#4 headcheese terrine 猪头冻

had a very enjoyable dinner last evening. ^^

i prepared a 12-course dinner for my friends. every dish was good…

this mostly the pulau ubin durian picking group.
https://chefquak.com/2015/07/19/durian-picking-adventure-pulau-ubin-on-21jun2015/

wife & youngest daughter (who just finished her last paper in the morning) joined the dinner. 🙂

#1 wife’s quinoa pumpkin tofu salad

#1 wife prepared a nice quinoa pumpkin tofu salad for me. ^^

quinoa gave it a bit of texture & also savoury, some sweetnes from the agave nectar. a very nice salad.

#2 chicken ballotine

#2 made a nice chicken ballotine. this time i steamed for 11mins, so not overcooked. maybe even 10mins will do. nice tender chicken, & the bacon & onions, spinach made it quite tasty. 🙂

#3 oven roasted kurobuta medium rare

#3 was experimenting on the kurobuta.

used the vietnamese pork collar marinade. 2days in chiller. browned over high heat in butter then 18mins in a preheated 250degC oven!

texture was marvelous. the marinade flavours pretty good. & the colour a very pretty pink medium rare. it is pork though so some friends might be a little worried, but restaurants like salta parilla also served kurobuta steak medium rare.

#4 headcheese terrine

#4 my headcheese terrine was just superb.

i varied my usual pig trotters braising sauce recipe & added 1 cup of red wine. i used the slow crockpot roast method (starting from cold on low heat) for the 1/2head+hear i bought from sheng shiong, and texture was perfect in about 6 hrs.

#5 pig’s ear ragout served on toast

#5 for the pig’s ear ragout, i took out the ear & minced/chopped it, took out some sauce & heat the minced pig’s ear & reduced the sauce.

this was an excellent dish we had at dinner by heston blumenthal in london. i did not have the recipe so this is my very own concoction!^^

#6 flamed squid in spinach veloute

#6 one of my most impressive dish this evening was the flamed squid in spinach veloute.^^

i softened yellow onions, green pepper, leek & lastly spinach leaves in a pan & blend it with olive oil, chicken (or veg) stock & salt & pepper to taste. i added 1 teaspoon of tsuyu sauce.

#6 flamed squid in spinach veloute

i first did this for my anniversary dinner after our recent cornwall trip. we had a great lunch at porthminster cafe in st ives & saw a photo of the dish. i did not have the recipe so i concocted my own.

#7 shellfish bisque

#7 shellfish bisque was excellent too! ^^ very intense, smooth & flavourful & excellent brandy flavours.

it’s similar to my lobster bisque. i had a vegetable base to balance the intense stock from prawn shells & heads. i used carrots, onion, leek, red pepper, & the leftover spinach stems.

#8 tagliata di manzo

#8 tagliata di manzo is my regular dish. i had 100D grain-fed black angus striploin this time.

i had ribeye recently for my daughter’s 30pax home party which was better, but striploin done medium rare was still very good. 🙂

#9 pistachio rack of lamb

#9 for the second main, i did a pistachio crusted lamb.

#9 pistachio crusted rack of lamb

i don’t do this often. lamb rack is very expensive. i bought the cheaper ones which were still frenched but with caps on. the denuded ones were too expensive. so i had to cut away like a ton of fat, a bit tedious.

anyway, the pistachio rack of lamb was really excellent, no strong gamey taste, nicely medium rare to medium & excellent with the pistachios.^^

#10 funghi linguine

#10 for the pastas, i made a funghi linguine. it was good but my wife & daughter told me it was not as good as the one i did for my daughter’s recent party.

#11 prawn spaghetti in pinck sauce (creamy tomatoes)

#11 they thought the prawn spaghetti in pink sauce was the best. and yes, it was very tasty & flavourful.

crayfish pasta was a dish which my wife does very well. and i am just trying to model after, using small prawns instead of crayfish.

#12 banoffee (banana toffee) cake

#12 for dessert, i did a banoffee (banana toffee) cake.

it was very good. i put about 1/3 of the caramel i made after heating a can on condensed milk for 4hrs, and lots of bananas. so it was not too sweet & an excellent combination of flavours & texture. 🙂

very expensive “black gold”durians – 2x price of maoshanwang!

a friend brought very expensive “black gold” durians.

it’s like 2x maoshanwang 猫山王 prices, so the 3 durians he brought probably cost $200!

very expensive “black gold”durians – 2x price of maoshanwang!

it was super nice, very creamy, small seeds & bitter. better be! at such astronomical prices…

mangoesteen

& mangosteens too, very good ones. 🙂

another friend brought an entire box 15kg of mangoesteens! i managed to get the guys to bring back so i probably kept about 3 to 4 kg.

my very good friend who took the nice photos brought a sparkling wine. and some friends brought fruits.

konyaku jelly

another friend brought konyaku jelly.

oat shortbread – it was really good!

& a personal gift for me – a very nice oat shortbread! ^^

very fun evening with good friends, and the food turning out very well too! haha! 🙂

c.h.e.f andy