Leanne's Birthday

Leanne celebrated her 9th birthday last Saturday. She wanted a birthday party with a few of her little friends. A few turned out to be more than 20 overly active and loud 9 years-old. So thankful to the helping hands of the sister, Keshia and brothers Don and Bryan. The boys did a good job in organising some hilarious games to keep them occupied and entertained.

Couldn't keep her fingers off the super-moist chocolate cake.

It was stress-free where food was concerned.
Don and Leanne made dozens of tuna sandwiches in the morning.
Fruits jelly was done the day before.
A big pot of bolognese sauce was kept bubbling over the stove.
All I did was churning out these grilled chicken wings, fried fish balls and pasta all through the party.
The most useful lesson I learnt long ago about doing kids' party food is to do quantity and not variety.
Have just a few of their favourites in sizable amount.
And don't bother serving any vegetables unless you can disguise them (like the pureed carrots and pumpkins I had in the bolognese sauce).

Jo

Aubergine salad

Learnt this dish from Ben many years ago. Bet he has forgotten all about it. I think it is middle-east in origin. It is simple with few ingredients, easy to put together and yet so appetising.

Aubergine salad

3-4 aubergines aka eggplants

2 meaty tomatoes, seeded and diced

1 big red onion, thinly sliced or chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped
Flat-leaf parsley or cilantro, chopped

3 - 4 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

2 tablespoon lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

Halve the aubergines lengthwise; rub flesh with some olive oil; grill in the oven until golden and soft or cook them whole over a open flame, turning frequently until soften and the skin chars.

Leave the aubergines to cool slightly before scraping off the skin and mashing the flesh with a fork. I prefer the open flame, it gives a smoky aroma to the veggie.

Add all the rest of ingredients, mix well but lightly. Adjust salt and lemon juice to taste. Delicious serve on the left-over crusty wholemeal bread.
See, we are staying good and away from meat... hopefully until CNY.

Jo

Homemade Boursin On New Year's Day

We were so good on the first day of 2008!!
We went vegetarian!
But to make the meal more palatable for some, I had to resort to a rather sinful treat - Boursin!
And the meal still turned out so refreshing after the viscous onslaught of meat during the last week of 2007.

Beet root, boiled and sliced, served with a honey/red wine vinegar/chives/salt and pepper dressing. One of my all time favourites.

I made the baked potatoes which we had for Christmas dinner by popular demand. This is a very simple-to-do dish which I picked up from channel 703 and it is so easy and so tasty.

Boiled broccoli and carrots, and just tossed with butter, salt and pepper.

A crusty french wholemeal loaf with sunflower seeds and herbs fresh from the oven. An English baker which I met many years ago indulged the secret of getting a crusty surface. Will post the recipe later at a more leisure pace.

Here is the star of this first-day-of-the-year meal - the special homemade Boursin cheese spread. So easy to do and taste so much better and fresher than the expensive stuff you get at the supermarket shelves.

Simply gorgeous and sooo finger licking good with the baked potatoes...

...and the freshly baked bread.

Homemade Boursin Cheese Spread
250g cream cheese, at room temperature
30g butter, at room temperature
2 tablespoon parsley, minced finely
4 cloves garlic, boiled for 3 minutes, mashed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper - optional

Mix all the above together well.
Adjust salt and pepper to taste.
Leave for 30 minutes or so for the herb and seasonings to infuse.
Can be kept in fridge in an airtight container for 3 days to a week.

Jo

Ong T W's Roast Pork

Before we bid adios to 2007 , we would like to take this opportunity to thank you all again for dropping by our blog. Thank you for taking the time to share with us our food, our occasional musings, shopping, travels and basically our lives. It is a great way to help us keep in touch with our loved ones who live far away albeit a phone call away.

2007 has been a mixed year- good and bad, up and down, happy and sad, arrivals and departures but most of all, it has been a year of great awakening. I've learned great deal about myself- some good and much more that are screaming for improvement and changes.

My passion for cooking has been reignited by my hubby, K and this blog. K's enthusiasm with cooking knows no bound and from him I learnt to go out of my comfort zone and be more creative. With blogging, I discovered another new love and that is photography which, incidentally was K's old love and hence, is now reignited by my enthusiasm!

With 2008 looming ahead, I hope what I have learnt in the year 2007 will come in handy and get me through the coming year in a less bumpy ride.

So, to welcome the new year, we leave you with a Chinese classic dish the Siew Nyuk.

This recipe is from K's colleague Ong T W. I have never had any success with my previous attempts in this dish and I wasn't too optimistic about this recipe because it seemed too simple. The result came as a real surprise and a new year's bonus. We achieved the most sought after crackling of skin combined with a moist succulent meat. What a start to a new year!! Thanks, T W.

Use side belly meat with ribs still intact about 2 Kg

Dip pork skin side down in boiling water for 10 minutes.

Take pork out and score underside.

Marinade underside with about a tablespoon of fermented red bean curd paste (num nui).

Leave to marinade for 4 hours.

Puncture skin well with fork or fish scaler and then rub over with coarse salt.

Put a rack on the baking tray and a cup of water.

Roast in oven for 40 min @ 180-200deg C.

Important to incline pork skin side up to drain oil.

After the 40 min take out and rub fine salt over the skin.

Increase oven temperature to 240deg C and roast for another 15 minutes or until the skin turn golden and crispy.

Observe popping….. watch for burning.

Happy New Year to all!!

Jo

Yuletide's gifts

So much went on for the past few days,

meals to cook and eat,

friends and family to hug and kiss,

conversation to enjoy,

jokes to share,

presents to give

and to receive...

time just flew.
Then boxing day came along, everyone started getting ready to return to work, to their respective homes and reality set in...Christmas 2007 is officially over!

Between K and myself, we received three fantastic cookbooks for Christmas.

We would like to thank Frank and Iris for the Giorgio Locatelli's 'Made In Italy Food & Stories'. The book is worth its weight in gold - so much to learn from it all about the glorious Italian cuisine. Thank you again and maybe the next time you pay us a visit, we might be able cook up an Italian storm.

Thank you, Bryan, for the Jamie Oliver's 'Happy Days' and Heather, thank you for the Gordon Ramsey's 'Fast Food'. Our idols of all times.

Now, all I need is Nigella's 'Nigella Express' :p

My first laptop!! A Christmas gift from K. Was grumbling aloud to myself about how difficult it was to fight for the computer at home especially since the school holiday began and didn't realised that he heard me!!

I am doing this post on my bed with my brand new computer !!

Feels so luxuriously pampered...might just fall asleep while blogging.

Thank you soooo much, K.

Thank you so much again to all who dropped by our blog. Thank you for being so supportive and encouraging. It makes blogging so much more fun and interesting.

Before the arrival of a brand new year in a few days time, let's start making enough resolutions to last the whole year (to be broken, that is :p).

Jo

Mum's Chicken Salad

Chistmas won't be Christmas without mum's chicken salad.
Ever since I knew K, this dish is a must for this festive season.
My mum-in-law would prepare a hugh portion of this dish a few days before Christmas.
As her children started arriving home, the first thing they look for would be this Tupperware of salad in the fridge.
When I said hugh it means a 5L tupperwareful!
It would be served for breakfast, lunch, dinner or just an in-between-meals-snack all through the holidays.
You guess it, nobody is allow to get hungry at any time.

Chicken Salad
1 chicken, boiled, deboned and shredded
500g macaroni, boiled and drained
3 apples, cored and diced
500g frozen mix vegetable, boiled and drained
1 cup sweet pickled jerkins, chopped
1 can pineapple, drained and diced
1 can pimento, drained and chopped
250g cheddar cheese, grated
3-4 tablespoon Heinz salad cream
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup ideal milk
salt and pepper


Mix everything together well. Chill and serve.

Jo

Christmas time this year~

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Let your heart be light
From now on,
our troubles will be out of sight

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Make the Yule-tide gay,
From now on,
our troubles will be miles away.

Here we are as in olden days,
Happy golden days of yore.
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more.

Through the years
We all will be together,
If the Fates allow
Hang a shining star upon the highest bough.
And have yourself A merry little Christmas now.

This got ot be one of the saddest Christmas songs ever written with the most hauntingly beautiful music. Listening to this song bring tears to the eyes and wish that all is well and pray that peace will prevail in the world.

On a happier note:

Christmas to us means family, friends, carols, presents...
angels, snowflakes, reindeers, mistletoe... (the deco)
turkey, fruitcake, lola's chicken salad, oxtail stew...(the foodz)
and the list goes on.

The one thing we all love most about the festive season is the family being home. This year, besides Daniel and Julia (K's brother and sister-in-law from Canada), we are also blessed with the presence of Mimi (our niece from KL).

We were expecting Mee Fung and David from the States but they couldn't make it. Maybe Chinese New Year we'll see them home, keeping our fingers crossed. :)
(while we're at it: Big Heather, Little David, Eros, Amy, Chris, Dylan, Pam, Anthony -WISH YOU'RE HERE, WE MISS YOU!)

Thanks to Bryan and Leanne, we have the Christmas tree up, and boy, it does look so pretty.


Presents are wrapped, thanks to Heather and Leanne.

And the foodfest has began since Tong Zhi.

While we stuff our faces, we promise to try and take a break between munches and blog about food we only bother making when our loved ones are around.

To everyone, we wish you all a wonderful, merry Christmas. One that makes you feel warm and fuzzy and fills your heart with gladness, wherever you may be.

Lotsa Love from,
All the droolers :p

Dong Zhi (冬至) Dinner

Dong zhi 冬至 is a Chinese festival celebrating the winter solstice -'the Arrival of Winter'. It is usually celebrated on the 21st or 22nd of December, this day sees the shortest day in the year. It is also traditionally a time for the family to get together.
Yesterday we celebrated the Chinese festival with the family in Tet Mui's beautiful new home.
As usual, we had the most sumptuous traditional Chinese fare.

A must-have whole steamed chicken symbolizing completeness.

Kai lan with pacific clams, so yummy.

A delicious stewed pork trotters.

The most traditional Hakka's stuffed tofu...

and khiew yoke.

Tofu in a sweet sauce garnished with bonito flakes, spring onions and fried scallions.

Butter prawns

Egg pockets filled with mince meat.
Sticky Rice Ball 湯 圓 (Tang Yuan).

Tang Yuan is a traditional dessert made of glutinous rice that we must have on this day and also on Chinese new year's eve. Tang yuan symbolizes reunion. For us as a family, sharing tang yuan on these two auspicious days means unity and harmony.

This year, I actually made the tang yuan's filling of peanut butter plus black sesame from scratch and it was so good. We usually have it sweet, boiled in a broth of red dates, dried longans, rock sugar and slices of ginger.

Will let you have the recipe before the Chinese new year comes around, I hope.

Jo