Sotong Story

My interest in cooking, apart from being rooted in my innate "yao-gui" personality, probably was honed in the US. Working day in and day out in the lab, sequencing painfully with the old ABI machine that could only do 1 capillary per hour (max of 24 samples a day, tops!), there were many moments of depression when experiments didn't quite work out. So cooking became a quick fix - after all the principle was pretty much the same; follow the protocol (recipe) and voila, results. Cooking became a way of making things work, when everything else wasn't. On and off however, I did have my moments - like the time my foccacia bread caught fire in the oven, and the rock hard chicken I bought as a cheap deal from Gristedes (old spanish chicken). Since coming back to Singapore, I have much less time to cook, but make up for it with trying out more exotic stuff. So the picture above came from the time I was trying out Sebastian's (of Ember fame) Polenta Encrusted Squid Fatouche Salad, which had me scurrying off to Bukit Batok market to find the fattest, freshest, thickest squid. Number 3 squid that I sliced open had a little pink fish in it. At least I know the squid died happy, even if the fish didn't.

Trying out new exotica doesn't always work out for the family. Significant Other is always very supportive, but he eats everything anyway. The kids have diametrically opposite taste buds. Ben hates chocolate, Steffi loves chocolate. Ben loves meat, Steffi hates meat. Any dish that one kid likes will be ignored by the other. Last night, I finally managed to get a happy equilibrium when I made Nabeyaki Udon. Never realized it was so easy, so here is the truncated recipe for people who are out for an instant fix:

Soup base
1000 ml water
3 tbsp light soy sauce
1 pkt bonito powder
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
Chicken bones.

Bring stock to the boil, then remove from heat and strain.
Boil with chicken breast (cut in 2 cm chunks), udon and spinach. Try to keep ingredients separate in claypot. When udon is done, add 1 whole egg and remove from heat. Arrange in bowl.