No Sauces Please!

Made a mess of the Jemej Kitchen this evening, made it really oily with the Pan-fried Spring Chicken with Sauteed Potatoes & Vegetables. Coupled with the Prawn & Vegetable Broth with Saffron on the menu, we had the pleasure of Heng-parents over for dinner.

These 2 dishes were actually the first 2 that I learnt from my basic cooking course at Palate Sensations almost a year ago.




Considering that since then, I've not tried cooking them at home before, think I did well today. They loved both the chicken and the soup, even foregoing the chilli and ketchup accompaniment after their first mouthfuls, with me also going, "NO CHILLI OR KETCHUP OK!!"

Now I understand why chefs are so uptight against customers opting for sauces other than what's on the dish, they should just enjoy and appreciate the flavours of the dish as it is! Adding chilli sauce etc masks the original flavours, which would only make me think "then I marinate so well for what?!"

By the way, for this shot below, I didn't make them pose this way. No, even though they had attempted to ask for chilli sauce at first, I wasn't the "terror chef". Heh.

Rare Moments

It has been a while since we had a comforting home-cooked dinner in our little bubble world, on a weekday after work. It has been a while since I last cooked a "proper" meal other than instant noodles.

Decided to slow cook some EJ Beef Stew last night, for tonight's dinner. And I was pleasantly surprised that all my chopping of onions, carrots and potatoes took only about 20 minutes, a vast improvement from the ONE HOUR I used to take when I first started cooking.

Thanks to Prima instant mix of sambal sauce, The Boy helped to whip up some shiokalicious prawns with snow peas. Yes, he even wore my apron to prove that he was da chef this evening.


As we sat down to dinner, we thanked God for giving us these precious moments. It was bliss to be savouring home-cooked dinner after a hard day's work. And on top of that, today's a little more special - the Jemej celebrates our paktor-versary!

Wok for It?

I'm contemplating very hard, whether or not to take up the 6 lessons on Basic Chinese Cooking at Palate Sensations.

Starts March 9, every Sunday for 6 consecutive Sundays, from 11am to 2pm.

Thought that learning some Chinese dishes would be more practical, since The Boy loves his white rice. They'll be teaching some Szechuan dishes such as Szechuan Hot & Sour Soup, Chicken Gung Bo and Ma Po Toufu, all of which The Boy loves.

Plus, he says I should take a break from Western cooking and brush up on my Chinese cooking, since the last time my fried rice kinda failed.

Anyone keen to join me in the fun? :)

17th January - International Day of Italian Cuisines

Chef Carlo informed me that tomorrow 17 January is the International Day of Italian Cuisines. For one day, everyone who makes, promotes or simply loves Italian food outside of Italy is invited to carry out a small activity to celebrate authenticity and quality in Italian cuisine.

This unprecedented celebration is led by over 130 Italian chefs and restaurateurs in 35 countries. They will cook Pasta alla Carbonara according to the original, authentic recipe.

This simple dish, a classic Italian dish, is in fact the symbol of counterfeit Italian cuisine in the world. Which I may just well attempt to "counterfeit" in my own kitchen, ha. But not tomorrow though, no time to cook on a working day. =p

Feast #4 - It's a Wrap!

Finally, after 2 weekends, 4 groups of friends, numerous nights of menu planning, countless grocery shopping trips, a few cuts and horribly peeling cuticles on 10 sore fingers (that smell garlicky) and 1 disastrous soup, we wrapped up last night's dinner with The Boy's colleagues on a high note.

The cooking went well, except for a short moment of panic when I realised that I had my oven turned to too high a temperature for the beef that had been roasting for the last 20 minutes. Had to recover quickly by covering it with aluminium foil and continue roasting at a lower temperature, otherwise, by the time the meat was cooked, the top would have been charred.

In the end, thank God the beef turned out juicy and flavoursome, and the rest of the dishes were well-received. Chocolate fondant, by which time my helper already knows all the steps, was one of the highlights. Yup, I'm "redeemed".

Some creative gifts that The Boy got for his colleagues included the door stopper (for always putting a stop to all the shit that comes flying in the office), the chopsticks (for always getting a good grip on the situation), the spark gun (for always being the creative spark), the sweet chilli sauce (for always being so sweet and just a little spicy) and some paper plates (for always being worried that you don't have enough on your plate).

Well.... you can quite guess where he got these items from. Otherwise, it would have been just another routine boring trip to the supermarket for him!


One of my favourite gifts for this Christmas - the newest book by Jamie Oliver. *grins*


Ok, I think that's it for the madess with all the cooking and hosting. The Jemej Kitchen will take a rest, till the next Christmas! But of course, in the meantime, will be sure to continue having friends over for dinner, on a smaller scale. Food, wine and company, we love entertaining at home!

Feast #3 - Sia Suay!

Women have a natural ability to multi-task. But tonight, I realised that this does not apply when it comes to juggling work and cooking concurrently.

Over the last weekend, I was on leave, so was totally psyched up for some serious cooking for our friends. But some things cropped up at work, so I had to sacrifice half a day to be at work first half of today.

Back home, in between the mise en place, I was attending to some media enquiries. The juggling between the ibook and cook book proved fatal.

MY PUMPKIN SOUP TURNED OUT TOO SALTY.

We had The Boy's boss and one of his colleagues over, together with their wives. We are quite close to them, so I wasn't too worried when The Boy thought that the salty soup would mean the end of his career advancement. Haha.

It was quite hilarious though. At the point when everyone started tucking into the soup, the Jemej looked at each other across the table. Our eyes met, and we knew instantly what both of us were thinking, with that slight nod of heads and raised eyebrows. And he very bravely said, "Think I added too much salt." Till he said that, everyone was being very polite and kept drinking their soups quietly. So it was after this "confession", that they started saying, "No wonder lah!"

While I was exonerated of producing this salty soup (supposedly not of my "standards"), my dear husband valiantly took the blame and said he got too passionate about the shaking of the salt into the pot. So while everyone at the table was laughing at him, exclaiming how I should never allow him into the kitchen ever again, we winked at each other and laughed at the fact that he had just taken the bullet for his dear wife.

Truth is, it was ME who added too much salt. I got too distracted with everything else. Think my heart wasn't in the cooking this time round. I was totally disappointed in myself. How could I????

So when our guests left, we laughed even harder. The Jemej partnership - in ways more than one.

The Boy:: You thought I was sweet?

Me:: Yah!

The Boy:: You thought I was brave?

Me:: Yah!

The Boy:: You enjoyed seeing me go down into flames right?

Me:: Yah!!!!

Haha, no lah. This whole thing was really so funny. MY HUSBAND IS THE HERO!!!

In the end, thank God my chocolate fondant saved the day. :)

And this little guest of ours slept through it all. Reminded me of Baby Jayden who slept through all the din that the BMWs were making the last time they were here early this year. Time flies, we're going into another new year!!

Feast #2

Round 2 on Saturday night, with the Superheroes & Friends.

As it was a bigger group of 10, I sought "extra help" with some purchased turkey and ham to add to the festive feasting.


For a starter, there was Greek Salad and Rosemary Roasted Potatoes, all recipes courtesy of Jamie Oliver. The potatoes were a hit - looks like I stumbled upon a gem of a recipe, and "founded an EJ Specialty"!! :D


Roasted beef was very flavoursome this time round, think I got the doneness right. Coupled with some simple sauteed spinach and mushrooms.


And Christmas dinner would not be complete without bubblies and desserts!


Best part of the evening - the great company of great friends. And the sweetest? The Boy you-tubed "How to carve a turkey" beforehand, just so that he could help me with the serving! :)


More pictures of the crazy night over HERE.

Feast #1

Took Friday off, and we had the BBs over for dinner that evening, the first of our festive feasting at the Jemej's. It had been a while since I last cooked, and coupled with a few recipes that I was trying out for the first time, started the preparations earlier than usual.

In line with The Boy's invite cum menu card, he bought the red noses as well, as a form of "welcome shot" that everyone had to take.




My indulgences from iwannagohome! added a nice little touch to the festive mood. Made the roast beef for the first time, recipe courtesy of my chef. Turned out great, except that for the next time round, I would shorten the roasting time to make it more medium rare!!!


With the standard-sized remekins this time round, chocolate fondant didn't explode and came out perfect!!!! So this led me to believe, at least for this time round, that the last few times I had failed in the making the fondant was due to too large a remekin cup size.


Pictionary was hilarious, and I guess everyone ended the night with lots of gifts and loads of fun and laughter.

And the Festive Cooking & Eating Starts

Finally, after a few weeks of planning, shopping and wrapping, the menu planning for the few groups that we are having over at our place is done, the pressies are ready under the Jemej Tree.

Along with a couple of Christmas albums by Sarah McLachlan, Josh Groban and Laura Fygi, the mood is set.


The Bbs came over for dinner last night, it's been a while since I've made a mess cooked up such a feast in the kitchen. The Superheroes will be over tonight.

More details on the dinner last night, after I'm over with tonight's cooking....

I Cooked, He Ate

Some people say that husbands are supposed to put on weight after marriage, a sign of bliss, of being "well-fed". On the contrary, The Boy is losing quite a fair bit of weight, of course not due to me "ill-treating" him, but due to his hectic work schedule.

So this weekend, I made sure he is well-fed, I cooked, I cooked so much.

Yesterday, we had the superheroes and their better halves over for dinner. It was a pity Superman couldn't make it. This was cooking for more than my usual "quota" of 6, so I spent quite a bit of time planning what to cook, worrying about how I would complete the dishes timely.

Made a trip to the wet market in the morning, accompanied by Heng-mummy. It's been a while since I've been to one, so I was quite excited about it. It was then that I realised what Beanbean meant about going crazy with the buying. I had to do a severe reality check to tell myself not to over-stock the fridge. =p

Apart from the amazing feat the lady at the fish stall did, by just grabbing a handful of prawns and she was spot-on with the weight (!!), I was quite speechless at the price of cod too - 1kg for $40!!!!!


The menu consisted some dishes which I've done before and thus am familiar with, such as Braised Chicken in Red Wine with Mushrooms and Jamie Oliver's Super Tasty Spanish Roast Chicken. Trying out for the first time since completing the Basic Cooking course at Palate Sensations, there was the Creamy Pumpkin Soup and Cod with Homemade Teriyaki Sauce.

I guess everyone enjoyed the dinner tremendously. Mudfairy couldn't quite believe that the pumpkin soup was made from scratch. Mudgod thought I bought the cod dish. Only drawback was my Chocolate Fondant which "exploded" again. :( I still haven't figured out why. Sobs. Too depressed to take a picture of it. =p


Was quite touched when Mudskipper sent an sms afterwards, saying "Thanks for the wonderful dinner. Really really good food." Cooking well is one thing. More importantly, it's the smiles of satisfaction that makes me really happy, it's the great company that really matters.




So today, we took it easy, and vegged out for the entire day. And because we were too lazy to go out for lunch as well, decided to cook a simple fare for us, for which I can always count on Jamie Oliver for.

Tried out a new recipe of Spaghetti with Prawns and Rocket. Added some bacon as well, extras from yesterday. The Boy loved it. He described it as "I was looking forward to every bite". He finished an entire LARGE plate of it. Made some green bean soup as well, for a little afternoon treat after a short nap. So we ate well and we slept well. Ah, bliss.

On a Sugar-High Note

If last Saturday was a case of sugar overload, yesterday's last course at Palate Sensations would cause my Fitness First instructor to disown me all at once.

Made my way down to Portsdown Road after work. I was really looking forward to this class, as I love desserts and all things sweet. Admittedly, I'm more of a baker than a cook. There's always a delicate balance in baking, the precision in measurement and the chemistry of the ingredients put together all combine to give a very therapeutic experience. All sickness and grogginess were soon forgotten as I put on the apron.

I've always wondered how difficult it would be to make some of these classic French desserts. On the list, we had:

• Vanilla Creme Brulee


• Profiteroles


• Passion Fruit Souffle


• Chocolate Fondant

The light and puffy Profiterole, made from a small, round baked choux pastry, gives a mixed sensation from the coolness of the ice cream filling and the warmth of the chocolate glaze. Making the choux pastry was quite tiring, we left the vigourous stirring to our male team member. Heh. Piping the pastry out was not easy either. Whilst Francois' looked so beautiful, mine looked like shit, uh, literally. But the end result - shiok at every bite!!






The Passion Fruit Souffle was quite a challenge as well. Our first try failed - the batter consistency turned out wrong - the egg white mixture had to be as pure as possible.

So we were really happy when we saw our souffles rising proudly from our second attempt. Because everything had to be prepared a la minute and fast, we also better understood why the waiting time required whenever this dessert is ordered at the restaurant. The souffle turned out to be perfect - now, remind me to buy the Grand Marnier the next time I'm at duty-free - Grand Marnier Souffle would be so heavenly.....


Next, the Vanilla Creme Brulee. This one was pretty easy, though the torching requires some attention or you may end up burning the sugar. Mine turned out quite ok! So, should I get a torch for the Jemej kitchen next? ;)

In between, we managed to squeeze in some time to add the finishing glaze and touches to the Framboisier, the Raspberry Mousse Cake we made last week.




Finally, the highlight of the 3-hour lesson would have to be the Chocolate Fondant, also known as the Warm Chocolate Cake. My god, I swore my sickness was all cured as I sank my teeth into this rich, dark chocolate cake with a molten hot chocolate centre that oozed out.

This is one of the most decadent desserts ever, this is the QUEEN of all desserts. This one beats Mortons' HANDS-DOWN. Francois said this recipe has been used at his restaurant for 10 years, so it was all applause when he said he was now passing on the recipe to us. It was as if I made the discovery of a lifetime, apart from meeting my husband. I was all hyped up to go home right away to try it!


And thus, the entire 8 sessions of the Basic Cooking Course ended on a sugar-high......