New Experiments!

I've been busy experimenting with dehydration!  I've been successful dehydrating large Red and Yellow onions under the hot sun.  I use them when I boil soup and it's really tasty and has a wonderful fragrant smell!

Dehydrated Red and Yellow onions

I'm drying ginger this time round.  I was at Genting yesterday and managed to buy some ginger.  Last night, my maid and I skinned, cleaned and sliced the ginger.  We sorted it out nicely on these large basket like trays (compliments from my mother!). 

Dehydrating ginger

After one morning in the sun, it's a little shriveled up already!

Does this look like an over rated "expensive" mop bucket?

I've also been making "enzymes"!


My God son's mother introduced me to this "expensive" bucket which shortens the fermentation time to a quarter of the time required to "process" the enzymes!  My eldest daughter went on a little 'rampage' and said that I spent a small fortune for a 'mop bucket'!!!!


Hahaha!  This is my second batch of enzymes!  The first batch went too fast!  This has become a fast family favorite!  Well, after enjoying the first batch of enzymes, my children didn't have much to complain about the bucket except that the second batch wasn't ready as yet!  LOL!

This bucket doing it "magic"!

More "Magic" cooking!

I used my Thermal "magic" pot to cook "Ham Yee Chee Yoke Farn" (pork slices, salted fish and rice).

Last night, I washed one and a half cups of brown rice and left to soak overnight. This morning I drain dry the rice. When I was ready to cook the rice at 3pm, I set it to boil in 2 cups of water over a medium fire (after it came to a boil) for 15 minutes.

In another pan, I fried some garlic, marinated pork (soy sauce, dark sauce and pepper), salted fish and some chopped carrot bits. When done, I added some freshly cut spring onions and a quarter cup of water. Add pepper and soy sauce to taste. Go light with the soy sauce if you are using salted fish! Once that is done, transfer all the meat and sauce into the pot of boiling brown rice (after cooking on the stove for 15 minutes).

I had dinner at 6.45pm and ta dah... rice in a pot...all ready! The rice was tender and didn't taste like brown rice in its original flavor at all! Tasted very much like the regular "Ham Yee Chee Yoke Farn!".

The last picture below shows a bowl of soup which I used my 5lt "magic" pot to cook! Yummy!

Random

Sorry for the recent hiatus! My eldest daughter was home for the summer holidays and life has been one busy trail of "catching up" with friends, eating, shopping and planning.

I was browsing through some pictures from the time I last visited her and I found some more bento pictures amidst others! These were seen in London!

Dinner for the kids!

Last couple of Wednesdays, I've been cooking dinner for some of the kids in our youth group at Church. I was watching Martha Stewart on TV, on Wednesday morning when I decided that I would make "Chef Bao's" Sloppy Bao!

Check out this funny video:http://www.marthastewart.com/351496/sloppy-bao#

The recipe is here: http://www.marthastewart.com/351496/sloppy-bao

Below the shallots and lemon grass!

I improvised on the toppings, I just mixed them all together. I topped slices of baguette with this meat sauce and the kids loved it!! It's an amazing flavor!

I also made macaroni cheese today. I used my magic pot to cook the macaroni by putting it aside for 6 minutes (per instructions on the package) only after it came to a boil on the stove.

Result? Perfect macaroni!

Baked macaroni cheese!

Fried some Chinese style meehoon too!

Sarawak Laksa

My friend gave me a few packets of Sarawak Laksa paste and it's been in my freezer for a while. I have no idea how to cook Sarawak Laksa!

Definition from Wikipedia:

Sarawak laksa (Malay: Laksa Sarawak) comes from the Malaysian state Sarawak, on the island of Borneo. It is actually very different from the curry laksa as the soup contains no curry at all. It has a base of Sambal belacan, sour tamarind, garlic, galangal, lemon grass and coconut milk, topped withomelette strips, chicken strips, prawns, fresh coriander and optionally lime. Ingredients such as bean sprouts, (sliced) fried tofu or other seafood are not traditional but are sometimes added.

Last weekend at the coffee morning sales, my stall was sold out quite early so I had time to sit around to chat with some old friends from Sarawak. Gina who is the grandmother of my Godson taught me how to cook the Sarawak Laksa.

I cooked the pork bones and chicken stock in my magic pot one day ahead. I used my 8 L pot, brought the water to a rolling boil, added the bones and kept it boiling for 10 minutes. I left it in the magic pot for more than 10 hours.

The stock turned out excellent and clear!

After clearing the scum, look at the clear soup!

Look here for a similar recipe. I am lazy to re-write everything and this recipe posted by Hochiak! seems similar to how I cooked the Sarawak Laksa.

I cooked a sambal which Gina taught me.

1 packet of chili boh

1 cup of dried prawns

some oil from the Sarawak Laksa

Method:

1. Cook the chili boh in some oil from the Sarawak Laksa.

2. Soak and pound dried prawns coarsely.

3. When chili boh darkens to a dark red/maroon color and smells fragrant, add the dried prawns and cook for a while. Add salt to taste if necessary!

Coffee morning sales

Last weekend I sold American Breakfast at our Church coffee morning sales in aid of the parish PIHD (Parish Integral Human Development) fund.

My target sale was for 100 pax. It was a fun morning!

Below is a tray of mixed vegetables which I boiled in salt water and coated in butter. Next is a tray of scrambled eggs.

There were chicken nuggets, sausages, baked beans, fries and not forgetting a huge hamburger bun! (not in picture).

Sold out by mid morning.

Thermal Magic Pot curry chicken

I decided to cook curry chicken today in my Thermal Magic Pot. I actually did the cooking in another clay pot first before transferring the contents into the insert pot.

In the clay pot, I sauteed some ground shallots, ginger, garlic, star anise, cinnamon, cloves and chicken curry paste until fragrant.

Then I tossed in the chicken, the coconut milk, potatoes and salt and allowed the contents to come to a boil. Immediately, I transferred the contents into the insert of the Thermal Magic Pot and allowed the curry mix to come to a boil.

As soon as it came to a boil, I covered the insert with it's lid and transferred it into the outer pot.

Three hours later, the curry is cooked and delicious!

I tested the potato, it was intact but soft in the center. Perfect cooking.

Life can be a breeze with a little planning!

Hijiki

Today, after a long time, I decided to cook Hijiki.


Perfect brown rice cooked in Thermal Magic pot!


This was my lunch today. Home cooked Hijiki, store bought Korean Kim Chi and brown rice topped with some toasted sesame seeds.


Close up on the Hijiki.
Note: I cooked the Hijiki minus the sugar and mirin for a healthier version by adding only shoyu and a dash of sesame seed oil.

Kim chi.


Consuming brown rice makes me feel good!

Onigiri to go

I made some Onigiri to go yesterday.



I was in a hurry and so I used the plastic molds to make the Onigiri. It's got a Salmon filling inside and sesame seeds and salt in the rice.


I cooked the Calrose rice in my large Thermal Magic Pot and it turned out perfect! I packed them in the Onigiri plastic wrappers I bought from Daiso.


Convenient stuff to bring around!

Cooking soup with my Thermal Magic Pot

I cooked pork bones soup on Tuesday. Very simply blanch the pork bones in a smaller pot of hot water and transfer into the insert pot.


The ingredients for today's soup!



I added Arrowroot, some dried oysters, dried scallops, some red dates and dried octopus.


Bring the pot of soup to a rolling boil and remove the scum.


About six hours later...


I removed the scum, brought it back to a rolling boil and added some salt to taste. Delicious hot soup.

Experimenting with my Thermal Magic Pots

Today, I experimented with my Thermal Magic Pots again! This morning I did a quick run to the supermarket to pick up some topside cubes. Most of what I needed was in my fridge, so when I got home mid morning, I began preparing to make a beef stew.

Usually, I would sear the beef over the stove or in the oven and cook the other vegetables a little before simmering the beef stew over the stove or in a crock pot for three to four hours. This time, I simply cut up the vegetables, like you see in the picture below.

Clockwise: cherry tomatoes, chopped celery, one potato, a box of button mushrooms, one carrot, one yellow onion and some herbs. On the side was a pack of beef topside.

I have very poor photography skills, neither can I figure out what to do with a camera other than make sure it's on auto and press the button as instructed. Sorry for the blur pictures which follow!

Fill 1/5 of the insert pot with water.

Add all the vegetables and beef cubes into the pot.

Bring to a rolling boil. Scoop away the scum.

Put the insert into the outer pot.

I left it for six hours. This was the result.

A closer look at the beef stew. Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

I tried cooking brown rice using the Thermal Magic Pot. I had soaked the brown rice for 3 hours prior to cooking. After 3 hours, when the water came to a rolling boil, I allowed it to cook for 10 minutes on a simmer.

After two hours in the outer pot, the rice turned out "PERFECT!" I was completely surprised! I couldn't believe it! Brown rice is a tricky grain to cook but this is too good to be true!!!!

Look at the fluffy and not too wet brown rice!!! It was cooked through!

Aghhh!!! I don't know why the color of this picture turned out like this!!

Look at the beef, tender and delicious. All the vegetables weren't mushy and well cooked through! What a successful attempt! I LOVE THE THERMAL MAGIC POTS!!!!!

The beef stew was delicious and the brown rice was cooked beyond my expectations!