A Parisian Easter

We are finally aboard the two hour delayed Eurostar heading backwards to London after five days of soaking in the cultural history and decadent delicacies.

It seems surreal to be able to provide for my family in these times, to make memories whilst others are suffering through terrible times. I pushed out the anxieties threatening to overtake my mind and tried hard to focus on my family. 

The bright blue skies and pastries helped the course. We had troopers walking an average of fifteen thousand steps per day the past week. Taking in Paris without complaint of meltdowns until we were back at our Airbnb. We steered the children away from paid playgrounds and introduced them to new pleasures such as sailing wooden boats, finding la Jaconde, climbing into maze hedges at Jardin Tuileries, jumping and climbing Palais Royale’s columns, walking up the Eiffel Tower, watching a flash mob dance-off at Trocadero gardens, lighting candles and praying together at the Sacre Cour, street art appreciation in the streets of Montmarte, Easter egg hunting on the walls of Macdonalds, playing on the interactive wall in Galeries Lafayette, freezing water in plastic bottles to take to the amusement park for a particularly hot day.

Two little girls, as different as they came, learnt to walk along the streets of Paris playing non-digital games, using their imagination and observing how French children behaved ( sadly none of their delightful habits rubbed off). They still managed to make me proud of them in their own ways despite me realising they are likely not as well behaved as the meek Asian children are raised to be. My family back home may struggle with accepting them, but I love their courage and curiosity. I love their positivity and adventurous spirits. Overall my fears of losing them in Paris went unfounded as they exercised caution mostly and always stuck by. 

This holiday was different and I know why. My wonderful 19 year old cousin definitely helped by entertaining them, teaching them games and songs that distracted them in long queues. I felt more relaxed than I usually was. Plus not cooking during the holiday helped me relax too. I don’t think I fought once with my husband either although unfortunately  one evening I did bark my cousin’s head off when we were tired, hungry and he was being politely indecisive about what to eat.

Other than that, I certainly do not regret the holiday one bit.

Making memories and spending time to understand my children is a luxury I take for granted. I know how frustrating everyday life can be but am grateful I took a breather this Easter to celebrate the important things in life, happy families, praying together, forgiving and seeing each other’s perspective together.

May 2022 will bring with it a poignant trip home for the first time without my dad, to try to pick up pieces and address any delayed grief if there is any. I hope it will be peaceful and bond building like this Easter break, but will approach it like my daughters did, brave and open minded come what May.

One pot wonder

Whilst walking through the grocer's picking up some of my favorite vegetables, I saw this Korean brand of tofu, Cho Dang. I hadn't seen it for a good many years now and it brought back memories of an Easter trip we made many years ago where I met A, one of the most talented and messiest cooks I had ever encountered. She made this Curry on our stay there and even though she used Malaysian curry paste, the curry turned out with Thai flavors and was really delicious. The most memorable thing for me was that she had put this Cho Dang tofu into the curry and I had never had white tofu on curry before that!

We normally would put tofu puffs, but sliced white tofu... With A's recipe though, the sour tang from the curry latches onto the smooth tofu, and this particular brand had a bite to it which I adored.
So when hit with sudden cravings for A's curry I just broke all desperate housewife rules and made this one pot wonder (all your proteins and three vegs in one pot) for Monday night's dinner.

Preparation time including chopping: 1.5 hours
Serves 2 very hungry adults

Ingredients:
1.5 cups of steamed rice (To serve)
1/3 cup loosely packed chopped coriander, include roots if you have it
1 shallot diced
3 cloves garlic diced
1 litre stock
2/3 cups red curry paste. I used a Malaysian meat curry powder instead.
100ml coconut cream
1 tsp of tamarind purée
1 tsp of lime juice
1tbsp soy sauce
1tbsp fish sauce (A was very particular about the fish sauce. I was pretty Devo when I found out we had run out so had to use more soy sauce to balance out the flavours instead)
300g meat of choice: I used lean rump beef, diced
100g of sliced Cho Dang tofu
Three vegetables of choice: popular choices include potato, eggplant, carrot, tomatoes, beans...I used roasted sweet potatoes so that it is already soft, capsicum and okra, sliced into rather large pieces as I didn't want them to dissolve into the curry.

To Garnish:
Coriander leaves
Fried shallots

Method:

1) Heat a tbsp of vegetable oil on high heat in a heavy based pot. Fry the coriander stalks and root, shallots and garlic until fragrant.

2) Add curry powder mixed with 2 tbsp of stock to form a paste and mix them all up and add to the herbs to fry.

3) Add meat to brown in the Curry Paste Mix.

4) Add Coconut Cream and vegetables that you want to soften (I put in capsicum first then okra about 5 minutes later) If the curry gets too hot/start to dry up, you slowly add the stock, just 1.3 cup each time and you can now add the coriander leaves, tamarind, fish sauce, soy sauce and lime juice and begin balancing out the flavours. I added the soft potato and tofu after the flavour of the curry is right and let it simmer for 2-3 minutes on a lower heat before I began to spoon the curry into a serving bowl.

5) You can garnish with the remaining coriander leaves and the dried shallots. I even put some on the rice just to make it look nicer.

 And then, 'Makan!' Is how our Malaysian friends would encourage you to dig in!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

I am loving Sydney

Was lamenting not being able to wear jeans to work this week... And Mr HEA says ( and as usual he's right) "I'd rather not work on Friday than to be sad about missing out on casual Friday..."

Fair Enough.

Here's an early Easter post to show how just how much I love living in Sydney:







Put together this edible centerpiece for Easter







Walking to work this morning.







And just how gorgeous is that weather promising a great Easter long weekend?






Hot cross buns from Central Baking depot for the office Easter celebrations

Happy Easter peeps!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone