Living in isolation is getting old….

Galley kitchen in our cabin

Now into the 2nd week of isolation due to covid-19…. although we kept ourselves busy, I am getting the itch to go out driving. Even just going to the grocery store is a welcomed diversion from staying home, but I limit myself to that activity to only once a week.

2nd weeks groceries

We must all do our part to stop the spread of virus and virtually encourage our friends and neighbors to do the same. There will always be some inconsiderate ones among us, but so long as we stay ourselves in isolation, we will be fine…. or so I hope.

Soupy rice, Vienna sausages and Japanese pickled radish.

Difficult as it is already for 2 weeks of isolation, the State of Washington just extended this to 6 weeks. Yay! For me, I am happy to not go back to Seattle traffic.. but this is not good news and not something to cheer about.

Day 6 of isolation dinner. It was breakfast with a stirfry beef and veggies. 

Knuckle down and keep on counting those blessings.

Oh I had a snack…. Brie on bread… sorry about the bite off.

In our tiny home (aka cabin), we live in it and cook in it. Its not one of those showroom units that look beautiful, is constantly cleaned and never used. We have lots of grease splatter on the wall and the counter. It is unsightly, but it smells like home. Yes, we only have a 1 burner camp stove, a small RV type fridge, lots of open pantry storage spaces and a freezer outside the cabin. Since, this is a 196 sqft cabin in a 45,000 sqft (1 acre) lot, there’s lots of room out there to put in a huge kitchen, and huge fridge, huge house for that matter… but we are not so into huge anything these days.

Day 7. Spam and egg sandwich breakfast.

Given our space constraints, I tend to cook a 1 pot meal. As we have a electric rice cooker, rice is not part of the 1 pot. Certainly not all our meals are 1 pot, like spaghetti is cooked 1st then set aside to cook the sauce.

Day 8 Breakfast. Fried rice with spam, celery and egg

We do get tired of cooking every meal, so we dont. Doug eats lots of nuts for mid day sustenance and I snack on cheese and bread or corn chips and salsa, or corn flakes and milk… Sure its nice to have less to wash in our 1 small sink kitchen. But hey, we are ocean crossing cruising people, we can handle this.

Day 8 Dinner, exactly same as Day 7…

Opps, I missed Day 7 dinner picture, but it was rice and beef and vegs. Nothing exciting. Each time I cook a pot of rice, there will be leftover for a fried rice next day.

Day 9 Breakfast. Fried rice again.

And it seems I am happy to eat the same food 2 days and nights in a row. Very little variation.

Day 9 Dinner, Enhanced instant noodle.

Since starting this recording of my meals… sometimes Doug does his own things, I am seeing some pattern to my food choices. Like how often do I reach for that can of Viennas or Spam or those packaged noodles. Do I eat that much junk …? Doug’s opinion is that I eat junk more than real food…. of course I disagree.. 😉

Day 10 Breakfast. Same old.

And I must say, instant noodle is really not instant for me. I start water boiling with garbanzo beans and my favorite Asian spices. Takes about an hour for the beans to soften just right for me. Meanwhile, I might add slices of cabbage, carrots or other greens. Depending on what ingredients I have, I usually add it to the pot at the right cooking time for those ingredients. Nothing gets overcooked in my noodles. I put so much care in cooking noodles that I might even argue that it is in fact nutritious… 😉

Day at the store….

And while most people argue about good or bad foods, I believe in everything in moderation.

Day 10 Dinner. A fabulous Sockeye salmon meal .

On the day at the store, I couldnt resist a maki for lunch…. not counted, so I say to Doug…

Day 11 Dinner. Night of I want fried food.

And for dinner, Sockeye salmon skin and filet and rice. I love the skin which I fried till crispy. Doug gets only the filet meat, but he loves a good Sockeye when I cook it. So he is not complaining that I had to go to the store.

And then another fried rice.

Sometimes, after a long day at work, I find myself hungry and wanna eat something fast, easy and greasy. Thats why I always keep a box of Van deKamps battered fish filet. Raiding the freezer and found more frying friendly foods… like Siew Mai and crabsticks… who woulda thot. Ok, I admit, that dinner was nothing but junk.

Day 12 Dinner.

Another fried rice to start the day. This one tho is special. Its my Ah Ma’s recipe ginger fried rice. Its vegetarian, but I added Spam for protein.

Finally something different for dinner. Steak, mash potato and homemade gravy. After a productive and very tiring weekend, thats what I felt like having. …

Another week in isolation passed. Another is coming up….

 

 

5 isolated days

1st grocery run.

In reality, its not isolation…. its only social distancing. So I went to the store and got groceries. Doug refused to go for fear of getting the covid-19 …. but if I got it, so will he eventually, right? But he wants to eat just as much as I do too. Anyway, he like the stuff I brought back….

Got this from Walmart

Alright, the story goes, I called the Asian market in Silverdale and Central Market in Poulsbo to ask if they had rice. Asian market is out, CM had 2lb bags of Hom Mali Jasmine (my favorite type) and limited to 2 per shopper, and they are probably very expensive…. never good value to buy such small quantity. Then I checked Safeway online, and it is listed that they had Mathama 5lb long grain in Port Townsend, and among other things, 15 grains bread (for Doug) and white bread (mine!) is back in stock. I was skeptical, nevertheless I rushed to store….

Day 2 Dinner. Elbows in minced beef and vegetable stock

Its only 3 miles to the store and hardly any traffic. Usually I have to wait 5 minutes to turn out on the highway, but today, nothing. I zipped into the store, zoomed to the rice aisle….. and no! There was no Mathama 5lb long grain! But surprise oh surprise, they had the Golden Star 5lb Jasmine rice! This brand was definitely one of the better rice I ever bought in the US. I could not believe that Safeway had this rice and there were 10 bags or so on the shelf! Until I read the price tag…. Mathama 5lb long grain $6.29 vs Golden Star $9.49. Price per pound, GS at Safeway is 2 times more expensive than Walmart, but I did not care, I grabbed the 2 bags that I was allowed to. Even if long grain was on the shelf, I would have gotten the jasmine rice! I am not one that cheap out on rice. And really, these 2 bags (10lbs) would last us 3 months, by then we hope that the virus situation is under control and supermarket stocks goes back to normal levels.

Day 3 Dinner.

Fortunately bread is back (was out 2 of my previous store trips), eggs are still available tho the shelves are not full as it used to be. Lots of meat and pork are on firesale! 1/2 price on most pork meat, but I want beef, so I got a good steak. Ice cream are on firesale too! 99c per large tub! Thats 1/4 of the usual price! Could not help but got 2 of those.

Day 4 breakfast

Now that we will be eating our own cooking 95% of the time, we have to ration out the rice so that it can last 3 months. Breakfast on day 2 was IndoMee Instant noodle. Got 10 packets of this from Walmart last week. It was 1 of those things that got left behind because it was 3 times more expensive than the US favorite Marushins. Again, I would not buy Marushins unless I was starved for days.

Day 2 dinner, macroni in home brewed mince beef and vegetable stock. Good and nutritious. Cooked a big pot and was next days breakfast as well. I do that a lot, eat leftovers next day. I will not keep a meal over 2 days, but Doug will …. any meal in the fridge that was not yesterday’s, it will be up to Doug to devour. We throw out little, but whenever we do, its Doug’s fault 😉

Day 5 breakfast.

I just had to splurge on the rice after 1 day of rice abstinence. For day 3 dinner, I made a stir fry using a almost expired package of sausage meat with fresh cabbage and french beans, both sliced in my signature style. To celebrate the purchase of new rice in this impossible times, I added a century egg on the side. 🙂 And then for day 4 breakfast, I made another stir fry using the last bits of liverwurst in a package with fresh cabbage and french beans. Yes I could eat rice and stir fry everyday, not something that Doug or my neighbors can understand.

Day 5 Dinner

For quite some time now, Doug and I, we skip lunches. We both agree that lunch time is best used on work, less dishes to wash and less calories to lose. For those meals that I did not post a picture, I may have eaten a leftover or it was simply 2 bread slices with marmalade on it. Nothing to write home about. But for day 4 dinner, I cooked the steak and forgot to take a picture, sigh. BTW, cats enjoyed their steak tartare.

On day 5, I decided on a Singaporean breakfast treat, fried rice vermicelli with refried beef steak fatty pieces and my usual vegetables. The sunny side up egg is fried in plenty of very hot oil so that the whites are crispy on the edges and the yolk is still runny. And finally, I write up this post after a fabulous meal of experimental cooking. I used a can of minced clams, the remnants of Rahgu marinara sauce, slices of pepperjack cheese which I buy in 2lbs block, over Barilla fat round spaghetti. As Doug says, my spaghetti is cooked to perfection… as always, but he preferred my Ah-Ma’s recipe sardines and tomato sauce better. Yes, I think so too, but we are out of Ayam brand tuna which I bring with me from Singapore. I have tried, but no American canned sardines come close to tasting that good. Anyway, I like the minced clams spaghetti sauce just fine. The cheese added a lot of good flavor.

The isolation saga continues…. and I am not in any way put out by it…

Is it time for my favorite food yet?

The cruising life takes me far away from home and my favorite foods. Surely I can find Chinese take outs, Japanese foods and Asian stores for ingredients in US and Canada. Right, but they dont taste the same and dont carry a large selection of condiments or instant noodles like they do in NTUC back home.

Nasi Lemak that I cook.

With my regular once 1 year trip back home, stocking my travel bags full of my special foods and condiments is the most important on my shopping list. Of course I am limited to what the customs would allow, but 40kg worth of luggage space filled with groceries goes a long way 🙂 … yep, I dont transfer clothing between my 2 home base, just food.

Ayam brand Chili and Curry tuna

One of my favorite breakfast is Nasi Lemak. The traditional ones are anchovies, chili paste and rice wrapped in banana leaves. Well, banana leaves are difficult to bring and keep fresh, but the fried anchovies and chili paste are packaged for international travel. Canned coconut milk are easily available at all grocery stores, so is jasmine rice… I personally prefer Walmart for Asian foods than Safeway, but for all fresh ingredients, Safeway is much better.

Another of my favorite is the canned Ayam Chili and Doug likes the Curry Tuna. Nothing like these over here… the Thai brands dont come close. These goes well with soupy rice and a stir fry veggie for a easy prep healthy meal.

And not to forget the Myojo Tom Yam noodles! Mee hoon Soto! Char Mee! …. So looking forward to getting the real thing in my tummy. … and I fly in 12hrs from now 🙂

Chicken rice away from home

Now that I am staying away from Singapore for longer periods, the question that I have been asked most, “Do you miss food from home?” or “What food do you missed the most?”

Parts of chicken. Available everywhere

Well, I cook most of the foods that I like from home and nowadays Asian spices are everywhere… so why would I be missing anything in particular? But I do miss some that I dont cook… like I dont really fry noodles like Char Kway Teow or Hokkien Mee. … And I cant fold leaf bundled rice like Nasi Lemak or Bak Chang. … but otherwise, I am really doing well here, foodwise.

Boiling the chicken for stock

Chicken rice is one of Doug’s favorite, and is not too complicated to DIO “do it ourselves”… Packaged bits of chicken are available in any grocery shop in every country that I visited, making this a really portable recipe. Although some herbs or spices may not be easy to get, but still it will work out ok.

Processing the chicken thighs

Well, this is my version of travelling Chicken rice, using spices that are commonly available in Asian stores in US and Canada. BTW, the parts that I like most is the thighs and with skin.

Boiled chicken skins

Start by boiling the chicken parts in pan of water, with the chicken completely submerged. Add 1 anise, few cloves and pinch of cumin seeds…. or whichever that is available. When it starts to boil vigorously, turn to low heat and simmer for about 15 mins. Its always good to simmer longer, if not in a hurry to serve. Stock will taste better 🙂

While waiting, rinse 2 cups jasmine rice, drain.

Fried chicken skins, perfectly golden

Pull 1 piece of chicken out of the simmering pan onto the chopping board. Use a fork and spoon, pull away the skin and try to shred the flesh. If the chicken seem to be too rare, put it back in the stock and turn up the heat again. Otherwise, turn off the flame, put all chicken pieces on the board. Use a ladle, gather the stock with as much fat as possible, pour the stock into the rice pan. The amount of stock to use in rice cooking is the same as the amount of water that you normally use for steamed rice.

Yay, its chicken rice

Start the rice on a medium heat, stir every few minutes. Cover when not stirring. When rice seems to have expanded, turn to low heat and stop stirring. Cover and let simmer for 20 mins. After that, turn off flame and let it simmer with the residue heat, do not lift the cover for the next 10 mins.

Yummy. Eat chicken rice with chopsticks 🙂 … if u can..

While waiting for rice, shred the chicken meat. Then start the skins on a frying pan, do not add oil, as fat will ooze out from the skins… turnover every few minutes, fry until golden and crispy.

Fill a bowl with the cooked rice, spread the shredded chicken on top, add the skins on the side. Serve with Shiracha and garnish with cilantro. Yummy in about 1hr.

Happy Hols!

Calliste lights up for Christmas 2012

This has been a real happening year…. wrapping it up, partying and getting ready for the next… which I hope will be even more happening 🙂 in the good way of course.

Thats turks, right out of the stove!

Our Christmas night dinner on board Calliste, just 2 of us this time. Thats refreshing for a change 🙂 . Turks is the star of our spread. And as always, Doug cooks the best Turks.

Its time for the big bird again

Our Norbest star of the dinner table for Thanksgiving

It is interesting to me how people mark time as the years go by. For me, its marking the year with Thanksgiving and Christmas turkeys. Like thinking back and remembering that last year, we had Christmas Turkey while sailing Eleanor at Sebana. The year before, we had a Christmas party at Sebana with quite afew cruisers, under the marina building… but we didnt bake our own turkey that time. We had the thanksgiving turkey then, but it was a good Norbest.

Rubbing on margerine, thyme, pepper.. and hmm what else? sage?

see… so you get the idea..

For last Christmas, we could only get a small Butterball, cos Norbest was sold out! It turn out ok, but still I will choose a Norbest over a Butterball anytime. Norbest wins, hands down!

Festive fruity fried rice!

I thought that a fruity fried rice will go very nicely with the festive theme and the bird. This year, we have guest on board, so we need more food. .. My recipe: Chopped cubes of water chestnuts, pear, cashew nuts, raisins and sultanas. Heat sunflower seed oil in pan, add raw cashew nuts, fry until slightly brown. Add water chestnuts and 2 cup rice, stir fry and add seseme oil. Keep stirring until everything looks well distributed and hot, add pears, raisins and sultanas. Keep stirring and when the new additions are properly mixed in, its done. This is a crunchy and mildly sweet fried rice. My 1st time trying this style and it turn out ok. Wish I added some red bell pepper chips. It would add color to the pot and look more festive!

Our star emerges from the oven! Nicely tanned and juicy I am sure!

This years Thanksgiving will be quite memorable. We are having a party! We never did have a bird sharing party before, but we here at Keppel and our friends are nearby to join us. Very unfortunate, but I didnt get pictures of the group and the great stuff that they brought! 2 champaigns, juices, fabulous corns. All went very well with the festive spirit. … ooohh!! wish I had more pictures!!!

Reconstructing Ah Ma’s Sweet Pepper pork recipe

This is one of my favorite Ah Ma’s cooking, and is one that I never learned from her… sometimes I wonder.. do I miss Ah Ma or her cooking…?

1/4" slices of fresh pork. Look at that pink!

Its my 4th attempt at trying to make this Ah Ma’s special Sweet Pepper Pork… and yet again I failed. Pretty frustrated! Why I never learn how to cook this when Ah Ma was around…?

Making the marinate.

… but now, it has become a personal goal, for me to discover thru trial and errors, how Ah Ma did it. I think the process will make me learn the ways of Ah Ma.. those that I didnt learn the 1st time around.

The most important part of this cooking process, is making the marinate. How do you make it to taste just right and get the right smooth gravy like texture spread evenly over the meat?

Early in the cooking stage.

Let me see, my mistakes, starting from the beginning… 1st try, not enough sugar, not enough flour. 2nd attempt, sugar was about right, too much soy, and not enough flour. 3rd try, too much flour, killed everything. 4th try, okay I got the taste right…

Done cooking, gravy texture not quite right.

Here is what I got so far for 300g block of lean pork.

1) Slice lean pork into 1/4″ slices.

2) Make marinate with 2 tbsp sugar and 2 tbsp flour, dissolve in 1/2 cup slightly warm water. Add 1/2 tbsp seseme oil, lots of pepper to the mixing bowl. Stir well, add pork. Spread evenly and leave for a few minutes.

3) Mince 2 cloves garlic.

A complete Chinese meal with rice, stir fry veggies and sweet pepper pork

4) Medium heat, 2 tbsp spoon oil in pan, add garlic to brown. Lay out pork slices onto pan, scoop remaining liquid marinate onto the pork. After 1 min, flip over to cook the other side. 1 min on the other side and it should be done cooking.

See! That should be so simple… isnt it? … but why my gravy texture is not right? Kinda lumpy… hmm… too much flour? No, I think flour is just right.. … I dunno… but I will probably get it right on the 5th try… I hope…

My yellow rice….

I remember my 1st taste of that bright colorful orange and yellow rice. I was 7 yrs old and we were at our grandparents’ neighbours’ kids birthday party. They were educated and modern Indians. Very friendly, have 2 girls around my age. We played together almost every weekend, when we visit Ah Gong and Ah Po.

Curry marinated chicken

Yes, back to the rice. It was a mix of bright orange rice kernels and yellow rice kernels and some less colored(whitish ones). I dont remember when I became a rice fan, must be those days when I havent develop any memory… Anyway, I was so fascinated by that colorful rice and I always wondered how they made it. I got a big serving of the rice, and some curry and soury pickled vegetable, sat down in a corner, went about separating and re-grouped the rice kernels by their color. I had a pile of orange, yellow and pale rice… wondering if they taste any different… It is funny how one gets these sort of flashback.

Serving yellow rice, on a colorful plate

That was the only time in my childhood that I had seen that colorful rice. Later on, many many years later, I learned about Indian food. It was kinda different. More spice, stronger taste, mostly dullish yellow, rarely with speckles of orange. Okay, that reminded me, that I had a burning desire to learn how to make the rice so vibrantly colored.

Storing dry spices in tupperwares, onboard Calliste.

After some internet research, trial and errors… I finally got it down… my simplified version that I wont even dare call it Nasi Briyani! But its close, and its easy, and its probably much healthier by not adding ghee or any animal fat to it. The color part is probably the most important aspect… as far as I am concerned.. 😉 .. so I wont bother with the technicallity of tradition or not, authentic or not. (hey I am not even Indian to begin with) . … I dont have the real basmati rice that for this briyani, subsituted with Thai fragrant rice that I stock for everyday cooking. But I do stock the many spices needed for making my rice yellow and spicy.

Spice and Rice locker

Most cooking that I do is on the weekends, and weekends are mostly on Calliste now. .. The natural place to be storing my many spices is therefore the rice and spice locker onboard Calliste. .. And the wayof storing them properly is using small square tupperwares, labelled and stacked in the locker just behind the sink.

I never realize that so many spices are neccessary for my  cooking. Check out our stash! Gee… some are low. We really are not prepared to go on a long trip with our spices. .. yet, but we will definately fill every container before we head to the pacific.

Christmas day sail!

Waking to the sounds of Doug preparing for a Turkey bake on Calliste, ending the day with a nice little sail on Eleanor, enjoying a Turkey wing while sailing around the estuary… surely a most memorable one for me.

Our 1st Buttonball Turks

We always like a Norbest Turkey whenever we get one.. but this year, we were late and the only remaining ones on 23rd were Butterballs. Well, time to try a different brand or else its no Turks right.. It cost a little more and is bigger than our usual.. we hope it turn out well.

Beautiful weather for working out in the cockpit.

Thats me doing my usual contribution to a Turks bake of preparing water chestnuts and chopping onions, I am off for a day of games… 🙂

Haha.. back on my FB games.. hooray for wifi.. when it works.

Well… I was also the carols “DJay”, searching and finding Celtic Woman Christmas songs thru U-tube.. I always like classical/musical stage and costumes… Think I am going to buy that DVD..

Doug had to build a tent because the old top wouldnt totally enclose Turks.

1100hrs, Turks was ready for the oven. Seems to be much bigger than we thought, only inches between the oven top and Turks. .. oh wow! Think about how much meat we’ll have… YUM!

Is that a gluttony look!?

Seems to me, I can always get a funny pic of Doug when hes handling Turks… recall the T-giving one? 

Turks taking up all the room in the oven..

Then, all we could do is wait 4hrs… hungry hungry hungry… snack snack snack.. In the meantime, I got Eleanor rigged and ready to go.

Santas' on board! Lucky me, I got a wing.. 😉

1600hrs, Eleanor loaded with our special Christmas meal and drinks, caught a puff and off we go.

Ahh... sailing and feasting..

Those bungalow dwellers watched us sail by and waving with drums and wings in our fingers… what must they think of us…! Damned those Decadent sailors…? Hee hee hee..

Thanksgiving 2009

This is 1 long day in my life, and probably 1 that I would remember at future thanksgiving. I thank God that 2009 had been better than 2008.. cos we didnt get turkey last year.. For us, and like many other people, 2009 has been a year of slow recovery from our financial diaster of 2008. This year, we find ourselves in the right mood and have a little extra to celebrate with a turkey.

Weighing in at 9.5lbs, our very own little turks

What do I know about turkey cooking? Its not in my culinary skills set. So its all up to Doug.. and he makes the best turkey meals that I ever had.. 🙂 After 5 years, .. u would think that I learn a thing or 2 .. nope.. …

Stuffing with real fresh water chestnuts. They were great!

Some people find it amazing that we can cook decent meals onboard a small boat like Calliste, a 28ft BCC. Its incredible that we even have a good old marine oven and stove that would fit a small turkey.

A fun picture of Doug and turks

Doug had fun with the turkey preparation. We are all in pretty good spirits today.. 1 day later than the actual thanksgiving. A day off from work for Hari Raya Haji that we conveniently renamed Thanksgiving.. 🙂

Turks stuffed and sealed with pins.

Turks stuffed and sealed, ready for baking. ..

Golden brown turks! The skin was sooo gooooD!

.. After 3hrs of baking… yes it took all that time.. surprised? We were!

BTW, we are firm Norbest fan. Never a Buttonball for us! The red popup button indicator for fully cooked turkey is a must! And it works! All the time.