...the river now in circles ran, round the land of endless sand...
Have been cooking rather mundane dishes recently. Just putting stuff together so long as they make a decent combination. Today was just chicken pieces boiled with enoki/golden mushrooms with a light touch of soya sauce. Other dishes include tofu and chinese chives; chicken fried with spinach, etc. However, just received a few sweet potatoes from a friend. Have to do something with them. Something that justifies the effort of cleaning them.
Yesterday a mochi-tsuki party was held at my church and as it was a potluck dinner as well, I got together with my friend to make something Singaporean. After a meandering process of consideration and elimination, we decided to fry eggs. Of course, that means with other things as well.
Final list of ingredients: eggs, garlic, onion, carrots, tomatoes, chinese chives, shiitake mushrooms, ham. Beat the eggs (add some soya sauce in), chop the garlic finely, cut the tomatoes into medium -size pieces (quarters or eighths) and slice everything else thinly into small strips. Heat cooking oil with garlic and onion until the flavour emerges and then add in the carrot strips. When the carrot is half-done (we want it soft enough to match the other ingredients) add in the tomatoes and continue to fry until most of the liquid has evaporated. Add the chinese chives, mushrooms and ham and toss and fry. Clear a space in the pan, add some oil and pour in the beaten egg. Stir gently and then allow everything to set. Break up into big pieces and flip each one. Remove when done. You do not want it runny, but soft. That simply means not drying it out completely. You can add salt and pepper to your taste.
Add or remove any ingredients you want. These just happen to be what was in the supermarket that our Singaporean taste buds told us would suit the dish.
Today, there was a festival at the international students' dormitory and people sold food from their various countries. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend, but my Indonesian friend brought back something that they had sold which was really a treat for me. I never knew the name when I was back home ( just point and order ) but now know that it is called 'bakwan' or 'ote-ote' depending on the region. You know, the fried dough fritter with one or two prawns on top that has a slight vegetable taste and also this inexplicable taste of oil? Inexplicable because there's something in this taste that I have never quite made out but just recognise. Eating it was a real treat. You will not find stuff like that in the shops here - it is hard enough finding an Indonesian or Malaysian restaurant here. Too bad they did not save any tahu goreng for me this year...
Hm, must try and find a picture of bakwan...
Something with spring onions again. Usually my image of spring onions is a) chopped up finely as a topping for dishes b) thick pieces in soups or steamboats/火鍋/鍋(なべ) but this morning, settled on stirfrying it due to limited options.
Ingredients: one clove chopped garlic, diced chicken breast and one stalk of spring onion, sliced. Heat the wok, add cooking oil, add garlic. Add in the chicken and stirfry till the surface is cooked, add in the spring onion (white bits). Sprinkle some salt. Fry till done. Toss in the fine green bits, stir, cut the heat and add in some sesame oil. Verdict: not bad, the light, fresh taste of the spring onions goes well with sesame oil. Needs a bit more work though.
