Sunday 23 May 2021

Everybody's a Chef during Covid

Last year during the Circuit Breaker, I was in some sort of depression. I was gripped by fear that it would be indefinite. I was left with one student whose parent suggested having lessons on Zoom. The rest of the parents had a culture shock of the inordinate amount of screen time that their children were going to have in view of the schools' closure so they were reluctant to have additional lessons on Zoom. I felt extremely helpless seeing the drastic drop in my income. Like many, I developed a sense of hopelessness that the situation would never improve. 

This year, as we enter yet another soft lock-down, I am more confident that it will come to an end. Saved for 2 or 3 parents who had suspended lessons, the rest proactively suggested having Zoom lessons! Although I do see a reduction in my income, I am not so afraid, or even paralysed, like last year. With more time on my hand, I decided to cook for the girls, without giving myself pressure.

Not the best picture but I just wanted to capture my first attempt at cooking udon to show a friend!

I have always wanted to cook udon. In fact, I bought a few packets of udon but I didn't know how to cook them and had to throw them away in resignation.

However, for some reason, when my eyes were set on the packets on udon at NTUC today when grocery-shopping for lunch ingredients, I was inspired by the whole idea of cooking simple. I decided to use Swanson Chicken Broth as the soup base and added my own ingredients ie. button mushrooms and chicken mid-joints. I threw in a dish of greens for Baby as the vegetable-loather doesn't have many favourite vegetables.

She finished up both dishes with me. Both of us enjoyed the dishes very much as it was the first time I tried my hand at cooking udon and it was a success! I only had one 250ml packet of chicken broth but I needed more. So I added two packets of water, 1/4 teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of light soy sauce to 'salvage' the flavour. The result was quite a flavourful broth (to us, at least!)

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