Friday, December 26, 2014

Merry Christmas noms!

 
 
Helloooo! Merry Christmas everyone! How did you Christmas celebrations go?
I hope you guys have loads of fun! (:
 
 
 
Mine was a under the stars, seaside view with my boy cum personal chef :p
It's really quite a good escape from the crowd in town!
 
 
 
 
Our menu for the night. We ended up being stuffed with all the food despite our initial thoughts that it may not be enough!
 
Christmas eve menu:
 
- Johnsonville sausages garlic brats
-Har cheong gai
-Sambal fish and sotong
-Marinated pork belly and chicken bulgogi
 
 
 
And yes, after the charcoal is burning red ( though it can't be seen from here), it's time to start the food affair!
 
We first heard of Johnsonville sausages from the Flying Dutchman recommendation on the radio, and oh boy, did we not regret listening to it.
 
Juicy, savoury and oh so very good!
 
 
 
 
 
The rest of the raw cuts were all purchased from Cold Storage! What a life saver(:
 
 Har Cheong Gai would be better if it was more salty. The marinated chicken bulgogi was definitely a winner, followed by the pork belly. The sambal fish and sotong were really spicy!
 
I didn't really fancy the fish as it has loads of bones and the meat turned out pretty dry. 
 

 

 
 
Luckily the rain stopped before our food affair and it was a great combination of piping hot food and cool weather (:
 
How did you spend your Christmas eve?
 
 
 
Christmas dinner was a cosy gathering affair with our other halves and our king ( beloved dad)

 
 
The king had cravings for the soya chicken from crystal jade. So totally not Christmassy but we gave in to him :D

 
We tried baking meatballs with shoestring cheese
 
 
And seafood paella rice!
For those who have asked on instagram, here's the recipe we used!
 
We replaced clams with mussels, which is more authentic.
 
The colour wasn't as yellow/reddish as it should be probably because we used ikan billis stock which generated a grey tinge.
 
It's recommended to use Paella rice as we used normal steamed rice which resulted in an overly soft texture.
 
But the guys all loved this dish nonetheless(:
 
 
A last minute addition to the menu were these lobsters which were going at a resistible 1 for 1 deal from Cold Storage: $26.90 for 2
 
It's really right to not expect too much for this dish since it is frozen cooked lobster. The flesh was pretty tough and tasteless. But everything went well with the garlic butter lemon sauce that I cooked up. Oh boy, was that a hot favourite sauce for the night(:
 
Recipe for the sauce here if you are a garlic fan.
We chopped the garlic finely for this sauce instead of blending it as we were too lazy to wash another equipment

 


 
And our Christmas feast! We washed down the food with homemade Sangria with apple, lime and orange soaked in red wine done by my future sis-in-law.
 
It's pretty amazing how these fruits can save cheap red wine which have that tinge of bitter linger.
And the alcoholic content didn't taste so strong with the soaked fruits. Guess it will be a long-staying guest for our future gatherings(:
 
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xx