What I Ate When I Was Home Alone During CNY

This Chinese New Year (CNY) I was home alone from the first to third day.  Since most food places would be closed, I made sure I stocked up my fridge with enough food for 3 days as I knew I'd be cooking and eating in as I don't even plan to leave the house, not even to go to the stores.  It was all about me enjoying some me time in front of the telly and eating the food I want to eat.

On Day 1 of CNY after Sunday Mass, we found our favourite chee cheong fun and yong tau foo shop open, so we had breakfast there before my family headed to Ipoh.  So, for lunch on the first day of CNY, I had leftovers from the Reunion Dinner the night before.  Leftovers in the in the form of an extra piece of fish (that I fried for the sambal fish which was not served), some balance ching long choy (dragon vegetables) and braised mushrooms.

I cooked assam fish with the balance piece of fried kau yue (mackerel) and the leftover assam paste that I used to cook assam prawns the night before.  I also stir-fried the balance ching long choy.  So, even though they were leftovers, they were still freshly cooked for the next day (only the 3 pcs of braised mushrooms were the "real" leftovers...hehe).

For dinner, I made a simple roast chicken (one deboned chicken leg) with roasted potatoes (one large potato) and capsicum (one pack of tri-coloured bell peppers)....always easy to make and satisfying to eat.  If you want your roast chicken skin to be crispy, make sure your chicken is thoroughly dry.  I like to air-dry my chicken overnight in the fridge before marinating.  Just before it goes into the oven, I let it come to room temperature and then rub some olive oil on it.

For the roasted potatoes, I usually steam or parboil them first (for about 10 minutes) to get it to soften (this way it'll need less time in the oven too).  Then toss it around in a colander to roughen up the edges.  Those roughed up edges = crispy bits in your potatoes.  And thanks to Jamie Oliver's recipe, your potatoes will always have crispy edges and soft, fluffy insides.

And if you happen to have the same microwave + convection oven like mine, I recently found out a neat trick that's pretty handy that I'd like to share with you.  To use the convection facilities, we have to take out the 3-pronged leg and the turntable it rests on that we use for microwave cooking.  If you find a tray that's not more than the diameter/length of the turntable, you can sit (and balance) the tray on the little knob/screw that the turntable sits on (instead of on a wire rack) and the tray will still rotate when we're on convection mode.  That way I don't have to toss my foodstuff around (as the oven is known to be hotter at some spots) to get a more even cooking/charring since the tray can rotate by itself which eliminates the need to check/move the food periodically.

On Day 2 of CNY, I made myself a western breakfast of crispy streaky bacon and scrambled eggs with cucumbers, honey Mandarins (why not!) and buttered toast (this bread, bought from a bakery on the eve of CNY, was very soft and fluffy).

I usually have my eggs sunny side up or in omelette form.  This was my first attempt at making scrambled eggs.  Yes, it's rather surprising isn't it to find out I've never attempted to make scrambled eggs.  Turns out it's quite easy to nail successfully.  I did google on how it was supposed to be done.  Some recipes will tell you to add milk while others say to add water.  I did neither and it still turned out great.  The key to getting it right is to cook it low and slow (aka slowly on low heat).

Start with a knob of butter on a non-stick pan.  Once melted, pour in two well beaten eggs that have been seasoned with salt.  Let it sit for a while untouched (about 30 seconds).  Then, just keep the eggs moving by scraping the pan with your spatula.  Do not stir vigorously if you want to keep your eggs in big ribbons.  When you see your eggs with some runny parts still, they're about done.  You can take it off the heat and pour them onto a plate.  The residual heat will cook them just right.  Sprinkle with chopped chives (I only had spring onions) and a twist of freshly cracked black pepper to serve.

The scrambled eggs turned out rather fluffy.  I enjoyed it with a cup of hot white coffee.  If you've not had eggs on toast with a side of honey Mandarin wedges, try it coz I found it very refreshing eaten together with mouthfuls of bread, eggs and bacon.  It was like having freshly squeezed orange juice on the side...lol!

Lunch was a simple fried egg and vegetable stir-fry of leeks with lap cheong (Chinese dried sausage).  This portion was made with one leek and one strip of lap cheong.

Nailed the oozy egg yolk...yessss!  Since discovering the combination of charred lap cheong with leeks, this is the third year in a row that I've bought (and cooked) this leek that I found in a small neighbourhood supermarket coz it's different from the usual leeks sold (this one has more white parts and the green parts are not stringy).

For dinner, it was a simple but decadent scallops and chicken porridge with lots of chopped coriander and topped with fried shallots (from a bottle).  The porridge was first cooked with choi yin kai (kampong chicken) bones for half an hour.  Then, dried scallops were added (for a further 20 minutes) before finishing off with finely diced chicken cubes (marinated with soy, white pepper and sesame oil) in the last 10 minutes of cooking.  Just before dishing up, toss in lots of chopped coriander in the last minute.

One hour may seem but like a long cook time but making porridge needs patience to get the consistency right.  Even though it's time consuming, it's still an easy all-in-one-pot cook where the ingredients just need to simmer (with periodic checks).  A hot porridge eaten in a cold air-conditioned setting in front of the telly is so comforting.

Day 3 of CNY started with a late breakfast of a bakwa sandwich and a cup of coffee! ;)  Why not since I already have bakwa on my hands.

I've always loved a bakwa sandwich and would even order it through ShopeeFood.  Similarly, I made mine with a fried omelette and thinly sliced cucumbers.  Only thing that wasn't in the bakwa sandwich was chicken floss.

My family returned home on Day 3 of CNY, so I cooked dinner as well.  There were steamed chicken, fried ikan bilis with onions (my son's favourite), minced pork omelette, leeks with lap cheong and ching chow bok choy...all no-sweat, simple-to-cook dishes.

I think I managed to sneak in some auspicious ingredients in this meal too...hehe.  There's chicken, pork, lap cheong, leeks, ikan bilis (does tiny fish count, lol) and bok choy (it seems this small, leafy green vegetable represents a few things...longevity and good fortune for the future, quite obvious from the word 'choy', isn't it?).

Heck, I even had time to make an attempt at cooking a poon choy for one filled with chicken, prawns, lap cheong, mushrooms, abalone, scallops and vegetables.  After all, I had most of the ingredients already (+ some leftovers from the reunion dinner) that were just right for a poon choy.

It was just a matter of blanching prawns and vegetables, steaming chicken and lap cheong and assembling the ingredients into yet another one-pot dish.  I even had time to attempt a lame carving of a bunny-shaped carrot.  That's the beauty of cooking for one!

I also cooked two tubs of braised mushrooms with abalone, dried scallops and hoi see (dried oysters) to give-away.  This was made with the inclusion of hoi see (which sounds like good things in Cantonese) since my sister-in-law likes to eat hoi see (I, personally, wouldn't add that to my braised mushroom dish since I'm not a fan of it).

Well, I may be home alone.....and eating alone this CNY...but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy my meals, right?  Chilling out at home, eating what I want, when I want, with no-stress cooking is a real holiday in itself that's meant to be savoured! ;D  P/S: This is my last cook-in, eat-in CNY post, I promise (I'm sensing some yawns).....hee..hee! ^_~

My First Attempt at Making Poon Choy

Since I was home alone this year and had lots of time on my hands, I thought I'd finally attempt making Poon Choy or Prosperity Bowl (sometimes also called Wealth, Treasure or Celebration Pot).  Poon Choy is a well sought-after dish during Chinese New Year (CNY) for the layers of different auspicious ingredients and meaning that goes into it (rather obvious from the word "prosperity" already!).

I guess if you have to cook a feast of (say) 10 dishes, you might as well make poon choy which is much simpler since it's like a one-pot dish.  Some would just order them from restaurants as a takeaway and have it at home.   I've eaten poon choy at restaurants and had also watched a video (by Cooking Ah Pa) on how to make one and realised it's actually pretty doable.

And since I had most of the ingredients in my fridge and pantry anyway, I got down to doing it.  Making a poon choy is all about blanching and layering the ingredients.  I started with a stock for blanching the ingredients. I made a chicken stock (with choi yin kai bones) or you could use just water.  I couldn't since I was making a mini poon choy which would have too few ingredients to flavour the water.  Then again, even if you're making a 10-pax poon choy, how much flavour would the blanched ingredients bring anyway? ;)

Vegetables would be the first thing to be blanched since they form the bottom layer of the poon choy.  The usual vegetables used would be carrots, pak choy (Chinese cabbage) and radish.  I used carrots and cabbage (I improvised with what I had + I don't like Chinese cabbage anyway).  Radish would be a good choice too to line the bottom of the poon choy as softened radish would absorb the broth and take on flavour.  Some would also use broccoli for the vibrant green it brings to the top layer of the poon choy.

Next, I blanched the abalone (I still had two leftover which I kept aside after making a braised mushrooms and abalone dish for the reunion dinner) and parboiled two dried scallops.  The scallops started to break apart after just a few minutes in the broth (even from a dried and hardened state without soaking), so I had to take them out and steamed them instead to keep them from breaking.

I then parboiled two large prawns.  If you've noticed that the stock is slightly darker, that's because I decided (at this point) to add a bit of soy hoping that I could infuse the prawns with a bit more flavour.  The balance ingredients were steamed.

With that, I was ready to start assembling my poon choy starting with the first (or bottom) layer.  I filled it with a layer of softened carrot slices (cut into a floret-pattern...hehe).

Next was a layer of softened cabbage leaves.  If I had softened beancurd sheets (fu chuk), that would have been the next layer as the addition of fu chuk would also be a great vehicle to absorb the sauce at the bottom.

I then arranged the next layer with all the other auspicious goodies like prawns, dried shiitake mushrooms (I also kept a few from the previous day's braised mushroom dish), abalone, dried scallops, chicken, lap cheong (dried pork sausage) and yun cheong (liver sausage) which I steamed.

After that, all that was needed was to season the stock (you can use oyster sauce, light soy, Shaoxing wine, etc...just not dark soy so that the sauce will not be too dark in colour).  Let the sauce reduce (or you could use a little cornflour slurry) and pour it over the arranged ingredients.....and the poon choy for one is ready.

Did you notice my lame attempt at trying to carve out a bunny-shaped carrot (this is the Year of the Rabbit after all)?  That was how much time I had on my hands (lol)...and that's the beauty of cooking for one!  I don't even have a paring knife to do such a thing. ^_~

Not the prettiest, well arranged poon choy I've to say.  I didn't even have a claypot to present it in.  I used the nearest thing I had....I metallic look-alike version of a claypot.  Also, one is supposed to let the poon choy ingredients overflow to the brim of the claypot.  If I had done so, this would not be a poon choy for one...hah..hah.

So, make sure you choose the right-sized claypot to hold your poon choy (and don't underestimate the size). My 16cm (only) metallic claypot may look small but, as it turned out, it could hold a lot more than I thought (probably enough even for a 4-pax poon choy).  This mini one alone took me two meals to finish.

A poon choy is a very popular dish/meal eaten during CNY as it's convenient and can be prepared ahead of time.  All you have to do is blanch/parboil/steam the ingredients needed and assemble it when dinner time draws near.  You can reheat the claypot's ingredients and pour the hot broth/sauce over.  

A poon choy is favoured as it contains chosen auspicious ingredients like carrots for good luck, cabbage for growing fortune, prawns for laughter and happiness, mushrooms to symbolise longevity, abalone and dried scallops to bring wealth and prosperity, chicken celebrates togetherness and harmony and lap cheong is symbolic for wealth.

I may be home alone but that doesn't mean I shouldn't enjoy something special, so I thought this would be as good a time as any to make a mini poon choy for myself since my family wasn't around + they aren't quite into steamed and braised stuff that goes into one.  It was last year when I first noticed a few restaurants promoting their "a person, a bowl" poon choy that first gave me the idea of making one actually.

Now that I know how easy it is to put together a poon choy (even though this was just a mini one), this would certainly be a worthwhile consideration in future if I had to cook for a bigger group of guests (of say 10 - 12) during CNY as the work is much simpler (and lighter) than cooking like 6 - 8 individual dishes.  You may want to consider it too. ^.^

Welcoming Guests for a Reunion Dinner at Home

As we welcome the Year of the Rabbit, I welcome guests for the traditional reunion dinner in my home for the first time.  That's because all reunion dinners have always been celebrated in Ipoh when my in-laws were still around.  And then there were years when we celebrated it in KL when my mother-in-law was immobile followed by years of the pandemic that we all want to put behind us.

So, for the second year in a row, we had our reunion dinner at home in KL but, this time, we welcomed my sister-in-law's family to join us for the reunion makan.  I'm not one to follow tradition or be overly concerned if the dishes I serve at the reunion table are made with auspicious ingredients but since I have guests, I should (at least) make an effort to include such ingredients in our reunion dinner menu, don't you think?

When you're cooking for a sizeable number of people and have limited kitchen equipment (like only one stove top coz one of the burners of my double induction hob died on me), you need to devise a meal plan where some of the dishes can be cooked ahead of time or use different cooking methods (divide and conquer lah) so that the dishes can cook simultaneously in order to save time.  That way, the dishes can be ready (and served hot) at the same time.

#1 - Pork Ribs Soup with Garlic & Peppercorns

This is like a Singapore or (Teochew)-style bak kut teh where pork ribs are simmered with enoki mushrooms, garlic cloves and white peppercorns for a resulting soup that's lighter but with a more garlicky and peppery flavour.  Pork is served as it's a symbol for wealth and strength while enoki mushrooms (or golden needle mushrooms) represents gold (and anything gold or golden is always welcomed).

Making a soup as one of the dishes for the reunion dinner is a smart move as the soup can be made ahead of time and needs very little watching over as you can leave it to simmer on its own in a slow cooker, so that's one course taken care of already.

#2 - Fried Fish with Sambal

Fish is almost always guaranteed to be on any reunion menu (and it's usually steamed whole) to ensure success in the coming year like the saying nian nian you yu (may you have abundance and surplus every year).  Fish was very expensive this year, so much so my fishmonger didn't even dare to take stock of Chinese pomfret (or tau tai chong).

The common practice is to cook steamed pomfret but I made do with a cheaper fish of kau yue (Spanish mackerel) and cooked sambal fried fish that everyone can enjoy.  This is certainly a dish you can cook ahead as it doesn't need to be served hot (like steamed fish) to be good.  I just pan-fried the fish first and top it with my own-made chilli paste (that was prepared ahead and frozen) which I fried in oil till aromatic and slightly caramelised.  Spoon that over the fish and finish with a drizzle of soy, garlic oil and fried garlic bits.

#3 - Oven-Roasted Chicken

The Chinese word for chicken (ji) is a hononym for good luck and fortune.  That's why poaching or steaming a whole chicken is a popular choice at reunion dinners as it represents completeness, family unity and togetherness...but you're supposed to serve it whole (head and feet included).  This symbolic dish is in serious need of an update (lol) coz how is a small family going to finish one whole chicken since having big families are no longer the norm these days.

For my party-of-six, two chicken legs would be sufficient (since there are other dishes) and I decided to roast them.  Roasting them in the oven is part of the divide and conquer principle since using the oven will free up my stove top for cooking other dishes.  Once the chicken is in the oven, I can move on and concentrate on my other dishes.  The key to crispy skin chicken is to ensure the chicken is thoroughly dry before marinating (I leave it in the fridge uncovered overnight to air dry it).  Just remember to return it to room temperature (and rub a little olive oil on the skin) before roasting.

#4 - Assam Pedas Prawns

If you want a year filled with hee hee and ha ha (laughter and joy), then prawns need to grace your reunion dinner table. This year, large-sized prawns were also expensive.  Luckily, I bought some well before CNY on the urging of my fishmonger.

I chose to make assam pedas prawns after my recent success with a ready-made assam pedas paste.  After all, my cooking style for a reunion dinner is quick, easy and without stress! ;D  Why not when the taste resembles a good assam pedas.  I decided to remove the heads and peeled the prawns (only leaving the tail intact) so that my guests can have a mess-free experience eating the prawns (that have been cooked with ladies finger, tomatoes, onions and kaffir lime leaves).  This is not all there is...there was more in the pot.  My nephew clearly enjoyed both the chilli-based dishes.

#5 - Braised Mushrooms with Abalone & Dried Scallops

The coin-like shape of mushrooms and scallops symbolises prosperity while abalone's (bau yue) homonym is absolute prosperity or guaranteed surplus thereby making this a popular dish during CNY.  For me, it's a must-have dish coz I absolutely adore eating it (and, over the years, I've gotten better at doing it for an improved taste).

The key to a good braised mushroom dish is the braising liquid.  Mine is a chicken stock made with kampung chicken (or choi yin kai) bones.  I also use the liquid in which the mushrooms were steeping in and some of the abalone sauce from the can to add further umami to the braising broth.  Good quality Japanese dried scallops also helps.  This dish is good for cooking ahead of time coz for the longer it sits in the sauce, the mushrooms absorb even more flavour.  When dinner time comes round, you just need to reheat and serve...and you've one less dish to cook.

#6 - Stir-Fried Dragon Chives

A vegetable dish is always needed to balance out all the other meaty dishes.  The more common vegetables would be lettuce (sang choy) for wealth, bok choy for luck and good fortune, kai lan for long life and broccoli for harmony.  I don't know about dragon chives (ching loong choy)....but anything associated with the Chinese zodiac sign of dragon will be good, right?  After all, when it's the dragon year, many couples will try extra hard for a 'dragon baby'...lol!

Again, along the lines of quick cooking, simple stir-fried dragon chives with garlic it's one of the easiest, quickest stir-fry vegetables (it literally takes seconds to cook).  What you see here is just half the vegetables as I cooked a second batch.  Vegetables are always too much to fit into the pan but as they cook and wilt, they become very little.  I love dragon chives!

We ended our meal with premium Bacha coffee (which was gifted to me) and bakery-bought doughnuts and coffee buns.  Bitter black coffee is best paired and savoured with something sweet.

In the end, we finished everything that was served (except for 3 pieces of mushrooms)...and that's how I like it, no leftovers to deal with (I wouldn't want to be eating all the leftovers by myself over the next 2 - 3 days).  Or was that a sign that the food was good?  Kekeke! ;)

If you're cooking for a large group of guests (mine was a very manageable six though I've cooked for a bigger group of 10 - 12 before), the key to a less stressful reunion dinner cookout is to keep the menu simple and design a menu that you can use multiple kitchen equipment simultaneously so that they can all finish cooking at almost the same time.  The menu should also include some dishes that can be prepared ahead of time (especially those that improve in flavour over time) either on the morning of the dinner itself or even the night before and all it needs is just reheating.  Perhaps you can keep this tip in mind the next time you're planning a menu for your reunion dinner.  Hope you had fun cooking (and eating) across the Lunar New Year. Cheers! ^_~