weekday dinner

Dinner time tonight was filled with laughters and surrounded by great friends. I made maple and honey chicken and Chinese pork ribs. The chicken thighs were marinated overnight in maple syrup, honey, cinnamon, garlic and apple juice. And I used my own special sauce to marinate the pork ribs which consisted of sweet chilli, hoisin sauce, sesame oil, cranberry sauce (yes, cranberry sauce for some sweetness) and a little bit of lime.

Since most of the preparation was done the night before, all I needed to do earlier after work was just to put the chicken and ribs in hot oven until the chicken is cooked and the ribs are tender. Delicious.


And also to satisfy my vegetarian friend, I made honeycomb cannelloni, a recipe from Jamie's book. Jamie put a little twist to this pasta dish; rather than laying the cannelloni tubes on their sides, as is the traditional method, the cannelloni is stack facing up in a snug-fitting pan so they look a bit like a honeycomb pattern.


The cannelloni was then filled with a rich vegetable ragu and topped with a white sauce and cheese before baking it in the oven.

The first time I made this was kinda a disaster as I didn't use the right size cannelloni and the also the pan. And a note from Jamie for this recipe is, being precise helps! An advice I ignored the first time and I have learned my lesson.

And to end, for something sweet I made mango and coconut panna cotta which I prepared last night so that they can set and of course to also save time.


People who know me, know that they don't associate me with football but I am actually very excited for the World Cup which starts in a few hours. I'll be hosting few of the matches and I cannot wait to have some friends over for food and cold beverages. The first one will be this Saturday for England vs USA. Bring it on!

One last thing, Thank God it's Friday.