MCO - Day 75

31 May 2020     Day 75 of Movement Control Order 

        Seafood Sunday! Monsieur Squid and Madame Trout had a brief encounter in the kitchen. Monsieur Squid had emerged from the cool confines of the freezer while Madame Trout had leapt from the Jaya Grocer shopping bag. They enjoyed a tete-a-tete whilst being marinated, and exchanged life stories. But they went into different sauna rooms after that. Monsieur Squid was sent to the wok while Madame Trout was led to the grill pan. Their paths crossed again on the dining table after their beauty treatment. Monsieur Squid was resplendent in his spicy kung po sauce while Madame Trout’s beauty was glistening in her teriyaki sauce. A match made in heaven...for our bellies!

Madame Trout in Teriyaki Sauce

Gleaming succulent juicy flesh of Madame Trout 

Monsieur Squid in Kung Po Sauce

Captivating dried chilli bath for Monsieur Squid

Simple stir-fried “siew pak choy” 

MCO - Day 74

30 May 2020     Day 74 of Movement Control Order 

        This morning, I told hubby that I had run out of ideas on what to cook and supplies in my freezer were running low. It was actually a hint for a kitchen reprieve. However, hubby didn’t take the hint. He must have thought that he had cleverly solved his wifey’s problem by announcing that we would make a stop at the wet market after we were through with some matters at Station 18. Sigh! I have always known that I need to spell things out for my man instead of acting coy and dropping hints. I didn’t do that today because deep down, I still wanted to cook.

        Fleeting thoughts of a takeout dinner from Mokuren now gone with the wind, I hurriedly sought cooking ideas from my new idol, Marion Grasby. And I found my answer in her Tonkatsu. The last time I had that was in a small, unassuming restaurant in Kanazawa, and it was so delicious! Tonkatsu is crispy fried breaded pork cutlet, sometimes drizzled with a Japanese-styled barbecue sauce, also known as Tonkatsu sauce. I didn’t have the Tonkatsu sauce and Panko breadcrumbs (best to be used for making these fried pork cutlets) but a check on the Internet revealed that using other breadcrumbs can work and making your own Tonkatsu sauce is no arduous task. Hence, I made do with what I had in my pantry.

        A Tonkatsu-don (fried breaded pork cutlet with rice) would usually be served with a miso soup. I know hubby definitely prefers his Chinese-styled tofu prawns soup, so that was what I made to accompany my golden meat beauties.

May I present my Tonkatsu with homemade Tonkatsu sauce?

Tofu , prawns and mushrooms soup

MCO - Day 73

29 May 2020     Day 73 of Movement Control Order 

        Thanks to Alexandra Wong (cookwithipohbunny.com), I cooked Turmeric Fried Chicken on Day 42 and it was relished by hubby. Upon a reader’s recommendation, Alexandra later dished up a variation : Braised Turmeric Chicken. Seeing that there’s no frying involved, which means I don’t have to battle with hot oil splatters and an oily kitchen top, I was raring to give it a try.

        It can be a little messy dealing with fresh turmeric but the aroma of fresh turmeric just cannot be substituted with turmeric powder. Donning plastic gloves and using a stainfast plate do help. Alexandra’s recipe called for the use of lemongrass to be fried with the shallots. Unfortunately, I had exhausted my supply of lemongrass so I had to turn to the next best alternative - lemongrass powder. I added that to the chicken marinade instead of frying it with the shallots. It may not be as aromatic as frying them together with the shallots, but, hey, the star of the dish today is the turmeric, not the lemongrass!

        Although I love steamed brinjals as much as hubby does, I have to introduce a different method of cooking these purple berries (yes, brinjals are botanically classified as berries!). I hit upon the brainwave of making it super spicy. A quick search on the Internet brought me to the food blog, thespruceeats.com  and my answer was found.

Very yummy Braised Turmeric Chicken

Spicy Sichuan Brinjals

These were the two bean pastes used for the Spicy Sichuan Brinjals

        Hubby tucked into tonight’s dinner with gusto, and all the labour was worth it! Even I thought this was one of those dinners that you wish you had cooked MORE rice! And surprisingly, hubby loved the non-spicy dish (Braised Turmeric Chicken) more than the fiery one (Spicy Sichuan Brinjals).

MCO - Day 72

28 May 2020     Day 72 of Movement Control Order 

        When I saw a friend post a picture of this on Facebook, it piqued my interest. This was something I knew I wanted to let hubby try, and hopefully draw him out of what he’s usually accustomed to. What’s this? It’s Creamy Tom Yum Prawn Pasta!

        You see, I love pasta in all manners, with the exception of bolognese, and beef. Hubby had made the mistake of ordering a carbonara on his first encounter with pasta and was turned off by the creamy cloying glob. He has, since then, been strongly against pasta. It was only recently that I managed to stir some remote interest in pasta in him when I cooked bolognese pasta. He gradually grew to love the bolognese that I make and keeps asking for it. Argh! I am not keen on it and don’t want to eat it so often. Hence, I must entice him to fall for something else. And what better way to do it than to cook a fiery fusion pasta? Pasta purists out there, please turn away!

        Although the name of the dish is Creamy, I have to stay away from using any cream for my sauce, or else, hubby may be revolted. Therefore, I whisked in flour and milk to create the creamy hint. And I had to remember to make it really spicy to “trick” hubby. So, in addition to the store-bought tom yum paste, I threw in some red chillies and cili padi for good measure.

Creamy Tom Yum Prawn Fresine

Chicken Egg Drop Soup (recipe from
Marion Grasby)

        What was hubby’s verdict? His predilection for all things spicy saved the day. He finished everything in no time!

MCO - Day 71

27 May 2020     Day 71 of Movement Control Order 

        When I cooked Mama Noi’s Thai 3-flavoured Chicken on Day 47, the tasty dish really blew our minds. So when I saw Marion using the same sauce for her salmon, I was keen to try the same. True enough, the flavours of the sweet, sour and spicy sauce worked their magic with the salmon. This Thai 3-flavoured Sauce is a real winner!

Thai 3-flavoured Salmon

Simple hairy gourd soup

My favourite onion omelette, now hubby’s favourite too!

MCO - Day 70

26 May 2020     Day 70 of Movement Control Order 

        Lemongrass aficionado...that’s me! I can have it for food, for drink, for room fragrance and I adore lemongrass shampoo as well as lemongrass soaps. Even the colleague who sits next to me knows my affinity for lemongrass, hence he often mixes lemongrass aromatherapy oil in his aroma diffuser for me to relax after a tiring lesson in class. When I saw this recipe in another Ipohan’s blog, I knew I had to give it a try. The recipe featured in this blog, nofrillsrecipe, sounded good but I wanted to tweak things a little. So in addition to marinating my pork ribs with chopped lemongrass, this lemongrass maniac decided to fry some pounded lemongrass with garlic and ginger before putting the meaty ribs into the wok. Aromatic indeed! Taste wise, hubby preferred the usual pork ribs that I make (Day 6 and Day 34).

Vietnamese Braised Pork Ribs

Stir-fried okra with chillies

        I desperately need a good feet massage as I’ve been on my feet the whole day. Besides doing more decluttering around the house, I attempted to make Radish Cake for tea. Despite adhering to the recipe, my Radish Cake turned out a tad too soft. I must remember to either lessen the amount of water or add more rice flour to the mixture.

Radish Cake

MCO - Day 69

25 May 2020     Day 69 of Movement Control Order 

        With house decluttering being the prime concern of the day, cooking had to take a back seat. What’s easier than Marion Grasby’s Easy Curry Laksa? The only “difficult” part was sourcing all the ingredients and the mise en place prior to cooking. Once all the ingredients had been prepared and ready for the action, the actual cooking itself was a walk in the park. And the best part? Hubby kept saying, “Nice ah! Nice ooh!” 

         Marion Grasby, you rock! ❤️

MCO - Day 68

24 May 2020     Day 68 of Movement Control Order 

        Taking advantage of these few days away from work, hubby has started assisting me in decluttering. It’s indeed therapeutic to throw away accumulated junk and view transformed spaces with satisfaction.

        For dinner, we worked in tandem to fry beehoon. For a change, we threw the garlic, shallots and chillies into the food processor to get a paste. After frying the paste, we tossed in the vegetables, prawns and fishballs. Then we added the pre-soaked beehoon and gave everything a good mix. That’s our Tandem Beehoon.

Huge portion of Tandem Beehoon for dinner and breakfast 

Tandem Beehoon and wedges of hard-boiled egg

MCO - Day 67

23 May 2020     Day 67 of Movement Control Order 

        When you have fresh large prawns, you’d want to savour their sweet juicy flesh so even though there are many other recipes to tempt you, you ought to fall back on steaming them. As I’d already made Steamed Prawns with Shaoxing Wine on Day 25, I avoided repeating the dish so I adapted the recipe by adding egg white. It definitely adds to the allure of the dish, presentation as well as taste wise.

Steamed Prawns with Shaoxing Wine and Egg White

Stir-fried mixed vegetables 

        

MCO - Day 66

22 May 2020     Day 66 of Movement Control Order 

        Enough! I had enough of my terribly long bangs, reaching till my nose, irritating my eyes constantly and making me look like a sheepdog. I turned to the hairdresser that served me well during my childhood. Phew! Feel so much lighter now with a short fringe. Thank you, Mummy!

        Even bending over the mortar and hovering by the hot fire were made easier with a well-trimmed fringe. Yes, today’s dinner required the use of my trusty mortar and pestle. After lightly toasting the peppercorns, I gave them a good pounding to grind them into a fine paste. Together with dried chillies, garlic, minced ginger, scallions, soya sauce, sesame oil, sugar and Shaoxing wine, the aroma of the Sichuan Pepper Chicken enticed hubby to come running into the kitchen to check out what was on offer for dinner.

        Kudos to Marion Grasby again! Besides her Sichuan Pepper Chicken recipe, which I adapted a little, I also made her 10-minute Tomato Egg Drop Soup. Ah Khay, the vegetable seller, had given us a whole packet of cherry tomatoes and I had to find a use for them. So a hearty bowl of soup would be a perfect compliment to the fiery meat dish. Hubby loved both the Sichuan Pepper Chicken and the Tomato Egg Drop Soup very much. It’s official! I love Marion Grasby!!!

MCO - Day 65

21 May 2020     Day 65 of Movement Control Order 

        I almost freaked out when I realised that the Japanese pressed tofu, which was meant for dinner, had turned sour. Expiry date was a week away, but tofu should always be handled with care so I do make it a point to summon my Snoopy skills and give any block of tofu a good sniff before I cook it. Fortunately, sniffing saved the day today.

        So the Japanese pressed tofu and the rubbish bin were destined for each other. And I had to quickly improvise on the dish. It did throw me into a bit of a flurry but I managed to pull myself together and serve dinner.

A spur-of-the-moment dish of minced meat, mushrooms and beans

Green and white radish soup with rbs

Boiling with green radish gives the soup a stronger aroma

MCO - Day 64

20 May 2020     Day 64 of Movement Control Order 

       Tired of those bottled Teriyaki sauces on the supermarket shelves that yield a taste closer to plain old soya sauce rather than those lovely sticky sweet teriyaki sauce that lovingly smothers the grilled salmon or chicken at Japanese restaurants, I took up the gauntlet and made my own teriyaki sauce from scratch. Using only 4 ingredients, teriyaki sauce can be easily whipped up at home. The 4 key ingredients are sake, mirin, soya sauce and sugar. 

        Teriyaki, by the way, is not the name of a sauce. It is, in fact, a cooking method. “Teri” means luster while “yaki” means grilled, broiled or pan-fried. So teriyaki basically describes food that is grilled or broiled or pan-fried with a shining glaze. 

        Tweaking things a little, I substituted sake with vodka, simply because the bottle of vodka had been down in the dumps, sitting around, abandoned, for a while. And towards the end of the cooking, I added a little cornstarch solution to join the merry crowd of vodka, mirin, soya sauce and sugar.

        There we have it - Teriyaki Chicken for dinner! To us, the teriyaki sauce was even better than the one at Japanese restaurants as the aroma of alcohol was stronger. Simply yummy!

Teriyaki Chicken - perfectly done this time!

Pan-fried with a glossy finish - that’s the method of teriyaki  cooking

Stir-fried “siew pak choy”...again!

MCO - Day 63

19 May 2020     Day 63 of Movement Control Order 

Life should be more 
Than working till we’re all sore;
Kitchen closed
Cook rested.

Life should be savoured,
And every moment treasured;
Restaurant visited
Dinner ordered.

Life should not be
All work like a frenzied employee;
Feet put up
Awaiting a back rub.

Life is meant for
Reflecting and breathing with vigour;
Dinner laid out 
With a KFC takeout.

Nasi Kari Atuk 3-piece Combo

Merci beaucoup, hubby dearest, for giving me another day of rest and suggesting to buy dinner on your way home from work.

MCO - Day 62

18 May 2020     Day 62 of Movement Control Order 

        Upon hubby’s repeated request, I had to cook bolognese again. Although I love pasta, I usually opt for anything but bolognese. And as I’ve said before, I am not keen on beef. So I had been putting off cooking this (moreover, I’d already cooked a spaghetti bolognese on Day 13). Even though I’m using a different pasta this time, it still feels like I’m cheating by repeating a meal. Therefore, I decided to try a bit of variation. 

        This time, I marinated the minced beef with chilli powder and fried shallot oil, then added Cajun spiced breadcrumbs to them. I formed little meatballs with them and had a bolognese meatballs sauce. At least, it’s not an exact replica of Day 13’s dinner. And more importantly, hubby enjoyed it! 

An Italian dinner for two

Cream of Mushroom Soup

Fresine Meatballs Bolognese

        Actually, I’d cooked Fresine with Meatballs on Day 23. But that was Meatballs in Brown Mushroom Sauce. So it still doesn’t constitute cheating, right? 😝

MCO - Day 61

17 May 2020     Day 61 of Movement Control Order 

        What a wet and gloomy day it has been! Amidst an early morning drizzle after a night of continual rain, it was ideal for some kitchen activity. I boiled red bean soup (红豆沙), which was then delivered to my parents and was very well-received. Red bean soup is definitely not my 糖水 of choice, but is greatly enjoyed by my parents, especially my dad. I think my head must have swelled a few metres to be told that today’s texture and sweetness level were perfect!

        For dinner, I made an easy dish following Mama Noi’s recipe : Thai Sweet and Sour Prawns. Although it’s a simple dish to cook, the taste was not compromised. Hubby was delighted with the dish. Noi and her daughter, Marion, are indeed top notch cooks!

Hubby saw these in the wok and went, “Wow!”

Thai Sweet and Sour Prawns

Stir-fried Angled Luffa with Beef Shabu-shabu

红豆沙 for dessert

        

MCO - Day 60

16 May 2020     Day 60 of Movement Control Order 

        Social norms have been re-written and the way we do things have undergone vast changes. Besides conducting lessons online, we have held virtual staff and panel meetings. And yesterday, we celebrated a colleague’s retirement using Google Meet. Our principal also sent his Teachers’ Day greetings to us using the same platform. This morning, I was greeted with Teachers’ Day wishes via WhatsApp and Facebook. There was a student who sent me a YouTube video to convey his wishes. And my ex-principal sent me a Teachers’ Day “gift” of  a video showing scenes of my previous school and photos of teachers and events. I was tearing up as it reminded me that it’s my first Teachers’ Day away from Sam Tet.

        Yesterday, hubby reminded me that it’s Teachers’ Day today. The sweet man said, “You won’t receive presents this year (he’s used to seeing me come home with lots of little gestures of appreciation from my students). Don’t worry. I’ll pamper you with dinner.”

        So tonight’s dinner was prepared by hubby. Knowing how topsy-turvy the kitchen will end up if he’s left on his own, I assisted him all the way. This was what we had for dinner :

Fried Red Snapper with Spicy Black Bean Sauce

Steamed Brinjals with Fried Shallots

        Having cooked with me several times now, especially during this MCO, hubby is so used to his wifey dictating what tasks to do, and even how to go about it. No wonder they say 👇🏻

😅😂🤣

MCO - Day 59

15 May 2020     Day 59 of Movement Control Order

        It’s a Marion Grasby Day. What do I mean by that? I thought of her throughout the day, as I turned to her for our lunch and dinner recipes today. I am a huge fan of this 38-year-old Thai Australian cook, having tried out many of her recipes. Together with her mother, Noi, Marion cooks tasty yet simple dishes. She was one of the contestants in MasterChef Australia Season 2 and was an impressive performer. However, she was later eliminated, much to the disappointment of her fans, and the crown of that season went to Adam Liaw, a Malaysian Australian.

        To me, Marion is a MasterChef. I am hooked to her cooking. For today’s lunch, I followed her recipe to make Hoisin Beef Noodles. I am not a fan of beef and was scratching my head, thinking of what to do with the tray of minced beef that hubby bought. This recipe of Marion’s is excellent as the hoisin sauce helped to mask the beefy smell. I had to adapt her recipe a little as hubby requested for it to be spicy. Therefore, I marinated the beef with some chilli powder, which helped to further subdue the beefy smell.

Hoisin Beef Noodles

         And for dinner, Marion’s Vietnamese One-pan Caramel Chicken proved to be scrumptious! I omitted the coriander from my dish of course as hubby and I shun that like the plague. When hubby took his first bite, he liked it. Then he complained, “It’s not spicy!” Hahahah! He was fooled by the red chilli, which was only used as garnishing. I patiently explained that Marion had not intended it to be a spicy dish. Furthermore, my throat cannot be subjected to spicy food all the time.

Vietnamese One-pan Caramel Chicken

Braised hairy gourd

Green and golden kiwis for dessert

MCO - Day 58

14 May 2020     Day 58 of Movement Control Order

        Keeping my promise to serve a pot of oink oink goodness to hubby, I cooked bak kut teh (肉骨茶) tonight. It’s not my cup of tea but hubby enjoys bak kut teh and often orders this when we eat out. I’d not cooked this for years but recently, my good friend, Lee YK, showed me his bak kut teh (which looked so tempting) and it reminded me that it’s an excellent idea for busy days.

        For the soup base, I used an A1 sachet with added garlic cloves. I then added lightly marinated ribs and pork belly, enoki mushrooms and dried beancurd skin. Knowing hubby loves having crullers (油条) with his bak kut teh, I drove out expressly to get them. Needless to say, hubby was mighty pleased with tonight’s dinner.