A Tale of 4 Home Diners #1

Holding a day job tends to feed me with excuses of not having time to cook at home on a given weekday, but I certainly relish the opportunity of a home cooked meal when I do get one. Soon enough, the weariness of eating out everyday finally sent me off to the supermarket for some dinner ingredients.

Fuss free dinner is key and the Baking Mama will find ways to amortize the investment of a prolytic oven and her under-utilized steam oven. These two dishes are as simple as they can get:

Baked Chicken with Mushrooms

Ingredients

4 pcs Skinless Chicken Thigh

2 packets of Mushrooms.

Seasoning

2 tbsp Oyster Sauce

1/2 tbsp Soya Sauce

Pepper

A dash of Cooking Wine.

Preparation:

1. Season chicken for 30min (I normally season the night before)
2. Lay a piece of foil on baking dish.
3. Slice mushrooms and lay over chicken
4. Wrap chicken and mushrooms with aluminium foil and baked for 35-45min at 220 deg C.

Steamed Eggs

Ingredients
2 eggs
1 salted egg yolk
1 century egg
1/4 cup of water

Preparation:

1. Crack 2 eggs in a steaming bowl and whip lightly
2. Cut salted yolk and century eggs into small cubes and add into egg mixture.
3. Add water and mix gently.
4. Steam for 15 min. Serve hot.

What kind of cook are you?

You Are a Learning Cook

You've got the makings of an excellent cook, and the desire to be one. But right now, you're just lacking the experience. You couldn't be a top chef yet, but you could be an apprentice.

Are You A Good Cook?

This is so uncanny.

It never occurred for me to take up Home Economics in school, and I would rather saw and chisel a piece of wood than to hold a spatula for that matter. In fact, I had never cooked a meal in my life prior to getting married. The Hub was a much better cook than I am. I used to observe in awe as he prepared his beef stew, or a tantalising pot of Japanese curry.

To me, flour is flour. It means nothing to me whether they are artisan flour, wheat flour, high-gluten flour, cake flour, self-raising flour, corn flour or just plain flour. Ok, you get the point.

These days, I tend to have mild discomfort if my fridge doesn't stock up slabs of unsalted butter, cream cheese, good baking chocolates such as Valrohna, or just good old flour. Suffice to say, I have enough flour to make 3 cakes, 24 muffins or several dozens of cookies now.

The kitchen used to be an unchartered territory for me. These days, the kitchen is my domain. If anyone in the Household steps in, it's mandatory that they abide by my rules.

The Hub said I have come a long way; my cooking skills have improved by leaps and bounds. Well, I have him to thank for a well-equiped kitchen, and many bestest gadgets he had bestowed on me.