wife is off with some friends tomorrow to catch sakura in seoul. this evening we had a 5pax family home dinner on 5.4.2017. ^^

I made lobster angel hair pasta.

I bought some frozen poached lobsters from phoon huat delicassen earlier.

I defrosted 2 lobsters & shelled them. they were between 350g and 375g. actually this part is more hard work. cooking the pasta is easy!

the shells I used to make stock.

I kept the tomalley with the shelled lobster tails & pincers.

I made the usual pink sauce, using 1/2 bottle (640ml bottle) prego traditional sauce, 1/2 canned whole tomatoes.

first I browned 1 whole bulb of garlic cloves in olive oil. I added 1 cut chilli padi & 12 leaves of thai sweet basil. then I off fire & added the prego sauce & whole tomatoes (cut with scissors). then I added the stock from lobster shell boiled in chicken stock & reduced. the I added 1/2 bottle (150ml) thickened cream.

then I added the shelled lobster tails, pincers & tomalley, & off fire so not to overcook the lobster. (before adding lobster meat, as the lobster would have lots of liquid, I drained that to the sauce to reduce).

the key is judging how much to reduce & thicken the sauce, so once lobster is added, no need to reduce further.

when ready to serve, I heat up the sauce, made sure lobster was cooked, then off fire, added the angel hair (near al dente) & tossed. then added more basil to garnish.

voila!

lobster pasta was beautiful this evening, taste was excellent. my angel hair though just slightly over, so I have to do more al dente minus next time…

I also made a prawn yeemeen.

the yeemeen I made the first time for my wife on valentine’s day 14.2.2017 was the best.

so I wanted to make again for my daughters.

for the medium prawns, I seasoned with fish sauce & white pepper.

then I added it to the garlic olive oil I prepared earlier browning garlic, added one cut chilli padi. and panfried over high heat. DO NOT COVER! the shell were slightly charred, the prawn texture just right. this dry frying (no condensation) produces the best result.

then I braised the yeemeen in the thick chicken stock.

again judging how much to reduce to a very tasty stock is the key.

so the yeemeen was moist, well infused with the stock & just nice texture, not mushy, overcooked.

then I topped the yeemeen with the prawns, & garnished with chopped scallions, and coriander.

the last dish I made was the panfried sea bream in green chilli & spinach sauce.

I seasoned with sea salt, black pepper, & fried in butter in a non-stick pan over high heat.

nicely charred, crisp skin.

I made the green chilli veloute using 2 green chilli padi, a bunch of cut round spinach (i used 1/3 packe), 1 Japanese small cucumber, 1/2 green pepper, 2 tbsp olive oil, 2 tbsp. mirin.

the veloute tasted ok but a bit of raw veg taste, not perfect.

next time I will use more green pepper which is very sweet, and maybe not use the spinach.

fish was good.

I didn’t mind the sauce, but it was not the best.

I was trying to recreate the excellent garoupa dish at tunglok signature.

not quite there yet!

it was a very enjoyable meal with family. lobster angel hair was great & everyone liked the prawn yeemeen too. the pan-fried seabream dish not there yet, need to improve on it la..

c.h.e.f andy