My Cooking Project

Finally, I'm back to doing one of my hobbies - cooking. Contrary to what appears to be my lifestyle when I used to live away from my family (I've never cooked in my former landlord's kitchen), I actually love to cook. Now that I finally have a kitchen of my own, I'm free to cook, yeessss!

Chicken curry boiling in claypot... yum.


Today happens to be the first time I cook in more than 5 months, and also the first time I prepared curry. Thanks to the delicious but easy-to-prepare "Kari Ayam Tanpa Santan" (or coconut milk-free chicken curry) recipe shared by blogger Naz on her blog "CUTE OVEN, SMALL KITCHEN", I was able to come up with this curry which my dad and I enjoyed very much.

Do check out Naz's blog, which has a comprehensive collection of interesting recipes (as per the link provided above).

The curry looks like any of those that we frequently come across, but sans coconut milk. Hence, this curry is a healthier alternative to ordinary chicken curries that contain coconut milk. There's a subtle taste of "asam jawa" (or tamarind) in this curry which I liked very much. If you prefer less tamarind taste, you may reduce the tamarind paste to half a tablespoon instead of one spoonful.

My 1st time home-cooked curry as served on the dining table... with traces of gravy all over the bowl. Not as if I was bothered to garnish it nicely, hahaha...

I bet my mom would have loved this too, and she'd missed sampling her daughter's cooking by just 5 1/2 months.

Apart from chicken curry, I cooked two other humble dishes:

Mixed vegetables comprising carrots, broccoli, baby corn and fish cake with oyster sauce...

and:

Simple spinach soup. Just stir-fry some finely-chopped garlic with whatever you like (fish ball, fish cake, or any meat of your choice), add water, allow to boil, add vegetables, add salt to taste, and allow to simmer.

Three dishes with rice for lunch and dinner over a Sunday had indeed made my day. I'm no professional cook, but only inheriting some of mom's cooking and seeking to learn more.

10 years ago, I could not have imagined myself preparing food for folks at home in the kitchen. But today, I cherish cooking as much as the people I love. Cooking per se is fun, but washing is not... there are just so many things to wash and clean up after cooking.

I look forward to plan my next cooking project soon, only if everything goes well of course.