WINTER ORCHIDS

Lots of Cymbidium orchids to care for but this year they are not flowering well, only a few but I am lucky enough to be able to enjoy the blooms.
The Winter Orchid Show in Gippsland has gone, we visited the exhibition, and it was great, there was a variety of orchids family, and they looked beautifully groomed and healthy. I was told by one of the officers of the show that this year orchid plants and flowers are not as good compared to the previous year.

At Home, the Cymbidium,  August 2019

For Eileen

Soft Pink is Perfect for Pampering

Last week I had the privilege to choose a gift for our dear friend who was having a birthday.  It's delighted her, she was so pleased and happy.  She loves orchid flowers.

To pamper yourself is excellent therapy.  Get something beautiful to reward for being good.  The pink Phaleonopsis was the choice to take home.

Talking about winter orchids what about winter flowers.  None, in the backyard except one of the winter roses.  The white jasmine is very promising, it has plenty of tiny buds, it is going to be beautiful when it 's in full bloom in springtime. Pretty white flowers soft scented.

Looking forward to it.

The Soft Pink Phaleonopsis is dressed, it looks pretty to sit on the table.

The photo was taken at Night-Time.

A few more orchids shows are happening both are closer to our town where we live.  With a bit of luck, and feeling fit and well we shall drive to go to see the exhibitions, last time we went was fun and took a Cymbidium Trancianum orchid home.

Cymbidium Trancianum
A beautiful Orchid with Lovely Fragrance

The winter orchids have lovely colours, and we took photos of the exhibition, love to share with you.

Here are the pictures of Winter Orchids of the Orchid Show in Gippsland.

Beautiful Orchids

People came to see, to enjoy, to appreciate the flowers.  It's Great!

Spring is coming, the spring orchids are the Australian native orchids, they are gorgeous with strong lovely fragrant.  Unfortunately, not even one of my plants is in flower, but they are looking good.

The winter orchids are bright up the season.  Colourful - Beautiful.

Love this saying!

The most valuable antiques are old friends.

Until Next Post

Susy

Smoke Alarm

The safety feature in every home must-have is a smoke alarm. The day when the smoke alarm goes off has a significant association for us, that is the time my daughter Susan comes home because busy cooking is always happening in the kitchen.  Once upon a time, it went off, and the family was not even there. For whatever reason, that made the alarm excited, it could be the smokey oven of the dripping fat from roasting or baking? Obviously, the cooking took place.  Burning food is one of my expertise, luckily, the alarm always goes off to alert us. 

The last visit of the children was only two weeks ago. I put on a roast dinner for easy cooking (I thought).  That day, an unusual smell out of the oven, a kind of burning fat or oil, well, of course, I had to attend to it.  While I was opening the oven, there was oil-liquid dripping off the roasting dish that catches the floor of the hot oven, without further ado, the smoked alarm went off, enough to make Rayner panicky to get rid of the awful sound quickly, soon, it's was quiet and peaceful.  Yes, of course, the baby is home.

The roast pork was good with reasonable crunchy crackling.  The final cooking, the temperature of the meat should be on the 170 degrees F, instead of 175, a little over.  It could have been better, that's what happens if you have lots of interruptions while you are doing the cooking.  It was not too dry though, the meat was tender enough.  It's all good, we enjoyed the roast dinner.




The children do not come home very often, so if they are we making the best of it.  The neighbours used to say, haha, Susy's children are home, I could hear her laughter.  Indeed the loud and uncontrollable laughter could be embarrassing at a time when the children home.  The family gets together is always fun, we share the good news, funny stories, and so forth that everyone expresses their laughter, as our laughter is contagious and we have ugly laughs too. 

Belated Susan birthday celebration, delicious home cooking based on our parent's traditional food were there for us to enjoy, everyone loved the dishes, I was pleased as the cook.

Lovely cake - date cake decorate with the poached apple with saffron syrup.

It's a moist cake, no cream was served.  The cake was prepared with oil instead of butter, so all the family can enjoy including the intolerance dairy products.

Beef rendang the tradition beef curry from Padang was a delight; indeed, it was a big preparation, the spice paste prepared from scratch, the method of cooking was different from the tradition Javanese cooking.  It's all good though; however, I would do my own way, the way I like it.
Happily, I will share my recipe with you.

Kalio Beef

Tempeh Cracker and
Rujak

Mandarin Juice

The pictures, from rendang to the Javanese fruit salad Rujak are here, unfortunately, not all the recipes to be shared as I did not have and I did not need them.  Mandarins from the garden have been good, the fresh juice of mandarin is the highlight treat this winter.  It's so good to have fresh juice every day.  

Now, with my new diet, I take fresh juice celery daily for a week.  We have decided to have fresh food - no cooking as much as we could, to avoid the smoke alarm goes off.  Very sensible!

We enjoyed the beef rendang immensely, I like to share the recipe with you. You can cook the dish too, it is delicious; indeed it takes time to prepare, over two hours but it freezes well.

Here is my rendang recipe or to be precise, it calls Kalio (rendang with the gravy or sauce)

Rendang Beef-Kalio (Susy's Style)

Ingredients
2 kg beef (blade or stewing steak), cut to large pieces.
12 large hard-boiled eggs (peeled) optional
Herb and Spices
I Ground Spices 
1 teaspoon coriander seeds-freshly grind.
1/2 teaspoon white pepper-freshly grind
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, and 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves 
1 teaspoon turmeric powder (optional)
1 tablespoon hot chilli powder

II Fresh Herbs is used as a whole, not chopping or grinding.
5 kaffir lime leaves
1 large lemongrass, crushed
1 piece of fresh galangal, as big as a walnut, crushed
2 salam leaves (it's available in the Asian stores)






III Spice Paste
a piece of fresh ginger, about 45gr
8 large fresh shallots
6 cloves of garlic.
6 candlenuts
1 large red tomato, chopped
1 tablespoon tamarind juice or a juice of one lemon
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 x large tins of coconut milk (800g total)
- coconut light milk 
- coconut cream
Oil to cook or to saute

Method
Make the spice paste: place the ingredients (III) in a food processor, or use mortar and pestle to make a smooth paste
Add in all the ground spices (I), mix them together.
Use a saucepan or a wok to saute the spice paste in oil until fragrant.
Add in the whole fresh herbs (II), stir together and cook for a few minutes, until you could smell the herbs releasing the fragrant.

The sliced beef for rendang

Cooldown a little, rest it on the saucepan.
When it is cool enough, add the cooked spice mixed on the beef. With your hands, mix them together, and let it rest in a large bowl for one hour.

Cooking the rendang

Transfer the meat onto a large braising pot, add 400 gr light coconut milk, mix well together.  Cook on medium-hot heat until simmer, let it simmer for 20 minutes. Reduce the heat onto a low setting, continue cooking for one hour (put the lid on the pot during this cooking) Check the seasoning, you could add some salt and sugar.

Kalio-Rendang

Add in the coconut cream, stir and continue cooking with the lid on, over shallow heat for another hour.  The last twenty minutes of cooking put in all the egg, immerse under the sauce.
By the time finished cooking the beef should be tender and have the delicious creamy sauce.  This is the 'Kalio' You may cook further to achieve less sauce, and the meat is coated a slightly creamy thick sauce, now it is called 'Rendang.'

Kalio-The dish contains Creamy Sauce-beautiful golden brown.
Rendang-The dish is dryer-the meat is coated with a thick sauce.

You can decide which dish you prefer, then you will cook it accordingly.

Give the recipe a go, you may like the flavour of the beef kalio rendang, it is delicious served with steamed rice.

Sweet Time-Happy Birthday Susan

Sweet Time

All is good to be busy in the Kitchen.
The Harvests, The Juice and The Preserved

Often we get carried away working busily in the kitchen, cooking and burning the food sometimes, created heavy smoke, it can burn the place, but the smoke alarm is faithfully alert us, it is there to the rescue to reprimand. Good to have one!. Thanks to the smoke alarm, gratefully! 



It is Sunday, I close off with a beautiful message.

A cheerful look brings joy to the heart, and good news gives health to the bones.
Proverbs 15:30 NIV

Susy