Christmas Dinner

Yesterday was Christmas and hubby decided that we'd cook dinner instead of eating out. I do prefer to stay at home on public holiday because no matter where we go, it's always crowded. At first we thought of going to the mall but when we saw the long queue of cars waiting to get into the car park, we thought it'd be better to spend the afternoon at home taking an afternoon nap or watching tv. Hahaha....

We had a nice time preparing the dinner together. This time, hubby cooked ABC soup, vege and he even tried to cook pork in soy sauce! Very ambitious hor...but it was a nice meal and am very proud of him for his interest to learn :)

ABC Soup

Ingredients:

Pork Ribs (can use chicken also)

Tomato

Carrot

Potato

Onion

Water

Salt

Hot boiling water

Method:

1. Pour the hot boiling water onto the pork ribs and let it stand for 5min or so.

2. Boil a pot of water and throw in the ribs and all other ingredients except the salt.

3. Cook over high heat (soup will be boiling) for 1hour or so, then turn to medium or low heat for another 1-2 hours.

4. Season with salt and serve hot. Love this soup and very comforting on a rainy day!

Pork in Dark Soy Sauce

Ingredients:

Pork Meat (slice thinly)

Ginger (shred thinly)

Sesame Oil

Dark Soy Sauce

Light Soy Sauce

Sugar

Method:

1. Heat sesame oil and saute ginger till fragrant.

2. Put in pork and stir fry for 1/2min.

3. Add in dark soy sauce, light soy sauce and sugar.

4. Stir fry for for another 1/2min and dish up. Goes well with rice..

Tang Yuan

Hubby and I made these just for the fun of it last night, for our supper! Hahaha... I was dead tired by the time we finished cooking the tang yuan but we had a great time making the small round dumplings.
We made these plain, without any fillings in it. What? You don't expect me to stuff in gula melaka or brown sugar, right? If we had done that, we'd probably finished at 12 midnight instead of 10+pm ;p

Ingredients:

Tang Yuan:
Glutinous Rice Flour
Hot boiling water
Room temperature boiled water

Syrup:
Water
 Brown Sugar/ Gula Melaka
Ginger
Pandan Leaves


Method:
1. To make the tang yuan, take 1/3 amount of the flour and pour in the hot boiling water. Mix it until it's like glue.
2. Add in the remaining 2/3 flour and add room temperature water slowly.
3. Knead to form a dough until it no longer sticks to your hand. If it gets sticky, wash your hands clean and dust with some flour.
4. Let the dough rest for 20min or so.
5. Take a small portion and roll into a ball. Repeat until dough is finished.
6. Boil a pot of water and cook the tang yuan. When the tang yuan floats, drop them into a bowl of room temperature boiled water.
7. At the same time, start cooking the syrup by boiling a pot of water with ginger and pandan leaves.
8. When it boils, add brown sugar.
9. Let it simmer for at least 30min.
10. To serve, put some of the cooked tang yuan into a bowl and pour in some syrup. Yummy!

Guava Snack

The recipe is from the blog, "My Culinary Journal" hhttp://myculinaryjournal.blogspot.com/2009/10/guava-appetizer.html and since it looks really easy I thought I'd give it a try. I must say this snack is really refreshing and good for a warm day. It's perfect if you're planning for a home movie marathon because instead of popping junk food like chips you can try this healthier snack.

The way to do it is really to cut the guava (I bought the seedless ones as it's easier to cut ;p) into thin bite size slices and mix them with tiny pieces of preserved orange peel. Then, put it into a container and refrigerate for a few hours.

Family Dinner

Hubby and I had a satisfying dinner tonight and it was fun because this time hubby cooked 2 dishes! Today, he cooked stir fried siew pak choy and an onion omelet. Both are yummy. The vegetable dish is the same as the one he did before but this time we used siew pak choy instead of yau mak. Hehe...it's for him to practise so everything is the same except the vege used.

Stir Fried Siew Pak Choy

Onion Omelet

Braised Fish with Bean Paste & Tomatoes

Onion Omelet

Ingredients:
Eggs
Onions
Salt
Pepper
Oil

Method:
1. Beat the eggs and sprinkle some pepper into the mixture.
2. Heat a little oil and saute the onion until it turns a little brown.
3. Season with a little salt.
4. Spread onion evenly then pour in the beaten egg mixture. Let it cook/set.
5. Turn the egg and when it's cooked, dish up.


Braised Fish with Bean Paste & Tomatoes

Ingredients:
Fish
Salt
Ginger
Tomatoes
Preserved Bean Paste/whole beans
Water
Oil

Method:
1. Rub salt onto both sides of the fish.
2. Heat some oil and fry the fish until golden brown and cooked on both sides.
3. Dish up and set aside. Pour out the oil and leave only a little oil in the wok.
4. Saute ginger till fragrant.
5. Add in bean paste and tomatoes. Stir fry for 1/2min.
6. Add in water and cook till it simmers.
7. Add in the fish and let it cook for 1-2min and it's ready to be served.

A Simple Dinner

I am now on a "restricted" mode when it comes to doing any housework, so most of the meals that I cook now are really simple and almost effortless dishes. We had steamed chicken with ginger and stir fried vegetables for dinner. This is the first time hubby cooked a vege dish (well, the other dish he did was onion omelet long time ago ;p). It was fun to cook together and I hope we can do this more often :)

Steamed Chicken with Ginger

Ingredients:
Chicken (cut into medium size pieces)
Ginger (cut into thin strips - I prefer young ginger)
Garlic (chopped)
Salt
Sesame Oil

Method:
1. Rub the chicken with a little salt.
2. Arrange the chicken on a plate and sprinkle garlic and ginger over it.
3. Drizzle about 1 tbsp of sesame oil over it.
4. Steam till cooked (I put it on a rice cooker steamer and cook it together with the rice).

Stir Fried Yau Mak Vegetables

Ingredients:
Yau Mak
Garlic (chopped)
Salt
Oyster Sauce
Oil
Water

Method:
1. Heat a little oil in a wok and saute garlic till fragrant.
2. Add in the vegetables and stir fry for a while.
3. Season with oyster sauce and a little salt to taste.
4. Stir to mix well. Add a little water if too dry.
5. Dish up when it boils.

Fishy Fried Rice

Nope...no fish in the fried rice ;p This is today's lunch; fried fish and simple fried rice. I've been eating out for almost the past 2 weeks and I miss simple home cooked food. Today's meal took minimal effort but we had a very satisfying lunch. Fried rice is not oily like those sold outside plus I put in lots of vegetables.


The fried fish is idiot-proof. Just clean the fish, rub a little salt on both sides and leave it for 10min or so. Then, fry it till golden brown on both sides. Use low heat especially if it's a big fish or the meat is thick to ensure it's fully cooked on the inside too.

Fried Fish

Simple Fried Rice

Ingredients:
Rice (cooked and cooled)
Oil
Garlic
Egg (beaten)
Carrot (cut into cubes)
Cabbage
Salt
Light Soy Sauce
Dark Soy Sauce




Method:
1. Heat a little oil in the wok and saute garlic.
2. Pour in the beaten egg and cook for it's set.
3. Use the spatula to break the egg into small pieces.
4. Add in carrot and cabbage. Stir fry for 1min.
5. Season with salt.
6. Add in rice and mix well.
7. Add in light and dark soy sauce. Mix well.
8. Cook for 1min over medium heat. Dish up and serve.

Dinner with Pastor & Wife

This could probably be the first time we invited guests to have dinner at our home. Pastor was here for about 3 weeks for church work and since I was cooking dinner, it wasn't a trouble at all to cook a bit more for all of us. :)

It's just a simple meal with lotus root soup, lettuce with carrot, sardines (yeah, out of the can with some onions ;p) and minced pork with potatoes. I didn't plan this ahead so, as usual I cooked whatever I had with me at that time. ;p

It was a nice time of fellowship and sharing and hopefully we'll be able to do this more often.

The guests

The food

Easy Chicken Rice

This is another one-dish-meal which is really easy to do. There are many variations which we can create from this recipe by using different ingredients and spices. It's all up to your creativity!

Ingredients:

Chicken Meat (cut into medium size)
Ginger (a few slices)
Marinade: light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil and corn flour.
Oil
Carrot (cut into cubes)
Rice
Salt
Dark Soy Sauce
Light Soy Sauce
Water


Method:


1. Pour marinade over chicken and add in ginger. Marinate overnight. (I just put everything into a container and left it in the fridge overnight).
2. Heat some oil in a wok.
3. Pick out the ginger from the marinade and stir fry in the wok until fragrant.
4. Add in carrot and stir fry for 1min.
5. Pour in the chicken and stir fry over medium heat for 1min.
6. Add in rice and mix well.
7. Season with salt, light soy sauce and dark soy sauce.
8. Dish up and transfer into a rice cooker. Add enough water to cook rice as usual.
9. When the rice is cooked, the dish is ready to be served!