humble chinese fried rice -- Serves 2 pax

Took half day leave from work this afternoon, realised that I had missed the Chinese New Year off-in-lieu. Still a little bitter about losing the privilege to one day of leave, if only they could extend the validity to 1 year. :X

This evening my mother decided to fry the leftover rice from yesterday. Even though chinese fried rice is such a common dish in Singapore, I cannot seem to google the origin of this dish. Anyway it is another ultra easy comfort food to prepare so the mother just had to give me verbal instructions without having to "SOS" me. It is such a fuss-free dish that you can prepare the dish with any cooked ingredients (preferably dry) you have in the house and just stir fry it. :)

Ingredients (decide the amount and type of ingredients to your liking):

egg (I only used 1)

chopped scallions

diced honey-roasted pork 

leftover rice (already cooked, can be straight from the fridge)

a tablespoon of oil

diced garlic

dark soy sauce (half a teaspoon)

salt

Method:

1. Heat the pan with oil and crack the egg into the pan

2. Add the diced garlic and stir fry together with the egg (it would look like scrambled egg by now)

3. Add the pork and rice. Continue to fry it. Add a pinch of salt.

                                 

4. When it looks all yummy and good, add the dark soy sauce for the colour and flavour! Oh yes, you may add the scallions at the end too, not during the initial step which was what I did. You will end up with burnt scallions if you are as blur as me

5. Fry fry fry briefly~

basic chinese fried rice

Masak-thoughts: Leftover rice, or cooked rice which are left for a few days are dryer which will ensure that the individual grain of rice is "solid" and less clumpy when you fry. There are many variations of fried rice out there, so it can never be boring! It is also a good way to reduce food wastage, whereby your leftover food can be created into a delicious stomach-filling dish. While the home-cooked fried rice may not be as flavourful as those sold in tzechar stalls, it is fun to experiment with your own rendition of fried rice!

french toast with chicken floss filling

On a hiatus for a month.
My guinea pigs were sick, I was feeling unwell (emotionally, mainly) due to lack of rest from work. Many colleagues (friends) are leaving for various reasons, so occasional waves of low morale would hit me and I start to ask myself some tough questions which I do not have an answer to. =X

Anyhow, I was chatting with a colleague (who was leaving) and I shared with her about the little things I hope to do but find no time to do so, including this blog which is hibernating in a teeny corner of the cyberspace. So I decided to do something for breakfast this morning. I remembered I wanted to make taiwanese egg crepe sometime back but realised I did not have flour in the kitchen. So I settled with something less ambitious -- french toast. :)

Recipe extracted from submerryn:

Ingredients:
an egg
a teaspoon of oil
slices of bread
pork/chicken/fish floss (or anything creative)

Method:
1. Cut 2 pieces of bread into 8 equal parts. [as it's only for myself, I had 1 slice of bread, I conveniently folded it to half]
2. Spoon some chicken floss in the middle.
3. Place a piece of bread to cover the chicken floss and pinch the sides to seal it.
4. Break an egg in a bowl and beat it. Do not add salt as the entire combination is tasty enough. Optional: Add pepper and parsley flakes.
5. Dip the bread into the beaten egg making sure it is well coated.
6. Toast on non-stick pan. Turn over and toast the other side. [i added oil and pan-fried it]

[I used wholemeal bread, which explains the colour of the bread. :X]

french toast with chicken floss filling

masak-thoughts: My mom used to make this when I was young. All-time favourite (there was no such thing as "sinful" when one was a child)! It's ultra easy to make for a noob (just keep it to small fire) and there's no hateful splattering of oil. A happy breakfast is definitely a booster to the entire day!