christmas lunch at fairfield

auntie supp man
really went all out to cook us a grand lunch. there were 12 of us but it was enough to feed 20! first off, here're some asparagus and blanched french beans with garlic and oyster sauce.
stuffed roasted chicken rolls with sundried tomatoes
the table setting
brandied strawberry
summer fruit
tiramisu, mango pudding
passionfruit cheesecake
honey glazed ham

roast vegtable salad
cocktail shrimp

mince pies!

frozen is good

to buy fresh bhindi [ladies fingers / okra] it would cost us $14.90 a kilo, but these frozen [baby] ones are $6.40 a kilo, which we discovered at Hong Kong grocery at Clayton Rd. perfect for our fish curry. we used delichef's fish curry paste, which has everything in it mixed up perfectly for you, so all we needed to do was add the fish, okra, and water.
we used the cheapest fish ever - vietnamese basa fillets [also frozen] and boiled it all up with the fish curry paste. the paste made a very yummy sauce but the baby okra got overcooked and mushy. so far, everything from deli chef turned out delicious, so i highly recommend it.

delichef's rendang mix

We're still in the process of using up all our Delichef pastes [from Cosway], so this time it was for "rendang" which is a malay dry coconutty curry. I made this "rendang" using lamb instead of the traditional beef, but it didn't turn out too bad. The rendang paste was excellent - fragrant, thick and flavourful. there was no need to add oil or salt at all, and the instructions were so easy - just fry the meat with the paste until fragrant, then add water and simmer until the meat is cooked! Perfect with white rice.

tandoori mix by Maggi

this mix was brought from Malaysia, I reckon we bought it in January then forgot to use it, then left it at my parent's place, and they didn't use it either, so on his recent trip back, Gavin brought a whole lot of them here. So, although it was expired, we used it anyway! and it was good! the instructions were so simple: just marinade the meat in the powder mix and yoghurt, then grill/roast it for half an hour.
it turned out so tasty and juicy, much nicer than the chicken tandoori from Suku's [in SS14]. Hmm perhaps it's bcoz ours was succulent and we used maryland fillet instead of breast meat. I wish we could have it again but that was our only tandoori mix packet! it's perfect with sliced red onion, a squeeze of lime juice and warm naan.

malay food

curries are not just eaten by indians, the malays love it too! above is a fish curry with a slightly sourish sauce. it's all meant to be eaten with rice, so lotsa gravy is always good.
and here're some ladies fingers.
and below, some fried chicken boxing style. all these were from Cargas Cafe in Penang.