5pax dinner dishes

made 5pax dinner for my good friends this evening on 14.3.2019.^^

for J for her special diet-
1. poached seabream fillet ikan bilis soup
2. oven grilled saba with sea salt
3 pan grilled portobello with sea salt

for 4 of us-
1 poached seabream fillet chicken broth
2 claypot rice
3 tofu prawns
4 fried romaine lettuce
5 fried hk kailan

J brought vinegared saba from japan.

CL brought flores birthday cake for CCG.

vinegared saba

i like the vinegared saba. japanese cured and pickled stuff all added sugar and a bit sweet. wife and CCG didn’t take.

seabream soup

for J’s seabream soup i used only ikan bilis, so i added a larger seabream fillet to give it natural fish sweetness.

when serving i poached sliced seabream fillet and added few leaves of organic chye sim per J’ request.

seabream soup 

for the 4 of us, i used chicken broth, intense chicken stock, added sliced ginger.

and poached sliced seabream fillet and added organic chye sim.

fish was fresh and the broth was very tasty. ^^

grilled saba

grilled saba

i did grilled saba, first time for me.

the saba i bought from sheng shion was very fresh, could feel pressing on the flesh and belly – firm and bouncy.

i rubbed sea salt inside cavity and outside and grilled on a rack in 250degC oven for 15mins. quite perfect – natural taste of the sea, very fresh, sweet and tasty. J, CL, i all enjoyed the grilled saba.

(i had 1 more saba in the chiller so i made another for J the next day)

pangrilled portobello

pangrilled portobello

the pangrilled portobello had only sea salt so a bit lacking in taste.

could do with the usual olive oil, balsamic and drizzle of agave nextar. the dish mainly prepared for J so didn’t add.

claypot rice

made claypot rice for CCG. he mentioned during our recent 10pax dinner.

today’s claypot rice was excellent, great aroma and great, and super tender, moist, tasty chicken, breast and all.

claypot rice

quite perfect claypot rice. 🙂

prawn tofu

today’s prawn tofu also among my best.

nicely shallowfried tofu well infused with chicken stock, and prawns perfectly done, just cooked, succulent and bouncy.

fried kailan

fried kailan

romaine lettuce

romaine lettuce

fried kailan and romaine lettuce were quite regular stuff.

seabream soup

seabream soup

for preparation, just ikan bilis stock with large seabream fillet for taste, then poached sliced seabream fillet and add organic chye sim when serving.

fried tofu for prawn tofu dish

prawn tofu

for prawn tofu just shallow fried 300g tofu cut into 12 pieces.

then fried chopped garlic, cut chilli, add 1cup chicken stock and 1 tbsp oyster sauce, 1tbsp flat corn flour and reduced to taste, then add 1 egg, let it formed then draw out the egg.

when serving, add prawns, mix and cover to cook prawns, about 3mins, serve!

flore cake

CL brought a nice birthday cake from flore.

claypot rice

had a wonderful evening, nice food and great company and conversation. 🙂

c.h.e.f andy

豆签 bean noodles with bean paste chicken

made some bean paste chicken 豆签 this evening on 13.3.2019. ^^

looks like tagliatelle pasta 😜

豆签 bean noodles with bean paste chicken

豆签 bean noodles with bean paste chicken

i had some bean paste sauce which i made spicy bean paste pork cubes for teban gardens friday community breakfast last friday on 8.3.2019.

i stored some leftover sauce in the fridge and used to make a 1pax 豆签 bean noodles with bean paste chicken.

just boil 豆签 bean noodles about 2.3mins. remove and drained.

fried cut chicken pieces with the bean past sauce for 5 mins till cooked. off fire add back 豆签 bean noodles and toss.

bean paste cook anything also nice la…and i really like 豆签 bean noodles ..very light and soothing.

c.h.e.f andy

4pax lunch dishes

today bro, sis & bil came over for lunch on 11.3.2019. ^^.

i made 4 dishes.

mullet and large yellow croaker

mullet and large yellow croaker

chilled mullet and yellow croaker are teochew favorites, perfect taken together with taujeon.

not much difference in quality eating out or homecook (i would say my homecooked mostly better). just a lot cheaper homecooked.

i bought 2 mullet for S$9.80 and the very large yellow croaker (>50% larger than normal size) for S$8.90.

very fresh and sweet. both very good, myself i still prefer the mullet.

garlic hk steamed sotong

garlic hk steamed sotong

garlic hk steamed the easiest to prepare and super nice.

sotong these days more ex than fish. at sheng shiong it’s like S$15.90 to S$18.90.

today’s large sotong >300g so i would be cost >S$5 ie more expensive than the mullet.

fried shitake mushrooms with mala sauce

i made some fried shitake with mala sauce. this was excellent and perfect the other day. today, not enough mala sauce.

4pax lunch dishes

and i had some hk kailan.

bro liked the kailan. he commented kailan was really lush green. and it was succulent and sweet.

c.h.e.f andy

buddha jump over the wall

wife home this morning from japan trip..

we had 7pax dinner.

wenyu made funghi pasta..very good! restaurant standard!

I made buddha jump over the wall..it was very good..wife children all loved it…JH had 3 bowls…

made also grilled scallops, a flamed belly pork with potato mash..the mash was really good….. wife children all loved it..

got a piece of bkack onyx boned in ribeye which CNM brought during cny get together..her niece brought from australia..

so i made flamed sous vide ribeye 👍👍👍

buddha jump over the wall

buddha jump over the wall

this time no pencai 盆菜.

so i packed all the good ingredients for the buddha jump over the wall 佛跳墙 = abalones, fish maw, sea cucumber, pig tendons, chicken breast and belly pork.

buddha jump over the wall

eveything was done to perfection – the fish maw, sea cucumber, belly pork, chicken breast all superb texture and tasty.

soup was trotters, belly pork, SKINLESS chicken whole leg base, gelatinous and sweet, very flavourful, so children topped up soup, and JH had 3 bowls. 🙂

will write up a recipe for this dish.

son’s funghi tagliatelle

son’s funghi tagliatelle

wen yu made a superb funghi tagliatelle, very tasty, perfect texture of pasta and beautiful mushrrom flavours.

i think i will do this dish for my dinners. 🙂

giant scallops and black onyx ribeye

i had giant scallops. decided to pangrilled and add some sides.

belly pork before flaming 

grilled scallops, flamed belly pork, veg and mash

i decided to make a mash…it was very good, everyone loved it. i just used one large potatoes will make more next time. will write up a separate recipe for this.

also added a flamed belly pork. the same belly pork i did for the buddha jump over the walk, braised in the stock 2hrs so very tender..then added seasalt, black pepper, olive oil adn drizzle with honey, then flamed. superb!

black onyx ribeye 

CNM brought black onyx ribeye from australia during the CNY day2 get together, so i decided to make reverse sear flamed sous vide ribeye.

flamed sous vide black onyx ribeye medium rare

this evening the ribeye piece was too large to pangrilled & flamed, so i flmed a bit more.

my sous vide machine 

sous vide black onyx ribeye medium rare

like last time i set to 53.5 degC medium rare for 2hrs.

flamed sous vide black onyx ribeye medium rare

flamed sous vide black onyx ribeye medium rare

flamed sous vide black onyx ribeye medium rare 

& the ribeye was beautiful..everyone loved it…

i think i will do it a bit just very slight more done less rare (say) 54.5degC next tiem to try out.

c.h.e.f andy

#2 pencai 盆菜

made 10pax dinner for RI bros this evening on 21.2.2019. ^^ 🙂

tai kor LCM helped organised the dinner.

LKH brought cheng tng 👍👍👍

CCG brought premium nuts.

LCM brought 4deg white wine.

TCH brought prunes and strawberries

menu

1 piggy jump over the wall – fish maw, sea cucumber, pig trotters, belly pork, chicken

2 盆菜-prawns, broccoli, fish maw, sea cucumber, mushrooms, belly pork, abalones

3 hk steamed golden snapper (ang choe)

4 braised pig trotters & belly

5 salted egg prawns

6 braised scallop with leek

7 salted fish minced pork egg white fried rice

8 orh lua

i recently made the best pencai 盆菜 for CNY eve reunion dinner at my brother’s house, so thought of doing that this evening for my RI bros.

#1 piggy jump over the wall

and to experiment with buddha jump over the wall.

since i am already having pencai 盆菜, so i used cheaper ingredients like pig trotters and belly instead and called it “piggy jump over the wall”. lol!

#1 piggy jump over the wall

turned out that this (the soup) was the best dish.

i think at least one bro had 3 bowls of soup.

so i had trotters & a SKINLESS chicken leg (thigh plus drumstick) to provide a very sweet, tasty, gelatinous soup base, then added belly pork, fish maw, sea cucumber, chicken breast and each at the right timing to deliver great texture.

#1 piggy jump over the wall

a truly delightful dish.

#2 pencai 盆菜

#2 pencai 盆菜

this evening’s pencai 盆菜 was good enough. everyone loved this dish.

#2 pencai 盆菜

#2 pencai 盆菜

the fish maw, belly pork and mushrooms perfect texture and very well infused and tasty.

the gravy was not as good as what i served at my brother’s place on CNY eve.

#3 trotters and belly pork

#3 trotters and belly pork

the teochew braised trotters and belly pork was very good.

texture was perfect, gelatinous and the braise was very tasty.

#4 salted egg prawns

the first time i made salted egg prawns using my own sauce.

#4 salted egg prawns

prawns were done the same, coated with egg yoke and cornflour and shallow-fried for 1 min to golden.

#4 salted egg sauce

the last time, i used a ready made sauce. it (the sauce) was not that good even though the prawns were done well.

so this time i decided to make my own sauce. this evening i served 15 prawns, so i decided 3 salted egg yokes would be enough, and it was. so fried the salted egg yokes with 2 twigs of curry leaves and 1 cut chilli padi.

the salted egg prawn dish came out quite perfect, with great salted egg flavours and slight powdery texture, just right! 🙂

#5 scallops with leek

i did the scallops and leek dish. was going to use broccoli but already had broccoli for pencai 盆菜 so use leek instead. my friends said the leek really tasty.

#5 scallops

i used 20 large scallops.

#5 leeks

for the sauce i fried leek with oyster sauce and added intense chicken stock.

#6 HK steamed golden snapper (ang choe)

#6 HK steam golden snapper (ang choe)

for the golden snapper (ang choe), i decided to do the usual HK steamed.

fish was good, the flavours of the light soy sauce very fragrant.

#7 salted fish minced pork egg white fried rice

i made salted fish minced pork egg white fried rice. the colour and presentation very appetizing. more importantly wokhae was wonderful and teh salted fish flavours very pang!

i fried the the salted fish and minced prok first then added cooked rice high fire, mixed thoroughly and set aside.

when serving, i fried eg white (this time i used 5 egg whites), let it formed and then added the fried rice and folded in the egg whites. a lovely dish. i took 2 servings myself.

#8 orh lua – oyster omelette

and i made orh lua – oyster omelette. it was hawker standard? almost la.. still cannot quite compare. oyster and chilli was good, the crispy sweet potato flour quite ok.

LKH’s cheng tng

LKH’s cheng tng

CCG brought nuts

CCG brought nuts

TCH brought prunes

strawberries

LKH brought cheng tng.

always good and especially this evening, not too sweet and combined very well with the dried persimon and melon. perfect la!

#! piggy jump over the wall

very satisfying evening for me.

the RI bros we had a great enjoyable evening together, and for me i had the opportunity to successfully deliver 2 new dishes (a very great satisfaction la!)=

1. the buddha jump over the wall
2. and the salted egg prawns.

for the bros also, the pencai 盆菜, egg white fried rice and orh lua were all new dishes.

spicy black bean sauce song fish head

made 3pax dinner for sis & bil

I made-

1. spicy black bean sauce song fish head
2. orh lua – almost hawker standard
3. egg white minced pork fried rice – definitely imperial treasure standard
4. some leftover vegetables

spicy black bean sauce song fish head

spicy black bean sauce song fish headmy usual good zi char standard.

sauce was tangy and sweet, fish meat was tender and tasty.

orh lua

orh lua

and i made an almost hawker standard orh lua with big and plump oysters. ^^

vegetables

vegetables 

i used leftover vegetables in the fridge – leek spring onions, yellow onions, celery and some potatoes. just fried with oyster sauce, added some chicken stock and reduced while cooking the potatoes, thickened to a very tasty sauce.

this dish was a champoh put together thingy,but it was also very tasty!

salted fish minced pork egg white fried rice

salted fish minced pork egg white fried rice

and i made the perfect salted fish minced pork egg white fried rice this eveninng.

this was imperial treasures restaurant standard, excellent fried rice with wonderful wek hae.

salted fish minced pork egg white fried rice

3pax dinner dishes

dinner was quite last minute.

it was also very enjoyable and tasty food! sis stayed to make gongfu tea and watched some tv series, then i sent them to mrt to catch a ride home.

wonderful family time together with sis & bil.

c.h.e.f andy

2018 celebrations 11pax RI bros home dinner

made 11pax 2018 year end dinner for RI bros this evening on 27.12.2018-

Menu

1 chicken rice
2 1/2 braised duck
3 braised pig trotters
4 claypot liver
5 white belly pork
6 steamed salted fish minced pork
7 steamed nonya sauce tilapia
8 salted egg bittergourd
9 fried kang kong
10 fried manila clams
11 tofu cheesecake

CCG brought 汤圆..HK brought 2 mumm champagne
TKF brought a red…WL brought haagen dazz ice creams
TCH brought strawberries ….HAB brought very sweet longans

#1 白斩鸡chicken rice & #2 braised 1/2 duck

my 白斩鸡 chicken rice chicken very good standard now better than most outside. and i also made good chilli and a very good drizzling sauce.

so chicken was nothing less than excellent, but the rice today not that great..not sure why. the guys said it was ok, but of course it was distinctly not as good as before when the fragrant was so evident even before you ate it.

braised duck i had not made for many years. but today’s was excellent as well. i served 1/2 and kept 1/2 for next day dinner at my in laws place (& it was just as excellent everyone loved it just that 1/2duck was a bit little).

#3 white belly pork

i did a very good white belly pork this evening.

as i had braised hock & trotters i decided to have a different serving just plain boiled belly pork in chicken broth.

the texture was very good, taste wise of course it did not have the intensity of the braised meat, but like the 白斩鸡 chicken rice chicken, it was perfect with the chicken rice chilli.

#4 braised pork trotters

i somehow managed to forget to serve the braised hock and trotters though it was in the kitchen the whole time, until we all finished the dinner.

anyway the guys decided to just ate it, so we finished about 3/4, and CL packet home the remaining 1/4.

CK took the cabbage which was used to shield the bottom from getting burnt. braising turned connective tissues and released the flavours to very tasty collagen which was starchy, and will sticked and burnt when reheat so i placed a few cabbage before reheating to serve, and the cabbage became very tasty with the infused braises.

#5 steamed salted fish minced pork

today i made steamed minced pork with salted fish, a very traditional dish served in many zi char. quite shiok!

#6 steamed tilapia with gimson nonya sauce

my steam oven went on strike, failed on me, so i had to replate the 2 tilapia and steamed eahc separately 8 mins.

this dish is always delightful with the gimson nonya sauce. made a cheap fish with mud taste quite exquisite, as the meat was fresh and smooth and few bones and the tangy taste of the sauce combined well with the hk steam flavourful light soy sauce.

#7 claypot liver

claypot liver i seldom cook. everyone loved it. i use one and a half pieces becos i did not want to crowd the dish. after that i cooked the other 1/2 piece as the guys quite happy to have it.

#8 fried manila clams lala

the lala manila clams very good. i cooked with curry leaves and oyster sauce, and a bit of stock. timing/texture was perfect but it was easy in any case, just cover, make sure opens up and don’t overcook.

#9 fried kang kong

fried kang kong as usual..just oyster sauce, do not add water…very nice & fragrant.

#10 salted egg bittergourd

and today’s salted egg bittergourd very good.

i fried the salted egg and bittergourd first, and set aside. when serving i fried 3 eggs, let them firmed with a tasty fried layer, then added back the bittergourd and folded the fried egg over and mized. very nicely done today. ^^

tang yuan 汤圆

tang yuan 汤圆

tang yuan 汤圆

CCG brought nice tang yuan 汤圆, some with ginger sauce, some with peanut soup.

we split among the 11 of us.

#11 tofu cheesecake

tofu cheesecake

i made tofu cheese cake.

this evening it was excellent! i didn’t do this for last few years and the one i did on christmas eve was not so good. base was too thin as a different brand of digestive had different weight and 7 pieces was not the right amount, so this evening i used 9 pieces.

this time it was perfect, thicker just right base and a good mild tangy sweet smooth cake.

strawberries

longans

rock melon

haagen dazs

haagen dazs

2018 celebrations 11pax RI bros home dinner dishes

and we adjourned to the tv room for karaoke, and had fruits and ice creams. HCK the standout cantonese & chinese crooner…

a fun evening for all and a wonderful time with RI bros to celebrate 2018 and to welcome the new year.

c.h.e.f andy