Natural inspiration

I was preparing for lecture this morning and attempted to use this UK based company by the name of "Pret A Manger" as a case study exercise for my students. As I was exploring their website, I found below pictures from their website very naturally inspirated and hopefully will give some mothers out there some inspiration while preparing food for our kids. I extracted some information from their website (www.pret.com) - Pret opened in London in 1986 by two college friends, Sinclair and Julian, made proper sandwiches using natural, preservative-free ingredients...

You see they can turn this sandwich into a big empire today, that's call entrepreneurship, so mothers out there if you have a new way of preparing food, it might end up to be a great enterprising idea, so don't be sceptical, who knows one day your home recipe might turn out to be a multimillionaire business... :)

A great way to get our kids eat oranges...

How about using this idea to get your kids eat their vege... and also to remind them to brush their teeth after every meal..


Let's take this before we go to school and work eh...

Ah... it seems the fish is enjoying its dip....

Baked Chicken - Celine's recipe

I tried Celine's recipe, you can find the recipe here

I improvised a bit as I can't find the actual ingredient used by Celine and the result is quite satisfying, the meat is tender and juicy (as stated by Celine) and the children say thumbs up, they commented it tasted like Kenny Rogers, ha ha ha.
The spice that I used (mixed herbs and chicken seasoning)

The marinated chicken

Tada.........

Big Fat Noodle - Tai Lok Min

During non-working days, I will cook simple one dish meal for our lunch, on Monday I tried this - stir fried big fat noodle or famously known as "Tai Lok Min". Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
1 kati (600gm) of big fat noodle - for four
chicken breast - slice thinly or prawns (to your liking)
cabbage - slice thinly
carrot - slice thinly (I skip this)
1 cup of water
1 egg - beaten
garlic - chopped

Sauce:
2 tbsp of oyster sauce
1 tbsp of sugar
1/2 tbsp of corn flour
1/2 tbsp of light soya sauce

Heat up wok, put in 2 tbsp of oil, add garlic, stir until fragrant, add in chicken breast/prawns, cabbage and 1/2 tsp of salt,stir fry for a minute, put in noodle and 1 cup of water, put in 2 tbsp of dark soya sauce, stir fry and cover wok for 3-5 minutes, pour in sauce and beaten egg, stir fry for another minute. Serve hot with your favourite chili sauce (I go for Kampung Koh chili)... hmm... yummylicious.

Homemade wholemeal bread

We tried this a couple of times but the result is not acceptable (too hard), we consulted an expert, revise the recipe.. voila... finally soft fluffy and yummy bread..

150 gram wholemeal flour
350 gram high protein flour
3 tbsp of milk powder
50 gram melted butter
1 egg
1/2 tsp salt
50 gram sugar
1 tbsp yeast
350 ml luke warm water
walnut or raisin (to your liking)

Mixed everything together with a ladle until thoroughly mixed or you can knead with hand (put a little high protein flour if too sticky).

Placed dough in a baking pan, place in microwave (or any air tight container) to let it rise (the longer the better, I placed it for 2 hours). The dough should rise at least double the size. Bake for 25 minutes at 160 deg Celcius. When done, spread the surface with a little butter.

Simple recipe for mummies..

Spending more time at home gives me more time to cook for my family, below are some simple recipes... happy trying...

Steamed egg with "glass noodle - tang hoon" and dried shrimps


10-20 dried shrimps or small prawns (to your liking)
3 eggs
A handful of glass noodle (soaked in water till soft)

Chopped the dried shrimps/small prawns, placed them in a medium size bowl, cut the glass noodle into half of the original length, beat 3 eggs, add 1/2 tablespoon of soya sauce, 1/2teaspoon of sugar, dash of pepper, 200ml water.

Bring a wok of water to boil, pour the mixture into a stainless steel plate and steam for 5-8 minutes...


Stew pork ribs with anistar and mushrooms


RM7-10 pork ribs (to your liking) or half of a chicken
5 - 8 medium size shitake mushrooms (to your liking)
3 eggs, boiled and remove shell
4 anistar
2 whole garlic, separate the gloves, leave the skin on
500ml water
1 tbs of dark soya sauce

For the sauce:
2 tbs of oyster sauce
1 tbs of sugar
1 tbs of corn flour
3 tbs of water

I use a clay pot, you can use any cooking pot... pour 500ml water, 2 whole of garlic and 4 anistar to boil for 10 minutes under normal fire, pour in pork ribs/chicken, mushrooms and dark soya sauce. Let the content stewed under small fire for 45 minutes (occasionally stir and checked on the water level), once meat softened, poured in the sauce mixture and add the eggs. Cooked for another 3-5 minutes and it's ready..

Lazy sushi (why?? because I cut a lot of steps..)


1 japanese cucumber, cut them into long strips
4 - 8 crab filament sticks, boiled for 2-3 minutes, shread into long strips
3 eggs, fried and cut into long strips
Sea weed...
Rice, cooked earlier and let it cool down...( I did not add rice vinegar, you can do so, just add them into the cooked rice and stir well)

For the dipping sauce (I don't have kikoman sauce and wasabe.., the kids can't take it)
3 tbs soya sauce
1 tbs sugar
1 tbs cooking wine
1/2 tbs corn flour
50 ml water
Cooked above under slow fire until thickens...

Take a piece of sea weed (I go for the ready cut type), lay them onto a piece of bamboo sheet. Spread the rice evenly in the center, allowing 1/2 cm blank space at the top and bottom edge of the sea weed, lay a strip of cucumber, egg and crab filamen in the center. Role them up... (you need some skill here), cut them into 1/2 inch width.... serve with dipping sauce / kikoman & wasabe.... I end up eating a lot of the "ugly" ones..... you can also try different fillings like tuna in mayonaise, corns...I'm no expert here but for the fun of it, I can try so do you..

Western meal

Just for today, thought of pampering the kids with home cooked western meal. First time doing this as I don’t normally cooked fried stuff at home, firstly it’s oily, secondly it consumed a lot of oil and definitely not healthy… anyway I tried to incorporate healthy side dishes to compensate for the extra calories…

This is what I add on…
Fruit salad
Boiled carrot & slices of tomatoes
Wholemeal bun

To compensate for the….
Fried chicken and French fries…

The results…. Ta da… the kids finished everything without having to be fed or rushed into finishing their meal..

Yummy breakfast

Here is a simple breakfast recipe for the family....

I prepard this in one of the Saturday morning...

1) Toasted bread with butter
2) Fried egg with button mushrooms
3) Sweetened peach (from a can)
4) Slices of tomatoes

It's quite easy and simple, cut the button mushrooms into thin slices, beat 4/5 eggs depending on number of servings, add in some milk or cheese (per your liking), some soya sauce.. heat the wok and pour in oil.... fry the egg + ingredients in it as normal.....the rest just cut and serve... we ate with a glass of milk voila... a delicious breakfast indeed

Emily's version without the mushroom wor...

Everything home made...

MIL has been a vivid cook lately. I decided to stop catering last month considering that MIL has successfully acquired the skills required to fully cook for the family. To put her to test before certifying that she has indeed "graduated", we gave her a challenge to cook all the meals for the family (poor her). We must say she has indeed passed with flying colors and we are now enjoying the fruit of her labor. We are privilege to have home cook food from Mon - Friday, not just that MIL has also acquired skills of making fruit enzymes, yogurt, buns and cakes - means healthier food for the family.

The kids are away for sunday school camp, MIL went to help out in preparing food for the camp.Hubby and I had a very simple meal today, fruits and home made yogurt as appetizer followed by "oat pau" and beans soup as our main meal - all home made. Let's hope MIL maintain her skills and be continually motivated to prepare more good and healthier food for the family.

Home made yogurt + green apples and dragon fruit jellies..

Stir fry Udon

During my recent trip to Nibong Tebal, we dropped by at a restaurant and one of the dishes that we ordered was stir fried Udon…. Last Saturday, I went to the wet market in Lipsin and happened to spot the same “Udon” that the restaurant use, I bought 2 packets and cooked my version. According to hubby and the kids, they were delicious wor, so here I am sharing with you all the recipe:

1) 2 packets of Udon



2) Medium size prawn or any meat to your liking, marinate with 1 tsp of sugar and soya sauce and pepper for about 20 minutes
3) Vege to your liking
4) 2-3 onions, sliced
5) 10 curry leaves
6) ½ tsp grinded black pepper

Sauce:
1) 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
2) 1 teaspoon of sugar
3) 1 teaspoon of soya sauce
4) 1 teaspoon of corn flour
5) 2 tablespoon of water

Put 2-3 tablespoon of oil into work, stir fry onions until fragrant, put in prawns/meat, stir fry until meat is half cooked, put in vegetable and ½ teaspoon of salt, stir fry for another 1-2 minutes, put in Udon and ¼ cup of water. Separate the Udon using the ladle, the water should help to separate them, put in curry leaves and black pepper, cover the wok for 1-2 minutes. Pour in sauce and stir fry till sauce thickens. Serve hot... I sprinkle additional black pepper before serving.

More cooking

Since the huge hike of goods' price, I’m more cost conscious nowadays. I tend to cook more often over the weekends, typically we went out for a good meal once a week and each meal would cost us about RM40-RM60 depending where we go and what we eat. In addition MIL has borrowed a lot of cook books, she even made some copies so I’ve been trying new recipes and also improvised some of my own…. Would like to share some recipes for those who want to pamper their family right at the comfort of your home... I think most of us dread about the cleaning part not so much the cooking part right? As for me I normally do the preparation and cooking, MIL will take the back stage and do the cleaning job for me…

Wai Wai’s Chicken Teriyaki.

1)2 drumsticks with the thigh portion, de-boned

Marinate:
1)1 ½ teaspoon of sugar
2)1 tablespoon of soya sauce
3)1 tablespoon of “shau shing” wine

Sauce:
1)1 ½ teaspoon of sugar
2)1 tablespoon of soya sauce
3)1 tablespoon of “shau shing” wine
4)1 teaspoon of corn flour
5)3 tablespoon of water

Garnishing:
Slices of cucumbers/tomatoes

Marinate the chicken for ½ hour, heat 3 tablespoon of oil, spread the chicken with a thin layer of corn flour and grilled under low fire until both side is cooked. Pour out excess oil and pour in the sauce, cook until sauce thicken, shut the fire, remove from wok, garnish with slices of cucumbers/tomatoes.

Chicken Chestnut with Jellyfish Soup


1) ½ chicken, de-skin
2) 4 slices of ginger
3) 7-8 chestnuts (de-skin)
4) 4 bowls of water
5) Jelly fish (a handful), soaked for 6 hours to remove the salty taste

Bring items 1 – 4 to boil, remove and transfer into a slow cooker, let it simmer for 4 – 6 hours, pour in jelly fish and add salt to taste. Serve hot.

Petai Craze

Last Saturday, suddenly I got this craze for "buah petai", the stinky beans. My mom used to cook this wonderful petai dish where it is cooked with sambal (a paste which comprised of grind chilies,dry shrimps, belacan, shallots, garlics, lime juice)and prawns cum thin slices of pork meat. It has been ages since I tasted this mouth savouring dish, it's not something mom cooked frequently due to the tedious preparation, mom used to grind those ingredients with a mortar (lesung in Bahasa)single handedly.


So on Sunday morning, right after our church service, hubby and I went for a quick lunch, I shared with him the petai craze and off we went to the nearby supermarket to get our "sambal buah petai" ingredients, luck was at our side, I managed to get all the ingredients - petai, onions, ready made sambal paste and shrimps. Unfortunately my kids don't share the same craze, I don't expect them to, anyhow it really stinks... ha ha

I cooked them for dinner and voila.... so super delicious... 80% tasted like my mom's, so fulfilled and contended....... I was so eager to try on it that I forgot to take a picture of it, anyway, it looked something like this - (picture courtesy of wikipedia).... do you like "petai"?

Pearl Corn

This is how Pearl Corn looks like..... hmm..... very nice indeed. Cultivated in Cameron Highlands and cost about RM2 - RM2.50 per stalk, place them in the fridge for an hour and best eaten raw... when you bite on it you can feel and taste the sweet juice melting in your mouth...

More recipe

A simple nutricient recipe that I would like to share:

Steam chicken with red dates and white mushrooms

A)
1) Half of a Kampung chicken, chopped into small sizes
2) Mushrooms (white or black, your choice)
3) 3-4 red dates & some garlic, smashed with the side of the knife, in cantonese we called "pak"
4) Some ginger, sliced

B)
Marinate with:
1) 1 tablespoon of cooking wine
2) 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
3) 1 teaspoon of sugar
4) 1 teaspoon of corn flour
5) Dash of soya sauce
6) 2 teaspoons of dark soya sauce

Marinate (A) with (B) for at least an hour. Steamed under boiling water for 10 minutes, serve hot!

Humble kitchen

Nah, this is a picture of my humble cooking area where all the family’s feast are prepared, though I dream of a bigger kitchen but this one has the basic facilities to prepare almost every type of dishes. I can grill, fry, bake, boil, steam….. Recently we decided to install a sliding door separating the kitchen from the living and dining area so that it’s easier for me to clean if I ever decided to have a grand cooking spectacular event.

I also have here a simple “dump everything in the cooking pot” dish to share with you all.

Wai Wai’s special yam rice:

1) ½ of a medium size yam, diced
2) 1 Chinese sausage (lap cheong), diced
3) Some chicken breast meat, sliced, marinate with ½ teaspoon sugar, soya sauce and pepper
4) 2 tablespoon dried prawns, minced
5) 5/6 of mushroom, soaked and sliced
6) 4 gloves of garlic, chopped





Sauce : 2 tablespoon of oyster sauce, 1 teaspoon of sugar, ¼ cup of water

Garnishing: Sliced red chilies and spring onions

Heat the wok, put in 2 tablespoon of oil, put in chopped garlic, stir fried until fragrant, put in everything else (item 1 to 5), stir fry, put in dark soya sauce, stir fry for 2-3 minutes, put in the sauce and stir for another minute, dish out. It’s half cooked, doesn’t matter as we will pour all this into a pot of half cooked rice and let it be fully cooked together with the rice.

Boil your rice now, add 1 teaspoon of salt and folded pandan leaves (if you have them).

Pour in the dish when your rice is half cooked (where your rice looks a bit watery), close the lid and let everything cooked by itself. When the rice is cooked, wait till at least 10 minutes later before you stir and serve.

Pot Luck - Mamas meet again

For those who followed my blog, some know that I am leading a mama group and yesterday we went to one of the couple's new home, had pot luck (I brought spagetti and brocollis), shared marvelous food, plenty of kids and hubbies around, had our sharing session and a great night out. There were around 40 of us and turned out more like a house warming and tearing down session. We make sure we cleaned the place also, so not bad at all because we are thinking of coming back again. It was so nice for the couple to open up their home for us, we really need the space for the families to get together. The mamas managed to cover some topics for discussion, below is what we discussed:

1) What are the social pressure/social norms that mothers most often are subjected to?
2) How to not conform to the standards of the world?
2) How do we renew our minds so that we know what God's wills are?
3) In what ways we are unique?
4) In what ways we could be thinking ourselves more highly than we ought to...
5) Individual needs

By God's grace, it was a good session for all of us.

For those who like my version of spaghetti, checked my previous posts on recipe....

Cooking again

I love to cook and I can only do it on weekends, the pleasure of cooking comes from the pleasure of watching my family enjoying every bit of it, this motivates me to cook. For last Sat, I just did two dishes; stir fry mixed vegetables and stew bitter gourd with chicken. Below is the recipe:

1) "Fu kua men kai"
a) Half of a chicken, cut into desirable pieces (marinate with some sugar, soya sauce, pepper)
b) 1 bitter gourd
c) Chopped garlic
d) "Tau cheong"
e) 1/2 tablespoon of dark soya sauce
f) 2 bowls of water

For the sauce:
a) 1 1/2 tablespoon of sugar
b) 1 teaspoon of corn flour
c) 1 tablespoon of water
d) Dash of soya sauce



Method:
Heat wok with 2 tablespoon of oil, put in chopped garlic and "Tau cheong", stir fry until fragrant, pour in chicken, stir for 2 minutes, put in bitter gourd, dark soya sauce, 2 bowls of water.

Cover the wok and let it stew for 10 minutes in low heat, occasionally check on it to ensure it doesn't dry up, cook until the bitter gourd is soft then pour in the sauce, stir and serve.


2) Mixed vegetables
a) Chopped garlic
b) Ginger - sliced
c) Prawns, de-veined
d) Snow peas, red pepper, carrots

Sauce:
a) 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
b) 1 teaspoon of sugar
c) 1 teaspoon of water
d) Dash of soya sauce
e) 2 tablespoon of water



Method:
Put in 2 tablespoons of oil, add chopped garlic and ginger, stir fry until fragrant, put in (d), stir fry for a minute, put in 3 tablespoon of water, add in prawns, stir fry for a minute, pour in the sauce, stir and serve. Be careful not to overcook the vegetables.

Home cook dinner

It has been quite a while since I post recipes. Recently we have been eating out a lot, going away on weekends so yesterday we make it a point to have dinner at home. Below was what we had yesterday:


Clock wise from the top, prawns in oyster sauce, lettuce with garlic, french beans with eggs and ikan kembung in "tau cheong" sauce.

Here is the recipe:

Prawns in oyster sauce (Hubby helped to stir while I supervised and prepard the sauce)

1) Prawns - to your liking, I bought medium size (around 14 of them)
2) Chopped shallots, ginger, garlic, red chilies (I skip this because of the kids), spring onion
3) Sauce - 2 tablespoon of oyster sauce, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 1 teaspoon of corn flour, dash of soya sauce, 3 tablespoons of water.

Method:
a) 3 tablespoons of oil
b) Grilled the prawns, remove prawns from wok
c) With the remaining oil, stir fry chopped items(2) until fragrant
d) Mixed the prawns and stir fry for another minute
e) Pour in sauce and saute for another minute, dish out

Lettuce with garlic:
This is pretty simple, heat the wok, put in 2 tablespoon of oil, put in chopped garlic, stir fry, put in lettuce and 1/2 teaspoon of salt, stir fry for a minute and dish out.

French beans with eggs:
a) French beans, chopped
b) 4 eggs, beaten, dash of soya sauce and 1 teaspoon of sugar

Method:
Heat the wok, put in 2 tablespoon of oil, stir fry french beans and put in the beaten eggs, tossed them like you are frying eggs until both sides is golden brown.

Ikan kembung (any fish) in "tau cheong" sauce
a) 4 ikan kembung
b) 2 onions, sliced
c) Some ginger, sliced
d) 1 tablespoon of "tau cheong"
e) Sauce: 2 teaspoons of sugar, 1 teaspoon of corn flour, dash of soya sauce, 2 tablespoons of water

Method:
Heat the work, put in 2 tablespoon of oil, stir fry (b&c) until fragrant, put in (d), stir fry until fragrant, put in a small bowl of water, put in (a), cover the wok. Flip the fish after 2 minutes, cover the wok for another 2 minutes, pour in sauce and stir, do your tasting here, if it's too salty, put in dash of sugar ("tau cheong" can be quite salty"), dish out.

Your dinner is ready and remember to cook your rice har.... got a few incidents I cooked all the dishes but forgotten about the rice.. he he he..

Steamboat again!

We went for all you can eat steamboat yesterday night, thanks to our host and hostess, Mr. & Mrs. Vincent who treated the whole family for a sumptuous and fulfilling dinner. So where did we go this time, it’s the same old place that we went for our previous two steamboats, our one and favorite Golden BBQ steamboat managed by Joseph and the gang at Nagore road. We still enjoyed every bit of it and the quality does not only maintained but improved by the variety of both readied food and yet to cook ingredients lavishly offered by Joseph. Thumbs up!

As usual, since we were all like hungry wolves, I took some fried bee hun, deep fried dumplings, meat balls and triangular sweeties. Next I tried the steam pork ribs (good) which was wonderfully steamed with the meat so tender and the taste just nice (Cantonese style, just the way I love it!), my friends took some chicken curry, hubby helped himself with some satays, just taking the ready cooked food makes one forget what’s your main objective for coming (steamboat & BBQ!), ke ke ke.

Next I helped myself with the many mushrooms, fish balls, prawns, clamps, vegetables while the other couple helped themselves with the many choices of marinated meats. How about the kids? Well they were enjoying the many sweeties offeredlah while the mummies and daddies walloped all they want. My mom in-law helped to take care of the kids while she has the whole table by herself (with the kidslah), he he he.

We are whole bunch of “glutters”, aren’t we? The dinner ended with ready made dessert and sweetened green tea. Hmm…. I’m truly satisfied, thank God for food…….. we really have so much.

This time I managed to take some photos……… enjoy and get ready some hankies to wipe your drooling saliva eh........ and once again thanks to our generous couple.

Kids enjoying ice-creams, poor Emily, she's down with cough but she's braving the temptations, good girl!


Some of the ready made food..... I know I know your saliva drooling already ya.




Next, the many choices of steamboat and BBQ ingredients to select from.. wah..




The wide range of dessert to choose also..





At last, our satisfied look....



Finally the bill....... as expected it was RM0.00 for our family and RM19.90 per pax for the adults, the 4 kids again get to eat for free... thanks Joseph!