Top Chef?........or is it my own imagination.....

I like to watch"Top Chef" or "Master Chef" programmes on tv lately as they show that cooking is an exciting thing to do. (well, minus the pressure and expectations). Lately, some of my friends ordered some food from me and I've started to imagine myself as one of the contestants whenever I prepare the food. (hehe). Of course, the kinds of food they like to prepare are totally different from our kinds of food. But I doesn't stop me from wanting to try my best in preparing the best food for my friends. Maybe I'm not so good in decorating the food as I'm not so creative in that part. I'm quite lucky as Malaysian food doesn't need to be decorate so much as we care more about the taste. (iye ke? maybe it's just my own opinion. )

Last week, I've been asked to prepare fried noodle a.k.a mee goreng and macaroni baked for 50 people by WUMA (Waikato University Malaysian Association). It's for their meeting which would be on Saturday, 17 Oct, with new MSD (Malaysian Student Department) director here, Dr. Rosli Mohammed.The meeting would only be for the students as they are going to discussed things related to them. They are actually having the meeting while I'm typing this entry.

The cooking operation (note the word operation. haha) started last night when I cut 2 kg beef, I cooked 2 bags of macaroni pasta and sauted garlic, onion with chooped tomatoes and canned tunas.You might wonder why did I started so early? Well, eventhough fried noodles and macaroni baked are quite easy, when you have to cook in a large quantity, you need more time for the preparation. (tambah2 kalau mcm I yg still tak terer masak ni. lambat sikit masak2 ni)

This morning by 7 a.m. , I took out 8 packets of noodles (mee kuning tu, mahal tau kat sini sepaket $4.50), the prepared beef, 2 packets of shrimps, chives and beansprouts. Before I fried the noodles, I had to mix the macaroni sauce with the cooked macaroni and sprinkled with some cheese. The macaroni then went into the oven for about 40 minutes. For the first time after about 3 years, I used the gas cooker stove top that we bought last week. Usually, most of the time, I have to cook using the electrical stove tops. You might wonder; so what's the difference? When we use the electrical stove tops, we have to wait longer before it's really heated and we have to be careful with the volume as we don't want to burn our food without cooking it properly. The gas cooker stove tops; well most of you know because that's what we normally use in Malaysia. But if you never use it, the gas cooker stove tops would be so much easier compared to the electrical one. (apala dah melalut sgt ni. sorry...)

In order to make my job easier, I sauteed garlics, onions, chilli paste with the beef and shrimps first. After it's ready, I scooped out the base and pour it into a big bowl. Next, I put a packet of noodle and mix it with 1/8 of the base. The beansprouts and chives would be put later when the noodle looked nicely cooked. Of course I also pour some sauces like chilli sauce, tomato sauce, sweet chilli sauce,soy sauce and some salt. I cooked about 8 batches of fried noodles and I finished cooking at about 11 a.m. I was so relieved that I managed to finish cooking before they came to pick up the food. There was not much decoration for the fried noodles as I just sprinkled some fried onions on top of each containers and they were ready. I have to mention that I got some helps from my hubby too along the cooking process. He helped to stir the noodles and hold the big frying pan when I need to transfer the noodles into the containers. Thanks sayang! Love you so much (jgn muntah lak baca ni. hehe)

I only managed to snap two pictures of me while frying the noodles. I didn't really have time to pose as I was afraid that the food wouldn't be ready on time! I even forgot to take a picture of the noodles and the macaroni baked. There were 4 big containers of fried noodles and a big container of macaroni baked. Maybe next time (if there's another order. huhu), I will remember to take heaps of the food photos.