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!