Sunday Family lunch
Last Sunday we had a family lunch after visiting my grandma’s memorial at the cemetery. Jac was still in Kalgoorlie, so I caught the train to my folks’ so I could get a lift to the cemetery with them (later on I realised I should’ve just caught the train from the city to the cemetery – the train actually stops at the cemetery – duh).
Anyway, as soon as I stepped into my folks’ kitchen, I knew I could smell one of my all-time favourite soups cooking – peanut soup! Mum said the peanut soup wasn’t actually for our lunch – she was cooking it up for later in the week. But since she knows how much I love peanut soup and since I confessed that I was absolutely starving because I hadn’t had any breakfast, she dished me up a small bowl to tide me over.
Peanut soup is not what many people would imagine it to be – it is not at all like runny peanut butter or satay sauce. It’s a savoury, clear broth, made from boiling raw peanuts with meaty pork bones. I don’t know how I would describe the flavour of this soup, but if you ever get a chance to try it, you really should. The peanuts can be as crunchy or soft as you like them to be, depending on how long you cook them in the soup. The pork was beautiful and just fell off the bones. Thank goodness for this bowl of soup. Without it my tummy would’ve been growling non-stop at the cemetery.
When we got back from the cemetery, my sisters got to work making wantan, as we were going to have wantan noodles for lunch. My wantan making technique sucks, so I left the nimble-fingered experts to it.
Mum had boiled up a whole chicken which she chopped into pieces.
She also boiled up some choy sum. I really like choy sum – actually I like just about all chinese leaf-and-stalk green vegies. Jac finds most of them too stringy. I love chinese leaf-and-stalk vegies best barely cooked, with the stalks still crunchy – blanched in boiling water for twenty to thirty seconds, drained well and then sprinkled with a little sesame oil, a little soy sauce and freshly cracked black pepper over the top.
Mum also made char siu (Chinese BBQ pork). This was sooooo great. We all loved this so much. I reckon if there had been double or even TRIPLE the amount we would’ve gotten through it all!
There was a pot of mushroomy garlicky sauce for the noodles. Seriously mushroomy sauce, with big whole Chinese mushrooms.
We also had abalone – though I didn’t actually have any as I wasn’t in the mood for it.
Wantan soup, with the freshly made wantan…
…and my wantan noodles with all the yummy things piled on top. I ate my noodles with sliced pickled green chillies on top. Fantastic. Jac really missed out on a good feed.
For dessert, Juji had made a delicious coconut and jam slice. This was gorgeous. If you ask nicely she might share the recipe – but I don’t have it, so don’t ask me! :-P