Thursday, February 21, 2008

Sweet Red Beans + Tang Yuen Soup

Time flies, it's already the end of CNY. Today is the last day of CNY where we called it "Chap Goh Mei", the 15th day. Usually people will have a feast on this day and eating tang yuens to signified "tuan tuan yuen yuen", or togetherness, unity in the new Lunar year.

Since I wanted something different from my usual brown sugar ginger syrup, I made red bean soup to go with it. Added some mini tapioca pearls, dried orange peels and glutinous rice as well.



Also reserved some to eat with my favorite peanut + sugar coating. Evy really loved it, she "sapu" (finished) all below, asked for more and later ate her daddy share!! I think I managed to eat three balls only! Later I served her the red bean soup with tang yuens and she finished all the tang yuens in the bowl and asked for more but left the red bean soup basically untouched.



I am glad that I got to meet all my girlfriends this CNY. :) Extra big hug to V for purposely drove all the way down to "pie nian" with me, I am really touched and it showed what a great girlfriend she is. Wait for me to make the "kuih kapit" okay? :D

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Dinner Feb 13th, 2008


One of my special CNY dinners.


Soup with bamboo fungus, dried beancurd sheet and enoki mushroom.


My "Mung Kwan Char" (stir-fry jicama). Not "Ju Hur Char" because no dried squid was used. This is a traditional CNY dish for us but I slightly adapted it my way. This dish is delicious and tastes better the next day. We used to eat it wrap in lettuce, with a piece of baked chicken and spread with homemade chili sauce (sambal), wrap it and enjoy! Delectable! I'm traditional like that, I need to eat my "mung kwan char" every CNY.


Emperor Baked Chicken. My house smelled absolutely divine when this chicken was baking.


Can see the crispy skin or not? Baked with my vertical roaster stand. Tigerfish, here's the pictures I promised you. Moist and juicy chicken with crispy skin, my hubby's favorite!

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

London Almond Cookies


Cooling on rack.


Covered with white chocolate and sprinkles.


Covered with semi-sweet chocolate and almond bits.

I saw this cookies at Rainbows and it really got me interested. I have not seen this kind of CNY cookies before because I have been living in the States for a very long time. Thus, I only familiar with the traditional CNY cookies. Luckily, I know how to bake and can always make whatever cookies that strike my fancy. So, here is it, my first ever London Almond Cookies. As I was lazy, I melted the chocolate using the microwave and perhaps that's why my melted chocolate was fairly thick and it won't spread nicely like the one in Rainbow's blog. She said the skill of making this cookie is in melting the chocolate. Guess I can't really do a short-cut if I wanted my cookies to look like her. Tastewise, no different but for the presentation itself, huge difference. LOL! :P

Verdict:
This cookies is on the sweet end, as the white chocolate is sweet. However, this easily can be any children favorite, but very messy when given to toddlers.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Baked Red Bean Nian Gao



I decided to make this red bean nian gao to bring to Lily's party and to serve at my party. This recipe was shared by Lin, and it is so worth a try. Thank you Lin for sharing this fantastic recipe. :*



This is seriously good. Tasted so much better with the added red bean, I will make this again next year. Oh yeah, have you spotted my mistake yet? I forgot to swirl the red bean paste around the batter when I dropped it in and thus some part had red bean while other didn't. Not pretty too but look can be deceiving! ;) Anyway, I learned from my mistake. 


Saturday, February 16, 2008

Tagged: 10 Things about Little Corner of Mine

I got tagged by Daphne to do this meme: 10 Things about Me.

1. Little Corner of Mine loves to : travel.

2. Little Corner of Mine hates to: socialize (homegirl by choice).

3. Little Corner of Mine loves to: hang around with best friends.

4. Little Corner of Mine hates to: clean the bathroom.

5. Little Corner of Mine loves to: try new recipes, either cooking or baking.

6. Little Corner of Mine hates to: cook everyday. (Thus I'm having days off)

7. Little Corner of Mine loves to: cuddle her daughters.

8. Little Corner of Mine hates to: do laundry.

9. Little Corner of Mine loves to: spend more time with her parents and siblings.

10. Little Corner of Mine hates to: live so far away from Malaysia.


Now, I would like to tag:

V's East Meets West Kitchen
Ling's Passion
Big Fish
Tigerfish - Teczcape
Cocoa-Masakan Istimewa

Remember to link back to me when you do the tagged ya.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

My Yi Lu Fa Cai



This is my copycat dish of Chef. Steven "Hou See Fatt Choy". I added some wolfberries for extra color effect. Whether it's a good idea or not, I don't know but wolfberries is good for us, so why not? Why I didn't name mine "hou see fatt choy" you might asked. That's because I couldn't find any dried oyster here. Nada...not one in sight. So, have to make mine without the dried oyster and gave it a new name which I read at Tigerfish's blog. This is the dish I brought to Lily's house.



Does this dish looks appertizing to you? I would really love to know because my hubby thinks this dish is soooo unappealing that he didn't even bother to try one. *Sorta pissed to learn later that he didn't even bother to try one of my CNY dish creation because to him it looks unappertizing, my own hubby!* You tell me!

Lastly, I want to wish my readers a "Happy Valentine's Day" !
Hubby wants to bring us out for dinner and so no cooking for me. :)