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.

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.

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.

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.