Thank you wiki.

Yesterday we went to Tescos to do some groceries. Somehow we were going to run out of some stuffs and last weekend... we were lazy to go. Going to Tescos means i don't need to cook dinner.. hehehhehee.. well.. that was my diabolical plan too. We ate at the food court.. the foods not all that bad. Urmm.. i kinda like the Tomyam soup there.

Going to Tescos was also to get outta the house and enjoy some free aircon.. hahahhahaha.. Poor Dommy couldn't go. And also to let Boy practise his driving. We got quite a lot of stuffs to stock up. We were like squirrels stocking up for winter. Dad got a new toothbrush and Boy got some swanky "big man smell" shower foam. He don't wanna smell like a Johnson baby anymore. *lol* I think both were quite happy after that.

I bought some sliced beef too and decide to cook it today. This whole day while working.. i was thinking what to do with the beef. I don't really cook beef except corned beef. So i was kinda thinking what to do with it.

Then walla... i found this.

Supa Maggi

If you really can't cook very well like me, the above stuffs are life-savers. I got a wee bit ambitious and bought it a while ago.. but never did try it. So today was the day.

I snip open the package... (before reading the instructions) at 6pm. hehehhehee

Then i was reading the instructions and was going.. urmm.. i don't have coconut milk.. tumeric leaf.. nop.. i don't have that... kerisik (grated, toasted, grounded coconut paste).. urmm.. never bought that before... and some other leaf. But hey.. i have lemon grass.. and urmm.. i have tumeric.. and ginger.. and lots of shallots and garlic.. *LOL*

So i thought.. how wrong can this go rite?

First i filled up the pot with water and bring to boil.. drop the spices from the supa maggi pack in.. urmm.. smells good :) I didn't have coconut milk... so i mix 2 big spoons of milk powder with some water and added to the pot. Then i plonk all the beef in and.. and smashed some lemon grass in and bring it to boil. In the process.. i added shallots.. a big knob of ginger.. and garlic.. and my yellow tumeric friend. (wrong choice) *LOL*

Since i didn't have tumeric leaf... i took some parsley leaf and lemon leaf from the garden.. :)

They were all dancing very happily in the pot until.. i realise they have achieved a yellow tinge while dancing too close with the tumeric. Urmm... nevermind. Then i added a wee bit of salt.. and then tasted it.. hmmm.. then i remembered stormy mentioned last time about some sugar.. so i added some sugar... then it went a wee bit sweet.. so i added a wee bit more salt.. hehehhee..

I still have quite a bit of liquids in the pot and it was getting close to 7pm... and dad is getting hungry. Alamak. Matilaaa.. I tasted it again.. and it was berry spicy.. i imagine i have smoke coming outta my ears. So i figured a little bit more milk will sorta thicken the sauce and make it less spicy and be easy to the tummy. A little bit more milk went it.. and more dancing and more yellow tinge.. hahahhahahahaha

Here's the end product.

kinda look like yellow curry

its all this yellow culprit's fault

fast-forward steam fish paste with sesame oil & garlic + shallots
this is Boy and my favourite
(we had bits of kiwi on it the last time.. it was tangy and weird.. hahhahahaha)

uncooked greens..

Moral of the story is...
1) Read instructions first
2) Don't cook it if u don't have all the ingredients
3) Don't simply plonk yellow tumeric into pots of rendang
4) Tumeric leaf and tumeric is different
5) Cook earlier because rendang takes a while to cook and for all the liquids to dissapear

The good thing from this fast forward rendang was... dad really enjoyed it. He was grinning from ear to ear because i called it rendang even though it was yellow.. hahahahhaa.. And he had 2 servings of rice. I am lucky because my dad and Boy hardly complains about my cooking now. Even though sometimes i come up with craps. hehehehhehe

Tomorrow i will cook them a proper dinner with less adventures.

Now i really have to cook rendang the correct way with Stormy's recipe. And this time, i'll do it the original way. God help me. If i succeed.. i'll post the recipe here :)

My Favourite Mistake ~ Sheryl Crow

This song seems kinda apt now :) Goodnite folks ^.^

On A Rainy Day...

... we have stew to warm our tummies.

This evening brings a nice nice rain to cool down the house, water all the trees and plants in the garden and made me real lazy to cook :)

So i made a pot of chicken stew. Here are the main characters... tadaaaaaaaaaaa!

1. Some pieces of chicken (i used the chicken thighs which are deboned by the nice auntie at the market)... cut the chicken to smaller pieces and marinate with some salt and pepper + a wee bit of corn flour to soften it.
2. carrots, tomatoes, potatoes and a ms sweet potato
3. big red onion, some cloves of garlic and a knob of ginger
4. 2-3 pieces of dry chili (we had some dried chili from China that my aunt gave me.. which is really really hot.. i only used 2 pieces :o
   
5. 1 piece of fresh parsley leaf (my uncle gave me a pot and told me its parsley) but it sure does not look like the parsley i know... hmmmm.. i'll take a picture of it tomorrow and show you guys.. mebbe someone can tell me what it is.. :)
6. some dried spices.. urmmm.. i just put some rosemary and basil.. i didn't know which to use.. so i use both.. hahahhahahaha
7. some oysters sauce and some tomato sauce

I think that sums up the characters for the pot of stew. You can add other vegetables or celery sticks or whatever that you like.

Here's how i cook my stew.

1. Put some oil on a wok... put no (3) and stir stir stir... :)
   
2. When its smelling fragrant... put in no (1) and stir stir stir... add a few drops of sesame oil, a pinch of salt and some coarse pepper + no (4) too.
   
3. Dump in no (2) and stir stir stir too... add a wee bit of water so it doesn't get stuck.. my cooking gets stuck all the time *LOL*
4. Transfer the stuffs on the wok into a pot... and add in enough water to cover all them stuffs. While letting it boil, go out and play with Dommy for a while but don't water the plants... (cos that will take too long)
5. Come back to you pot of gurgling stuffs and poke the potatoes and carrots.. if they are cooked n softer than earlier... add in no (7). Oyster sauce should be added only after the stuffs are cooked. (don't ask me why.. that's what my aunt told me)
6. Put in no (5) and (6)... boil for a while and that's the end :)
   

The colour doesn't look very appealing.. hehhehehe but it tasted ok la. You can eat it with bread or white rice. Dad had it with rice and a bit of bread. I had it with rice cos i am a rice person (i go weak without rice). Boy had it with bread only.

I don't like to put too much tomato sauce cos it will make it too tangy. You can add loads of other stuffs in as well. Do share with us your version of a homemade stew :)

Mine turns out quite differently each time *LOL* I am never consistent when it comes to cooking. Today's one was surprisingly sweeter than usual. Maybe it was the ms sweet potato :D

Happy trying.

Potato Beef Patties

This is one of Boy's favourite dish. And i cook it all the time because its fast. So here i am, leaving his favourite dishes/recipes here for him for future reference (if he decides to cook one day).

Potato Beef Patties

1. Boil some potatoes with skin intact for 15mins.
2. Drain it and peel off the skin. Mash the potatoes in the pot itself. Add a pinch of salt, some pepper, minced shallots and garlic, 2-3 few drops of Maggi seasoning (optional)
   
3. Open a can of corn beef and scoop 3 big spoons of corn beef into the potatoes.
4. Add a few drops of sesame oil.
5. A little bit of corn flour.
6. One egg.
7. Mix them all together and let it set for a while.
8. Heat up the pan. Put some oil. Let it all warm up and spoon a tablespoon of the mixture to make small pieces of patties.
   
9. Deep fried them for a while or until brown.

Corn beef in a can is already cooked. So the frying is quite fast. You can use minced chicken / pork / beef. You can bake it in an oven too. Just scoop a spoonful of the mixture on a dish and bake them like cookies :D Just put a bit of oil or butter.

Here's how mine looks. They don't look very appealing... and uniformed.. hahhahahaa.. but its nice laa when you are famished *LOL*

tadaaaaaaaaaaa!

Today i added a brown sauce to go with it so its not too dry.

Stir-fry some onions in a little bit of oil. In a bowl, mix some corn flour, water, dark soya sauce, a dash of light soya sauce and a pinch of salt.

As you can see below, i added a wee bit too much dark soya sauce... so my sauce is a bit darrrkkkk.. hehhehehee.. but ok laa.. its still edible. And you don't choke on the meat when its too dry. So a brown sauce complements this dish.

Happy trying folks. Its actually very delicious when you are hungry and goes well with rice. Children loves this meat patties.

Note to Boy (the future one who will be cooking one day)
Don't add too many drops of the Maggi seasoning. Few drops is enough. A dash or two only.

A Taste from the Past

Do you sometimes wish that you can taste a dish again from your past? A really delicious something which your mom or maybe grandma or just anybody who cooked something which sort of sends a "ding" to your head one day.

I had a "ding" without the dong today :D I am never a morning person... i love to sleep in. Today i woke up and drag myself to take my dogs for a pee and some poo. As usual i will be making notes in my head on what to get from the market while they both did their business in the garden. Kinda like an active list in my mind with a highlighter to tick everything off when i am doing my marketing. Dang my stupid head, i always do leave out one or two stuffs... hahahaha.. i still don't believe in writing it down on a piece of paper.

While trying to maneuver thru a tight lane, dang lorry got to park at the already tight lane... i kinda hear a "kreeeeeeeeeek". Me and my morning stupidity still try to go thru the lane. I always think that i am driving a tiny car.. hahhahahaa.. My blue clunky got a scratch near the handle... hehhehehehhee. I could only laugh at my own stupidity. And there's really nothing wrong with a few more scratches. I bear more scratches and bumps than my blue clunky. So if you have a shiny new car, never let me drive.

My beautiful mind remembered the most important thing on my active list... which is the 5 spice powder (it smells like lovely cinnamon). But my beautiful mind also forgot some other thing.. hehehehe... trust my faithful active list.

Do you know that a scent... that you love... you tend to remember it in your mind. You can even smell it sometimes if you try to remember.

The 5 spice powder was for a dish that i wanted to make for a long time. But do not know how to make it... as i never asked my mom how to do it. My mom was a wonderful cook. She slaved and slogged in the kitchen... and churn out dishes after dishes... that none of my sisters and i can emulate till today. None of us are any good cooks anyway... hahhahahahaa But my brother in law is a very good cook! Thank god for that. At least someone in the family cooks.

I love to cook but i cook without boundaries. None of my dishes are ever the same the 2nd time around. Sometimes i am lucky.. and hey.. its nice. And sometimes its near disasters.. hahhahahaa.. There is no consistency in my cooking. If you ask me for the recipe, i will tell u a dash of this and a pinch of that... never in measurements. I can never follow a recipe closely and that is why i don't make a good baker.

My colleagues were like my lab rats. I used to bake cakes, muffins... and most of them are yucky.. hahahaha.. but my dear friends in the office still eats them. They are very forgiving and encouraging and that is why, most of them are still some of my best friends around even though i am away from the office for almost two years now.

My mother cooks with consistency. And that makes her a true cook. The way she cuts the vegetables and meat... are all precise and even the garlic are all chopped in almost the same sizes. That is why her dishes are all consistent in taste. And that is why i remember my 5 spice meat dish the way mom cooked it.

And today, in full glory... i attempted the same dish with a recipe i found on the internet. Hehehe... at 5.30pm.. i realised that i have to cook the meat much earlier... as usual, i didn't read the instructions all the way... hehehehhee.. well... it turned out ok... but dad said... mum's one is much better of course. HHHAHAHAHHAHAA.. No hard feelings, we just try harder the next round. If i can remember the recipe.

If your are a meat lover, its a wonderful dish to try. I think you can try this with other kind of meat. The recipe above was for a pork dish. (my apologies to my muslim friends)

Its called Braised Cha Siew. Happy trying. Hope yours turn out better ;)

Five-spice powder is a mixture of 5 spices used in Chinese cuisine. One common recipe includes tunghing or "Chinese cinnamon" (also known as rougui, the ground bark of the cassia tree, a close relative of true cinnamon), powdered cassia buds, powdered star anise and anise seed, ginger root, and ground cloves. Another recipe for the powder consists of huajiao (Sichuan pepper), bajiao (star anise), rougui (cassia), cloves, and fennel seeds. It is used in most recipes for Cantonese roasted duck, as well as beef stew. It is also used as a marinade for Vietnamese broiled chicken. The five-spice powder mixture has followed the Chinese diaspora and has been incorporated into other national cuisines throughout Asia. (courtesy from Wikipedia)