A Weekendfull

It's one of those weekends where it just revolves around food, food and more food. So, I signed up for another one of Chef Eric Low's class cos the menu had something I wanted to learn. PESTO! It's never been something I would order if it were on the menu, but so many people have raved about it, I settled that it was time to get into the greens. It isn't something particularly pretty at first sight (green goo doesn't appeal to me), but I was pleasantly surprised at how tasty fresh made ones are. I'll talk as we go along!

Menu:

Prawn Cocktail with Avocado and Thousand Island Dressing

Fish Fillet with Pesto Sauce

Rosemary Banana Tart Tartin

If you're thinking of serving an appetizer that's simple and tasty, this would be it. The only difference is that the 1000 island dressing is not store-bought but home made! Trust me, homemade ones are far better and a lot more healthier. If you're a salad person, make a bottle of two of these during the weekend and you can store this easily for the rest of the week! It takes 5 mins.

Here's the star of the day. Fish fillet with pesto sauce, served with baked potato wedges and stew vegetables. That green goo on the fish is a burst of flavours. It's a perfect combination of sweet Italian basil leaves, pine nuts, garlic, parmesan cheese and extra virgin olive oil. I absolutely adore it with the pan fried fillet. It's heavenly with the wedges as well. Pesto generally goes well with any seafood or white meats, or even a spread for toast.

Then we ended the lesson with bananas! Molecular gastronomy discovered the beautiful pairing of bananas and rosemary, hence the invention of this dessert. Tart tartin is a french term for caramelised apple tart that's served upside down. I love this banana version. I'm not a fan of desserts, but this was good. The warm caramelised bananas went extremely well with the cold vanilla ice cream - the perfect comfort dessert.

The only thing that didn't go well with me was the puff pastry. It's a ready rolled frozen pastry from carrefour. It was a little hard and didn't provide any crunch to the tart at all. Wait till I go on to my dessert lesson at Palate, I'll be making my own pastry!

Then barely 2 hours later, I went for my 5th module at Palate Sensations! I know this sounds crazy, but I'm enjoying every minute of this. Would be even more fun if I had friends with me :) I casually left my camera in the car so I don't have any pictures of the class, but we made our own pasta!

Menu:

Goat Cheese and Parmesan Ravioli with Pesto Sauce

Fresh Linguini Pasta with Prawn and Tomato Sauce

Penne Al Aglio Olio

Mushroom and Parmesan Risotto

By the end of the class, I was sure I wouldn't eat pasta for a week. Not that the food wasn't good, but that's FOUR pasta dishes in 3 hours! I loved the ravioli and risotto. We filled our raviolis with roasted red bell peppers and feta cheese and pounded our pesto sauce the traditional way. Yup, pesto again, but this time, it was a pesto cream with pasta, as some would say, pesto was truly made for pasta.

Then on Sunday, my 2nd aunt invited us over for dinner, well just a casual dinner and a game of mahjong for the regulars, or so she said. When we reached, she greeted us with this...

Lime Juice with Gula Melaka.

If you have friends coming over, prepare this and everyone would love you, especially on a hot humid day. I had 3 cups.

And then she went on to do this...

Can you think of what she's preparing for dinner? By the way, the un-peeled crab pincer left sitting on the plate never made it to her hands.

Lavish.
Yup, it was one of the ingredients she prepared for POPIAH!!!

Look at that spread. If the popiah auntie had all these ingredients in her hawker stall, I'll be her regular patron.

My 1st aunt, the first to lay her hands on the spread. By the way, she's an amazing cook as well. Now you know why I'll never be thin.

This was quite a funny shot cos she paused for quite a while to think what to add to her popiah. Talking about being overwhelmed.

My beautiful popiah. haha

This is the generously generous host of the night.

Her mission in life is to ensure no one goes hungry. Not only will she feed you, she'll give you enough to take home for next day's lunch.

Check out her popiah. I feel the stress of Mr. Popiah Skin.

Then on monday, public holiday! My mum use to always complain how much time she spends in the kitchen preparing lunch and then dinner and end up not having time for anything else. And since lunch was settled (remember we had 3rd aunt's popiah take home), I decided to whip up what I've just learnt! A quick blend of pesto, cooked spaghetti, pan fried some fish fillet and tiger prawns, and dinner was ready in 30 mins!

Spaghetti with Pesto Cream topped with Pan Fried Fish Fillet and Prawns on Pesto

You can always have it gorgeous.

Pesto Sauce

250ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)

4 cloves Garlic

100g Fresh Grounded Parmesan Cheese

100g Pine Nuts, toasted for 5 mins at 150 degree celcius

30g Italian Basil Leaves

1tsp Salt

In a food processor, combine garlic, cheese, nuts and basil leaves together. Blend, adding the EVOO in at a trickle until fully incorporated. Season with salt and allow to rest for an hour before using.

You can always vary the amounts of pine nuts and cheese according to your liking.

Cover your pesto with EVOO to keep its green-ness.

The important thing is to make sure you have a sharp blade that will blitz the basil quickly without it becoming warm, it it will begin to ferment and taste bitter. The same goes for the nuts, if you overwork them, they become sweaty.

Blend the basil leaves at low speed to prevent it from turning into a dark olive green.