Reunion with primary teachers and classmates

This Chinese New Year we managed to gather only nine of our primary school classmates to visit our primary school teacher who thought us from primary one to six.  All of us really respect and love him very much, we made our promise to visit him every year during Chinese New Year in Teluk Intan.

This picture was taken in our teacher house on the third day of Chinese New Year.

All were middle aged classmates, some were grandmas already.  Standing forth from left on the back row is our teacher, he is now seventy-two years old.
After a short chat, we adjoined for lunch at Shee Chuan Restaurant, in Teluk Intan.

While waiting for foods to be served, take a snap for the album.
The first dish was The Five Taste Dish.

Next we had Asam  Steamed Golden promplet.

Vegetarian mixed vegetables.

Tong Poh Pork with Man Tau

All of us were too full to put in anymore food, we had to stop the rest of the orders, like fried prawns and glutinous rice for take away.

Though it was festive season and with a big crowds, the foods were well prepared and taste good, big portions too!.

We all had a very memorable and happy reunion and eagerly waiting for the next one to come.

Our sir gave me another old teacher contact number who retired in 1986. I managed to get hold of her in Ipoh.  She was so excited to meet me and my sister.  She was so strong, when she shake hand with us, I could feel that tight and strong hold on my hand. She is now ninety-five years old, her memories were still good. She could recall our good old times in school. Really good to chat with her.

Though she is ninety-five years old, she still looks so alert and healthy.

Reunion Dinner

I decided to have home cook reunion dinner for this Chinese New Year because all my brother  and sister in laws were not joining us for this occasion. Only six of us, my father-in-law, my two sons, the maid and both of us. I have bought all the necessary ingredients for the five dishes that I needed a few days before the occasion.  I needed sea-cucumbers for one of my dish, so I bought three dried sea-cucumbers. My mom taught me how to prepare the dried sea-cucumbers.
The method.   Put the sea-cucumbers into a soup pot half-filled with water.  Take it to a boil.  Turn to low fire and continue boiling for half an hour.  Remove from stove and add more water to almost fill up the pot.,let stand till next day. Pour out the water, clean the intestines of the sea-cucumbers, soak them in the pot again with lots of water. On the third day, change the water, boil the sea-cucumbers for about fifteen minutes, repeat as the first day, add more water to the pot, let stand till next day. Change the water everyday until the sea-cucumbers expand till the size that you are  satisfied.
The first dish I prepared was the braised vinegar pork leg. It will taste better if its cooked  a day earlier.
Braised vinegar pork leg.

The ingredients for Bountiful Harvest

Three pre-soaked sea-cucumbers, six dried Chineses mushrooms, soaked

five cloves of garlic, slices of ginger, six dried oysters, soaked, six dried scallops (medium)

three grams of black moss, soaked. Broccoli for decoration.

Cooked Bountiful Harvest

Ginger Steamed Golden Promplet

Jieu Hu Char (fried Chinese yam with dried chopped squid)

Deep Fried Prawns

Chinese New Year flowers

Chinese New Year is just around the corner.As usual, I would go to plant nurseries to hunt for flowers to decorate my house. Every year I go to Kuala Kangsar Road for flowers shopping, but this year I found a new and big plant nursery located in Ampang, Ipoh.
Wow!! See all the beautiful blooms, I just can't resist but to snap pictures of those flowers,

This is a very big Chinese Peach Blossom imported from China.

Colourful Chrysanthemums

Mosambi plants

The boss of the nursery called this Vietnamese Cherry blossom

Finally I decided to buy four pots of different colour Christmas Cherry.

My Small Chinese Peach Blossom

Dried Pussy Willow

Potted Pussy Willow.

Pineapple rolls

My whole family love pineapple rolls, in fact all of us just like to eat pineapples.  Pineapples are full of enzymes, minerals and vitamins. Its so expensive to buy pineapple rolls for festive season when all six of us like to eat , moreover they are not as good as home made.
To make pineapple rolls, I have to prepare pineapple jams in advance.  I bought three Josephine pineapples from Pasar Tani, cost me only RM4.50. Peel the pineapples skin, cut into small pieces and its ready to cook.
Simple ingredients for pineapple jam.
2 to 3 Josephine pineapples,
200 grams sugar,
dash of Cinnamon powder,
5 cloves,
1 tbs lemon juice,
2 tbs (mak ngah tong) to thicken the jam.
In a sauce pan ,pour in all the ingredients except the (mak ngah tong) to cook, keep stirring all the time. It took me almost three hour to have the pineapple jam cook.  Before it was done, add in the (mak ngah tong) to thicken up the jam. Remove the jam from the pan and lets cool,  pour into containers keep in freeze for later use.
Ingredients for pineapple rolls.
430 grams self raising flour,
20 grams icing sugar,
250 grams butter,
30 grams milk powder,
1 egg,
1 egg yolk for glazing(beaten with a bit of salt)
In a mixing bowl, mix well all the dry ingredients, using fingers rub in the butter till it forms a firm dough.  Rest the dough for about thirty minutes.

Use the pineapple rolls piping to pipe out into suitable lenght so that it can roll and cover the jam.

Place suitable amount of pineapple jam onto  the piped out pastry then roll up so to cover up the jam.

Put the rolls on baking tray then egg wash all of them. Bake in pre-heated oven of 170 degrees Celsius for 15 to 20 minutes.

Baked pineapple rolls.

I loved my  pineapple rolls, taste so good because the jam was pure pineapples and  for the pastry, I used good butter. This year at least I manage to bake three types of cookies and fried arrow heads.  I will continue to bake them as long as I can in the future. At the same time I can bake extra as gifts for friends and relatives, safe cost.

These are all the cookies that I baked. I am very satisfy with my result.

Almond Cookies

I like to eat almond nuts and almond cookies too.  Every Chinese New Year I would buy these cookies from friends, but this year I wanted to bake these cookies myself.  As usual I searched for the recipe from the webs and friends, finally I settled with recipe from my niece.
The ingredients are
100 grams ground almond
350 grams flour
30 grams corn flour
200 grams corn oil
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp sodium bicarbonate
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg yolk (beaten with a little salt)
You can buy ready ground almond from cake shop but I bought raw almonds, washed and toasted, pound into suitable coarseness.

Mix well all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, pour in the corn oil bit by bit, mix until it form a soft dough.  Place the dough into the refrigerator for about an hour.

Remove the dough from the freeze and use roller pin to roll the dough into about one cm thick, use cookies cutter to cut into shapes.

Place shaped cookies on baking tray, egg wash them and bake in pre-heated oven at 170 degrees Celsius for 15 to 20 minutes.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 




Baked almond cookies. 
My almond cookies taste so much better than those I bought  for so  many Chinese New Year.

Laksa

Last Friday, Jane suggested we go for Assam Laksa at Kafe Aberdeen in Ipoh Garden East which I never been though it has been opened for business two years ago.
Once seated, the waitress showed us the menu, all the dishes look very attractive and mouth watering too. Because its was only two of us, we can afford to order only two dishes, small eater then.  Of course the first choice was assam laksa and the next was crispy fried bee hoon with smoothed egg sauce (recommended by the waitress).
Within five minutes, came the assam laksa, before it is laid in front of us, we can smell the sourly assam laksa taste from far away. When placed it in front on me, wow! Let's take the picture to show you.

Just with the look at it, once will know the taste would be good. The mint leaves, the colour of the soup and the fish flakes.... taste the soup , yummy.... as good as those famous assam laksa in Penang, in fact taste better. Both of us love it very much.
While eating the assam laksa, the bee hoon was served .

With a look at this crispy bee hoon, I immediately stop eating assam laksa, tried the bee hoon ,the crispiness of it, then the sauce and the ingredients, best!!

Both of the dishes were so good , unfortunately we can't finish all of them. because we were small eaters and the servings were big too.  It was worth the while to have lunch or dinner here because the charges are reasonable and with good environment as well.

Kafe Aberdeen is located at

16 & 18, Jalan Medan Ipoh 3,

Bandar Baru Medan, 31400, Ipoh.

Tel: 05 5468264

Daily business from 11.00am to 12.00 midnight.

Arrow Heads

Alfred love arrow head crackers, in fact all of us love these crackers. My sister came to visit us. We went for shopping in Tesco and found that the arrow heads were very cheap.  We bought two kilograms and my sister will teach me how to prepare the crackers.

We peeled the skin of the arrow heads but keep the shoots intact, soak the whole roots into prepared salt water for at least one hour. Remove form salted water and stand dry, if possible dry under the sun.

Heat up three quarter full of cooking oil in a wok, hold the slider on top the hot oil and slide the arrow heads into the boiling oil to fry.

Fry till light brown, scoop out and drain off the oil.  Let cool and place into air-tight containers.

Arrow crackers in containers.  Its so easy and cheap to make the crackers.