Braised fish with roast pork and clam

This is definately not a 'lazy cooking' dish.

i am kinda forced to cook it this style as i am worried that the fish is not fresh.

i went to the supermarket to buy fish for steaming and chanced upon a promotion for the day. Can't remember how much but i remembered the fish costs $2+ only. After i got the staff to clean and scaled one fish and realised how cheap it is, i cant help being greedy and got him to give me another one!

The first fish i steamed it immediately, the 2nd one i think i must have kept it for about 2-3 weeks in the freezer. I had leftover roast pork in the freezer and is immediately reminded of this dish that is cooked by my mum. The fried fish and roast pork has a way of infusing the unique aroma of fried food into the gravy and its heavenly. To make the gravy even sweeter, i cooked the clams in a separate pot, removed the clam flesh from the shells and used the soup from cooking clam in the gravy. Yummy!

  

Fish cooking in clam stock

Thicken gravy with starch flour and water mixture

Nai bai is fried separately with salt and chinese wine. Laid on super big plate and presented it as a single dish.

Leftovers

Baised chicken

There is basically no hard and fast rule about cooking chicken. Whatever i have in the fridge goes into the pan together with the chicken.

Typically when i buy whole chicken, i will remove the breast, thighs and drumsticks from the chicken. i will then pack them into 5 packs - 2 packs of half breasts, 2 packs of 1 thigh and 1 drums, 1 pack of chicken carcass.

Needless to say, the carcass is for chicken stock making. The smaller pack of chicken is to save me time defrosting when i have to cook them last minute, i dun have patience when it comes to thawing frozen meat.

When i have the time, i will even debone the thigh and drums, cut the breasts and marinate the chicken with pepper and soya sauce before putting them into bags for freezing. This saves me even more time when i use the chicken to cook porridge, stir fry etc.

Now, back to my braised chicken, the reason why i have half chicken with bones attached is because its from my mum. She visited me after my operation and bought me chicken which is already halved and frozen.

So well, i chopped the chicken into pieces, found chillis in my fridge (again i dont buy chilli, this is from my mother in law). Some left over cherry tomatoes from xmas gathering salad also goes in!

What do you need?

- Half a chicken cut into small pieces

- 5 cherry tomatoes, halved

- 5-10 shallots, quartered

- 1 baby carrot

- 1 chilli - deseeded and cut into big pieces

- 1 thumb size piece of ginger

- oyster sauce

- pinch of sugar

- sesame seed oil and pepper

How to do it?

Heat work and fry ginger, chilli and shallots until fragrant.

Then add chicken and carrot. Fry chicken until brown before adding water. Season with oyster sauce, sugar, pepper. Turn heat to low and simmer for 30 mins until a thick sauce is formed and meat falls off the bone easily.

Drizzle with sesame seed oil and serve with rice.

The sweetness of the carrot and chicken juices, with a hint of sourness from the tomato and heat from the ginger and chilli, its heavenly.

Asparagus fried rice

YES - Myth confirmed - Asparagus makes your pee smells funny! At least, it is observed for hubby and myself. Guess what? According to wikipedia, we are the 22% of the population who had the genes to smell it! Dunno to be proud or what... Eww...  :P

Extracted from wikipedia "There is debate about whether all (or only some) people produce the smell, and whether all (or only some) people identify the smell. It was originally thought this was because some of the population digested asparagus differently than others, so that some people excreted odorous urine after eating asparagus, and others did not. However, in the 1980s three studies from France,[24] China and Israel published results showing that producing odorous urine from asparagus was a universal human characteristic. The Israeli study found that from their 307 subjects all of those who could smell 'asparagus urine' could detect it in the urine of anyone who had eaten asparagus, even if the person who produced it could not detect it himself.[25] Thus, it is now believed that most people produce the odorous compounds after eating asparagus, but only about 22% of the population have the autosomal genes required to smell them."

Wanted to buy asparagus to wrap in bacon the last time round but couldnt find it in NTUC.

Wanted a crunchy vege to make fried rice and hubby bought baby asparagus though i asked him to buy either long beans or french beans. -_-""

Oh well, i have to admit asparagus goes quite well with the rest of the ingredients in the fried rice. 

CNY 2010 Bakes - Pineapple tarts

My first CNY bakes for 2010... Jam is made by MIL. She wants me to bake my own so that she can cut down on her own baking. Gladly do so. Its fun and theraputic to wrap the pineapple jams with the pastry dough...

I started with the open faced ones but its taking me too long to make - the dough sticks to the mould if i press too hard. If i press lightly, the imprints are not deep enough.

Wrapped / round ones are more straightforward. As long as the jam is fully covered by the dough, no peek-a-boos, its done!

U can see how many open faced ones i made in the end. HAHA

A meal to remember

This is a meal to remember - 30 Dec 2009 - Madhatter's party...

We have the madhatter's themed party
Its nana's birthday!
We have 100% local attendance (all spouses and Baby T joined us! overseas frens excluded)
The food is enjoyable...
The cake is fantastic!
There is prezzies for everyone!

I love my friends!!

Menu:
- Roast pork belly done in two marinates, served with honey mustard sauce
- Bacon wrapped carrot and kailan stem
- Angel's hair in chicken pesto
- Portobello mushroom baked with garlic and cheese
- Kailan stem and carrot, cooked in cheese
- Salad served with Italian herb dressing
- Soft white bread, served with unsalted butter (freshly baked from the breadmaker)
- Lychee martini cake (from Pine Gardens)

Garlic in olive oil (again)

This is my 3rd post on garlic in olive oil.
See 1st and 2nd post.

This time round, instead of chopped garlic, i sliced the garlic instead.

There is approximately 4 bulbs of garlic in this bottle, i sliced them in front of the TV in the living room.

:P This bottle will last me at least 2 mths.

However, according to Wikipedia 'Garlic is often kept in oil to produce flavoured oil; however the practice requires measures to be taken to prevent the garlic from spoiling. Untreated garlic kept in oil can support the growth of deadly Clostridium Botulinum. Refriguration will not assure the safety of garlic kept in oil.'

So, TRY THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Safety measure i took include:
- having enough oil to cover the garlic
- always keep garlic refrigerated
- always use a clean and dry spoon when taking out the garlic from the bottle for use
- check the garlic for bad smell, moulds or turn of colour before using

Mee sua soup

After the xmas and new year feasting, its time to detox.

Cooked a simple and light lunch, using leftovers in the fridge.

What do you need?
- Sliced pork (marinated)
- Kai lan stem (5cm long)
- 1 stalk of chye sim
- 1 baby carrot
- 4 cherry tomato
- 2 mee sua (dried)
- 2 cups of chicken stock






How to do it?
Heat pot with water, water level at approximately 1.5 inches. Bring to boil, add mee sua, cook for approx 2 mins or until water reboils for 1 min.

Drain mee sua and put into bowls.

Heat pot again with chicken stock. Add sliced of pork and bring to boil. Add all vegetables, bring to boil.
Pour soup, meat and vegetables into bowls with mee sua, serve.

Season with some soya sauce, pepper and sesame seed oil to taste.
Sprinkle with fried shallots. Serve.