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monsters under the bed.

“Don’t work too hard.” “Why do you want to work so hard?” “Slow down.”

I am afraid if I slow down, I will see things as they really are. And I’m not going to like it one bit.

I am afraid if the world stops spinning, if I stand still and look around me, things will never be the same again.

Work is the only thing that keeps me numb, that keeps me sane. Especially the type of work that results in bone-weary tiredness and brings with it the gift of dreamless peaceful sleep. Sleep has been hard to come by. It takes an awful lot of tossing and turning and uncomfortable thoughts. Those moments between switching off the light and trying to get to sleep in the dark are when your worst fears crowd around you, forcing a confrontation.

wannabe chef.

It’s my turn to cook dinner for the house tonight. And as always, what I will be cooking depends on a number of factors: What’s in the fridge? What do I feel like eating? Am I feeling ambitious/rajin enough to make something that requires a lot of preparations?

I feel like having this tonight – Sauteed Chicken Supreme with Dried Chillies.

Ingredients

• 500 grammes of chicken supreme (the most tender part of chicken breast which is longish in shape, slice it to cubes / thick diagonal slices) (I don’t have this, so I’m just going to use meat from deboned chicken thighs)
  
• 20 dried chillis (pre-soaked for 30 minutes, seeded and cut into halves)(precious commodity, I normally only use 6-7, and believe me, it’s more than enough)
  
• 5 cloves garlic (chopped)
• 4 tablespoons of cooking oil (preferably palm oil)

Marinade

• 1 tablespoon chinese cooking wine
  
• 1 tablespoon dark soya sauce
• 2 tablespoon corn flour

Seasoning

• 2 tablespoon chinese cooking wine
• 3 tablespoons of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar (or squeeze approximately 10 limes or more for juice)
• 1 teaspoon of cornflour
• 1/2 tablespoon of light soya sauce
• 1 tablespoon of water

Method

Pound meat slightly with blunt side of knife or tenderiser. Marinade for 30 minutes.

Heat oil in wok, fry the dried chilli for 30 seconds and then add the garlic. Continue to stir-fry till garlic begin to brown. Add chicken and fry till cooked (if you wish to add cashew nuts, add them now). Then add seasoning, stir well until evenly distributed and gravy dries up.

Serve hot with steamed white rice.

This recipe is tried and tested but I normally don’t follow it exactly, as in the amount of sesame oil, vinegar etc. is on a “however much I feel like it” basis. I also don’t put chinese cooking wine because we don’t have any but it tastes fine without it.

Also on the menu is Chinese-style sweetcorn soup and some form of stir-fried vegetables, whatever is in the fridge. I have been craving sweetcorn soup for quite a while but haven’t gotten around to cooking it. Our fridge is too small to store boxes of soup stock so I usually like to rely on chicken or vegetable stock cubes to add flavor to our soups. However, there is a total ban on the use of artificial stock cubes in my household in shared dishes so yeah, my soups tend to turn out a little blah. Sweetcorn soup is very simple, all you need is corn (cream-style or not), eggs, water, chicken stock(or chicken stock cube), cornstarch + optional carrots, ham, onion. It’s one of my favorite comfort foods and helps cheer me up when I’m feeling sick.

Admittedly my current repertoire of never-fail dishes is stil rather limited at the moment. The chicken/pork with dried chillies dish is one, lemon chicken, roast chicken, shepherd’s pie, ginger chicken, meatballs in tomato puree and I think that’s about it. My unfortunate housemates are my willing guinea pigs as I like to try out new recipes.

These sites are good for tried and tested basic recipes.

Hochiak! Delicious Asian Food

Students on a Budget

Allrecipes

For the more fancy stuff, you may want to try these sites:

Slashfood

bareingredients