Bite On It!

With the unusually hot weather since the beginning of this year, I have made it a point to cook porridge or jook at least once a week to cool our body down beside boiling liong-cha. When Darrius started solid some 4 years ago, I will normally cook just a small pot solely for him since PiggyBeng is not a fan of porridge. To him porridge can’t fill his tummies (see the plural?) up so he prefered to have rice with dishes.

To many people, cooking porridge is simple and healthier as there are more water content in porridge as compared to cooked rice. Especially when we are sick, a hot bowl of porridge is so comforting!

I was never a fan of pumpkin until I was living in Perth many years ago. I was staying with my aunt then and there was once her neighbor gave her a huge pumpkin which she grew in her backyard. Both my aunt and I was cracking our heads on how to finish up such a huge pumpkin! So, I told my aunt why don’t we cook porridge with it since the weather was a little chilly then. It was an instant blast!

Then a uni-mate from Norway fell sick and she can’t seems to get food into her. So, I offered to cook her some pumpkin porridge with a few other ingredients and she fell in love instantly and told me she has never tasted anything as good as this!

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Ingredients

• 1.5 cup Rice (wash and drained)
• 3L Water
• 150g Pumpkin (you can put more if you like)
• 1 stick Carrot
• 2pcs Dried scallops
• 100g Groundnuts (washed and pre-boiled to remove dirts)
• 150g Mince meat (pork/chicken)
• 1tbsp Oil + salt to be added into rice and soak for 10 mins
• Salt for taste
• Lettuce & Egg omelette cut into strips for garnishing

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Method

1. In a pot, when water is boiling add in the soaked rice and let it boil.
2. Cut pumpkin and carrot into small cubes, wash the dried scallops and groundnuts before  tossing them into the pot.
3. For the mince meat, add a little salt and oil and let it marinate for 30 minutes or so.
4. Stir the porridge constantly every 15-20 minutes so it would not stick at the bottom.
5. Boil the porridge for an hour and when it gets thicken, add in the mince meat and stir so it won’t be a big lump.
6. Continue to let it boil for a while but constantly stirring to avoid the bottom from getting burnt.
7. Serve hot with lettuce and egg omelette strips.

I was told that pork liver is good for those who has lost blood during labor. Pork liver contains a rich source of iron which will help us to rebuild those lost blood cells. I was never a fan of pork intestines so this dish did not appeal to me in the very beginning but I ate it because of it ‘purpose’.

My mom told me it is tough to find good liver these days as the pigs are no longer being fed on organic food like ages ago. However, mom advised that I should look for those that are bright and shinny liver if I wanted to buy them as these are fresher. Never go for those dark and dull in color ones.

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Ingredients

• 300g Pork liver (sliced thinly)
• 1 pkt Holland peas/sweet peas/snap peas
• 80g Old ginger
• Sesame seed oil
• Light soy sauce
• Corn flour for marinade

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Methods

1. Marinade sliced pork liver with some corn flour and light soy sauce, set aside.
2. In a wok or frying pan, heat up 4tbsp of sesame seed oil and saute the old ginger strips until fragrant.
3. Toss in the Holland peas and gently stir them for a few minutes.
4. When the peas are about 70% cooked, pour in the marinaded pork liver slices and stir gently until 90% cooked.
5. Sprinkle some light soy sauce over before lifting them up and serve.

Previously, I used to change my scouring sponge every 2 or 3 months as the scouring pad tend to detach easily from the sponge. I always thought that the one I bought are not from ‘branded range’ so I decided to get the 3M ones thinking they could stick better and longer. Well, I was wrong – again! The same thing happened!

Then I was at my mom’s place and I told her about this little problem I had. She then told me that I should stitch a ‘cross’ on the sponge to keep the sponge and scouring pad together. Hmm…. ya hor! And I set out my experiment…

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For the purpose of this post, I have first made one and used it since April last year. It is proven that it does last longer and with the stitches on the sponge, the glue tend to stick better and longer too!

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Now you can save so much from buying these scouring sponge!

Hope this little tip helps you in your kitchen! Happy cooking!

Every time I never fail to loathe the pre-Lunar New Year weather. It has always been dry and hot especially up in this tiny island. Rainfalls are limited during this period and I am so thankful that my confinement is over!

Due to the hot weather, Darrius has been coughing again with more phlegm in his throat. I really hate to feed him more medication as his cough never seems to go away. I have cut down all the cookies and chocolate from his diet (he complained that he don’t get yummy treats in his bento now!) to avoid him from getting fever.

Therefore, this mommy has to be more hardworking now. Beside dishing out the regular 2 meals a day, I still have to boil some ‘cooling’ tea for the family.

Here is one of Darrius’s all time favorite:

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Ingredients

• 4 sticks Sugar cane (tiek-jia in Hokkien)
• 10pcs Water Chestnuts (cleaned and crushed)
• 1pc Loh hon kao
• 2.5 – 3 L Water
• 2 Sweet dates (optional)

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Method

1. Split the sugar cane and light crushed them with hammer so the ‘juice’ will come out easily, break the loh hon kao and crushed the water chestnuts.
2. When water boiled, put all ingredient in and boil for 1.5 hours on low fire.

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.