I love peahs

I am not a big fan of peahs (Chinese pastry) but this box from Penang changed my mind overnight!

It was a gift from hubby's Sri Aman colleague who went to Penang on a company trip.  This box of peahs from Ming Xiang Tai really make me craving for more. Ming Xiang Tai originated from Perak and has few shops in Peninsular Malaysia. Thanks to hubby's colleague for this delicious box and other gifts as well.

12 pastry in the box and as you can see, I had ate one before I took this shot.  Initially not planning to post about it, but after tasted the 1st peah (glutinous coconut puff), I think it is worth mentioning.

Hubby and I tasted 3 of them last night; namely glutinous coconut puff, pandan salted egg pastry, and chicken floss pastry. The pastries were flaky yet not overly dry. The filling was generous and soft, and simply so good. Not too sweet for me.

Ta-da.  The pandan salted egg pastry.  Very generous filling, right??

And I personally enjoyed the glutinous coconut puff.

Not many peahs left, so we got to enjoy them little by little.  

Learn from tv

This lunch was all prepared and cooked by hubby when he was at home on one Monday morning.

He watched a cooking show the night before and eager to try and cook for the family. So together with me, he went to buy the necessary ingredients on Monday and get down to cooking. Talking about eager cook who seldom get into the kitchen!

According to the cooking show, this is a Hainanese cuisine.  I liked the dishes as they were simple, no hassle and all natural taste.

Boiled pork belly and cabbage rolls

With my hubby as the chef and I were the sous chef, our lunch was ready in less than 1 hour.

Ingredients:
1 pork belly, blanched
4 leaves of napa cabbage
2 tbsp hay bee (dried shrimps)
Salt for seasoning

Methods:

1. Bring a pot of water to boil and add the pork belly. Let it cook for at least 30 minutes.

2. In a pan, fry the dried shrimps till crispy. Drain on a kitchen towel. Set aside.

3. Take the pork belly out and let it cool down before slice in biteable size.

4. Arrange the pork belly in a plate, leaving a hole in the middle. Add few tsp of sea salt.

5. In the same pot of boiling water, toss napa leaves one at a time. Let it cook to soften.

6. Drain the cabbage and let it cool slightly before roll the cabbage from the white stem to the green leaves. Place in a plate. Do the same for other leaves.

7. Toss the dried shrimps on top of the cabbage leaves. Scoop some of the boiling soup on the rolls.

How to eat:

Pork belly - dip some salt before you enjoy it

Cabbage roll - cut the roll into 3 parts so it is smaller piece. You could add a pork belly in the roll as well as some haybee before eat

Remark:

The original recipe called for santan (coconut milk) to be add to the boiling water for cooking the cabbage leaves but we did not have any at home, so we omit it.

The good and sad

It was a raining Monday this week. I am still recovering from my illness; could feel the chill in the air and I am much prefer to stay indoor more nowadays than caught in the rain.

A normal Monday except I needed to send hubby to airport for his morning flight to KL.

Hubby receiving his award on stage

List of winners

He was attending his "Oscar-like" award in KL that afternoon. Congratulations dear for winning an award. 

And then, in the late afternoon, I received a call from my dad, conveying a sad news on a passing of an uncle.

My mum's older brother passed away that same afternoon. He has been admitted before CNY for a heart corrective surgery and stayed in the heart specialist centre since then. It was a shocking news to everyone as my uncle was fine (other than the blocked arteries). And what more devastating was my mum's second brother passed away last July. Not even 1 year and now, this older brother has passed on.

Life. Sometimes I do ponder over life. What if and what not. The people close and around us leaving us. Every day we are faced with challenges and bumps.

When you are disturbed...ponder it on your beds, and be silent....and I will both lie down and sleep in peace; for you alone, O Lord, make me lie down in safety ~ Psalm 4: 4,8

My prayer : Heavenly Father, thank you for the comfort and peace you provide in times of loss. Help us to share your love and grace with others. And thank you for the wonderful blessing and miracles you shown us everyday. Help us to seek the path of righteousness and remember that our salvation is in you each day. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Miscellaneous Sunday

It was a tiring but wonderful Sunday yesterday.  We spent most of the day in the church. We started off the day early as Jan and Jay were participating in the Sunday School's Day celebration. 

The best breakfast in the kids' minds!  McD's breakfast set.



Everyone had their share of breakfast before we drove ourselves to the church since we were late for the early morning briefing (I mean, the kids were late for the briefing).



Nevertheless, the mass went on well, with songs, praises and prayers.  Jan had her first share of singing in front of the audiences and oh boy.  We were proud of her.



The Sunday school children also have a group singing as well as a short drama and song.  Everyone was taking part in celebrating the Sunday School's Day.

We stayed for the 1st session of the mass which ended around 9.30am but Jan and Jay stayed back for the refreshment and continued with the 2nd session.

Hubby, Jamie and I went for our kolo mee in Huan Lok Café before we gone back to the church to pick the kids up after the 2nd session. 

After that, we went to Kubah Ria market to get some herbs.  And yes, our new babies.  Mint and Rosemary.

The old mints died off and this is my first rosemary, so fingers cross.  Hope they survive in my hands!! Lol.

The rest of the afternoon?? We rested, slept and watched tv.  We had our dinner at home earlier since the kids needed to rush for the night session of church mass.  By the time we were done, we reached home before 9pm and everyone were so tired from the day events to do anything other than sleep. zzzz

Bak kut teh

I did not cooked on one Sunday as I were busy with Jan's church rehearsal. She is participating in this Sunday's church singing so she was needed to attend rehearsal for the last 2 Sundays.

So on the 1st Sunday of the rehearsal, it ended around 6pm and by then we were famished. We went to Go Fun Kee for bak kut teh.

The place was busy but luckily we did not have to wait too long for our bak kut teh to come. Our order of soft bones, pork ribs, pork belly with beancurd.

A vegetable dish to balance our diet.

I could not help but order this cincau with milk for myself. Nice cool dessert. I needed this to cool myself down after consuming the bak kut teh!

And before we left, we applied and got ourselves Go Fun Kee top-up card. Basically we add money in the card and use it to pay for our future meals there. Maybe more benefit or usage as I believe they just implement this loyalty card programme.

What is in the soup?

This was the soup that I made for Chap Goh Mei dinner. Fish maw soup.

Fish maw soup

I added some meat balls, fish balls as well as other ingredients in the soup to make it more nutritious and tasty.

I never like the meat balls from supermarkets so I made my own. Just pork meat and prawns for the tasty meatballs.

Mince and prawns paste

The ratio of meat to fresh prawns is 2:1. If you like prawns for that texture in the meatballs like I do, you could add more.

Sprinkle some sea salt, and white pepper to the mince of pork and prawns, and leave in fridge to let it set. When ready to cook, just add 1 egg white to the mince and mix well. When soup is boiling, use a tea spoon and form a meatball and slowly add the meatballs to the soup one by one.

Ok, here is the recipe of my fish maws soup. Hope you like it.

Other ingredients

You could add whatever you want in your soup but mine consisted of these.

Ingredients:
2 napa cabbage leaves, cut into smaller stripes
3 garlic cloves
Few stripes of ginger
Half of red carrot, cut thinly
Some fish balls, cut into half
Some meat balls (refer to above for recipe)
Some chicken breast stripes
Fish maw, blanch to soften
3 dried scallops
Salt, pepper and light soy sauce for seasoning

Methods:
1. Blanch the breast meat in hot water for a minute or so.  Drain and set aside.
2. Fill in a pot with water, add in the chicken meat, garlic, ginger, carrots, dried scallop and some white stem of napa cabbages.
3. Bring to boil under high heat. Once boiled, lower heat to medium and boil for few minutes (say 10 minutes) before add in the fish balls, meat balls, fish maw and leafy part of napa cabbages. 
4. Bring to boil until napa is soft.  Add in the seasoning to taste.

My guacamole

Avocado is one of my favourite fruits.  I enjoy its rich, creamy taste and it has nearly 20 essential nutrients that are good for everyone.

I usually add my avocado into fruit salad or eat it with milk for breakfast.  Just recently I spotted some avocados in the neighbourhood mall and I could not resist to buy them as it wasn't that expensive.

This time, I use few of my bought avocados for a simple homemade guacamole.  My first time making guacamole.  I tasted guacamole once with tortilla in a restaurant.  Somehow I liked this avocado-based Mexican dip very much.  But I never make it, thought it was hard to make but recently I found out that it is very simple.

And I revised a simple guacamole and I think it is good and goes well with any chips.

Guacamole

Ingredients:

2 ripe avocados

1/2 small-sized onion, chopped

1/2 tomato , chopped

2 tbsp. fresh lemon juice

Salt and pepper to taste

Methods:
1. To cut open the avocados, slit the knife vertically till you hit the seed. Twist the knife side to side and you could easily open up the fruit. Use the spoon to scoop the flesh.
2. In the bowl, mash the avocados with a fork.  I find it is easier to mash from the outer part of the fruit.
3. Add in the other ingredients to the avocados and mix well.
4. Wrap with plastic wrapper (make sure the wrapper touches the guacamole so it doesn't brown because of contact of air) and store in fridge before bring out to enjoy.

Pardon the tequila at the back.  Just a prop for my photo since tequila is a product of Mexico. *wink*

Enjoy the guacamole as it is or use as the dipping for chips.  Or even taste good in toasted bread too. Delicious and healthy snack!