Saturday, September 10, 2011

If Yuan Can Cook, So Can You

When I was very young, I remembered watching this cooking program called If Yan Can Cook, So Can You.. by the famous chinese chef, Martin Yan...

But I didn't grow up to be a very good cook reason being that I did not really get to practice much.. I can remember more than one cooking disaster like the time I added TOO MUCH corn flour and made the whole long bean dish look like it was soaked in glue and the time when I told my first few cooking teachers Gary and Shamus that I tried to fry veg without garlic or oil or salt and they nearly fainted..

And so, being married din make things better since we often ate out... Too bad for Max cos I think he was trying to marry someone who can cook well like his mother and is active and sporty like his father.. he ended up marrying the one person on earth who least like to do sports and cannot cook for nuts.. wahahahaha...

But here in Dubai.. land of expensive foods where a meal costs about $15 sing each pax.. (Sorry, there are how hawker centres here) you really have no choice but to learn... and so armed with advice from my friends and family (Sally said, use premix, follow instructions cant go wrong, Clari said use receipe at all times, as long as you follow instruction, cannot be too sala one) I ventured out to be a housewife that COOKS.. hahhaa...

And so, the following is PROOF that if Yuan (Ru aka Angel) can cook, so can you!







Home made soya bean.....

I had so much oakra (soy bean mush) leftover that I just added the okara into our rice for more nutrition.. wahahahahahha.. and so presenting, okara rice...which well, just taste like normal rice.. since okara did not have any flavour to it...


That's my home made vegeterian chicken rice.. the rice hor, I made with receipe from memory that was given by my sis... and chilli from far far away Singapore lovingly provided by Wilson, my bro in law and my mother in law:) The nuggets I bought from supermarket lah.. dun see me so up.. wahahaha...

Laksa.. okie, this one i cheated. it is actually PRIMA LAKSA.. as easy to cook as maggi noodles:)

Okara chocolate pancake.. tasted ok when hot.. not so nice when cold.. I have to improve on this receipe...


That is my assistant chef trying to help me boil the cauliflowers ....

Dinner that night: Cauliflower in totmato sauce with Egg, (no receipe.. anyhow do with limited memory of watching san cai yi tang), fried long beans (follow online receipe one) and fried sheng cai (chinese lettuce). I think quite tasty...

But Max doesnt think so.. he likes his veg all mixed with stuff like fried toufu lah.. mushrooms llah.. this and that.. i dun like cos i think too many fried stuff for the past few days.. and tat is why i purposely did not add in fried toufu and or fried veg codfish.. BUT he says it was so unsatisfying that he had to go chilis with us to eat dessert... Hai.. looks like we need to get used and come to a compromise.. cos either cook food he will like or food I will like.. cos Max likes flavourful stuff and i just prefer natural flavours in food...




Anyway, inspired when I saw the veg siew mai in the fridge, I made siew mai noodles ala the char siew noodles in Singapore.. yums:)

Winter melon soup... online receipe plus some self made additions.. Max is amazed I look at receipe for everything.. hahahahahahaha.. he says this one so simple why I need to look at reciepe..but I like leh.. cos like tat I wun go wrong mah:)

My first attempt at tomato fried egg. Learnt this on a youtube video by a chinese woman speaking in heavily chinese accented mandarin.. she says it is the first dish tat china children learn when they learn to cook.. tasted quite good:)

Followed another online receipe for this fried winter melon with salted egg but the egg white of this salted egg is too salty.. otherwise yummy to me:)

That's Ace helping to make mee hoon kuay for lunch...

The end result...

Dumplings! Okie, I din made them.. they were premade.. bought from supermarket.. i just panfried them and add water to steam a little...


And because Ace is going to school soon, we bought a sandwhich maker to make him sandwhiches to bring to school:)
So far only tried cheese and tomato, cheeses and okara, cheese and oreo, cheese and mushroom filling. Ace loves the one with oreo and okara... Max loves the tomato and mushroom one...







Gu cai huay with fried tempeh and tou kua:)

Bean sprouts with fried toufu, egg and sprinkles of crispy tempeh..

Pan fried kimchi dumplings.. Okie, this one is ready made.. i merely panfried them..wahahaha:) But the colour nice right?:P

Vegeterian fish curry... this one very headache man.. cos I din know how to cook this at all and experimented all the way...

This one is an online receipe... it is Korean mung beans soup.. and taste quite good if I may say myself:) wahahahahaahaha... next time try the spicy version...

Vegeterian oyster mee sua.... Thanks got clari for donating the mee sua to me:)


Garlic fried kang kong.. I wanted to fry with chilli but found out no chilli at home and also no sambal chilli at home also.. so too bad lor...

Look good right? They actually taste alright too!:)

And so..... if Yuan can cook... SO CAN YOU!:P wahahahhahaa...

PS: Even if you do not know how.. there is much joy in cooking for your loved ones:) It is some sort of therapy and when cooked with love, all foods taste good:)

PPS:

After a year of cooking for himself, Max can whip up a mean dish or two lor.. so it just takes practice..:)

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