We went for dinner at Thanh's house last week. As per usual in the preceding week there were a flurry of back and forth emails deciding what to cook, when to have it, how we'd get there etc... (sorry Duncan!). In the end Thanh decided on a chicken recipe followed by chocolate puddings for dessert from his Movida cookbook.
We got there around 2, and Thanh swiftly put us to work making the chocolate puddings. The pudding seemed to be a typical molten chocolate pudding recipe, but you had to put the mixture back in the fridge twice (before spooning it into the ramekins, and once it's in the ramekins) before you bake it.
That's Thanh's concentrating face. :o)
Then we started making the chicken. The recipe seemed to be a lot more work than Thanh thought it would be. It wasn't too hard, just long and fiddly. You have to chop up masses of capsicums and tomatoes and onions and garlic, and sautee them all one after the other... then brown chicken pieces, pour the sauce over, then bake.
We also made roast potatoes, using the Nigella method and chicken fat. Yum. Thanh wanted to make a beetroot salad, but he couldn't be stuffed after all the cooking, hehe. We did a pared-down version with just spinach leaves, fetta, toasted pine nuts and dressing.
A couple of Thanh's friends also brought oysters and lemon. (Score! Especially considering 50% of the people at the table didn't eat oysters...)
Roast potatoes. Crispy!
The chicken was frikkin amazing! It was so tender, with heaps of great flavour from the capsicums. I loved it, and would love to make it again for my family or a dinner party.
After we ate, Thanh put the puddings into the oven. They only took about 15 minutes (?) to bake.
I thought we were gonna eat the puddings straight out of the ramekins, but apparently the idea was to turn them out on plates. They were a bit difficult to get out (Thanh blamed my crappy flouring, I blamed Duncan's crappy buttering, Duncan blamed Thanh's lack of instructions... heheh)... but they were still totally delicious. I love molten chocolate puddings with their crackly tops and soft rich centres.
Mmm... fattening.
That Movida cookbook is great. I'd totally have stolen it from Thanh if it didn't represent 20% of his total cookbook collection. Thanks for a great dinner Thanh!
2 comments
I never knew I made that face when I'm concentrating. What a give-away that would be if I was playing poker.
ReplyDeleteThe food turned out very nice, I'm happy with that. It was a fun night as usual. And I still blamed the butter-er and flour-er for the way the puddings wouldn't turn out of the ramekins. :-)
It was heaps of fun wasn't it! As I'm not going to get around to writing it up and forgot to take enough photos, let me add my public big-fat-thanks to Thanh here :)
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