Wednesday, February 18, 2009

more food!

I’m so happy I’ve found a new way to entertain myself. I spend most of my time at work and not knowing the place well yet, I find myself spending a lot of time at home after work just chilling out. The lot at work is a little different from the ones I have worked with for 3 years. In KL it was effortless to have an agenda after work – we just head to La Bodega, our watering hole. At times I’m there 4 times out of 5 working days, just having a drink or two and then head home to have dinner or watch some TV. Or I meet up with the girls for dinner. Or go out with my colleagues for dinner. There was always something to do.

Anyway what I have recently started to do more of – cooking! I have always enjoyed the little cooking I’ve done over the years and have been pretty restricted to the few dishes that I keep cooking over and over again but being here permanently means I have to learn to cook more than what I know........and you know what? I’m starting to get really interested.

Problem is sometimes I don’t know what certain ingredients are called and I still don’t know many cooking techniques. So most of what I do is trial and error. I am rubbish at following recipes for cooking (baking is another story, I used to do a lot of that) so I find myself throwing in whatever I feel should make up the taste....and improvise.

Last night’s dinner turned out well again (thank God!) and Oscar enjoyed it so much he was scraping off the sauce! Hehe

We had Watercress Soup, Siew Pak Choy annnnddddddd ......... Char Siew!! Yes I had cravings for Char Siew (not the icky red and overly sweet ones you find in Food Courts!) Oscar loved the meal last night and he even offered to wash up!!

Bear in mind that I don’t follow any “recipes” so I’m sure there are better ways to cook it but here’s my version of last night’s dinner. I only remembered to take photos half way through it so it's all half eaten already hahaha and Oscar likes the Char Siew Sauce so we scraped everything out of the pan and decided to drown the Char Siew. -_-







WATERCRESS SOUP

What I used: (bear in mind this is only for 2)
5 pieces pork bone (you can use pork ribs, chicken cage, chicken bones...whatever lah)
1 small piece pork belly
10 red dates
Wolfberries (Kei Chi in Chinese, I didn’t measure – I just put some in)
1 pkt watercress
½ piece of dried squid (sotong)


What I did:
1) Bring water to boil in pot
2) Put in pork bone & dried squid. Boil for ½ hour
3) Put in red dates, wolfberries, pork belly, watercress
4) Boil for another 45 minutes. Ready!

I always like soup that has been boiled for hours. Reminds me of my grandma who used charcoal and a claypot to boil soup for over 10 hours. Super yummy!




SIEW PAK CHOY

What I used:
I pkt Siew Pak Choy (I separated the stalks and leaves)
3 cloves garlic, chopped (I loooove plenty of garlic in my veggies though)
4 slices ginger
1 tbsp light soya sauce
5 tbsp Hua Diao Jiu / Shaoxing Wine
Dash of white pepper
Pinch of Salt
Pinch of Maggi Ikan Bilis Stock


What I did:
1) Heat oil in work, fry garlic and ginger until fragrant
2) Add in the stalks
3) Add in soya sauce, hua diao jiu & ikan bilis stock
4) Add in the leafy parts
5) Add pepper and salt

Reason why I separated the stalks is because they take a longer time to cook and I don’t like the leafy bits over cooked.




CHAR SIEW

What I used:
2 pieces pork belly (I picked the ones that were not overly fat)
4 tbsp Lee Kum Kee Char Siew Sauce
4 cloves garlic, smashed
1 tbsp Hua Diao Jiu
½ tbsp Oyster Sauce
½ tbsp Light Soya Sauce
Some honey for glazing


What I did:
1) Marinate the pork belly with the char siew sauce, hua diao jiu, oyster sauce and light soys sauce. Make sure the marinade evenly covers the pork. Put in the garlic. Leave for at least 2 hours (or overnight!)
2) Heat pan in very low fire (there is high sugar content in the char siew sauce so if fire is high it will burn too quickly)
3) Put pork in pan and cover
4) Turn over after 10 minutes and cover. Let the other side cook for another 10 minutes
5) When the pork is cooked and the sauce turns sticky, glaze the pork with some honey
6) Increase fire to medium but you will have to keep turning it to prevent it from turning into charcoal!
7) When it’s ready slice the char siew and spread the remaining sauce over



Oscar being Oscar, his accompanying drink for this meal was.....

this!


-_-

10 comments:

Who is tAuRus?? said...

why no oscar's photo one? kekekke

Timotius Budiman said...

Hi,

I'm Timothy from Indonesia...
I've been searching the singapore blogger communities... ( I mean what is the name of their sites? )

although you can visit my blog too :

www.my-rottweiler.blogspot.com

and

www.all-baby-needs.com

Nice to recoqnize you !

Sincery !

Timothy

Demon said...

i see you figured out how to use the blogger photo upload function huh?

Naddy said...

wuhooo jadi food blog already ehehehe happy cooking mich!

mishy mashy said...

taurus: coming soon!! :-)

mishy mashy said...

timotius...sorry have no idea about sg blogger communities

mishy mashy said...

coupdecoeur.......thanks! :-)

mishy mashy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
mishy mashy said...

Jwan Heah: I knew from a long time ago lah....u think everyone so free like you ah?? heheeh no la, I was too lazy to post :P

mishy mashy said...

Naddy: hehe thanks, I'm just trying to pass time here lah. What's your blog address? Can link or not?