Pancakes are easy to make with everyday items found in the kitchen. The recipe does not consist of kytonite materials from space and cost peanuts. Alternatively, any shelf bought pancake mix will also do the quick job of fulfilling the role of the most important meal of the day. Do a search online for pancake recipe and plenty will surface.
My recipe is,
2 cups all purpose flour. 3 tsp baking powder. 2 tbsp fine sugar. 1 eggs lightly beaten. 2 cups buttermilk/milk a pinch of salt. 3 tbsp soft butter.
simply mix flour, baking powder, sugar and salt well in a bowl. remove sugar if making savoury variant pancakes.
mix buttermilk, eggs,and soft butter well.
add the liquid mixture to the flour and mix well.
adjust the consistency with the liquid mixture till the pancake mix is able to coat a tablespoon well is a good start.
grease the pan lightly with a little butter. Scoop a spoonful of pancake mixture onto the pan. Wait till you see the mixture "firmed up" before turning it over. The first pancake is always a dud. you will need to adjust your fire or consistency of the mix to get it correct the next time...
You can eat the pancakes on it's own or with your favorite jam and butter. To make it more interesting, thinning down good quality jam with some fruit juice over a low fire. Add some fruits and adjust taste with a little sugar. For thinned orange marmalade, add a little brandy or grand marnier will up the fun.
Being almost a full time house hubby, I have the time or kaypo enough to give those persuasive, smooth talking "aunty 杀手" salesmen a chance to peddle their wares. I chanced upon this product, "bio wipe" while having my favorite wan tan mee at Hong Lim Complex hawker center.
Salesman ah beng was demonstrating the "wonders" of this bio wipe to clean impossible stains and filth. He vandalized the wall and pillar column of the HL Complex with a marker pen, crayons, paint, black engine oil, grease etc. Just a few squirts of this wonder product on the vandalized wall, the stains were gone!
Ooh, I'm impressed...
The ah beng salesman even joked that he was doing the town council a favor by helping them to clean the wall. Ha. Funny fellow...
"Uncle, this thing so powerful, will it damage my timber flooring or not?" I casually asked.
"Sir! You mean my hand is tougher than your timber flooring?" Ah beng salesman retorted while he squirted a plenty of this "bio wipe" on his hands and rubbed them together as if applying premium moisturizing lotion. He then shoved both his hands in my face and frantically waving them.
Ok, I'm convinced by his brave act of putting his hands on the line...
First look at this colorless liquid did not reveal any sign of "potency" though it did smell like brake cleaner. The instruction also mentioned that it is non toxic, non caustic, non flammable and friendly on the hands. I supposed since it is named "bio wipe", it should be bio degradable. Hmmm...
The instruction also calls for the bio wipe to be diluted to a ratio of 1 part "bw" to 10 part water. Ok, now for the field test.
A few squirt on the greasy stove and a quick wipe down with a rag.
Lo and behold, the grease and filth are all gone as advertised. I would suggest a second wipe down with a wet cloth to rid the stove of the car brakes cleaner odor.
Mise en place (MEEZ ahn plahs) is a French term for having all your ingredients measured, portioned, cut, peeled, sliced, grated, etc. before you start cooking.
I would get very impatient with my wife when it is her turn to cook. With much good will and good faith, she always seems to be getting into a lot trouble and time putting food on the table or more importantly, on time. As the saying goes, "a hungry man is an angry man".
She will make up for it by spending a substantial amount of time preparing a meal which I felt is counter productive. As much as it is a common knowledge to always prepare your "mise en place" before attempting any culinary venture. I noticed that it is a conveniently forgotten task by many novice in the kitchen. Chopchopkalipok would like to share with you, my simple and effortless way of doing your mise en place. Which will aid you in preparing a meal for your love ones in a chopchopkalipok fashion.
Make it a point to understand your household's needs in terms of,
1. The usual quantity/amount of food types consumed in a single meal.
Geared with this simple knowledge, you will be able to "portion control" these raw materials accordingly. These portioned items or I called them "food ingredient packs" can be kept in a chiller or a freezer if the intent to cook much later. This will aid in speedier food preparation when you just need to de-chill or defrost the right quantity of item for the recipe. e.g, a chicken leg will defrost quicker than a whole chicken. This practice will help to reduce wastage and prevent contamination of bacteria by reducing exposure of uncooked food to the environment.
2. Their preference of the food type e.g if they consume more vegetable, meat, seafood, etc.
With a little profiling work, you will be able to shortlist and decides the kind of ingredients, portioning amount, recipes or even determine your marketing/shopping list for the week. Make an effort to portion up the raw materials ASAP after your marketing before storing them into the fridge. The Reynolds cling wrap is your best friend in this task. To go further, put a date to remind you of the date of purchase to avoid keeping food in the fridge for too long...
3. How often do you do your marketing of fresh food, groceries and stock ups.
The frequency of making that trip to the supermart or market will determine the "workload" of having to prepare mise en place. Twice a week to the super mart or market will be a good start to keep "work load" to the minimal of no more then 15 minutes of portioning, wrapping and storing food items. Buying more "convenient pack or prepared" food items will reduce your mise en place "workload". Though it may cost a little more due the packing instead of buying in bulk. IMHO, the savings in time, effort and wastage will offset the higher cost.
4. .Streamline those recipe. Everyone has a few favorite recipes kept in that secret kitchen cabinet. However, I will attempt to save a few pennies and prep time by "streamlining" my recipe. For instant, if a recipe calls for whole garlic to be use while another requires chopped garlic for that flavoring. I will only buy "ready to use" chopped garlic that comes in a tub for both recipe. The purist will argue that there is a difference in taste between chopped and whole garlic. Honestly, I doubt many can tell. So I'm not bother about it.
5. Stock, sauces, condiments.
Set aside some time or twice a month to prepare those stock, sauces, condiments that are ever so crucial in making a dish a winner. "Portion and freeze" them for future usage will cut down cooking time of a dish considerably. An alternative like ready made freeze dried/dehydrated "bouillon cube" will also do the trick though nothing beats freshly made stock. Ready made sauce can be bought off the shelf though I would suggest some work are needed to enhance the flavor further. 6. Organize your kitchen and prioritize the work.
Make an effort to organize and "familiarize" yourself with your kitchen setups so that you do not hunt high and low for that salt, cleaning rag, teaspoon, etc. You will find that it is pleasurable to cook "within reach". Plan your work well when cooking multiple dishes. Common sense will tell you to cook food that requires longer cooking time first. "Visualize" the recipe to mentally prep you before cooking the dish. Some recipe may even require you to prepare certain ingredients before hand.
An eventful trip to Gua Musang has resulted in a bit of a delay in updating my blog. I hope I have not lose any readers out there (if there are any?). Haha.
Anyway, I'm going to continue about the chicken stock thingy because it is a Sunday. For those of you who have try out this simple and wholesome recipe, I hope the chicken stock has serve you well. Do you remember that we do have those cooked chicken after straining the stock properly?
This is what I normally will do,
I will shred some up for sandwich fillings preparations (for that lazy afternoon when cooking is the least I want to do). Mix the shredded chicken with good quality mayo, a bit of premium butter, season well with salt and pepper. Or to go further, spiced up the filling with cayenne pepper or cumin powder. For that added crunch, add crispy bacon bits... I recalled that a friend did mention that it is hellish to eat wholemeal bread. But I assure you, not with these fillings... but please do not count the calories. God bless your soul...
I will also keep some of these for that kuay teow soup luncheon or dice up the chicken into cubes for fried rice and stir fried vegetable dishes. Nothing is wasted in my kitchen and I do take pride in that.
Instead of the usual fried chicken wings for kiddies parties. Why not fry some squids. Both the kids and adults will love them. Serve them hot as mains or snacks. These snacks are great for watching that football match too.
Preparation: Now that you have cleaned the squids nicely. You can “flower” the squids by scoring lightly with the tip of the knife in crisscross fashion on the inside of the body. Lastly, cut up the body into bite size strips. The head may be served whole or halved if the head is too big.
Dry up any excess moisture from the sotong pieces with paper kitchen towel and marinate the squids with a beaten egg.
While marinating the squids with an egg, prepare and mix some plain flour (80%) with rice flour (20%) in a mixing bowl.
Seasonings: Sparingly add some ground cumin spice, ground coriander, sea salt, ground black pepper, paprika into the flour mix. Mix well with a whisk.
Cooking:
Heat up a generous amount of oil in a fryer. I would normally use a wok as it is quicker and save on gas consumption. Once the oil is almost on the verge of “smoking”, the oil is ready for frying. Simply coat the squid pieces with flour mixture. Dust off any excess flour and slide them into the well heated oil. Bear in mind that frying seafood requires quick handling and workings. I would recommend frying the squids in batches to avoid over cooking the squids.
Once the sotong is nicely brown, remove them from the oil and drain off the excess oil.
More seasoning can still be sprinkled to the fried squids if necessary. I love to dust 七味粉 before serving.
I love to go squiding. The best sotong season is from June to early September. A quick check with the fishing charter to see if the sotongs have arrive. With a good team of sotong anglers, to hit 600 pieces of sotong is a relative easy task. An arsenal of 3-4.5 size squid jigs in orange and pink colors will suffice. Opt for thin FC leader will ensure a hookup most certainly… Do ensure that sotongs are properly iced as the carcasses will continue to produce “heat” for a while. A tip on selecting sotongs from wet market, choose those with a “translucent” body with very clear spots and bright eyes. The body should be firm to touch.
A tip on selecting sotongs from wet market, choose those with a “translucent” body with very clear spots and bright eyes. The body should be firm to touch. Fresh squid should not smell fishy or "squidy".
Though squids and it’s mollusks brethren are nice to eat, they can be nightmarish to clean because of their notorious ink sac. However, I have a simple way to overcome the mess of cleaning sotong with just 2 cuts. I would divide and pack the whole squids into several “Food Ingredient Packs” and freeze the packs. Do not wash the squids until you are ready to cook them.
Remove the packs from the freezer when you are ready to cook. Wait for the squids to thaw.
The right time to clean a squid is when you are able to slit the body lengthwise with a knife while the squid is still in a semi frozen state. The body is now slit open with the guts and innards still in solidified state. Remove the solidified gut and “plastic” spine as a whole.
The second cut is make between the eyes and the tentacles. Cut through the head and squeeze out the beak.
No ink is leaked even when the cut has punctured the ink sac as the ink sac is still frozen.
During our fishing trip to Thailand. We had this particular stir fried vegetable dish almost every day at the local 大排挡. I could not recall the name of this dish. However I did recall that the dish have fresh spinach stir fried with sliver of roast pork and fresh whole chilies. I had the opportunity to steal a look at the lady cooking this dish as our table is next to her stove and “work station”. I get to learn how this simple and delicious dish can be served at home…
Well there isn’t really a recipe, I hope my narration on how to cook this wonderful dish will give you an idea how this dish is done.
As always, I did not follow the “recipe” to the letter. I substituted the spinach with fresh kai lan that came in “convenient pack” at $1.20 from our local super mart. I would remove the leafy part and cut the stem length wise into thin slices. You can substitute with any greens of the day of your preference.
You will need to pick up some roast pork of about 250 gms and have them sliced up. You may want to decide if the porky slab should be thin or laden with fat. I would prefer the fatty sort. A general tip on how to buy roast pork is that always buy from a reputable stall that sell their pork fast and did their roasting act daily. Do sample their roast pork to make sure that the roast pork do not have a “porky” smell. The fat should be whitish and firm. Lastly, the roast pork should not be “slimy” to touch.
You will need some fresh chilies though I would use the dried ones as they are more convenient to keep. Bear in mind that you will need to use more dried chilies in proportion to the fresh ones. I stick to a ratio of 1.25 dried produce : 1 fresh produce.
The rest of the ingredients are,
a few thin slices of ginger.
2 whole garlic.
3 tbsp oyster sauce
¼ cup chicken stock mixed with 1 tbsp fish sauce
White pepper
葱油
Heat some oil in the wok and sautéed the ginger slices, dried chillies and whole garlic till lightly brown.
Add the roast pork slices and fried for ½ minute.
Add the kai lan or green vegetables of your choice. Toss them around and add the oyster sauce. Fry them till you notice that the vegetable has changed to a different hue of green.
Add ¼ cup of chicken stock with fish sauce. Reduce the stock and very quickly remove the fried vegetable from the heat.
Serve the fried vegetable with 葱油 and a bit of white pepper.
(ah-gah-ray-shun) The noun form of the Malay verb "agak-agak", which means to estimate.
I will use this term many times over like a broken record as food tasting is pretty subjective. There is really no right or wrong in food tasting as some may like it spicy, sweeter or even bitter. More so when it comes to seasoning. If you like it saltier, add more salt then. So do not split hair over it. However, I do follow this golden rule, “it’s always best to err on the side of putting less seasoning first”.
IMHO, a recipe is just a general guideline on how a dish will most likely taste. There are just too many variation (from the ingredients to the size of a teaspoon we use) that makes precise measurement difficult. An example will be, if the recipe calls for a “large” egg. How do we determine how large an egg should be? If we were to use a smaller egg, wouldn’t the seasoning called by the recipe a tab too much? Common sense and cooking goes hand in hand… Keep that precise measurement mentality for science class or when you need to build that rocket ship to Mars. Your cooking will taste better if you, “cho nan agak agak jiu ho”.
So how do I cook for myself when I’m home alone? I’m sure it is no less a daunting task to cook for one either. However, with carefully planning and preparation of food ingredients “packs” every weekend. The task to cook for just one person will not be difficult and time consuming.
We do have those little pack of chicken stock tucked away in the freezer right?
1. Cook the chicken stock pack over the stove with a small sauce pan. Adjust taste with seasoning or chicken powder if necessary.
2. Blanch the kuay teow, shredded chicken and chai xin in another pot of boiling water. Plate the blanched items in a bowl.
3. Pour the boiled chicken stock over the kuay teow, shredded chicken and chai xin.
4. Garnished with葱油, white pepper and served.
Prep time just under 15 minutes.
There is really no reason to gorge yourself silly with those instant noodles.
I would prefer the fresh kuay teow from the market stall as the fresh ones are not easily broken into bits and taste better. However, the supermarket pre packed kuay teow will keep better for longer period of time. A plus for busy couples.
How about a glass of refreshing smoothie to keep those pesky heat away? Smoothies are quick and easy to fix. Invest in a good blender to do a better job. A smoothie is a blended, chilled beverage made from fresh fruit or vegetables. In addition to fruit, many smoothies include crushed ice, frozen fruit, honey or yoghurt. You just need to be creative or just simply “fruits of the day”.
I like to add bitter gourd(the “mini” variant) to celery and green apple. The elderly folks have the idea that with the inclusion of bitter gourd and Chinese celery will help to lower blood pressure and keep one as cool as a cucumber…
Celery 40%
Green Apple 25%
Bitter Gourd 15%
Chinese celery 20%
Ice
Salt to taste
Celery forms the bulk of the ingredients while the green apples help to mediate the bitterness of the mini bitter gourd.
The Coxford Singlish Dictionary denotes "Chop Chop Kalipok” being in a hurry. "Kalipok" is the correct Singlish pronunciation of "curry puff".
Aren't we always in a hurry to get things done or undone, that we do not have the time for simple pleasure like home cooked meal?
Chopchop Kalipok is to share with you "How I Cook It" meals that is quick to prepare and simple kitchen organization skills that will help you along. This is not a recipe book but a collection of “stories” of how I cook for my beloved ex wife, Yien Ping.
Chopchop Kalipok hopes that these “stories” will be useful to young couples and singles who think that home cooked meals is a daunting task and/or are afraid to venture into a kitchen.
H.L.D
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You can eat the pancakes on it's own or with your favorite jam and butter. To make it more interesting, thinning down good quality jam with some fruit juice over a low fire. Add some fruits and adjust taste with a little sugar. For thinned orange marmalade, add a little brandy or grand marnier will up the fun.
