Auntie Tips (17)

Tip 1 :
To create a natural and uplifting scent for your bathroom, cut an orange in half, scoop out the pulp to form a cup and pour in a tablespoon of salt. Leave one on the sink, above the cabinet or within the toilet area. Once the smell is gone, you can just replace the orange cups with new ones.

Tip 2 :
To sharpen your scissors, stack three pieces of aluminium foil one on top of the other and cut them a few times.

Tip 3 :
Before you get rid of your old blouses, snip off the pretty buttons and store them in a jar. You can use them to jazz up a picture frame, embellish a plain purse or create a one-of-a-kind bookmark. You can also add some to your scrapbook or journal.

Tip 4 :
To make deliciously fried and crisp fish, immerse the fish in milk before you dip it in flour.

Tip 5 :
Snip off the foot part of an old pair of stockings and place it over your sweeper's head. Push the edges into the grippers to secure, and start cleaning the rooms as usual. You will find that the mesh fabric of the stocking attracts and traps dust quickly.

From : Women's Weekly - Sept 2007

Natalie - 3-4 months old

doesn't look quite happy to be sitting in the stroller

other than her fingers, her shirt is her next favourite food

.

trying hard to find a way to watch the TV

Claypot Chicken Rice

I was actually not very pleased with how this dish turned out. The overall taste was good, but the rice turned out to be too soggy. I always have a problem when it comes to estimation, and I had to admit that it's quite difficult to judge the amount of water when it comes to cooking rice without using a rice cooker. And I also thought to just half the recipe and follow the amount, but apparently, something was wrong somewhere. So, the next time, I'm going to follow what my mother suggested: 1 cup rice = 1 cup liquid.

Claypot Chicken Rice (recipe from here)

Ingredients :

- 1 Chinese sausage

- 4 chicken thighs – cut to bite size pieces
- 2 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp dark soy
- 2 tbsp light soy
- 2 cloves of garlic (chopped)
- 1 tsp cornflour
- 2 tbsp of rice wine
- 1 inch ginger (julienned)
- 1 tsp of salt
- ½ tsp of pepper
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 3 spring onions (chopped finely)
- 5 dried shitake mushrooms, (soaked in warm water for 20 minutes)
- 2 cups rice
- 3 cups chicken stock

Directions:

1. Mix the chicken with all the ingredients except the rice, mushrooms, spring onions and stock. Leave to marinade for at least half an hour.

2. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok and stir-fry marinated chicken meat for 1 minutes. Add mushroom slices, sliced chinese sausage. Dish out and put aside

3. Put the rice and chicken stock in the cold claypot and place it over a medium heat with the lid on. Bring to the boil and immediately reduce the heat to a low simmer, then leave the rice to steam for 15 minutes. The rice should be nearly cooked, with little holes in the flat surface.

4. Spread the chicken mixture all over the top of the rice, and put the lid back on. Continue to steam over a low heat for another 15 minutes, until the chicken is white and cooked through. Give it a few stir and sprinkle the spring onions over the top and serve piping hot.

Haven't Met You Yet - Michael Bublé

Shortbread Cookies

Do not let these odd-shaped looking cookies fool you. It was just the presentation and looks that were a little off, other than those, the taste was good. Really surprisingly good. I was also very happy that my uncle actually wondered if I could make these and sell them for the coming Chinese New Year. However, I didn't have much confidence. I suspected it was because of my toaster oven that gave these cookies the slightly dark burnt look, not at all shortbread-looking like those from the recipe link. But I was still very glad that everyone enjoyed it. :) And I'm definitely getting some cookies cutters soon.

Shortbread Cookies (recipe from here)

Ingredients :

- 3 sticks unsalted, softened butter (24 tablespoons)

- 1 cup of sugar, plus a little extra, for sprinkling
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 1/2 cups flour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- chocolate for melting and dipping or drizzling (optional)

Directions :

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. (~176 degrees Celsius)

2) In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix together the butter and one cup of the sugar, until just combined. Now add the vanilla.

3) In another bowl, sift together the flour and salt, then add it to the butter/sugar/vanilla mixture. Mix on low speed until everything just comes together.

4) Form dough into a disk and then chill for 30 minutes. Roll out dough to about 1/2 -inch thick. Cut out with whatever cookie cutters you’d like. If you’d like, before baking, sprinkle with sugar.

5) Bake for 30 to 25 minutes, until the edges begin to brown. Let cool and dip in/drizzle on melted chocolate, if desired.
These cookies stored well for about 5 days in cookie tins.

Chicken Ngoh Hiang

So I've finally made my ngoh hiang. Yes, with chicken instead of pork coz as I had mentioned before, I can't stand the piggish taste of supermarket pork. Though I suspect that using chicken might not taste as sweet and succulent as pork, but I'm still very satisfied with the overall result. I had made ngoh hiang, of all things. It was not as difficult as I thought it would be.

And I'm also proud to say that I had kind of got the seasoning right this time. According to this post from The Little Teochew, there are 2 ways to get around the saltiness of this dish :

1) Go light on your seasoning of the filling, so that the saltiness of the wrapper makes up for the blandness, or

2) Season your filling as you normally would. Then, using a clean damp cloth, wipe the wrappers a few times (both sides) very gently. Make sure your cloth is damp and not wet, else your wrappers will turn soggy. Rinse the cloth thoroughly after each wrapper has been wiped. Squeeze dry and go on to the next.

And I followed the first method, coz I didn't think I have to patience to wipe and wash, wipe and wash. Heh.

Ngoh Hiang (recipe from here)

Ingredients : 

- 300g minced pork (or any minced meat you prefer)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced finely
- 6 water chestnuts, chopped roughly
- 6 medium sized fresh prawns, shelled, de-veined and chopped into small chunks
- 2 stalks leeks (the white part only), sliced thinly OR substitute with 2 stalks spring onions, chopped (I used both)
- 1 tbs soy sauce
- 1 tbs fish sauce (I omitted this)
- dash of sesame oil
- dash of pepper
- 1 small egg, beaten lightly
- Ngoh Hiang skin (sold in large, folded sheets at dry goods shops ... you have to cut them to size before rolling)

Directions :

1) To the minced meat, add garlic, leeks, prawns and water chestnuts together. Add in 1 tbs soy sauce, 1 tbs fish sauce and a dash of sesame oil.

2) Add in one egg and mix thoroughly. Sprinkle some spring onions for colour.

Note : To see how to assemble the ngoh hiang, follow the recipe link.

Pork Cannelloni

I would like to apologise for the terrible photo. It is really difficult to get a good shot at food with pasta sauce and baked cheese, everything always look like a mess no matter from which angle.

With that said, I always thought that it is not very common to use pork in pasta dishes. But I had a pack of minced pork bought the day before, as I was planning to make something else. However, I couldn't get the main ingredient so the pork ended up in here.

Since I couldn't find the frozen lasagna sheets, I thought using the hard ones might do. I just need to soak it in slightly salted hot water to soften it. But somehow, that didn't work very well, and the lasagna sheets were a little too chewy. Luckily, they were still edible and not that bad. The following is made up of bits and pieces of instructions I had read up on different cannelloni recipes.

Pork Cannelloni

2 servings

Ingredients :

- 4 (17cm x 12cm) lasagna sheets
- 1 cup minced pork
- 1 tablespoon bread crumbs
- 1 egg
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 tablespoons of stock
- 1 bottle 575g pasta sauce (I used less than that amount)
- Shredded Parmesan cheese
- Shredded Mozarella cheese
- salt and pepper to taste

Directions :

To make the pork filling,

1) Brown the chopped onion and garlic in olive oil and add the meat, spreading it out well across the frying pan so that it cooks evenly.

2) Season with salt and pepper. Add in the stock, cover and leave to cook over a low heat until the stock has evaporated. Turn off the heat and add the bread crumbs, mix in with the meat, and leave to cool. When the meat is cooled, add in the egg. Mix well.

Note : As the stock and the pasta sauce are already salted, I would suggest to just add a tiny amount of salt at this stage. Or maybe not add any at all. It all depends on how salty you like your pasta to be.

To assemble the cannelloni,

1) Preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius.

2) Spread the some pasta sauce over the the baking dish.

3) Taking a lasagna sheet, spoon the desired amount of meat at one end of the sheet. Roll up the sheet around the meat and place the seam side down over the tomato sauce in the baking dish. Repeat with the other lasagna sheets and the rest of the pork.

4) Cover the cannelloni with the rest of the pasta sauce and sprinkle with Parmesan and Mozarella, before placing a sheet of aluminium foil over the top and placing in the oven.

5) After 10 minutes, remove the aluminium foil and leave to cook for another 20 minutes, or until the cheese begins to brown.

Note : For my case, the cheese browns in less than 20 minutes.

A look back

Two major issues that had happened in 2009. First is the decision to quit my 4-year full-of-fun-but-going-nowhere job, and second, was the arrival of my niece, Natalie. Of course there were other issues, but they were not as important as these two, or are too personal to share. And since I couldn't think of anything more to write up about 2009, I shall leave you with this short note that Ray, my fellow colleague and good friend, had summarised about our 4-year journey together with our other 2 colleagues, in the same workplace.

The story of the bus driver and his passengers

I guess it all got started about 4 years ago? The journey of a bus driver and his passengers.

I can still remember there was once this bus driver….determined and driven, looking for the right passengers to board his bus……

The destination? The journey bounding for the Promised Land; or so it was promised.

He found 4 passengers of different character and skills and for a short time, the journey through the scenic meadow was both beautiful and glorious but good time, like roses, didn’t last. The bus driver lost his direction and motivation soon after and begun taking a back seat, leaving the passengers in utter astonishment. Forced to take over the reign, the 4 passengers tried to steer the bus back to its original path but were met with frustrating obstacles. There were suddenly many bus stops, slowing the journey to a snail pace and many drivers started to board the bus, demanding different pit stops and destinations. Shortly after, one passenger got pulled out of the bus, promised a better transport (a merc cab?) to a better destination, The Nirvana. He was promised of a more comfortable and professional journey in his merc cab. But the rest of the passengers knew, the poor guy was actually been transferred onboard a lorry filled with blanghras and was heading towards the black hole.

Nevertheless the 3 remaining passengers trudged on…. Struggling through the bumpy, cloudy desert road.

Time flew and like what time can do to everything, things got numb – the millions of last minute pit stops, trillions of empty promises, zillions of conflicting directions from various bus drivers and most importantly, the journey with no ending in sight, did not matter anymore. The stand-in passengers were tired.

And so finally, they decided to press the bell. They have decided..... to take the MRT.

Inside-joke story.

Looking back, the 4 passengers believe in efficiency. They kept the ultimate destination in mind all the time. They tried to steer the bus back on route with all their might. They tried to sound out when things go wrong, tried to standardize correct practices and even tried to find alternative to problems but their voices were often sniffled, deem to be complain~y or critical.

Looking back, maybe the bus never did left the bus station in the first place ya?

hahaha

Anyway, the journey had been a rewarding one. The passengers bonded together, became close friends and companions and no hard grudges were bear since bus drivers and passengers all got their own objectives, goals and ways of handling a bus. :)

To the cinema : Bodyguards and Assassins (十月围城)

This is the last movie that we watched for 2009, and coincidentally (or not) the previous Mandarin movie we had watched was also has Donnie Yen in it. Heh.

I didn't read up about this movie, or look at reviews before stepping into the cinema. So, there was not much expectations, and I was surprised about the VIP cast, even though some appeared only for less than 10 minutes. And as I thought back about it, I realised that this is those kind of 50-50 movie, where you like it 50% but on the other hand, dislike the other 50%.

There is nothing much to talk about the film without giving the simple and somewhat expected plot away. But I can say that the 50% I like is the way the characters were introduced, and how their relationships were clearly shown. The 50% I dislike is that I expected much more action since there is Donnie Yen in it. And when there were actions in some scenes, they were over a little too quickly before we can see the skills of the character, and get excited over the fighting.

And apologies to Leon Lai fans who happen to read this. For the life of me, I can't understand why the team cannot find another more suitable face or personality for this character. I admit I was never a fan of Leon Lai, and the image of him in this movie is really not for him at all. I couldn't stop laughing whenever he appeared, and same goes for the girl sitting beside me in the cinema.

Gong Zai Mian (公仔面)

I could still remember my very first "encounter" with Gong Zai Mian. It was my very first trip to Hong Kong with the husband (then boyfriend) and my girl friend. We had randomly stepped into a modest eatery for lunch and were browsing through the menu on the wall when this dish caught my eye. It sounded like something quite interesting and since I am more of a noodle person, I placed an order for it. And imagine our surprise when it arrived... instant noodles with a sunny-side up, luncheon meat and some vegetables.

So with some leftover luncheon meat, Gong Zai Mian came to mind. From the few blog posts I read, the instant noodles must be Nissin's Chu Qian Yi Ding (出前一丁). And this is such a simple meal that can be whipped up quickly and cheaply, it's atrocious how much those Hong Kong Cafes here charge for this dish.

And apologies if the egg didn't look as appealing as a sunny-side coz I'm not a fan of uncooked egg yolk. ;p