Mother's Day for a Mother of Two!

Happy Mother's Day to all my readers!

First and foremost, I hope your husband remembered to wish you. *chuckles* Discounting birthdays and anniversaries, this is probably the only other day when a woman can expect to be spoiled silly by her husband and kids. As for me, Aiden makes cards at his school for almost every other occasion of the year, so even if my husband forgets, I can almost guarantee that I would get a card from my son. (There is absolutely no chance for him to forget, anyway - since Aiden has been excitedly whispering plans for Mother's Day with his Daddy almost daily... I overheard breakfast and a present... oooohhh can't wait!)

So come Mother's Day... I rolled out of bed, only to be greeted by the sight of my three boys sound asleep. The house was absolutely quiet, especially since my maid was on leave.

(Huh, what happened to breakfast in bed??? Shouldn't my profession deserve a day off on Mother's Day? Oh well... tough luck!)

I got to work preparing breakfast. Next, woke the house up and went off for a Resident Association meeting. Close to the end of the meeting, I got a call from Hubby saying that Aiden wanted to "wait to have breakfast with Mummy!" Heh - no wonder they were so quiet throughout my meeting... they were preparing my Mother's Day breakfast!

Aiden excitedly showing the Mother's Day card he made for me.

My 'surprise' mother's day breakfast.

Guess what! Apart from the card from Aiden, there was also another homemade card (obviously done last minute by dear Hubby... *grins*), flowers, a Mother's Day sash and also a pink crown for me to wear throughout the meal! (They obviously ransacked my party craft room for this!)

Apart from the reheated roti canai, the nasi goreng and scrambled eggs were as prepared by yours truly earlier in the morning... Well, it's the thought that counts!

I was so moved by Aiden's words in the card... *sniff sniff*

My Mother's Day sash and Hubby's card... next time get a store-bought card please, Hubby! *smiles*

Since it was the weekend, the kids had their routine classes to go to, so my Mother's Day celebration only resumed much later. We went to Gardens for an early dinner, and I was pleasantly surprised with my Teriyaki Salmon... crispy skin and tender on the inside, paired beautifully with udon mee. *drool*

I would gladly have a second helping of this!

A Mother's Day treat to myself, courtesy of Sephora. Don't tell Hubby! *shhhh*

So that was how I celebrated my Mother's Day - simple but memorable. I hope you had a great Mother's Day too!

P.S: Hubby... I'm still waiting for that spa trip!
P.P.S: Aiden, I was moved when you proclaimed how Mother's Day is a day for me and how I could have "anything" without having to ask Daddy; then much later you managed to convince me to buy a Star Wars light saber for you whilst I came home empty handed.... Wow... how did you manage that??? *kisses*

Chili Fried Salmon

It is Friday again and it is time for my weekly visit to the kitchen. The kitchen and I, we don't meet very frequently. My dinners are usually either purchased or I resort to my trustly ol' Fitness cornflakes dunked in milk. Really, there isn't much motivation for me to cook ever since Hubby started working in Singapore. That combined with my neverending efforts of trying to fit into my pre-pregnancy clothes.

But I would make it a point to try (try being the operative word here) to conjure something up in the kitchen for Hubby's arrival every Friday night. Last week was udang nestum. This week, I wanted to use the salmon that has been sitting in my freezer since my last trip to Tesco. The difference between this salmon and my previous failed attempt in making salmon spiral marinara is that this salmon is fresh while the previous one was frozen packed (and therefore very hanyir!) so remember, fresh salmon is the key!

Distinctively remembered that a fellow blogger cum future neighbour of mine had recently shared her recipe for making a meal out of salmon. So I spent the whole evening going through her blog and finally decided to try Eynda's Salmon Masak Berlada.

Because it was my first try, I only used this much of salmon.

Perap with salt and tumeric powder.

Fry the salmon. Because Aiden cannot eat chilli, we set aside a portion of the fried salmon for his meal.

Blend bawang besar, cili merah and cili padi. Increase the number of cili padi to increase the pedas intensity. Set aside. You will also need asam keping and shredded daun limau purut. Set these aside as well.

Sauté the blended ingredients...

....until garing and pecah minyak.

Add a bit of water. Since Hubby likes his dishes berkuah, I made sure it was extra watery. You can choose to make it kering as well.

Add in the asam keping and shredded daun limau purut. Season as needed with salt and sugar, even chicken stock!

Put in the salmon, mix well and you're done!

There you go, chilli fried salmon. Check out Eynda's blog for a more flattering photo.

I also made udang nestum again this week. Gara gara tension sebab minggu lepas tak jadi. And it turned out better!

XXL sized prawns. See, this is how the nestum should look like. Not soggy but crunchy!

Anyway, Hubby was extremely impressed with the Chilli Fried Salmon that he actually scooped some rice into the dish plate just to get every single drop of the kuah. Thanks Eynda, such an easy recipe but we truly enjoyed the end result.

For the rest of you, happy trying!

Salmon Spriral Marinara

After seeing how much Aiden enjoyed his Salmon at Tykoh Inagiku, I decided to at least try to conjure the same in my very own kitchen. I read that salmon could be mixed with vegetables or cooked with pasta, so I figured, why not make my own Salmon Spiral Marinara for Aiden's dinner?

Unfortunately, it wasn't easy finding fresh salmon. The only one I could find was the frozen version, and even that costed a bomb!

Purchased this at our local supermarket. Can anyone tell me where I can get fresh salmon??!!

One pack has 2 pieces of salmon, but I only used quarter of a piece of salmon for this recipe.

This piece is as big as my palm.

And so I thawed it according to the instructions on the pack. Apparently I were to defrost the fish in cold water mixed with vinegar. Why cold and not hot? Because defrosting it in hot water just cooks the outside without the heat penetrating the inside flesh, therefore the nutrients are lost before the actual cooking.

There was also instructions on how to reduce the hanyir smell - by rubbing it with air tapai. Apparently frozen fish smells more hanyir than fresh ones. Unfortunately, I didn't know what the hell air tapai was, nor have it in my kitchen, so I decided to forgo this step. Boy, was that sooo wrong!

After lightly frying the shredded salmon with olive oil, I gave it a bit of tomato puree, frozen vegetables and chicken stock for flavour. And when I tasted it... the hanyir smell/taste was still there!!!

Looks yummy, but hanyir! *shudders*

Decided to just try it out (although hanyir), and blended it into until puree consistency was achieved.

Eww.. does not look yummy at all after going through the blender. And guess what, Aiden flatly rejected it!

After trying to coax him to take just a few more bites, I finally gave up and told Bibik to give him his favorite chicken bubur. *sob*sob* Mummy felt like such a failure!!! He walloped the whole bowl and happily went for his routine bathtime.

Aiden - fresh from his bath, spiky hair and all.

Side profile.

Back profile.

Handsome eh??

So... does anyone knows how to hilangkan the hanyir of the salmon, and suggestions on salmon baby recipes (apart from my miserable salmon spiral marinara!)??? Help!!!!