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.
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