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Hairy Crab Escapade Part 2

November 10, 2012 Zhiwei Comments 2 Comments

A continuation from my “Hairy Crab Escapade Part 1“!

Hur Hur! All 5 were intact when I got home!! I prodded them with a chopstick, they looked quite feeble. The ice cubes I added before i left the house didn’t seem to have helped. Maybe I should have put them in the refrigerator. Hope they didn’t suffer a heatstroke.

But I still didn’t want to take the risk of being a victim of their powerful looking pincers. I dredged them from the pail, put them in the rice cooker’s metal tin, covered it and thrust it into the freezer for 15 mins.

They were in comatose at the end of it. I took the opportunity to scrub them clean. I lined them nicely on a deep tray, covered them with some thinly sliced ginger. I poured rice wine, sesame oil and light soya sauce over them, topped up with some water.

Then I steamed them for 20 mins til they were bright red.

Yes!! After all the hard work, they were finally cooked! The hub wasn’t interested to dirty his hands from eating crabs. So I had all 5 to myself. I put 2 and the remaining sauce into a container and chilled them in the refrigerator for tomorrow’s consumption.

Ha! I’ve 3. Little did I know that, it’s harder work to eat them than all the preparation work!

I pried open their shells with anticipation of overflowing orange roe. I was sorely disappointed that it wasn’t as much as I thought. Sigh! Ok lar. Better than nothing. I started to wonder if the 30 bucks ones had more roe?? Maybe that’s why they cost $30 each??

I didn’t need to dip the meat into any sauce, as they had gained a flavor from the condiments I had steamed them with. The meat was sweet and succulent. The only grouse was there were more shell for me to deshell than meat that went into my mouth. Sigh. It sure was hard work digging out all the bits and pieces of meat.

I polished off all 3 in 30 mins.

Maybe I really should just try a $30 one at the restaurant, to see if there’s any difference from these… Hmmm…

Meanwhile I’ve 2 more waiting for me tomorrow! Yums!

I still prefer the huge Alaskan crabs I had in Hokkaido though. I look forward to going back there one day.

Hairy Crab Escapade Part 1 大闸蟹

November 10, 2012 Zhiwei Comments 0 Comment

I can’t remember when was the last time I ate the hairy crabs 大闸蟹. I vaguely remember eating them when I was very young, probably just a small spoonful of roe. The whole family had to share 2 teeny weeny crustaceans.

I’ve been seeing all these advertisements on the yummy crabs splashed all over the newspapers. They are in season now! Everyone’s talking about eating them, except me!! I feel so… Left out…

Someone posted on the munch ministry Facebook page on her home cooked hairy crabs!! (Munch Ministry is a cooking club where members share recipes. I’ve only been drooling over the yummy photos so far.) She even posted that Sheng Shiong (a local supermarket) has a promotion this weekend – 5 live crabs for a mere $16.80!!

So I announced to the hub, “We are buying live hairy crabs from Sheng Shiong! I’ve a craving!” (the prerogative of a Preggie, I’ve only 2 months more to this incentive and I’m determined to make the most out of it!)

“Are you sure? You know how to cook crabs meh???” he looked at me doubtfully.

“How difficult can it get? Just throw into the pot lor!! Do you know that you pay at least 30 bucks to eat one in a restaurant?!”

“Eee! So cruel!! You are cooking them alive!!”

“Hmmm.. I’m sure I can find a more humane way to cook them. Worst case, just google lor!!! Everything is on google now!” I replied him confidently. “I’ve a craving!! You know?! Craving!? It means your son wants to eat it??” pointing at my tummy.

“Whatever.. As long as you know what you are doing..” he replied resignedly.

So off we went to the nearest Sheng Shiong and came back with 5 live hairy crabs.

“Be careful! They are very aggressive!”

“It’s ok. I will just clean them with the strings on.”

“What string? They aren’t tied up. They are crawling around.”

I peered into the bag and shrieked, “you didn’t ask the Sheng Shiong people to tie them up!!”

“You didn’t tell me that I’m supposed to. So how?!”

=.=” (my face)

“Never mind. I’ll figure it out later. I’ll just dump them in the pail with some cold water first.”

(10 mins later)

I heard the hub shouting. I was upstairs, changing to go out. “Hey! There are only 3 in the pail! Where are the other 2?! They’ve escaped!!!”

We found one in the basin. We looked high and low and couldn’t find the last one.

“Maybe you bought 4 only.”

“I counted 5 as I put them in the bag!! Do you think it went downstairs?”

I gave him the ya-right look. “The crab climbed the stairs huh?!”

“I wouldn’t want it to lurk around and pinch 宝贝.”

He leaned over the rails and exclaimed “There it is!!”

I peered over the rails and there it was. Lying downstairs on its back. It must have, somehow, escaped and fell from the kitchen window.

I went downstairs with a pair of chopsticks and prodded it. It’s still alive!!! I gingerly picked it up with the chopsticks and went back upstairs. I put it back into the pail with its brothers and sisters (I still couldn’t differentiate the gender yet).

“What if they all escaped while we were gone?!”

Horrors!

There! If I come home to an empty pail, then I’ll concede defeat to the crabs’ resourcefulness in escaping….

It looked secure enough to me. The truth awaits me…. Will I still have crabs left for my supper?!??

My New Air Fryer – The Path to Healthy Eating

October 31, 2012 Zhiwei Comments 0 Comment

I’ve been reading about people gushing about their air fryers for a while. It was some time before I convinced myself to buy it, because of its hefty price tag!!

Anyway, I’ve bought it. I’ve only used it to fry some fish fingers and it’s true I didn’t use a drop of oil. They turned out crispy. But then again I wasn’t a fan of fish fingers.

I cut up some potatoes into strips and made my first batch of home made fries. I soaked them in water for 30 mins to get rid of the starch, brushed a little oil on them and air fried them. They turned out quite fine, though nowhere near the legendary Macs fries. Macs fries are really unbeatable and absolutely sinful, unfortunately.

Then the air fryer just sat there, under utilized, until I checked out the recipe book and googled some recipes online.

I decided to air fry some food for 宝贝’s lunch.

As usual, no condiment meal. I put a piece of chicken thigh into the mesh basket. You can marinate it with the condiments of your choice 2-3 hours before frying or even the night before. Brush it with a layer of oil. I forgot to brush mine so it came out a little dry. Set the temperature at 180 degrees Celsius for 15 mins. If you use a traditional oven it’d take abort 30 mins.

I roasted some cherry tomatoes and some cut up spinach for 6 mins at 160 degrees Celsius.

The chicken turned out a trifle too dry. I must try again by brushing it with a little oil. The tomatoes came out great. Nicely roasted. The spinach was a surprise. They became crunchy, like those dried seaweed that I love to snack on. The next time I fry the spinach, I should mix it with a wee bit of salt and maybe some spices. It will make a good healthy snack, for myself of course.

Quite a good experiment to have discovered crunchy spinach!! :)

It’s Cordon Bleu Weekend!

October 1, 2012 Zhiwei Comments 0 Comment

I saw someone cook Cordon Bleu and posted a picture of it on facebook. So I had this wave of inspiration to recreate a simplified, condiment free version that didn’t require too much time to prepare. And also to cater to 宝贝’s liking for not-so-rich food. So I had to do away with the typical cream sauce. (she complained about tcc’s spaghetti gravy for being too salty. =.=” I have succeeded in my no salt no sugar diet training on her. Too successful in fact…)

A typical Cordon Bleu involves seasoning the chicken with herbs and condiments. Then bake it in gravy for a while so that it absorbs all the rich taste. Then combining it with bacon and cheese before cooking it again. It’s a multiple stepped dish.

Well lazy me just simplified it to a few steps.

Ingredients :
Chicken breast
Bacon
Cheese (preferably not so salty ones)
Cornflakes
Egg

Lay the chicken breasts nicely in a row. If they are a wee too thick, you can pound them down to desired thickness or slice them down. Lay the bacon over the chicken. Then lay the cheese slice over the bacon. I simply used the cheddar slices because they were available in my fridge. Big mistake… They were a trifle too salty. Swiss cheese may be better.

Align the slices to the top before rolling them together. Try to fold over the cheese so that it doesn’t flow out while being baked in the oven. Fasten the roll together with toothpicks.

Beat up an egg. Pour out the cornflakes on a plate and crush them into smaller bits so that they stick better to the rolls. You can use bread crumbs too. Coat the egg dipped rolls with the cornflakes.

Line them nicely on a baking tray.

Pop them into the preheated oven at 185 degrees Celsius for about 30 mins.

That’s the end product. You can make some cream sauce and pour it over. But since 宝贝 doesn’t like gravy. So lazy mom didn’t make any. :p

It’s Cordon Bleu and her favourite steam cherry tomatoes. A thumbs up from 宝贝. :)

What Really Causes Heart Disease?!

August 28, 2012 Zhiwei Comments 0 Comment

Richard shared this article on Facebook. I thought it’s pretty informative.

What really causes HEART DISEASE?! by a world renowned surgeon. Read on and find out!

Well, it’s basically all the yummy stuff. The yummier the stuff is… the more poisonous they are!! Sigh.. That’s the sad truth. The real cause of heart disease is the inflammation of the artery walls.

Simply stated, without inflammation being present in the body, there is no way that cholesterol can accumulate on the wall of the blood vessel and cause heart disease and strokes. Without inflammation, cholesterol would move freely throughout the body as nature intended. It is inflammation that causes cholesterol to become trapped.

Therefore, natural fats (contrary to common beliefs) don’t cause inflammation. It’s our diet that’s low in fat, high in polyunsaturated fats and carbohydrates that causes it. So who are the biggest culprits?!

Here goes the hit list (hold your breath):

1. Simple, highly processed carbohydrates – sugar, flour and all things made from them. Sigh! There goes all the yummy cakes and sweets.

2. omega-6 vegetable oils like soybean, corn and sunflower that are found in many processed foods. The right kind of oil to use is either olive oil (as pure as possible, I have read somewhere that unpure ones are mixed with other oils such as canola etc) or butter. Most of the processed food like fish fingers, fries etc have been pre fried with one of these oils…

What should we eat?

1. Foods closer to their natural state (basically unprocessed food)

2. Protein food

3. Complex carbohydrates such as colorful fruits and vegetables.

Reading this article brought me to the topic of Paleolithic diet (Paleo Diet). It’s also known as the Caveman diet. Well, simply said, we are supposed to eat food that’s closed to what our forefathers ate as these are the unprocessed food that our bodies can absorb better and don’t cause harm to our bodies. I have tried it, and believe me, it’s super hard to follow!! Imagine – no yummy stuff. But I shall try harder from now on… but allow myself to indulge just once in a blue moon.

Breakfast Art

August 19, 2012 Zhiwei Comments 0 Comment

宝贝 is a true blue carbo baby. She loves noodles, rice, bread, pasta ….. All the energy giving but non nutritious stuff. Much to the delight of the older folks. They think that I starve her by giving her little rice and loads of veggie, meat, fruits etc. *roll eyes* A starving toddler at 14.7kg at one month short of 3 years old?! You must be kidding me.

Anyway she’s more inclined to eat something that she’s made so here’s something simple n fun for breakfast.

Rainbow Crackers

2 pieces of wholemeal high fibre crackers
1 slab of cream cheese. (she loves the cow brand – whatever you call it)
Lots of dried fruits like cranberries (you can vary them because of their colours)
Lots of dried nuts and seeds (almond, macadamia, pumpkin seeds etc)

Spread a thick layer of cheese on the crackers. Let her decorate the crackers with the colourful fruits and nuts. Easy peasy. Simple to make and prepare. She gets to prepare it creatively and the best thing is… Because she prepared it, she usually eats it all up without much persuasion or coercion!

Weekend Lunch for 宝贝 – Pasta Carbonara (my own concoction)

June 30, 2012 Zhiwei Comments 0 Comment

The last 10 posts were all about 宝贝. For a I-can’t-stand-kids to become an obsessed mother, I just can’t help it! But then again, I’m not too keen to play with other children still.

She probably loves weekend meals – dining outside and a change from her regular Mon-Fri porridge. Dining outside = condiments!!! That’s why she loves it. She probably gets herself a 2nd helping during her school snack time. =.=” Although I don’t add condiments to her home cooked meals, she’s not a very picky eater.

Her weekend meal this round : Pasta Carbonara (mushroom and fish), grilled asparagus and tomatoes

Well Grilled asparagus and tomatoes was pretty straight forward… Just grill lar!!

As for pasta carbonara, I memorized the recipe from a cook book somewhere (hehe… yes you are right. I’m one of those cheapo people who browse cookbooks at the bookshops and memorize the recipes… *guilty look* But it’s not easy to memorize recipes ok!!) once upon a time. I just didn’t add the herbs etc. So it’s more like a simplified, watered down version.

I used home made pasta. Just boil them for 15 mins (these are rather hard… so I boiled them for 20 mins). Usually I add in a pinch of salt and oil, but not for her. Like what I mentioned, she’s not picky anyway!!

While the pasta is cooking, to save time, start cooking the sauce! I fried the fish a little, breaking it into little pieces in the pan. Next went the diced fresh mushrooms. When they were cooked, I added the fresh milk and simmered it a little. Not too long or it would start to curdle. Beat in an egg (I used a quail’s egg as the portion was pretty small). Just mix the whole stuff together. Let it cook for a little while. The pasta should be ready. Drain it and pour it into the mixture and let it cook a little. I used to just scoop out the pasta and put it in cold water to stop it from cooking itself further. Then put them on the plate and just ladle the sauce over them. But I have seen the professionals cooking the pasta a little with the sauce before presenting them on the plate. I tried it and found that it truly tasted different. The pasta was simply more yummy. So Monkey see, monkey do lor…

There you go! Pasta Carbonara with grilled asparagus and tomatoes!!

Home Alone with 宝贝

June 16, 2012 Zhiwei Comments 0 Comment

It has been a while since I last spent time alone in the house, by myself (it has become a myth since her Highness’ grand arrival). And also some time alone with her, just the 2 of us. I took the day off from work as my Mom, who is her primary caregiver, has gone on a short 3 day holiday – Fri to Sun. A very well deserved one, as she has already retired from the working world and should spend her golden years enjoying herself.

The whole house to myself! WOW! After sending 宝贝off to her 1/2 day school, it was spent eating a leisurely breakfast, catching up on my backlog of newspapers, a few chapters of a book that I have taken almost forever to finish, surfing the net a little and then.. it’s gone!! She’s going to be home in 1 hour!

Time to prepare her lunch. Ah.. something different from her usual boring fare of porridge. Hmm.. I don’t really have that many exciting ingredients in my refrigerator. :( I remembered reading my friend’s post on pop corn chicken for kiddos. Argh! I can’t find that post on the recipe! Nevermind, I just had to improvise from memory and rummaged for ingredients in the fridge.

I’m still putting her on a no seasoning home cooked diet. We bent the rules when we eat out. The great thing about 宝贝 is that she eats food with or without seasoning. That accounts for her hefty weight. Hehe. I came up with chicken thigh, some cornflakes, egg, milk, shredded mozzarella cheese… Ok.. good enough..

Zhiwei’s very own corn flake, cheese chicken strips!

Cut the chicken thigh into small strips, just big enough for her to hold with her fingers and eat in 2 bites.

Crush the cornflakes into powder form (Not exactly powder but small enough to be used as a coating)

Mix the cornflakes with the shredded mozzarella cheese.

Beat the egg with some milk.

Dip the chicken strips into the egg and coat it liberally with the cornflake cheese mix.

Lay them evenly on a baking tray.

Bake them in the oven at 220 degrees C, for 15 mins.

And Voila!!

Zhiwei’s Cornflakes Cheese Chicken Strips! I tried one myself, it’s nice and crispy even without any seasoning. Because the cornflakes and the cheese are good enough.

Together with baked cherry tomatoes, heated up some spinach, I used the rest of the cornflakes cum cheese cum egg to make scrambled egg, the chicken strips, all in a plate. It looked quite a lot to me, in fact, more than what I usually eat… But she cleaned it up… And declared that she loved the chicken strips and patted her round tummy.

It’s so nice to have a glutton for a daughter. :)

Pop the Corn AGAIN!

December 22, 2011 Zhiwei Comments 0 Comment

I hope I’m not addicted to popcorn! I have been munching more popcorn in these 2 months than I had in the last 5 years!!

It all started from the Cornery popcorn that I ate while watching the Lion King musical at the Marina Bay Sands. Check out my yummy account here. I have been comparing the Garrett popcorn and the Cornery popcorn. I concluded that the Cornery butterscotch popcorn is way superior to the Garrett Caramel popcorn.

I was at Ion Orchard and I chanced upon the Cornery store. One amazing thing – they have a HUGE number of flavors to pick from! Hmmm… what a difficult decision. All look so yummy. I chose the butterscotch (who ever forgets her first love??) and a cheese one.

There! My 2 tubs of Butterscotch and Cheese. I still love the butterscotch one! It still tastes WonderLicious! As for the cheese one, I find that it’s not as “well made” as the butterscotch one. The shape for one… it’s not round… And it is not coated evenly, with only one side having a sparse sprinkle of the cheese. You can see that in my photo. The cheese tasted like the snacks that I used to eat as a child. Compared to the Garrett’s one, the Cornery one tastes like it’s out of a snack bag. The Garrett’s one has a full-bodied cheesy taste. It’s nice and round and coated all over.

Verdict : Cheese – Garrett’s has a one up over the Cornery one.

Curry Chicken and Baguette

November 11, 2011 Zhiwei Comments 0 Comment

Yesterday I didn’t know about the existence of Valley Point at 491 River Valley Road, but now I’m sitting here, enjoying my lunch, blogging in peace and basking in solitude.

I had a meeting here 2 hours ago at Starbucks. Nowhere to go, as it’s raining lions and wolves outside, I slipped into a little cafe (after checking the prices of the food on the menu. I’m a cheapo yah!) as I wasn’t too keen to eat sandwiches at Starbucks. It’s named Cafe in Action at #01-06. The rest of the patrons looked like they were enjoying their food -a good sign to me.

I ordered a curry chicken with baguette. The baguette was warm and crispy. The curry was spicy but not overly so (great for me as I am, somewhat allergic to spicy food and get a stomach upset after it. I pay dearly for it after every single indulgence.) but for spice lovers you probably wouldn’t like it. It had just the right texture, not too thick nor too thin like some curries that I’ve tried.

Best of all, the cafe was quiet and cozy, great for reading, blogging and simply get away from the hustle and bustle. Run by very friendly aunties, I doubt that I’ll come again though. It cost me a hefty $17.80 cab fare to get here and it’s not in the vicinity of my usual haunts.

But if you are here, give it a try! I’m sure the other stuff on the menu must taste just as yummy.

My One Cent Worth of Thoughts

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