When You Don't Know What to Cook, CALL MOMMY!!!

As a Malaysian, I have to say that I was and still am, SPOILED! Before coming here to U.S. for college, I never have to cook. Occasionally helping out in the kitchen...but barely! There are SOOOO many variety of food back home...you name the country, we are MOST likely to have it some where. On top of that, food stalls/restaurants, are like Starbucks here... they are around EVERY CORNER...so why cook?? :P

During our college days, it was really tough. Besides not knowing how to cook, the Asian grocery stores only carry limited items (we were in Kentucky and Indiana). Whenever I miss eating a certain dish, I'd call home to my mom. She'd walk me through while I try to scribble down on a piece of paper (which I eventually lose them). My mom's cooking has no measurements, and she sometimes would jumble up the process! ;P But over the years, I have picked up quite a number of dishes that bring backs memories. Other times, my roommates and I would experiment with what ever we can find. The whole process was actually great! We learn from our mistakes, laughed at what had turned out that has to go straight to the trash, while some that we would lick the plates clean! ;)

Now that I am a wife and a mom, I STILL call home in many occasions when I feel like I've ran out of ideas, or like today, have NOT defrosted any meat but has only ground pork in the refrigerator, AND I was running late on getting started, hence needed a dish that covers meat + veges (I have rule that there should always be a dish of meat (protein) and a dish of vegetables) . No offense to my vegetarian friends...I respect their choices, and I hope they respect my choice of choosing to include meat in my diet too.

Anyway, this is what my mom, in just few seconds, reminded me about this dish that I've had so many times growing up! (My mom works like Dash from the Incredible in the kitchen...she's able to whip up 3 dishes in just an hour or so).


It's a simple dish and can be modified to vegetarian or with other meat that you have on hand. There's no special name for it, we just call it ground pork wrap in eggs with gravy and vegetable.

Here's the "recipe" with no measurements...

• Season ground pork/turkey/chicken/beef with some soy sauce, a little sesame oil, dash of white pepper, I added some dark soy sauce for color. (you can also modify it to be a vegetarian dish --- by using diced potatoes or some other rooted vegetables??! Even jicama (bang kuang in Malaysia)?? But you might have to precook that? I'm not sure, as I haven't done it before...and if any of you try it vegetarian style, do share it with us).
  
• Beat a couple of eggs and lightly season with some salt and pepper.
• Thinly slice one clove of garlic
• Cut some onions into wedges (I put quite a bit cos' ND(Lee) and I love onions)
  
• You can also add some dice carrots ( I was lazy, so I sliced) and pieces of potatoes (optional)
  
• Some frozen green peas
• 1-2 tomatoes cut in wedges
• Chicken/Vegetable broth or just water
  

Heat the pan/wok with some cooking oil. Spoon a big table spoonful of the beaten eggs on the the pan/wok and let it spread. Pinch a ball of the meat and kinda flatten it and place it on the egg. Gently "wrap" the meat with the egg (might wanna use medium flame so that the eggs don't get burnt). Push it to the side of the pan/wok to continue cooking until the egg is lightly golden brown, flipping to the other side in between. The meat will not be fully cook at this point, but dish it out after both sides of the egg wrap is lightly golden brown. You will continue to cook the meat through in the gravy/sauce.

Continue cooking/wrapping the rest of the egg and meat. If you run out of the egg, then just crack more! If you run out of meat, then just cook the egg as an omelet! ;)

When all is wrapped and dished out, pour away the oil that is left, and add in some new cooking oil. Stir fry the garlic and onions for a bit or until fragrant, add in the potatoes/carrots and stir fry for a while, then add tomatoes. I like to use cooking wine (Siew Heng Chow), so I add some at this point. After the wine had evaporated, I pour in the broth. I like it with lots of sauce/gravy, so, I added till my liking ;P

Return the egg wrapped meat into the pan/wok and continue cooking until the meat is cooked through, the potatoe feels soft when you poke it with a fork, and the sauce/gravy is boiling. Remember to mix/flip the meat in between and don't forget to add the frozen green peas, season the sauce/gravy with salt.

If you use potatoes, you might not need to add cornstarch to thicken the gravy. Again there is no measurement as to how much cornstarch you should add. And talking about corn starch, when I first learn to cook, I didn't know you don't just dump the corn starch into the wok that has the hot dish going on! You're supposed to mix the corn starch with some COLD water!!! =P hehhehee... And if I am not wrong, you should use equal amount of corn starch to equal amount of cold water. For me, I don't measure, just estimate. Back to cooking...bring the sauce/gravy to a boil after adding the cornstarch, and ta-da! You are done, and serve it with rice! :) The kids LOVE it. =)