Saturday lunch

Vegetarian stew.



The colours in the photos look weird, machiam those artificial food displays at Japanese restaurants.



Served over rice, but I think it's better if dipped with crusty bread, like a Delifrance baguette. :)

Japanese curry & cabbage

I was on leave today, and decided to prepare some lunch. Since we'll be going over to a friend's place for a gathering and dinner later, there won't be a chance to cook dinner, so I thought I'll cook the Japanese curry which I'd been planning to cook, before the potatoes decide to sprout!

I've had tubers sprouting at home, right on the food shelf, until they look like alien things, like the "alienated" sweet potato.



Anyhow, I cooked the Japanese curry using S&B brand of Medium Hot curry paste, as the SO is not quite into spicy food, but it didn't taste a teeny bit hot at all - even the SO said so. I think even if they come out with a Extra Hot version, it would still barely taste a little hot for our Asian palettes.

Here's the chicken curry with the "disappearing" Hokkaido potatoes. I've added some ground coriander and chicken stock to add more flavour.




The market stall had these Hokkaido potatoes on sale, so I bought a couple of big, round tubers to try. When raw, they had the texture of crispy apples!

During the process of cooking, they've somehow disappeared, leaving me with barely half the quantity of potatoes in odd, tiny shapes. I thought I'd scoop them up into a separate bowl before there was nothing left!




The lunch, served with steamed rice.



The Beijing cabbage at this time of year tastes extremely sweet and crunchy in texture. Stir-fried simply with garlic, fresh young ginger and a bit of chicken stock, it tastes so fresh and sedap!

Party food repeated

Since I didn't get to eat much of the chicken stew and fried bee hoon which I'd cooked for the small party a couple of weeks back, I decided to cook them for dinner today. This time, I remembered to take photos of the results!

Chicken Stew

This time, I added garlic and a bit of oregano.


Fried Bee Hoon (vegetarian)

Dinner


Bee hoon topped with crispy sweet tau kee

Small home party

Event: Gathering to watch Pakistan/Concordia photos (by JK)

This is just a note to self on what I'd cooked, but sadly, being so busy with all the cooking, preparation before the party and during the party (was still asked to warm up and cut food that some had brought), I'd totally forgot to take any photos of the food...not even one single photo. :(

The gathering was ad hoc and happened on Sunday (5 Aug) due to JK's schedule. About 10 adults and 4 toddlers came by which was a good chance for the cats to socialise. I hadn't invited the whole chain gang coz there is no way our small flat could fit them in comfortably. As usual, the cat sisters were shy and ran to hide. However, Snowy seemed to warm up to the guests later, letting the cat-friendly ones pat and stroke her. She didn't even flinch when the kid Daryl mischieviously tugged at her whiskers...what a sweetie gal. :)

Anyway, the food I'd prepared was:

Chicken stew - my first attempt at cooking this recipe from the net, cooked for about 10 - 11 pax, was very well-received, and the first dish to finish; even the kiddies Daryl and Timothy were eating it (according to their mom who asked me for the recipe). The only things I'd changed from the recipe was to add diced potatoes and using dried thyme (instead of fresh ones), and using corn starch instead of making roux (which soundedtoo leh chay). Also to note - to remove the skin from the chicken thighs before seasoning and to skim the oil before stirring in the corn starch mixture.

(Afternote: The kids' mom tried the same recipe using roux but it turned out lumpy, and the gravy could not thicken properly).

Fried bee hoon - usually quite the idiot-proof dish, as long as don't oversoak the chilli brand bee hoon, and if lots of garlic and onions are added in the hot oil beforehand. The usual ingredients were mushroom, fried egg strips, cabbage, but this time, I'd added fried crispy tau kee which turned out to be the icing on the cake (so to speak). Marvin loved the tau kee and loved the bee hoon, even though I hadn't used any meat or seafood for Anthony's sake. As I'd ran out of the usual soup stock cube, I just anyhow hantum the Organic Vegetable Broth powder, which made the bee hoon slightly yellowish. :p Anway, it was a popular dish on its own and goes well with the chicken stew gravy, and was the 2nd dish to finish.

The other snacks:

Some dahl (lentils) curry dish from the chilli and curries recipe book - MUST REMEMBER NOT TO COOK ANY MORE OF THEIR LENTILS DISHES (whether as curry, or as soup)! I think the ang mohs really cannot make it when it comes to dahl curries. I'd cooked it mainly to provide an additional vegetarian side dish, but it didn't taste nice (so what's the point of cooking, really?). Meanwhile, I am still looking for the recipe for the common, watery dahl curries served by the usual bryani or prata stalls - those that actually have hardly any liao or dahl, but yet is so sedap! I guess those must be the south Indian type of recipes.

Ready-made wholemeal chappati - not to popular (taste like soft paper cardboard, actually...haha! )

Almond jelly dessert with canned longans and canned rambutans stuffed with pineapple. The almond jelly came from the ready-pack of Home Gourmet instant jelly - not very nice although edible...don't have the kar zhuarh (cockroach) smell of almond at all.

Other food: Also ordered a couple of extra large pizzas, including a vegie one for non-meat eaters.