Home cooking

I've started cooking at home recently, after months of keeping a non-oily stove.


Home dinner one night, with store-bought roast pork, which I've grilled in the oven (to a crispy skin).


Beijing cabbage with canned vegetarian 罗汉斋


Bean sprouts with ready-soaked black fungus from the market


Tofu with minced pork


Dinner of wanton soup and sweet peas stir-fried with pacific clams


These ready to eat wanton soup from CP brand is fabulous...one of the best frozen food around.

Pasta dinner tonight:



With grilled spicy pork sausage, fresh brown and white mushrooms, assorted veggies and leftover pacific clams.


While being grilled in the mini oven, the sausages somehow caused a little fire to be ignited in the oven! :-O

The oil dripping must have sparked off the small fire on the aluminium foil! >_<"



Anyway, it was an extra tasty pasta dinner. ;)



And I love my pasta keeper. It has holes that conveniently dispense exactly 100g or 200g of pasta.

Pasta & Fish Dinner

I haven't been cooking much for the past couple of months. I used to cook about half the time, but one day I just decided not to waste so much time after work just to cook a dinner for two, which would be devoured within 20 minutes. I would use the time saved to do the relaxing things that I like to do, or exercise at the gym or just do nothing! :))

However, I decided to cook dinner tonight since I am on 2 days' mc for sore eyes. It's extra time given to me by the doctor, or 是 eye bacteria 赐给我的~！ Haha! :P

The ingredients for pasta, i.e. whatever that's available at home



Two pieces of salmon which had been sitting in the freezer



Finished product



Looks more like mee goreng...?!?


It was a bit dry, coz I didn't want to dilute the sauce

The extras - grilled salmon on a bed of baby spinach leaves



The SO's TV dinner


Now we're both TOO FULL !!

Now I wonder if I should cook tomorrow??

Lasagne from C.A.M.

Recent dinner from Crazy Ang Mo - chicken & vege lasagne



The ang moh touted it as very good (but of course) and it is good in a sweet, homely taste kind of way.

However, it didn't have the kick of Italian food that comes from thick, flavourful tomato sauce and herbs which I was looking for, so I'm certainly not hooked. It's a bit too watery, actually.


Price: $7.90 with either salad or mash potatoes

Saturday's lunch

Looking at the photos of luncheon meat sandwiches at KSN's blog tempted me to open a can myself. So I did, with an old can which was purchased way before the ban/restriction was imposed.

I like this version with added ham.





To be eaten with char ban mee.
First time I'm using this no preservatives, no "kee" noodles.



The preparation always takes longer than the actual time spent eating the dish.



Cooked with whatever ingredients that's available in the fridge, leftover from CNY.



Luncheon meat & fried ban mian.

Miscellaneous food and snacks

Some of the foodstuff I'd eaten recently. :)

Fish luncheon meat, anyone?

This Ayam brand product came out just in time during the shortage of the very comforting Maling pork luncheon meat from PRC; comes in original, spicy and black pepper flavour (as shown). It tastes ok lah...that is, after piling on the butter, cucumber and tomatoes in a sandwich!


Taiwanese vegetarian stuff made of mushroom, from this emporium I discovered at People's Park Complex that imports lots of its own Taiwanese foodstuff. It tastes like 肉酱 (meat paste), and great with porridge, though a bit salty.




I've been wondering about the English name of this fruit for ages.


I've seen the supermarts and sellers calling it 太阳瓜 （sun melon?) and honey melon or honey sun melon. They're really good, sweet and crunchy when in season (which this one is not; skin too thick) and cheap too (when in season). It's my 2nd fave fruit after the Hamid melon which we ate in Xinjiang, China (not the unripe, imported ones though).

I bought this pack of crisps at the ozzie section of "Aunty Lucy" mart when it was at the intro price of $2.95, and my, it tastes great! Best of all, it's baked and supposedly low in fat, so I can eat lots of it without feeling guilty (self-consolation only).



I've since bought 2 more packs in different flavours, but they're more pricey than even Kettle's potato chips, at $3.50 for 100g nia. I've to refrain from eating my fave Kettle's chips since I'm on a diet...coz once eat liao, can't stop!




A reprisal of my vegetarian aglio olio pasta...this time with less oil.



My fave Subway "cold cut trio" sandwich...which is great as a diet food dinner.



But I started to feel hungry around bedtime...which is a very dangerous thing...


I always ask for everything from the salad counter, plus extra olives...and usually on oregano parmesan bread, non-toasted please.

Spud's mom had just given me more of her home-baked goodies...will post next time. :)

Oops...there goes my diet!

Pasta Aglio Olio (vegetarian version)

After having it for lunch at Basil Alcove (which was very good), I've decided to cook it myself, and save 9 bucks per serving... Heheh.



I didn't have the red chilli powder or whatever, so modify the recipe a bit. It's got:

- lots of garlic
- about a quarter cup of olive oil for 2 servings (or slightly less oil)
- mushrooms (white, brown and portobello)
- zuchini which I like very much
- red and green capsicum
- cut red chilli (seeded and de-veined)
- "tortoise beans" i.e. 乌龟豆
- a little bit of water added after everything above was stirred and mixed

Agar agar seasoning:
- 1 tsp of salt (for 3.5 servings)
- ground black pepper
- paprika
- lots of chopped Chinese parsley

Yum...(if I may say so myself), and quite satisfying.

Japanese mushrooms

Last week, I cooked a pasta dish that did not have the usual tomato sauce which we're rather fond of. Rather, it was pasta fried with scallops and 2 or 3 kinds of mushrooms. I bought a pack of this interesting looking fresh Japanese mushrooms ($3.10 from CS supermarket) and a pack of Everbloom fresh shitake mushrooms to fry with the pasta.

Fresh Japanese mushrooms



I bought the 2 types of mushrooms during the workday lunch hour, and left the grocery bag in the office. By the time I collect the bag home after work, I notice a very strong pungent smell coming from the bag. Interestingly, when I smelled each pack of mushroom individually, there was no bad smell at all, but when both are packed in the same bag, they produced a small that's somewhat akin to human fart!

I took an aircon bus home, and not wanting the neighbouring passengers to suffer, I tied up the bag tightly so as to prevent the pungent smell from infiltrating the bus, but by the time I stood up to alight at my destination, I began to smell that fart smell again...the smell must have escape out of the bag somehow.

When I went home and unpacked the mushrooms, the strange thing was that neither product has even a hint of that bad pungent smell, yet when when both are put together, somehow they smelled terribly bad. It's a puzzle.

Anyway, the Japanese mushrooms tasted quite good. They didn't get soggy, and does not have a strong taste that might otherwise overwhelm the pasta, so it's fresh and tasty.

Edit: These are called Buna Shimeiji mushrooms; a cheaper version (at $1.95) from Korea is now available - they are smaller but taste as good.