fish head curry was very good

made a simple homecooked 12pax dinner for friends today on 9.5.2016. ^^

a good friend was briefing us on a silk road adventure tour she planned for sep this year.

mouthwatering it was! ^^

it was simple as curry dishes are easy to do & by now i am quite organised for these dinners.

the heavy cooking was only 3 full hours.

so i in fact went to the gym in the morning & a good friend bought a good teochew muay buffet lunch afterwards.

of course that excludes deboning the chicken, making stock, making the paste for nonya curry chicken & making tiramisu, all done the day before. 🙂

great wines brought by 2 friends

2 friends brought 2 nice reds.

we had the yellow label, the michel torino for another occasion.

for this evening’s dinner, i made 7 dishes-

#1 fish head curry
#2 nonya chicken curry
#3 teriyaki sutchi fillet
#4 kou rou (w/o mei cai) + white kong bak (both experimental)
#5 chap chai
#6 fried hokkien noodles
#7 tiramisu

& a friend brought excellent cheng chow dessert

nonya curry chicken

the fish head curry, like the last 2 times, was excellent. everyone loved it.

my nonya curry chicken was very good too.

nonya curry chicken 

very lemak, flavourful & a key difference with curry chicken outside, my chicken was very tender not overcooked.

kou rou扣肉 preparation w/o the mei cai 梅菜 (experimental)

the kou rou扣肉 preparation w/o the mei cai 梅菜 was experimental. result was excellent. several friends picked this as the best, their favourite. 🙂

i used my mei cai kou rou recipe basically.

this time i used shao xing wine & sea salt & sugar to marinate, put in 90degC oven for 4 hours, browned on non-stick pan, added dark sauce to coat & some sugar, then steam oven for 1hr 15mins.

white kong bak 白腩肉 (experimental)

white kong bak 白腩肉 also experimental.

this after having the teochew white belly pork at bedok north food centre.

this was excellent too. a similar number of friends picked this as their favourite.

today’s teriyaki sutchi not so good

the teriyaki sutchi fillet was not so good today.

i did teriyaki sutchi fillet for teban gardens community meal & bathesda bedok community meal recently. of you look at the photos, the difference is quite evident.

i think it was because i wrap it in aluminium foil in oven for 2 ovens & the fillet sweat.

chap chai was good sweet & tasty

chap chai was very good. cabbage sweetness + taupok yellow bean sweetness + chicken stock sweetness & reduced.

tanhoon gave some additional texture.

fried hokkien noodles tasty but soaked up the gravy & a bit mushy

this the second time i made fried hokkien noodles.

but amount was doubled that of the first time so quite different.

another big difference was that the first time i served & ate right away, this time it was in a 50dgegC ove to keep warm for 2 hours wrapped in aluminium foil. it was tasty still but noodle soaked up the gravy & became a bit mushy.

excellent cheng chow mango, longans & aloe vera

a friend brought excellent cheng chow dessert.

excellent cheng chow mango, longans & aloe vera

it was very nice, with canned longans, freshly prepared aloe vera, lime juice & cut mango with some tanginess.

my usual tiramisu -irresistable for one friend

my usual tiramisu, simply irresistable to one friend, he mopped up all. ^^

korean strawberries quite sweet

korean strawberry was sweet for me, not sweet enuf for some friends.

grapes very sweet

a friend brought the grapes, very sweet! 🙂

had a great time with friends. & we had an excellent briefing too on silk road trip which one friend is organising. such a thrilling adventure from the slides presentation! 🙂

c.h.e.f andy