Another sinful one : Lor Mai Kai !!!

My favourite dim sum dish is lor mai kai. The real LMK that comes with lap cheong, chicken and sausage, not hor yip farn ok ? I've always liked this dish since when I was a little girl. There's something about the fragrant and smooth lor mai that's delectable and makes you look forward for the next dim sum session. I can never have more than 1 lor mai kai, the glutinous rice can be very 'chai' and 1 is just nice.

I've browsed so many recipes, over the net, at the bookshops and magazines. I've been meaning to try it for a long time but hesitated because I've never handled glutinous rice before, it's always a bit daunting to try something new :(

I have all my stuff ready, the stainless steel bowls (yes, I bought a dozen just for this recipe), Mei Kuei Lu wine, and glutinous rice. I could not keep the rice for long, I can see dust settling at the bottom, that means the pests are getting to it.

So, over the Raya weekend, after a wine and roast pork session with hubs and his friends, I got my hands dirty working on the lor mai kai.

Surprisingly, quite easy to make and I'd like to share the essential stuff :


Mei Kuei Lu Chiew. You can get this at liquor shops or Chinese medicine halls. Different from Tsiao Hsing wine. This is has a 'flower' fragrance (the name mei kuei means rose, I guess it's pressed from rose flowers but I can find any hint of roses, nevertheless it's a wonderful liquor for cooking lor mai kai and char siu)



The ingredients :
Glutinous rice, soaked overnight and steamed till cooked over rapid boiling water
Mushrooms , soaked overnight
Chinese sausage
Deboned chicken (marinate with Mei Kuei Lu liquor, salt, pepper, ginger juice and fish sauce)
Ginger juice

Once the rice is cooked, fluff it and mix with the following marinades, I used 1tbsp each, it's hard to tell the exact qty, just use your best estimation and 'agak agak' :

abalone sauce
dark soya sauce
light soya sauce
fish sauce
sesame oil
ginger juice

and most important ingredient - pork lard. I used leftover roast pork oil drippings ( sedapp !!!) and mix & mash together with glutinous rice. The lormai is very sticky and for better mixing/marinating, I used my hands.. So, no pics on this step.


Lay a piece of chicken meat, mushroom and lap cheong in a bowl



Cover with marinted glutinuos rice and steam for another 40 minutes.

Tadaaa.. LOR MAI KAI.... from my kitchen.

I also made mini ones using my tart bowls for Amber :

If you have the Ikea plates, you'll roughly know how big it is.

Mini lor mai kai.

In fact, the mini ones is better. The bigger bowls are quite 'jelak' , too much rice. Anyway, this is my first attempt, hubs and BIL gave a big THUMBS UP!!!

Note : Since it's quite tedious to make and you can't eat much at a go, cover with foil and freeze it.

Also, Annie, if you are reading this, I know I still owe you many many lor mai kais ok.. :) Next round, I make for you ya !

Mooncake Festival round the corner

Backdated post. Photos shot using my CybershotDSC-S600, my first digital camera.

2 weeks ago, FIL & MIL bought lanterns for Amber. It's the second lantern they bought this year. First was a Ben 10 and now a new one, a ladybird with the open close flaps, very nice, I must say.

She loves it so much, played with it amidst the large Raya crowd at Mid Valley (and annoying everyone .... hahahaha )

Yuen Wen cheh cheh and Amber

When the 2 girls get together, they are noisy, cheeky and most imporantly, HAPPY !

When we left Mid Valley, passed by Dunkin Donuts for some samples. The tiny munchkins are just nice for a bite, no need to buy one box, save money and save calories too !

We didn't buy any mooncakes this year for ourselves, just some for our parents and brothers/sisters. My sis gave me some Tai Thong mooncakes and that'll be enough for me. I'm looking forward to celebrate the festival at my in-laws this weekend coz plenty of opportunity to take photos again with colorful lanterns and I've also bought a box of sparklers for the kids to play.

Pics from our EOS1000D

The first few attempts were blurry shots but we still got some nice shots :


Flying like an angel...


Angel with her wings



Sharon mei-mei, she has the loveliest eyes..

Then over the Raya weekend, we went Pavilion :



Amber fell asleep on her stroller. Just woke up, hubs caught her peeping from stroller

We had dinner at La Lot, Vietnamese :

Food shots. No complains over the clarity but somehow the color tone can do with some adjustments.

She woke up while we were having dinner, threw a tantrum

Cropped up close, can see her 2 tiny teardrops up close

Then smiling again. She complained her left foot was in pain, so we threw the old shoe away and put on plasters.

Cute dino plasters. She's into Jurassic Park recently. Watched like a million times already..

Liuli fountain at Pavilion.

'Hoe sam cheng' .. in a good mood, she loves fountains

Her favourite snack - J Co donuts. Her favourite is strawberry cream (mine too)

We 'tapau' J Co and headed to The Loaf

Pastries... yummy

Coffee

Tuna bread. Looks good hor ?

Enjoying her donuts

Her joy.. chomping down donuts

Cheeky smile .. as if something's up her sleeves

Thumbs down

Thumbs up

Wakakaka !!! When she's happy, I'm happy..

New Toy for Hubs

Initial plan was to get a camera for me. Looked around, the better digital ones were above RM1k, then hubs thought, for paying that kinda price, might as well get a DSLR. Then shopped around, compared models, functions etc , we settled for Canon coz we find it user friendly.

Tadaa.... his new toy..

Canon DSLR1000D. Got it for RM1999 from Harvey Norman with 8gb memory card. If you wanna get one, please go Canon specialist shop and bargain. Price is almost the same and you get original filter. We kena 'conned' by Harvey Norman coz they gave us some al cheapo filter instead.

With my new camera, I can take Amber 'in action'. One click and the moment is captured :


She's a smart girl, she knows Papa has a new 'expensive' camera and now she'll pose to take pictures.

Can see her missing tooth clearly now.

Camera 'chik chak' so fast, can catch her jumping up and down, if it was my old camera, sure 'blur' already.

Since hub's in charge of the camera, I can have more pics taken with Amber .. .. .. YAY !!!

With my our new camera, we can capture not just photos but the real candid moments.

More pics to come . . . . .

Bathing on Her Own

Talk about independence. Now she wants to 'pom pom' on her own. She came back home, proudly telling me she showers on her own at Boon's. I checked with him, and yes, he's training the kids to bath on their own but they'll be given a thorough shower too.

At home, I had a little argument with her. She insisted on showering on her own but I wanna have a hands on cleaning her from head to toe. Nag, nag, nag... I let her have her way..


Proudly showing me she can wash her own hair

My dear Amber, please don't grow up too fast ok ? You're still my baby and Mama really enjoys brushing your teeth, showering you, blow dry your hair and dress you up.. :)

Amber and her Koong Koong

Amber's Koong Koong is 75 years old. They are both born in Year of Dog.

We visit Koong Koong once a week, usually for dinner at Koong Koong's house


On her first year, she poops at every visit to Koong Koong's, dunno why, I can't explain and my father will think that Amber pangsai ever so frequent but not true, she does not.

On her second year, she gives Koong Koong nightmare at every visit. The house has split level and Amber will not stop at climbing up, climbing down, up, down and up and down, NON-STOP. When her babysitter was ill and hospitalized, I asked Koong Koong's help to mind her for few days, the thought of running after Amber up and down the split level stairs made him 'pengsan'
Then Amber lost her tooth, Koong Koong will tease her endlessly, singing "bogeh bogeh" song (bogeh means 'toothless')

On her third year, Amber is more 'sang seng', can walk up and down unaided, Koong Koong can sit back and relax on his lazy chair without getting stressed watching over Amber.

I hope Koong Koong will have many more healthy years to go to see his grandchildren grow up and and give Amber a chance to buy him his favourite 'kopi o' :)

Still Doodling

Yes, she's still at it.

Crayons, she peels with her finger nails and I end up scraping the bits off her nail beds
Color pencils, she sharps with sharpener more than she colors
Pens, she loves to draw on the own hand.

The best learning to write & draw toy is still doodles. Hubs bought her a doodling board recently and she's more than happy to show us her stuff :


Drawing a 'flower'. We've reminded her many times to use her right hand instead of left and I think we've succedeed to make her a rightie.



Another flower

Trying to write A B C

She prefers the doodling pad to pencils and crayons. Is this 2 steps back in her development or is it an improvement ? I don't know ler ??? All I know is she's going school next year (in 3 months time) and I have to start kindie hunting soon. In fact, we've more or less decided but I just need to check out the kindie one of these days before start of school holidays.

What's On My Wall ?

My new toy, Canon Powershot A1000IS..

We've been hunting for a basic camera. Since we also got a new DSLR, I didn't want to spend premium for a point and shoot camera. I looked around for cheaper alternative, Olympus, Cybershot and even some lesser known brands.

However, I still like Canon, for it's functions and simplicity to use. My new companion :


RRP RM649 and we got it for RM580, from Canon shop with 2GB Toshiba memory card. Good buy huh ?

And I was toying around with it, I'll share what's on my wall, my office wall that is... not Facebook :)


Pics of her, plastered all over my wall. Moments of her from baby to toddlerhood and now. a 3 yr old.

Sometimes when I'm stressed up at work, I look up and see her, I am reminded of how lucky we are to have a boisterous, cheeky and lively 3 yr old to keep us on our toes.

A good camera is important, moments pass and never returns, capture it and be reminded forever.