domestic goddess in the making

roast chicken with lemon and onions by yours truly!

Those of you who know me know that it has always been my ambition to be a domestic goddess. Not the housewife who loves to cook and clean meticulously and worry over what flowers look best in her living room, but one whom the following tasks are a piece of cake--cooking for 20 over people, cleaning the house till it shines, arranging everything such that it has its own place and having it all look like some interior designer was behind it. Yes, that is my ambition, apart from dreaming now and then of being a rock chick. That dream still hasn’t died.

I have decided to constantly and gradually work towards domestic goddessity, first by improving my cooking repertoire. I think this is the most challenging of all the tasks I have listed above. Cleaning the house and having it look fantastic overall is not such a difficult thing, especially for someone with a keen aesthetic eye, which I confidently claim to possess. Of course, this could be developed further with greater exposure to design, contrast, colour, texture, fabric, etc. I am not going to neglect this aspect, but sharpening my cooking skills is something much more pertinent at this point in time.

So I resolve to cook for friends (you know who you are!) as often as is possible. Cooking or baking is something that most people can do only when they are inspired and in the mood for it. If you had a bad week at work or just quarrelled with someone, you can forget about making the perfect strawberry shortcake. The texture is more likely to turn out heavy instead of effortlessly light as you would not have the patience to sift your flour properly and beat the mixture carefully to achieve the desired texture.

So it was with a great celebratory mood that I cooked for Angel, Alex and Carol yesterday as I had just returned from a glorious 4-day holiday in Bangkok last weekend. It was one of the best holidays I’ve had. Watch this space for my Bangkok SHIOK! daily diary posts. Feeling totally refreshed, rejuvenated and bursting with energy, I was in the perfect mood to cook up a storm. The night before, I drew up a detailed schedule of what I needed to do on the actual day so as not to fall behind schedule and to ensure that I could complete everything I wanted to do. It looked something like this:

7.00am wake up
7.00 – 8.20am breakfast, to buy plastic disposable containers, lemons, flowers and beef bones opposite
8.20am leave for half-hour service at Novena
9.00 – 9.30am service at Novena
9.30am – 10.30am buy spring chicken, dory fillets, thyme, red capsicum and Perrier water from Cold Storage at Novena Square, baguette from Delifrance, my lunch and reach home
10.30 – 11.30am marinate chicken and dory fillets
11.30am – 12.30pm make French onion soup
12.30 – 1.30pm lunch
1.30 – 2.30pm do laundry
2.30 – 3.30pm clean house
3.30 – 4.30pm nap
4.30 – 5.30pm finish up some office work
5.30pm cut orange slices and place in water, chill
6.00pm prepare potato dish
6.45pm put chicken in oven
7.00pm slice capsicum and marinate
7.15pm put capsicum in oven together with the chicken
7.45pm heat up French onion soup, prepare cheddar cheese baguette croutons
8.00pm dinner

I veered slightly off the schedule, having no time to nap, but it turned out ok in the end. I could do without the sleep as there was some adrenaline running and I just had to constantly feed myself some sugar now and then. I had leftover tiramusu for lunch (it was supposed to be bread but I thought I’d better finish it up as it was taking up precious space in my chiller) and maybe all the sugar and coffee in that helped.

This was the first time in my life cleaning a whole chicken and marinating it. When I took the bird out of its packaging, I noticed that they tucked the wings into its cavity and eeeks… its head too! I screamed when I pulled it out. I thought the supermarket people had cut it off, but there it was with the eyes shut and comb intact. I tried to cut it off with a knife but had to resort to using a chopper to do the severing. I got the job done with some slow and steady sawing and was glad to finally throw the whole thing into the trash. I tried as far as possible not to let my bare hands touch it, using knives to transfer it to the waste paper basket. Cleaning a chicken is not a pleasant experience, trimming the fat and meticulously pulling out the stray feathers. Chopping off the head was a tad traumatic, but no way was it going to convert me to vegetarianism as I love meat too much! Sorry, bird :P Once the cleaning was out of the way, everything was smooth-a-sailing.

I had to resort to using beef cubes for the French onion soup, something I wanted to actively avoid as I hate making things from quick fixes. Nevertheless, it was necessary as the oxtail bones and onions didn’t seem to be yielding any flavour to the soup. Two beef cubes later, the soup tasted significantly more salty, but I had to fry one more big onion and add it to the soup to sweeten it. The result was fantastic as my friends loved the soup and had second helpings. I will try adding more onions and beef bones in future.

The chicken also turned out beautifully, not oily and bursting with lemon flavour. The Cajun blackened fish was a tad bitter with a generous dose of paprika and Cayenne pepper (I didn’t add garlic salt as in the recipe because there was no more in the kitchen), but it’s fiery flavour went down well. The new potatoes were sweet and flavourful. Very pleased with the results on my first try!

I decided to give drinking water a zesty twist by adding Thai green lemon slices to one jug and orange slices to another. It tasted very refreshing and you can do this for your guests. So easy and the results are fantastic. Buy sparkling Perrier for added choice.

I am very pleased with being able to cook a great meal as well as clean the house and do laundry all by myself in a day. It feels like I’ve moved up the ladder in the quest to domestic goddessity, or shall I say, goddazzity. Now I need to challenge myself further by cooking for about 10 people and trying out new dishes. Nothing too complicated. I believe in being able to produce great food without going through too much labour. So friends, if you have something that you love, ask me to try making it or hand me a good recipe you see somewhere. I’m game!

For the lucky few who get invited to my home, expect more scrumptious meals as I strive to be a domestic goddess :P. Pottering about in the house has never been this fun!