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Enjoy your Christmas!

Dec 23rd, 2009
by Lilian.
1 comment

Unlike previous years, this year Christmas is on a very low key affair where foods are concerned. I had my lasik eye surgery today at Optimax Penang. I dare not plan anything as I wasn’t sure if I will be able to handle all the cooking and etc.

However, the intra-lasik I had was very quick and I am all ok now. No pain, normal eyesight and etc. Anyway, Christmas is just one day so whether I cook or not, there are plenty of foods to eat. Tomorrow night, we will go to a friend’s house for some barbeque. Since I am not supposed to be expose to smoke and dusty places, I get to sit far away and command people to bring me foods. Hahahaha.

snowmen cupcakes for christmas

These cupcakes are baked by my niece’s friend. She did it as a hobby. Really pretty and tasty carrot cupcakes there. They were given to me two weeks ago during my eldest son’s 1212 (12 Dec) barbeque.

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So, dear friends, relatives, readers of Malaysiabest, please enjoy your Christmas. Eat, drink and be merry! Blessed Christmas! I will probably find some excuses to get drunk on the bottles of wines and liquor stocked up at home minus the traditional roast turkey.

For me, I will reserve the merry making for New Year. My two older sisters are away this Christmas so I think I will roast a big fat turkey for New Year when they are back. I just have to roast a turkey or I feel something is missing. The challenge of making one stupid, tasteless big bird into a masterpiece with crispy skin and flavourful meat is the ultimate achievement for every Christmas, or New Year. Who knows, turkey price may drop after Christmas!

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Posted in: Christmas.

Whoops, is today (Dec 21st) Winter solstice or tang yuen festival

Dec 21st, 2009
by Lilian.
1 comment

rice balls/tang yuen

OK….It is December 22nd. That means, you have time to go roll some tang yuen tonight.

Am I right that today, December 21st is Winter solstice or the tang yuen festival? If it is, then, I am terribly bad for missing the date because we normally roll our rice balls the night before.

I thought it is December 22nd each year but apparently, the sun has shifted position and it is December 21st according to wikipedia.

tangyuan

I never failed to observe this festival so I must go get some glutinous rice and roll the balls. My boys loved doing it.

The above video is from 2008.

and the below is from 2007.

Since now I take better video, I must make one this year, huh?

Posted in: Christmas.

Recipe : Herbal, drunken prawns

Dec 19th, 2009
by Lilian.
3 comments

I like live tiger prawns prepared as drunken prawns but now, I feel like so cruel when they dunk the live prawns into the boiling wine. I can almost hear them screaming…’arrghhh…hot….die….’

So, to substitute the killing, I decided to cook my own drunken prawns using white, large prawns. The prawns are dead, so I didn’t commit any murder, eh?

herbal prawns

Recipe for herbal, drunken prawns

8 large, white prawns, remove sharp head and tails

3 pieces dried dong gwai

handful of dried kei chi or wolfberries

half cup shao xiang hua tiao chew (chinese rice wine)

half cup water

flavourings – few drops of fish sauce, soya sauce, pepper

3 cloves garlic, smashed

1 thumb size ginger, slice
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Heat water, add garlic, ginger, dong gwai, flavourings, kei chi and boil over low fire for several minutes until dong gwai imparts flavour. You can smell the fragrance.

Add the wine and prawns and simmer. Once prawns turned opaque, turn off fire and leave the prawns to continue cooking in the boiling wine soup.

Garnish with some sliced ginger and coriander.

teriyaki chicken

I also made a teriyaki chicken on the same day. I merely pan fry some chicken meant for barbeque till cooked. (this means the chicken had been seasoned well) I pour in some teriyaki sauce and honey plus some cornflour mixed with water. My little boy loves the teriyaki so much.

baked beans and eggs

And the rest of the meal was baked beans and eggs.

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The whole meal for dinner…

Posted in: Recipes.

Wedding dinner at KL Tower

Dec 15th, 2009
by Lilian.
No comments yet

Last month, my niece had her wedding banquet at KL Tower. The direction and signs to KL Tower sucks. My brother who lives in PJ also got lost. For a tourist spot like KL Tower, they sure are very foolish in the way they put up the signs. We could see the tower but just couldn’t reach the road leading to it.

kl tower

Anyway, my niece got me a reserved VIP parking so there was no hassle after we found the road to KL Tower. However, there were lots of tour buses and tourists, making the place really busy and chaotic. Certainly not a place you want to go for some romantic evening because there are loud, noisy tourists at every corner.

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Once we got up the tower to the wedding venue, it was all peaceful again. The view is fabulous and we were lucky to have a very clear night. However, I was there just to get tipsy so I didn’t bother to take any photos. All these photos were taken by my 13 yePars old son.

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The banquet hall has a lot of pillars so if you are not sitting at one of the more VIP aka relative tables, then, you need to watch on overhead projector what is going on at the stage.

drunken herbal prawns

I didn’t take photos of all the foods. On average, I would say they are not too bad and portion is rather big too.

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Dessert was interesting with mochi and the deep fried dumplings.

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Wedding favors were in the form of KL Tower shape water bottle with my niece’s wedding photo, heart shape chocolates and a heart-shape can of sweets. The price of per table is not too expensive but for Penang standard, it is very expensive. If I am not mistaken, it is about RM799 per table. The foods are halal.

As I always reminded my sons, next time, I am never ever going to sponsor their wedding, so they better think twice before they marry. Find a girl who doesn’t care about wedding banquets! Hahaha.

Posted in: Food & drinks.

Kebab it for convenience

Dec 14th, 2009
by Lilian.
No comments yet

My eldest son had a small barbeque for his friends. One of the items he prepared was the beef tenderloin made into kebabs. He bought a kilogramme of Australian tenderloin for RM55. In total, I think there are one and half kilogrammes of tenderloin.

beef kebab

He cubed the tenderloin into 1/2 inch cubes and season the meat with some fresh herbs like thyme, black pepper, dashes of Lea and Perrins sauce and salt & pepper. Normally beef are rather flavourful on its own so it is not necessary to give the meat too much flavour.

For the kebab, he added capsicum and onion with button mushroom.

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As there are other leftover vegetables like the asparagus, more capsicum and shitake mushrooms, he also turned that into skewers of vege. He did the same with the tandoori sausages as well.

I drizzled the vege with some olive oil and salt to give it a bit of flavour.

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All these skewers of meat and vege are easily barbequed over amber. Slather a bit of butter and honey and they are delicious.

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It is fun and convenient to prepare easy to cook foods like this. One just need a small pit of fire to do that. You can roast marshmallow, satay, sticks of prawns and squids this way.

Posted in: Kitchen experiment.

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