CNY Dinner At 3rd Uncle House

Chinese Lunar New Year is coming to an end follow by the celebration of "Yuan Xiao Jie(元宵节)" or "Chap Goh Mei(十五暝)" on tomorrow which is the 15th day of the Chinese New Year festivities. And often during this long festive season most of us will indulge ourselves with all those feast and goodies from house to house visits, company or gathering functions.

As my mum comes from a big family with 7 siblings, every year during Chinese New Year(CNY) there are always a lot of family gathering from 1st uncle house all the way to the 7th uncle. And each of the household will prepare their very own signature dishes to cater for almost 30 people during different days of the house visit. Although now our beloved 3rd uncle is no long around, Aunt Lai Choo(3rd uncle's wife) still practice the custom of inviting everyone to her house during CNY where she will prepared a lot of delicious home cooked food for us.

This big plate of Hotdog, Sotong Ball and Nuggets are specially prepared for the kids and most importantly these are not deep-fried as they are grilled using the oven toaster. (healthy)

For starter, we have this "Marinated Jellyfish(海蜇) with Century Eggs" where aunty Lai Choo prepares and marinated the jellyfish using her very own recipe. Upon serving everyone agrees that this is a very appetising dish and it is gone in less than 20 minutes even before the rest arrives.

It has being a long long time since I last had this "Fish Maw Soup(鱼鳔汤)". I remember my late dad used to cook this similar soup with ingredients such as Chinese cabbage, minced meatballs, and fish maw. But still the most unforgettable taste of this soup is from my great-grandmother where she cooks really yummy fish maw soups that makes you go for even 3rd bowl in a row.

Mixed Vegetables Curry with Longtong Rice.

"Teochew Style Steamed Chicken with Garlic Cloves and Ginger" is something different from the usual Hainanese Style where they cooked the chicken in boiling water then dipped it in ice water to produce a jelly-like skin finishing. Although steamed chicken won't be as tender as Hainanese style but it definitely taste much fragrant and sweeter as steaming method often locks the flavour of the ingredients.

I love this simple and yet delicious "Stir-fry Prawn and Squid with Tomato Sauce". Aunty Lai Choo is still very thoughtful that she actually removed off all the prawn shells leaving just the tail portion.

Lastly despite of those delicious homecooked dishes above, there are also some Agar Agar and Cheng Teng that are available for after meal desserts. So from what I always think, home cooked food is always the best food that unite everyone in the family together and nothing weighs as valuable as all family members  get together and enjoy the heart warming atmosphere of "family time".

[Featured @] Foodbuzz ~ Today's Top 9

Hi friends and readers from Foodbuzz, thanks for your all your "BUZZ" that makes "[Valentine's Dessert] Melt Your Heart ~ Strawberries Yoghurt Cubes" and "Orange Cinnamon Sorbet" being featured on Foodbuzz Top 9 on 12 February 2011 and 26 February 2011 respectively! And out of the 4,163 posts from the Foodbuzz Community, this Strawberries Yoghurt Cubes has make it way up to Top #3 as choosen by the Foodbuzz editors and users.

You can also take a look at the rest of the 8 entries from this link HERE. Once again thanks for all the supports as it's all your BUZZ that makes this happen.

"Orange Cinnamon Sorbet" being featured on Foodbuzz Top 9 on 26 February 2011.

[Valentine's Day Special] Fish & Co. XoXo Platter For 2

Countdown to another 2 more days before Valentine's Day on Monday, 14 February 2011. Have you decide on what to eat and where to make your reservation on this Special Day? If budget is your concern, why not consider this Fish and Co. XoXo platter for 2.

What's more, for this Valentin's Day Special set it comes with 2 exotic drinks, 2 seafood chowders, a platter for 2, and a hot fudge chocolate cake for sharing that cost LESS than S$50.00 after all the GST and service charges. And this special bargain is available at all Fish and Co. outlets starting from 11 February till 14 February 2011.

Note:-

1st 100 couples whom order the xoxo set meal on Valentine’s Day will also get to receive a “Spin the Bottle” raunchy fun game and a limited edition Fish and Co. pouch for FREE. *While stocks last.

For a start let indulge ourself with a glass of  "Tropical Punch" which is flavour with exotic passion fruit fragrant and sweet sensation taste. You can also adjust the sweetness of this drink by slowly stirring to mix the syrup at the bottom  together with the sparkling water to suit your taste.

As usual for starter, their signature hot and steamy "Seafood Chowders" is served less than 5 minutes after our order. But today the soup seems a bit diluted and I cannot seems to find my favourite "chowders".

For Kid's meal, my boy order his favourite "Fish Tale" that comes with a choice of soft drink and you can choose either to have rice or chips as side too. For S$6.00, this can be a huge portion for younger or small appetite kids.

Most of their serving staffs are very cheerful and friendly towards each and every customers. Some of the staffs even try to keep an eyes on the food serve after each interval in order to make sure there is enough space to cater the food and it is not sitting on the table for too long before it gets cold.

A minute or two after they clear my empty soup bowl, our XoXo platter arrives with generous array of seafood such as two big pieces of Crispy Salmon, 6 Grilled Peri Peri Prawn, Fried Calamari, Blue Mussels served on bed of paella rice and fresh yummy coleslaw.
Price: S$39.95 (includes 2 drinks, 2 soups, 1 platter set and 1 dessert)

The peri peri sauce for the "Char-grilled Prawns" seems a bit different from the one I had at their flagship outlet at Glass House(read more HERE). This one seems to be a bit salty but overall it still taste fine with that hint of char-grilled aroma from the fresh prawns.

  As you have notice Salmon is always one of our favourite seafood dish at home and this "Crispy Salmon" taste great with it's spicy mango vinaigrette dressing which makes it look and taste sort of like those deep-fried fish which served with Thai sweet sauce.

Although from the initial look you might have the impression that the fish could be tough and dry due to deep-frying process but when you take a bite you will be delighted with it's soft and juicy texture.

Thanks God their "Fried Calamari" serves in this set is not those chewy rubber band texture which sometime might happen in certain outlets. The one we had this afternoon was great with extra points given to its' crispy and fragrant batter.

Out of all the items on the platter, these "Blue Mussels in Tomato and Pesto Sauce" are the least favour towards our liking. We find the sauce taste rather cold and sourish and the mussels was a bit over cooked which makes it tough to bite.

Here is part of my share which is taken from the XoXo Platter Set. Eating in small portions like this makes me less guilty on feasting such a huge portion of seafood platter.

After waited about 10 minutes I decided to check with the serving staff for the whereabouts of our excited dessert. And to our surprised he has actually forgotten about it.........

For your information every set of the Valentine's Day XoXo Platter comes with a plate of "Sexy Fudgy Chocolate Cake" as dessert for sharing.

As you can see from the above photo on our desier for it which makes this our most favourite dessert to order whenever we visit Fish and Co. The warm, moist and rich chocolate cake blends well with the cold and creamy vanilla ice cream which makes this a heavenly match dessert for any age.

Lastly I would like to thanks Hazel from Thox Pte Ltd and Fish and Co for their dinning vouchers on this Valentine's Special XoXo Platter. I wish each and everyone of you "Happy Valentine's Day", may you and your loves one have a wonderful and memorable time on this special day.

FISH N CO.
53 Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3
AMK Hub, #02-03
Singapore 569933
Telephone: 6555 6298 
Fax: 6555 6098
Website: http://www.fish-co.com/

Operating Hours:
11.30am - 10:00pm Daily

[Valentine's Dessert] Heart Poppers ~ Assorted Mini Donuts

There is a period of time where I used to bake mini donuts for gatherings or upon special orders from readers and friends about 2 years back. I still remember during that time getting "Donuts" is a very popular trend among youngster and working adults. And as an interest I have also come out with about 30 over different flavours of mini donuts where you can read up more on these posts HERE.

These are some of the assorted design heart shape donuts baked using the mini heart shape pan. For this recipe I have used Meiji, Mixed Berrries Yoghurt as one of the ingredients, but you can always replace it with either plain or any of your favurite yoghurt flavour.

Ingredients: (makes around 20)

1 1/4 Cups Top Flour, sifted
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
Pinch of Salt
150ml Mixed Berries Yoghurt
1/4 Cup Castor Sugar
1 Large Egg
3 Tablespoons of Melted Unsalted Butter, cool
Zest of 1 Lemon
1 Disposal Pipping Bag, optional

Method:

1. Grease mini heart shape/donut pan with cooking spray or melted butter and set aside.

2. In a medium mixing bowl whisk sugar and lemon zest until moist and fragrant.

3. Crack in the egg and give it a quick whisk till combined before adding the yoghurt and mixed well.

4. Next sieved in flour, baking powder, salt and whisk together with melted butter till the mixture resemble paste like texture.

5. Spoon mixture into disposal pipping bag, snap off the tip and pipe into prepared trays at about 3/4 full.

6. Bake in preheated 180 degree oven for about 8 - 10 minutes or until donuts spring back when touched.

7. Cool donuts in pan for another 2 - 3 minutes before removing it from tray.

8. Decorate the donuts with melted chocolate, sprinkles, fresh fruits or etc.

Tips:-

* With this recipe above, you can mix and match with different key ingredients such as cocoa powder/green tea powder to make different flavour.

* Adding in shredded cheese and ham for savory version and etc.

These are the mini rose scented "Heart Poppers" which is great to be served during Valentine's Day. Due to the sticky chocolate glazing, I use some heart shapes design food picks to act as a server for easy consuming as well as vision effect.

These "Rose Scented Donuts" which coated with White Chocolate Glaze are one of the popular choices among those donuts order that I received years back(read more HERE). I think for ladies who prefer the light and fragrant aroma of rose, this is definitely a great choice for afternoon tea snacks.

If you are cracking your head for ideas on sweet treat for kiddy's Birthday Party or Tea-Session with a few besties for some cozy afternoon girls talk. Here are some mini donuts(about 4cm in diameter) to satisfy those sugar rush.

I submitting this post to "Aspiring Bakers #4: Love In The Air! (Feb 2011)", hosted by Me(Cuisine Paradise) at this link HERE.