Cooking Project - Cantonese Yee Mee

Here's my attempt at another cooking project, noodles this time. I've cooked noodles before, spaghetti for example but this would be my first attempt at cooking yee mee. 

Yee mee are round coiled crispy noodles that are deep fried. Usually sold in a packet of 5 cakes.  In most eating outlets, yee mee is usually cooked in claypots or sizzling hotplates. I decided to make mine cantonese or ying yong style, which is sorta starchy soup.

Browsed thru my fridge and the only veggie I have are snow peas and carrots.  Luckily I do have some chicken slices.  Marinated them in some soya sauce, sesame oil and pepper.



Sauteed some garlic in 2tbsp oil and added snow peas and some mushroom slices.  Next, added some water and starch water. Adedd salt to taste.  Everything was looking good at this point.  I thought of adding more flavor to the liquid by putting in 1-2 drops of sesame oil when I realised that I had actually forgotten my marinated chicken slices.  Quicky added them in. Did not add in extra sesame oil since the marinated chicken already had sesame oil.  Too much and it would become too overwhelming.  When the liquid was near boiling, I added in 1 beaten egg ala egg drop. 

On a plate, I lay out one cake of yee mee.  When the soup was ready, I then poured over the noodle.  Since yee mee is already pre-cooked, it wasn't  necessarily to cook it again but if you wish, you can do so.  



Poured the soup over the noodle.



A better view of the yee mee once I broke it apart.

Verdict - Probably should have added a little bit more water to the soup as yee mee tend to soak up liquid pretty fast.  Next time, I think I will cook the noodle along with the soup for a few seconds, just to soften up the noodle quicker, as well as have the noodle soak up some of the soupy flavor.

This meal was not a total disaster.  Taste wise, this could use a little bit more seasoning.  The soup is lacking some meaty sweetness as well, so next time I should consider using chicken broth, not plain water.  This doesn't taste exactly like the ones sold outside but hey, this one is healthier because there is no MSG.  Not bad la, can eat.

Did I hear my name?

It's been a while since I last wrote on gym classes. Was supposed to skip gym this entire week due to work but since today the workload eased a little, I decided to pop in for Body Pump.  These days the energy level decreased tremendously, it must be the age factor..sigh.

Today's class was pretty packed.  Lots of members whom I've never seen before.  Saw an Iron Lady who carried very impressive weights throughout.  13kg/side for squats...fuh! That kind of weights will definitely kill my back, no joke.  8.5kg/side for clean & press...fuh! Tabik (salute) to her. Even more impressive, 8.5kg/side for Shoulders track..fuh! I seriously bow down to her.  Now....if she has shoulders like Jillian Michaels, I would have fallen over with admiration but she doesn't.  In fact, I think I have better looking shoulders....ehem!

Anyway, the focus of this piece is really not on Iron Lady.  Throughout the class, I swore I heard the instructor calling out my name.  Well, I don't think he was specifically referring to me since he doesn't know me, other than seeing me regularly in his class.  Besides, anyone in the class could have the same name as me.  At first thought, he might be referring to the Iron Lady, but then there was no facial reaction from her. And everytime he said the name, I swore he was looking at my direction....hmmm. Or maybe I was imagining too much. Maybe he was calling out some name that sounded similar? He was definitely calling out some name.  I actually kinda miss those days when instructors actually do call out MY name, it felt kinda nice to be recognised.  Those instructors are no more....sad! 

Highlight of my day...hearing things.  btw, I still owe a piece on my recent trip to Mount Kinabalu but I've been darn lazy.

Cooking Project - Gnocchi

Happened to catch an episode of Masterchef Australia a few days ago and that was enough to make me want to try making gnocchi, a soft dumpling made from potatoes.  I have came across this item in the only recipe book that I owned...ehem...but never knew what it was. It was very alien to me.  I never knew that gnocchi is very simple to make, until that Masterchef episode.  Since it looks simple, I decided to embark on a Cooking Project today.  It has been awhile since my last project anyway.

My very sophisticated recipe which I copied from online recipe search....just in case my memory from the Masterchef episode failed me.  It's always good to have backups.

 Boiled the potatoes.  Almost all the online recipes I read stated 2-3 potatoes but I was greedy and overly ambitious. I decided to go with 7 medium ones! Mistake #1 - I forgot to add in salt.

 

 After boiling the potatoes, I mashed them using a ricer. Thank god for this equipment, which I have no idea why I bought it in the first place but it came in handy now.  The first time I did this, it didn't work. Mistake #2 - The potatoes weren't soft enough and I was having a ridiculous time mashing them. I think I spoilt my ricer in the process.  Decided to re-boil again (with added salt this time) and the mashing work was easier, albeit very messy one.

 The recipe called for 1 medium egg.  It never crossed my mind to beat the egg first before mixing into the potatoes.  Not sure if it made any difference but anyway....

 After mixing in the egg, I put in the flour, some salt and black peppers.  I used wheat flour.  I have no measuring cups so I used a small bowl instead as my indication.  Started off with 1 bowl of flour but the mixture was still very very sticky....so I added in another bowl...and another..and another. At this point, I was very sure this was another failure project.  Most recipes called for only 1-2 cups flour. By the 4th bowl, I was able to get a dough that didn't stick to my hand.   Yeah!

See...this dough resembles the picture from the online recipe :)  It took me almost half an hour 

 to knead this.  That would be mistake #3!

Cut the dough into part and rolled into sausages. This was the easiest part. 

Then cut into 1 inch pillow size.  Another easy part.

 After cutting, I used a fork to make ridges mark. Extremely proud of myself at this point! Made about 4 batches of these...ie. 4 containers! Decided to boil some for tonite's dinner. To cook, I boiled in hot water until the gnocchi floated to the top.  I then pan fried them...I prefer them this way...just like eating firm tofus.

Verdict - I have never tasted gnocchi before so I have nothing to benchmark against.  The recipes said they should be fluffy and soft.  At the back of my mind before I even embarked on this, I could almost visualize mashed potatoes in small pillowy forms.  I could almost taste the softness. 

Unfortuntely, my batch did not turn out the way I had visualized. They were rubbery and chewy, a result of too much kneading.... just look at the picture above...there was no taste of potatoes whatsoever....all I could taste was FLOUR!  Sigh...another failed project.  I finished the whole 6 pieces though....with the help of some chilli ketchup.  Somehow, I highly doubt that I will even finished the other 4 containers that are in my freezer.

However, unlike my other past cooking projects, I may decide to try this recipe again but next time I am gonna use sweet potatoes instead and I shall not be greedy...I shall start off with 2 sweet potatoes only :)

Sinful but what the hell.........

The craving was too intense.  I simply had to go get myself cupcakes today.  After finishing Pilates at the gym, I drove all the way to Uptown to a little cafe called Wondermilk.  Heard about this place years ago and had always wanted to try their cupcakes. 

As soon as I entered the place, I was a little disappointed that their so called Maxi Cupcakes are kinda small.  Price is a little steep as well for that size at RM4.50 per piece.  I got myself a box of 4 for RM17.00...a savings of a miserable RM1...yeah!

I decided to get myself these......



Oh My Choc - This one caught my eye immediately!

Very Very Very Chocolate

Rocky Road - with gooey marshmallows on top.

Foxy Red Velvet - Heard about red velvet quite a bit before and decided to try this flavor.



Downing cupcakes with a glass of cold milk...yummy....a satisfying tea break. I must say though...the cupcakes were a little too sweet for my likings.  I am actually going against my "eat clean, eat healthy" regime but then again,  it's not like I'm eating these every day.  It will be awhile till I have my next cupcake.  

New Trail running shoes

How do you like my new shoes?  Cool huh?

Fell in love with this 3 weeks ago.  Was undecided then if I should waste money getting this.  Told myself that if they are still available on my birthday, I will get them...my own birthday gift, so to speak. 

This is Adidas Kanadia TR3, a trail running shoes.  Priced at RM229, I thought it was pretty reasonable.  It was also available in pink, though priced differently (RM260) cos the pinks are of newer model.

I love this color. It's officially called Phantom color. I like to think of it as purple but I think it's more of magenta-ish. So cool and I gotta admit, quite an attention getter.  I was pretty bored with the whites and greys of my previous sneakers.  One thing in common though...all my gym shoes have some hues of pink and magenta. 

Check out the outsoles. The mud shedding outsoles have awesome grip for off-roads.  The shoes are light and have good cushioning. They are comfortable too.  Had to get a 1/2 size bigger than normal feet size though.  This shoes would have come in handy for my mountain climbing trip.....though I'm not sure I would want them to get dirty this fast....ahaks. For now, this shall remain strictly for gym.