Learning to cook

Cooking was a difficult chore for me in the past.  I could only cook some simple things like cooking rice, frying eggs and cooking instant mee.  That's all.  Before the day of marriage my father had to tell my mother in law that I could not cook.
After marriage, I avoided cooking.  My husband and I used to eat in food stalls or restaurant.  Most of the time I catered food.  My food caterer sent the food to me everyday except weekend.  Occasionally I would cook something but the result was not good.  And I would wonder why my stewed chicken was not good as others.
My cooking improved as I joined the discipleship training and live together as a community in the church.  When I first joined the training, my pastor put me in charge of kitchen and food.  I did not tell him that it was my weakest thing but then I just obeyed and gave a try.  Pastor's wife was my spiritual father and teacher.  She taught me how to cook.
Fried rice is the easiest thing to do but I failed many times, countless times.  I felt bad because if I did not cook well everyone had to suffer eating the lousy fried rice.  The rice turned out to be soggy.  According to expert, the rice grain should be able to 'jump' in the wok but mine was wet.  Then I realized that the rice for frying must not be cooked with too much water.  It must be cooked with just enough water for best result.
Frying eggs first will leave a smooth surface on the wok so that the rice will not stick to the wok and be burnt.  No water is added in the midst of frying.  I do not use soya sauce as it will make the rice wet.  All the lumps should be loosen.  I learned it through many failures.
I told myself that it would take a miracle for me to be a good cook as I was slow in learning in the area of cooking.  I jotted down all my mistakes so that I could refer to it to avoid future mistakes.
In the beginning I did not know how to cut carrot and long beans into small pieces in a fast way.  I learned the ABC in cooking.  I learned to cut different types of vegetables.
I learned budget cooking.  With the least ingredients and the cheapest things to produce tasty and nutritious food.  We do not use artificial seasoning.  To improve the taste we use meat, bones or small fish called 'ikan bilis'.  Vegetables like carrot, cabbage also improve the taste of soup.  Mushroom does wonders in taste.
Coming back to fried rice, we can use frozen mixed peas, corn and carrot .  Most of the time I use carrot, long beans or French beans, big onions spring onion and eggs.  For seasoning I use pepper powder and salt only . Some dark thick soya sauce added to add some brown colour.
Learning the basic is very important as it can enable us to upgrade to more complicated way of cooking.
I thank God that today I am able to fry rice not just for my family but also for more than fifty people or even for a hundred people.

Selling goat milk

Selling goat milk at night market is one of the most exciting activity we used to have.  It is one way to get some income for the work in centre.
We started to rear goats about four years ago.  Since then we started to sell goat milk.  In the beginning we put up advertisement at bus stops but it did not work.  Then we tried to sell near train station.  We managed to sell a few bottles only.  After that we tried to sell at morning market and  night market.  The best sale is at night market.
In the beginning we were so shy to call out to the people who walked pass our stall as we had no experience of selling.  We did some studies about the benefits of goat milk and found that goat milk is indeed better than cow milk.  Its molecules are much smaller and can be assimilated into the body within half an hour.  It is one of the antidotes for jaundice.
Most people can accept goat milk but there are some who are allergic to it.  Some people cannot stand its smell.  However we found customers who drink goat milk regularly.  One of the customers used goat milk to reduce his weight because his body was allergic to it and he purged after taking it.  I could not believe it but he did it.
Another customer took goat milk as breakfast as it filled the stomach till noon so that she would not feel hungry.  She used it for slimming purpose too.
One old man who coughed for a long time was healed after taking goat milk.  Another lady testified that she no longer feels cold and needs not put on socks at night.  So you can see that goat milk helps people in different ways.  Another lady was so happy because new hair started to grow on her head.  Two old ladies who drink a bottle of goat milk continuously for two years found their complexion fair and without age spots.  A bottle of goat milk is about 250 ml.  It is especially helpful to the undernourished old people or invalid.
Most people are not aware of the goodness of goat milk so at times it is difficult to sell.  We give out leaflets to introduce to the people around.  It is not easy to find a place to sell if you are new to the night market.  Before going to a new night market I normally walk around to look for an empty
 space to put the ice box.  If certain stall does not turn up that night I can use the place.  Sometimes  
the stalls besides me demand money from me as rental.  If there is no empty space available then we have to push the trolley to and fro as mobile stall.
On rainy day the sale is very poor as there are not many people.  to boost the sales it is better to bring a small goat along.  Most of all prayer and faith is very important for good sales.