Winekaki - 22 October 2011

The winekakis... or shall I say, wine-keteers gathered again last Saturday at our home. We haven't been hosting for a long time since without a domestic helper and this time, we graciously played host to our fellow wineketeers.

No particular food theme, just the usual bring-whateva-you-like pot luck.

 Our fellow wineketeers brought KFC, braised chicken wings, Kajang sate, salad and braised duck feet (not in pic)

I prepared bacon aglio olio and prawn spaghetti for mains and the olive and cheese chunks are for nipping into while sipping wine.

The piece de resistence.... Roast pork

I finally got it right this time. Not blowing my own trumpets but hubs said this roast is the best and the mother of all roasts dished out from our oven. I tried a very simple and fuss free method of blanket-ing the rind with rock salt and roast.  However, X-factor here is to choose a good piece of meat.  I go to the the butcher at Taman Tun Market - Lee Wah Trading for a perfect cut of meat. Belly is the most expensive part of the porcine and I want to make sure I get the best to. Lee Wah's  pork is absolutely fresh, clean and odorless. This piece of has even layers of meat, fat, meat, fat and meat and fat.... simply divine for roasting pork !!!

I made tiramisu in a cup, in perfect serving proportions.  I find digging into a dish of tiramisu totally yucks. The first slice is always nice and the remaining pieces gets sloshy and sloppy. Tiramisu is such a delicate desert and I want my guests to enjoy their servings. I used the little drinking glass I got from Ikea.

I also baked a french almond cake.  

 

The 4 wineketeers who was present.

The selection they had.

Good food, good company and good wine. The wineketeers are already talking of another round to wrap up 2011.  :D

A Weekday Treat

 

Weekday dinners are a simple fare for us.  Rice with meat and vege and a soup. I wouldn't go overboard with anything fancy. It's gotta be quick and easy to swallow so Amber can finish her dinner on time. She has music and mental arithmetic class twice a week in the evenings. So, it's' got to be easy peasy and quick.

I wanted a to give my family a treat yesterday and whipped up a meal we all love. Roasted drumsticks with preboiled roast potatoes, panfried portobellos, honey baked ham and a side dish of capsicum / cherry tomatoes with blue cheese dressing ?

Nice ? Not blowing my own horns.. but it was YUMZZZ !!!

Cashew Nuts - Wok Roasted

One of the CNY favourite snack is the cashew nuts. I bet any house with trays of cookies and nuts displayed, it's always the almond, cashews of pistachios that's a favourite and it goes well with beer, tea or soft drinks.

I waited till CNY was over to wok-roast the nuts. We had far too many snacks then and I'm glad that my table is almost clear now. I gave away lots of cookies and snacks to the neighbours and gardener.

Ok, back to the cashews. Here's how I did mine.

Wok-roast with sea salt

Pour sea salt over cashew and  fry on medium heat.

Stirring very frequent to avoid overburning

 Fry till cashew turns light golden colour

Sift away salt.

 Cool at room temperature and store in jars.

Now, isn't this a healthier way to gobble those yummylicious nutritious packed cashews ?  :D

Weekend With Friends

Last Saturday we had a great gathering with Jaclyn and Collin over at our place. Collin is an old time friend of mine, known him more than 10 years and Jacss is a friend I got to know through blogging. KL is such a small city and one day Collin called me to support and vote for his friend's wife's bento contest and I thought that sounded familiar as I just read about javapot's bento contest from another blog.

Here is me, Jacss, Stephen - her hubs, Colin and his mom and sister and Amber.

Jacss and me !

I had a great time preparing dinner. It's been a while since we had a gathering at home anyway. Hubs was itching for roast pork (again !!! ) and I did just that. Not many dishes, just a few :

Home roasted pork. This time, i managed to get the skin crispy and crackling, much crunchier than before. I think it must be the quality of pork. I got the premium belly from TTDI wet market, Lee Wah Trading. A premium belly is perfect for roasting as the thickness of the rind and meat was just nice to yield a juicy and tender roast with crackling skin.

Hokkien mee, the traditional braised method. Everyone said it was good. *burps*

Pretty easy to cook, no need the big flame charcoal fire like those 'tai chows', I just braised them slowly and the secret ingredient I added was 'flounder fish broth'. To make a good hokkien mee, the base broth is very important. A tasty broth makes a tasty noodle.

Curry Chicken, nothing to shout about but an easy peasy dish that everyone likes

Lap mei fan - forgot to take photos ! I think not hubs favourite.. otherwise he would have snapped all the way.

And for desert, we had lemon cheesecake, fruits and Aunty Mary (Collin's mom)'s jelly mooncakes. Everyone was happy and so is the host. I likee when my guests enjoy their meals, including Amber, who loved the Hokkien mee .

 

I finally got to meet Stuart, Jacss bao bei. I've missed his full moon, his 100 day celebration and was so glad to meet him. Jacss bao bei is really one special kid. He was so obedient and didn't cry or make a fuss at all. All of us went ooohh - aaahh over this handsome little boy with pink complexion.

Us and our kids.

The highlight of the evening for Amber was Pamelia's presence. When she stepped in to our home, Amber asked her "Aunty Pam, can you paint my nails or not ?"

and she kept asking .. and asking .. and asking until Pam opened her treasured kit :

Pamelia is a music teacher and she has a talent of nail painting which she does as a hobby. And we are her lucky friends who got our nail painted, especially Amber, who kept close to Pam all night long.

Look at the detailed flower and design on Amber's little fingers. Very nice.

And this is so perfect. A small Barbie like imprint on her tiny little thumb

And I got my nails done too. I last did my nails during for my wedding and that was such a long time ago. I was all giddy and excited to get my nails done. I told Pam I wanted something that can withstand housework and washing and she came up with this :

Japanese inspired stamping on a clear glittery base. She chose a clear base for me and should the paint accidentally chip off, it won't be obvious or noticeable. All I had to do was apply top coat every couple of days. One week on and my nails are still good.

I sooo love Konad nail art and can't wait to get my startet kit from Pam. Amber too is excited and keep reminding me to apply 'top coat'.  'Top coat' is a new word she learnt and I keep hearing top coat every other day. That little busybody keeps reminding me to apply for her and myself !

All in all, it was a great night for all 3 families. Nothing's better than a good makan at home !

Bits and Pieces of A Football Night

Last Saturday evening, we invited our friends, Thomas, Joanne and Sharon over for dinner followed by Germany vs Argentina. Since RTM1 and Wah Lai Toi was playing the match, we need not park ourselves at Mamaks :D

Timing had to be good. 8.30pm dinner, 9.00pm desert, wash up and get all comfy and ready for the match.. and with beer in hands, of course.

Bits and pieces of the evening. Hubs took some nice pics w his DSLR.


Sharon had a bad cut on her knees, she went running with her daddy and fell on the tar road. She quickly told her parents 'princess' 'princess plaster'..

Those princess plasters do make kids feel less pain.


Amber also flashed out her set of Disney plasters. Kids are always eager to stick a cartoon plaster, don't they ?

Then I fried some chicken wings when my guests arrived. I have a pot of 'lap mei fan' - waxed meat rice ready. It's football night and I don't want to be wasting too much time in the kitchen, planning is important on such an exciting quarterfinal night.



My 'lap mei fan'. After few rounds, I think I've perfected it. The rice grains, some dark, some light, makes the dish very appealing.



Cucumber on the sides.. healthy vege and fiber option. No need to fry any vege. Recently, my veges are all steamed, boiled or raw. I hardly fry any vege now as I don't think there's much nutriotion left in fried veges but we Chinese are so accustomed to 'chau choy' with full 'wok hei'.

And the unhealthy but most yummylicious part of dinner :

Har Cheong Kai Yik - Fried Shrimp Paste Chicken Wings


And the best side dish for lap mei fan - Fried Salted Fish. I got these pre-cut salted fish from Tanjung Sepat. Very convenient and clean.


And.. no dinner is complete without desert. My very first cheesecake recipe, walnut cheesecake !

This is my second attempt, first attempt failed badly. I realise never to trust recipe books 100%, use instincts and common sense. I mean.. how different is baking for 30 mins and 60 mins ? You tell me la.. I won't name the cookbook but it's by a famous local baker who runs a famous cafe/deli in PJ. You guess la..

The walnut cheesecake tastes as good as it looks :


Firm and cheesy, just the way I like it. I don't fancy those cotton soft cheesecakes. I prefer real cheesecakes, just as I don't like sponge cakes, gimme a real buttercake anytime.



The cheesecake was perfect with blueberries that Joanne brought.

Good food, good friends but alas.. bad game.. Argentina lost to German 0-4. I mean it was a good game but I think it was humiliating for Argentina to lose in such manner, not a single goal against the Germans.

Luckily, we also had good food to remember the night by. :D

From The Backyard

I've got some lovely potted plants growing at my backyard.





The thick luscious very meaty aloe vera. Apparently,South American variety.. if I take care of these well, it can grow to very thick and >1kg in weight per stalk...
My ex-Cambo helper was helping herself to the aloe vera.. using it as a mask for her face, very oi-leng hor ? Since then, nobody paid much attention to it. I thought it'll be waste to let it wilt away.

And then I have these kaffir limes screaming out to me :

The kaffir lime trees, after my daily watering, constant fertilizing bore me a lot of fruits. Very obedient tree this one, unlike the lemon plant.. water and fertilize, not a single flower budding.

I have so many limes hanging from the tree, the thing with this lime is they don't turn yellow. I don't know if it's ripe or not but lately when I press or squeeze them, it's kinda 'soft' to the touch, unlike the rock hard kaffir limes sold at the market. I plucked a few giant ones.

And.. I thought of a combo of both.. aloe vera and kaffir lime.. Coffeesncookies homemade.. very original.. never heard of this desert before..

This is what I did:

Shred the rind of lime, and juice it.. so juicy, unbelievable !!! Usually, any cooking will require just the rind and discard the flesh but the limes were so juicy and I didn't want to waste it.

Boil a syrup thick syrup and add in rind and juice.

Peel the skin of aloe vera and cut to chunks. Put to boil for 1 minute and drain. Add ice cubes

Add kaffir lime syrup.

So yummy and refreshing.. our friends Thomas and Joanne was the willing guineas to try out my new concoction, they too, find the exotic desert very refreshing.

Now, we thought it'll taste even better with vodka..

hmm... vodka + shaved ice + kaffir lime syrup + aloe.

Kaffiraloe Magarita ??

I need to get a bottle of Vodka asap !!!

Assam Laksa Day

**another backdated post*
Assam laksa has been on my to-cook list for sometime. Hubs is not a fan and Amber obviously would not go near it.

3 weeks ago, I had some friends over for belated gong xi fa cai gathering, my friends from school and some friends from work.

I googled for assam laksa recipe and asked my good buddy EeLeen's mom, whose assam laksa we all crave for and can make a mad dash to her house for assam laksa lunch and back to office in an hour !! Well, she told me there's no exact recipe for assam laksa, just trial and error. Add blended chilli, onions, assam and boil. Taste and add ingredients accordingly. Sounds easy but aitelyu, the list of ingredients got my head cracking and had me running to Giant and back many times.

I used bunga kantan, daun kesum, serai, big onion, shallots, assam jawa, assam keping, fresh chilli, dried chilli, ikan bilis, kembung fish, pineapples, cucumber, mint leaves, prawn paste...

Whew, what a long list. I started cooking a day before and luckily I had a big Corningware pot to use. I remembered not to use stainless steel to boil assam laksa soup (the acidity will corrode the pot) and I thought of using my biggest non stick pot and then hubs said, non stick pots are also made of steel and so what was the difference ? I panicked with all the igredients staring at me and no pot to boil soup, DIE ! DIE ! DIE !

Luckily I thought of my Corningware. Never used it to cook before, I only use to contain my curries and fried rice. Well, my Corningware saved my assam laksa day.

Ok... I have 2 kg of fresh kembung fish, steamed and flaked. Messy job ! Took me some time to flake them clean and started attracting ants to the kitchen.. eeewww..

Then, making the stock.. it's almost all of the ingredients mentioned above and boiling for hours..
before straining the pulp away and adding more water (lack of space in one corningware pot) and boiling again with the deboned fish.

Here's my assam laksa brew :

Lai fun..


Garnishings.. all have to be sliced thin and kept fresh


Chopped bunga kantan


Cucumber

The pot of soup.. almost one whole day of preparation.


The result...



and my guests.. Assam laksa with beer.. how cool is that ???

So, anyone wants assam laksa ? Please bring along your flaked kembungs ok ??