Summertime Dinner

Co-hosted a dinner party at JJ's for a couple of his friends and it was fun!! Being in his kitchen is like being in a candy store for me!! He's got this wonderfully equipped kitchen with all these little knick knacks that I would love to have! And because he's into cooking (hence the well equipped kitchen) we were able to swap cooking tips as well. Anyway, he was in charge of the appetiser and salad while I took on the challenge of the main course and dessert. After our dinner at Finestre's JJ was excited to experiment with one of the appetizers they had on their menu - a variation of a watermelon and feta salad that is a common dish in Israel and Egypt, with tomatoes and a sprinkling of roasted pine nuts added, as well as a dash or two of chilli flakes to give it some bite. But instead of serving it chopped into bite sized cubes and mixed in a large bowl, JJ decided to get creative and dressed large slabs of watermelon with the salad and topped it off with a lemon-mustard-honey dressing. So refreshing on a hot summer evening!

Main course was white fish-fillet in lemon butter sauce. I usually use john dory but since everything here is in Chinese, I'm still not really sure what I bought. The texture turned out pretty good though so I don't really care :p Lemon-butter was the only sauce that was simple enough and that I could do from memory. Just a cup of dry white wine, lemon juice, shallots, garlic, orange juice, salt and pepper and unsalted butter. The original recipe called for about 250g of butter but the thought of all that fat just makes me cringe so I cut it down a little. It didn't turn out as pale a yellow nor as creamy as it ought to, and it definitely had a sharper tang to it, but that was neutralised once eaten with the fish. Served it up with fresh greens and buttered boiled baby potatoes.

Dessert was really simple but such a bitch to prepare! Valencian Caramel Oranges. Since weather's been so muggy, I figured something light and fruity would be perfect, so oranges it was. The last time I did it I added strawberries to add some colour to it but seeing how we're in the middle of summer, fat chance. The tedious bit about this recipe is the fact that you have to separate the oranges into segments by removing the membranes! Arrghhh! But after that the rest is easy. Again tried doing the caramel from memory but I now realise that I'd forgotten to add water to the sugar BEFORE melting it over the fire, so when I added some during the boiling process, the caramel started crystallising and I lost about half of it to a hard shiny lump of sweetness (which i enjoyed :D) . Managed to salvage the rest and the slightly burnt taste it had complemented the oranges rather nicely. JJ had a brainwave just as I was about to dish out the oranges, and splashed a capful or Cointreau over them. A Fab idea! Went really well with the caramel. We then washed it all down with an eiswein that P brought along. Can't say I enjoyed the combination though. I mean the wine was great but I think I would've enjoyed it more if I wasn't having it with the oranges and caramel which were sweet enough.

But all in all, our guests were happy, and JJ pronounced it a success! YAY!

NEXT! BBQ on the 8th of this month!