Those Skin :D

Last Saturday, hubby cooked. Hubby always have surprises under his sleeves. That's pork with some delicious gravy. Don't know what was it though. Hungry people will not ask too much. But that's not the highlight of the day.

I love that chicken~!!! The skin looked like those of KFC's hot and spicy chicken. Mayonnaise made everything delicious. How could anyone not like them :D I wish hubby could remember how to make this. He doesn't seem to remember.... not like I could remember my own concoction :D We never want to write down anything because anything written down would go missing, no matter how big the piece of paper is. Even writing in books, the books would go missing. Then, I would turn the whole house upside down just looking for the missing book which I would not even remember how does the cover look like. Then, when I found the missing book, it was actually in another book. So, don't bother :D

This was even better. It's cheesy pork~! It's so good I could finish the whole wok-ful. Heheee..... I love it when hubby cooks but hubby always take long hours to get things done.... Then, I would be so hungry. The lunch time would turn into dinner time. I always wonder what took him so long. I could come out with a banquet with the time he spent on a few dishes. But all is good... I feel pampered and much loved~! That matters most~!

On Mama's Birthday...

Mama's birthday falls on the 28th of December, one day after my sis' birthday. If my sis is around I would party two days straight, seafood party. We found the oyster supplier. The oysters are flown in from I don't remember which country. Well, if you want to look at it that we're rich enough to splurge on food, we're not. The price of one oyster is cheaper than a small packet of nasi lemak. So, it's not costing us a bomb, unless we're getting a box of them. Even 10 pieces of oysters would cost less than a plate of chicken chop.

We tried three different flavours of steamed oysters. I would not want to eat raw oysters as the oysters flew in in a comatose frozen state. The hygiene might have been compromised. So, I did some Chinese style steamed oysters, more like my own concoction. One was with garlic and Taiwan's fermented black beans. Another would be sliced Bentong ginger with some chillies and sesame oil. I took the one with the sweet beans with garlic and some brewed soy sauce. I have no liking for sesame oil. I think I set the timer too long. Would try it again and lessen the time by a few more minutes.

We bought the frozen lobsters. I asked hubby to order one but actually hubby said I asked him to order two. In the end we ordered three. I would like to have slipper lobsters as well but either we forget to place the order or the supplier didn't hear us loud and clear. Never mind, that cold storage bunk would be my new marketplace. I didn't know how to handle the freezing cold lobsters so I spent some time Googling about the best ways to prepare those lobsters. I have never even prepare a crab dish. Only hubby knows how to handle those crawling crabs. 

We did a photography session with the lobsters. We only go to Victoria Station for live lobsters and we felt that we were taking too long to had selfies with the lobster who would have to die for our appetite. Then, we felt sorry for the live crabs. Next time round, we would try having live Boston lobsters and experiment with cooking it. The lobsters are really beautiful and it's just like an overgrown mantis prawn. 

The one on the left was grilled. I have seen how Kampachi at Equatorial Hotel grilled the slipper lobster so I did the same style. I placed that second best only. Hubby would prefer his lobster to be baked in cheese but I dare not try doing that yet. Next time round I would try that.

The one in the middle was for mama. It was boiled in prepared stock. This wasn't really great because the sweetness of the lobster went into the soup. The flesh was a little bit on the hard side.

The best would be steamed. So, next time I'm just going to steam those lobsters. The taste was perfect. You'll need to set the timer for steaming seafood. You don't want it to be overcooked. All in all, having a lobster on the dining table is not something to shout about. It's expensive because it's flown in so you have to pay for the transportation and the boarding. Lobster meat is totally different from the mud crab meat but slipper lobster would taste better compared to lobster meat.

While having a selfie with my steamed lobster, I realized that the claws were missing. Where are the claws? I need those claws~! Those claws have lots of meat~!!! Will ask the supplier when he calls tomorrow... *sigh*

Grilled lobster meat with hubby's delicious fried rice was terrific~!! That would be lobster fried rice... I wonder how much would it cost to have that in a restaurant?

Homemade Fish Balls...

On Boxing Day, hubby decide to use the Christmas gift he gave me. I gave it back to him because I knew he wanted that new toy more than I needed it. It was a meat mincer that he wanted so much from the market. It's very dangerous to let hubby wander around the market on his own. He could spend more than a shopaholic. Thus, on Boxing Day, hubby filleted a fish or two. I don't know what he did actually. I was busy stuck on my computer and I saw a few photos from his Facebook that he posted up. Terrible wife? Nah... If I'm in the kitchen together with him, he wouldn't get to play with his new toy and we would be quarreling over some petty issue like don't pile those plates up high in the sink. I always wash every plate after I used them so by the time I'm done cooking, I'm done washing as well. Hubby is my total opposite. After he cooks, it looks like a hurricane has tore through the kitchen. So, I always wait until he's ready to serve me then only I go to the kitchen.

I had meatballs too for dinner. Hubby didn't cook rice~! He expected me to eat those fish balls and meat balls and be filled to the brim. He made me a nice bowl of Mi Sedap. He's a first timer in making those two different kind of balls so he needs to improve much. It's not as bouncy as the ones selling in the market. I wonder whether they add any chemical to make those fish balls really bouncy. 

So, that's what I had for dinner on Boxing Day. Did you notice my Doraemon bowls? I bought 3 sets of Doraemon bowls which come in three different sizer per box. That's the small and the medium ones. The biggest ones I have yet to use it. I'm actually showing off my Doraemon bowls...

Know Thy Quiche~!

Garlic quiche...

Are you a fan of quiche? I know I am the first time I did it. I've yet to taste outside quiche. Seen before but not satisfied with the pricing and the amount of ingredients inside the quiche. It's not easy to make a quiche yet it's not difficult. That's the irony of cooking or baking. You need to make the shortcrust pastry then bake the pastry empty. It's really tedious and if you want to have different ingredients, you need to know what kinda of cheese to go along with what you want for your quiche. Every single quiche is different. You don't make the custard by just using fresh milk and eggs and add more eggs if the texture refused to become custard-like. That's an empty quiche with only garlic and spring onion. One of my kitchen crew wanted it with lots and lots of garlic. Crazy....

Smoked scallop quiche...

I added the smoked scallops into the quiche. You know what, you can use less of Cheddar and experiment on the types of cheese that would really go well with your food. Don't say I didn't share a little bit of knowledge that I have. Smoked scallop quiche goes perfectly well with Camembert and Gouda. In comparison, I prefer Camembert for its rich aroma and taste. Gouda was just trailing from behind. Cheddar ran away crying because it has been kicked out of the cheese league.

I have no clear pic of this. The hands were shaking because everyone was hurrying me to stop taking photos. They had been waiting patiently for the oven to 'ting' off. Finally when it 'ting' off, the waited like vultures circling around the dining table. By the way, that's the correct texture of a perfect quiche. It shouldn't be runny. When you buy your quiche from outside, due to cost saving, there might not be a single bit of shredded cheese at all. They just need to use milk and eggs and mostly eggs to trick you into believing it's a perfect quiche. I trained the teenagers in my house to recognize good food. Don't bother trying to trick them into believing what's good and what's not. 

Shrimp quiche...

That's another of our favourite quiche... the shrimp quiche~! You will need to bake this a little longer because the shrimps will release liquid from its body. This goes really well with Pepper Jack. The original Monterey Jack would be great but it's not that easy to purchase cheese from this side of the island. I refused to drive half an island just to get various type of cheese from the overpriced Sam's Groceria at Straits Quay.

Salmon quiche...

Then, we had salmon quiche. I didn't eat this as I kept them for my kitchen crew. We've had mixed seafood quiche before so salmon quiche is something what I craved for. I was really happy with my smoked scallop quiche and shrimp quiche. Havarti cheese would be a great mix and remember to add some dill to cover the fishy smell. I don't smell or taste any fishy smell but some people might have sensitive sense of smell and taste.

Thai curry chicken quiche...

Something totally different. Quiche is a type of French food but since I'm not a Frenchwoman, I localized my quiche and turned it into Thai curry chicken quiche. This time round you have to coaxed that ran away Cheddar to come back. Shred a little Cheddar, you don't want an overpowering cheese taste that covers the aroma from the curry spices and curry leaves. I asked mi mama to go get the curry leaves from our garden at the last minute. I almost forgot about it completely. We love this as much as we love the seafood quiche. At this point of time, we kissed the bacon and spinach quiche goodbye. We loved that quiche last year but we have moved forward and upgraded the quiche by a notch higher.

Leek quiche...

Then, I tried some weird concoction but it's not to any of our liking. We're meat eaters so this leek quiche we found it hard to swallow.

Chicken ham quiche...

The chicken ham quiche became too common. This we don't like as well. Okay, congratulations to me for raising up picky teenagers. 

Chocolate ganache quiche...

Nobody got to taste this simple quiche with chocolate ganache. My precious made this and I ate it all. Good things cannot be kept so I ate on their behalf. Goodbye quiche in the mean time. I need the kick to do it. These few days that it has been raining. I humbly let the hubby run the kitchen while I sat in front of the computer and wait to be served.

4th Long Table Dinner...

Cheesy prawns, swimming in Cheddar and Pepper Jack...

On the 20th of Decemeber, hubby's friend suggested for a reunion dinner at our place, with hubby cooking the scrumptious food. Me, the wife, started preparing and marinating all the meat at 1p.m. So, I started standing at the kitchen from then until 6:30p.m. Dinner starts at 6:30p.m. Usually we were very punctual because by 6:30p.m. I would be very hungry. But then, due to some unforeseen circumstances, our dinner only started at 8p.m. as the rest of them arrived at that time. Only two people were punctual. 

The two Yang Berhormat....

Those two are Yang Berhormat from Barisan Nasional. But because they are in the house not because they are some politicians, there's no first class treatment. They had to wait for more than an hour for the rest of their old friends to arrive. If I were to serve them first, it wouldn't look nice anymore. These two were hubby's ex-classmates since 7 years old. They have been friends for more than 40 years. So, that's it la. Nothing to shout about unless it's the Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng in my house for dinner then I think there will be a stampede in my house. While waiting for the rest to arrive, we couldn't do anything except to stare at the food.

Jackfruit salad with coral....

Mi mama made this jackfruit salad with dunno what corals. The corals were tasteless. The taste depended on the sweetness of the jackfruit shreds. I ate the jackfruit only. So, for this time round, hubby cooked everything. It's like in the television show where the chef has a helper who passed the bowl and the chef only dumped the content of the bowl into the wok and started frying. That's what I did then. I passed and barked a whole lot of instructions and hubby only started cooking at 4:30p.m. while I have been in the kitchen for many hours. 

Curry meat...

Pork with lotus seeds and lotus roots...

Mixed vege with pickled lettuce...

Kimchi lala....

Empress tofu with my favourite abalone slices...

Thai style chicken with lemongrass...

Steamed stuffed cucumber....

I'm getting really tired to type each photo with paragraphs of information. Nothing much to talk about except that those were really delicious food with localized taste. They are authentic Chinese dishes which we enhanced the flavours with various type of seasoning. Finally, we gobbled down the food when all of them have arrived. People seem to get really lost coming to our place. Is it that difficult to look for our place? 

You know how we serve people usually? It's four to a table. So there were only three of us right at the far end. My precious wanted us to sit three person together so we could have more food. In the end, the three of us ate more than the rest of any of them. This only proves that we're really big eaters. Oh, the rest of the extra food, my neighbours had them for another week. At least she didn't need to cook after a long day at work.

Thank you all for coming. My hubby is very happy to serve all of you.

Yen's Idea of Pizzas....

It was the next day, Friday. I slept on Friday morning so I should say that it was in the afternoon that I finally woke up. I was awake earlier but I lazed on the bed until it was 2p.m. Hubby was lazing with me. Then, we got up and got ready to go for a date. It was an impromptu move to go have something to eat because we didn't know what to do for a date out. Such boring couple we are. We were heading towards Tesco so we landed at e-Gates and started walking from one restaurant to another. After flipping through the menus of various cuisines, we realized that we couldn't afford to dine in there. It's just not so worth the money. I know... I know.... you're paying for the services of being served but... but.... *sigh* We bought ourselves two ice-cream cones from 7-11 and we licked the ice-cream outside 7-11, standing there and just licking our ice-creams. Romantic, right....???? No?????

We went dating in Tesco, taking a slow walk.... yeah, so slow that usually I only need less than an hour to get my one week's supply but since it's a date with the hubby, we used three long hours to get two days' food supply, not to mention that hubby's watch stalled at 4:40p.m. It was already 6:30p.m. when we thought it was still 4:40p.m. We bought the stuff that we wanted on our pizzas. Our pizzas are really costly compared to having a meal at one of the restaurants at e-Gate. But we really enjoyed ourselves making those pizzas. Again, I didn't make them. I prepared the base and the rest was done by the hubby. So, I didn't do anything for the whole of Friday but just lazing around, stir-fry some onions, eat and then sleep.

Our pizzas...

I couldn't imagine how small those pizza bases were. I was thinking how big they would be until I see them clearly being thawed on the oven trays. So, the three of us were going to eat up four pizzas. I stir-fried the yellow onions and mixed them with ketchup and lots more of seasoning. You don't just simply apply tomato paste and tomato puree on the pizza base like you're dabbing make-up on your face. You have to get the taste right from the bottom up~!

Yen's Thai curry chicken pizza....

I don't mind sharing what kinda ingredients we lavished on our pizzas. I like chicken pizza, have always wanted them. We quickly marinade the chicken pieces and sat at the kitchen waiting for an hour for the chicken pieces to take in the marinades. It's chicken curry pizza with seafood tofu. Why that weird combination? It's not weird... I just like my pizza with food stuff that I love. Those kariveppilai leaves were plucked fresh from the garden to enhance the taste.

Hubby's Danish salami pizza...

Next, this is something which hubby wanted. It's Danish salami with English roast ham. The surface area of the pizza base was seriously too small to creatively decorate the pizza. Oh, by the way we didn't have mozzarella in the house. We used Havarti cheese and of course, the cheese slices came into rescue. Pepper Jack cheese was one really tasty cheese to have on the pizza.

Yen's seafood pizza.... 

Since we can't have lobster meat, we had my favourite seafood pizza. Prawns and more prawns with salmon pieces. Of course you can't buy those salmon pieces. Get the big piece and then pan-fry the salmon then remove the bones using your fingers. You don't want to choke on fish bones while enjoying your slice of pizza. The squid rings are to die for. I just love seafood. Oh, we saw something in the freezer of Tesco which we seldom see.

Yen's Hotate Pizza....

Smoked hotate scallops~!!!!! Oooooooo..... OoooOOoOOoooOoOoo..... There's enough squid rings to decorate on the pizza as well. That fake crab claws were so fake that I wanted to cry but we pan-fry those crab claws first so that it would be more tasty. And why the egg in the middle? Because we can put anything we want on our own pizzas. Fancy calling Pizza Hut or Dominos and asking them to add an egg to your pizza. The operator taking your call might think you're crazy or you can't read the menu they have.

I know some people find this oozing half-done egg disgusting but it's just too good for me. I love soft-boiled eggs. Can slurp on those eggs anytime of the day. I'm hungry looking at those. I need food... need food. Oh, we just cut each pizza into four sections. I finished all my four pieces... hehehhe.... each piece was kept for my precious.

No matter how full my tummy is, I can make room for jellies. That's mi mama's Pooh head jellies with... with.... assam boey.... can't find the word in English for the time being... Time to sleep. One more day of work and then four more days of rest. Yippee~!! 

The Ultimate Bake Off...

Proud to present my cookie jars~!

It was on a Thursday evening that the idea of baking cookies for Christmas came about. It was almost the first time after so many years that I had my cookie jars filled up with delicious cookies. It was just two days before Christmas now that my dream to have filled up cookie jars almost came true, but now there are left with only a few pieces of cookies only. I think I have to know that food don't stay long in the house let alone be locked up in jars. But for a split second, just to snap a photo of those jars made me very happy. 

It was not an idea to bake for Christmas. And I do not enjoy making cookies. It was tedious and messy. I do not like to have my hands oily with butter, don't like the mess of having flour sifted out of the mixing bowl and I will feel demoralized if the cookies fail to turn out perfect. Let's blame the Internet connection. It was so bad that it even refused to load up. The baby dinosaur on the computer screen didn't appear but a sad face like that logo of RHB bank appeared instead. It's my off day and I just sat there, not knowing what to do. I just planned to do up my blog posts and post up my photos as I need to delete them off from my hard drive. I switched on the paid channels of Astro and not one programme caught my attention. I wanted to stitch but due to old age, my back aches when I sit stitching too long. So, I flipped through the recipe books and started jotting down what to do. I have a whole long list of things that I want to bake.

That failed apricot steamed cakes....

We went to buy cute little cardboard cups for the steam cake. Mi mama is a pro in making steam cakes. The only time I steamed a cake was that perfect pumpkin cake. This apricot cake mixed with soda refused to even rise. So, let's take this as I have failed project #1. Let's move on to the next one. The apricot cake tasted really good but it just didn't rise. That's one heavy and lazy apricot steam cake.

That delicious almond teddy with Gouda....

Next, I have different kinds of cheese which I need to use up before they end up in the rubbish bin from becoming mouldy. We bought that bear cookie cutter. I have always love bears. That's the best almond and cheddar Gouda cheese cookie~! Fancy using another type of  cheese instead of the same ol' boring cheddar. The aroma of having Gouda baking in the oven made me bounced for joy. And the teddy browned perfectly after staying in the oven, basking under the red-light hot rod for 25 minutes. It's a pleasure to have them in the mouth. I have exactly four teddies left in the almost empty jar. I don't think the teddies will live to see Christmas morning.

The yummy cheesy cookies with Camembert....

I have prepared the next cookie batter before the teddies were all done. This second batter was really wet and not friendly to be hand-handled. The recipe book just showed that a spoon should be used to scoop the soggy batter and just plopped them into a heap of shapeless cookie. We refused to follow instructions, more like I demanded for a beautifully-shaped cookie. The one and only Christmas tree cookie. That's not Cheddar cheese as well. I changed that boring Cheddar with Camembert. Before you get to taste the cookie, the fragrant aroma of Camembert will greet your nose first. The melt-in-the-mouth cookie is way better than crunchy teddy. I love both cookies~! I've never tasted such good cookies before~!

I like this snowflake design but if that Christmas tree turned out well, I would be happy, too. Looks like the Christmas tree is never meant to be. I'm not done yet~!

The not-so-delicious walnut chocolate bunny cookies....

We had two trays of walnut chocolate bunny cookies. I dislike the taste so I gave Judz three only and the rest, I sent them away to my neighbour. Oh, I didn't send them before asking them to try it first. They like it and they don't mind helping me finish up everything. Such lovely and helpful neighbour I have. Some neighbours you just feel like wringing their necks or never want to get to know them. I need my neighbours to enjoy eating with us in the kitchen. That's what neighbours are for :D

The cookie makers....

Truth be told, I did not make any of those cookies. I just mix the ingredients. I'm only good in mixing and no good in shaping them. Mi mama made those teddy bears and bunny heads. Hubby made those snowflakes. Mi mama didn't want to deal with too soft batter.... neither do I. Hubby made them all and I eat them all. 

When I chose what to bake, I only read the ingredients' section. I totally missed out on the methods. From having nothing to do, I just sacrificed my beauty sleep on that day. I have totally forgotten that there's only one oven in the kitchen and all these need to be baked. The trays were queuing up silently on the table.

That blueberry cheese bread...

Then, there's this blueberry cheese bread which needed baking. I did a big square tin but I didn't take the full photo as the middle section caved in. It was already 2 a.m. by then and I didn't have enough active brain cells to figure out why the bread caved in in the middle. I thought the middle wobbly part when shaken didn't bake properly. In the end, I left the whole thing on the table to be figured out the next day. In the end, the whole wobbly part was because of the cream cheese. It was really good. I was really happy but I won't be baking anymore cookies for the time being. It's just too scary having not enough sleep because of baking.

How did the cream cheese on top went into the mid-section? I'm baffled....

Due To Shrinking Ringgit...

Steamed fish....

Due to shrinking Ringgit, the fish on my platter shrank as well. Nah, not exactly that. I was 'forced' to buy the fish at the wet market. The word 'force' doesn't sound right. The fishmonger used persuasive selling and suggestive buying on me. And even though I don't have enough cash in hand, she made me carry the fish home. I just remembered I owe her some money but I couldn't remember how much. 

Well, due to the shrinking value of our Ringgit, I had to cook at home to have a hearty meal. Just now, I took a piece of RM10 to the coffee shop to buy lunch for my precious. With that RM10, we got a really really small packet of char koay teow. I would need to eat 3-4 packets to fill up my stomach. And then, I got her a packet of watery green curry chicken with a big packet of white rice. In my house, we always eat little rice but we feasted on the dishes. But outside, the hawkers encourage you to have a mountainous heap of rice with small amount of meat. The green curry has been watered down. There's no more quality in food anymore even when you pay through your nose. Our RM10 used to be able to feed 3 people with loud burps. Gone were the days. 

The cafes outside are selling RM12 for a slim piece of cake. I think I've been living in a cave. I saw the whole round cake of 9-inch selling at RM68. My eyes almost popped out. It's just a very simple cake and I've been baking a few cakes for the girls' birthday as it's really cheap to bake those cakes yourself. Looks like I have to learn on my own in baking all sorts of cakes to keep our sweet-tooth in check. It's high time before the currency worldwide crashes. This world is beyond redemption. Do I have to push a whole trolley of printed useless bill to get my groceries done next time? 

My favourite meatballs...

I've seen hawkers slicing the already small-sized meatballs into two or four pieces. Hubby made lunch and dinner for the family yesterday. I had as much meatballs as I wanted. The soup was made using the chicken carcass left sleeping in the freezer and the leftover parts and pieces of roasted duck. The soup was oily and heavy so I did not drink any of it. Picky me eating.

Vege with some prawns and squid....

Mi mama made a vegetable dish which my precious refused to eat. If we forced it on her, she will surely burst into tears. The broccoli was overcooked and I like it that way. I dislike crunchy vegetables. If it's more salty then it would be really nice.

Awesome fried chicken...

Hubby made the best fried chicken in the whole entire world~! Dip them with ketchup and Thai chilli sauce, I could have that in buckets. There's not much though. I didn't have enough of that so now I'm craving for it.

Sotong putih....

Squid.... fresh-looking but small squid. Don't know how the hubby made that. He said I was the one telling him how to do it but I've never done such style before. I love seafood. Mi mama bought the squid as they looked really fresh.

I've my menu planned out for leftover of the month of December. Just hope I don't get lazy and shove the menu into the dustbin.