AFMFL #4: Additional pictures by Cameron Wolf

These are some AMAZING shots one of the guests, Cameron Wolf, took at my 4th dinner.  Thanks Cameron, and enjoy the eye candy everyone!  Click on the title of this post and it will take you to the full facebook album where he posted them.

Chinese New Year vs. Valentine's Day: AFMFL #4 Dinner Report

A rare alignment of the calendar resulted in such that the first day of the Chinese New Year and Valentine's fell on the same day.  What's a chef to do?  Feature both!  The most opulent dinner yet in the project, the meal itself consisted of all Chinese themed dishes while the dessert was all Valentine's.  I really wanted to work the theme on this one more than I had in the past and I broke out a new table cloth, multiple gift boxes for the guests, decorative place settings and even decorated the room.

Three couples were invited so with X and I that made four altogether.  Craig & Joe, Anasuya & Newley, and Cameron & Dale.  The meal itself consisted of the following:

Kung Pao Shrimp with Cashew Nuts

Hot & Sour Soup

Chinese Barbecued Sprareribs

Stir-fried Bok Choi

I have to say, my personal favorite was the Kung Pao Shrimp.  DAMN it was good, and I wish I had some more to eat right now.  Really and truly tasted "Chinese" and was a flavor explosion.  Everyone else seemed to like the spareribs, which were GONE in a very short while.  The soup I wasn't as happy with.  I'm sorry folks, I just don't like bamboo.  I try to like it.  I try to give it a chance.  It still tastes like rubber tubing dipped in chemicals if you ask me.  And it made the soup have a tinge of that flavor, so--in my humble opinion--not a winner.  Other guests liked it but whatever.  

Everyone got their own gift box, which included an assortment of goodies to get the new year going.  Inside were various gold wrapped chocolate ingots and coins, a small mandarin orange (for longevity), a small golden stuffed tiger (for the year of the Tiger), and most importantly a lucky money envelope.  Everyone had a different coin from around the world and it corresponded with an individual "fortune" that were read out when they identified the coins they got.  

 

Onwards to dessert, which swept away the Chinese theme into sweet sweet lovin'.  The main event:  Strawberry Shortbread with real whipped cream.  I must admit I digressed here and used Nigella Lawson's "How to Be A Domestic Goddess" cookbook here, and it was worth every bit.  Shortbread is really easy to make folks.  I wasn't even sure if I was going to be able to pull this off as dinner was already a bit late and I wanted to get things started, but it came off without a hitch, and was SOOOOOOOO good.

Everyone then got a second gift bag full of Valentine's treats including more chocolates, candies, marzipans in the shapes of hearts.  The grand slam event in the gift boxes was definitely the passion fruit ganache white chocolate kisses procured from our very own Miss Wonka (Davina) who thankfully runs a Belgian Chocolate factory here in Bangkok.  Gluttonous does not begin to describe it.

I even busted out some wall stickers I found in Chinatown the day before to put people in the festive mood.  They're still up, I just love them.  And for less than 50 cents a set, what a bargain!  Good times, good times.  Thanks to everyone who made it such a wonderful evening, and thanks to all my helpers for the night:  my amazing partner X, Joe for his helping with prep and some of the cooking, and Craig for keeping everyone drunk with his signature pitcher of Valentine's cocktails.  The best dinner to date if you ask me!  Oh, and Cameron took some AMAZING shots of this dinner with his new camera, but I haven't got copies yet.  I shall indeed share once I get my little hands on them.

Fresh Out of the Oven

Hey, P.S. if you just read this post because you thought it would be about some new single J-Lo dropped, sorry and hated it for ya. Cuz I'm a talking about my oven, and the goodness coming out of it. Let's be honest folks. How many of you there are getting ready in the morning for work and out of the corner of your eye you catch sight of a bunch of bananas that are beginning to turn black and think to yourself, "Dang, you know I oughtta be eating those before they go bad, or else I'll have to make some banana nut bread." If you were raised in the south, anyway, you prolly have similar thought patterns. TO throw them out would be sacrilege since that's when they are best for making into that most comforting of comfort foods.

So I know this isn't a dinner entry. But now that I've actually GOT the book that the project is based on in hand (god bless UPS), I might as well whip it out and start a-cookin' from it hello. So this weekend I've got the dueling holidays of Valentine's Day and the first day of Chinese New Year (both on the 14th). I'm in the preliminary phases on planning some sort of hybrid fusion night with maybe a chinese themed lovers meal. But I needed something to give to the lucky couples. So I thought I'd make some banana nut bread and try out Mr. Claiborne's recipe. And a double batch at that. I took myself to the UFM Bakery shop today on Sukhumvit Soi 33/1 and bought a bunch of small loaf pans and some walnuts so I could get cracking once home from that somewhat oppressive place otherwise known as the office.

I needed two cups of bananas crushed. Yes, it tells you to use a fork. But you know I had had a few glasses of red wine and needed something more visceral. How much fun would it be to put all those bananas through the food chopper attachment on my kitchenaid. Yes, and overkill I might admit. But please tell me that you can't see the satisfaction in getting to use something that throws us back to the play-dough set days with it squirting out in worm like shapes. And yes, it was everything I was hoping for. I highly recommend this most therapeutic of culinary joys.

But--and I'll say this loud and proud--I just gotta change up the recipes sometime. I mean, come on, Craig, what were you thinking girl? To omit spices or vanilla of any kind? Duh. My mama wouldn't be having any of that. So nutmeg, cinnamon, a dash of allspice and a splash of vanilla were added. And the better for it, yes siree Bob. :)

Oh, and I squirted a generous heaping of red food coloring in the batter to make it as pink/red as possble. Lukcy for me the color red and be equally used in Valentine's or Chinese New Year.

Yona's Feast: AFMFL #3 Dinner Report

The close of a weekend and another night in laughter and food with friends.  My dear friend Yona had arrived in Bangkok the night before from East Timor, the small island that she calls home now with her fiance Sadar.  She had to be included in a feast but I knew she would be pretty full on this week with work and meetings so wanted to squeeze her in early to ensure she could come.  And what a feast it was:

Scallops and Shrimp on Skewers

Mushroom Rice with Tumeric

Zucchini and Tomatoes Gujarati Style

White Sea Bass a la Moutarde (in place of Flounder which I couldn't find)

This meal was a lot simpler than ones past and it came off pretty much without a hitch with the rice and zucchini dishes being made before Yona even arrived.  Much better planning this time.

The zucchini dish was a highly aromatic Indian spiced wonder, filling the kitchen with the smell of the western sub-continent.  Really quite easy after all the spices were mixed and didn't take long to make either, less than 20 minutes.

 

The yellow tumeric rice started out being browned raw in the pan with butter and mushrooms and then with broth brought to boil on the stove and then finally transferred lid and all into the oven to bake for exactly 17 minutes.  Well, that is until we took it out and X realized that the rice was still a bit hard.  So we improvised and poured some more broth in and continued to cook for low heat on the stove again, which solved the problem.

 

The skewered scallops and shrimps were one of my favorites, with the bread crumbs, partially browned and partially turned into a mush with the oil, garlic and butter.  Love this and also quite easy after you prepare the seafood and de-vein the shrimp, etc.  Cooked it for a shorter amount of time than recommended and watched it for burning, which it seemed to be easy to do as it called for high heat and very close to the element.

 

I think the fish won hands down with the diners, who included not only Yona, but also our perennial peanut gallery diner Craig (3 for 3 hello) and also X, who was able to dine in peace due to the early nature of the event and then go to work later.  Really good tender fish, not overwhelmed by the Dijon, mayonnaise, and chopped parsley smear that was on top of it.  I substituted white sea bass for the flounder, which I simply couldn't find in my supermarket.  No one complained one little bit.

 

Dessert was supplied by Yona in the form of (and my Thai friends please help correct me on this if I'm wrong) "look joop" which are miniature little "fruits" made of bean paste and sugar and then coated with what could only be described as a kind of gel or very strange rubbery liquid that hardens into an artistic rendering of whatever fruit or vegetable they are trying to present.  I particularly like the ear of corn with each kernel visible but I had eaten this one already before thinking to take a picture.

  

 Dinner was followed by a cheese course that featured Greek Feta, Italian Taleggio, and French Comte.   Again, other than barely nibbling the diners declined due to fullness.  I'm finding this is a recurring theme.  Nonetheless I enjoyed the course immensely and was pleased to find that both were recommended in my Cheese Primer book as fabulous with "big reds".  I think the Shiraz Grenache I was chuggin' fit the bill for "big red" and it was a gluttonous finish to yet another night of food orgies...  

Tastes of Singapore

I was able to spend a brief 48 hours in Singapore a few days ago.  Wanted to use it as inspiration for lots of kinds of food as it's such a crossroads of cuisine with the Chinese, Indian and Malay influence converging.  Got a couple of shot that are vaguely food related and to some extent revolve around the markets of Chinatown that have sprung up to serve the legions of pre-New Year's shoppers.

 

This had to get posted.  Yes, Pizza Hut in Singapore delivers you the CHERRY BLOSSOM PIZZA, just in time to ring in the New Year!

 

Not sure what they were selling at this bakery, but clearly it was a winner with a line that snaked 200 feet down the sidewalk.

 

The corner of Temple Street and New Bridge Road in the heart of Singapore's Chinatown.

 

 I love getting lost in the alleyways of Chinatown with its old colonial shophouses painted in bright colors with the huge skyscrapers of 100 years later hovering over them in the distance.

 

 Lots of dried pork product was on sale.  I'm talkin' LOTS, folks.  :)

 

Some random lunch I had at the open air second floor of something called the Chinatown center.  Was from a Chinese vegetarian booth so I knew I could eat anything.  Not really sure what I got, but it tasted great.  Washed it down with a cold Tiger beer.

 

On a final note, who doesn't like Live Bull Frog Porridge?