Saturday, 29th April 2006

Steamed Ladies Fingers
Fresh tofu being lightly browned.
Roast Belly Pork

The stew
Ingredients (oysters not in pic)
Here are some pics from Saturday's dinner.

Saturday, 29th April 2006

Today my sis, Wm, brought me a hunk of a piece of meat – siew yuk or roast belly pork, uncut. We decided that I should make a siew yuk pot, which means a stew with siew yuk as the main ingredient, with accompanying ingredients and these can range from mixed vegetables to tofu to mushrooms, etc. Today I thought I would add two types of tofu (fresh & fried), dried mushrooms, dried oysters, heaps of garlic and to lend an artistic touch, carrot flowers.

Here’s what I did:

Cut meat into bite sized pieces.
Cut tofu into largish pieces and fry till lightly browned.
Soak dried mushrooms briefly, cut away stalks and marinate mushrooms in Shao Hsing wine, sugar & splash of oil.
Make carrot flowers.
Cut garlic cloves into large pieces and soften slowly in hot oil.
Rinse away any grit from dried oysters.
Cut a thumb sized piece of ginger into thickish slices.

A. Put all the lightly browned tofu into a claypot. Put aside.
B. In a wok, add some oil and fry ginger slices for a minute, add mushrooms & oysters, stir and add more wine, some oyster & dark soy sauce, rock sugar, white pepper & sesame oil. Add water, cover and simmer gently for 20 mins.
C. Give the mushrooms and oysters a little poke, if they feel reasonably soft, add meat. Let it come back to a slow boil and add more water if necessary. Adjust seasoning and add half the browned garlic pieces & the carrot flowers. Add corn starch if you think you need to.
D. Simmer another 10 mins and throw the lot into the claypot (already heating up on slowest flame on next hob).
E. Cover and let it come to a slow simmer and put the rest of the garlic pieces on top. By that time, the neighbours will be banging on your door begging to be let in.
F. Serve straight from the claypot. Always keep the cover on till the claypot is on the dining table and dramatically, WHISK, the cover away. Applause and sighs will follow naturally, guaranteed.

Oh yes, the vegetables for tonight was a plate of steamed lady’s fingers or okra, served with light soysauce which a clove of raw chopped garlic and chilli.

Saturday, 29th April 2006

Spam!

Went grocery shopping today and amongst others, bought 2 cans of this.....

Hong Kong, 20th March 2006

We had a fabulous day at Disneyland with M, H, Wm & P & UR. At the entrance, the ticket man said "Have a magical day!" when we were admitted, and we did!

Mum cooked this fabulous meal for us when we came home.

1. Scallops on the shell with soy sauce, garlic & ginger
2. Steamed flower crab (served cold) with a sauce of light soy, garlic & chillies
3. Steamed sea prawns (bought live)
4. Pak choy soup with carrots, dried scallops, chicken & pork stock
5. Steamed chicken with mushrooms (for M & H)
6. Vegetables (tau miew)
7. I think there were some straw mushrooms in the kitchen.

Friday, 28th April 2006 ( Part II)

Went to the club with J after work. M could not come as she had too much work to catch up with. I brought my laptop and we spent half an hour chatting to S in Canberra. She misses us and we miss her too! We left after an hour and went home to look for food. I found chicken wings marinated in oyster & soy sauce, chinese cooking wine, white pepper, and ginger. I grilled them and they were very tasty. When my kids came home from a day at their grandparents - look what they brought. Kolomee! ( from the market ) Hand/homemade noodles, tossed in special soysauce, fried shallots, chopped spring onions and served with char siew, wantan and a light minced meat gravy. J and I shared a packet. I heaped some pickled chillies on top. Yummy....

Friday, 28th April 2006

J & I had lunch at Excapade, a Japanese restaurant. We went there as both of us had not been for the longest time and also J's credit card enabled its holders to a 30% discount for this month only at that restaurant. Never give up a good offer, that's our motto (cheesy). Anyway, between two healthy women with robust appetites, we had:

1. Half order of salmon sashimi (very nice, it was served on a bed of crushed ice)
2. 3 plates of assorted sushi ( I hate avocados so picked them out for J )
3. An order of soybeans in their shells (edamame), it comes with a light dusting of salt and it was yummy
4. A seafood teppanyaki ( a biggish piece of salmon fillet, 2 mussels, 4 prawns, 2 faux scallops, 4 rings of squid on a bed of mixed vegs - asparagus, corn, carrots, red & white cabbage , leeks & mushrooms)
5. Garlic rice
6. Agadashi Tofu
7. Deep fried crabmeat stuffed into its shell - my favourite

The bill came up to a mighty B$15 for each of us! Here are 2 pics. You can tell that I like my wasabi. I spent half of lunch in floods of tears.

Saturday, 1st April 2006

Ladies' Night

Menu

1. Roast leg of lamb (Marinated with minced garlic, rosemary, salt & black pepper)
2. Roast Chicken (Marinated with light soya sauce, oyster sauce, grainy mustard, salt & black pepper served with mushroom pepper cream sauce)
3. Roast Potatoes (Flavoured with minced garlic, flavoured breadcrumbs, thinly shredded onions, salt & white pepper, olive oil - they were very crunchy)
4. Potato Au Gratin with cheesy top
5. Baby peas boiled with garlic butter and a mixture of chopped crisp bacon, caramelised onions, breadcrumbs all lightly fried in olive oil)
6. A simple cucumber, tomato, red & yellow peppers & corn kernel salad (With homemade dressing)
7. Birthday cake

Guests

J, M, L, S, Wm & Ym

Music

Bee Gees, Yazoo, Thompson Twins, Madonna, Earth Wind & Fire, Duran Duran, Wham, Tears for Fears, Ultravox & many other dancy songs straight out from the 80s

Thursday, 27th April 2006

You can tell I'm very new at this. I posted some pics with the previous post but can't seem to find them anywhere now, so instead of searching for them, ok, I'm just going to post them again.

Pic 1 - My laptop
Pic 2 - Wintermelon soup
Pic 3 - M tucking into his dinner
Pic 4 - Leftover fried rice
Pic 5 - The Pasta Sauce

Thursday, 27th April 2006

After work, I went to the club and worked on my blog a little while watching the results show of this week's American Idol. Later Z joined me and we had a quick natter about our never ending handbag stories, diet disasters, food, wishlists, holidays, etc, etc, etc, while demolishing the cashews and crisps. Was home by 6 pm and look what I cooked for my kids. Their favourite - pasta with chicken, mushroom, bacon cream sauce. M had 2 huge plates and H had 1 plate.

The recipe cannot get any easier. Slice chicken breast, mushrooms and chop 1 small onion & 1 small clove garlic. Cut bacon into squares and fry till lightly browned (don't forget to drain and blot). In a non stick pan, fry garlic & onion till transparent, add sliced chicken breasts, add some mixed herbs & dried parsley, black pepper and fry till everything looks yummy. Throw in mushrooms and continue frying till mushrooms are soft - add a small packet of cream & some milk, the fried bacon and simmer gently. Add some corn starch diluted with more milk if sauce is too runny. You don't need to add salt as the bacon is quite salty. Pile sauce on freshly boiled pasta. M had tagliatelle with macaroni and H had macaroni only. She tried to suck the sauce throught the little tubes but couldn't as the sauce was thick but it didn't stop her from trying!

I had leftover fried rice from yesterday and some wintermelon soup with carrots, mushrooms, dried scallops, dried orange peel and chicken stock. After dinner, I spent the entire evening burning CDs from my ancient Dell PC from year 2000, which happens to have some great songs on it (how about a rare extended 8 minute version of Phil Collins' "In the air tonight") with 2 very nice glasses of chilled chardonnay. M and I read, and laughed at jokes from a very very politically incorrect joke book and he cringed at some of my songs. Later he spent an hour on the PS2 while H was at tuition. I could tell she was home at 8.45 pm when i heard a "heeellllllllllloooooooooo, I'm HOME!!!!!" as soon as she came in. And as it was a Thursday, she was allowed an hour playing with, and training her 'dogs' on Nintendogs.

Here are some pics from a very pleasant evening.

Thursday, 13th April 2006

Some people may balk at this but its a family favourite. Salted pork porridge with century eggs, dried oysters & scallops. I had a craving for this and made it for myself. I cut a small joint of pork shoulder into largish cubes and salted it the night before. It was then covered with clingwrap and placed into the fridge. The next day, the pork will turn a light translucent pink and be sitting in a small pool of salt water. Rinse pork well and give it a quick lick. ( I think I heard a chorus of eeeeyucks, but then again, no one's reading this so its ok). If it's too salty, soak in water for a minute or two. Wash a small bowl of rice, put into some water in a pot, throw in a small piece of ginger, the dried scallops & oysters, the well rinsed pork pieces and boil everything to a death. (approx 2 hours) Add cut century eggs just before serving. The end result is this. Serve with sliced ginger and chopped spring onions and char koi and heaps of white pepper. Great comfort food....

Easter, 16th April 2006

Being the neighbourly person I am, I packed chocs / sweets for the children next door. They seemed very pleased! The packages looked more 'valentiney' than 'easterly' - must remember the yellow ribbons and baskets next year.

Friday, 21st April 2006

9.05 pm

Met J, M & L for drinks. We were at a club in the middle of BSB. Oh so much for a bit of mystery - here's a dead giveaway - the coasters!



6.25 pm

Weds, 26th April 2006

Dinner tonight was fried rice - with garlic, shallots, beans, eggs and salted fish. The salted fish had been in my freezer for a while. I made a small portion and had half of what I cooked. It was quite tasty. The beans were still crunchy and the eggs light and fluffy. I added a splash of sweet soya sauce and this balanced well with the saltiness of the salted fish from HK. I have a bowl left in the fridge for tomorrow!

Tuesday, 18th April 2006

It was Dad's birthday and this is the first year he's not with us. I burned a small tealight and set out some flowers in his memory. The tealight burnt for almost 5 hours.

6.05 pm
















10.30 pm

Friday, 21st April 2006

I shopped all afternoon.

I bought:

1. Blue beads multi layered necklace with matching bracelet B$20
2. Black faux pearls necklace (can be worn as a belt) B$10
3. A yellow Per Una (M & S) silk top $39
4. Multi coloured silk top $20
5. Pink pearl/stones necklace $15

Don't let me out for the next 2 weeks please.

Saturday, 22nd April 2006 (Part II)

Two pics from Saturday's Dinner for 3




M's plate ( a piece of ribeye and a small piece of tenderloin with pepper mushroom sauce)



The steaks sizzling away.

Good Friday 14th April 2006

We ate very lightly - the menu was:

For 3 adults

1. Small tin of sardines with onions & chillies
2. Tau Miew (peashoots?) with garlic
3. Lady Fingers with dried prawns, belachan, chillies, garlic & shallots

The childen had sizzling tofu with minced chicken & mushrooms.

Saturday, 22nd April 2006 (Part 1)

Dinner for 3

Menu:

Panfried Ribeye & Tenderloin steaks
Mushroom Pepper Cream Sauce
Roasted Baby Potatoes with sliced caramelised onions, garlic, herbs and breadcrumbs

Here it is!

And I can't believe how incredibly easy it was to set this up. Look out for food posts & pics, recipes, shopping tales, kids quotes, dieting ordeal and more!