Kitchen Experiment #1: Broccoli with Mushroom & Chicken

since me and hubby came here in sharjah, we have assumed independence from our parents. not total independence though. hahaha!

what i'm really trying to say is, back home in pinas, we don't do the cooking. we both have an idea how some dishes are being cooked but we haven't actually tried doing it in the kitchen. why complicate things when we have the best cooks at home?

that was before.

now that our parents/sisters/brothers are not here to serve us good food when we get home, it's quite a responsibility for the un-skilled like us to come up with a yummylicious food to serve on our dinner or to pack for our lunch.

we now just rely on our "basic instincts". not the R18 movie of course.

*blush*

i'm not really thinking about that so let's skip that one. lol.

okay, moving on. me and hubby are being creative everytime. twisting some original recipes into what is just available here. for your info, the middle east is not as abundant as our pinas when it comes to the range of veggies available. even sayote (or chayote), in its super rarity in the supermarkets, costs 10 dirhams per kilo (1 dirham = 13 pesos). it's my favorite gulay pa naman. and i also miss the dahon ng malunggay!

anyways, today is Saturday and it's my off. since morning i've been thinking what to cook for dinner coz it feels nakakaumay if i cook fried chicken again or sauteed string beans. i remember that yesterday, hubby was eyeing that beef steak from our flatmate. it's a very rare occasion that hubby would crave for beef coz it's not really his most fave meat but i want to give him what i saw in his eyes yesterday.

we still have broccoli in the fridge so why not have Beef Broccoli for tonight. i went down to the supermarket right after i took a shower. i have gone into two supermarkets but no beef is available!!! i ended up buying oyster sauce, chicken and cauliflower, wondering what in hell will i do with the combination. i'm gonna reserve the cauliflower for tomorrow coz i'm still using the broccoli.

so here's my output for tonight:

Broccoli with Mushroom & Chicken

what it's made of:

1/2 kilo broccoli, sliced
1/4 kilo chicken breast, into small thin strips
2 cups chicken broth
2 gloves garlic, crushed & minced
sliced mushrooms
2 tablespoon oyster sauce
3 tablespoon soy sauce
salt & pepper for seasoning

how it's done:

1. first, bring to boil the chicken in 2 and half cups of water to come up with the chicken broth.
2. in a hot wok with cooking oil, cook the garlic until almost golden on its sides. then put the chicken and stir fry for about 10 seconds.
3. add the oyster sauce, soy sauce and mushrooms. stir fry again for 20-30 seconds or until the chicken has absorbed the flavors of the sauce.
4. put the broccoli and chicken broth. add salt and pepper to taste.
5. let it simmer for 5 minutes then serve it hot with rice!

Note: for a much creamier sauce, you can add a tablespoon of cornstarch. (i just forgot to buy one, hehehe)

--------------------------

i also cooked some beef kebabs but i was so focused with the broccoli thingy that i forgot them for some minutes. it was a disappointment. really.

burnt beef kebabs

hubby liked the broccoli blah blah blah but when he saw the beef kebabs, he turned cynical with my cooking skills.


hubby: nagluluto ka ba talaga? bakit sunog? (were you really cooking? why are these burnt?)
yummybite: ahmmm...sorry, i forgot eh. [while making pacute na naman]
hubby: *sigh* buti na lang masarap ang broccoli. (good thing that the broccoli were good)



on my mind while we were eating: "sunog daw pero naka-dalawang servings ng rice?"