Late Night Supper...

This was a fun gathering considering its been a loooooooong while since most of the group has caught up, everyone was always busy and had their own commitments so it was nice that, Jason, Keong, Selina & I manage to catch up and have a little supper and guess who ended up cooking?

Yes, you guessed it - me! hehe;p Though the menu idea came from Jason, he mentioned he wanted to try a very spicy spaghetti, fish & chips and a dessert, I set my brain to work in coming up with a viable menu for the four of us to try^^

Roughly round 3ish in the afternoon, I told Jason I got the menu planned and managed to coax Keong to join us because he said he was bored on his off day (sometimes I wonder what this friend of mine does when he's busy - bored on you off day? I always find that I don't have enough time during my off days!! Hahaha;p)

We all met up round 9ish and so I set off to start with the first dish; I was initially planning on making some double boiled soup, however we've been experiencing very hot weather, I decided against it and just start of with my own version of Spaghetti Arabiatta - its suppose to be like a spicy tomato sauce for spaghetti. My version is a simple mix of black olives, chilli padi, chopped parsley, garlic, salmon and sun-dried cherry tomatoes(which I made myself^^)

Not too spicy, not too sweet, I think it was just a nice mix, though Jason commented it could have been spicier (you and me both, however Selina & Keong might pass out from the heat hehe;p next time I'll make it to our heat level; now that reminds me where did I hide those poblano peppers, that's a guarantee to give us that necessary kick hahaha;p)

Moving on, I was inspired to create this dish and try it out; and since someone has to be fit while serving his nation, I'm not mentioning who hehe;p; I thought why not make a fish and chip which is less fattening and more tasty. My solution- take some leftover sourdough bread crumbs, dry it out, pulverise it and coat the fish fillets with egg wash, bread it and grill it^^ And I'll throw in a side of deconstructed Tzatziki with Cherry Tomato Confit to give it that refreshing bite for more. The only guilty part of this dish would have to be the home made fries, which I accidentally burnt (sorry guys T-T)

Dessert was a fun part, its a play on the bread and butter pudding I made with the pandan cream mix, I remembered the last time I made it it tasted something like Kaya Toast, which you could find in the Kopitiams here and I decided to name it Kaya Toast, re-imagined^^ it was fun as everyone was kinda unsure of what the dish really was (the three of them must have thought I've gone abit left field hahaha;p)

However I must say it was an interesting dessert (clarified butter as the sauce, are you kidding me?!? hahaha) for me to try and hopefully try to incorporate to my work one day^^

I hoped you guys enjoyed the impromptu supper, it was fun, maybe next time Keong can think of the menu and Selina can cook it hehe;p

I'm Addicted to the Color GREEN!!!

I've never thought I would come to this; and moreover for a fact I always was a skeptic when chefs mention that there will be times when you come across simple ingredients that you fall in love with the ingredient and it become an obsession... I'm admitting my obsession to the wonderful screwpine leaf or for those of you who know its most common name - the pandan leaf^^

I've only become obsessed with this since I recalled Lady Fa once mentioning she made her Sri Muka's with the juices of the pandan leaf and the result is always spectacular and so I decided to give it a try (albiet not making sri muka but just testing her theory) and look what happened!!! I was just telling Ange the other day that I made green pancakes from breakfast, and no, its not the usual commercial mixing batter, I made it with the classic recipe which is basically a simple souffle batter with extra flour^^ Lo and behold!

I kid you not, its green on the inside too^^ and the thing is that with the natural coloring, its sooooo guilt free^^ Ange was saying St. Patrick's day is still long off so what was up, and I did say I was testing a theory hehe;p

Moving on, since I had some of the juices left, I thought I might as well try and incorporate it into a classic English dish - the bread and butter pudding... you can only guess what happened...

See how addicted I am to this pandan leaf, its kinda my new nicotine kick hahaha;p Now I'm thinking of reinventing the very well known Thai dish - Pandan chicken, what can I say but "Green much?" hahaha;p

Back from my short Sabbatical

Refreshed from my short 3day vacation, and surprisingly that the weekend has been quite slow, I got plenty of energy to spare that I ended up creating not one but two dishes at work today^^

The first dish is kinda like a reminiscent of when I could really eat beef (I don't consume beef anymore for those of you who should know if ever I do have to have dinner at your plcae^^, well its more due to religous reasons, though people have argued that I should be able to close one eye and be fine with it since I work in this field, I would just tell you that its just not me^^).

Moving on, I was butchering my Ribeye slab and I found that I had some trimmings (my cooks don't like it when I'm on Butcher station since I always save most of the scraps and have next to no wastage when I'm portioning the meat hehe;p) I decided to make some kebabs for my cooks since they were kinda down that I had not given them much for wastage( oh, how my bosses would love me now hahaha)^^

Its an irony when I look at it that I don't consume beef anymore, I somehow have gotten better at cooking it just by looking at its texture and smell; I know some of you might disagree but I know I'm good:) If I had the photos of the doneness(didn't get the chance for a photo op, cooks completely devoured it) inside the kebab you'll know I'm right^^

Then came the afternoon, I was feeling peckish for something sweet... and I ended up making....

My no recipe "REAL PANDAN" Souffle^^ Well its called no recipe(in case you guys are wondering) because I completely forgotten my ratios (and I just remembered a tip from lady Fa about natural food colorings) for the recipe that I decided to just whack it and hope for the best. And I can say it turned out really well, and I managed to have some leftover batter which made fluffly pancakes:) I've got some leftover pandan juice in the chiller and I'm gonna whip up more of the batter for pancakes tomorrow hehe;p

Talk about ouch!!

This is what happens when my thumb wanted to say hi to the pavement, enough said hahaha;p

Just an update, its still recovering though I think it likes the pain and it was very amusing thta I didn't realise it was bleeding till later on hahaha;p

Green Eggs Anyone?

This dish was done a looooong while back and I'll say it been like a couple of months now, just that I've only gotten the free time of posting this on my blog hehe;p

I was working breakfast shift one day and I thought lets play around and see what I came up with? and I remember hearing and watching people make green eggs before and no, its not rotten eggs people hahaha;p

The eggs didn't turn out as green as I liked beacuse we only had frozen spinach in the kitchen hehe;p I wish I had some fresh spinach and some fresh herbs to kinda bring some "oomph" to the dish.

All in all, I was quite happy with this dish, though you can count on the fact that I'll be finding ways to improve it though^^

New Year, New Resolution - Not!!

Boy, time sure does fly when you're not really looking at the clock and your churning out orders day in and day out; and poof what do you know, its 2010 already hahaha;p

Yes I know I'm kinda way fa behind on the New Years greetings and all, but those that know me know very well how much I'm not in tune with the festivities anyway because of the work haha;p

Well I got some free time the other day and I thought I might as well get some shopping done and I've been eyeing this beautiful procelain knife since the first time I laid eyes on it - pricey little thing it is and everyone thinks I've gone off my knockers when I went to get it, however to me its once of the best things I've ever bought for myeslf^^

Pretty aint it? And it only cost me just over $200 hehe;p

Now, I'm looking at this other knife from Wushtof which has been made with Japanese input, and this one is roughly $350ish^^

Well you guys be the judge bout what I spend on, I find it funny sometimes that I don't spend on clothes and gadgets, instead I only spend more on cook books, knives, good food and wines^^