What I cooked today (家常便饭系列）- 5-6-2013

On 5 June 2013

White rice served with:

5-Jun	Ladies Finger fried with Small Shrimps	小虾羊角豆
5-Jun	Mapo Tofu	麻婆豆腐
5-Jun	Bok Choy Pork Rib Soup	大白菜排骨汤
5-Jun	Chinese spinach cooked with goof berry	枸杞子炒苋菜

Yesterday, we dine out with guest.

The dish start to repeat this month and again, I think that should be the case as a month a cycle should be rather reasonable. I was rather surprised that my son starts to like ladies finger this time I cooked. He had gradually eating more and more vegetables nowadays. Unlike last year, his eyes were “full of meat” only. He ate very little vegetables. This year, I have limited my cooking to only one meat dish per meal and try to cook 2-3 vegetables+tofu dishes. 

His change were gradual and not really noticeable. Nowadays, even when I did not cook meat dish, he would not complain anymore. By the way, he body mass index exceeded the standard figures and schools have wanted him to join the “weight reduction” program. While I know this is heredity of my family where all of us were rather heavy weight from 7 years old  until they reach adolescence thereafter, the weight will start to reduce. However, in view of school’s concern, I will do my part by restricting his intake of food – both in terms of quantity and quality. Am I cruel?

What I cooked today (家常便饭系列）- 3-6-2013

On 3 June 2013

White rice served with:

1.	Capsicum fried with roast meat	青椒炒烧肉
2.	Watercress Pork Rib Soup	西洋菜排骨汤
3.	Bitter gourd braised with Chinese fermented bean	豆瓣酱炆苦瓜
4.	Teochew style braised duck	潮州卤鸭

I have a few guests this week and most of the meals we are dining out as I have to accompany them to do shopping. In another week, my kids will be following their grandmothers back in Kuching. Since there are only two persons in the house, we usually do not cook. The main reason is that we are concern about our weight. In addition, we are rather easy going with foods. All cooking in this series were basically centered around my kids.

With my guest in the house, I have prepared Teochew style braised duck and pork belly meat. As I have mentioned before, usually it is difficult to finish the braised meat within a day. Therefore, it is expected that braised meat related dishes will continue to be served in the table tomorrow.

What I cooked today (家常便饭系列）- 23-5-2013

On 23-May-2013

White rice served with:

1. Sweet Corn Pork Rib Soup*	玉米排骨汤*
2. Mustard Leaf and Bitter Gourd Braised With Pork Rib	芥菜苦瓜焖排骨
3. Blanched Broccoli with Minced Pork	肉碎西兰花
4. Taukwa (dried tofu) Omelet	豆干煎蛋

• Sweet Corn Pork Rib Soup is the first dish that I have cooked for the second time within a period of about one months. In future, any dish that have repeated will be denoted with an asterisk (*).

• Dish 2 is the dish that we created our self. Don’t try this dish unless you like the bitter taste. My wife loves bitter dishes especially bitter gourd. Mustard leaf by itself is also very bitter, therefore, with two bitter vegetables within a dish, it will be a dish with an acquired taste. You may ask whether my kids like it or not. It very much depends on how bitter it is. If I blanched my bitter gourd and mustard leaf with salt before I cooked, it will not be that bitter and they will love you. However, like to day, I do not have the time to blanch it before hand, it is rather bitter. Usually, I will add a can of canned mushrooms and they will start to look for the mushrooms. They are brave enough to take the soup and actually, it is one of my way to let the kids try new dishes. Putting something that they like  and they will gradually get use to the taste over time.

• This is the third continuous day that I blanched by vegetables and today is the broccoli and apparently they like it and I will continue to cook my vegetables this way which Is healthier. The first day, I blanched my baby kailan and served with oyster sauce. In the second day, it is blanching of white stem pak choy and served with fried ikan billis. Today, it is blanched broccoli served with blanched minced pork!

• Any body tried Dish 4 before? It was a dish taught by my mother in law. Fried the dried bean curd and followed by putting some eggs on top of it. It is another dish that my kids will fight for.

I am contemplating  and in the process of exploring whether I should set up a system for readers to search the dish by vegetables. If successful, when readers have raw ingredients but no idea how to proceed with the cooking , they can look up for the database.

Happy Vesak Day and have a nice day.

What I cooked today (家常便饭系列）- 20-5-2013

On 20 May 2013

1. Jicama Fried With Minced Pork	沙葛炒肉碎
2. Blanched Baby Kailan with Oyster Sauce	耗油小芥兰
3. Pork Belly steamed with Preserved Vegetable	梅菜扣肉
4. White Radish Pork Rib Soup	白萝卜排骨汤
5. Salted Vegetable fried with Pork Belly	咸菜炒五花

On 18 and 19 May 2013, we have functions and did not cook at home. Today, you may see a rather unusual dish, jicama fried with minced pork and dried shrimps. This is a rather nice dish and the taste is very much similar to the Popiah fillings. As for the pork belly steamed with preserved vegetable, it is the first time that I cooked and surprisingly it is rather easy to cook except, it need a long time to steam the meat. The kids loved it and we finished the whole dish.

Happy reading.

What I cooked today (家常便饭系列）- 16-5-2013

On 16 May 2013

White rice served with:

1. Szechuan Vegetable Pork Rib Soup	榨菜排骨汤
2. Yakitori Chicken Stick	日式烤鸡串
3. Pak Choi Fried with Fish Cake	小白菜炒鱼饼
4. Hairy Gourd Fried with Minced Meat	肉碎炒毛瓜
5. Fried Eggs	荷包蛋
6. Soy Residue Pan Cake	黄豆渣煎饼

It seemed that the meals I cooked have a lot of gourds – bitter gourd (苦瓜）, tower gourd（莆）， winter melon (冬瓜）and today hairy gourd (毛瓜). Tomorrow, my soup should be another gourd family members- chayote (佛手瓜）。 I like to buy this vegetable and keep in the fridge and it will start to surface in my menu on Thursday and Friday and by that time, all the leafy vegetables should all be cooked. Gourds family members are long lasting and sometime I just keep one or two for “emergency” purposes.

We bought the Yakitori sticks from the supermarkets. It costs about SGD o.50 per stick. It is the Japanese chicken satay and my kids will usually fight over this.

Fried eggs are requested by my wife and not my kids. She said she had been thinking about fried eggs for quite a while…….

The last “dish” is something that I will strongly recommend for readers to try making it. It was given by my kind neighbor.  She used the soy residues from making soya bean milk, mixed with beans sprouts, spring onions and dry shrimps and finally made into an egg omelet. It is extremely tasty and an excellent choice for snacks or breakfast. Suggested dips will be tomato sauce, sweet chili sauce or mayonnaise. If you are throwing the residues away, why not cook something along this line?

Happy reading!

What I cooked today (家常便饭系列）- 15-5-2013

On 15 May 2013:

1.	Winter Melon Pork Rib Soup	冬瓜排骨汤
2.	Green Peas Stirred Fried with Sliced Pork	青豆炒肉片
3.	Chinese Leaf Lettuce fried with Chinese Fermented Bean Curd Sauce	腐乳酱炒香/油麦菜
4.	Fried Black Promfret with Thousand Island Dressing	生煎黑鲳千岛酱

The color of the green peas were slightly yellowish because I purposely used the canned green peas that were produced by a long established Chinese company. This was the third time I cooked this dish since I started cooking on my own and my kids really loves it. When I was young, my mother used to cook this dish and offered to the ancestors during praying. This dish was chosen because it is a “canned” food and will not go bad that easily (note that at that time, in my hometown, refrigerator is still not common and they have to ensure that the food will last until the next day). Come to think about it, the cooking strategy and meal plan  then would definitely be different from what we were cooking now considering the fact that no refrigerator was available.

Dipping the black promfret with thousand island dressing sprinkled with sesame seeds is a modification made for my kids. Traditionally, we will dip the fish with dark soya sauce, lime, fresh garlic and fresh chili.

Have a nice day.

What I cooked today (家常便饭系列）- 14-5-2013

On 14 May 2013:

1.	Chinese Black Turtle Bean Pork Rip Soup	黑豆排骨汤
2.	Long Bean Stir Fried with Minced Meat	长豆炒肉碎
3.	Sliced Potatoes Fried with Onions and Sausages	大葱香肠炒土豆片

Nothing special today. The dish are typical simple Chinese household dish. Chinese believed that the black turtle bean soup is very beneficial to your eye sight. Usually, slow cooker is used to cook the soup. However, I have used pressure cooker which saved sometime in the preparation.

What I cooked today (家常便饭系列）- 13-5-2013

On  13-May-2013

White rice served with:

1. Meat Stuffed Tofu Puffs and Fish Cake Soup (豆卜肉丸鱼饼汤）
2. Braised tofu and egg in Chinese Black Vinegar（黑醋焖蛋及豆干）
3. Celery Egg Omelets (西芹蛋饼）

As a Chinese of traditional upbringings, I seldom throw away food. We continue to eat some of the leftover food from last evening. In order to make it appetizing, we usually re-invented the dish. The second dish was prepared using the gravy from yesterday’s black vinegar pig trotter. Today, I have added most members of the “soya bean” family – Tau Kwa, Tau Pok, “Tau meat” (Vegetarian meat), “Tau Kee”..and additional eggs. For non Chinese speaking readers, Tau here basically means bean. Usually, foodie like to eat the black vinegar but just eating the gravy will be too sour, therefore these items were added to “absorb” all the gravy because it blends well with these items.

Celery is not a common vegetable used in traditional Chinese cooking and in fact you seldom find it in the food stalls. My wife have “invented” this dish to tailor the taste of the Chinese origins and I am considering to write a post on this and share with readers.

Cheers

What I cooked today (家常便饭系列）- 12-5-2013

 

Yesterday, I am not cooking and we decided to dine outside.

Today is Mother’s day and I have invited my nephew and his wife to join us for dinner,

On 12-May-2013

White rice served with:

1. Bok Choy Pork Rib Soup (大白菜排骨汤）
2. Grilled Chicken Teriyaki Style（日式烤鸡）
3. Steam Golden Promfret Teochew Style（潮州蒸金鲳）
4. Pig Trotter cooked with Chinese black vinegar (猪脚醋/甜黑醋焖蹄膀）
5. Kailan fried with Ginger (姜片炒芥兰）
6. Curry chicken (咖哩鸡）

The curry chicken was cooked by my neighbor and she was kind enough to give us a big bowl together with some roti prata. As the dish portion we cooked today was quite a lot, therefore it is likely that tomorrow we will  continue to have these dishes for meals.

Thanks for reading.

What I cooked today (家常便饭系列）- 10-5-2013

On 10-May-2013

1. Hainanese Chicken Rice (海南鸡饭）
2. Chicken Soup with Tofu and Vegetable (青菜豆腐鸡汤）

We have Hainanese chicken rice today and a post on process of chicken rice will be released soon. Please check food preparation series where I will detail out the steps to prepare the chicken rice. As there were some chicken stock left after I simmer the chicken, I just threw some Chye Shims, tomatoes and tofu to make a soup to go with the chicken rice.

Happy reading.