Just wanted to share a chawanmushi recipe that I found recently on teanobi.com. This recipe makes silken smooth egg custard tinged with sake & sweetness (from sugar). Before finding this recipe, I was always getting the proportion of ingredients wrong, resulting in custard that wouldn't set or custard that was too salty or too sweet. This recipe really is perfect, I find, and can be done in a big bowl or in small chawanmushi bowls, like the ones we bought over the weekend. Enjoy!
Chawanmushi from teanobi.com
2 eggs
1 cup chicken stock
1 tb sake
1/2 tb soya sauce
1/2 tb sugar
*Additional ingredients could include cut pieces of shitake mushrooms, chicken thigh meat, fish cake or crab stick.
1. Mix the ingredients together thoroughly and pour into container.
2. Boil water in the steamer till very very hot. Lower container ^ into the steamer and immediately turn fire down to low ^^. Close steamer and steam for 10-15 mins. Serve!
^ Do not cover the container. This will allow the custard to set and cook faster.
^^ Low fire is to ensure the custard sets smoothly.
The December issue of Young Parents magazine features two of my chicken recipes on page 104 - the honey mustard chicken which was photographed in my balcony and the easy claypot chicken rice.
It's really kinda cool seeing your recipes & food in print in a magazine. If you're in Singapore, go buy a copy of the Dec issue of Young Parents, jus as a favour to me yea? Thanks!
My Blogging by Mail 3 (BBM3) package has arrived, all the way from Texas! And believe it or not, it literally saved me from starvation!
Husband had gone out to meet a friend for lunch & do grocery shopping while I stayed home to snooze while the kid was snoozing too. I kind of lost track of time and woke up starving. I mean, S-T-A-R-V-I-N-G. As Husband was not due to come back till few hours later, I rummaged the fridge like a hungry lion - we only had 1 pear & some cranberry juice left. (Well, there was a rather dodgy-looking durian muffin from 2 weekends ago, but I wasn't about to touch that!) Was ruminating about making the ever-popular-lazy-choice of instant noodles when my doorbell rang, three times. Who could it be? A gruff-looking Indian fellow thrust a huuuge box into my face and said, "You have a package?" And yes! My BBM3 package had arrived - perfect timing! Thank you Michelle! You have saved my stomach!
Here's some pics of the BBM3 package:
Michelle sent me loads of Christmas candy, including candied walnuts which she baked herself! I quickly wolfed down some of the walnuts & the chocolates. Happy Belly! ^__^ She also included her mom's recipe for cornbread & a Blue Ribbon Brownie recipe which sounds so easy-peasy, I'll definitely try it soon!
I am really happy with the package I received. There's something warming about receiving a huge package stuffed with food, particularly if you're starving when you receive it! Thank you so much Michelle! Will let u know how the brownies turn out!
I've been cooking my own lunches for the past month and today felt like making something that, of all people, my confinement nanny used to cook for me - oyster sauce chicken wings. It turned out brilliant & is so easy to make I felt the need to share it. Do enjoy! Such simply & yummy recipes are my comfort food, from my kitchen to yours!
Oyster sauce chicken wings
Don't laugh - this recipe is really so easy & yummy!
5 - 8 chicken wings *, tips removed & separated at joints
2 garlic cloves ** , smashed
2 - 3 tb dark soya sauce ***
4 tb oyster sauce ***
3/4 cup water
4 - 5 cubes rock sugar
1. Marinade the chicken wings in dark soya sauce for 15 mins or more. Mix oyster sauce with water in separate bowl.
2. Heat little bit of oil in small pot under medium fire. When hot, add garlic until fragrant, then throw in wings with dark soya sauce ^ . Add the oyster sauce-water mixture, bring to boil, then lower the fire, cover lid and simmer for 20 min.
3. Add the rock sugar ^^ and stir. Allow sauce to thicken ^^^ and serve with rice & cut cucumbers. Scrummy!
* This recipe makes enough sauce for up to 8 wings or thereabouts. If you make less wings, it jus means you'll have more yummy sauce to pour over your rice!
** Feel free to add more garlic if you wish!
*** It is best to use the dark soya sauce & oyster sauce brands that I blogged about previously - see entry here.
^ When you do this, don't worry if the chicken sticks to the pan. It'll only be momentary, so long as your fire is medium, not too high. The idea is NOT to brown/char the skin as in other recipes. The browing is done by the dark soya sauce not by the oil, so keep your fire medium!
^^ Rock sugar sweetens the sauce without making it too sweet. Er... what I mean is if you use regular sugar, the sauce has a very overtly sweet taste, whereas rock sugar sweetens the sauce more subtly?!
^^^ What thickens the sauce is the rock sugar + allowing the water in the sauce to boil & evaporate. This shouldn't take too long - 2-3mins. Even though this is essentially a braising recipe, I find that it isn't wise to cook the wings for too long as the bones will begin to dry up a bit. Anything longer than 25 mins is too long for me!
so jus now, I'm happily surfing the web & dan is taking his long noon nap (12-2pm) when suddenly I hear this piercing howling scream coming from his room. I've sort of gotten used to all his different types of cries already and this scream was like nothing I had heard before - it was panic-laced and terror-inducing. So I rush in and he's howling - nothing's wrong, no vomit/spit-up, nothing. But there are tears in his eyes & he's not even looking at me - jus up at the ceiling and crying. Very odd. I turn on the light - but he's not really interested in waking up. You can tell cos he's trying to settle himself back to sleep (whilst crying!)... I turn off the light and within 30 seconds, he falls back to sleep.
So, do babies dream?
Check this out - it's pretty amazing stuff:
http://www.drgreene.com/21_619.html
He can hold stuff now!
Dear Daniel, happy birthday to you! I can't believe how quickly you have grown, more than doubling your birth weight in 3 months! When you first came out, you were silent, staring at everything, falling asleep all the time. But now, you are so awake and you recognise Mommy & Daddy. You do a little gigue in the morning when we come in to start your day. And you are so active, always kicking, waving, cooing and gurgling. What a strange & wonderful creature you are and what a difference you have made to our lives. As you grow fatter & longer, I pray that you would also grow in knowledge and wisdom of the Lord. I pray that you would have the fear of the Lord and sense His awesome and mighty presence in your life and all around you. I pray that you would be obedient, polite, patient and wise, more than intelligent. Amen! Happy 3rd month!
Yesterday, Husband took leave so we brought the little squidge out to East Coast Park. In the car, he met someone new - a furry, round Pooh bear - and they became fast friends.
We had Big Breakfast at Micky Dees while Daniel kicked about in his recently acquired Combi pram.
Then, we showed him the beach whilst a herd of schoolgirls picked trash from the floor. (He was rather interested in the schoolgirls, following them as they moved along! Cough. A bit the young eh?)
All in all a pleasant morning. We made a quick exit from the Park so that mommy wouldn't have to breastfeed in public. Ha.
Daniel is almost 3 months old and it is time to do what I call a Motherhood Evaluation (ME). Like with any major project at work or any major event in life, there is a need to pause and reflect, sometimes regularly, on what has happened. So here we go: my ME meme haha:
ME asks: How has life changed since aforementioned child was born?
Shortly before giving birth, a friend quipped, "You won't have
much time to cook after Daniel comes out!" Heaven forbid, I thought quietly.
But she was right. Since Daniel's birth, I have had little time to do anything,
cooking included, other than taking care of the little squidge.
Taking care of an infant is very similar to taking care of an invalid. You
have to feed him, clean his poop, bathe him and entertain him. And it doesn't
help that I'm anal retentive - yes. Bashfully, I admit that I have designed
a colour-coded excel spreadsheet to record Daniel's feeding, sleeping &
pooping patterns and to conduct "regression" and "trend analysis"
^__^. It's helpful, but filling it in takes up a lot of time!
Anyways, becoming a mother is not just about endless chores and elaborate
spreadsheets. It changes the whole person, e.g., for some strange inherent
biometrically programmed reason, my voice automatically goes 3 octaves higher
whenever I talk to the little squidge. And I've gotten so used to talking
like that, sometimes I talk to my husband like that too! When we're out and
about, I find myself talking like that while he's happily snoozing in the
pram. If you ever see a young mom pushing a blue Combi pram talking to herself
in a very high pitched voice, chances are it's me. ^__^
The feeling doesn't come all at once, but before you know it, you are overwhelmed by an immense sense of responsibility - you feel as if you are the only person that can protect your son from the world's travails and tyrannies, mosquitoes and monsters. It's a sense of responsibility that you accept with gladness as well as fear. Sometimes, that heavy sense of responsibility can bring you to tears or even, to the brink of sanity.
ME asks: High points. Low points. Name a few just for the record.
The high points have been all about Daniel smiling, cooing, kicking about and doing a little gigue with his hands & legs. His first word was "algae". OK OK , it was more like "Ah-l-ge" but we still think he's going to be a marine biologist when he grows up. (One of our friends said he might grow up to be a fish tank cleaner! Che...) A simple smile and kickabout may seem like much ado about nothing to get excited over. But trust me, after the hassle and stress of cleaning poop (try removing a mega-stained onesie without getting poop all over your baby's head!) & the titanic struggle of breastfeeding from highly engorged breasts, a warm, quiet & spontaneous smile is a real reward - simple and sweet.
The low points... there have been so many. I think I'm most frustrated when
I can't seem to understand why he's crying. Although it happens much less
often these days, when it does happen, I feel very stressed, like I'm not
good enough as a mother and don't know my own baby. Such feelings, of course,
only compound the problem, as they prevent me from thinking calmly and rationally.
It really does help at those moments to remember that crying has never killed
a baby and that this child is still going to continue growing no matter how
much he cries. I try to picture him taking his PSLE, taking driving lessons,
entering college, getting married and having little squidges of his own. Then
I zoom back to the squealing squidge lying in protest in front of me and with
a renewed sense of promise and calm, I proceed to tackle the situation with
both head and heart in place. That usually helps a lot (but not always!)
ME asks: What surprised or amazed you the most about having aforementioned
child?
I was really surprised that at 2 months old, Daniel started developing
a personality! Although he's perfectly fine playing quietly by himself, he
does tend to get bored after a while. Then, the yelping starts. This kid has
preferences - gasp! - e.g., he likes to play in his playgym at certain times
of the day. At other times, you put him in the playgym and he screams blue
murder. Instead, he wants to be propped up on his infant seat so that he can
look around (with regal expression on his face) at his "property".
Wah lau eh... macham Emperor like that.
I never expected a kid so young to have character. But he does! You can already
tell that he's going to be quite the dramatic person. He's always flailing
his hands & legs about like an air traffic controller or like Bruce Lee
on drugs. And he's taken to giving us a dismissive snort when we "goo
goo gaa gaa" at him for too long, as if to say, "Enough with this
baby talk! Gimme a real conversation!"
ME asks: Rate yourself as a mother. Be honest!
I'd give myself a 3 out of 5. I know many other mothers who are twice as patient as me and twice as selfless. I've had it easy - with a kid sleeping through the night at 7 weeks - but still, I feel trapped & frustrated sometimes. So, yea...
ME asks: Rate your husband as a father. Be honest!
I'd give him a 4 out of 5. He's definitely one of the more engaged fathers I've seen. All the way from the days of pregnancy to now, he's been my cheerleader, counsellor and fellow comrade in diaper changes & bathing.
ME asks: If you could do it again, what would you change?
Despite all the stress & low points, I would want to have kids
EARLIER.
ME says: Send this ME to 5 other mothers
4. Mrs T
5. Bits & Bites
6. Baby steps
Isn't this cute? Took pic from Shiny Shiny, a Girl's Guide to Gadgets, a blog I've been following for a while. They should have toasters where you can personalise the message you want on your toast everyday. ^__^
End of a long day. String of visitors. Somehow, by accident, my brother, sis-in-law, nephew, mother & father ended up having lunch at our place. Then, our lovely friends came over to cook for us & feast with us. There were also two rabbit visitors! ^__^ Little Bimlet, whoops I mean Daniel, sat through all the festivity calmly and happily. He took his naps as per normal despite all the noise & eventually knocked off for the day at 7.20pm, as per normal! I really do praise God that He has enabled our kid to be manageable, smiley and healthy. The real joy for me was seeing people play with him and seeing him be a part of the party. Cheemo found a new way of making milk drip out of the kid's mouth - by tickling his feet! What can I say? We're tired, happy, and humbled by God's blessings. ^__^ And now... for pictures of the yummy food (isn't it great to have friends who can all cook?), rabbits (who were not food, but pets!) and Daniel!
Aly made an amazing chicken pistachio dip which went perfectly with thai rice crackers. She eventually gave up assembling them cos they disappeared 10 secs after she put them on the plate!
Lovely cookies bought by J
Looking deceptively like sushi, Melp's grilled mushrooms had sundried tomato blobs on them! Yums!
Hubby's crabcakes were well-appreciated by all & JMN's chilli con carne piping in the background
Y asked for aubergine & Cheemo gladly agreed. The result was delicious!
More of Cheemo's handicraft. ^__^ Fake jalapenos stuffed with cheeses.
Bread provided by Aierlan - together with homemade dip! ^__^
p.s. Didn't get shots of Y's fruity dessert as too tired by then! Here's a small pic of my Jam & Cream Sponge - which was... edible! :)
And finally, rabbits & Daniel:
Yawn. Good night!
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* Einstein Never Used Flash Cards - How Our
Children Really Learn and Why They Need to Play More and Memorize less
* The Bible
* Love & Respect by Dr Emerson Eggerichs
* What to Expect When You're Expecting
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