Haloglow

quickie idea.

perhaps its possible to have more ingenious way to bring along a light.
perhaps there could be a flat LED bulb that can be charged and set aside and all u need is to bring along a foldable deflector sticker to deflect the light from the source. deflector sticker/poster can readily be folded away when not in use.

of cos the prob is also on how feasible is this idea for pple who need lighting at extended times. say when u get trapped under rubble....

Nutty Banana Cake

The problem with bananas is that they really dun last very long once you get them from the market. so wat to do with ripe bananas other than making milkshakes out of them? make banana cake lor. the real challenge for me is that i can't use the mixer in the night when kiddo is zzzz (that's when i got time to try all these funny stuff. can't risk the kiddo breaking her sleep n The Wife giving me killer looks) and the oven's bit wonky (am suspecting that it doesn't hit the desired temperature very well, hence always have to leave longer than the prescribed time).

tried my 1st banana cake recipe in my earlier post which turned out more dense and moist. in fact it didnt quite bake uniformly so i'd ended up with really crusty outer layer n moisty core. this recipe is better. the cake turned out drier, still dense, uniformly baked and more fragrant (probably cos of the nuts). i adapted this from a recipe found online.....

ingredients

• 2 large bananas, ripe (approx. 400 g)
• 300 g self-raising flour (i didn't have it so i mixed 1 cup plain flour+1 tsp cream of tartar+1/2 tsp bicarb soda. 300g is about 2 times of the mixture)
  
• 150 g soft butter (i used salted)
  
• 150 g soft brown sugar
• 2 eggs (at room temperature)
• 60-80 g nuts (not peanuts though...i had pecan, almond, macadamia. they were lightly salted)
  
• 2 teaspoons fruit juice (original recipe called for lemon, i used apple. i figured that if u want some zest u shld go for citrus juice. i've also read somewhere that u can add fanta orange)
  
• 1-2 tablespoons olive or vegetable oil (for keeping the cake moist)

recipe

• soften the butter. best way to do this is to leave the butter out of fridge at room temperature approx an hour or so before use. break up the butter with a fork will help
• preheat oven at 180°C
• grease the loaf tin and line it with greaseproof paper. just make sure it 'sticks' to the tin so that it looks flat on the sides when peeled off for cutting
• mash bananas until mushy
• chop the nuts finely. the original recipe suggested sultanas as an alternative if you have a nut allergy
• mix the butter and brown sugar into a mixing bowl and blend together with a fork. mix the two ingredients thoroughly and at the same time incorporate as much air into the mixture as possible. mixing in a figure '8' manner will help to get air into the cake mix. always mix in this manner
  
• stir in the bananas and chopped nuts/sultanas and mix thoroughly
• add 1 egg and sift in half of the flour and mix thoroughly
  
• add the remaining flour, egg and fruit juice then mix thoroughly
  
• add the olive/vegetable oil and mix thoroughly
• pour the mixture into the loaf tin, level it and bake for 45 minutes
• after 45 mins, test whether its cooked by poking it thrugh with a testing stick. if it comes out clean it's cooked. i actually went on for another 30 minutes, testing every other 5 mins (as i said my oven is wonky)
• when done, take the cake out of the tin and place it on a wire rack. this is crucial as it will stop the cake from sweating and getting damp on the inside
  

the good thing about this is that it didn't need a beater/mixer....so no bawling kiddo n no visibly upset Wife....but i'd to half it and go to bed (it was pretty late after i'm done) so it looked really crumbly (see above) when u cut it warm. but you can see the cross section better in the following picture when i took some out for afternoon snack the following day. :)

Avocado

The Wife likes it, the kid likes it too (in fact she usually takes half of it for breakfast, along with her cereals). I don't. i thought avocado's an interesting fruit like durian....you know stuff that dun look too good, the texture 'creamy', non-sweet and with seeds which are darn big. Guess like some things in life, i'm still learning how i'd go about acquiring a taste for this.

The Mundane Fare

i realised that how mundane things have become on some days.

i stay home pretty much these days and live out some pretty mundane times. on such days, they end up with dinners that look pretty much like this. simple mundane fare to end a simple mundane day. just The Wife and the kiddo at the dinner table with me.

in my younger days, i'd often rile at my mum for cooking the 'same ol same ol' day in day out, and i'd point out eagerly the inspirational glossy pages of recipe books she'd stashed away in the cupboard. hoping that she'd try something different for dinner. on occasions when she did, the evenings were more colourful and certainly everyone else had a few extra lines to say. of cos, it's back to the mundane the following day and takeaways were always helpful in breaking the monotoneity.

over the years, i've grown to understand the mundane that surrounded my mum's life. i'd concluded that a lot of sacrifice had to go into one's life in exchange for the mundane. had my mum not been a housewife, i'd be eating takeaways most of my formative days and be deprived of mundane, yet wholesome meals that i'd been 'so sick of' in my youth. it's definitely another set of mental challenge to stay home and take care of the house (strangely with the both of us at home and caring for just 1 kid, time really flies). i'm still nudging my mum to try out new stuff every now and then though i guess old habits die hard.

hence i'm dedicating this post to dishes that i'd skipped over previously - the un-interesting daily fare that sit on the dining table on most days of the weeks - the blanks that i'd otherwise not address in my blog.

Stirfry Asparagus with Carrots & Mushrooms

ingredients

• 10 asparagus, peeled and chopped
• 1 x large carrot, peeled and cut to strips
• 2 cloves chopped garlic
• 5-6 large button mushrooms, quartered
• cooking oil
• 1/2 tsp chicken stock powder (optional)
  
• fish sauce (to taste)
• chinese cooking wine (to taste)
  

recipe

• brown garlic lightly and add in the carrots. fry till the oil is slighty orange-y
• add in asparagus and some water. cover and let simmer
• when a sauce is seen in the frying pan/pot. add chicken stock and fish sauce. stirfry and simmer till asparagus is 80% cooked
• add in mushrooms, stirfry with dash of cooking wine
• let simmer till mushroom is cooked (not shrunk, so as to retain a degress of crunchiness) then remove and serve

Stirfry Pork Slices with Onion & Ginger

ingredients

• thinly sliced pork loin
• ginger slices
• 1 onion quartered
• chopped chilli (to taste)
• spring onion (cut to strips for garnish)
• chopped garlic
• dark soy sauce
• pepper
  
• fish sauce/ light soy sauce (to taste)
  
• cooking oil
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 2 tbsp chinese cooking wine

recipe

• brown garlic, ginger and onions till fragrant
  
• on mid-hi heat, add in pork slices and stirfry quickly (till about 70% cooked)
  
• add dark soy sauce, fish/soy sauce, pepper and sesame oil (you can actually choose to marinate the pork with these prior to cooking)
• when slices are about cooked, add wine, fry quickly, turn to low heat and let simmer for <1min
• add in chilli and spring onion, stir fry quickly and serve (for more spiciness, chilli can be added after the sauces are in)
  

My kiddo's 1

My kiddo turned 1 on 2 Dec. I'd prepared a lil comic, my take of her world in the past year. guess she'd get to read it one day and i wonder what will be going through her mind then. You can read it at higher res here.

Steamed Baramundi (Asian Seabass)

not quite my simpler way of serving up 'light' steamed fish but i was craving for something more flavourful....besides the baramundi had been in the freezer for a while (ok its still fresh and edible...i'm still ok after eating it). adapted from a recipe for 西湖醋魚 but fused it with HK style steamed fish. serves 4.

ingredients (a) - fish

• 1 whole medium baramundi (asian seabass)
• 4-5 tbsp chinese cooking wine
• 4-5 tbsp stones ginger wine
• sesame seed oil
  
• 2-3 tsp salt
• 4-5 dried shitake mushrooms, soaked and sliced. save mushroom stock
  
• sliced chilli
• 2-3 stalks of spring onions (use only the stems, half them and lay out on steamer tray under the fish)
  

ingredients (b) - gravy

• 4 tbsp blended fresh ginger
• 3-4 tsp blended garlic
  
• corn flour (to add to water and used for thickening gravy)
  
• dark soy sauce
• 1/4 cup chicken stock
  
• black vinegar (to taste)
  
• sugar / salt (to taste)
  
• chicken/pork oil
• 2-3 stalks of spring onions (greens)

recipe (a) - fish

• gut and clean fish. my steamer isn't big enough for the whole fish to go in so i decided to fillet it and cut it into 4 portions
• lay out spring onion stems onto tray
• marinate fish with ginger wine, chinese cooking wine and salt. set aside for approx 10 min
• lay fish into steaming tray (on top of spring onion), add sliced mushrooms and chilli to tray
• add in some mushroom stock
  
• bring water to boil at high heat and put in fish
• steam fish for 15-20 minutes
• when cooked, remove fish but reduce heat to low (you need to put the fish back in later)
• remove the fillets (w/o the sauce that resulted from steaming) onto a serving plate and put them back into steamer to keep warm

recipe (b) - gravy

• put sauce (with mushroom and spring onion from the steam tray) into a small pot and it'd be the base for gravy
• add blended garlic, chicken stock, chicken oil, dark soy sauce, vinegar, salt/ sugar
• bring to slow boil and add corn flour solution to thicken gravy
• to serve, spread blended ginger and sliced spring onion onto fish and pour gravy over it

if the fish is fresh, it should not have too much of a freshwater fishiness. besides the chicken oil, ginger & vinegar is suppose to work towards flavouring the dish. :)

Hainanese Chicken Rice

when i was little, i'd get a chicken drumstick on my birthday, even when my folks fell on hard times (i remember when i was about 8.....my mom sat me down with a single plate of chicken rice with drumstick in a coffeeshop. she'd to pay $2.50 compared to just $1.50 for a normal serving of chicken rice then. when i asked if she'd want some, she insisted that it's all for me).

years later i'd a brief stint helping out at my uncle's chicken rice stall in jurong west. not that i was cooking/chopping up chicken, i was simply packing up food, sending out/retrieving plates to/from tables and packing lil balloons of chilli sauce. my uncle never talked about how he went about preparing his chicken (cos there was simply too many competitors in the very same market he was operating from) but i got to hear what people like about their chicken rice and got acquainted with the smell throughout the cooking (i think it's an important experiential lesson as the smell changes throughout the preparation process). unfortunately, he had to wind up his business due to a stroke a few years later. it was only many years on, with much prodding did he tell me how 'white' chicken is done (admittedly i was quite disappointed cos i was actually more keen on knowing how he did his bestselling roasted chicken instead).

avery turned 1 today and while she may be too young to have a drumstick all to herself, i'm glad to serve up something familiar (dadi & mami can have the drumsticks!). of cos i do not have with me the big vats you can find in stalls but i do have a medium 'pong-pong' tall steamer which wld have to do for the occasion. i did get the chicken and chilli sauce right in this modified version of his recipe but the rice is somewhat lacking in fragrance. it's easy to do but tedious.....so here goes......serves 4.

(a) chicken

ingredients

• 1 whole medium size chicken (cleaned of all the blood clots under the spine at the back of the chicken...yah u have to use ur fingers to dig them out)
• pieces of ginger
• cloves of garlic
• 2-3 pandan leaves
• salt (to taste)
  
• pepper (to taste)
  
• 2-3 tbsp chinese cooking wine
• 2-3 tbsp sesame seed oil
• coriander (as garnish)
• cucumber and tomato slices (optional)
  

recipe

• make cuts into 3-4 pieces of ginger (ginger size abt 5 cm each) / smash them
• break 1 whole garlic into separate cloves and smash them (leave skin on)
  
• split pandan leaves into halves and tie them into a knot
  
• rub salt & pepper on the insides of the chicken (abt 2-3 tbsp salt)
• stuff garlic, ginger and pandan leaves into chicken
• rub outer skin of chicken with sesame seed oil then salt (abt 2-3 tbsp salt)
• set aside for at least half an hour
• prepare steamer and bring water to boil at medium-high heat (do not change the heat during the steaming process)
• before putting chicken into steamer drizzle chinese cooking wine onto & into chicken
  
• when water is boiling, place chicken into steamer
• steam each side of chicken for about 15 minutes (yah u gotta flip the fella over)
  
• to see if it's cooked use a test stick and poke thrugh the thigh area (cos thickest there). if blood water oozes out then let it steam for a few more minutes
  
• once cooked, remove and cut/chopped & serve. else keep warm in steamer while u prepare other stuff
  
• DO NOT DISCARD the oily juice from the container
• serve with chopped coriander, cucumber and tomato slices
  

(b) chicken soup (this is for steaming the rice and also to serve as side)

ingredients

• chicken bones/frames
• chicken fat/skin
• soya beans (half cup approx)
  
• 3-4 pieces of ginger (cut/smashed)
  
• 1 garlic (no need o smash the cloves. keep skin on)
  
• 2-3 pandan leaves (tear into haves and knot)
  
• (to taste) chinese cooking wine
• coriander (as garnish)
  

recipe

• soak soya beans overnight
• boil everything at medium heat
• sieve out the chicken oil and set aside
• keep it at low heat after the leaves turn yellow

(c) rice (serves 4. approx 2.5 cups)

ingredients

• 2 tbsp blended ginger
  
• 4 tbsp blended garlic
• rice
• chicken soup
• 2-3 pandan leaves
• chicken oil (from chicken soup)
• oily juice from chicken
  
• cooking oil
• salt (to taste)
  
• chinese cooking wine (approx 3-4 tbsp)

recipes

• fry blended garlic and ginger till light brown in chicken+cooking oil
• add in uncooked rice and salt. there must be enough oil to coat all the rice. stir till fragrant but not burnt
• remove from stove and add chicken soup (same as the amount of water for cooking that amount of rice)
• add few tbsp of oily juice
  
• add chinese cooking wine and knotted pandan
• steam in rice cooker

(d) condiments: chilli sauce + sping onion sauce

ingredients - chilli sauce

• blended chilli (no seeds) - 5 parts
  
• blended ginger - 2 parts
  
• blended garlic - 4 parts
  
• blended spring onion (to taste)
  
• chicken oil
  
• salt (to taste)
  
• sugar (to taste)
  
• 1 finely chopped tomato
• lime (optional)

recipe - chilli sauce

• use chicken oil to fry tomato, garlic and ginger (do not brown)
• add blended chilli and stir
• add blended sping onion and stir
• reduce mixture to a thick sauce keeping it at low boil
• add in lime juice, sugar, salt to taste
• you can then set aside the extras and bottle it up for later use

ingredients - sping onion sauce

• blended ginger - 2 parts
  
• blended garlic - 2-3 parts
  
• blended spring onion - 5 parts
  
• chicken oil
  
• salt (to taste)
  
• sugar (to taste)
  

recipe - sping onion sauce

• use chicken oil to fry garlic and ginger (do not brown)
• add blended sping onion and stir
• reduce mixture to a thick sauce keeping it at low boil
• add in sugar, salt to taste
• you can then set aside the extras and bottle it up for later use

as you can see it's the longest recipe i'd written for the blog........

Avery turns 1 穎熙一歲了!

my dearest avery turned 1 today. since we're in melbourne and not have many friends from here, it's a quiet affair.

The Wife had been up all week making fondant elmos to go on top of baked apple cinnamon cupcakes. Most of these are to be given to 穎熙's playmates in the local playgroup she attends every thursday. we'd originally invited a friend over but she was ill and couldn't make it for 穎熙's hainanese chicken rice-birthday lunch. i'm glad that we'd be doing another picnic this sunday with some other friends at the botanical gardens, at least it wouldn't seem so lonely for her in a belated celebration.



nonetheless, today's a milestone for all of us in the family, not just for the lil one.

she's a happy, healthy lil girl who has been the centre of our world since her arrival a year ago. i suppose firstborns will always be special and i am sure all parents will relate to the quiet tenderness when i manage to get my lil one to fall asleep in my arms and the warm effervescence that my lil brings when she spurts 'papa' in between babbles.

i suppose parenthood can't be taught and this year has had its ups and downs, but i should really stop blogging further cliches. The Wife does a fabulous job tracking her experiences in a blog she created for Avery while i do what i do best, capturing moments behind the lens, photoshopping then posting up on flickr. little did we know that we'd pieced together a scrapbook of sorts and perhaps one day when Avery is older, she'll read these and piece together our experiences bringing her up.

on this day, i wish she'll continue to grow up healthy. and that she'll have a beautiful life ahead of her.

Happy Birthday, 穎熙 :)

Of presents & ebay

to a certain degree, i feel sorry that i am unable to provide her some 'luxuries' in life (i.e. 1st hand toys, nice expensive clothings etc etc) as often as i'd love to. i do not mean that i'd want to spoil my kid but i think it's rather innate for any parent to want the best for their child. with our existing circumstances, i decided to trawl ebay weeks leading to her birthday intead of hitting the stores with their x'mas catalogue sales. my goal was still to get her decent presents that are developmentally appropraite, what she'd like and hopefully not burn a hole in the pocket.

i'd set aside a 100 bux as the budget and plunged into the world of bargain hunting and adrenaline-rushing auctions. i searched its listing for big ticket items like 'fisher price's, developmental essentials like activity tables/cubes/puzzles/toys etc and all time favourites like sesame street plushes (avery's a young sesame street fan! maybe an muppet fan to be more precised since she'd freeze when she sees one yakking away on screen). my trawl became a cross-referencing search for items listed on ebay and their respective makers' official sites for functionality and recall/discontinued status.

i'd also found myself looking forward to the auction processes for the items i was bidding for. i guess the whole experience can be summed up as 'you win some, you lose some' and 'there's always something better if you wait another day'. i figured the excitement watching the countdown to winning the item with a potentially highest bid did provide some good cardiac exercise. but nothing is more satisfying than picking up items from sellers' homes and shipped by sellers at the local post office, knowing that the lil one will have hours of fun after a bit of cleaning up.

in the end of 2 weeks, i did blow my budget at twice the amount but i'd gotten some great deals on the following:

• an activity cube
• 8 battery-operated educational toys
• 4 wooden puzzles
• 1 safety gate
  
• a fisher price kitchen
• 2 sesame street plushes
• a safety toddler harness cum monkey backpack for toddler
• an elmo workbench
• a megablok pull cart + 50 bloks
  
• a deuter child carrier backpack (this's the one that really doubled the budget but i simply cldn't refuse such a bargain...got it at 1/3 its present retail price n its almost brand new...besides i do need a 'bigger mobile device'....*The Wife shakes her head and sighs*)
  

i was pleasantly surprised to see so many pre-loved items being put up for auctions are of excellent condition and the items bought were true to the sellers' descriptions. sellers with whom i'd communicated with were nice and accommodating. a certain Aunty Macy, whom we got elmo and big bird from, had even thrown in extras after knowing that i'm shopping for avery's birthday (see above pix). at the end of the day, other than the inconvenience of having to pick up the items, the entire ebaying experience was a very positive one.

i'm not ashamed to admit that i've gotten my daughter second hand toys as presents for her 1st birthday. i think there'd been a lot of care on our end to pick out what's relevant and as Aunty Macy said in her SMS, she's 'happy that they'll be touched by little hands again'.

Honey Mustard Baked Chicken

This is a very simple dish cos all i did was to marinate and baked it the next day.
havent been really posting/ writing much cos i've been kindda 'addicted to ebay' (as The Wife puts it quite bluntly). i'm saving my thoughts on dat for another post so here's the recipe.....

ingredients

• 1 x chicken (quartered / chunkily chopped)
• 3 tbsp mustard powder
• 4-5 tsp salt
  
• pepper (to taste)
• honey (to taste)
  
• szechuan / chilli powder (to taste)
• 2 tsp rosemary
• 4 tbsp fish sauce
• olive oil
  
• potato halves (optional)
  

recipe

• marinate chicken with everything above (except the potatoes) & leave overnite
• rub salt, pepper over potatoes & drizzle with olive oil
  
• preheat oven at 180'C and bake chicken & potatoes for 20 mins

& that's that. :)
kindda tasted fusiony but goes well with plain rice too.