I made this a few days back as I had some prawns stocked up in the fridge since the end of February and wanted to make room for new produce such as meats and fish. Having bought some squid that was on sale from the market, I decided to get some okra as well to make a yummy spicy seafood dish. It has been a while since we had some spicy dish – well, not curried per se but more of a tom yum or sour sauce spice.

I used a pre-made sauce (sorry, not pictures here) as it just make things a whole lot easier, especially these days when Eva is getting stickier due to her two front teeth popping out. Yes, you heard me – crazy barcode scanner assignments aside, I’m busy because my little one has two little pearlies coming out! She has been a gem so far by fussing for a night, then sleeping through the next day and only being sticky during the day. Even then, she’s sticky only in the afternoon. Going out in the mornings help calm her and get her to nap plus she enjoys it as well.

Anyway, back to the dish. With a pre-made sauce, this dish takes less than 30 minutes to cook. Prep time is around 10 minutes – shelling the prawns, cleaning the squid and slicing the okra. You can opt to replace the prawns and squid with fish and other forms of seafood but I like it best with these two items. What is a must is the quality of the seafood. They have to be fresh to impart that yummy salty sea flavour into a spicy sour sauce. Prawns have to be firm – flesh and especially the shell – whereas the squid surface (skin) has to be pinkish-red plus the flesh firm to the touch as well. There is no need to add salt or pepper as the sauce is already salty and spicy enough for the palate.

Excellent on a cold day, served with rice and some side servings of lightly blanched vegetables!

We consume quite a lot of yoghurt and since Eva started solids, one of the first foods I wanted to introduce to her was yoghurt as Nil and I just simply loveeeee yoghurt to bits, not to mention he wants to be absolutely sure that she grows up exposed to a wide variety of both European and Asian foods/items. The only problem with us loving yoghurt is that it can really put a dent in our pockets. A one kilo tub of good quality creamy yoghurt can hit up to nearly $10 so I started exploring the option of making homemade yoghurt.

I came across the Easiyo Yogurt Maker and decided that it was good value for money as it was simple to use (just three steps), the gadget itself looked simple – nothing fancy like stainless steel drums and so forth – and have starters/cultures available as well. Phoon Huat here in Singapore sells these for $35 and the cultures for $6. I was lucky to have stumbled upon them while they were having a promotion – buy a yoghurt maker and get five culture packs of the same value for free. So I grabbed a pack of Natural, Custard, Mango and two packs of Skimmers (low fat) cultures. All the culture packs include milk solids and live cultures already so all you need to do is just add water. Best part is that each pack makes 1 kg of yoghurt.

The instructions are easy – wash and dry the yoghurt maker (where you’ll be culturing your yoghurt) before use and wipe the yoghurt jar with a damp cloth. In the yoghurt maker, pour in the cultures and add in about 500ml of cool water (refrigerated water is good) before stirring rapidly and well (if you want creamier yoghurt). Once the cultures have dissolved, fill it up to the 1 liter mark and close the maker. Fill the jar with boiling water until the indication point (there is a mechanism inside) and place the maker inside before closing the jar. Put aside for at least 10-12 hours – you can leave it to culture for up to 24 hours and the result will be firm but tangy yoghurt. The shorter it has been culturing, the less firmer and less tangy the yoghurt will be. I like my yoghurt creamy and slightly firm as well as tangy so I let it sit for 12 hours.

After this, you can remove the maker and refrigerate the yoghurt maker but what I did was stir up the yoghurt before refrigeration to help mix the whey (liquid from the culturing process which is high in Vit B and so forth) and yoghurt. The result is as seen in the pic below – slightly liquidy and not quite set. I left the mix to set in the fridge overnight and the result was firm but creamy and yummy yoghurt.

At first, Nil was a bit sceptical about using culture packs but when he tasted the yoghurt after culturing and then again after setting, he was sold on it! His verdict? Yummy! Best part of all is that you don’t need culture packs to make yoghurt. All you need is milk and more yoghurt which I’ll tell one of these days as what yoghurt you use (as a starter) has an impact on the taste as well as the type of milk you use.

Oh, did I mention that Eva loves it as well?

Prawns are wonderful. Never mind that they are bottom feeders and people think they are filled with tons of junk. Nil and I simply love prawns – doesn’t matter if they come to us boiled with a slice of lemon or stir fried or in curries. Prawns are yummy!

BUT getting to the flesh can be tedious if you hate peeling prawns to bits. Then there is the preparation – if you want to eat the flesh without having to peel it, you need to shell it before you cook it. They leave a stench on your fingers and anything that comes into contact with it, including my stroller basket. (I wouldn’t and cannot imagine parents with preppy strollers like this Bob stroller putting in prawns in their stroller basket so it must be just me/Nil!). My Swiss-Italian housemate used to think that I was nuts shelling my own prawns back in Australia when you can buy them shelled. They cost more and I was a stingy poker back then when it came to food. Besides, you can do more with unshelled prawns – pan fries, boiled, grilled and so forth instead of the regular add-in-veg or fried rice with shelled ones!

It takes a certain kind of skill to pick out fresh prawns from not-so-fresh ones – I’m still working on it although I got most of it down to pat, I think. Choose prawns with a firm texture, hard shell and not slippery. Sometimes I’m too busy thinking about other stuff to buy and get one or two which aren’t fresh but no biggie. Often, they are still edible; they just don’t taste as good as fresh ones – not-so-fresh prawns when cooked are often mushy, and their flesh sort of splits or falls apart easily.

When storing prawns, the old school style has always been to fill a container with some water and sugar, toss the prawns in immediately upon returning home and freeze it. For shelled prawns, sprinkle some sugar over and freeze. Sugar is used to maintain the firmness and enhance the sweetness in the flesh. Both methods have worked well in my favour; I find it great when prices are low and I want to stock up on prawns.

When cooking prawns, look out for the characteristic pink colour throughout the prawn. It should be even – this means even the tail and head has to be pink. Half-cooked prawns can result in you having a rendezvous with the toilet – not recommended at all. Having said that, don’t overcook your prawns – they will end up dry and tough. You want something juicy yet fully cooked.

How to cook whole prawns? Well, there are many ways – with butter, garlic, cereals, on the grill with/without marinate, boiled, curries and flavoured sauces, and Nil’s favourite style – with plenty of tamarind pulp. Note that with this dish, the more “burnt” the prawn is, the better the flavour so don’t worry about having to watch out for your prawn and use plenty of high heat. A non-stick pan will work best in this instance.

Pan fried tamarind prawns

Ingredients

500 gms medium to large prawns
100 gms of tamarind pulp – more if you like it stronger
Light soy sauce
Some water

Method

1. Remove the sharp bits on the prawns head and tail as well as the whiskers and rinse before marinating the prawns with the tamarind pulp and soy sauce.
2. Leave to sit in the fridge for at least one hour or more if you want a stronger flavour.
3. When ready, put a non-stick pan on medium-high heat and wait till the pan is smoking hot before placing the prawns in on one side. Flip over when the flesh is pink and the shell is slightly charred. Remove when both sides are fully cooked and slightly charred. Repeat until all the prawns are cooked.
4. When the last batch of prawns are ready but still in the pan, pour the marinate into the pan (still on medium-high heat) with the previously cooked prawns.
5. Add in about 50ml of water and stir until the sauce thickens or is nearly dry, leaving a coat on each prawn. If you like more sauce, then you don’t have to reduce a lot of the sauce. If you don’t like the sauce, then cook it for longer.
6. When ready, dish and serve warm with some rice or other dishes or eat on its own.

On lazy days or days when I just have no idea what to cook, I dig out various cuts of chicken and prepare them with just soy sauce and some garlic. My favourites have always been to use the following cuts either mixed in or separately: chicken feet (YUM!), drumnets or wings. Nil doesn’t really fancy the feet so I do those mostly for lunch plus that part is pretty cheap. I often get about 20 or so feet for around SGD2 or less. The outcome is still very yummy!

In fact, you can use just about any cut of meat or type with this dish. Some people make it with pork belly; others with pork ears (YUM as well!) and so forth. I love it with huge amounts of garlic but discovered of lately that the key in the sauce is the quality of the soy sauce used. I tried to cook this dish with a soy sauce that had less salt (and indirectly less flavour) and found it wanting in so many ways.

For the taste, it should be sweet yet tinged with meat flavours; savoury would be the key word we’re looking for. The sauce is fab on its own or with some soft white rice and even noodles or pasta! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go lick my fingers and try not to get any sauce while I’m working on some exposed acne treatment systems.

Dark soy sauce chicken

Ingredients

Some chicken pieces
Dark soy sauce
Light soy sauce
Garlic
Water
Sugar

Method

1. Fill the wok with about 250ml of water or more, depending on the amount of chicken you’re using – just ensure that you cover at least 3/4 of the pile of meat.
2. Once the water boils, added in some cloves of garlic – how much depends on your tastebuds. Remember to wash them as you’d be using unpeeled garlic.
3. Allow the water to boil with the garlic for a few minutes before adding in your meat. Turn down the heat to simmer and cover.
4. Once the meat is cooked, add in a dash of light and dark soya sauce plus sugar. Don’t forget to taste the sauce – it should be savoury, not too salty or sweet.
5. Remove the wok, turn up the heat slightly so that it’s still simmering but not boiling and stir occasionally to get an even dark colour on the meat. Leave to cook until the sauce is reduced to a few tablespoons or more (how much, again, depends on you).
6. When ready, dish and serve warm with some rice/noodles/pasta or other dishes.

Kacang botol or more uncommonly known as winged bean (its English known counterpart here is “four angle bean”) is one of my favourite vegetable and is often used in stir fries with plenty of chilli but is more commonly used in Malay cuisine as an ulam or Malay salad where raw vegetables, chosen for their medicinal (and nutritional) properties, are eaten with sambal belacan. It is high in Vitamin A, C and several others, and is often cooked in the same way as other leafy greens. Great for when you’re on a diet – no need to resort to things like phentermine!

One of the more popular ways of cooking this is with sambal and prawns although I too like it with some garlic and dried prawns. The key to yummy sambal-based dishes is not to overdose with the salt, keep the “meat” (prawns, fish, etc) fresh and add in a pinch (or two) of sugar – at least that’s how I prefer my sambal dishes. And oh, not too much on the oil either.

Sambal kacang botol with prawns

Ingredients

A good amount of winged beans
200 gms of fresh prawns – shelled save the tail
Sambal belachan*
Salt, pepper and sugar to taste
Oil – for stir frying

Method

1. Wash the beans and slice them diagonally before putting them aside.
2. Heat up your wok to medium-high heat and add some oil before tossing in the sambal. Fry them until fragrant.
3. Add in the fresh prawns and stir fry until the prawns turn pink. Then toss in the vegetable and add in a few tablespoons of water if necessary. Cover the wok for about one minute
4. Remove the wok and stir fry. Season with salt, sugar and pepper to taste. You’ll know the vegetables are cooked when they are bright green. Dish and serve warm with some rice and other dishes.

* For the recipe for sambal belachan, please refer to this link.

I’ve been toying around with adding a new foodie category but wonder if it’s a good idea since I’m not really a food blogger per se – not to mention sometimes it gets too dark in the evenings to get a good shot of the dish without resorting to heavy edits. Then there is the matter of how we are all so hungry that by the time we do have the time to take a pic, all the food is already gone.

Anyway, every day dishes are simple fares that are both healthy and easy on the wallet not to mention quick to cook up – all of which are important if you’re busy with work or juggling a ton of assignments like checking out hgh supplements as well as a baby on the side. The dishes I’ve previously cooked up are more suited for the weekend or on days where you have plenty of time to spare but a downside with every day dishes is that they can be repetative. It just means I have to be more creative, that’s all.

Hm, so for posterity’s sake, I guess I’ll just go ahead and create the category. Makes for easier organization too, no?

It didn’t occur to me how expensive cheese and other dairy products were in Singapore until I went out looking for mozzarella for our homemade pizza. At $3-4 per 100 gms, it was definitely a pricey item. Funny how I never noticed in the past when I was in Malaysia but then again, I wasn’t making pizzas from scratch then. In Switzerland and especially France, dollar to dollar, cheese was as cheap as milk per cut and not per 100 gms. Hai, I’m definitely missing Europe more and more.

No, getting people to ship cheese over or shipping it myself (getting moving quotes can be a pain) isn’t going to cut it. The cheese would probably be dead by the time it arrives here.

So due to climbing prices, we had to make do with as little as we could – sorry la but we aren’t exactly swimming in gold. A couple slices of smoked pork belly, plenty of mushrooms, some onions on top of some yummy pizza sauce that came in a can (courtesy of Carrefour) and a couple of thinly sliced mozzarella slices later, we got some square pizza for dinner. It was way too much though – two pizzas, that is – so the next time, I’ll be halving the dough recipe. Otherwise, this was quite yummy; the pizza sauce turned out to be a big surprise and a yummy addition to our shopping list.

Next time, there’ll be some capsicums, more mushrooms, ham and onions plus maybe…just maybe some dark olives? Hm, we’ll see.

And oh, I reckon my tabletop oven is slowly but surely getting good at churning out some yummy food!

Weekends are great for me because Nil is always around to help watch over Eva whenever I need to cook big dishes that either require prep time or cook time. Sure, I can plop her into her booster chair and let her amuse herself but sometimes she just isn’t all that patient. Nil likes to place her in her Bumbo and give her the sippy cup to play with while he hangs out the laundry but that’s the laundry. It’s different. HAHAHAHA.

Anyway, this was my first attempt at cookie-making since I left Switzerland and I’m glad to report that despite missing my baking mat (non-slip and great for rolling out dough and all) and mixing up all the steps (I made the pastry as if I were making a tart shell – crumbing instead of creaming), everything went as went as can be. Just goes to show that baking and cooking skills do get rusty over time if you don’t use them often.

In terms of ingredients and such, I had to make adjustments to it from my previous recipe which incorporate strawberries (I really ought to keep a record of my recipes somewhere like in PDAs or a diary instead of dumping them online coz if I lose them, I’ll lose everything!). I also experimented with using different flours instead of my regular plain white flour. The resulting dough was later refrigerated to harden it a little and then cut out into cute shapes instead of the regular heart/star shape that I used to do with my “moulded” cookies. Really cute and tiny, I’d think.

These were initially intended for Chinese New Year but I manage to churn out only a smallish bottle full of them – about 50 pieces or so – as I like them a little on the thick side. So we decided that it would be for Nil’s breakfast as he likes sweet things for breakfast as with all French – cookies, jam, butter, bread, etc. The overall result in terms of taste and texture was nice – tender yet crumbly with that lemony tangy. Awesome on its own or just with some tea!