MCO - Day 44

30 April 2020    Day 44 of Movement Control Order

        As always, the Internet is a treasure trove. During this MCO, especially, it has been really indispensable to me, where recipes are concerned. Another food blog that I’ve been visiting is a family-written blog. The parents and the daughters take turns to contribute their kitchen adventures. They are, by the way, an American Chinese family.

        From this blog, thewoksoflife.com , I presented to hubby the Mongolian Beef. This morning, he texted me to ask what I would be experimenting with for dinner. When I told him it would be Mongolian Beef, the cheeky man asked, “The 2 ladies?” It got me stumped for a while and then I realised that he was referring to the recent scandalous news of the 2 unfortunate Mongolian beauties who were imprisoned for sex.

        Well, the beef strips were beautiful too tonight, as they were tossed in basic yet incredibly flavourful ingredients - ginger, garlic, dried chillies, scallions, soya sauce, beef stock, brown sugar and cornflour. Fortunately, they only ended up, imprisoned in our tummies.

“Dinner’s ready, darling, please help me with the photography and garnishing whilst I mop the kitchen floor.”

Mongolian Beef

Look at these Mongolian beauties!

Derrick’s favourite steamed brinjals with fried shallots

MCO - Day 43

29 April  2020     Day 43 of Movement Control Order

        On a whim, I decided to whip up, for my breakfast, something that I used to make during my undergraduate days in England. After tasting the most scrumptious crepes from a kiosk near the University of Exeter, I fell in love with these thin pancakes. And to this day, even after having these iconic pancakes in their country of origin, France, I still think the crepes I had in Exeter surpasses crepes anywhere else. That kiosk didn’t have a name, as I recall, and probably is nowhere to be found now. But the memory of that exquisite taste lingers on.

Join me for breakfast in Paris?

        Crepes, which means “curled” in Latin, can be served sweet or savoury. Savoury crepes are also known as galettes. And this morning, I decided to treat myself to both. For the batter, I mixed self-raising flour (all-purpose flour would do, but I’d run out of that) with an egg, a pinch of salt, milk and water. After giving it a good whip, I heated butter on a pan and scooped in some batter, bearing in mind to keep it THIN. After one side was done, I had to flip it over. With my batter, I was able to make 3 crepes. So I had 1 savoury crepe (rolled up with fried mushroom and cherry tomato), 1 sweet crepe with sliced banana and strawberry, and another sweet crepe just drizzled with honey. Oh la la! C’est delicieux!

Crepes ready to be curled up with what Madame fancies

 

Bon appetit!

      For dinner, we had Nyonya Assam Pedas Prawns and Calamari...another easy dish to cook. Today, I added torch ginger flower (bunga kantan), aubergine, tomatoes, onion and cili padi.  Hubby was tired, after coming home from work, and truly appreciated the spicy and tangy dish.

Nyonya Assam Pedas Prawns and Calamari

Stir-fried French beans with fresh brown mushrooms

MCO - Day 42

28 April 2020     Day 42 of Movement Control Order

        Phase 3 of MCO ends today and the 4th phase starts tomorrow. One of the local writers and bloggers that I admire is Alexandra Wong, a fellow Ipohan. As a new cook wannabe, she even shares in her blog, cookwithipohbunny.com, about dishes that she cooks. One of her recent posts caught my eye, and here I was, today, ending Phase 3 by trying out her recipe.

        It is a simple dish, but it packs a punch! Other cooks may have their own twists to the dish but Alexandra goes by her mother’s recipe, which uses only 3 ingredients. I decided my motto for today is “less is best” so I shoved aside the temptation to add other ingredients and to adhere to Alexandra’s recipe. And boy, I sure was glad I did! The Turmeric Fried Chicken turned out finger-licking-good!

Deceptively plain looking, but immensely tasty Turmeric Fried Chicken

        So what are the 3 ingredients? Chicken, salt and turmeric! We are talking about fresh turmeric, the one that you pull out the mortar and pestle, don your disposable gloves, mentally paint your enemy’s face on the turmeric pieces and give your muscles a good workout as you pound, crush and grind the turmeric. Then you mix the pounded turmeric with salt before giving your chicken pieces a good massage. Leave the chicken pieces in their aromatic orangey spa bath for a couple of hours before ending the session with hot oil therapy.

        

As advised by Alexandra, do use a stainfast plate or bowl for the turmeric bath.

Stir-fried “siew pak choy” again (Ketua Rumah’s decision)

MCO - Day 41

27 April 2020     Day 41 of Movement Control Order

        It’s been a rather hectic day. Therefore, tonight’s dinner was a simple, one-dish meal. I felt a little guilty when hubby texted me this morning and asked, “So today you are still planning for another master chef work?” as I had to tell him that it would be just a quick, easy-peasy meal because I had to juggle many things today.

        I guess he’s been enjoying this MCO period, with daily home cooked dinners, and new recipes to boot! But I’ve got to disappoint him from time to time. And today’s one of those days.

        So tonight’s one-dish meal was Seafood Fried Rice : cut, dump in, fry, done! The addition of the fishballs soup was an afterthought. I’d scooped out the fried rice but hubby was  still in the shower (after his workout) so this pair of itchy hands proceeded to make a simple soup. And the best part was hubby enjoyed both the fried rice and the soup! His new hobby is to find out details of ingredients and seasoning used in his wifey’s cooking so I had to regale him with every morsel and drop that went into creating this dinner.

Dinner for two

Seafood (prawns, crabmeat, calamari and fishcake) Fried Rice and a bowl of fishballs soup

MCO - Day 40

26 April 2020     Day 40 of Movement Control

        Duties delegation was in order. “You over there! You do Task A! Hey you over here! You are in charge of Task B!” barked the Commando.

        No, the scene above did not take place at our house today. But we formed a harmonious partnership. Wifey cooked the beansprouts for dinner and settled the chicken curry for hubby’s breakfasts during the coming week. Hubby heroically braved the hot oil to dish out the special menu of the day : Chef Derrick’s Yin Yang Sotong.

        I’ve never been a great fan of calamari but when we visited Terengganu in June 2015, I fell for their Sotong Celup Tepung. And I have been hankering for them ever since. Derrick and I would usually get our fix at one of the stalls that sells fried battered calamari at the Aneka Selera hawker centre in Ipoh Garden. It’s tasty but pricey. And Terengganu’s Sotong Celup Tepung is still a notch above Aneka Selera’s.

        And today Chef Derrick decided to create two variations of fried calamari to delight the wifey. Chef Derrick’s Yin Yang Sotong consisted of Salted Butter Turmeric Sotong and  Sotong 煎 Xtra Kick! The former was non-spicy, merely marinated with turmeric powder. And the latter was flaming hot after being marinated with cili padi.

Salted Butter Turmeric Sotong

Sotong 煎 Xtra Kick

Stir-fried beansprouts with chilli, fishcake and spring onion

Chicken curry to go with noodles for hubby to take to work from
Monday to Friday

        So what was wifey’s verdict? Chef Derrick’s Yin Yang Sotong wins hands down!!! 🤩

        Actually today’s harmonious partnership began even before we cooked dinner together. For the very first time, Derrick tried a short session on yoga. And his wifey was his personal yoga instructor, an unlicensed one though. But it sure was enjoyable to do the asanas together, amidst the sound of the gentle evening drizzle.

MCO - Day 39

25 April 2020     Day 39 of Movement Control Order

        It’s truly rewarding when one’s labour over the stove is much appreciated. It wasn’t a laborious meal to prepare, yet much joy was yielded from it. Its main actor was the pork belly but the co-stars, the fried shallots, minced garlic, five-spice powder, pepper, dried mushrooms, premium soya sauce, dark soya sauce, rock sugar, shaoxing wine and hard-boiled eggs, helped to make it a good show. It’s incredibly famous in its country of origin - Taiwan.

        Yes, I’m talking about the Taiwanese Braised Pork Rice (台湾卤肉饭).

Taiwanese Braised Pork Rice (台湾卤肉饭)

        It’s definitely a meal that calls for rice, and more rice. It works equally well with noodles too, I’m sure. Its ingredients and method of cooking may differ from one cook to another, but generally, this is not a difficult dish to whip up. It’s a recipe for keeps, I’m certain of that!

Let’s assemble the meal!

Let’s have some greens and fishballs in soup!

Let’s have some fruits!

MCO - Day 38

24 April 2020     Day 38 of Movement Control Order

        4 more days to the end of MCO Phase 3, and then we enter Phase 4. The intense kitchen activity continues, and so will this blog. But will I be able to hold off repeating a meat dish?

Snoopy seems to have a plan, but do I?

        Hubby was, once again, in charge of frying the fish for tonight. I settled the rest : lemon sauce for the fried grouper and Mushroom Medley (三杯汁三菇）. I thought the fish was a fairly small size, so I threw in some spring rolls as a last minute addition.

Fried Grouper in Lemon Sauce

Mushroom Medley (三杯汁三菇）

Fried spring rolls

MCO - Day 37

23 April 2020     Day 37 of Movement Control Order

        Again drawing inspiration from another Yum Yum cookbook, the idea of tonight’s meat dish was hatched. Initially, I was dismayed to find that I had run out of one of the key ingredients (and I didn’t want to drive out expressly for it) but a consultation with my cooking sifu salvaged the day. 

        Basically, the recipe calls for the red Chinese sausage (腊肠) and minced meat. Unfortunately, a rummage through my refrigerator yielded no red Chinese sausage but only the other type, the darker 膶肠 . My cooking sifu opined that the red variety may be more aromatic but the 膶肠 would add allure to the taste.

        Combining minced chicken, minced pork, finely chopped shallots, scallions and the all-important liver sausage, I made these Fried Chinese Sausage and Meat Patties (膶肠煎肉饼）for dinner.

Fried Chinese Sausage and Meat Patties

ABC Soup

Steamed prawn “siew mai”

        Derrick’s verdict? Nice, different, what’s in it? I told him there was a secret ingredient, to which he wanted to know what the secret was. Mischievous wifey’s answer :

        End of Q & A session. A secret remains a secret, for him, for now, 😜 as I fear the revelation of a sausage made from innards may not sit well with him.

MCO - Day 36

22 April 2020     Day 36 of Movement Control Order

        I repeat, I cheat, I eat! I made Pesto Chicken on Day 2 of MCO and I cooked that again tonight. However, instead of having it with rice, as we did thirty four nights  ago, I churned out a Western meal. So we slurped our Cream of Cauliflower Soup and dined on Pesto Chicken Fresine.

Cream of Cauliflower Soup on its own

Cream of Cauliflower Soup with Croutons

Pesto Chicken on its own

Pesto Chicken on a bed of Fresine

MCO - Day 35

21 April 2020     Day 35 of Movement Control Order

        Beef Strips knew they were meant for something else. They were gearing themselves to meet Lady Ginger, smoking hot Sir Red Capsicum and lanky Scallions. But destiny changed its course. Beef Strips were surprised to see themselves pairing up with the fair and lovely Coconut Milk. The final destiny became obvious when their Mistress fished out the tantalising Colonel Curry Paste from the kitchen cupboard, lined up General Garlic and Sergeant Shallots for dicing and dug out Mister Potatoes to complete the dish. And towards the end of the cooking, the svelte but wrinkly Dried Chillis joined them in the pot.

What’s cooking?

        And they all became Beef Curry for the Master!

Beef curry, as requested by hubby

Fried eggs, courtesy of hubby, who knows his wifey loves nothing better than slathering curry over fried eggs

Naked lady’s fingers

Dinner time!

MCO - Day 34

20 April 2020     Day 34 of Movement Control Order

        After cooking a simple lunch for myself (and eating it), I proceeded with cooking part of tonight’s dinner. The menu of the day required braising so if I were to start the kitchen activity after my online class ended at 6pm, dinner would probably turn into supper.

        Hubby loves pork ribs in all manners. Although I’ve been using them to boil soup a couple of times and he had devoured all the ribs, I had not cooked a pork ribs stew since Day 6 of MCO. It was time to delight my Boss with Braised Pork Ribs with Dried Beancurd Sheets in Chu How Sauce.

        Chu How （楮 侯） sauce is named after its inventor, a creative chef in Foshan, Guangdong. The sauce is indispensable in a lot of Cantonese cooking and is available in bottles (even the  Lee Kum Kee range). I’m not sure if we can find it in local supermarkets because I don’t depend on the bottled sauce. I make my own concoction. My version of the Chu How sauce involves a pinch of five spice powder, a teaspoon of fermented bean paste (豆酱), a tablespoon of Hoisin  sauce, oyster sauce and Bentong ginger powder.

        The dried bean curd sheets or fu jok (腐竹）has to be soaked in warm water for at least 30 mins for them to soften.  After that, I cut them into smaller pieces.

        As I had not cooked this dish for quite some time, it was a pleasant surprise for hubby. There were extra portions, kept aside in the freezer, to accompany some noodles that I will make for hubby’s breakfasts. When I told him that, he was all smiles.

Braised Pork Ribs with Dried Beancurd Sheets in “Chu How” Sauce

Hairy Gourd (节瓜） and Fishballs Soup

MCO - Day 33

19 April 2020     Day 33 of Movement Control Order

        Seafood Sunday! Together with the clams (吉巴) that we had on Friday, I had bought 1kg of medium-sized prawns (RM55) from a Pantai Remis seafood dealer. This was, again, thanks to my neighbour, Mr. Lee, who enquired if I wished to place an order, since he was ordering a bounty of seafood from the dealer. 

        So, with half of those incredibly fresh prawns that I bought, I decided to try out this recipe from one of my Yum Yum cookbooks. When I showed the recipe to hubby last night, he was in favour of it. That’s because he spotted the pepper and the chillis, as dictated by the recipe.

        Suffice to say, these Fried Prawns With Pepper (湖椒炒虾） were a big hit tonight. Even as I fried the spices, the aroma of all the tossing of the shallots, garlic, crushed white peppercorns, red chillis, spring onion and ginger made me drool. I did tweak the recipe a little as I did not have 2 ingredients in my pantry. A quick search on the Internet suggested replacing galangal  with ginger. In place of HP sauce, I used Maggi chilli sauce and vinegar. Mix that all up with oyster sauce, Worcestershire sauce, dark soya sauce, sugar and water... and there, we have it : Fried Prawns With Pepper!

Spicy and aromatic Fried Prawns With Pepper

Salivate at the exquisite colours

Simple stir-fried cauliflower with fishcake

Steamed prawn “siew mai”

        Starfruit and guava for dessert completed today’s dinner. The guava was one of two, thoughtfully given by my sweet friend, Cheng.

Soothing our throats with local fruits

        

MCO - Day 32

18 April 2020     Day 32 of Movement Control Order

        Mmm...what a tasty dinner we had today! 

        My Ketua Rumah became Ketua Dapur today. He said he wanted to give me a day to kick back so he would take over the kitchen duties. Needless to say, he had to ask me where’s this? where’s that? so I deemed it would be prudent to stand by as kitchen assistant.

        Yesterday I mentioned that my good friend was singing praises of the fried beehoon that her mother-in-law cooked for lunch. Honestly, I was not dropping any hints. Naturally, I was surprised when hubby came home from work and announced that he planned to make Singapore Fried Beehoon for me tomorrow (that’s today) and showed me the various recipes he had been googling for during his Friday lunch hour. I was deeply touched. He knows I love fried beehoon.

        This was hubby’s super tasty version of Singapore Fried Beehoon (星洲炒米粉).  Ingredients included lots of garlic, chicken fillet, prawns, fish cake, sawi, cabbage, chillis, oyster mushrooms and an omelette to top it. He had planned to add beansprouts but Ah Khay, the vegetable seller, forgot to bag it for him this morning.

Super delicious Singapore Fried Beehoon

        Merci beaucoup, mon amour! C’ etait delicieux!

MCO - Day 31

17 April 2020     Day 31 of Movement Control Order

        Wow! It has been 30 days of direct cooking, save from one KFC dinner! And I have not repeated any of my meat dishes. That’s really a personal feat. And there are still a few ideas hatching in my mind. 😅

        Today’s dinner had to be fuss-free again as I had online classes, one of which only ended at 6pm, after which I rushed downstairs to the kitchen to dish up this meal in an hour. Food preparation of marinating the meat, cleaning the clams, dicing of garlic, onion and ginger as well as slicing of the green capsicum and Tuscany mushrooms were all done in advance, before my last lesson kicked off.

        So whoever dares to insinuate that teachers are enjoying this MCO period, kicking back, deserves to have his or her butt kicked (pun intended!).

        Now let’s enjoy today’s dinner :

Clams (吉巴) in ginger and rice wine soup

My Scottish terrier sniffs at my clam soup hungrily

Onion and Tuscany mushrooms omelette 

Beef in black pepper sauce