Welcome 2011!

Tick tock tick tock, said the clock when the midnight of 2011 struck.  The first day of a fresh new year.  Chinese usually wears red to repel bad spirits, bad vibes and bad luck.  Filipinos would wear polka dots to embrace abundance for the whole year round.  And most people, would have their so-called "New Year's Resolutions" which to some are considered overrated.

What is HT couple's NY resolution? :)  We made it realistic this year.  And what made it special, we accomplished that on the 1st day of 2011! 

Our resolution is to cook this dish!  Hurray!

Being far away from the promised land of Cereal Prawns made us do this!  6 months of fasting from this crustacean made us weak, helpless and famish.  (ok, i'm exaggerating a bit).  We bought 1 kg prawns from the asian market (toko here in NL), a bag of curry leaves and pre-packed cereal mixes(though i was able to get only the healthy soya version) .  Sautéed in butter with few chili slices (but more is better so the sweetness of the cereals won't be too overwhelming) and ta-dah, it went well!  New Year's resolution...check!  ...We're done.

And as a bonus, i also learned how to make this...Filipino (spanish-inspired) dish.

Embutido or Filipino meatloaf , is packed with ingredients which made me thought it was difficult to do.  I remember in SG, i would even order a few pieces from a Filipino caterer as I love it but don't know how to make it myself. 

We used ground beef and ground pork, raisins, raw eggs, white bread crumbs, grated cheese, diced bell pepper, soy sauce/salt/pepper/fish sauce to taste.  I added powdered chicken bouillon to make it more lip smacking good.  This dish is flexible, add anything you like, it would still be good.  A friend suggested a fantastic add -on: chestnuts!  It would be part of my next embutido!

 Hard boiled eggs and chorizo pieces were the center of attraction in this dish as we roll it tightly in aluminum foil.

I've wrapped it candy style...you can wrap it anyway you fancy and hop it goes to the steamer for 1 hour.  We don't have a steamer so we setup a rack in our oven and underneath we placed an oven dish filled with water.  We brought the water to boil and then placed the wrapped embutido on the rack and baked for an hour at 125C.

Once done, chill the meat loaf for an hour or more so it won't get crumbly when slicing it...

Warm it up in the oven, in the steamer or even slightly fry it, served with rice or with bread or eat it just  like cold cuts....yum!  And for freshly steamed embutido, you can keep it in the freezer for rainy days.

Once good vibe is around you...it continues to hug you...I had this great dessert on the first day of the new year made by a friend.  (so far all her desserts i've tasted, were exquisite!)

Panna Cotta in red wine reduction sauce with blueberries topped with crushed nuts and meringue cinnamon ice cream sandwich on the side.  (I just invented a very long name of a dessert).  Sweet lovers will get crazy with this.

Fulfillment was the best word to describe our first encounter of 2011.  And sharing good food with friends, what can be better than this?

Share your Jan 1, 2011 experiences or better yet, your NY resolutions (we'll keep it as a secret if you wish *wink*)

Doei! (bye in Dutch)