Cooking inspirations

I discovered Michael Chu today. He is an Engineer who cooks and he stores all his recipes with pictorial instruction on Cooking For Engineers.

I like it that he conducts "Cooking Test" to discover the best equipment and method to cook an ingredient. Check out the test he did on frying and microwaving Bacon and the utensils he has tried.

My children will find this article "Kitchen Knives - what to buy?" that he wrote for Hub UK and his link to Ingredients Dictionary useful.

While I am at it, I might as well add links to recipes from programmes that we watched on TV. Callie did ask for them.

Asian Food Channel

Take Home Chef, Curtis Stone's recipes

Jamie at Home, Jamie Oliver recipes

Recipes from Restaurant Makeover

Chef Michael Smith's recipes from Chef at Home and Chef at Large.

Recipes from Food TV
and food glossary and tools

What can you do with envelopes and exercise books?

What do you do with all those envelopes you received your bills in?  I like to keep the ones in size 16x23cm that I received with my phone bills.  I use them as dividers in my office files.

Some envelopes of this size open up at the wider end and they are some that opens up on the shorter end.



The idea is to make them into Accordion Folder.

I am also trying to find ways to clear all the pages from exercise books that my children no longer use. 

I am thinking of using them to print recipes that my children will find useful so that they will learn to cook on their own.  They can use the envelopes as folders to store the recipes in.  The folders will allow them to segregate the recipes for ease of locating them when required.  They can also store shopping list they create for the recipes and any tips they discover along the way to make cooking the dish easy.

So, how will this re-use of abandoned envelopes and papers project turn out?  Just watch out for the next posting.

What are some easy meals I can make for cheap?

What are some easy meals I can make for cheap?  I answered this question on Quora and decided to share it here because there are many useful links in them.

There are many easy meals that you can make cheap if you use less ingredients in the dish. I managed to find many such recipes and saved them on Pinterest.

Recipes - 3 ingredients or less

What is the point of making it cheap but there are leftovers to throw away? So, throw away less food by using leftovers from last dish or learn to cook just enough or learn to do “planned-overs”, that is, cooking in excess so that your can create another dish with them.


"Cooking for One or Two" by Food and Nutrition Specialist, Julie Garden-Robinson, Ph.D., LRD provides a guideline on how to reduce the ingredients in your recipe if you are cooking smaller portions. You will find many tips on using your leftovers at Frugal Leftover Cooking Ideas.

You should also try to figure out ways to use less utensils to cook. If you watch cooking programmes by chefs like Michael Smith on TV, you can pick up useful tips from him. He used vegetables, such as, carrots, potatoes and onions to replace the rack you need for roasting. By placing your meat on top of the vegetables you do not have an oily rack to clean up. Doesn’t that make cooking your meal cost saving too since you are using less water and time for cleaning? You can even clean up the sauce off your pans by using leftover rice or bread.

If you are working in that direction to make your meals cheaper, buy multi-functional cooking wares because useful wares can save you time and money. Learn more cooking techniques that will require you to use less gadgets in you kitchen.

Find ways to use less energy to cook. I use a large soup pot, and place a smaller metal pot inside to cook my rice and another to boil soup. On top of the pot, I can also place a plate of fish or chicken or minced pork to steam. Food keep warm in the steamer so that you do not have to reheat them.



If I use the rice cooker to cook or a pot to boil my soup, I will try to include a dish that requires steaming.



Use leftover leftover sauces and cooking oil in your new dish!



Plan meals for the week so that you can buy your ingredients in bulk which make them cheaper. Stock less perishable food and save by buying what is seasonal where you are.

If you like Chinese cooking, here are some recipes for cheap meals I created for my family. I did some of them in slides so that my children can learn to cook too.

Salad out of Leftovers
Perk It Up Dishes
Food Makeover

Spicy Thai Peanut Sauce


Fast food? Can't beat them? Join them!


And if, like I do, you have picky eater at home to feed, make your dish tastier with this magic sauce.


How cheap can you get if you are able to find ways to make use of food scraps to cook? Check out the food scraps used in making this Vegetable Broth.

When I was young my family used to collect a bag of cake scraps from a confectionery nearby. These are cut offs from the sides of baked flat cake layers. I discovered that if you crumbled the cake and mix it up with frosting, you can make Popsicle like these.

 I think you should not have any problem selling them if you want to. You can learn how to make it at Homemade Cake Pops - Sallys Baking Addiction. If you want more recipes using cake scraps just google “cake scraps”. By doing that I found 15 Incredible Uses for Leftover Cake.

Useful Link from Quora

I enjoy reading postings on Quora.  I have also been active there by sharing information about bicycles and useful tips about parts and stuff that I sell at my bike shop.  I also enjoy collecting and sharing using tips I discovered at the site.  Some of the information I keep may not be relevant to me but I am sure someone I know will find them useful one day because I have shared or saved them on one of my Pinterest boards.  

This sums up my participation on Quora.

Today, I would like to share the following link to a collection of recipes used by the US Armed Force’s culinary professionals to serve up to 100 people.  You can check out their Index Of Recipes for a quick look to see if any of the recipes there will interest you.

Armed Forces Recipe Service 

I discovered this information from reading this question answered by Martin Bayer.

What is an example of a standard recipe card?

He said that they are all easy to prepare.  As each recipe is for 100 portions, you will have to convert them to cater to the number of people you will be serving.  He recommended trying out the Savory Baked Chicken.

Rice Paper Meals

I shared how I can make braised pork and meat floss with soup bone earlier and after discovering that I can serve meat floss in rice paper, I became interested in finding recipes for them.  So, I am glad that Beryl Shereshewsky also shared such recipes in the following video because she had leftover rice paper from her last video.

There are additional recipes from this video for me to check out.

This looks so easy to make.  Just marinate bite size pieces chciken breast with salt, pepper and curry powder before wrapping each piece with softened rice paper to pan fry for 5 minutes.

Working on Recipes Folders

I am working on a project to create recipe folders for my children to learn to cook.

How do I make it easy for my children to locate the recipe they are looking for? 

I can use colour codes like this which I can indicate on the envelope.



A 162x229mm envelope is large enough to hold A5 paper.  So, this is the size I need to print my recipes on if I want to fit them inside one neatly.

Looking at this envelope sizes, maybe it is a good idea to consider using DL format which is of  size 110x220mm.  Maybe, I should work on the recipes first before I decide what size folders I should create. 

Pickled Vegetables

Have you tried the acar served with Nasi Lemak at Madam Kwan's.  I like it so much that I have an urge to make my own.

I found this video instruction from The Meatmen Channel.

These are the ingredients required to make it:

2 cucumbers
2 carrots
1/2 chinese cabbage
1/2 cauliflower
5 Long Beans
4 chillies
1L water
650ml white vinegar
10 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp salt
120g shallots
4 cloves garlic
15g tumeric
4 candlenuts
1 stalk lemongrass
100g fresh chillies
50g soaked dried chillies
20g belacan
4 tbsp oil
250g ground peaunts
50g fried shallots
40g toasted white sesame seeds

After checking out the amount of ingredients I will have to prepare to make it, I have decided to go for the simpler Japanese version.  I found the recipes at Japanese Cooking Channel. 

These are recipes I picked out from the video that do not require mirin to make since I do not stock it in my pantry:

The good news is that I can replace mirin with rice vinegar on a 1:1 ratio as substitute.  According to All Recipes, since mirin is much sweeter than rice vinegar, I will have to add about a 1/2 teaspoon of sugar per tablespoon of rice vinegar. 

Here is another recipe I found on Daily Cooking Quest that I would like to try making:

I am glad to read from a comment posted by Anita, the cook, that though kombu will give the pickle a bit of umami, it will still be delicious without it. 

Cooking with Air Fryer

My first airfryer was a gift from my sister because she does not know how to make full use of it.  My son was the first one who experimented cooking with it and I got hooked.  When he moved out, I gave him that unit and got him to buy me a unit in larger capacity since I am cooking for three in the family.

Many people think that an airfryer is just a gimmick.  I can only say that they are just not playful enough to create interesting fusion of Asian or Western dishes with it.  I use my airfryer to:

-thaw and cook frozen food and ready to eat meals.
-reheat food and continue to keep it warm by leaving it inside.
-deep fry frozen food without oil.
-toast my bread, pancakes, pizzas and wraps.
-melt my butter.
-make my deep fried food crispy again.
-roast.
-bake.
-grill.

Any dishes you can cook in an oven can be cooked in your airfryer and in a shorter time too, even though you have not preheated it.  It is more economical to use an airfryer, especially if, you have a smaller portion to bake.   This video gives you a general idea how you can use the airfryer to cook which is possibly why you think cooking with it is such a hassle.  

However, you may reconsider using an airfryer if you use the tips I shared below:

Try to avoid cooking food directly in its basket by using a metal container.

From the video you can see that the ingredients are placed on the basket to be cooked.  I don't do that.  I have many round stainless steel food containers with lids like these.  

They are handy for storing food in the refrigerator and for steaming food over a pot of soup or in my airfryer.  Most of my meat are marinated ahead and stored in such round metal containers.  When it is time to cook, I just remove its cover and place the container on the basket to airfry.  Once the meat has thawed enough, I separate them to cook further.  By doing that I save the time and hassle of cleaning up a my heated airfryer to cook the next dish, 

Spread oil in your metal container. 

If I am cooking room temperature raw ingredients like meat or fish, I will spread garlic oil in the container before I place the food inside it to cook.  The oil will prevent the ingredients from sticking to the container which will make it easier for me to turn them over to cook further.

To avoid burning raw minced garlic, use garlic oil instead.

I prefer my greens with sauce, so, I will not consider cooking them in an airfryer.  Also, instead of adding minced garlic in to airfry, consider using garlic oil.  You make it by deep frying minced garlic in a pot of oil.  When it is time to cook, just place the ingredient in a metal container and spread 1-2 tablespoon of garlic oil over it before airfrying.

Use a piece of bread to catch oil drips.

It will be easier for you to clean your airfryer if you place a piece of bread below the basket to catch oil dripping out of food like bacon or fried chicken you are airfrying. 

Don't wash the airfryer to cook the next dish.

You can use a piece of kitchen towel to wipe down and remove any bits of food still sticking to the basket.  That will also help maintain the heat of the airfryer to cook the next dish.

You can easily find recipes for dishes that you can cook in your airfryer.  Webspoon World shared 7 such recipes that have gone viral on TikTok that should interest you to try making.

These are the ingredients he used:

Cloud Bread in AirFryer 

● 3 pcs egg whites 

● salt

● 80g cheddar cheese 

● 1 tbsp bagel seasoning 

Air Fryer Rice Paper Feta Burek 

● 100g feta cheese 

● 1 egg 

● 50g mozzarella

● egg

● 3 rice paper 

● sesame

Crispy Gnocchi Caprese Salad 

● 250g gnocchi

● 1 tsp paprika 

● 1/3 tsp salt 

● 1/2 tsp Italian herbs 

● olive oil

● 100g mozzarella cheese

● 100g сherry tomatoes 

● basil

Air Fryer Garlic Tortilla Crackers 

● 3 tortilla 

● 1 tsp dried parsley

● 1/2 tsp salt 

● 1/3 tsp chili flakes 

● 50ml butter (melted) 

● 1 clove garlic 

Viral Chicken Wings in Air Fryer

● 500g chicken wings 

● 1 tsp salt

● 2 tbsp honey

● 2 tbsp ketchup

● 3 tbsp soy sauce

● 1 tsp garlic powder

Apple Pudding in Air Fryer

● 2 apples 

● 2 eggs 

● 60g sweetened condensed milk

● 1 tsp cinnamon

Air Fryer Chicken Sticks

● 500g chicken breast 

● 1/2 tsp coriander powder 

● 1/2 tsp garlic powder 

● 1 tsp salt

● 1 tsp paprika

● 1/3 tsp chili pepper 

● olive oil

If you want more recipes and tips on how to use the airfryer efficiently, you can find them on my Pinterest board at the following link:

Air Fryer

You can also find dishes I have cooked with my airfryer if you do a search for airfyer on this blog. 

Mummy's Mistakes = Children Gains.

I remember during the earlier days of my marriage, I used a whole chicken when I boiled soup for the children's father.   

There were only two of us eating at home! Since I cooked almost every weekend, that's a lot of leftover chicken to throw away.

I did not learn the basic of cooking a proper meal. I do not even know how to cook my favourite dish then. So, it is no wonder that I have been called a "fun tong" which literary means "rice bin" which actually means "good for nothing".

So, children, start learning your basic now. I am here to help you with these useful links:

Check out Thai Food Ingredients if you do not know the ingredients required in recipes you are working on. Most of the ingredients used in Thai cooking are used locally. I like Thai Table because there is a picture to go with each ingredient and you maybe able to learn Thai way of pronouncing it (if it works).

How to grind dried chillies? Jule Song teaches you how to handle dried chilli so that it will not stink your eyes and how to store it to preserve it. She even saved the water for soaking the dried chilli for cooking her noodles!

Generate an interest to learn by cooking with the ingredients you love to eat. Calvin surprise yourself. Google "canned peach" and see what you get. Mummy did that and discovered:

1) interesting ways to cook with peaches at California Cling Peach.
2) Also at Cooks.
3) Pick Your Own where you can also learn How to Make Homemade Canned Peaches, Plums, Pears, Plums, Nectarines and Cherries.

Since price of ingredients keep going up, don't be deterred by cost to learn. Learn by using leftovers. Don't forget to check out the recipes and ideas Mummy have created.

That's it for the moment till I find more to add to this.

And remember what Mummy said before. Good things always come out of bad experiences. Maybe if Mummy had not been criticized, Mummy would not have bothered to learn and teach you to cook.

So, what else did Mummy learned from this "good for nothing" period? The knowledge that your father must really love me since he had once commented that the food I cooked could be used to hit and kill a dog.

Your father (born in the year of dog) survived the hits. Your better half may not be so lucky, dude (and dudette).

How to make crepes

This is how Western crepes are made.

Combine 1-1/2 cups milk and 2 eggs and whisk until smooth. Add 1 cup flour, 1/4 tsp. salt, and 1 Tbsp. oil. to mix and whisk until smooth.

Heat lightly greased 6 inch skillet. Spoon 1/4 cup batter into skillet. Tilt pan to spread batter. Return to heat. Cook for 1-2 minutes or until bottom is browned. Repeat with remaining batter. Spread 2 Tbsp. whipped cream cheese on crepe. Arrange 1/4 cup sliced fresh strawberries on cream cheese. Roll up crepe.





Source:
https://www.pillsbury.com/recipes/basic-crepes/9cfb8afa-58e0-4afb-9a83-acf09a3665f6
https://www.bhg.com/recipes/breakfast/brunch/how-to-make-crepes/

This is the way the Chinese cook pancakes.

Scrambled Eggs with Tomatoes

I have been on a look out for recipes for scrambled eggs cooked with tomatoes eversince my son told me that he likes eating his eggs that way.  I think he will like the way this Chinese Eggs & Tomato Stir Fry is done in the video by Thai chef, Pailin "Pai" Chongchitnant.  

This is how it is cooked at a glance.

I have shared many recipes for scrambled eggs as my family loves eating them.

We love eating eggs

We love eating eggs. Other than eating it sunny side up or hard or half boiled, we also like eating it scrambled.  This is a recipe that I picked up from your Aunty Janice

There is a story behind why I use garlic oil in my cooking. I always have on my kitchen counter a pot of minced garlic which I have cooked with about two cups of oil till it is golden brown. If you have children at home who do not like to bite into garlic in their food, you can use garlic oil to marinate your food or as cooking oil to infuse its flavour in your dishes.

Since my daughter don’t like eating onion, I usually scoop the fried onion slices out of the frying pan before I add the scrambled eggs in the pan to fry. Then I pour the onion back on a portion of the eggs to fry. So one side of my scrambled egg with onion dish does not have onion in it.

I always fry scrambled eggs in my Korean double sided pan so that I can easily flip it over to fry the other side. If one side is not golden brown enough for me, I will flip the pan over to fry again. It saves me the hassle of using a spatula to check for doneness and to flip the egg over, which can break up its neat shape.

This is the kind of scrambled eggs my son enjoys eating. With sliced tomatoes in it. I found the way it is cooked in this video interesting. 

You can refer to this cooking chart I prepared if you do not understand Mandarin.

This is another version I found on Wok of Life.

Other than fresh produce, we can also cook scrambled eggs with preserved vegetable like preserved radish. Preserved radish can be purchased whole or minced up, sweet or salty. I prefer to use the minced up salty version. As it is salty, it is best to soak it in water for a while to reduce its saltiness. I will cook it the same way I cook my scrambled eggs with onion by replacing onion with salty preserved radish.

You can also see how it is cooked in this video.

We can also steam our scrambled eggs.  I have not steamed eggs with salted eggs and century eggs in a while.  Found this video from Ruyi Asian Recipes.

It is interesting to discover that it can also be steamed with Chicken Essence.

Here is a East Meets West scrambled eggs recipe that I would like to try.  I found it at All Recipes. 

Here is another version from Everyday Gourmet with yoghurt added.

Healthy Pancakes 4 Ways

Saw this "Healthy Pancakes 4 Ways" on Facebook and decided to create a meal card for all four recipes.


As I am working on a project to clear used enveloped and unused exercise books, I use Calibri font size 8 as I want it printed out on A5 paper in landscape format to put in envelopes which will work as a folder.



If you would like to make your own, you can find the recipes on Tasty.

Source:
Banana Pancakes
Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Pancakes
Blueberry Pancakes
Dark Chocolate Pancakes

Another great site for Asian recipes

Asian Food Recipes is also a great site for information about ingredients used in Asian cooking with lots of pictures.

Check out:

1) the substitute page for ingredients that we do not have at home.

2) The Yin and Yang of food

3) Methods used in buying, preparing and cooking food.

I am surprised to discover that this website is not created by an Asian. It is by a Lawrence Wheeler from USA.

All the more not to be branded a "fun tong". Take time to learn.

Shortcut to Cooking Speghetti

To make your speghetti dish, you need to boil a pot of water to cook the noodle till it is al dente first.  Then you need a pan to fry the ingredients to flavour it.  By baking it, you cut down these two processes so you will have less utensils to wash too.

Here is the recipe for it from Feel Good Foodie.  I like it that Yumna shared her recipes with lots of photos.

I first discovered this recipe on "I love Recipes" Facebook page.  I like it better as there are lesser ingredients required to cook it.  Except for Oregano, they are ingredients which I often use in my kitchen. 

Mummy's not around?

Need help when Mummy's not around to ask?

Find Dr Ben Kim for medical advise. Check out his articles on how to reduce stress.

For easy to cook recipes, check the following websites written by Mummys.

http://simplecookingideas.com/
http://www.easy-kids-recipes.com/about.html

EASY CHICKEN AND BROCCOLI CASSEROLE

I like checking out recipes that has the word "EASY" in its tittle.  I found this Easy Chicken and Broccoli Casserole on Yummly and I see that it has most of the ingredients that my daughter enjoys eating.  As the instruction is incomplete, I did a search and found this Cheesy Chicken Broccoli Casserole recipe shared by Kristyn Merkley.  I like it that her instructions include how you can prepare the dish and freeze it for 2-3 months. 

I learn from this version that you can replace the can of cream of chicken soup with 1/2 cup of heavy cream.

I also discovered from reading other recipes that you can replace the chicken soup with mushroom soup. I am hoping that my daughter will find it easy enough to cook this herself. I am sure she will consider adding sliced button mushroom to the dish.

I like the idea that this dish use cooken chicken. That means that I can boil a pot of soup with the water used for cooking it.

What to do with leftover cooked pasta?

Those days of "think of the Kampucheans/poor" to encourage my children to finish their food are over. Now that they can prepare their own meals I encourage them not to waste food by sharing with them ways leftovers can be used.  

But who would want to eat leftover cooked pasta?  Your cooked pasta will no longer be al dente if you reheat it to be eaten.  So, I like the idea of serving leftover cooked pasta crispy by baking it in an oven.  And, that is one of the ways Italians finish their leftover cooked pasta. 

  

 

You can find the full recipes at PastaGrammar.

Substitutes for Potatoes

Do you know that if you run out of potatoes, you can use green bananas as substitute?  You can learn how to cook green bananas by watching this video.

This is a simpler version which is like how you would cook your potatoes but I would rather boil my potatoes in my ABC soup.  Makes me wonder how it will affect the soup flavour if I use green bananas.  I will let you know if I try this experiment.

I would just add butter and not cook the mashed bananas further if they are still hot.

I saw another green bananas recipe on Facebook. Instead of boiling the bananas, the cook grated them.  These are the ingredients required based on the video shared:

I did a search for other substitutes and discovered the following sites:

10 Healthy Alternatives To Mashed Potatoes

9 Low Carb Potato Substitutes + 50 Ways to Use Them

For days, when your bananas are too ripe for the above recipes, you can make pancakes out of them with eggs.

These are the ingredients for making these pancakes.

SOUP AS A ONE DISH MEAL

Check out this Western soup, "Copycat Olive Garden Chicken Gnocchi Soup". It is definitely a hearty one dish meal to cook for the family.

I first discovered this soup on Pinterest. Michelle posted it on her site, The Gracious Wife. I like the way she shares her recipes with lots of images and videos. She even shares tips on how to freeze leftovers so you can save the extra for later servings. You can also learn from her how to made your own potato Gnocchi to add to this soup.