海底捞hotpot

my OPS sakura gang came for 5pax 海底捞hotpot on 22.3.2018. ^^

this really the easiest of all makan, no cooking required, just buy beef & pork & vege etc, AND eat & enjoy! ^^

海底捞hotpot

i had all 4 types of mushrooms – enoki, shimeji, shitaka & also abalone mushroom. i like the texture of the abalone mushroom. really good! 🙂

海底捞hotpot

for vege, i just use chinese cabbage, both for the soup base together with ikan bilis & yellow beans.

& also to add in the course of the hotpot meal..

海底捞hotpot

海底捞hotpot

& i bought fish balls, teochew fish cake, and also beef balls.

海底捞hotpot

i was at donki at orchard central basement 2 few days back when i had lunch with sis & bil at tanuki.

so i bought both the kurobuta (thin cut) & also the white pork (thick cut).

quite surprising the slightly cheaper white pork was a lot tastier than the kurobuta…odd!

i had also some good beef from phoon huat delicatessen, i think short ribs. it was very nice indeed.

bamboo pith

when i was in shanghai with WM last sep2017, WT & GY got me to buy some bamboo pit. i was quite clueless on the preparation..

anyway it was quite easy, just soaked in water, drained & then add to soup or hotpot..

it was pretty good actually, but i guess just the texture, not much of a taste to talk about.

beancurd skin

& i always like to rolled dry bean curd skin.

WM brought ice jelly

WM brought ice jelly made by J, very nice & refreshing…

FM made blueberry cake

& FM made a nice blueberry cake…

we had a fun lunch & fellowship & talked about the upcoming trip to kyoto, nara, osaka.

c.h.e.f andy

tapas

had a wonderful homecooked 8pax tapas+pasta+steak dinner on 21.3.2018. ^^

i made 10 dishes, 6 cold tapas, 2 hot tapas, 1 pasta & 1 steak –

1. pumpkin salad
2. nobu miso cod
3. teriyaki salmon belly
4. flamed miso belly pork
5. ika sugatayaki (flamed while squid)
6. grilled vegetables
7. chorizo prawns
8. herb crusted rack of lamb
9. seafood fiduea (proxy by broken angelhair)
10. tagliata di manzo (sliced beef steak)

i have not invited this group of friends (introduced by NCL some years back) for maybe 2 years now. recently JK had invited me like 4 times, after she renovated her flat, and she made wonderful dinners/lunches…the most recently one i could not attend.

so i say about time i invited this group. wife also joined dinner so we had 8pax.

pumpkin salad

i started with pumpkin salad. roasted pumpkin last evening, overdid it, so roasted a second batch 20mins, quite perfect.

went very well as usual with arugula (rockets) & cherry tomatoes with olive oil, balsamic, sea salt & some honey (did not have agave nectar).

teriyaki salmon belly

did my usual teriyaki salmon belly. & as usual everyone loved this! ^^

i did this 25odegC(max) 15mins, if i were using the other oven, it would be 280degC & 12 mins. looked & tasted wonderful with dill from my garden…

nobu miso cod & teriyaki salmon belly

& i did nobu miso cod..this a dish equally favourite for my friends & family though perhaps more would line up for the salmon.

nobu miso cod

firm, flaky, oily texture, sweet & wonderfully miso flavoured.

nobu miso cod & miso belly pork

i did also miso belly pork.

miso belly pork

cut away skin, boiled in boiling water to remove scum, then coated with miso marinade & placed in 95degC oven for 6hrs.

nicely flavoured & firm crystalline texture. perfect for flaming to give the bbq flavours.

ika sugatayaki

ika sugatayaki

same for ika sugatayaki.

i bought this from donki at orchard central the day before.

steamed about 90%-95% done, then dry on rack in fridge, then added olive oil, sea salt, coarse black pepper & honey, and flamed when serving…

this really quite jap restaurant standard, done quite perfectly. ^^

roasted vege

i had roasted vege…just put together some red, yellow, green peppers, egg plant, corn, onons & garlic, added olive oil, sea salt black pepper, butter & roasted for 30mins.

roasted vege

it was a welcome complement to the meats, and it was so easy, no skills required to put it together. 🙂

chorizo prawns

i had 2 tapas to be served hot.

first was chorizo prawns…

chorizo prawns

the key here was really a very good chicken stock. i did not add or used prawns stock as wife preferred chicken stock.

i added the prawns (seasoned with fish sauce & white pepper) when serving. prawns were cooked just right & it was a really excellent dish, fresh, sweet, bouncy prawns & excellent chorizo flavours.

herb crusted rack of lamb

the other hot “tapas” was a rack of lamb.

this lamb bought from qbfoods already denuded (frenched & caps off). i religiously removed the remaining fat (very little of it, would have been a mountain of fat if not denuded) & some membrane. i decided to simplify the effort so no chopped pistachio, just herb crusted.

herb crusted rack of lamb(before roasting 23mins)

roasted at 210egC for 210degC for about 22-23mins.

seafood fiduea

for tapsa, i decided on fiduea instead of paella. fiduea & preparation was new, whereas paella misture i made often enough!

again everything rest with a good stock! i had intense chicken stock & white wine added to browned garlic, chilli padi & olive oil, and reduced further.

when serving, i added the broken angel hair (proxy to fiduea which i could not get at the supermarkets), covered & braised (only 2 mins to cook angel hair), then added prawns & sotongs.

the key was in the stock & estimation of the amount, enough just to cook & infuse the pasta, and to reduce so the “foduea” came out just al dente, prawns & sotongs were just cooked & not overcooked, and the gravy was sufficiently reduced…

tagliata di manzo – usda prime ribeye

the last dish was tagliata di manzo…this always good & the usda prime was simply wonderful – tender, moist, properly browned. doneness was slight over so medium well instead of medium rare. still excellent steak!^^

grapes

thanks CH & J who brought the grapes, CP for cakes, choon for sorbet, JeK  for making me 2 kg heavier (kong bak pao) and ourselves for a jolly good time👍

CL & all have a safe & wonderful memorable trip to iceland/france/spain & Jeanette to machupichu!

cakes

CP brought nice cakes.

macha cake

chocolate mousse cake

cake

strawberry cake

most like the macha cake. myself, i like the chocolate mousse cake. 🙂

wei’s lemon sorbet

chicken laksa

my RI bro CM bought 2 packts of pong’s katong laksa paste for me last week.

so we decided to have a 6pax RI bro chicken laksa lunch on 16.3.2018. ^^

chicken rice chicken白斩鸡

i made my usual chicken rice chicken白斩鸡. all my friends loved this & said the chicken was so tender, moist & tasty, even the chicken breast, and indeed it was….

pong’s katong laksa

i have never tried pong’s laksa before, and never used the paste before of course.

i read the instructions. it said it was good for 4-5pax (we had 6pax, i decided to just keep it at 1 packet), and to add 400ml (2packets) coconut milk & 100ml evaporated milk.

pong’s katong laksa

anyhow, my gazak results was immensely ok la…

i used intense chicken stock using the bones from the whole chicken which i made chicken rice chicken白斩鸡,

added taupok first & let it boiled to soften & infuse the laksa flavours for 1 hr. then i added coconut milk. 400ml is really a lot, so i decided to use 1.5packets or 300ml. and really that was more than enough, banyak lemak lagi…

pong’s katong laksa

lastly aded fish cake & teochew fish cake, just like ah heng curry chicken noodles at hong lim food centre.

laksa was very flavourful, and of course the chicken stock was very important, made the gravy so very, very tasty.

kk said didn’t t have such good laksa for so long..

i did not want to dilute the taste, so kept gravy at a small amount. still it was enough for 6 bowls.

& after that there were still ingredients & some gravy left, enough for another 3 bowls for CL, KK & CM. i had to add just a little water not to dilute too much.

pong’s katong laksa

i served the 6 bowls of laksa with the taupok, fish cake & teochew fish cake, for my bowl i added the chicken rice chicken白斩鸡 & took photo (top photo).

my friends topped their bowls themselves with chicken.

chicken rice chicken白斩鸡

chicken rice chicken白斩鸡

my chicken rice chicken白斩鸡 was excellent as mentioned, chicken as good as ah heng curry chicken noodles’ (though i am partial to curry chicken noodles & for me laksa can never match)

& better than most chicken rice chicken白斩鸡 places outside (many are smooth but quite tasteless like tian shui chicken rice, the one next to weiyi laksa!)

another great makan session with my RI bros. ^^

after lunch we went to tiong hoe for a good cuppa, my piccolo latter heaven 香浓咖啡!^^

c.h.e.f andy

5pax dinner

wife’s brother bought something for us & coming by our place, so wife decided we have a simple homecooked family dinner on 13.3.2018. ^^

youngest daughter joined for 5pax dinner.

chicken rice & other dinner dishes

today i cooked chicken rice for them.

rice was very “pang”, just like the farewell lunch for AC i did for teban gardens staff & volunteers last week on 7.3.2018. 🙂

my bil & his wife loved it a lot.

chicken rice chicken白斩鸡

chicken was smooth, tender & most importantly moist & tasty, even the breast meat, and that really tells a good 白斩鸡 from a mediocre one…

chicken rice chicken白斩鸡

chicken rice chicken白斩鸡

such a beauty!

hk steamed sotong

i was at chinatown market yesterday to buy batang fish & prawns for the 12pax RI friends asian curry dinner tomorrow on 14.3.2018.

i saw the small sotong were fresh so i bought a plate S$5.

hk steamed sotong

i had very nice hk steamed sotong at crab at bay on 28.12.2016, so nice we decided to order another plate that day! 🙂

it was really a simple dish, and top quality fragrant light soy sauce simply makes wonders…it is like hk steamed fish, just add olive oil (or veg oil) & light soy sauce, steam & voila!

aunty B’s long beans with dried olive vegetables橄榄菜 & minced pork

aunty B’s brocoli

my helper aunty B cooked the 2 vegetable dishes. as usual, very good!

as usual, wife’s sil brought dessert, longans with jelly, an excellent refreshing dessert!

a simple & very enjoyable family dinner.

c.h.e.f andy

12pax dinner curry dishes

our RI buddy P who lives in London was visiting singapore. we arranged a 12pax makan makan group homecooked asian/curry dinner on14.3.2018.^^  👍🙂.

I did a combination of thai, nonya & indan curries, and a Jap teriyaki salmon belly.

1. jap teryaki miso salmon belly
2. nonya curry chicken & potatoes
3. nonya sambal prawns
4. chicken thighs with yellow thai curry
5. sotong with thai red curry
6. mixed veg & tofu with thai red curry 
7. fish masala
8. mutton masala

12pax dinner curry dishes

just 8 dishes, quite enough for 12pax, food all finished…

ruby champagne

white wine

many drinker in this group…i basically just had couple of sips, nice ruby champage & white wine.

teriyaki salmon belly

the distinctive dish from the curries was the teriyaki salmon belly..the others all liked it like all my other friends & family. YF said it was too sweet? actually it was not, but it was treated, so not a plain fish fillet..

teriyaki salmon belly

my usual preparation, a very popular dish…

nonya chicken curry

the nonya chicken just using heng’s curry paste & chicken thighs.

nonya chicken curry

the nonya curry was very tasty. i topped up a second portion so that it was hot, and everything was finished..

pan-grilled chicken thigh with thai yellow curry

the thai yellow curry very lemak. it was prepared as a dip. chicken thigh was pan-roasted, nice crispy skin & moist, tender meat, quite perfect with the curry.

mutton masala

mutton masala

mutton was a bit of a let down for me.

the preparation was ok so the meat was tender & the House brand mutton masala curry paste was tasty & nice. the mutton itself though i felt was not great, no much taste…

sotong thai red curry

sotong was done with “dancing chef” thai red curry..it is very similar to thai yellow curry, but red curry is spicer & good as a gravy…yellow curry is sweeter ok as a dip or gravy..

nonya sambal prawns

i use “heng’s” sambal paste for the nonya sambal prawns. prawns were done perfectly, succulent & sweet,  bouncy & not old, overcooked..

batang fillet fish masala

i bought the batang fillet from chinatown market the day before. just S$8 for a large thick i think almost 800g cut which i asked the fishmonger to cut into 4 thick slices.

i pan-fried to give it a firmer texture. this batang fillet quite perfect for pan-frying just with salt & often eaten this way.

fish masala

for fish masala, i cooked with sliced onions & “house brand” masala paste…CM said this was excellent & he had the piece i got for him, and afterwards not much was left..

vegetable thai red curry

vegetable thai red curry

everyone enjoyed the vegetable curry too.

i fried tofu & added eggplant, lady fingers, onions, some chinese cabbage & some tomatoes…friends commented the tofu were well infused with the thai red curry flavours. a simple yet wonderful dish…

curry rice dinner

HAB came late as he had to counsel some young chappie from his church.

i kept food for him, a bit of every dish with minimal rice/carbs…

HK’s giant grapefruit

HK brought giant grapefruit from malaysia. it was very sweet indeed..we were expecting 忘不了after he shared some photos on group chat, but the sweet & more forgettable grapefruit sama boleh la…

CM’s ching chow dessert

CM brought nice ching chow dessert with longans. a nice refreshing dessert. everyone had like 2 bowls…CM doing better with more practices, definitely to be encouraged.

a nice dinner with old friends…we had the cake afterwards, bought by CL & YF for the march birthday boys including P visiting from london…next week SCG is organising a makan group dinner at joe’s kitchen, a thai eat by his sis & bil…

c.h.e.f andy