Had dinner with ML and Siew Mai to celebrate ML's birthday and when we were flipping through the menu, I couldn't help but comment that some of the dishes were doable in my kitchen! Then the 2 teased and said that I should cook and then they come over to eat.
That inspired my "Omakase" dinner. Omakase in Japanese means 'leave it to me' so in this case, leave it to me to come up with the following, which I cooked for 6 pax in total.
For the amuse bouche, I did what is slowly becoming my signature, Tofu with Century Egg sauce and topped with Salmon Roe. ;)
Next was miso soup cooked with mussels, radish and carrots. The mussels were used mainly to give it added flavour while the radish and carrots would soak up with soup while lending a mild sweetness to it. As I don't like very salty soups, I toned down on the miso so that it was flavourful but not seawater-like. If you have wakame, go ahead and add it but I couldn't find reasonably priced ones at my supermarket.
Next dish was beef served with roasted brinjal. I had no choice but to use local brinjal instead of eggplant, which wasn't ideal for this dish. Anyway, what I did was make a quick miso dressing of miso and mirin and basted the brinjals in it. Wrapping in aluminium foil, I chucked them into a 100 deg C oven for 40 min. I should've added olive oil and left it for 60 min before unwrapping and roasting them open-faced.
The salvation of the fish was that my beef rocked. LOL. I marinated it with Vegemite mixed with a bit of water. The result was a very hearty and meaty sauce.
For mains, I cooked spaghetti with mushroom cream perfumed with truffle oil. For this dish, I used shitake and shimeiji mushrooms. Why use Japanese mushrooms for what seems like a totally Western dish? That's because these mushrooms have a delectable bite, shitake has a stronger flavour than button mushrooms and both mushrooms will absorb some of the cream but yet not be cloying. Very simple dish. For the sauce, saute minced garlic until golden brown. Then toss in the mushrooms until they turn a bit translucent. Then finally, add in the cream and then toss in the pasta. Add salt and pepper to taste. Voila!
I ended off the meal with Cookies & Cream ice cream because there wasn't any black sesame ice cream in my supermarket. Otherwise, it would have carried on the slight Japanese theme that I had. At the end of the meal, this reminded me why I'm not a chef. It's super tiring to be standing and cooking just 1 meal for 6 pax! I can't imagine cooking for hundreds of people for hours. I'll die of exhaustion. Henceforth, I shall stick to small parties. Or 1 dish meals.
That inspired my "Omakase" dinner. Omakase in Japanese means 'leave it to me' so in this case, leave it to me to come up with the following, which I cooked for 6 pax in total.
Next was miso soup cooked with mussels, radish and carrots. The mussels were used mainly to give it added flavour while the radish and carrots would soak up with soup while lending a mild sweetness to it. As I don't like very salty soups, I toned down on the miso so that it was flavourful but not seawater-like. If you have wakame, go ahead and add it but I couldn't find reasonably priced ones at my supermarket.
Next dish was beef served with roasted brinjal. I had no choice but to use local brinjal instead of eggplant, which wasn't ideal for this dish. Anyway, what I did was make a quick miso dressing of miso and mirin and basted the brinjals in it. Wrapping in aluminium foil, I chucked them into a 100 deg C oven for 40 min. I should've added olive oil and left it for 60 min before unwrapping and roasting them open-faced.
The salvation of the fish was that my beef rocked. LOL. I marinated it with Vegemite mixed with a bit of water. The result was a very hearty and meaty sauce.
For mains, I cooked spaghetti with mushroom cream perfumed with truffle oil. For this dish, I used shitake and shimeiji mushrooms. Why use Japanese mushrooms for what seems like a totally Western dish? That's because these mushrooms have a delectable bite, shitake has a stronger flavour than button mushrooms and both mushrooms will absorb some of the cream but yet not be cloying. Very simple dish. For the sauce, saute minced garlic until golden brown. Then toss in the mushrooms until they turn a bit translucent. Then finally, add in the cream and then toss in the pasta. Add salt and pepper to taste. Voila!
I ended off the meal with Cookies & Cream ice cream because there wasn't any black sesame ice cream in my supermarket. Otherwise, it would have carried on the slight Japanese theme that I had. At the end of the meal, this reminded me why I'm not a chef. It's super tiring to be standing and cooking just 1 meal for 6 pax! I can't imagine cooking for hundreds of people for hours. I'll die of exhaustion. Henceforth, I shall stick to small parties. Or 1 dish meals.
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