Cooking With Friends

Cooking With Friends

yesterday afternoon, dave & i were invited to antonio's swanky apartment for our big cookoff and omggg it was so much fun!!! i'm not sure how it started but few weeks ago in one of our conversations someone said "let's cook together" and i was pretty sure it wasn't me :p but we unanimously agreed so we started planning for it, that dave will do 2 amuse/starters, antonio a main pasta dish and me, a dessert, obviously. but we ended up with 5 courses instead coz antonio very generously came up with 3 dishes *gasps* seriously i dunno how he did it but he made everything looked like a breeze!

we started off with buying the necessary ingredients from parkway parade's cold storage & sakuraya fish mart. then it was home to cook up a storm! since antonio is italian, he only uses fresh ingredients made from scratch and not bottled sauce/stock crap. here he's preparing tomatoes for roasting.

the beautiful kitchen is not so beautiful with all our stuff lying around haha. but i'm so glad its big enough with a wet/dry area (with 2 sinks at each) so its enough for 3 of us to work all at the same time!

dave started us with an amuse bouche, scallops which is raw scallops, tobiko (flying fish roe), chives, truffle oil "sand". something molecular was going on, he made the truffle oil "sand" out of maltodextrin and it was really interesting! from the looks of it, i would expect it to hv a grainy texture but no! it melted in the mouth and turned into oil! amazing stuff. the scallops were fresh and sweet, a really good dish. oh, and how would you like eating from a slate tile? i love it. hehe

a closer look

dave also did another starter, fried cheese - camembert, spring roll skin, raspberry conserve, greens. this one was really good too, the spring roll skin was a nice crispy contrast against the soft cheese. and initially i was kinda skeptical about having it with the raspberry conserve but it was sooo good!! just like how i was skeptical about having IKEA meatballs with lingonberry jam last time but they go so well together. this one is no exception. the greens, which were tossed in olive oil & balsamic vinegar, was really nice too!

preping & cooking, antonio making a pasta dish

linguine al granchio e gamberi - linguine with crab & prawns. it was served with a homemade stock reduction by boiling prawn shells & herbs together. it was reallyyy good, i loved it and gobbled it down in two mouthfuls :p

rotolone caprese - a mozzarella roll with umm, parma ham and herbs inside, i cant really remember haha. served with fried bacon bits on top. another of antonio's creation. tasty!!!

upon my request, antonio also showed us how to make sfoglie alle erbe (fresh pasta sheets). this is SO pretty, no?? pasta sheets thinly rolled with italian flat leaf parsley sandwiched in between. we also made a chive + parsley version, which was even prettier. like a work of art, i almost couldn't bear to eat them. they reminds me vaguely of japanese rice paper,with dried leaves & flowers in between. now i need a pasta maker from sia huat! the pasta sheets were then boiled and served with a tomato based sauce and grated pecorino cheese. definitely dave & my favorite :D

dessert time. hv you just guessed what i made? dave generously shared his bottle of nielsen massey's rosewater when i "threatened" to use rose syrup LOL.

émotion ispahan was what i made - litchi gelee, raspberry gelee, rose ganache cream, rose macaron. i'm glad it was really well received, thank you guys :) u know i had alot of qualms in the beginning since i've never cooked/baked in someone else's kitchen before. what if i make a fool of myself? what if the gelee never sets? what if i get a nervous wreck? *laughs at myself* glad my fears were unfounded.

washed down with lotsa campari cocktail and my favorite s. pellegrino's limonata. sorry antonio for polishing off so many cans HAHA.

and i hv to say this - tho' my pictures didn't turn out well and definitely not my best, i had a ball of a time! its much much more meaningful than doing-lunch-on-purpose-and-sitting-alfresco-so-i-can-get-better-pictures. seriously, whats the point? i was too carried away in the past i felt, ought 2b ashamed of myself. that said, meaningless restaurant trips will be reduced significantly in future. i really wanna find my passion & love again, which is definitely not eating at restaurants and giving them free publicity.

thank you once again antonio for hosting us, and cheers to more washing up and messy kitchen in future haha! we've already thought about what to make on our 2nd cookoff - probably antonio will make gnocchi (upon my request again heh), dave will make duck and me, mont blanc! so looking forward to the nx one already :D

* read antonio's entry here.