Shepherd's pie

Tried shepherd's pie today.

The ingredients. 

After boiling the potatoes, I get the children to mash the potatoes. 

While they are doing that, I cooked the rest of the ingredients. 

Then it's filling it into the tin foil. Instead of using a big one, I used three small ones. 

Then the mashed potatoes goes on top. Mabel did a good job in evening out the mash potatoes.

Then into the oven it goes. 

The finished product. 

Verdict: I think I should cook the potatoes longer to make it softer. And I should invest in a potato masher. The potatoes were not as soft as I've wanted it to be. 

And instead of ground beef, I may use chicken next time. 

Cantonese stew beef

Cooked this dish. Recipe from http://www.rasamalaysia.com. It has many recipes which you can try.

The only difference in the cooking method of this is I do not brown the beef first. In my previous attempts at stew beef, I browned the beef. Again, hope it turns out well too. I liked the idea of putting the beancurd stick in this dish. This is so hong long style.

This dish is cooked and served during winter when the temperature is low. Luckily, it is raining the whole day today which makes it perfect to eat this.

Spices addition

Added two more spice bottle to my collection. Cardamon and white pepper seeds. So now my cupboard looks full.

Salted vegetable duck soup

Wanted to order this soup on a Sunday night dinner, but the stall sells other soups other than this. So I decided to cook it myself. I got the recipe from http://www.noobcook.com. So I followed the recipe, including the recommendation. Just hope it tastes nice.

The duck part is difficult to tackle. Had to chop the duck into smaller pieces and remove the skin and fats. Otherwise, the soup will turn out too oily. Luckily, I have my domestic helper to help me.

The direction of this blog

Was binging and saw that there are many hundreds of blog dedicated to food. Most are teaching you how to cook, providing recipes, providing tips on food. There are some blogs that are dedicated to reviews of food, just came acroass a blog that is dedicated to reviewing instant noodles.

So that brings me to question my own blog. What is my three year plan, five year plan? Joking! sounds so corporate, long term goals and short term goals.

As i said and remind myself again, the direction that this blog is going to take is basically, it's a blog where i can share my thoughts and experiences on my own cooking.

Cooking instant noodles 1

We are used to saying 'i want to cook maggie mee' but when we reach out to take that packet of noodles to cook, it may not be the brand maggie. It could be koka or any other brand. So why do we say 'eat maggie mee', 'the baby need to change pampers', 'it's the time of the month, i need my kotex' Interesting how brand names replace and become the nouns.

Ok, this first part focuses on the different ways of cooking instant noodles. The next part, I may have to start interviewing people for their views on how to make the most QQ instant noodles.

Do you have your preferred steps of cooking instant noodles?

I used to have to boil the noodles and then throw away the water which was used to boil the noodles, because it contained wax. Now, I do not bother.

My preferred steps:

1) Boil water in pot.
2) When water boils, pour the seasoning in. Give it a stir to make the seasoning dissolve.
3) When water is boiling vigourously, put in the instant noodles.
4) Beat an egg. This can be done while waiting for step 1.
5) Depending on how you prefer the texture of your noodles, (which will be discussed at greater length in part 2) pour in the beaten egg slowly at a time while stirring the noodles.
Alternatively, if you prefer, crack open an egg over the noodles. Turn off the fire when the egg white is cooked.
Or alternatively, crack the egg in a bowl. Turn off the fire and pour the noodles into the bowl immediately. In this way, you get a half-cooked egg.

image source: http://cookingsimplechinesefoodathome.com/2012/04/cooking-note-how-to-cook-instant-noodles.html


Basically, this is my preferred steps. I know different people have different variations.

Some like to put in the noodles before the seasoning. Once my domestic helper put the seasoning in a bowl. After the noodles is cooked, she would then pour it into the bowl. It was too salty for me, I 'corrected' her preferred way of cooking.

image source: : http://ramenrater.wordpress.com/2011/10/09/527-little-cook-instant-noodles-wheat-gluten-stewed-duck-flavored/


Are there any ways of cooking the instant noodles that I did not mention here?

I was googling, no, binging for instant noodles, and i just realised that there is a world instant noodle association (WINA). Cool.
http://instantnoodles.org/noodles/index.html
So, i tell you, instant noodle is really something. Almost all of us has cooked instant noodles once in our life.

http://instantnoodles.org/noodles/expanding-market.html
This page links you to a table that shows the trend of instant noodles consumption of different countries.

Frying eggs (sunny side up)

I don't usually like to fry eggs. But I feel that frying eggs needs skills. Skills that are picked up over the years of cooking.

First, pan. I don't like to cook eggs in a wok or a big pan, because the egg tends to spread out.

Second, the cleanliness of the pan. This was shared by Kelvin. If the pan is dirty, then the chances of the eggs sticking to the pan is very high.

Next, the oil and heat. You got to spread the oil around the wok/pan, to prevent the egg from sticking to the sides. If eggs still stick to the sides even after coating oil, then look at step two. If step two is checked, the egg still sticks to the pan, time to change a new pan!

Oh yes, the amount of oil is also something that you got to learn to control. Too much oil, the egg turns out too oily. yucks. And you also can' have too little oil. Hence, the delicate balance between too little and too much.

Next, crack open the egg into the pan. Over the years, i learnt that if the oil starts splattering, then it's wet. Ha, i mean something wet has come into contact with the oil. So if I want to fry fish, i make sure i use a kitchen towel to pat dry the fish to prevent having to fight with the oil splattering.

I used to hate having to wait for the egg to cook because i was worried that the underside would be burnt or stick to the pan. That is because of point 2 and 3.

Well, I'm not that perfectionist that i must have the perfect sunny side up, as long as the yolk is still soft and you are able to slurp the yolk down the throat, that is heaven to me. When i was younger and looked after by the neighbour, a simple fried egg with rice, i feel contented. I would used to 'break' the yolk over the rice and it taste yummy.

Coating oil over the pan

The egg white is still not cooked yet.

Patiently waiting for the egg to cook

I like this because the yolk was perfectly in the centre

The eggs arranged nicely like the petals of the flower