Picky Callie transformed with magic sauce

Callie is a very picky eater. Meal time can be frustrating when I watched her picked that little piece of garlic off her vegetable or when she refused the steamed fish because she can see the garlic and ginger all over it.

She reminded me of me as a kid. To avoid eating stuff I do not want in dishes my family cooked, I would rather eat plain rice with water and soya sauce. At least I can take two bowls of that while Callie would rather reduce her intake of rice. So, instead of being a pot calling the kettle black, here are my solutions to a genetic(?) problem.

I have resorted to mincing lots of garlic at one go and frying them in oil till they are golden brown. Once it has cooled down, I pour the minced garlic and oil into a container. The minced garlic can be stored for a long period of time as long as it stays immersed in oil. So, don't discard that!



When I cook any dishes I just use the garlic oil.

To solve the ginger problem, each time I need to use it in a dish, I will pound it up in a mortar until it is all meshed up. Extract the juice and pour the required amount into the ingredient to marinate.

So, this is how the prepared fish will look like after adding sugar and soya sauce, before I steam it over a pot of boiling soup or in my rice cooker. This is a better way (for a pot) to change Callie's eating habit than shouting at her (calling kettle black) for not finishing her food.



And that also started the creation of the magic sauce. A mixture of:

1) garlic oil
2) soya sauce
3) sugar

If you have fried fish for lunch, you can serve it again differently during dinner time by dousing the fish with the magic sauce, after heating it up. That way, you also solve the problem of your children complaining that they are eating the same thing for lunch and dinner.

Here are a list of other uses with this magic sauce:

1) Marinate chicken or meat with it. Add corn or tapioca flour to mix before storing them separately in portions enough to cook a dish. Take it out to defrost when you need it to cook. Defrosted meat will not spoil that quickly when left covered in room temperature. So, you do not have to worry about it if you are unexpectedly out later than usual.
2) Steam vegetable or chicken with it.
3) To steam meat. Marinate the meat with the magic sauce first then beat an egg into it. To this mixture, add 2-3 Tbsp of water, corn/tapioca flour, magic sauce. If you prefer to add oyster sauce than use less soya sauce in your magic sauce.
4) Add flavour to the chicken or meat you have removed from your soup. You can tear chicken into shreds before garnishing with cut spring onion. Do the same for meat after cutting it into thin slices.

What all this equates to is that Mummy now has less leftovers to finish up which can lead to flatulence. It is bad for your karma to throw food! So, eat up or mom will be farting all over with love for you, kids.

So, did I throw away the ginger or the minced garlic once the oil is all used up? No way! Watch out how I make use of them in my next posting.