Thursday, February 7, 2008

Chinese New Year

So Happy Chinese New Year everybody!

This is the Year of the Rat... (as in Rémy from Rat-a-Touille!!!)

The year 2008 will be a year of possibilities, a time of progress; although, it may not generally be spectacular. Those who take the biggest risks could be disappointed. Everyone should, nevertheless, add something new to their life.


Excerpt from http://chinese.astrology.com Read the rest here.


So that is very good news, about the possibilities I mean. A ver qué inventamos ahora...

In the meantime, let me show you the food I made for you all to celebrate the New Year. (Actually, it was my aunt's birthday a few weeks ago, but the pictures seemed appropriate!)

I miss cooking for you guys...

Please refrain from licking the screen... the sweet and sour sauce is VERY hot, and I do not want to be held accountable for any speech impairments caused by the electric shock on the tip of your tongue.

All of the following pictures will pop-up to a larger size if you click on them.










DO NOT LICK THE SCREEN!



So here is where I was given the title for Fastest Egg Roll "Roller" of the West!!!!







I rolled up 30 egg rolls in about 30 minutes, with a crowd of people watching because it was a last-minute addition to the menu and they arrived while I was still cooking. I felt like I was doing a cooking demonstration in the middle of a tornado. More on that ahead...





Next, the end product, a crispy, crunchy, very tasty Golden Egg Roll.





I know it looks a bit different than the ones I used to make back home. I cheated a little bit this time, and used frozen Egg Roll Wrappers instead of making the crepes myself. I actually wanted to make everything from scratch, but I had very little time to cook. In the end, they still came out delicious and it was less work!!






And finally, the lovely Egg Roll drizzled with Sweet and Sour Sauce!!!!

(Insert applause and sounds of people salivating)



Over to this side, we have the wonderful Fried Rice Explosion.


I had a bit of a hard time tossing it in that huge wok, as you can judge by the rice scattered over the stove.... Since the house has an electric coil stove (which I hate), the wok has to sit on a ring over the metal coil so it will heat evenly. The problem with this, is that it spins and slips around. Hence you will see an extra pair of hands holding on to the wok. Nonetheless, rice still flew all over the place.

The picture was actually taken while I fumbled to catch all the baking sheets and bowls that were sitting on the dish drainer. My mom was trying to clean up while I tossed and suddenly they started to fall all over the place, or I should say, all over me cause the sink is right next to the stove...

You´ll also see a second pot on the back burner, full of already-made fried rice.... Cubans eat A LOT OF RICE.


It was a bit nuts, with all the egg roll-rolling-demonstration, the rice tossing-explosion and 13 Cuban ladies talking VERY LOUDLY..... ALL AT THE SAME TIME!!!


But, all's well that ends well. This food was actually cooked to celebrate my aunt's birthday with her family. So of course, there had to be a cake. Unfortunately, she has diabetes, and I didn't have time to experiment with a new Sugar-Free recipe. (I keep saying I didn't have time because the night before, it was decided that we would cook this dinner!).

So, being in the land of plenty that I am, I bought the cake which is made especially without added sugar. I did, however decorate the cake a little bit, just so it wouldn't look totally store-bought.

These are some of the icing flowers that I learned how to make over the summer...


Come back again soon!