My First Roasted BrineTurkey!

This is an old post way back on New Year day. I have been here for so many years but I never did my own turkey.  I guess the pure size of it turned me off.  With a small family, the idea of roasting a turkey never cross my mind, until I tasted a brine turkey at Lily's house.  Ever since then, I always wanted to brine a turkey.  My chance came when the turkey was on sales on Thanksgiving week.  I managed to find the smallest turkey there, about 10lb.  I guess holding the smallest young turkey wasn't that intimidating.  Furthermore, this small turkey fit into my large stock pot used for the brine.

My plate of turkey breasts.  I guess instead of carving the turkey, I sliced it the Chinese way instead.  I had no idea how to carve a turkey, hahaha...  I thought the turkey smell was a bit strong. :-P   But the drumstick, wing and bone made the best soup.  I made a big pot of soup with it and served it with noodle but I forgot to take any picture.

This was an old post but I wanted to show you my first brine turkey.  :-)   I will share the brine recipe that I used in the next page.  Is there a way to get rid of the turkey smell?

Beer Chicken with Taro

This was an interesting dish and I got the inspiration from a TV cooking show.  The taro was soft and the sauce was really fragrant.  I didn't add water in this so all the sauce came from the beer.  You won't be able to taste any alcohol in this and surprisingly the sauce was sweet with a tint of spiciness from the dried red pepper.  I would probably omit the dried red pepper so that I could taste the sauce as naturally as possible.  This is a dish that I would make again because all of us liked it.

Fried Nam Yu Crackers

Below was my failed attempt at making a crispy cracker for "Yee Sang".  I didn't roll it thin enough and thus it turned soft when cold.  I took some when still warm and added it with some sugar for my girls to snack on.  They loved it because it was just like fried bread with sugar.  It was good if you eat it right away.  It was crispy and soft when warm.

 

 

My girls said it's tasty!

I thought I roll it thin enough but apparently not.  I should roll this again as thin as wonton skin. 

I cut and then stretched it and placed it on a slipat ready to deep-fry.

Mung Kuan Char or Stir-fried Jicama

 Top Left

Since a reader asked me to teach her how to stir-fry jicama, I'm sharing my recipe here.  Mine is called "mung kuan char" and not "ju hu char" because I don't add dried cutterfish/dried squid in mine.  This is my version and we really like it.

Waxed Meat Rice

I wanted to try this dish ever since I saw it appeared on fellow blogger's blogs.  But I couldn't try it because I couldn't find waxed duck or waxed pork belly here.  So, most of the times I could only imagine the taste.  However, my chance came when our friend who's the restaurant owner served us a plate of mixed waxed meat that her head chef prepared in her own kitchen.  Wow, lucky us!  The head chef made a combination of waxed duck, waxed pork belly and waxed sausages.  I took some leftover of the waxed duck and sausage as I found the waxed pork belly too fattening.  Alright, alright, you can say I don't know how to appreciate the best part, I agreed, I agreed.  :-P

Traditionally to until these days, waxed meat delicacies is one of the must have items to welcome the Chinese Lunar New Year.  Usually served on CNY eve on the reunion table and throughout the CNY.  Lots of shops will be selling waxed meat products in their stores during this time.  Many buy them as gift for relatives and friends as well.

 I steamed the rice in my electric steamer and once it's almost cooked, I placed the waxed meat on top.  It was so fragrant and the juices from the waxed meat seep into the rice.  I loved it!  I also loved the waxed duck that the chef prepared, very flavorful.  My little Edda loved this rice a lot too, both of us finished the most part of it as my hubby doesn't like waxed meat at all.  Hehe...more for us.

Lettuce Wrap

~Old Post~

This is one dish that I must cook every Chinese New Year.  What I enjoyed when I was little visiting grandparents' houses and what was the favorite food that my mom cooked on reunion dinner that seem to be stuck in my memory is this dish.  My mom would roast a chicken or buy the roasted pork from the vendor and made her own chili to go with this lettuce wrap.  It was always so divine that I just had to cook it every year.  Of course the meat served in my house would be different as I often too lazy to roast a chicken and also too lazy to drive so far away to the Asian store to buy the roasted pork.  So, I made an easy stir-fried marinated chicken to go with mine.
 

A piece of romaine lettuce (you can use green leaf, red leaf or Boston lettuce too).  Spread the "mung kuang char" (stir-fried jicama) on top, top with chicken and a little of the chili, wrap and enjoy!

This is what I called yummilicious!!!

Now that I thought about it, I can even wrap some rice in and eat it together eh?  Did you eat this dish during CNY?