the dishes
had a 14pax homecooked dinner for my primary school classmates on 22.1.2016. ^^
as i was saying in another post –
we were not in contact for a long time.
recently another classmate came visiting from the states, so i joined a few of them at din tai fung @ gem after lunch on a saturday as i already had a lunch appointment that day.
one thing led to another & a group came to my place today for a 14pax homecooked dinner. ^^
the dishes
weather was not so co-operative.
it was almost like thunderstorm at the time my guests were arriving.
this was the first time these friends came to my place.
a friend brought excellent cookies & pineapple tarts, so we had a good chat & munch on the cookies & spanish omelette before all arrived. 🙂
#1 pumpkin tofu salad
i had a pumpkin tofu salad. taste was quite ok but presentation this evening was not so good.
#2 spanish omelette
spanish omelette were also tasty. texture for 1 was slightly out & not firmed up enough.
teriyaki cod, char siew, miso belly pork
the char siew was a taste i liked.
#3 char siew
colour & burnt part looked good too.
#3 char siew
but perhaps it was not the sweeter honeyed taste that some preferred. anyway it was mostly finished.
#4 miso belly pork
many in the group didn’t take much belly pork so there was a bit more left.
overall i think i made a bit too much food, especially the pasta & risotto.
#5 teriyaki cod
most friends liked the teriyaki cod.
#5 teriyaki cod
the taste was good but i felt the cod was NOT the best. it was hard to tell as i bought from the same source, usually giant, sheng shiong or ntuc.
i felt that the cod itself was not so great this evening.
#6 lemon chicken (son’s recipe)
son made an excellent lemon chicken on christmas eve home dinner 2014 when he came back for christmas holidays.
so i whatsapped him for the recipe. 🙂
#6 beer can lemon chicken (son’s recipe)
& i used the beer can method to give a more rounded roasting w/o using the rotisserie.
#6 lemon chicken (son’s recipe)
& it came out beautifully. a friend who used to sell chicken rice, commented she liked the chicken most. ^^
#7 prawn linguine in pink sauce
the 2 pastas were very good at the time of cooking. very tasty, as good as it looked.
i did them well in advance, thinking of putting them in the oven at 40degC to keep warm.
#7 prawn linguine in pink sauce
it was a few hours ahead of dinner. i decided to heat them up again.
i felt that the end result was not so good, not the very al dente pasta i liked.
#8 cheese sausage pasta
same thing with the cheese sausage pasta.
#8 cheese sausage pasta
another thing was that i cooked just too much pasta.
#8 & #9 cheese sausage pasta & prawn linguine in pink sauce
should have trusted my first instinct & not added more pasta.
#10 seafood risotto
the seafood risotto was also far from my best.
a friend said she liked the risotto most because it had very intense flavours (i used a prawn heads/shell stock moderated with lots of vegetables).
still it was really a very far cry from my best seafood risotto, which should look & taste like this one above!
cut fruits
a friend pre-arranged to bring cut fruits.
excellent almond cookies, peanut cookies & pineapple tarts
another friend really bakes very well (& i suspect cooks very well too).
i really enjoyed his almond & peanut cookies & pineapple tarts.
pineapple tarts
the friend who brought the cut fruits also brought pineapple tarts. both were very good but i liked the first version.
the pineapple fillings were less “in the face” (some commented drier) but excellent pastry. i reasoned that i liked that better as it was more differentiated from commercial pineapple tarts & i liked the pastry bits more than the pineapple fillings.
it was a fun evening. think of it we knew each other for 50yrs+ since 1965 (from primary one)…for me it was from primary 2.
for the food, i was actually not so satisfied.
it was quite below my usual standard, and some dishes might not suit some friends. for my cooking philosophy, it is not important what dishes i cook, but it should be dishes that everybody enjoyed.
so in all my dinners, there were hardly leftover food. this evening some of my planning & food amounts were a bit out, but i will adjust in future dinners.
c.h.e.f andy
c.h.e.f 