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Thursday 10 February 2022

Our First Reunion Dinner on Our Own

For as long as I remember, my Chinese New Year (CNY) reunion dinners (after marriage) have always been with my husband's family in Ipoh.  Although we've not balik kampung in the last couple of years (for one reason or another), our reunion dinners here in KL were always together with my husband's sisters and their families.  This year is the very first year we're doing it on our own...and by that, I mean in our own home (that's because my husband's family members had all balik kampung since interstate travel is no longer prohibited).

So, for our small reunion dinner in KL, I took inspiration from the Spanish (who have their tapas) and thought I'd make something similar and call them Chinese small plates....lol! :D  That way, we can still have a variety of food for a small family like ours.  You might think I'm crazy to cook 7 dishes but once a year only....tak apa lah!

Anyway, the way to do it is to cook smart...and I found that food prep and cooking (small portions) not too strenous + some of the dishes can be prepared ahead of time.  Here was what we had on the eve of CNY. Since I cooked a variety of dishes, I tried to use as many auspicious ingredients synonymous to the new year as I could.

#1 - Double-Boiled Chicken Soup with Goji Berries

Since no-one in my family likes to drink soup...unless it involves some kind of salted vegetable...and we can't very well have ham choy during CNY as it doesn't sound very auspicious, does it?  Lol.  So, I made double-boiled soup since I only needed a small portion for myself.  I don't know if goji berries (kei chee) is an auspicious ingredient or not but at least it's red! :P

I bought this steaming soup pot (600 ml) or double-boiler to replace my ugly old one.  Best thing I ever bought recently as it has been put to frequent use since.  It's good for 1 - 2 pax (yields 1 - 2 Chinese rice bowls of soup depending on the amount of ingredients you put in).  I bought this size so that it's able to fit into my mini slow cooker (you can get a bigger one if you have a bigger slow cooker).  That way I don't have to watch over the double boiling process over the stove top.

Double-boiled soups taste the best in my opinion coz it's slow cooked in a boiling water bath for many hours for maximum extraction of flavours...and one of the best soups to make this way is this double-boiled chicken soup with goji berries.  Because there aren't many ingredients in this soup other than just chicken (it must be kampung chicken or choi yin kai) and goji berries, it was able to churn out two bowls of soup.  And this soup practically needs no work at all....into the slow cooker at least 4 hours before dinner time and just let it do its thing.

#2 - Pan-Fried Mini Pork Patties

For something porky which is representative of strength and abundant blessings, I made my always-greeted-with-enthusiasm pork meatballs or patties.  This time I used chopped jicama (instead of onions) which provided extra juiciness and crunch to the meat patties combined with spring onions, egg and cornflour.

Put the formed patties in a single layer on a tray/plate in the fridge to chill and firm up (which makes them easier to fry later on).  This is a dish you can make ahead to ease your cooking time during dinner.  Then, it's just a matter of pan-frying in some oil.  In fact, you can even fry them ahead of time (I did that) and make them hot again in the toaster oven later.

#3 - Fried Chinese Pomfret with Soy & Crispy Garlic

Since fish (or yue in Cantonese...and it must be whole) signifies surplus and wealth, I got a small Chinese pomfret (tau tai chong or bawal tambak) on the morning of CNY eve itself from a small supermarket in our neighbourhood when I went looking for leeks.  It was a very small one only (so, it was very cheap).

Where people have steamed fish, we have fried fish (since my family isn't into steamed fish + it was a small fish that's better served fried).  Topped with some crispy fried garlic and drizzled with garlic oil + premium soy, it was sufficiently fresh and very tasty.

#4 - Premium Soy Sauce Prawns

Since prawns (pronounced as har in Cantonese) sounds like laughter which brings a new year filled with happiness and joy, I made my usual soy sauce prawns (or see chap har) with lots of sliced shallots and spring onions (using a good premium soy sauce makes a difference).  I bought just 12 prawns which would be enough for the three of us.

This dish is best made with shell-on prawns (with the back slit) and heads intact as it helps to trap all the soy sauce goodness in between its shells.  I'd do that if I was making it for a makan gathering for better presentation but since it was just us, I left only the tails intact...even then it still solicitied a comment from my family...why not just peel the tail off too (you see, my family doesn't want anything to do with shells)! ;D

#5 - Braised Mushrooms with Dried Scallops

Mushrooms are also traditionally eaten during CNY as a dish of braised mushrooms and dried scallops symbolises longetivity and fortune.  I was contemplating whether to add abalone but thought it'd be too wasteful to open a can of abalone for such a small portion of mushrooms.

Although I served only part of the braised mushrooms (8 pcs actually, what an auspicious number...hehe!), I did make extras as this is one dish that keeps well.  It can be steamed/reheated many times and the longer it sits, the flavours get even better when the mushrooms absorb more of the braising liquid.

#6 - Stir-Fried Chinese Leeks with Dried Sausage

What can be more auspicious than Chinese leeks (a homonym with counting...obviously money-lah) and dried pork sausage (lap cheong) which signifies long life.  Some recipes would add arrowroot (nga gu) slices, yet another auspicious ingredient.

Since it was CNY, I managed to get the leeks which have a higher proportion of white (the tasty part) to green parts.  This time, I stir-fried it with both lap cheong and yun cheong (liver sausages, yum...mine and my husband's favourite).  Ever since I first cooked this dish for last year's CNY, I've been hooked on the dish but CNY is the one time I can get my hands on a more delicious variety of leeks that I don't see selling at other times.

#7 - Stir-Fried Jicama with Dried Cuttlefish

For our final vegetable dish, I cooked jiu hu char, a dish commonly served during major Chinese festivals. Some recipes will have finely sliced pork belly strips and shiitake mushrooms added in.  It can be eaten as a wrap with iceberg lettuce (sang choy) for an even more auspicious meaning.

This was the other dish that I made extras (for freezing) as jicama (sengkuang) can be reheated many times over and as the vegetables soften, the flavours develop further and become even tastier.

#8 - Sweet Ending

What sweet ending?  Sorry, no dessert.....don't know how to make!  Just makan mandarin oranges saja-lah.....lol! :D

Actually, I'm not one for tradition but made the dishes for the fun of it since I didn't balik kampung and had time on my hands.  So, my small table for three had almost everything covered...lol....chicken, pork, fish, prawns, mushrooms, scallops, lap cheong and leeks.  Although we had 7 dishes on the table, we finished all of it (although I did have some portions of braised mushrooms and jiu hu char that I froze but that's because I purposely made extras).

I'm not one who would cook an insane 10 - 12 dishes in insane portions to be eaten over the next few days (like our Ipoh household would do) as I don't like (and prefer not) to eat leftovers (other than those I purposely made extras to freeze immediately) + it can get really jelak eating the same stuff over a few days. I prefer to cook just enough and finish them all in one sitting.  So, that was our variety of dishes for a simple, small reunion dinner.  Happy feasting! ^_~

8 comments:

  1. When I saw your photo of 7 dishes, I was like whoa! What a tasty feast for three and though they may be small portions (I find it hard to cook small portions) and some can be prepped ahead, it still calls for a lot of effort. Bravo! You are quite right that we do not want to eat leftovers for days. When I was a child, my grandma and my mum would prepare something like 7-8 dishes of braised chicken & pork (kay hong), chicken kerutuk, chap chye, chim koay (crabcakes, grandma's specialty), fried salted chicken, asam fish, bakwan thng (meatball soup) and kiam chye duck. Since grandma's refrigerator was small, not all leftovers could fit. So the dishes had to be boiled (to sterilize) after the meal and left at room temperature and then reheated when it was time to serve the next day. So imagine what the dishes were like after a few days, all mushy though we ate them with no complaints!

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    1. Haha, what you described was the exact scenario I faced in Ipoh too. My MIL (and the elders in Ipoh) would cook many dishes in copious amounts (some of the staples would include yong tau foo, Hakka char yoke, Hakka pork belly with yam in nam yue, red braised pork belly with nga ku wrapped in sang choy, pak cham kai, chicken or pork ribs curry, vinegar pork trotter, braised duck, steamed fish, braised mushrooms, lap mei, sometimes a prawn dish too, jiu hu char and a soup of pork, pork stomach & fish maw with pak choy) and what we failed to finish would be brought to a boil and left overnight (yeah, the leftovers could not fit in the fridge...and we had two..but that was barely enough to store the uncooked food). So you can imagine the condition of the food after it has been reheated 2 - 3 times! >.< Yup, we ate them without complaints too (we can't complaint since we didn't toil in the making). Now that the next generation has taken over the cooking, our style is to cook less dishes and just enough...and finish everything at one go...lol! :D

      Thank you for your compliments on my small, tasty feast for three. I actually find it easy (and like) to cook small portions as I have just the right cookware (small pots & pans) made for this type of cooking (with lesser washing up to do). Out of the 7 dishes I made, 5 were prepped ahead of time already leaving only 2 to cook a la minute for a stress-free cooking time. ^_~

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  2. A big round of applause for your effort!
    My CNY reunion lunch/dinner is mainly with my side of family and this year we had Poon Choy, Pork Trotter Vinegar, Steamed Fish and Yee Sang, all prepared by ourselves!

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    1. A big round of applause to you too. I wouldn't know how to make any of your dishes (other than steamed fish). Your dishes are more synonymous with CNY where as mine are more of simple day-to-day dishes.

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    2. Too bad I don't have a plan to write a post to show you my reunion lunch but you can always check out the photos in my Instagram @choiyen, but I know you don't have an account, as per you told me before. >_<

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  3. Now it is my turn to give you a big round of applause. Cooking for three is close to mine, just for 2 which everything was tossed into the newly bought electric hot pot. We have reached the level of impromptu meals when it is just 2 of us left. As you know that I have a large family clan but it does not have that close knit like many other families. We didn't make enemies but they just live in their own worlds and it's me who is the sole ambassador to connect with everyone till today because I put down my ego.

    I love everything you cooked and am pleased to say that I can fit into your family meals anytime (muka tembok TM) if I get invited. Muahahahaha

    I love to drink soup like nectars. My wife could testify that I often emptied her bowl of soup leftovers from the hawker food she ordered. I wasn't trying to prevent wastage but love to drink any soups. So I love to try your double boiled chicken soup with Goji Berries! I could imagine the sweetness.
    Your pan fried mini pork patties looked like Vadaiand should taste better with chopped jicama. So yummy!
    Fried Pomfret is my favourite too and I dislike steamed fish. So bring on your fried fish.
    Premium Prawns is a taboo for me now as I am still recuperating. The 6 stitches in my abdomen still have tinge and sharp pains when exerted. So need to avoid seafood for a long time. So sad!
    Braised mushrooms and fried Chinese leeks with dried sausage!! So delicious and mouthwatering at this hour.
    Oh I didn't know the scientific name for Jiu Hu Char is Stir Fried Jicama with dried cuttlefish. We normally wrapped them with lettuce to eat. Maybe it is a common Penang style to wrap.
    Well done for your yummilicious cooking. It was not difficult with all your pre-planning.

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    1. Thank you very much for your kind compliments (and lengthy comments). It's not uncommon, some family members do tend to live in their own worlds once they marry and have their own families.

      I see you like soups (unlike my family) but dislike steamed fish (like my family). As long as it's fish, I like them both fried or steamed and pomfret is one of my favourite fish too. Avoiding seafood will be very difficult for me since I love it more than meat. My husband's family in Ipoh also eats jiu hu char wrapped in lettuce (not sure if it's a Hakka thing...or Penang style)! ;D

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  4. Hahah great job, I think well balanced and yah, no wastage with those 12 dish craziness!

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