MCO 4.0 - Day 37

 7 July 2021     Day 37 of Movement Control Order 4.0

        A weeknight dinner, regardless of whether you are working from home or otherwise, should be fuss-free and super quick to whip up. Tonight's dinner, which required less than 50 minutes to cook (from preparation to serving), was a typical weeknight dinner.

Stir-fried Roast Pork ( 爆烧肉 )

Stir-fried Nai Pak with beaten egg and lots of ginger strips 

        At the end of the meal, I asked hubby, "Did you enjoy that?"

        And his answer : "Mmm...yes, very much. Simple. Nice."

MCO 4.0 - Day 36

 6 July 2021     Day 36 of Movement Control Order 4.0

        Every evening, when I prepare dinner in the wet kitchen, I would hear my neighbour and her daughter having conversations with their pet rabbits. If it had not been for this Maintain-Your-Distance period of social distancing, I would have popped over to meet the bunnies.

        But the humans and rabbits tete-a-tetes either tickle me or put some spark into the mundane food preparation. I was smiling away today as I sliced the angled luffa when I heard Mrs. Lee reprimanding one rabbit, "See? I told you not to hop too high. Now you've hurt your floppy ear."

        It's small things like these that I look forward to. Another thing that I've grown to enjoy during this lockdown is to have a more leisurely breakfast at home. Sometimes it's just a cup of coffee with a pau, but I would have it in front of my Smart TV, which would be playing morning jazz music from YouTube.

        I didn't have to linger on in the wet kitchen for long today so I missed some of the humans-rabbits interaction. The Stir-fried Angled Luffa with Prawns was a breeze to cook. And the other dish was merely popped into the oven, which did the labouring for me. How easy that was! And what an aromatic smell my Honey Soy Garlic Roast Chicken emitted!

        Hmm...I know bunnies are vegetarians (strict herbivores), but I wonder if they salivated over the smell?

MCO 4.0 - Day 35

 5 July 2021     Day 35 of Movement Control Order 4.0

     As I had a number of errands to run in the afternoon after my virtual lessons, I decided to give myself a break by packing dinner home. Upon a friend's recommendation, I headed to Canning Garden Bak Kut Teh for a soup portion as well as a dried portion, plus a set of cruellers. All in, it came to RM29. 

     I asked hubby if he would like a plate of vegetables to go with it or some steamed ikan parang fishballs. He chose the latter, which made the job even easier for me. 😆

Our first time trying this Dry Bak Kut Teh, packed with the flavours of dried shrimps, dried cuttlefish and dried chillies.

Although this was meant to be a portion for 1, the Bak Kut Teh soup was a huge portion. Some will be used for my brunch tomorrow.

Crunchy cruellers for dipping into the soup

Simple Steamed Fishballs

MCO 4.0 - Day 34

 4 July 2021     Day 34 of Movement Control Order 4.0

        Just when Perak is slated to move into Phase 2 tomorrow, there has been an increase in Covid-19 cases in Perak today! Keeping fingers crossed!

        Hubby requested for his favourite Tofu Prawn Soup, which I had not cooked for ages since I can no longer take tofu. Taking pity on the poor man, I nodded my head when he picked up the slab of tofu at Ah Khay's stall this morning. I later explained to him that since I can't share the soup with him, I'll use half of the tofu to make the soup and the other half would be used for another dish, solely for him too. As I would then have to cook something separately for myself, he quickly suggested buying Char Siew for me so that I'd have one less dish to cook.

        So for tonight's dinner, we had Char Siew from Restoran 1212, Tofu Prawn Soup, Mapo Tofu and French Beans Omelette.

MCO 4.0 - Day 33

 3 July 2021     Day 33 of Movement Control Order 4.0

        While Selangor falls under a 2-week Enhanced Movement Control Order starting from today, Perakians were shown a glimmer of hope. From 5 July, together with Perlis, Pahang, Kelantan and Terengganu, we will move on to Phase 2 of the National Recovery Plan, which sees the opening of more economic sectors. However, dine-ins for two per table will still not be allowed.

        Whilst rain was pelting down in the evening, we had a Zumba session at home, followed by tandem cooking again. Chef Derrick deftly cooked his Sambal Asparagus and Prawns, I was in charge of the proteins.

Sambal Asparagus with Prawns, Fried Eggs and Pongteh Chicken for dinner on a cool evening

MCO 4.0 - Day 32

 2 July 2021     Day 32 of Movement Control Order 4.0

     Besides Marion's Kitchen, I am regularly checking out Spice N' Pans as I love Roland Lim's recipes. They are super easy to follow and his dishes are "so flavourful" (that's Roland's signature line, but it really rings true). 

     Tonight's Golden Fragrant Chicken or Kam Heong Chicken was incredibly delicious. Following Roland's advice, I marinated my diced chicken with oyster sauce, soya sauce, sugar, curry powder, cornflour and a beaten egg. The chicken was later fried till golden brown and set aside. To prepare the sauce, aromatics like dried shrimps, garlic, shallots, lemongrass, curry leaves and dried chillies were fried. The water that was earlier used to soak the dried shrimps was then poured in, before adding oyster sauce and sugar. After the sauce had reduced a little, the chicken pieces were returned to the wok and given a good toss so that all the chicken were coated with the fragrant sauce. There you have it : Golden Fragrant Chicken!

Golden Fragrant Chicken (recipe from Spice N' Pans)

Stir-fried Lady's Fingers

     When hubby emerged from his shower, his first comment was, "Wah! Something smells good!" He enjoyed the dish very much too and finished every teeny weeny bit of morsel on the plate (I'd earlier fished out all the dried chillies). 

MCO 4.0 - Day 31

 1 July 2021     Day 31 of Movement Control Order 4.0

        After a fairly packed teaching schedule and a staff meeting in the afternoon, followed by some work preparation, I was, honestly, too knackered to cook. I sent a message to hubby, telling him that I would go out later to pack something home for dinner. The sweet man said he would go directly from work to get our dinner.

        He initially thought of going to Uncle Autumn for Japanese food. Then he remembered that he had a Shopee voucher to utilise. So we ended up with Domino's Pizza...yum! The last time we had pizza was in New Zealand, way back in December 2019!

Hubby ordered this 12" Prawn Sensation Pizza with additional toppings of shredded chicken, ground beef, beef sausage and ikan bilis

Feast for two (and more)