Our Christmas Eve Dinner @ Citrus Wine & Dine

This year Christmas was quite relaxing for the family or rather for me :)  We ate out with our dear friends , Ron and Kitty.  We were invited to Citrus Wine & Dine for our Christmas Eve dinner. The food was awesome and the fellowship was even greater.   The place was packed.  No booking no feasting :p  Yea, Kitty booked a table for five, a week earlier , and the five of us had a wonderful Christmas feasting together.  Citrus Wine & Dine is located in Ipoh Garden East, facing the main road of Jalan Perajurit en route to Tambun/Sunway City has been around for a good few years now.     

 

pic taken from J2fkm.com

Merry Christmas And A Happy 2013

Wild Boar, Piggy Jo , Piggy Josh and ELIN

wishes all readers and friends

A VERY

MERRY CHRISTMAS 

and

 A HAPPY 2013 !!!!

A toast to good health and happiness in 2013

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Steakhouse Pepper Salmon :)

Josh bought some seasoning rubs back for me and this is one of them. Steakhouse Pepper by Schwartz.  It has a nice fragrant...it is made up of pepper ,garlic , sea salt and chilli flakes .  Simple ingredients and yet it produces such a nice fragrant for my salmon steak :)  I just rub and caress my salmon with  them and pan fried them for just a few minutes on each side ( though the instructions clearly state that shake these seasonings on your steak before dishing up ) and yahoo...Wild Boar and myself had the most wonderful and satisfying meal of the day.   A simple meal like this makes me happy...less washing and a healthy meal for two :) 

Kung Po Chicken With Basil

A simple but an appetizing one like this will do when I am lazy to cook or when I am chasing after dramas.  Due to many cell groups Xmas party invites the past few days, I have missed out many episodes of the korean and hk dramas. Now it is pay back time. I am glued to the idiot box for hours chasing after missing episodes. That is one thing good having about Astro On Demand, you can record the show while you are away and watch the downloaded ones when one is free.   Thus, the past few nights, Wild Boar and myself have been eating simple.  As simple as just this one dish, Kung Po Chicken With Basil,  for dinner will do :p  Btw my new cookbooks are still waiting for me to caress them........LOL!  my hands are busy with the remote control at the moment :p    Read on for the recipe.

Restaurant 52, Sememyih, Selangor

When I was down in KL for the BBWBS a week ago , Piggy Jo took me to this Restaurant in Sememyih  that served good restaurant food :)  It was Restaurant 52 in Kampung Baru , that we had our dinner.  Wow, so many dishes on their menu that sounds great and after looking through, the gluttony in us wanted to order all ;p  Everything sounds delicious.  After some 20 minutes and upon Jo's recommendation, we ordered their signature Claypot Tofu ,  Yam Ring With Kung Po Lai Liew Har ( darn good )  their signature Curry Fish Head and Butter Squid Rings......... and all these for 3 persons.  Needless to say, we ate till we can't move and now I am drooling just thinking of it and looking back at the photos which I took :)   Read on to see the dishes at close up.....:)  You can drool all you like ...you won't be summon for that action :)

Marché Restaurant @ The Curve - Part 2

A peek into what they had in Marché and what we ordered for our brunch :)  Piggy Jo was all smile when it comes to food :p  I told her not to over order for us. After placing her orders for pasta, pizza and  potato rosti with bacon, she took me around to see the whole place.....needless to say, I could not resist and stole a few shots for my blog :p   Their salad looks delicious and comes in three sizes, small, medium and large and their desserts looks so good.  I will definitely order their salad on my next trip there and to try out all their cakes and tarts, their crepes and their mouth-watering grill chicken....hopefully soon :)  and I must bring WB along too so that we can order more variety so that I can get to taste all :p  Me is such a glutton ! LOL!

Marché Restaurant @ The Curve

I took three days off to visit my Piggy Jo in KL for two purposes.  Firstly , of course , to the Big Bad Wolf Preview and secondly to shop for some Xmas pressies and  thirdly to have some bonding time with my baby and a dear friend , Shirley ( that includes having a gluttony eating time together ) OINK OINK not for nothing :p.   On my second day there, she took me to the Curve and IKEA , together with Shirley.  It is good to have a Piggy who loves to eat and we all landed in Marché .  Jo wanted to give us a treat and she insisted that I must try out the food here and before I entered the place, she told me that I would surely love the food there....haha, true enough, I wanted to try out every dishes they have there but our stomach is just not obedient.  Today , I just wanna be easy and share some photos on the inside of the restaurant and the great concept.  No Menu given....you just take your guest card and go ordering what you like !  Me love this wonderful set up and not to mention the good food they have there.  Read on to see the place...............

Mokuren Japanese Cuisine - Wild Boar's Birthday

We celebrated Wild Boar's birthday at Mokuren Japanese Cuisine two months ago.  Forgotten to blog about it :p until I saw the photos in one of my photo folders in my PC :p .    Piggy Jo came back with the boy , now the fiance :) , to celebrate the dad's birthday.  Josh was in UK then , so he missed out the event.  Nothing to shout out about...just a simple dinner at Mokuren with the loved ones.    Read on to see what we had for his birthday....no birthday cake too coz the ' Sow ' was too lazy to bake the Wild Boar a cake LOL!

Sea Clams With Basil

Sea Clams for the weekend !!! love this to bits. Saw some big fat ones in the market and who could resist even when the price is  RM25 per kg !   Bought half a kilo back and tucked them in without any guilt.  Good thing that it is pricey or I will tuck them in everyday and clog up my arteries with them.   The price will keep me from over indulging in them !  The price saved my arteries from abuse !

Tofu,Corn, and Chive Fritter

I love tofu and this is one great way to cook tofu.  Fritters !... who doesn't like them...I do and so does the  Wild Boar.  While surfing for a great way to cook tofu, I found one good one on Biren's blog and I have all the ingredients for this tofu fritters.   Thus making them for our weekend treat is not a problem...finger licking good dipped in wasabi....I can't ask for more...can I ?  LOL!  Wasabi.....my favorite hot dip !  Thank you Biren , for this addictive tofu fritter recipe :)  Love it !

Pan Fried Chicken Fillets With Nando's Hot Peri Peri Seasoning Rub

Nando's Hot Peri Peri Seasoning rub is so good for pan fried meat, chicken or pork and it is also best for any roast . This is the last packet that Josh bought for me .  I  flipped the box to see what is written on the back of the packet , looking hard to see what ingredients is made of the rub.....maybe I can replicate it as near as possible LOL! I am not named the great Copy Cat for nothing okay ! Just kidding !  Seriously , it is good :)   This time, I used it to season the chicken breast fillets and instead of roasting it, I tried pan frying it and gosh it was finger licking good !   I used the same method as for roasting...coating it with........................

Steamed Tilaipa With Sarawak Laksa Paste :)

Have you tried steamed fish with those ready made paste?  I have tried it with the Penang Nyonya paste and it has made steamed fish more appetizing not to mention the time and energy saving goodness :)  Does this dish makes you drool...I bet it will :)  And guess who sent this to Claire and myself ?   Haha , I guess when I mentioned Sarawak or Sibu more ' tepat' you would have guess who !   Yea...it was ....................................

Roast Chicken With Nando's Lemon And Herb Peri-Peri Rub

I didn't know that my Piggy Josh knows how to cook until he went to UK to finish his degree and when I see the food he cooks for himself on facebook that had me surprised :)   And the wonderful thing is, he knows what I love most...yea spices and rubs and teabags and a can of foie gras from France !  He said.. " mom, this is the cheapest :p  " and I told him , it is the thought that matters :)   What a thoughtful son...love my Piggies muchies.   Piggy Jo gave me birthday dinner and Piggy Josh all these seasoning rubs.....mmmmm I am blessed :)  I can't wait to use them all in my roasts and today I would like to share with you the Nando's Lemon & Herb Peri-Peri rub...........

Beef Burger Patties

When you have meat eaters in the home, you tend to stock up meat in the freezer.  I would normally make beef patties and freeze them , so that whenever I am late home, I can just dump  them in the oven and by the time I am out of the bathroom, the patties are ready for Wild Boar to eat with his dinner :p   Baked ones are not oily and so much healthier .  Less washing too :)   Read on to see how I prepared them in advance for rainy days :p

Jo's Birthday Treat For Momsie Elin :)

An early birthday dinner for Elin...yea , my birthday falls somewhere in the mid of October :p  and Piggy Jo came back in early October to celebrate together with me.  She , being the filial daugher , gave me a birthday treat and of course it is not the food that melts my heart ...it was her thought that was so sweet , told me ..." don't cook...mommy, I will take you and dad out for dinner "  awwww how sweet that sounds :p  So the four of us...Jo, her fiance ( yea she got herself engaged to her Bunny ,just a month ago :))  and Wild Boar and Momsie Elin  went to Li Garden Restaurant , Ipoh to celebrate the birthday girl's  ' 25th ' birthday . I am 25th every year  LOL!    I was too lazy to bake myself a cake so no birthday cake this year :) 

Fried Rice Fusion Style

What do you do with the pot of rice you have cooked in the morning and in the evening, last minute they off the water supply to your housing estate for 3 hours without informing the residents staying in your area ???   That was what happened to my housing area some days back.  I had to chuck the whole rice pot into the fridge and go eat at some coffee shop out of my area :(    Thus, I came up with this fried rice since overnight rice is best for frying.  I once had this italian herbs fried rice from the food court and it tasted so good that I went there often to have their italian herbs mushroom fried rice .  The ingredients they have in their fried rice is just italian herbs and some chopped dried mushrooms and black pepper.  Just these few ingredients and their rice tasted so good.  I tried to replicate but since I don't have dried chinese mushrooms, I substituted with streaky bacon bits and dried shrimps.  Wild Boar likes dried shrimps in his fried rice...so to make everyone happy , I just go along with WB and added dried shrimps into the fried rice and flavored it with more shakes of italian herbs :)  And guess what ? everyone is HAPPY with this one dish meal ! Read on for my version of a fusion style fried rice :)

Crispy Baked Lemongrass Chicken Wings

When I saw this finger licking good wings on Angie's blog - Seasaltwithfood ...I  said to myself  " hey Momsie , this is too good to be true...baked in oven and yet crispy  ! MUST try it out then ! "  And now let me tell you how good this is :)  Finger licking good no doubt and what more it is so much healthier than those BBQ or deep fried ones !  You must try it to believe it.  I added some potato flakes  to the flour mixture to give it more texture and crunch.  I love this and I shall make this for my Piggy Jo when she is back . She loves chicken wings. You can use chicken legs too which I tried out and it gave the same crispy crunch on the outside and juicy and tender on the inside.  The lemongrass and lime leaves ( limau purut ) makes the wings so flavorful and fragrant. Thank you Angie for so generously sharing  the recipe with us :)  Do hop over to Angie's blog for more delicious food and bakes :)

Small Kucing's Coral Lobster :)

Last Wednesday, Wee Kean, Mamarazzi, Small Kucing  and WK's parents dropped by Ipoh and specially invited Claire and myself to join them for dinner . Kathy and Wee Kean were kind to share with us the coral lobster they brought down from KL.  We had dinner at the Crab House Restaruant in Ipoh Garden East and the chef steamed the lobster with ginger, rice wine and egg white and garnished with spring onions. It was beautifully prepared and we enjoyed the lobster dish very much.  Thank you Wee Kean and Kathy for this scrumptious dinner :)  and we enjoyed the fellowship with your parents too !

Claypot Braised Shiitake Mushroom With Pork

I still have a packet of dried shitake mushrooms sitting in the fridge drawer -1 pkt left from last year CNY  :)  Wild Boar has a sudden craving for these thick and succulent mushrooms cooked in his favorite style -very much like 'Tau Yu Bak ' yet slightly different. Thus, I , being the glutton cooked half packet LOL!  His style is to simply braise the mushrooms with any cut of ' his cousin ' - I would prefer the belly part but he doesn't want the fat, so we bought the lean cut with a thin layer of fat :p .  

You can eat this dish with porridge or rice.  I can tell you that two bowls of rice would be the minimum for me, a person who wants to cut down her rice intake :p  Really,  the thick and succulent mushrooms with the flavorful gravy absorbed in.... is heavenly indeed ! 

Pizza With Leftover Teriyaki Roast Chicken And Fresh Pineapple

If you don't know what to do with leftover teriyaki chicken from dinner, try this ! Make your own pizza with it as topping and garnish with lots of fresh pineapple...mmmm and before serving , shake as much as you want with parmesan cheese on top of the pizza.  This is what I did with the leftover teriyaki roast chicken we had .  I had one whole pizza all to myself and Wild Boar had one bigger one for himself.  The fresh pineapple was a great accompaniment for the teriyaki chicken.  I find homemade pizza tastes just as good as those from Pizza Hut :) of course, this is my opinion !  :)   I like my pizza to be more gooey and cheesy, thus I always add more mozzarella cheese to it and not to forget a good shake of parmesan cheese too !    If I am not watching the calories, I  would love to have more pizza in my diet.   They are easy to make and less washing :p   Not to mention, it is a delicious meal to have every day !

Spaghetti With Basil And Leftover Stir Fry Clams

What do you do with the left over dishes ?  I cooked a kilogramme of clams for last last Sunday lunch . It was delicious but a kilo...ok we were gluttons...we tried to finish it off between the two of us but alas we were too full, so I told Wild Boar not to worry, cling wrapped them and keep in the fridge. I  used it for the spaghetti I was going to cook for dinner.  This was the outcome of what happened to the left over clams from lunch :)   It was not just the finger licking good garlic and chilli sauce from the clams but the additions of homegrown basil and tomatoes that makes this pasta delicious.   Even Wild Boar loved it !  The basil gave  the extra flavor needed for the bland spaghetti.  I wish my dinners can be simple like this all the time :p. I prefer pasta to rice!

Braised Pork Ribs And Taro/Yam

I once ate this dish at the local restaurant and I fell in love with the dish. Tried to replicate it but no where near it LOL! anyway this is good too.  The taste was quite near but yet something is missing....of course we can't get it exactly or the Chef will have to hang up his apron :p  Anyway , this is delicious...yam or taro cooked is like a sponge...it absorbs in the gravy well and you get to taste the flavor in one bite :)  The pork ribs were tender soft and juicy .   Braising the pork ribs and yam together was not a bad idea at all.  In fact it was a perfect combination and I can eat two bowls of rice with just this one dish.   

Pancetta Wrapped Pork Loins , Asparagus And Salmon In Corn Husk

Thanks to  Veronica of Quay Po Cooks for her pancetta that Wild Boar and I can have a finger licking good  dinner :)  This is the second dish that I cooked with her pancetta.   The first, I used them for the pizza and now the second dish. I wrapped the pork loins and asparagus with the pancetta and roast them in the oven....gosh it was finger licking good !  Of course, the pork loins are HIS and the Salmon In Corn Husk is HER ......and the Pancetta Wrapped Asparagus.....the His and Her shared among themselves LOL!  

Tebaloi- Sago Cookies #MFF - Sarawak

Pheewww...I made it in time for the MFF Sarawak week.   The lazy bug finally got rid off and now I am more hardworking and the eating craze is back.  I was first introduced Tebaloi - Sago Cookies by Wendy of Table of 2 and I fell in love with on the first bite.  She brought it for us to try out when we had a bloggers meet up last July.   I was waiting patiently for her to post up and she told me that she is going to post up for the Sarawak week...I waited and finally September rolled by and there true to her words , she posted the recipe up and in time for me to try it out so that I dont have to crack my head for a Sarawak dish :p  I know I should post this up on my Sweet Delights blog...I shall break the rule for once and posted it up here :p 

Homecooked Dishes For Piggy Jo :)

I enjoy cooking a big feast when my Piggies are back.  Last weekend, Jo managed to find some time to come back to spend some time with us.  So you can imagine how happy I was to be able to see my Piggy after almost a month not seeing her :p  Yea , a month is like a year to me.  That is how much I miss my babies.  Here are some of her favorite dishes which I cooked for her last weekend and you can guess how contended she was....nothing beats homecooked food ! * wink  Glad everyone enjoyed the food.....the five dishes were..............................

Quinine Sambal /Chutney - Revisited

Actually not many people like this mango sambal .  But for me and Piggy Jo.  we both  love this mango sambal  very much . The ripe quinine mango has a strong  fragrance which can be over powering for some but we love them nonetheless :)))  It goes well as a spicy dip for fried fish and my malay colleagues taught me how to make this delicious mango sambal and I then introduced to my family . Only  my Piggy Jo loves it but not the male Piggies :p  

When Jo was back last Friday, I fried some fishes and make this special mango sambal for her. She oinked with pleasure !   LOL! she was lucky that weekend coz my colleague, Puan Nabila gave me four quinine mango and I had the most wonderful weekend with the quinine perfumed my whole kitchen :)

Fusion Salad :)

Salad is a versatile and healthy meal.  It gives me a pyschological lift when I have only salad for my dinner meals.  Trying to cover the days when I consume too much meaty stuff :p   I  like to add fruits to my salad if there are fruits in the fridge.  Strawberries give a wonderful color to the salad besides the Vitamin C and flavonoids.  Rich in antioxidant too :)

Stir Fry Dragon Mustard With Shrimp Paste ( Belacan)

The first time I had this was when I was in Cameron Highlands for the church camp two years ago.  I didn't know what this green is called until I saw them at Jusco Ipoh . They called it the dragon mustard...mmmm nice name but I read somewhere that they are also called wild mustard.   I am  still not sure what this is called actualy. ( if you guys know the actual name of this mustard, please leave a note on the  comment box here, tq ) 

Japanese Miso Soup Wild Boar Style- Guest Post by Wild Boar

As a punishment to Wild Boar for trying out his 'Masterchef' stunt in my kitchen and taking ingredients meant for seafood curry without his Bacon's permission , today he has to guest post for me....rest day for his Bacon ( hah ...bacon indeed ) !

Guest Post by the Wild Boar :-

It’s been quite a while since the Wild Boar’s was last mischievious in the kitchen so I decided to surprise my half side of bacon (the Wifey) with a soup for dinner. As usual I rely on my creative inspiration to concoct something from nothing. So I rummaged into the fridge and freezer and to my delight found practically all I needed.

Homemade Pizza With Italy Pancetta And Fresh Mushroom

Wow....this is one delicious pizza that had me for once forget the calories and all.  I intended this for Wild Boar and a veggie and fruit pizza for myself but I could not help it but to take two slices off his whole share....LOL!   The pancetta ( gifted to me by Veronica of Quay Po Cooks ) was crispy aromatic and the homegrown lemon thyme with its lemony aroma is the strong factor that broke my resistance.  The pizza crust was fantastically good and I have been making the crust using the same recipe since I first made them some years back. You can have it crispy thin or the normal Pizza Hut type of pan crust..wonderful isn't it ?  The crust is crispy on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside.  The kind of crust that will not harden once it is cold but anyway, the pizza will not have a chance to harden.  It finished fast and WB asking for more and I told him ..sorry no more for I want to use the balance of the pancetta for other dishes :)

Gari ガリ (Japanese Pickled Ginger)

I have made pickled ginger  many times but this time I finally got the right recipe!  But alas , got the right taste but the ginger slices were a bit thick. I manually cut the ginger thus  the inconsistency of thickness . My mandolin was in bad shape, I have to throw it away....I tried the first piece of ginger and the slices were thick.  I have no choice but to manually slice them :(  at least thinner compared to the earlier ones.   Next item to shop for is a good mandolin...that is for sure coz I am not going to manually slice a kilo of young ginger again !!!  The ginger turned slight pinkish...if only I had them sliced thinly, then the result would be even better. Just the same,  the pickled ginger tasted fantastic !  I saw this recipe on Evan's Kitchen Ramblings and I knew I had to try out her Gari recipe.  Thank you  E'sKR for sharing this recipe.  Simple yet fantastically appetizing !

Stir Fry Salmon And Brown Button Mushrooms

Sorry for not updating my blog with yummy food for almost a month. I have not been well  recently . Had a bad bout of coughing.  I had been taking cough mixture for almost three weeks and that has really robbed me of my appetite.  Thank you for always dropping by though I have not been blogging much :)  Your support is much appreciated.

After having regained my appetite, I made myself this delicious and appetizing meal for myself.  Fresh brown button mushrooms with salmon and the steamed black rice, full of nutrients.  Love this simple to prepare and delicious meal.  I added garden grown organic basils to it.....this definitely add extra flavor to the salmon and shrooms. 

Pasta With Shrimps And Avocado Salad

I have been down with a bad cough and cold since Friday and the best food to serve is a plate of pasta....when I am tired and wanted something nice to perk me up, I will whip up a pasta dish.  To make it more delicious, I added a few shrimps for Wild Boar and a avocado salad as a side for my simple pasta.  The ingredients to go with this tasty pasta is black olives, tomatoes and slices of cooked ham and lots of dried herbs :)  This pasta dish surely whet my appetite and I wallop alot of the avocado salad....in fact I finished up the whole bowl of chilled avocado salad.  Simple and yet delicious !   

I simply stir fry the shrimps with garlic and olive oil and before dishing up, added a pinch of sea salt to it.  It smelled good even to an almost blocked nose.  Wild Boar and I had a wonderful meal before going off for our cell group meeting.   The cough was not that bad but got worse when Saturday came.  I hate cough and cold...really makes you uncomfortable especially when you are barking coughing throughout the meeting. the hardest was trying to suppress the cough  which makes the situation worse LOL !

I guess the tomatoes and olive may have made the cough worse...just guessing only ...just feel like blaming it on someone or something...and the best excuse is to blame it on the tomatoes and olives or whatever there are in the pasta :p

cooked the pasta olio aglio style...added in some meat stuff for

Wild Boar that is the cooked ham and shrimps....I would prefer it

plain ...with just the avocado salad, but nonetheless it was tasty

with the shrimps in it :)

the pasta is really tasty with the mixed herbs and

the meat stuff and the avocado salad is really

a great accompaniment for the pasta !

mix the avocado with japanese mayo and a shake of

dried herbs ...simple yet delicious

This is so easy to whip up , so for those who wants something

to perk you up, try making this tasty pasta with Shrimps and

Avocado salad !

Have a great day !

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