Laying out the dishes

Because it was a rather last-minute arrangement, I only went to the market on the morning of Winter Solstice. Hence, the menu consisted mainly of quick stirfries. No stews or more complicated dishes cos those would take too long to prepare!

Stir-fried prawns & broccoli

I bought these fresh glass prawns at Chinatown market. They were supremely fleshy, sweet, and bouncy!

Stir-fry of chicken, sugar snap peas, baby corn, red pepper, and honshimeiji mushroom

This dish was very easy to execute, and surprisingly well-received! The chicken was pre-marinated in oyster sauce, while the vegetables provided much crunch and natural sweetness.

Sweet & sour fish

Sweet & sour fish is such a crowd favorite, so I figured can’t go wrong with this. I used red garoupa fish fillets for this dish.

Fried sotong (cuttlefish) balls

Haha, I cheated by using frozen cuttlefish balls. But this brand — Seawaves — is good. I also like their prawn balls.

There was also a soup — herbal chicken & Chinese mushroom — brewed for two hours. But I forgot to take a photo of it.

Freshly rolled glutinous rice balls, ready to be boiled!

After we finished eating dinner, the table was cleared and the womenfolk started making tang yuan!

For the filling, Mom made her own special blend of crushed peanut and mashed mung bean. Unorthodox, but nice!

That’s Mom shaping the bean paste into balls, and 2nd Sis-in-law stuffing the paste into the dough. I cooked the rice balls and sweet soup. No, the men didn’t help out.

Freshly cooked, homemade tang yuan beats the frozen variety anytime!

Mom forgot to bring brown sugar, so we made a light sweet soup of rock sugar scented with pandan leaf. The end result was very refreshing.

Hope you had a meaningful Winter Solstice Festival with your family too!

Concorde Hotel mooncake box

Though I’m not a big fan of mooncakes, I look forward to seeing new flavors of mooncakes every year. It’s amazing how the hotels, restaurants, and bakeries manage to come up with so many creative inventions year after year.

One of the more interesting selections I tried this year came from Concorde Hotel, Singapore. The mooncake box looks like an imperial treasure chest. Very regal-looking, indeed!

Individually boxed mooncakes

The interior holds 4 golden boxes, resembling gold ingots. Each box holds a mooncake that’s sealed in plastic wrap to maintain freshness.

Traditional baked mooncakes

I was given two traditional flavors to sample — Low Sugar White Lotus Single Yolk and Mixed Nuts.

Low Sugar White Lotus Paste with Double Yolk & Mixed Nuts

Both hubby and I liked the white lotus paste for its smooth texture and low sugar content. However, we’re not fans of Mixed Nuts mooncake, so we didn’t go nuts over this one.

Contemporary baked mooncakes

For contemporary-style mooncakes, they often come in snowskin. Hence, it was a refreshing change to see baked mooncakes without the traditional crust for once.

Charcoal Baked Yam

This Charcoal Baked Yam was our unanimous favorite! We both like yam paste, so this combo of lotus paste (mixed with edible charcoal) and yam paste (center) was the best of both worlds. The sweetness was also just right. In fact, it was less sweet than the Low Sugar White Lotus Paste.

The white crust was soft and not as rich as the traditional crust, so on the whole, this was a very light-tasting mooncake.

Chocolate Omochi

Rick didn’t like the Chocolate Omochi because of its sticky texture. That’s good news, cos I got to eat all of it! Hee!

I didn’t mind the mochi centre at all. In fact, I enjoyed the plain chewy mochi paired with the sticky, bittersweet chocolate. The chocolate flavor was really rich. I like!

The best thing about Concorde Hotel’s mooncakes is they are halal-certified, so they can be enjoyed by Muslim friends as well.

If you’re interested, do call Concorde Hotel’s mooncake hotline: 6739 8370 to check if they still have stocks. Prices are listed on their website here.

Here’s wishing everyone a joyous Mid-Autumn Festival! 祝大家中秋节快乐！:)

Many thanks to Evelyn and Vivien of Concorde Hotel, Singapore for the delicious mooncakes.

"Abalone" yu sheng.

2nd sis-in-law prepared the yusheng ingredients, which I then plated. No, that’s not abalone, but canned king topshell, which tastes very similar to abalone but only at a fraction of its cost.

Instead of white and green radish, 2nd sis-in-law used fresh apple and Korean pear strips instead, making the yu sheng extra sweet, crunchy, and refreshing! I much prefer this fruit-based yu sheng to the usual version.

Prawn fritters.

Look at those huge prawn fritters! It was one of the faster-moving dishes.

Fried "pork chops".

These were tasty, but on the dry side as they were made with lean pork, not pork chops.

Fish fillets baked in foil.

I think these were sea bream fillets. Marinated in salt, black pepper, dried basil, and olive oil, then steam-baked in foil. Simple and healthy, but so fragrant and tasty. This definitely tasted better than it looked!

Stir-fried mushrooms medley.

Eldest sis-in-law adores mushrooms. This dish was also very popular. I think after the past few days of feasting and snacking, everyone was yearning for wholesome veggies!

Prawn and fruit salad.

I contributed three easy dishes. The fruit salad is simply canned fruit cocktail and fresh apple tossed in mayonnaise and a little lemon juice, then topped with steamed prawn.

Stir-fried cauliflower and broccoli.

Because we’d planned for this meal to feature more greens, I made this colorful vegetarian dish.

Rosemary and lemon chicken legs.

Instead of roasting a whole chicken, I used chicken legs instead, cos everyone in our family prefers dark meat. This way, we won’t have to fight over our favorite part!

Besides dinner at Eldest Bro and 2nd Bro’s, I also had to cook for the hubby’s family on LNY’s eve. After a week of mammoth grocery shopping, cooking, and cleaning, I’m really pooped! How did my mom get through so many Lunar New Years??

"Big fish big meat"

On the second day of Chinese New Year, we had an informal dinner at eldest bro’s. As is the usual practice, we had a potluck.

Claypot fish head

Eldest sis-in-law made this dish. Under the huge fish head, there’s some more pieces of fish and chunks of taro. Hmm, come to think of it, this dish has lots of symbolism. The head represents a new beginning, while fish, taro, and vegetable are, respectively, homonyms for abundance, lucky headstart, and wealth.

Har cheong gai (prawn paste chicken)

She also prepared broccoli with prawns and har cheong gai. The chicken wings were not too salty and very crispy, yums!

Hae cho (fried prawn rolls)

This was made and given to eldest sis-in-law by a friend. Quite tasty!

Curry chicken

Because 2nd sis-in-law was out visiting all day, she only had time to cook one dish: curry chicken. Anyway, it’ll be her turn to host this coming Sunday, so she’ll have the chance to cook again!

Roast baby back ribs

I made these ribs using Sylvia Tan’s recipe from her cookbook Singapore Heritage Food. Very easy, and turned out pretty well, too. The ribs would have been more tender if I’d marinated them overnight, but our dinner was an impromptu thingy, so there wasn’t time for overnight marinating.

Nyonya chap chye (stewed cabbage and vegetables)

With so much meat and seafood, my chap chye (Hokkien for “mixed vegetables”) was quite popular! Eldest sis-in-law asked if I’d been inspired by The Little Nyonya!

Fried beehoon

Due to popular request, I made fried beehoon. It wasn’t as good this time, as fresh beansprouts were unavailable on the 2nd day of CNY. But it was still very fragrant due to the liberal use of fried shallots and shallot oil.

Eldest sis-in-law also made a very big and nourishing pot of soup (which I forgot to take a pic of).  After all that cooking and cleaning, it’s back to work before the weekend comes and we’ll have to get busy preparing for the next dinner party at 2nd Bro’s!

Glutinous rice, pork stuffing, and salted egg yolks.

Making zongzi is a tedious, day-long affair. Starting with the preparation of the ingredients: Blanch and drain dried bamboo leaves. Rehydrate the dried mushrooms and chestnuts, cut them up. Blanch the pork, cut finely. Finely chop candied winter melon, shallots and garlic. Wash and drain the glutinous rice. Separate salted egg yolks from whites. Fry shallots, garlic, winter melon, mushrooms, pork, and chestnuts. Season with soy sauce, salt, sugar, pepper, ground coriander.

Phew! Now, we can finally wrap the zongzi into their characteristic tetrahedrons! All the wrapping was done by Mom.

I tried to help. Mom warned me, “It’s not easy.” “Teach me! How hard can this be? I’m a fast learner!” True enough, even after a few tries, my zongzi fell apart! Argh! Not wanting to waste the ingredients, I left the task to Mom.

Wrapping zongzi is a lot harder than it looks! This is really an art that takes years of practice to master.

Fold bamboo leaf into cone.

Here’s my mom making the zongzi. She starts by folding a bamboo leaf (two if they’re too small) into a cone.

Fill the base with rice, then meat and egg yolk.

She fills the base with some rice, followed by pork stuffing and a salted egg yolk.

Cover the filling with more rice.

Then, she covers the stuffing with more rice, and folds down the leaves to shape the whole parcel into a pyramid.

Tie the dumpling tightly with hemp.

Finally, she ties up the zongzi securely with hemp.

Ready to be cooked!

The zongzi are tied in bunches of about 10, then boiled in a large pot over low heat for nearly two hours.

Yummy homemade zongzi!

Mommy’s zongzi is Nyonya-influenced — the pork is finely cut, and tastes more sweet than salty. However, the addition of mushrooms, chestnuts, and egg yolk are borrowed from the Hokkien style. It’s like combining the best of both worlds! She’s also more liberal with the fragrant ground coriander. Although zongzi are commercially available all year round, nothing beats homemade zongzi because we can customize the taste to our preference!