Cooking Up a Storm

Cooking is among my new hobby which I had picked up after SPM. Well, the holidays are long-a golden privilege for us high school leavers. I bet this privilege will only come to me again after retirement. Thus, there is absolutely NO REASON for me to waste this vacation by being idle,

11/1/2012

Fried rice.

My mom went to the temple. Thus, I was to prepare my own lunch. Being a greenhorn in cooking, I prepared fried rice, which, I must say, among the easiest lunch in the world!

Leftover rice, frozen mixed vegetables, small prawns, an egg, chopped garlic, dash of pepper, light soy sauce, some cooking oil, and of course, patience, these were just all that were needed for this easy-peasy daily laymen's fare. Likewise, ANYBODY can prepare it as the dish is not expensive, except for the prawns. (Yes, seafood is outrageously expensive these days) 

Here are the steps on how to prepare fried rice (Well, it is SO EASY that it does NOT even need a recipe! ) I will show the steps anyway.

Stir-Fry the garlic till fragrant but not too brown.

Add in the prawns and stir-fry together with the garlic till the prawns are cooked (curl up into a "C" )

Separate the mixture into one end of the wok, then fry the egg while mashing it up.

Add in the rice and mixed vegetables. Stir fry the rice till well-mixed.

Add pepper and light soy sauce to taste.

Dish up and serve hot.

Well, it is freaking easy, right? Not if you are impatient (That is me!) 

My mom wanted me to leave some of the rice for her to taste. Guess what? She commented that my rice was fragrant and that it was better than my grandaunt's (heart blossoms...) but it was too oily. (Yurghs!)

I must admit that my fried rice was damn oily as well. 

Anyway, it was quite a good try. (Being narcissistic, again, huh? ) Nobody learns without doing mistakes anyway.

12/1/2012

正月初一头一天 
家家户户过新年 
大街小巷悬灯彩 
炮竹响连天 
七个隆咚锵咚锵 
炮竹响连天 
小妹过年真高兴 
换上心鞋穿新衣 
从头到脚打扮好 
上街去拜年 
七个隆咚锵咚锵 
上街去拜年

Ehem. Maybe it is too early to sing this traditional Chinese song yet. Well, nine days away. However, I am completely geared up in the festive mood,all-out for Chinese New Year. (That does not mean that I crave for a crazy party yeah. Festivals are precious moments for FAMILY MEMBERS AND FRIENDS to REUNITE, right??!! Festivals are definitely not moments for you to become a skanky party animal! ) ***cruel laugh***

As a matter of fact, to me, everyday is Chinese New Year. Everyday is moon cake festival. ***winks***

For this upcoming festive season, my mother is going to offer a myriad of biscuits as usual. Personally, I prefer homemade cookies to the bought version because they are cheaper. (Actually, the ingredients are quite costly as well, especially cooking chocolate and nuts.) Besides, the ingredients are guaranteed to be the best and that the biscuits are loaded with REAL ingredients (e.g. fruits and nuts), and are preservative and stabilizer-free.

Of course, it is a back-breaking effort to bake biscuits. I used to think that baking biscuits is child's play and sulk whenever mom turned down my request for biscuits. Now, I got to taste the experience in baking biscuits. Awww! Unless you are physically strong, this task is bound to beat you.

Nevertheless, mom and my effort definitely pays off! As the saying goes, "No pain, no gain".

These are the first batch of biscuits: Cornflakes cookies.

Initially, we decided to make only cornflakes cookies with raisins. However, due to the lack of raisins, we soon turned to peanuts. I regret using peanuts as they do not taste good at all. :(

Thus, my mom suggested that we switch to cranberries. Obviously, the end product tastes a thousand times BETTER than those with peanuts! However, the cranberry variety and the raisin variety taste almost the same.

Happy baking to me yeah. I will be helping my mom to bake GREEN PEAS COOKIES soon!!!