Bite On It!

The other day we went to the old Sunshine Farlim which has been converted into a warehouse style of wet market cum hypermarket to get some stuff for the coming Lunar New Year. The place was rather quiet though it was about 5pm in the evening on a weekend.

Though the conversion was less than a year, a few tenants have moved… probably due to the poor patronage. There used to be a few vege sellers occupying the ‘wet market’ area but now it was left with 2 or 3 sellers only. Business was brisk that day though..

After we gotten what we intended to buy, we went to check out some of these vege stalls and I saw some very fresh ku-chai or chives. It has been a while since I cook chives and I kinda miss it so decided to get a bundle.

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Ingredients

• 2 Eggs
• 50g Chives
• 50g Shrimps (shelled)
• Salt & pepper for taste

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Method

1. Heat up frying pan with some oil (put more if you’re not using non-stick pan).
2. When oil is hot, toss the shrimps in and stir fry lightly for a minute before tossing in the chives (cut into 1″ section) and stir fry for another minute.
3. Beat eggs in a bowl, add in some salt and pepper.
4. Pour in the fried shrimps and chives into the bowl of beaten eggs and mix them well.
5. Add new oil into the frying pan and when it is heated up, pour in the egg mixture and fry the omelette till golden brown.

Though confinement is only for 30 or 40 days, it is still very important to have variations as it can be very boring to be eating the same few dishes day in day out for that one month period. During my first confinement, I had almost the same dishes everyday since both my mom and myself were not too sure which ingredient can be eaten at which period. Since this is our second time, things have sure improved.

The only thing is, this time we make it very simple since my mom has to take care of Darrius and my nephew. Therefore, I told her to cook all the simplest dishes she can think of beside the few which I requested. Here is another dish which I really like…

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Ingredients

• 300g Pork (the face section which is very smooth and tender) - sliced thinly
• 50g Ginger - thin strips
• 2-3 stalks Spring onions
• Corn flour + water solution (to marinade sliced pork)
• 3tbl Sesame seed oil
• Light soy sauce for taste

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Method

1. Heat up wok with sesame seed oil and saute the ginger till fragrant.
2. Toss in marinated sliced pork and stir till 70% cook. Add in spring onion which has been cut into 2″ sections.
3. Sprinkle some light soy sauce and stir till well mixed before serving.

Wow! It has been 2 months since I last posted anything here! My sincere apology!

Well, currently I am 2 weeks post natal and I am still on confinement. There are still a lot of adjustment needed juggling 2 kids now and in another 2 weeks, I will be on my own when I return home to Penang. I can’t imagine my days ahead!

I count my blessings as my mom is helping me with my confinement now so I know I am in good hands. This time we decided to do it as simple as possible since my mom is baby sitting my nephew and also helping me to care for Darrius as I am not allowed to do heavy chores. One of the things I enjoyed during this period is of course those yummy confinement food which we can’t really consume when we are not in confinement! As most of these dishes are rated as ‘extremely heaty’ during normal days, some of us only can take them once in a while while not in confinement.

Since I don’t get to eat these special dishes all the time, I just want to share it with those of you who are looking for some simple yet delicious confinement dishes which you can incorporate into your confinement menu especially for those of you who did not engage a confinement lady to help. One of my favorite is this peppered pork dish which I have been having almost any other day!

The other reason why I prefer to have pepper over ginger is because my baby is suffering from newborn jaundice and I was ‘advised’ by some to limit my ginger intake for the first 10 days post natal.

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Ingredients

• 200g Pork loin (Sliced thinly and slightly knocked with the back of a cleaver)
• 10g Peppercorns (crushed)
• 3tbsp  Sesame seed oil
• Light soy sauce for taste
• Corn starch
• 1tbsp Glutinous rice wine (optional)

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Methods

1. Cut the pork loin into thin slices, knocked with the back of cleaver and marinade with the crushed peppercorns, some light soy sauce and some glutinous rice wine for 15 minutes.
2. Heat up sesame seed oil in frying pan, sprinkle some corn starch onto the sliced marinated pork before frying on medium low heat till cook.

We had steamed fish at least 2-3 times a week, at the very least. Sometimes we had it like 5 times! My PiggyBeng feels that steamed fish is better as the juice from the fish will not ‘evaporate’ away so the nutritional value will be in the sauce. Well, I’m not too sure about that but I kinda get sick of steamed fish if we have it too often.

Another reason for steaming food is that our kitchen will stay grease free for a longer period. Therefore, there will be less cleaning up to do.

So, to get away from the ordinary, I decided to do some pan-fried fish for a change. Something simple and something my Darrius will like. Which is something with ketchup!

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Ingredients

• 1 slice Fish fillet (I used Barramundi/Siakap)
• 1/4 cup Frozen mixed vegetables
• 1 Bombay onion (the purplish type) - sliced
• 2tbsp Ketchup
• 1tsp Corn flour
• 1/2 cup Water
• 1tsp Light soy sauce
• Dash of pepper

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Methods

1. Wash the fish fillet and dry it with a paper towel. Sprinkle some corn flour all over both surfaces (this will avoid the fish from sticking to the frying pan)
2. Heat up frying pan with some oil. Make sure the oil in the pan is hot (you can see steam coming up) before you lie the fish on the pan. Fty till both sides turned golden brown. Lift up and set aside.
3. Using the same pan, saute the sliced onion and then the mixed vegetables until 80% cooked.  Pour in the ketchup mixed together with corn flour, light soy sauce, water and a dash of pepper and cook till boil.
4. Put the fish fillet onto the sauce and let it boil for a while before lifting it up and serve.

I have been doing quite a lot of kids bento for Darrius lately which prompted me to come out with a lot of finger food recipes.  Though Darrius is pretty receptive to what ever I served him but there are still food that he will refuse. Therefore I will try to create different recipes using the same few ingredients.

Darrius is a huge fan of the pan-fried soy sauce chicken so I used that recipe to make drumlets which is very convenient to be packed into bento box as compared to chicken drumsticks. Today I am using oyster sauce instead.

Previously I never keep any oyster sauce at home simply because PiggyBeng believed that oyster sauce was made of left over water from fish in the market. o_O Yeah, apparently my BIL who used to operate a Chinese restaurant in Europe and he was told that this was how oyster sauce derived from.

Luckily I do watch TV and I’ve learned from a Master Chef (Tho-tho) from Hong Kong that oyster sauce actually came from boiling the fresh oysters with some ingredients.

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Ingredients

• 6 Chicken drumlets
• 1tbsp Oyster sauce
• 1tsp Brown sugar
• 1/2tsp Dark soy sauce
• Dash of pepper

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Methods

1. Wash and dry the chicken drumlets with a paper towel. Marinade the chicken drumlets with all the ingredients and best leave over night.
2. Heat up the wok with little oil (the skin from the chicken will release oil) and pan fried all the drumlets on low heat.
3. When the drumlets are about 90% cooked, pour in the remaining sauce from the marinade and cook till all the drumlets are fully glazed with the sauce.