The following are temporary indices for all recipes issued by Guaishushu in both https://kwgls.wordpress.com and Guaishushu’s Facebook Page. The index shall be for temporary references only.
FOOD PREPARATION SERIES INDEX
Tag Archives: NICE
What I cooked today (家常便饭系列）- 25-7-2013
On 25-7-2013, Chicken rice served with sweet kernel corn and mushroom soup.
As I have not cook chicken rice for quite a while, I have decided just to have a one dish dinner – Hainanese Chicken Rice. You can refer here for my detailed write up on the preparation of Chicken rice. Alternatively, you can refer to Guaishushu’s Facebook page for simple pictorial instructions.
If you really observe the first picture, do you realize something are missing? Yes, two things were missing! A very important garnish vegetables, cucumber slice. I always find that without cucumber slice, the whole chicken rice is missing something. Do you agree with me?
Secondly, there is a lack of green vegetable today. Usually, I would have a plate of blanched vegetable to go with it but because today is Friday, I have finished all the green vegetables in the fridge, Haha. I have said before in my earlier post, usually Sunday to Tuesday or Wednesday are leafy green vegetables and Thursday to Saturday are usually beans, melons or roots type of vegetables because it can be kept longer. We do marketing once a week and I am a rational cooker, I cooked based on First In First Out principle… I don’t usually cook impulsively..
As I have additional chicken stock from simmering the chicken, I have decided to open a canned kernel corn and turned it into a corn soup. When I made the cake yesterday, I have some egg whites left and I just stir and “throw” inside the soup. It become a simple soup like the one you have in the chicken rice store.
Usually, when I cooked chicken rice, I will cook more than what is required. The rationale is that it take some efforts to prepare chicken rice, why not prepare some more. In addition, any left over chicken rice can be “recycled” and is a top choice for fried rice. Since it is already “marinated” rice and you need not to add much condiments and oil when you fried it.
Other than frying overnight chicken rice, we used to make it into chicken porridge for next day’s breakfast. After simmering the chicken, if you still have the chicken stock left, just keep it. In the next morning, just throw in the left over chicken rice, any chicken meat left (of course de-boned and possibly shredded into floss), add in a bit of condiments, it will become a bowl of chicken porridge.
Will it harm you to eat overnight food? I do not want to think about it and as long as it is properly kept with no possibility of contamination, it should be ok. How about how grandparents or parents? Is it not the Westerners used to heat up frozen foods that were prepared well in advance?
Other than the above, the project of the day included the following:
Impromptu Ixora Birthday “Cup Cake”
Preparing an impromptu birthday cake for one of my internet friends who “requested” me to “bake” a birthday cake for her and wish her happy birthday over the internet. This cake is decorated with ixora flowers which is abundant in Malaysia and Singapore.. Do you mind if someone posted this cake to your timeline wishing you happy birthday?
Butterfly Cupcake
This is an extremely simple cup cake recipe. Add all ingredients and mixed well, bake and you get the cake. It was served with cream and strawberry jam as the basic cup cake have very little sugar. it was dusted with sugar powder. Do you think it will taste nice?
Rose Cake
This should be a celebration cake but need further modifications. I am doing in a rush and therefore the workmanship is really terrible. Haha.
Modified Version of Raas Malai
This is a dessert originated from India and an extremely popular in South Asia. It was served in wedding ceremony and other important festival occasions. Traditionally, the raw ingredients are paneer (Indian Cheese) and milk. The recipe is adopted from http://free-advertising-ey.blogspot.it/2013/07/raas-malai-sweet-from-bangladesh.htmlk with some modifications to suit the Chinese taste buds. Modifications include reducing the use of spices such as cinnamon, cardamon and etc.. In addition, strawberry were added.
As this dessert look milky and cheesy, I have decided to let my kids try out the dessert exposing them to more international cuisines. The preparation are rather coincidence. This afternoon when I have over whipped my cream, I thought I might as well used this over whipped cream to make the dessert. I added fresh milk to the over whipped cream and heat until it boiled. Knowing that my kids will not really like spices like cardamon, cinnamon , I have decided to tailor it to a more Chinese taste buds. I meshed 5 ripe strawberries and add to the milk and let them boiled together with the milk.
As for the cheese balls, I have used mozarella cheese to make it instead of paneer or cheddar cheese. I meshed 2 strawberries, added to the cheese, added 1 tablespoon of water and shaped it into small balls. My balls are rather small compared to the authentic because I know my kids wouldn’t be able to take such a big cheesy ball. I dropped the balls to the cool milk and put in the fridge. During serving, I found it too creamy (possibly due to my over whipped cream), I have further diluted with cold fresh milk and cut slices of fresh strawberry to go with it.
Verdict: Extremely nice sweet milky soup with strawberry flavour. As long as you like milk, I do not think you have any reasons not to like it.
As for the cheese balls, my girls can take all but my boys feels a bit too rich and salty to him. As for me, I loved the cold milk but for the cheese balls, one or two should be Ok but not too much as when I was young, Chinese were not exposed to ” cheesy things”…. Haha.. I will say those who like cheese, go ahead and make this milky desserts.. It is just delicious.
LASTLY, HOPE YOU LIKE THE POST TODAY! AND HAVE A NICE WEEK END.
What I cooked today (家常便饭系列）- 11-7-2013
On 11-7-2013, White rice served with:
| 1 | Cabbage Pork Rib Soup | 包菜排骨汤 |
| 2 | Braised Bitter Gourd with Roast Meat | 苦瓜焖烧肉 |
| 3 | Braised pork slice with pickled lettuce | 香菜心炆肉片 |
| 4 | Foochow Preserved Mustard Bee Hoon | 福州糟菜米粉汤 |
As I am making some pastry this afternoon, I am rather busy and again simple meal. I cooked the cabbage soup in the afternoon and tonight I just add a simple dish, pork slices cooked with canned pickled lettuce. Just bring some water to boil, add pork slice, canned pickles, garlic slice and the cooked for 15 minutes and the dish is ready. I know it is my kids favourite dish, therefore no further dish required.
The braised bitter gourd with roast meat is cooked by my wife’s god mother. My wife loves bitter gourd and she will always cooked this for us as an additional dish. It is fun to note that now both my kids are “brave” enough to bitter gourd at their age. As I have bought a bitter gourd without knowing that there another bitter gourd dish today, therefore, expect to see another bitter gourd soup in the table..
I know not many Chinese family cooked cabbage soup including my mother in law, but I love to cook this. Most elders do not like to cook cabbage soup because at times, the vegetable will have some “funny” taste. However, in my humble opinion, to avoid that “funny” taste, at the time when you put the cabbage, the water must be boiling under high heat.
Today, there is no pictorial illustration for the dish at the dish are rather simple. However, you can still visit Guaishushu’s Facebook Page for other dishes.
LETTING THE KIDS EXPLORING NEW DISHES
I would like to share with readers how I get my child accustomed to what I cooked and explore new dishes.
For any new dishes that are not “kids unfriendly” meaning too sour, too spicy etc, they have to taste at least taste 1-2 tablespoons and tell me why they don’t like it. They are not supposed to throw away the food in their month as long as the food do not have bones and etc. If what they said make sense, I will not cook that particular dish or cook a smaller quantity. At times, I will still cook the dish that they initially don’t like but add in some new ingredients that they like so that everybody is happy. For example, if I cooked bitter gourd, I will usually add in some canned mushrooms. I will tell them the “ratio” of bitter gourd to canned mushrooms is say 1:3 meaning eating 1 pieces of bitter gourd will entitled them 3 pieces of mushrooms. It really helps and sorry for being mean to my kids…Haha
They are rather polite at their age. They have “forced” themselves to eat the bitter gourd knowing that this is their mother’s favourite vegetables. Deep in my heart, I appreciate their thoughtfulness and hope that this will continue when they are independent in the future.
HOPE YOU LIKE THE POST TODAY AND HAVE A NICE DAY.
Bachelor’s Tomyam Noodles–Quick And Nice…
INTRODUCTION
I am struggling whether I should post this simple noodle preparation. It is just that simple and up to your own creativities. I am thinking, will putting up this post insult my reader’s intelligence? Will it qualify as a professional blog post? Is this consider as an recipe? Well, after struggling for 10 minutes, I have decided to post this dish to gauge what is my reader’s reactions. Due to this impromptu decision, therefore, unlike other post, some pictures were not available.
This is a super fast dish that I cooked for myself today. From cooking to eating to cleaning, it took me less than half an hour. It is ideal for those who just want a simple, quick and nutritious meal.
WHY THIS DISH
I am alone by myself at home and I don’t feel like cooking for myself. Usually, I would just eat the breakfast leftover items for lunch. But I have been eating breakfasts as lunches for the last 3 days and my body tells me that I need something that don’t taste like “breakfast”.
Cooking a dish for myself is never a problem, I just search my kitchen cabinet and my refrigerator and see what I have at home. As my kids were away on holiday and we will not be cooking these few days, therefore, my perishable stocks were very limited and this is what I found, a packet of Tom yam instant noodles.
As I have never fancy any instant noodles, this packet of instant noodles is not attractive to me at all especially if it is plain (meaning water plus instant noodles). But suddenly, it come across my mind and asked myself, why not cook myself some Tom Yam noodles. So I take out a pot and cooked my superfast Tom Yam noodles.
WHAT YOU NEED
As far as I am concerned, there is nothing that you can’t put it. I usually cooked based on what I have especially the side vegetables. What I used this time:
- One pieces or dry egg noodles – this is exactly the same as your instant noodles except it is slightly firmer;
- Some cherry tomatoes – supposingly to be eaten as fruits but since I have some in the fridge, I just dump it in.
- Some chicken breast meat (optional) cut into small chunks – I had this in the fridge for quite a while and since I will not be cooking for the these 2 weeks, I have to “get rid” of it. But frankly speaking, it taste better with some meaty flavor;
- Few pieces of chili (optional) – These chili were specially flown from China given by one of my guest who stay in Guangxi China. It is supposingly very spicy but for me, it is slightly more spicy than the red chili but not as spicy as chili padi.
- Tom Yam paste – It is good to keep some ready made tom yam paste at home for making quick soups, fried noodles and etc. My wife have bought this vegetarian tom yam paste which I don’t think there is much differences. The only difference in ingredients that I can think off is the shallots and garlics since Buddhist vegetarian were not allowed to consume any shallots and garlics.
STEPS OF PERPARTION
I have no picture to show as this post was rather impromptu and only decided half way when I was cooking. In fact, it is such a simple dish that there are only 2-3 steps and further elaboration will “insult” my reader’s intelligence. If you really can’t understand what I am trying to say, just imagine you are cooking some instant noodles in a pot.
- Take out a pot and pour in some plain water. Put a few table spoon of tom yam paste (depending on taste) and bring to boil. Throw in other ingredients in these orders – meat, chili, tomato, egg noodles.
- As I am using chicken breast and cut into small chunks, it is rather quick to cook. The smaller your meat is, the easier it is to cook! You can use some sweet potato flour or corn flour to slightly cover your meat before you put them in the pot. The role of these flours is to keep the juice inside the meat and also make its texture smoother. For me, as I want it to be quick, I have not perform this step, I just put my meat in without adding any corn flour.
- Boil for 1-2 minutes until your noodles have soften.
- I prefer to rest it for a while until the noodles absorbed all the soup and this will make it tastier and softer.
- Variations – There are many variations that you can have. You may want to add some eggs. or sausages. some cabbage, red carrots, celery, etc. and the lists are endless. These are all up to your imaginations and creativities.
FINAL OUTPUT
In the picture, does it look appetizing to you?
To make it look better you can consider using mushrooms for black color, red chili for red color, baby corns for yellow color and carrot for orange color.
Compare to the 1st picture and the last picture, you can see that noodles is softer as it had absorbed the gravy.
Taste wise, if you want it more sour, you can squeeze some lime juice. For me that is just nice. It is essentially tom yam cooked with chicken stock and if you like tom yam, this is a suitable meal for you!
CONCLUSIONS
- Not all foods need to be elaborately prepared before it is considered as tasty. Simple meal like this is ideal for those who are kitchen phobia or short of time to prepare a nutritious meal;
- It is nutritious because the ingredients that were used are simple (like my post on Nasi Aruk here) but packed with proteins and vitamins. Tom yam paste itself is full of herbs and spices that is beneficial to the body.
- It is healthier because no oil and further seasonings were used. IT IS DEFINITELY HEALTHIER THAN INSTANT NOODLE AS NO MSG WAS USED。When you ate plain instant noodles, most people will craved for stronger flavor as the taste is very monotonous and you need seasonings to make your palate “happy”. With slight additions of meat and vegetables, your attention will gear towards your meats and vegetables. The soups will have some meaty flavor and you don’t feel the need to add any more seasonings. Is it not healthier?
- It is fast to prepare, full flexibility and you can substitute any ingredients with what you have at home.
Because it is so flexible, it essentially means there is no recipe. So, do you like this type of simple dish or you think reading my post is wasting your precious time?
I treasure your feedback and let me know how you feel about it.
Happy reading and cheers.
I have recently open a Facebook community page ‘AUTHENTIC SARAWAK FOOD AND HISTORY” and I hoped you can support the page by visiting the page. If you find the page benefits you in some way, please give it a “LIKE”.
The page is intended to become a center of collection of unique Sarawak Cuisines. For those who don’t know where is Sarawak, Sarawak is one of states belong to Malaysia and in the Island of Borneo. It is famous of its eco-tourism and multi racial society. Its unique cuisine are cuisines like Sarawak Laksa, Kolo mee and scarce vegetables such as jungle fern shoot, hairy eggplant etc. PLEASE COME AND UNDERSTAND MORE ABOUT SARAWAK CUISINES HERE.
Thousand apologies. I have to put this picture here due to technical error. Otherwise it will mess up my Tumblr. accounts posting and my Facebook posting.
GUAI SHU SHU 