Home-cooked food – Page 20 – HEALTH FREAK MOMMY

Dad’s Homecooked Dishes

I love my dad’s cooking. He has no training from anyone yet he can whip up a hurricane for all of us, anytime. He enjoys cooking and he is the chef at home. My mum, she’s the baker. So when we are back at my parents in Ipoh, all of us get to enjoy the best of both worlds – my dad’s homecooked dishes and my mum’s cakes, pies, homemade jams, our all-time favorite homemade kaya, homemade English soups and homemade breads.

My dad cooked these dishes during our recent trip back to Ipoh:

Stir fried petai (stinky beans) with prawns and minced meat…

Pan-fried salmon fish…

Steamed cod fish…

Super smooth Ipoh tofu with minced pork, chopped spring onions and soy sauce…

His famous turmeric chicken which is everyone’s favorite…

Braised fish maw, mushrooms and dried scallops…. and also a pot of very tasty chicken and dried seafood soup (not in picture).

Gosh, my tummy is already rumbling away as I am typing this post and I’m sure yours is too eh, heheheehe….

No. of times viewed = 382

Crazy Over Yee Mein

My 3 girls are hooked on yee mein and they like it cooked in all fashions – Cantonese style, Hokkien style, soup base or simply eat the yee mein on its own. Even iLike yee mein – it’s crispy and reminds me of eating Mamee, my favorite childhood junk food 😀

The other day, I cooked one big pot of fried yee mein and can you beat it that my girls ate them for 3 meals straight in a row? For lunch, dinner and lunch again the next day!! I was laughing all the way coz my girls loved my cooking and it was easy job for me as I only had to cook once for 3 meals LOL!!

Here’s another fashion of savouring the yee mein….

Tofu fish balls, pork slices, prawns and veggie boiled in fried fish soup. The ingredients and soup are then poured over the uncooked crispy yee mein. My kids loved it!

No. of times viewed = 348

Goodies Made With Love From Home

When she’s around, I don’t have to worry about food on the table – 3 meals a day. She prefers homemade breads, cakes, cookies and homecooked food. When she’s around, she would discourage eating out and even discourages buying bread, buns and cakes from the bakery for she will bake them.

Here are some of the goodies that she made recently:

Pandan chiffon cake (sugar and oil reduced)…

Oatmeal-cranberry-almond cookies (sugar reduced)…

Marble cake. She baked 2 loafs of marble cake and a batch of oatmeal cookies in one afternoon!

And this is my breakfast… now you see why I was darn worried when I hurt my back and could not exercise for 4 days. With so much good food, I cannot afford not to exercise for even 1 day.

Stir fried leek flowers with fresh ‘kai pay koo’ (chicken drumstick fresh mushroom) and fishballs…

Crispy pan fried fish…

Loh kai yake (braised chicken wings).

A very tasty bowl of ham choi – siew chee geok (preserved salted veggie soup with roast pork trotters, tomatoes and onions).

Now she’s gone and will be away in Hong Kong for several months. I shall miss having piping hot and delish homecooked food served 2x a day. I shall miss looking forward to what she’s whipping up in the kitchen and in the oven for us to have tea and breakfast every other day. I shall miss staying cool and sweat-free during meal times. Now, I have to take over the kitchen. I shall be sweaty and smell of oil all over during meal times as I will be the one slogging over the hot stove, boo hoo hoo…

No. of times viewed = 336

Whipping Up A Hurricane

These days, my mil has been very adventurous in the kitchen. Almost everyday, a surprise would await us ;P

One of the days last week, she whipped up a hurricane. In just half a day, she whipped up these surprises for us:

Baked lemon-orange cheese cake and a big portion of pesto sauce (made from fresh basil leaves, toasted pine nuts, fresh garlic, Parmesan cheese and olive oil)

Macro shot of the lemon orange baked cheese cake.

2 loaves of healthy multi grain bread.

And we had cheese cake and fresh-from-the-oven bread spread with fresh-from-the-blender pesto sauce for tea that day! What a lovely treat we all had and I had to work out extra hard for the next few days that followed!

No. of times viewed = 321

Homecooked Dishes

Here I go again, flaunting some of my mil’s sau sai (culinary skills). When she goes to Hong Kong again very soon, I will be left with the daunting task of planning the meals, 2x a day, 6/7, boohoo hoo hoo hoo …..

Steamed chicken with wood ear fungus, dried golden needle mushrooms, dried mushrooms, Chinese cooking wine…

Stir-fried celery, fresh mushrooms and sweet peas with fresh scallops…

Braised fish with tau cheong (fermented soy bean paste) and tofu pok…

Onion omelette – the kids’ all time favorite.

Steamed minced pork with shredded wood ear fungus, dried portobello mushrooms, shredded cuttlefish and mar thai (water chestnut). This is my all-time favorite and my mil makes very delish steamed pork dishes. In order to get a smooth texture of the pork, you need to add in some pork fat. Also, you have to mix the raw minced pork with some sesame seed oil, pepper, salt and water and stir and stir in one direction in a big bowl before steaming it.

Stir-fried baby french beans with baby sweetcorn, fresh scallops and Japanese fishballs.

I have more pix of her sau sai to upload but I’ll do that in my next post. I’m sure you peeps are already salivating here eh, heheheheheh…..

No. of times viewed = 340

Homecooked Dishes… And My Bone-Loving Girls

These are some dishes that my mil cooked for dinner:

Braised chicken with potatoes. And stir-fried red and yellow bell peppers, french beans and ‘kai paye koo’ (chicken drumstick fresh mushrooms). It’s called ‘kai paye koo’ as the huge mushroom stems resemble chicken drumsticks! I love them and so do #2 and #3 but not #1 who hates mushrooms 🙁

Stuffed bitter gourd and tofu pok with homemade fish paste that my mil made from ‘kau yue’ (mackeral fish?). Stir-fried Chinese spinach.

Sweet corns and big pork bones (they are the ‘kuat sui’ or bone marrow of pigs). If you throw in 2 pieces of pork bone marrow into your pot of soup, the soup will turn out really sweet.

Whenever there is pork bone marrow in the pot of soup, my 3 girls will fight for the bones, Baby inclusive. Baby even eats the meat as it’s tender and not tough.

No. of times viewed = 415

Simple Homecooked Food

Whenever my mil wants to clear off all the perishables in our 2 huge refrigerators, we will have like 5-6 dishes for dinner.

We had 6 dishes and 1 soup of the day for dinner several nights ago:

Clockwise : pork ribs from the pot of watercrest soup (to dip with premium soy sauce), braised duck with ginger, tau cheong and spring onions (she actually bought the duck b4 CNY but did not have the chance to cook it during CNY), braised fish dish (left over from the previous day’s lunch at Restoran Wai Kei), stir-fried lotus root with lean pork, steamed organic Japanese pumpkin and braised tofu with minced pork and tau cheong.

Here’s the macro shot of the braised duck with ginger, spring onions and fermented bean paste:

Out of the 6 dishes, my 3 fussy eaters only attacked the lotus root (Baby inclusive) and the soft pork ribs from the soup. They hate pumpkin 🙁 I don’t really fancy duck, so my mil polished off the entire duck herself and ate it for several days. I polished off the fish dish, pumpkin and tofu. What a very ‘brown meal’, so devoid of green leafy veggie hor? These days, I prefer to stuff myself with veggie and fish and have been staving off red meat.

How many dishes do you normally cook for dinner?

No. of times viewed = 283

Easy-To-Make California Roll

Alycia was craving for California roll / hand roll early this week. Day after day, she pestered my mil to make char siew California rolls for her. Some time back last year, my mil made some homemade char siew (roasted pork) and used them for the California roll. Since then Alycia was hooked on the char siew california rolls.

This time round, my mil made prawn and fish roe California roll with avocado. It’s pretty simple to prepare and here are the steps:

First she cooked some Japanese rice with shelled prawns. She double boiled the rice since she cooked very little rice.

Then she placed a spoonful of rice with prawns on a sheet of Japanese seaweed. She then cut a wedge of avocado and Japanese cucumber and placed them on top of the rice. Then squeezed in some Japanese mayo.

Next she placed a scoop of fish roe on top of the pile of ingredients.

Then wrap the ingredients up with the seaweed. My young foodie enjoying her California roll when she was back after a long day at school. She was one very, very happy girl 😀

Me, I enjoy my California roll with all the ingredients minus the rice 😀

No. of times viewed = 287

Tuna-Egg-Onion Maya Open Sandwich

Ever since Alycia started Standard 1, her appetite has been at an all-time low, especially during lunch. Most of the food that she previously liked and could whack a big bowl, she can’t even finish half a bowl now. I guess the lack of shut-eye, rushing and a change in the time which she normally had her lunch all caused the body system to go out-of-sync a little. I was really frustrated that she disliked everything that I cooked. So I told her that I will not cook spaghetti, pasta, Mac n Cheese or fried noodles for lunch anymore. I asked her what she liked to eat and she said sandwiches! Oh well, that’s music to my ears coz I don’t have to sweat it out in front of the hot stove to prepare hot piping meals for her. So here’s what I prepared for lunch for my 2 older gals :

Tuna-hard boiled egg-onion mayo (I use Japanese mayo, which tastes better than regular mayo) …

… with star-shaped cheese on top of the lightly toasted multi-grain slice of bread for a better appeal for kids. Alycia and Sherilyn loved it and whacked everything, including the crumbs 😀 So sup sup sui (easy peasy) for me and I don’t have to cook hahah!!!

No. of times viewed = 311

Dad’s Homecooked Food

When my parents were here last week, my dad took over the wok one afternoon and cooked fried vermicelli. After happily sweating it out in the kitchen (my dad is naturally a talented cook and loves whipping out dishes for us), my dad suddenly remembered he had forgotten to put the marinated pork into the wok to fry together with the browned garlic half way through cooking.

So after he had finished frying the vermicelli (ingredients were fine vermicelli, silver anchovies, dried shrimps, dried bean curd sheets, cabbage, shallots and garlic), he whipped out another dish with the forgotten marinated pork — stir fried pork with ginger and ginger wine, one of my favorite confinement dishes.

My 2 fried mee hoon fanatics. Whenever there’s fried vermicelli, meal times are such a breeze. I can eat in peace and leave these 2 flers alone to gobble down their bowl of mee hoon on their own.

No. of times viewed = 412

Roasted Pork Ribs-Abalone-Chicken-Dried Oyster Yummylicious Porridge

My girls don’t really fancy porridge, unless the porridge is cooked with tons of ingredients and is full of flavor and tasty like this one:

Porridge with roasted pork ribs, abalone, chicken (marinated with sesame seed oil and sea salt) and dried oysters.

Even Baby who dislikes porridge and mushy stuff loved this porridge and whacked off 2 full bowls – 1 bowl for lunch and 1 bowl for dinner. Her bowl of porridge is behind the big bowl of porridge in the picture. I chopped up some stir-fried veggie for her too.

No. of times viewed = 348

Soup And Tong Sui Maker

My mum recently bought a Primada Grains Nutrition Expert, which is a ‘tong sui’ maker. The maker is primarily to make tong sui from grains – soy beans, mung beans, red beans, barley, white sesame seeds, black sesame seeds, white almonds, walnuts, peanuts, brown rice, red rice, black rice and just about any type of grains, nuts and seeds. My mum tried to be adventurous and tried using the maker to make mushroom soup, tomato soup, beet root soup, chicken soup and even went a step further by surfing the internet for soup recipes. The outcome has been amazing. Her soups were really tasty and tasted even better than canned soups and those sold in restaurants.

When we were in Ipoh last week, she made tomato-carrot-potato-big onion soup with chicken stock and basil leaves:

This is fresh shiitake mushroom soup with evaporated milk and basil leaves.

The Primada tong sui and soup maker. It will be a worthy and healthy investment if you love drinking soup and tong sui.

No. of times viewed = 1223

Homecooked Dishes And Homemade Bread

Here are some of the dishes that my mil whipped up last week:

Her ‘lar sau’ stir-fried minced pork with fermented bean paste, garlic, shallots and brown sugar. It’s one of my favorite dishes, yums… iLikey!

Shallow fried ‘char yue jai’ fish, fried till super crispy and with crackling sounds when you bite on the tail and fins, which is Alycia and Sherilyn’s favorite. They even fight to eat the fish tail hahaha….

Tofu dish with minced pork, shiitake mushrooms and spring onions…

She also baked 2 loafs of purple sweet potato bread….

This week, she baked 2 loafs of orange bread (which she used 1 whole bottle of marmalade jam and fresh orange peel to make the bread) and 2 trays of really gloriously sinful and fattening almond butter cookies. This, I shall post the pix later, so stay tuned. Meanwhile, go drool over the dishes and bread LOL…..

On a side note, do check out my online store as I have loaded pix of some pretty second hand kids clothes for sale. There are also pix of some new and trendy dresses.

No. of times viewed = 282

Delish Homecooked Food And Homemade Cakes

These are some of the dishes that my mil cooked last week:

Turmeric (kunyit) chicken which is everybody’s favorite, especially moi! I always polish off all the chopped turmeric and shallots, yums! And then have yellow lips and teeth, hahahaha!

Braised turnip with carrots, mushrooms, sliced pork, dried cuttlefish and Chinese parsley. Another of my favorite dish.

Pan fried ikan kembong stuffed with fresh turmeric – the gals’ favorite. My 2 gals LOVE fried fish and this is one dish that can surely bring a big smile of their faces.

A pot of double boiled abalone soup with cordyceps, lean pork and Chinese wolfberries or goji berries. A real delish and healthy soup. This is the hubby and rascal #2’s favorite.

My mil also baked a tray of red skin banana muffins (sugar reduced). This time, she added President whipped cream and fresh plain yoghurt to the batter and the muffins turned out really fluffy, soft and delish.

Are you drooling now?

Oh yes, on top of these, she also baked 2 loafs of purple sweet potato bread and yesterday she baked blue cheese bread with wheat bran! And we also received 2 loafs of huge Italian Panettone Christmas bread from my sil all the way from Hong Kong 3 days ago. So much carb-laden food at home and all so irresistible!

No. of times viewed = 462

Delectable Homemade Breads And Bread Spread

Before my parents came to KL 1.5 weeks ago, I had a special request for my favorite sugar-reduced homemade kaya. And so my dear mum and dad slogged over the stove for hours and made me these bread spreads:

L to R : Pandan kaya with extra eggs, sugar-free peanut butter, caramel kaya, reduced-sugar strawberry jam and pineapple jam.

The bread spreads went really well with these delish breads which my mil baked:

Rye bread with moh far koa (figs) and roasted walnuts…

Carrot bread with sunflower seeds…

With such delectable homemade breads and bread spreads (not forgetting my mil’s homemade cakes and cookies), I have been gorging on these carbs everyday. I tell ya, I just love bread and kaya and can never get enough of them. And it is largely because of this that I have to pull myself up from bed at 5:45am each morning (before my 3 brats wake up) to run the calories away hah!

No. of times viewed = 650

Fish bolognaise pasta

I whipped up this meal for Baby last week – fish bolognaise pasta and she LOVED it. I had only intended to cook this for Baby but it turned out that my 2 older gals loved them too. Next time, I shall cook this for everyone. Nothing makes me happier than seeing my kids enjoy my creations.

I chopped up 2 medium sized organic tomatoes and 1 medium sized big onion. Then brown them in olive oil for about 5 minutes in a non-stick pan. With the spatula, push them to the side of the pan. Then lightly brown the fish which I had earlier marinated with some sea salt and McCormick mixed herbs for about 5 minutes. I also added 2 teaspoons of Leggo’s bolognaise sauce.

While I cooked the above, my maid boiled the Heinz ABCs, 123s pasta in another pot.

Here’s Baby’s fish bolognaise with ‘tau kok lup’ — one bowl is for lunch and another for dinner….

While my maid and I cooked inside the dry kitchen, my mil cooked ‘tau kok lup’ in the kitchen outside. She also cooked a pot of sweet potato porridge. The ‘tau kok lup’ is to go with the sweet potato porridge. ‘Tau kok lup’ is made up of chicken breast, long beans, carrots, dried mushrooms, preserved dried radish, shrimps – all cut up into small cubes. My mil also toasted some peanuts in the oven to toss them over the ‘tau kok lup’. This is another hit with the kids, me inclusive!

I cooked extra portions, put them into small containers and deep freeze them. These will be handy on Sundays when I don’t have the time to cook.

No. of times viewed = 731

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