The man was simply in a mood to try out recipes, so he made the friends come over to try the food. Since it wasn't going to be a proper dinner party thingy, I took the liberty to go out gallivanting the whole day with the girlfriend, then dragged her home to be part of the critics too.
When I got home, all that was required was to set the table. The dinner menu was impressive for a meal that was supposed to be casual and easy. It was, to me, a herculean effort. It was a kinda East-West dinner. The man made the starter, 2 mains, greens and dessert.
The spaghetti with fresh tomato sauce and garlic basil oil was pretty good. Plum tomatoes rock. The pasta was not quite Scarpetta's, but lovely enough. Of course the latter has a special sort of homemade spaghetti that makes it taste unique and not easy to replicate. There was no way we could get the fresh sort of ingredients from our markets in Singapore. This homemade version we had was quite alright.
Now, the stewed beef brisket. He trawled the net, collected a couple of recipes and somehow meshed them together into his own. Together with daikon, tendons and all, the pot simmered for 3 hours yesterday and 2 hours today. Rice and crunchy baby bok choi accompanied the dish. The friends were well versed in matters of Chinese food and stew, and said the stew was flavorful, tender and appetizing. Hmmm. It disappeared really fast. I don't mind it, but my word doesn't count because I'm no expert on beef brisket. I only know that as a stew, it's rather tasty, much better than any I've had at the restaurants.
What's mind-boggling is the man's determination to do dessert. He doesn't do desserts!!! Wonder why he suddenly wanted to try. He must be mad. Still, he chose an easy start. Pre-made pie crust is the way to go. He made a chocolate swirl cheesecake chocolate swirl cheesecake. He was very clever to use dark chocolate to finish the cake. It was a tad sweet, but edible. That dark chocolate is awesome.
Soothing and mellow Italian reds accompanied the evening. I'm beginning to be rather fond of Italian reds now. They've turned out fairly trustworthy this festive season. Still, I'm a complete noob about any sort of wine.
15 comments:
What an awesome meal. Maybe when I'm feeling adventurous I'll try cooking beef brisket. I think Wong Kei is great btw! :P
beanbean: am very sure you can do a good beef brisket/stew thingy! i know! some of the friends love Wong Kei and Bayswater Four Seasons Roast Duck. i've been to both only twice a long time ago and don't want to go again. it's prob the food that i'm not hot about. :)
any home cooked dinner is a herculean effort lah. bravo, the man is trying desserts :)
I'm impressed - and I'll send him a recipe for the crust. Actually I'm pretty sure it's in the Cooking Bible.
sinlady: always. not forgetting the cleaning up!
dawn: WAH. i'm really not sure if he has a 'feel' for desserts. heheh.
family and friends who eat together, stays together. or something like that. such love. i feel it even from here. there IS more to living than work. but i have loans to pay off, so ya, it's more work for now unfortunately.
Aww.. the chocolate swirl cheesecake appeared tantalizing and unique!
tuti: only if our taste for food is kinda similar! otherwise, very difficult to sit down and eat!
celcilia: it looks quite arty that way. heh.
Oh my goodness! The beef brisket looks absolutely gorgeous!! It looks like the melt-in-the-mouth kind alright. And don't say I can do it too.. I haven't tried anything like that in the kitchen ok. Kudos to the man for his perseverance and being a total genius in the kitchen!! Tell him I say that. Make him grin from ear to ear. hehehehe..
"but edible". poor man :p
i'm surprised that good beef brisket is hard to find in sgp?! most noodle soup eateries in hk do a rather decent job. you need to use the right cut of meat (and tendons is a MUST in my book) and invest enough time. the beef i can find here is often not fat enough. sigh.
jomel: he read it and he's swooning. Heh. Thanks babe!
kikare: apparently we don't have chu hou paste here either, not in any of the supermarkets, unless we request to bring it in. and that is a key ingredient to stewing beef brisket. generally, the restaurants use poor quality beef, so it isn't a popular or widely available dish.
would THE MAN be interested in making beef brisket stewed in clear soup 清湯牛腩? As a kid i loved brisket with chu hou sauce, but as i grow older i learnt to appreciate the clear soup version, though basically i just love any beef brisket!
kikare: clear soup version?! that takes another level of skill!!! he just read your question and gulped. he has no idea of where to start even. hahaha. if he gets there, i'll tell you!
i believe it's not more difficult. it's more or less like making Pho lah - just some other spices maybe. i can't cook it here so i want someone else to make it loh.
kikare: DOH. I find you the spices!
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