I spent Sunday afternoon in a guided-cooking session with Ferninda, a mother of three young boys. The eldest proudly informed me that he is four and a half. The youngest, I discovered, is one and a half. The middle child is three and a half. The challenge for the afternoon was to cook while they napped. They were quite reluctant to nap as they wanted to help Mama cook. They are as adorable as kids can be. Luis, the eldest boy, whispered to me when I was going into the kitchen: “You come to help Mama cook!” And he gave me a big smile. Suddenly, I felt like Mary Poppins.
We started by making a mango pudding, which was the easiest task on our list. We had to start by making dessert because the pudding needed time to set. A super simple dessert that has never failed to please.
The next step was to marinate the chicken which we would steam. The chicken had to be left marinating for at least an hour before steaming. We also had to marinate the minced beef and minced pork for meatballs which we would also steam. While the chicken and minced meat were left marinating, we cut vegetables for steaming. Yes, our plan was to master the steaming method of cooking. But Ferninda had a special request for a simple no-meat dish for Fridays, so we had to fit a Spanish tuna and garlic pasta dish in somewhere. It didn’t take long to cook (20 minutes). It is a dish that can be cooked using one pan. It’s helpful when you don’t have much time to wash up.
After the pasta dish, we focused on steaming again. We sauteed the vegetables before adding stock to it. We covered the wok and left the vegetables to steam in the stock for 5 minutes. Then we steamed the chicken for 12 minutes and the meatballs for 15 minutes. I made the mistake of buying too much minced pork so we had enough minced meat to make two small steamed meatloaves. We also cooked stir-fried cabbage with garlic and fish sauce. It is a simple dish which is very popular in Thailand.
I am not sure if I made Ferninda dizzy with cooking so much in a short time, but she still looked okay by the end of the afternoon. I felt like we were doing a Speedy Gonzales in the kitchen.
The boys were disappointed that they didn’t get to cook, because we were done with most of the cooking by the time they woke up. There was only a lot of steaming left to do.
We washed up as we cooked so there wasn’t a pile of washing-up at the end.
I gathered from Ferninda later in the evening that the boys had forgiven us by dinner time when they enjoyed their dinner. They were consoled when they were allowed to slice mango for the pudding, it was their contribution to the Sunday night dinner.
I had to rest on Monday, but I was happy with a well-spent Sunday. I can understand why Ferninda is inspired to cook. She has appreciative and supportive boys cheering her on!
By Chayo, HomSkil Editor 1, 17 April 2024
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