The Field Marshal

A sumptuous dinner Cooking is something which I look forward to everyday. But the rigours of worklife means that I can only cook 2-3 times a week. And tonight is the night for me to take up the spatula and do my stuff in the kitchen. In order to cut down on the prep time, Mydaemon and I washed and cut all the ingredients yesterday. The chye sim were de-wormed, the kailan washed, the carrot peeled and diced, ditto for the garlic and celery. All I had to do was to put everything into my pot and cook. Yeah, I wished it was as simple as that. Let me introduce you to the 3 dishes I had tonight. Dish #1 Stir fried chye sim. (Top centre) One of the easiest dishes to cook. But one of the hardest to prepare, unless one is prepared to eat worms or their eggs. Here's what you need to cook it. Ingredients 1 packet of chye sim 2 cloves of garlic - diced 2/3 tablespoon of dark soy sauce (which has been proven to be good for our health) Slightly less than a tablespoon of Lee Kum Kee Oyster sauce. Cooking Instructions Heat up the wok with some olive oil in it. As the oil gets hot, put in the diced garlic and fry it till it gives off that wonderful aroma. As the garlic starts to turn golden brown at the corners, it's time to put in the stem and stalks of the chye sim. As you stir fry, you will notice that the wok will get progressively dry. This is a sign that water should now be added. Cook the stem for a while more before putting in the leaves. The stem should be around 40% cooked by the time the leaves go in. Don't ask me how a 40% cooked stem looked like. I only know when they are cooked around that percentile. Guess that's why cooking is an art.

Once the leaves are in, it's time for more water. Ignore this at your own peril, or you have a penchant for eating charred chye sim. As the water starts to steam, which is usually instantaneous, add in the dark soy sauce. The sauce not only gives the dish it's colour, but also much of it's taste. This is followed by the oyster sauce and a dash of sugar. Continue to cook the vegetables by stirring them continuously. Watch the amount of gravy you have as it is likely to dry up very fast.

Cook for another few minutes and the dish is ready.

Dish #2 Fieldmarshal's Grilled Oregano Dory. (Bottom Left) Grilling fish is one of my specialties since I cut my culinary teeth with my seminal blackened paprika dory. Nope, I did not blacken the fish on purpose, the dish was supposed to be as such. Anyway, seafood has always ranked highly in my diet. I love all fishes, crustaceans, sea cucumbers, jelly fish and whatever's edible in our oceans or lakes. Ingredients 1 Large piece of dory/cod (depending on what's good in the market) White pepper Oregano poweder Salt Olive Oil 1 Slice of lemon Cooking Instructions Before doing anything, shape a plate, or anything flat with edges, out of the trusty aluminium foil. This will hold your fish in the oven. Put a few drops of olive oil on the 'plate' to prevent the fish from sticking onto the foil when grilling the fish. Marinating is the fun part. I just love to marinate food with my bare hands. Anyway, dry the fish properly before marinating it. Having the old splattering all over the oven is not something I encourage. Nobody told it is that difficult in cleaning tough grease stains in the oven. Back to the fish, it's getting bored on the plate. Let me start off with my very own bizarre way, which will be explaind later, of marinating my fish. first coat the fish with a little olive oil. Not too much since you are not frying the fish. Just enough to cook it and give it that nice taste. Rub the oil into the fish as salt is also rubbed into it. For the uninitiated, please marinate the fish on both sides. Yes, some people can be that blur. For the record, everything said here refers to both side of the fish. After the salt, add in the oregano powder and pepper. Give the fish a good Thai massage. This will ensure that the marinate penetrates the flesh properly. Jokes aside, do rub the fish till the marinate is evenly spread. You wouldn't want a fish to tast salty at one end, and bland on the other. Let the fish stand for 5-10 mins as it absorbs the marinate itself. I speaking as if the fish is still alive. Once that is done, put the fish, which is already in the foil plate, into the oven. For those with conventional microwave ovens, set it to top and bottom grill for 15 minutes. No need to put the fish through harmful microwaves, since its already dead anyway. Forget about this totally till the alarm on the oven beeps to signal that the fish is read for its journey through our digestive system. That's the best part of it. Well, at least for me. Dish #3 Miso Soup with Xiaobaichai, Carrots, Celery etc.(Bottom Right) This is another simple dish. Easy to cook. Only the preparation time is the killer here. To cook this soup, make sure that those ingredients which are to be washed, cut, diced, are washed, cut, and diced the night before. Failure to do this is likely to result in the consumption of instant noodles since people are easily put off by the preparation time. Ingredients 1 Packet of miso soup paste (got mine from Carrefour Plaza Singapura) Few bunches of xiaobaichai 1 Medium carrot cut into cubes 1 Stick of celery 3 Cloves of Garlic 2 Pieces of pork ribs Some dried shrimps Cooking Instructions Bring to boil water in your soup pot. The bubbling water is a signal for you to put in the dried shrimps and garlic (whole, no need to diced). Let the water cook for some time as it take a while for the shrimps and garlic to surrender their taste to the soup. 10 minutes later, put in the pork ribs. Btw, these have been marinated with sesame seed oil, wine and pepper. More waiting is in store as we wait for the pork to be around 60% cooked. Once the pork gains that cooked-looking colour, put in the celery and carrots. You may want to put these in earlier, since they take ages to get soft, if you prefer. Let the soup simmer for a while before putting in the miso paste. Stir the soup till the paste totally dissolves, which is usually pretty fast. Let the soup cook till the ingredients have taken in the miso flavour. When the soup is almost, note almost, ready, put in the xiaobaichai, lock, stock and barrel into the soup. As this vegetable cooks really fast, make sure you don't overcook it. The soup is ready when the vegetable is cooked. And there you have it. A simple 3-course dinner. Simple enough for all families in Singapore. Actually, I would strongly encourage all families, be it big or small, to have home-cooked dinner together as often as possible. Such are the occasions which brings the family together. What's a better way to grow familial love than over plates of wonderful home-cooked food?