Sinful…

I’m no saint, no angel either…but I do think it is a sin to waste. Maybe you’ll think that I’m such a miser but I get quite upset and distressed to see the amount of rice in the pot, soaked overnight in the water to get it unstuck and eventually, thrown away and I do think that if we could save a spoonful or two a day, by the end of the week we would have enough for a plate of fried rice for breakfast. I’m sure most of us know that there is a Malay saying that goes like this:
Sikit sikit jadi bukit (Literal translation: a bit, a bit, becomes a hill/mountain)

Of course, I would have no choice but to get rid of things that have been sitting in the fridge for too long – anything more than a week would have to go, never mind that it still looks good. That is why I would make it a point to eat up all leftovers as soon as possible and not to simply stuff them in the fridge and conveniently forget all about them.

I had porridge last week as I was down with a terrible cough, alternating with some vigorous sneezing and running nose…plus at one point, a slight fever as well. My missus fried a slice of salted fish, the long variety, to eat with it but we barely finished a quarter of that. So, the other day, seeing that we had some leftover rice in the fridge, I decided to whip up my own version of the immensely-popular salted fish fried rice…

These were the ingredients I started off with…

– the usual sliced shallot and garlic, the leftover salted fish, cut into small chunks, some thinly-sliced long beans and spring onions. I decided to try adding a bit of lap chiang (Chinese sausage) as well as I remember having that alongside the salted fish in my favourite claypot chicken rice and I feel the flavours go very well together.

As usual, I fried the shallot and garlic first…and then, the salted fish went in, followed by the lap chiang…and next, the long beans…

After frying till the beans were cooked, I added the rice…

…and the spring onions, finely chopped and a spoonful of my missus’ pounded chili dip…and an egg.

We still had some cashew nuts left over from Chinese New Year, baked…not fried and no salt added so I took a handful of those and threw them in before dishing everything out. Just look at that! I don’t have to say a thing…but doesn’t it look yummy?

And of course, the best part is the fact that nothing went to waste. At this present day and age when the prices of everything are going up, up and up, I think it pays to be a little bit prudent in our spending and in our ways so we can stretch our ringgit a little, at least. As the age-old English proverb advises, “Waste not, want not!”