Sweet & Sour Pork Belly Stirfry

Sweet & Sour Pork Belly Stirfry, originally uploaded by AuRoRiN & MoOoK.

i hate deep frying cos that usually meant that i've got a mess to clean up after. so here's an adapted version of the sweet sour pork. not too bad so says the wife.

ingredients:

• rindless pork belly, washed, scalded and cut to thin slices
• chopped garlic
• chopped onion
• frozen mixed veg
• fish sauce/ soy sauce
• ketchup
• oyster sauce
• pepper
• corn flour (usually 1 tbsp is enough, mix with half bowl of cool water)
• chinese cooking wine
• fragrant oil (shallots oil)
• sugar (optional)
• water

recipe:

•  marinate pork belly pieces with fish sauce/ soy sauce, fragrant oil, chinese cooking wine, garlic and pepper. set aside for 30 min
• then quickly stir fry pork at high heat till pork is cooked. set aside pork slices but leave gravy in wok/pan
• stir fry the veg and onion (sweat the onion)
• add 3 part ketchup to 1 part oyster sauce, add some water (not too much cos you want a gravy not soup), stir well (add sugar if need be)
• when gravy is to taste, add corn flour solution and stir till gravy thickens
• pour gravy over pork slices and serve

Steamed Drunken Chicken Wings with Asparagus & Wolfberries

Steamed Drunken Chicken Wings with Asparagus & Wolfberries, originally uploaded by AuRoRiN & MoOoK.

something quick and easy. result of yet another daily 'invention test'.
fragrance from the wine, ginger, chicken oil and shallot oil is always nice on a cold day.
soup will be a nice blend of veg & chicken taste to it.

ingredients:

• 5-6 chicken wings
• 7-8 stalks of asparagus (skinned, chopped to halves)
• ginger finely shredded
• wolfberries (handful, soaked washed, cleaned)
• fragrant oil (shallots oil)
• pepper
• chinese cooking wine
• salt
• fish sauce/ soy sauce (couple of teaspoon, to taste, optional)

 recipe:

• marinate chicken by rubbing in salt, pepper, fragrant oil (i actually also added just some fish sauce for the 'smell') for about 15-20 min
• put steamer to boil at high heat
• place chopped asparagus at bottom of plate/tray
• add approx enough wine to level of asparagus
• add part of ginger and all of wolfberries to wine
• place wings on top of asparagus, add rest of ginger and wolfberries on top of wings
• steam at high heat for 20 minutes (make sure chicken is fully thawed before steaming. how to know if its cooked? the bones wld have turned white and the bloody parts turned dark)
• drizzle fish sauce/soy sauce (optional) should soup require more 'taste'

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Cravings

Last night (or was it early this morning), i walked away from my laptop with a craving for something sweet. i hung round the kitchen for a while hovering above the biscuits...then i remembered i bought a pack of beh teh sors from laguna asian grocery at QV about 1 week back. yesh its a pack of glory's beh teh sor. it's packaged in a pseudo traditional style (packed in a small plastic bag and then wrapped in a white piece of paper like how it's done before...last time no plastic bag). it's small, dry and the caramel (for the lack of better word) within hardened. sad but still worth savouring at this hour (the pix has a soup spoon for comparison on size).

I don't have a sweet tooth but i do like a certain type of sweetness.
Not the rich chocolate sinful sweetness but closer to baklava and even closer still, the beh teh sor/pong piah kind of sweetness with a savoury aftertaste. Maybe cos the sweetness comes wrapped in some flaky confectionery and the latter is one of those comfort food that i'd grown up with. well, the paternal side of the family used to patronise this Hokkien confectionery Tan Hock Seng along Telok Ayer for its tau sah pia, beh teh sor and pong pia as offerings/snacks. of cos the prices now are hugely inflated and servings had largely shrunk proportionately.

it's certainly gonna be one of my pit stops when i go back to Sg in 2 weeks time!

Stirfry Pork Belly Slices with Vegemite

there'd been this jar of vegemite sitting around in the kitchen for a while now (courtesy of eric & snow). might have passed the expiry date but i reckon that it's ok if i'd used it as condiment. had tried deep fried chicken with vegemite sauce before back in sg many moons back. vegemite exudes a fragrant, bittery, saltish taste in that dish so i figured it'd be strong enough for pork too. i've added honey to give a sweet tinge to the dish.


ingredients

• 500 g of pork belly, cut to bite size
• spring onions, 3 stalks, separate stems and leaves
• ginger, 3 cm portion, sliced
• garlic, 4-5 cloves, chopped
• ground black pepper
• dash of 5 spice powder
• 2 tsp salt (moderation)
• 5-6 tbsp chinese cooking wine
• cooking oil
• dark soy sauce (3 tbsp)
• 2 tsp of vegemite (i suppose marmite will do too)
• honey (4-5 tbsp)
• warm water
• chopped chilli (optional)

recipe

• marinate pork belly with cooking wine for >30 min
• drain of liquid (keep for use later) and rub in salt and pepper
• brown garlic, ginger and pork in cooking oil
• add soy sauce, 5 spice powder and stir fry, making sure pork belly is evening coated
• add 1 cup of warm water, stems of spring onion and let simmer for 20-30 min at mid heat. stir occasionally and let it reduce (but not too dry)
• once pork belly skin is sufficiently tender and sauce reduced, add liquid (from marinate), vegimite and honey. stir occasionally so as to not let the honey burn in the pot. let gravy reduce further if need be (low-mid heat at approx 5 min)
• when satisfied with tenderness of pork, stir in spring onion leaves and chilli and serve

东坡肉redux

Had meant to make roast pork belly but was too lazy to go get lime & try out my sis's father-in-law's recipe. besides the slab had too much bones so i decided to remake the 东坡肉 with some changes to the previous recipe.

bigger chunk of pork
longer frying time
more even caramalising
more dark soy sauce
more salt
more wine
more frequent topup of water but essentially same ingredients (1 less chilli) n same cooking time.
& a whole sinful chunk to yourself! muahahahahaha. boil some noodles and vegs & that's lunch!

Endtrip

i'm to leave again for melbourne in 2 days time while the wife & kid will be catching a later flight in a week's time cos she's gonna attend a friends wedding at the end of the month. it' interesting how this trip has been marked by weddings at both the beginning and the end.

in the span of approx 6-7 weeks, i'd......

• attended 1 wedding in Singapore
• attended 1 wedding in KL (strange to see my sis going through 2 ceremonies in a span of 2 weekends)
• realised that i could no longer fit into my old dress pants (well, 1 was bought some 10 yrs ago n another 5 yrs ago...glad they cld be altered to fit present waist line)
  
• saw a side of KL which i'd not previously known
• mingled with my sis's very eloquent in-laws
  
• made 1 trip up Humen and saw the wife's 95 yr old paternal grandma
  
• made 1 trip to Hong Kong Disneyland with Wife, kiddo, bro-in-law, MIL and her 2 kakas
  
• eaten some 5 rounds of buffet and some sumptuous dinner spreads (courtesy of my sis's weddings and in-laws)
  
• bought tons of books for the kiddo
• (rather her laolao & gugu) bought tons of clothes for the kiddo
• spent CNY and caught up with most of my relatives (strangely nostalgic even though i usually just see them for no more than 6 hours annually on the very same occasion)
• caught up with some old friends, ex-schoolmates and ex-colleagues. for some, i'd really wish i could spend more time with
• caught 1 awful movie called Avatar. and dang that's the only movie i watched (downloads don't count).......
  
• packed and unpacked 3 times
• learnt about zero windows config to get internet connection on my FIL's peecee & cranky usb wifi modem adapter
• visited the doctor twice (once for flu/cough & 2nd for stomach viral infection...he'd been given a large enuff angbao)
• finally picked up my referral from my ex-boss
• read half of zhao ziyang's biography (maybe i'll get to finish it)
  
• stuffed myself with bakwas, pineapple tarts and kweh bangkit (i think that explains for my new found zits and probably 2 extra kilos which i had previously lost over the 6 mths in Melb)
• observed how the kiddo has grown & come to learn new things
  

i'd have loved to......

• spend more time with my folks/ let them spend more time with the kiddo
• bring the kiddo to more places in Sg
  
• tidy up the tank i'd left me dad
• stay on for my JC schoolmate's wedding
  
• eat the humful char kway teow and chicken rice at queenstown market & tau sar piah & pong piah from any traditional chinese confectionary store
  
• look for some long distance part-time work from over here
• etc......
  

I can't help feeling nostalgia creeping in towards the end of this trip. perhaps it's my mind's response to the uncertainty of our future - the 'not quite here-not quite there' conundrum. I was also saddened by the news of the sudden passing of another JC schoolmate just weeks short of CNY. but these emotions served to remind me to make the most of my life and treasure all the lil things that everyone around me had to offer. while i may not be able to see very far from where i am now, i'm glad that i can afford lil steps and have my loved ones around, however near/far.

Observations of The Kiddo Dec09-Jan10

The Wife maintains a blog for the kid. in fact she does a pretty good job at it and i've just been plain lazy to contribute my observations. but of late, she'd grown to be more interactive and expressive....e.g.

• she's certainly not reserved in literally pointing out to you what she wants. she will also make short 2-syllabic 'commands' when she points
• she shakes her head and pushes item away when i get the wrong stuff for her
• she understands 'give' and of late will assert her refusal to give by shaking her head rigorously and spinning herself in circles (when she's seated)
  
• she pouts and frowns when i think she's thinking hard enuff
• she joins in the conversation, often exclaiming with outbursts of 'hahahas' & outstretched arms
• she does some imaginative play with her toys, 'talking' to them
• she treats everything with buttons as a phone (she used to just press n bite on them), placing them next to her ear and mumble to it
  
• she is proactive in getting us to play with/demo to her. sometimes when she can't get a desired reaction from her toys/wants our participation, she'd take our hand and place the toys in them (e.g there was this once when she took her tutu as a phone and stuffed it in my left ear)
• she crawls fast and explores new places a lot more
• she associates certain sounds to some animals - cow says, moo, sheep says baa, tiger& lions says hraarrr, cat says meoow, dog says woowoo
• she waves byebye (& the odd mumble of byebye when she remembers...tho she can't do flying kiss)
• she kisses by doing a forehead knock on us
  

i'd also like to think that she'd gotten more discerning and exhibits different behaviour when she's with either of us. for example......

• i'm the iphone guy & she'd come to me for her sesame st-on-the go kick. she no longer likes The Elmo Song...now she prefers Bert & Ernie's Lalala Song, Diana Krall's Everybody Song & The Pointer Sister's 12 Pinball Song
  
• i'm the carry-me-hi-hi guy & she'd try to get onto my shoulder when i carry her

but she's still pretty much the same in other ways.....

• she has only 2 grown teeth
• i hope she'd learn to stand and maybe totter around as she builds more confidence over the weeks.

2010

i'm gonna be traveling back Sg in a few hours time with the family.
my sis is getting married in a week's time and i'm really happy for her. it's indeed a happy occasion for everyone in the family. i'm glad we're attending this after missing out on her solemnisation in jul 09. i'm also gald that my grandma gets to see her grandchild walk down the aisle and this time round, avery's gonna be there to see her gugu in her beautiful wedding gown.

i hope this signals a good start to the new year. 2009 has been kind to me and my family. we relocated to melbourne and i took on the role of a full time parent. looking back at the past half year, it certainly wasn't easy. realigning goals, managing expectations, living off savings.....all these well away from the comfortable distance of family and friends back home. but we'd made new friends, got ourselves a new routine in life. to be honest, i think i really really really wouldn't trade anything in the world for the past 6 months cos i watched my kiddo grew. i was there everyday, every step, every meal & every poo heh. perhaps, i've just grown a lil wiser with her around.

i'm horrid at keeping resolutions hence i'd ceased making any since i was 20.
but this year i'm gonna try giving it a go, afterall i'm already a father of a 1 yr old and life around is no longer as cushy as it used to be & i have only 1 for myself.

1. i must be more focused in life

& i jolly well keep to that.

东坡肉

We're having a couple of friends over for dinner and i'd prepare a menu of stirfry celery+carrot, grilled chicken wings, braised pork belly and stirfry prawns. it's been a while since i'd to cook for >2 adults but it's always fun cos i'd then have an excuse to experiment.

This is not the usual braised pork belly. It's adapted from a recipe for 东坡肉 which is sweet and melts in the mouth. personally i think i shld have just forgo the chilli altogether but i did get the texture right. i'd also added a pinch of salt to make it work for the eggs i'd added for the braising process (cos for some strange reason, ppl tend to associate eggs as part of the braised repertoire). took about 2 hrs to whip this up but i think its well worth it.

ingredients

• 500-600 g pork belly, cut into thick chunks
  
• approx 5 cm thick piece of ginger, sliced
• 5-6 x spring onions (stems only)
  
• 1 x cinnamon stick
• 2 x star anise
• 2 x cloves
• 2 x cardommon pods (break open)
• 2-3 chilli (optional)
• 4-5 hardboiled eggs (optional, cos to be honest they go better in the salty version of braised pork), gently prick the egg whites (like some 9-12 holes/egg, not too deep)
  
• ground pepper
• 1-2 tbsp rock sugar
  
• 1 tsp salt
  
• 2-4 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 2-4 tbsp cooking wine
  
• cooking oil
• warm water

recipe:

• scald cut pork with boiling water and pat dry. make sue belly pieces have fat & skin on them
  
• ready pot with oil heated at medium
• lightly brown the pork, turning occasionally to get an even browning. this helps to seal the pork's flavour before putting it through the braise
  
• once browned, remove from pot and set aside. pork should only be about 60-70% cooked
• pour out excess oil, leaving just some in pot. wait for pot to cool a lil before leaving it on at low heat
• add in the rock sugar, stir and let it melt into a syrup, make sure it does not brown and carbonise
• stir in the pork and make sure they are evenly coated with the syrup. set aside and let cool
• using the same pot, stir fry the ginger, spring onion, spices
• add the remaining ingredients, soy sauce, water and wine to the spices and bring to boil
• stir in the pork pieces and let simmer at low-medium heat
• set aside some space in the pot for the eggs and introduce them into the pot after the pork pieces are uniformly 'stained'
• let pot simmer at low heat for at least 50 minutes. i'd them simmer for 90 minutes and the pork and its skin was definitely very tender by now. make sure to turn the eggs and pork around once in a while to ensure even 'staining'
  
• once u like the texture of the meat, turn off hob and serve.
  

Those Blardy Prawns

i love seafood. especially crustacean & shellfish.
perhaps it stemmed from a family that limited such indulges to festive/ red letter days (cos they are pricey) & largely cos my dad ain't one of their biggest fans.

i love my prawns whole, ie head & shell. in fact, i tend to ingest them whole too (save for the pointy bits in the head and the tough bits in the tail). i guess that provides some form of calcium intake and may even save some moolah on buying calcium pills.

this is a version that is adapted from the familiar ketchup prawns that most mums would whip up. what's different is that it's a whole lot more prawny, pastey and spicy, just the way i like it. sure to give u a cholesterol kick too but hey once in a while...should be ok lah.

ingredients

• half kg prawns (i used banana prawns...any medium sized proawns will do)
• 2 chopped tomatoes
• garlic (finely chopped)
• ginger (finely chopped. ratio of ginger to garlic = 1:2)
• ground pepper
• ketchup/tomato paste
• chilli sauce (optional)
  
• chopped chilli
• chopped spring onion (as garnish)
  
• 2-3 tbsp dark soy sauce
• sugar (to taste)
• fish sauce/salt (to taste)
• 5 tbsp chinese cooking wine
  

recipe

• trim off legs, eyes and feelers of prawns. when you snip off the front part of the head, you'll cut into the head. that's good cos you'd want the prawnliness to be extracted from those exposed heads
• brown garlic, ginger and reduce tomatotes in same pot at mid heat
  
• add in prawns, stir and let cook till 60% cooked
• add pepper, ketchup/tomato paste, chilli sauce, soy sauce, sugar, fish sauce
• once prawns are alomost cooked, turn heat down and add cooking wine
• close lid and let simmer till prawns are all cooked and gravy is reduced
• add garnish & serve
  

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'.