Cooking Chinese food

Boy was ill yesterday, and it was his "turn" to cook. We tend to take turns cooking dinner based on what shift he is working for that day (if he's doing late or long shifts, I tend to do the cooking). But considering that he was ill, I felt it would be a bit harsh to make him cook as well, so I decided to treat him to one of his favourite Chinese dish, but homemade because I'm poor. :P

I've never made sweet and sour dishes before, so this is a first. I know, how ridiculous, a Chinese girl who have never cooked sweet and sour dishes! Oh well, let's rectify that...

Sweet & Sour Chicken

I fried up so many chicken pieces yesterday, it was mad. There was this mountain of fried chicken pieces made of the measly four chicken breast halves I bought yesterday (and the chicken, diced, could all fit into my cereal bowl!) that we stuffed ourselves silly and still had enough for another meal. Two meals for two for a fiver. :P Will post up recipe if there is anyone who have no idea how to cook sweet and sour chicken.

The picture above is actually of the leftovers reheated for today's dinner. The fried chicken pieces look a bit burnt because I had to refry them. But the sauce yesterday was actually a translucent pale yellow sauce, which tasted perfectly fine, but I kinda knew Boy would think it was weird. So I bought some red and yellow food colouring today and just added a couple of drops to the sauce to make it its usual orange-red colouring. And I was right! Boy said he enjoyed it much better when the sauce is the "right" colour. Roffle. :P

Yesterday reminded me on why I rarely cook "proper" Chinese food nowadays. It uses so many plates/dishes/pots/pans to cook the meal, and I know I'll never like washing up after (and I don't have time to wash during the cooking process because everything has to be done quickly, e.g. stirfry). MJ and MW used to love it when I make Chinese food, but didn't understand how/why I can manage to create such a large pile of unwashed pots/pans/dishes in the process. Well, cooking Western food is a lot simpler, does not require as many preps, etc! And I know this because I cook both nowadays. -_-

I know it's been ages since I last updated about my life in general, but a lot of stuff is happening like buying my first house and sorting out the relevant paperwork, solicitor, mortgage, completion date, etc and work has been tiring (and dramatic, sometimes, but I won't go into that). I promise, I am going to update more but not necessarily on a linear time line, but for now, just assume that you knew I have found a house I like enough to purchase and am buying it.