This, I won't procrastinate, GONG XI FA CAI

Today I heard the boss of our regular grocery shop ask why do people like to do last minute shopping.  That made me think of the word “procrastination”.  Aren't we all guilty of that sometimes? Is there any of us that do not feel the heat of our schedules breathing down our back? In this “rush rush” world, we seemed to have less and less time in a day to do all the things we want or need to do. When our "to do" list starts to stack up we are pretty much forced to re-priortize, and therein lies the rub. Something on the list is going to be sent to the end of the line, and suddenly we are procrastinators? Haha, no... that isn't really procrastination. That is just having too much to do. Sorry, no excuses, because we all have too many things to do. As my hubby says..."it is the human condition....get over it".  Procrastination is when there is something on your list that has to get done but it isn't any fun and you really hate doing it. To avoid it you begin to think of reasons why you can't do it today, as you may have irrationally promised yourself or others that you would.

There are times when I procrastinate although honestly, I don’t like to. It is always a task that I do not enjoy and with one type of chore I could even say "hate".  Let me say up front that the mere thought of any task involving any contact with a government office is enough to send me into a sweaty-palm state of anxiety.  Recently it was time to renew my dog’s license. It is a simple task but I dislike going to the MPSJ and sitting there for hours waiting for my number to be called. But then, the consequence of putting it off and not doing it at all is worst. So, I finally got it done (not without some difficulty best left out of the story).

From what I read, fear of failure is in the equation of procrastination, so once you eliminate that fear from the equation, you will be on your way to overcoming this bad habit. As for me, there are so many bakes and dishes, I have procrastinated publishing. That is usually because I frequently create dishes  or adaptations on-the-fly as it were. The problem then becomes my lack of discipline in making notes. So to publish a recipe I sometimes have to go to the kitchen and re-create the dish. In this case, I finally did exactly that. The only saving grace in this shortcoming is that this is a dish that I think you will find worth trying. It passes my Quay Lo second helping test. 

I share the pumpkin dish with you for Chinese New Year because pumpkin (南瓜; nánguā) is a symbol for prosperity, abundance, descendant's luck, illustrious children, enchantment,  and  it is believed that this fruit draws earth energy to manifest gold!

Couscous in roasted pumpkin

(A)

Ingredients:

1 tbs extra virgin olive oil

½ large onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves , minced

Salt to taste

3/4 tsp paprika

½ tsp cayenne (

1 can 14oz pelled whole pomodoro tomatoes with juice

1 roasted sweet red chili

1 roasted sweet yellow chili

2 Anaheim peppers, seeded and diced

½ cup snow peas

½ cup chicken broth

pieces of roasted turkey or chicken (dark meat is best)

1 cup couscous

2 halves roasted pumkpin

Method:

Heat the olive oil in Dutch oven over medium heat and add the onion. Cook, stirring, until onion is tender, about 5 minutes, and stir in the garlic, the spices and salt to taste. Stir together until the mixure is fragrant, and add the tomatoes Cook, stirring break up the tomatoes and let it cook for 5 to 10 minutes. Add sweet chili, peas and chicken broth. Bring to a gentle boil, reduce the heat, cover and simmer 30 minutes. Add, chili and salt to taste. Bring back to a simmer and simmer 15 minutes or till pea is soft. Taste and adjust salt.

(B)

Prepare the Couscous:

Ingredients:

2 cups chicken broth

1 tbs butter

1 tbs freshly chopped parsley

1/2 tsp onion powder

1 tsp freshly chopped basil

1/2 tsp roasted garlic, minced

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1 cup couscous

Method:

In a saucepan, combine everything except the coucous and bring to boil. Stir in couscous. Cover and let simmer for 5 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed. Fluff with a fork.

Assemble the dish:

Mix coucous with (A) and spoon into the roasted pumpkin and serve.

Note:  The meat you see in the photos roasted turkey red meat. I had some leftover from our Christmas meal so  and I added to it but this is optional.

Now this, I will not procrastinate. I would like to wish 
all my family, friends and my readers 
GONG XI FA CAI
with lots of love!! 

Our OLD BONES made it!

Yesterday Mum and I started cooking for the Reunion Dinner at 10.30am. Mum was in the wet kitchen, Quay Po in the dry kitchen, till 7.30pm. There was a slight change on the Menu. Instead of Deep fried prawns with sesame honey roasted walnut, I cooked butter ginger garlic prawns instead. Before I went into the full swing of cooking, I managed to take some photos of the ingredients we used. 

We started the dinner with "Yee Sang" which my sister in law brought. "Low hay ar! Low hay ar!" (Everyone exclaimed). Non Chinese speaking people, don't be confused, "Low hay ar!", the "Low" here does not mean "not tall" but the whole phrase in Cantonese means "go higher". 

After that we sat down for the dinner proper and these are the dishes we dined on to welcome the new Year Of The Dragon.

Everyone were stuffed and almost every dish was finished till “Mei yan chew kang” (Beauty looking into the mirror). When a dish is being wiped clean, this is what we will say in Cantonese, literally means the plate is shining clean like a mirror. We were all so stuffed that we had to wait an hour before we can eat our double boiled birds nest dessert soup.

My Quay Lo'ss favorite dish is my Lemon Chicken. My favorite dish of the evening is stewed arrowroots with pork belly. I think Mum did not use pork belly yesterday, she used another cut. She did this specially for my Quay Lo because he does not like meat that is so fatty.

STEWED ARROWROOTS WITH PORK BELLY

Ingredients:

 270 gm pork

270 gm arrowroots

2 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tsp chopped garlic

1 ½ cup water

½ tsp sugar

Ingredients for Marinate:

(A)

1 cube (nam yu) fermented beancurd, meshed

1 cube bullion chicken stock

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp corn starch

Method:

 Marinate pork in (A) for 10 mins.  Heat 1 tbsp oil in wok and stir fry arrowroots till golden brown and scoop out and set aside. Add another tbsp oil in wok and sauté garlic and nam yu till fragrant. Add marinated pork and stir fry till they are whitish in color. Add arrowroots and mix well.  Add 1 cup water and bring to boil. Add ½ tsp sugar and mix well. Add balance of ½ cup water and turn heat to medium and let simmer till gravy is thicken, arrowroots are soft and pork is cooked.

It was a simple but wonderful reunion dinner at home. The family spent a great time together.  What can be happier than spending precious time with the family?

After a good night sleep, our old bones are ready to cook up another storm in the kitchen for the first day of Chinese New Year. Stay tune! 


"GONG XI FA CAI!" once again.

CNY Day 4 – Potluck at my neighbors’ home

Last Sunday, we had a potluck dinner at my neighbors, Andrew and Annie’s home.  There are four families and each cooked a dish or two for the dinner. Dr. Hall brought some great wines and his wife, Dr. Lee cooked one of the famous Peranakan dish “Ju Hu Cha”.  Another neighbor, Mr. Meta share with us a bottle of fine champagne, Mrs. Meta brought curry chicken, while I made three dishes, garlic yellow squash, roasted butternut squash with rosemary and thyme and deep fried prawn in tamarind sauce. The host made two favorite Hakka dishes, stew pork belly and yam and braised pork belly with wood’s ear bean curd sauce. There were all very delicious. 

We all enjoyed the dinner and the company especially when we had Uncle Meta telling us so many funny stories.  He is such an adorable guy, his stories made me laugh so hard that my jaw hurts.  Both Mr. and Mrs. Meta are in their eighties who has just celebrated their Golden Wedding anniversary. What a charming couple!  It warms my heart to see such a loving couple growing old together. They truly enjoys each other company, love life and find humor and laugh at anything positive or negative.  I saw Uncle Meta laughed at his aches and pain and cracked jokes about it instead of whining. He did not let that deter him from spending good times with his friends. I marvel at his positive attitude towards life. Oh and he is a lucky man because Mrs. Meta is a gorgeous lady and a good cook.

I think it is very important to know our neighbors and be on friendly basis with them because they are the closest friends in distance to us.  During times of emergency, neighbors can definitely fill in the need.  There were many times in the past when I was in need of help, my neighbors came to my rescue. So, do not just leave your house, drove off and then when you come home, go straight into your house and don’t even say “hello” to your neighbors.  Socialize with them, be their caring friends but not a nosy one. LOL!  I said,  friends nearby is worth two far away. Do you agree? 


Once I gather the recipes from all the foods in the picture, I will definitely share with you all. 

Top pic: roasted butternut squash with rosemary and thyme, bottom pic: deep fried prawn in tamarind sauce

Left pic: Ju hu Cha, right top pic: curry chicken, right center: stew pork belly and yam, right bottom: deep fried prawn in tamarind sauce