Moomy and Her Growing Love for Cows

As I went about my daily morning routine today (setting the boys up with their breakfast snack, putting the kettle to boil, peeping through the blinds to see what the weather is like outside), I flipped the channels and the telly is playing an episode of Rachael vs. Guy: Kids Cook-Off (Season 2).

I’ve always enjoyed watching cooking programs/competition like Chopped or MasterChef where adults from all walk of life compete against the clock to whip up a dish with a surprise ingredient.

But to see kids aged 8 to 13 years old do the same and grill lamb and what-not … that's just amazing! I don’t even cook like that!

Anyhoo, this morning’s episode was pretty interesting: the kids had to cook with an ingredient that they hate. It was funny to see them squirm when they announce what they loathe to eat – brussels sprouts, mushrooms, cucumbers, stinky cheese hehehehe

Now if you were to ask me a similar question: what ingredient do you fear? Ahhh … I am kinda picky with my food but if there is one thing that I’ve always feared handling, it would be RED MEAT.

I started messing about in the kitchen when I was a teenager. It was always something simple really – instant noodles, spaghetti, fried noodles – but I never handle red meat (be it beef, lamb or mutton). It was always chicken for me (boy, do I have a funny chicken story for you, but that will be another post, OK? I promise!!).

And of course, when I met and married my darling husband, I knew my I-don’t-handle-red-meat days are over.

My darling hubby doesn't just enjoy food; he enjoys cooking too. 

And I just love how he wears that apron! 

Hehehe right after we got married, he surprised me one day

by cooking dinner. He made good ol'

 American burgers - juicy, o so juicy and thick, meaty beefy patties. 

Thing was, he had used all 2.2lbs of ground beef

to make 4 thick patties for just me and him! *jaw dropped*

Hehehe nowadays, he made smaller patties.

I believe you call them sliders, here? :D 

Equally yummy, but a more manageable size! *winks*

I remember accompanying my dear mum to the wet market one day (back when I was still single) and she had to swing by the butcher stall for some beef. I swore the sight and smell were just overpowering and … ICKY!! If it wasn’t for the fruity body spray I had the foresight to spritz on myself, I knew I would have passed out.

A typical wet market in Singapore :D 

Don't get me wrong - the wet markets are washed down daily there

but I guess I am more of the modern girl

who prefers a dry & air-conditioned supermarket

when it comes to buying groceries hehehe

But I’m getting better now with red meat. We go to a wonderful butcher in Tigard for our meat and the shop does not smell!! The place looks and smells clean and you don’t see cows’ blood anywhere on the shop floor!

As if buying red meat wasn’t traumatic enough (OK, I am being a wee bit dramatic here hehehe), it’s the cooking of beef/lamb that is scary. I cooked it for my darling hubby once and it turned out tough as leather. I remember after that incident, I stuck to my moist-guaranteed chicken and fresh fish.

And when I do cook red meat, I would stick to fresh ground beef. I have always wanted to cook a good meat stew for my darling hubby. Between the fear of handling red meat and what-seem-to-be-complicated-ways of cooking a stew, I never got around to trying my hand at it until earlier this year.

Anyhoo! It was such a silly fear, really. I don’t cook red meat every day but at least now, I don’t squirm as much when I have to prep them for cooking. So allow me to share with you one of my new fave meat dish: American-style Beef Stew.

When we first moved into our current rental, I cooked

the stew the night before and then kept it in the

fridge overnight. It made a good welcoming meal for us

after a crazy day of moving boxes and furniture!

Here’s how I made mine:

I start off by mixing these in a big deep platter: a third of a cup of all-purpose flour, a teaspoon of salt and a quarter teaspoon of freshly ground pepper.

Roll 2lbs worth of stewing beef (already cut into chunks) into the above flour mixture: coat the chunks and shake off the excess flour.

In a large pot (I use my pretty lemony-yellow pre-loved Dutch oven!), melt some butter and vegetable oil over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot and ready, add your floured beef chunks and brown them. You have to do this in batches because if you overcrowd the pot, you’re just going to steam the beef up instead of browning them. Set the meat aside once its ready.

Isn't that a pretty (but bloody heavy)

pot to cook with? *grins*

Brown those lovely red cubes of cow meat!

Now very gently, add 4 cups of boiling water and 1 cube of chicken bouillon (you can use beef bouillon cubes if you have it; I use what I have in my pantry) - the mixture will splatter because you did have hot oil in the pot. Stir the mixture carefully and work on those brown bits that you have at the bottom of the pot.

Scrape that off the pot as that makes

a good starter for your stew gravy!

Then to the watery mixture, add these: 1 diced-up whole onion, 3 minced garlic cloves, 1 tablespoon of Worchestershire sauce, 2 tablespoons of tomato paste, half a teaspoon of smoked paprika, 1 teaspoon of sugar, 1 teaspoon of dried rosemary (you can use dried thyme if you don’t have rosemary), 1 teaspoon of dried parsley and 2 bay leaves. Stir to combine.

This time round, I used fresh rosemary and thyme

as we are growing them in our lil garden!

I lurveeeee the smell of fresh rosemary! :D

Next, add those browned chunks of beef, including all the juices left in the bowl. Stir again and cover the pot. Let the beef simmer in all those goodness for 1 and a half hours.

The magical pot of simmering goodness!

 After it has simmered for about 1 & a half hours, 

the stew is ready for its veggies now :D

While waiting, you can prep the veggies to accompany the beef chunks: 4 whole carrots (skinned and cut into 1-inch chunks), 4 whole red potatoes (cleaned and cut into 1-inch cubes) and 4 stalks of celery (cut into 1-inch chunks). Add these veggies to the above pot at the 1.5-hr mark. Stir and cover and let the veggies cook for an additional 30-45 mins until they are fork-tender.

Now I like my stew slightly thick so dissolve 2 teaspoons of cornstarch in a good splash of water. Pour this into the pot and stir; the gravy should thicken up nicely. Taste and season accordingly, if necessary.

Nothing like a huge bowl of piping 

hot meat stew to warm up your bones on a cold day :D
The first time I made it, my darling hubby said it was
very very good :D His compliments made me a very happy bunny :D:D:D

We enjoyed ours best with warm, crusty French loaf!

You could have it with good ol' biscuits too! :D

And that’s my American-style Beef Stew, y’all! :D The above made enough to last us 2 dinners (for 2 adults) and a leftover lunch for 1 hungry Moomy! :D 

Toodles for now :D:D:D

Moomy and the Confused Chicken Dish

I can hardly believe that it has been 9 months since we made The Big Move to the good ol’ US of A.

In those 9 months, we have moved from a vacation (house) rental to a 2-bedroom apartment and back to a proper house again, bounced from Oregon to the capital of Washington State and then back to Oregon again.

And it took that same amount of time to change my status from a visitor to a legal permanent resident of this beautiful country.

But you know how that old saying goes: its only when you’re living abroad that you begin to appreciate the dishes found back home.

Dishes that are so unique to Singapore/Asia that you can’t quite replicate that same taste once you’re overseas.

If you visit Singapore, you must not leave
without stopping by Zam Zam Restaurant
at Arab Street for its famous murtabak!

One of those dishes
Singapore is famous for is Chilli Crabs!!

Chilli crabs, Zam Zam's murtabak, good ol’ satay by the beach at East Coast, Old Chang Kee curry puffs & sotong balls. The list goes on as my drool pools into a wee puddle hehehe

And let’s not get started on good ol’ cooked-with-love meals, the kind my dear mum & late grandmother always made at home.

I learnt to cook Sweet & Sour Chicken recently … almost a year ago really. I have never liked sweet-and-sour dishes before because my take on it was that it’s a bloody confused dish! Whenever my mum cooked it for dinner, I would have groaned and asked if there was another dish besides that because I just did not fancy such a confused chicken.

Anyhoo, my dislike for the confused dish changed a year ago when I had to prepare lunch for my best friends. They were coming to our flat in Singapore and I wanted to cook something homey, something yummy.

And somehow, Sweet & Sour Chicken sounded good on the menu that day and this was how I made mine:

The Meat:

3 pieces of chicken breast, skinless & boneless: cut into bite-sized chunks

Sprinkle 1 generous teaspoon of turmeric powder & a good sprinkle of salt over these chunks. Mix it thoroughly and let the meat sit on the counter while you heat up the frying pan with a tablespoon of vegetable oil. 

This time round, I had left
the chicken chunks pretty … chunky!

I don't know about you,
my dear reader, but I
lurveeeee the smell of turmeric!

Once the oil is heated up, fry these chunks enough that the chicken turned light & golden brown, cooked inside but not too crunchy on the outside. Set these chicken chunks aside.

The Sauce Components:
In a bowl, mix these together and set aside:

4 tablespoons chili sauce (here in the States, I use Sriracha but I find it a tad spicy so use a tablespoon first and add more if you want more kick to your sauce)

3 tablespoons tomato sauce

3 tablespoons oyster sauce

1 tablespoons lemon juice (usually from 1 lemon)

3 tablespoons sweet soya sauce (you can get this from any Asian supermarket)

1/2 a teaspoon of sesame seed oil (not too much because this oil can be quite overpowering)

Now, I always eye-ball the color of the sauce. Sweet & Sour sauce should be reddish and not black-ish; taste the sauce too as you go. Stop when you feel that the sauce is to your liking. 

I usually add the soya sauce and oyster sauce 1 tablespoon at a time; you are in control of the color/taste of the sauce. 

The Aromatics:

2 shallots

2 garlic cloves

1 onion

1-2 inch of fresh ginger

Blend the above items in a blender (add a touch of water into the mix to help the blending process); I find that when you blend these aromatics, it helps to thicken up the sauce and create more gravy for your dish.

And don't sweat it if you don't have shallots in your pantry/kitchen. Just use an additional onion :D

The Side Components:

2 bell peppers (any color will do though I prefer to use green, yellow or orange ones because that way, the colors will pop up from the reddish sauce): I cut these into 1-inch squares

1-2 potatoes: peeled & cut into 1-inch cubes. Rinse, dry the potato cubes and then fry them till the potatoes are golden brown. Set these aside.

1 small can of pineapple chunks - if the chunks are huge, cut them into half so they will be of the same size as the peppers and potatoes.

A handful of cherry tomatoes, cut into halves. (I usually prefer to work with these instead of those usual tomatoes. Whichever works best for you, OK?)

A cup of water

Those cute lil tomatoes came from our garden!! :D

Optional:

A handful of fresh cilantro, chopped finely.

Assembling the Dish:

1. Prep your chicken first and set it aside (i.e. prepare it accordingly as described in the above under "The Meat").

2. Heat up your pan over medium-high heat. Saute The Aromatics; once it's become fragrant, add the bell peppers. Stir for about 2-3 minutes and then add the sauce mixture. Stir again.

3. Mixture will be pretty thick so add a bit of water at a time until you're happy with the consistency. Not too thick, not too thin, OK? 

4. Add your variety of chunks: cooked chicken, fried potatoes, canned pineapple and cherry tomatoes. Stir together to combine. Taste; season it with salt if necessary. And sprinkle the finely chopped cilantro as your garnish. 
Your Sweet & Sour Chicken is ready! :D

The not-so-confused Sweet & Sour Chicken

The Sweet & Sour Chicken is best served with hot, steamed Jasmine rice. It is now one of my favorite dishes to cook and my darling hubby loves the fried potatoes in it. I also love that it has chunks of pineapple and tomatoes. 

Our dinner of Sweet & Sour Chicken and

a green side of Stir-fried Broccoli & Carrots in Oyster Sauce

I'm not a professional chef/cook but I learnt through trial and error that with Asian cooking, it's best to prep everything and have them ready before you turn on the stove. Asian cooking/stir-frying happens so quickly; by prepping all your ingredients before hand, all you need to do is reach out and grab that bowl of prepared sauce and dunk it into the hot pan and stir!

And you know what's nice about the above recipe ... it made such a generous meal for our family of 4 (2 adults and 2 toddler boys) that we have enough leftovers for another night :D

Leftover Sweet & Sour Chicken on another night, 

paired up with a different veg - Stir-fried Cabbage & Carrots!

I hope I've laid it out simple enough for you to want to give it a go - please try it! I have shared the above recipe with a couple of my fave people - you know who you are :D:D:D - and they enjoyed it :D:D:D 

Sharing is caring, y'all and as Ms Paula Deen always say it in her cooking shows "Love and Best Dishes from my kitchen to yours!" :D:D:D

Moomy and the Orange Chiffon Cake

Hello, hello, you!! Can you believe that it's September already? 

Anyhoo ... Grandparents Day is coming up; it will be celebrated here in the United States on Sunday, 7th of September.

I was one of those lucky people who grew up basking in the love of their grandparents. Till my late teens, I had both sets of grandparents; my father’s parents whom I called Atok & Nenek, and my mother’s parents, Tok Bak & Tok Chu.

My maternal grandparents, whom I lovingly

called Tok Chu & Tok Bak. 

(Tok is short for Atok, which is Malay for grandparent.)

They lived in Muar, Johor, just a short 2-hours'

drive across the causeway from Singapore. 

Growing up, I had spent most of my school & festive holidays

in their traditional Malay timber house with zinc roof.

Tok Bak passed away in October 1997 and Tok Chu in March 2003.

My paternal grandmother, Nenek.

This picture was taken the day she first held

her 1st great-grandson lil Tommy V (my son!!) on July 2010.

She was always concerned for my health and well-being

throughout my pregnancy; she had shared tips

and old wives' tales on what-to-do-and-don't's

that all that info made my head spin! Hehehehe

Sadly, all four of my grandparents have passed on; Nenek was the last one to leave us. She passed away in January 2013, and that was one of my saddest days ever.

I miss my grandparents very much; there were just a lot of things that we had shared together as granddaughter and grandparent. I must say I was very lucky to be able to share most of the important milestones in my life with my beloved grandparents. For that, I am eternally thankful to The Almighty.

Now I am sure you, my dear reader, will agree with me when I say that grandmothers are special (please don't get me wrong; grandfathers are equally special too! Its just that this particular post is specially for grandmothers :D:D:D). You cannot talk about grandmas without mentioning the cakes and treats that they baked, or the special meals that they prepare for the festive season.

And we all know about those special hugs and kisses grandmas have for their grandchildren, right?

I miss that about my grandmas: Tok Chu was the ardent hugger and kisser; Nenek was the shy one who enjoyed being hugged.

When it comes to food, o man … there were just so dishes that reminded me of my grandmothers. Both were wonderful cooks and I was never hungry whenever I left my grandparents’ home.

Now if there’s a dessert that reminded me of my beloved Nenek, that would be her Orange Chiffon Cake. I remember helping her out in the kitchen when she would bake these cakes during the festive season; I helped to lick the spatula clean!

And when the cakes are cooled and ready, I would deliver them to the lucky neighbor. 

So yesterday, I made my first proper chiffon cake in my new pre-loved cake tin (I bought it at a yard sale for only US$1.00!! What a buy, huh!). I loved the smell of the orange zest in the fluffy batter and though I know this wasn’t the same recipe Nenek had used, I’m sure she would have approved of it.

Shall we? The recipe came from http://www.joyofbaking.com/OrangeChiffonCake.html :D

In a big bowl, measure out these ingredients: 2 1/4 cups of sifted cake flour, 1 1/4 cups of super-blitzed white sugar, 1 tablespoon of baking powder, 1/2 a teaspoon of salt and 2 tablespoons of grated orange zest (there's just no substitute for freshly grated orange zest, y'all!). Stir to combine and set this aside.

I used Softasilk cake flour for this chiffon cake.

Fear not if you don't have cake flour in your pantry - 

you can easily make some like this:

Measure out 1 cup of all-purpose flour. Scoop out 2 tablespoons

and put it right back into the flour container. 

Measure out 2 tablespoons of corn starch 

and add that to the bowl. Sift this mixture 5 times. 

Use the sifted flour according to your recipe :D

This alternative worked just fine, I assure you.

In another bowl, carefully measure out 6 egg yolks (I used 2 bowls to carefully separate the whites from the yolks; don't forget to keep the egg whites for later, OK?), 1/2 a cup of vegetable oil, 3/4 cup of OJ (I didn't bother squeezing any so I used OJ straight from a carton) and 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence. Stir the mixture carefully.

Now back to the bowl with the flour mixture: make a well in the center and gently pour in the eggy-yolky mixture. Beat the yellow mixture nicely with a whisk until its smooth. Set the mixture aside.

The eggy-yolky mixture - can you see the orange zest

on the side of the bowl?

Remember those egg whites from before? There should be 6 whites in that bowl. Crack open another egg for its white (you can plonk the yolk into a small bowl for tomorrow's scrambled egg) - this recipe called for 7 egg whites. Using an electric hand-held whisk, I beat those whites till its bubbly. 

Egg whites being whisked to a frothy mix!

Then add 1/2 a teaspoon of cream of tartar; continue to beat those whites till soft peaks appear in your bowl. Slowly add 1/4 cup of super-blitzed sugar into the egg whites and beat the mixture till stiff peaks appear. 

Using a spatula, gently fold in, a third of the egg white mixture into the eggy-yolky batter. Don't over-mix it because the batter could easily lose its airiness from all that whisking. Once the whites have nicely blended in with the yolky batter, add more of the whipped egg white mixture. 

Fold in the beaten egg whites

gently into the eggy-yolky mixture.

Once your batter is nicely mixed together, pour the mixture into an ungreased 2-piece tube/angel food cake pan. Bake it in a pre-heated oven at 325degF for 55-60 minutes.

All ready for the oven!

The cake is ready when it springs right back if you press the cake lightly. Or you can poke a skewer into the middle of the cake and it comes out clean.

Almost there …

Turn the cake tin upside down once you have taken it out of the oven. Let the cake cool down this way for about an hour before removing it from the pan. When it's all cooled down, use a sharp knife to cut the cake away from the tin.

… the chiffon cake has to sit upside-down in its tin for

about an hour to cool down before it can be sliced!

Ta-daaa!! :D 

Please pay no attention to lil Aidan's fingers - he couldn't wait

for me to snap this pic because he just wanted

to eat his slice of orange chiffon cake!

But first, the 'smell' test: it smelt pretty good to Aidan hehehe

And then the 'touch' test: 

Ooo, very light to the touch and springy, Mommy!

Can you see some of the orange zest in the cake?

The 'taste' test: All gone, Mommy!! All good!! :D:D:D

The cake keeps well for about 2 days; not in my household though hehehe you can dress it up with a light dusting of icing sugar or a dollop of whipped cream. I love it best just plain and simple :D just the way I used to have it in my beloved Nenek's kitchen.

If only you knew how much I miss you dearly, Nenek. Till we meet again for that slice of orange chiffon cake, OK? :D