What's for lunch today

Here's looking at one of my favourite chinese dishes!

Braised minced pork in chinese five spice:

Recipe courtesy of http://www.kitchenexperiments.net/. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I stumbled upon this food blog recently, and was shocked that this was categorised under "simple cooking", because in my mind, I imagined the cooking to take hours and the recipe to require all sorts of chinese spices I would not know how to buy. It was really simple actually, and the smells emanating from the pot while I was cooking further encouraged me that this was a worthwhile endeavour.

I would readily cook this for Vader, but I'm not sure how he would like it since it's a pork dish and I'm not sure it would go well with other meats.... erm... maybe beef.... no harm trying :)

You know how chefs like Michael Smith from "Chef at Home" advocate cooking without a recipe, and to just let the ingredients come together themselves? Well I could never do that. I don't even know what tastes good with what... so I always cook with a recipe. They are life-savers for fumbling green horns like myself. But Vader is a different story. He can and does cook without recipes I think.... he can tell what ingredients might be needed or are missing from a certain dish even when we're eating out. I've never asked him how he cooks his dishes, because I've always been afraid it'll be too complex for me, or that maybe he wouldn't be able to give me the exact directions that I would need to replicate a certain dish, just because he cooks by approximation.

I'm not envious though, because I've never dreamed I would be cooking in the kitchen one day, even if only for family members. I've always been the one who volunteered to wash the dishes because I like playing with soap suds and hearing the plates squeaky clean! I've always enjoyed being cooked for, haha! I guess, if I don't have a natural flair for something, I've just got to work harder or find ways to achieve at least an acceptable standard. You know what? I think I'm slowly making my way up this mountain! It's not insurmountable la, .......I think... I hope!

p/s I also managed to cook edible rice on the stove without burning the pot this time.