claypot rice

wife’s good friends & their hubbies came for dinner this evening on 22.12.2016. ^^

i made claypot rice & a few other simple home dishes.

6pax dinner

we had 5 dishes=claypot rice, tofu prawns, spicy bean sauce seabass, fried romaine lettuce, & fried kang kong. 🙂

a red

pu er tea

friends brought a red, & pu er tea.

claypot rice – using a new claypot

there was some miscom with my helper.

my favoruite claypot that i always do my claypot rice had a surface crack. my helper decided to discard it & use it as a flower pot without consulting me.

fortunately there was a new claypot my sis brought that was large enough. quite problematic last minute as proportions, timing etc changed & results could have been very different.

also it would have been better if the new claypot is the big belly smaller base curve type. this one more suited for making soup. but no other claypot large enough, so this would have to do.

anyhow made do with what i have, and sometimes we are just reluctant to change, but the newer (or just different) claypot (or anything else) maybe just as good or even better. just a matter of adjustment & adaptations.

claypot rice

anyway, the result was reasonably safe from my main uncertainties about the flavours, whether chicken would be tender not overcooked, & rice would be burnt or mushy etc.

the dish retained its excellent smokey flavours, chicken were tender & tasty, rice was wetter than i expected but maybe not yet mushy.

i cooked 2.5cups for 6 (plus a bowl for helper) & added just 1.8cups water to adjust for liquids in the marinated chicken, mushrooms etc. this time though the new claypot has a large base & wastage was a lot more so i will need to increase rice & reduce the water ratio for future. i also considered if the lesser rice (more wastage) might make it more salty with the marinated chicken. friends said it was ok.

tofu prawns – following sek bao sin’s style 

they all liked the tofu prawns.

gravy was very tasty with chicken stock, tofu had great texture & bite & absorbed the gravy well, colour was great too. one friend commented prawns were very good.

my best tofu prawns was when i did a 5pax lucnh for my RI friends on 23.9.2016. ^^

sek bao sin’s tofu prawns 

the dish was modeled after sek bao sin’s excellent dish (above).

steamed spicy bean sauce seabass

the steamed spicy bean sauce seabass was great too.

seabass is a bit fishy and meat is a bit mushy, so (say) hk steamed not the ideal preparation.

my helper does a very good seabass using a spicy bean paste (豆瓣).

my own spicy black bean sauce song fish head松鱼头 

i like song fish head松鱼头a lot, so i created a very nice tangy, slight spicy, salty sauce which i used to make very good song fish head松鱼头.

hk street chun kee 香港街珍记’s black bean sauce song fish head 松鱼头 

there are many variations to the song fish head sauce.

the one i like best is hk street chun kee 香港街珍记at level 2 commonwealth crescent food centre, so that was the one i modeled. 

steamed spicy bean sauce seabass

the sauce masked the fishy taste & the marinade also made the texture firmer & tasty, so overall a much improved experience.

i was not as familiar with this steam oven timing, but the fish (done 10mins) came out just fine.

fried romaine lettuce

friend kang kong

the fried vege were standard stuff.

these days i no longer do the corn flour thing, so just garlic fry 清炒.

veg were pretty ok, looking lush green & tasting great.

cheese platter

wife had very nice cheese platter. the truffle honey was especially good.

2 friends don’t take cheese much. rest of us enjoyed the cheese platter a lot.

chocolate banana cake 

my chocolate banana cake today was ok, not my best.

ganache was a bit too thick today, but one can take less of it so ok.

chocolate banana cake 

i took a bit next morning. overall i think ok. i guess not my most preferred cake.

had a really wonderful evening.

we are all blessed to spend time in the company of good friends & enjoy great company & good food.

c.h.e.f andy