Shepard's Pie in a hurry

Feel like having pie.

Buy the freshly ground beef or lamb as there will be less fat and gristle. When we opt for the frozen rolls that are less than half the cost, we get half the quality. I do use the frozen stuff once a while when there is nothing available but best to choose good mince as we do not know what is minced together with the beef.

A friend who worked in a famous fast food chain while in Australia said the burgers were advertised as 100 percent beef. Yeah, 100 percent beef plus a lot of fillers like stuff you cannot imagine. They are not lying, just not telling you everything.

Quick and Simple Mince Beef

I decided to cook some simple minced beef with lots of onions and a bit of garlic. Just brown it and add the mince. Add a little grated ginger (I bought a bottle of minced ginger and keep it in the fridge). Add some finely diced potatoes, green peas and throw in some frozen mixed veggies if you like.

If mince is too fatty, brown the meat and pour out some of the fats. Then cook with olive oil. That way I get my ration of olive oil and less fats.

Careful to Check the Ingredients

Remember its fine to add L & P Worcestershire sauce but do not use HP Sauce or Tabasco. Jakim announced that they are not halal.

And be careful what you are served in some steak houses and food court stalls as many are still using HP sauce and Tabasco as condiment and marinades. They even put the world halal on the bottle but it also states a dubious ingredient.

The same goes for cheese. Many people think its fine to eat cheese as its made from milk.
Be sure to check the ingredients as some parmesan cheese and hard cheeses are made with rennet, from the stomach lining of the goat or cow etc. If the animal is not halal, the rennet is not halal. Some supermarkets mix all the cheeses and confuse the customers.

The same for Japanese food. Some staff tell us their restaurants use unagi or eel that has been marinated with sake or other ingredients. We do not know what some of them put in the rice or miso soup. Some hotel coffeehouses use liquor in the black forest cakes, tiramisu, fruit cakes etc. Just make sure the food is safe.

Seasoning

I did not have bay leaf but just added some pepper. Fresh ground black pepper would be nice too. A pinch of chilli powder or some cumin or fennel is ok if you like it to be more like keema. Add water and let everything simmer to soften. When ready, thicken it with some flour or cornstarch. The flavour should come from the meat itself.

For a more Chinese variation, skip the spices and add a little quality soya and oyster sauce. Anything you fancy actually so long you do not mix too many flavours together.

Mashed Potatoes

After that I boiled around 5 potatoes, drained and let it cool till warm enough to hold. This is the best time to peel as the skin will fall of, paper thin, leaving some nutrients behind. Make sure you cut away the green toxic areas.

Mash the potatoes while warm and season with lots of pepper, some a tablespoon or two of butter and around half to a cup of fresh milk. Do not pour in the whole lot, just add and mix till its the right consistency. You can use a little olive oil instead of butter and omit the milk. Or mix in some cheese while it is warm.

Either cover the mince completely with the mashed potatoes and grate some cheese over it or leave it separate. Grill the cheese to make it look more delicious.

Photos

Will post photo later. As you noticed, our very plain and simple photos take only 5 minutes to shoot as we are always in a hurry to have dinner and I will tell my son "Oh, how about take a photo of the food?". He has to get the camera and shoot before the food gets cold.... And we are too lazy to use nice crockery or cutlery as its just 2 of us unless we have guests. We do use our Nyonya ware daily but its a little painful when I happen to see a small chip on a bowl. The dinner plates are too heavy and we have to spend more time taking care during washing up.

Serving Pots and Pans

You will be amazed to know the number of people who serve their soups and curries in their large cooking pots. We only get that privilege to find out if we are treated as a family member and they let us see how they live. I appreciate that.

My friends also get the pots and pans treatment once a while. Smile. One reason is we want the food to be kept piping hot and also we know everyone is going to have seconds. Also of course, less dishes and bowls to wash and clean up. Lazy lazy....


Chye Choi Vegetarian Dish a Must for CNY

Tomorrow I plan to cook some melon squash and chicken soup, some Chinese vegetarian dish with wood ears fungus, soohun, bean curd, mushrooms, veggies, tauchu and fermented bean curd. This needs to be simmered for a long time.

Missing Mom's Great Cooking

I was missing my mom's cooking this new year. She used to prepare and cook for 3 days for the reunion dinner. Then we would have to eat all the balance for the next two days. Usually we did not mind as she would cook all the delicacies and special treats for cny.

Allah please bless Sis and her family

A dear revert sister invited us for a home cooked lunch and I of course could not resist that. Alhamdulillah! Her mom cooked us some splendid dishes and that was really a satisfying treat. May Allah bless and reward her. I managed to get my chye choi , curry, lotus soup and soya fried sengkuang this year after all.

Budgeting for a Feast

The Chinese spend a lot on seafood and delicacies like abalone, fish, prawns, herbs and special ingredients. As food prices increased through the years, we learnt to reduce our spending by choosing wisely. We started buying and freezing the seafood a few weeks before prices shoot up just before the festival. Such a silly and treacherous tradition to fleece the people.

I plan to throw in more Chinese shitake mushroom, fresh mushrooms and maybe some red dates. Add the soohun later or it will expand and become too soft. We can also deep fry the soohun and sprinkle it over the chye choi before serving. Served with chili and a bit of belacan and onions, fried to a fragrant paste.

Chye Choi is the traditional Chinese New Year vegetarian dish that almost every Chinese home will cook for new year morning. Just be careful to check the ingredients for the red fermented bean curd aka nam yee as some have wine inside.

Traditional CNY Lunch at Grandparents' Home

Every year since we were children the cook in my late grandparents's home always served chye choi with fried ground nuts as well. Hot rice, steamed chicken, fried sengkuang with cuttlefish strips, lettuce sometimes fresh popia, Loh Hon Chye and lotus root soup with red beans.

My mom would cook and bring large prawns, cooked in dark soya sauce or har lok, with some spring onions and lots of garlic, slight caramelised. She would also bring her Nyonya chicken curry and loh hon chye as well as cold jelly chicken in soya and sometimes our other left over dishes to share with my uncles and aunts. Always a warm and happy time, ang pows being exchanged and our course we collected a lot until we got married.

No Brandies or Beer in our Family

I think many Chinese homes would be serving a similar menu simultaneously.We were not a drinking or gambling family. There were some bottles of VSOP and stuff like that in one of the long glass cabinets. They were usually gifts from visitors etc and nobody cared to drink any.

In every of our family homes we only served soft drinks, black local coffee and Chinese tea. We used to enjoy talking and catching up and just lazing around eating kua chi, oranges, prawn crackers and groundnuts. Munching all the way...Its strange that many peo0ple expect Chinese to gamble and enjoy all the vices during festivals. Not true at all!

I will probably write more about CNY celebrations later on. This entry is too long already. Smile.

I miss my grandparents. Without them the family became sort of disintegrated. All the uncles and aunties and their families stopped seeing each other. There was no more family ancestral home to visit, no elderly folks to pay respect to.

Miss them much... my kindly grandpa and my very patient and kind grandmother. Also my step grandmother who passed away earlier on. She treated us well when we were kids. (Yes, they all lived under the same roof. Must have been very challenging for everyone.) I may share something about them one day...And the cook from China named Ah Ngan (Silver) and housekeeper Mary Henrietta.

Easy Nutri Chicken Soup - Chinese Style

I do not consider myself a good cook. Sometimes the meal is really fantastic and sometimes even I do not feel like taking a second helping. Some people eat just to nourish themselves and then they get on with their life and their work. Some of us look for that little bit extra in our daily meals. I usually cook what I personally enjoy.

Same Ingredients, Different Results

We use the same ingredients and spend almost the same amount of time in the preparation. Why not take a little bit of time to plan the meal mentally and make it a tasty and happy occasion at mealtimes instead of throwing everything together desperately at the last minute? Of course this does not apply to some of our mothers who excel in the kitchen every time!

Even I cooked some pretty tasteless or unappetising dishes once a while. Usually this happened when I was too busy, lacked ingredients and did not have any idea what to do when I had to step into the kitchen to prepare a meal. When I'm not in the mood to cook, I go into autopilot.

We do not need to plan a lot - just make sure we have some meat (optional), flavoursome bulbs like onions and garlic, maybe some herbs and some coloured leafy or root vegetables to create a colourful meal. That's for the nutrients that come from the various colours and flavours, created by Allah SWT for our good health and enjoyment.

Cooking with Love makes the Difference!

Just make something that's simple and acceptable to the family. Doesn't even have to be a complete meal, like rice or bread, soup, salad, meat etc. I make a quick sandwich with whatever bread available and use up all the leftovers from the fridge as filling.

Fillings that's quick and tasty, usually leftovers from the fridge :

Mashed Potatoes
Hummus
Roasted Eggplant and Veggies
Sausages and leftover pasta sauce
Stir fried veggies with a slice of ripe tomato
Leftover mixed veggie salad and lemon juice
Boiled egg and tomato slices
Leftover shredded chicken and tomato
Meatball and tomato
Flaked fried fish with mayo and lettuce
Chicken curry gravy and potatoes
Baked Beans and fried egg
Omelette with cheese or mushroom
Garlic toast
Cucumber slices with cream cheese
Ikan bilis sambal from leftover nasi lemak
egg and potatoes mashed in mayo
Toast served with dhal curry
French Toast - sweet or savoury
Tuna with mayo
sliced cold meat
satay with spicy peanut sauce
beef or chicken stew
Leftover soup with toast

I made some chicken soup yesterday. The same recipe can be used for lotus root, old cucumber, winter melon and carrot and potatoes etc. We may add some dried octopus when we cook old cucumber soup. We may add some dried red beans when we cook the lotus root soup.

Nutri Chinese Veggie Soup

(Just like ABC Potato Soup. I use a lot onions in that soup)

Take 3/4 parts of an antibiotic free or range free/organic chicken and remove some skin and fats. The fats provide the flavour but I prefer to remove some of the skin, if not all of it.

Place chicken pieces in a large heavy pot and fill it with water, just covering the chicken. Add a small knob ginger if you like but I didn't have any . Add a large handful of Chinese red dates. I sometimes use extra dates leftover from Ramadhan. Even if they are dry and cold, just add them in and they will become melt in the mouth after 2 hours of simmering. Check water level.

After about an hour, add the large chunks of melon and diced carrot. Add pepper and simmer away till chicken is really tender.

There - so easy and stress free!

Special Melon Soup cooked in Melon

Hollow out a large wintermelon (do not remove too much from the center or the whole melon will turn to mush if you overcook. Dice chicken meat, carrots and Chinese shitake mushroom (just 3 pieces ) . Season and add some water so the food will cook and a tasty soup is created. Replace the top piece that was cut off. Secure it with toothpicks or small satay sticks.

Place the whole melon in a large double boiler or thick ovenproof casserole and insert whole container and melon into a large wok filled with water. Place it on the trivet and add water. Cover it and steam till melon is tender but not too soft. Check water level occasionally or it may dry up! It may disintegrate if it is overcooked!

Remove the casserole from wok and place it on dining table. Open the cover of melon carefully and scoop out the flesh, diced veggies and meat.

Chinese New Year Reunion Dinner

My mother used to cook this soup sometimes for our Chinese New Year Reunion Dinner. Of course she would also plan and prepare for 3 days, to produce a fabulous dinner, consisting of as much as 12 dishes, if she had her way!

I used to tell her to reduce it to just 5 but she always said it was a special occasion and the hard work was only just once a year. She wanted to make the event memorable and make everyone feel loved and pampered by her labour of love. The food would not be wasted as we would enjoy eating it again the next day and if friends dropped by the next day, we would be happy to let them taste some special home cooking!

We would also occasionally invite some brothers and sisters who recently embraced Islam. They sometimes could not eat the food served by their own families. They would still sit with them and eat perhaps nasi beriyani or some halal fast food while the rest of the family had their ten course gourmet dinner.

Pleasing our Family

We too make a point to be home for the reunion dinner to foster silatul rahim and to show that Islam does not prevent Muslims from honouring and pleasing their parents and family. The only time they refuse to oblige or disobey is when they are asked to do something that is against the teachings of Islam.

Patience in Obeying Allah SWT

If we are patient in obeying Allah SWT, insya Allah we will gain His pleasure and we cannot imagine the great rewards He plan for us in this worldly life (dunia) and in the Hereafter (akhirah).

I am sure every mother would do the same for her children, on very special occasions. These days, we only celebrate the 2 Eids and of course cook some nice dishes for iftar (breaking of fast) in Ramadhan to share with others.

Every Chinese home will be filled with friends and relatives who return once a year to celebrate and enjoy each others' company and renew kinship. Traditionally they return from all parts of the world, as far as Europe, Hong Kong and USA.