old cucumber and pork rib soup

today, i will tell you how i prepare the old cucumber and pork rib soup. i bought the smallest old cucumber from ntuc supermarket for $1.20. the pork ribs - 7 pieces in all - cost slightly more than $2.00. the dried red dates, scallops and the small piece of rock sugar are from our own stock.

i normally remove the skin of the cucumber by using a peeler. (it's okay to keep the skin but make sure you scrub it clean.) i also remove the seeds and the soft parts by using a metal spoon. (again, if you don't mind the seeds, you can keep them.) i then cut the flesh into bite size pieces.

boil a small pot of water to blanch the pork ribs. when the water boils, just leave the pieces of pork ribs in it for about a minute. after that, drain the water away.

next, place all the ingredients, including the blanched pork ribs, into an earthen pot. fill it with water to cover all the ingredients. i normally pour in 2 or 3 rice bowls of water. bring the water to boil. let it boil for 10 minutes or so before bringing down the flame so as to allow the soup to simmer. an hour of simmering will do, by then you should be getting a whiff of the flavour.

home-cooked vegetable rice

i have been having vegetable rice for breakfast for the past two days. i cooked the vegetable rice on friday but did not have it for dinner. your mother, who was famished by the time she got home from work, had it for dinner instead. her complaint: it was too soggy.

must admit it was soggy. i had added more than the regulated amount of water. i had intended to drain off the excess water when the rice became tender. but, by the time the rice reached that stage, all the water had been absorbed by it.

i first cooked the rice in a pot. when it became fluffy, i stopped the cooking. i fried the ingredients to go into the rice. started with the ginger bits, then added in the bits of meat and the dried shrimps. after that, threw in the shredded carrot and vegetables (peh chye). of course, i used oyster sauce to add flavour to the ingredients.

when all the ingredients in the kwaili had been cooked, i threw in the fluffy rice and mixed everything up.

singapore chilli crab

your mom is acting a bit strange since my return from melbourne. first, she craved for roti prata. so, yesterday we went down to al-ameen at 7th mile bukit timah for dinner. then, she asked for chilli crabs today.

after my morning walk, i went over to the ntuc supermarket at bukit panjang plaza to buy the ingredients. i bought 2 female mud crabs, weighing in at 1.2kg, for $16.90 and a packet of the ready to cook meal kit for about $5.

i followed quite closely the instructions on the packet, with slight modifications. i fried some garlic before adding in the chopped pieces of crabs and i added tomato ketchup and extra hot chilli sauce to the paste.