Boxing Chicken

OMG, I am so busy this week in the office and I don't even have the time to blog and blog hopping. Sigh :( .... It's appraisal time again and I am real dissapointed with the company. 5 years of dissapointment and I tell myself after the 'B' pay out .... I am going to move. F*@# it and don't wanna give them a single damn anymore.

As promised, I am going to share with you my Dad's secret recipe on marinating the chicken with Bunga Kantan. I simply loves my Dad's cooking and he is the best cook. Every Sunday I look forward to go back to my Ah Mah's house and hoping Dad will cook something nice for us. Hahahaha.... at least a Sunday with GOOD FOOD to cheer me up !

So here is the ingredients for marination. So sorry there is no measurement for the ingredients and its a 'agak-agak' thing based on my own instinct.

Ingredients : Blended till fine

Onion

Ginger

Lengkuas

Bunga Kantan

Some water for blending

I marinate my boxing chicken with the above ingredients, preferably overnight. Remember to add some salt and pepper to the chicken. Then coat the chicken with some cornflour and deep fried till golden brown.

My little girl love it so much especially when she dip it with tomato ketchup.

Winter Solstice Festival

Today is Winter Solstice Festival and we will have 'Tang Yuen' today. I remembered when I was a kid, my Ah Mah will tell me every year when we have 'Tang Yuen' it means we are a year older. According to her this festival is much more important than CNY and usually we will have family dinner together.

Surprisingly this year my MIL didn't ask us back for dinner. Don't know what happen to her or should I should they are 'funny' people. I always tell Dearie Suki, it is important for us to celebrate this important Chinese Festival in order for us to inherit down the Chinese culture to the younger generation. If we don't practice this ourselves, do you think our kids will celebrate in the future and I bet they don't even know what is this all about.

This morning I woke up as early as 6.30 am to open the gate for the part time maid to come in. Since woke up and I can't sleep back, I started to get myself busy in the kitchen. Knead half a packet of glutinous rice flour dough for the 'Tang Yuen' and divided it into 5 portions and mixed with colouring.

We have white, purple, pink, yellow and green.

Little girl woke up and 8.30 am and she is getting much more better today after her vomiting and fever yesterday. I get her to help me in the kitchen. She got so excited of the colourful dough and she helped me to shape it into small balls. While doing this she kept asking me....

Mommy, wat is this?

Mommy, why so many colours one?

Mommy, for wat one?

Mommy, can eat ah?

Mommy, fishball ah?

Mommy, make round round ah?

Wah, so many questions and so hard to answer her what is this all about.

Anyway, I think she enjoyed doing it and alamak... we have uneven round glutinous rice balls. Some big and some small and some even 'penyek' one.

Le-Ann... action only while taking pictures and showing me this is what she has done.

Before : Colourful rice glutinous balls ready to be boiled in hot boiling water.

Boiling : Once float up it is ready.

Done : Ready to be mixed with syrup

Usually, the tang yuen is eat with either sugar syrup or gula melaka syrup but mine is a bit special. If I were to cook the sugar syrup I bet no body will touch it not even me. So... yesterday night I boiled a big pot of herbal tea which consist of dried longan, red dates, rock sugar and also winter melon. I shred the winter melon into thin strips and this are tips from Gert. Wah, the whole pot of herbal tea looks more like a shark fin soup leh. Hihihi....

So here is my version of Tang Yuen.

I mixed it with the Winter Melon and Longan Herbal Tea. Dearie Suki have 4 bowls of it for prayers and offering at the altar.

or another version ( this is my most favourite )

Mixed the Tang Yuen with chopped coarse peanuts and mixed with some sugar. Just like eating 'Muah Chee'.

While I was busy in the kitchen, the two of them, busy playing with my mixer and the mixer bowl. Aiyor.... my little boy used the mixer bowl and put it on top of his head. So cute....

Then I called mom and asked her whether can I have Roast Chicken without the head and feet for prayer and offering at the altar. My mom taruk me ... how can one, go and make 'Pak Cham Kai', must have head and feet one. If I were to steam the chicken, sure not 'laku' one cos Dearie Suki hate steam chicken and the kids don't like it too.

Aiyor.... at that time how to got to the wet market and buy, sure the chicken seller 'sau tong' d. Anyway I go ahead with it and have it roasted and I think GOD won't punish us for offering the chicken without head and feet. LOL.

I marinated the chicken with McCormick - Lemon Pepper Seasoning, Thyme Leaves, Rosemary Leaves, Black Pepper Cracked, and Sea Salt. Marinate overnight and this morning I roast it in my small oven for almost 1 hour at 160 DC. At the bottom of the tray, I have some cut potato wedges.

Ta ....daa..... We have this Roast Chicken for prayer. Hihihi... the 'Kwai Lou' version.

After prayer, we had the chicken for lunch and carved the chicken meat and have some potatoes to go with it. Since I don't have any brocolli or mixed vegs, I have the Hong Kong Kailan in the fridge and blanched it in hot water and have it with the Roast Chicken.

Half way enjoying my lunch, received a SMS from my good UNI friend - Ai Leen, she has safely delivered a baby boy weighing 3.8kg. Wow, so happy to hear that and some more on 'Tang Yuen festival'!

Tonight, there will be another gathering to attend with my 'ci mui' and few close UNI friends. We are going to FC's house in Sg Buloh for Steamboat dinner. I think I will bring the 2 kids along since they are OK now. Going to enjoy myself tonight cos we are ex-changing Christmas present.

Muahaaa haaaa haaa...

Ayam Golek With Cereal Cream

Do you have any idea what is Cereal Cream? This is the first time I heard off after my BIG BOSS pass me a packet and asked me to try out at home. Ish...ask me to become their guinea pig again.

This Cereal Cream off course is made of cereal and it is actually invented for coconut cream substitute. Have not seen any in Malaysia and this product is from Bangkok, Thailand. The brand name is '4 Care' and on the packet the USP ( unique selling point ) is stated dairy free, high in vitamin E, no sugar and no cholesterol. How does it look like and taste like? Well, it look like milk and tasteless and has some cereal aroma. It is a bit watery unlike coconut milk which is creamy.

Cook Ayam Golek and substitude the coconut milk with the cereal cream. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients :
1 whole chicken ( approximately 1 kg )
1 tbsp salt ( to rub on chicken )
1 cup tamarind juice from 2 tbsp tamarind paste
1 packet cereal cream
Salt and sugar to taste

Grinded Ingredients:
20 dried chillies, soak and seeded
10 shallots
2 stalks lemon grass
1 knob ginger ( about 2 cm )
1 knob turmeric ( about 2 cm )

Method :
1. Heat oil in pan. Fry grounded ingredients till fragrant. Then add in the cereal cream and tamarind juice. Let it simmer till the gravy thicken. Season with salt and sugar. If you prefer sweet base you got to add more sugar.
2.Marinade the chicken with salt. Then marinade the chicken with the gravy, preferably overnight.
3. Arrange chicken on a baking tray and grill for about 30 minutes. Then spoon the gravy over the chicken and continue to grill another 20 minutes or until the chicken is cooked.
4. Chopped into small pieces and serve immediately.

End result, not too bad but still cannot compare with nice aroma of coconut milk. The redness of the colour in the gravy is there. My BIG BOSS asking me whether this product can bring in and sell ah? In my opinion, for those people who are real health conscious freak, they might buy this concept. Asking me whether I will buy or not, I will say YES cos I am trying to be more health conscious nowadays ( takut mati early ). Even my Dearie Suki also didn't complaint much about it and he enjoyed the Ayam Golek so much.

Happy Mid Autumn Festival

Mid Autumn Festival falls on today, 25th September'07 and in the Chinese Calendar it is August 15th. Also today is my little Ee-Thern's birthday but we didn't do any celebration for him cos we are having prayers at home. Little Ee-Thern only get 2 red, hard boiled eggs from me this morning.

This morning woke up very, very early to steam one Kampung Chicken for prayers at the altar. I am not good in praying and all this is done by my Dearie Suki. Tonight dinner, we have 'Ping Pong Chicken Rice' since we have one whole steamed Kampung Chicken. As for the rice, I sautee some garlic with butter till fragrant. Then add in rice approximately 1 cup of long grain rice, and stir fry for 2 minutes. Add in about 1 1/2 cup of chicken stock, some salt and pandan leaves. Transfer the rice into rice cooker. Once the rice is cooked, use a ladle to scoop the rice and shape into a ball. I fried some ginger to go with the chicken rice and drizzle some oyster sauce on top of the chicken.

I was wondering who invented this 'Ping Pong Chicken Rice. Why Ping Pong ? I only had 1 Ping Pong Rice and Dearie Suki had 3 Ping Pong Rice.

After dinner the kids and Dearie Suki were playing lantern at the car porch while I am busy in the kitchen washing the plates and mopping the floor. Ee-Thern and Le-Ann is making so much noises outside even me in the kitchen can hear their voice. I bet they must be enjoying their time playing lantern with Daddy.

Last 2 days, tried making some Mini Peng Pei Mooncake with White Lotus Paste. Dear Sukie help me out and we only did 12 minis peng pei mooncake. I am not a great fan for mooncake cos I find that it is far too sweet for me. Supposed to give some to his friends but end up not enough and still have 1/2 container of lotus paste in the fridge. Going to make again these few days hopefully I can find time to do it. To my Dearie Suki friend, PK, I still owe you a box of mooncake.

Following are pictures taken at Ah Mah's house last Saturday night when all of us went back to play lantern.

Another Mid Autumn festival is gone and the next coming one is Winter Solstice festival in December'07 . Why time passes so fast and very soon we are going eat 'Tong Yuen'.

Chicken Satay & Nasi Himpit

I grew up in a town which is famous for satay... Kajang Satay. I tried to re-call back the last time I had satay is somewhere about 4 years back. Although I go back to my Ah Mah's house every Sunday, but satay is just out of my mind cos I am not a big fan for satay but... my Dearie Suki, YES!

Last 2 Saturday after we brought Ee-Thern's for his vaccination in Sunway Hospital, Dearie Suki suddenly think of satay. He wanted to have satay cos he loves the peanut sauce so much. We stopped by at the rest area along KESAS Highway to 'ta pau' the Satay cos the famous Kajang Satay Haji Samuri has a branch there.

To be frank I totally got no idea how much is a stick of satay. It used to be RM0.30 per stick and now it has doubled up to RM0.60 per stick for chicken and beef satay. Wow, and now they even have fish satay. If you wanted something different for example rabbit meat or perut lembu satay it cost RM1.30 per stick. Expensive ya.

Lunch we had Satay and I bought 20 sticks of chicken satay and 10 sticks of fish satay plus 2 packet of nasi himpit. Total bill - RM24.00 and my Dearie Suki enjoyed it so much. Like father like son, even my little girl same as her daddy loves the satay so much.

Guess how many sticks she ate? Total 5 sticks plus 3 pieces of nasi himpit.

Lat Sei Lei Ah Mah

This is funny whereby my sales rep every morning will make fun of me when I am having my Nasi Lemak direct translation to cantonese " Lat Sei Lei Ah Mah " . LOL. I remembered when I was pregnant with Le-Ann & Ee-Thern, every morning I must have a packet of nasi lemak plus 'si hum' (cockles) sambal. This is what I craved for every morning, without this I can't work, can't sleep and can't eat. Imagine how much weight I have gained during that period. From day 1 pregnancy till I delivered both of them, I have been eating nasi lemak everyday.

Cooked some Curry Chicken with potatoes on Monday night. My babysitter, Ah Yoke Cheh, went back to her home town Betong ( Malaysian-Thai border ) and brought back some ready mix curry paste. She is a Thai mix Chinese and speak fluent Thai language. Sometimes my little girl even understand what she is talking in Thai. She teach me how to cook the curry chicken in Thai style.

What you need to do is to fry 2 tablespoon of the ready mix curry mix in a pan with some oil. Then add in the chicken ( approximately 2 chicken thighs ), some kaffir lime leaves, 2 stalks of serai ( lemon grass ) and fry for another 5 minutes. Add in 1 cup thick coconut milk and 1 cup of water. I substitude the coconut milk with 1 can of evaporated milk and 1 can of water. Hehehe... trying to be health conscious. Add in some potatoes ( cut into wedges ) and let it simmer till almost dry up or until the chicken or potatoes is cook.

Wah! the ready mix curry paste is real pedas. Actually is very, very pedas but very good. Much more better than those sell in the supermarket. That night we have Nasi Lemak for dinner. Boiled some hard boiled eggs and mould it with the flower shape mould. So cute and Dearie Suki was asking me how I do it and I told him its magic. Hahaha..... also have some side dishes to go along with the nasi lemak - sambal petai, stir-fried potatoes leaves ( supposed to be kangkong but my 'Overly Smart' maid, work here for 2 years can't even differentiate between the two... real STUPID ). Then fried some crispy ikan bilis to go along with it.

Yummy... next round must have the 'si hum' sambal. I miss it so much.

Merdeka Gathering

Organized a Merdeka gathering at my place and invited my 'ci mui' to come over for 'makan and minum' feast. Send out emails to all of them and to get confirmation whether they can make it or not. After few emails with them finally we fixed the date for the gathering on the Merdeka Eve since everyone is free but got to omit out Mic cos she is working.

We are having some sort of port luck gathering. Each of them help me to get drinks, dessert and we even have pizza. So, me as the host and organizer, make steamboat cos majority prefer steamboat rather than BBQ. Last year gathering we had BBQ. Prepare the steamboat soup base and make two types of base : Lat Thong and Tom Yam. Not going to elaborate much cos now very sleepy Zzzz. Hope the photos will tell what we are doing on this day. Few more hours to go we are going for a family outing again with mom & dad, sis, BIL and their kids.

Since I am working yesterday, hence some of the foods I prepared one day earlier.

As for the steamboat, we have 2 types of soup base. Either Tom Yum or 'Lat Thong' soup base.

Whip up a quick and fast Moist Choco Cake last night. Let it cool down in the oven and this evening I frost it with choco cream and decorate it with a cute Malaysian flag.

Marinade some chicken wings with the Mccormick Hickory BBQ Buffalo Wings. Marinated this yesterday night and start the baking pocess in the oven yesterday before the party start.

Make some 'Mango Jellies' in the late evening after work.

Fruits Punch added in a can of beer and a can of ice-cream soda. Wah so nice and refreshing.

This is the simple steamboat I make yesterday.

Look at the messy table. I was wondering how all these women eat.

The kids are having their own party too in the house.

All started with appetizer first. The adults having the 'Buffalo Wing' and the kids having their YAKULT.

All of us enjoying the ice-cream at home. My 'ci mui' after makan session, we chit chat and have some wine and keep talking till about 2 am. Wah all ' beh tahab liao'. All blur blur after the whisky and wine.

Will update more photos on our family outing day to RAUB later.

MERDEKA, MERDEKA, MERDEKA !

Hungry Ghost Festival

Today is a hot sunny Sunday morning. Little Ee-Thern woke up at 9 am while Le-Ann woke up as early as 7 am. Me too tired and sleep till Ee-Thern woke me up. Today I planned to bring the kids fo a haircut as I cannot stand Ee-Thern's hair. So long liao. While waiting to go, the kids yelling at me and ask me to go out and see aeroplane and I was wondering why they are so excited. They saw few fighther jet on the air and I think they must be rehearsing for the coming Merdeka Parade. My Ee-Thern boy got so exicited jumping up and down ask me to have a look at it.

After they finished their milk, I get the maid to pack their stuffs and not going to take bath for them until after they cut their hair. I used to bring both to the hair salon in South City Plaza for a hair cut and OMG... per person is RM12. End up I bring them back to Kajang to a hair salon operated from house and only cost RM4 per person. Luckily both of them sit down quietly and let the aunty cut their hair. Done! We head back to Ah Mah's house and we are the earliest. Mom, dad and sis is not back yet.

Both of them play around with Faye Yiyi and then take ther bath. Mom and dad came back at 11 am and 'piling palang' started to cook in the kitchen. I ask mom why cook so many foods and she said today is the Hungry Ghost Festival ( in Chinese Calendar is 14th July ) and we have prayer at Ah Mah's house. As usual mom and dad and Aunty SH will prepare all the stuffs for prayers.

Mom make some Yam Cake back and ask me to try. Once open, oh gosh... Mom's food presentation is real bad. I was complaining to her why can't she cut the yam cake nicely and arrange neatly on a nice container and have some garnishing on top like chopped spring onion and red chilli rather than everything chuck into the container. Then she started to scold me...'If want to eat don't complaint so much'. I kept quiet and eat her yam cake cos in morning didn't take breakfast. So no choice got to eat her yam cake. Actually her yam cake is nice but only bad in presentation. I started to snap some pictures and she ask why I do that. I happily told her I wanted to show the whole world how ugly is her yam cake. Hahaha....I quickly cabut and change topic with her.

Dad wanted to make some fried wantan and Mom prepared the fish paste + minced pork + minced prawn for the filling. I was helping mom to wrap the wantan into triangular shape and I realized mom like to nag so much. Maybe old people is like this. Then here comes my KPC Le-Ann wanted to help PoPo to wrap the wantan.

This is yummy. I love it so much. Keep eating non-stop with chilli sauce.

Today is just like a big 'makan' feast in Ah Mah's house. Dad cook all these for prayers. Clockwise from top left we have Fried Tanghoon ( its my late Ah Kong's favourite), Mixed Vegetables with Prawns ( don't know why whenver we have prayers, dad will cook this boring dish), Black Pepper Pig's Stomach Soup with Mushroom, and Steamed Kampung Chicken.

This fish is nice. Dad said is Ikan Terubuk and its from Sarawak. I don't whether is Uncle HH bought this or Dad. Anyway the flesh is nice but full with small bones. Dad steamed it with tauchoo and added in some chilli padi.

After all lunch, I went back early cos Le-Ann is having her Yamaha Music Kid's concert in the evening. At the concert it is a big dissapointment for me. She 'chicken out' and refuse to go on the stage to perform and sing with other kids. After so many months of bringing her to the music class, all the efforts that I put in on her and this is what I get from her... "Mommy I don't want to go MUSIC School". Sigh. Is she too young for this? I really don't know. Now I understand how a parent felt when your kids tell you this. Same goes to me when I am young, I told my dad I got no interest in PIANO but 'die die' he want me to finish up to Grade 8. Finally I did it just to fulfil his wish but deep inside of me, I got no interest for music. I hope my little Le-Ann will not be like me!