As agreed with the Master last weekend on the laksa day, we gathered at the MCP and HAH residence again for another lesson on cooking - this time it was seafood paella. We engaged two kitchen hands in the form of Cat and Van for this round.
Some of the ingredients used as shown in the below pic are chicken stock, arborio rice, seafood, canned anchovies, chilli, dill, chorizo sausages, lime and fennel.
This huge bowl of seafood contains king prawns, small prawns, scallops, squid and fish. We also got mussels and crabs which are not in this bowl below.
A scene of the kitchen staff hard at work creating the perfect paella cooked with love and a lot of laughter. Fortunately we have a large enough island to lay out all the ingredients and still provided sufficient work space for all four of us to do the cleaning/cutting/chopping/marinating/frying/stirring.
We had to let the one and only man have the honour of cutting up the crabs; I can never bring myself to do it.
Nor can I clean out the squids, so again the only guy got to take on this sacred task. I find it extremely disgusting! Especially the part where you have to dig really deep inside to extract the beak or something... Eeeeeks....
Everyone got to do a bit of cutting and chopping including the Master as there was just too much stuff to be chopped up.
Cat spent the most part of an hour trimming the whiskers off the king prawns to make eating them easier and to massage butter onto each and every prawn. She was the main contributor towards the marinating of a dozen prawns for the garlic prawns dish to complement the paella.
Van was the garlic IC and the pot IC. I hope those tasks were not too daunting for her seeing how she rarely steps into the kitchen.
And for me... I had to juggle cooking the paella in two separate locations - a wok and a deep pot because we didn't have a big enough pan to fit all in - and stir fry the garlic prawns in a third pan.
Here's a shot of the paella in the cooking.
And a shot of the sizzling prawns in the pan.
I had to tiptoe most of the time to reach the bottom of the high pot. I'm sure my arms and calves got more muscular from stirring the wok/pot/pan-fuls of food on tiptoe for about an hour.
Approximately 2 hours after we started the preparations, we were ready for dinner. Again I had the honour of serving five huge plates of yummy paella and a plate of garlic prawns.
Cheers to the chefs and kitchen hands!
And finally a group shot including the photographer who was kept busy the entire night documenting the paella experience before we dug in. Itadakimasu!
virgin attempt at cooking seafood paella
to the blue mountains for the umpteenth time
Sometime around the Easter break this year, I went to the Blue Mountains again, this time with a few girls from work. I can't remember how many times I've visited this tourist attraction, but the last time was on the last day of year 2008 with the Sunshine Angel.
Did the usual - visited Echo Point for an obligatory touristy shot with the legendary Three Sisters, had flowerpot scones at Wayzgoose Cafe in Leura and shopped for scented candles at Moontree. Because it was a very cold rainy autumn early afternoon when we arrived, we had long romantic strolls along wet pavements filled with fallen autumn maple leaves dreaming of our own prince charming and of sharing a hot cuppa with our cold hands in his warm jumper pockets. It was all very silly and giggly.
The four beauties complementing the three sisters at the mountains.
Spotted these two cute Minis in Leura.
I couldn't stop gawking at the perfectly refurbished red Mini.
Check out the headlights!
Left: We had a very blue sky day at the Blue Mountains after the morning rain.
Right: We stopped in the middle of the road to pose with the glowing red maple tree.
I think I am quite done with the mountains although I still have the occasional craving for the piping hot scones with fresh cream and jam and wouldn't mind spending another half a day immersed in the many fragrances in the Moontree shop.
playing dress up
Van and I did a really impromptu thing when I stopped over at hers for a quick drink before hitting the city on Friday night - we took out multiple pieces of clothing and shoes and started playing dress up.
Left below: Van showcasing her tatt and holding my chivas.
Right below: the intention of this pic is to show the boots!
Left and right below: we wanted to show off our new heart stockings.
Below: we wanted to show off some legs. Van did an outfit change to match my conservative attire.
Below: It was then suggested I put on Van's signature off shoulder dress so I may hide that explosive big pimple on my left collar bone. It was the shortest and slinkiest thing I have ever worn in my life - it barely covers my butt! Van did another outfit change back to her original set to now match the sexy look I had on.
I forgot to take pics of some other clothes we threw on in between... ;p It was so fun! Haven't done such a crazy girlie thing in ages. We plan to go for a "Slutty Look" night soon. LOL
homecooked laksa from scratch
The HAH and MCP residence hosted a super chef for an impromptu lesson on cooking laksa from scratch. No more Prima Taste instant packs for us! First, I had to go grocery shopping with Mr Super Chef aka the Master. Here you see some of the ingredients used.
And that's me, the super keen apprentice starting the fire and heating up the wok.
The noobish me didn't know how much oil to add, much to the chagrin of the Master supervising on one side.
My first task was to chop up a tonne of onions and garlic as finely as I could because we do not have such a thing called a food processor in our worldly possessions. I got quite a bit of help from the Master for this simple task because I was sniffling and tearing away too much, not to mention my snail pace. Then I had to stir fry them until golden brown before mixing in the curry powder and whatever other stuff the Master decided to throw in as and when he deemed fit. I think my greatest contribution to this whole cooking process was holding that wooden ladle and moving it in a circular motion non-stop.
Once all the ingredients were mixed into a huge wok of goodiness (is there such a word?), we took it easy and enjoyed a glass of red while occasionally stirring the gravy and monitoring its colour and texture. HAH on the other hand, was already busying herself with preparing a fruit salad for dessert.
Here's the almost cooked laksa gravy. Yes I can see the layer of oil. But that's part of what makes it yummy. I was guilty of adding too much of that sinful prawn paste. Oh and not forgetting the two cans of creamy coconut milk I emptied when one could have done the job. ;p
We chose japanese udon noodles for our first laksa-from-scratch attempt. It was a perfect match with the gravy! So now we know what other noodles to use for our laksa dish next time besides the usual chinese rice vermicelli.
And I had the honour of serving the four bowls of rich, full flavoured chicken laksa!
Ta-dah!!! It tasted thrice as good as it looked. Oh we substituted the beansprouts with some snow pea sprouts for want of some greens. :D
HAH insisted on adding some boiled veges to balance off the unhealthy stuff we were planning to ingest. Towards the end of the night, we mixed these vegs with the laksa gravy and got ourselves very delicious servings of sayur lodeh.
And of course, we couldn't let our guests leave without a proper group photo.
Fact #102 from the Master now imprinted in the HAH and MCP residence guest book:
Definitely the paella next time.
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