Warm Egg Custard

Wanna eat egg?

Egg is good food for pregnancy as well as confinement. It contains more than 12 vitamins and minerals, not to mention a well known source of protein. Since an egg is about 90 calories only, we can afford to add the unforgivable - some sugar. Add it to taste just before you are ready to steam your egg. Just do a quick dip and lick to make sure it's sweet enough for you. Raw eggs are yucky but they don't kill.

A good egg custard in my opinion, should be as close to soya beancurd as possible. Firm but soft yet runny when it enters the mouth. I'm still far from perfecting this but at least I have managed to do this to my acceptable level.

The trick I would remember by is going by proportion instead of weight. It is so much easier to remember this tip rather than having to search for a recipe all the time. I would put 1 egg to 1.5 portion of water. If you want a richer outcome, you may want to use milk or soy milk. There is no easier way but to use the egg shell as a measuring tool. 

So if you use 1 egg : 3 half egg shells of water. That will fulfill the 1:1.5 ratio without the need of a measuring equipment. 

So it doesn't matter how many eggs you are using. No mathematics will be required. Just egg shells. Savvy?

You can destroy the ugly clumps of egg white by simply straining it. Since it was yet another lazy day, I sacrifice my one and only teapot by pouring the entire mix into the mesh strainer. Within a minute, my egg was filtered.

And then I 'kope' some of my wife's baking stuff as my egg container. They were placed on a standard steaming set up. With boiling water (high heat) beneath all ready to gas your egg to glory.

So it began.

With that, I had to get the lid on for a proper steaming process. Immediately, I switched it down to low heat and left it there for 15 minutes. If you are using a big container, that should be more or less the correct timing. My eggs turned out a (just) slightly overcooked, perhaps because of the small containers I used (which required less time to cook the egg evenly) So if I were to do that again, I will adjust my steaming timing down by 1-2 minutes. If you did not get your custard to the perfect texture, adjust your timing accordingly and you will nail it the next time.

The steam blurred my final picture

Having said that, mine didn't turn out badly. My medal of accomplishment came from the fact both ladies in the house finished everything within minutes. Yet another meatless item for WD.

Angelica sinensis soup in coconut

Do you like coconut water? I do. So after the chores of cracking this coconut open, I drank all the water up. Fantastic experience. You should do the same too. Once the water is emptied out (into your stomach), leave the pulp alone and proceed with your work.

The ingredients of this dish are as the above pic. Just grab one or two pieces of chicken, a handful of wolfberries, 5-6 black dates and a few slices of Angelica Sinensis. Sometimes Angelica Sinensis comes in whole (like a twig), so just take a single thumb size amount of it will do. Lastly you need some good wine. Rice wine or perhaps DOM will do the trick.

The cooking method is terribly simple. You have no excuses really. Just dump every ingredient listed above into the coconut. Then fill the coconut up with your wine to about 80% full.

Cover your coconut and place it into a bigger container with enough water to do a double boiling. If you have a thermal pot, it will save you loads of energy. Since I am not a thermal pot salesman, I'll leave you to do some reading up on it yourself. Else, double boil the coconut on low heat for 3 hours.

This is my thermal pot

Result

This is quite a strong taste but it is meant to be. Your wife may not be able to take much of it. It took my wife 2 meals to finish it. This concoction warms the body tremendously and helps in removing "wind" and cure headaches. (it may cure some of your headaches too, if your wife sleeps earlier when she is drunk)

Drunken Egg

Hey, I almost burn down the kitchen for this. So you better appreciate this post. The ingredients for this are only

• 2 eggs
• 200g of wine (I used DOM, but Fuzhou red wine is recommended)
• a handful of black fungus
• at least 20g of ginger, sliced to strips

That's it. There is no excuse not being able to do this simple dish.

First, soak your black fungus in hot water until it is soft.

Do the usual stunt, bathe the ginger in very hot sesame oil.

Add in these eerie black stuff in the mix and fry about until they taste cooked

Add in 2 eggs and stir them about without much delay. Then pour your wine in. That was where it became dramatic for me. After add my wine in, I turned my back to place the cup into my wash basin. 

That was only a split second but when I turned back I was greeted with a pan-ful of flames licking all the way to my hood! Hmm. Now what? Take a picture of course, because burning down the house wasn't as important as showing you how to cook. My fire alarm set off again. That was the third time this week. Just that unlike the previous two incidents, it was triggered by smoke not flames. Hey that was not the first time I dealt with flames in the pan. I did have that when I added red wine to my steak but it wasn't anything like that. Those flames were really big high ones. Eventually I felt allowing the flames to continue licking my hood wasn't such a great idea, so I shifted my pan elsewhere.

My wife came into the scene and went, "Woah!" I bet you she would eat my dish despite how yucky it tasted to me. (just not my kind of food)


I simmered for about 5 minutes on low heat after the flames died down to allow the ingredients to soak up one another's essence.

She said it actually tasted rather good

This dish is good for a woman in confinement because it heats up the body tremendously. Eggs and black fungus are also good food for nourishing them. The ingredients are super simplistic (doesn't even require seasoning) and the cooking method and time taken is minimal. Just watch the flames.

Don't expect your wife to finish this dish. It is meant to be a side dish and can be kept in the fridge and reheated to be taken for several meals.


Can Winkingdoll eat eggs? Else that's another +1 for you

Sweet & sour nuts

If your wife in confinement gets sick of ginger, what do you do? Ans: Feed her more ginger.

I was too tired last night and dozed off on the bed right after dinner. My wife was smart enough to charge my phone up so that my alarm would wake me for work the next day. Somehow, I woke for a leak around 10pm and saw my wife sitting on the couch watching television, with a pillow covering her legs suspiciously. I went closer and discovered a bag of potato chips behind it. Needless to say, I confiscated the bag and gave showed her the yellow card.

So I decided to do a variation for tonight's dinner. Furthermore, earlier in the morning, I received a message from Winkingdoll who told me my blog would not be much help because she had turned vegetarian. Interestingly, it felt like yesterday I told Winkingdoll it was sad that she decided not to blog anymore after her marriage. In a blink of the eye, she is already pregnant and talking to me about confinement. Wow, you shotgun sibo, WD? hahahaha. Just joking ok, of course it isn't but it is apparent Winkingdoll has lost none of her Singaporean efficiency. heh heh.

Inspired by Winkingdoll's comment and the need of a variation, I decided to try out a dish that does not include meat. I am not sure if it qualifies to be vegetarians, since I've heard some fussy ones include even innocent onions as one of the prohibited ingredients.

The first thing is do to be make pickled ginger.

I used chunks of ginger and soaked them overnight in black vinegar, some sugar and salt. These would be cunningly hidden in the dish later on to catch the unsuspecting wife by surprise. Ultimately, she has to eat it, be it a pleasant or nasty surprise.

The next thing to do is to soak a handful of walnuts (walnuts are cheap in Perth as compared to Singapore) in boiling water for about 20 minutes. This is to help remove the skin of the walnut, which is bitter. If you don't understand what that means, try tasting the water after 20 minutes for enlightenment.

That's all you need

Next, prepare the SAUCE (middle bowl).

• 3 tablespoons of tomato sauce
• 1 tablespoon of chili sauce
• 2 tablespoons of brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons of white vinegar
• 4 tablespoons of water
• 1 teaspoon of corn flour
• a pinch of salt

Populate a plate as shown above with the recommended ingredients (whatever you like really) such as:

• 2-3 pieces of dried apricot (sliced)
• 1/2 an apple, diced
• 1/2 a red capsicum, diced 
• 1/2 a green capsicum (I ran out so I used yellow), diced
• 1/2 an orange, diced (since pineapple is taboo in confinement dishes)
• a handful of cashew nuts (optional)
• a handful of macadamia nuts (optional)

Preparation work is done. Now cook for your hungry wife.

Splash a bit of sesame oil about and start stir-frying your walnuts on high heat. Add in the other nuts as well if you are using any. Be careful not to do this too long. You want your nuts fragrant and slightly browned, not burnt.

Chuck the rest of the villagers into the fray, including the pickled ginger (but drain off the liquid please) and start stirring in high heat. If you are observant enough, you'd have noticed I added half an onion in. Why? Because I like it.

Stir fry for a minute or two. Pick an apple for a taste. If your apple is crunchy or soggy, you are doing it wrong. Your apple should be somewhere in the middle. 

Once that is achieved, pour your sauce in, mix well and bring to a boil. Serve immediately. I hope your wives will like this. Mine did and gave me a 9/10 for the attempt. Even little Albany gobbled up her fruits, vegetables and nuts and asked for more.

the completed dish, sweet and sour nuts

A simple way to use your chicken essence

My wife made a face when I suggested she should start drinking some chicken essence. The chicken essence she received since the birth of Albany remained untouched, clearly indicating how much she adored this product. Though I am pissed poor, I haven't thought of selling my surplus chicken essence on E-bay yet. So I decided to try using it.

It was a lazy Saturday afternoon and my wife was hungry. After serving her a noodle dish that didn't quite impressed her previously, I decided to play safe and go for mi fen, her favourite staple. Though I never really mind cooking, it has never been the intention to spend too much time in the kitchen. So I started off with two pots instead of one to speed things up. 

Heating bee hoon in my wok on the left and frying up some ikan bilis in sesame oil on the right. This would not end well once we start to fumble. So don't fumble.

Due to the fact I am a noob, I forgot to add ginger to fry up with ikan bilis, So I added my ginger slices after I added water and heard that 'Slooooosh' (means you are doing it right). Luckily nobody knew I cheated by adding ginger later on.

On the left,  after the bee hoon was cooked so I strained it off and pour the water away. Since I had to time to spare on the right pot, having needed to cook longer because I forgot to add ginger, I had the time to arrange my vegetables in my wok like a delicate maiden. You are looking at some carrots, broccoli, mushrooms, scallops and cauliflower. 

The stock on the right hand side pot should be well done (say about 20 minutes?) and looked 'whitish' before pouring into the wok through the strainer, retaining the ikan bilis and ginger slices.

Add a bottle of chicken essence. Muahahahahaha. Cover wok and bring broth to a boil, then simmer till the vegetables attain your preferred softness. I forgot about it and only came back after 20 minutes.

The steamy wok gave me a lousy photograph of the end product. Fortunately, the pot tasted better than it looked. The pre-cooked bee hoon, showered with a broth of vegetable and chicken essence, left my wife beaming as she ate. That would be lovely for the next Winter.

Ginger salmon steak

I decided to cut my ginger into strips today because I felt like it. Remember to heat the sesame oil on high heat till wok is pissed hot. Then dump your ginger in.

While ginger is frying up, start cooking your salmon because lazy people have no patience for linear task progression. A nice salmon steak requires little or no preparation. A five seconds massage on both surfaces with a few grains of salt will do just alright. The key tip is that when you slap the salmon into the pan, it has to sizzle! If it doesn't, your pan is not hot enough. I know everyone has an opinion how to cook a piece of fish but my task is to whip up something really fast because my toddler has already climbed up to the dinner table asking for her plate. Keep an eye on your ginger. Once they are nice and crispy, remove from wok or die.

Is this piece of salmon cooked? If you serve this I guarantee it will be returned to the pan later on. If you are taking photographs of your fish while flipping it around like me in the early Spring weather of 20°C room temperature in Perth, you'll find it hard to cook a rather thick layer of the fish evenly. My preference of cooking it fast is to cover the wok and allow surrounding air temperature to build up. This helps to cook the inside a lot faster while the surface is fast browning. Allow at least 2 minutes of cooking on each side (I used high heat). Flip fast and cover back to prevent further loss of heat. If you observe the surfaces are done to perfection, turn heat to low. This time for this stage determines if my fish is completely cook inside. I took about 5 minutes. Alas it is impossible to give a reliable time frame required for this stage because it largely depends on your type of cooking ware, the thickness of your fish or even your room temperature. I don't use thermometers or anything so I based it a lot on that 'feeling'. Fortunately, this 'feeling' can be nurtured. The trick is to screw up often enough. If there is a more reliable way of doing this, please teach me masters.

Not the best attempt but it'll do. Serve hot and immediately.

How about a better steamed fish?

Continuation from previous "How to clean a fish and steam it"

How about upgrading for a lazier, better way by adding some vegetable to the fish? Clueless confinement men don't have all the time in the world you know?

Before steaming fish, clean fish and add 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, sesame oil, a cup of stock (if available) or just a bit of water and finish it with a dash of cooking wine or "DOM". You don't have to submerge the broccoli (in this case) at all because the steam will cook it later all, with or without liquid underneath.

The broccoli ended up absorbing some of the flavour during cooking and if a little toddler munch up one portion after another, it is good vegetable well done and mission accomplished.

How to clean a fish and steam it

I couldn't remember the last time my mother bought a fish from the market in Singapore that wasn't already cleaned and ready to cook after just a customary rinse. I'm not saying that fishmongers in Perth do not clean fishes for their customers and I'm sure some do. However when one that isn't pre-cleaned lands in a mollycoddled Singaporean's hand, he'll likely to scratch his head and stare at the fish with an idiotic grin.

Fortunately, cleaning up more fishes shouldn't be a pain in the ass. As I noticed, there are three main steps to cover. First step, do a incision across the fish's belly (marked point A), you'll instinctively know what you are supposed to remove once you get a peek inside. Second step, remove gills.

The last step would be descaling the fish. You don't really need a special tool to remove scales. All I used was a spoon and scratch fish in the counter direction of the overlapped fish scales to start removing them. The reason why most people hate this step was the mess it can create. One way of preventing scales from flying all over the place is to descale a small spot of the fish at one time, instead of panning it across aggressively like how you see the fishmonger does it in the fish markets. Instead of scratching the fish wildly, do it firmly but moderate your strength. You'll be surprised you can control the descaling pretty well and keep all the scales within your basin for easy cleaning later.

One of the fishes suitable for confinement is the Pomfret. Ideally, we should get a white or silver one but I bought a Black Pomfret that day because the white ones were too small. Besides, I would be eating the fish too and I have always preferred the black. Heh heh. 

Steaming the fish requires almost no effort so such a dish qualifies for the Clueless Confinement Man's Lazy Cooking Methods if the cleaning procedures can be skipped. 

- Boil water in your wok

- While waiting for the water to boil, make a few cuts across your fish for faster cooking

- Place your condiments on it. For my case, obviously, I'll have to put lots of ginger and some sesame oil on the fish. You can choose to put tomatoes, plums, prunes, preserved beans or even salt 

vegetables (but not altogether, noob!) Whatever your suit your taste that day.

- When water is boiled, place a stand for steaming purposes and place the plate of fish on the stand. In my case, I used a deeper container.

- Cover wok and steam on high heat for at least 10 minutes. You may need a few more minutes for bigger and thicker fishes. Test how well it is cooked by piecing a chopstick through it. It should run through easily and appear fully cooked on the inside.

Rejoice, it's done

Consuming fish is known to help in restoring wounds or injuries so it is very commonly used by the Chinese as a confinement dish ingredient. The steaming method is healthy, fast, easy to do and leave behind little mess to clear up after the meal. So it's a highly recommended meal for any family on any occasion.

Black vinegar shank

After news of Clueless Confinement Man feeding his wife with only Ginger Rice, Ms Fiona sent me a message to confirm if I didn't want her to take over as the Confinement Lady. Yes of course I still want Ms Fiona as my backup, since I give up easily in most of my endeavours and there is no telling when I'll crack and cry. In the meantime, Ms Fiona should be assured Jen was not fed Ginger Rice with Egg for a meal only but at least one minimum useful side dish each time.

The Black Sweet Vinegar Pig Trotter is the oldest trick in any confinement food manual. So that was the first food I made for Jen right after she was discharged from hospital. As the method of cooking this dish is braising, it is not practical to cook a portion for a single meal because braising is a time consuming cooking style which involves submerging ingredients in a sauce. Too little sauce used will result in a incomplete braise. Too few ingredients, you'll be left with too much sauce. So imagine the challenge of making Kuay Zhup or dark soy sauce chicken for just one meal of a single person. Therefore, it is common that a modest attempt at the Black Sweet Vinegar Pig Trotter will last several meals as a side dish for a woman in confinement.

The dish is known to supplement the calcium lost during pregnancy and helps to remove blood clots in the uterus and prevent osteoporosis problem in menopause. The dominant sweet-sour taste of the dish, topped with the zing of the ginger, is a natural appetite inducer. So this dish can be consumed from the first week after childbirth onward.

The problem I faced in Perth was that, a pig trotter in the butcher shop here actually meant the foot. What I feel is the best for this dish is actually what other butchers termed it as the hock, knee or shank. It doesn't matter if it's from the front or back leg but what we really don't want is the foot right at the toe end because it contains little meat and only a fraction of the collagen you want from the joints. So for Perth noob husbands buying the part yourself, point to butcher your calf or knee, not your ankle. While you are at your pointing gig, why not buy some ham for yourself the same way too?

What we need are the following:

1-2 Shanks
4 eggs
800 grams of ginger
3 tablespoon of sesame oil
1 bottle of black sweet vinegar or black vinegar (both does the job really)
2 pieces of rock sugar


Preparation work:

Make hard boil eggs. If you don't know how to and don't have a hard boil egg maker at home, just submerge eggs in boiling water, cover the lid and turn off the flame and continue the boil for 10 minutes. (Thanks Ms Ong) Remove eggs, cool, crack and peel. Do not pour away the hot water.

Blanch the shanks in the same pot of hot water 10 minutes or until considerable scum emerge on the surface. Strain and cool, then pluck the hair off the skin unless your wife likes things bushy.

Method:

1. Heat sesame oil then saute ginger till fragrant. SOP. You should know by now.
2. Add black vinegar and rock sugar
3. Add hard boil eggs
4. Add shanks
5. Taste. If it isn't too right, add a bit of salt or more sugar to taste
6. Let the magic pot comes to a boil and continue cooking it on low heat for at least 30 minutes or chuck it all into a thermal pot.

The dish can be stored easily for several days without turning bad. Just keep heating it to a boil each time before consuming.

Ginger rice with egg

The man shouldn't be eating confinement food because it is way too heaty for us to handle. In fact, even a woman in confinement should not be eating heaty versions every meal. Else she will get sick due to imbalance of the qi in her body in no time. So it's good to space them out, filling them with simple food like porridge or soup in between.

I'll recommend any hapless confinement men to keep things simple so here is one dish we can do in a hurry. It will be handy if you have rice already cooked in the rice cooker or thermal pot. If so, this can be done within minutes for your hungry wife.

This makes one bowl of rice, because that's all you need.

1 egg
50g of ginger, minced
A bowl of cooked rice
1 tablespoon light soy sauce
2 tablespoon sesame oil

- Heat the wok on high heat with 2 tablespoon of sesame oil (more if you see fit)

- When wok is smoking very slightly, place ginger in gently. If you end up slamming your handful of ginger in, you may use the wok cover as a shield to combat boiling oil projectiles flying towards you.

- Stir around as if you know what you are doing until ginger is slightly browned or the wife exclaims, “Wow, 好香!”

- Crack the egg somewhere and add it into the wok. Chuck away the shell and return to the wok as soon as you can. You want the egg to be mixed with the rice, not end up with an out of shape omelette.

- So quickly chuck all your pre-cooked rice in there and start stirring. If you egg is unworkable by then, you need to do this more and level up.

- Sprinkle that tablespoon of light soy sauce and stir quickly but gently. You want to mix well and allow heat to evenly 'fry' the rice and not create a mashed up rice pudding.

- Do a quick taste. If it is not salty enough, add another tablespoon of light soy sauce and stir again.

- Do not spend too much time dwelling because you are on high heat right from the start. The whole process shouldn't be more than 10 minutes.

- Sorry for the blurred final picture. I was taking the pic holding the plate in my hand.

The wife gave me a 9/10 for this attempt. I knew I didn't do that well so it was kind of her. I hope your wife is as kind too. 

The sesame oil and ginger combo

First of all, I'm neither a househusband nor a good cook. My cooking skills yield edible food at best. Second, I am a not a cultured photographer. So don't expect nice pictures of yummy end products. There will be no poster standard food here, just something as real as it can get by a very average cook. I hope this can encourage hapless husbands caught in my situation that wishes to do something for their wives. Anyone can do these, especially if they do it the Clueless Confinement Lazy Man way.

Two common ingredients of confinement food are (white) sesame oil and ginger. These are so widely used because of their availability at an affordable cost. Even in Perth, sesame oil should be relatively easy to obtain from any oriental store. Ginger, however, is subjected to volatile prices throughout the seasons and can easily double or triple in price at its peak. If the price hit you badly at a wrong timing, frozen versions can be found in bigger oriental stores. The prices should be more stable since it is not affected by harvest timings.

For ginger preparation, you can choose to slice, grate, grind or chop it as you please, to suit your needs. Basically it needs some common sense in the selection of the form of ginger. If it meant to be a taste filler in a broth, just slap a thumb size piece of ginger with a chopper and chuck it in. If it is meant to be part of a dish and likely to be consumed, decide whether it will be more pleasant to be taken in hairline shape, in tiny bits or wafer slices.

The lazy man way can be pre-frying a larger amount of ginger in sesame oil, since both ingredients are used in many confinement dishes. You can store the remaining ginger in the fridge and use it as and when you need to but try to expend them within a few days.