Made curry with it

My man is back to his fishing trips. His second fishing trip this month. 2 nights fishing trip so he had quite a catch. Not many but good enough to fill up our deep freezer.

Few big deep sea fishes. The containers were filled up with squids. He sold few fishes, gave few to friends and I passed a pack to my parents as usual. 

I love to eat squids so I took out one container and cooked curry squid not long ago. Another curry dish that I enjoyed was curry fish. 

Hubby caught a big mackerel so we devided it into 3 parts. Head, hubby gave to a friend. Middle, deep fried while the tail part, I made curry with it. 

I love having mackerel in curry gravy, like how those mamak shops served them.  Whenever I go for lunch at mamak, I will definitely look out for the mackerel curry. 

My first attempt at cooking curry fish using mackerel cuts. I was glad that it turned out fine and fit my tastebuds. 

Ingredients:

Mackerel, cut and season with salt and pepper

3 tbsp cooking oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 big onion, sliced

3 tbsp meat or fish curry powder

220ml coconut milk

200ml water

salt to taste

3 lady's fingers, trimmed

1 tomato, sliced

Methods:

1. Heat up a pot with cooking oil. Once heat up, add in garlic, and big onion until soft and fragrant.

2. Add in curry powder and continue to stir for another minute.

3. Pour in the coconut milk and water. Bring to boil before adding in the fish, tomato and lady's fingers.

4. Cover and bring to boil.  Season with salt and lower the heat, let it simmer for about 5 to 8 minutes.

The other option

The last time I have a meal in Chicago7 was in 2015 before they renovated and upgraded their restaurant in Rock Road.

Last year my sis treated us lunch from the outlet since it reopened. There was improvement in the food quality I agreed but nothing that make me crazy and craving for. So we hardly had its food and the kids much prefer the other local food chain than this. 

It just so happened that we have some water disruption this week in the morning for 2 days. So unable to cook lunch, I decided to go for the other option for lunch. Food delivery!!! First morning we had Ah Seng chicken rice which the kids enjoyed. The next day, I decided to order from Chi.cago7, as they had 30% discount for first delivery order. So tempting to order, right? Yup, I fall to the impulse buying then. Lol. 

I had its pandan nasi lemak. It was lemak and fragrant enough. I also had it with its broaster chicken thigh. The chicken skin was crispy and meat was tender. 

My girl went for its fish and rice set. She had it last year so she was alright with its taste. It comes with the rice and coleslaw. 

No one used the chilli and tamato dipping but it was alright. We always keep them just in case. Do you?? Or just dispose if unused?? 

Our total bill after discount. 

People's noodle

I bought this big pack of dry noodle from Boulevard Supermarket last month. The 18 individual packed noodle, named Mi-Rakyat. I forgot the price. 

People's noodle as translated into English. I took out 3 packs of the noodle last Sunday to try. 

Basically, cook the noodle first. Add a bit of salt in the boiled water and then toss the noodle. Drain the water when the noodle has soften and cooked. I also add a bit of cooking oil to the noodle and mix well so it would not become a clump and stick together. 

Prepare the ingredients such as garlic and shallots. Usually I will add some greens such as shredded cabbage, chopped kailan. Here, I used cabbage. 

Heat up the wok with cooking oil. Add in minced garlic and sliced shallots. Once fragrant, add in dried prawns. Saute for few seconds and then toss in the cabbage. Squte for a minute before adding the noodle. 

Season with salt, pepper and light soy sauce. Stir well to combine ingredients. Dish out and garnish with spring onion and frued shallot.

I do not add egg in my noodle as one of my boys is allegic to it. So, I fried my egg seperately. 

I quite like the Mi-Rakyat. Fine and nice to be used in frying. I will definitely buy it again. 

More homecooked

It is more homecooked meals for us. Most of the time, nothing extravagant but simple dishes where everyone would enjoy at home.

We also buy lot of canned food for stock up and one of my must-have is sardine!! Tomato sardine. When it comes to comfort food, tomato sardine is one of them for me. How about you?? 

Hubby bought few packs of squid not long ago. Baits for his fishing trip but I took one pack last week and cooked it this way. Curry squid, one of my favourite flavour other than grilled squid. 

My simple curry squid. The cleaning is the most tedious part, which I don't fancy much. 

Ingredients:

Squids, cleaned and cut

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 shallot, sliced

1 big onion, sliced

2 tbsp curry powder

Salt and pepper to taste

About 1 cup water

Cooking oil

Methods:

1. In a wok, heat up about 2 tbsp cooking oil. 

2. Toss in garlic and shallot, saute for few seconds till fragrant. Add in big onion, saute for few seconds till it soften. 

3. Add in curry powder, and squid. Stir till squid is mixed well and almost cooked then add in water and lower the heat, let it simmer. 

4. Add in salt and pepper to taste, mix well and off the heat 

Bought from outside

Our breakfast yesterday.  Pork porridge, century egg and fried fritters.  All were bought from outside. Yes, one of the morning when I was lazy to cook. 

I bought the pork porridge and century egg the day before, in the evening from Big One Food Court.

2 packs of pork porridge (RM4 each) and 1 century egg for RM2. Hubby likes century egg, I don't eat it. 

I heated up the porridge and the boys got to take them before heading to school. After dropping them, I went to Y. Y. Cafe  to buy fried fritters. Hubby and daughter woke up later to enjoy the fritters with the porridge. 

Sweet potatoes, spring onion and banana fritters for RM5. 

A comforting breakfast, we don't mind having porridge once in a while for breakfast. 

Mince

I usually buy alot of pork mince from the butcher shop. 1kg each time, about once a week at the nearby shop. 

I use the minced meat for soup, ngoh hiang and sometimes fried stuffed toufu (if I managed to buy the firm beancurds). 

I would prepare the mince in advance and keep them in batches using the sandwich ziploc bag. So whenever I want to use it, I have my pork mince ready by taking one lock bag out to thaw at room temperature. 

Lately I have been making pork patties for dinner. Easier, no need to roll into the beancurd skin or stuffed meat into beancurd. Just need to roll into balls or flatten into patties, choice is yours.

Mine did not looked so nice, odd shaped but what matters was it went into the tummies and the kids seemed to enjoy them.

No exact recipe for this, all agak-agak. 

Ingredients:

Minced pork

Carrot about 2 inch, cubed

1 tsp 5 spices powder

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tsp oyster sauce

1 tsp shao xing wine

1 tsp corn flour

Methods:

1. Mix all ingredients well. Let it sit for few minutes before cooking.

2. In a pan, heat up cooking oil, enough to cover the patties. 

3. Scoop with spoon, make the meat mix into patties and add into pan. Fry the patties in batches.

4. Fry till brown and meat is cooked. Drain on kitchen towel before serve. 

It's kuetiau now

Hubby went for his overnight fishing trip end of last month. Stayed in a fishing village in Santubong. Not a fruitful outing as he did not get any catch but it was nice all-men outing so he did not complained much. 

The next day, which was a Sunday, they woke up early and decided to went back to Kuching for breakfast. 

Breakfast place was at Rock City Cafe in Rock road (next to Mita Cake House). We rarely went there. Been there once or twice but that was ages ago. 

So, hubby and his friends had their breakfast there and he bought takeaway for us at home. Char kway teow!! 

It was very nice. The wok hei, it was well fried and I enjoyed my noodle very much. 

By the way, if you haven't read in news, they have finally resolved the correct spelling for kway teow in BM. It is spelled as 'kuetiau' now in Bahasa Melayu. You can read it from this site.

Going back

The boys have finally gone back to school this week after a long time of staying and learning at home. Both were excited and thrilled to go back. Guess they missed their school (and outside world) after cooping at home for months. 

So it was back to old routine. They go to bed before 930pm and I woke up around 610am, prepare breakfast, get the boys ready and drop then off before 730am. 

Yesterday, hubby and I dropped the boys off in school. No cars allowed in the compound, so we just dropped them at the drop-off point and drove off after seeing both walked into the school compound. 

Then hubby and I went to McD's drive thru to order our breakfast. We ordered 1 set of Sausage Egg Muffin (RM10.28) for Jan while hubby and I went for the 1+1 Mix and Match of Sausage Egg Muffin with hot tea (RM12.26 for both).

I don't mind this type of breakfast. Not kolo mee most of the time. Lol. Of course, cannot have this whenever I want, as it costs more than having breakfast in coffee shop. 

Where we often have

This coffee shop is where we often have our breakfasts, may it be weekdays or weekends. Just few minutes drive and the kolo mee stall is good, so we do not mind coming here pretty frequently. 

Sometime it is a long wait as many people order kolo mee. We don't mind as we could read newspapers (supplied by the coffee shop) or enjoy some fritters while waiting. 

Our favourite spring onion fritters from this snack stall. RM1 for 3 pieces. The banana fritters are good too. 

But someday when we don't feel like having kolo mee, we will order from other stalls. Like the fried stall at the back where I enjoyed both the tomato crispy noodle and tomato kway teow. Hubby likes its fried noodle as he usually have its fried noodle with a fried egg on top. RM6.50 for this plate, I think. I can't remember well but usual fried noodle is RM6. 

I never tasted the Sarawak laksa here so one morning, I gave it a try. Hubby tasted it befire, way long where the coffee shop newly opened 2 years ago. He gave it a thumb down there. However I being opstimistic and giving others a second chance, decided to try it out myself. 

Ok, same opinion with hubby, it wasn't that great but not too bad. It wasn't fragrant enough. We have tasted better Sarawak laksa, so this bowl wasn't at par with the best. 

For us, we will stick to the kolo mee or the fried noodle. Both are decent and nice. And not forgetting the snack stall which enjoy good business as well. 

Osmanthus egg

I know, it looked messy. Please pardon me as it was my first time making an osmanthus egg. But trust me, the presentation may not be perfect, but once you taste it, you will like it. 

Osmanthus egg usually served in Chinese restaurant. In the past, they added shark's fin to it but now they don't.  As for my osmanthus egg, I added crabmeat since I still have some left in the fridge. 

A lot of slicing and julienning of the ingredients but it was satisfying when I made it for the first time on the 7th day of Chinese New Year. Don't ask me why, it was an impulse. Or maybe I was craving or thinking of clearing some stuff in the freezer and fridge. Lol. 

Ingredients:

1/2 big onion, sliced thinly

1/2 carrot, julienned

1 wood ear fungus, soaked to soften and be bigger, then sliced thinly

2 stalks spring onion, sliced

5 tbsp crabmeat

Salt and pepper to taste

2 eggs

Cooking oil

Methods:

For crabmeats - marinate for a while by adding about 1 tsp sesame oil, 1 tsp Shao xing wing, 1 tsp light soy sauce to get rid of the fishiness smell. 

For eggs - break the eggs in a bowl. Add 1 tsp sesame oil, 1 tsp Shao xing wine, 1 tsp light sauce, salt and pepper. Whisk the egg. 

1. Prepare all the ingredients before start cooking. 

2. In a pan, heat up about 3 tbsp cooking oil.

3. Add in onion and saute for few seconds before add in the crab meats, carrot and wood ear fungus. Saute for about 15 seconds. 

4. Add in the egg mixtures and spring onion. Let the egg set for about 10 seconds before whisk the egg around and evenly with an egg whisk in the pan. (i use egg whisk instead of spatula to have more consistent and balance texture. 

5. Add salt and pepper to taste. Dish out and serve warm. 

Remark: place the osmanthus egg in a rice bowl. Press with fork to compact the egg in the bowl. Place a plate on top of the bowl before turn the bowl over to have that round osmanthus egg display.