Today's Dinner and tomorrow's dessert

Cooked szechuan hot and sour soup for dinner after tasting a horrible version in Taipei. Food in Taipei is generally good but the one I tasted was really a 'what is this again' version. Bad especially because it was my last meal in Taipei before I headed for the airport. Tsk tsk.

Soup and noodles eaten together with cold appetizers I prepared, cold sesame cucumber appetiser and sesame garlic spinach.

and DESSERTS!

Made tiramisu to eat over the next few days. I will find out if this is any good tomorrow. The last version I made has too little alcohol, I hope this version will be yummy. Left it in the fridge for the flavours to develop overnight. There goes my diet. More double classes  at the yoga studio.

Szechuan hot and sour soup

Good dose of Woh Hup concentrated chicken stock, I think it's 4-6 tbsp as I poured from the bottle. Taste the stock to check whether it is salty.
4 cups water, 960ml (includes the water used for soaking the mushrooms)
1 cup of dried black tree ear fungus 黑木耳, soaked and sliced into thin strips
1 cup of fresh bamboo shoots, cut into strips
1 cup of dried shitake mushroom, soaked and sliced into thin strips
1 carrot, sliced into thin strips
1 cup of siken tofu, cut into strips carefully
1 large egg, beaten
3 tbsp white rice vinegar
3 tbsp Zhejiang black vinegar 浙江黑醋
1 tbsp chili oil
1 tsp sesame oil
½ cup cornstarch liquid (water and 2 tablespoon of cornstarch mixes)
salt and white pepper to taste
2 stalks coriander as garnish

Cut shitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots, black fungus, carrots, tofu into strips. They should be cut evenly. Add Woh Hup chicken stock into pot of water together with the soaked mushroom water. Bring stock to boil over high heat. Add carrot, shiitake mushroom, bamboo shoots, black cloud ear fungus. Reduce fire to low heat, and simmer for 20 min.

Add in chili oil, white rice vinegar, black vinegar, sesame oil, salt and pepper. Simmer for 5 min. Add tofu. Bring to boil.

Stir in corn starch until consistency is slightly thickened. Stir carefully since the fragile tofu has been added.

Turn off the heat. Add beaten eggs and slowly stir into the soup. Garnish with coriander.

I shall try a vegetarian version another day.

Today's dinner and others

Today's dinner. Dumplings soup.

Lately, I have not been cooking or photographing the food I cooked. I guessed it's just too much spring cleaning. Seriously, I can't believe I have so much belongings and I am ashamed to say I am a hoarder. But here are some of the food I cooked and remembered to photographed before I ate them.

My fav spinach, wolfberries and dried scallops dish

My vegetable and hummus wrap with lots of chilli

Sauteed pumpkin and baby corn.

Bimbibap with lots of vegetables. The ugly fried egg
is the result my decision on giving up non-stick pans
for health reasons.

Tofumisu. Instead of Mascarpone cheese, I used silken tofu
and white chocolate. Subtle taste of tofu with the rum-soaked
sponge fingers. Desserts nightly, it's not that sinful afterall.

What to do when it is public holiday and you are at a supermarket?

Day 1
We ended up in the supermarket after the rain dashed our afternoon at the botanic gardens. Since it was so cold and gloomy,  we had sukiyaki hotpot at home. I love hotpots on cool nights. The sukiyaki sauce was from a bottle. Added more water even though the instruction said otherwise. It was extremely salty without added water. Vegetables? Tung-o, golden mushrooms, king oyster mushrooms, pumpkin, beansprouts, leeks and bamboo shoots. Meat? Pork and scallops. R insisted on buying the scallops. A hearty meal.

We had sukiyaki at home in front of the TV.

The food

Gorgeous vegetables. More in the fridge.

Day 2
Leftover steamboat for dinner. Stewed the rest of the bamboo shoots, added white radish, leeks, pumpkin and carrots.

 

The leftovers steamboat and more side dishes.

My fav stir-fried bean sprouts. This is with tomatoes, king
oyster mushrooms and bamboo shoots.

Closed up of the stew.

The doesn't look great seaweed, carrot and soya bean dish.
Seaweed is very good for detoxifying the body
and a good source of iodine.

To eat or not to eat?

Steamed I think it's coral grouper
cantonese style. Very yummy.

An omnivore's dilemma. To eat meat or not to eat. I ate. R doesn't have any problems eating meat. I do. I prefer to eat vegetables but eat meat once or twice a week. I find eating meat more of a social habit than a dietery necessity. If it is served, I will eat it. It is about being grateful for the food especially if an animal has unwillingly died to be on my dining plate. Being wasteful is really a big no-no for me. I usually do not go all the way out to eat meat unless it's my once a month Ayam Penyet at the hawker centre. It's that beautiful combination of moist fried chicken and that sinful sambal. Shilin fried chicken and Arnold's fried chicken too! My, my blood thirsty cravings.

Why do I choose to eat less meat? Firstly, it's healthier diet. Nuff said. And of course, less guilt. Do I feel weaker from eating less of meat? No, in fact, I believe I am stronger with this diet preference. Whole vegetables, nuts, fruits and once-a-week meat works for me, I am more alert and have less allergies.

What about fish? I don't about you, have you dived before? Fish like groupers do not come in big schools. They come in two or threes, or are loners. First, you have to understand how fishes are caught. Either they are trawled from the seabed or are caught from a long drift net. Of course, you will not get only edible fish per catch. You get a lot of bycatch. I mean a lot, a lot of inedible bycatch. If I didn't remember wrongly, it's almost 70% of the total catch as written in a National Geographic magazine a few years back. Consumers will never see the wasted bycatch as they are thrown away by the fisherman. You must see the pictures to believe the amount that is wasted. Then, I didn't give a thought about what I was eating, never questioned what was served, it was just food to me. We humans are very good at emptying our once bountiful oceans...

This fish was given by in-laws. Looks like a coral grouper to me. It was very delicious and fresh. I steamed it with ginger and after the fish was cooked, I drizzled it with hot oil and the soya sauce/ mushroom sauce/sugar gravy. Super yummy.

Steamed fish, fish soup, chicken rice, fried chicken, satay, why do you make it so hard to eat less of you? I am so thankful I like vegetables. Can't imagine if I don't, mealtimes would have been a chore.

Food and more food

Dinner: Spinach with Dried Scallops and Wolfberries,
Braised Beancurd with mushrooms and Herbal Chicken Soup

Spinach with Scallops and Wolfberries

Braised Beancurd with Mushrooms

Herbal Chicken Soup

I do eat instant noodles. This is my fav. The noodles comes prepacked
with wolfberries. I added spinach and more wolfberries.

Chinese herbal flavor vegetarian noodles. This is very gd.
I always ask my in-laws to buy this from an organic shop.

All the vegetables in the fridge in a salad for lunch.

Claypot rice with chinese sausages,
stewed mushrooms with shallots and spinach.

Some of the food I ate this month at home.

Hainanese Chicken Rice and the Bobbing Head

I apologised to the chicken for accidentally snapping its head off when I was removing it from the pot of boiling broth. Mad. I actually said I am sorry while the chicken head bobbed forlornly in my chicken broth. I think this could be the result of eating a vegetable-based diet and supermarket shopping.

I am one of those who insist on shopping in a sanitised environment where I will not be reminded that the meat I am eating was once an animal. Honestly, I hate going to wet markets. All the blood and the many glassy dead eyes looking at me. Give me a nicely chopped up chicken or pass me my vegetables. No guilt in eating vegetables. Funnily, I insist on eating fresh fish. I hate eating overcooked or lousy fish. With my fussy tastebuds, God forbid if the chicken served to me is made from frozen chicken.

My maiden attempt in making chicken rice. When I was a teenager, I remember my mum will instruct me to 'rescue' the chicken from the broth and immersed it in cold water, rubbing a layer of oil and soya sauce on the chicken and lunch will be served.

Not exactly my mum's recipe but similar...