Cooking up a storm for CNY reunion dinner

I had invited 7 guests for the CNY reunion dinner at our apartment last Sunday, and my next task was to cook up a proper, decent meal for 9!

Groceries and ingredients were purchased on Saturday, and I then spent all of Sunday cooking and preparing food; from the moment I got out of bed at 9am until we sat down to eat at 6pm! What an accomplishment!

The highlight of the afternoon was the fish. I’d purchased a beautiful, fat Dorade Royal (Sea Bream) from the Migros. As my German is not quite up to scratch, and this was the first time I’d purchased a whole fish from the supermarket counter, I did not realise that the fish was intact. Thankfully, my other half pointed this out to me (else my steamed fish dish would have been a disaster!!). I then proceeded to gut and clean the fish, for the first time in my life!!! As I’d never done this before, I enlisted the expert help of Professor Google and friends. It really was not as bad I expected and I certainly would not mind doing this again. It is a far more pleasant experience than gutting and cleaning a whole chicken!

The final menu for this lavish meal was as follows:

Apero:

- Indonesian Perkedel (courtesy of Jakarta) – resembles meatballs, made with potatoes, minced meat, herbs and spices

Main meal:

- Pork with prosperity vegetable “fatt choy” (courtesy of Puchong)

- Indonesian chicken curry (courtesy of Jakarta)

- Steamed sea bream Chinese style with ginger and spring onions

- Prawns with garlic, chilli and coriander

- Egg tofu with minced meat and Chinese mushrooms

- “Richi Special” with diced pork – Thai stir-fry dish similar to Pad Krapow

- Malaysian beef rending

- Braised duck (purchased from Lian Hua asian grocery store)

- Roast meats – “char siew” and “siew yuk” (purchased and frozen from my recent trip to London)

- Kangkung a.k.a. Morning Glory or Water Spinach, stir-fried with garlic and chilli

- Pak Choy stir-fried with garlic and oyster sauce

- Steamed jasmine rice

Dessert:

- Rosewater cheesecake with fresh strawberry glaze (courtesy of Sydney)

- Rambutans (courtesy of Sydney)

- Macao almond cookies (courtesy of Beijing)

You may visit my food blog for picture
http://spicyzwergli.wordpress.com/2009/01/28/chinese-new-year-eve-reunion-dinner/