What do you do when.....

1) What do you do when your mum goes away?
a) You slack off and don't do any work around the house until the day before she comes back.
b) You leave all your shoes out so that you can just pick and wear whichever that would suit your outfit.
c) You invite your friends over for dinner and get your girl friend to do all the cooking.

If your name is 'Alv', the answer is ALL OF THE ABOVE!
Except, he's a little better than that, he actually helped in (c) part of things :)

2) What do you do when your friend's parents are away too?
You have a dinner party at his house!

Day/Date: Saturday, 24 June 2006,
Time: 7:30pm

Venue: FLim's Place

Entree
Deep Fried Sesame Prawns w/ Sweet Chilli Dip
Spicy Tofu Fries w/ Garlic Mayo Dip
Chawan Mushi
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Main
Roast Rack of Spring Lamb w/ Herbs
Roasted Potatoes
Roasted Pumpkin
2 Bean Salad w/ Prosciutto and Pine Nuts
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Dessert
Rich Chocolate Mousse w/ Strawberry Compote
and a Filo Nut pastry

When we found out that Alv's mum was going back to Singapore again for an indefinite time, the first thought that came across my mind was: "Damn, now I gotta cook things that he would eat!" because he's so 'easy going' when it comes to food and all.. NOT.

The day his mum left, he sent an email out to our group of friends inviting them for dinner at his place. A couple of hours after that, FLim IM me and we talked about dinner. Somewhere along the line he offered to have it at his house and after a few emails back and forth between the three of us (Alv, FLim and I) we changed the venue to his house and madame had the pleasure of planning the dinner.

So I dusted off a few of the cookbooks that 'I always buy coz it looks good but never really used' in search of the perfect menu.

Oh, I should add that Alv made the MISTAKE of asking everyone for suggestions. The Farmer came back with Lamb and the Fok came back with a full menu:

• Entree: Oysters (Mornay and Kilpatrick)
• Main: Spicy Lobster or Pepper Lobster (something like that)
• Dessert: Banana Fritters w/ Vanilla Ice Cream

Sif! I said, this is not Jamie's Kitchen and I am not cooking Lobster.

Anyway, come Saturday, I had a dinner menu devised with the help of Michelle Cranston of Marie Claire, Kitchen and Jane Lawson of Yoshoku; and on-site help in the form of Alv and FLim. Job well done I might add.

Friday, cut and marinated the Tofu fries. Saturday, started prepping and cooking at 3:30pm, a bit of delegating here and there which made things a lot easier. Alv made the mousse, FLim grinded the herbs (WHEN he managed to get off WOW), I prepped the lamb and slathered on the herb marinade once he was done with it, and FLim also did the Chawan Mushi. Somehow I managed the rest and got Q to do the sauce for the Chawan Mushi while Fok arranged the Entrees. Good Old Alv did the frying and Tj well.. he was just being Tj. Last but not least, the Farmer... he did all the washing. Funniest thing was that Flim had a dishwasher too but Jxz did all the washing. LOL

The only disappointment of the day was the Chocolate Mousse... due to a certain helper's impatience the cream was not whipped enough, so the mousse turned out to be thick in texture instead of light and fluffy. Oh well.. we all ate in anyway

--(i) Clockwise: Sesame Prawns w/ Sweet Chilli Sauce,
Spicy Tofu Fries w/ Special Mayo dip and Chawan Mushi --
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--(ii) Clockwise from the Left: Roast Rack of Lamb w/ Herbs,
Roasted Potatoes, Beans Salad w/ Pine Nuts
and Prosciutto and Roasted Pumpkins. --
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--(iii) Left to Right: Filo Nut Pastry, Rich Chocolate
Mousse and Strawberry Compote.--

>> More photos from Dinner

QED Idea No. 1 - This is how you eat Soba.

Ange: I don't know how you can eat soba with nothing but dipping sauce. At least make some side dishes or something. So lazy :p

Anyway, here's Quick and Easy Dinner (QED) Idea No. 1:

The original recipe is called Otsu :: 乙 [おつ] - which essential means: strange, quaint, stylish, chic, spicy, queer, witty, tasty, romantic.

Since it is food related, it most probably means everything but strange, queer, witty, romantic rofl. (I think it means tasty) Anyway, I found the recipe at chika's shewhoeats food blog who referred it to 101 Cookbook's site.

As usual, I modified the ingredients and added my usual favourites: mushrooms, chicken, capsicum and onion. But the rest is essential the same. (Had to omit coriander though, silly Mish doesn't eat it)

The last time I made something vegetarian, Michelle complained that "there's no MEAT", so I added the MEAT and the rest.

It's easy enough that you can't complain it takes too long woman! Since you are that lazy, I would recommend getting the pre-fried tofu instead. If I can do it after a long slog at work, so can you!

p/s: Ali, what's that blue thingy! :)

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Here's the satisfied customer ;p