綠豆沙

昨晚的綠豆沙。

事情是這樣的。某天晚上回家，看到雪櫃有綠豆沙，媽咪便隨口問：「食唔食呀？」我當然連聲說好。然後我同媽咪一人一碗。

點知 ... ...

「點解媽咪今次失手嘅？」我心想。碗綠豆沙一啲都唔沙，仲杰到不能，仲冇綠豆味！(食神上身)

其實我真係好想即刻倒咗佢，但咁唔俾面阿媽又唔得㗎嘛。於是唯有夾硬食啦。

媽咪食完佢嗰碗，見到我「誓願」咁嘅樣，就同我講：「係咪唔想食呀？唔好味呢？幫你倒咗佢嘞。」

原來 ... ...

啲綠豆沙唔係媽咪煲嘅！係佢朋友整俾佢的。

媽咪知道我因為唔想佢唔高興而諗住夾硬食 (但又俾自己個衰樣出賣) 時，當堂笑到碌地！

Fast forward to last night. 

晚上回到家，媽咪鬼馬地跟我說：「一陣有糖水食，今次啲綠豆沙真係我整㗎！」

「好嘢好嘢！」

我媽咪真係幾識氹我㗎！

Lazy sticky food

I was tempted to have pasta for dinner tonight, again. Not that I don't like pasta but I think I've had too much carbs lately. Also, my pasta repertoire is quite limited and I don't really want to eat the same thing again and again and again.

Obviously I wanted something easy to make. With the leftover honey from the cake I made earlier in the week and the lemons I bought (for salad dressing and as the fridge's odour-absorber), here's my lazy dish of the day.

Sticky lemon chicken

Ingredients

• 2 pieces of chicken fillet
• 1 lemon
• 1.5 tbsp honey
• Seasoning

Method

1. Preheat oven (about 160C)
2. Lightly brush oil on a baking dish
3. Place chicken on the dish, season with salt and pepper 
4. Bake for 6 minutes
5. Meanwhile, cut two slices of lemon
6. Take out the chicken, turn over and sprinkle with more seasoning. Put a slice of lemon on each of the fillet
7. Drizzle with honey and then squeeze over the juice of the remaining lemon
8. Return to the oven for a further 10 minutes until the chicken is golden and cooked through
9. Serve with a salad or steamed veggies. Or, if you don't mind the extra work and extra carbs, you can have rice or potatoes. 

Not so crazy and definitely not lazy food

As I mentioned in the previous post, I finally managed to try baking something new. 


Honey cake with honeyed almond crunch
I got the recipe from here.

When I first read the recipe, I thought it's very easy. But me being me, things always have to come with surprises. Right before I finished work in the office, I took one more look at the recipe and realized I missed out something very important. I needed to whisk egg whites. My arms are more Olive Oyl than Popeye, hm... And so i had to go buy an electric beater! Well I figured I'll need it for other cakes anyway but it's just annoying that I had to make a detour and stop by the department store... 


In the end the cake turned out ok although slightly burnt at the edges. Plus I managed to burn my thumb too. Typical me. 


Obviously I can't finish it all. Gave a few slices to my parents who were so happy to see that their daughter can and does actually cook. 


Also gave one slice to the chef, trying to kick away his blues. Glad that he said it's not bad. But maybe he's just saying. I still have the feeling that he really doesn't care. But like he said, the cake was not the point. 


Well, then what's the point then? If you would show me please...

Dizzy lazy food

I haven't been cooking much lately. For the past couple of weeks I've been thinking to start baking again but procrastination always wins...

Finally on Monday I decided to bake something simple, no matter what. So after work I quickly went to get everything that I needed and rushed home. Although the cake was simple enough to make, by the time I put it in the oven, it was already 10pm. As I was washing the messy bowls and stuff, I suddenly felt very dizzy. It was really quite bad. I almost fainted. It was then that I realized, oh right, I hadn't had dinner. No wonder. 

So after I regained my energy, I made a simple noodle. 



Cold soba noodle with crab meat

Ingredients

• Soba noodles
• Crab meat (crab leg actually. got from the supermarket when I did the shopping for the cake ingredients)
• Dipping sauce 
• Nori sesame mix

Method

1. Cook the noodles in boiling water for 5-6 minutes
2. Drain and rinse the noodles with cold water a few times (so that noodles are completely cold)
3. Put noodles in serving bowl. Place crab meat on top
4. Sprinkle with nori and sesame mix
5. Serve with dipping sauce

As you can see, it's really simple. But tasty and it definitely saved my life. 

crazy lazy food 2

Had a very late lunch at 4pm today. And was contemplating skipping dinner tonight. Then the voice of my Chinese doctor (along with my mom and other friends) rang in my ear... "You must eat more. You must eat more. You must eat more". Creepy...

So I gave in.

As I didn't buy any food for the night, my only resort was whatever I could find in my cupboard. Well, I wasn't doing too bad. I could at least come up with 4 dishes:
1. Spaghetti with tuna in cream sauce
2. Noodle in soup with corn
3. Baked beans and fried eggs
4. Oatmeal / porridge
And all fit in with my "one pot" policy !

And the winner was number 1, Spaghetti with tuna in cream sauce. Although number 4 would be a wiser choice given that I'm still recovering from flu and therefore should eat something more healthy. But me being me, I always opt for something irrational.

As usual, I improvise as I cooked and ended up with something slightly different than what I first imagined.

Here we go.

Ingredients:

• Spaghetti
• 1 Tin of tuna (soaked in oil)
• Whipping cream
• Chilli flakes
• Manchego cheese, cut into small pieces (yeah, just found that in the fridge)
• 1 Egg, beaten
• Xiaoxing wine (or any wine you have)

Method

1. Cook the spaghetti (or pasta of your choice) according to instruction on the package
2. Heat the pot, add oil (taken from the tin of tuna) and chilli flakes
3. Add the tuna, cook over low heat. Stir gently so the tuna don't stay as huge chunks
4. Add whipping cream
5. Add spaghetti when the sauce starts to bubble
6. Add manchego cheese. Stir to mix all ingredients well
7. Add Xiaoxing wine when the cheese are melted. Turn to high heat
8. Turn off heat when the wine is more or less evaporated
9. Stir in the egg
10. Serve

Again, no photos and can't even give correct quantities/measurements of the ingredients.

P.S. Was talking to a friend just this afternoon and we're wondering how come there are so many Italian restaurants in town. And maybe that's one of reasons I chose to cook something remotely Italian tonight?

Artichoke

How simple things can bring us great pleasure and quietly leave a mark in our lives always amazes me.

I went out for dinner with my two best friends the other night. I saw artichoke on the menu and ordered it as my starter without much thought. Artichoke is not the most common food in this corner of the world and so my friends were quite surprised to see a plant landing on the table. As I told them where to buy, how to cook and eat this curious thing, I realised why I ordered this.

Ten days in Paris. We were skint. We had simple food. Good food. Toasts and half-boiled eggs. Croissants and pains aux chocolats. Chocolats. More chocolats. Yaouts. Artichokes. Broccoli. More veggies. Chinese fried rice. 

We were so happy. 

Unfortunately that didn't last. 

And that artichoke-eating evening made me wonder when will I finally walk out of this shadow.