our RI friend WCM is in town, visiting from london. he & his wife are now residing in london.

CL, CM & I met him for roast duck dinner at goldmines in bayswater london during our wales trip  in apr-may2017.

when i was in london with my wife & children, 2 of us met for lunch at flat iron covent gardens. WCM invited my family for his legendary paella dinner but we couldn’t make it..

this evening, i organised a homecooked dinner at my place. we have 11pax RI buddies on 8.9.2017. ^^

i made 8 dishes-

1. claypot chicken rice
2. claypot tanhoon prawns
3. char siew
4. steamed salted fish minced pork
5. braised ter kar (hock & trotters)
6. spicy black bean sauce angkorli (sea bream) fish head
7. taujeon lime sauce (zai shun style) angkorli fillet
8. cuttlefish kang kong with gimson nonya sauce

CL brought sparkling wine, GCG brought red & white wine, CW brought red & white wine, YF brought excellent grapes, LCM brought cheng chow dessert (i had 4 cups only matched by CL)..doc brought nice XO sauce…

a wonderful evening of camaraderie..just missing DP….🙂

my claypot rice always good & a crowd favourite.

quite easy to make. recipe here!

fried chicken fat, cut ginger, then add salted fish slice & 1tbsp chopped garlic. fry short while & off fire.

wash rice, drain & add to claypot & fry. add cut mushrooms (earlier soften by boiling water). add mushroom water to claypot. i made 3.5cups rice & added 2cups water (usually 1 or 1.2cups to 1 but chicken has marinade and also lots of liquids). let it soak for 2 hrs.

then add marinated whole deboned chicken (2tbsp fish sauce, 2tbsp oyster sauce, 2 tbsp corn flour, 2 tbsp sesame oil, 1/2tbsp dark sauce), cut pork & liver sausages, high fire to boil, then low fire, total about 45mins. stir the chicken pieces & use chopsticks to test chicken is cooked.

voila! fantastic smoky claypot rice aroma! rice not wet. and chicken pieces were so smooth & tender.

char siew i made an improved recipe after trying the delicious char siew at meng meng roast duck 阿明帝皇鸭.

i just marinate 600g belly pork (cut out skin) for 6hrs.

1tsp each brown suga,hone,light soy sauce,char siew sauce,hoi sin sauce,oysters sauce,five-spice powder,ginger sauce (i lazy just used chopped ginger),fermented beancurd (fu yu)AND 1/2 tsp salt.

then roast in 250deg oven for 25mins.

recipe here!

char siew was tender & tasty.

CCG especially like the charred bits, very unhealthy. lol! ^^

steamed salted fish minced pork LCM favourite, nice comfort food.

everyone liked the dish. very easy to make-here i had 500g minced pork, 2 slices salted fish chopped, 1 heap tbsp corn flour mixed together, topped with lots of sliced ginger. and steamed about 10mins+…

recipe here!

the salted fish aroma was great!

and the minced pork was smooth with cornflour. 🙂

the braised whole hock 元蹄 & cut trotters i used a lazyman method.

just fry 1-2 cinnamon stick 4 star anise, 3 cloves, 3 bay leaves, 1 whole bulb peeled garlic cloves, and 1 tbsp flat five-spice powder, braise in 1/2 cup (120ml) tai wah braising sauce for 2.5hrs to 3hrs. cover the wok so trotters are steamed while they braised. add water & turn the trotters.

taste for gelatinous skin & still moist tasty lean meat…do not over braise.

the whole hock 元蹄 & cut trotters were delicious, very gelatinous & lean meat was moist, not old & dry.

GCM commented that dish very good but pig skin could be softer. the pig skin pieces were the skin from char siew. i still have not found the method, but the standalone pig skin pieces dried up through the course of dinner & slightly toughened, whereas the hock skin was ok.

claypot tanhoon prawns very good, very tasty today.

recipe here!

GCM noticed it was flavoured with “cilantro” (atas word for coriander?), black pepper & sliced belly pork.

i also used chicken fat & lots of chopped garlic & cut ginger pieces.

the key was the intense chicken stock, very very tasty.

so i added the stock to the belly pork, ginger, chopped garlic, coriander & black pepper, brought to boil, added 1 tbsp oyster sauce, added 20 medium prawns (seasoned with fish sauce & white pepper for 1hr), covered & off fire. prawns about 40% – 50% cooked.

when serving, i boiled the stock, added 3 rolls of tanhoon (earlier soften in water for 1hr), tossed, off fire & let the tanhoon infuse the stock taste & the prawns cooked. this way prawns not overcooked, very fresh, bouncy & sweet, and the tanhoon was well infused with stock, so very tasty! 🙂

really beautiful dish…

i bought a large angkorli (seabream) from sheng shiong, got them to cut 1/2 with head, and fillet the 1/2fish tail to do 2 flavours for my friends.

for the tail fillet, i pound 4 tbsp taujeon, and squeezed 1/2 large lime to give the tangy taste, added 1 tbsp light soy sauce for the flavour & 1 tbsp mirin.

i garnished with slice ginger, chopped spring onions, 2 tbsp garlic & cut chilli padi.

this was intended to be zai shun steamed sharks cartilage preparation.

of course no comparison with zai shun, which was very good & consistent.

for the angkorli fish head, i did the usual spicy black bean sauce i do for my song fish head 松鱼头！

angkorli is sweet & lesser “mud” taste, but song fish head 松鱼头 is i think uniquely suited to this preparation.

my own preference, and most friends’, were for song fish head 松鱼头.

YF preferred the angkorli fish head. he basically took apart & ate up the entire fish head.

i made a cuttlefish kang kong dish using gimson nonya sauce.

this an easy dish to do, quite substantial & save me having to fry to seperate vegetable dishes.

i basically used 2 bunches of kang kong, added 1 whole cut cuttlefish.

the usual method – fry cut chili & lots of garlic in oil, add kang kong stems & oyster sauce, then add the leaves & cuttlefish at the same time. add 3tbsp gimson nonya sauce. do not add water. fry couple mins & it’s ready to serve.

LCM brought a nice cheng chow dessert, with lychee & nate de coco. very refreshing dessert, i took 4 bowls haha! not shy la!

& YF brought nice crunchy sweet grapes from cold storage. tasted very good this evening.

of course we had sparkling wine, white & red wine during the course of dinner.

GCG suggested we should go round & sample the different hawker foods in singapore, so he formally name the chat group makan makan, and we actually had a makan tour the following friday on 15.9.2017 organised by KY, only that the initiator last minute could not attend.

we had a good time, company & food this evening. camaraderie come easily for old friends with many connections in school 40 yrs ago.

till the next makan toegther….

c.h.e.f andy