Vietnamese Beef Stew with Ginger

This is a great winter dish which is very very simple to make. When I was small, I always thought that this beef stew is more than complicated, actually we simply simmer all together for several hours, of course the more you cook the longer it will take. Just have to be patient

Here is the recipe for Stewed Beef with Ginger:

Chicken, Pineapple, n Milk !!!

I happened to have both of my chicken n milk (almost 1 litre) to expire almost …. immediately The milk is today n chicken tomorrow. So I had to figure out some way to get this done. uhm … chicken … milk ?!? U know I was thinking chicken cooked in milk … like milk-stewed chicken .. just made it up I went googling for “chicken milk”, and I saw the recipe by Jamie Oliver. Oh yeah !!! He … almost saved my life I actually just wanted to see if chicken can really be cooked in milk, and to have a general idea of how it’s like. And then, I came up w my own idea :-> Yah hay !!!

When I was “inventing” the dish, several dishes came up to my mind, for example grilled/fried chicken with five-spice, or some different versions of stewed chicken. I was also thinking that “chicken and milk” sounds kinda … sweet and buttery, I need something tangy, something sour to give the dish a balance. Luckily I had some canned pineapple stacked in my kitchen for a while (since they had it on sale ) <–> that’s perfect !!!

In the end I came up with this, chicken marinated in five-spice, pineapple juice, then stewed in milk for about 1 hr. Uhm.. it must be yummy, I though to myself … and indeed it was !!!!

Stewed pork shank with hoisin sauce

Traditionally, this dish is made with pork belly, but I happened to find the shank very suitable also. In addition, pork shank contains less fat than the pork belly, which results in an obviously more healthy dish hehe

And traditionally, stewed pork is made only with sugar, fish sauce, salt (and also coconut juice in the South of Vietnam) – this is just my funny experiments using hoisin sauce n a small amount of charsiu sauce. To be honest I have never stewed pork the same way twice And this version is the latest one, made for a friend of mine who is a REAL lazy cook – he’s not so keen on jumping to the kitchen, playing with uncooked ingredients – not like me at all 8-> To be honest, I used my friend as my guinea pig to try my experiment using hoisin sauce haha And luckily he DID like it. My taste also told me that this version is, so far, the best of all / Yay yay / I was so afraid that it may taste weird for other pp Gonna try making this when I come home again In the end I should have some thing as MY original huh? <3

So, here is the recipe for Stewed pork with hoisin sauce:

Chicken n Sweet Potato Curry

Sorry so much u guys, who have been following my “as old as hell” page for a while I’ve been really busy … relaxing n of course studying as well I spent my whole 3-week break in France and I really enjoyed myself travelling to different places :X Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday :X I’ve been to Bordeaux, Toulouse, Lyon, Strasbourg (in Xmas) n Paris!!! Les villes sont tres bon!!! After the break, I came back to this deadly boring city in Jan 5th, which was also the first day of my spring semester. 2 weeks has gone by, n I’ve already been through 2 exams, 3 case studies, n 1 research plan due yesterday :-&

Anyway, those were not really the case why I almost quit cooking n baking. I have some other personal reasons, which I’m gonna tell u guys later when I have more time gossiping ’bout myself

Fortunately, a friend n I have recently made a win-win agreement, which allows me to cook anything I want – once a week. Believe me this’s like heaven to me – when I’m allowed to cook and dont have to eat/do everything alone !!!! Today is my first day being my friend’s personal cook / haha It sounds interesting huh ?!? )

So… let’s get started, again !!! This version of chicken curry is not an Indian or Malaysian original, it has been Westernized n requires only a short time to cook.