Hokkaido Soup Curry (video)

*All pictures and video taken with my Iphone 7 because my camera was in repair*

Last year, I went to Hokkaido for a road trip. I had a wonderful time driving 1200km around the island together with my husband. We ate a lot of local delicacies and one of it is Soup Curry.

Frankly, when I read about this dish, I was skeptical about it. I thought it's a sweet spiced broth with no punch. I was wrong, so wrong!!

We went to Samurai Soup Curry, it was one of the nearer ones to our hotel in Sapporo. Out of 10 levels of heat, I ordered heat level 7 and my husband ordered one at level 4. I thought... oh what... it's just Japanese standards, how hot can it be for a Malaysian?

Turmeric Stir fried Chicken ~ Ayam Goreng Kunyit @ My Fav Ala-Thai #3

My final fav ala-Thai

When I was pregs with #2, I craved for white rice. Sometimes, I will eat rice at 7pm, and ask rice again at 10pm. And the rice's taste cannot be overpowered by the dishes. I wanted to taste rice, but yet, won't want plain white rice with nothing.

This dish was the one that I ate with my rice cravings. Not that I didn't like this pre pregnancy, I have loved it all the while, just that, I loved it even more during pregnancy.

Oyster Sauce Chicken Wings 蚝油鸡翼

A lot of people asked me, how did I know so many things about cooking at a young age (back then in my early teens). It was through reading the only cookbook that my mom has, the Wei Chuan cookbook. This book provided basic Chinese cuisine knowledge explaining all the cooking terms and the name of the ingredients in English. I can't read much Chinese so, this book was good for me.

As a kid, I loved flipping through the pages and during that time, my favourite part of the chicken is the wing, the middle wing to be exact. Because it has lots of skin and the texture is soft and nice. The picture of this dish is one of my favorites from the book. Glimmering wings.... beautiful. Took me almost 28 years to finally cook it.

Braised Chicken with Pork Belly - Jolly Belly #1

This is a dish from Terengganu MFF.
Introduced to us by Phong Hong and further elaborated by Daphne Chua, both whose ancestors stayed in Kampung Tiong Kuala Terengganu.

I was very curious about the taste of having chicken and pork belly together in one dish and the use of soooo much shallots. Few other bloggers tried out the recipe and everybody raved about it. So, I didn't want to lose out, hehehe, and so I tried it too!

Fricassée de Poulet~ Chicken Fricassee - Chicken #3

My first time cooking French…. Or was my Ratatouille my first? Well, ok, my first French main course. I never knew of this dish until I went googling for chicken with tarragon, and voila, out came this recipe and I am soooooooo caught by it. And it was just nice that I also have some mushrooms, although not the exact type, but oh well, it might work well.

Braised Balsamic Chicken with Mash - Chicken #2

I lurrrrrrve this chicken. It’s very easy to make and it’s very delicious. In my personal opinion, very very delicious.

Like what NEL said, if you have that bottle of Balsamic vinegar and don’t know what to do with it, try this. I served this with mash and it was perfect! I only needed to add some green pea shoots by the side and it’s a complete meal.

Old Hen Rendang with Puding Leaf ~Rendang Ayam Pencen Daun Puding - MFF N9 #4

I just made this few days back because after I discovered this leaf was available at my neighbour's I wasn't free to try it out, because I had to get an old hen. The local lingo calls it "Pensioned Chicken" because it has retired from its egg laying job.

I think most of you may not be familiar with the puding leaf. Generally, in Malaysia the puding plant is  the garden croton. When I first posted that I found the puding leaf on Facebook, I was asked questions whether I was refering to the garden croton. But in Negeri Sembilan, puding plant is not, it is a magenta leafed plant that is from the same family as edible Amaranth (Yeen choy, Bayam). Some do plant it for ornamental purposes because of the colour contrast it gives to the landscape. This puding plant is used to cook rendang, some dish that  you can only find in this state

Ayam Masak Lemak Cili Api ~ Chicken in Bird's Eye Chilli and Coconut Gravy - MFF N9#1

Negeri Sembilan is a very special state with a strong Minangkabau culture. It's nice to be born as a girl in a Minang family. They practise girl-power, LOL.... and you get to inherit, instead of the guys.

Besides being known for it's horned roof houses, it is famous for it's fiery dishes. It should be so fiery that you can feel your ears hissing, LOL. But then again, you can always tune it down. But that's how fiery it should be.

Malay Red Cooked Chicken~ Ayam Masak Merah- Ayam #2

Recipe recreated on 17 May 2012

When I was a kid, there was a nasi lemak stand operating across the road from our family's coffee stall. That was my first encounter with Ayam Masak Merah. The abang only sold each piece of chicken for 80 cents(25 years ago). I wonder how he makes money out of it, whereas regular fried chicken were at least RM1 per piece that time.

Chicken Rendang - Ayam #1

Yummy! Raise your hands for those don’t like this. Not me.

Rendang is a Malay dish and can be done using beef or chicken. Beef rendang taste best with a sweet end. But not the chicken version. I did not add in any sugar, but the taste is pretty balanced. Although the ingredients are almost the same, the outcome is different.

Soy Sauce Soaked Chicken 白油鸡 - Chicken Trio # 2

Dish prepared in July 2011

I'm calling this chicken dish this way to distinguish the usual soy sauce braised chicken that is oh-so common.

As some of you may know, I come from Perak and in Perak, a lot of Cantonese terms are different from other parts of Malaysia. We call light soy sauce as 白油(bak yau) and dark soy sauce as 黑油(hak yau). I know it sounds funny to you, but it's the way it's called here. I am proud to be a Perakian and I never change the way I call it , even when I was staying in Klang Valley for 10 years. The soy sauce terms are just 2 of the many that is different. I haven't even touch on 角龟(kok gwai, kuih)，青瓜(cheang gua, cucumber)，荷兰水(hor larn sui, carbonated drinks)，荷兰属(hor lan shu, potatoes)，Kopi 雪(shuit and not ping, iced coffee), 5 Gor Lui (5 sen), Yat Chien (10 sen), so on and so forth. Haven't heard of those, nevermind. The last 2 were monetary terms that I have no idea how to type in Chinese to make it sound like it is when spoken in Cantonese. But those of you who have heard of these, I'm sure it tickles you pink. Same goes to how it tickles us pink when we hear Klang Valley folks talk.

Sesame Oil Beancurd Stick Chicken - Confinement Month # 7

When I saw this recipe on Little Inbox's, I knew, I'll cook this for my confinement.

I don't like to eat the same thing over and over again, so I am eager to try out anything suitable during this "restricting" month to broaden my menu. And it's a family friendly recipe. I dine with my family every night, therefore I do not consume real confinement dishes at night. Real confinement dishes are like rice wine chicken or ginger fried rice. Super heaty food! I do hear of people eating ginger fried rice every morning and rice wine chicken for every meal. KILL ME to eat like that. I never will.

Fennel and Onion Chicken - Confinement Month # 6

Looks like a Chinese stir fry? Haha, no this is a recipe from a Westerner.

I've bookmarked this recipe way before I knew I was going to have a baby. It was at the same time when I did the double fennel roasted chicken. Back then I was searching for ways and methods to use up the first fennel I bought and this recipe was KIVed. And now, it's into good use.

Fennel is a galactagogue and onions are good for expelling wind, as it causes you to release gas. Fresh fennel when cooked until tender is far more delicious then when roasted. I'll definately cook this again even if I'm not in confinement.

Szechuan Peppercorn Chicken

This is one post that I'm very frustrated with. Not with the recipe, but with the pics. With the lot that I took, 90% were blur and out of focus. Sometimes, thare are so many pretty pics that I don't know which to select and sometimes I just have to make do with the best among the uglies, and this is one of them. The small LCD display on the camera never tell the whole story, but when the food is eaten and the pics are loaded into the computer screen to see, You will feel like screaming.......

Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Like that.

Again for a DSLR point and shoot user, every picture is a gamble. I do not know what is what on the camera, I just focus and press to shoot. The outcome varies all the time. Don't think that my pics look that good right after shooting. I can't live without make up, so can't my pictures live without editing. It's the part that makes everything look prettier. And people who look at the final product happier. You won't want to see me being unhappy with ugly pics. Hahaha! I'll throw the camera and stomp on it til it turns to ashes. Well, that's exagerated. If I can stomp a camera to ashes, I am a superheated monster of which I am totally not. I'm a demure mother and wife *sniggering*

*Cools down*

Okok, now I still have a lot of Szechuan Peppercorn left and whenever I come into contact with recipes that utilizes them, I get all excited. Somehow we didn't get the numbing effect after consuming this, or maybe we didn't bite into the peppercorns. We spit it out whenever one gets into our mouth. But it sure does taste good.

Szechuan Peppercorn Chicken
Recipe adapted from : My Kitchen Snippets

Chicken
5 boneless whole chicken legs
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp Chinese cooking wine (Shao Xing)
2 Tbsp light soy sauce
Good dash of white pepper powder

Aromatics
15 pcs dried chillies, cut into 3 pieces and seeds removed
10 slices of ginger (from knob of ginger larger than a big toe)
2 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
2 tsp szechuan peppercorn
2 fresh chillies, sliced thickly
2 sprigs of spring onion, cut into 2 inch lengths

Gravy mixture
1 Tbsp dark soy sauce (Lee Kum Kee)
1.5 tsp sugar or more
¾ tsp cornstarch
½ cup water
Few drops of sesame oil

1. Cut boneless chicken meat into preferred sizes. Marinate with salt, cooking wine, light soy sauce and pepper for at least 1 hour
2. Combine gravy mixture and set aside
3. In a hot wok, put in ½ cup of cooking oil. Let oil heat up, make sure your spatula is heated and coated with oil too.
4. Put in chicken and spread it around. Do not toss it.
5. Let it cook for a while then only flip the chicken. Cook until there are no more juices and chicken seems to be releasing oil. Drain and dish up.
6. Discard some of the oil if it’s too much. On high heat, sauté smashed garlic and ginger. When it’s fragrant, put in Szechuan peppercorn, dried chilli and half the fresh chilli. Cook until it is very fragrant.
7. Put cooked chicken back into wok and toss. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes and put in gravy mixture.
8. Cook until gravy is reduced to preferred consistency. Taste and give it a quick adjustment.
9. Dish up and serve.

Tomato Curry Chicken

A dish that my mom told me verbally how to cook.

When I was in my teens, someone told my mom about a curry that is without coconut milk but uses tomatoes. She told me to come up with what she told me. Being the obedient child that I am (hahaha!!), I gladly obliged. And the outcome was a wonderful dish to go with rice.


Tomato Curry Chicken
Recipe Source : Verbal instructions from Wendyywy's mom

1.5kg chicken (1 bird)
250gm tomato (2 large ones)
1 tsp salt
250gm carrots
150gm onions
3 cloves garlic
2 red chillies
2 Tbsp meat curry powder
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Salt to taste
1 tsp cornstarch mix with ¼ cup water

1. Chop chicken into small pieces and marinate with 1 tsp salt for 30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, peel and cut carrots into longish chunks, quarter tomatoes, cut onions into wedges and loosen the onions, slice chillies thickly, and peel and smash the garlic.
3. Heat wok until very hot, put in onions. Toss until the onions are fragrant, then put in 1 tsp oil and toss until it looks browned and very slightly charred. Dish up and set aside
4. Put in 1 Tbsp oil and put in carrots and let them brown for a while then the tomatoes. When everything is slightly browned and fragrant, toss up and set aside.
5. In the same wok, put in 2 Tbsp cooking oil and put in smashed garlic and chilli. Fry until garlic is fragrant, then put in chicken and cook until it starts to brown and get dry. Put in curry powder and fry until fragrant and you can start to see more oil seeping out from the skin.
6. Put in the Worcestershire sauce, carrots and tomatoes, put in enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, cover and let it simmer for 15 minutes or until chicken is more tender.
7. Remove lid and put in onions. Reduce gravy to preferred amount.
8. Taste and season with salt if not salty enough. Sugar will not be necessary.
9. Thicken gravy with cornstarch mixture to preferred consistency. Bring back to a boil and dish up.

Three Cups Chicken

Hi there!!! Still in holiday mood? Or glad the kids are back to school?
I'm back from my Christmas blogging break and I'm still on leave
Yes, will be back to work in March 2012. Still a long way to go, but time flies.

I’ve done 3 cups tofu and now, 3 cups chicken. And I’ve got to say, with chilli is definitely nicer.
My father in law ate a lot of rice the night I served this and it made all of us smile, because he hasn’t been having good appetite for quite some time.

Three Cups Chicken
Source: Wendyywy, based on my experience with 3 cups tofu
recipe for 4-6 pax

500gm boneless chicken whole legs, cut into 6-8 pieces each (3 medium sized)
1/3 tsp salt
60gm ginger (2 big toe sized knobs), sliced 1 cm thick and smashed
60gm onion (1 medium sized onion), cut into 8 wedges and loosened.
20gm garlic (4 large cloves), skin on, lightly smashed
1 red chilli, deseeded and cut into 1 inch pieces
50ml sesame oil (or use 3.5Tbsp )
50ml light soy sauce
50ml Shao Xing wine or rice wine
1 handful of Thai basil, leaves only
1 sprig spring onion, cut into 2 inch lengths

1. Marinate chicken with salt for 15 minutes.
2. Heat wok until very hot. Put in loosened onion wedges and toss them around with spatula. Put in ½ tsp oil (yes very little) and toss toss toss until the edges are browned. This step only takes a while if your wok is very very hot. Dish up and set aside.
3. Let the wok remain very hot, put in sesame oil and when the oil gets hot, put in ginger and fry for 10 seconds, then the smashed garlic. Cook until the ginger looks slightly golden and the garlic look golden too. Put in chilli and toss for a while.
4. Put in chicken pieces and cook until meat turns opaque and juices almost turning dry.
5. Put in cooking wine and light soy sauce and cook until gravy is dry (you’ll see oil rather than gravy). Return browned onions to the wok and toss.
6. Put in spring onion. Toss.
7. Put in basil, turn off the heat and toss.
8. Dish up and serve.

This dish is quick to cook and it should not take you more than 10 mins cooking time.

Chicken with Leeks

This post is older than a year :)

 

Leek is my dad’s favourite veg. I hated it when I was small. My late dad likes to put those Chinese New Year leeks into almost everything he eats, from noodles to his bowl of rice. I only found the wonderful flavour of leek when I did my mushroom soup, which was just months ago.

I used China leeks, as it is said to be more aromatic, but my mom also said the best leeks are around Chinese New Year , which is right after winter. The melted leeks in this dish is oh so yummy. That’s what makes this dish so nice. I added in the green part of the leeks at the end to add some colour to the dish.

500gm chicken whole legs, cut up and marinated with ¾ tsp salt for half an hour

150gm leeks (abt 3 stalks, white and green parts separated, sliced)

50gm ginger (peeled and smashed)

1 ½ cups water

½ tsp cornstarch +1/4 cup water

Cooking oil

Heat wok and put 1 Tbsp cooking oil. Saute ginger and leek (white parts) until fragrant and slightly golden. Dish up.

Put in another 2 tbsp oil and wait until wok is very hot, put in marinated chicken and fry until meat is slightly browned. Put in cooked leeks and ginger and continue to stir fry for another 2 minutes. Put in water, enough to cover over chicken. Put on wok lid and let it simmer on medium heat for 20-30minutes, until meat is tender and leeks have melted away. Remove lid and let gravy reduce. Put in green parts of leek and cornstarch solution. Taste, if not salty enough, add salt and dish up.

Green Curry Chicken, again

I didn’t plan to do this, but then I saw Thai basil in Jusco!!!! OMG, I just got to make something with that, and on yeah, green curry. It’s been dog years since I’ve done that. And this time, I’m gonna use cumin with it as well, it’s supposed to have cumin, just that I didn’t have that last time, so now, I’m gonna use that too.

(A)
750gm chicken pieces, chopped into smaller pieces and marinate with 1 tsp salt for 30 minutes
1 russet potato or any other floury potatoes, peeled and cubed

(B)
8 green chillies (seeds partially removed, I keep some for the heat)

2 lemon grass (4 inches from the base)
3-4 shallots
2 cloves garlic
Thumb sized ginger
Pinkie sized belacan/shrimp paste
1 Tbsp oil


(C )
1 tbsp coriander seeds
½ Tbsp cumin seeds
1 tsp black pepper

(D)
200ml thick coconut milk
Salt to taste
Oil for cooking
Handful of Thai basil

1. Blend (B) plus 3 Tbsp coconut cream (skim the top of the 200ml coconut milk) until it becomes a smooth paste
2. Mill (C ) until fine
3. Heat wok and put in 1 tbsp oil and fry (c ) until fragrant, put in (B) and cook until it is very fragrant.
4. Put in chicken and potatoes. Cook for 2 minutes
5. Put in water to cover chicken and cook until potato turns tender.
6. Reduce gravy to desired amount and put in coconut milk. Season with salt.
7. When curry has come to a boil, put in basil leaves and give it a toss and dish up. Serve hot with rice.

Note: If you do not own a food processor like me, but own a blender than comes with a mill, you can do this. To make a smoother paste, divide ingredients B into 3 parts, except the oil. Mill each part until they all get mushed up. Put all mushed up (B) into the blender, then 1 Tbsp oil and 3 tbsp coconut cream, then puree until fine. This way, your green curry paste will be very fine.

Liquidizers or Blenders are not the same stuff back in 20 years ago. I remember the first blender at home was so sharp, that we can just blitz anything, and they will turn superfine in just seconds. Even pandan leaves, and the mill that came with it could make a fine sambal paste or fine garlic paste for my garlic bread. Nowadays, it’s no longer the same story. My so called “Microcutter blender” doesn’t even blend as fine as my regular National blender. Pandan leaves are a chore to it, and I had to snip them real fine to relieve the motor of hard work. And I never get the same smooth fine chili paste that I could get with my old mill. Don’t even talk about milling 2 cloves of garlic that my old one could do a fine job with. They may have come from the same brand (old was National, new was Panasonic, they were practically the same company renamed). Where is the old quality??? Gone with the name, I guess.

Easy Creamy Curry Chicken

Before that, a simple announcement:
Happy Eid Mubarak to all my Muslim friends and I'll be away for the weekend, so no postings and I can't reply any urgent questions regarding my posts, if you're planning to try them during this holiday. Will be back in action on Monday



Here in Malaysia, within the Chinese community, there is a tradition of having a supper buffet the night before the wedding, be it the groom's side or the bride's side. Something like a bridal shower that involves a heck lot of people. People will be busy looking at pre wedding shots, looking at the wedding room(groom's house), looking at the gown (bride's house), chat chat chat, drink drink drink... all night long. It's real entertaining!!!

Unlike the wedding reception where only those invited are supposed to attend, like if the card names Mr X only , you're not supposed to bring your kids, and your aunts along. But you may do so for the supper buffet. Why? Because in Malaysia, there is a culture of giving monetary gifts for the wedding reception, and it depends on how many are attending. And the seats are limited. Some of our friends from the other ethnic groups jest by saying the Chinese buy tickets to attend wedding dinners. But for the supper buffet, No gifts are accepted so, no worries, just come.. anyone, any amount.

I was the cook for my brother's supper buffet. I did it all under RM500/300 pax. That was his budget that included paper cups and plates, and disposable cutlery.

The menu was :

Pasta
4 types:
spaghetti
farfelle
spirals
liguine

with 3 types of sauces
pork bolognese,
meat and mushroom gravy
curry chicken

Dessert
Red bean and black glutinous rice sweet soup,
Bubur Chacha,

Drinks
Orange Cordial, Chinese tea.


Mom's friend made some taro mantous for the night as well.
I just wanted to do something out of the norm that usually consist of fried noodles, curry chicken, fried chicken or fishballs, and sweet soups, and maybe some other kuih and snacks, and I spent only RM300/++

The guests came unexpected of the menu. They told my mom that they shouldn't have taken dinner beforehand (Because usually it's the expected stuff, it's a bit boring, you know, so better eat dinner before you come) . Everybody was eating their heart out, especially the curry chicken.

When it came to my pre- wedding supper buffet........ I became my own cook.

The menu was:
Pandan Coconut Rice (green nasi lemak, using basmathi rice)
Japanese Shortgrain Coconut Rice (yeah, this one sticks while the basmathi is fluffy, choose one :P)
Chili Squid Sambal, hard boiled eggs
Acar Rampai (Malay style pickled veggies)
Curry Chicken (This one cannot be missed out from the menu, as I got so many rave reviews during my brother's wedding)
Fried Hutou Vermicelli
Fragrant Glutinous Rice (with mushrooms, chinese sausages and dried shrimp)
Marbled Pudding
Water Chestnut Dessert (changed to Soy Barley in the end, because the chestnuts smell bad)
Taro Sago Dessert
Orange Cordial and Chinese Tea

You may say I'm crazy, to do my own pre-wedding supper buffet. I even got so many discouragements to do it. Argued with my mom on that day, and I shed a lot of tears because "somebody" kept saying I was looking for trouble instead of lending a hand, on that supper day itself, you know.. and I was so busy in the kitchen and that somebody was just mumbling away.
Well, I can't stand the regular menus that caterers can provide me. I'm sick of them. How can I serve them to the guests??? Call me picky, yes I am.

At the end of the day... I'm just glad that everybody loved the food, and I didn't have much leftovers.
You know how my guests eat the curry chicken this time???? I made a larger pot of it, and luckily we didn't bring all the curry out at once, they ate the curry by the platefuls. My mom looked in shock, it's like as if they were slurping curry. But it was humourous.

I was so tired out when everything was cleared up that I fainted in bed. Good thing, so that I don't need to anticipate the arrival of "day" looking at the ceiling. :)

Even after the wedding, at some other house parties, some do come up to me and said, hey, this curry is not as good as yours. Your curry chicken is my favourite.

Actually this curry is not difficult to make at all. It was a recreation of what I've tasted my my friend Yen Cher's house. My friends and I went to Kuantan for a short holiday and stayed at her house. Her mom cooked us a simple creamy curry chicken. I slowly savoured the curry, trying to think, how did she make it so nice.

Now, you don't need to slowly savour mine and dicipher the recipe, I'll give it to you, read on.

600gm (+/-50) chicken (I used 2 whole legs about this weight)
1 tsp salt
60gm shallots (about 4 rather large ones)
10gm garlic (2 large cloves)
1/4 cup oil, or sufficient oil to fry the aromatics, make sure it's not too dry, or else it won't be nice.
2 lemon grass (4 inch from base, lightly smashed) and some curry leaves (both are optional)
50gm chicken curry powder (1 small pack)
200ml Thick Coconut milk or milk extracted from 1 fruit
Water
400gm Russet Potatoes, about 2 medium sized ones. Or any other floury potatoes.
Extra salt for seasoning

1. Chop the chicken into smaller pieces. Marinate with 1 tsp salt. Leave for 30 minutes.
2. Finely chop shallots and garlic, or you may use a food processor, but I don’t find that necessary.
3. Heat wok with oil. Put in chopped garlic and shallots, fry until slightly golden and fragrant.
4. Put in curry powder and fry for a few seconds until fragrant. Add in lemon grass and curry leaves now ( if using) and toss for a while.
5. Put in chicken and cook until the skin looks cooked. Put in2 or 3 tablespoons of the coconut cream (upper layer of the coconut milk) and cook until the milky colour disappears (the milk has turned to oil) Put in water to cover the chicken.
6. While the water is coming to a boil, peel and cut potatoes into chunks. Put them into the wok to cook with the chicken. Cover the wok. (Remember to stir them once a while as the spices tend to settle at the bottom and can get burnt)
7. Cook the curry until the potatoes soften and then reduce the gravy to desired amount.
8. Lastly pour in the remaining coconut milk. Bring to a boil and taste season with salt.
9. Remove from heat and dish up.

*Do not season anything with potatoes way too early. If not you will end up with a bland curry and extra salty potatoes.

This Curry Chicken is not spicy at all.  If you want to add some  heat to it, just add chilli powder or some ground  dried chillies into step (3)

This is a creamy curry chicken, with the creaminess derived from the melted russet potatoes and the coconut milk that is added at the end. It taste almost like Yeo's canned curry chicken, but Yeo's has candlenuts added in and mine doesn't.

Ginger Braised Chicken, My mom's style

First of all, Happy Mothers' Day to all mothers.

My mom… how to tell u about my mom. Widowed when I was just 11. She raised us, 3 siblings and 1 cousin, fed us well, gave us all we ever needed. No luxuries, but never deprived of anything. We have our computers, our Nikes(no DKNY or GA), piano lessons(but no piano, I practiced at my teacher’s), Honda C70s(3 of us got 3 bikes, no cars), local tertiary education, first car downpayment… all with her working from 6am to 6pm in a coffee stall passed down since my granddad. My great grandfather had another shop somewhere else, but it’s my granddad that operated this one.

My mom is the type where she’ll play with us, roll on the bed with us when we were young. Not all fun at all times, she never spares the cane if we got tooooo funny in the house. But I could count how many times I was severely canned, just 2. And each time, the moment she put down her cane, she’ll quickly grab ointment to put on our skin. Skin deep… truly skin deep. Even at age 63 now, we still can grab her neck by our elbow and play with her. A very fun mother, but dun try to be too funny, ya know what I mean.

She retired and sold off the business since Hannah came by. Took care of her and Joanna and made that her new job. One that she never regretted, although she does receive jests from others that she forsake money to be imprisoned with kids. To her, nothing is more important that to have your granddaughters hug you and kiss you everyday, and miss u like mad when you’re not around.My mom always say,” If you don’t take care of them, they won’t have that special bond with you, something that money cannot buy.”

My mom is a lazy cook. Haha!!! Ask her to cook sweet and sour pork, and she’ll give u a stern no. Cos it makes her fry the meat and cook the sauce later, something that she hates to do. Since her retirement, she watched a lot more TV than she used to, and definitely more cooking shows. She’s improved a lot and got more adventurous with ingredients. Her stews and braises have always been good, and these few years, her soup is getting better and better. Can u imagine that I taught her how to cook when I was 6 or 7??? If u read my “about me” you’ll know that I watch grandaunt cook a lot, and mom never cooked at home that time. For a few weeks, grandaunt wasn’t home, and mom had to cook. She had to ask me, what did grandaunt use for this dish and that…. So I became her “sifu”. I was so bad, telling her ketchup here and ketchup there, because I loved ketchup (hey I was 7!!!). and if she really did cook sweet and sour fish, I’ll be there instructing her to put in more and more ketchup. If you can imagine how bad her cooking was, I tell you, even her blanched veggie tasted yucks( no ketchup ok)!! What if your kids were so frank telling u that your cooking sucks??? Will that stop u from cooking?? My mom didn’t, and she cooked even more(on Sundays). By the time I was 9, she could cook the most wonderful dinners ever (every mother cooks the best!!!!). No more complaints.

This ginger braised chicken is one of my mother’s forte. No ketchup here. No one does it as good as she does, and that includes me, her earlier “sifu”. Never ask her for recipes, she never cook with one and when she does, it always sucks. Freehand is always better with her. But I’ve jotted down what I’ve done today(after referring to my mother to confirm ingredients used) for ur reference.

My mom's Ginger Braised Chicken
1.2kg chicken whole legs (3 pcs)
80gm ginger, julienned (about ¾ cup)
2 Tbsp oil
½ tbsp salt
2 Tbsp oyster sauce
3 Tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
¾ tsp sugar or slightly more if ginger is pretty hot
3 cups water

1. Chop chicken legs into pieces, I chopped them into 8 pieces each.
2. Heat wok until very hot. Put in oil and fry ginger until fragrant.
3. Make sure the wok is well smeared with the ginger oil. Put in chicken and spread it around. Do not toss them immediately. Let it sit in the wok for 30 seconds, then only u start to use ur spatula to flip the chicken pieces. Stir fry chicken in wok until the chicken looks opaque and skin starts to brown slightly.
4. Put in all the seasonings. And continue to stir fry until the seasonings dry up a bit, but be careful not to burn.
5. Put in water and simmer on medium low heat until chicken is tender.

My mother’s advice: Best if cooked in a claypot.
And weeks later, after I did this, she did this, and luckily I was there to capture the process. This is my mummy dearest doing her best dish, not me.

And lastly a picture of my mom with Lyanne.... see their resemblence?? Lyanne is very attached to her, even though they meet nnly once a month. Lyanne even sleeps with my mom :)

And here's another one with all her grandkids

These pics were taken 8 months back, so everybody has grown..