The Americans have their Chicken Noodle Soup

The Chinese have their own chicken noodle soup too!

 

I had to do OT one night, so to speed up dinner, I just bought some roast chicken from the delicatessen. Being the stingy cow I am, I recycled the chicken carcass to make a stock, before boiling the leftover chicken slices with cabbage, fishballs and carrots.

Norwegian and salmon

It's a sickness really. I cannot buy salmon without thinking of Norway.

Norwegians and I don't get along well. I am not sure why, but it is the truth. But at least the salmon settles easily in my belly. This salmon was marinated in oyster sauce and honey for two days. It is accompanied by lotus root soup (with black beans and pork belly slices) and bacon and potato stew.

Cheesy Hamburger

This is what happens when you take photos of your cooking many weeks ago and not post immediately. You forget the details of the dish. Argh. I cannot remember what went into this sauce.

One thing I can remember is, dun buy the burger patties from Cold Storage. Very salty. I accompanied the burger with onion rings, baked potato and salad.

Wordless Sunday - A simple dinner

Sundays are always leftovers =D, disguised in other simple meals.

Thai Chicken

I found some lemon grass in the fridge. I had bought them in some weeks ago, thinking that I was going to mince chicken and wrap them around the lemon grass, and cook them thai-style. But I don't have a mincer and I was terribly lazy to mince the chicken by hand (no butcher knife). So =D.... I just cut the lemon grass into the chicken instead, and doused the chicken with soya sauce, sugar, garlic, lots of fish sauce and chilli.

I dumped the chicken in the oven to bake, but it didn't turn out as pretty as I wanted, i.e. caramelized chicken. So in the end I had to fry them on the stove too, which I should have done so in the first place. 

I accompanied this with the wintermelon soup. Hehhe. So you know I have started repeating dishes. Oopz.

My Samgyetang looked more like Chinese version of Ginseng Chicken soup

I questioned the rationale of cooking Samgyetang (which is Korean ginseng chicken soup) on Sunday night, especially when I was trying to force myself to sleep earlier, so that I could work better on Monday. I should have done this on Saturday night, and eat steamboat on Sunday night instead.

Mr Chicken swims in the ginseng soup

I didn't have a soup bowl big enough to hold Mr Chicken

Still I have to admit, dinner was very easy to cook, with Mr Chicken swimming contentedly in the soup for hours, with glutinous rice, dates, and garlic (I forgot pine nuts and added wolfberries *hehe*) inside his belly, until he was easy to tear apart.

We didn't have a big soup bowl, so I ended up using a smaller pot to hold the meat pieces. It came out to two smaller pots, and we drank every drop. B1 was very suspicious of the vegetable dish. He muttered darkly that this was yesterday's leftovers from the steamboat, and was pleasantly surprised to discovered egg tofu (new addition) inside, which he rutted out to eat, leaving behind the sad lettuce leaves.

A lot of butter was harmed in the making of this dish

Now and then I feed B1 better stuff, because he pays for the utilities *keke*. Cannot have him wise up and realize I have been feeding him crappy groceries. 

 

I splurged a little while I was "forever alone"ing at a supermarket in the next town. 

I bought two sirloin steaks at S$16 *heart pain*. I was muttering darkly about how thick the meat was, when the butcher caught me and replied drily "all the same size, madam".

I give you madam.

Anyway, I carried the steaks home carefully but ended up freezing them because we didn't have dinner at home the next day. Can't remember why, but what a waste of the expensive meat. 

Actually cooking them took a lot of coordination with Mr Microwave Oven. I set the oven to 180 degree Celsius and chucked in the purple and red carrots, cashew nuts into the oven to roast. I think purple carrots are very irritating, they left a stain on my beautiful white kitchen counter *infuriating*, despite my being extremely careful with them. So while that's roasting, I boiled some potato halves before frying them carefully in butter so that they become an adorable golden brown. Tinny winny crispy outside and soft inside.

I fried the steaks in butter the next chance I had until they were brown with flavors sealed in. Chucked them into the oven, next to the veggies. I then made my own vinaigrette with olive oil and apple vinegar with a dash of pepper and salt. I tossed the remainder of the mesclun salad and some blueberries with the vinaigrette. B1 was very unadventurous, he pushed the blueberries to the side of his plate.

Why am I, a greedy gourmand who lives to eat, with a dude who eats to live? Tsk tsk.

My first homemade traditional Kimchi

I did a lot of forever alone activities on Saturday. First I soaked my napa cabbage in a salted solution for hours.

this is how they look after 4 hours. Bendable but still crunchy

I was supposed to just go downstairs to buy the missing Korean chilli powder for my kimchi. But the supermarket downstairs only sold ready-made kimchi. So I decided to travel to the next town to buy. Interestingly I realized my location is so friendly I can joy-ride upwards and downwards by one MRT stop just to buy chilli powder. Happiness!

the mixture

So I went upwards, bought some powder at a specialty supermarket then popped over to the arcade to playing Razing Storm. I wanted to play the game by myself to completion. Some polite kiddy came over and asked me if he could play with me. His exact words (looking very anxious yet eager), "Auntie can I play with you, please?"

I supposed I asked for it, dressed in t-shirt, shorts and slippers. But like I said, I had just intended to go to the supermarket downstairs.  So I finished the game (I had to play twice, because the first time I died at the end of stage 3 but ok, since the kid compromised my "finishing the game alone")

I went to the supermarket, bought groceries and hauled them back home. Started working on my kimchi, only to discover that 12ax7 was online. Chucked my kimchi into the fridge to play with him (how is that for loyalty!).

Rubbing the mixture into each leaf

This is how it looks like after I stuffed all the kimchi in

I am not sure why but on the second day I saw water come out of the cabbage. No wonder the mixture was very dry. Anyway, it became wetter and wetter all until 7 days later, when the recipe said it would be edible.

Water came out?

Banchan

I was tired on Saturday so I just dragged some stuff out from the fridge =D. I got to try my kimchi which I made a week ago. It was pretty ok, but B1 said that it does not taste the same. Maybe because I used fish sauce instead of anchovies. =D

B1 was upset though, he said I served him side dishes for lunch. WTF...

Ikea Breakfast

The reason why I call this Ikea breakfast is because I bought herring roe and a strange cheese with black wrapping (they had one in red) which were newly stocked in the Ikea supermarket.

I dumped the cheese inside the microwave for 1 min... when it came out it was all melted and gooey (hmm, I am thinking of using the rest of it on a pizza). I spread it on the bread, then hurriedly served the salad with roe. I like the bite =D.

Oyako don

This was a lunch I was making for myself last Sunday when B1 abandoned me at the apartment over the weekend.

But he showed up, and we ended up sharing this =D. He loved this dish, which is a surprise. Then again it contained mirin. Who doesn't love sweet wine!!!