我的很多第一次 :)

For the very very 1st time in my whole life, I cooked a complete meal (mostly) on my own! It was not a 1-course meal... In fact it was a 4 course meal, enough to feed 6 people! *Proud* Something which I always wanted to do!

I was inspired by the 'Japanese Home Cooking' book by Yoshiro Murata which was featured in the Straits Times sometime back. I managed to get hold of the book at the library and browsing through it just makes me feel like cooking so many many dishes. And I just decided I had to cook a meal one of these days and this was it. A Japanese meal for my family!

I cracked my head a little when planning which dish to prepare first as I was concerned that some of it will turn cold and might not taste as nice by the time everything was ready... which can be quite long with my well-known 'efficiency'. Heh... :P

So I decided to start off by preparing the RICE! My very first time cooking rice entirely on my own and what's more... I was cooking rice in a pot over the stove. Mum nagged at me to use the rice cooker but I insisted on following the recipe instructions! Kinda disappointed that I got the wrong type of rice... never knew japanese rice has got different types. I got the medium grained ones instead of the short grained ones. But I think they taste good too!

The recipe for cooking this japanese rice requires soaking the rice for 20 mins, boiling it for 5-10mins, cooking it on low fire for 15 mins, turning off the heat and leaving it undisturbed for 10 minutes. Finally, you aerate the rice by 'stirring' it before it is ready. Long process compared to cooking normal rice but I guess it was worth it. Mum says she will cook this rice in the rice cooker one of these days. Let's see if it will taste just as nice.

Next up is my first dish for the day:
Steamed Egg Custard aka Chawamushi

I am not a fan of chawamushi. My verdict on this dish was that it was too watery, I guess the proportion of eggs was too little as I did not get the large eggs which was indicated in the recipe. Bro-in-law says it might be because I did not dry my ingredients like mushroom before adding it in.... possible.... shall take note.

Anyway, the chawamushi lovers told me the taste was not there yet. I guess it was because I did not use store-bought chicken broth or home cooked dashi stock. Mum prepared home cooked chicken broth by cooking chicken breast in water as she feels that it is healthier than store-bought chicken broth. But I guess the lack of flavor in my Mum's chicken broth did not bring out enough taste for the chawamushi. I shall be more hardworking and try making Japanese dashi the next time i attempt this recipe.

My 2nd dish of the day was.... healthy vegetables!

This was easy to prepare. I just had to cut the french beans, boil them, shock them in cold water and mix them with the prepared sesame dressing and they are ready!

Although we do not normally prepare in this way, I think it tastes quite nice for a change. They were finished up quite fast too. In fact, all my food was finished up. Might be because I did not cook a lot too. Haha....

Now, my last 2 dishes for the day was....

Both are quite easy to prepare. You basically just have to cut them up, dust them with cornflour, cook them for a while, add in the sauces required, simmer them for a while and tada... they are ready! But one thing I realised when I was cooking these 2 dishes was that I do not know how to see if my food are cooked... had to shout for my mum for help a couple of times. I would say the pork chop was slightly overcooked as they were a little tough.

As for the Tofu Teriyaki, it was a test of my skills. I was supposed to buy firm tofu but blur me got tofu with firmness of 2/5. So... I just had to make do with it. Luckily they did not get smashed very easily and I was able to make decent looking and nice tasting tofus. I tried them the 2nd day using tofu with firmness of 1.5/5 which I had in the fridge and it was kinda disastrous. Anyway, love the bonita flakes garnishing on top. Expensive but they taste GREAT!

Eager to try out the many other recipes in the book soon.... :D

Yet another failure :(

Hopefully 失败真的是成功之母... another failed cake. Decided to make this interesting Pandan Cheese Roll from a blog which I have bookmarked for so long. A simple roll cake which went wrong. The cake turned out lumpy... a result of my poor folding-flour-into-mixture technique.... Grr.... The cream filling was not bad. Overall, it was edible but I wouldn't eat much. I kept them in my fridge for 3 days before throwing them away. Managed to make some guineau pigs eat though. :P Anyway, a photo below showing the decent looking swiss roll.

Looks totally different from the pictures from the blog I took the recipe from :D