21 May 2011 - Toasted Pizza

Had been eyeing the wraps for quite sometime before swooping in on them on Friday night. Also added crab sticks, bacon, cherry tomatoes, red and yellow peppers, portobello and white button mushrooms to the basket.

Considered between making bacon wrap or pizza, and went with the latter for something crispier, hopefully.

Since he was using a toaster oven, he had to cut the wrap in half so that things would fit. Here's what he did:
1. Set wrapping paper as base in the oven tray.
2. Brush the side of the wrap facing up with some olive oil.
3. Wash and slice the mushrooms, tomatoes and pepper, brush with a mixture of olive oil, ground black pepper and salt.
4. Place the tomatoes and pepper as the first layer on the wrap.
5. Cut the bacon and crab sticks into small pieces and layer them on. He left the bacon on the topmost layer.
6. 1st toasting of 3-4 mins.
7. Check amount of browning before 2nd toasting of 3-4 mins, adjust as required.
8. Top with the mushrooms and sprinkle cheese (he shredded processed cheese slices).
9. Final toasting of another 3-4 mins until cheese has melted, or browned if you'd like.

This was the first half of the wrap where he toasted everything for the same amount of time. The cheese got a little too burnt as you can see in the background. Got the thin, crispy "crust" effect.


The second half, done as per the steps listed above. Mushrooms were less mushy and cheese did not get burnt. The "crust" was equally crispy though.


He used only 1 slice of cheese for each half, perhaps he would try something with more cheese tomorrow. Or maybe he should make bacon wrap tomorrow.

Just to add, it was really interesting to watch the bacon sizzle and crackle through the glass. He had some leftover fillings, and so he wrapped a slice of bacon around 2 crab sticks as filling for a slice of bread. So sinfully delicious without the vegetables.

17 Nov 2010 - home-made oyster vermicelli

Just yesterday, they visited the supermarket. Some of the ingredients were gotten so that they could satiate cravings for oyster vermicelli (mee sua).

What they bought:
1x pack of vermicelli $1.10
1x pack of frozen oysters $4
1x pepper corn grinder $7.08
2x packs of cheese sausages $7.95
1x pack of parsley $0.85

Woke up really late today, so oyster mee sua was to be late brunch. Preparations as below, they used 2 pots of water, 1 for mee sua and another for blanching the oysters. Please note that this tastes nothing like the Taiwanese version which many of us love, it's just homemade and good enough for them.

For the mee sua pot:
1. Put to boil 3 bowls of water in the pot
2. Add 2x chicken stock cubes into the pot, 1x tablespoon premium dark soy sauce and 1x tablespoon standard dark soy sauce into the pot
3. Put mee sua into the pot when water starts boiling again
4. Add corn starch as needed to thicken the broth
(on hindsight, they probably should have tried adding a little Chinese culinary wine too)

For the oysters
1. Defrost and rinse (some of them burst easily, sad)
2. Drain and pat with corn starch
3. Blanch oysters in batches in the other pot of boiling water using a colander ladle (to protect oysters from strong bubbling)
4. Remove and put in a serving bowl to cool

To serve, heap vermicelli into a bowl, then add oysters at the top. Garnish with condiments of your choice. For them, one teaspoon of vinegar adds some zest, another teaspoon of sesame seed oil for aroma, and decorating with a sprig of parsley completes the picture with a certain sense of freshness.

His setting of the bowl for her


Her setting of the bowl for him


Sounds all beautiful, right? In between, they had actually microwaved a remaining potato to make cheese potato. Put the new grinder toy to work, and sprinkled the peppercorns onto the melted cheese. She added a sprig of parsley just for the picture.


They also had a pack of 5 cheese sausages microwaved, but it had all been gobbled up way before they even remembered the camera.

12 Sep 2010 - homecooked and tampopo ramen

stir fried shanghai greens - he added just one table spoon of oyster sauce, so it tasted a little bland.. oops


braised chicken wing midjoints - she got the balance right, and these were well marinated, except for the fact that too much honey was added that a lot of it was leftover in the wok


later, they went for dinner at takashimaya's tampopo.

ordered sake sashimi for starter's while waiting for the kuro buta ramen. color looked a little more pinkish that orange, but it was smooth and succulent.


finally, the kuro buta ramen. see the orange lump near the top right? regretted mixing that roe into the soup, should have just nibbled at it. quite a fair bit was still stuck at the bottom of the bowl even after finishing the soup...


lava egg! seen this many times but first time eating it, probably why it got badly bitten. hahahha

20 June 2010 - steamed brinjal

she always targets a few at the supermarket, yam, brinjal, mince pork, canned fish. this time, she got mince pork and brinjal.

steamed brinjal topped with mince meat - you've seen this countless of times, at least it's a healthier dish


plus some plain rice topped with sesame seasoning. sometimes, simplicity is bliss. (because you don't have to wash so many pots and pans)

06 June 2010 braised pork with rice

all things braised are probably good. contained pork and egg. he's relishing her homecooked meals.

curry chicken 19 Jan 2010

chocolate mooncake - made the night before, ready to eat in the morning. chocolate flavoured skin with chocolate core. this was had in conjunction with some oats, milk and 4 slices of bread stuffed with pork floss. very filling.


came home after a gruelling physical test, washed up the soiled clothes, took his shower while she touched up her dish.

curry chicken - everything was pre-cooked before putting into the curry mixture. potatoes were soft enough, but the chicken bones still had raw blood. spicy curry made him perspire again, had to go into the shower again... tired and sleepy......

salted egg dou miao and olive vegetable tofu

he returned home from work after wasting 2.5hrs for a meeting that was cancelled last minute. the only reprieve was to return home to good food for both the stomach and soul.

steamed tofu topped with minced meat, olive vegetables and meat floss. the savoury toppings went well with the bland tofu. he loves tofu. 80cents for the slab, and total cost of this dish is probably less than $2.


dou miao with minced meat and salted egg. another good tasting novel dish to him. however, this was made very wastefully. bought a new packet of dou miao, as she had left the previous packet in the chiller for 2 days and it had wilted quite badly. wasted $1.30. the eggs were cooked in water, losing most of the yolk and whites in the process. food wastage breaks his heart (and wallet). the over-zealous mom scooped away most of the yolk, displaying inconsideration yet again.

mooncake experiment 14 Jan 2010

experimented with mooncake making on this evening. she got her recipe ready and assuaged him that she had all the details. and so they started.

yam core surrounded by matcha flavoured filling, while the outer skin was cocoa flavoured.


view of them in whole. if you're wondering about the green one, it's because they ran out of skin, so they made mooncakes out of the filling.


another, a round mooncake. filling's too sticky and it kept getting onto the mold, hence the broken edges.


it was a minor botched job in the end, because she used 25g of matcha powder instead of 5g as stated. no wonder the matcha felt a little too heavy for his liking...

capsicum chicken and kangkong in oyster sauce

had a long day at work. she was waiting for him to be back before she started preparing freshly cooked dinner.

she soaked the kangkong and capsicum for a bit before slicing and chopping them. had the usual garlic and ginger combination too. as for meat, she cut small pieces out of a chunk of chicken breast. not telling him how she wanted to cook today, she ordered him to sit and wait while she started the wokking.

first dish, stir-fried chicken with capsicum strips. the thin and long slices of capsicum made eating them a whole new experience. as for the chicken, she blanched the marinated pieces to prepare them for the stir-fry. he thought this would take away the flavour and make the meat tough, but he was wrong again. tender and juicy, totally different from the kind of chicken breast he had ever made. nice color too, except that he bought yellow capsicum after mistaking it for red.


next dish, kangkong in oyster sauce. she boiled the vegetables, with no seasoning whatsoever. weird way of cooking, he thought. she sniggered and started frying the garlic till fragrant before adding the vegetables. drizzled some oyster sauce and stirred until even before serving. another novel way of eating for him, he had only known sambal kangkong. just look at the oh-so-slick vegetables......


total cost, $4.10. nice.

sweet and sour pork loin, dinner 21 December 09

she prepared sugar yam again in the afternoon and left it in the fridge to take form. used 4 big scoops of sugar.....


also, she had already chopped up the vegetables to wait for him to cook. she forgot to peel the asparagus though, so some of them were too tough to eat. again, he seared some smashed garlic in the oil till fragrant before throwing in the vegetables, salt and butter. she found the end product too bland, even when he had threw in a large chunk of butter and half a teaspoon of salt. he's trying to eat healthily.


she had requested that he buy some pork loin after work, and he found frozen meat chunks of loin. the chilled section offered only loin ribs. she took out 3 slabs of meat and cut strips out of them to marinate in ginger, flour, egg, salt and spring onions. also made her concoction of her favourite sweet and sour sauce, vinegar, sugar, water, kushiyaki, soy sauce.

helped her fry the meat while she washed up the dirty dishes to make space. set on kitchen towel to remove excess oil. when he proceeded to fry the white sesame over medium heat, many of the seeds started jumping all around the place, forcing him to turn down the flame.


and the finished product here, after rolling it in the sweet and sour sauce and white sesame. thick sinful syrup, and the meat tasted a tad too salty. seems like they are becoming opposite, one advocating healthy eating, while the other dishing out salt and sugar at will. luckily, it went well with the bland tofu porridge.


not one to waste food (again, they are dissimilar), he pan-fried the leftover batter. had wanted to deep-fry it but the wok was too heavily coated with sugar and he found it too troublesome to wash it up (was also getting very hungry). the batter didn't expand, and it turned out to be something like a salty roti prata. fortunately, it didn't taste bad.


end of report for 21 december 09.

sweet and sour pork, pan-fried codfish, butter vegetable soup

went grocery shopping after work again. wife only wanted to buy 1 piece of cod steak. but while shopping, he grabbed salmon steak, a bag of large yellow onions and 2 chunks of butter

when he got home with the loot, she had already marinated the pork, prepared the batter, mixed the sweet and sour sauce, and was already starting to chop up the vegetables.

menu for the evening, sweet and sour pork, pan-fry codfish and vegetable soup.

as always, they splitted into 2 groups. while she made final touches to the pork, he chopped some ginger and onions. washed the codfish and dried it on some kitchen towels before proceeding to dust it with salt, pepper, ginger and some soy sauce. he had wanted to make an oriental version, but she wanted a more westernized one. not much of a choice, compromises have to be made in a marriage. he heated up the skillet, melted a chunk-too-big of butter, and threw in some onions to be browned. some miscalculations here, the codfish steak was too big for the pan! halved it with the knife and snipped the stubborn skin with kitchen scissors before putting them into the pan, one at a time, cooking each side for a few minutes.

chapalang fusion codfish. wife smirked at the presentation of the dish, while his youngest brother commented that it had a unique flavor, which he appreciated. overall, they all seem to like how it tasted.


while the panfrying of the codfish was going on, wife was also frying the batter-dipped pork. she made a mistake by throwing all the pork into the wok instead of frying them in batches. so they ended up being oily and moist stir-fried pork, not crispy at all. once she deemed it done, she removed them from heat and threw in the sweet and sour sauce for heating. next, she added a mixture of riceflour and water to give the sauce a stickier consistency. gave it a good stir before adding red and green capsicums, pineapples, tomatoes and the pork.

here is the picture of the sweet and sour pork. apparently it turned out well, he felt it was very yummy for the first dish she officially cooked on her own. nice color, great taste!


he still had another dish left to do, soup!

raw chopped vegetables posing for a picture before going for their butter spa treatment. onion, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes. she opened a can of cream corn for the soup base, but he was skeptical if it would work as well as fresh corn.


luckily this turned out well too. it seemed to have a more appetising aroma with butter added to the soup. soup was sweet, though he's still sure it would have been better with fresh corn.


what a hectic day again. and she seemed to be all hyped up for more cooking. finally, something she's really motivated to do. cooking together is fun, at least for now.

taking the day off tomorrow, and he can't wait to slice the salmon like a pseudo-sushi chef. perhaps teriyaki salmon and breaded salmon tomorrow? hmm...

operation practise cooking

prior experience would definitely benefit life in the future, thus he decided to have more cooking sessions with the wife.

after some discussion, they decided he was to buy dou miao (some kind of sprouts, can't remember the name at this point of time), broccoli, beef, pork ribs and bakuteh soup base.

he did the dou miao and pork ribs soup (no picture of this, too engross with eating already)


while she did the below, stir fried beef with broccoli


broccoli - $0.83
dou miao - $1.20
beef - $3
pork ribs - $2.65
soup base - $1.80

had a fulfilling meal and gained some learning experience

a tiring hamburger sunday morning

he woke up early in the morning for the start of phase 2 training. had half a glass of milk before setting off.

*fast forward to returning home*

he opened the door to see everyone else sleeping. no food, except for 8 eggs in a container filled with warm water.


a hungry man's gotta do what a hungry man's gotta do. whipped out the frying pan, put on the heat, dash of oil, and started frying the ham. now... he was hungry after all that running and the only ready food was egg. so, he cracked one and found that they were half boiled eggs. lovely.


revelation: in between waiting for the ham to cook, he unknowingly consumed 5 eggs. yes, bash him.

feeling a little more energetic, he could now peel the lettuce and chop the tomatoes.

crunchy lettuce having morning swim


sliced local tomatoes - the color wasn't too red, but being 1/4 the price of the malaysian crunchies, it was selected.


by this time, all the ham slices were done.


prepared the plates and buns. at this point of time, everyone else was still sleeping, oblivious to the aroma. or maybe there wasn't.


the final product - squeezed in 2 slices of ham, 2 slices of cheese, 1 folded lettuce and 2 slices of tomatoes. he couldn't help but have 2 of them.


and finally, after summoning them so many a time, they got up one by one. she tried to make it up by pouring him some chocolate noir cereal in chocolate milk. by the way, this one has a rich chocolatey core, he likes this better than his favourite kokokrunch now.


went another step to make a heart-shaped egg to shoved into his burger. however, he was conscious that he already had 5. too bad for him, no fried egg.

monday brunch 21 Sep 09

this day's a holiday replacement for hari raya puasa which fell on sunday.

this gave him another reason, in addition to bodyaches from exercises, to sleep in.

woke up to no prepared food, but luckily he had bought hotdog buns, cheese pork sausages, cheese and cucumbers.

steamed the sausages for a good ten minutes, chopped cucumbers in elongated form, wrapped cheese around the piping hot sausage and stuffed them into the sliced buns. topped with tomato sauce, and good to eat.

a peek of brunch today:

home made food (with love)

from the archives again.

here's the latest, something that she made for him, using a heart-shaped mould ($2) bought from daiso. egg placed upon a slice of black pepper ham, waiting to enter his "gastruniverse".


the following few pictures would be from between 1-2 years back when he was still trudging through university. the only ways of relieving stress would be to go cycling with the camera, or to cook for the camera. it's quite obvious which won his favor. most of them were made after midnight, the time when "nothing is right in his left brain and nothing is left in his right".

sunny-side ups - gotta have them still hot, pass the dark soy sauce please!


"together we'll be" - an idea popped out of nowhere while peeling prawns. these were the 2 that formed up the nicest. the other 2 were hidden underneath the parsley, that explains the amount used. the onions made his eyes bleed tears... but revenge came soon after.


the love for eggs made him try a pizza/pancake-style egg with toppings of chopped onions with cheese that didn't melt too nicely. garnished with finely chopped spring onions. you can see that the egg was too dry....


second try of the pizza-style egg. was better prepared this time round, used chicken franks, crab-meat sticks and cherry tomatoes. too much eggs in his diet, most people say. but he just loves eggs.


melted cheese omelette with chopped onions. ingredients were limited and cash was low. just settled for anything that could be thrown in for a delicious break from mugging. this time round, the cheese just wouldn't stop melting.


there came a time when he got sick of just eggs. he tried to pan-fry noodles with custom-made sauce. sounds dangerous, but luckily it was palatable.