Tepee

Goong hei, indeed! Somehow, methinks it's going to take much less time to wipe out all those dimsums.

Well done! I didn't manage to take a single food pix during our recent christmas party. Your nibbles look very elegant. Such an interesting goose themed dinner....another meal to remember. Are you able to steal Marianne's goose breast recipe, Jack? Have a good rest.

Gosh...I'm too sleepy right now to make a list. But you may recognise his breads amongst the other breads in my gallery. (don't mean to spam...it's one a.m. here and time for shut-eye) I especially love his apple oat bread and his cheesesticks.

I was late too. Made 4 minis (picture) and 2 bigger ones on Thursday the 10th. Ooooh....must tell... I got the bean in the big one!

Add me to the Fan List. Everything Dan Lepard I've made (quite a long list!) has turned out great. I can attest that he's as approachable in real life as he is online.

Yes, do try it, Marlene. I used quinoa, rolled oats and wheatgerm (out of bran) for the soaker and black hill rice for the main dough. The bread is incredibly soft and fluffy, yet has a nice chew to it.

Sigh...I read with envy your baguettes-baking...my oven's too small to bake them. I finally got BBA and made Peter Reinhart's Multigrain Extraordinaire a couple of days ago. Though my family has been orientated to eat european-style breads from my almost 3 years of breadbaking, being Malaysians, their preference are still 'soft' breads, and this certainly got their thumbs-up. The flavour is also great. They are demanding that I make it again. Soon. Edit: I reduced the yeast from 1 tablespoon to 1 tsp, and the sugar from 3 T to 2, as I notice there is honey too.

This evening, I made my first recipe, Foolproof Roast Chicken, from the book, together with a few heads of roast garlic, roast carrots and shallots. Everyone in the family LOVED it. The skin was so crispy, you'd think it was deep-fried, and even the white meat was very moist. I baked a 4lb hormone-free chicken and it took half an hour longer than the one hour or so for the recipe's 3-pounder. As I carved the legs, I noticed some traces of blood (though the juices ran clear), so I popped the chicken into the oven again to bake. I went and did something else and forgot to put on the timer and it got cooked for another 20 minutes. But..... this recipe is so foolproof that it didn't hurt any part of the chicken at all. Everything was still so succulent and the skin became even more crisp and yet it didn't burn. Lovely. Should have taken a picture.

After my confinement lady killed my non-stick rice cooker 5 years ago, I never got one to replace it. Even though I cook rice almost every day, I use a steamer. One less electrical appliance on the worktop. It takes around 20 - 25 mins of steaming over medium fire (check to see random holes on surface) and 5 minutes more of further steaming after switching off the heat. Fluff. The grains come out lovely and separated. Adjust your water. Sounds like you just need enough water to cover the rice and a bit more. Your rice must be very fresh.

And there's vegetarian goose...very tasty. It's crisp on the outside and slightly chewy on the inside. Picture (last pic of series) Ingredients 8 pieces beancurd skin Seasoning - mix all together : 2 pcs red fermented beancurd cubes (nam yue) 2 T light soya sauce 3 T sugar 1 tsp sesame oil 1 tsp five-spice powder 2 C water 2 T plain flour Soften beancurd skin with a damp cloth. Brush on the seasoning, fold. Do this alternately till you get a rectangle of around 8" x 4". Secure pieces together with a satay stick or toothpicks. Marinate for a minimum of 2 hours. Shallow-fry. If needed, I can do a demo. Can be made in advance and frozen. Shallow-fry to revive.

Thanks, Rona. And noting Verjuice's recommendation that supermarket dates can be just as good, if not better. Thanks! The sweets are just up my alley!

I'm also glued to this blog...so many 'new' things to see. I don't see you posting very often, so this blog is a great revelation. My bro-in-law, as well as my daughter's best friend (her mom got a job there), has gone over to Dubai...it's incredible how many Malaysians are heading over there. Would love to see more. What should we ask him to buy home when he returns for a break? Cheers.

djyee and CT, your meals look so delicious! The cardamom ice-cream idea is genius! We'll be inviting some 50 odd people (usually turns out to be more) over to our home this Sunday for afternoon tea malaysian style, and, guess what, there's also going to be beef rendang. Then, I'll be making nasi kerabu (herb rice), vietnamese noodle salad, sayur lodeh and sambal tempeh. My mother will be making/bringing curry chicken and tofu flower for dessert. I also ordered some spice chicken wings just in case. I wish I had time to make the javanese pickle, but, I won't be in the whole of tomorrow and I'll be busy making the sweets too...mixed nuts biscotti (done this morning), mince tarts, gingerbreadmen (done last night), Dorie G's world peace cookies (done yesterday), coconut squares (Pichet Ong's), a pseudo croquembouche, and a chocolate 'tree' cake to celebrate my littlest's birthday on the same day. Wish me luck.

A friend suggested to me to do turkey the chiuchow/teochew duck way. I agree that would make a very moist bird. Trick is to find a pot huge enough. Reading about RRO's yumcha meal, we did have one at Din Tai Fung on the eve....heheh...where we had beef tendons on behalf of Dai Gah Jeh Dejah. For christmas dinner, we were invited to 2 places 'which we had to go'. My sis - turkey, various homemade pizzas, shepherd's pie, mee siam, curry chicken, a teochew dumpling filled with braised jicama, satay, brownies, fruit cake, marble cheesecake, macadamia nuts. As if we were not stuffed enough, we continued at... My hubby's eldest bro's: More pizzas (Domino's ), fried noodles, Rice and chicken (from a middle-eastern restaurant), salad, chocolate cake, fried chicken. To both places, I brought an agar-agar dessert made with honey sea coconut and lychees, flavoured with pandan leaves and palm sugar. It was appreciated in both places...I find people here prefer a light refreshing dessert, and would be more welcomed than the yule log I was thinking of making. The christmas cum youngest birthday-do at our home will be this Sunday, where we usually 'open' our home to friends and family. I'm expecting around 50...I'm keeping the invite list as short as possible...but since it's an 'open house' thing, no uninvited guests will be turned away.

Mo tak ding(cannot be beat), sheetz!

Thanks, djyee100. I cut the bottoms of the brussel sprouts, cut crosses and blanched it first. My kids love 'em.

Sure, brisket should be fine, especially, if you cook it the low temp long time method. In what way was the other recipe disappointing?

I need to make those shrimps! Made sayur lodeh today with some additions, i.e. tempeh, pressed rice (I confess, it's the instant type) and bean threads. Comfort food, indeed. I should take my tripod out.

For non-fried daikon cake, Msians (or at least my family) usually eat with chopped green onions, cilantro, deep-fried shallots, more fried lup cheong, fried chopped har mai (dried shrimp), geong see (fried ginger in fine shreds), sweet chilli sauce and a sauce we simply call tim cheong, a 'sweet sauce' which is deep red in colour, I think, due to nam yue (red fermented bean cube). I'm feeling very hungry.

I think I can say that anywhere there's a char siu bao stall here, you'll be able to get dai bao, leen yoong bao (lotus seed paste), dou sar bao (red bean), kaya bao (coconut custard) and lor mai gai (glutinous chicken rice with a bit of pork/mushroom).

Go for it!

Yep, bicarbonate of soda tenderizes....see roast pork belly thread where it's said to work marvellously on the skin.

Love your candid travelogue, Rona! LOL, thanks for the toilet buttons pix....my girls loved the bidet etc...functions in the regular ones...wait'll they see this. And, I know what you mean by crowd. We were at Tokyo Disneyland during a national holiday. Eeek! I also love the part where you and your mom seem to like the items which the other didn't at your sweet stop...nothing left unappreciated there. Sigh....the packaging are indeed so beautiful (eclectic artistry) it's almost sacrilegious to rip at it to get to the contents. My eldest has her heart all set at studying in Japan. Thanks for sharing.

I lost my sugee fruitcake recipe and have been pining for it for 3 years. I was so happy to see The Old Foodie post her friend's recipe, from which I made a number of tweaks, which included soaking the semolina in batter for a good 5 hours. These are 5" minis and they disappear very fast.

Yay! You did it! Pix! Pix! I do subscribe to trying to make something I like at least once. Trick is finding the time. OK....let's do the XLB next.