Happy Chinese New Year!

For the past number of Chinese New Years, I would typically get up around 7+ am, greet my grandfather, grandmother, dad.. and in return, would receive the customary red packets. As we are officially not celebrating this year, the occasion does seem somewhat strange and muted.

Looking back at the past, when I was much younger, I had always looked forward to Chinese New Year. It was the only extended public holiday in the entire calendar, sometimes stretching up to 4 days if we were lucky. It was always awesome when the Chinese New Year holiday coincided nicely with the weekends. Also, my cousins would typically come over to visit my grandparents, and as they would stay the entire day, they would bring over their Super Nintendo consoles or Playstations over to my house to play. I didn’t had my own console then and could only play when I go over to their house, so this was an absolute real treat for me. Sometimes they would also leave the console at my place for a couple of days so that I could continue playing. Thinking back, that was exceptionally generous of them. I typically don’t have much guests on the 2nd/3rd day of Chinese New Year and it meant I could spend the entire day at home gaming on the console. That was pure bliss. I would be eagerly anticipating the arrival of my cousins and the one year they forgot to bring, I was so disappointed!

And how can I leave out gambling? It is such a traditional Chinese New Year activity among local Singaporeans. For us, we usually only gamble with the closer relatives, the visitors who come aren’t really keen to join in either. Strangely, our gambling was like “见不得人” and during the normal years, we will confine the gambling to my room, so that kind of keeps people out of our games. We play quite a lot of gin rummy, in between and recently, dai dee. We only played blackjack once, and didn’t really like it, so that was just a one year event. I guess, games like gin rummy and dai dee are still very much games where although luck plays a part, there’s still some skill involved. So between the two main activities of gaming vs gambling, I am always torn every year and there’s never a way to find a balance between the two.

Safety in numbers. I guess that’s how I feel every year too, since I’m close to my direct cousins, hardly venture out of this safety net to engage the other cousins and will not talk to them much. I guess this would have to change! This year, a group of the “not so close” cousins were early, so had to talk to them since the rest wasn’t here. Ok, Samuel and Deborah, my two cousins! At least now I know two names, haha. This also brings to mind another thing I should do, family tree, especially with a big one like mine.

The food! We usually will receive quite a bit of bak kwa from friends and relatives so always had some to munch on over the festive season but they were mainly my grandfather friends, so didn’t get any this year.

My Seah Family Pineapple Tart Recipe

Pastry

- 500g flour
- 250g butter
- 1 tbsp milk powder
- 1 egg yolk + 3 egg whites
- 2 tablespoons sugar/powdered sugar

Pineapple Jam (Filling)

- 3 cans (20 oz can) sliced pineapples or 2 fresh pineapples
- 10 tablespoons or a heaping 1/2 cup sugar (more or less to taste)

Method

If you use fresh pineapples, remove the skin, cut into pieces and blend for 10 seconds.

Transfer the blended pineapple into a deep pan (non-stick preferably). Rice cooker 
works. Add sugar and stir well. Cook on medium to low heat until most liquid has 
evaporated, and the pineapple jam turns golden in color. Stirring constantly and 
continuously using a wooden spoon to avoid burning. Taste, and add more sugar as needed.

Sieve the flour, cornstarch, salt and sugar in a big bowl or container. Soften the 
butter to room temperature. Combine the flour mixture, butter, and egg yolks together. 
Knead to form the dough. The dough is ready when it doesn’t stick to the hand. If the 
dough is too crumbly or dry, add a little bit more butter (about 1 tablespoon) until 
the dough is easy to work with.

Flatten the pastry dough and use a mould to make circular cutouts. Put the pineapple 
filling in the middle. Use a small paring knife to make criss-cross patterns on the side.

Place the pineapple tarts on a tray lined with parchment paper, arrange the pineapple 
tarts so they are at least 0.5 inch apart of each other.

Preheat the oven to 350F (180C) and bake for 20-25 minutes or until light brown.

Not sure if I miss anything out, oh well, a just in case, at least I can possibly try make the tarts myself in years to come haha, although that’s like just a potential HUGE disaster waiting to happen.

I made J one tub this year, and also, one additionally huge pineapple tart as the icing on the cake. Homemade pineapple tarts are just awesome. I don’t snack often but every Chinese New Year, I just can’t resist.

All that are still snacks though, the real treat is when dinner arrives.

Having grown up on my grandparents cooking, Chinese New Year meant a special feast of their cooking specialities. Curry, Ayam Buah Keluak, Ngoh Hiang, Kiam Chye Ah (Salted Veg Duck Soup), Roasted Duck, steamboat, and the assortment of CNY vegetables. So many food to eat! The thing that irks me is that my grandparents will tend to over cook. It is normal but I end up having to eat the leftovers, which will be sufficient to eat for quite a few days, so I do end up growing quite tired of the food.

Buah Keluak can probably be said to be my late ah gong’s favourite dish, its a nyonya dish that is not a common sight outside, and even if found, sometimes its prepared differently. Ah gong always had a flair for cooking, and thanks to him, I grew up in an environment where I never had to worry about not having enough to eat, and also to explore many different cuisines. We are all still missing his culinary dishes.