All of a kind soup

It was supposed to be oden...it looks kind of gross, nicht wahr? Haha. But it was hot and nice during a cold rainy night.

Jajangmyeon

one chicken two meals

I hate handling raw chicken. Especially those that still have the beady-eyed chicken heads dangling morosely from their lifeless bodies...I saw the Cold Storage was selling "fresh" chickens for S$8 (which is quite expensive), so I went past it to the delicatessen counter where the staff cajoled me into buying his BBQed items which were going at half price. He had one last Black Pepper Roast chicken so I bought that. Actually some years ago, I bought a book which taught how to make meals out of leftover roast chicken, but I later stupidly chucked it out, thinking I was above leftovers. I had evidently forgotten about the raw bird.

I made two meals out of that chicken, gingerly cutting the meat off the bones and making soup out of that and other parts that I wouldn't eat (parson's nose being one of them). The dark meat was used for lunch, and since I did not have an oven still, I painstakingly substituted roasting with steaming the dark meat then giving them in a quick turn in the frying pan, so that the skin remained nice and crisp. It was drenched in a homemade cashew nut and black pepper gravy, and accompanied by dry mashed potatoes (we ran out of milk, but we are so lazy to even go downstairs and buy milk or take out the remaining cream from the freezer) and portobello omelet.

The breast meat, I cut into smaller pieces and boiled it quickly with Fusilli and caixin in the stock I made with the inedible chicken parts and soy beans.Quick dinner on a cold night.

Japanese Curry

We are big on Japanese curry. Like I said before, frozen carrots are scary, they look damaged, their molecular structures are altered and the texture in the mouth feels weird. I forgot too that  brisket is not a good cut of meat to use for fast cooking.

Ciabatta Sandwich

Since I am seldom at the house, I have a habit of dumping everything in the freezer, so that they will last just a bit longer...frozen carrots are scary. Unfortunately, this means that it is a bitch to defrost or thaw them especially since I wasn't going to get any old microwave (and therefore still hadn't). 

So we went to the supermarket downstairs, while B1 started queueing (because the queues were so long!!!!), I dashed around and bought mushrooms, the makings of a salad,  ciabatta and some ham (100g ham == 4 slices, how sad). 

I think I need to learn how to better portion the food. B1 doesn't eat much and I cook very generously. Even I had difficulty finishing the sandwich (though I enjoyed the leftover brisket soup). Yumz. 

My Big Bang Theory Brisket

I am a huge fan of the Big Bang Theory. And I always remember Howard going on and on about his mother's brisket. So I decided to buy some brisket too =D when I was at the supermarket. Well, I am not sure what kind of brisket his mother cooks, but this is my version. Soft melt-in-your-mouth kind, especially the tendons (which B1 hates so I got to eat more kekeke *methinks I should cook more brisket*) with fluffy potatoes, some tomatoes, onions and asparagus. 

Filet Mignon Dinner

Someone told me that I was cooking way too much Japanese at the new house (actually I think I was overdoing Korean instead). Well, when you think about it, B1's greatest fantasy was to marry a Japanese SAHM, and I do try to please his palate. Japanese cooking is also cleaner and simpler (I hate wiping the galley when I am done cooking) with delicate flavors.

However like I said last week, I do miss some of the fancy restaurants I used to eat at. So when I saw those mini filet mignon steaks at ThreeSixty I knew I had to get them. Intriguingly those that are marinated with herbs and those that are not come at the same price (they both have a slice of streaky bacon running around the steak). Unfortunately I didn't have time to cook them until the weekend so I froze them (the injustice!!!)

I also had a craving for a baked potato. But I had forgotten I still have no microwave oven (thus limiting my repertoire of dishes, I have been hunting for an excellent microwave oven, but most ovens nowadays seem dumb like bricks and serve merely to reheat. I want be able to bake, broil and grill). Of course I could just boil the potato in their skins but I knew that B1 wouldn't eat them and I don't like that weird chalky taste from the skin. So I just deskinned, chopped and boiled them before dumping cream cheese and bacon bits on them. <= my new favorite feel-good dish. 

I took a shortcut and made Campbell's Chicken Mushroom soup using the vegetable water (no nutrient can escape from me~!~)

As for the steak, I search online for how to cook the steak decently. At home I would just fry the edges at high heat, then dump the lot in the oven. But since I have no oven... I ended up frying then boiling the meat (poured too much water in my haste). I am making wet steaks!!! I wanted them medium, but was too paranoid that I have overcooked them in the gravy that they ended up becoming rare...should have butterflied them. At least the gravy was fairly decent, I made them with the beef water (hehe), onions (I had fried the onions with the steak), thyme from my baby garden and red wine.

While we were eating them, B1 made the comment that the steaks were really 小さい. I replied that they were Japanese-sized, but now looking at the photos, it does look like I have four side dishes on a plate. Hahahah.

Accompanied by some Chilean plonk

I am a tight pussy. I don't like paying for expensive wines (Goodbye most of Bordeaux region *haha Kari*). Since I am no wine connoisseur, buying cheap plonks are the way to go for me. I especially love buying wines on sale (I have never been able to recover from buying the Boone's at S$5. Now buying it at a discounted S$8 still seems too expensive *Haha* But I do love the sparkling juice *at 2% alcoholic content, it is pretending to be a wine!*) This vina Maipo is fairly decent as a table wine. But if it is not on discount, I ain't buying it.