New Year's Eve Dinner

Thankfully this year, Chinese New Year fell during my reading week so I was able to fully prepare for the mammoth task ahead of me. I had decided to do a mini-Reunion Dinner on the Eve - 8 course + appetiser and dessert (which = 10) in addition to doing a massive spring clean of the house (in keeping with the whole traditional thing).

The preparations for the gathering started on Friday with me doing part of the food preparations and deep cleaning the house. I cleaned the bathroom (toilet bowl, bathtub, sink, floor), kitchen (counter tops, sink, floor, hob), the living room (vacuumed, cleared the clutter off the table, cleaned table top), hallway and staircase (vacuuming), which completely tired me out but rewarded me which such satisfaction that I am happy to declare it was all worth it. :)

What I am most pleased of is the state of my stove - this is what it looked like halfway through the cleaning (more like scrubbing because of the grime that had accumulated in the last month). The white stuff on the right side is the cleaning product that I used (which I am in love with now because of how clean it made the stove even though I did have to use a third of the bottle to get everything off).

and this is what it looked like at the end of the hour...
my clean kitchen and bathroom...
and the hallway...
I had bought these lights in Bangkok in December because my mom thought that I should have some festive decorations and when I saw them in Bangkok I thought they'd be perfect and very apt for the occasion.
Friday night was spent marinading the pork for both the char siew and the roast pork so that by the time I would cook it on Saturday, it would have been seasoned for about 20 hours. I think I had bought a total of nearly 2 1/2kg of meat! mmmm... I also soaked some chinese mushrooms and scallops and braised them in a frying pan with garlic, oyster sauce, sesame oil and sugar (with the water that they were soaked in) before transferring to a slow cooker overnight.

I was so psyched up for Saturday that on Friday night I had even drawn up a plan of action for the day - like what I needed to do at what time and which dish to be done before another.

What a dork I am!

So Saturday began with me going to Coventry market to get my fresh prawns and fish (so that I would a) get fresher food, b) not put a strain on my fridge on Friday because I had quite a lot of other food stored in there and c) not have to freeze the seafood - which would have partially destroyed the texture of the food, important since I was planning to steam/quick cook them). I bought 1/2kg of tiger prawns (completely with shell and head) and a sea bass that I had the fishmonger de-scale and clean out (thank God for markets when you can get them to do all the messy work!). Then I whizzed back home to start the cooking!

I had decided to make Gula Melaka Sago as the dessert for the dinner but realised what I had (that I had brought from home a while back) was gula kelapa laut (sea coconut sugar) - thus a slight change in the menu: Gula Kelapa Laut Sago!

The recipe is really simple but it took ages to do simply because I only had a small strainer and I needed to strain the cooked sago before chilling it in the fridge.it took me an entire hour to strain a full pot (shown on the right) for a bowl (left) of sago. :(
Next I fried some prawn crackers (which were meant to be snacks/appetiser) and created a chilli dip for them with fresh red chillis, garlic, fish sauce, sugar and lime juice.
next it was time to pop the pork belly into the oven (for the roast pork) and wrap the wantons. I rested the pork belly on halved cooking onions so that the fat would drip down and the bottom of the meat would get roasted rather than fried in the oils.Halfway through wrapping wantons I put pork shoulder strips with the char siew marinade into the oven as it does not take as long to cook. I then pre-cooked the wantons in a pot of boiling water (rather than in the soup I was going to serve it in so that the flour from the skins do not destroy the stock) and prepared a simple chicken-based soup with stock, ginger, garlic and spring onions.

After that the real frenzy began where I had to juggle chopping ingredients and cooking multiple dishes - i boiled the egg noodles and stir-fried some garlic, spring onions, fishcake and beansprouts and after adding the cooked noodles, finished the dish off with some scallop sauce. While stir-frying the lotus roots with asparagus in garlic, I sliced up some lap cheong and quickly fried the pieces (to get a nice smoky flavour) before adding the eggs for an omelette. I blanched some spinach leaves to use as a base for my braised chinese mushrooms. While my sea bass was steaming (simply with oyster sauce, pepper, spring onions, ginger and sesame oil), I finished my last dish (drunken prawns).

They were all really simple dishes and turned out really well (though I was disappointed with my noodle dish). I think it was only difficult because I was cooking the entire meal on my own - which was do-able but tricky in my very small kitchen).

So the final pictorial menu (and some recipes!)

Chinese Roast PorkRub some salt and pepper on the top of a slab of pork belly (scored at the top to get a crispy skin), and salt, pepper and five spice on the bottom. Roast for approximately 1 1/2 hrs at medium heat, turning it up towards the end to crisp.

Char SiewMix marinade in zip-lock bag (so that meat will evenly coat) and place sliced up strips of pork shoulder (or neck - which my mom uses). Pop the marinated meat into the oven and glaze once in a while so that the meat does not dry up. Recipe is my mom's concoction which I have tweaked to my taste - have not quite decided if I want to post it... will think about it. :)

Stir-fried Lotus Root and Asparagus in GarlicLap Cheong Omelette
Stir-Fried Egg Noodles with Fishcake and Beansprouts, in Scallop Sauce (i cheated and used a bottle of sauce that I had brought from home)
Chinese Mushrooms Braised with Oyster Sauce on a Bed of SpinachWantons (sans soup) - filling: pork mince, water chestnuts and spring onions Steamed Sea BassDrunken PrawnsHeat 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil and 1 tablespoon of sesame oil in a hot pan. Add chopped ginger strips, followed by 500g fresh prawns. When the prawns begin to have some colour, add 400ml of chinese rice wine. Add salt and sugar to taste. Serve immediately once the prawns are cooked, garnishing with coriander.

Gula Kelapa Laut Sago

Soak sago (about 200g) in water for about 10mins. Boil in a pot with 5 cups of water. Once they turn transparent, strain and run under cold water to cool. Divide into moulds and chill in refridgerator. Mix 400ml of coconut milk (= 1 can) with 200ml of water, add some pandan leaves (or essence in my case), bringing it to boil but continuously stirring so that it does not curdle. Add 2 tablespoons of sugar, remove from heat and chill. Dissolve 100g of gula kelapa laut (or gula melaka) with 2 tablespoons of hot water and chill. Serve by pouring coconut milk and syrup mixture over the sago (as desired).

We decided to end dinner with some poker and while Josh and Jon went to Jon's place to get his poker table (which was very nice!), Johann, Phoebe and I sat there chatting. Till I mentioned that I had lost one of my pot covers a while back and was not sure if it had fallen behind the stove. That led to a completely geeky attempt to rescue it using a small flashlight, a mirror, a coat hanger, a pair of kitchen tongs and a broom stick. Go figure...
hehehe... :)