Category: Tips & Tricks

How to peel a pomelo and torture your dog for fun.

My dad went to Ipoh recently, an idyllic city in Northern Malaysia for a game of golf with his friends. He brought home a couple of signature goodies, namely baked salted chickens (orgasmic!), green bean biscuits (meh!) and pomelos (yums!).

# – Pomelo.

This is a post on how to peel a pomelo and then torture your dog for fun.

# – First of all, cut off the top of the pomelo as close to the flesh as possible, about an inch from the top.

# – Like this…

# – Then score from the start of the peel all the way to the bottom without cutting through. Do this all around the pomelo.

# – Using your fingers, pull the thick pomelo peel away from the side of the flesh.

# – Lastly, insert your finger underneath the bottom of the peel, and pull it off.

# – The result….

# – Then, peel the thick soft skin off the flesh.

# – Finally, enjoy the sweet pomelo fruit while…

# – …….having a good laugh at your poor dog wearing his new hat.

# – No dog was harmed at the expense of our enjoyment. Not physically anyway…..

Have a good weekend, peeps!

Preparing chinese waxed sausages before cooking

When I was living with my parents, one of my favourite meals made by mom was (1) pan fried salted fish with loads of chopped raw shallots, chillies and onions or, (2) pan fried chinese waxed sausages or “lap cheong”. Serve with piping hot rice, they are still (in my mind that is) the most appetising meals ever.

In this post, I’m not going to write about the pan fried salted fish yet, because I haven’t gotten around to cooking it but I’m going to talk about the pan fried waxed sausages. This is probably a no-brainer to many chinese people, but since I had no inkling on how to prep up waxed sausaged for cooking, I’m guessing there are people who are in the dark like me too.

When my mom gave me a bag of waxed sausages during Chinese New Year, she told me to remove the transparent coverings of sausages before cooking them otherwise I will die of plastic toxicity. Okay, I made up the latter bit but somehow she has drilled into me that the transparent membranes are made of plastic with less strong words. I mean, even Huai Bin removed his!!!

# – Chinese waxed sausages.

It’s very likely that they’re made off some kind of animal stomach lining I’m sure of it but with the dodgy sources of Chinese imports these days, who really knows right? So yes, I will always remove the coverings; plus they taste better too. I’ve tasted some waxed sausages with the “plastic” covering still on at restaurants and they tend to be a bit chewy.

Thankfully, I haven’t keeled over and died from plastic toxicity…

Anyway, here’s how to prep up the sausages before you cook them:

# – First, cut of the ends of both sides.

# – Then, slowly peel off the transparent covering. Will be a bit hard at first but once you lifted it off from around the edge, it’ll be easier.

# – See, you can peel them off in whole pieces. Like a snake shedding its skin. I kind of make a lot of snake references, don’t I?

# – Cut the sausages into desired lengths.

# – Then fry them up with a bit of oil. Do it on low heat because you need to heat it through without totally burning them. Ideally you get them only slightly charred on the surface. You will know it’s done when the sweet aroma hits you and you can see more oil has come out of the sausages in the pan.

# – Serve with hot piping rice. Notice the deeper red colour and the slightly charred surface? Lets not even begin on the delicious aroma…

These babies are the shiznit!!

++ ADVERTORIAL++
===============

YAY! CELCOM LAUNCHES IPHONE 4 TODAY!!!!

What’s better is that Celcom will be the FIRST telco to offer Extended Warranty AND insurance coverage. There is a 12-month extended warranty upon expiry of the original manufacturer’s warranty and this gem applies for i98, i148 & i248 plans on 24-month contract.

While, the FREE 12-month insurance coverage covers attended theft, accidental breakage and liquid damage so you can talk and surf away with absolute peace of mind! This applies to i248plan on 12 & 24 months contract

Check out the packages:

Oh and that’s not all….Celcom is offering iPhone 4 in white too! Woohoo!

Isn’t it a looker?

Find out more about the exclusive iPhone 4 packages by Celcom, as well as phone specifications, features and more at www.celcom.com.my/iphone

p/s: BF, my birthday coming soon!

Idiot proof way to poaching eggs.

How to poach an egg: Boil water, add some vinegar, stir water to create a whirpool-like effect, crack an egg into the eye of the “whirpool” and voila……poached eggs! Easy peasy right?

Nope. Not even close.

Poaching eggs is one of the single most difficult and frustrating things I’ve ever done in the kitchen. My eggs always disintegrate in the water. I often was not able to drain the eggs properly, resulting in something that remotely resembled a poached egg, which tasted of vinegary water. Nasty, nasty stuff.

They say you should use the freshest eggs but hello I don’t live on a farm and I don’t always want to eat poached eggs immediately after buying new eggs. And heck, I don’t even know how fresh the eggs are from the supermarket. On top of that, what exactly does “fresh” mean? Right out of the hen’s cavity? 1 to 2 days after birth? 1 to 2 weeks? Can somebody tell me?

So imagine how happy I was, when I managed to catch an episode of Master Chef Australia which taught the contestants how to poach an egg in a way entirely different from what I’ve read or watched before.

All you need are:

  • Clingwrap film
  • Eggs
  • Oil

# – First, tear out a clingwrap film about 25 cm by 25 cm for one egg. Lightly grease the middle with cooking oil. This step is important so that later, the cooked egg could slide off the film easily.

# – Lay the film over a small bowl or in my case, a muffin tray. Push the film down to make a hole.

# – Now crack an egg into the hole.

# – Gather all the excess cling film and twist.

# – Then tie a knot, like this.

# – Yay, four parcels of happiness!

# – Now heat up a pot with enough water to reach the level just below the parcel knots on low heat. Do not boil, just let it simmer (just some small bubbles instead of violently bubbling). Gently put the egg parcels in.

This is the moment where I implore you to get a kitchen timer. I got mine for only RM5 from Daiso.

  • If your eggs are right from the fridge and are really cold, simmer for 5 minutes.
  • If your eggs are room temperature, simmer for 3.5 – 4.5 minutes depending on how runny you like your yolks.

When the eggs are done, turn off heat and pick out the parcels from the water. Lay them on a towel to absorb some moisture. Then, place each parcel on top of a toast or muffin or bagel or whatever that you want to eat it with.

Cut off the parcel knot. Gently peel film off away from the egg. Now keep the egg steady with your finger or a spoon, gently pull the film out from under the egg.

# – And you’ll get a perfectly poached egg in a nice shape to boot. Serve with hollandaise sauce if you’re feeling fancy or in my case, just some pepper and salt atop a wholemeal toast ;)

So ladies & gentlemen, the idiot proof way to poaching eggs. No wastage. No worries about whether eggs are fresh or not. No scrubbing stray egg whites off pot. And most importantly, no more soggy, slightly tart poached eggs!

Update:

I understand there are concerns about subjecting the plastic clingwrap to high heat. Mine is a non-toxic clingwrap from Glad with temperature tolerance of up to 110 degrees celcius and also microwaveable. It’s also stated that it can be used for steaming food and with this in mind, I believe it can be treated with simmering water.

# – Temperature tolerance: 110 degrees celcius.

So do check that your clingwrap film is safe to be heated in simmering water!