nothing in particular

We ended quite late yesterday and had sore ankles from standing too much.
K had it worse cos he was a *WS*..no la he went for IPT and got injured from running too much.

I took a cab over to K's house to help him out with the remaining items at 8am+.
Turns out that the bread has been baked already cos he woke up at 6am to "thaw" it out (back to room temperature before baking).

At 6am+, K said he couldn't find anywhere to thaw the bread except in the oven, he dumped it there and stumbled back to bed -_-'



Time to wrap the bacon around the sausage meat that was marinated yesterday. This is done in accordance to the webby, interweaving the bacon strips. We feared that the bacon strips will be too thin and thus break during cooking, cos afterall they were not thickly sliced ones >_>''


K pressing down the sausage meat. There's 900 grams of pork + mutton here! Meanwhile me and K's dad were wondering if the "bacon sheet" can hold all these meat.


Now add all those bacon and BBQ sauce we made yesterday ! Oh and pan fried chilli powder for that extra smoky flavour.




It's a wonder how everything got wrapped in o.O'


Using a hickory smoke bag, that costs around $10 for one time usage ONLY ('_')


Placed the bacon explosion into the oven. This is supposed to take around 2.5 hours.

This is the main star for today ~_~... gosh we were nervous cos it looks like the bag might burst @_@'' *instructions says the bag will rise during cooking*


Time for making potato salad..luckily we pared and boiled the potatoes yesterday night.
Paprika, miracle whip, egg yolks.


Rest of the eggs and parsley, mix well.
I see the "Naked Chef" in the background XDDDDDddd *oh noes I am gonna get killed for posting this comment*


And the final touch up for Philly Cheese Football, rolling pecan nuts on it.


Pesto dip for baguette. Ingredients includes Parmesan cheese, pine nuts, garlic, oilve oil and basil leaves.


Another dip for the homemade bread, walnut dip. Lemon juice, olive oil and walnuts of course.


K said that frying chicken wings twice will result in crispier wings hmmm~


Second round of frying is done and the buffalo wings sauce which consists of cayene pepper sauce(ready made from MarketPlace @ $2.10) , chilli powder, butter and honey.


Meanwhile the smoking bag kept growing and growing..finally it hit the top heating element and K shifted it down to the lower shelf. Finally 2.5hours passed and THE MOMENT has arrived..
Time to cut the smoking bag open..*there goes $10 goes the toilet bowl*


Quick check on the internal temperature, about 80+ degrees OK WE ARE DONE!


Presenting the BACON EXPLOSION~


The essence gathering from the smoking bag >_>''

Bake the bacon explosion for another 10mins or so to make it crisp before applying a few more layers of BBQ sauce.


Extra dish from Beast's relative, home made ngoh hiang YUMMY~


More guests have arrived and its time to start laying the tables and cutting the cooled baguette.
Seems like high hydration sponge gave the baguette nice holes and ultra soft texture.


In pic below:
Bacon Explosion
Butterhead + toasted garlic + bacon bits
Potato Salad
Chicken Wings


Closeup for yummy ngoh hiang.


Cross section of Bacon Explosion.


Philly Cheese Football. Ok its not exactly a FOOTBALL..


Homemade meat cake from Jolyn *Thumbs up!*
Consists of beef patty, BBQ sauce, mash potato.

Sorry no pics on the event cos I was bushed >_>'''
Everyone was too shy to start eating until Robert started HAHA~

After the meal, DS groups and PS gaming groups begun to form. Glad that everyone enjoyed themselves, it was quite a good turnout of 16pple =)

Later at 4pm+, its about time to bake the caneles as they have rested for about 24hours. However all the forummers have to head home soon and these caneles have to be baked for 1hour plus!

I used half the recipe given and it couldn't fill all the moulds *shrugs* I don't want to eat too much failed products if any.


After 10mins+ at 250degrees which is the MAX temperature for this oven, the caneles started rising. Turn down temperature to 180 degrees once top caramelizes.


After 20mins, cover with aluminium foil and finally after another 40mins..TADA!
We were quite surprised that the caneles turned out dark brown cos it wasn't browned totally when I covered them with foil.


Silicone mould makes removal easy. But the oven heat was uneven at the centre resulting in pale caneles for those in the centre of the mould.


Popped them into the oven for another 10mins+ at 180 degrees.
Now they look like caneles.


On the right is the top, left is the bottom. They look chao ta, don't they?


This canele tastes custardy in the centre, sweet and crispy on the outside. Nice stuff~
By eating only the centre portion, the dessert doesn't taste that nice..so eat everything together.

*We passed some to our colleagues. Some say it tastes like caramel, coffee on the outside*


Cleaning up time. Combination of the oil + essence from baking of bacon strips and baking of bacon explosion itself...see, we saved you from so much oil and fats -_______-'''


Comments:

• Most felt that Philly Cheese Football was tad too rich, except for one.
• Most chicken wings were not fully cooked, still bloody inside -_-
• Bread was soft and good.
• Most felt potato salad was great
  
  More to add later...
  

• Frozen stuffs are much cheaper so we went for frozen bacon, minced mutton. MMMM at Novena Square 2 offers quite a large variety.
• Thai basil costs much lesser than those found in Cold Storage, we got them from malay spice shop in Woodlands.
  

• Sauces tend to taste better when made and left 24hours. So we should make them early next time.
• Planning the cooking schedule in advance is good to ensure things are done systematically and there is enough time/oven space for baking each item.
• Place hickory smoke bag on bottom rack instead of middle rack.
• Powdered gelatin should add 4times of water instead of 5 for blooming.
• K felt that the sausage meat could be more mushy and wings could be more salty.
• For butterhead, water should be drained more thoroughly.