Ji Ku Ba Ku Teh/ Ba Ku Teh

Ahh, bak kut teh! One of our comfort food in the cold. Never realised how comforting the herbal rib soup is, especially during those chills. Hehe, tell you a stupid secret. I never really liked ba kut teh to be honest. Wouldn't fancy it in M'sia in that tropical warm weather. And did you know that ba kut teh in Singapore is ... well, very different? They taste like pepper soup!

Malaysia (as in Klang) has a reputation for best ba kut teh. According to one of my friends from Klang, they have ba kut teh for breakfast n lunch. They signify it as how the northern Chinese signified their dumplings. Slightly different, we Sabahans eat ba kut teh for dinner, and sometimes lunch? I didn't fancy the ba kut teh i had in Singapore (quite bad, i tell u) lol, but somehow, cooking their herbal sachet at home taste better than those from M'sia. The taste is more prevalent n stronger, wherelse the ones from M'sia are weaker. Funny thing is, it doesn;t taste like the true n real Singaporean ba kut teh. Go to SG to try their infamous 'rou gu cha' n u'll understand wat i meant.

We occasionally cook ba kut teh at home, using ready-made satches of spice. Tried the Klang version, but not strong enuf (yes, how ironic).  Once my uncle and his family came for dinner, i boiled a large pot of chicken drumsticks and pork ribs with this Seah's spices n it was super good. From then, i stick to SG spices.

Another thing i discovered was by boiling chicken n pork together, it produces a sweeter stock.  For this reason, whenever i decided to cook ba kut teh or 'ji ku ba ku teh', i always get skinless chicken drumsticks and pork spare ribs. The result: super yummy!

What can be better than serving with a bowl of plain rice! On a cloudy winter day ... i'm dreaming of ji ku ba ku teh!

Easy. Just boil the meat with garlic over low heat for the first 1.5 hrs, add the spices in the last 30 mins, followed by mushrooms n vege before serving! Enjoy!

Plum and Lime Jam

Another batch of jam ... hehe.

 

I bought a punnet of fresh plums about 1.5 weeks ago with 'jam' in mind, but my hub insisted we shd eat them fresh. I agreed relunctantly, smiling shrewdly knowing deep inside that neither of us will touch them. You see, i don't eat plums when there are apples or pears; n my hub is not a fan of fruits (he only eats when i force him to; then again his choices are merely limited to nectarines, peaches and oranges.) So, like how i had predicted, they sat in my fridge till many many days later n eventually turned 'ripe and soft'. Good good, i told myself, n just yesterday as my hub was away in the city meeting someone, i finally grabbed the opportunity to turn them into ...

 

PLUM n LIME jam!

Nice Dark Deep Red, i tot they were raspberry jam!

My hub came back with the above one single rose (be thankful, LOL!) so in return i cooked him multi-coloured fried bee hoon for dinner!

Light n healthy!

A m'sian affair in my kitchen

Weather has been moody n chilly these two days; same goes with my mood. LOL. hormonal change? or PMS symptom? Not sure. Sth is bothering me. Whatever it is, one thing that kept me happy was the affair happening in my kitchen.

Nothing beats curry chicken or bak kut teh on a cold rainy day. One word. Awesome.

Curry Chicken with Potatoes - without coconut milk.

My Klang styled bak kut teh affair. So comforting.

Imitation of prawn mee? LOL. Nah. just MAGGI mee with frozen banana prawns n chinese cabbage.

And last but not least, the so sesame affair which continues to be my boost of calcium.


Dual Sesame Biscuits



Promoting low calorie, less oil and more greens diet

A quick post today as we're off to church in less than 2 hours. Burrp, just had a full very late lunch a.k.a very early dinner. Has been cloudy n chilly today, my poor babies din manage to get their sunbathings again. :-(.

We had two simple but healthy meals since morning (i am trying to help someone lose some weight LOL); first one being easy mustard ham sandwiches;

Leg ham, fresh tomatoes, continental cucumber n baby spinach with honey mustard n avocado mash sandwiched in between multigrain toasts.

Messy messy, i was multitasking then. Was scolded for not concentrating in one thing at a time. Yeah. Food hygiene!

Finally.. and at last, i managed to cook my first 'steamed pork and preserved vegetable' which has been on my to-do list for a long time. Was it a Hakka dish? i don't know but i sort of grew up eating this dish, n my auntie used to make it very often when i was staying with them back last months.

Easy peasy but not too easy to get the right taste, minced pork seasoned with soy sauce, pepper, dash of salt, cornflour, water n top with preserved vegetable.

Steam on high heat for 20 mins

The result: my hub complained the meat is too lean (which i think is alright for health reason). N i guess i shd have mixed the preserved vege with the meat instead of merely spreading on top.

A chinese meal always comes with some greens. I am a huge broccoli fan. so do not be surprise if u see me cooking broccoli a lot.

Fried the last portion of overnight rice with cucumbers n broccoli stems to go with the dishes.

Hello to Saturday

Hello to Saturday. Has been a week since my in laws left. Sat is a busy day for me, coz it's house cleaning day and there are many many chores like laundry, sanitizing kitchen towels, toilet wash, and floor mopping. Goodie huh? For no reason, i seem to enjoy these chores. I just realised what a 'cleanliness' freak i am.

Anyway, i am here to write my daily meal diary again, n pretend i am a masterchef with great culinary skills.  LOL. I am so pathetic. I daydream everyday hoping i can whip up some excellent dishes for my hub, but sadly, my skills are, well, kinda limited. Here in my own space, i tend to materialise my dream. LOL. So here they are, simple but healthy (i guess) (if you wan to know how they taste, pls refer to Mr Jiang) :

Yesterday's very late lunch. Leftover ginger onion chicken, stir-fry lettuce with carrots, steamed rice n sweet potatoes.

N i managed to bake! 2nd masterpiece from the mini oven! Chocolate spiral shortbread. I was out of patience, otherwise they cld have looked better.



N the rockmelon dinner last nite.

Today was classic. Mr Jiang woke up late, so he ended eating brunch instead:

Tomato egg

Went with Shanghai noodles

N his daily milk tea

Sorry for the upside down pic. i 4got to rotate. Mr Jiang's bowl.

Dinner was some simple Joyce's styled fried rice.

Ingredients for fried rice include marinated mince pork, mixed vege, diced carrots, broccoli stems n overnight rice. Goes well with chilli oil. Yummy.

Ginger Onion Chicken

I suddenly had the desire to stew some chicken with the leftover ginger n massive 'spring onions' my in laws left us with, hehe, been bragging about it to mr Hub for the last two days, n as usual, he din believe me at first (maybe coz i am a crappy person who daydreams too much). LOL. Dragged him to Boxhill this morning to buy good corn-fed chicken n ta-da, here is my first ginger onion chicken with stir-fry broccoli:

Dinner, Leftover Noodles as Starch (pity, we had too much leftovers)

Broccoli Garlic

Main: Ginger Onion Chicken which can last us at least two meals

My hub has this passion for fridge magnets; everywhere he goes he sure comes back with a special magnet to add to his collection. Me? i only collect postcards.

My Hub's Collection on our mini fridge (only 60% here)

My two Darlings.

Baby 2 : Cherry tomato



Baby 3 : Basil Columnar



Sigh, now that there are only two of us, the food volume seems to go down so much slower; even a loaf of bread takes us at least 10 days to finish. we had to freeze half n make sure the other fresh half is consumed before the expiry date, which usually last for 4-5 days only. Sure hard to cook dinner!

Mount Dandenong

Hehe. We are enjoying the moments of being 'redundant', thus, the drive up to Mt. Dandenong to sip a cup of tea/coffee n devour the long famous Miss Marples' devonshire scones. N to enjoy the scenic view from the hill top which stands at 633m above sea level, n smell the fresh scent of forest hills. isn't it wonderful? i wish everyday is like this.

Mt Dandenong is about 35 mins drive from our place in Doncaster

the Melbourne metropolitan from the hilltop. Sky wasn't that clear today.

Miss Marples' scones with raspberry jam n clotted cream. Skinny cappucino n tea. I personally think, Sunny ridge garden's scones taste better.

I love this forest. Such a beautiful creation.

I had a great time driving up!

I continued being a lazy pig today, so for dinner, i easily steamed n roasted some Ozzie sweet potatoes (Yummy!), mixed frozen vege (leftover by in laws) with instant brown onion gravy, n a yummilicious beef pie. Not tat hard to please a man! LOL.

Dinner and a parade of our new home

Been lazy today, did something which i rarely do: taking naps during the day! I accidentally fell asleep on the couch till i heard hub making tea, which i thought was an act indicating his hunger has striked but he protested saying NO. Well, i still got myself up (it was 6pm already n i had no excuse not to get up) n thank God, dinner was leftover beef from last nite, so simple as it was, here's wat we had for DI-ner tonite:

I'm such a lazy pig. Even shooting a photo makes me tired. Thus the blurness. Pardon me pls.

Have i shown you pictures of my new home before? i mean, after fitting in all the fixtures etc?

Dining table with the platter of fruits

The couch. No more red. I changed the cover recently.

The balcony. Meet our plant no 1 on right bottom

Outside toilet.

Aisle

Bedroom with the built-in mirror wardrobe.

Simple deco on one of the side tables

My workplace No.2

My baby Chives. I accidentally toppled it the other day, n the poor thing hasn't been standing straight since. Just trimmed it (an hr ago?) hoping it will grow more beautiful chives for my omelette.

We sort of moved things around after my in laws left, n the house looks different from the pics now. I have more babies, 'thai basil' n 'cherry tomato' added to the family; which makes the place feels more homey n alive. :-)