Someone told me that I was cooking way too much Japanese at the new house (actually I think I was overdoing Korean instead). Well, when you think about it, B1's greatest fantasy was to marry a Japanese SAHM, and I do try to please his palate. Japanese cooking is also cleaner and simpler (I hate wiping the galley when I am done cooking) with delicate flavors.
However like I said last week, I do miss some of the fancy restaurants I used to eat at. So when I saw those mini filet mignon steaks at ThreeSixty I knew I had to get them. Intriguingly those that are marinated with herbs and those that are not come at the same price (they both have a slice of streaky bacon running around the steak). Unfortunately I didn't have time to cook them until the weekend so I froze them (the injustice!!!)
I also had a craving for a baked potato. But I had forgotten I still have no microwave oven (thus limiting my repertoire of dishes, I have been hunting for an excellent microwave oven, but most ovens nowadays seem dumb like bricks and serve merely to reheat. I want be able to bake, broil and grill). Of course I could just boil the potato in their skins but I knew that B1 wouldn't eat them and I don't like that weird chalky taste from the skin. So I just deskinned, chopped and boiled them before dumping cream cheese and bacon bits on them. <= my new favorite feel-good dish.
I took a shortcut and made Campbell's Chicken Mushroom soup using the vegetable water (no nutrient can escape from me~!~)
As for the steak, I searched online for how to cook the steak decently. At home I would just fry the edges at high heat, then dump the lot in the oven. But since I have no oven... I ended up frying then boiling the meat (poured too much water in my haste). I am making wet steaks!!! I wanted them medium, but was too paranoid that I have overcooked them in the gravy that they ended up becoming rare...should have butterflied them. At least the gravy was fairly decent, I made them with the beef water (hehe), onions (I had fried the onions with the steak), thyme from my baby garden and red wine.
While we were eating them, B1 made the comment that the steaks were really 小さい. I replied that they were Japanese-sized, but now looking at the photos, it does look like I have four side dishes on a plate. Hahahah.
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| Accompanied by some Chilean plonk |
I am a tight pussy. I don't like paying for expensive wines (Goodbye most of Bordeaux region *haha Kari*). Since I am no wine connoisseur, buying cheap plonks are the way to go for me. I especially love buying wines on sale (I have never been able to recover from buying the Boone's at S$5. Now buying it at a discounted S$8 still seems too expensive *Haha* But I do love the sparkling juice *at 2% alcoholic content, it is pretending to be a wine!*) This vina Maipo is fairly decent as a table wine. But if it is not on discount, I ain't buying it.
