Today's a holiday in Sg-land and I made effort to get up especially early to get myself some exercise. Then I checked the air pollution readings and went back to bed.
Yes, it's really that bad.
Air quality had been "Very Unhealthy" since this morning. Schools will be closed for tomorrow so our kids and teachers won't be made to suffocate in class.
What a waste of a brilliant holiday today. Everyone's hiding at home. McDonald's and KFC aren't even delivering today (which is, of course, the right thing to do to protect their riders).
On a day like this, I'm not even keen to go to the kitchen to cook a proper meal - my kitchen happens to be sheltered but open-air, and exposed to the elements.
But a Poserpup can't starve on a day like this, can she? Food is King. I'm not gonna stay home hangry.
Easy recipe for a day indoors: Instant oatmeal porridge.
- 2 cups instant oat
- 1 egg
- 1 cubed chicken stock
- 2 tablespoons fried ikan bilis
- 1 tablespoon chopped spring onion
- 2.5 to 3 cups hot water
Nagalot loves ikan bilis and she always keeps a jar on standby in the fridge. These are either store bought ready to eat kind, or sometimes she gets the dried ones and fries them herself.
I have this box of chopped spring onions that were leftovers from my last major cook-off. I washed and dried them, then chopped and stored them in the freezer. Quite a convenient trick to make boring instant food a little more colourful and appetizing.
Also, we ALWAYS have cubed stock at home, it's like an obsession. Definitely these can't beat the home made ones but, well, we want an easy meal on a day like this don't we?
These are the only cheats we'll use in the recipe.
To prepare the oat porridge,
1) Freshly boil a jug of water and add to a large bowl. I'm using the electric kettle kind that you find in hotel rooms. The size gives just about the water we need. The water needs to be really really hot.
2) Dissolve cubed stock in hot water.
3) Crack the egg, and add in slowly to the bowl of hot water while stirring the hot water in a circular motion. I like to go for the 'egg drop soup' type of egg texture.
4) Add the instant oats and stir to avoid clumps.
5) When the liquid is mostly absorbed by the oats and the oats become a creamy texture, the porridge is almost done. Top the porridge with the fried ikan bilis and spring onion.
6) Pour just a little more hot water over the spring onions (mine was from the freezer so I need to make sure they thaw out and are slightly blanched).
7) Adjust the texture to your liking, adding a little more hot water if need be. Add meat or veg if you happen to have them in your fridge. I happened to have bought some mini peppers 2 days back. I popped them into the air fryer on max heat for 10mins and when the outside was blackened and soft, I peeled off the skin and added them to my porridge.
And voila! Enjoy your slightly nutritious, hazy day instant meal!
<3
