Small home party

Event: Gathering to watch Pakistan/Concordia photos (by JK)

This is just a note to self on what I'd cooked, but sadly, being so busy with all the cooking, preparation before the party and during the party (was still asked to warm up and cut food that some had brought), I'd totally forgot to take any photos of the food...not even one single photo. :(

The gathering was ad hoc and happened on Sunday (5 Aug) due to JK's schedule. About 10 adults and 4 toddlers came by which was a good chance for the cats to socialise. I hadn't invited the whole chain gang coz there is no way our small flat could fit them in comfortably. As usual, the cat sisters were shy and ran to hide. However, Snowy seemed to warm up to the guests later, letting the cat-friendly ones pat and stroke her. She didn't even flinch when the kid Daryl mischieviously tugged at her whiskers...what a sweetie gal. :)

Anyway, the food I'd prepared was:

Chicken stew - my first attempt at cooking this recipe from the net, cooked for about 10 - 11 pax, was very well-received, and the first dish to finish; even the kiddies Daryl and Timothy were eating it (according to their mom who asked me for the recipe). The only things I'd changed from the recipe was to add diced potatoes and using dried thyme (instead of fresh ones), and using corn starch instead of making roux (which soundedtoo leh chay). Also to note - to remove the skin from the chicken thighs before seasoning and to skim the oil before stirring in the corn starch mixture.

(Afternote: The kids' mom tried the same recipe using roux but it turned out lumpy, and the gravy could not thicken properly).

Fried bee hoon - usually quite the idiot-proof dish, as long as don't oversoak the chilli brand bee hoon, and if lots of garlic and onions are added in the hot oil beforehand. The usual ingredients were mushroom, fried egg strips, cabbage, but this time, I'd added fried crispy tau kee which turned out to be the icing on the cake (so to speak). Marvin loved the tau kee and loved the bee hoon, even though I hadn't used any meat or seafood for Anthony's sake. As I'd ran out of the usual soup stock cube, I just anyhow hantum the Organic Vegetable Broth powder, which made the bee hoon slightly yellowish. :p Anway, it was a popular dish on its own and goes well with the chicken stew gravy, and was the 2nd dish to finish.

The other snacks:

Some dahl (lentils) curry dish from the chilli and curries recipe book - MUST REMEMBER NOT TO COOK ANY MORE OF THEIR LENTILS DISHES (whether as curry, or as soup)! I think the ang mohs really cannot make it when it comes to dahl curries. I'd cooked it mainly to provide an additional vegetarian side dish, but it didn't taste nice (so what's the point of cooking, really?). Meanwhile, I am still looking for the recipe for the common, watery dahl curries served by the usual bryani or prata stalls - those that actually have hardly any liao or dahl, but yet is so sedap! I guess those must be the south Indian type of recipes.

Ready-made wholemeal chappati - not to popular (taste like soft paper cardboard, actually...haha! )

Almond jelly dessert with canned longans and canned rambutans stuffed with pineapple. The almond jelly came from the ready-pack of Home Gourmet instant jelly - not very nice although edible...don't have the kar zhuarh (cockroach) smell of almond at all.

Other food: Also ordered a couple of extra large pizzas, including a vegie one for non-meat eaters.

Mee Rebus

I cooked mee rebus for lunch today, using Prima Taste's ready-made mee rebus paste.

This is the finished product which some say looked like commercially made/sold mee rebus. *grin*



The pre-packed paste which is sufficient for about 2.5 portions (or 3 small portions).

There are several packs of pre-mixed ingredients in the box, namely, the paste to make the gravy, the powder starch, 3 small packs of lime juice and a pack of sweet soya bean sauce.

Yellow mee not included!



I found the dried shrimps at the market and bought some for 70 cents (cheap!). This is half the lot which I'd toasted in the oven (no need to wash, or else can't get the crunchy texture - lak sup jiak, lak sup tua!).



The gravy bubbling on the stove. The gravy paste came with lots of red chilli oil which I'd managed to remove as much as possible. The cooked product, however, didn't taste spicy hot at all, but was sweet.



The other ingredients are hard-boiled eggs, fried tau gua cubes, chopped Chinese celery, blanched beansprouts and the main ingredient, blanched yellow noodles.



Another shot of the finished product with a better view of the brown yummy gravy.


Verdict: Not bad, can cook it again, although I shall try Hai's brand next time.

Moroccan Vegetable Stew with Minty Couscous

I cooked this dish for dinner tonight, also from the 2nd One Pot cookbook. There is no meat in the dish, and the chief protein comes from chickpeas. The vegetables used are zucchini, butternut pumpkin, carrots and raisins in a base made from canned chopped tomatoes with added spices.

The couscous had chopped mint leaves & butter, seasoned with salt and pepper.



We had some excellent dips left over from last Friday's takeaway snacks which I'd bought from California Pizza Kitchen (Avocado & chicken roll and key lime pie which was a tad disappointing), so I boiled some medium prawns to go with the creamy and fattening dip.

The dips tasted like mayo-based and thousand-island-dressing-based respectively, with an aftertaste of chilli powder or wasbi, but they were really good, and would go very well with fried snacks or seafood platter.


Our TV dinner:


Yum! The vegetable stew was satisfying and best of all, low in fat and thus guilt-free!

:-)

Spanish Chicken & Rice Stew

From the 2nd One Pot cookbook that I own - the recipe calls for arborio rice, the creamy Italian rice, the use of canned chopped tomatoes and too many chicken drumsticks and chicken thighs! Good thing I didn't follow the recipe word by word...as Asians, we don't usually eat so much meat in a meal. Other than that, the dish was easy and simple to prepare.


The unappealing picture shows the leftovers, and I'd deboned the chicken drumstick.

The rice was quite nice, although mine turned out a bit too wet, due to my inexperience with arborio rice (first time cooking it). The rice doesn't take too long to cook, and doesn't need too much water.

Even SO thinks it's nice to eat...which means my sphere of influence on his Asian palette is getting even stronger. May the force be with me. Haha!

(Cook date: Monday, 9 July 2007)