One Dish, 10 Minutes

To make a quick dish, I blanch asparagus, strips of carrot, and enoki mushroom (if using) for 2 minutes, in boiling water with a pinch of salt.

Then I wrap the combination with bacon, using toothpicks to secure.  Pan fry till done. 

That's one dinner dish in 10 minutes!

Recycling Used Papers

Not Just Chop Sui

We Chinese love our food hot and fresh from the wok.  We call it the "energy of wok".  And good food must meet three criteria: vibrant in color, fragrant, and taste good.  And of course it's more than just Chop Sui and Sweet and Sour Pork.

And we must have rice for our meals - instead of potato.  Rice is the main source of carbo for us.

In Singapore, we work long hour.  We normally start at 8.30am, and if you can be done and leave the office by 6pm, you are lucky.

So by the time I come home after work, I have only 30 minutes to whip up a "full course" dinner with soup, rice and main course. 

So what do I do?

This first quick stir-fry dish I want to share is Stir-fry Beef with Mango.  Now, mango is easy to find here in the tropical country.  Here's what I do:

1. Marinade the beef with light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, a little sugar, a little cooking wine, pepper, a little water, and finally a bit of cornstarch.  "Massage" the marinade into the beef.
2. Cut mango into strips (same size as the beef), carrot, zucchini.
3. Mince 2 cloves of garlic, and a thumb size of ginger.
4. Heat wok, add oil (I use olive oil as a healthy alternative).  You can use any type of cooking oil.  When the oil is heat up, add ginger.  Fry for about 1 minute, add garlic.  This is because garlic turn brown faster than ginger so you want to add it later. 
5. When the garlic is a little brown, throw in the beef.  Make sure the wok is hot, and that you hear the sizzle and you see the steam when you throw in the beef (be careful though).  You can throw in the carrot at this point because, again, carrot takes a longer time to cook.  You can add in a little water here.
6. Stir fry quickly the beef for about 1 minute or 2 or when it turns brown. 
7. Throw in mango and zucchini.  Continue stirring.
8. Mix cornstarch with a little water.  Pour into the wok from the side.
9. Stir until sauce thicken.  And you are done.

Make sure you don't over cook the beef.  You can substitute beef with chicken or pork, but it would require longer cooking time.

Notice I don't have exact measurement?  Because I don't.  If you have watched Martin Yen, that's how we cook - a little bit of this and that.  You can adjust according to your preference.

This takes about 5 minutes to prepare and another 3 to 5 minutes (max) to cook.

Here's the end product.  Have fun!

Stir-fry Beef with Mango: takes 8 minutes to prepare.

What Lights Up The Home

I always think that fresh cut flowers light up the house and give it a homey feeling.  So I like to have fresh flowers at home. 

Singapore sits right above the equator.  This means, we get LOTS of sun 365 days a year.  The lowest temperature (and considered as "cold") is about 75 deg F, and that's rare.  It happens like 1 week in a year, and when it pours.  Normally this is the end of the year, during winter in the Northern hemisphere.  Other days, it's around 90 deg F - EVERYDAY.

So we don't get exotic flowers like poppy, tulips (if we do, they are imported and don't last long in a tropical environment and very expensive), and other seasonal flowers. 

I normally settle with colourful chrysthemum, which is very affordable and available all-year-round.  Or I go for orchid.  Both types of flowers last very long.

I also don't really spend time on flower arrangement - to save time, I would buy all in the same colour, and vary only with the vase. 

To make the flowers last longer, I cut a little of the stem everyday and change the water everyday (another thing in a tropical country is - still water breed mosquitoes so I change the water everyday).  By cutting the stem, you allow water to flow in and they normally can last for 2 weeks.  I also trim off some leaves and cut the stem to a shorter length - this will prolong the period the flowers stay fresh as well.

When some wilthered, I trim them off, and move the "surviving" ones to a smaller vase.

I enjoy having flowers around in the home.

I start with a whole bunch in a big vase.

Then after one week, some would have wilthered.  So I move to smaller vase.