Cooking for Chinese New Year

I decided to be a bit more ambitious this year and actually cook something for my family for CNY dinner. I was craving for roast pork, and tried to combine 2 recipes I found on the internet to get the best of both. One recipe recommended marinating the pork slab in a lor bak sauce (or dark soya sauce+star anise+cinnamon+gula melaka) overnight, and the other recommended roasting the pork straight but dousing the pork with vinegar every 15 mins. The pork skin didn't turn out as well as I hoped, since marinating the meat overnight in the fridge resulted in the skin getting wet once it was out of the fridge, but the meat was very tender and it tasted really good. So this is one recipe that needs a lot of working on.

Still looking good, despite the parts of the skin not being crispy enough

It was surprisingly difficult to chop neatly. Probably because the skin wasn't crispy enough.

But the meat was really nice and tender and tasty.

The fruits of my labour

Mum's yusheng - my absolute favourite. Everything is freshly made - none of that bright green/bright red oversweet preserved store bought nonsense. She is one serious yusheng maker - with something like 10 ingredients in the sauce, including brandy.

Even her crispy bits are home made - fried bee hoon, friend wonton skins and keropok.

I made Sichuan hot and sour soup for the first time. It actually turned out pretty well, with the right amount of vinegar, and the colour and texture was perfect.

I also tried cooking spinach with salted and preserved eggs, wolfberries and anchovy stock. I think it turned out quite well too : )

Experimenting with all these dishes has made me a bit more confident, and once CNY is properly over I should have the time to do a bit more cooking : )