Edda's Birthday Party (Part 1)

My little girl turned one year old few days ago. I had a birthday party for her because turning one is special for Chinese. So, I invited a couple of my friends to celebrate with us. Sharing some pictures of what I cooked with my readers here.

I learned a lesson from Evy's birthday. That is not to wait until the last minute to stir-fry because I was still cooking when my guests showed up and I had to finish cooking and setting the table in front of my guests. So, for this I told myself I got to get everything done before my guests arrived. So this time, I got everything cooked two hours prior and keep warm in my oven ready to bring out 5 minutes before the designated time. However, I also learned a new lesson with this arrangement, will spill in my part 2 post when I show the close up of my dishes.


The spread without the cheese pizza (still baking in the oven)


Another view of the spread


Dessert section: pandan cream cheese pound cake, strawberry butter cake, brownie (can see from the 1st. picture), kuih bingka ubi and mixed fruit konnyaku jelly.


Party table with goodies bags for the kids, red eggs for each family to take home and snack.


The red eggs gift bags for adults


Mixed fruit konnyaku jelly in assorted fish molds. My girlfriend A got this for me from M'sia, nice right? :)


The Pandan cream cheese pound cake. Recipe here, just used pandan paste instead of green tea powder. And yes, thanks for the tips from my readers, my cake turned out beautiful from the bundt pan.


Edda's birthday cake. I used this for the chocolate cake and as for the frosting, will post it in another post. Stay tuned!

Edda's Birthday Party (Part 2)

Stir-fried Udon Noodle Asian Style with Chinese Mushroom


Fried Spicy Mee Siam Malaysian Style


Delimas Chicken Curry with Potatoes. You can buy the Delimas Chicken Curry Paste here. Very easy, just add chicken, potatoes and coconut milk. Taste just like the Malaysian curry without all the work.


Claypot Beef Rendang, can also see it here. Oops! I forgot to add kaffir lime leaves. Anyway, you can buy it at MyTOA. But I think it's currently out of stock since I couldn't find it. Just check back often for new stock. For this, even easier, just add beef! I simmered this for a tad too long and some of the beef were broken into pieces. Well, at least it showed how tender the beef is.

Mixed Vegetable. I made a mistake of putting it in the oven to keep warm for 2 hours. Why? Because my broccoli turned soft instead of crunchy (the way I like it) and also it lost the vibrant green color and turned a bit yellow. Learned a lesson here, never put your veggie to keep warm in the oven. Half an hour should be fine, just not two hours. So, this is the new lesson learned.

Easy Stir-Fried Shrimps with sweet soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil and black pepper. I just sprinkled some dried parsley for decoration. This dish which I whipped out while cooking, just an okay dish for my standard. I think I shouldn't add rice wine since the smell is pretty strong.

Lastly, Edda smiling for the camera before lighting the candle and singing the birthday song. Happy One Year Old my little girl! Ugh, why she got rabbit ears? :P

Strawberries Butter Cake

I bought some strawberries the other day because it was on sales. And I always wanted to try Strawberries Butter Cake. So, I reserved some strawberries for my little experiment. Hehe...

My experiment was a success! This cake turned out soft and moist with a little bite of strawberry bits. Evy loved it and ate 3 pieces for breakfast!

Simple Dinner

Simple stir-fry bok choy with oyster sauce.


Sliced chicken breast with wood ear fungus and dried lily buds.

Recipe for Chicken with Wood Ear & Lily Buds:
Ingredient:

1 chicken breast, sliced (marinated with salt, pepper, rice wine & cornstarch)
About 3/4 cup of dried shredded wood ear, soaked in warm water to soften, drained & set aside
About 3/4 cup of dried lily buds, soaked in warm water, drained and set aside (cut off the black hard tip)
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
Canola oil to stir-fry

Sauces, (A):
1 Tbsp. sweet soy sauce, 1 circle over the wok soy sauce, 1 Tbsp. rice wine, 1 dash of sesame oil

Method:

1. Heat canola oil, add in chicken, stir well. Add in garlic and cook until chicken no longer pink.

2. Add in wood eat and lily buds. Stir-fry well, add in (A). A little water to make sauce, simmer for 5 minutes and serve hot.

A Gift

I received this as a gift from a friend from China. Guess what it is?


This is how the inside looks like. It's like a glutinous rice dumpling. But it is wrapped like a huge log (first time I have seen this, thus not sure whether it's common in China). The filling is a tiny bit of pork wrapped with mung beans and then the glutinous rice.


And the way to enjoy it is to cut it into slices and then pan-fried until crispy.


Very interesting hor? Taste wise, not too bad because it is well seasoned and when it's pan-fried, it gives the crispiness to the bite. Good with Sriracha chilli sauce!


Look at her enjoying herself to a piece! Yummy!


Update: Edda can walk a few steps by herself now. It will be soon before she takes off. :) Hopefully!

Tofu & Seafood Dish

I love to buy those cylinder shape Japanese tofu because I have fond memory of them while in Malaysia. My parents used to order this dish while dining out and I was really impressed by how silken soft it is (10+ years ago) and I especially loved the deep-fried one served in a clay pot. Nowadays, there are variety of tofu sold in the Asian market ranging from extra firm to silken soft. So, this tofu is not that special anymore, except for the unique shape.

I pat dry my cut out tofu, coated it in potato starch and deep-fried til golden brown. I tried one while it was still warm and it was delicious just as it is, crispy outside and silken soft inside. However, I sort of ruin it by cooking the seafood sauce and later added the fried tofu in to simmer. Why? because the potato starch turned gluey, transparent starch when simmering in the sauce. Oh man! I should have just pour the sauce on top as I have planned instead of thinking of warming up the tofu and thus placed it in the sauce to simmer together. Big mistake! So, I pen it down here so that I won't make the same mistake again.