Frozen Food Is A Godsend

Indeed. From this point thereon, I will stash my freezer chockfull with drummets, fish fingers, fishballs, ground beef, burger patties etc. Convenience food at its best. So, last night, I just raided my fridge and came up with

Kung Pow Chicken

1. Pre-fry about 7 pieces chicken drummets in hot oil until golden brown, drain, zap it in the microwave for 2 minutes and set aside.
2. In some oil, fry a handful of cashew nuts till golden brown and set aside.
3. Fry up about 5 pieces of dried chilli till crispy and set aside.
4. Slice up a big onion in quarters, then seperate. Peel and slice about 2big-ish garlic cloves. Cut up a capsicum in large dices.
5. Saute the onions till softened, then add in the capsicum. Add in the pre-fried dried chilli as well.
6. Add some oyster sauce, tomato sauce, chilli sauce and some water to the wok. Let simmer.
7. Bung in your chicken and mix well.
8. Lastly, add the cashew nuts and serve.

Reincarnation of Levtovers

I had quite a bit of leftovers from the shephard's pie that I made a week ago. They were frozen, waiting to be turned into something delicious. Thanks to a leftover loaf of bread from office, I made this yummy meat rolls for today's brekkie.

Meat Rolls.

1. Flatten a slice of bread with a rolling pin.
2. Spoon ground meat filling at one end.
3. Roll up the bbread slice all the way towards the end.
4. Place on tray.
5. Continue steps 1 - 4 till your loaf is finished.
6. Refridgerate overnight.
7. Beat up 2 eggs.
8. Dip rolls in egg.
9. Deep fry them till golden brown.
10. Serve.

As a variety, one can also use sardines or chicken pie filling. May attempt a chicken mushroom and cheese variant one day.

Easy Peasy Yums

Another easy dish to prepare. Normally served with my chicken rice. I just call it

Ayam Goreng Hitam

1. Marinade chicken thighs in soy sauce, oyster sauce, garlic powder, honey and ground pepper. Leave for at least an hour or so.
2. Prepare oil for frying - fry the chicken pieces until caramelised on both sides.
3. Place fried chicken bits in a bowl, pour the marinade on top and blitz in microwave for about 3 mins High.

Please forgive me for the messy bowl - I was in a rush to go shopping and there wasn't time (on my part) to wipe the sides clean.

Meal In A Jiffy

Coming home late-ish from work, one just doesn't have the energy to whip something complicated. But witha few store cupboard essentials, one dish is ready to serve, with enough leftovers for tomorrow's brekkie!

Sardine Curry

1. Chop up onion, garlic and ginger finely. Saute in oil till softened.
2. Add in a piece of cinnamon, cardamom, coriander seed and star anise. Fry till fragrant.
3. Add in a paste of fish curry powder mixed with water. Stir fry till it becomes uber fragrant.
4. Add in water. Let the whole pot simmer.
5. Add in tinned sardines sans the tomato paste.
6. Add in some tamarind pulp.
7. Season with salt.
8. When all merrily simmering, add in some coconut milk.
9. Dish up and serve.

Rice one night, then with instant prathas the next day.
Jadilah.

As Mum Dropped By

The Parents decided to drop by for Maghrib prayers en route to another appointment last night. Fortunately, I had just came back from grocery shopping and the freezer was stocked with ready to cook items. So, in the one hour alloted to me, I managed to whip us three dishes.

Dish #1 was

Tumeric Prawns

1. Clean and de-moustache your prawns.
2. Marinade prawns with 1/2 teaspoon tumeric powder and curry powder each.
3. Slice up an onion, some garlic and a stalk of celery.
4. Heat oil in wok, saute the onions, garlic and celery till softened.
5. Throw in the marinated prawns. Stir fry with some water added to it and let prawns cook.
6. Once prawns are fully cooked, season with salt, dish up and serve.
   

As Mum Dropped By - Part 2

Dish #2 was

Beef Brocolli

1. Slice up about 3 cloves of garlic.
2. Thinly slice up some beef.
3. Saute garlic in oil till fragrant, add the sliced beef and cook till tender. Add a bit of water and cover if necessary.
4. Add in brocolli florets and cover wok till veg becomes tender yet still retains its crunch.
5. Add in some oyster sauce and black pepper.
6. Lastly, add in some washed straw mushrooms.

Dish up and serve.

As Mum Dropped By - Part 3

Dish # 3 was

Stir Fried Kailan and Carrots

1. Slice an onion and garlic. Saute in very little oil till soft and transluscent.
   
2. Wash baby kailan.
3. Peel a carrot and cut into fine batons. Add to softened onions.
4. Add baby kailan, fry till wilted.
5. Add in some water and an achovy stock cube
   
6. Stir fry some more and serve.
   

Crustacean Critters

Got this new vegetarian cook book off the shelves of my local supermarket. I know, I'm not vegetarian, but the recipes looked pretty yummy and tempting. As this Madame had a batch of prawns frozen in her freezer, she whipped this up for the family dinner.

Margarine Prawns

1. In a wok, melt a tablespoon of margarine.
2. Add in a handfull of fresh curry leaves.
3. Throw in your prawns and fry till pink-ish.
4. Add in a generous splash of milk and some bruised birds-eye chilly.
5. Let cook till the juices have evaporated.
6. Dish up and serve with rice.

Easy wasn't it?

Mmmmm... Balls

Meatballs that is.

Having fully equipped my kitchen, I was in the mood for having Swedish style meatballs for my weekend lunch. However, the pocket didn't really allow the family to go to the BigBlue&YellowBuilding's cafe for the real thing, so what this Madame did was to whip up them li'il round things in her own kitchen.

Swedish MeatBalls
1. Thaw a 500 gm of ready minced beef.
2. Finely chop a big-ish onion - be it, red, white or yellow.
3. Whiz up two slices of days old bread in the food processor to make up breadcrumbs.
4. In a bowl, hand mix together the minced beef, chopped onion and breadcrumbs well. Season well with a dash of salt and ground black pepper. (For an Italian variety, also add a generous amount of mixed herbs and oregano to boot!)
5. Chill well in the fridge until ready to cook.
6. To cook, simply bake or grill them - the little toasted oven works well for this, no worries. Let them cook until they are pretty well done on the outside - make sure there are no red bits left in them. We don't want any salmonella poisonning around here.

Mushroom Sauce
1. Melt a generous portion butter in a pan.
2. Stir in a couple of tablespoonfulls of flour. Take it off the heat and whisk it well, so as to fully incorporate the flour into the molten butter and to cook the flour.
3. Put it back on the heat and let the roux go brownier before adding in chicken stock.
4. Whisk well till thickened.
5. Add in chopped and/or sliced mushrooms, season with some ground pepper.
6. Let it simmer and bubble before taking it off the heat.

Simply assemble a plate of the baked meatballs together with some mixed vegetables and fries, ladle over the mushroom sauce and enjoy.
Yuuuuummmmsss....

Two in One Dish

I got this of a Chinese cookery show on BBC. It was rather simple to whip up and was great with plain hot rice porridge – suitable for under the weather folks like yours truly.

Lamb and Spinach Stirfry

1. Marinade thinly sliced lamb and Chinese mushrooms in oyster sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil and a splash of water.
2. Sauté finely chopped garlic in some hot oil, add in spinach leaves, lightly salt it and cook till wilted. Set aside.
3. Using the same wok, pour the lamb, mushrooms and marinade in the wok and cook till hot and bubbly.
4. Pour the dish directly on top of the spinach and serve.

Beef Hor Fun

Beef Hor Fun

1. Soak some hor fun in hot water till softened.
2. Drain thoroughly and fry in some vegetable oil. Set aside.
3. Sauté some chopped garlic in a hot wok till fragrant.
4. Add in some thinly sliced beef and cook till browned.
5. Make a cornflour solution, add in oyster and soy sauce and dump the whole lot in the wok.
6. Add in frozen mixed veg and spinach leaves.
7. Once sauce is thick and bubbly and veg all wilted, serve on the hor fun immediately.

Harrira

A traditional Middle Eastern stew of lamb and chickpeas that would be eaten during Ramadhan for iftar. What better way to break my Rejab fast at present?

Harrira

1. Sauté chopped onions, garlic and celery in butter till softened.
2. Add chopped ginger, ground cinnamon and black pepper and sauté till fragrant.
3. Add some lamb bits into the pot and cook till browned.
4. Add a tin of chopped tomatoes and tinned chickpeas.
5. Add in water, bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer covered.
6. Make a cornflour solution and add to stew to thicken.
7. Stir in chopped coriander and some lemon juice prior to serving in nice, warm bowls.

Clearing out the fridge. Found some overripe bananas, milk, eggs and a few crusty rolls.
Looks like a banana bread and butter pudding is on the menu then.

Banana bread and butter pudding

1. Cut the crusty rolls into cubes.
2. Make a custard sauce with milk, eggs, sugar, butter and some ground cinnamon. Soak the bread in the custard for about ½ hour.
3. Mash up the overripe banana.
4. Layer the custardy bread and banana in a bowl.
5. Bake the whole lot in a medium to high oven for approximately 45 minutes.
6. Serve with a sprinkling of cinnamon.

Braised Wontons

Since I still had wontons lurking in the depth of my freezer, I decided to make a dish out of them.
Braised Wontons

1. Boil your frozen wontons for 5 minutes, toss them and set aside.
2. In a hot wok, fry the wontons in a some oil together with sliced garlic.
3. Add in sliced chinese mushrooms.
4. Add in some oyster sauce, soy sauce, some water and sesame oil.
5. Let the sauce reduce.
6. Serve.

Speedy Spinach

One of my favourite vegetables is spinach. When I was a kid (still am, sometimes!), I would perpetually demand for spinach. Easy to say, 5 days a week, there would be spinach on the table. Spinach was also instrumental in allowing me to breastfeed the li'il kiddo for 9 months. Now that spinach is very much in season, guess I will be having loads of this vegetable then!

Speedy Stir Fry Spinach

1. Wash and toss the spinach leaves.
2. In a hot wok, saute some sliced garlic and dried shrimps in oil till fragrant.
3. Add in the spinach leaves.
4. Stir fry till the leaves have wilted.
5. Serve.