Jacko, da Chef

Early morning when I was still sweetly enjoying my pinky dream, I received an SMS, "are you working today?".

Arrgghhh!! I have been refusing to face the fact but that SMS just like a needle punctures onto a balloon, ended my dream and brought me back to reality, indicating today is the last day of my long CNY leave!

I reserved my first 5 days for my little darling, totally isolated myself from outside world with her, of course also spending quality time with my bro and sis in law too. No phone calls, refused to go open houses, karaoke etc etc and even prepared to be offline (from internet). Surprisingly, I thought I would only have more time to online after the little darling returned to Singapore, who knows I could still find some free slots to blog a post or two when she was still here, but did not manage to come online after she left! See, how considerate she is to leave some personal time for me! Hehe...

That triggered some jealousy you'd know. After the little cutie left, I needed to spend time with my girlfriend which I had promised to buy new shoes for her before CNY. And I can't live alone without my buddies and gangs, so I resumed my night life with them, followed by some big meals with families (burp!). Till one day, my mom couldn't take anymore big meals, she felt sick. I then decided to dine light and fresh at home with mom and give some rest to the stomach. But mom's sick, who's gonna to cook?!

Ahem~. Jacko, da Chef.

Chinese (or Asian?) believe watery porridge could help to recover the sickness faster. Drinking the porridge soup (any special term?) could help to cool down the heat in the body and consequently ease the sickness. So, Jacko da Chef decided to cook fish porridge for mom.

First, rinse and wash the rice twice...

Not too many times, you would wash away the mineral.

Put it onto the stove with slow fire, and then prepare other ingredients...

Pumpkin, celery, carrot, fish and scallop in the bowl. I couldn't find any fresh fish from the freeze (believe mom did not spare stock during CNY since eat out everyday), so I used the left over cooked fish head...

Peel off the flesh. If I just dump it into the porridge, the flesh might just melt, so I used an egg to sorta wrap the flesh. Simple, just scoop a spoon of flesh into the egg and put it into the porridge.

The porridge should be in boiling once you get ready with with ingredients. So dump all into it except the celery. Cook for another 15 minutes and it's ready to serve, don't forget to put the celery now...

The soup color may not be appealing, 'cause of pumpkin, but the porridge taste naturally sweet (also by carrot)...

Look nice? It also tasted nice! ;)

I recalled this was the first time I cook after err... 5 years. I used to cook when I was studying in Melaka, porridge, fried rice, dinner with 3 dishes, even Tang Yuan 汤圆 and Char Siew 叉烧. Don't play-play! Perhaps I shall find more chance to cook, for... ... ...

Now experience talk. The most challenging task in cooking this porridge was not to re-learn how to cook, but to find the ingredients and the kitchenware! I spent almost 15 minutes dug into the freeze to find ingredients and I almost opened all cabinets and drawers to look for pots! Hehe... Forgivable lah, typically I only walk into the kitchen to eat, at most cook Maggi mee only. :P

Lastly, comment from mom: thumb up! Of course bah! From a "wastrel" son like me. Hehe...