Kitchen Story (Tomyam Chicken Stir-fry & Spinach)

Staying alone in the house is something unusual to me, yet I'd stayed here for nearly a couple of weeks. Instead of dying of boredom, I'd decided to treat myself good by entering the kitchen. I'm not good in cooking as I often get the dishes over-cooked. Well, the meals here are for myself and who cares? I should have cooked myself rather than eating out, which is not budget-friendly and otherwise, not delicious yet unhealthy. Okay, cooking alone and eating alone sound so pitiful. Why not I spend some moments to jot them down here?

To kick-start my kitchen story, and to lower the risk of failure :P, I opened my refrigerator and got mummy's homemade tomyam paste. To be more accurate, mummy actually cooked it by blending in a variety of spices into the store-bought tomyam paste. The flavor is totally different from the base tomyam paste as mummy's special recipe made it a right twist! Usually, I would just add in the cooked paste to fry noodles, rice, or cook a soup-based delicacy. 

I usually stored spinach in my refrigerator. I first came across this kind of vegetable from Popeye. I wanted to be as cool as popeye from small. Popeye's spinach is always in a can. My parents, however, do not know that spinach means for in English. Until I was grown up and shopped for groceries, I noticed the packaged vegetable with the "spinach" tag and I was overwhelmed that I actually eat it quite frequently. The two points that I love spinach so much other than from Popeye are, spinach is rich in fibers and more importantly, it is easy to prepare!

Running out of ideas, I decided to prepare myself tomyam chicken stir-fry. I took out chicken breast and left-over spinach, then turned my kitchen alive.

Spinach with Egg

Ingredients

Spinach

1 egg

4 cloves garlic (minced)

1/4 onion (minced)

1/2 tbsp sambal shrimp

2 tbsp cooking oil

salts and pepper

Method

First, the thick stems of the spinach were cut off and discarded. The spinach was then washed and drained.

One egg was mixed with pinches of herbs, salts and pepper. 

1 tbsp of vegetable oil was heated in a skillet on medium high heat. The mixed egg was fried first.

The fried egg was collected. Upon adding another tbsp of oil, garlic, onion and sambal shrimp were added accordingly and cooked until they turned brown.

Spinach was added and cooked for 30 seconds. The fried egg was then added and cooked for another 1 minute.

Tadaaa! The dish was ready to be served.

**I used sambal shrimp to add an extra umami as I did not have fresh shrimps in hand. Surprisingly, the sambal belacan promoted the taste just right. 

Tomyam Chicken Stir-fry

Ingredients

1/2 chicken breast

2 tbsp homemade tomyam paste

1/2 yellow onion (chopped)

2 cloves garlic

1 Red chilies (sliced)

1 tbsp honey

1/4 lemon or lime

2 tbsp cooking oil

Salts and pepper

Method

The chicken was firstly chopped into smaller pieces and marinated with tomyam paste and desirable amount of salt and pepper for two hours (would be better if marinated overnight for a rich flavor).

After heating up 2 tbsp of oil in the skillet, garlic, chilies, and onion were added accordingly. 

 While the ingredients were turning brown, marinated chicken pieces were added and cooked until tender.

Pinches of salts and pepper were sprinkled and the dish was ready. 

I had the two dishes with white rice, they were about 650 kcal. Yum～ It feels so good and satisfying! =D

Okay...this is my only entertainment right now. Shoo shoo boredom and darkness! =]