double-fried rice

now that i've declared my blog a pseudo-food blog, i am feeling somewhat compelled to try out more recipes and write about them, much like julie powell's quest to try one (or more) julia child recipe(s) per day for an entire year; except that i obviously cannot make a new dish a day (in fact a new dish a week may even be a bit too ambitious) and i have no intentions of mastering the art of french cooking as of now.

today, however, i've decided to write about something i've been making for ages. i've not tried anything new this week but i have half a mind to bake nigella's old-fashioned chocolate cake this weekend, so we will see how it goes.

i thought i'd start off simple by sharing this continuously varying recipe of my delicious, slightly unhealthy double-fried rice. i know i know, fried rice is retardedly easy, but you'll be surprised to see how an extra step and about 2 more minutes of cooking can convert a mediocre dish (that makes you go "mehhh...") into something completely satisfying. it's called double-fried rice for a very obvious reason: the rice is fried twice, hence making it sllllliiiiiiiggghhhtly unhealthy (but doubly yummy).

the ingredients i use vary from time to time as they are usually whatever i can find in the fridge or whatever i have to get rid off. since today is friday which means the exhaustion of the week's food and groceries, i was left with 3 smoked bacon rashers and a miserable slice of honey-glazed ham. they were chopped into tiny pieces and marinated in some shaohsing rice wine, soy sauce, pepper and sugar.

other ingredients: 2 cloves of garlic (diced), one small red chilli (sliced), a handful of cooked prawns, green beans (chopped), a bit of shredded lettuce, 2 eggs, and boiled rice (ideally from the fridge, overnight).

i know a lot of people like frozen vegetables in their fried rice like peas, corn kernels and carrots, but i'm sorry to say that i absolutely hate them. i marginally accept frozen peas - in fact i do put them in my fried rice at times, but corn and carrots (unless they're fresh carrots chopped up into tiny pieces) are a big no-no for me. i especially hate the texture of corn kernels and the fact that they are sweet. but if you're someone with no patience to wash vegetables and chop them up, then i suppose frozen vegetables are the way to go.

so first of all i heated up some oil in a pan (i really should get myself a good wok!) together with the diced garlic and when the oil was hot enough i dumped the rice in. the point of this is to coat every grain of rice with garlic oil.

after putting the rice aside, i put the chillis, bacon and ham in the pan. i didn't need to add oil because there was already oil in the bacon. see! not so unhealthy after all! after stirring for a bit i then added in the green beans and let them soften a bit before adding in the cooked prawns and lettuce (which didn't need to be cooked for long).

i dumped in the rice again soon after adding in the prawns and lettuce, poured a bit of soy sauce and mixed everything together.

lastly i poured in the eggs (with a bit of salt and pepper) on top of the rice. i don't like beating my eggs for fried rice. i like seeing specks of egg white mixed among the rice so i usually just break the yolks a little bit with a chopstick. also i know that a lot of people prefer making a hole in the middle of the pan, pour the eggs in, and then cover the eggs with the rice and other ingredients but i personally prefer coating the rice with eggs so that the fried rice ends up slightly wet and i don't get clumps of egg.

fry everything up and serve! :)

easypeasylemonsqueezy! and extremely yummy! adrian and tr can testify to this. :p

my take on home cooking: part 1 (of many)

oh look, i'm back much sooner than expected. lol.

so today i'm going to blog about my love for (making my own) food.

i'm sorry but i can never understand when someone tells me, "i don't really care about the taste of food - i only eat to fill my stomach and keep me going". or when they tell me, "i can never tell if food lacks salt - how can you tell?". how can you not? surely taste buds were developed to, well, taste.

coming from a family that takes food and drink seriously in our everyday lives (there is no such thing as skipping meals or having cereal for dinner in the tan family household, except maybe when one is ill) and having a mother who showers her children with love by never failing to come up with fabulous weekend meals for us, i've been exposed to the glory of food since a very young age. and with that, i've cultured the ability to tell what's in the food that i eat - right down to the tiniest herb and spice.

however, even though i've been independent and away from home for about 7 years now, i've only really started enjoying to cook and bake when i came over to the UK. i think a lot of factors play a part in this recent avocation. when i was in malaysia i very much preferred going out and sampling all sorts of food rather than to actually make my own (i still did some cooking back then, but very minimally). secondly, being a student in the UK doesn't really allow one to spend extravagantly on eating out. don't get me wrong, i think i still spend more money on eating out than some people do, but not without compromising on other indulgences. i've also been into cooking shows and buying lots of cookbooks (admittedly, i do the latter mainly for decorating my room - nothing screams comfort and home more than stacks of cookbooks lying against the window next to a vase of daisies), and from there i've identified certain famous cooks/chefs/food journalists to inspire me to whip something up in the kitchen. being in the UK also means that a lot of ingredients are more readily available than in malaysia. i don't mean ingredients for chinese/malaysian/asian foods (though they can be obtained from oriental supermarkets), but in malaysia if you want something simple like polenta or even ready-made cranberry sauce, you'll have to go to a specialty bake shop!

i've been uploading photos of my cooking trials on facebook over the past year (trust me, a lot of them actually look better than they taste, hahaha) and i've had a lot of people ask me how i find the time amidst my busy schedule as a medical student to cook/bake. the truth is i don't make foods that require a whole day's worth of effort. most of the time i only cook for 2 people - myself and my biggest supporter TR (who has gained a bit of weight since coming here thanks to me, at least that's what i think) and that really doesn't take up a lot of my time. besides, i find cooking/baking incredibly therapeutic that i won't even give it up come exam time. having proper meals is of utmost importance to me and i am a strong advocate against frozen or ready-made meals, although i must say i have found myself occasionally resorting to those whenever there were time constraints.

i know that a lot of people actually find cooking an intimidating task, but i believe that if you know how to eat and have a decent taste for food, you will know how to cook. sure there are certain cooking techniques which have to be taught. in fact i am still slowly picking them up from aforementioned cookshows, cookbooks, my mum, and my friend ben. i still consider myself a beginner bordering on an amateur *ahhem* but i am glad to say that my repertoire is expanding. i make mainly western food (which, to me, is the easiest), simple chinese food (i personally feel that the hardest cuisine to master is chinese - you can argue if you like, but nobody beats a top chinese chef), a bit of korean and japanese, and very simple indian food.

i firmly believe that knowing how to cook is essential and i totally recommend that you try it!

ps: i think i may turn this into a pseudo-food blog, so do expect more upcoming posts on food!

a quick preview:

baked blueberry cheesecake,
rachel allen's recipe.

be right back

out of ideas/pure laziness.