11 days to Chinese (Lunar) New Year of the Rabbit or 4701

It is still 11 days to the Chinese (Lunar) New Year of the Rabbit and the feasting has already started :-) 

As in previous years, our non-Chinese friends and neighbours start to cook and send over the food. Yesterday, one of our Muslim Indian neighbour send over, as he had done for  decades,  various home-made dishes.

For this year ...

Briyani Rice .... chock full of vegetables and herbs. Our neighbour certainly cook the best briyani we have ever eaten in Malaysia or Singapore or elsewhere!).

 

Grilled Chicken drum sticks .. yummy!

This sour and spicy brinjal is another favourite of the family ... again, we have no eaten anything similar yet over the years to beat this dish!!

The nice cold cucumber side dish ....

Finally, the yummy sago and oatmeal dessert!!
 

A really great meal to start off the countdown to the Year of the Rabbit!

Takakura Home Composting Part 3

To aerate the compost, I mixed the compost well and then even out the seed compost.

Add in the chopped and diced fruit peelings and vegetables.

The end-result should look like this.
 

I had earlier cut a couple of cardboard boxes to fit the top of the basket.

Then I covered the basket with a piece of thick cloth. A black piece of cloth was suggested but since I had an old towel, I used this instead. To keep out the light,  had earlier added cardboard lids which helped to keep the compost in the dark.

Twenty four hours later, on opening, you can see this .... the bacteria had been hard at work!

Just repeat the whole process every day. 

Take note that the compost should be slightly moist - not dry. If the compost feels too dry, spray some water into the compost and mix well befoe adding the next lot of chopped vegetables/fruits.

Broody Hen

At the back of the garden, we kept a pair of local chicken - gifts from TK's eldest sister. They are not as small as seramas but ,still, they are miniatures of the normal local chicken.

The hen had been laying eggs every alternate day ... final is a clutch of nine eggs though one was broken when it fell off the box on which she laid the eggs.

Last Friday (7/1/2011), the hen started to incubate the remaining eight eggs.

I am not sure if we will get to see eight miniature chicks in three weeks time ....

Takakura Home Composting Part 2

During the fermentation process over the five days, the covered box felt warm and after about 5 days, the seed compost was covered with white mould ...

The seed compost is now ready. Prepare one or two compost containers - the containers should have holes on the sides to allow ventilation. Line the container with cardboard - to prevent  spillage and insect infestation.

 

Transfer the seed compost from the box to the compost container. The compost container should be two-thirds full. During the transfer, you can see steam coming out of the seed compost.

Everything is now ready to start the Takakura Home Composting.

Wishing 

All 

A 

Very 

Happy and Prosperous New Year 

2011!!!

客家擂茶釀豆腐午餐 Hakka Tea and Stuffed Bean Curd Lunch

Yesterday, TK hosted a 擂茶釀豆腐 lunch for his siblings and family - eldest sister, second brother, second sister, their spouses and his niece who came into town from Brunei. The last such gathering was nearly two years ago!

As usual, my mum makes the 擂茶 (Hakka Tea) and 釀豆腐 ( Stuffed Bean Curd). The three other side dishes - 樹仔菜 (shuzicai), 長豆 (long bean) and 豆腐蒜 (bean curd-leek) were prepared by me.  TK did most of the preparation-cutting work while the maid was responsible for frying all the 豆腐 (doufu)!

Unfortunately no pictures of the food! All were too busy - preparation to serving takes about four to five hours. 

I think every one enjoyed the meal.  Next time, I will do a couple of articles on the recipes and preparation of the dishes!

冬至 - Winter Solstice Festival

Today is 冬至(Dōngzhì Festival) or the Winter Solstice Festival.

For the Chinese it is the time, when one adds on one year to one's age and to eat 湯圓 (tangyuan) - small rice balls made from glutinous rice flour and cooked in a sweet syrup. The 湯圓 (tangyuan) are traditionally pink and white in colour but now people use other colours as well. Some of the湯圓 (tangyuan) also comes with fillings  - amongst them are those made from peanuts, sesame seed, or  lotus seed paste.

During the morning's worship and prayers to the family ancestors,  one of the food items amongst the offerings will be 湯圓 (tangyuan).

Of course, the 湯圓 (tangyuan) have to be hand-made at home.  It is pretty easy. All you need are glutinous rice flour and water plus a bit of colouring where necessary. My mum prefers plain pink and white 湯圓 (tangyuan) - no fillings

Knead the mixture to a consistent dough such that it feel like play dough.

The just make the dough into small balls.

Add to boiling water and once they are floating, they are done. For the syrup, it is just plain sugar solution though I add in pandan leaves for a nice pandan flavour. There you have it.

Happy 冬至(Dōngzhì).