My life revolves around food, maybe too much

I've been so busy sorting out my things for shipping, transporting them to the loading point, packing and moving house that I didn't have time to update my blog. Sustained quite a number of injuries as well, bruises here, sprain there. At least I'm still in one piece.

E's Birthday:

A and I had to bake this cake withint the short 2 hours that E was away that afternoon attending her clinic session. When the cake came out of the oven, we went 'OMG!' cause there was a crack in the middle of it. Luckily A remembered that we had some cooking chocolate. It was something like putting a concealer on someone's face, concealing all the flaws. I don't know what will be E's reaction when she read this. Hahahahha.

Happy Birthday E! What matters most is the end product, right?

VIP in Liverpool, again:

Y3 came to visit me again. This time, I brought her to Bistro Jacques as she's never been there. Poor girl, she had brunch just before I called her to inform her of the plan. I managed to go off early that afternoon from hospital. I felt bad as I couldn't entertain her over the last few days that she was in Liverpool that's why I dragged her out to eat. Hahaha.

Lovely starters, as always. Y3 looks like she's paid to model for this restaurant.

Main course which was delicious and beautifully presented.

Desserts. Because M informed me as a good friend that creme brulee contained vanilla that I decided to go for apple crumble instead, but found out that it had cinnamon which I'm allergic to as well. I think I'll be forced to go on a diet whenever I eat here. I loved this restaurant so much that I even booked the place for right after the graduation ceremony and the drinks reception for lunch.

Dinner at Wagamama: 

Guests from Preston. They came for less than half a day to Liverpool, so I brought them to Wagamama for dinner.

I had Chicken Tama Rice which was really delivious and apparently it's really popular among customers. I wanted to tell the waiter the number of the dish but he said he knows it by heart as it's been ordered too many times that day.

Ikea:

Well, you must be wondering why is it just a picture of food and no furniture when I'm at Ikea. Hahaha, that's because my main purpose of going there was to try the Swedish meatballs. They were delicious. Ok, the furniture were well designed and appealed to me but I rather shop for them at the Ikea in Malaysia.

Homemade Satay:

It was so nice of E to offer us Satay. I can cry having it in Liverpool. She even made the peanut sauce. It was that long ago in Malaysia that I'd forgotten when. More opportunities in the near future.

Random:

Since there's too many pictures of food, I've decided to put a random photo of the colourful fly swatters sold at Clas Ohlson. Ok, it's indirectly related to food too. Well, I did try.

Finals Result Celebration at Etsu:

Dr C and Dr L who are officially dentists on that day. Congratulations. When will it be my turn?

Calpis, a Japanese soft drink which tasted a bit like Lychee.

The cute little soy sauce which only lacked a handle to differentiate it from other teapots.

Starters of sushi and sashimi.

Adding the soy sauce and wasabi.

Mains. They were all delicious. I loved the Japanese curry which was similar and unique at the same time as compared to Malaysian curry.

Final picture of Etsu. Try it and you'll know why it is ranked as the No.1 restaurant in Liverpool by Trip Advisor. Not only the food is taken into account but the atmosphere and service. Highly recommended.

That's all for now. I was so glad that I found a really nice black skirt for graduation today. I practically searched the whole of Liverpool for it.

Next plan on the list: Liverpool-London-Copenhagen-Cruise-London-Liverpool.

Chap Goh Mei

Last day of Chinese New Year. I didn't know that it was supposed to be Chinese Valentine this day and tangerines are thrown into the river by single girls in hopes of finding their true love. I can't buy any tangerines as I'm allergic to them.

Dim Sum at Mei Mei Restaurant:

I loved the Dong Fung Wo, which is a type of snail. All the other dim sum were really delicious too. Eat till we couldn't move.

Representative from London:

As proof of handing over Kuih Rose and Ang Ku Kueh to the delegate in honour of the friendship and good relationship between the two cities. Good to know that the gifts arrived safely in London from sifu's blog.

Final project for this reflection week - Pulut Panggang

Had to soften (layurkan) the banana leaves with heat.

Glutinous rice cooked with coconut milk, serunding (beef floss), banana leaves and some oil.

Carefully wrap the serunding with glutinous rice and banana leaf, staple the ends or hold it with toothpicks. Back home, we burn them over charcoal but over here, we lightly fry it in a frying pan over our electric stove.

Has your mouth started watering?

Final celebration:

Cold blended red beans drink

Tang Yuan (Glutinous Rice Ball Dumplings)

First day of the new rotation. Already worn out from induction. Already looking forward to the next reflection week.

Ang Ku Kueh

Ang Ku Kueh, which translates to Red Tortoise Cake in Hokkien, is eaten on happy occasions including Chinese New Year, Birthdays, Child Birth etc.

This is the most challenging food project that I've attempted in my life. The reason I made it was just for the sake of using the mould which my dad sent over together with my other food stuff in 2nd year, and because after reflecting really really hard on how to make more people happy during my Reflection Week, this will be a good project. At least the outcome was successful.

The recipe was obtained from this blog. Read on if you're interested in the tedious process of making it.

I had to postpone my experiment a day as I had to soak the red mung beans overnight first.

Making the filling.

The sweet potatoe had to be peeled, steamed and mashed and will be later used to make the skin.

Banana leaves - washed and cut into oval shape.

Making the skin - mixture of glutinous rice flour, tapioca flour, oil, sugar, mashed potatoe, water and red food colouring.

 

 This was the nerve wrecking point. I was impressed with my ability to estimate how much filling and dough required to be fitted into the mould. Tadah! The really cute pink coloured tortoise. Not to worry, the colour will go darker after steaming it.

Steam, steam, steam. The trick to maintain the pattern was to steam with the lid on for 5 minutes, then uncover and steam for another 10 minutes.

First taster batch. Had to make 3 as I had 2 extra audiences.

They just look so good. What about the taste?

 Um.... ummmmm.... Delicious!

Anyone interested in taking a bite will be most welcomed while stock lasts.

Soup Noodles and Kaya

Continuing with my food projects, I made my flatmates dinner tonight.

With the best ingredients in town, we had abalone and chicken ball soup with shrimp egg noodles. I should charge at least 15 pounds per bowl considering how expensive and time consuming to make this dish. Hahaha. Like what I always hear in the Cantonese drama series, 'I've boiled this soup for the whole day'. That's the secret to getting the sweetness of the abalone in the soup.

After dinner, due to overwhelming requests, I had to make Kaya (Egg and Cononut milk jam) again.

 I can say that I've improved. This time with my steamer, I just had to leave it steaming for 3 hours and then whisk it after. For the recipe, you can read my old post here. I'm sure whoever you are, will be able to identify where is the Kaya in the morning with help from my post-it note. Hahaha.

Next project - I'm not even sure if it'll be successful. Been wanting to make this kueh since 2nd year. Going ingredients hunting tomorrow.

Honeycomb Biscuit (Kuih Rose) and Siu Mai

It's that time again when I contribute to the society by making a few people less hungry and happy. This only happens when I have free time and stuck in Liverpool.

The 2 food projects this time are Honeycomb Biscuit aka Kuih Rose aka Kuih Loyang and Siu Mai (back due to popular demand)

Guess what I found at China town! The Crispy Baby Clam recommended by my sifu 4.5 years ago while the whole gang of us were visiting Kuching. That is a long time ago and I've found it again.....so many miles away from where I first tasted it. Now, I've created fans of this in Liverpool. Must try.

Ingredients needed for Honeycomb biscuit. I got the recipe from this awesome site. The most important item is the metal mould which I'd imported from Malaysia in 2nd year and haven't been touched till today.

The sticky batter.

 

Deep frying in progress. Had great fun doing this.

Tadah! I read somewhere that this Honeycomb biscuit signifies family unity. So, anyone who's interested can drop by while it lasts.

3rd time making Siu Mai (halal version). You can read my old post on the process of making them here and here.

 The taster. Verdict - successful.

A good way to use up all the egg yolks, mushrooms and water chestnuts is to combine them and make omelette. I didn't expect it to taste so nice but it did.

What will be my next project? Hmmmmm.

Cooking halibut

Finally, we managed to get to the smokery on West Builder street before they close for the day.

It was a really weird experience for me as I confidently stepped into the shop thinking that they might sell a species of fish which I knew but how wrong I was. Except for the cod and salmon, I couldn't recall any fish with those names.

We ended buying a piece of halibut fillet and a packet of smoked salmon for a really cheap price of 9.07 pounds.

The smoked salmon was half priced that day. Such a bargain.

Initially, the man who was serving us looked very bored, but after watching out antics, from asking him to recommend which type of fish to how to cook it, he was smiling all the way while I was paying him. Hahaha. I guess we brightened up his day. Too bad he didn't know how to prepare halibut.

Next, we stopped by Asda to get the ingredients to cook the fish and saying that, it was really funny as we haven't got a clue how to prepare it. A brilliant idea came to my mind, why don't we ask the person at the fresh fish counter?

'Which fish sauce do you recommend cause I'm planning to cook halibut tonight?', while casually pretending to choose one of the fish sauces arranged at the bottom of the fresh fish counter.

'No, you shouldn't prepare it with fish sauce. You should lightly fry it and top it with mashed peas........'

And so, we found out that he learned that recipe from watching Saturday Kitchen and had even tried the recipe himself. Hahahaha.....my ingenious plan worked all thanks to him.

The 3 enthusiastic cooks in the kitchen. D was the main chef and NI and I were the assistant chefs.

After 20 minutes.....

Tadah!!!!! Halibut topped with mashed peas, smoked salmon with boiled vegetables, mashed potatoe and fresh salad. Yummy!

I was trying to get a self shot with the amazing dish but D somehow was caught in the background. Oh well.

Halibut is seriously amazing. The fish on its own without any marination at all tasted so good. So, if any of you are interested in having seafood, halibut is a must try.

I think the picture says it all. The above was for photo taking purposes, and our actual meal was the one below. We even had rice with it. Hahahaha.

I'm now looking forward to our next cooking project. What will it be?