CNY SPECIALS

It is Chinese New Year celebration once again.  We spent about 2 hours having a family meeting on what to cook during the first few days of the Lunar New Year.  This is what we have come up with:

初一 (first day)： Our family traditional Poh Piah
初二 (2nd day)： Our family traditional Hokkien Mee
初三 (3rd day)： Gado Gado and Char Kway Teow
初四 (4th day)： Meatballs

Tell me about it, it is mad rush!  Despite the careful planning to write down all the necessary things we need, we still tend to make some changes last minute. Preparation and cooking for the first two days are by mum and aunt, whereas on the 3rd day onwards, it is me and KK.

Here are the dishes in order:

POH PIAH : This is really one traditional dish that I grew up with since my grandparents time.  It is also my first version of how Poh Piah is, and I remembered getting a shock when I tasted Poh Piah outside that seems so plain and different.

Turnip, carrot, cabbage, beancurd, bamboo shoot, mushroom, leek, minced garlic, chinese sausage, egg, shitake, french beans, prawns, local chinese lettuce and SpringHome Poh Piah skin. Preparation time: 4hrs.

FRIED HOKKIEN MEE: I have no idea how this originates and if other families are preparing the noodles this way.  All I know, I grew up eating noodles prepared by my grandparents in this manner.  Ingredients include: Yellow noodles, prawns, cuttlefish, pork, straw mushroom, fishcake, egg (optional).  Preparation time: 3hrs.

This year, I bought the wrong mushroom and noodles, so it is not as perfect as I want it to be.






















GADO GADO: This is not traditional.  In fact, it is an experimental dish which we tried out for the first time. Wahahaha..seems easy to do but the dish took us 4.5hrs to prepare.  Struggling mainly with the peanut gravy which is so hard to get the texture and taste correct.  We followed the recipe book but things still turn out not as what we expected it to be. Overall still edible, but could be improved. Now are we going to experiment it again, or should I just head out to a hawker centre to have my favorite Gado Gado!

Ingredients:

Sauce (Fresh Chilli, Dried Shrimp, Shallots, Raw Peanuts, Tamarine Juice, Palm Sugar, Lime Leaves and Coconut Milk)

Boiled Potatoes, Boiled French Beans, Boiled Beansprouts, Hard Boiled Eggs, Fresh Lettuce and Fried Beancurd.




















CHAR KWAY TEOW:  This is another experimental dish, although this is not the first time we are attempting it.  Last year was a complete failure!  This time round, we referred to a few recipe book to be sure. And yes! It is GOOD! Only wish there are prawns..

Ingredients: Yellow Noodles, Kway Teow, Egg, Cai Sim, Beansprouts, Chinese Sausage, Cockles.

Seasoning Sauce:

1 tablespoon dark soya sauce

3 tablespoons sweet soya sauce

2 teaspoons chilli sauce

3 tablespoons oyster sauce

1 tablespoon tomato sauce

a little water

Steps:

1. Heat oil in work, stir fry garlic.

2. Fry chinese sausage first and then add kway teow and noodles.

3. Add three quarter of the seasoning ingredients.

4. Push aside kway teow and break eggs in the middle of the work.  Stir completely and add other ingredients.

5. Add remaining seasoning ingredients.
6. Add cockles.




MEATBALL (recipe by Lisa Butler):  This is a very special dish, all credit goes to my friend Lisa Butler from Missouri USA, who gave me this vintage recipe.  It is a recipe that her mother left behind for her, a recipe that was created for over 20 years ago! 

This is the exact recipe she gave me, I revised it slightly by adding Pork with the beef.  The rest remains the same.  Preparation time: 3hrs.

1 pound ground beef
3 tbsp grated Romano cheese
3 eggs
3 slices stale bread
1 clove garlic, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Soak bread in water 5 minute, squeeze dry. Mix thoroughly with meat, slightly beaten eggs, grated Romano cheese, and garlic. Add salt and pepper to taste. 

Shape out balls about the size of a small egg; roll in flour; fry in hot oil about 10 minutes or til golden brown. Serve very hot with vegetables and salad. May also be served with spaghetti. Serves 4 to 6.

I would dare say this is the best meatball I have ever eaten.  Personally I find it is nicer than Ikea's Swedish Meatballs.

KK revised his formula too by adding some other ingredients.  He also made them into smaller balls similar to those of Ikea's Meatball. It is also good.

I like mine because it has more cheese flavor in it.

Thank you Lisa, thank you so much for the recipe.

This year, we have KK's brothers coming by to sample our food. It is such a surprise, one of them came 3 days in a row, what a record! Hahaha..

I look forward to another CNY, but I do not think I will be experimenting stuff during CNY, it is so hard to keep the ingredients fresh for too many days.  Experimental stuff should be left to normal day/weekends.

It has been a good CNY, lotsa good food and company.  Only things I missed are my DVD movies and my Bak Kwa. Otherwise it would have been perfect.