Trip to Malaysia Part IV (Christmas Party)

I was told by Deryk since I was in Sydney that we will be in charge of the Christmas dinner party for about 15-18 people on 21th December 2008 . Quite excited about what I should make for desserts. Last year (2007), I made Tiramisu and they were very satisfied...so this year I had to make it better... For the party, I think baking cake is not easy due to the amount of serving, as well as an inadequacy of baking equipments in his house. Also,we had to do something that looks professional like plated desserts (cuz mum wants us to serve fine dining service lol) Um...I kept thinking, thinking and thinking...finally, I got it !

One good friend sent me 10 pods of vanilla beans for souvenir to my house in Thailand when I was in Sydney . So it is about the time to use... Let's see what I made :D

Henrik was the very good organizer of the party. When I woke up and saw these things on the table.. I was like.. ''wow". Looks so professional.

The table was set around 3 pm. I was quite excited already.

The menu of the meal.


Haha... Sous chef Pojwaree (Ja)


Christmas tree for Christmas time !

around6.30 pm. The party started.. Our hour' derve are :

Crispy Bruschetta served with tomato concasse & sauteed onion

Creamy tomato-cheese with chives on toasted bagutte

Entree : Sweet & Spicy Oriental Salad : Green Mango, Cucumber, Carrot, Green bean & Coriender dressed in home-made sweet & spicy sauce (by Ja) Deryk created the menu sounds so special..haha

This dish was added ... made by Lydia (maid). Deryk said he is very good at pasta but he was too lazy to cook it.... until now I haven't tried his pasta yet -_-''

Deryk was in charge of the main dishes. (head chef lol). Last time when I was studied with him in WAI, 2007, he was quite slow (haha...sorry deryk) but this time I was very surprised that he is a lot more professional since he got experience from working as a pasta chef in Melbourne.

Main 1 : Chicken Chesseur - chicken pieces braised in white wine and chicken stock.

I haven't tried or heard about this dish before. He told me that it is the french dish. Chesseur is the dish that have mushroom in the sauce. In his recipe calls for cream but we didn't put. I like it, chicken was soft and the sauce was not too rich. (but they look so Chinese by the plate..lol)

Main 2 : Braised Lamb shank : Lamb shank slow-cook in fresh garden herbs and red wine reduction

We braised 8 lamb shanks.. Actually we bought 10 shanks but our pot is not big enough to put all. It took about 3-4 hrs cooking in the oven.

Everyone who had this dish love it.. They said it was so tender and flavoursome. You can tell how they love it by the empty plate after meal.. so clean ..haha


Party time !

Ok...now it was my turn !

I made Vanilla bean panna cotta with strawberry sauce on top. ( It would be a lot better if we use the raspberry sauce but I couldn't find frozen raspberry in supermarket).

At first I wanted to serve panna cotta with plain biscuit but Deryk mentioned about Oreo.. so I think that.. maybe we can use oreo for the base like pie. I didn't use butter in the oreo base cuz don't want any extra fat.. Anyway, I was a bit worried about one thing. And it happened !!! After I pour panna cotta on top of oreo crust, the oreo was floating into the cream.. ''Oh my god! '' I was so nervous at that time.. but Henrik said..no one knows that we didn't intent to do that... Yeah..haha... It still looked great though.


Uncle can't consume sugar so Deryk prepared the cheese platter him. I was quite amazed how beautiful he made the platter. ( in my idea .. ;P)

Everyone likes it ( I think lol)

Such a wonderful Christmas party ! Thanks mum and everyone.