Mashed Potatoes

The good things in life are the simple ones.

Mashed Potatoes

Mashed Potatoes (30 mins)

2 potatoes

1/2 cup milk
1 tablespoon butter
Salt
Black pepper

1. Peel the potatoes and cut into cubes.
2. Boil the potatoes for 20 minutes or until really soft. Soft = Very little effort required to poke the potatoes with a fork!
3. Drain the water and leave the potatoes in the pot. The heat will cause excess water to evaporate. 
4. Add the milk and butter. As for the salt and pepper, add as you taste until you have achieve the desired taste.
5. Mash the potatoes (I used a fork to mash and it worked very well). 
6. Serve.

Agar-agar Gula Melaka (Brown Sugar Jelly)

A refreshing and (somewhat) healthy dessert!

Agar-agar Gula Melaka (Brown Sugar Jelly)

Agar-agar Gula Melaka (Brown Sugar Jelly) (10 mins)

1 cup agar-agar (Vegetarian gelatin)

3 "cylinders" brown sugar (refer picture below)
4 cups water

1. Put all ingredients into a pot and bring to a boil.
2. Make sure all ingredients are well mixed together before turning off the fire. 
3. Let the mixture cool down before spooning it into the jelly mould. 
4. Put it into fridge. 
5. Before serving, remove the agar-agar from the mould.
6. Serve.

Baked Fish with Dried Chillies

When I was a kid, we had fish almost every day. I used to grumble about it, now I'm thankful when there's fish on the table!

Baked Yellow Croaker with Dried Chillies

Baked Fish with Dried Chillies (45 mins)

Yellow croaker or your favourite fish

As many dried chillies as you like
Salt

1. Pre-heat the oven at 200 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes.
2. Defrost the fish, which has been scaled and gutted by your kind fishmonger, then wash it thoroughly under running water. 
3. Rub a pinch of salt all over the fish for taste. 
4. Use a pair of scissors to cut the dried chillies into smaller pieces. 
5. Make a few slits on both sides of the fish and then stuff the chillies into the slits. 
6. Bake the fish for 40 minutes.
7. Serve.

Shellfish Fried Rice

Another really easy all-in-one dish in 10 minutes!

Shellfish Fried Rice

Shellfish Fried Rice (10 mins)

Shellfish

Cooked rice (preferably cooked the night before and refrigerated)
Garlic
2 eggs
Salt

1. Soak, rinse and drain the defrosted shellfish repeatedly until the sediments are gone. I did this about 5 times. This is the only tedious part.
2. Crush, chop and dice 3/4 bulb of garlic.
3. Heat up the non-stick frying pan, pour in some oil. In the mean time, crack 2 eggs into a bowl and beat them thoroughly. 
4. When the oil is hot, fry the garlic until slightly golden brown. 
5. Add shellfish AND rice and stir-fry for a bit.
6. Quickly pour in the eggs and mix well. The trick is not to fry it for too long because the shellfish will become rubbery if cooked for too long.
7. Serve.

ABC Soup

All nutrients in one good soup, perfect for the working person!

ABC Soup

ABC Soup for 2 (30 mins)

This is my "weekday soup", best prepared the night before and left to self-cook in my magic cooker so that by the time I come back from work the next day, it's ready to eat! For the record, the magic cooker is a pot, which has insulation to keep the heat in, just like a flask. You can use it to cook virtually anything from soups to stews to rice! The beauty of this pot is it saves ELECTRICITY and GAS, simply because it doesn't need either resources to cook your food! It virtually self-cooks - magic! Whatever you're cooking, just give it a boil over the stove for 10 mins or so and put it into the magic cooker. After a few hours, your food will turn out exactly as if you have left it on the gas continually. Mine is from Cosway, Malaysia, but nowadays I'm sure you can get this cooker from pretty much any shopping mall. 


Chicken drumsticks, however many you would like to have

2 potatoes
1 carrot
2 tomatoes
2 sticks celery
1 big onion

1. Defrost the chicken drumsticks. Once defrosted, wash them thoroughly by rubbing and rinsing it under running water. Rub the drumsticks with salt and then rinse them again.
2. Boil the UNPEELED tomatoes in a small pot of water - this makes skin removal as easy as ABC. 
3. Wash and peel the potatoes and carrots, then slice them into small cubes. 
4. The tomatoes should have been well boiled by now. Pour away the water and let the tomatoes cool. 
5. Wash the celery, then remove the fibrous bits. (Sometimes when I'm in a rush, I cheat by not doing this and honestly I don't feel much difference although my mum is inclined to disagree.) To do this, just sort of pinch a little wee bit of the end of the celery stick, then peel it, like peeling a banana. The fibrous bit will peel out and looks like a cellophane tape. Do this until you have removed as much of the fibrous bits as your patience allows you to. 
6. Slice the celery into smaller pieces.
7. For the next step, it's best to wear a pair of swimming goggles, ski goggles or whatever protective gear you have which covers your eyes thoroughly. Spectacles don't work. 
8. Remove the onion skin then slice it in chunky pieces. It doesn't have to be too small because it will crumble anyway when you boil the soup. 
9. Remove the goggles. If you didn't wear goggles, you should be unable to open your eyes now. 
10. Hopefully the tomatoes are cool enough for you to handle them. Else, just put it under cold running water to cool it. Then peel the skin with your hands. Just give the skin a little tug and it will all fall out obediently.  
11. Slice the tomatoes in half, then half it again. 
12. Put everything into the magic pot: tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, celery, chicken drumsticks and pour in 2.5 bowls of water. This scientific calculation is derived as such: 1 bowl per person, with approximately half a bowl of water extra to allow for evaporation. 
13. Bring the soup to a boil, then let it boil for another 10 minutes before placing it into the magic cooker. 
14. The next morning, before heading off to work, boil it over the stove for another 10 minutes and then place it in the magic cooker.
15. After work, just before eating, add a pinch of salt, and boil it over the stove for a few minutes. 
16. Serve.