Christmas Dinner 2008

Time flies.

Cliche as it sounds, I find it so true. This is especially the case for the year 2008. Many things that happened a year ago seemed like it only happened a few weeks or just a month or two ago.

It's the Christmas Eve gathering again...

There was a label to all the sauces when we took it home. Hub poured it into bowls and confidently said that he will remember, when I ask him to paste the labels on the bowl.

As I have guessed, hub couldn't recall two of the sauces later. When his friends asked, he said, 'Just dip'... what a host. >_<"

Sauces (clockwise): Unknown, Cranbarry, Unknown, Black Pepper.



Turkey Breast Meat



Assorted Sausages

Turkey meat with chestnut stuffings

Cheesy sausages (my favourite!)

Honey baked ham

My Agar agar dessert

I did not serve it to the guests as I made a mistake while cooking it. :P Some parts of it are still quite nice, but I really do not want to leave a bad impression... next round perhaps! ;p

It was such a chore cutting the meat into slices and trying to maintain a consistent thickness.

I took a good 0.5 hours to cut the meat and another 1.5 hours to grill and reheat it in batches. By the time everybody was ready for dinner, all the meat reheated earlier on turned cold and it seemed like what I have done earlier has come to naught. :(

Time and effort is one issue, but I feel so bad serving our friends with a cold and 'carnivorous' meal. I seriously think they deserve something better on a Christmas Eve. :P

I ain't sure if I fancy the idea of doing this again next year. A no-frills, all-pizza meal next year, perhaps? >_<"

French Beans with mock meat

Beancurd stuffings

Watercress Soup

A Hawker told my mom that watercress with round leaves are for soup whereas watercress with sharper leaves are for stir-frying. Wow... This is something new to me!

Ingredients

• Watercress (round shaped leaves)
• Carrots
• Lean meat
• Woh Hup Scallop concentrates
• Salt

Method

1) Blend lean meat in blender

2) Marinade mashed lean meat with light soy sauce, pepper and flour

3) Mold into meat balls

4) Add concentrates to pot of water (see bottle for proportions)

5) Add carrots and meat balls

6) Salt to taste.

Long Beans with minced meat

Broccoli with carrots

Should have taken down the recipe right after cooking it. My bad. These are the ingredients I vaguely remember. :P

Ingredients

• Broccoli
• Carrots
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1/4 cup of water
• 1/2 tsp sugar

Method

Blanch the broccoli with water (and salt) before stir-frying and simmering with other ingredients.

Roast Chicken

I imagined that the end product will look like those Roast Chicken in Chicken Rice stalls.

I had this instead.



Surprisingly, this so-so looking duo tasted fabulous! Chicken meat was tender, juicy and succulent! Best of all, it's easy to prepare!

Ingredients

• 2 chicken drumsticks

Marinades

• Chopped garlic (I used a lot because hub likes the taste)
• 1 tbsp cooking wine
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce

Method

1) Marinade chicken drumsticks and leave in fridge for at least half an hour
2) Remove chopped garlic (optional)
3) Rub salt over the chicken
4) Place in Healsio and roast for 20 minutes (180 degrees) or until it turns brown.

Chye Sim Soup

Peanut Soup

Crispy Hotdog and Meatballs

I didn't have the chance to buy meat over the weekend and I knew my hubby would not be satisfied (in terms of volume and variety), if I were to serve fried rice and soup only.

So I 'ransacked' my fridge and found some meatballs and hotdogs. *eyes lit up*



Ingredients

• 1 strip of hotdog cut into bite-sized portions
• 6 meatballs
• Flour
• Egg (beaten)
• Cream crackers (crushed)

Method

1) Coat the hotdog and meatballs with flour
2) Dip into egg mixture
3) Roll in crushed cream crackers
4) Grill in Healsio for 15 minutes or until it browns.

I was so glad that I tried this because the taste of the hotdog resembled the hotdog fritters I had back in my Primary School days. I have been searching for this food item ever since I left Primary school, but no one cook hotdog the way the stall vendor did. I really didn't expect that I will be able to taste something similar from my own cooking.

I am pretty sure that I am going to try this again soon. :)

Fried Rice with beansprouts

I have been cooking fried rice far too often because my hub kept asking for it. :P For some variation, I added beansprouts to the recipe and it tastes even better with the 'crunch' from the beansprouts. :)



The combi

Cabbage Soup

As a working wife, I can only find time to cook on a day or two of the week. Thus, it is vital that I use up all the ingredients for that week, to avoid wastage. It's fun to know that I am not alone.

I also find it extremely satisfying when the dish that I cooked with the 'remains' turned out to be good. :)

Ingredients

• Cabbage (remains)
• A few slices of tomato (remains)
• 3 pieces of mock meat
• 2 tbsp Woh Hup scallop concentrates (highly recommended as it does not contain MSG!)
• 6 cups of water

Method (too simple to be true)

1) Boil water with concentrates

2) Add cabbage and mock meat

3) Add tomato just before serving

I wanted to add sugar and salt to make it more flavourful, but I find it absolutely unnecessary after trying a spoonful! The soup itself was already very sweet. Yums...

On a side note, I realised that soup made from scallop concentrates taste so much better than from chicken concentrates. And a bottle of scallop concentrates costs only like thirty cents more? :)

Chicken Rice

Cooking chicken rice is definitely tougher than me thinks. The most difficult part is separating the chicken meat from the bone. I am really bad at that. :P

Cabbage

My hub wants me to remember how I cooked this because this is the way he wanted cabbage to be cooked from now on.

The truth is, I didn't follow any receipe so it was plain luck that I whipped out something that catered to his taste buds! >_<"

Ingredients

• Cabbage
• Fried vegetarian fritters? (Sorry, Not too sure how to call that)
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 3/4 cup of water
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• Sprinkles of sesame oil

Method

1) Stir fry some ginger in heated oil
2) Add cabbage and oyster sauce
3) Pour the water in and simmer until the vegetables are moderately soft.
4) Add sugar and sesame oil before switching off the fire
5) Mix the fritters with the cabbage just before serving

Voila! Simple and yet tasty. :)

Sweet Sauce Tofu

I was in one of those 'chin-chye' mood and decided to whip up a meal totally based on my guts feeling.

Surprise, surprise. It was yummy!

Sweet Sauce Tofu



Ingredients

• 1 piece of tofu
• Sprinkles of salt

Seasonings

• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1/2 tbsp sweet sauce
• 1/2 tbsp tomato sauce

Method

1) Fry the tofu until slightly browned
2) Sprinkle some salt
3) Add seasonings

Voila! A simple and tasty dish is done. Very ideal for lazy people like me. :P

Water Chestnut Drink

It was a refreshing drink! Really felt a sense of fulfilment when my hubby said he likes it! Aww... if only I am a full time housewife. :P

Ingredients

• 5 chestnuts (minced)
• 6 cups of water
• 3 tbsp sugar

Method

1) Boil minced chestnut in water

2) Add sugar and serve after it has fully dissolved

Chicken Claypot Rice

I decided to follow (with some slight variations), the recipe on the package of the chinese sausage I bought and the end product turned out quite tasty! :) As a bonus, it's even easier to prepare than the chicken flavoured rice.



Ingredients

• 2 chicken thighs
• 1 chinese sausage
• 1 cup of rice

Seasonings (A)

• 1 tbsp oyster sauce
• 1/2 tbsp sweet sauce
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp rice wine
• Sesame oil
• Pepper

Method

1) Marinade the chicken thighs with Seasonings (A) and leave for an hour.
2) When the rice is half-cooked, add the chinese sausage and chicken thighs
3) Add some sesame oil and 1 tbsp dark soy sauce and mix well before serving.

Salted Vegetables Soup

I am not a big fan of salted vegetables, but my hubby is. As much as I would like to cook Caixin soup, I knew I had to cook the following instead. :P

It turned out that my hub kinda like it. :)

Ingredients

- 1 packet Salted Vegetables
- 1/2 tofu (cut into cubes)
- 1/2 carrot (cut into pieces)
- 100g pork (minced)
- 3 chestnuts (minced)

Seasonings

- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tbsp potato starch

Method

1) Boil 6 cups of water in a pot
2) Add chicken bone (left over from the other dish) and carrot
3) Remove chicken bone
4) Mix pork, chestnut and potato starch
5) Mold into balls and add to the soup mixture
6) Add salt to taste

Stir-Fry Beansprouts

Ingredients

• 1 handful Bean Sprouts
• 1/2 carrot - cut into strips
• 1-2 Mushroom - cut into strips
  
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp soya bean sauce (modified version - instead of using light soy sauce)
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp oyster sauce
• 1/2 cup of water (soaked from mushroom)
• Few drops of Sesame oil
• Dash of Pepper

Method
1) Stir fry ginger
2) Add carrot, followed by mushroom
3) Add oyster sauce and 2 tbsp water and simmer for a while
4) Add beans sprouts and soya bean sauce
5) After stir-frying for a while, add remaining water
6) Just before switching off the fire, add sesame oil and pepper

Yums! Cheap and good. :)

Deep Fried Beancurd

Soup

I really do not know what to call this soup. I merely 'dump' whatever excess ingredients I have to make this. :P Surprisingly, it turned out quite good. ;)



Ingredients

• Bones (from pork chop)
• 3/4 cup Beansprouts
• 1/2 carrot (sliced)
• 3 button mushrooms (sliced)
  
• 6 cups of water
• 3 tsp scallop concentrates (new product from woh hup!)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp light soya sauce
• 1 tsp sugar

Method

1) Bring water to boil
2) Add scallop concentrates
3) Add carrots, buttom mushrooms and bones
4) Switch off fire after a while and let it simmer - my purpose is to soften the carrot without using too much gas
5) When read to serve, turn on the fire again and add beansprouts
6) Add sugar, salt and light soya sauce

The other dishes cooked on the same day are attached for my records. Yeah, you have seen the following recipes too many times in this blog. It's revision period, remember? ^.^

Pork Cutlet



Fried Rice



I passed the revision test. :D

Braised Pork with Mushrooms

Another dish we had today for dinner. :)

Fried Egg with Vegetarian Ham

I must be too hungry/weak.

I actually dropped the bowl containing bulk of the fried egg. :( What a mess I have created. Pieces of the bowl scattered over the floor and the grease from the fried egg...

These are the survivors. :P



They are actually not bad! Goes very well with the congee we had. :)

Smiley Potatos

Back-dated blogs

Hey everyone!

Yes, it has been a while. I haven't been cooking for the past few months as I have been kept busy. I am still very much very associated with food, though. Please see the other blog of mine. :)

I have back-dated a few of my posts in this blog. Feel free to browse. ;)

Cheers
FoodLover

Perfect Fairy Cakes

Baking cakes is by no means an easy task for me. I tried baking a cake for my hub two years back. It wasn't that bad but it definitely needs improvement.

So I decided to sign up the course organised by Perfect Fairy Cakes to at least understand where went wrong :P

As much as I would like to, I will not be posting the recipes online. I gotta be fair to the instructor for this course, ya? :) I will also not be giving my comments on whether this class is worth attending. It's kinda subjective, I feel.

These are some of the photos taken during a cupcake lesson at Perfect Fairy Cakes.

Cappuccino Cupcakes (Cheesecake Topping) - 7/10



Cappuccino Cupcakes (Cream cheese topping) - 8/10



I am pretty happy with the swirl I did. :)

Mexican Wedding Cookie - 7/10



Apple Crumble (9/10)

I did not have the chance to take a picture of the apple crumble because everybody was busy eating this dessert immediately after it was out from the oven. It was reeaaally good!

After this lesson, I can further confirm that I am just not cut out for baking cakes. I am glad that my hub and I are not really avid cakes fans. :P

Meanwhile, the apple crumble will be my first 'project'. That is, if I can find the time... Till then! :)

CNY Steamboat

Just some pictures on CNY steamboat to share.

uh-oh! I forgot to take photos of the lettuces. Guess I was too occupied back then. :P

I had the above for 3 times throughout the long weekend! It will be quite a while before I have steamboat again. >_<"

Fried Mushroom

"You must have vegetarian food for breakfast on the first day of Chinese New Year. It's a tradition.", my mother instructed.

I had mee sua soup with mushrooms last year. So for variety's sake, I decided to fry the mushroom this time round. It turned out great! The best thing is, it's so easy to prepare and cook!



Ingredients

• Mushrooms
• Flour
• Salt

Method

1) Soften the dried mushroom by soaking them in the water
2) Cut into strips
3) Squeeze the mushroom dry
4) Coat the mushroom with flour
5) Deep fry
6) Drain and sprinkle with salt while the mushrooms are still hot

I couldn't help popping the fried mushrooms into my mouth and only stopped when I realised that it will not be enough for the breakfast the next day. Opps! :P