easy weeknight dinners

 Hello,

It has been raining every evening the whole week, traffic was so bad last couple of days. I spent like almost 2 hours in the car every day back home, nothing beats a home cooked meal. Making a simple meals helps me to reduce stress after a long hours traffic jam, but I insisted on cooking most nights. so here's a quick post about what we're eating this week! What's your favorite midweek, quick dinner recipes? 

 Chicken & vegetable stew

{craving for a hearty stew in cold rainy day, it's so packed full of flavor}

Ingredients in the stewed are potatoes, carrot, dried shiitake mushrooms, sugar snap peas, firm tofu & chicken leg & thighs

Stir-fried water spinach with shrimp paste

{i basically love anything that cooked with shrimp paste}

Stir-fried milk cabbage (nai pak choy) with ginger & garlic

{my partner absolutely love this veggie, i pretty much cook once a week lately, hehe}

Sambal Okra (dried shrimp chilli paste lady fingers)

{okra is a very healthy & inexpensive vegetable, the salted & spicy sauce really help to increase our appetite}

 Dried noodle with minced meat sauce
{i made garlic infused oil and fried garlic and kept it in an airtight jar~ its really good in noodle, try it!}

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Reason why we love to stay at home, great movie and homecooked dinner! Dinner and a movie are the perfect pair, but parents might disagree! haha, not for kids ya.

I have watched a really nice movie last 2 days, and wanted to share with you. i love romantic, heart touching, funny movies that can lifts me up when i'm not in a good mood.
Blake lively is just too gorgeous in the movie, every scenes, all the clothing, makeup & hairstyling in the film are so stunning.

The Age of Adeline
Synopsis:
After miraculously remaining 29 years old for almost eight decades, Adaline Bowman (Blake Lively) has lived a solitary existence, never allowing herself to get close to anyone who might reveal her secret. But a chance encounter with charismatic philanthropist Ellis Jones (Michiel Huisman) reignites her passion for life and romance. When a weekend with his parents (Harrison Ford and Kathy Baker) threatens to uncover the truth, Adaline makes a decision that will change her life forever. 

movie poster source from google
synopsis source from apple trailer

calamari with thai green curry sauce

hello,

I guess this was a perfect meal for a gloomy, rainy day! Nothing better than a meal containing a little spiciness in a cold cold evening. Heavy traffic due to the rains yesterday and I reached home pretty late. Spent 1.5 hours in the car was really frustrated sometimes, but i try to elevate my mood by thinking what's for dinner tonight, or listening to the funny talk show broadcasts every evening, or watching what others are doing in the middle of a traffic jam! >_<

I don't really have a recipe for this, i mean the ingredients in exact portions. But I'm trying to provide the ingredients used & measurement of seasonings. ***Again, the seasonings are all approximately measured, please adjust according to your own taste. I'm added whatever veggies i think its suitable, of course it must be your favorite one. I've been cooking eggplant like crazy lately, even my soul mate asked me about - "umm, felt like we have been eating a lot of eggplant lately?"

Mmmm! who cares? hehe, I'm the heaf chef at home, keep continue seeking to new eggplant dishes!

how beautiful all of those eggplants are!

Ingredients:

• Calamari (1 large-sized or 2 medium-sized)
• 2 Egg plant (medium-sized)
• 8-10 long beans (cut into 3 inches in length)
• 1 onion (sliced or diced)
• green curry paste (you may either make the paste from scratch or get store-bought one)
* (the green curry paste i used was from my brother, its made by a chef who works in a thai restaurant, quality assured! ^^)
• 200 ml coconut milk  
• 150ml water 
• 1 tsp fish sauce
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• salt & sugar to taste

egg plants sizzling in the hot oil!

Method:

1. Deep fry egg plant & long beans for 10-15 seconds or until it looks slightly golden, drain well. 
2. Using a sharp knife, cut the calamari tubes from one side until they become flat. Then score the calamari in a diagonal pattern and cut into pieces. They called this calamari/squid flower carving. When it cooked, the calamari will roll up and the cross hatching texture will catch and hold the sauces together. What a brilliant method!
3. Bring the water to boil in a small sauce pan, add calamari to scald for 1-2 minutes. Until just opaque, drain in a colander and immediately transfer to a bowl.
4. Heat up a pan with some oil, sauté the green curry paste until fragrant. Add chopped or sliced onions and cook for 5 to 7 minutes or until tender.
5. Turn heat to high and put in calamari flower & fried vegetables, toss around until everything is dry and fragrant. Adding water to create more sauces.
6. Add the seasonings and coconut milk. *Remember, always taste your food before serving.
7. Finally step, toss well to combine and dish up. 

It's a dried version of calamari green curry. 

Ready to serve with white rice!

The leftovers were for lunch the next day!

Watched another great Italian movie last weekend, love it so so much! I think you will like it too.
I have also learned a Italian word through this movie -
 domani =  tomorrow

Synopsis from a movie webpage:
When Jan (Christian Ulmen) proposes to his German-Italian girlfriend, Sara (Mina Tander), their small private wedding ceremony is hijacked by Sara's overbearing father and moved to her hometown in Italy. With Jan's up-tight German family in tow, there is an almighty clash of cultures as the two families set about celebrating their children's union in very different ways.

There are 2 english title translated from the original Italian title.
Maria, He Doesn't Like It / Wedding Fever in Campobello

Sneak peak on the trailer here!

plants in my garden lately

This is how things are going in my garden, malaysia has been having a bit of a rainy season lately!

everything looks green, fresh and lively after the rains!

My sweet basil plants grow faster, thicker & fuller now! Currently browsing on recipes using fresh basil! In my to-cook list - thai basil chicken, pad ka-prao (spicy stir fry minced pork with basil), spicy egg plant with sweet basil and many more.

Say hello to my favourite plant - hydrangea, it has the most beautiful flower. I have about 6 pots of hydrangeas at home. Dad gave me few pots when i moved in to my new home, then i propagate some new babies from the cuttings/stems.

My hydrangea have just recovered, they almost died during my chinese new year holiday last 2 months. As we went home for about 2 weeks, no one is helping us to water the plants, and the weather has been so warm, not rain fall in that period. I came home and saw my 'dried up' hydrangeas,  it makes me so sad to see them like this. Then i trim all the dried leaves, add more soil and feed them with organic fertilizer. And now, this is how they look like! Yays ~

Recently, i have been in love with camellia japonica type of flower i discovered from the photo which my brother sent me while he was traveling in Nepal last 2 weeks, it has an amazingly beautiful flower. Looking for the seed and grow my own camellia!

 The start of boll development, but lots of ants like to hide and lay eggs underneath the leaves.

The mature cotton boll waiting for the harvest.

Broccoli seedling, will need to switch to a bigger pot or growing on the ground.

My first experiments with propagation, and this is the result! Can't believe it grow from a
teeny tiny baby.

I have a little happy garden, how about yours?

Little Forest: Summer & Autumn 

Watched this fantastic movie yesterday night, and I am so so so in love with it.
Have a look on the movie webpage or fb page, or the movie trailer!
It was a culinary & lifestyle movie, starred by Ai Hashimoto.
Story about a girl - Ichiko who live a simpler life, living in the days of self-sufficiency, among nature and harvest follow the seasons and eating foods she makes from seasonal ingredients.

Can't wait to watch the 2nd part - Little Forest: Winter & Spring
Here's a sneak peek on 2nd part!

  * Movie posters / image sources from asianwiki