Mimi’s Cooking Project

 

Last week, Mimi came home with a homework sheet from her Family and Consumer Science class (家政課）.  She needs to make a family meal with lots of details to fulfill.  She needs to come up with her menu, shop for her ingredients, document the steps, analyze the nutrition facts and collect customer feedbacks.  In addition to that, she also needs to take photos to record her project.

 

She decided to make a 5 course meal — mostly Asian style.  Here is her menu:

 

— Chinese cucumber pickle （小黃瓜開胃菜）

— Chinese chive dumpling (韭菜水餃）

— Hot and Sour Soup (酸辣湯）

— Chocolate Chip Cookies （巧克力餅乾）

— Fruit Plate （什錦綜合水果）

 

She started with her appetizer — cucumber pickle.  This is a fairly simple dish.  She needs to cut the cucumber into bite size. 

 

 

And crush a few cloves of garlic. 

 

 

Then she will season that with vinegar, salt, sugar and most importantly — sesame oil.

 

 

Then you just SHAKE IT ALL UP to make sure the cucumbers are marinated into the sauce.  The next is to chill the cucumber in the refrigerator for a better and crispier taste.

 

 

She didn’t forget to record her steps so she will not forget about it.

 

 

 

Next, she moved her attention to making dumpling stuffing.  First, she needs to make the slices eggs.  She is familiar with breaking the eggs to make the scrumble eggs.

 

 

 

You just have to chop that into very small pieces to be mixed with other ingredient.

 

 

 

 

She then sliced the dried tofu into very small pieces.

 

 

 

 

In between, mommy “helped” a little with the preparation of other ingredients so the girl scout can start making her chocolate chip cookies.  This is not the first time she makes the cookies so she knows how to take measurement and follow the steps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

She is not tall enough for the counter top so she stepped on the ladder to get a better view.

 

 

 

She was adding the chocolate chips.

 

 

And mixed it well.

 

 

The final step is to make the cookie dough into shape on the baking sheet.  At this point, the batch will be ready for the oven bake.

 

 

 

 

Now let’s go back to our dumpling making.  Daddy finished watching his sports channel and now was available to help.  But it felt like he was talking more than helping…..

 

 

 

Mimi was washing and choppingg chives for stuffing.  That was the final ingredient.

 

 

 

Now she needed to mix the ingredient and put seasoning into it — salt, pepper, sesame oil, soy sauce and sugar.

 

 

Now we start wrapping……..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finished products.

 

 

 

 

Mimi was making the dumpling.

 

 

 

 

You can probably guess this one was made by Mimi………..

 

 

Now she was moving to her soup dish — hot and sour soup.  She was chopping tofu into slices.  Mommy already sliced the carrots and mushroom.

 

 

 

Someone was still working on the dumplings…..  Good job!!

 

 

Mimi was putting the pre-marinated sliced pork into the soup to add additional flavor.

 

 

Take it slow, one at a time!!

 

 

Then put the rest of the ingredient into the soup pot.

 

 

And yet, someone was STILL working on dumpling……

 

 

Now, Mimi was ready for her final dish — fruit salad.  She carefully cut fruit into small bite sizes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While Mimi was working on the finish touch of her presentation, daddy was working on setting up the table for dinner.

 

 

Someone was proud to present her fruit salad….

 

 

We were making this into a formal dinner — mostly because of her assignment.  But it’s really fun to have one once in a while.

 

 

 

Bon appetit!!

 

 

Here are the highlights of our dinner……….

 

Cucumber pickles.

 

 

Fruit Salad.

 

 

Dumplings.

 

 

Chocolate chip cookies.

 

 

Hot and sour soup.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am not sure about Mimi and Daddy but mommy was certainly tired at the end — especially after doing all the dishes from her homework.  That was quite a chore for me.  But I am happy to be a part of her homework.  This is one dinner I will never forget!!