Sunday Breakfast

The hubby made me breakfast on Sunday. For a man who cannot cook, it was a major "exercise". The poor fellow was so stressed over the whole process that by the time he finished the meal, he was so exhausted he fell asleep right on the couch..my poor baby..

Since moi told him I would not have my beauty sleep disturbed on a sunday morn, he was completely clueless when he should start cooking. So he did the cutest thing....he woke up earlier to stand by. Once he heard movement in the washroom (from the study room, meaning he kept his ears glued to the door while playing his PC game at the same time), he ran to the kitchen and refused me entry..until he finished cooking..Did I mention he took more than 1 hr to do so..haha..
The sweetie even made me coffee to go with my Sunday Times..(super brownie points!)

He really made an effort to make the perfect breakfast. Can you see from the pic that he actually made cuts in the sausage to fill in cheese cos the wify likes morzarella? aww....

On the menu:
1) French toast with onions
2) Grilled sausages which included garlic, morzarell stuffed garlic and chicken flavours.
3) Sunny side up (thou not looking very sunny..in fact a bit tired)
4) Melted cheddar cheese

Breakfast made by the husband who is completely clueless in the kitchen = priceless...

Katong Laksa...nah...

The fat chef needed a little help on one slow saturday afternoon and thank goodnes for her box of Prima Deli "Ready to cook meal kit". Though lazy...the wife still has to feed the man eh..

Honestly, I was abit sceptical about the result when I bought this kit. I mean, everyone knows how much effort goes into the $3 a bowl laksa you get from the hawker..So how good can a bowl which comes from "Mix 600ml of water with paste and bring to boil" box be?

I followed the instructions most diligently (98%) because I wanted to try the "authentic" taste. Now, the kit includes everything you need to make the gravy. You just need to add one pack of powder and one pack of paste to 600ml of water and bring to boil. You can then add any condiments you like, be it seafood or meat.
For me, I used mini deep fried taupok, bean sprouts, hard boiled eggs and chicken (I used fillet and cut into strips). The kit provides dried laska leaves and sambal chilli, but I chose to use fresh curry leaves instead. I added a few leaves to the gravy and chopped up another few leaves (almost paste like) to serve. That was the only amendment I made to the instructions.

The result...............
Both hubby and me were pleasantly surprised to find that it actually tasted quite good, especially so for such convenient food. Aside that we found it a bit salty (will add more water in future), the gravy was quite flavourful..I think if coconut milk was added to it, it would be more fragrant..and delicious..

So with such satisfactory result, this chef will definitly be checking out the other kits avilable..the orange box had definitly saved her ass last week! Mee rubus will be on my shopping list next, and oh... maybe another yummy box of laksa too..

Oh yes, another note..in case you are wondering, I do not own (but I wish I do) nor work for Prima Deli...just giving my 2 cents worth of opinions...

Hediard, the french gourmet store

Chanced upon this little gourmet shop at Tudor Court when I was out shopping with my hubby one weekend. This place is full of goodies such as chocolates, herbs, sauces, jams...and many more. I felt like a little girl in a candy store while I stood infront of the shelves full of pretty bottles. I have this huge..and i mean HUGE...weakness for pretty bottles of sauces..at one time I actually bought 4 bottles of salad dressings just because they look so beautiful....and they are not cheap...
Now the very "smart" shopkeeper took one look at me and asked "So..r u looking for items which you can use to display in your kitchen?" I shot back "No..i actually cook as well"..haha...most pple cannot believe I cook...according to the husband, it's because I look very "Xiao Jie" (aka the pampered doll..haha)..well...I ended up buying things which I didn't really need. Actually my house was still under renovation when I bought them...that's how crazy I am..

So one of the items I got was the Sorrel Soup, basically a mushroom soup. I kept it on my kitchen shelf for 2 mths..(to show my friends u noe..when they come over for housewarming parties) before I decided to have it for dinner..

The bottle really looks nice but the taste...well...it was something both of us are not used to. I think it's because of the many campbell soup from our teens...this soup somehow tasted funny...it's sort of sourish..like sour cream has been added and it's not creamy enough like the way I like my mushroom soup....well, at about $16-$18/bottle...I don't think I'll be buying my next bottle soon..

Lazy weekends....

I guess by now it's rather obvious moi only cooks on weekends since the blog only gets updated after mondays and none of the post is abt my experiments in the kitchen on a weekday. Well...this fat chef is one career woman (i dream..ha) so no time to play in the "lab" on work days..no such luxury...if I do cook, I think both hubby & I will end up with supper rather than dinner since the normal time I can get home is around 8pm. So anyway, had 2 consecutive lazy weekends...so lazy that I didn't even bother to update my "cafe" last week...keke..

Last sat, made a really simple lunch...and guess what...porridge again. I usually hate porridge, I associate it with sickness...cos I usually eat porridge only when i am sick...so it sort of surprised me that I had such strong cravings for porridge for 2 sats in a roll...and know what? I think I am starting to love porridge, yes..even when I am not down with some illness.. So this is what I had for lunch...stir-fired asparagus with oyster sauce and chinese mushrooms and herb omelet..simple but oh so nice.... me think I am growing old..

Meat balls!

I had some left over minced meat from the wantons earlier in the day, and decided to make some meat balls for dinner. Besides the carrots and fresh button mushrooms, I added some chopped onions, cubed dried chinese mushrooms and dried herbs. What I got was a really frangrant mixture. Rolled them in flour, and they were ready to be fried!




Fried meat balls and wantons (left over from lunch)


With a simple dish of stir fried beans and a glass of wine, we called an end to a beautiful weekend spent lazing at home.

Wanton Mee

Was doing our grocery shopping last weekend when hubby suddenly said he wanted to eat wanton mee. Now, wanton mee is a popular local hawker dish easily found in most hawker centres and coffeeshops...but to find one decent bowl of wanton mee is not a simple task these days. Most stalls make really tasteless wantons, not to mentioned tiny weeny too... and the mee is often over cooked, not Q at all. Unlike the HK version, local wanton mee includes slices of char siew (Chinese BBQ pork) too.

So imagine my horror when there was no char siew in sight at the supermart. The husband took one look at me, felt some pity and decided it was okay not to have wanton mee..But not to be defeated, I promptly announced my plans to make my own char siew. The look on the Mr. face was truely priceless. He had this look of awe written all over his face. The man obviously didn't know there are ready made char siew sauce for sale. ha..some secrets are best kept hush.

So I marinated the pork on Sat nite and left it in the fridge. By Sunday morning, it looked a decent red..and frankly, smelled quite nice without adding more ingredients. Decided not to follow the recipe I found online and just follow the instructions on the bottle of Lee Kum Kee, except that I marinated the pork for 12 hrs instead of 2.

While I cannot claim 100% credit for the char siew, I did make my own wantons...

Minced pork fillings for wantons.


My homemade char siew..

Wanton mee..

The result was quite good actually. The char siew was properly grilled till crisp and slightly black at the end, the wantons were fresh and filled with healthier stuffings (carrorts, fresh button mushrooms & pork) and the noodles were cooked till just right, Q Q..I didn't have any cai xin as normally used, so I subsituited it with lettuce.
And most importantly, I now have one very impressed man..oh...and well-fed too..

comfort food...

Sweet & Sour Luncheon Meat

I had really bad cravings for some comfort food last Saturday and the first thing I thought of was sweet and sour luncheon meat. It was something my mum used to make, to go either with rice or porridge. Since the Mr. loves luncheon meat, I decided to make my own..

Sweet & Sour Luncheon Meat
1/3 can of luncheon meat
1 medium size potatoe
1 small onion, chopped.
1 tbsp sweet sour plum sauce
2-3tbsp ketchup
2-3 tbsp chilli sauce (Maggie will do)
1 tbsp oil
oil for deep frying

1. Cut potatoe into cubes and soak in salt water for abt 15mins. Drain and dry.
2. Cut luncheon meat into cubes, ideally same size as potatoes.
3. Heat oil and deep fry the potatoe cubes till golden brown (can choose to pan fry too).
Set aside.
4. Fry luncheon meat till light golden brown. For healtier option, can choose to grill luncheon
meat (i was lazy..so fried the stuff in the same batch of oil I used for potatoes).
5. Heat wok with 1 tbsp oil. Fry onions till they have turned soft and slight golden brown, add
sweet sour plum sauce, ketchup and chilli sauce. Mix well and cook for 30-45secs and add
in potatoes and luncheon meat.
6. Serve hot with rice or porridge (serves 2)