A day of culinary and football excellence

"Football, bloody 'ell!"
Sir Alex Ferguson, MU Manager, 1999

I have just witnessed one of the most electrifying Champions League Finals in history. One word...Awesome.

Liverpool was 3 nil down at half time, and I thought, hey...no way they can come back against AC Milan. So I switched off the tele and spent some quality time with my daughter. 45 minutes later, I went online to see just how much Liverpool lost by. My reaction? What the? They scored 3 goals and equalized! 3-3 now.

I ran downstairs, switched on the tele and witness the most defining moment in European Club Football history. The penalty shoot-out.

Recent study has shown that the rate of heart attacks increased after football matches decisive penalty shoot-outs. This was no different. I wanted Liverpool to win. And they did. Wow.

Ok...enough about football.

After two months of not cooking, I decided to give my wifey a break and cook dinner. The thing about me is that I find cooking very therapeutic once I start the preparation process. Before that, I just have to drag myself to the kitchen. Who would have thought I would love cooking and that my food would actually taste good (Made my wife swear to tell the truth...)

Cooking was never my forte. Back in my scouting days, my only attempt at cooking left my entire patrol retching, in agony and with severe diarrhea. I kid you not. I made tom-yam noodle soup for lunch cooked in a huge metal pot. Maybe I didn't close the pot properly. Maybe I didn't wash my hands. Anyway, after that my reputation as a cook was tarnished and I was never allowed to cook in a scout camp anymore.

Actually, I did. 4 years after that incident, I attended a special training camp where all the participants must set up their own camp site, build their own bamboo structures and cook for themselves. I suppose they thought that it would be ok for this nut to poison his own self. It was a rather challenging camp, where they left you all by yourself in a specific jungle area and you had to survive. Of course, they gave you raw rations to cook but there was no light except for whatever fire that you build.

Anyway, the first night I didn't get my campfire set up and all I had was enough wood to cook but not to light the place up. My rations for that day were one raw kembong fish, one cup of rice and one packet of chilly boh. I cooked the rice first. When it came to the fish. I didn't know what to do. So I just dropped the fish into the pot and poured the whole packet of chilly boh plus some water into it. I left it to boil. Heck, I couldn't even see if it was boiling.

Let me say this...It didn't taste good. It took a lot of thick soy sauce to mask the whole taste. In fact, I think my dinner was just rice and soy sauce.

Fast forward 14 years.

My cooking has vastly improved since then. I owe it all to my living in the UK and following all the cooking channels. Oh...and watching my mother cook when she visited us.

So...here is my very own recipe. Yep...experimented and perfected over the course of several months.

The Chicken Recipe (Hey...you think of a better name...)

- 3-4 Chicken Breast Fillet. Skinned and bones removed. Cut into little cubes

For marinating (1-2 hours)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp sugar
- Dash of pepper (white)
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tsp sesame seed oil
- 1 tsp corn floor (to seal the taste during cooking)

Other Ingredients
- 1 big onion (sliced, long thin strips)
- 1 red onion/shallot (diced finely)
- 3 cloves of garlic (diced finely)
- 1 red capsicum cut into small cubes
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil (for frying)

Sauce
- 10 tbsp of water
- 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
- 1 tbsp light soy sauce
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sesame seed oil

Method
Marinade the chicken cubes with the marinating ingredients for 1-2 hours.

Heat oil in pan, add garlic and shallots in. Cook till fragrant. Add in big onions. Stir-fry for 20 seconds. Add in chicken cubes and stir it. Make sure that you stir it well, or the corn flour might stick to the pan. When chicken has cooked somewhat, add in capsicum and sauce. Let it cook for several minutes to allow the chicken and capsicum flavor to seep into the sauce.

Take out and eat.

Yummy.