Cooking #3

I invited jiale and yiyang over for lunch yesterday. Yiyang treated us to Pizza Hut a couple months back, before King left for HK. Jiale treated us to 'Tian Le Li' at West Mall last week. I haven't given them any treat, and I'd label myself a freeloader if I didn't return a treat. Considering the 2 meals we had cost at least $40 each, I could not possibly justify a treat by bringing them to some hawker centre or kopitiam. Yes you may argue the treat should not be measured by how expensive it is, but personally, I felt I must repay their generosity with a presentable meal at the very least.

Given that I can now cook some dishes, and the food outside actually cost so much when I could get them cheaper, I decided to whip up a lunch myself. This has been, by far, the largest 'project' I have embarked on. A 5 course meal, served at once for the 3 of us. Call it extravagance, but I felt that these 2 good pals deserve this treat. (ok all other friends out there you deserve my treat too, but I thought of giving them a taste of my cooking first =P)

On the menu was:
1. Chilli Crabs
2. Curry Fish Head
3. Braised pork belly and duck drumstick platter
4. Hotplate Toufu
5. Vegetable of the day

Sounds impressive right? But the trouble was actually preparing all these 5 dishes in quick succession and serving it over lunch. I started preparing at 12, but lunch was only served at 330, but well nobody minded.

I woke up at 0830 in the morning to shop for crabs, took the bus to my mum's stall, only to be pleasantly surprised that she had already bought 6 crabs (each of about 1/2kg) for the treat. Since its a special discounts from the fishmonger my mum patrons for her daily business needs, these 6 fellas cost only $20. What a bargain eh.



These crabs were alive and kicking, very much so that one of them even escaped! It suffered the same fate, though a much delayed one. (to be elaborated)

Next up was preparing the curry fish head. I mentioned in the earlier post, which I cooked curry fish head too, that one of the best fish heads to be used should be the red gouper..



.. and this was the fish I was referring to. What a blue-spotted red beauty isn't it? Makes excellent fish head beehoon too! From the same fishmonger that brought us the crabs, this fish was another of his prized catch which didn't come too expensive. This is one side of the fish head, and the whole deal was close to $20.

Having settled shopping for the raw ingredients, I helped out at my mum's stall till 12, before picking Jiale and Yiyang up. Reaching home, I started preparing the dishes. The 3rd dish, braised pork belly and duck (or more lovingly referred as lor bah/ah), is an extremely tedious chore to prepare, having to cook the meats in 2 rounds.



As seen here, the meats have to be cooked in a specially prepared dark sauce mixture (which is something I haven't completely grasp) for about an hour, till its flavoured (not fully) and soft. Afterwhich, there is to be a second round of cooking, where you'd have to coat the meat in the same dark sauce that should be simmered to a thick gravy.

Meanwhile, I also had to deep fry the vegetables to be used in the curry.



as well as the toufu used for the hotplate.

What happened after these series of pictures was a scene of chaos. Working between 3 stoves, its really very difficult to get all 5 dishes to finish at the same time.

I finished cooking the dishes in the following order. Chilli crabs => Vegetable of the day (Some kind of gourd stir-fried with egg served in minipot, the vegetable's one of my favourite) => Curry Fishhead => Hotplate Toufu => Braised meat platter... and it looked like this.

Ok, the toufu wasn't exactly bubbling at 100 degrees as I wanted it to be, the chilli crabs wasn't as hot and spicy as I wanted it be to, the vegetable wasn't as nicely cooked as I wanted it to be, and the fish head looked grumpy. Hahaha. But at least I did something I had wanted to, and I can take to heart that it didn't turn out too bad! Everything was finished and we did have quite an enjoyable time.

Too bad King couldn't join us, and I'm sure he'll be so jealous that he couldn't be enjoying my treat! Hahahahaha. Perhaps I prepare something similar when he comes back for holiday, if he does anytime soon that is. =P

As for the crab that escaped the dining table during the lunch, it was finally found taking cover in the drain, hours after it reached my place. My maid made short work in getting it chopped up, ready for a chilli crab supper.

The remains of a crab literally emboiled, in a hot and firey mixture of chilli, garlic and salted bean sauce.

Since the vegetable served during lunch didn't go as well as I wanted it to be, I decided to try using the mini-pot again. Since young, I've always liked my dishes served in grand fashion. The flames coming out from a pot, and your dish bubbling away never failed to impress me.

The mini-pot and a steel bowl to contain whatever food you want to cook it in.

The solid fuel (or wax) which burns on contact with fire.

The flame! It can last quite long with 2 scoops of the wax. Around 8 minutes.

And finally, pictures of the mini-pot in action! Boiling chilli crabs!

My camera went misty from the smoke of the crabs in this last picture.

Very fun indeed! Presenting dishes in pottery like this makes the dish more appealing in more ways than one, and I'd say its just as cool as using a hotplate or claypot, which I've already have at home.

Having said that, I'll buy a tray that works the same way as the minpot, the kind you find in restaurants they use to serve steamed fish. I'll come out with my own steamed promphet/gouper, Hongkong style!

Watch this space!