Bite On It!

When I was preggy with Darrius, I had the worst morning sickness that made me lose almost 10kg during the first 4 months. I can hardly eat anything as I will purge after 30 minutes. It was a terrible feeling!

I have to stay with my mom most of the time as PiggyBeng was unable to take care of me while he is way for work so we agreed that it is best for me to stay with my parents so my mom can see to my needs. It was the best decision as my mom pampered me with all the healthy and yummy food she prepared for me.

From that time I learned this very simple dish that she used to cook for me when she saw nice and fresh lady’s fingers in the market. Some people referred it as okra but we  normally call it lady’s fingers. What my mom will do is just put them in a dish and let them steam inside the rice cooker with a little soy sauce and I can swear it tasted so good!

As I am getting one little fussy eater soon, I decided to make some modifications. I know Darrius loves sourish food (he told me he loves Asam Laksa!) so instead of just soy sauce, I chopped some garlic and saute it with chopped chilli and add some lemon sauce to the soy sauce and it turned out great! Ended up, Darrius wanted to drink the sauce but spitted out the lady’s fingers complaining that they have too many seeds!

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Ingredients

• 200-300g Lady’s fingers or Okra (cut away the head and tail)
• 1tbsp Chopped garlic
• 1tsp Chopped red chili
• Light soy sauce
• Lemon juice

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Methods

1. Steam the lady’s fingers for 5-7 minutes or till soft.
2. In a wok, heat up a little oil and saute the garlic and chili.
3. In a small bowl, add light soy sauce with lemon juice (add some water if you want to have more sauce) and pour over the sauteed garlic and chili, stir for a while till it boils and gently pour onto the steamed lady’s fingers.

Normally we will cook soup with preserved mustard head but it is a little spicy for Darrius so I will boil non-spicy soup if I could. PiggyBeng loves the soup but the Lil’ Master comes first in cases like these.

PiggyBeng bought a piece so I decided to do some stir-fry instead… at least can eat with white rice or plain porridge.

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Ingredients

• 1pc Mustard head (cut into thin strips)
• 150g Pork (not too lean and not too fat - cut into thin strips)
• A few pips of Garlic (chopped finely)
• Black soy sauce
• A few dash of Pepper
• Some water
• Chili padi - optional

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Methods

1. Cut the preserved mustard head and soak in a bowl of water for at least 30 minutes changing the water after a few minutes. This will wash away the saltiness.
2. Heat up wok and saute the chopped garlic till fragrant, toss in the pork strips and stir-fry till cook, add in the preserved mustard head strips.
3. After stirring for a while, pour in some black soy sauce and add a little water, stir and cover under a small fire. Simmer for at least 20 minutes before serving.
4. if you prefer to have a thicker sauce, add a little corn flour solution before removing from wok.

I guess I have been neglecting this blog big time! I have been extremely busy minding my  demanding ‘boss’ and also the long stay in KL plus my cupcakes e-shoppe as business was quite good when I was in KL.

This is a dish I concocted after our meal at one of these Hong Kong Char-Chan-Teng or eateries. Bosco soup is extremely popular among the Hong Kong people. From my understanding, this particular dish/soup has something to do with the European/Portuguese influence. It tasted very much like the minestrone soup.

Normally these eateries or restaurants where this soup is served, they will use macaroni but I am cooking for little boss so I used the Alphabets noodles instead.

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Ingredients

• 1/2 cup Alphabets noodles (boil in a separate saucepan)
• 2.5 cups Water
• 1/2 stick Carrot (cubed)
• 1/2 stick Celery (cubed)
• 1 Onion (cubed)
• 1 Tomato (removed seeds and cubed)
• 15g Silveryfish
• 2tbsp Tomato puree/paste (NOT ketchup)
• Sugar, salt and pepper to taste

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Methods

1. In a medium saucepan, saute the onion first with some oil. Then saute the carrot, celery and tomato cubes till fragrant and add in the Silveryfish and stir for a while.
2. Pour in the water, stir till it starting to boil and add the tomato puree. Let it boil for a while.
3. Drain the alphabets noodles and pour into the tomato soup and continue to let it boil for a further 5 minutes or so. Add sugar, salt and pepper to taste.
4. Sprinkle some dried herbs before serving.

A few weeks back I suddenly have the crave for celery. Not sure why. Then I was thnking I can use them to cook porridge for Darrius too so I bought a bundle every time I go to Tesco.

I normally just do a clear stir-fry without any other ingredients except some chopped garlic but I decided to try with some spiced pork this time.  I’ve cooked it a few times before long time ago and  think the taste goes well together. I often stock up some dried stuff or can food so I can use them whenever I’m out of stuff to cook.

So, if you are stuck with some celery and don’t know what to cook with, you can try this simple dish…

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Ingredients

• 1/2 bundle  Celery
•  1/2 can Spiced pork
• Water ( just a little to soften the celery)

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Methods

1. Heat up wok with little oil and stir-fry celery till half cooked. Toss in the spiced pork and continue to stir.
2. Add a little water (2 tbsp) and let it simmer with cover on for 2-3 minutes.
3. Served.

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Lately I’ve been buying a lot of cauliflowers as Darrius has the liking for them out of the blue. He saw us eating a few times and kept pestering me to give him some. I did not gave him in the past as I don’t boil my cauliflowers till they are soft but leave it crunchy.

Since Darrius is keen to have some so I decided to boil all our cauliflowers real soft so he will have no problem chewing them (most of the time he will swallow without much chewing… lazy fella). Previously I don’t put in that much water to make the sauce but I decided to create a clear broth just so Darrius can have some over his rice.

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Ingredients

• 1/4 Cauliflower
• Some Carrot slices
• Some Sweetpeas
• 100g Chicken breast meat (thinly sliced, marinate with corn flour and soy sauce)
• 2 cloves garlic (smashed/ finely chopped)
• Few slices of old ginger
• 1 cup Chicken broth (or use non MSG chicken cube)
• 1tsp corn flour mix with some water

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Methods

1. Boil some water with a few drops of oil and sugar in a saucepan. First put in the cauliflower chunks, then the carrot and lastly the sweetpeas and drain them after letting it boil for a few minutes. Put aside.
2. Heat up wok with some oil and saute the chopped garlic and sliced ginger till fragrant and add in the marinated chicken slices and stir till 50% cooked. Toss in the boiled vegetables and stir till they are well mixed.
3. Pour in the chicken broth or chicken cube and stir until the sauce boil before adding in the corn flour solution to thicken the sauce.

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