Friday, 3rd November 2006

Table and general food posts:

I decided on a cheerful yellow theme centred around my tablecloth. I had gold chargers, cream and black plates, gold napking rings, gold pineapple placecard holders, the usual plated cutlery and glassware. Only paper napkins this time.

Table - ordinary lighting.



Candlelighting:



Mark's place setting - I made placecards for everyone with a picture which indicates their interest so KF had a goalkeeper on it, UR a jogger, P a gardener, Dom's a guitarist, Wm a picture of an apple pie, Mark's had the Counterstrike emblem whilst Hazel, Eliza and J had flowers on theirs in their favourite colours. And mine? It was a picture of a svelte lady cook! *two secret aspirations revealed*








I only have 8 cream/black plates so Hazel and Eliza had to have the yellow/blue plates.

And now, here is the table laden with food.


Dom took this rather dizzying bird's eye view pic of the table.

Another chicken shot - The Before

After : Deboned/sliced roast chicken

Next post: Apple Crumble

Lastly, the reason why I spend almost 5 hours slaving in the kitchen - happy and appreciative guests.

J's first helping:

Friday, 3rd November 2006

Monster post ahead - tons of pics.

I decided to cook dinner for my family and favourie people. I asked J what she wanted to eat and predictably, she said without hesitation, "Ooh, your roast beef, roast chicken, roast potatoes and don't forget the peas with bacon". (You know, I am capable of cooking something else too)! That's a meal I've cooked numerous times (as some of you might have noticed) and somehow it's always asked for repeatedly.

These are the chickens before they went into the oven. Lightly marinated and propped up by carrots and red onions. I added a head of garlic, unpeeled, and inserted knobs of flavoured butter under the skin. I basted the chickens 3 times in the hour and half they needed to cook and turned them over to crisp the skin on the back in the last 10 mins. Here they are, just out of the oven.



Here is another pic just so you can see the garlic. The garlic turned soft and ploppy and it was delicious - I squirted them out of their leaves and added the mushy garlic cloves into the gravy.



I let the chickens sit for an hour before I deboned and sliced them. Deboning and slicing 2 x 1.6 kg chickens took approximately half an hour, helped along by a large glass of Cabernet, a sharp knife and a sharpening stone nearby.

Next the beef.

Again, a favourite of all - and that crust again - grainy mustard, flour, breadcrumbs, chopped garlic, parsley, mixed herbs, good lug of olive oil, salt & pepper. The beef was 'aged' in the fridge for a good 24 hours before cooking.



Here they are, just out from the oven. There were 2 joints - one done rare, the way I like it, and the other medium. By this time, it was almost 6 pm, and I had not finished roasting the potatoes, done the peas, cauliflower or made the two gravies yet NOR sliced the meats. So you can sense a slight panic in the kitchen with elf being away for the day with the children almost 90 kms away. I was overjoyed to see them all when they walked in just after 6.



Here is the beef, sliced after an hour of resting - rare - just the way I like them - " Any rarer they would be mooing "...



Next post: Table & people shots.

Sun, 29th October 2006

I've not done a simple home cooking post for a while. This was dinner at Wm's - she made a vat of soup, steamed some chopped up chicken (marinated in light soy, chinese wine, ginger, salt, pepper, cornstarch, sugar& sesame oil, she added some dried black mushrooms and wolfberries) and fried some spinach. I brought some salmon, which we quick cooked in the microwave. Altogether, a light, easy, home Cantonese meal.

Chinese steamed chicken



Spinach - lightly fried with garlic and a bit of salt

Mon, 30th October 2006

This is my handbag taken in the ladies at the place where I was on Wednesday night. What a super evening and it was great to see everyone again!

And oh yes, there was food too.






As soon as I whipped out my camera, the staff obligingly posed and smiled and egged each other on to get into the pic. Thanks guys - I'm sorry I had to crop the pics.

And beverages.

Thursday, 26th October 2006

And just to prove that we do eat vegetables too, here is some blanched choy sum, with oyster sauce and garlic chips which I served with the tumeric chicken.

Friday, 27th October 2006

Steak and chips.

Panfried ribeyes, French fries and pumpkin. I had my steak with a dollop of HOT English mustard and 2 glasses of red wine. (Not in picture: Creamy mushroom sauce)



Dinner conversation with the kids:

Loan Sharks (HK, Singapore and Brunei style - all info gained from newspapers, hearsay, etc)
The pleasant unexpected surprise
Christmas
Empire Hotel
etc

Saturday, 28th October 2006

A lazy Saturday afternoon:



Eating: An enormous scone with cream and strawberry jam
Drinking: Green Tea
Wearing: Tie skirt (translated into: expandable waistband) and old tshirt
Watching: Desperate Housewives Season 3 Episodes 1 to 4

Thursday, 26th October 2006

I was thrilled on Thursday as my second attempt at tumeric chicken was a smash if I may say so. I have always wanted to know why the fried chicken in Indian or Malay restaurants taste so good and how they make it.

Z's mum makes fantastic crispy fried chicken wings but her recipe is very closely guarded. Another girlfriend told me her recipe and I tried it out last week. It was good but I felt that something was lacking and far from what I have tasted, and although I know its msg, I tweaked the recipe on Thursday and decided to add fresh grated tumeric in addition to its powder form. Success!

The tumeric/ginger bits turned very crunchy and clung to the crispy skin of the chicken. Crispy bursts of flavour in every bite..

Recipe:

Slashed chicken drumsticks
Wings - found some really tiny ones in SS but on they other hand, they cook really quickly
Fresh grated tumeric
Fresh grated ginger
Salt
Lime juice

Wash and pat very dry meat. Smother with marinade, overnight. Fry in very hot oil. Drain and serve.

Here they are in their raw state. Let meat come to room temperature before you fry them.



In the hot oil:



Drain on kitchen towels:



I'll definitely make these again. Would any readers out there share their tumeric chicken recipes?

Weds, 25th October 2006

Not tidying up again! Today, I tackled my glassware cabinet and cupboard where I keep photographs, cookbooks, spare decor items, wrapping paper/ribbons, wire and stuff, cards. I found this in the photographs basket - it's a recipe for a baked cheesecake, from quite a well known place. The cake is very very rich and dense and the ingredients are simple and the results are guaranteed - if I can make this, so can anyone as I can't bake to save my life!

I am definitely not a hoarder but sometimes I am surprised at the things I find while I am having a good old clean out.

For those with eagle eyes, you will notice the date on the fax as April 1988. That kind of explains the yellowed piece of doc you see here.

The next piece of paper I found was a recipe for Caesar Salad dressing, also from a well known place. It was written after watching them make it tableside, one evening, a very, very long time ago.

3 tbs garlic
1 tbs anchovies
1 tbs mustard
(mix together)
2 egg yolks
tobasco
juice of half a lemon
lea & perrins
croutons
bacon bits
parsley
parmesan cheese
olive oil
few dash vinegar
black pepper

After egg yolks, add olive oil in a stream, mixing all the time. Add vinegar, tobasco & lea/perrins. Then croutons, bacon, parsley, pepper. Break up croutons.

That does not sound too terribly difficult, does it?

Saturday, 21st October 2006

J bought some seruding from the very popular stall by the escalators at Utama Grand. Her helper fried some cashew nuts and mixed them into the serunding.... Wow, it was good!



This recipe is from www.asianrecipes.com and I won't even think about attempting it so I might head over to the Mall later to buy a box ($10).

Beef Serunding

Ingredients :
500 g Shin or topside beef
300 ml Thick coconut milk
12 pieces Dried chilies, cut in 2cm pieces
10 stalks Shallots, coarsely chopped
2 cm Fresh ginger, chopped
3 stems Lemongrass, inner part of bottom 10cm only, thinly sliced
1 cm Fresh turmeric root, chopped or 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 cm Galangal, chopped
1 1/2 tsp Salt
1 pieceDried tamarind slice (asam keping or asam gelugor)

or 2 tsp dried tamarind pulp, soaked in 2 tbsp water,
then squeezed and strained to obtain juice.

Method :
Cut beef into 6cm cubes, then put in a pan, add water to just cover and bring to a boil.
Cover the pan, lower the heat and allow to simmer until just tender (45 - 60 mins).
Drain and reserve the beef stock.
When beef is cool enough to handle, use fingers to tear the meat along the grain to make fine, hair-like shreds.
Now soak chilies for 10 minutes in warm water, discard some of the seeds to reduce the heat, then process chilies, shallots, ginger, lemongrass, turmeric and galangal to a coarse paste in a blender.
Gradually add 180ml of the beef stock and keep blending until smooth.
Heat wok or pan and stir-fried processed mixture, coconut milk and salt over medium heat until mixture is very thick and starting to dry out. This should take approx. 15 minutes.
Add the shredded beef, reduce the heat to very low level and cook beef, stirring and tossing frequently for approx. 30 minutes.
Add the tamarind slices, or tamarind juice and continue cooking until the meat is completely dry and crisp.
Allow to cool thoroughly before storing in an airtight container.
Serve as a garnish with rice and other dishes.

Sunday, 24th September 2006

Another typical Sunday for us - swimming/clowning around at the Sheraton while Mum surfs on the internet by the pool, reading the papers and having a pot of tea.

Me: Kiddies, out of the pool now, please, it's raining!
Kids: awwwwww, but we're already wet...
Me: *thinks* - makes sense.. (goes back to the papers)



Late lunch:

Saturday, 23rd September 2006

Another soto post.

This one is from Tini's at the Mall. Piping, burning hot chickeny stock. Their chilli is eye-wateringly spicy. Add a good splash of white vinegar, 2 scoops of chilli paste and soya sauce for extra flavour and taste. I love soto and my fave is Tini's, followed closely by Sweet & Savoury's and then Rossmini's. Z's mum make fantastic soto too, served with the beef potato patties, handfuls of fried shallots & parsley - yummy!!!!

Saturday, 21st October 2006

BEFORE:



AFTER:



As I suffer severely from Ornithophobia, I kept a watchful eye on this the entire night - it made me very nervous, with its wicked beady eyes, bold comb, pointy beak and artfully painted plumage....

Saturday, 21st October 2006

On his return from Vancouver, R's promotion was confirmed and he took us all to our favourite restaurant Thiam Hock in Gadong for a celebratory meal - yes, we braved the traffic to make our way there on payday but we narrowly beat the traffic by going in at about 6.30 pm.

Menu:

1. Individual bowls of shark's fins for everyone - And here I must apologise for being so p-in-c and if I can justify it in anyway, we only have this once or twice a year - partly due to the cost ($24 per portion). It was lovely though, rich flavourful stock, chunky combs of fins, large pieces of dried scallops & firm pieces of crabmeat.

2. A 2.6 kg lobster cooked in 2 forms (half was cooked in their signature stock with garlic and the other in a flavourful peppery light broth served in a claypot with glass noodles)

3. Butter Chicken (everyone's favourite)

4. Sizzling tofu with minced meat and egg

5. Braised Pork leg with slithery Sea Cucumber and Mushrooms

6. Stirfried Broccoli with crunchy firm fat prawns

We were all very full and satisfied after that meal. Thanks R, keep up the good work - you're a generous pal. Hope another promotion will come your way before too long... From your very grateful guests, Ym, M & H, Wm, P, D, J and KF.

Lastly, the bill (gulp..) :

And some nice crisp white wine, glasses thoughtfully provided by the management.

Sunday, 22nd October 2006

Hey all (and Sam) - I'm back and here is the quickest update, in no particular order:

1. Diet - Failed totally, utterly, MISERABLY

2. Work - Busy - I like

3. Kids - Off school till 1st Feb

4. Home - New curtains and upholstery (red, gold, cream theme) J says it's the 'boudoirish' look, I need a chandelier, a red beaded lampshade... and one wall to be painted RED to complete the look.


(Birthday gift from Hazel)

5. Helper - Left at end of 2 year contract

6. Self - Was the amah for 2 weeks

7. Helper 2 - Elf finally arrived!!!!!!! yippee

8. Birthday - Celebrated quietly - Jurlique rose handcream from J, MAC Studio Fix face powder, magazines & dried herbs from Wm, Tealight holder from Hazel & meal at Excapade from Mark, cake from Sheraton.



9. Shopping - 1 Oroton embossed croc leather handbag from Melbourne A$299!!!! reduced from A$499, British India super FLOUNCY multitiered skirt in beige, pink and brown, eyelet blouse (too tight but last one), green embroidered skirt from Butik Eileen Chen, napkins from Sheraton boot sale, bits and pieces for the house, bright pink flexible linen basket with handles which can double up as swimming bag, maroon runners from Cinnamon, 2 cream damask lampshades with little beads to replace my 15 year old silk shades.



10. Housekeeping - Tidied up EVERYWHERE (linen, bedding, clothes, crockery, cutlery, toolbox, kids' study tables, undie drawer, toiletries, DVD/CD cupboard) Elf and I have run out of places to tidy and clean

11. Doc visits - numerous for Hazel's asthmatic condition - stop the burning already, you environmental idiots nearby!

12. Food ate - too much and too many to mention

13. Sungkai - Sweet & Savoury (twice) and Sanur (sorry girls, missed Capers and another sess at S&S with you 3)

14. Acquired - This cool little baby - aren't the speakers sexy? Dell Dimension 9200



15. Hair - Appointment at Alan Inspiration on Monday 23rd Oct


So how have you all been?