my good friends came by to have 9pax claypot rice lunch on 7,6,2016. ^^

we had 7 dishes. i did not make dessert today. lazy la…

#1 claypot rice
#2 chilli crab
#3 crab beehoon
#4 三楼米粉
#5 belly pork steamed with salted fish
#6 kou rou扣肉
#7 nonya sauce ocra

this came about as one friend brought me to have new lucky claypot rice dinner (S$10 claypot for 2pax) at holland drive.

it was very good claypot rice. & soup was good too. but there were very little chicken. needed S$5 more to add chicken.

after that i started to make my own claypot rice which was hugely successful & served to family & different group of friends, but not yet this group.

i cooked one whole deboned chicken & less than 3cups rice, so ideally for 5pax max.

since we had 9pax today, i added a few other dishes.

almost all unanimous that claypot rice was the best dish today, though one friend had the 三楼米粉as his best liked dish.

my friend who brought me to new lucky still thinks new lucky is more “pang” & drier as they have the wire mesh to spread the heat.

for me though, i think my claypot rice just as “pang”, which gives me excuse to ask him to buy new lucky to try again & double-confirm… & my slow steaming deboned chicken was so much more tender (not old even for breast) & flavourful.

the rice was slightly moist but i personally actually prefer it this way, as it was not wet or soggy or mushy by any description so the texture & “moistness” actually quite perfect for me.

so much for self adulation. lol!! ^^

chilli crab was my first time.

quite useful to have a group of friends who are confident & relax to try your first time food.

i have done chilli crab sauce pasta previously, so i used the same recipe for sauce preparation.

crab is troublesome stuff, to eat, to buy (how to get live crabs same day as cooking lunch for 9pax?), and to prepare – kill, crack pincers etc.

lately (last one year) i have cooked lobster (some live) on a number of occasions & learned the “mercy killing” method, basically deep freeze!

i bought the fresh crabs (2 crabs 1.1kg @ S$31/kg) from chinatown market yesterday & put in freezer.

this morning i washed & cleaned crab thoroughly (easier to clean w/o a hole by chopsticks or knife in the crab), then opened crab & cracked pincers. very meaty, & no less fresh for freezing!

my chilli crab sauce was pretty ok except it was a bit sweet, no reference to calibrate i guess.

reduce the sweetness, it should be a pretty good standard crab. for me i also like it to be a bit spicier.

crab bee hoon soup i have done a few times already.

i have made tastier ones, but today’s version was ok not bad by what i am capable of preparing.

but that is still a long way off c/w uncle leong & melben, unlike my claypot rice which i think is comparable with outside stalls.

all my friend’s feedback were that too much evaporated milk. good feedback i added 1/2 cup (about 120ml) will reduce to 1/3cup (80ml) next time.

probably can’t do much more to make it tastier, already had bones of 2 chicken boiled for many hours to get the stock & also the chinese cabbage plus some intense fried prawn heads & shells stock.

can vary a bit but probably cannot match the 老火kind of standard.

it was a good soup anyway.

a friend commented the thick beehoon was overcooked, & it was. actually as i told him, i did not even cook the beehoon just throw it it after off the fire. however with so many dishes, they could not be done JIT, so always prepared beforehand then reheat.

for the 2 belly pork, i used my kou rou 扣肉 recipe slight variation – basically 4hrs in 95degC oven.

supposed to steam for 75mins but i needed to separate the 2 belly pork portions so steamed each about 40mins then steamed again separately for the remaining time.

somehow that did not get me the right texture (which is melt in the mouth but not falling apart tenderness).

the other portion i made a new belly pork dish steamed with salted fish.

this i modeled after the canto jumbo dish.

both dish were not my best, but still pretty ok tasty dishes la…

ocra in nonya sauce was pretty standard.

nothing to it except using gimtim nonya sauce.

for this lunch, a friend brought me a new bottle. she said it’s not available in singapore. & she was the one who previously brought me the bottle i used today. 🙂

i bought a bottle of taisun nonya sauce though just in case, not use it yet.

today’s 三楼米粉 did not have the appearance standard of the last one i made. supposed to be crispy outside & moist & tasty inside with the beehoon infusing the stock as you reduce to dry out the dish.

but that was my first experiment & good for 3-4pax. today was my second try for 9pax & more than twice the amount. quite impossible to turnover to brown the other side. just breaks up.

but they all like the taste, with one friend voting as his best dish.

the slate was wiped clean 风扫落叶 , all ready for the next round.

i did not make dessert. lazy!

a friend brought cut sweet 16 pineapples, sweet & tangy. another friend brought some kit kat etc.

we had a great time.

now must get my friend to buy me new lucky again!

c.h.e.f andy