VALENTINE

What's better than making your own dessert to celebrate Valentine Day.  Sweet strawberry heart tart and jelly.

NEW YEAR GATHERING

It is time for Lunar New Year gathering again. It just seems that it happened not long ago. Time really passes fast.  For the convenience and save time we gathered at NUS Faculty Club for Chinese meal.  It was a disappointment.  Service was inefficient and the food is not up to standard.

We started off with an array of appetizer : potatoes in wasabi mustard sauce; fresh cucumber in chillie oil; cold chicken, jelly fish, fried fish etc

The raw fish salad was a winner

Crab soup watery and bland

Gigantic prawns with tough meat.  Appetizing to the eyes only

Soupy and bland poon choy

Stir fried venison

Bamboo shoots and spinach stew.  Too starchy

Steam cod fish

The yee fu mee was too soft

Cheese cake was creamy

Alveolar with osmanthus sweet soup

Fresh fruits to end the meal

SALAD & SEAFOOD

A big bowl of mussels bathed in white wine, butter and garlic?  No, not with butter but olive oil.   It's both easy and quick for festive season.  

The "beard" is the fibrous hairy thing hanging from one side of the tasty bivalve. Pull it off with a side-to-side motion. soak the mussels in cold water and change every 20 minutes till ready to cook. This lets the bivalves expel any grit.  Finally, scrub them under the tap.

Fry garlic and fresh red chillies in olive oil till fragrant.  Add in mussels and give a quick stir.  Pour in white wine and seasonings.  Cover cook for 5 mins over high heat.

This watermelon salad is cool and refreshing, combining fresh mint, pickled artichokes and crumbled feta cheese in lime juice.  This salad is light and sweet, with a perfect balance between fruit and vegetables.

LAKSA TAGLIATELLE

Making pasta is easier and quicker than you may think, and thus this was served as main dish to celebrate the eve of 2014.

For an Asian flavor the pasta was paired with laksa sauce, which cooked down to a more creamy and thicker version

Pan fried fresh prawns a good combination with the sauce

Extra dish to go with the dish - chicken pork balls in tomatoes sauce

A mixture of minced chicken and pork, together with herbs like parsley, mint and bay leaves to stew with tomatoes sauce

SMOKED SALMON BRUSCHETTA

For the Christmas eve dinner a light appetizer of smoked salmon and feta cheese with bruschetta was served.

Feta is a type of Greek cheese traditionally made from sheep's milk or a combination of sheep's and goats' milk.  The cheese is salty and tangy in flavor and a crumbly consistency.  It is best to use up fast when it is in a packed form as it will dry out fast.  Best buy it packed in water or oil.

The smoked salmon gives a deep red flavor

These smoked salmon bruschetta can be prepared hours well in advance and refrigerated. The smoked salmon gives out rich deep flavor, which the brie lightens up making it suitable for an appetizer.

2013 NEW YEAR EVE

Simple meal before countdown.

WISHING

A

WONDERFUL & PROSPEROUS

2 0 1 4

CHRISTMAS FOOD

Salad with feta cheese, green apples and tomatoes.  Just a dash of fruity vinegar is enough as the cheese is good at seasoning the greens

Cheese board - cumbebert cheese, truffle cheese and feta cheese to go with walnuts and dried mulberries

NASI ULAM

For Christmas Eve dinner, we decided to cook nasi ulum to go with the feast.  Much time is needed to prepare the ingredients as it involves the tedious task in cutting the herbs and shredding the fish.  As not all herbs can be obtained here we used the most common ones like lemon grass stalk, kaffir lime leaves, curry leaves, mint leaves and Thai basil leaves.  Kaffir lime leaves help to bring out the fragrance of the dish.

Ginger flower is one of the herbs used.  Coincidentally I found it in the wet market

Besides the herbal leaves, dried shrimps and belachan chilly are also one of the ingredients for the rice.  Soak shrimps, cut into small pieces and fry till crispy.  Cut all herbal leaves and fresh ginger thinly

Fry ikan kunning till crispy and shred the flesh from the bones.  Make sure the fish is devoid of bones before mixing to the rice

Cook jasmin or basmatic rice.  While still hot mix in the herbs, fried shrimps, fish and herbs.  Mix in the chilly paste.  Squeeze juices from 2 limes to the rice.  Mix all together and season with a dash of pepper

2013 X'MAS FEAST

Life has been busy. Just came back from Hong Kong to be followed by X'mas.  The Hong Kong weather is extremely cold & wet this year and has been raining everyday non-stop.  It was a hassle and no fun running in the rain.

Quite a feast for Christmas dinner, too many dishes on the table and has left out the salad, turnip soup and smoked salmon.

AIYU

Aiyu Jelly or simply 愛玉, known as ice jelly in Singapore.  It is a jelly made from the seeds of the figs found in Taiwan and East Asian countries.  We were told from young that the jelly is made from banana but found out was not true.

Fruits of the plant resemble large fig fruits the size of small mangoes and are harvested from September through January just before the fruit ripens to a dark purple.  The fruits are then halved and turned inside out to dry over the course of several days.  The dry fruits can be sold as is, or as dried aiyu seeds (愛玉子, pinyin: aiyu zi) which are then be pulled off the skin and sold separately.

We bought many packets from Taiwan in the form of dried seeds.  1 bag can make numerous bowls of aiyu jelly.  Some places sold aiyu seeds sticked to the fruit skin.

The aiyu seeds are placed in a cheese cloth

The bag and its contents are submerged in cold water and rubbed.  A slimy gel will be extracted from the bag of aiyu seeds as it is squeezed and massaged.  This is known as "washing aiyu" (洗愛玉).  After several minutes of massaging and washing, no more of the yellowish tea-coloured gel will be extracted, and the contents of the bag are discarded.

The washed gel is then allowed to set into a jelly either in a cool location or in the refrigerator.