Tuesday 27 July 2010

Dinner guests

My house guests


Apologies for not posting for some time. Have been busy lately as Pat's father is ill and in hospital, so after work, go home, go to hospital visit him, and then back home and have dinner. So by the time dinner's over, sometimes it is already 9pm and just to lazy/tired to log on. Pat's father is 91 he was hospitalised slightly over a week ago. At first we suspected that he had stroke as he could not speak, but he had the use of his arms and legs, so that could not be. He had a brain scan on Monday and the doctors told us that it was indeed not a stroke and when they did a blood test, we were told he had contracted MRSA and the only place that he could have gotten that was at the nursing home that he was at. So please say a prayer that he will recover soon.

Anyway, back to my dinner guests 2 Saturdays ago.
I only got to "speak" with terri. of Daily Obsessions recently. I normally read a lot of blogs but I am a silent reader. But because I sent Terri an award, and she replied. That's how I started communicating with her. I learnt that she would be in Europe for 2 1/2 months holiday as her daughter was finishing her 6 month exchange student stint, so she took the opportunity to travel around the continent.

So when I heard that Terri would be coming here, I took the opportunity to invite her over to stay the Saturday night for dinner and then take her and daughter to airport the next day. I live about 20 mins from the airport so it is really convenient! I was so happy that she accepted my invitation! I had a really good time with Terri and Yi. Thank you!

Was not sure of what to cook for dinner, but this was my menu for the evening. And as for dessert, made summer pudding. This is a typical English dessert which Pat loves and now Terri says she loves it too. So Terri, recipe is below and I will post step by step pictures shortly.

Satay Babi
Banana/Mango/Prawn packet
Thai Grilled Chicken
Yong Tau Fu
Nonya Chap Chye
and for dessert - Summer Pudding

I did not take pictures of the food as Terri and Yi were doing so! So my pictures are just file pictures (when I did them before)

Satay Babi - file picture


Banana/Mango/Prawn packet - file picture


Summer pudding
Recipe from Saturday Kitchen - James Martin

Ingredients
400g/14oz mixed berries, trimmed
2 tbsps water
50g/2oz caster_sugar
14 thin slices white_bread, crusts removed
oil, for greasing
200g/7oz clotted_cream/thick cream, optional

Preparation method
1. Heat the berries, sugar and water in a saucepan until boiling, reduce the heat and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
2. Blend half of the fruits in a blender and strain the purée through a sieve. Reserve the remaining fruit.
3. Stamp out four circles from four slices of the bread to fit the bottom of four small dariole moulds* and set aside. Stamp out four larger circles for the top of the moulds and set aside. Cut the remaining bread into wide strips the same height as the moulds.
4. Lightly oil the inside of each mould and line with cling film.

5. Dip the small bread circles into the purée and place into the moulds. Repeat with the wide strips of bread and use them to line the sides of the mould, making sure that they overlap slightly.
6. Fill the moulds with the reserved fruit and a little of the purée and press the mixture down firmly.

7. Dip the larger circles of bread in the purée and use them to cover the tops of the moulds. Cover with the cling film competely.

8. Chill the puddings in the fridge until ready to serve.
9. To serve, turn the puddings out onto serving plates and serve with a spoonful of clotted cream or double cream if using.


*Note: I used ramekins

7 comments:

Baking Fiend said...

I wish Pat's father speedy recovery!

A wonderful spread for yr guests. :) The summer pudding definately looks interesting.

tina said...

Baking Fiend, thank you. Yes summer pudding is interesting and tastes good as well!

terri@adailyobsession said...

hey tina! yi n i consider ourselves extremely lucky to be invited for dinner n stay! your house was comfy n beautiful, dinner was superb (n you work so fast n efficiently) n i especially LOVE the summer pudding. Yi made it this afternoon but i did puree the fruits n her puddings didn't turn out as dark as yours but then it could be bc she turned one out when her dad came home, which was 2 hours after she made it. but i could taste the bread so i think there really wasn;t enough fruits. we can't get raspberries here...i'll tell her to use your recipe bc she can get better berries in melbourne; she's going back tomorrow :((

say hi to pat (who was wonderful, n i was thrilled to see the two of you so happy n loving) n thank him again for everything. we were such trouble n only nice folks like you n pat can put up with us! muah!

Teena in Toronto said...

I hope Pat's dad is okay.

Everything looks delish!

Happy blogoversary :)

Lee said...

Hi Tina, Holy Smoke! The last time I ate satay babi was in Malacca wayyyyy back in the '70s.
Will ask my wife make for us...
Love this satay....lok lok and satay chelup too.

Glad to read you had fun with your friends.
Wow! 20 minutes from Heathrow?
Don't the planes bother you or you not on their flightpath?
Have a great weekend, best regards, lee.

ps, you're a true blue Nyonya lady....
By the way, how's your ayam or babi pong teh? Or buah keluak?
If and when you make it, send me telegram, haha. Lee.

tina said...

Terri, It was such a pleasure to meet with you and Yi. I really had such a good time with you and the feeling is mutual, you are such an easy person to get along with! It was no trouble la, just happy to help out!

Teena - Thank you.

Lee - yes I have made ayam buah kerluak and babi pongteh before. You can find them in my archived recipes.

Although we are just 20 mins from Heathrow, we are not under the flight path so, no problem with the
the noise from them! haha

You have a great what's left of the weekend and a good week ahead!

christine said...

One of the things I love the most about visiting great blogs like yours is I get to not only see food I've never seen prepared before, but you get to read about how they taste. Love it..... & now I'm hungry .... again :) If you wont mind I'd love to guide Foodista readers to your post. Just add the foodista widget to the end of this post so it will appear in the Foodista pages and it's all set, Thanks!

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