Sunday 3 February 2008

Sunday sun-up to sundown

It was another action-packed Sunday. I was up early in the morning to prepare the ingredients for my 8-treasure duck which I was going to bring to CH's house for reunion dinner.

After breakfast, I dropped SK off for tuition and went for my long, lonely run that brought me from Bukit Batok, along Bukit Timah Road, across Hillview residential estate, through Bukit Batok Nature Reserve and back to the tutor's house. It felt good to pound the pavement again after a 2-week hiatus.

When we got home, I started getting busy in the kitchen. I had bought another fresh chicken from the market, so now I had two poultry to stuff. The night before, I had already marinated the duck with soy sauce and spice powder and soaked dried chestnuts, mushrooms and glutinuous rice in water before I went to bed.

I gathered all the ingredients for the stuffing (dried shrimps, dried chestnuts, lotus nuts, ginkgo nuts, dried mushroom, Chinese sausage, red dates, dried oyster, dried scallop and glutinuous rice) and fried with shallots until nice and fragrant. After stuffing and sewing up the cavity, they were ready to go in the wok for 3 hours of braising.

Last night's dinner at CH's place was rather special because my kids were meeting his family members for the first time. Obviously I was rather nervous. We went early and as we sat watching TV, his family members started streaming in.

We were treated to a sumptuous spread of yu-sheng (Chinese salad), ngoh-hiang (stuffed meat rolls), jumbo prawns fried in sweet sauce, steamed garopa fish, fried chicken (Indonesian style), stir fried vegetables with fresh mushrooms, Hakka yong-tau-foo (beancurd with meat stuffing), fish ball soup and of course my stuffed duck and chicken.

I'm so pleased that the kids put on their best behavior. Throughout the night, the adults were plying them with endless servings of food.

Entertainment for the night was provided by CH who wore his newly aquired kilt which came in the post just days ago. It looks very good on him. He's so pleased with it, he's going to order another one soon.

We had great company. Everyone had a good time. It was a very memorable dinner indeed.

11 comments:

WaterLearner said...

Wow Blur,

Meeting family members huh? :-)
Am I expecting good news soon?

You must let me know huh.
Or I will gate-crush!

Blur Ting said...

No good news lah. The kids wanted to tag along, so I brought them. It turned out well. That's the good news.

WaterLearner said...

I love Gingko nuts also. But very troublesome to prepare. When my mum prepares this dessert, I sometimes get summoned to do what you have done. Boring indeed.

The Real Mother Hen said...

Ohhh... your 8-treasure duck is so delicious and I can eat one whole duck now!
ARH!

La delirante said...

I had an action-packed Sunday too. Do you have pictures of the 8-treasure duck? :)

Have a wonderful week!

Blur Ting said...

Thanks MH. This time it was abit too tough cos I used the induction cooker which managed to burn a patch of my duck. I eventually transferred to the wok to cook. All the disruption affected the end result.

Blur Ting said...

La delirante - I didn't take any photos yesterday cos these things don't look too photogenic after all that braising in dark soy sauce. Plus the duck had a burnt spot. Didn't look too appetising at all.

Anonymous said...

At my house we judge the food by the eatin', not the lookin'!
The duck passed with flying colours!

The World According To Me said...

Hearing about all that food has made me hungry! It sounded divine!

I'm glad it all went well. I know these things can be nerve wracking.

Amel said...

I'm SO GLAD to hear about it. I'm SO sleepy now ha ha ha ha...gonna take a nap, I guess, before I write about my day.

Great food, great company...spending time with CH and his family and your kids...FABBBB!!!!

SOUL said...

FOOD? again? not fair man. when do i get some? at least some kind of delicious recipe?
somethin easy tho-- :))

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