10pax Homegourmet 9-course Dinner on 1Jul2013

Posted on July 8, 2013 by chefquak

had a wonderful dinner get-together with friends on 1.7.2013. 🙂

got the usual faithful to come over to try out a few new dishes like Nobu miso cod, simmered crispy skin salmon & kurobuta steak. 🙂 few other dishes like Jap chashu belly pork, funghi risotto, pistachio lamb etc, some have tried before but many have not.

10pax Homegourmet 9-course Dinner Menu

i did a 9-course dinner – the first 4 were served as tapas for sharing, followed by baked funghi risotto & spicy seafood alio olio with white wine, and then 2 main courses Nobu miso cod & Spanish slow-braised beef ribs OR pistachio crusted rack of lamb, and finish off with the usual chocolate lava cake. 🙂

as i had learned earlier, everything was about planning, so planning what could be precooked & the cooking/reheating. serving sequence was the key. the kurobuta steak & wagyu of course had to pan-fry on the spot when all the diners arrived. likewise tossing of the mesclun salad with olive oil, balsamic vinegar & sea salt only when about to serve. the best that could be done for risotto was to precook (mine was a baked version in oven) but still needed to add stock & cream, reheat & reduce w/o overcooking the rice. for the seafood alio olio, the prawn & squid & spaghetti were pre-cooked but the wine, reduction etc & tossing was best done on reheating, again to keep the pasta al dente w/o overcooking. 🙂 likewise the rack of lamb took 22mins in the oven, and i had to start that while reheating the risotto, so that the lamb could be served not too long after the spaghetti which came after the risotto. the beef ribs was precooked but needed reheating and the miso cod which took 11 mins had to be done after the lamb. 🙂

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first 2 tapas were pan roasted brined chicken breast & thigh (i used to serve only breast but seemed like many preferred thigh) and a sampling of pan-fried kurobuta steak & Japanese chashu oven slow-braised belly pork in mirin, sake, sugar & light soy sauce. these served together with mesclun salad. 🙂 after resting the meats & cutting, i saw that the kurobuta was slightly pink so i decided to re-fry 2 of the 3 pieces. that delayed the start of the dinner a bit, but seemed that many friends actually did not mind the less well done piece, so i think would be better to serve it just slightly pink (about medium well) next time. 🙂

next up was pan-fried MBS 4/5 wagyu steak. the above left photo showed the kurobuta steak which looked more marbled than the wagyu. i did the wagyu medium rare at the centre, so it was a bit well at the ends. i think i would do it rare the next time. 🙂

ebi miso yaki

as WL did not take beef (everytime he had to repeat the story, this time to Oonch), i did ebi miso yaki (the medium prawns were marinated in miso for 3 days & stored in the chiller) for him from the miso i made to use for Nobu miso cod. 🙂

i did 2 fillet of salmon first simmered 8 mins skin-up in mirin, sake, sugar, then pan-fried to get the crispy skin. this dish was quite easily done & just needed to heat up before serving. i cut the 2 fillet into 10 bite-size pieces & served in a white bowl & just poured the slightly sweet tasty sauce over it. the salmon did look nice & tasted quite ok, but i think it was kind of a “nothing” dish that just looked good but could do with or without. 🙂

everyone liked the baked funghi risotto which had nice, intense mushroom flavour from button mushrooms & shimeji. this time the rice (i used a cheaper USA sushi rice & not real stuff – italian arborio rice) was al dente. JK felt it was too wet. that was because i did not estimate well the stock + cream to add on reheating but had to leave it wet as it would overcook before i could make it drier. 🙂

next, spicy seafood spaghetti alio olio. so far this had turned out quite well in taste everytime & visuals too. 🙂

then we had a choice the pistachio crusted rack of lamb (i cooked only 1 rack of 8ribs to serve 4) OR Spanish slow-braised beef ribs (which had 2x3ribs to serve 6). 🙂

the Spanish ribs were inspired by a lunch last year at La Cicala with my son. my son preferred La Cicala’s beefy brown sauce. i decided though to pick up an internet recipe with a sweet vegetable ratatouille to balance the beefy ribs. i used carrots, celery, yellow onions, & red pepper, i did not get chorizo so substituted with chinese sausage & also used tumeric for the colour in place of expensive saffron. 🙂

Nobu miso cod

the last main course was Nobu miso cod. like the rack of lamb, kurobuta, & wagyu, i got the cod from mmmm at West Coast Plaza. the key was to marinate in miso for 3days or more. the result was a very “jit bee” 入味 tasty cod. the cod was firm, tasty & quite tender. my personal preference is a firm & springy (& oily) fish, so i like cod but i like chilean seabass a bit better, though it is not so environmentally correct to consume them. 🙂

chocolate lava cakes with cherries, strawberries & grapes

the last up was chocolate lava cake. this took just 3mins 40secs in the oven so anything could go wrong. this time it was my phone timer (phone was in silent mode! OMT!) so i thought the first batch might turned out to be brownies. but it turned out to be ok with quite a bit of lava. the second batch though had lots of lava.

c.h.e.f andy

11pax Homegourmet Dinner on 11Jun2013

Posted on June 13, 2013 by chefquak

experimented with chashumen & curry chicken noodles recently with some success. 🙂

chashu is Japanese braised pork belly in mirin, sake, soy sauce & sugar. it is commonly served with ramen as chashumen & can come with tonkotsu, soyu or miso tonkotsu soupbase. 🙂

for curry chicken noodle, the aim was to recreate or model the famous Ah Heng or Heng Kee curry chicken noodle stalls at Hong Lim Park hawker centre. The curry for curry chicken noodle is somewhat different from the usual curry, and there is no internet recipe to be found. so I had to improvise. The chicken is not curry chicken but more like Hainanese chicken rice chicken. anyhow, I cooked quite a good nonya curry chicken so I varied the curry by adding dried prawns (虾米), lemongrass (香茅) but I did not have the special chilli they had.

so I invited my usual gang of friends & this time including the few of us who went together for the Hong Kong Trip 10-13May2013. I designed a menu which included braised duck, curry chicken, spicy bean sauce pork prime ribs, wok fried prawns & HK kailan to go with the 2 carbo dishes, namely the chasumen & curry chicken noodles. 🙂

the top photo was the braised duck. I did a very good one for a 22pax homegourmet buffet dinner on 5May2013. For this one I made some small mistakes but managed to rectify it & the end product was quite flavourful duck & nice colour & presentation too. 🙂

nonya curry chicken

the curry chicken was also very tasty & flavourful. I took off 1/2 the curry though to make the curry for the curry chicken noodles.

we also had a very good spicy bean sauce pork prime ribs dish made by my domestic helper. she had mostly perfected the wonderful dish. 🙂

dry wok medium prawn

poached HK kailan with shitake

I cooked the high heat dry wok prawns (kind of my very own speciality recipe) which never fails to please. 🙂 & my helper did the poached HK kailan with shitake mushrooms. 🙂

the braised duck, curry chicken & spicy pork ribs were pre-cooked & only needed warming up. The prawn & poached kailan were whipped up when all the guests arrived, and so we were able to start a relax evening dining with 5 piping hot dishes & plain rice. 🙂

chashu (Japanese braised pork belly)

perfect 6mins runny yoke egg

the Jap chashu was also done beforehand. So was the perfect runny yoke egg – direct from fridge into boiling water & simmered for exactly 6mins. 🙂 instead of heavy ramen, I used small pinch of thin Japanese light noodles that was cooked just al dante & dropped into ice water to stop after-cooking to ensure the “qq” effect. 🙂

chicken – hainanese chicken rice method

for the curry chicken noodles, I had a really nice, tender & sweet chicken done the Hainanese chicken rice style with smooth, taut skin, again courtesy of the ice-water bath. 🙂

& we had taupok, potatoes & fishcake added to the yellow noodle & thick beehoon.

my friends brought durian puff (unfortunately it was frozen though I took out of the freezer for 1/2hr but it was not enough), ice cream & very sweet strawberries & rambutans. 🙂

what a fun evening, company, conversation & food! 🙂

c.h.e.f andy

“Michelin Star” Homegourmet Peranakan Feast @ Friend’s Place on 7Jun2013

Posted on June 9, 2013 by chefquak

assam fish head

I was among a privileged group to be invited for a peranakan feast at a friend’s house on 7.6.2013. 🙂

scrumptious peranakan feast

last year this same friend did an incredible teochew spread complete with all the dips like ‘kek you’桔油, seng ni chor 蒜泥醋(minced garlic vinegar) & also buay jeun 梅酱 etc. this time round it was a peranakan feast like no others…haha. 🙂

there were assam fish head, babi ponteh, gado gado, chap chye, bawan kepiting, ayam buah keluar, itek sio, ngoh hiang, incredibly delicious penang laksa, and apom berkuah. 🙂

The assam fish head (top photo) was totally awesome. one of my friends parked herself right in front of the dish..haha. 🙂

I will never attempt this gado gado. just look at the effort – 4 vegetables, egg, tau kua, potatoes, peanut sauce. I feel exhausted just counting them..eating them was quite ok though. haha. 🙂

chap chye

ngoh hiang

the chap chye was very good, but regrettably got to keep space for every other super good dishes leh..same with the ngoh hiang…

I had 3 rounds before I started on the penang laksa. some fellas had 5 rounds, but of course he had to work on a phone conference while the rest of us were feasting so he deserved to be rewarded. 🙂

itek sio

itek sio was a new dish according to my “michelin star” chef friend. it’s very tasty taken with the sauce…well he could keep adding new dishes if they all tasted like that. 🙂

bawan kepeting

ayam buah keluar

the bawan kepiting was a very tasty soup..the only dish I had not dived into was the ayam buah keluar, but then a few friends said the buah keluar was really good..I didn’t remember liking this but I tried anyway, scooping out the soft flesh from the nut..it was good indeed though I am unlikely to crave this.

babi ponteh

this one I could not resist, had 3 helpings with pick of collagen rich pieces. 🙂

regrettably I did not take picture of the penang laksa. I was never keen on penang laksa as I preferred the lemak laksa with cockles to the sour version, but this one was really delicious & flavourful, not too sour & lots of fish.

apom berkuah

& we had an awesome dessert too -apom berkuah. and some more, we got to ta pao back nonya bak chang & kee chang with kaya, more of the apom berkuah & penang laksa. 🙂

later I was chatting with another friend on Facebook. and I observed that a mark of a true chef=perfection ie no small miss in every dish. I had many “homegourmet” (not to be taken seriously we just say all these for fun) dinners myself, and I would have 1 or 2 misses in some dishes. and in all honesty what we had was better than most good peranakan restaurants – so michelin star it was for me. 🙂

c.h.e.f andy

Homegourmet 6-course Dinner for belated Mother’s Day on 1June2013

Posted on June 2, 2013 by chefquak

usually my wife & I & family avoid the actual days of public holidays or commercialised offerings like Valentine Day, Mothers’ Day, Fathers’ Day etc to dine out. 🙂 while there are good reasons to do on certain occasions, mostly it does not make sense to spend atrocious amount of monies for lesser service & food quality experience, which is what you get when the restaurants are jam-packed & servers are harried.

on those occasions we would either go on an earlier or later date or select a restaurant that served the usual menu or the very few which served a better menu at better prices on special occasions – Majestic was one which served great ala carte buffet for Christmas & New Year but for this year seem to have stopped doing for Mother’s Day & Father’s Day (not to forget they served an excellent World Gourmet Summit Dinner recently). 🙂

for this time, since I cook a decent meal at home these days, we thought we would do Mother’s Day at home instead. However I was called away by the Hong Kong Eat & Hike group and was in Hong Kong on 10.5.2013. and after that I was away in Kyoto/Osaka with my sis & my wife was away with daughter & her friend also. so we decided on a belated Mother’s Day home dinner on 1.6.2013 which also coincided with another special day for us. 🙂

there were only 4 of us for dinner. I wanted to do the Nobu miso cod for my wife as she was never into lamb & now less into beef . so I designed a 6-course dinner but reduced the quantity. 🙂

calamari

first we had a very good calamari – this one was done by aunty Bes. she did this quite many times now and was becoming very good at it. I added this dish as my eldest daughter does not take some of the other dishes.

pan-roasted brined chicken breast

pan-fried kurobuta steak

the pan-roasted brined chicken breast & the pan-fried kurobuta were served together with the calamari as a tapas – for eating & chatting around the table. 🙂 chicken was good as always & the kurobuta from mmmm was very good (though I think wagyu is still better but this kurobuta is better than the normal ribeye & striploin). 🙂

chashu for chashumen - Japanese braised belly pork

chashu – Japanese braised belly pork

chashumen – runny yoke egg & Japanese braised belly pork

next I had a pre-prepared chashumen dish ready to serve – only have to boil the soup from the braising sauce & pour over the noodles. 🙂 The chashu or Japanese braised belly pork was done the usual standard fare for ramen style & I am now able to consistently produce a 6minute runny yoke egg. I used very small quantities of thin white Japanese noodles instead of ramen so it was less “je lak” and also to reduce the carbo. 🙂

vongole fettucine

I did a really splendid spicy vongole fettucine in white wine the last time in my first attempt. this time the littleneck clams were again super, the pasta was tasty but not as good as the first time. 🙂

Nobu miso cod

the Nobu miso cod was again super -so tasty, and such wonderful bite & texture. 🙂

c.h.e.f andy

RI Celebration of 55 Yrs of Our Lives Dinner on 5May2013

Posted on May 6, 2013 by chefquak

we had our RI celebration of 55 years dinner on a cool pleasant evening on 5.5.2013. 🙂 it was good fun, great company, enjoyable makan, and strawberries brought by Tiang Chye, and we had our 55th birthday cake courtesy of Choon Hung lit with 5+5 candles. 🙂 all 55ers were singing birthday songs for Chong Lee & Kum Heng, the 2 with the nearest birthdays, and later for ourselves..haha.. 🙂

I cooked a 21pax buffet dinner. I must say that this the best I have done, every dish turned up very nicely. 4 of my 5 dishes (& 2 of aunty Bes’ dishes) were precooked & ready to serve, and I only had to do the prawns (& aunty Bes the fish & kailan) when friends were already tucked in, so it was very relaxed and at the same time a really shiok, thrilled feeling! 🙂

Dinner was a homecooked 9-course buffet + birthday cake courtesy of Choon Hung. 🙂

we started with a layout of 6 dishes. aunty Bes’s thai tanhoon salad was a great appetizer – spicy, tangy, tasty.

the pan-roasted brined chicken breast was moist, tender & sweet-This is a great tapas dish I always do for sit-down dinners. 🙂

teochew braised duck

I was especially proud of my teochew braised duck today. Chong Lee liked this especially. the flavour was superb & the colour & looks were great! the cutting was also good w/o torn edges,pieces etc. 🙂 the lor neng was just putting to good use the braised duck sauce & was quite a homely addition.

I also did chashu, which is a Japanese style slow oven-cooked belly pork. This is commonly used in ramen (for chashumen) where the meat is rolled up & cut into thin circular pieces. 🙂 It was much better than the kakuni I did previously (which was also a good Japanese styled slow-braised belly pork), both the texture/bite & the taste. 🙂

nonya curry chicken

this was a good day for me. my curry chicken were usually quite ok, and today’s curry chicken was truly my best, really tasted like Zion Road nasi padang green curry, sweet, fragrant & lemak. 🙂

next up – aunty Bes’ spicy bean sauce prime ribs, always good! 🙂

I cooked my usual dry wok high heat garlic prawns at this point. Wee Woon liked this especially. 🙂

aunty Bes then brought out her very good spicy tau jeon seabass – quite remarkable that it turned seabass which had mud taste & mushy not great texture to a very different tasty dish.:-)

forgot to take photo of Choon Hung’s very nice chocolate cheese cake, and also aunty Bes’ blanched HK kailan with shitake mushrooms in oyster sauce. 🙂

everyone had a really, really great fun time together. 🙂

c.h.e.f andy

Homegourmet 8-Course Lunch @ 14Mar2013

Posted on March 24, 2013 by chefquak

I had another homegourmet 9pax lunch with friends recently.

I had quite some success on the pan-roasted brined chicken breast recipe, and was raring to try it on duck. 🙂 I wanted to test it once before I dumped the dish on my friends. I did this using both the pan-roasted chicken quick-roast method & the prime rib slow-roast method successfully, the slow-roast method producing an even more tender meat.

The slow-roast pork belly was still a work-in-progress. It turned up very well for my daughter’s 14pax friends lunch on CNY 3rd Day, but I felt it was still mostly touch & go. I would not have time to do on 14Mar if it turned up poorly so I did it in the evening of 13Mar & as it was passable if not great so I kept it in the fridge to warm up & serve the next day.

For the soup. I had been doing a “kick-ass” …self-praise haha…Basque seafood soup using prawn shells but was a bit tired of doing the same soup every time. I looked up some creamy mushroom soup recipe and thought it could not go too far wrong and was worth a gamble, since I had on hand willing devoted risk-taker volunteers high on faith. 🙂

skin-on pan-roasted brined duck breast

We started off with 4 tapas – (a) pan-roasted brined chicken breast (b)slow-roast brined duck breast (c)slow-roast pork belly & (d) Margaret River wagyu MBS6/7+angus striploin.

I think all were happy with the brined chicken breast & duck breast (except that I was rushing a little & destroyed the crispy skin of the chicken quite badly, I relaxed and did it right for the duck). They were moist, tender & tasty! 🙂 The belly pork was a bit iffy. This was a rather fatty piece & though the fat & meat were quite soft, the skin was still a tad tough to the bite, so the “mouth feel” 口感 wasn’t quite right. Fortunately, the natural jus was quite tasty & the Spanish spicy mustard sauce was a very good dip to go together with.

I thought the wagyu was below par. I had better marbling for MBS4/5 striploin from the same supplier mmmm previously for the “Best of” dinner on 28Jan2013 (of course my friends would say its the bad carpenter..haha). The rockets were also not good. I forgot to buy on 13Mar & there was no time to get it on 14Mar so went at 1am the night before to Sheng Shiong’s 24hr mart at Ghim Moh & the only ones there were quite old & not fresh. 😦

I had a separate portion of 3 pan-seared Hokkaido scallops for WL as he does not take beef. It should be quite ok now that I learned the simple technique=very hot pan +very dry scallop (scallops & fish etc contain a lot of water & if not bone dry, pan temperature will drop sharply & you will be steaming/poaching & will not have a hardened seared layer so it will stick to the pan). 🙂

pan-seared Hokkaido scallops

After the tapas, we had a pasta item, which was my seafood alio olio spaghetti with white wine. I was quite confident on the taste department as this dish mostly turned up quite well but I thought the texture was not enough al dente this time. 😦

seafood alio olio spaghetti with white wine

Next came my very first attempt at creamy mushroom soup, and gratefully it turned up very well indeed – really quite smooth in texture and tasty – though from the photo below, I could see the caramelised mushrooms but NOT few drops of extra virgin olive oil.

creamy mushroom soup

The pistachio rusted rack of lamb was also my very first attempt, and this was quite an excitement for me actually. The lamb rack looked fabulous & tasted great! although I found it slightly overdone as I would prefer medium rare. It was moist, tender and did not have much of the strong lamb gamey taste. 🙂

pistachio crusted rack of lamb

The 8-ribs lamb rack was good for 4 serving, and being my first attempt it was actually a stand-in for my more “established” Spanish 2-hr slow-braised beef ribs. This had been very good the few times I served previously, but the taste was a bit off this time, & we were at a lost to explain (other than bad carpenter). The vegetable base ratatouille (celery, carrots, yellow onions) should be sweet & balancing the beefy taste, the Chinese sausage added some sweetness & the chorizo (though may not be everyone’s favourite) had combined very well previously. I thought that it could be the chuck rib itself, though I bought it from Giant the day before, but I could not be sure how long it was on their shelves. Photo below still looked ok but looks deceived 😦

Spanish 2-hr slow-braised beef ribs

We had the usual chocolate lava cake. I was getting a bit bored though, hoping to try out a new soufle recipe next time.

WL brought very nice tarts and CH his usual strawberries & this time it was especially sweet. All the leftover tarts were polished off by my daughters soon enough. 🙂

c.h.e.f andy

“Best Of” Dinner on 28Jan2013

Posted on March 23, 2013 by chefquak

Gathered my gung-ho friends for a meal at my most recent homecooked dinner on 28Jan2013.

“Best Of” refers to the different dishes (French, Spanish, Italian, fusion) I was trying out in the MENU above, NOT that I was best in any of them..lol..I had 3 pan-seared Hokkaido scallops made for a friend who couldn’t take wagyu, & mercifully they turned up very well after I learned of the very simple technique from chef John of foodwishes.com (just make sure the scallops are bone dry at room temperature & the non stick pan is very hot – scallops & fish etc tend to have lots of water & if not dry, then pan temperature will drop instantly and you end up steaming & NOT searing the meat!).

This was also the first time I tried my skin-on pan-roasted chicken breast on my friends and they all loved it. The slow roast belly pork was still very much a work-in-progress BUT the saving grace was the spicy, sour Spanish mustard sauce. 🙂 This, together with the original sauce from the belly pork made very lovely dips.

Skin-on pan-roasted brined chicken breast

The Margaret River wagyu striploin with marbling score 4/5 (while pale in comparison with Japanese wagyu), was 1 of the dinner highlights & garnered many supporters. 🙂 I did it the GR (Gordon Ramsay) way – leave steak at room temperature for 1/2 hr, greased non-stick pan with fat from striploin, very high heat, turnover once & add butter, then rest for 5minutes before cutting.

Margaret River wagyu MBS 4/5

The garlic jumbo prawns (these are 130g size – 10 prawns=1.3 kg) is one of my regular dishes, done with just minced garlic & chilli padi in a dry wok in very high heat, and only adding fish sauce at the very end before removing & serve.

Garlic jumbo prawns 130g each

I also had a very smooth & sweet tasting Basque seafood soup using stock from prawn shells + chicken stock + leek, carrot & onions strained, adding poached prawn, sotong (squid) and mussels when serving.

Next up were the 2 pastas. The seafood alio olio spaghetti with white wine is my usual fare, and this time I added a fusion pasta using a chilli crab sauce I prepared from the prawn shell stock.

The main course was a Spanish 2hr slow-cooked beef ribs with chorizos, celery, carrots, red peppers, yellow onions & using just a dash of tumeric for the colour. They all loved this very tender & tasty dish.

Spansh slow-cooked beef ribs with chorizos

And after all that, we still had room for a very nice chocolate lava cake (my usual fare) to round out the evening.

Chocolate lava cake oozing lava served with strawberries

c.h.e.f andy

Capri Challenge Dinner on 20Dec2012

Posted on March 23, 2013 by chefquak

I had this Capri Challenge dinner after going to Capri Trattoria & Pizzeria couple times with friends & family. Capri’s $18 cold cut platter is a real quality & value-for-money deal. The $36 tagliata di manzo (sliced beef) is quite ok but pricy for the size & cut of meat. The pastas are maybe 3/4 the price of Valentino, however both times I thought the pastas were very average.

Anyway, after testing out a belly pork arrabiata and a fusion chilli crab pasta, I decided to string together a 4 pasta dinner and got my obliging “kakis” (aka mates in Malay) – namely Choon Hung, Chong Lee & the lot – to come as guinea pigs as usual.

I started with a tagliata di manzo with rockets & cherry tomatoes using a mock fillet mignon recipe for cheap chuck tender. It involves tenderising the meat with sodium bicarbonate, grilling both sides in a 210degC oven for 25minutes, then slow-cooking at 90degC for 1.5hrs. This recipe is ok but I still prefer to go with the usual costlier striploin & ribeyes.

tagliata di manzo (Italian sliced beef) using chuck tender as mock fillet mignon with rockets, cherry tomatoes & roast potatoes

Next I have my usual roast chicken, tender & tasty & quite moist, but kind of boring as noted in the post on pan-roasted brined chicken.

roast chicken rubbed with salt, pepper, herbs, oyster sauce & olive oil

A medley of 4 pastas followed. My usual seafood alio olio spaghetti with white wine is by now a very popular dish amongst family & friends. Next I have a belly pork arrabiata (spicy tamato) spaghetti. I cooked the belly pork the Japanese “kakuni” way, at low heat using an induction heater for 1.5hrs, then added in canned whole tomatoes (cut into small pieces) and sauce, yellow onions and soy sauce and cooked for another 1/2 hr. This can be put aside for tossing with the pasta when required.

belly pork arrabiata(spicy tomatoes) spaghetti

A more interesting experiment is with the chilli crab pasta. I found a chilli crab sauce recipe & substituted the crab with prawn shell stock – the crab or prawn or shellfish flavour is needed to make the sauce taste genuine like real chilli crab sauce. This turned out very well indeed at the first attempt & by the time of the dinner I had 2 previous successful tries.

chilli crab spaghetti with prawns & shelled crab pincers

My attempt at a creamy funghi pasta though is rather forgettable, will have to revisit at a later time as I am quite keen on funghi pasta & risotto. Garlic king prawn ia one of my usual fare and very good really so I find little incentive to try out other recipes like the Spanish garlic prawn tapas. A dinner highlight is the angus striploin. I attempted aging the striploin in the fridge (it is supposed to intensify the flavours and also tenderise). The one below is aged 48hrs in the fridge. I cooked the striploin by the usual GR (Gordon Ramsay) method. It is very good with distinct maillard reaction brown ring, though I cannot say after trying this aging a few times that it really is better than the same meat w/o the aging.

pan-fried medium rare angus striploin aged 48hrs in fridge

Afterwards we had the usual chocolate lava cake. Choon Hung has by now become our regular ice-cream supplier & thanks to him, I do not have to drive to Daily Scoop at Sunset Way to pick up the Salted Mr Brown & Coconut Fantasy ice-creams – both are very good and even better when taken with chocolate lava cake..lol.

c.h.e.f andy

23 Pax Buffet Dinner for My Raffles Institution (RI) Friends on 26Nov2012

Posted on March 23, 2013 by chefquak

I tried out a few Asian dishes such as nonya curry chicken, braised duck and kakuni (a Japanese braised belly pork) and decided to attempt a buffet dinner. 23 of my old classmates and schoolmates from RI (Raffles Institution) gallantly responded, and we had a most fun evening ferreting lost memories of youth(ful) years (or was it memories of lost youth), special thanks to PH for her largely uncorroborated recollections. 🙂

The buffet layout includes the following –

very nice Thai seafood tanhoon appetizer prepared by auntie Bes.
tagliata di manzo (Italian sliced beef) using chuck tender as mock fillet mignon with rockets and cherry tomatoes
teochew braised duck
nonya curry chicken
black bean sauce pork prime ribs prepared by auntie Bes
kakuni – Japanaese braised belly pork

Auntie Bes famous Thai seafood tanhoon cold dish

auntie Bes famous Thai seafood tanhoon appertiser

tagliata di manzo with rockets and cherry tomatoes

teochew braised duck

nonya curry chicken made from herbs w/o curry powder

Auntie Bes famous black bean sauce prime ribs

auntie Bes famous black bean sauce pork prime ribs

kakauni – Japanese slow-braised belly pork in mirin, sugar & soy sauce

We also had spicy tao jeon (fermented bean sauce) seabass and poached HK kailan with shitake mushrooms prepared by auntie Bes.

Another highlight of the evening was undoubtedly the Cordon Bleu (“call them blur”) “atas” cake PH brought. It was a truly wonderful cake.

Choon Hung, Chong Lee & gang were well-trained in serving the chocolate lava cakes. The newbies Tet Soon & Cheow Ghee looked suitably enthralled.

PH was the undisputed cake taster since she has such classy association of the Cordon Bleu variety.

c.h.e.f andy

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Category Archives: Homegourmet & Gatherings

10pax Homegourmet 9-course Dinner on 1Jul2013

11pax Homegourmet Dinner on 11Jun2013

“Michelin Star” Homegourmet Peranakan Feast @ Friend’s Place on 7Jun2013

Homegourmet 6-course Dinner for belated Mother’s Day on 1June2013

RI Celebration of 55 Yrs of Our Lives Dinner on 5May2013

Homegourmet 8-Course Lunch @ 14Mar2013

“Best Of” Dinner on 28Jan2013

Capri Challenge Dinner on 20Dec2012

23 Pax Buffet Dinner for My Raffles Institution (RI) Friends on 26Nov2012

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