Wednesday 1 April 2020

Covid-19 MCO : Day #15 (Big Breakfast!)


I miss big breakfast. So I decided to give myself a treat at the start of the Enhanced Movement Control Order today which everyone is hoping (but might not be getting) to end 14-04-2020.

Actually someone made me crave for bacon and that made me think of big breakfast, something that I have not had for a long time.

So I defrosted the sausages and bacon overnight and there was a big fry up in my kitchen late morning. The smell of bacon is mmmmm....outstanding!!


I wished that I had button mushrooms and substituted with flash fried cherry tomatoes. That was a satisfying brunch.


Today I cooked soup using bone broth, tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, cabbage and meat which I salvaged from the bones used to make bone broth.


Ah! Let me introduce you to my best friend when it comes to making soup - the Empress Magic Cooker or also known as a Thermal Insulated Cooking Pot.

I bought this pot years ago from Cosway and used it only once or twice after which it went into hibernation.


What is so magic about this pot? It consists of a stainless steel inner pot and an insulated outer pot.


You basically boil up your soup/stew/curry on the stove and then transfer the inner pot into the insulated pot and cover. 


Your soup/stew/curry will then continue to cook on residual heat thus saving gas.


Just let it stand for a couple of hours while you go about doing your other things. Haiz....why didn't I use this pot more often?


I saved the vegetable scraps from peeling the potatoes, carrots and garlic. Oh ya, I love putting garlic cloves in soups.


All the vegetable peel/scrap go into my compost bin which is actually an empty flower pot. I have loads of flower pots. Besides pantry items, I also hoard flower pots hah...hah....


Throw the scraps in and cover with some soil.


This soil here is depleted soil i.e. whatever plant that grew in this pot had died or had outgrown the pot and I recycle this soil when making compost.


Just keep layering with the next batch of vegetable scraps followed by soil and so forth. 


After a while, due to exposure to sun and rain and with the help of bacteria and other little critters, the organic material breaks down/decomposes and with any luck you will find a gardener's best friend - earthworms! Can you see it?


There, let me give you a better look. I used to be very squeamish but these days I can touch earthworms because I love them hee..hee... 

Every week or so, using a shovel or whatever is practicable, give your compost a stir to mix it around. This aerates the compost to aid further breakdown. You can also add used tea leaves or coffee ground to your compost. My partner used to save used coffee bags from his office for me.


When your compost is ready, it is black in color and you can start to put some into your pots to nourish your plants. You  will notice renewed vigor in your plants within a few days after application of compost.


My daun sup (Chinese celery) is starting to produce new shoots. See how green it is. I am trying to plant greens like this so that I can just harvest from my garden anytime I need it. 


This one is celery. New shoots coming out and hopefully if not attacked by snails it will grow sucessfully.


Another pot of celery.


Chives (kuchai) which thrives on neglect or else it would have died years ago.


Curry leaves. Very useful when cooking curry or kam heong dishes.


This is turmeric (daun kunyit) which is a heavy feeder. It requires frequent feeding to do well. Well, mine is not doing too good as you can see the leaves are yellowish. The leaves are essential for cooking rendang and other dishes like masak lemak cili padi.


A solitary bunga telang. There will be more in the future.


Yesterday evening I had overnight oats for dinner. Sad to say at around 9pm I was hungry again. So....


I had one container of pasta salad topped with baked beans and chili sauce (what a weird combo) but it was so good hah..hah....


This fatty bom bom was very rebellious last night. She wanted to go out.


Her "boyfriend" visited her late afternoon.


This is what she does when she insists on going out. She climbs all over the place while yowling very loudly. MEEE...YEOW..OOOOOO....MEOW..YEOW...OOOOO.... Nope! Mommy said cannot!


So she kwai kwai stay in the house while sulking away. It's very hard to be a parent even to a cat. Haiz...

22 comments:

  1. wah, so tasty your big breakfast! There is a thermal pot in my house too. A free gift from buying some other things. Wah, you are a strict parent, doesn't allow your dotter to see her bf. Did you treat her bf to a meal before sending him off?

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    1. Oh no, I don't feed him. He is very unfriendly. Don't know how to bodek his potential MIL. LOL!

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  2. Yuckss!!! You love earth worms?? I can give you lots of recipes to make soups or fry them like Hokkien Mee. My sister who lives on the Mont Kiara hills has a box of fat worms multiplying for her potted jungle balcony. Suddenly all worms crawled out like Covid scare... OMG both of you are scary women who love worms. MCO has produced sick zombies.

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    1. Earthworms are good for the garden. That's why I love them!

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  3. My wife also has a pot like your Empress Cooker Pot. I would call hers a Concubine Pot because she bought it from Lazada cheaply. I think she used it over 100 times and found it useful for soups.

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    1. Your wife's pot is very well used as it should be. I am using mine more often now as I realized it is very practical and convenient for making delicious soups.

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  4. You should be kind and let your pussycat out to meet boy friends! She need to get married and give birth to many grandchildren for you. You will be the happiest grandmother on this planet and have many things to blog about having 20 cat litters at home.

    Did I tell you that I attended a family friend's funeral in Taman Seputeh recently? I was shocked to see over 20 cats living inside the house!!! I was shocked and horrified as Chinese very pantang got black cat near coffins! Eeeeeeee

    Before you let your Ah Girl out, remember to let her wear masks.

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    1. LOL! I read that if you have more than one cat, each cat must have its own litter box. Not only that, you should budget two litter box per cat. Pengsan I tell you!

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  5. Oooo..bacon! Sausages! I hate you lah!!! :D

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    1. My missus has a pot like that too, probably from Cosway too. She bought a lot of things. Tak pakai pun!!! At best, once or twice after buying and after that, go into storeroom dah. Humphhhh!!!!

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    2. I am like that too. LOL! But my pot has been in use very frequently now.

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  6. My mother-in-law used to cook a big pot of soup for the entire family using a thermal cooker like that. Actually, if you have a cooker like that, you don't even need to make bone broth ahead of time. Just boil the chicken carcass or pork bone with whatever other ingredients you want in the inner pot until boiling and then put it in the thermal cooker. Leave it for a good 4 - 6 hours (depending on the ingredients) and the soup will be ready by dinner time. By then it would have cooled, so just pop it back on the stove to reheat...voila, simple! ;) I used to make chicken stock and boil soup like that when I was using a stove. Not anymore since I switched to induction. Now I only use a small one for transporting food with gravy or curries to keep it warm.

    Cookie is like that too. He would go berserk and jump all over the chairs and table tops. I'm not sure if that was his way of telling me he wants to go out but when he does that I can't stand it and will eventually let him out. P/S: Oops, I can see that girl has got a tummy (especially when she's sitting)...wuahahahaha! :D And those look like good sausages :)

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    1. Now I love this pot and I am glad that I am finally putting it to good use.

      Ah, Cookie does that too! When my girl goes into that mode, she also drives me up the wall. Sometimes I concede and let her out for the night. At other times, I simply ignore her and once I am in my bedroom, she quiets down and settles quietly outside my room.

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  7. Thank you for this post. I am trying to jinak jinak plant some stuff around the backyard. your sharing is appreciated. I have started putting crushed egg shells around my potted spring onion after seeing you do so. thanks again.

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    1. You are welcome. I am glad that you are taking an interest in gardening. It's a good hobby!

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  8. I m drooling over ur big breakfast....LOL on the cat story!

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    1. LOL! My cat drives me nuts sometimes.

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  9. You do know a lot about gardening. I want to have that big breakfast, so satisfying.

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    1. I love gardening and learn from reading and also experience. This big breakfast can be easily prepared at home.

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  10. I cooked Big Breakfast one of the this week too, but not as abundance as yours because I couldn't get sausages :(

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