Our traditional fish pie for New Year’s Eve dinner

Fish Pie

I wanted to have a traditional British fish pie for New Year’s Eve dinner so I used ½ fresh salmon and ½ smoked salmon with snow crab meat for a pie. I actually modified Jamie Oliver’s fish pie recipe which used half smoked haddock and half fresh salmon for a “smokier” dish than all fresh fish.

Salmon Fillet Steak

The salmon I got were nice fillets meant for pan-frying that costs RM 79.90 per kg. There was another batch of salmon steaks going for half the price but I didn’t like the look of the sad pieces of fish lying about so I paid premium for the fresher salmon.

You will need:

Fish Pie Recipe

  • 300 grams salmon fillets
  • 150 grams smoked salmon
  • 250 grams snow crab claw legs
  • 4 sprigs fresh flat-leaf parsley
  • 3 bunches of spinach
  • 3-4 Brussels sprouts
  • 800 grams of red potatoes
  • 200 grams freshly grated Cheddar cheese
  • 1 lemon

Curly Parsley Flat Leaf Parsley

I bought a packet of parsley and you can see the difference between flat-leaf and curly-leaf parsley. There are equal amounts of each in the pack, I just used the flat-leaf ones, also known as Italian parsley.

Fish Pie Cheese

I chopped up all the vegetables into small pieces and lined the bottom of the baking trays with it before adding the grated Cheddar cheese on top. I used two, and that was a mistake, you can’t split a recipe in half like that, will show you why later.

Red Pontiac Potato

Meanwhile, I peeled the Red Pontiac potatoes for chopping into 2 cm chunks. Red potatoes are perfect for baking but due to it’s starch content, is not so suitable for frying. These aren’t the potatoes for French fries, but it’s good as mash.

Dicing Red Tomatoes

The red potatoes are then dumped into a pot of salted water and boiled for 15 minutes until soft.

Skinning Salmon

I started on the fresh salmon fillet after that – you need to skin it since the recipe calls for the fish to be skinned so the easiest way is to de-skin it is to run a sharp knife under it.

Cutting Fish

I chopped up the fresh salmon fillet into bite sized pieces and did the same for the smoked salmon and snow crab claw legs…

Fish Crab Pie

…before dumping everything into the baking trays.

Mixed Fish Pie

You just need to give it a good dousing of extra virgin olive oil and add some salt and black pepper before mixing *everything* thoroughly.

Fish Pie Topping

The red potatoes are mashed and then put on top of the fish pie as a topping. This is where I went wrong coz I used two baking trays and the potatoes were barely enough to cover both!

Potato Topping

I actually needed a deeper baking tray which would provide the same surface area for the potatoes but I really had to stretch the potatoes to cover both trays.

Baked Salmon Pie

I put both of the fish pies into the oven for 40 minutes and they came out perfect!

Fish Pie Baked

The kids both tried it but declared it to be too salty as I had forgotten smoked salmon is already seasoned and added too much salt to the recipe.

Baked Fish Pie

My better half also thought the same, and I had a huge thirst after eating all that due to the sodium.

Fish Pie Cooked

I think I’ll use cod next time instead of salmon, and hold back on the liberal handfuls pinches of salt. smirk

New Year Eve Dinner

Nevertheless, it was a great New Year’s Eve dinner together with the family. 🙂

Happy New Year 2015!

Happy New Year 2015

2014 has come and gone, and there are a lot of happy memories associated with it (and a few sad ones – we lost a member of our family to cancer, my late mom). It was a year where I learned to be a better person and a year of renewal.

Here’s to a better year in 2015 – may all your hopes be fulfilled, your dreams realized, and your worries conquered. Above all, may you find love, joy and meaning in everything you do.

Happy New Year everyone! 🙂

My 2013 New Year’s resolution

Well, the end of the year is upon us again and I just have one New Year’s resolution:

durians laundry

Don’t buy durians at the same time you get your laundry and leave them in the car!

I did that while grocery shopping just now and after a (not insignificant) pause, I decided to go for a quick one, grabbing items off the shelves.

Yup, my newly laundered clothes were saturated with the smell of the King of Fruits.

Seriously though, I really have just one New Year’s resolution:

I’m going to give my life to God and let Him lead me

I’ve decided that I’m not going to sweat the small stuff and see where He wants me to go in 2013. I’m sure there’s a bigger plan for me and I will totally submit myself to it. I also have a few issues that I need His help in resolving but the main thing is to listen to that guiding voice and be nice to people (even if they’re not nice to me, but that’s the point innit? smirk).

Happy New Year’s Eve everyone and drive safe tonight! 🙂

New Year 2006 – Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll @ Somerset Gateway, Kuching

somerset gateway

New Year’s Eve ’05 and the countdown to New Year ’06 was celebrated in an unconventional venue this year – Somerset Gateway, Kuching. Somerset Gateway is a serviced apartment located in the heart of the city and it’s managed by The Ascott Group. It’s one of the best places to chill out and crash in and you can hit the clubbing districts and make it your base to boot.

somerset gateway reception

Anyway, a group of us (spearheaded by me and Cherie) booked a 2-bedroom serviced apartment for RM 380 per night. It is a reasonable rate coz the facilities are great; and the privacy and security, better. I think we checked in sometime around 8 pm with everything we needed to usher in the New Year with the insobriety that New Year celebrations demand. 😉

somerset gateway apartment

The apartment we were in was the last one available that night which is either due to the high influx of tourists and travelers or locals having a home session coz most of the clubs were raided during New Year’s Eve. Oh, and about the title, there were no sex, drugs and rock and roll…at least not all three – we listen to hard trance. 😉 That’s a joke, btw.

somerset gateway fugitives

These are the first two fugitives – it looks like we’re on the run. I thought that was pretty funny.

somerset tour

Download: Somerset Gateway, Kuching video tour [sixthseal.com]

somerset gateway kitchen

This is the kitchen / food preparation area of Somerset Gateway serviced apartments. They have a fridge, freezer, all the utensils and cooking implements you need (except scissors!), plates, glasses, and they even threw in a front loader washing machine and a dryer on the side. You get the idea…

somerset gateway master

This is the master bedroom…it’s just beside the guest bedroom (or the other bedroom) and it has a huge bed instead of two single beds like in the guest bedroom.

master bedroom bath

There is also a toilet / shower and bath area which is inside the master bedroom. There is a smaller shower and toilet outside.

cherie chair master

There is also a chill out chair and the entire apartment provides a really great view of Kuching. It’s amazing to just suddenly drag open the blinds and let the amazing panorama of Kuching hit you, it’s nice. I usually just look out but I learnt that trick from Cherie.

somerset night

Download: Somerset Gateway view [sixthseal.com]

somerset gateway view

It was close to 10 pm on the last day of 2005 when we turned down the lights and chilled out.

pills are prescribed

There were trip toys and party packs and glow sticks to play around with…

chill and pop

…and we totally missed the countdown coz we were pretty fucked up by 11 pm.

Cherie: When’s the countdown?
Huai Bin: I’m not sure but I think it’s coming soon.
Hope: What’s wrong with you guys? It’s already 3 am in the morning! You totally missed the countdown.
Cherie + Huai Bin: Okay.

(a few minutes pass)

Cherie: When’s the countdown again?

I think that went on for quite a while. 😉

somerset gateway pool

Anyway, we crashed until 2 pm and went to chill at the pool on the 15th floor. There is a sauna and other facilities as well, including a couple of tanning chairs.

somerset gateway pool people

There were some other guests frolicking around in the wading pool and eating chicken wings.

cherie hb roof

The only thing we could eat (drink?) was bubble tea with lots of Chivas inside.

coffee master

Coffee Master does room service in Somerset Gateway, Kuching so the four of us ordered a lot of juice (self-infused with more Chivas) and some untoasted club sandwiches for later when we have the munchies.

soap dish
Before
(Soap dish)

soap ashtray
After
(Ashtray)

But nah, we didn’t thrash the place.

I think we actually cleaned up pretty much everything for them…at least Cherie did.

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2004

2004_benzo.jpg

It’s 2004! So…how many of you have broken your New Year’s
Resolution already? Who has work tomorrow? I’ll have to go into work
even though it’s a holiday but I don’t mind considering I still have a
job. 😉 I wouldn’t be able to pay the excess bandwidth bills if I
didn’t – RM 120 for both sixthseal.com and castitas.com for December
2003. Ouch…it’s my damn “doctor shopping” keyword. Rush Limbaugh just
had to get caught doing it last month, which led to a spate of news
reports and the resulting people searching for that keyword. It happens
to be one I target, so that led to a flood of visitors into one of my
most photo heavy pages….

I don’t feel new today. But at least this year was better than the last [sixthseal.com]. 🙂 Have a happy and stress free new year everyone!

The 2004 photo was made with generic 5 mg MPI nitrazepam tablets for the “200” and generic 1 mg Apo-Lorazepam pills for the “4”.

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