Nyonya Fare on Boxing Day 2009

Instead of our cell group usual Christmas dinner with the usual Western dishes, we decided to have a Nyonya do instead. We had a great dinner with everyone contributing a dish and we had Lobak, served with sweet Thai chilli sauce, Kari Kay (nyonya curry chicken), Kerabu Pucuk Paku (a ferntip salad), Acar (pickled vegetable),Indian Curry Chicken (brought by an Indian friend who insisted that nyonya curry originated from this dish), Steamed Okra with dried shrimps, Konyaku Jelly with Lychee and a non-alcoholic cocktail with fruits and orange cordial. The food... excellent and not much was left at the end. Wish you could have joined us!

Lavender Puppy

This is a craft that I made for some of my friends, for Christmas... which I call Lavender Puppy. Basically it is a Scottish Terrier-shaped casing filled with dried lavender, inspired by some people whom I know, who are going through some issues in their lives, causing them sleepless nights. My wish - that they have peaceful & restful sleep. To my other friends, those without any problems sleeping (& prob. doze off the moment their heads hit the pillow), may you enjoy the lavender scent and a stressless season! :-)

"What is necessary, is never unwise." Spock's father in Star Trek The Future Begins, 93:48mins into the movie.

That sounds logical!

Humility

"Don't be so humble - you are not that great." Golda Meir

Treating Chilli Burn

A group of us gathered together this morning to prepare Christmas gifts for friends and this involved cutting 'chilli padi' (those small and very hot chillies).

After completing our gift project, some of us who had contact with these 'mini dynamites' began to feel very bad burning sensation in our hands.

Pal A advised soaking our burning hands in warm water (her rational being that, if drinking warm water eased the burning sensation in the tongue due to consuming chilli, it would work for our hands too) and that we did. It was pure TORTURE!!!! It was like being scalded by hot water, and the burning sensation did not subside.

Even after 11 hours, the burning sensation remained intense. I googled for help and tried a solution - soaking my hand in cold milk. What an utter relief! The pain subsided while hand was being soaked. It came back after I washed off the milk, but the burning intensity lessened and became more bearable.

I've learnt my lesson now.. I will :

1. Wear gloves before cutting chillies or handling cut chillies.
   
2. Never inflict further excruciating pain on myself by soaking my affected anatomy in warm water.
3. Will soak my pained hand in the blessed cold milk.

I do hope that all the pain suffered today will be of worth and the Christmas gift will turn out splendidly!

 

Kimchi Recipe

Being a person who loves trying new things, especially when it comes to food, I was ecstatic when I found this recipe at my friend's place. This friend of mine loves collecting recipe books, to flip through the pages to admire the pictures of mouth-watering masterpieces, & when I asked to borrow this particular magazine, she was more than willing to so, as I did promise her that I would let her have a portion of the Kimchi.

The recipe asks for 4 Chinese cabbages, but that's really too much if you were just experimenting, so I halved the recipe and this is how it goes...

2 Chinese cabbages, halved & washed

500g red chillies

1/2 onion

1/2 pear

1/2 apple

1/2 bowl cooked rice

50g dried chillies, soaked

1/2 radish, sliced

50g spring onions, cut into 2.5cm length

25g Chinese chives, cut into 2.5cm length

50g chilli powder

25g sugar

salt to taste

50g minced garlic

1/2 tbsp minced ginger

1 tbsp Korean fermented shrimps (If you cannot find this, you can substitute with cincalok)

125ml fish sauce

Soak the cabbages in salt water for 5-6 hours, and use a heavy plate to weigh the cabbages down during the soaking process. Remove cabbages from the salt water and drain well.

In a food processor (which I love using), blend the chillies, onion, pear, apple, rice and dried chillies. (Being overzealous, I accidentally put in the radish as well. Please remember not to do that!) Remove the blend from food processor and combine with the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

Stuff the cabbage with the mixture, starting from the innermost leaves and making sure every part of the leaf is covered. Repeat until the entire cabbage half is covered (layer by layer) with as much of the mixture as possible.

Put the kimchi into an airtight container and allow to ferment for 3-6 days at temperature below 20 degree C.

I put the kimchi into a square based Corningware casserole with cover and then sealed it with Clingwrap, as I do not own any airtight container that big to fit a Chinese cabbage. I stored this in the fridge and after a week, I harvested it. 

The taste... very fresh and spicy. On the whole, very appetizing. It was a success!