Sunshine for Valentine's :)

"After Chinese New Year comes a whole lot of dying oranges..." (Ong,2011)

I spent Valentine's Day evening with my family, having our early Last-Day-of-Chinese-New-Year dinner, watching So You Think You Can Dance on TV, and...peeling oranges. It all started with my determination not to let our mandarin oranges go to waste this year. We're usually left with so many after visiting our relatives that we have them for dessert every single day...for two weeks. And well, some of the poor defenseless oranges don't even last two weeks. The stress of being passed from hand to hand, house to house does take its toll, and I'm sure everyone can identify with lots of orange wastage each year. Last year, I smoked a duck and stuffed some oranges up the poor creature's butt to keep it moist. This year, I decided to be kind to animals and make jam instead.

My colleagues were kind enough to let me acquire the dying oranges off their desks, so I spent a good 3 hours peeling them (with my OCD-ness, I wanted to peel every last bit of white fibrous pith off), splitting every slice open to extract the seeds, cutting bits of peel and then blending and boiling the whole lot down. At 11.30pm, I ended up with this:

I love the sunshiney-orange colour :)

This was taken a few days after the jam had cooled and set. Better lighting (and at 11.30pm, I was way too tired to take proper pictures anyhow)

One of my sister's rats decided to come sniff out the jam...

Spread some of the sunny orange stuff on plain crackers or toast :)

*Note: Because mandarin oranges tend to be rather sweet, I added some lemon juice to perk up the flavour, and cut some of the sugar in the original recipe.bvg

Happy (Y)Ear of the Rabbit! :)

I know everyone will think their own mothers or grandmothers make the best pineapple tarts, but I really have to say that my mum makes the best pineapple tarts :) Think soft, crumbly, melt-in-your-mouth pastry wrapped around tart, chewy pineapple jam. I definitely prefer the covered version of this traditional favourite to the open-faced ones (and they're easier to make too :p). Our recipe originally came from my grandmother, who picked it up from a cooking class, then made her own modifications, and then my mum made her own modifications...so it's a sort-of family recipe.

My contribution to the annual CNY baking is usually in the design. We thought it'd be cute to make the tarts in the shape of whatever Chinese zodiac animal which was represented. So we've done rats, cows, skipped the tigers last year because that was too hard...and this year I'm proud to present my pineapple bunnies :)

With rainbow-coloured noses! :)

Of course I think the pink-nosed ones look the best ;p

The ears are sliced almonds, and the nose is a heart-shaped sprinkle. The face and mouth...well you're on your own for that :p I used a toothpick to carve those out...

The bunnies got a little fatter after baking...

My other contribution: peanut cookies (the recipe and step-by-step are in the previous post). Decided to try hearts and flowers this year :)

Have a hoppy, nutty new year! :)