Beef with tomatoes for my guinea pigs

I admit I'm hyper and I get bored easily. I like changes and anything new. That includes what I serve for dinner, to the delight of hubby and dismay of mum. They never knew if one day I might serve them roasted mice on skewers.


But I haven't figured out yet where to get my mice or how to marinade them, and until I do, I'll just have to contend myself with trying to replicate the food that I had enjoyed on my pigging out trips.


Last Sunday I had beef with tomatoes in Uncle Duck. It motivated me to try to recreate the 'real' beef with tomatoes that I had enjoyed so much at Wong Kei. 


I'm not good with beef, I'm not one of those who could churn out slices of tender moist beef strips. So I cheated by making beef balls instead.

The ingredients are: minced beef, bread crumbs, 1 large onion, 2 medium-sized tomatoes and 1 celery stick. Cut the onion and tomatoes into wedges, and slice the celery about 1/2 inch.


To make the beef balls, mix minced beef with some ground black pepper, a pinch of salt and breadcrumbs. Deep-fry until golden brown, remove and set aside.


For the sauce, combine 2 tablespoons ketchup, 2 tablespoons light soy sauce, 1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine, 2 teaspoons sesame oil, 1/4 teaspoon chicken stock, half teaspoon corn starch in half cup water. But please note that I did not use the measuring spoons or cups. I was too lazy to take them out of my drawer and simply used the dinner spoons and tea spoons. I used a regular mug, but the amount of water was about half a measuring cup. 


Heat up the wok with a tablespoon or two of olive oil, stir the onions until fragrant. Add the tomatoes and celery. Stir fry for a while, then add the combined sauce and simmer for about 2 - 3 minutes or until the tomatoes are soft. Pour in the deep-fried beef balls, and simmer for another minute or so. Serve immediately, or keep warm while you cook another dish.


Accompanying that beef with tomatoes is bitter gourd in black bean sauce, a dish that hubby and mum would not touch until hubby was diagnosed diabetic. Bitter gourd (or bitter melon) is good for insulin production.

I do not believe I need to go into details on how to fry the bitter gourd (it's just like any vegetable), so I'll just focus on the ingredients I use for the black bean sauce. They are: 1 tablespoon preserved black beans, washed and rinsed, 1/4 teaspoon sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 2 teaspoons Chinese rice wine, 1 teaspoon sesame oil, 1/2 teaspoon anchovies stock.


Hubby's verdict? Two thumbs up. Mum gingerly spooned the sauce onto her rice and tentatively raised it to her mouth.....


Bon appetite......


*disclaimer: the author shall not be held responsible if any readers suffer from diarrhea as a direct result of following the above recipes......*  :P

Recipe: Oatmeal-Sunflower Bread

Nothing beats the aroma of a freshly baked bread. A cliche, but true. And digging into a loaf of freshly baked loaf is simply heavenly. I used to bake until it got too troublesome to get bread flour or wheat gluten (to make bread four). We'd eat the freshly baked loaf with ham, luncheon meat, cheese, lettuce and tomatoes dinner. Any leftovers would be finished at breakfast the next morning.


Of all the loafs I had made, the oatmeal-sunflower bread remains one of my favourites. This modified recipe is specially posted up for the benefit of Fern, and anyone who loves to bake. The original recipe, and why I modified it, is explained at the bottom of the page.


Ingredients:


1/2 cup fresh milk
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoon butter
3 cups bread flour
4 tablespoon rolled oats
1-1/4 teaspoon salt
2-1/4 teaspoon dry yeast
4 tablespoon sunflower seeds


Method:


1. Measure carefully, place all ingredients in the bread machine pan in the order recommended by your bread machine manufacturer. Add sunflower seeds at the raisin/nut signal or 5 to 10 minutes before the last kneading cycle ends.


2. Select Basic/White, Regular cycle. Use Light Crust colour. 


3. Remove baked bread from pan and cool on wire rack.


I modified the recipe after a few times of baking it. The original recipe called for 1 cup water and 2 tablespoon milk powder instead. It also called for 1/2 cup rolled oats. I found using 1/2 cup fresh milk and 1/2 cup water, and reducing the rolled oats to 4 tablespoons produce a lighter texture.


To make bread flour (if none is available), add 1/2 tablespoon wheat gluten to each cup of plain flour.


Enjoy...........

Spaghetti Chilli Con Carne

The last time I cooked spaghetti chilli con carne was when I lived in England. Yes, that long ago. So, for some reason, last night I suddenly decided to cook chilli con carne for dinner. 

My hubby's comment was, "Are you sure you know how to cook Chilli Con Carne?" You see, despite our having been married for five years, I've never cooked the dish for him before.

Now, let me jot down the ingredients before I forget....yeah, hubby and mummy loved it, so I have to cook this again in the future.

Ingredients:

1 canned tomato, (cube the tomatoes) 

1 canned Tesco chilli beans (red kidney beans)

MInced beef

1 yellow onion, minced

3 or 4 cloves or garlic, minced

4 fresh tomatoes, cubed

1 red capsicum, or red pepper

Seasonings:

2 teaspoons Cajun Spice 

1 teaspoon paprika

1 teaspoon chilli flakes 

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon sherry (or chinese rice wine if you don't have sherry)

2 tablespoons tomato ketchup

salt to taste

Chilli con carne goes well with spaghetti or rice. We ate it with spaghetti last night, and today, I ate the leftovers with plain, white rice. Yum-yum... :)~~~

Mashed Potato

Hmm.......all this talk of potatoes, mashed potatoes, fries, curry with potatoes are making me hungry. I think I'll make some mashed potato today. I just bought some nice potatoes from the market in Kepong this morning, by the way.

Lupie, this is specially for you.... :D

Ok, let's gather all the ingredients. As the recipe is my own, and I kept adding and stirring without pre-measuring the ingredients, you'll have to adjust the measurements by adding a bit at a time until you get the flavour you like. I like it really soft and smooth with a buttery flavour so I do use quite a bit of milk and butter.

5 potatoes

Fresh milk (warmed it slightly first)

Butter

A pinch of salt

Method:

1. Bring water to a boil,  with a bit of salt in it to bring it to a higer temperature.

2. Add potatoes and boil for about 20 minutes till soft.

3. Drain the potatoes.

4. Mash the potatoes with butter and fresh milk.

5. Add a pinch of salt to give it a fuller flavour.

If you don't have ready fresh milk, you can substitute with powdered milk. I've done that before.

What's For Dinner Tonight?

This is the question my hubby asks each time he calls. Not, "how are you" or "I love you", but......"What's for dinner tonight?".

Well, considering we've blown our budget on that teriyaki salmon, I guess it's going to be another poor man's meal tonight.

Taking a leaf from a reader here who calls himself "Tom" (is there a "Jerry" here, too?), I'm going to cook something with tomatoes and chillies. It's my version of the ubiquitous Penang Mee Goreng, well, Spaghetti Goreng, anyway.

My recipe yields 3 portions - my mummy likes it too, so I have to cook her share as well.

Ingredients:
320g of spaghetti (pre-boiled in boiling water with some salt & oil in it, then drain when cooked)
1 tomato, cut into wedges
1 potato, cut into small cubes
A few stalks of long beans, cut length-wise
5 shallots, minced
5 cloves of garlic, minced

Sauce (combined):
3 tablespoons tomato ketchup
1-1/2 tablespoon chilli paste
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ikan bilis stock granules (the one without MSG added)
1 tablespoon light soya sauce
1/2 cup water

Method:
1. Heat oil in wok. Then fry potatoes until golden. Remove and set aside.
2. Fry garlic and shallots until golden.
3. Add the long beans and stir for a while.
4. Pour in the sauce and mix well. If you like your long beans soft, like I do, cover the wok at this stage and simmer for about 5 minutes. Alternatively, you may pre-steam the beans first.
5. Add in the tomatoes and fry till they are slightly soft.
6. Pour in the drained spaghetti and potatoes.
7. Mix well, and when sauce has been absorbed by the spaghetti, it's ready to be served.

Yum-yum. Another delicious poor man's meal. Meowwwww.

A Poor Man's Meal

Well, after that Teriyaki Salmon meal in my earlier post, I need to cook a poor man's meal to balance the budget so that our groceries bill remain the same despite the price hikes.

So, what constitutes a poor man's meal, or in this case, a poor woman's? Something that uses as little ingredients as possible, and uses only the very cheap ones. It is none other than the ubiquitous Economy Fried Beehoon.

Here's my version of it (I'll try to be as accurate in the measurements as possible). Recipe yields 2 portions.

Ingredients:
200g beehoon, pre-soaked in water until soft
A few leaves of cabbage, cut into squares
1/4 carrot, cut into strips
5 cloves garlic, minced
5 shallots, minced

Sauce (combined):
1 cup water (or thereabouts)
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/3 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1 teaspoon ikan bilis stock granules (anchovies stock granules)
2 tablespoons light soya sauce
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon dark soya sauce

Method:
1. Heat wok until hot. Then add oil and fry the garlic and shallots until golden and fragrant.
2. Add the cabbage and carrots. Fry until cabbage is cooked.
3. Pour in the combined sauce and bring to a boil.
4. Add beehoon, gently turning over repeatedly, making sure all the beehoon is covered by the sauce.
5. When all the sauce has seeped into the beehoon, give it a few quick tosses, and beehoon is ready to serve.

Enjoy...........

My Version of Salmon Teriyaki

Went to Jusco yesterday to get some fish. I was shocked to see that the price of red snapper fillet has been raised yet again. It's now RM33.90 a kg. I selected 2 small fillets and had them weighed. Imagine my horror when the Jusco staff handed it back to me with a price tag showing RM16.99. I might as well buy 2 salmon fillets for that price!!

Looks like it's going to be salmon teriyaki for dinner. It's the only way I know how to cook salmon fillets, by the way.

Marinade it for at least 2 hours in the fridge with:-
1 tablespoon dark brown sugar
A sprinkle of paprika powder
2 tablespoons of Kikoman Teriyaki Sauce (original flavour)
2 tablespoons light soya sauce
1 teaspoon lime or lemon juice, whichever I have in the fridge
1.5 teaspoon sesame oil
(combine the marinade well, and rub it on the salmon fillets)

To cook, heat a frying pan or wok, and pour the salmon and marinade into it. No oil used for frying a fish?! Well, I'm one of those who are quite health conscious, so I avoid using oil where possible.

I like a bit of gravy on my rice, and so do my hubby and mummy. This means I need quite a bit of gravy to go round, which the recipe above does not yield.

To make extra gravy, just make an additional portion of the marinade above, and add some water to reduce the saltiness. Remove the fillets from the frying pan, then heat up the gravy. When it's heated through, pour it on the fillets.

Yum-yum!!! Pat-pat myself on my shoulder.