2 BBQs in a row! Awesome MUCH, yeah ?! One for the legendary 4G, 7th Jan, one for the hot indians of YJ(plus one yellow one), 8th Jan.
Food for the 4G Orgy was ordered from BBQ house, mostly, apart from the crinkle-cut fries(which i roasted with a mix of fish curry powder+briyani masala powder+pepper+salt+garam masala+tumeric) and pre-spiced potato wedges(which i roasted with cheese, so it melted nicely over the wedges and was slightly browned, to near perfection), both shown above. Hence, nth much to describe there. BBQ House's food was nth out of the ordinary.
However, as some of my JC mates were vegans, I decided not to order AT ALL, and to prepare EVERYTHING myself, for the 8th of Jan. I had some for the carnivores/omnivores, and the rest, which is most of the food, for the Singh Kings. -above- I had cubed extra firm
chicken wings,
mutton satay with
peanut sauce,
aloo(potato) patties on
burger buns,
Unicurd traditional yellow tau kwa on satay sticks, sliced
salmon skewers, sliced
spiced eggplant, shiitakes, and last but definitely not least,
cinnasugar-glazed pineapple rings.; all for the BBQ grill. Every food item was self-marinated, except for the
mutton satay. the
stuffed tomatoes were a waste, totally forgot about them till we were leaving =/
Let me start with the wings ... they were marinated overnight, so as to totally absorb the flavours, with grinded
ginger & garlic, salt, lotsa
pepper, and
honey mustard! Evryone loved it!~ Well, the meat eater at least. Its quite similar to the
one I had for my new year BBQ, except that
wholegrain mustard was used for that instead of
honey mustard, and a little
raw honey was added too.
As for the aloo patties, I boiled 5 potatoes, peeled off the skin(& ate it it they were peeled cos of its fibre-rich goodness), mashed 'em all up and then added onion salt, pepper, sliced
spring onion, a touch of
nutmeg, lotsa
cajun spice, frozen
mixed vege(diced
carrot, corn, peas, short beans),
chilli powder, a little bitta flour for that extra firmness, and some
garam masala powder.
These were hand-rolled into patties then served on freshly grilled buttered burger buns, after grilling on the barbe, with an option of a grilled glazed pineapple ring on top:) -above.
On to the tofu now. I cubed 'em, and marinated them in apple cider vinegar, soy sauce, maple syrup, brown sugar, and pepper to taste(not too sweet/sour, and with that tinge of spice).
I bought pre-sliced salmon, which was a lazy choice I made so i wouldn't have to slice 'em myself, and a wrong choice too, as it was the head part- full of bones! Little did I know though. What I should have done would be to get the fillet and sliced 'em up myself. I would've done a better job too as the uneven slicing made it difficult to stay on the grill, although they were put on satay sticks, and not fall into the darkness(burning charcoal below the grill -I forgot to put on the wire mesh =X) Nevertheless, the marination was good. Just a simple salt & pepper, tumeric, and some chilli powder(I don't know if you've noticed alr, but I just can't live w/o spice!! -- I'm hot like that X)) .
The eggplants were marinated the same way as I did for the fries on the 7th --a mix of fish curry powder+briyani masala powder+pepper+salt+garam masala+tumeric. I didnt really marinate it actually, but sprinkled the spice mix on, just before letting it hit the grill, after being buttered.
I spiced some of the mushroom with the spice mix I had prepared for the eggplant, and just left the butter to do the work for the rest.
As can be infered by its name, 'cinnasugar-glazed pineapple rings', its marinate consists of cinnamon and brown sugar. DE-LISHHHHHH. Two bug tubs(in syrup) I got for a little group of 9, and all vanished;D. Just like the eggplants, I didn't really marinate it, but instead sprinkled the cinnasugar on, just before hitting the grill . These rings were the only food item I did not butter before BBQ-ing.
The stuffed tomatoes which I HAD planned for would have been stuffed with straw mushrooms and grated mozarella cheese. Yummmmmmmm~
Just ytd, after and evening-night service with my almost whole maternal family, 18 of us, at The Lighthouse, Woodlands, we headed to a reknowned coffeeshop, Al-Ameen(Woodlands St. 32). They serve a wide range of local food; Malay, Chinese, Indian, and a couple of other cuisines were available. What caught my eye was the large variety of prata/murtabaks and nasi goreng. I was absolutely spoilt for choice!!! I wanted EV-VER-RY-THING, right there and right then.. but obviously it wasn't possible. For the prata, there was the usual we'd see at many prata outlets; plain, onion, egg, cheese, banana, mushroom, a mix of any of the above, and paper. In addition to the a la mode, these was coco tissue, strawberry tissue, coco & cheese, prata bom(condense milk+honey), prata stuffed with meat(pretty much like murtabak), and many others! These was a wide range of murtabaks too, but the one that really caught my eye was the Murtabak PIZZA.
I was also faced with the many different kinds of nasi goreng- sambal, ikan bilis, cendawan(mushroom), petai, paprik, USA, Sultan, 3 Rasa, and many more. I settled for the Nasi Goreng Cendawan Paprik Thai(above) in the end, which won the battle amongst it, the Murtabak pizza, and gado-gado, and Indonesian salad which I very much enjoy. I felt it was the most out-of-the-ordinary. The paprik gravy was filled with tender pieces of chicken meat, and was slightly spicy. I liked it:) The rice however was pretty, and some would have to use a magnifying glass to look at the few, tiny mushroom pieces. I spiced up the rice and made it a little denser by adding the stall's sambal belacan, was I have to admit, was really good and spicy, however tolerable for my palette.
Shaleen had the
Prata Bom, as recommended by me. She liked it, its sweetness, to due the honey inside. I found it a great disappointment though as prata bom is supposedly traditionally made in such a way that when torn open, the sweet goodness of a
condensed milk & honey mixture should flow out. This didnt happen hese, however. There was no condensed milk. Just
honey. If she liked this, imagine her reaction to the 'real deal' :) *available at the
well-known prata shop near St. Hilda's Sch btw! Although the texture of the prata was pretty good, its was miserably small, considering my niece's great appetite(she follows my footsteps<3), so I ordered her a
banana prata. The
banana prata exceeded my expectations as it came with a layer of
honey spread on top, which puts its one notch above the rest. It adds to the sweetness and compliments the sweetness of the
banana. A delicious combination of sweet & savoury(the prata).
As I slowly savoured my
nasi goreng, my eyes were drawn to a waiter cmg towards my table, carrying a huge plate of
stingray(above). The biggest piece of
stingray I have seen yet(picture with Shaleen), probably because i'm used to sharing the smaller ones. This however was apparently the smallest available, unless we were cheated by the shopkeeper=0 Anyways, the
stingray wad really good. Soft and tender, yet firm, and not too oily-the 'down' factor for many I've tried. I think it's the best yet, if more
sambal had been given! only a dollop in the middle, which was spread a little to the sides.
I was overjoyed when I saw then one of the items which was in the 'battle' arrived and the table.
MURTABAK PIZZAAA !! Someone had placed an order for it, to be shared amongst us. Since it was shared, I only took a little, gracious as I am:D I'm not sure if there was anything else added, but my piece had
pineapple and melted cheese inside. Like a heavenly
'Indianized' Hawaiian pizza without the chicken:) It was good.
^^ lips 'red-ified' by the chili!! ~satisfaction B-)~ ^^
...
The last culinary pleasure, but definitely not the least of all, which I am about to share with you, is the
Chocolate Fudge Fondant Brownie-muffin(above) I made, before teh BBQ on the 7th, for Nat & I. My very first, real successful chocolate delight, and it was just a trial-and-error!!! Rip it open, and you see an almost divine, rich,
chocolate ganache filling.. -below-
CAN YOU SEE IT CAN YOU SEE IT ?!?!?!!XD
It was orgasmic. I'm saying this on behalf of Nat too; I took tell from his reaction after his first spoon:) Finally, a rich, dense chocolatey goodness, unlike the bland cakey-ness I have been getting on my past tries. Not failures, but learning experiences, they were:)
THIS is the
brownie website I got my creation from. I took my recipe from the
Chocolate Fudge Brownies and divided the portions by roughly 4, to fit the size of my ramekin. The stated portions is for a 9x9 pan, i'm supposing. However, I altered the given recipe a little by replacing the
unsweetened squares of chocolate with
chocolate chips(a mix of
Chocolate Line 53% Pure Dark Couveture & Hershey's bittersweet), and cut the half cup of sugar(ie. 8tbsp, after dividing by 4 form the original 2cups) to about 5tbsp of sugar(I used brown sugar as usual). I used
Hershey's bittersweet for the
chocolate chips which are to be mixed in with the batter.
What I did to modify the baking process was to set the temperature 15 degrees higher, and then switch it to the recommended temperature the moment the
brownie batter has been popped in. After about 9min, lower your container of slighter baked batter to a lower rack. This will ensure that the top of your brownie has a nice crisp to it. Remove the
brownie at the point where a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out not too wet, but not too clean either, with a little bit of batter stuck to it, so your
brownie will not turn out too dry/cakey, and TADAAAA~ perfection *flying kisses* You may also wish to poke a few holes thru yr
muffin/brownie and drizzle any remaining melted chocolate over. This will make for a denser and richer outcome. I like:)
It may take some practise though, a few 'learning experiences' to achieve your desired outcome. After all, it did take aa lot more than 1 try to perfect the lightbulb. ;]
Zzzzzzz time now. Its already past 1 in the morning, and it's time to get wet in the waters later in the morning.
Good night/ good morning my fellow earthlingzzz !!~
