Stir-Fried Spinach

The simplest, healthy, yet my favorite dish is stir-fried spinach. It's really really easy. Let's get to the point on how to prepare =)

What do you need:

1. Spinach (of course)

2. Chopped Garlic

3. Salt

4. Chicken broth powder

5. Vegetable oil

Let's cook it!

1. Heat the oil up and stir fry the chopped garlic until it's fragrant. The amount of chopped garlic depends on your preference.

2. Add the spinach into the pan, and stir-fry it.

3. When the green is done, add a little bit of salt (half tea-spoon for the servings of 2) and chicken broth (about 1 to 1.5 teaspoon). Stir fry it and off the heat.

PS: For other greens, you may need to add in some water, but for spinach, water is not required.

And... you are ready to serve your healthy dish!

Cashew Chicken

This is one of my favorite dish and last week, hubby praised my cashew chicken has finally improved and tasted real good! *Proud*

I still got a few more dishes to blog about. So, here we go:

What you need:

1. Chicken fillet

2. Cashew Nuts

3. Dried Chili (Since my hubby doesn't like the smell of chili at all, so I substitute this with Green pepper, which he doesn't like either)

4. Dark Soy Sauce

5. Light Soy sauce

6. Black Pepper

7. Vegetable Oil

8. Corn Flour

How you cook it:

1. Cut the chicken fillet into dice-size and marinate it like this.


Click here to know how to marinate the meat.

2. While the meat is marinated, fry the cashews (if your cashew nuts are raw). Heat the frying pan, and fry the cashew (without oil) on a low heat. You have to keep stirring them, otherwise, the cashew will be overcooked at a side.

How much of cashew nuts really depend on you. I normally put this much (as per the picture) for 300 gr of chicken fillet.

3. After the cashew is done and the marinating is over 30 minutes, you can start cooking your cashew chicken. First, heat up the oil, then stir-fry the marinated chicken. When the chicken is almost cooked, add the green pepper (dried chili) and cashew nuts. Since hubby likes it a little bit saucy, I added a little bit of water (just a little bit).

If you like it salty, you can add a little bit of salt and stir fry it, before you off the flame.

And that's how the cashew chicken is done....

Key to Delicious Simple Chinese Food

My 3 months experience of cooking teaches me that, one of the keys to successfully delicious dish is, Marinate the meat. If you marinate the meat well, I would say that, you can guarantee that the dish is definitely nice, or at least, edible.

Let's say you want to make black pepper chicken/beef, cashew chicken, BBQ pork, etc, normally you need to marinate the meats first, to let the tastes and ingredients are absorbed by the meats.

So, what you need to prepare for basic marinating is:

1. Light soy sauce

2. Dark soy sauce

3. Black Pepper/Pepper

4. Corn Flour

Like this...

How you marinate is basically pouring all those ingredients on the meats, and mix all of them together. How much of the ingredients to use, is totally up to you and the amount of meat you want to cook. I like it a little sweet, so I will use the dark soy sauce slightly more than the light soy sauce. Black pepper is normally the last to mix (after light and dark soy sauce).

After marinating the meat, just let it be, for at least half an hour, then only you cook them.

Easy right? =)

How to Cook Rice

Trust me or not, I learnt how to cook rice, 3 days after my wedding day. Before that, I got no clue at all! And I bet, I'm not the only one out there, who are like that.

When I wanted to learn how to cook rice, everyone gave me different opinions and methods and techniques. Most common method people use is, the ratio of your rice and the water is through your index finger or something. Some taught me, if you cook 1 cup of rice, just add additional cup of water, which is 2 cups.

Well... Here's what I can suggest you, and I think it's really accurate:

1. Buy rice cooker, which will tell you the cooking method.

This is the most accurate of all. Each rice type and each rice cooker has different measurement. My mom's one uses her palm to measure the ratio of water and the rice. Friends use her index fingers. What I can say is, different people have different size of index finger, no?

My friend, Jack, who's 1.95 m tall, has a super huge palm (not to mention index finger), which is like double of mine. So, how to measure, unless there's a scientific proof saying that, your appetite is measured by the length of your index finger.

So, the most accurate one is, to buy the rice cooker, which will give you instruction on how to cook rice, like mine!

My rice cooker comes with a cup, and the instruction clearly says, 1 cup of rice will need 1.2 cup of water. So, you can never be wrong. And, 1 cup of rice is like 2 plates of rice for my husband and me.

2. Wash the rice before cooking it

You better make sure that you wash your rice before cooking it. Seriously! You never know what's hidden inside it. I normally wash the rice 3 times before I cook it. How you wash it? It's simple. Just pour the rice into the bowl or any container you can use to wash. Then, pour the water in. Wash the rice with your hands (Remember to wash your hands before that). When the color of the water changes, just pour the water out. Do it for 3 times.

3. Cook it!

After washing the rice, just put the right amount of water (based on the instruction of your rice cooker), and cook it. As simple as that!

4. Stir the rice

For my rice cooker, the electricity one, once the rice is cooked, I need to open up the rice cooker, and stir the rice. Otherwise, it will leave the top part of the rice softer than the bottom part of the rice. Whereas, my mom's rice cooker doesn't need that. So, you gotta try and see for yourself. If yours is like mine, you can always stir the rice, as soon as it's cooked.

Happy cooking!

My Rules of Cooking

First of all, I just got married. 25 January 2010. Everyone said, "For a woman to get married, they should learn how to cook. The way to man's heart is through his stomach". Well.. Not everyone, basically the old Asian's beliefs to be exact.

But... I seriously dinno how to cook when I got married. My first experience of cooking rice was, 27 January 2010. Yep.. I marked it as history, for God's sake. It didn't go very well. But second time, it went well, and I started building my confidence.

I just started my family, and I'm not working right now. So basically, we are poor and small family. 2 people. A lot of people (esp in Singapore) believe that, there's no point of cooking at home, if you are only serving for two people. Go out and buy mixed rice lah! Mixed rice only costs you less than 10 dollars per meal. That's true.

So, when I decided to learn how to cook, my rules are:

Rule #1 Easy

It seriously has to be easy. Please don't ask me to do the super difficult cooking just to get a dinner for two. Well... At least for now, when I just started to learn how to cook. Which freak wants to learn making pizza from scratch, when he/she just knows how to cook rice 1.5 months ago?

Normally, I will start preparing the dinner, 15 minutes after my hubby told me that he's going home. By starting cooking, I mean, I really start from cooking rice and the dish. By the time he's home, the food is just ready. Great timing! :)

Rule #2 Cheap

What's the point of buying 50 dollars ingredients just to cook one dinner, right? Well.. Unless it's for special occassion lah. But for daily meals, here's how I calculate. I assume, each meal costs 3 dollars (unless you go to super Ulu place just for a 2 dollars chicken rice, but you still need to calculate your transport fee though). 3 dollars per person. So, I have about 6 dollars per meal. And, I normally cook for tonight's dinner and tomorrow's lunch. So, I should cook 4 portions, which I have the budget about 12 dollars.

For example, to cook Japanese curry, you need onions (2 dollars for one big bag), chicken fillet (less than 3 dollars), carrots (less than 3 dollars), and potatoes (less than 2 dollars, for about 5 pieces or more).

So, that's how I calculate my dish. Well... Of course you gotta buy the spices, but hello... one bottle of oil, I've been using it for almost 3 months, and cook everyday, still left with half a bottle.

But, if you or your family is the typical chinese type, who can't eat with just one dish and rice, you can forget about this rule lah. But still can save a little bit, coz per dish, it costs quite cheap =)

Rule #3 No Rule is the Rule

I don't really like the cooking that have too much rule. I dunno... Maybe I'm the rebellious type, lazy type, or any type. But I honestly feel, if you want to start cooking, the less rule it is, the better. Rule can just be developed once you are familiar with the kitchen and taste of food. You can always add on some stuff or eliminate some stuff, coz everyone's taste is different, no?

I just had an argument with my hubby a few days ago, when he said, why I put some ingredients that are not normally people putting in? I said, "It's called creativity and experiments. You think how can Jamie Oliver be so famous? He does his experiments!"

So, let's just try on your own, whatever you want to cook. :) Hope you enjoy this blog!