Beer and Cocacola Trotter

Its Chinese New Year again. Time really flies, day after day and year after year.  I remember the last time I wrote about Chinese New Year was 2 years ago and now is already 2012.  This year we are not going out for our reunion because only 4 of us, my 2 sons and Alfred. I have planned to prepare 4 dishes and 1 soup for 4 of us.  I will cook a special trotter, that is beer and coca cola trotter.  My friend Evelyn, came back from U.S.A. cook this dish for me and other friends 2 weeks ago, all of us like it very much and it was very easy and simple to prepare.

The ingredients just 1 port trotter about 1 1/2 to 2 kg, 1 can of Carlsberg beer and 1 can of coca cola, 1/2 cup of good soy sauce and 2 inches slice of brown sugar.

Get the butcher to cut the trotter into bite size when you buy from the market.  Clean and par-boil the trotter for about 5 minutes.  Rinse and drain. 
 In a wok or deep sauce pan ,put in all the ingredients.  Bring to boil then use low fire to simmer the trotter until the liquid reduced and the trotter is tender.  You may add in sea cucumber, dried mushrooms or even dried chilies if you like it a bit  hot.

 

This is the result of the cooked trotter. Look nice?  Taste good too.

The other dishes I prepared were fried soy sauce prawns,

abalones stir fry dried mushrooms and broccoli,

fried fish fillets,

and stew dried scallops, fish maws, American ginseng with chicken soup.

Though only 4 of us taking reunion dinner without my daughter,(in Melbourne, miss her very much every year without her), we are happy with our home cook foods then eating out in the restaurant.

Jackfruit cake

My nneighbour gave me a jack fruit which was a cross breed of jack fruit and artocarpus integer. Artocarpus integer in fact has more fragrant smell then jack fruit.  When both mix together the fruit become so fragrant and has better taste.  I have not bake any jack fruit cake before and I would like to try to bake one it.  So, got a recipe from the Internet and follow the steps to start baking jack fruit cake.

The ingredients are,
for the cake(chiffon)
4 egg yolks,
70g sugar
120 g super fine flour
80ml water
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
100 g jack fruit(pureed)
1/2 cup corn oil

4egg whites
70g sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

for the filling
350ml whipping cream
150g jack fruit (pureed)
1/2tsp gelatin(dissolved in 50ml of water)
another 250g jack fruit flesh(pureed)
for the topping
60ml milk/soy milk/coconut milk
1 tbsp corn starch/custard powder
1 tsp gelatin(dissolved in 1 tbsp water)
100g jack fruit flesh (pureed)

 Crossed breed of both jack fruit and artocarpus integer looks just as a normal artocarpus integer.

 and the fruits just look exactly like artocarpus integer.

 Remove the seeds and add 2 tbsp of sugar , cook the flesh until soft.  About 15 minutes. Let cool.

 Puree the flesh by the blender.  Leave aside for later use.

Meanwhile prepare the chiffon cake.  Preheat the oven to 170 degrees cecious.  In a bowl, hand whisk the egg yolks and sugar until the egg turn pale in colour.  Add in the water, 100g pureed fruit flesh, oil and mix well. Finally add in the salt, baking powder and the flour.  Mix until the batter become smooth.  Leave aside.

Use electric mixer to whisk the egg whites ,sugar and cream of tartar until thick peak.  Pour the egg yolk mixture into the egg whites.  Fold in the egg yolk until well mix.  Pour into a 9'' baking tine and bake for 35 minutes or until done. 

Turn the cake upside down to cool.  Slice the cake into 3 horizontally.

Now, prepare the filling. Whisk the whipping cream until soft peaks form. Stir in jack fruit puree and the dissolved gelatin . Mix well.

To assemble the cake, place a layer of the cake on the board, spread a layer of whipped cream then a layer of pure fruit puree and repeat the next layer.  Cover the whole cake with the rest of the whipped cream.  Put in the freeze to set about 3 hours.

AS for the topping, combing the milk,custard powder in a sauce pan. Stir over low heat until mixture boils and has thicken.  Add in gelatin mixture and fruit puree. Mix well. Let cool.

Spread the topping on the cake and I decorated with sliced fruit flesh.

The whole freeze was smell of the fruit, so pleasant and nice.  Well, my first jack fruit cake is done.  Lets taste it.  Wow!   Good....mm mm, the taste of the real fruit taste. I like it.

Happy New Year 2012

My hair dresser, Lee Ching invited me and Alfred to join her family for the 2011 countdown in Ipoh Country Club.  All were given a party set on our sitting place at the dinner table. The set has a pair of green mask, whistle and balloon.

All put on the masks.

 My hairdresser, Lee ching and family.

 Japanese friend ,Mr and Mrs Koro

 Lee Ching with her friends.

 Me and Alfred.

 The dinner was served at 8pm.  The four seasons was the first dish, with salad prawns, fried sotong balls and other fried stuffs.

 The second dish was the fish lips soup.  Quite tasty.

 Followed by the fried chicken served with Thai sauce.

 Sweet sour prawns.  The other dishes were deep fried fish with Chinese sauce, vegetarian mixed fried vegetables, fried rice and the last was desserts.

After all the dishes we have our group photo for our album.

The nights programmes started with various dances performed by dancers from Kuala Lumpur.

 They were very good dancers and dance very well.

 The organiser invited (guys) dancers from Kuala lumpur.  They made funs and dance to all the audience. They really entertained all of us in the ballroom.

 When the clock clicked at 11.50pm, all guests were to be on the floor, keep dancing and enjoying the music.

 Get ready for countdown.

 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.....Happy New Year!!!!

 HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012

Kelowna, British Columbia

After 3 wonderful days in Vancouver, we travel by Grey Hound bus from Vancouver to Kelowna.  Kelowna is a city about 400km away from Vancouver.  We planned to put up 3 nights here because it is situated between Vancouver and Banff National park.  We just do not want to be too tired on our journey and we need a break before we travel further.  The bus took about 7 hours to reach Kelowna.  This is because the speed limit for the bus is only 70 to 80 km/h and moreover the bus has to put up a few stop at  few towns to drop and pick up passengers.  We were just relax and enjoyed the scenery's outside the Windows.

The beautiful mountain before reaching Kelowna

We stayed in the Econo Lodge for 3 nights, very clean and suitable with breakfast included.

We started our journey at 9.30am and reached Kelowna at about 4pm.  Check into hotel .  We had a good rest before we walked to downtown, which took us about 20 minutes slow walk for our dinner.  As Kelowna is a small town, there is nothing much to do in downtown during night falls.  We walked back to the hotel and a good rest after a long journey drive.

After breakfast, Emilly and me walked to downtown while Ong and wife decided to rest in the hotel for the day.  The first place we visited is the museum,(free of charge).

 The next place we visited is the local library.  We were allowed to use the Internet free for 1 hour.

 From the library, we walked to a casino.  It is a small casino.  We just had a quick walk in the casino and came out.

 We found very beautiful scenery behind the casino, so excited.  We spent almost an hour around the lake(lake Okanagan).

 It is lunch time.  We walked into an Italian . It was so cool and relax in the restaurant after half day walking in the sun.

 We ordered pasta, tomato soup and toast scallops.  The food were not to our expectation, or may be not to our Malaysian 's taste.

 We walked to the other part of the town and found this clock tower. From the clock tower we walked to Japanese garden.

 Japanese garden in Kelowna.

 We walked back to the hotel after our whole day tour in downtown. We had a real good rest and prepare for the next day tour in Kelowna.
We were so lucky to meet the lady boss of the hotel(Maria) , a Filipino who married the boss , Canadian. She offered to drive us to Summerhill winery which was located on a hill.

 The grape farm just beside the winery.

 The beautiful views from the winery of  Lake Shore.

 We spent about half an hour at the winery before Maria drove to a local fruit market.

 The fruits here were very cheap compared to those same fruits that we bought in the supermarket.

Our half day ended after our shopping at the fruit market.  We have to pack to get ready to travel again the next morning to Banff National Park. It will be another long journey.