Home Cooked CNY Goodies

Happy Lunar New Year to all of you!!!

Have you had lots of fun eating and feasting and feasting and eating?

Lots of Home Made goodies I am sure.

My DM (Dearest Momsie, for those of you who did not know) cooked up a multi course imperial feast when we went over. It came out course by course, and so she was labouring away in the kitchen for a good part of the meal.

Of course, DM's famous dishes are a family secret.. the special steamed fish disappeared as soon as it arrived on the table, as did the super delicious salt and pepper butter XL sized prawns.

Her buddha jumps over the wall soup, was slurpilicious. It had all the traditional delicacies - fish maw, japanese mushroom, sea cucumber - and was cooked for a really long time over the stove. The ingredients had to be cooked separately too. Really a labour of love that would have induced anyone to jump over the wall.


Her braised abalone with sea cucumber and dried conpoy would have also enticed mr buddha to jump over the wall again.


Her soup was such a hot favourite , she did it again for ren ri (7th day of the lunar new year), which is also everyone's birthday according to the lunar calendar.


Yums max.



She also made yu sheng for us. It's a traditional chinese new year salad, which we toss for prosperity and good luck. I love this. really do. It has so many auspicious connotations, and it's healthy.



I think I ate it about 8 times over this CNY period, which is really quite tame. Some people even eat it twice a day.


MIL made curry chicken for our reunion dinner, held on the eve.

and tumeric prawns.


And i ordered a pen cai (a braised claypot of goodies). $288 from Man Fu Yuan. it's pretty good. we liked it so much we ordered it again. IMHO, better than Tung Lok's. But as we've eaten it thrice over the past 2 years, maybe we should consider another place. Shang palace maybe. The Sichuan Palace at Westin actually served rabbit meat in their pen cai. Eeeks.

Sydney Eats Part 2

So sorry, no time to blog these days, taking care of 2 kids alone.

And when I do have some free time, it's easier to just read other blogs instead of blogging. And since the internet connection here is erratic (cos we can't afford any better!) it's annoying to try and post up pics but only to have the connection die on you, so all the effort is wasted.

Anyway, not many outdoor eats... all indoor, home-cooked eats this time.

Home-cooked by DH: whole barramundi with rosemary and thyme, served with garlic, lemon and salad.



Home-cooked by Cutie: mushroom and ham pizza.


See! I trained my boys well, they are doing all the cooking! While the girls do the eating!

Here are some of the things that the girls' team served:



Fried Veg with taupok


grilled tumeric and lemongrass chicken


baked pasta

We almost always eat porridge for lunch. Different permutations of meat (fish or chicken or beef) with 2 kinds of veg (1 root veg like carrot, sweet potato or pumpkin and 1 green veg like bok choy, kailan etc).


Fish with pumpkin and veg I think


Chicken with scallop and mushroom I think

For a change I sometimes cook rice noodles instead of porridge (with the same main ingredients) but it's too messy feeding 2 kids noodles, so i think I will stick to porridge.

For dinner it is always 1 meat, 1 veg served with rice. So a few nights ago, we had:

Veg with mushroom and scallop

Baked fish two styles (one with rosemary and thyme and one with diced black olives)


We also always round off with fruit for dessert

White and yellow peaches (DH prefers the white ones!)



Berries (Straw and Blue)

Recent Eats

El Cerdo, 43 Changkat Bukit Bintang, KL




DH and I went to KL for a day trip to run some errands... and we had lunch at El Cerdo, recommended by my good friends (thanks YS and Ben!).

It is a spanish restaurant specialising in iberico jamon (ham of spanish black pig which is fed only acorns). So we went the whole hog, and had jamon, black pork ribs and black pork belly! DH is especially tickled that we went to a Muslim country and had a porky lunch.



Our delicious starter of iberico jamon and serrano jamon (black pig and white pig respectively). Both had a very chewy texture, quite salty but definitely tasty. It was a burst of flavour with every bite.


They recommended the black pork belly. It was of course delicious, but you know what, I liked the slices of chorizo sausages that it was served with even more!


The best ever pork ribs. They were meaty and tasty and tender.



We also had a glass of sangria each. Whee. It was very festive and fruity.

Dinner at Home

Por Por steamed some crabs for dinner that day, and they were delicious. Cutie had a fun time playing with the live crabs in the kitchen. He was quite sorry that we ate them.


Simply steamed, and eaten with a dip of vinegar and sliced ginger, these were amazing. They were meaty and full of orangey roe.


Beef stew. It was flavourful and fragrant.

Empress Jade, Jewel Box, Mount Faber

Farewell dinner for someone in the office. This was an excellent choice for lunch, and quite interesting since we took the cable car over.


starter of prawn cocktail. Interestingly paired with a sliced grape. Sweet and savoury.


Pork liver and egg white soup. Funny choice, since offal would not be something that many people would easily take. Quite a Chinese thing, maybe, as it is meant to be nourishing. I thought it smelt a little strong, since I dont often take pork nowadays. Still it was well done, since the liver was tender, and not overcooked, something which is easy to do for pork liver.


steamed whole pomfret, delicious and yummy. A crowd favourite.



Crispy duck. I think this was a nice dish, and not too common. The skin was crispy and light, and not oily.

There was a noodle dish that I forgot to take a photo of.


My almond cream desssert. I love almond cream, I think its nice and not too sweet and I also hear its good for the complexion. It's an acquired taste though, because i know it can smell unbearably like mothballs for some. I wonder how i learnt to take it, since my family doesnt really take it.

Xmas Party

A few of us girls decided to have a Christmas party for the kids, and well, although there were some moms who had to pull out in the end, we managed to have 4 families get together, and 4 kids to share in this party.


E brought this beautiful gingerbread house which was gorgeous! Tasted delicious too. Delicately spiced with cinnamon and ginger, it was fragrant and chewy.


A wonderful spread of goodies.


My contribution!

Beef and Beef

DH recently discovered this beef place which sells excellent grades of beef, so we have been eating lots of it..

He bought this sliced beef karubi for our hotplate dinner... it's called full blood blackmore wagyu beef. It supposed to be beef 100% Japanese black cows without any other breed introduced to its bloodlines (therefore full blood)with a marbling grade of 9+, the highest possible grade.



400 g of this beef cost DH $170. Just look at the beautiful marbling.




It smelt soooo good as it sizzled on the hotplate... You dont need to cook it for too long... and then it just melts in your mouth... ooh delicious.



Yums.

LUNCH AT HOME

DH also bought some USDA grain fed aged ribeye home... at about $40 for a slab of 200g, this was cheaper than the grade 9 wagyu.

It tasted very good, very beefy, if you get what I mean.


The guys at the shop can marinate and season the meat for you too. DH chose salt and pepper so that we could truly appreciate the natural taste of the beef. Eaten with a simple salad with balsamic vinaigrette dressing, it was a hearty and filling meal.



Thanks to my cute chef.


CUTIE

Time really flies, Cutie is now almost 3 (he turns 3 at the end of this month), so we have decided to send him to school...



Look at Cutie in his uniform!



He shows me the caterpillar he coloured at school... and it says I love mummy on the top right hand corner.


My little boy is growing up!

SWEETIE

Sweetie is also growing well. She is happy and cheerful... and we are really thankful for this new addition to our family.




Cutie loves his sister, and is always trying hug her, kiss her and/or make her laugh. Here they are together. My pride and joy.

Lunch at Culina, Dempsy and Dinner at Home

This weekend, we went to Dempsey Hill for lunch because we promised Cutie that we'd bring him to play balls at Go Go Bambini's (SGD6, unlimited play for kids aged under 2, SGD16, 2 hours for kids aged over 2). He had been looking forward to it all week. We went there just as they were closing up last week, and his disappointment was palpable!

Lunch at Culina Dempsey Hill

So we settled Cutie in the ballpark / playground and ended up at Culina, Grocers and Cafe which was just next door. They sell all sorts of very high-end stuff, which one doesn't normally get at Cold Storage of Jason's.

DH and I shared the antipasto platter (SGD15).

From left: marinated olives, sun-dried tomatoes, roasted artichokes and tomatoes, smoked eel.

In order of preference, go from right to left. I liked the smoked eel best. It had a nice smokey flavour and was not too salty. Very nice. It also had an interesting chewy, yet slightly yielding texture. The other appetisers were fine but not that interesting. The sun-dried tomatoes were sweet, while I was expecting sour / tart. The roasted artichokes and tomatoes were a good balance of mildly sour and sweet. The marinated olives were way too salty. We ordered a basket of ciabatta cos the olives was too salty to eat on its own.

DH ordered the grilled venison (SGD3o), a daily special. The daily specials are written an a blackboard next to the bar. It was quite substantial, but the venison tasted distinctly sour. Was it cos of the marinade or was it bad? We couldn't be sure if meat actually turned sour when it went bad so we didnt send it back. Anyway, by the time I tasted it and pronounced it sour, DH had only 2 slices left on the plate.

I ordered the duck confit (SGD24), on the usual menu. It was also a substantial portion. The meat was a tad salty, and could have been a little more moist. But the skin was very nice and crispy.

We then ordered a brownie to share (SGD12). Originally I didnt intend to put up a photo of it cos it turned out all blurry. I don't know why some of my photos turn out like that these days, with a swirly imprint. But, here it is anyway. Maybe some of you can tell me why this photo turned out like this.

DH ordered a decaf cappucinno (SGD7) that came with a cute little heart.

We had to wait quite a bit for our food to arrive, from starters to bread to mains and the coffee arrived at least 15 min after our dessert arrived (which DH doesn't like cos he enjoys his dessert with his coffee).

The fastest thing to arrive at our table that day was the bill (SGD121) -_-".

Cutie monkeying around at the ball park / playground. He is getting too adorable.

We did some shopping at Culina, it really did have lots of interesting things like foie gras, and parma ham and kobe beef (not wagyu mind you, marbling grade 8). Since they were all favourites of DH, we got some to cook for dinner that night.

Above, is the kobe beef (shrinkwrapped in portions of between 200 g to 300 g), at a whopping SGD230 per kg.

Dinner at Home

This was our dinner menu:

1. cold starter - parma ham with musk melon and wild arugula (rocket leaves)

2. warm starter - seared foie gras with caramelised apple

3. main - kobe ribeye, roasted baby potatoes, mesclun salad

4. no space for dessert - literally.

Preparations for Dinner

Foie Gras

I had to put flour on the foie gras so that it would fry better, and not disintegrate upon contact with the pan.

Kobe beef

This was the first time I was handling something so expensive, I was really worried. On this plate is SGD113. I marinated the beef in a red wine and garlic marinade. On hindsight, I should used salt and pepper so that we could taste the beefy flavour? Ribeye has a ball of fat in the centre. Making this kobe ribeye a double whammy in terms of being a contributing factor to coronary disease.

I scrubbed and boiled the baby potatoes, then seasoned with salt and pepper and put them in the oven to roast.

I sliced 1 green apple very thinly and added sugar and cooked over slow heat. I should have sliced them less thinly so that there was some bite. It was a little mushy.

The foie gras really oozes a lot of oil... just look at this!



I cooked the foie gras just before serving, so, DH who had just gobbled up his parma ham starter, had time to take this pic.
DINNER!


Cold Starter: Parma ham with musk melon and wild aragula

Really easy to assemble. I put this in the fridge to chill before dinner was served. The parma ham, shaved thinly, went really well with the musk melon which was very sweet. I am glad I decided to go for the expensive musk melon instead of rock melon or honeydew. It was well worth it because the sweetness of the melon complemented the parma ham perfectly. I tossed the aragula leaves in balsamic vinaigrette. Nice.

Cost: SGD14.50 for 2: parma ham - SGD8.50 (100 g), musk melon - SGD5.95 (1 fruit), aragula and vinaigrette (negligible).

Warm Starter - Seared Foie Gras with Caramelised Apple

I felt that there was no point in cooking the foie gras early and leaving it to cool, especially since it cooked very quickly so I only seared these just before serving. I did it in 3 batches.

I am glad I put flour on the foie gras, it made the foie gras crispy on the outside and oozingly melt in the mouth on the inside.

First batch was good, but not salty cos i forgot to sprinkle salt.

2nd batch was great, but could be a tad saltier.

Third batch - above - was fantastic. Just the right amount of salt, a crispy crust and a tender melting interior. Paired with sweet caramelised apple, this was fantastic!

Cost: SGD40.60 for 2: Foie Gras - SGD40 (actually, half a frozen goose liver, good for 8 servings), Green Apple - 60 cents.

Main - Kobe Ribeye with Roasted Baby Potatoes and Mesclun Salad

This is DH's ribeye - 260 g.

This is mine - a more manageable 221 g.

They were fantastic. Tender, melt in the mouth. Simply divine. The potatoes were crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, with just the right amount of salt and pepper.

Cost: SGD113 for 2 - Kobe Ribeye (SGD59 and SGD52), potatoes and mesclun negligible.

I am so proud of myself!

So there you are, above is the most expensive home-cooked meal I have ever had!