Day 42 ... Steamed Garoupa in Taucu Organic Miso

STEAMED GAROUPA IN TAUCU ORGANIC MISO

You'd probably have guess by now that we have quite a bit of garoupa in the fridge. Bryan bought a whole fish on the day we made the garoupa curry, and got the fish guy to cut it up into several steaks. So yeah, have quite a bit of garoupa steaks sitting in the freezer now. :D

Today is Wednesday, and Justine has got a marathon class. It's gonna be like, send her to class, come back to cook, bring food for her, and send her to another class in another place. Thankfully, this would be the last marathon class. So anyway, dinner had to be quick. Decided to steam the fish at the same time as cooking the rice. In the pressure cooker.

1. Prepare

Lay tin foil on a plate. Fish on top.

Mix organic miso taucu paste with water. 

Pour over the fish.

Scatter carrots, daikon, chillies and parsley over.

Drizzle sesame seed oil.

Seal the foil.

2. Pressure Cooker

Brown rice at the bottom.

Place metal stand with fish on top.

Close lid. Turn on fire.

Should be ready within 20 mins.

Meanwhile, water fry green spinach with garlic.

Add seasalt and fried sweet shallots (extra in the fridge).

3. Garnish & Serve

I sprinkled BioSoy over my rice, 

and added chopped chillies with garlic in shoyu on the side.

My Dinner.

I ate with my fingers. Oh yum!

Somehow food always taste better with the fingers. :D

I had my one shaker of The Green Drink this morning. Didn't take lunch, was full after eating cempedak that Bryan brought back from Penang (from Jou's orchard) :D, and fish for dinner.

Sweet cempedak from Jou's orchard in Kulim.

Thanks Jou! :D

To Sum Up

1 shake & 1 meal

Juice. Fruit. Water.

 Time of Posting : 7:55am (Thursday)

PROTEIN POWER ...

Day 41 ... Pasta with Squid in Olive Oil

PASTA WITH SQUID IN OLIVE OIL

Fetched Bryan from the coach station at 8:30pm. Reached home in 15 minutes. Went straight to the kitchen to whip up a quick dinner. Had taken down some squid to thaw this evening. So decided to prepare pasta noodles with squid, and some vegetables from the fridge. Found a tupperware of shitake stems that I had saved and thought would add that too.

Dinner was ready by 9:15pm. Simple and no fuss. The pasta would have tasted better had I added more water. Or olive oil. Was not moist enough although the noodles were soaked with flavour. Perhaps should call the dish, Pasta Drought with Squid, instead. :D

1. Prepare

i. Boil spaghetti noddles till HALF-cooked. 

Add seasalt. Drain and leave aside.

ii. Saute onions, garlic and ginger (diced finely) 

in olive oil. 

2. Add On

Add baby squid, shitake stems (sliced) and carrots. 

Basil herbs. Fresh chopped parsley. 

Add water. Seasalt. Pepper. Lemon juice.

Transfer the pasta noodles. 

Toss well and simmer till pasta is done.

3. Garnish & Serve

Sprinkled sunflower seeds and sesame seeds over.

Serve with a side salad.

Bryan's plate. He added a dash of black pepper.

Side salad. 

The brown patches are the Japanese Salad Dressing.

I had one shaker of The Green Drink for breakfast, 

egg sandwiches for lunch and pasta for noodles.

To Sum Up

1 shake & 2 meals

Juice. Fruit. Water.

Time of Posting : 9:35am (Wed)

Day 40 ... Carrot Noodles in Daikon Soup

At the time of writing this entry, I am unable to transfer the photo I took of my noodles last night. It's in the handphone but can't seem to transfer it to the lap top this morning. Will wait for Justine to get home from school to help me with that.

PHOTO

Dinner tonight was simple. There was still a small pot of soup left from our Sunday do. Just nice for Justine and myself. Bryan is in Penang. So, all I did was to add carrot noodles, and beat an egg in it. For a bit of tanginess, added some tom yum paste too. Garnished with chopped spring onions and fried sweet shallots. We were quite full actually. We both shared a large portion of Mike's birthday cake from the night before for tea.

I had 2 shakers of The Green Drink for breakfast and lunch, a large slice of a high caloried cake (yikes!) and noodles for dinner.

To Sum Up

2 shakers & 1 meal

Juice. Fruit. Water. Cake.

Time of Posting : 8:47am (Tuesday)

Day 39 ... Hainanese Chicken Rice

Today is Michael's birthday.

We are cooking Hainanese Chicken Rice for dinner. Another one of Bryan's specialty. So no prizes for guessing who is the Head Chef. Michael arrives 15 minutes late. He is supposed to be here by 5pm. Says he had to pump petrol. Okay, we believe him. Let him off easy because caught sight of the cake from Secret Recipe in his hand. Oh goody! Dinner wouldn't be complete without a cake. Chill out a bit with an ice-cream stick. Chit-chat in the living area until Bryan announces at 6 pm that, It Is Time ... So, into the kitchen, we go. Birthday Boy is not spared.

Mike is responsible for preparing the shallots and garlic,

and brown the shallots. Handles his tasks seriously. No mistakes. :D

Bryan takes care of the chicken. 

Rubs seasalt all over and 

seals it with sesame seed oil.

The chicken is placed on a metal stand in the pressure cooker

above the rice grains that has been stir-fried with 

shallots, garlic and ginger.

A cube of no-msg chicken stock, seasalt

and the appropriate amount of water is added 

before the lid is closed and fire turned on.

The Birthday Dinner is finally ready. 

Chicken dish, the rice, the beansprouts and daikon soup, 

along with chilly sauce and other condiments.

Every dish is just - Perfect!

Close-up. The rice is moist and simply tasty and could be eaten on its own. Sunflower seeds and sesame seeds are sprinkled on top. See the green sambal? Tastes really good, and goes well with the chicken rice. Tauge is blanched with shoyu and drizzled with sesame seed oil. Crisp and crunchy.

Cheers to Carol and Justine!!!

BioFruity in a tall, fish-bowl glass.

Ta-dah! The birthday cake for dessert.

Mike looks relieved he got all the flame out in one blow. 

The number of candles are not correct, but never mind, 

stick all the candles in anyway. :D

Today, I had my one shaker of The Green Drink for breakfast,
yesterday's leftovers for lunch and the above for dinner.

To Sum Up
1 shaker & 2 meals
Juice. Fruit. Water. BioFruity.

Time of Posting : 12:01 pm

Day 38 ... Garoupa Steak Curry

GAROUPA STEAK CURRY

Spent some quality time with Bryan by attempting to help him cooked tonight's dinner. We were both armed with our respective weapons. He with the a-cook's-best-friend Spatula (I saute sear and fry) ... and moi with the don't-mess-with-me Cleaver, (I chop slash and slice). The word amputate did spring to mind, but I don't want to exaggerate, since everyone knows that you can only amputate a chicken. :D

So, dinner tonight was Garoupa - Steak - Curry ... How d'ya like that? Is that a fancy enough name fit for a Five Star Indian Restaurant? :D If it doesn't sound exotic enough, try saying it ...

s--l--o--w--l--y.

It's a very simple dish, this KaRI IKaN. Honestly, didn't know it was so easy to prepare fish curry. Anyone can do this. So, here's how he did it.

Step 1 : Prepare

(i) Sear the fish steak. 

Dry the steaks first on a kitchen tissue and rub seasalt over. He could have skipped this step except that he watched on AFC How To Sear A Fish without having it stick all over the pan, and he wanted to try that. The tip is to dry the fish before searing. :D

(ii) Saute shallots and garlic 

We used quite a bit of shallots and garlic, about 3 times more than the usual amount. Next, ahh, the cheatin' way - Add Ready-Mixed Curry Paste (Brand A1). Told You - No hassle. Very easy. Add water gradually. Bring to boil, then lower heat to simmer.

Step 2 : Add On

Add the fish steaks,

tomatoes, lady's fingers, bean curd sticks.

Add curry leaves. Add fresh milk.

(did not add salt)

Step 3 : Garnish & Serve

Garnish with a bunch of fresh coriander leaves

and lemon slices. Serve with fragrant white rice.

Close Up of the Garoupa Steaks 

we bought fresh from the market this morning.

My first round with the garoupa curry. It was absolutely mouth-watering delicious. 

This A1 Brand is quite good, I must say. For amateurs like us. 

It's like instant kari ikan but with the "my grandmother's secret ingredients" all in.

My second round with petai sambal with prawns.

Courtesy of my mother. :D

Today ...

I had my one shaker of The Green Drink for breakfast, Pan Mee for lunch and Garoupa Curry for dinner. I also popped some Viva Shield anti-oxidants and BioGarlic to prevent getting a sore throat the next day. Yeah, I sometimes get a sore throat after taking spicy food, and my mother's petai sambal was loaded with that.

To Sum Up

1 shaker & 2 meals

Juice. Fruit. Water. Iced BioFruity with lemons.

(Yup, am back on my juice after the drought the last few days)

Time of Posting : 10:30am (Sunday)

Day 37 ... Pasta with Shitake and Nori

 PASTA WITH SHITAKE AND NORI

Dinner tonight was a fast take-away. Tapau for Justine to eat in the car before going for her next class. So what's fast and filling, but pasta, I feel. :D This is really easy to do. I didn't add in vegetables because my daughter likes her pasta without the greens. Added the nori (seaweed) instead. Anyway, she's taken The Green Drink this morning, so I'm just gonna close an eye and not stress too much over her non-existent vegetable intake. :D

Step 1 : Prepare

Boil spaghetti till HALF-done.

Drain.

Step 2 : Stir-Fry

Saute shallots, garlic and ginger in olive oil.

Add shitake, tomatoes and carrots. 

Basil herbs. Add water.

Beat an egg. Pour into the pan.

Add in the pasta. Toss well.

Seasalt. Pepper.

Step 3 : Garnish & Serve

Lemon slice and chillies.

For Justine's pasta, 

I added crushed nori and sprinkled sesame seeds over.

 

 

MY DINNER

Had one shaker of The Green Drink this morning, 

egg sandwich for lunch, and shitake pasta for dinner.

To Sum Up

1 shake & 2 meals

No juice. Fruits. Water.

Still no juice. Bad, I know. Must change.

Must make time.

Time of Posting : 9:50am (Saturday)

Day 36 ... Tom Yum Fried Carrot Noodles

TOM YUM FRIED CARROT NOODLES

This evening, Justine said she wanted to have noodles for dinner. Bryan took it upon himself to cook dinner. I was uh, taking a nap. I didn't know he was in the kitchen until it was time to eat. I did ask Bryan to Wake Me Up Before He Cooks, Cooks ... but he did not, and I think he did not because secretly, he enjoys preparing the food all by himself. :D He said frying noodles is sap sap suey, no need to have two (amateur) cooks in the kitchen. So here's how he did it in 20 minutes. This time, he timed himself ... since I was in dream land. Zzzzz. Bryan says it's like maggi mi goreng, except add some this and thats.

Step 1 : Prepare

 (i) Saute shallots, garlic and ginger

in sesame seed oil.

Add vegetarian tom yum paste.

Add water. (No salt)

(ii) Boil the carrot noddles until half-cooked.

Drain and leave aside.

(He used 4 portions here.)

Step 2 : Add On

Add carrots, aubergines, 

white and purple cabbage.

Add baby squid.

Stir-fry on low heat to preserve the vegetables.

Add in the carrot noodles. Toss well.

Step 3 : Garnish & Serve

Garnish as below.

The noodles were really yummy! Since we had the chapatti for tea, it's a good thing he did not cook anything heavy. Bryan said he didn't use much oil, in case I was wondering why the noodles were not like, glittering and gleaming and shining. I wasn't wondering at all. I was just in awe of his decor abilities. Says, normally when noodles can glitter, gleam and shine, it's because of the excess oil. So minus excess oil, but still so delicious. :D We sometimes use carrot noddles because they are more springy and firmer in texture, thus have a better appearance when it comes to frying. After reading the little comments I made about the importance of garnishing, see how carefully Bryan executes his work of art. :D Justine reserved a small portion and kept in a container to take to school for break the next day (Friday).

Sweet mangoes for dessert ...

TEA - TIME

We both had 2 shakers of The Green Drink today, for breakfast and lunch. We didn't have time to take lunch because he had to rush for an appointment at 2pm, and I had to finalise my newsletter at the the Viva office at the same time. We got back, around 4:30pm; Bryan heated up the curry from the night before, and we had that with chappati for tea. :D The left over curry was somehow tastier today. :D

To Sum Up

2 shakers & 2 meals

No juice. Fruits. Water.

(Today, I'm going to make sure I do some juicing. 

All this "no time for juice" is about to become a habit.)

Day 35 ... Brown Rice with Vegetarian Curry

VEGETARIAN CURRY 

Today, Justine has a marathon tuition, from one class to another. From her Kasturi class that ends at 6:20pm, her next class is at 6:45-pm at Sri Petaling. I normally tapau her dinner for her to eat in the car while we travel to the next class. Her Wednesday schedule is a bit cranky, I must say. As I was not at home yesterday evening, I sms-ed to Bryan to prepare some food for her. That was about 5pm. Bryan did a quick vegetarian curry dish and steamed some brown rice for her. It was too late to de-freeze any meat that we might have in the fridge. Also, Justine doesn't like vegetables, so a vegetable dish is out. By the way, that is why she has to take The Green Drink every morning before she goes to school, and sometimes a second shaker on days that she requires more energy and concentration. Like on cranky days. :D 

Bryan started cooking at 5:15pm and was all done to leave the house by 5:45pm to pick Justine up for her next class.

Step 1 : Prepare

Saute shallots, garlic and ginger.

Add curry paste (Brand A1). 

Add water gradually.

Step 2 : Add On 

Add bean curd, potatoes and carrots.

Add curry leaves and seasalt.

Cover lid and simmer.

While simmering, 

steam a bowl of leftover brown rice

in the fridge.

Step 3 : Garnish & Serve

He was in a hurry and 

didn't have time to garnish the dish.

Just imagine if You could, 

some coriander leaves in the middle of the dish. 

Tapau-ed brown rice and the curry for Justine 

which she ate happily in the car 

with all the windows down. :D

To Sum Up

I had my one shaker of The Green Drink this morning,

leftover pasta for lunch, and the above for dinner. :D

No juice. No fruits. Just water.

No time for juicing. Ran out of fruits.

Need to rectify the - laziness 

before it becomes a convenient excuse.

Time of Posting : 9:22am (Thursday)

Day 34 ... Chicken with Rice Balls

CHICKEN WITH RICE BALLS

Left Carol's place in Segamat at 11am.

Stopped by along the road on the way to buy some durians home. This would be the last time we get kampung durians at this price from this place, we thought. However, our experience left a bitter taste in the mouth, when the 5 men who were at the durian started to hassle us to buy this, buy that one, shoving the durians in our faces with their, this one good, this one also good, etc ... and was aggressive to the point of becoming a pain in the you-know-where, in their way of pushing their durians. Quotation of prices also went berserk. Very, very - impolite.

So we bought 4 durians and got out of there. In the car, still felt like "tak shiok" (hokkien say, boh kam muan) so, I suggested we stopped by Malacca to have chicken rice balls for lunch. That lightened up our spirits and soon we were looking forward to lunch in Malacca. That corner shop right at the start of Jonkers Street is always filled with patrons. Weekend we can understand, but week day too??? The chicken is boneless and tender, and the rice ball is a favourite delicacy. Tapau-ed back for Bryan and Justine. :D

Dinner was ... No need to say lah. 

What else ... :D

There's just something about kampung durians 

that drives You a lil - insane ... :D

To Sum Up

Today was the first time, I did not take The Green Drink. I was not at home and had in fact forgotten about bringing a shaker of the powered drink powder along with me. So I had instead, Wan Tan Mee (breakfast) in a coffee shop in Segamat which was actually quite nice, Chicken with the Rice Balls (lunch) in Malacca which was absolutely Yummy! And Kampung Durians (dinner) back home in KL. :D So there ... That's my little adventure for the day. :D

Time of Posting : 8:19am (Thursday)