My Last Meal.... (for the month of February 2010)

It was a really bloody hot day. I came home late (I mean a bit late for my dinner cooking), after the whole day running errands. I hit Borders on my last stop before heading home. Disappointed as I couldn't find the book that I desperately want to read. It's "Becoming A Chef" by Andrew Dornenburg and his wife, Karen Page. It is reviewed as a must-read book for anyone who loves food. I do. I do love food.... good food. It is also recommended before anyone deciding to start or switch career in the culinary arts, be it as a chef, a nutritionist, a caterer, or other related profession.

Oh well..... I will talk more about the book after I get one.

Nevertheless, I came home excited to try the new beer batter recipe that I learn from my last cooking class. It was a bit hectic. I didn't feel all collected, so I was a little confuse to give instructions to my two very-supportive-kitchen-assistants. As a result, the food wasn't prepared and served in good order. We had the Aglio Olio done, and waited for some time before I could finally get the beer batter ready. Worst, we had the salad as the dessert. What?!?!?


1. Aglio Olio
(spinach tagliatelle pasta, black pepper, red chili, fresh rosemary, fresh basil, salt, olive oil)

From Kitchen Runaway

2. Battered Enoki mushroom and fish (without the chip)
(self-raising flour, salt, cold beer)

3. Caesar Salad and Tomato Salsa Salad
(tomato salsa sauce - tomato (de-seed), red chili, fresh basil, salt, lemon, zest, olive oil)
(caesar sauce - elaborate next time when i try making it again)


That's the menu for Sunday, the last day of February 2010.

The Olio came out nice - not a surprised. I used fresh herbs and I think it smells really good. The battered Enoki mushroom and the fish turned out quite well, although it's not perfect. The real big problem was on the tomato salsa sauce for the salad. Oh myyyyy!!!! Terrible!!!

The battered mushroom was really puffy and crispy for the first few batch. It was yummy. However, the last batch of the mushroom and fish were slightly downgraded in terms of quality. Not sure why. I thought it was because of the bubbles from the beer had disappeared. If it was to be true, then how do actually the "fish & chip kiosks" keep their batter? Keep on making the fresh ones? I will need to try more I guess to find out the secret.

Arrggghhhh.... I don't really like to talk about the tomato salsa sauce. At first I thought I have lost my taste-sense. I kept on adding lemon juice and salt as I couldn't taste anything from the mixture. Well, of course later on I realized that I only tasted the olive oil, and of course it was bland. But.... but.... the diced tomato was really salty and sour. What a shame! I learnt my lesson though. The next time, I should have tasted everything, before adding in the olive oil. Let them sit for some time to infuse.

Ok, now back to my other work.