My first Lovebites Party :-))))))

I'm very excited about my first event with a  LoveBites logo, I've had many a dinner party at home before, but this one feels different. Whether it's because it's the first time I've booked out an entire restaurant, or because I'm choosing an exclusive provider for the wines, or just because it's not just any dinner party...it has a name. I'm nervous, excited, and hungry. I really hope that for the sake all of my friends who are coming, that it will be a fabulous night!

In Pictures - Robuchon au Dôme, Macau

We visited Macau earlier this year for a weekend treat with a couple of friends, SO MUCH FUN! I was going through my photos during a rainy, lazy Sunday at home, and apart from being alarmed at how many more photos of food I have than of people (!!!), I loved the memories conjured up by these photos from our weekend, and our Sunday lunch at Robuchon au Dôme.

The rather odd looking Grand Lisboa Hotel in Macau, where Robuchon is located at the very top

I go to so many restaurants, take so many photos, and can't share them all because the idea of writing a blog post every day of the week is a bit too daunting. 

So, instead of writing about every dish we had, I invite you to look at the photos that I took of the experience, so you can create your own impression of the restaurant (I hope it's an amazing one!), then call them to make the first available booking you can. Invite some friends, go to Macau, and go HUNGRY.

Make a meal of it, so to speak! :-)

Downstairs, the walls of the lift entrance are lined with fabulous wines and champagnes..

 

The lift opens up to an opulent mirrored foyer, with a pianist playing on a beautifully hand-carved and inlaid piano...

The epic tome of a wine list, the largest I have ever seen. There are also some really nice options by the glass

The Butter Trolley - salted or unsalted

A perfect wheel of butter

The bread basket - ask for extra bacon sticks!

 ♥THE AMUSE BOUCHES♥

The Amuse bouche: Cauliflower panna cotta with uni

The vegetarian amuse bouche: Cauliflower panna cotta with a sweet corn velouté

My friend AB is a vegetarian, and we had no doubt that such an establishment would be able to cater to her tastes very well. We were excited to see what they came up with, and the amuse bouche was a good start!

Crispbread with truffle butter and sea salt - yum

♥THE STARTERS♥

Duo of crab and mozzarella with heart of palm in romaine leaves seasoned with sweet and sour dressing. All the plates are hand decorated as well! See the red to the top left of the plate

Gratinated Roseval potatoes with medley of pork and black truffle served with preserved mushroom

The vegetarian starter - mixed salad with black truffle. Although the coloures were beautiful, it was competely lacking flair and ingenuity if you ask me! Surely the chef is faced with the challenge of a vegetarian meal quite regularly, and this was very boring.

The wine pairing for the starters, a nice crisp riesling, which everyone loved!

♥SOUP♥

Hot Jelly of Shellfish Bouillon with Scallop Royale and Spiced Shredded Lobster - what an amazing, amazing dish! Quite simply, the best soup dish that I've ever tasted!

Jerusalem artichoke veloute served with foie gras emulsion and black truffle

Easy peasy meals @ home - CHICKEN

PB and I love to cook (as if that wasn't already obvious), and we like to eat healthily when possible (him more so than me!). But unless we're prepared, we end up eating the same old thing over and over because we know we can cook it fast. When we get home at 8pm after a day of slogging away at the office, I can't be arsed to cook for 2 hours, and it's horrible for digestion to eat so late. 

This recipe requires me to get home at 6.30pm, but if you have an early day, give it a go. If you tried my French Onion Soup recipe, then you will have thyme and white wine in your fridge - you can use it up here!

I got this recipe from one of my favorite cooking blogs, Proud Italian Cook. She really makes Italian cooking easy, accessible and tasty! I had something similar before at Bistronomique in Hong Kong, and had always wanted to recreate it. 

Chicken Vesuvio

You'll need:

4 chicken thighs (skin on)

4 chicken breasts (skin on)

Dried Oregano 

Granulated Garlic

A few sprigs of fresh thyme (optional) 

4 large potatoes, cut into wedges

1 1/2 cups White Wine 

1 1/2 cups Chicken Stock

10 to 12 Whole Garlic Cloves (skin on)

Frozen Peas

♥ Preheat the oven to 190C/375F. Season the chicken with salt, pepper, dried oregano, granulated garlic. Wash, peel and cut your potatoes into wedges.

♥ In a large skillet, heat some olive oil and brown the chicken pieces and potatoes, then remove and place in a roasting pan/large pyrex dish.

♥ Add the garlic cloves to the skillet and brown then, then deglaze the pan with wine. Add the chicken broth and cook it down for 5 minutes.

♥ Pour your sauce into the pyrex then sprinkle fresh thyme (optional).

♥ Bake for 1 hour and 15 mins, until the chicken is cooked through. 15 minutes before it's finished, add the peas.

If you like your peas more green and crispy (like me), 10 minutes before it's done, cook the peas in the microwave, covered in boiling water, for 3 minutes, then drain. Add to the dish when it's out of the oven.

If you'd like your sauce to be more gravy-like, when the dish has finished cooking, remove the chicken, potatoes, and garlic and set aside. Place the dish over a low flame on the stove and stir in some gravy granules, such as Bisto Chinken granules. Start with a little at first and add as needed (the granules should be mixed with a little water first so that they don't clump). Then put everything back in the dish to serve.

You don't need to serve it with anything else, it's a one dish meal, which means less washing up! We all like less washing up :-)

Smear the garlic on the chicken for some extra garlic-y goodness!

Enjoy!

Easy peasy meals @ home - ONIONS

Summer is well and truly here, we're junking, we're beaching, and those annual summer holidays are approaching! I've just shelled out for tickets to Paris, and after a week of degustation menus, day trips to vineyards in Champagne, and a romantic getaway to Mont St. Michel, followed by a week in Corsica with best friends (yay!), I know I'm going to be feeling very poor!

So after a gorgeous meal at Yardbird last Friday with my lovely gal pal SN, I have decided that I am going to try and conserve my funds (and my waistline) as much as possible until France - which certainly means no shopping, and much less eating out.

Consequently I'll be cooking more at home, which I'm quite excited about! I'll be opting for recipes that are simple and tasty, which allow me to use all of the ingredients I purchase, rather than scooping out that one tablespoon of creme fraiche and then letting the rest of the $60 container go bad. And let's face it, the last think we want to do when we get home after a long day is channel our inner chef!

Similarly, I have lots of random ingredients in my pantry that I bought for some elaborate recipe in the past (a huge bag of pine nuts and hazelnuts, coriander seeds, Japanese cake flour, coconut oil,  to name a few), which I am going to try and use.

To start off, yesterday I made my French Onion Soup, and all I needed to buy was onions and thyme! :-) If you have a 1/4 bottle of white wine in the fridge which you are never going to drink, this is the perfect way to use it.

French Onion Soup - simplified

You'll need (serves 4 as a light meal or 6 as a starter):
30g butter
1 tbsp olive oil
4 onions, thinly sliced
a few sprigs of thyme (optional)
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp plain flour
1.4L boiling beef stock
120ml dry white wine
2 tbsp cognac or brandy
French baguette (or any crusty bread you have on hand)
Parmesan cheese, grated
Gruyere cheese, thinly sliced(or any cheese which melts)

♥ Melt the butter in a large pot, add the olive oil. Add the onions and cook them over low heat for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally to ensure that they don't brown.

♥ Sprinkle in the flour and salt, and cook for a further 3 minutes. 

♥ Turn off the heat and add the boiling beef stock and wine, stirring it to incorporate everything well.

♥ Cover the soup and simmer over low heat for 30-40 mins, skimming occasionally. Stir in the cognac right before serving, et voila! You can either have the soup just like this for a lighter version, or if you want, grill one slice of baguette each with a sprinkling of grated Parmesan, place it in the bottom of the soup bowl. Pour over the soup then layer the thinly sliced Gruyere over the top. Place it under the grill until melted and bubbling, then serve immediately.