Fried Rice Paradise

My first attempt at cooking fried rice was at home econs class in Secondary One. I didn't pay much attention. The only thing I remember was that we had to slice chillies for garnish. I don't remember how my fried rice tasted. Probably not very good, despite the lovely garnish, or I would have attempted it again.

My second attempt was not until my first year at University. I was missing home badly, and Oxford was unusually cold that winter. I was craving fried rice, even though it was not one of my favourite dishes.

I didn't have a recipe and of course had clean forgotten my hone econs lesson. In those days (gosh I am sounding old!), the internet was primitive and one couldn't just look up the recipe online. I was not yet experienced in cooking, but I thought, "How hard can it be? It's just frying some rice in a wok with eggs, mixed veg and Chinese sausage right?" of course, I screwed it up. I added the eggs last (why? I don't know.) and the fried rice ended up a soggy mess. I was upset and never tried it again. But went on to cook many other different and probably more complicated dishes.

Until.

Seven years later, I discovered that my husband, a non-cook, could whip up a mean dish of fried rice!! The only other dish he "cooks" is a bagel sandwich with bacon. I enjoyed his fried rice tremendously and was happy to let him take the lead on his dish. But in time, I realized that it wasn't that hard a dish to cook. I observed him, read some recipes, and finally cooked a decent version of fried rice.

Now, I cook it regularly. My kids love it, and I find that it is the perfect dish to cook when I have too many scraps of food in the fridge. It keeps really well, so I can have leftovers for lunch the next day. And it takes little effort, oh except for the turning and breaking up of the cold rice. Once in awhile, I enjoy making complicated delicate dishes, but now that I am managing the household on my own, I have no time for complicated. And I find that there is an inverse relationship between how complicated a dish is to make, and how well kids take to it.

I don't have a fixed recipe. But it generally includes onions, garlic, eggs (which always go in before the rice) scraps of leftover meat (ham, sausages, luncheon meat, roast chicken etc.), scraps of veg left that need to be cooked coz they are losing their freshness/are not enough to make one meal (or frozen mixed veg) and leftover cold rice. I will add soya sauce (light and dark) and/or oyster sauce and sesame oil. The type of sauce and amount will depend on the ingredients and my mood. I never have chili as a garnish.

So we have fried rice once a week. I have a version of cha-pa-lang pasta that I make on another night (also keeps well for lunch). So that's at least four meals accounted for!

Ribs!

It's been a month since we moved to Massachusetts, and while I've been cooking lots (it's expensive to eat out!), I haven't really felt anywhere close to being a domestic goddess! Cooking has become a chore that I squeeze in between other chores.

How very sad!

But today, I rekindled that love affair. A friend from home (let's call him T) has been in town, and we invited him home for dinner. I really didn't think he wanted to have stir-fry or pasta and I wasn't going I try steaming lobsters! It seemed like perfect opportunity test out Sweet Baby Ray's famous BBQ sauce (http://www.sweetbabyrays.com/) on some finger-lickin ribs!

It was my first time, and I would normally never try out a new recipe when cooking for a guest. But T is also a foodie and enjoys cooking, so he gave me some tips and I felt confident enough to try it out.

It was actually really simple. I cooked it mainly in the slow-cooker (soaking in 1 bottle of Hickory smoked and brown sugar BBQ sauce plus shopped onions), and finished it off under the broiler. It was really good! Very yummy. If I had more time to let it cook in the slow-cooker (5-6 hours), it would have been even better.

I used a mixture of baby back ribs and boneless ribs. The boneless ribs were not as nice owing to a relative lack of fat.

I have several more bottles of sauce and will definitely be trying this out again. I figure I could do char-siew the same way.

And now that I have started using the slow cooker, I am tempted to try out other slow cooker recipes such as chicken stew. The domestic goddess wannabe is fighting her way back!

Gingersnaps (Joy of Baking)

I can't get enough of the ginger! My final batch of Christmas cookies had to be ginger ones.  I picked the ginger snaps recipe from Joy of Baking.  I added a quarter cup of diced crystallised ginger to give it an extra kick.
 

Before we roll it out.

 It was easy to make, similar in technique to the peanut butter cookies and chocolate christmas biscuits.  Having a freestanding mixer really helps!

Little balls of sugar covered cookie batter.

After being flattened into discs.

It turned out beautifully chewy and soft.  I could've baked it longer for a crisper ginger snap cookie, but I like mine chewy.  These were also packed off as Christmas gifts.

All done! Yummy!

Nigella Christmas Chocolate Biscuits

Nigella promises that these are a "doddle to make, and meltingly gorgeous to eat", and she is not wrong at all.

The recipe doesn't require eggs.  Just creaming the butter and sugar, then beating in the flour, baking soda, baking powder and cocoa.  The most finicky bit about making these biscuits are rolling them into little balls.  I used my plastic gloves.  

Nigella decorates the biscuits with Christmas sprinkles. But I just used whatever I had at home - which were chocolate black, brown and white dog shaped sprinkles....not very festive at all!

The biscuits were really yummy.  Super soft.  It really does melt in your mouth.  You can eat a dozen before you realise it.  I packed them up as Christmas gifts so I didn't face the temptation of eating a dozen at a time.  

Nigella Christmas: Sticky Gingerbread

 "I can't disentangle the smell of gingerbread from the smell of Christmas...", Nigella Christmas, p 201

And so, I couldn't help myself.  I love the smell of ginger.  And with the weather being so wet and cold recently, ginger is so beautifully warming. This gingerbread is just calling out to be made.  Nevermind the fact that I have only attempted gingerbread once before, with V, when I was about 13.  It was a dismal failure.  But of course, then, we had no Nigella to guide us through the steps.

First, you melt the butter, golden syrup, black treacle, sugar and spices all in pan, then add the milk, eggs, baking soda.  You get this black fizzy gloop.

Then you mix the liquid into the flour.  I had some difficulty here because the mixture became lumpy and impossible to mix well.  Nigella did not say anything about the mixture being lumpy.  But because we are instructed to mix it well, I pour the lumpy mixture through a sieve to smoothen it out.  I read up on it later, and some recipes say that the lumpiness is part of the deal, that you should not overhandle it or the cake will be tough (i.e. treat it like muffins).  Others have tricks to ensure the batter remains smooth.  

Whatever the case, I don't think the sieving had a negative effect, because the gingerbread came out beautifully soft and moist.  

You are supposed to wait till it cools down before cutting it.  I couldn't wait, so I had a piece while still hot.  My first impression was that it was awfully sweet and that it could do with a bit more spiciness.  

But when I tried it again the next day, the flavours really popped! It wasn't as sweet and the spices really filled the mouth.  It was still as moist and tender.  It went really well with a cup of coffee.  I brought it for my bible study group and some had seconds, and even thirds...

While Nigella is quite happy having it on its own, for those looking for more prettiness, she suggests a sharply contrasting icing of icing sugar and lemon.  I didn't bother, though I think the acidity of the lemon would have really contrasted nicely with the sweet spiciness of the gingerbread.  Maybe next Christmas!

Peanut Butter Cookies (Joy of Baking)

Peanut Butter Yumminess!

Christmas is coming and I have decided that homemade baked goods make great presents.  So I have been experimenting a little on various recipes.  I know I could probably make chocolate chip cookies which are real crowd pleasers, but I thought it would be nice to try out something different.  I don't know if peanut butter is a traditionally Christmassy ingredient, but I love it.  So my experiment #1 are these peanut butter cookies from Joy of Baking.

They are so easy to make, especially if you have a freestanding mixer.  The only work you need to do is to roll the batter into little balls and use a sugar coated fork to squash it.  I found that bit quite therapeutic.  I mixed in chocolate chips into about a third of them.

Little Balls of Batter

Squashed and ready for the oven (I was supposed to criss-cross the lines, but forgot)

Keeping in mind my oven's tendency to overcook, I baked these for only 10 mins.  They were still soft in the oven, but hardened as they cooled.  The cookies were very yummy.  Beautifully soft and moist inside.   They reminded me a little of my late grandmothers' melt-in-your-mouth Chinese New Year peanut cookies.  My mother-in-law has asked for the recipe so that she can make them for Chinese New Year.  I think the peanut butter flavour overwhelms the chocolate chips, so I will make these without chocolate chips.

I used Laura Scudders peanut butter, my favourite brand (available from Cold Storage).  Since this recipe really showcases the peanut butter, make sure you use a brand you really like.  (OK, I lied about the only work being the rolling of the batter into balls.  I used natural peanut butter, so I spent quite a bit of time before baking stirring the peanut oil back into the butter.)

These cookies definitely pass the test, and were so good that I gave V cookies from this batch.  I hope she enjoys it!

Baby's first words

For 11 months I have nursed him, bathed him, changed his dirty diapers, played with him, endured sleepless nights and sore shoulders on account of him, and generally catered to his every need and most of his fancies. But his first words were (in approximate order), "pa pa", "Bao Bao",＂抱抱", "ball", "car", "go", "dark", "no", "good", "duck", "truck", "婆婆", "gor gor" and even "goal".

Guess the missing word. :-(

Chicken Pox - Day 4

Baby seems to have gotten over the worst of his chicken pox. I didn't notice any new blisters today.

He doesn't seem too bothered by the blisters. I have been giving him oatmeal and bicarbonate of soda baths several times a day. I have also applied Vitamin E on his scars. This is on top of the calamine lotion that the doctor gave us. I read that honey , smeared onto the skin, is also a good remedy. But it sounds too messy for me!

If no more blisters appear, then I'd say his illness has been rather mild. I'm crossing my fingers no-one else at home gets it. We want to be able to have some holiday fun outdoors!

Chicken Pox!

Baby was diagnosed with chicken pox on Monday, at the start of the school holidays. So all our plans haven't at least the next two weeks have been thrown out the window.

At first, it didn't look too serious, but on Monday night, he simply couldn't sleep. It must've been very uncomfortable for him as he was wailing all night, and even nursing couldn't calm him.

As a result, I hardly slept. It was amazing I made it through the day...

He seems to be sleeping better tonight...but it's still early. I should go take a catnap while I can!

Chocolate Cake (Rachel Allen)

I was looking for a simple basic chocolate cake recipe for Junior's 7th birthday celebration at home (just the family).  I chose Rachel Allen's Chocolate Cake recipe (from her book "bake") as it looked like a classic chocolate sponge with chocolate buttercream icing.  It was relatively easy to make.

In terms of flavour, it was OK. Jr liked it and said it was sugary (mainly due to the icing, which was more sugar than chocolate).  I thought the chocolate flavour was not as strong as I would've like it to be, and the icing was much too sweet (which I think for some people is really the point of icing).

I have mentioned before that I am wondering if my oven is too hot, thereby drying out my cakes. I did bake this a little shorter than the recommended time.  But the cake was also a teeny weeny little bit drier than I prefer, though I must say I am comparing it with the really moist chocolate cakes I've made before.  Perhaps it was because it was refrigerated before tasting time.  The cake certainly did not look overcooked (not cracks on the surface or mountain effect).

Overall, it was pleasant tasting, but I think I have other much nicer chocolate cake recipes that I'd reach for before this version.   I like my chocolate cakes really moist and chocolatey, almost fudgy.  But this is really just a simple chocolate sponge, which is a different cake altogether.  So I guess I was expecting too much.  Sorry Rachel Allen!