Turnip Fries

The only way I know how to eat turnip is  to either eat it raw or cook it with dried shrimps as popiah fillings.  I happened to find "Turnip Fries" recipes online and thought it's something new to try.  Here are the steps :- http://chubbybunnyrecipes.blogspot.com/2007/06/turnip-french-fries.html

(1) Simply cut the turnip into strips

(2) Lay them on baking tray with baking sheet

(3) Sprinkle with a little oil if you like

(4) Sprinkle with a little salt and dried basil leaves

(5) Bake for 20 minutes at 180C

     

As I had selected fan oven mode to bake it (don't know why, maybe I was in "anyhow cook" mode that day), the fries turned out not looking like the normal fries, which didn't really look appetizing to my hubby.  So I decided to try another recipe, this time using the turbo convention mode, with paprika and parmesan cheese seasonings.  You can get the recipe from allrecipes.com - Crispy Turnip Fries.

"Umm..this looks more like french fries....not bad...but I still prefer to eat it raw with rojak." Hubby commented.  Well, I would say I quite like the new "french fries" idea.  Moreoever, it is healthier than eating those potato deep fried ones.

Turnip is rich in vitamin C, antioxidants, magnesium, calcium, folate and is a good source of iron, and riboflavin.  For those who don't like to eat raw turnip but like to have a low-cal substitute for french fries can try baking this.

   

Soupy Mushy

During one of my lunch break last week, I ordered mushroom mee suan soup at the food court near my office.  For some reason, the vendor forgotten that I had requested for mee suan, she gave me egg noodles instead.  It was not a very satisfying meal cos the vendor refused to change for me.  While I was eating, I surveyed the ingredients and thought it was a rather simple meal to prepare myself.

So I've decided to try it last night.  The ingredients I prepare are:

-ikan bilis (anchovies) soup stock

-straw mushroom (canned)

-enoki mushroom

-oyster king mushroom
-tomato

-fried shallot (for garnishing)

The ikan bilis soup stock was pre-boiled over the weekend and kept frozen.  I moved it to the lower fridge shelf this morning to defroze so that by the time I get home, I can start boiling the soup right away.

Hubby likes instant noodles, while I get to have my mee suan.  It's a pity I forgot to add the fried shallot and rearrange the mushrooms before taking this picture.

It only took 15 mins to prepare this meal.  I learnt that eating enoki mushroom with tomato aids blood circulation; so I thought why not since the colour also enhanced the bowl of soup.         

A Perfect Marriage

Talking about differences in a married life, one of the areas are food preferences. My late father loved porridge while my mother dislikes it, preferring white rice instead. In fact, she influenced me since young that white rice tastes better than porridge, and the only time she cooked porridge was when I had diarrhea. But now that I have my own kitchen, I find myself making porridge quite often. Perhaps I had unconsciously "inherited" the liking from my father.

Actually, there was a period (before I was married) I actually skipped breakfast and left home early to Kovan hawker centre to queue for the teochew porridge there. 

There are many side dishes and snacks that go well with porridge. And the combination of peanuts and ikan bilis (anchovies) is my current favourite. I've learnt that peanuts, eaten together with ikan bilis, has several benefits such as, it enhances the absorption of calcium into our body, improves normal blood clotting, as well as helps our bones to grow.

I've successfully managed to incorporate porridge into my breakfast menu. It's like a wish come true. A bowl of hot porridge in the morning brings a sense of warmth that awakens the stomach at the start of a new day indeed!

More often than not, we find ourselves married to someone who has diverse likings and preferences, etc.  Regardless, it still produces something fragrant and beautiful, just like peanuts and ikan bilis.

Asparagus

Last night, I decided to try a different way of cooking asparagus.

Ingredients:

1. Asparagus

2. Red Bell Pepper

3. Enoki Mushroom 

4. Black Fungus 

According to the health information in my reference book, eating such combination protects our eyes as well as lower our body fats. Asparagus is consider a mild cooling food and is beneficial to our liver, prevent heart problems and cancer.

Preparation is fairly easy. Blanch the asparagus lightly first.  Drop the red bell pepper, enoki mushroom and black fungus into a heated wok with a bit of oil, and do a quick stir fry.  Add one teaspoon each of sesame oil, knorr chicken stock powder, rice wine and sprinkle a bit of salt, then add the blanched asparagus, make a quick stir fry before serving. 

How's that?  The colours of the dish makes me hungry. And the taste? Just perfect! 

I also fried some eggs with yellow onions to go with this dish.  I learnt that eating eggs with black fungus actually helps to strengthen our bones and teeth.  Asparagus with eggs also bring a rosy glow to our skin.  Those with joint pain can try eating asparagus with crab meat cos it is said to reduce the pain.  However, take care not to eat asparagus with bananas, as it will irriate our stomach and cause discomfort. 
I told hubby I'm happy to prepare tasty home-cooked meals for him.  He was all smiles. 

Portobello

Haven't had portobello for some time, so I decided to prepare some for dinner last night. 

The first time I got to know about this breed of mushroom was at the Margaritas restaurant some years back.  Its aroma and jucyness attracted me.  Best of all, it's available at the NTUC supermarket.  Had tried a couple of recipes from the internet; be it toasted with a slice of cheese on top, or with onions and bell peppers, hubby likes them all. 

Last night's attempt, however, was quite disappointing.  Instead of chopping the onions, I actually decided to grind it with my dry mill so as to avoid teary eyes.  As a result, the pungent smell of the onion was too overpowering and didn't taste as good. 

Wonder if anyone knows to chop onions without bringing tears to the eyes?  Someone told me I could fill my mouth with some water while doing it, but I had tried before and it doesn't really help very much. 

Thankfully hubby finished the meal without any complaint. And that's what I really appreciate about him too...

Baking Mood

If you ask me, I'd prefer cooking over baking (be it cakes or other form of pastries).  Why? Because I don't really like food that is too sweet, buttery or creamy.  But I do indulge in some sinful desserts occasionally.  Hehe.

As for hubby, he's a desset guy (well, almost).  Before we bought the oven, I made a few attempts at baking muffins with the microwave oven; it was a disaster! Fortunately, my elder sister encouraged me to attend baking classes, and so I signed up for one recently at BIY (short for Bake-It-Yourself). Haha, no muffin class available so I opted for something close - profiteroles (a 2-hour lesson). 

Just last Sunday I managed to try it out with the new oven.  Guess what? Tada!

Success!  My youngest niece loved it and ate two of them - a very powerful affirmation for the efforts I put in indeed, and that really made my day!

With renewed zest, I decided to give the muffins a try again, since there were some over-ripe bananas in the kitchen.  The recipe is taken from bakingmum.blogspot.com.  I reduced the sugar content as bananas have a much higher sugar level when over-ripe. 

The result?  See for yourself...

"Ah-ha...! Finally, muffins that rise huh...? Not bad." hubby said after one bite.

"The texture could be better," I quibbed, "The ingredients used were mixed by hand. If you want smoother, lighter muffins, get me a mixer, OK?"

"I knew there's a catch somewhere..." hubby just shook his head in resignation.

Yay...      

Turkish Figs

Maybe you've seen this fruit before.  I came across it during last Sunday's wet market trip.  It's a fig fruit from Turkey as what the fruit seller told me.  I found it rather special as I've never seen such fruit before.  What I normally see is the small light brownish yellow type of fig fruits which people usually use to make dessert or soup.  So I decided to buy it home to try even though it costs me $6 for 4 figs! 

According to the fruit seller, it is only edible when the skin turns dark purple. 

How do you eat it?  By peeling the outer layer skin from the tip of the fruit.

Here you have it, the inner view of the fruit.  It was soft and very easy to eat, sweetness is mild but just enough, unlike the dried figs which tend to be much sweeter.  It's worth trying as it is not a fruit that we get to see that often here.  

Beauty Food : SP2

In one of my previous post, I mentioned this book about food combination for health which I refer to frequently. It features food ranging from vegetables, meat, seafood, fruits, etc. Besides mentioning the benefits of each type of food, it also states the effects of combining food that will or will not benefit our health, which is what I like about this book. After all, anyhow cook doesn't mean haphazard cooking, you know.

This book is in Mandarin, the title translated is "Achieving good health by eating the right food".  In fact, NTUC is selling the 2nd edition of this book currently. I'll try to share some of the knowledge I learned from this book here.  Since it's a Chinese book, I'll have to put my translation skills or rather, my hubby's, to the test.

For a start, I tried stir frying pumpkin and steamed prawns.  I love the sunny colour of these dishes which whet my appetite.

The book suggests that eating pumpkin and prawns together can help to beautify our skin and reduce fatigue. The vitamin C in pumpkin combines with the protein of prawns to improve formation of collagen, and it helps prevent freckles as well as reduce fatigue.

So go ahead - try SP2 (short for Sunny Prawn and Pumpkin), it's a cheaper and tastier alternative to SK2. Satisfaction guaranteed!      

Homemade Ginger Tea

Lately, I’ve fallen in love with ginger tea. Especially when honey is added to it. So yummy !

I discovered that actually ginger tea offers a multitude of benefits to our health. “Ginger tea has been used for thousands of years as an herbal remedy to treat a wide range of health concerns from nausea and colds to indigestion and joint pain. It is also purported to help boost the immune system and promote cardiovascular health.” http://www.learn-about-tea.com/ginger-tea.html .

A Chinese website that I chanced upon also sited very good health benefits of drinking ginger tea, whether it is mixed with honey, red or black sugar. Ginger tea with red sugar is said to be very good for women. If it is drank a week or so before a woman’s menstruation, it helps to ease possible cramps. The mixture of honey and ginger provides instant relief to a person suffering from cough, cold, sore throat, and runny nose. Apparently both ginger and honey contain natural anti-biotics. Each time when I feel an onset of sore throat or runny nose coming, this drink come to my rescue and it really works !

What I like most about this tea is because it is really easy to brew. Required ingredients are simply ginger, boiling water and honey. Usually I would manually minced the ginger, and put it into a stainless steel strainer.

Pour boiling water, cover it and simmer for about 10 to 15 mins.

After that, remove the strainer, let it cool down by another 30 mins or so before adding honey to taste.

I use raw honey here which gives a natural taste. The reason to cool down the drink before adding honey is to ensure that the high temperature of the drink do not spoil the honey nutrients.  I've also learnt that the correct way to make ginger tea is not to boil the ginger in a pot, but to simmer in a cup of boiling water. This way it will prevent the goodness of ginger from being damaged.

Just yesterday, I read that there are actually few types of ginger with each type giving different health effects to our body.  Wow, didn't know that.  Anyway, I hope to share it here after I find out more.

Nuts 'bout Walnuts?

Not exactly crazy about it but I loved eating walnut muffins or cakes when I was young, especially so if the pastry happened to be sweet, the presence of walnut would help to neutralize it to my taste. I basically dislike things that are either too sweet or too saltish. Fortunately hubby isn't too particular and can live with my preferences when it comes to food.

I bought a soya drink maker some months back and had been using it mainly to make soya milk. Since it also has functions for making peanut and sesame paste, I decided to try making walnut paste.

It is actually quite easy: simply soak the walnut for 2 hours, and soak some uncooked rice grains for 30 mins, boil some water with rock sugar, put all in the machine, and let it do the work. However, the walnut did not seem so well blended after the first round, so I got the machine to go one more round, before it turns out like this: 

 

I liked the texture. What about hubby? He's all smiles after tasting it.

The Wok is Willing...

... but the chef is weak. That's what was in my mind during the days when I was not blogging. Being employed and having to prepare meals each day is no simple task, though hubby helps out in the cleaning and washing up after meals (which I appreciated very much). I guess too much of western food may not be a good thing, such as pork chop...

and chicken drumstick sauteed in mushroom sauce...

Hubby seemed to succumbed to a kinda western food withdrawal syndrome (he is after all still very chinese in heart), and so I reverted back to simple soup-based dishes such as mushroom soup with lean pork, dried bean curd and carrot. 

But alas the weather and exposure to air-borned virus in packed public transportation did my hubby in and he was finally down with flu this week. So I had to prepare my meals even more carefully so as not to aggravate his conditions, such as this lightly stir-fried leeks with wolfberries in miso paste gravy...

... and the sliced fish with bitter gourd and tomato in vermicelli soup.

Fortunately hubby recovered well enough with a little tender loving care from his personal chef, and decided to accompany me for a Saturday outing today. And that certainly brightened my day!

Mangolicious Cod

Hubby's favourite fish is cod. I happened to have one juicy cod steak in the freezer. Hubby loves mango too. I'm looking at one now lying on the kitchen top. Now the question is: are they compatible? Well, you never know unless you try, right?

So, I fired up my computer and search for a mango sauce recipe. Found one here. But I decided to substitute vinegar with leftover lemon slices I had in my fridge. That's just me, always finding ways to clear the clutter in my kitchen just to make sure nothing expires and everything stays fresh. The result? Mmmm... mangolicious!

Cod is much easier. I marinated it with dashi shoyu, salt, some ginger slices (my own concoction; not bad for an anyhow attempt), and then baked it in my new Tefal hot convection oven (yes, you heard it right! hubby finally bought me a personal oven to experiment with new dishes... yeah!).

Added some vermicelli (bee hoon) and a couple of blanched broccoli, and what have you got? A wholesome and delicious dinner meal, of course!

Hubby's rather pleased with the way the cod was baked to near perfection, and the mango sauce certainly enhanced the overall taste. I'm sure he's looking forward to more such dishes, baked or roasted by the new member of the kitchen.

Hubby and Chocolate

Seems like hubby has taken a greater liking for chocolate ever since he married me, maybe because I almost always orders hot chocolate whenever we frequent Starbucks or Coffee Beans. He has such a love for good food sometimes he'll include them in our casual conversations...

Tonight as he came in from the front door from work, I extended my arms to welcome him, wanting to take his backpack while he removed his shoes. Instead he misinterpreted my gesture and gave me a hug. Nice. "Wah, how come your backpack so heavy? Got gold bars, is it?" I joked. He walked past me and with a nonchalant voice, remarked, "The probability of finding chocolate bars inside my backpack is higher than gold bars..."

Later, over at the dinner table, I read an article to him from a recent copy of The Eagles' VantagePoint magazine on how a man's theology about women may have either good or bad repercussions on his relationships with the women around him, in particular his wife. He listened thoughtfully, and then asked me, "Do you think I'm chauvinistic?" I replied instantly with a grin, "No, you're not!" He heaved a sigh of relief, and then muttered, "I guess I'm more of a chocolanistic guy..." I broke into laughters.

.

Ps: Are there any good chocolate recipes that my readers can recommend me to pamper my hubby with?

NDP 2010

Today is Singapore's 45th birthday, but we're not going to the National Day Parade (NDP) because we did not have the tickets. Staying home on a holiday wasn't a bad idea anyway.

Hubby wanted to eat Yong Tou Fu so I went to the West Coast market to do some marketing and bought

the ingredients to make this lunch for him.  As I did not have time to pre-soak the soya beans, I simply make the broth using ikan bilis, yellow onions, garlic and ginger and it turned out to be superb!   

                                     

After lunch I went to NTUC to buy a tub of Kings raspberry ice-cream (hubby's favourite brand and flavour) as I suddenly remembered one of my colleague gave me a pack of chocolate flakes which her daughter brought all the way back from London.  It was a nice cool dessert perfect for warm weather.

For dinner, I decided on something simple but nuitritious: Tomato and Loofah soup with black fungus and sliced lean pork. This soup not only strengthens your digestive system, it also reduces heatiness and counters constipation. Suitable especially during hot weather, or when you eat too much heaty stuff or stays up late at night. Took only 10 minutes to prepare.  Maybe I didn't add enough tomatoes and meat, the soup was not so tasty.....  Anyway,  try it!

Here's the link to the recipe.

C-P-F

I'm not referring to the Central Providential Fund (CPF) which every Singaporean employee has to contribute a percentage of his or her salary to. For the past few days, I've been busy preparing some rather tantalising food for my hubby, so did not update my blog.

For dinner, I made the dark sauce mid-section chicken wings, and lady's fingers in chilli with brown rice. Hubby tasted the difference in style; he likened his mum's to lao-po-bing (wife's biscuit, sweet) flavour, while mine is lao-gong-bing (husband's biscuit, salty) flavour. When it comes to food, he really knows how to draw up such analogies!

For breakfast, I made him a burger pattie from minced pork, onions and bread crumbs, sandwiched with butterhead and tomato slices between lightly toasted focaccia bread. I even made him a cup of hot chocolate to go with it. What better way to start a day than a good breakfast?

Recently, I bought some fish fillet from NTUC and decided to bake it with fine bread crumbs and parmesan cheese. Side dish was sliced blanched butterhead, tomatoes and cut portobello mushrooms. For starter, we had focaccia bread dipped in extra virgin olive oil mixed with balsamic vinegar (I learnt it from an overseas counterpart during one of my company's business trip. Try it! You'll like it too...)

So what does C-P-F stand for, you're probably asking by now. Simple. It's Chicken-Pork-Fish, the three basic meats I used for the above dishes.

Pearly Barley and Black Beauty

Last Saturday was quite a hot day, so I decided to make dessert to beat the heat outside. I called this dish Pearly Barley Soup with Beancurd Strips, though it's better known as Fu-Zhu-Bai-Guo Tang (Beancurd strips with Ginkgo Nuts Soup). Actually there's a small "incidence" in the past to this dish but I'll tell you at the end of this post. The last I made this dessert was more than a year ago until I saw this recipe from noobcook.com.  Here's the ingredients: Barley, beancurd strips (the soft type suitable for this dish), ginkgo nuts, red dates, and rock sugar.

Today, we had a special dish: Pig's trotters in black vinegar (with old ginger). It wasn't prepared by me, but by one of my hubby's Sunday School students, who brought it to him last evening.

We thought it'll be a good idea to have it with white rice for lunch today. Judging from my hubby's expression, he's simply in seventh heaven now, or was it since last Friday? He finished up two big plates of rice with just this one dish! Now I know the meaning of being blissful when it comes to food...

Here's the story:

Shortly after I was married , I tried makng the pearly barley soup, thinking it's one of the simplest dessert to prepare, and wanting to assure my mother-in-law that I'm quite capable of feeding her son with good and nuitritious food. Unfortunately, the recipe I got at that time didn't specify using the correct type of beancurd strips.  I didn't recall my mum ever make this dessert before.  So I thought I could simply use the only type of beancurd strips that I know - which was meant for cooking not for making dessert, until my mother-in-law remarked after tasting it, "What kind of fu-zhu did you use to make this dessert....there are two types you know?"   Ooops...!  No wonder I had spent a long time boiling my dessert and wondering why it took so long for the beancurd strips to dissolve into smoother strips!  Embarassed......

The 5th Element

Pretty slick huh, the title of this blog? I was thinking of that Sci-fi movie starring Bruce Willis while contemplating what name of this post to give for this dish I just prepared for dinner. It has five ingredients: kombu, red dates, mushrooms, pork bones, and pinto beans.

The fifth element in this case, was the pinto beans. Yup, you read it right, no rice (carbo), just beans to go with the rest of the one-dish soup meal. Simple to prepare and clean up after meal (hubby's not complaining since he's the one who does the washing up).

From Pulp to Pork

This morning, I prepared a different kind of breakfast. I called it the Leftovers. Let's see... there were four slices of whole grain bread left in the Gardenia bag, one orange which I brought back from my office's fruit day, and okara (soy pulp, remains from making soya milk last week). Now for a little magic: stir fried the okara with two eggs and some onion slices in the non stick pan, sandwich them in the bread slices, and then decorate with a few peels of refreshingly zesty orange slices. There you have it!

Hubby's been looking forward to Friday this week, not that it was the last work day of the week (that TGIF thingie), but because I promised him I'll cook his favourite dish for dinner: sweet and sour pork (or ko-ro-yok for the initiated). I used 257g of pork meat (hubby kinda protested when I trimmed off some of the fats but it's for his good actually), half stalk of crunchy telegraphic cucumber (whatever that is), freshly cut pineapples, onion slices, and most importantly, the sauce (ready-made Lee Kum Kee sweet and sour source). I'd very much wanted to make the sauce myself but for lack of time; oh well, maybe the next time round...

Hubby was all glee when I put the plate in front of him; you could tell how pleased he must've been, judging from his longing gaze on those pork meat cubes. I supposed at that moment he's only got eyes for them and not me. Can't blame him really, afterall I only cooked it twice since we married - last year and this year. Too much of this is certainly not good for him, you know... Haiz!

Home-Made Goodness

 What has mustard in common with vegetables? Well, not much actually, unless it happens to be msutard greens you're talking about. That's what we had for dinner tonight, since hubby has an affinity for the slightly bitter taste of this veggie, but certainly not me. To compromise so both of us got to enjoy it, I stir fried with chicken stock, some cut garlics, carrot slices, red chilli and anchovies.

Surprisingly, the dish turned out pretty well, as hubby kept helping himself to the gravy with all the natural sweetness infused. "Soft and sweet, very sweet!" was his remark.

And guess what? We had glutinous rice (my mum made and gave it to us last night when we went over for a visit) and hubby's mum's home-made chilli to go with it! It's truly a home-cooked meal with all the home-made goodness. And that's pure happiness...!

PR and BS

No, I'm not talking about permanent residents (PR) or bull-shit (BS) here. Remember the Josephine pineapples I mentioned in my previous post? Well there's still some left over in the fridge so I decided to make Pineapple Rice with them.

The night I made PR, hubby brought home a tub of queer looking fried-curled fish chips and asked me to guess the name. "Looks like ikan bilis to me but it's kinda big..." I told him. He gave me that mischevious smile and said, "The chinese name is mei-ren-yu (mermaid fish). I got it from my company's canteen operator coz his wife cooked this dish today. Just wanna let you try."

Well, it's a little bit spicy but other than that, I like the crispiness. The BS part was the Burdock root Soup to be precise. My sister gave me this recipe. She said it is very good for health especially for people who always sit in front of the computer. It has detox value that purges out the “poison” in our body. I googled and learnt that there are many more benefits from eating burdock root. Since then it has become a regular dish on our dining table.

Burdock root can be easily found at the wet market or supermarket, whilst white and green carrots with leaves are quite a rare find. I learnt that the leaves of white and green carrots actually contain lots of vitamins and so are their skins. So far the only place I can find those carrots that come with leaves are at the wet market near our house. However, it is currently under renovation, so I can only make do with those that don’t come with leaves for the time being. Maybe if you know where I can get them, do let me know. Thanks!

Here's the recipe for this low-caloried soup (and it's no bull-shit, I assure you):

White carrot x 1 (with leaves). Do not peel skin

Green carrot x 1 (with leaves). Do not peel skin

Red carrot x 1
Burdock root 300g (remove skin)
Shitake mushroom x 4
Boiling water 4 bowls

Carbo or Karbo

Nope, it should be Kabocha - Japanese pumpkin, a mini size one. Bought it at the West Coast market at the suggestion of the vegetable stall owner, who claimed that it's sweet and the skin can be eaten after steaming. Really? Now this, I gotta try...

Behold the interior of the Kabocha...

and after it's steamed in the pressure cooker...

Surprisingly, the skin turned soft and could be sliced up easily together with the inner flesh using a metal spoon. As it is rich in beta carotene, and contains iron, vitamin C, potassium, and smaller traces of calcium and folic acid, it can be prepared as a simple, healthy snack. Serves up!

A Raw Deal

Been busy the past week so didn't really have time to update my blog. Last Saturday I went with hubby on a one day trip to Kukup, West Malaysia, for seafood and durian. The tour guide recommended the Josephine pineapple (a cross between the Johor and Sarawak species), so we decided to buy some on our way home at the Jusco supermarket.

The next day, I got hubby to peel the skins and cut into fan-shaped pieces, thinking that I'll make some dishes using pineapple as one of the ingredients. As you can see, hubby really did a good job...

I have an appointment tonight with my church's ladies, so I decided to prepare something easy and raw, well almost - watercress pinapple salad with slices of red and green capsicum.  I got this idea from a Chinese book that talks about certain food combination and the effect it would cause.  It says that the combination of pineapple and watercress actually promote good blood circulation in our body; and the combination of pineapple with prawns may invigorate our gastric and cause vomitting.  Wow...didn't know that before !


So, I boiled the watercress slightly so that it'll be more forgiving on hubby's tummy, and just to be on the safe side, I also made a bowl of hot instant mushroom soup to go along with it.

Hubby's feedback? "Tonight's dinner is OK, except for one thing," he paused and looked at me for a moment, then added, "I know you like crunchy stuff, but next time go easy on the capsicum, alright? My jaws got tired after munching so much of it at one go, you know?" Oh well, I guess he'll not be having capsicum any time sooner for a while. Back to planning my next meal...

Garlically Speaking

Hubby has a strange taste for garlic. In the early days, I observed that he'll meticulously pick up every bit of garlic from the vegetable he's eating and arrange them nicely along the edge of his plate. When asked, he replied, "I don't like to eat vegetable with garlic bits coz they always get stuck between the grooves in my teeth. Very irritating! But it's alright if they're very small (finely chopped) since I can't pick them."

So I thought: perhaps if I smash the garlic cloves instead, he'll eat 'em since the chances of getting stuck in his teeth is less likely." Boy, was I wrong!" One evening I prepared cut potato cubes with carrot slices and leeks, then added in smashed garlic, sprinkled parsley, a few bay leaves, and a pinch of butter. When the mixture was cooked, I poured some stock to make it more soupy, thinking hubby would slurp it all up.

Imagine my surprise when he started picking out the smashed garlic pieces! "Darling, what are you doing?" I asked, feeling a little exasperated. "Umm... I don't like chunky garlic one... Well, maybe I can eat a few here and there, but not every one of them." Sometimes, I just couldn't understand his logic...

Fortunately, hubby was rather pleased with the baked fresh water prawns I caught during my company's recent prawning activity at the Hai Bin U Enterprise in Bishan. See how nice the colors of the prawn were after defrosting (just look at the long blue color pincers!)

Yeah, I know it looks kinda messy with all the herbs (thymes, basil leaves, paprika) and squeezed lemon juice, and a little canola oil. But that's just how I experiment and cook - anyhow. And believe me, they tasted fresh and juicy.

Hubby gave the thumbs up, and offered to peel the prawns for me. Huh! He subtly chose all the small prawns for me and kept the big ones for himself!