Yesterday was Chinese new year eve and we had a great reunion dinner meal at home, just me and my parents. Both my brothers are overseas now, so will be sending love to them from afar. Kind of a quiet vibe this year, just us.
Was a rather simple one, by our standards. But still there was plenty of food, some prepared earlier on and heated up. Looks impressive but even this is not as elaborate as it usually is.
The top leftmost corner is herbal chicken soup with abelone. Really nice and simple. Below that is beef rendang, my favourite. We really slaved on that dish yesterday. Phew! Had to cut lots of condiments and stand there stirring till tender for almost 3 hours. The result was fantastic, melt in the mouth.
To the right of that is fried fish with tomato sauce, cooked a day earlier and was the leftover side up. The last row was fried prawns which were some nice big prawns, a mixed veg, and leftover "Hong Bak"from Christmas, put in the freezer.
It is a really awesome feast with the Hong Bak and fish prepared beforehand. The prawns, veg and soup were easy as pie, made in a pinch by my skillful mom. Only the rendang was a mean feat. I acted as the sous chef, washing up and peeling onions, chopping garlic and helping to taste.
For dessert, I made a simple caramelized bananas using bananas we already had. The recipe can be found here. My previous blog post. It was a nice and sweet ending to such a feast. We had it with vanilla ice cream.
Overall it was a nice, simple dinner and I am pleased with it. Toned down, for once! Although many animals died for us to have it. Many prawns, one fish, one chicken and part of a bull and swine had to be sacrificed. I told myself not to think about it, but the vegan in me was protesting. I guess I did cut back on my portions of meat. There were plenty of leftovers. The next meal would be recycling the animals and I promised myself I wouldn't think of it today.
Anyway, happy Chinese new year everyone! Wishing a happy, prosperous and joyful 2019!Labels: celebration, dinner, home cooking
