晚餐 :: 紹菜湯、蒜蓉炒芥蘭和越式豬扒

When I suggested eating in the next night, the man immediately said that there were two-week-old carrots in the fridge and if I could boil up some soup with it. He gave me a big grin and added, "Please?" Fine. He wasn't too fussy. He just wanted soup, maybe with daikon. I could easily grab the ingredients from the supermarket. It wouldn't be tedious to prep. I hadn't boiled up soup for quite a while. Hahaha. Oddly, we hadn't had easy Asian soups at the restaurants either. 

The daikon on the shelves were all too big. This supermarket didn't sell half lengths. Ditched that ingredient. Found a tiny head of wongbok at the supermarket. The man loves wongbok, so I might as well do a soup with that. It would sweeten the soup loads. I'd use the root and thicker stems. The fragile leaves and thinner stems would just be blanched at the end, and be served separately. That would leave a decent crunch to the wongbok and it wouldn't be mushy. There were plenty of pork bones and chicken feet in the fridge. The stock would be the usual base of browned pork bones and a chicken foot, dried scallops and oysters. Didn't toss in a dried squid this time. #ImpieCooks2021 

I love wongbok too, but I needed more greens for texture and salt. Did a simple stir-fry of baby kai-lan in garlic and soy. The kai-lan roots went into the soup too. Nothing was wasted. Hurhurhur. It would help with layering the flavors.

The man needed protein, but he was a tad tired of chicken, and he didn't even want minced beef. Hurhurhur. So pork chops were thawed out, marinated in lemongrass and lime juice, and gently cooked sous-vide. It was finished in the pan, and sliced up. Tangy and tasty. Added a sunny-side up to the plate.   

The man ate up everything. My pot of soup was meant for three generous bowls. He drank up a bowl, and had seconds. There was one small bowl left for the next day's snack. I always sieve out the contents and serve the soup like that, liquid. I never bother with the stuff in the soup because it would have been boiled uhhh tasteless. All the flavors and essence have gone into the soup! The only time I put solids in soup is if I had cooked them separately. What always amazes me is how the man would take out the bones and bits from the soup pot and eat them with a dollop of fish sauce or chilli padi in soy. He did that tonight too. Win lor. 

就簡單的一餐。紹菜湯、蒜蓉炒芥蘭和越式豬扒。