chicken salad and capsicum beef 28 Jan 2010

met the wife at the supermarket to pay for groceries, and then headed back to make dinner.

chicken salad - made up of freshly removed corn kernels, diced carrots, celery and chicken breast. very fulfilling, but without the sense of guilt.


stir fried beef with capsicum and salted bean sauce - capsicums seem to be the standard companion for beef over here at the moment. and he likes his capsicums cooked longer.

black pepper beef, kangkong in bean sauce 25 Jan 2010

something caught his eye while pushing the trolley. marbled packet of meat for $3 odd. really stood out from the rest of the packets, so there it went onto his trolley.


black pepper beef - sprinkled 2 teaspoons of soy sauce onto the beef, and heated some green bell peppers in the fry-pan until slightly browned. cooked each slice of beef on medium heat for around 30 seconds on each side. for the final step, got all of them into the pan and added 2 teaspoons of black pepper sauce and stirred until evenly coated before serving.


kangkong in broad bean sauce - heated some garlic in oil until fragrant, then added soaked dried shrimps and continued cooking until the flavour was released. threw in the kangkong and cooked on medium heat, adding 2 dollops of spicy broad bean sauce to taste.

rainbow pork loin and honey charred wings 22 Jan 2010

rainbow pork loin - not sure how to translate this, it's chinese name is 渔香肉丝, but since it looked so colorful, he decided to name it this way. carrots had to be grated to get the fine strips you see, and they added color and sweetness to the dish. other ingredients were onions, green bell pepper, broad bean sauce


honey coated (or charred) chicken wings - this was supposed to be caramel coated, but she mistakened rock salt for rock sugar, and realised that sugar was actually non-existent. ended up using honey to coated the pre-fried chicken wings before throwing them into the wok again to seal the flavour (according to her). alas, honey appeared to have low tolerance of heat, and the surface got charred just a while into cooking. still edible though, most likely thanks to her 4-hr marinade of the chicken wings. also realised that frying chicken wings in a non-stick pan saves oil and doesn't stick the chicken wings to its surface, unlike using a wok, where you have to keep adding oil, and the stuck-on bits make it a hassle to wash.

capsicum chicken and kangkong in oyster sauce

had a long day at work. she was waiting for him to be back before she started preparing freshly cooked dinner.

she soaked the kangkong and capsicum for a bit before slicing and chopping them. had the usual garlic and ginger combination too. as for meat, she cut small pieces out of a chunk of chicken breast. not telling him how she wanted to cook today, she ordered him to sit and wait while she started the wokking.

first dish, stir-fried chicken with capsicum strips. the thin and long slices of capsicum made eating them a whole new experience. as for the chicken, she blanched the marinated pieces to prepare them for the stir-fry. he thought this would take away the flavour and make the meat tough, but he was wrong again. tender and juicy, totally different from the kind of chicken breast he had ever made. nice color too, except that he bought yellow capsicum after mistaking it for red.


next dish, kangkong in oyster sauce. she boiled the vegetables, with no seasoning whatsoever. weird way of cooking, he thought. she sniggered and started frying the garlic till fragrant before adding the vegetables. drizzled some oyster sauce and stirred until even before serving. another novel way of eating for him, he had only known sambal kangkong. just look at the oh-so-slick vegetables......


total cost, $4.10. nice.