Recipe: Mita's Potato Salad

Mita’s Potato Salad

450 ml mayonnaise
8 – 10 Russet Burbank potatoes, boiled in saltwater and cut into 1.5 inch pieces
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
10 sprigs of spring onion, finely chopped
½ large white onion, finely chopped
½ green apple, chopped (soaked in saltwater)
½ red apple, chopped (soaked in saltwater)
4 eggs, boiled and mashed
3 slices of honey baked ham, cut into small squares
5 slices of back bacon, chopped and stir-fried or microwaved for 1 min
1 tablespoon of butter
Salt and pepper to taste

1. In a big bowl or pot, mix all the ingredients (but only half the spring onion) evenly, adding salt and pepper according to your taste.


2. When the ingredients are completely coated with the mayonnaise, garnish with the remaining spring onion.


3. Chill at least an hour before serving
   
   Serves 12

The past weekend

Had a very active yet relaxing weekend...starting off with an indoor picnic at Jalan Membina. The plan was to picnic at Botanical Gardens on Saturday morning, but it rained so we decided to just hang at Swana's.

I made potato salad, Swana bought rum balls, Kavi made sardine sandwiches and the rest brought prata, chicken curry, mee goreng etc. We just snacked and chatted the whole day and fawned over Riley-Jean, our niece. She's just 2.5 months now, and like a kitten! Later in the evening, Kenny and Felina came over with their daughter Sarah and after everyone left, me and Swana tagged along while Kavi sent Siva home. She was gonna spend the night at Membina, as was I and the 3 of us pigged out on Teochew porridge at Bukit Gombak that night.

The next day, me and Swana had lunch at Tiong Bahru Plaza and hooked up with Kavi after that to head to Ikea. Then we collected some stuff from my house and in the afternoon went for a swim at Sunny Spring with the twins Nicole and Nicholas.

Dinner was an Indian affair, blame it on a craving. While swimming, we saw a caterer setting up at the condo clubhouse and a tub of papadums taunted us from the window. So we had Muthu's Curry, and it was deeply satisfying.

Nick finally came home last night, tired and hungry, so I fed him Muthu's Curry leftovers. Am glad he's home, he can start massaging my back...which is starting to ache!

Here are some pix of Riley, plus her folks and the kids swimming!

Recipe: Ayam Pongteh

Ayam Pongteh

100 gms Toor dhal (the larger, flatter dhal)
4 cloves garlic, chopped
8 small onions, chopped
4 large dried shitake mushrooms, cut into ½ and soaked in water
1 large potato, cut into 6-8 pcs
½ chicken, cut into 2-inch pcs, marinated in some pepper
6 – 10 tbsp of oil
3 – 4 tbsp of dark soya sauce
8 tsp of sugar
1 tsp of salt
600 ml – 1 litre of water
Red chili, cut like a flower

Rempah / Paste Mix

1. Boil the dhal in some water until it fluffs and expands, approx 30 mins, then strain and cool.
2. In a food processor, add the cooled dhal, onion and garlic and blend into a fine paste. Add a few tablespoons of water if the mixture is too dry for the blender. Keep aside once done.

Recipe proper

1. Heat the oil in a medium sized pot, and pan fry the potatoes till lightly browned and half cooked. Remove from heat.
2. Use the leftover oil to stir fry the previously prepared paste mix, until it turns a darker brown. Stir constantly and add a few more tablespoons of oil if too dry and the mixture keeps sticking to the pan.
3. Once browned, add the water, mushrooms, chicken and dark soya sauce and stir thoroughly.
4. When the chicken is almost cooked, add the potatoes, sugar and salt.
5. Simmer for 20 mins with the lid on and adjust taste and consistency by adding more sugar, salt and water according to your preference. When satisfied, turn off heat and garnish with the red chili.
   
   Serves 6
   

Recipe: Stirfried Squid

Stirfried Squid

4 pieces of squid, cleaned and cut into rings
1 tbsp of light soya sauce
1 – 2 tbsp of dark soya sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
½ small onion, minced
1 cm of ginger, minced
1 red chili, sliced
Sesame oil
Pepper

1. Marinate the cut squid rings with the light soya sauce, some pepper and a few dashes of sesame oil.

2. After 15 mins, heat some sesame oil in a frying pan, and stirfry the onion, garlic and ginger till fragrant.

3. Toss in the squid rings, and add the dark soya sauce and more sesame oil and pepper if necessary. Throw in the cut chili and remove from heat. The squid only takes a couple of minutes to cook.

Serves 2-3

Singleton for now...

I get to lead the single life this week as Nick conquers the Rockies as part of his annual Contiki sales meetings. He left on Saturday morning, having had to postpone his trip by 2 days after a bout of food poisoning.

Anyway, since he's left, I've been keeping busy. Borrowed some books, went to the Body Shop sale, attended a baptism and underwent more cooking lessons from Ma. Last night we made Ayam Pongteh but I left the recipe notes at home....so will upload later.

But Sunday was Raiden's baptism at St Mary's, he's such a pie. So smiley and such big, big eyes. Monica and Gerard did good! Incidentally, I bumped into my ex-boss from SES at the church. His grandson was being baptised that day too.

Tonight am having dinner at Tiong Bahru market, Anjali and Sabrina are in town. Hong Heng Fried Sotong Mee here I come! In the meantime, check out Raiden!

Fat Pink Chick

My stomach is just growing by the day, at a very scary rate, maybe I should cut down on the carbs? These are the latest pictures taken last night, at the 5 month mark.

People have been offering seats to me on buses, although somehow the train people are a little less kind, not that I expect them to give up their seats anyway. I board with no expectations.

Speaking of buses and trains, have you noticed how annoying and oblivious some commuters can be? They lean on the poles depriving the rest from holding on, they don't grasp the concept of personal space and hover close enough for you to smell their stinky tees, they fall asleep and nod away at your shoulders, and the other day, this lady leaned on a bus railing and right onto my arm while yakking away on the phone.

Plus a few days before that, an old lady just barged her way through the train platform while making her way to the end. She squeezed in between passengers and the doors, without so much as an 'excuse me' and her wildly swinging arms whacked anything that got in the way, present company included....even though the platform had loads of space. Some people I tell you....

Anyway, enough griping, blame it on the hormones!

Ain't she pretty?

After months of anticipation, we finally found out Junior's sex yesterday and were over the moon to find out 'he' was a she! I say 'he' because all along, I had been convincing myself it was going to be a boy, to mentally prepare myself because we were hoping for a girl and didn't want to be too disappointed when the sex was confirmed. No offence to boys, but they're just not the same when it comes to dressing up!!!

So yesterday at the ultrasound room in KK, a nice lady did the 20 weeks detailed scan and measured Junior's head, brain, spine, torso etc. Everything's just fine, by the way. She did not volunteer information on the sex till I asked and very matter of factly said, "It's a girl." I went, "Hhhhh!" and asked if she was sure and she showed us the screen and said, "Yes, these are the legs and there is definitely no penis!" I was so excited I wanted to jump off the bed and after that, I couldn't stop grinning. Actually come to think of it, I did jump up and down and did a little jig after we exited the room! This is the latest scan, she's got such a defined nose!

Let the shopping begin...

It's a...