The house is quiet once again. With not even a soul. The morning class ended and I have the privilege to be in the kitchen all by myself. I have decided to cook three dishes each day. It's not difficult neither is it easy.
The red fish was washed and put in steamer. I have never steam a fish this way before. The fish need to be lifted up while steaming so that the fish will not be soaked in its own juice after steaming. It's just dry.
I over-garnished the steamed fish with preserved sweet vegetables instead of using preserved salted vegetables. The coriander was used to add more colour. The soy sauce was boiled with rock sugar. The use of rock sugar over coarse sugar will give a different taste of sweetness. I have always prefer using the rock sugar. I really like the texture of the red fish.
A small pot of simple meatball soup with Chinese cabbage. The minced meat was mixed with roasted water chestnut which I have pounded into oblivion. The taste was extremely good. Not bad for the day. I'm Chinese so I like Chinese cuisine.
I almost forgot to deep fry those yam pieces. It was really crunchy with the batter a mixture of all sort of flour. Then, you will need to toss the deep-fried yam into a thick gravy of evaporated milk with crushed yolks of salted duck eggs. Hubby love them very much.
I cook to please my hubby and make mi mama has good food. I'm happy as long as I have good food. Thank you Lord for the never ending providence.
Prawns. I was thinking of buying some prawns from Tesco but the size of the prawns were so tiny, I wasn't use to such small-sized prawns. Then, I thought of going to the wet market in Batu Lanchang. I was thinking of the lady who sold us the prawns earlier. It was a good price. But sadly, there's no more prawns from her stall. I suspect they keep those prawns frozen to be released before right before Chinese New Year. Every year they do the same thing. So, we went to another stall. I had a feeling this man was not honest in doing business. Those 3 prawns cost me RM40. Yeah, so I bought them without arguing. At this age now, I don't feel like arguing with anyone except with the hubby. There's much joy arguing with him.
Then, we bought a kilo of clams for RM12. I wanted another type but the lorry has not arrived. I did not have even a 5-minute patience to wait let alone asking me to wait for the lorry for half an hour. I only want to go home straight. I dislike the scorching hot afternoon sun.
The red fish was very fresh from Tesco yesterday. That whole big fish cost RM18.88 irregardless of size. We took the biggest fish, of course. So, you pan fry that fish and then you remove the flesh. Return the flesh to a wok of boiling soup with Chinese wine. It's a treasure pot with all those seafood. Since it's a Chinese cuisine so you have Chinese cabbage as well which cost RM4.41.
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| Drunken seafood... |
Then, you add some mushrooms into the soup and adjust the taste with whatever seasoning that you have. So, that bowl of drunken seafood multiplied by 3 cost RM77.
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| Pork curry... |
Pork curry with muscle meat and also traffic lights. Those were the three colours from the bell peppers. I detest that fresh taste coming from those bell peppers but mi mama loves them. I'm suppose to deep fry the pork. Do you know why you need to deep fry them for awhile after marinating them? Have you heard of the process called velveting? You seal those marinades instead of letting them flow freely all over the pan but I found a better way to velvet them. I can't remember how much is the meat. But roughly I can say that our dinner cost us less than RM100 even with that expensive prawns.
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| Miso tofu... |
If you only thought of using miso paste as your soup, there's another use for your miso paste. Use this as the flavouring for your tasteless tofu. Pan fry them... don't burn them into black flattened piece of tofu. In order not to break those tofu, you may use Teochew tofus. Teochew tofu is as resilient as the Teochew people. I'm a Teochew so I know what I'm talking about. I rolled on the bed until 8:30a.m. and I was left with no Teochew tofu. I had to make do with the normal tofu. At least I didn't smash them. These tofus should come with a label "FRAGILE. HANDLE WITH CARE". By the way, a piece of tofu cost 60 cents only, so multiplied by 3 it's not even RM2.
Today is still hubby's cooking day because it's still my working day. Everyday seems to be my working day. By next week, it will be both our working days from Mondays to Saturdays so I'll take back my kitchen completely. Hubby had everything ready on the table today instead of having me wait while shaking all over from hunger. Hubby changed the recipe for his satay and it's spicier than yesterday. I prefer yesterday's because today's tasted like those chicken sold on skewers during the Ramadhan month for the breaking of fast.
Another of hubby's deep-fried delicious dish with prawns wrapped in bean curd sheet and some minced meat to decorate the top part. I planned to have dinner instead of lunch and maybe go to the field outside to work out but suddenly it rained cats and dogs. So, I ended up in front of the computer after having a hearty meal while listening to Planetshakers' 'This is Our Time'. Will be off to work in less than an hour.
Those thighs were placed in convection oven. Yeah, we have lots of different tools and machines in the kitchen. I probably can open a shop selling electrical stuff for kitchen. Chicken tasted like those selling at the economical rice stall. Superb~!
Excuse the blur photo~! I drove at top speed to come home and the hunger is showing through shaking hands. Scallop with winter melon. Hubby has not learn the art of making the best soup yet. I have mastered the soup making part. Yoohoo~!!!
It's hubby's cooking day because it's my working day. So, of course we had something deep fried. I walked into the house and had a good plate of Singapore bee hoon, better than compared to yesterday. Due to severe hunger, the camera was forgotten to snap a pic. But the crispy fried chicken got the honour to have the first pic for the day. The skin still needs improvement then I can have KFC's hot and spicy crispy fried chicken right from my kitchen.
Hubby said he has a surprise for me. Halfway through the class, I went to the kitchen to have a cold cup of water and he was busy poking chicken meat through the sharp sticks. He's making satay~! The colour is the same as any satay~!! They look like the satay we always buy from Teluk Kumbar.
Then, they're done~! The taste... a little bit more... and I can kiss goodbye to Teluk Kumbar satay. I love my hubby~! My hubby is fantastic... yippee~!!!! As usual, hubby cooked too much so we invited neighbour over for simple dinner. Amanda couldn't make it. She's still sick and rolling in bed. Her hubby said she has been coughing the whole night through and wondered why we didn't hear her coughing. *sigh* If I can hear her coughing from the bedroom, which is only beside our bedroom, I will send her straight to hospital to get her lungs removed and washed in detergent. It must be very clogged up somewhere along the tract. Oh, since she can't eat anything heavy, I folded my long sleeves and within 30 minutes, viola~! Yen's best meatball soup with vermicelli. We tried the meatballs and they were awesome but I am such a professional, I made JUST NICE one bowl for her and nobody else.... wwwwaaaaaaaaaa.....
I don't know why they want to call it Singapore bee hoon. In KL, Jalan Alor, it's called Sin Chew bee hoon. The normal economy char been hoon is fried with dark soy sauce and soy sauce only. Once you add ketchup, the price took a huge leap upwards and never find it's way down. Vermicelli fried with ketchup is.... from Singapore? Why? I don't know but I just know that hubby make really nice fried vermicelli. I don't know how to fry vermicelli. No such skill. I'm not feeling well and I have exactly 4.5 hours of work before I can hang my legs up.
The price of petrol has gone down but the price of raw materials don't seem to budge lower. Why everything so expensive? I wish I own a vegetable farm and rear chickens, cows, sheep and own a prawn farm and fish farm and lastly, a coffin industry. There, then I can earn all the money in the world. Last Saturday, I was busy working round the clock that I had no time to cook my own lunch so hubby got me a packet of chicken rice. The chicken thigh itself cost RM8. Why???? The price of one thigh is less than RM1.20. How many times are you earning? So, the amount that I'm using to feed 7 people is equivalent to the amount of feeding 3 people now. I cannot afford to eat out already.
Eating is a very serious business. You can't just eat something cheap and hope that you will be healthy. If you save on food, you will spend more on medication when your body breaks down due to lack of this and that. Today, we chose to eat something simple. I lack of time to cook something very proper as my working hours has not been adjusted properly yet. The school session will only start next week then my life would return to normal. I made curry chicken without cooking rice. So, we had bread with curry chicken. No doubt the curry doesn't look red but it's really spicy because the dried chillies that I'm using is from the extra spicy category. I don't use ready made curry chicken mix because it's so expensive I feel that buying shallots, lemongrass and other spices to blend them all by myself is way cheaper. You don't use that much of everything. There's potatoes inside but chopped into smaller pieces. I don't like such big chunk of potatoes.
I made a small plate of tofu pizza. Just trying out with all sorts of herbs already sitting in the kitchen. When you see cheddar cheese, you don't have to purposely buy a big huge cuboid-shape cheddar to grate. You seriously don't use that much and if you don't have any dishes that require the use of cheddar then by keeping it in the fridge, it will still turn mouldy after a few weeks. Just use the cheese slice to be eaten with bread slices. It's still cheddar.
Hubby's making his best potato chips later to feed the piranhas~! Got to work now~!
We have Nutella cheesecake made by mi mama. I don't draw batik on food. Only mi mama can do this kinda creative work of art. I only know how to bake something edible. Everything goes into stomach but obviously when something looks beautiful, it becomes tastier, too.
Just a week after we had our 4th long table dinner, we started toying around with the idea of hosting a barbecue party. I dropped the idea to see how the kitchen crew would react. They were okay with the idea as long as all of us get to sit down and enjoy the night instead of running around like a mad person to serve others. The idea of hosting the barbecue came from the hubby. We were cleaning up the front part of the house when we saw our barbecue pit buried under a heap of cardboard boxes. Hubby said that it's such a pity that we have a big barbecue pit yet we didn't utilize it properly. So, we started calling people. This time round I was really lazy to even prepare a name list. I have them roughly in the head. That's it. So, I don't even know who came and who didn't until after a few days.
I have no idea how to start the fire, using the old school charcoals. No idea at all. The last time we had barbecue, Judz' hubby did it for us. So, this time round it would be a big problem if no one was able to start the fire, I will have to learn how to do it. Hubby has to do it and the kitchen crew has to work their asses off to serve people. We didn't want to do that at all. So, I asked the neighbour one night when they were having supper at our place. She said she's a professional in starting a fire and barbecuing. She agreed to do it so be it~! I put her in charge of everything. Excuse her for looking so pale. She has been sick for almost two weeks but yet she refused to keep herself in bed and miss the barbecue. Such a lovely neighbour I have.
Then I was chatting with this guy and since his college was on a holiday, I invited him over. I thought he would not remember to come but he did come~! He was early. So, I sent him off to 'work' the pit. Thank you, KS Kung~! You have been a blessing to everyone. Without you, we wouldn't have such a relaxing night. Thank you again and again. I will serve you next round when you are back.
In half an hour's time, I released the meat to be put on skewers. Uncle Wayne and his wife came and they seemed to be of a real big help to my neighbour. I was helpless and hubby was not to be seen at all around the pit. He was busy making his potato chips which seemed to be a hit. We no longer need Pringles and Mr. Potato. Thank you all. That's the uncle who sells coconut by the roadside and he's the one who brought extra coconuts to bless us on the night we needed the coconut water most.
Hubby made three different flavours or was it two only. I don't know. I just know that the first batch that came out, I was busy eating them up. Then a few more people got stuck in the kitchen just munching on the potato chips. Whenever the chips are around, those who enter the kitchen will never find their way out. The moment you have those chips in your mouth, you totally forget about how fat you will be when you eat too much chips. You only know that you need to put more into your mouth.
When I went into the house to check that everything in the house was good, I came out to see all those drumsticks and chicken thighs already on the stainless steel netting. The first few were burnt black because they did not have enough hands to turn the skewers fast enough. I used my veto power in the house and asked all the youngsters to get out of the house to help out as there's no one who's gonna serve them. Instead, they have to serve the ones who are older. Out they went....
They were really amazing. A real blessing to everyone. Those youngsters whom you see as a lazy bunch who only knows how to press their smartphones could really barbecue and served others. Excellent job~!!!! Thank you for serving us for the night.
I made wonderful discoveries that night. These two best friends could really barbecue until the chicken was just right in texture. They did it in total darkness. I have poor lighting outside the house so was the neighbour's house. They barbecued the best chicken that I've ever tasted. Juicy and with the skin still intact instead of finding the chicken skin completely charred and stuck to the steel netting.
When I asked them to serve me, no kidding... they came in with a plate of this juicy chicken drumstick while some of them had completely charred chicken. It was so great that I asked them to make 10 more. Seriously, where do they learn how to barbecue perfectly? Not like they know how to cook. They make really good bacon, too. I robbed some sausages from a poor kid who stood so long to have his meal done. He walked in I robbed him until his plate became empty. I shoo-ed him out of the house and ask him to make more for himself and me.
Oh, bacon stringer~! This one also very good with the pit, yeah~! Thank you for the bacon~!! Next time I know exactly who to invite when I want to host another session of barbecue party while I just sit in the house and wait for the food to walk in. Too bad my house has very limited space. Why not do it at the field opposite? Then can have more people... just a thought.... just a thought.... my kitchen crew will run away seeing the number of guests.
Those were pulut inti neatly wrapped in banana leaves. I'm very lazy to explain what's pulut inti. The person who was really craving for pulut inti didn't make it to our barbecue party because she was so sick, she ended up in bed the whole day. What a pity~! She's hubby's colleague and one joyful eater. I missed having her in the house. I made koay teow th'ng. Recipe stolen from someone else but it wasn't as good as I expect it to be. It's not salty enough and there's not enough pepper. But we were afraid not everybody likes salty soup. Marshmallows were for the kids.
Then, the owner of Marshall's burger walked in. My professional barbecue-rs took a photo with him. He will not be able to hire them. The two of them are too expensive to be hired. Thank you for coming over even for a short while only.
Another amazing discovery was the three of them started getting really crazily drunk before they even tasted the wine. Amazing, right? By the way, the doc was holding an empty bottle. I don't know how could one get drunk holding an empty bottle. A photo tells a thousand words. You can make your own story with one photo. Depends on how creative you are. That's what the Education System of this year wants. Look at one picture and let your mind runs wild. I need to teach so I have to let my imagination runs really wild so, everyone can do it, too. Muahahhaha~!
Finally, both of them got to really sit down. And that was already half past ten at night. Thank you so much both of you.
Oh, I didn't know there's a massage service in the house. Anyone massage me, I will give him or her karate kick~! *woots* What a wonderful way to start the year with much laughter and fun. Thank you everyone who came... Jutaan terima kasih saya lanjutkan kepada semua yang hadir.
Fancy seeing this on the whiteboard :D A good reminder to everyone. Whichever house you go to for dinner or parties, don't throw food away. The one hosting will have a bleeding heart. Food is not cheap everything is just so expensive so when your friends choose to bless you, please don't bless the rubbish bin instead. Thank you~! I will not serve food that's not delicious... no worries.
We have Nutella cheesecake made by mi mama. I don't draw batik on food. Only mi mama can do this kinda creative work of art. I only know how to bake something edible. Everything goes into stomach but obviously when something looks beautiful, it becomes tastier, too.
