Mumbo Jumbo on a Saturday Night!

Yesterday I had a tiny dilemma but with immense proportions: what was I gonna eat for dinner?

After laying out all the raw materials, I decided I was gonna make:

1) Black pepper stew

2) Stir-fried cabbage

The ingredients are:

1) Garlic: 6 pips for each dish

2) Black pepper flavoring: this Maggi offering was a bribe (private joke lol)

3) Lean pork mean: of course you can replace this with chicken, best to use thigh/meat with bones for extra flavor.

4) Cabbage: I'd half a cabbage so I used 3/4 of that for the stir-fried cabbage & the rest for the stew.

5) Carrot: 1 stick for each dish

6) Corn flour

7) 5 fresh prawns

8) Potato: I'd only one :p

9) Button mushroom: 6 pieces for the 1st dish. You can add some to the other but I felt there's only so much mushrooms we'd eat.

Let's go dish by dish!

Black pepper stew

1) Chop the potatoes into cubes. Dice the carrots & cut the cabbage but not too fine.

2) Slice the meat into thin slices. Dust each one with corn flour. The flour will help tenderize the meat as well as add texture to the soup.

3) Chop the garlic. Slice the mushrooms into half.

4) Mix the black pepper powder with 2 cups of water. Stir well.

5) Start the fire. Pour the cooking oil (less is better!) & stir fry the garlic when the oil is hot enough. Fry the garlic until they turn slightly golden then toss in the meat.

6) The meat will tend to clump together due to the flour so make sure they stay as separate as possible. Fry the meat until they no longer stick together & toss in the cabbage pieces, carrots, mushrooms & potatoes. Add in the black pepper mix & add water (as much as you want, I added 1 bowl of water).

7) Let it simmer for 1 hr to get everything cooked & tender.

Now that that's done, we move on to the 2nd dish!

Stir-fried cabbage

1) Chop the cabbage finely. Like, REALLY finely. Do the same for the carrots.

2) Chop the garlic.

3) Start the fire & pour oil when the wok is hot. Similar to the 1st dish, stir fry the garlic until they start to turn golden, then toss in the prawns. Fry the prawns until they're cooked then remove them. Overcooking the prawns will result in limp shrimps later.

4) Add in the carrot & the cabbage, stir fry & add water. Close the lid & let the dish simmer.

5) Add in a dash of pepper & salt. Return the prawns into the wok & mix well.

6) Once the cabbage is soft, it's ready for serving.

Conclusion

It was a yummy dinner, smiles over the table! :) A mumbo jumbo dinner indeed: fast, simple & delicious! :)