Cooking with friends 1

Evan, Dave and I got together for a cooking session amongst friends. It was the first time I did this, and I am sure it won't be the last, as it was a really touching experience. We were all new to this and so enthusiastic that both David and I decided to cook 2-3 dishes each, which kept us busy for quite a few hours chatting and working together for this fantastic homemade meal!
Everyone gave their best and it was a revelation. I didn't know that Evan was a professional dessert maker, and her dessert definitely exceeded my expectations. It was a refined delicacy that I would have expected to find in the best dessert shops in Singapore, in the order of magnitude of Obolo or Canele'.
I also learnt a lot from David, who showed us some molecular cooking techniques. He made truffle sand to accompany the scallops, and also made a very classic dish with a twist, which I have to say was executed to perfection.
Overall, I am looking forward to our next gathering. There is a lot more to learn, and a lot more fun to be had!

David's beautiful raw scallops with truffle sand and tobiko on top. The truffle sand melted in your mouth releasing the truffle scented oil, while the scallops had a subtle zesty kick.

My crab and prawns linguine. I haven't blogged about this recipe yet, but I will. The crab meat is enhanced by the flavour of the "fumetto di pesce" created from the prawn shells. The sauce itself is made on the fly while the pasta is boiling.

David's fried Camembert was a very classic and gnummy dish. I loved the wrapping, such a delicate replacement for the more common breadcrumb batter style... the cheese inside wasn't over melted, and it perfectly retained its texture. The combination of sweet (jam), sour (salad) and salty (cheese) was perfectly calibrated.

My rotolone caprese was just a quick alternative presentation of a classic Italian combination: tomatoes, mozzarella and basil - accompanied with some Parma ham, all rolled together.

The pasta alle erbe is not new to this blog, as I posted the recipe before. It wasn't in my plans to make it, but since Evan wanted to have some homemade pasta, I chose this recipe as it was slightly more interesting and fun to prepare in a group. We made a really small portion as we were already fairly full by then :)

...and the gran finale: evan's émotion ispahan was a complex 3-layered dessert. A base of lychee gelee, raspberry gelee, white chocolate cream scented with rose petals and topped with one of her macarons. Just the macaron by itself was a masterpiece. I understood then why people buy macarons from her! I would :) Initially, when she suggested making over 10 serving of this dessert I thought it would be a waste, but it wasn't. 6 of them disappeared straight away, and the rest disappeared in the following couple of days.

Evan's blog is much more descriptive on this event, and she posted some great pictures too! Please go and check it out. Hopefully you will see more of these postings in the near future!