As you may have already been well aware of this, Augustdiners are not particularly a good cook, not exactly the best wife of the year candidate here, but once in a blue moon, we will feel inspiration pouring in and decide to cook for the family. So on the 3rd February after spending long hours watching Junior Masterchef Australia (they are blardy amazing), we felt totally inspired, and start working out a list of what to make for the family. Turns out there will be some guest joining us for dinner, and so the pressure is on to cook an (EATABLE) meal that serves 15pax.
I ordered most of my main ingredients like chicken, seabass, tenderloin etc through my restaurant, and for the rest of the ingredients we merrily went to BSC for some grocery shopping. I LOVE GROCERY SHOPPING IN BSC! As we happily topping away food onto the trolley feeling extremely generous with ourselves in conjunction to the Chinese New Year celebratory mood, everything on the shelves seems to be “necessary” to make this dinner. After a good hour of intense muscle flexing from shelve to trolley, shelve to trolley, we felt so accomplished!!!
The only problem of this joyful exercise is probably the cost. I shall not disclose the exact amount but it’s definitely a four hard earn figure. I dare not think of the RM130 bucks saffron sitting on top of my kitchen counter right now, especially since my attempt of making seafood paella was a failure.com
So as the clock is ticking away, and a good 6 hours ahead of us for preparation, not a single minute was wasted. Chopped the vegetables we did, clean the gooey (and May I add disgusting) chicken butt I did. We roast, we cook, we broil, we grill, in the end of it all, we were ready to throw in our white towels and call it a night.
The menu is a feat on its own, Crazieapple and I repeatedly had a heated argument on what we would be serving to our guest. She was to be in charge on appetizers and desserts while I can focus on my main course. But being a control freak who likes to take control of situation and make sure everything is perfect (yep I’m a true virgo) I crossed off every single thing she propose or had in mind until a point where she refuses to tell me what she’s making. So there you go, we have two chefs here who refuse to communicate and collaborate.
So how will this night turns out, you wonder?
THE PREPARATIONS
DINNER AT THE NG’S
Appetizer: Triple play soup (which crazieapple names it in some Chinese prosperity bull-ah, something which I care not to translate) a combination of peas and asparagus, roasted tomato and capsicum, and cauliflower soup with cheese grissini. This was the one dish that i strongly disagreed to as it takes up way too much effort.. But im glad that Crazieapple insisted to stick to her plan cause these were absolutely divine!! Each of the soup brings up distinctive flavor altogether..Crowd favourite was definitely the roasted capsicum and tomatoes.
Appetizer: Baby Back Ribs with Whiskey Sauce Décor with sauté asparagus wrapped in prosciutto
Main: Jamie Oliver’s perfect roast chicken (HELLO, MR. HUCK if you are reading this, mine was way better!)
I joke of course. I roasted two but only manage to serve one as my guests were all stuffed by now…
To be fair to myself (also as a comfort for my expenditure of the RM130 saffron that I no longer need) the paella DOES taste like paella. Only mine was a soggier version, and I think I was a wee bit greedy with the saffron and put three handfuls of it when the recipe only require one.
Main: Tray Baked Lemon Seabass (perfect lemony flavor and the right doneness with a nice flaky texture)
The Grilled Rosemary Australia Chilled Tenderloin didn’t manage to make it to the table as the guest called TIMEOUT. Oops, so we did overdo our portioning a little.
