Cooking for friends Part II

The first meal was more or less "forced" out of me in the morning of that meal (okay, it didn't take much to twist my rubber arm). The second meal I cooked for my friends was actually a bit of a celebration so I put more thoughts and planning into it. I thought I would bring some Asian flavours into the meal.

For the first small appetizer, I marinated some shrimps in lemongrass, garlic, and sambal (a chili paste). This was quickly stir-fried until just cooked. Many of the people (including myself) did not like very spicy food, so I only used a little bit of sambal. The result was very good, even the guest of honour, Amelie, liked it (she said she doesn't usually like shrimps).



The shrimps were really just finger food. The first real appetizer is mushroom-filled won tons in a cream sauce with morel and chanterelle mushrooms. The brown piece on the left is actually a parmesan cracker. It actually tasted just right but the color seems to be too brown. We had another batch that was not as brown but the taste was not as concentrated. I decided to use the brown batch because it actually worked with the rich cream sauce. The mushroom filling has just four simple ingredients: finely chopped white mushrooms, thyme, salt, and pepper. I used won ton skins to bring in a "fusion" element, and I pan-fried them to provide a bit of contrast to the creamy mushroom sauce. This dish was a great success, though it could be presented better if I had better "soup plates".



The next dish was inspired by my recent experience at Rain: grilled miso marinated Alaskan black cod, with a ginger flavored risotto cake, and sauteed bok choy. I also made a miso sauce to go with the fish. Surely it wasn't as good as the one I had at Rain, but I still think that it was very successful. The fish was cooked just right---it had a silky texture and it was very moist. The only problem was that I did not manage to get the skin crispy. Amelie didn't like the miso flavour, but everyone else (including me) seems to think it worked very well. The ginger flavored risotto cake went quite well with the fish, though it could have been crispier (we had to cook them in advance to save stove space...). The bok choy also worked well to finish the dish.



Okay, the plating needs work. I still have no idea how to put things on a plate to make it look good. The sauce on the "frame" of the plate isn't my fault: it's all Dave's fault. :) Looking at it again, I should have put some sauce on the bottom on a "pool" to the side and arrange the cod pieces on top. I'm still not quite sure what to do with the risotto cake and the bok choy.

In addition to cake, I also made some black sesame ice cream. This turned out to be a bit of a disaster: due to the lack of time I did not extract the flavours by heating the cream. Rather, I just blended everything cold. I made a further mistake by putting a bit of the grinded hulls in an attempt to enhance the flavour. Instead the ice cream ended up having a strange texture and a slight bitter after taste. It wasn't inedible, but it was definitely nowhere as good as the one that I normally made. Amelie didn't like this one either.



So overall it was a reasonable but not perfect meal. To my own taste buds, everything except the ice cream was good. The presentation needs work, and perhaps I managed to teach Dave a few things to impress people with.