Christmas! We decided to stay at home and cooked up a sumptuous 5-course dinner! It's easy to cook a simple meal for ourselves, but when having guests over, admittedly it can get a bit stressful lol. So we decided to keep to some real easy recipes with minimum preparation time such as:-
- Mesclun Salad
- Avocado & Tomato Bruschetta
- Pan-seared US Angus Ribeye & Kurobuta Pork Collar served with Sautéed Vegetables
- Truffle Mushroom Fettucine
- Yogurt Parfait
I wouldn't praise myself to have executed all the dishes to 100% perfection, but it's still edible lah lol! As with all things, constant practices will certainly see improvements. Here's sharing the recipes with you. Let's get cooking!
MESCLUN SALAD
I love vegetables so having some greens is always welcome. It's easy to put together a basic dressing like balsamic vinaigrette, but bottled ones for convenience is fine as well.
Ingredients
- 1 pack Mesclun
- 1 small pack Mixed Nuts
- 1 small pack Mixed Dried Fruits
- Cherry Tomatoes
- Balsamic Vinaigrette (3 parts Extra Virgin Oil + 1 part Balsamic Vinegar + Salt & Pepper, combine well)
Method
- Place mesclun in bowl, top with rest of the ingredients.
- Drizzle desired amount of dressing over the salad. Serve chilled.
AVOCADO & TOMATO BRUSCHETTA
This is one of my favourite bruschetta variants, very refreshing in taste plus all the healthy benefits of avocados and cherry tomatoes! Sometimes I'm lazy and will skip the step of toasting the bread, but I wouldn't recommend it unless you're hard-press for time. Just a light toasting will up the aromatic and crisp factor so much more.
Ingredients
- 1 loaf Baguette (sliced)
- 2 Avocado (mashed)
- 1 pack Cherry Tomato (diced)
- Parsley (chopped)
- 1 tablespoon Lemon Juice
- 1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Oil
- Salt & Pepper
Method
- Lightly toast the baguette slices.
- Mix the avocado with lemon juice.
- Mix the tomato with extra virgin oil, balsamic vinegar, season with salt & pepper.
- Spread avocado over the baguette, topped with tomato and serve.
PAN-SEARED US ANGUS RIBEYE & KUROBUTA PORK COLLAR served with SAUTÉED VEGETABLES
It's actually not that difficult to prepare a steak meal at home, and I've been wanting to cook it since The Hungry Cow showed me how fuss-free it can be. Don't let all the aromatic oil left from searing the steak go to waste, sauté some vegetables with it!
Ingredients
- US Angus Ribeye
- Kurobuta Pork Collar
- Brussels Sprout
- Baby Carrot
- Baby Potato
- Salted Butter
- Salt & Pepper
Method
- Parboil brussels sprout (5 mins), carrot & potato (15 mins) in boiling water till soften, drain and set aside.
- Season ribeye liberally with salt & pepper just before searing.
- Heat oil in pan till smoking, add a knob of butter, followed immediately by ribeye.
- Sear for 1 min, turnover and sear for 1 min (medium rare). Adjust timing accordingly to thickness of meat and your preferred doneness.
- Remove from pan and rest steak for 5 minutes.
- Repeat steps 2-5 for pork collar.
- When meat are done, add parboil vegetables to same pan and sauté.
- Add butter, season with salt and pepper.
- Serve the steak and pork with sautéed vegetables.
TRUFFLE MUSHROOM FETTUCCINE
We were hungry and greedily cooked a whole pack of fettuccine which turned out to be too much for four of us since we have other dishes lol. The method of preparation is the same, so if you're cooking for fewer persons, just lessen the amount of ingredients and adjust it to your personal liking.
Ingredients
- 1 pack Fettuccine
- 1 pack Mixed Mushroom/Portobello (sliced)
- 10 cloves Fresh Garlic (finely chopped)
- 1 small packet Beef Stock (using only 300ml)
- Parsley (chopped)
- Truffle Oil
- Salted Butter
- Salt & Pepper
- Olive Oil
Method
- Add salt and oil to a large pot of boiling water, cook fettuccine for about 8 minutes till al dente. Drain, set aside.
- Heat pan with olive oil, add garlic and saute till brown.
- Add mushrooms and cook till soften.
- Add beef stock and simmer till reduced to desired thickness.
- Add in pasta, tossed well.
- Fold in desired amount of butter, season with salt & pepper, add parsley.
- Remove from heat, drizzle with truffle oil before serving.
YOGURT PARFAIT
Parfait are easy to prepare (just assemble, no cooking required lol) and a very refreshing dessert to have after a heavy meal. Furthermore, it's very healthy too! Since it's Christmas, I chose raspberry and kiwi to bring out the festive colors of the season, with plain yogurt to complement the fruity flavors, and added cornflakes for some crunch.
Ingredients
- Plain Yogurt
- Fresh Raspberry
- Fresh Kiwi (cubed)
- Cornflakes
Method
- Place ingredients in alternate layers in glass. Serve chilled immediately.
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