Starchy or Buttery?

I had planned to prepare a western meal for dinner, so during lunch I hopped over to the Cold Storage supermart in Takashimaya (which is near my office) to look for some ingredients. I came across a half-cut Hokkaido pumpkin and decided a soup starter would be nice.

First, I fried a yellow onion and a clove of garlic with some butter in the pressure cooker. Next, I put in the diced pumpkin and spare carrot slices, sprinkled some flour and stir fry for three minutes. To give it more flavour, I threw in half a Knorr chicken cube, a bay leaf, and added water, then let the mixture simmer inside the pressure cooker for about five minutes. After the mixture cooled down, I blended it and put the refined mixture back into the pressure cooker, added some fresh milk (in place of the usual cream which I run out) and brought it to a quick boil again, and the soup was ready to serve.

Hubby like the smooth texture of the pumpkin soup, but he thought the parsley tasted a bit raw and over-powering. "That's because it's Italian, not Chinese. I like to try different things, you know?" I told him with a grin.

For the main dish, I prepared LJS's fish batter to deep fry the fillets. Hubby was puzzled at the white heap of mashed potato-like thingie. "What is that?" he asked. "Try it!" I replied teasingly. The moment he took the first mouthful, a smile spread across his face. "Mashed cauliflower!" It's one of his favourite veggie. "Yup, lightly buttered so it doesn't taste too bland," I added. Want the recipe? Click here.

It took some work and perspiration to cook this meal, but seeing my hubby's satisfied look on his face, I felt it's worth all the trouble. Not starchy, and certainly not too buttery either...

LJS - Long John Silver (sounds familiar). If you wanna know the recipe, just Google it. There're plenty of blogs and cooking sites that teaches you how to.