7.43PM CNY Eve

As i was typing this, the time shows 7.43pm and it's the Chinese New Year Eve. This is definitely one of the stranger moment in my life as i normally have reunion dinner with my family at this hour. Celebrating Chinese New Year at hubby's place for the 1st year is all different as we had our reunion dinner at 5pm! We finished dinner at 6pm where the sky is still bright and hubby together with his parents are busy cleaning the house for the final round whilst i am left idling. So here i am writing this post, feeling a wee bit disconnect from the world as i never had such space & time for myself on a Chinese New Year Eve. 

I remembered when i was still in primary school, Dad would played a game with us on the 1st day of Chinese New Year. The game was simple yet we anticipate the most as a child. Each of my siblings and i would pick a number and each number entitles us to draw an angpow with a different amount in it. I remembered how we squealed in excitement and our laughters still rang in my memories. How I missed that very moment. I did not miss having reunion dinner with my family though as i know i will be seeing them soon enough, i.e on the 2nd day of Chinese New Year.

Here wishing everyone a Happy Reunion Dinner. I hope your home is filled with peace, harmony, love, unity and faith. Gong Hei Fatt Choy!!

Some pictures snapped earlier to end this post:-

Abalone, sea cucumber, mushroom & brocolli

Dried oysters, "fatt choy" with "pork hand".

"Foo Kui Hua"= fortune flower blooming at hubby's home garden

  

Angpow all packed & ready to be hand out tommorrow

Hoorn's Hot Chocolate at Bagels & Beans

I was in the medieval shipping town in Hoorn to visit a friend whom I have not seen in two years. Last year she left a voice mail when she was in Holland but I never heard the voice mail until a few months later. Sometimes no thanks to technology which is not reliable 100 percent!

We searched for a Chinese food in Hoorn. However the two Chinese restaurants we passed by  after lots of walking were closed. Given that it was a Monday afternoon, restaurants in the city centre were slow to open, following only the shopping hours.

So we ended up eating in the cold. We had passed by a fish shop and it was more of a takeaway shop but gave us the choice of sitting under a tree with tables and chairs. I was cold but my friend, not. Having just arrived in the Netherlands, she triumphed in the cold. She said she loved the weather. The less sun for her, the better. I did however miss the sun a lot. The last time the sun shone for more than an hour a day was two weeks ago. These days it is just cloudy and rainy; not to mention cold and windy.

After the fish meal of shrimp, prawns and fish fillet, we went to the nearby Bagel & Beans for a hot drink. I was dying to sit somewhere warm. We both ordered hot chocolate.

When our order came, we were surprised to receive just warm milk and chocolate beans. Where was the hot chocolate? The waitress said we had to mix the beans into the milk. This way we would get our hot chocolate.

I wondered if they ran out of the real hot chocolate itself or whether this was their novel way of serving hot chocolate. In any event, the chocolate beans melted straightaway into the warm milk. The taste of the mixture was good, just like hot chocolate itself.

Warm milk with chocolate beans. 

So no complaints here. Tried and tested something new today. Next time when I make hot chocolate, I will do the same. That way it is fresher than instant hot chocolate and it seems like an ingenious way of making hot chocolate from scratch. 

Spaghetti with "Rommige" Creamy Sauce

For dinner today, despite having a headache earlier on, hubby cooked this dish with gusto. We had been packing our suitcases to Malaysia and I was frantically trying on different types of shorts and jeans to see if I could still fit into them. Hubby had a different style of packing. He was very relaxed and sat on the bed while contemplating what to bring along.

So after jumping in and out of various apparel, I was finally glad to have made a choice of what to bring. We both have our stuff packed except for the toiletries. Exhausted I lazed on the sofa while asking hubby if he would like to cook dinner. Good, dear hubby said he would.

This meal is tasty and succulent. The pork sausages just melt in your mouth. The texture of the spaghetti is tangy. Hubby also cut sliced cheese into little square cubes as topping for the spaghetti. We had double helpings with extra to spare. We would have it again tomorrow for dinner.

Maybe we could open up an Italian restaurant?

Topped with cheese cubes, the spaghetti is a heart-warming as well as mouth-watering meal.

The unavoidable but rich Dutch cheese. 

Creative first week of January Food

I attempted to start 2012 by being more creative in my life. One aspect was to experiment with food. I read in a magazine that if you spruce up your dish, it can change the perspective of an otherwise dull dinner to something interesting and painstakingly home-made with lots of care involved.

  

On January 2^nd, we had yet another oven meal; this time of a broccoli dish with grilled vegetables. I added in more tomatoes and cheese into the grilled vegetables for extra oomph!

Not perfect yet, but every day I am trying to do more with my food for extra taste and good health.

I started out first with a plain lasagne bolognaise. Hubby and I buy oven food on and off as a sort of emergency food meaning that we can always “pop” (to quote hubby) something into the oven without cooking if we are tired or if we arrive home late.

I cut some tomatoes into cubes and sprinkled some herbs on top of the unbaked lasagne. I sprinkled some oregano and red pepper on top of the tomatoes.

Then I put the topped up lasagne into the oven into its regular time. The dish which came out of the oven was no longer a plain Jane. The tomatoes baked nicely on top of the lasagne. What’s more is that we got our vegetables for the day! Mum would be pleased. After all, a little bit is better than none, no?

On another occasion (for yesterday’s dinner actually), I baked two chicken breasts with sliced potatoes at the side. I sprinkled black pepper, oregano and red pepper on the potatoes. The potatoes are then smoothed with herb butter all around. I then put everything in the oven in its normal time for the chicken breasts. I expect that the potatoes would soften and bake nicely at the same temperature. Some potatoes are quite hard, and this is one of the hard kind.

I had exasperating experiences with potatoes. I had tried to stir-fry them only to burn the outer layer black while the inside remained raw. And too bad that we don’t eat raw potatoes. Otherwise it would have gone well as a salad.

When the chicken and potatoes were done at 180’C at 45 minutes, I placed them on two plates; one for hubby and one for me. I added fresh garden salad on the side.

And here is a new dish which we have not tried before. With a little creativity with the potatoes added with the chicken, you do two things at one go, saving time and effort for a chef who only cooks when necessary.

This mid-morning, it was 11 am when I wanted to get something to eat because I got up late. I made bread with ham, cheese and some fresh greens. Tip of the day – always have some raw vegetables, ham and cheese in the fridge if you don’t feel like cooking on Sundays. With the addition of garlic chilli sauce, it gave a spicy flavour to the bread and I enjoyed it a lot. For me who loves spicy food, the garlic chilli perks up an otherwise regular meal. I thought…well, this is my brunch and I won’t eat until dinnertime. It is pretty healthy too.

However as you would see in the previous post, hubby did cook us a foo yong hai meal an hour later. Now; if I had just waited for hubby to do all the cooking instead of making my own meal…  

Foo Yong Hai with Mushroom Sausage Red Sauce

On a lazy Sunday with last minute buck up, hubby cooked this mouth-watering meal. An hour earlier, I had made myself a bread and ham with cheese and salad sandwich. It was 11.45 am when I made my brunch. Hubby was still asleep. Now he is full of energy and wanted to make an omelette with bread for lunch. He asked me if I wanted to eat as well. I thought…mmm…well, this could be my lunch. After all, I just had bread. Another piece of bread won’t hurt, no?

I was busy occupying myself with the Wii Sports Resort playing parachuting, ping-pong and wake-boarding. I smelt a tangy aroma in the air. Our kitchen and living room is not separated, and technically hubby is only a few meters away from me but we were both engrossed in our own thing. I even hit the standing lamp with the remote control.

"Ouch!" I said.

Dutch champignon mushrooms as toppings for the foo yong hai.

The whole dish with fresh garden salad.

It's a hearty meal on bread and quite light as well.

Hubby turned to his ever clumsy wife from lots of steam boiling over in the pot. 

"Are you alright?" He asked me. 

"Yes." I said.  

Then I was enlightened by the tangy smell from the pot. 

I paused the Wii, and turned to look at hubby’s cooking. It was delicious. It was not the omelette and bread that I expected!

Hubby said that he wanted to make a more elaborate lunch so he came out with this recipe. The red sauce is garlic chilli sauce.

We had a good meal. In fact this meal could also go with rice or noodles. It tasted good, and the delicate presentation which hubby did scored plus points with me.

He is a creative cook, now wanting to cook oliebollen for the entire family and relatives for Chinese New Year. I grudgingly gave him my support. To my surprise, he wanted to make 80 oliebollen on the first day of Chinese New Year and he needed me as assistant chef. He would not do less. He said more is better than less, especially for Chinese New Year. He said, assuming we had two stoves, we could each deep fry forty balls side by side…

I was like…oh no…I don’t want to cook and get oily during Chinese New Year. But of course, dear hubby, I will cook alongside with you. Start Chinese New Year with lots of oil for a smooth ride to last the whole year long! Now I wonder if there is any Chinese proverb with the word “yu” or oil in it. Oh yes, “jia yu” (literally translated as add oil) means to buck up, increase effort and not to give up.

We will do so. We will “jia yu” this Chinese New Year, literally and figuratively!

How to Make Seafood Fried Rice

By an advocate for arm-chair cooking with a caveat (I might not be able to reproduce the same dish the next time.) 

I always like to start Chinese cooking with a whole spoonful of garlic. As you know, I do not cut or mince garlic. I’m glad someone thought of the idea of bottling up minced garlic in a jar and selling it with a profit. Naturally it is double the price of fresh garlic but saves your hands and palms from smelling like you are a vampire vanquisher!

I have a very sensitive nose and sense of smell (among my idiosyncrasies; for better or worse – I can sneeze my way into the Guinness Book of Records I believe) so I try to minimise pungent smells when I can. This is also due to the fact that we have a small kitchen on which the exhaust right on top of the stove has not been working for years. Which reminds me it is about time to do something concrete about it…instead of giving excuses like this!

Since the minced garlic is in water in the jar, it crackles and tosses like nobody’s business with sound effect and all for entertainment. For me I will always reprise my role of standing as far away as possible while lengthening my arms; with both hands gripping the wooden ladles tightly. Trying to stir up the already pulsating storm of garlic with olive oil.

Lately I have taken to olive oil again since my Asian Wok Oil has finished and I have always forgotten to buy new supplies every time I go to the grocery store!

I believe that in order to give the seafood a garlicky smell, I have to stir-fry the seafood with garlic even before the garlic turns golden brown. So I mix in my medley of small prawns, mussels, oysters and squid inside. While stir-frying I add in tartar sauce. I had a craving for tartar flavoured seafood rice. 

Then I add in some mixed vegetables to the medley. I also add in some rucola leaves to give it a minty taste. I like rucola leaves raw and I wondered how it would taste like if I were to stir-fry it. I later found out through that once you stir-fry rucola leaves, the minty taste is gone. I don’t know if the strong tartar sauce seafood contributed to it.

Lastly I add in my fried rice with luncheon meat. Then I fry with tender, loving care. I believe if you cook your food with love, it will taste lovely. That is why Gordon Ramsey’s contestants who cook with fear and anger, make below the par food which makes Gordon even angrier! A vicious cycle. I read somewhere also that his chain of restaurants are on the verge of bankruptcy so he had to rely on his reality cooking show.

Finally I am free to eat. Life is beautiful with food!

Happy New Year 2012!

Our sparklers at the balcony.

 We celebrated New Year’s eve by inviting our family over to our penthouse. Our preparations for the evening had started out early as we had planned to make oliebollen which is a traditional Dutch flour pastry. Its texture has similarities with Malaysia’s yu cha kuey (crispy Chinese cruller). The one difference I find is that whilst the latter is normally very oily, the former is not. So we have started the new year healthily enough.

The Dutch normally have oliebollen for new year’s eve and hubby would like to stick to tradition. We had bought an oliebollen pre-mix and all we had to do was to add water and eggs with the mixture. Then we waited half an hour for the mixture to rise.

Hubby did most of the heavy-duty work. Round balls were formed with the mixture and deep-fried in sunflower oil. At the same time, hubby also made appel-flap (apple douhgnuts) and ananas-flap (pineapple doughnuts) with another doughnut pre-mix. We had to add our own apples and pineapples inside the mix.

The pastries were delicious and they gave the whole penthouse the scent of a 24 hour bakery. We opened our windows (one of the rare occasions which hubby is comfortable with windows open during winter) to air our modest accommodation.

We started work at 3.30 pm. Hubby was the chef while I was the assistant chef who on and off checked my laptop for interesting movies to download to watch with our family later.

Hubby’s family arrived at 8.00 pm. We had a relaxing evening with food – the oliebollen and flaps were succulently tasty, chatter and dance. Towards midnight, we got festive and had bubbly champagne.

At the stroke of midnight, a dazzling display of fireworks all around us lighted up with bangs. They were a breath-taking sight from our balcony. The fireworks continued for thirty minutes. We lighted up our own sparklers and played “pop-pop” (the type of fireworks you throw on the ground to produce a spark).

My new year resolution for 2012 is; simply put to be at peace at mind. And also to quote my father-in-law who said that health is everything. If you have health, you can achieve all your resolutions without problem if you have the will-power.

My more tangible goals is to run the Dam Run in Amsterdam sometime September. It is a 16 kilometre run which I have to start training for. I also hope to get a good job to kick-start my career here. Besides that, I want to be an inspiring teacher to my students when I start teaching in February once I return from Malaysia to Holland. It is a voluntary job at the refugee centre which I have undertaken.

Happy New Year to everybody. All for one, and one for all!

Waiting for the oliebollen mix to rise. And rise it did from half a bowl.

 The mixture was pretty sticky and thanks to hubby's skills, he managed to shape the balls.

 Almost done oliebollen - wait for it to turn into golden brown.

 Oliebollen and doughnuts on the table ready for our guests.

 The Chef concentrating on his task. It was quite hot in the kitchen with all the deep-frying till hubby had to tie his hair with my rubber band. See the cute pony-tail behind!

Fireworks on display around the city centre as viewed from our balcony.

Our first wedding anniversary

During lunch today, my officemates and i were sharing about our New Year Eve's whereabouts and  stories. One of my colleague did a movie marathon with her hubby which i think is utterly sweet. Another colleague played hide & seek game at a friend's place. I am the least happening one as i slept at 11.30pm on New Year's eve. Heee...

I followed hubby and his family to his aunt's housewarming party for dinner but i left with hubby's family at 10pm. Hubby stayed on and enjoyed his countless cans of beers. I surprised myself as i opt to go to bed early instead to stay on at the housewarming party. I guess it was a wise decision as i was still tired from our Kuala Lumpur to Penang travel in the morning and my body has been pretty unstable, i.e showed signs of UTI and with a sore back. Hubby on the other hand, fell ill on New Year's day with a severe cold. He was already unwell on New Year's eve with fever and sore throat. I guess the long distance driving, drinking and lack of proper rest lowered his body resistance further.

Hence, on our first wedding anniversary which was yesterday, we did not do anything special. We travelled back to Kuala Lumpur from Penang and poor hubby sneezed at least ten dozen times in a day! Hubby also suffers from body aches and a stuffy nose. Despite all the above, hubby brought me to one of his favourite Chinese restaurant for dinner.

 Hubby's favourite goose's claw with sea cucumber,giant mushroom and some greens. I didn't touch the goose's claws but happily took more greens.

 I had 3 of this big head prawn (ironically minus the big head) grilled in the restaurant's recommended Yu Lan sauce. Hubby is skilled in emptying the big head filled with the prawn's roes. Hmm...i think i didn't want to master this skill on purpose to avoid the cholestrol intake from the prawn's roes. *wink*

 Fried rice with waxed duck meat and Chinese sausages. This dish is very fragrance and i had 3 full bowls.

To end the meal, i had a bowl of peanut cream dessert which was not thick enough to my liking.

The bill came to a whopping RM145 for dishes above. Frankly, i am not a fan of sea cucumber, giant mushroom nor big head prawn but hubby thought it was our 1st wedding anniversary and decided to order these premium items. Thankfully, hubby didn't order any shark's fins soup to wow me. I didn't mind eating those fake ones though served at Chinese wedding dinners but i am against the idea of ordering real shark's fins soup for consumption. As we were leaving, we saw a table next to ours ordered 5 bowls of soup which was heated up individually on a gas cooker. We were told it was shark's fins soup and it costs RM175 per bowl and they looked very delicious. If only the restaurant served shark's fins soup minus the shark's fins, then it would be a win-win for me, pocket and principle wise.

I hope poor hubby gets better quickly and i hope everyone had a happy and prosperous New Year with a note, health is wealth! A timely reminder to myself and everyone close to me to love your body like how you love your food. 

Healthier Meals...?

Hubby and i attempted to eat healthier after Christmas and we began pretty well with porridge on the 1st night.

The porridge was extra flavourful this time although hubby used the same ingredients such as dried shrimps, dried oysters, dried cuttlefish and minced pork. Makes me wonder if there was any addition of secret ingredient which hubby denied.

On the 2nd night which was a Friday night, hubby called me around 4pm to inform me that he bought something i like for dinner and gave me a clue before asked me to guess what was it. The clue was:- Something he would usually stopped me from eating. My imagination went wild as hubby hardly gives me a surprise in the sense to guess something. My 1st few guesses were mangosteen, "duku langsat" and durian as i've been eyeing these local fruits which are in season now and hubby always against the idea of buying them. According to him, the first two types of fruits are "cold" and "windy", so it is bad for my stomach. Durian is heaty, so it is consider as a "bad" fruit too.

To my wildest answer, hubby bought crabs for dinner. Oh my heart leaped on hearing this as i love crabs and again according to hubby, crabs are "cold" food and only to be eaten in rare occasion. I have to add hubby's ideology on "cold" food here which he said to be bad for women especially as our body has to be kept warm to avoid cramps. Unfortunate for me, i suffers from nocturnal leg cramps very often, so i took hubby's advise with a pinch of salt, unsure how true his ideology was. However, knowing crabs are high in cholestrol food, i don't over-indulge in them.

For a few minutes, i took pity on these two cute looking crabs. I even squealed in protest when hubby took a chopstick to kill them. I really thought it was cruel but i know i was a hypocrite as well as i looked in delight when they were served 30 minutes later.

Steamed crab with ginger slices,tomatoes, glass noddles and fishballs. It was awesome in every bite.

After dinner, i indulged myself in ice-cream.

Healthier meals...as this post header says? I think not quite as crabs are high in cholestrol and one stick of Magnum packs 400+ calories. Hee......i gave myself some lee-way. It was a Friday night, more so, the last Friday of Year 2011 so i went ahead and enjoyed.

To a healthier note, may we all eat well and be fit in Year 2012!