Tingkat-free!

We have been eating tingkat meals since Mar this year. Tried a few caterers and altho there were reputed to be the better ones around, we were really getting very tired of the food.

I've wanted to stop many times and try to manage to cook my meals but hb is afraid that I would (most likely) ignore my meals and end up snacking, etc. Hence, he has insisted that I stick with tingkat.

Hb is on leave for the next week so I've persuaded him to let me cook simple meals and try to see if I can manage. He has agreed. But, I sneakily also cancelled it. I want to try out if I can manage when hb is not around. Well, if I can't, they are just a phone call away.

So, for our 1st home cooked dinner, it has to be yummy and easy to prepare. This dish is also hb's and my fave - Chinese Sausage Rice and Spinach & Fish Ball soup. Whenever I make this rice, I must make this simple boil of spinach soup (red leaves) or watercress soup. It just goes so well together! I did not use my favourite duck liver sausage as hb doesn't like them so stuck with the normal ones.

Chinese Sausage Rice (Yau-mei fan)

Ingredients

11/2 to 2 cups uncooked rice (washed and drained, set aside)

3 chinese sausage (sliced)

5 - 6 dried mushrooms (pre-soaked till soft and sliced thinly)

4 tbsp of dried shrimps (washed and soaked for 5 mins, discard water)

Cilantro (chopped)

2 tbsp fried onions

1 thumb size of ginger, sliced thinly

Seasonings

2 tbsp Oyster sauce

1 tbsp dark soya sauce

1 tsp Maggi chicken powder (no msg version)

1 tsp sugar

2 tbsp of chinese wine

Dash of sesame oil

Method
- Place washed rice (w/o) into rice cooker and set aside

- Heat a little oil in the wok/pan and add a few slices of ginger (keep some for the rice)

- Once ginger slices are fragrant, add the dried shrimps and fry lightly till fragrant

- Add the chinese sausage and fry till light golden brown

- Add shrimps, sausage and mushrooms to rice cooker

- Pour in seasoning and add some pepper before mixing well

- Mix in the fried onions and sliced ginger

- Add slightly more water than what you normally use for cooking white rice.

- Once cooked, sprinkle cilantro and more fried onions and serve hot

Simple Spinach Soup with Fish Balls

Ingredients

1 packet of red round leaves spinach

1/2 cube of ikan bilis stock cube

1 packet of Dodo Chilli Fish balls

3 large slices of ginger

Cilantro

Method

- Boil a pot of water with cube stock and ginger

- Once boiling and can smell ginger's fragrance, add the spinach and let it boil for 5-8 mins

- Add the fish balls and continue to let it boil for another 10 mins

- Season with pepper and a dash of sesame oil.

- Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with rice

Tips

- Keep the clean mushroom water, which you can use to cook the rice

- If you are not comfortable to use cube stock, you can use fresh ikan bilis or soya beans as soup base

- You can also add the fish balls in the last 5 mins before soup is boiled. I prefer to ensure it is thoroughly boiled as afraid of fishy smell