Sweet corn, carrot, and pork rib soup.

Cooking involves more than just the actual cooking process. To get groceries for a week’s meals, there are trips to the wet market and supermarket (separate visits, cos there’s only so much I can lug home by bus). Once I get home, meats and seafood are unpacked, divided into smaller portions, then put away in the freezer. Leafy vegetables have to be wrapped in plastic bags and newspaper so that they last longer.

And that’s just the start! For each weekday meal, I need to factor in at least one hour prep time, and another hour of cleaning (the dishes, pots, cooker + hood, sink). What seems like a simple meal is actually a very tedious process!

Though cooking a Chinese-style 2 dishes+1 soup dinner can be rather time-consuming, the result is very satisfying. It’s hardly sophisticated fare, but its wholesome and familiar taste is what constitutes comfort food.

At least once a week, I’ll boil a Cantonese 老火汤 (“old-fire” soup) using my mother-in-law’s Tanyu claypot. For the sweet corn, carrot, and pork rib soup above, I simmered the following ingredients for 2.5 hours:

• 500gms pork ribs, parboiled and rinsed
• 2 fat carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks
• 1 “pearl” sweet corn (much sweeter than the regular kind), cut into 6 sections
• 10 dried red dates
• 2 tablespoons of dried wolfberries
• a few pieces of 淮山 (dried mountain yam, or “huai shan”)
• about 3 litres of water

It’s a huge pot of soup, sufficient for 6 people as part of a meal. Even for Rick and I who are huge soup drinkers, it’s too much for one meal. But nothing goes to waste; we re-heat the soup the next day, and the flavors are even more intense. This way, I also save on the trouble of having to cook soup the following day!

Chicken rendang

Rendang is another dish that keeps well. Here, I cheated by using an excellent pre-mix paste by Mak Nyonya. So far, I’ve tried their rendang, chicken curry, and assam fish sauces, and they are all delicious! They taste homemade, and there’s no artificial seasonings or preservatives used.

Garlic sprout & pork stirfry

Do you love garlic sprouts as much as I do? I came up with this dish on the spur of the moment, and surprisingly, it turned out great, very yummy with rice! Here’s a brief guide:

1. Saute garlic sprouts with coarsely chopped garlic till al dente, and remove from wok.
2. Stir-fry sliced marinated pork/chicken/beef till cooked.
3. Add the sauteed garlic sprouts, then season with hoisin and soy sauce.

Crispy fried mackerel

Besides steamed fish, we also enjoy a simple panfried mackerel (batang) steak. What I do is to dry the fish steak with paper towels, then season with salt and pepper. Before pan-frying, I coat the fish in some cornstarch so that it’ll be crispy and to seal in the juices. Also, the oil will be less likely to splatter.

Soy sauce braised chicken wings

The problem with frozen chicken is that it comes in minimum 1 kg packs, which is way too much for the two of us to finish in one meal. Luckily, braised chicken wings keep and reheat well. So I just have to cook one dish and spread it out over two days. Saves on prep time and gas!

Soy sauce chicken noodle

With our leftover braised wings, we had an easy one-dish meal for our weekend lunch! I boiled and drained some dried noodles, tossed them in the braising sauce, then topped the noodles with the chicken wings. Super yummy!

Three candles this year!

Today’s our niece, Melissa’s third birthday! We had a simple celebration at home on Sunday. See how excited she is! She can’t wait to cut the cake she’d picked out herself.

Posing in her new dress!

Hubby and I bought her this dress. I picked it out, of course. Doesn’t she look absolutely adorable? And she obviously loves it!

Top shell & fruit salad

Dinner was prepared by mom-in-law and me. Someone had gifted mom-in-law some canned top shell, which she had no idea what to do with. So I made a Thai-style sweet chilli dressing to jazz up the bland and rubbery top shell, and turned it into a fruit-based cold appetizer.

Hong Kong yee-fu noodles.

Sis-in-law (Melissa’s mommy) asked me to fry yee-fu noodles.

Stir-fried cauliflower

I also stir-fried cauliflower with broccoli, mushroom, baby corn, and bell pepper. The veggies and noodles don’t look so good because I cooked them earlier at home, and were later reheated at mom-in-law’s home.

Fried chicken wings.

Mom-in-law made fried chicken wings…

Fried spring rolls

…and spring rolls. So yummy!

"I Love You" cake from Angie the Choice

Melissa picked out the cake herself. It’s actually a romance-themed cake! Well, guess she was attracted to the stunning colors of the cake. Inside is chocolate sponge and cream mixed with crushed Oreo.

Melissa was so excited she didn’t even want her dinner; she just wanted to go straight to cutting her cake!

Happy birthday to you, Melissa!

Having to juggle a job and housework means I do resort to shortcuts in the kitchen. Yes, I’m not averse to using frozen, ready-to-cook foods! But I do choose products carefully by reading the labels.

One brand that I’ve tried before is CP Foods. What I like is that their products are preservative-free. So when their PR people asked if I’d like to try out their full range, I readily agreed!

CP Mexican Wings (RRP*: S$4.95)

The Mexican Wings are one of my favorites! Crispy, spicy, and juicy, the drumlettes (about 7 in a pack) are meaty too! I oven-baked them, and they still turned out crispy! These are perfect party finger foods, great with beer. Very yummy when dipped in Thai sweet chilli sauce!

Cooking method: Deep-fry or oven-bake.

CP Roasted Mexican Chicken Wing Stick (RRP: S$4.40)

These were coated in a fiery red hot marinade. Reminded me of tandoori chicken, but with a lot of pepper, and a lot spicier! Great with plain rice. Juicy and tasty, but a little too spicy for me.

Cooking method: Microwave or immerse the bag in boiling water.

CP Honey Wings (RRP: S$5.60)

For kids or those who can’t take spicy food, the sweet and sticky Honey Wings are a wonderful alternative. I enjoyed the moist, tender mid-joint wings, but the sweetness was a little excessive.

Cooking method: Microwave or immerse the bag in boiling water.

CP Golden Crispy (RRP: S$4.40)

This is another favorite; I’ve bought this a couple of times before! It’s actually similar to karaage (Japanese-style chicken nuggets). CP’s Golden Crispy is made of boneless chicken leg. The chunks are meaty and tasty, without being being too salty.

I’ve tried both methods, and found that deep-frying produces better results. Compared to oven-baking, deep-frying produces a crispier coating and the nuggets stay crispy longer.

Cooking method: Deep-fry or oven-bake.

CP Glazed Teriyaki (RRP: S$4.00)

Another Japanese-inspired creation, the Glazed Teriyaki is also made using boneless chicken leg. It’s definitely too sweet, but that’s probaby because the chicken had been marinating in the package. Pair with rice, or use in stir-fries or noodles.

Note: Sesame seeds not included!

Cooking method: Microwave or immerse the bag in boiling water.

CP Pepper Kicks (RRP: S$4.00)

From my experience with the Glazed Teriyaki, I guessed that the Pepper Kicks would also be very well-seasoned, so I made it into a stir-fry with onions and bell pepper! It worked! The veggies complemented the sweet-peppery chicken cubes perfectly, and I didn’t have to add any other seasonings.

Cooking method: Microwave or immerse the bag in boiling water.

Here’s what I did for Pepper Kicks stir-fry:

1. Saute diced onion and bell pepper in a little oil till slightly soft. Remove from pan.

2. Place the uncooked Pepper Kicks chicken into the pan. Squeeze any remaining marinade from the package into the pan.

3. Add 3 tablespoons of water (more if it’s too dry), then stir-fry till chicken is cooked.

4. Return veggies to the pan. Toss to mix evenly, plate up and serve!

Hmm, I’m thinking other veggies like asparagus, fresh mushrooms, snow peas, or baby corn would also work well with Pepper Kicks. Maybe I could also try the same with Glazed Teriyaki!

On the whole, I find that the CP chicken products look and taste good, without any artificial, processed taste. More importantly, they are made without preservatives. Convenient to prepare, it really saves a lot of time preparing and cleaning up, which is a god-send for busy working women like me!

Look out for my next taste test of the shrimp products from CP Foods!

*RRP = recommended retail price

"Abalone" yu sheng.

2nd sis-in-law prepared the yusheng ingredients, which I then plated. No, that’s not abalone, but canned king topshell, which tastes very similar to abalone but only at a fraction of its cost.

Instead of white and green radish, 2nd sis-in-law used fresh apple and Korean pear strips instead, making the yu sheng extra sweet, crunchy, and refreshing! I much prefer this fruit-based yu sheng to the usual version.

Prawn fritters.

Look at those huge prawn fritters! It was one of the faster-moving dishes.

Fried "pork chops".

These were tasty, but on the dry side as they were made with lean pork, not pork chops.

Fish fillets baked in foil.

I think these were sea bream fillets. Marinated in salt, black pepper, dried basil, and olive oil, then steam-baked in foil. Simple and healthy, but so fragrant and tasty. This definitely tasted better than it looked!

Stir-fried mushrooms medley.

Eldest sis-in-law adores mushrooms. This dish was also very popular. I think after the past few days of feasting and snacking, everyone was yearning for wholesome veggies!

Prawn and fruit salad.

I contributed three easy dishes. The fruit salad is simply canned fruit cocktail and fresh apple tossed in mayonnaise and a little lemon juice, then topped with steamed prawn.

Stir-fried cauliflower and broccoli.

Because we’d planned for this meal to feature more greens, I made this colorful vegetarian dish.

Rosemary and lemon chicken legs.

Instead of roasting a whole chicken, I used chicken legs instead, cos everyone in our family prefers dark meat. This way, we won’t have to fight over our favorite part!

Besides dinner at Eldest Bro and 2nd Bro’s, I also had to cook for the hubby’s family on LNY’s eve. After a week of mammoth grocery shopping, cooking, and cleaning, I’m really pooped! How did my mom get through so many Lunar New Years??

"Big fish big meat"

On the second day of Chinese New Year, we had an informal dinner at eldest bro’s. As is the usual practice, we had a potluck.

Claypot fish head

Eldest sis-in-law made this dish. Under the huge fish head, there’s some more pieces of fish and chunks of taro. Hmm, come to think of it, this dish has lots of symbolism. The head represents a new beginning, while fish, taro, and vegetable are, respectively, homonyms for abundance, lucky headstart, and wealth.

Har cheong gai (prawn paste chicken)

She also prepared broccoli with prawns and har cheong gai. The chicken wings were not too salty and very crispy, yums!

Hae cho (fried prawn rolls)

This was made and given to eldest sis-in-law by a friend. Quite tasty!

Curry chicken

Because 2nd sis-in-law was out visiting all day, she only had time to cook one dish: curry chicken. Anyway, it’ll be her turn to host this coming Sunday, so she’ll have the chance to cook again!

Roast baby back ribs

I made these ribs using Sylvia Tan’s recipe from her cookbook Singapore Heritage Food. Very easy, and turned out pretty well, too. The ribs would have been more tender if I’d marinated them overnight, but our dinner was an impromptu thingy, so there wasn’t time for overnight marinating.

Nyonya chap chye (stewed cabbage and vegetables)

With so much meat and seafood, my chap chye (Hokkien for “mixed vegetables”) was quite popular! Eldest sis-in-law asked if I’d been inspired by The Little Nyonya!

Fried beehoon

Due to popular request, I made fried beehoon. It wasn’t as good this time, as fresh beansprouts were unavailable on the 2nd day of CNY. But it was still very fragrant due to the liberal use of fried shallots and shallot oil.

Eldest sis-in-law also made a very big and nourishing pot of soup (which I forgot to take a pic of).  After all that cooking and cleaning, it’s back to work before the weekend comes and we’ll have to get busy preparing for the next dinner party at 2nd Bro’s!

Hence, not much eating out. Eating home was uninspiring too. Nothing too oily, too spicy, too heaty, or too sweet. Work-wise, September was a busy month, so nothing too tedious to prepare or clean up.

Teochew-style steamed pomfret.

Being a Teochew, steaming is my favorite way to enjoy a sweet, delicate fish like pomfret. It’s fast, it’s healthy, and preparation and clean-up’s a breeze. For steaming, using fresh, non-frozen seafood gives optimum results, so if I happen to go to the market, you can be sure there’ll be steamed fish for dinner that day.

Stewed roast pork.

Love soy sauce pork belly but don’t have time to prepare it? To make it from scratch, it takes me at least an hour to prepare and braise the pork. So, when I’m pressed for time, I cheat by using roast pork!

The meat’s already cooked, so all I do is just cut it up, stir-fry briefly with some garlic, add water, sugar, and a little dark soy sauce for color, and let it simmer for about 5 minutes till the sauce reduces and thickens, and the pork is tender to the bite.

Because the roast pork is already full of flavor, I don’t have to bother with adding aromatics. No more having to clean the raw meat, mucking around with ingredients, or waiting 45 minutes for it to braise. It’s truly a wonderful shortcut!

Onion omelette.

Onion omelette’s another yummy dish to whip up in a jiffy! It’s also something I resort to when I run out of fresh groceries. Even when the fridge’s empty, there’s always eggs and onions at home.

Egg drop soup with prawn.

In fact, egg is so versatile I can’t imagine cooking without it. I can also make a quick soup with it, this time with prawn, but I’ve also used minced pork, fish slices, fishball, meatball, or crabstick.

Stir-fried Chinese endives and fresh shitake.

As there are only two of us, dinner is sometimes just rice with two dishes, but one of them is definitely a vegetable dish.

Stir-fried Chinese spinach.

I try to incorporate vegetables as much as possible in our home-cooked meals, as we tend to have less of them when we eat out.

Steamed grey mullet.

Steamed grey mullet [乌鱼] is an acquired taste. Another traditional Teochew dish, the whole fish is steamed, scales and all. Let it cool when done, and then strip off the fish skin. It’ll come off easily in one piece, together with the scales.

Preparing mullet this way retains moisture and its natural sweetness. It has a slight “muddy” flavor as mullet feeds on the muddy bottoms of rivers and coasts. You can easily recognize it by its characteristic flat head.

Sweet potato porridge dinner.

At home, we usually have steamed grey mullet (traditionally served with taucheo as a dipping sauce) with Teochew porridge.

Chinese long bean / yardlong bean omelette.

Another omelette! See, I told you I can’t live without eggs!

Sunday lunch - fresh sandwiches.

An assortment of mini sandwiches is a cool option for a hot, lazy Sunday!

Kyoho grapes on sale!

I’ve never tried Kyoho grapes, ‘cos they are just too darn expensive! That’s why I couldn’t resist buying a punnet when it was on sale. Considering that each gift box (about two punnets worth) goes for S$80 a pop, I thought S$10.90 was a steal.

The huge, purplish-black orbs had an intoxicating scent. So I was somewhat disappointed that they weren’t as intensely sweet as they are known to be. Maybe that’s why the price was marked down? But I did enjoy the supremely juicy flesh and wine-like flavor.

A big THANK YOU to those of you who are so supportive of my Eating at Home posts. Honestly, I’m very surprised that anyone would want the recipes for such humble, simple fare.

For my daily cooking, I don’t follow recipes. Rather, I just re-create dishes from past experiences, tasting and adjusting as I go along. For some dishes, I’ve cooked them so often that I instinctively know how much ingredients and seasonings to use. Sometimes, I just make up a new dish as I go along, depending on what ingredients I have at hand.

That’s the reason why I don’t put up recipes of the dishes I post. I hope that by putting up pictures of what we eat at home, you can get some ideas to add on to your own repertoire. But for popular requests, I’ll try to take down the exact amounts the next time I re-create a certain dish, then post the recipe.

Now I understand why my mom can never give me a proper recipe whenever I ask her for one!

Tofu and mushrooms in oyster sauce (with prawn).

Instead of minced pork, I used chopped prawns for this all-time favorite recipe of ours. So easy to prepare, but so yummy to eat! This can be a simple one-dish meal with rice.

Curry chicken and potato.

Another easy one-dish meal with rice is curry chicken. I usually have a pack of frozen chicken, and a good store-bought curry paste and UHT coconut milk on standby, in case I don’t have time to run to the supermarket but need to whip up a quick meal!

Crispy fried fish.

For those who do their own cooking, do you, like me, feel the pinch in buying groceries lately? Food items are, on average, 15% more expensive, even more for dairy items.

To stretch the dollar, I now try to buy cheaper varieties of fish, which I feel are no less nutritious or delicious than premium fish like cod or threadfin.

Stir-fried beansprouts with carrot and capsicum.

Weekday dinners are often rice accompanied with stir-fries, one of which is always a vegetable dish. Crunchy beansprouts are quick and easy to do.

Hairy gourd.

Hairy gourd takes a bit more time to cook. The traditional version invlolves dried shrimp and tang hoon (mung bean vermicelli), but I varied it slightly, omitting the tang hoon, and instead, adding carrot and scrambled egg.

Sauteed French bean and carrot.

When I was a kid, my mom would make me saute French beans over low heat, and I hated the task because it took ages for them to soften! But this method really brings out the sweetness of the beans, as opposed to cooking them in liquid. Now that I’m older (and wiser), I realize that for certain dishes, there’s no shortcut if you want them to taste good.

Watercress, pork rib, and sweet corn soup.

I’ve learnt a lot from my mom, but I’ve also picked up quite a bit of soup-making tips from mom-in-law, who’s a Cantonese. Chinese watercress soup is great for expelling heat from the body. I added sweetcorn to the classic version for its natural sweetness.

Carrot, tomato, and onion with sliced fish soup.

This is a quick soup, unlike the “old-fire” watercress soup which took more than 2 hours to cook. However, I did simmer this soup for nearly 30 minutes to bring out the flavors of the vegetables, resulting in a very “sweet” and slightly piquant broth. Very appetizing!

Wolfberry leaf "omelette", prawn, and fishball soup.

I call this an “AIO” (all-in-one) soup, cos you have vegetables, animal protein, and soup, all in one dish. All you need is rice, and you have a complete meal! Great idea if you’re cooking just for one. For larger groups, this can complement a multiple-dish meal.

Sunday brunch.

The fish fingers were Rick’s idea when we went supermarket shopping together. Processed food = not my cup of tea. Actually, he wanted the animal-shaped ones, but I put my foot down!

Grilled ham, cheese, tomato, and onion on focaccia.

If we eat at home at weekends, meals tend to be light and as minimal cleanup as possible, like the tasty grilled sandwich above.

Jumbo gold kiwifruit.

Fresh fruit is a constant in our fridge, which we have almost everyday for dessert. In season now is gold kiwifruit from New Zealand, which is a lot sweeter and more luscious than its green counterpart! It’s pricier too, but absolutely worth it!

Chicken with bell pepper in oyster sauce.

But one day last month, I happened to have a day off work, resulting in the fairly presentable photo above. This is a classic one-dish meal. Very quick and easy to put together, and always a crowd pleaser. Sometimes, I use hoisin sauce instead of oyster sauce for a change.

The dishes that follow don’t look as good, cos I had to whip them up in a short time before the hungry hubby came home for dinner.

For our friends who think I don’t feed my skinny husband, here’s the proof that I DO feed him. What to do? He inherited his mom’s eat-and-eat-but-cannot-get-fat genes. Just my luck!

Squid with celery and carrot.

Weekday dinners usually consist of rice with two or three dishes, sometimes with a soup. As you can see from the inconsistent cuts on the squid, when in a hurry, my cutting skills are horrendous.

Lemongrass prawns in rendang paste.

Stir-frying is my comfort zone. It’s also great for throwing together bits of ingredients left in the fridge, like this dish above.

There was some leftover rendang paste, so I sauteed chopped lemongrass, added the paste and sauteed till it was very fragrant, added the prawns, some water, and voila! A new dish was born! Spicy, sweet, and extremely appetizing, we enjoyed this immensely.

Whitebait, bell pepper and onion scrambled omelette.

This was another use-up-leftover-ingredients dish. The bell pepper and onion were from the oyster sauce chicken, so I used them to jazz up a simple whitebait omelette.

Cabbage, carrot, and fresh shitake.

Stir-fried cabbage and carrot is a classic veggie dish that almost every Chinese household in Singapore does. Besides being easy to cook, it’s easy to get kids to eat this!

Stir-fried Chinese cabbage.

I know that because when I was a kid, I hated eating green, leafy veggies, too! Besides cabbage, the sweet and crunchy wong bok was one of those veggies that I liked.

Homemade char siew.

Mom-in-law got a free bottle of Lee Kum Kee char siew marinade when she bought oyster sauce of the same brand, so she gave it to me. Smart move! I make the char siew and then she gets to eat it.

Well, she didn’t get to try it after all. I think I let the meat marinade for too long (28 hours), so the meat turned out a bit too salty. Still, it was delicious with rice. I told MIL I’ll make another (better) batch for her.

Sunday brunch.

On Sundays, we often sleep in and indulge in a hearty brunch. Missing the full English breakfast from his college days in Manchester, I always get bugged by Ricky to make this on Sunday. Instead of bacon, I prefer chicken or pork chipolata. A very satisfying start to a leisurely Sunday, don’t you think?

Crusted fish.

I wasn’t going to go around taking photos of 19 meals! So I only took 3. The above is Celine’s crusted fish. Forgot to ask her whether she liked it.

Beef goulash.

Ricky’s beef goulash. The mound in the center is mashed potato. He said the beef was tender and overall quite a flavorful dish.

Fish with some kind of cream sauce.

Mine’s some sort of pan-fried fish with some sort of cream sauce, served with mashed potato and sauteed vegetables. The mash was very creamy, and the fish was perfectly done.

This place touts itself as family-friendly, and I must say the prices are quite pocket-friendly, too. If I remember correctly, the mains are S$10 nett each. My only grouse is that the portions are quite small.

Before...

Earlier in the afternoon, I thought I’d make some chocolate cupcakes for the kids. Of course, the parents got some, too!

...and after.

They looked kinda boring, so I frosted the cupcakes with chocolate ganache and colorful sprinkles! They were a hit! It’s amazing what some simple frosting can do.

Some readers ask me if I eat out all the time, seeing I blog so much about eating out. Truth is, we mostly eat at home, but home meals are simple affairs, especially weekends when I do the weekly household chores (notice it’s “I”, not we).

Lousy attempt at pad thai.

This was yesterday’s (Saturday) dinner. My pad thai didn’t turn out well — too bland and clumpy — cos I was feeling very tired and grumpy. The hubby said it was ok. Well, he had spent the last 2 weeks in reservist training, so any food would certainly taste better than army food!

Zucchini, ham, and spring onion Korean pancake.

This was Sunday morning breakfast. I like experimenting with different combinations for Korean pancake. This was not bad, but would have tasted better with the addition of onion.

Opor ayam premix.

I had bought this while on vacation in Bali. Opor ayam, eaten during Ramadan celebrations in Indonesia, is a mild version of curry; it isn’t as spicy as Singapore-style curry, and is thicker and creamier.

Opor ayam = chicken in coconut gravy.

Although I carefully followed the instructions, the gravy was diluted and lacked aroma.

Quickly, I gathered all the aromatics I could find in my kitchen and threw them into the pot: shallot, ginger, red chilli, and chopped coriander. Then I tried to thicken the gravy with evaporated milk (I had run out of coconut milk). The end result was quite delicious, but nothing like opor ayam!

Rice, stir-fried French beans, stewed pork belly with mushrooms, and prawn omelette.

Looking through my archives, I realized that this year, I haven’t been blogging about what we’re eating at home, save for two recipes. Some people might even get the impression that we eat out a lot.

On the contrary, we eat home more often than out. Breakfast is a must, and our kitchen churns out dinner at least five times a week. And for me, I often have lunch at home too, before going to work.

However, I seldom blog about home-cooked meals because:

1. After washing up the cooking utensils, drying the dishes, cleaning the stove-top, etc., who’s in the mood to take stylish-looking food photos? Not me when I’m feeling all hot, tired, and sweaty!

2. Too hungry. Can’t wait to dig into the food before it gets cold.

3. Ditto point 2 for family members.

4. I’m too embarrassed to show the world what’s on our dinner table.

If you visit the blogs of some outstanding SG food bloggers, you’ll see what I mean. For instance, take a look at Chubby Hubby. He and his talented wife whip up gourmet meals that look like they came out of 6-star hotel kitchens. My typical weekday meal looks like it came from an economical rice stall.

Don’t get what I mean? Refer to above photo. 2 meat + 1 veg. Yep, it’s chap chye png alright.

Humble it may be, but for many Chinese households in Singapore, especially those of my parents’ generation, the traditional meal of plain rice with accompanying dishes of meat, seafood, vegetables, and soup, is still very much our everyday fare.

Here are some random shots of what we ate at home in July 2006 (taken at times when I wasn’t too busy/no one was hungry yet):

Stir-fried greens.

There’s guaranteed to be a plate of greens at every meal. For leafy vegetables like these baby bok choy, I usually stir-fry them with just a knob of ginger and minced garlic.

Grouper slices with tomatoes, onions, and spring onions.

We also try to eat more fish rather than meat at home. The mother-in-law (MIL) does the weekly grocery shopping. For seafood, she’ll buy whatever that’s fresh that day. Then it’s up to me to decide how to cook it. This time, I had lots of leftover grape tomatoes, so I used them up to make this grouper dish.

Crispy fried black pomfret.

This is one of my favorites. It’s so simple, yet so satisfying. I love how fried pomfret is crispy on the outside, and the flesh soft and juicy inside. Even the fins are good to crunch because they are so crispy.

Tofu with minced pork and mushroom in oyster sauce.

Looking at this photo, I’m salivating at the memory of how scrumptious this tofu dish was. The oyster sauce gravy, enriched with the flavors of the pork, chopped chilli, garlic, and shallots, was simply smashing. Perfect for drenching plain rice.

Winter melon soup and fishball soup.

Although I do most of the actual cooking, the MIL sometimes makes her specialties. Being a Cantonese, she’s a master of soups, especially the type that’s boiled for at least 3 hours. This winter melon soup is a simpler version that needs to be cooked for less than an hour. We don’t have soup at every meal, maybe just once or twice a week.

Ok, I’ve embarrassed myself enough. It’s not much, but the idea is to have balanced, wholesome meals that are fast and easy to prepare.

What did you have for dinner today?

cheers!