The trial run
January 11, 2008
Well Possums, I have decided to make the noodle salad with chicken instead of kangaroo as entree for the yacht club progressive dinner tomorrow night. I found out that the main for the progressive dinner was barbecued lamb and decided kangaroo followed by lamb was too heavy. For my trial run (above), I cooked the chicken breast in a hot pan with olive oil, soy sauce and sliced chili, sliced it diagonally and placed it on top of the noodle salad. Its hard to see from the photo, but I have garnished it with fried shallots and crushed peanuts. Hot mint is a strong flavour within the salad.
I was pleased to find a pot of the hot mint plant at a local market and locally grown snow peas. The ingredient I will have the most trouble finding down here before tomorrow is bean shoots (I bought the last pack at the supermarket for this trial run yesterday - fingers crossed they get some more in!).
The noodle salad is a favorite recipe of mine. It is flexible because you can add as few or as many ingredients as you have at hand. I was given the recipe for the dressing many years ago by a beautiful friend who is a chef. Even though I have made this salad many times, I have never had to cook it for a crowd of sixty before. Therefore the trial run was necessary to calculate quantities of ingredients. Using the proportion above I worked out that I will need fifteen chicken breasts and five packets of each type of noodle (rice and egg).
I have decided to serve it cold. This way I don’t need to cook the chicken immediately before and keep it hot in the oven. I will be able to go to the yacht club during the day tomorrow and prepare everything in advance. I’m looking forward to it. The yacht club has an excellent industrial kitchen. Last time I took a CD player in but this time my ipod will come with me to provide the compulsory music to cook by.
I have lined up my four girls to help me as waitresses. After the entree is done, my job will be over. Someone else will look after the following courses and I will be able to relax and socialize.
Sounds lovely, and good luck. I think I’ll do something similar for my kids for lunch today …
I’m glad you like the sound of it. Hope the kids enjoy it. I usually leave out the chilis when I’m cooking this one for kids.
That looks yummy. I’m going to try it for my little ones (without chillies)
I’ll put it on my foodie blog when it’s done!
I’m glad you like the look of it.
Here is the recipe for the dressing:
Best All Round Noodle Salad Dressing
(from the beautiful chef at Becco in Melbourne):
2.5 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp rice vinegar
2.5 tbsp soy sauce
1.5 tbsp medium sweet soy (ABC Ketjap Manus)
2 tbsp white vinegar
6 tbsp vegetable oil
salt and pepper
Now we need a pic of the lovely Becco chef!
This looks delicious … I wish I could taste it. At least now I have a noodle salad dressing to try.
The sailboats (in your later post) make me wish I lived near the ocean and more … in a warm climate.
I’m glad you like the look of it Kate, and I hope you like the taste. It went down really well at the club. Yesterday a core group were back eating the left overs for lunch on the balcony with sparkling wine. (A day later it still tastes good).
You can be creative with the ingredients. I put in carrot ribbons, cucumber ribbons, diced red capsicum, show peas, chopped Vietnamese mint, spring onions sliced diagonally, bean shoots and fried shallots.
Other suggestions: coriander, water chestnuts, crushed peanuts, red onion, steamed bok choy (or bok choy cooked in ketjap manus on the barbecue), um…
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[...] 3, 2009 I have another cooking challenge. Last year I cooked an entree for fifty for the yacht club progressive dinner. This year for the same event, I am down to cook the main [...]