Saturday, January 29, 2011

NICI Raccoon Meets New Plush Friend

Our NICI Raccoon ~ Rob gazes curiously upon the box stranded right in front of him..

He ponders what's in the box that might surprise him..

Rob Raccoon: "I wonder what's inside...daddy say it's specially for me!"

"Hehe, quickly open up and see see" :D

"Ah! It's orange !"

Rob Raccoon: "Hey! You are...."
"I am your fellow NICI Forest Friend ~ Frederic the Fox"

They gaze at each other for 5 seconds in silence...

Both of them are very huggable, adorable, and they have a big bushy tail made from very soft plush!

Rob Raccoon: "You are my good friend!"
Frederic Fox: "Yes! We are Forest buddies!"

BFF - Best Friends Forever ^_^

For better and more complete pictures of NICI Forest Friends, go to this blog

Friday, January 28, 2011

Milo Gorilla Takes a Drive

One breezy afternoon our cute NICI gorilla plush tries to snatch the steering wheel from his owner to go for a spin in the car! Let's see what happens...

Milo..keep your hands off the steering wheel!

Milo Gorilla: I wanna drive, can I? Please, please, please...

Alright then, that is if you can reach the gas pedal
.....

urgh...ooo...argh...I can't :(

Okay I give up, I'll sit at the side and be a nice little NICI gorilla
...
Good boy :)

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Thai Green Curry Recipe (How to Cook) by Jolly Liselle

Today Auntie Jolly Liselle is going to teach us how to make Thai Green Curry easily at the comfort of your own home. It would taste as good if not, better than any Thai restaurant plus minimal abuse on your wallet. Perfect for those who have to juggle work and cooking for your family.


Let's get started! First of all, get a pack of green curry paste. This is the core of the whole dish. We have tried 2 different brands so far and our conclusion is any brand of green curry paste will work the same magic.


Usually we blend our own curry paste, but if you buy a ready made packet like this, they save you the time and trouble to blend all the lemongrass, green chili, shallot, garlic, basil, brown sugar, etc.. Let's go through the rest of the ingredients!


Here's what you need. 400 grams of chicken thigh meat, probably about 300 grams left after removing the bone, fats and skin.


About 300 grams of eggplant, way over the recommended quantity but we love more vegetable.


A packet of coconut milk 2ooml


Lemongrass, which is of course optional. Most people add Kaffir Lime leaves and/or Basil.


Chicken thigh meat is very easy to debone as there is only one vertical piece of bone in the middle. Chop up the meat into 2 inch dice. You want the meat to be bigger in size as it takes time for the eggplant to cook. Remember to remove the chicken skin and keep it!


Cut off the upper, greener part of the lemongrass. Keep the lower stalk and squash it with your knife so that the aroma will leak out more easily into your curry.


Chop up the eggplant in any fashion you like.


Heat up the pan real nicely and put in the chicken skin you kept just now. Look at the amount of oil the skin produces under high heat. You do not need to add any additional oil and the chicken oil itself adds more flavor to your green curry.


After the chicken skin is browned nicely, add in the green curry paste and stir fry. Adjust to medium low heat as you need to add in the coconut milk later.


After you feel the smell of the green curry spices swirling around your kitchen, you can add in half of the coconut milk (about 100ml) while stirring it nicely into the mixture. It is important to keep the fire at medium low heat

Coconut milk should never be boiled over high heat as the milk and water mixture will be separated during high temperature, which will be very undesirable.


Add in the lemongrass and continue frying in medium low heat. We spontaneously added a few chopped chili padi to make it extra spicy! :)


Here comes the eggplant first..give it a nice stir, fry them around..


Then comes the chicken. It is usually the other way round, which is chicken first then eggplant but we don't like eggplant to be too raw.


Fry them up real nicely for a few minutes.


Then add about 300ml of water.


Cover the lid and simmer for about 7 to 8 minutes. It will boil but not rapidly, just a soft boil under medium low heat.


Then add in the remaining 100ml of the coconut milk, stir well. The soft boiling will cease when you add the coconut milk, let it stay that way.


And here's our favorite part, Thai Fish Sauce! No Thai food is complete without the legendary fish sauce. We use just about any brand, no particular favorite although some really taste better but fish sauce is just an enhancement.


We add about a teaspoonful and it's done! Simple isn't it?


The fragrant smell of the green curry attracts another Nici plush...

It's Jolly Rosa! :D

Jolly Rosa: "wow, i'm hungry!"


Here's the breakdown of our Thai Green Curry recipe today (for 3 to 4 pax)

1 packet of Green Curry paste
300 grams of chicken thigh meat
300 grams of eggplant
1 stalk of lemongrass *optional*
200ml of coconut milk
300ml of plain water
1 teaspoonful of fish sauce

It taste so good and it is so easy to cook, we give ourselves for it ^_^


♥ Other delicious recipe by Jolly Liselle ♥

or you can check out our RECIPE page

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Nici Raccoon Plushy Adventure - Part Two

Welcome to the second instillation of our NICI Raccoon plushy adventure:
"The HERO Chronicles"


GUEST STARRING:
NICI's Jolly Hugo Wolf!
"I am the Batman. Crime has learned my name and it has recoiled"

"Holy atomic pile, Batman! Hehe do I sound like Robin?"

Rob Raccoon shows some resemblance with Robin doesn't he? *read: the mask*

Rob Raccoon: "Let's go rescue some NICI plush toys!^^"

"Sorry Hugo Wolf, there is only place for one in my batmobile"

Jolly Hugo Wolf: "It's okay, I think I can fly~~~"

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Nici Raccoon Plushy Adventure - Part One

Welcome to the first instillation of our NICI Raccoon plushy adventure:
"The Playground Chronicles"

Banana in Pajamas! *ecstatic*

whee! ^^

honk honk

Spinning Tea Cup! Hehe

Angelina Jolie, what happened to you? -_-"

Stay tuned for more adventures from our cute Nici plush - Rob Raccoon! ^_^