Pops turned 66 today and instead of going out to eat, I offered to cook a whole Thai meal for the 9 of us present - been itching to make tom yam soup since I bought a bottle of fish sauce last week, plus I had all these Thai pastes that I wanted to use up before they expired.
Considering I've never made anything Thai before or more than 2-3 dishes at any one go, the menu was a tad ambitious. Seafood tom yam, tom kha gai, pomelo salad, green curry with chicken, chilli crab, baby kailan with oyster sauce and pineapple fried rice. I dropped the fried rice when everyone said they would prefer normal steamed rice.
Whilst I would have liked to make everything from scratch, I decided not to kill myself on this first attempt. The chilli crab sauce was courtesy of Prima and the tom kha gai was from a packaged spice mix, just needed to add chicken, water and mushrooms. Plus I relied on canned chicken stock for the tom yam.
Considering I've never made anything Thai before or more than 2-3 dishes at any one go, the menu was a tad ambitious. Seafood tom yam, tom kha gai, pomelo salad, green curry with chicken, chilli crab, baby kailan with oyster sauce and pineapple fried rice. I dropped the fried rice when everyone said they would prefer normal steamed rice.
Whilst I would have liked to make everything from scratch, I decided not to kill myself on this first attempt. The chilli crab sauce was courtesy of Prima and the tom kha gai was from a packaged spice mix, just needed to add chicken, water and mushrooms. Plus I relied on canned chicken stock for the tom yam.
The day started early as I had to squeeze in a trip to the market before badminton. I was resigned to just playing with Kevin since Nick had an event to attend but Swana skipped her kickboxing class to join us and they managed to persuade Ajen, Vim, Kavi, Siva and Kumar to come all the way from the east.
It was so fun, we played doubles throughout the 2 hours before throwing all that exercise down the drain by binging at the railway station. I had a baseball soto (a giant begedel with soup) AND a lontong!
The dinner preparation started as soon as I got back. Me and Arlyn cut, washed and sorted all the raw ingredients first and then I started the cooking in the early evening. One of the reasons why I'm cooking more now is because I don't have to wash up!
Anyway I had printed some recipes from the internet but improvised along the way. Made the tom yam soup first, I didn't add a lot of chilli padi but I think the chilli paste I used was already quite potent. Everyone was sweating during dinner, but the feedback was generally positive. Kevin had 2 whole bowls!
The green curry I was a little disappointed with, it turned out too thick because I unintentionally used coconut cream instead of milk. Even after adding extra paste and diluting the mixture, the taste of the spices was muted by the coconut. But still I went the whole hog, skipping lunch yesterday to hunt down baby brinjals in Tekka, both the egg-sized ones plus the pea-sized ones as well as basil for garnishing.
The dinner preparation started as soon as I got back. Me and Arlyn cut, washed and sorted all the raw ingredients first and then I started the cooking in the early evening. One of the reasons why I'm cooking more now is because I don't have to wash up!
Anyway I had printed some recipes from the internet but improvised along the way. Made the tom yam soup first, I didn't add a lot of chilli padi but I think the chilli paste I used was already quite potent. Everyone was sweating during dinner, but the feedback was generally positive. Kevin had 2 whole bowls!
The green curry I was a little disappointed with, it turned out too thick because I unintentionally used coconut cream instead of milk. Even after adding extra paste and diluting the mixture, the taste of the spices was muted by the coconut. But still I went the whole hog, skipping lunch yesterday to hunt down baby brinjals in Tekka, both the egg-sized ones plus the pea-sized ones as well as basil for garnishing.
I should have made the tom kha gai from scratch, didn't like the instant one...not as nice as the version at Thai Express. Will have to try this again another day.
The chilli crabs were a chore, luckily I didn't have to kill or chop them with Arlyn around. Everything was nicely cleaned up for me, all I had to do was dump them in the pan and follow the instructions on the Prima box, aided by Swana. There were so many steps but I must say the crabs turned out pretty well. Comparable to those cze char stalls!
The chilli crabs were a chore, luckily I didn't have to kill or chop them with Arlyn around. Everything was nicely cleaned up for me, all I had to do was dump them in the pan and follow the instructions on the Prima box, aided by Swana. There were so many steps but I must say the crabs turned out pretty well. Comparable to those cze char stalls!
I was most pleased with the pomelo salad and everyone loved it. The fruit itself that I bought from the market this morning was very sweet and when combined with shallots, coriander, chilli, nuts, beans, tomatoes etc was just a burst of flavour in each mouthful.
Mummy asked Kevin to rate the overall standard and he gave it 7/10, which I gladly accept. Not bad for a first attempt! Important thing was for Pops to enjoy the meal, which he did.
Sham and her mum came over after dinner and then we all sang Pops a birthday song as he cut the cake Swana bought from Sweet Secrets.
Sham and her mum came over after dinner and then we all sang Pops a birthday song as he cut the cake Swana bought from Sweet Secrets.
Went to Timbre last night with the SingTel folks, there was me, Jeannie, Juliana, Hong Wei, Desmond and another guy named Lucas whom I was meeting for the first time. We managed to catch up a bit, it's always so hard to get everyone together though some of us do meet for lunch since we all now work in the same area.
Michael dropped out at the last minute but called to check who could come for his wedding. He's getting hitched on his birthday, yay for him! And yay for me since I get to wear new DD clothes that have been sitting in the closet waiting for the perfect occasion!
Michael dropped out at the last minute but called to check who could come for his wedding. He's getting hitched on his birthday, yay for him! And yay for me since I get to wear new DD clothes that have been sitting in the closet waiting for the perfect occasion!
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