Cook Up A Storm with CJ CheilJedang

Let me start the Year 2011 with an interesting post which I had delayed in putting up for awhile. Sometimes in early Dec 2010, I was invited to a special hands-on cooking session at Cookyn with Mervyn Home Cooking Studio where we experienced incorporating Korean fares into local cuisine by using CJ CheilJedang products. Interesting right? I accepted the invitation right away. Most Singaporeans including myself are no strangers to Korean food culture, thanks to the "Hanryu" (Korean) wave that swept Asia by storm and also hundreds of Korean restaurants including food court stalls all over Singapore. I like Korean as much as Japanese cuisine and been cooking it pretty often at home but has never cross my mind to use these sauces in Singapore-style cuisine like Chicken rice and Rojak. Sound interesting right!

CJ CheilJedang is Korea No 1 food company and has more than 57 years of experience on the Korean instant foods industry. It carries a wide selection of instant food products ranging from convenient sauces such as Bulgogi BBQ sauces to frozen foods such as rice cakes and dumplings. Recently they even came out with ready-made snacks like the roasted chestnuts. In May 2010, this Korean food giant has entered into one of our local largest supermarket chains - NTUC Fairprice. Now you can easily find their products in all NTUC Fairprice outlets island wide at more reasonable prices where it used to be much more costly in speciality Korean grocery store. I believe most of you have seen them by now. The representative of CJ CheilJedang in Singapore told us that they plan to grow into a ubiquitous and must have brand for local homes. Glad to know that the sauce we were using that day are all trans fat free and with fruit puree. Enough is said about them, let's me take you through the free style cooking session I had with other bloggers and see how local fares are infused with Korean sauces at Mervyn's cooking studio.

Menu for the day:
Homemade Chilli Sauce
Popiah
Rojak
Braised Pork Belly served with Kimchi
Chicken Rice

Homemade Chilli Sauce
CJ products: CJ BBQ Sauce (Pork marinade)

We started the session by making our own chilli sauce which will compliment the rest of the dishes later. Very simple and super spicy! Pound fresh chilli, ginger, garlic and lime juice together. Lastly add in BBQ sauce to season which replace the sugar.

Popiah with CJ Vermicelli Filling
CJ products: CJ Bulgogi Sauce (beef marinade), BBQ Sauce, Sesame Olive Oil & Vermicelli (sweet potatoes glass noodle)

What a great and refreshing idea to replace the usual turnip to this fantastic glass noodles that are made with 100% sweet potatoes. Love the chewy texture. Plus it's easy to prepare, just soak for awhile till it softened. Place it in a pan and add in 1 bottle of bulgogi sauce and some shredded carrot and dried shrimp. Cooked till the sauce was all adsorbed into the noodle. Add some sesame oil for fragrant. Used the cooked noodles for Popiah filling and replace the sweet sauce with Spicy BBQ sauce. You will be surprised that it worked pretty well...

Rojak
CJ products: Bulgogi Sauce

A lighter version of rojak that I preferred more than the actual one. A mixture of cucumber, turnip, pineapple, you tiao, ginger flower and some assam water. Lastly replace the prawn paste with Bulgogi sauce. Served it with grounded peanut so refreshingly appetizing and delightful!

Braised Pork Belly served with Kimchi
CJ products: CJ Bulgogi sauce and Kimchi

This was a rather fusion dish prepared by Chef Mervyn and served it to us. Another crowd pleaser and everyone gave thumb up for this. The belly was well braised and flavourful, the kimchi complimented it really well. Instead of braising the pork with soya sauce and Asian spices, replace it with bulgogi sauce, sweet vegetables like onions, celery and garlic. So simple and impressively delicious.

Chicken Rice served with Kimchi
CJ products: CJ Kimchi & Sesame Olive Oil

By the time the chicken rice was served, most of us were already full. However I still tried some as it was prepared by the chef too. Chicken rice served with kimchi, also went pretty well like the acar. The sauce for the chicken, used CJ sesame oil with some soya sauce. Ate it with the chilli we made earlier, tasted homey and nice.

Finally the 3 hours plus workshop was coming to an end. It's such an enjoyable session of cooking and eating that times passed by real fast without noticing it. All of us went home with a full tummy and a goodie bag that contains a bottle of BBQ sauce, a pack of Toppoki sauce and chestnut snack. I will definitely made full used of it. Thank you so much! I believe most of them had forgone dinner for the day but not for me as I still had a family dinner to attend.

Thank you Cheryl from Hill & Knowlton and CJ CheilJedang for the invitation. I really enjoyed myself and has a new perspective in using CJ products after this session.

Orange Clove Bloggers' Night

Orange Clove catering is a newest brand under Neo Group of caterers. Orange Clove is halal certified caterer, specialises in international cuisine with an Asian focus catering - Fusion. Being a die hard fan of Neo Garden and Deli-Hub catering, I never even hesitated but immediately accepted the invitation to their new menu launching food tasting session for bloggers. Their first ever bloggers' night and also my first time to attend such event. I was glad to see Edith was there too, at least there's someone I know. And also nice meeting Rei. I did enjoy myself but most of the time I was trying hard to get a nice shot of the spread as the lighting was really dim and was rather crowded too due to the overwhelming response.

Date: 16 April 2010
Time: 7.30 to 9.00pm
Venue: Singapore Botanic Garden
(Function Room, Botany Centre Level 2)

Door gifts for bloggers & guests - macarons, vouchers and brochures.

Great ambiance!

Bistro Table Setting

Orange Clove Logo Cupcakes

The cupcake was surprisingly a delight. The orange flavoured tangy sweet icing goes well with the moist cupcake but some may find it too sweet.

The tasting session started after a brief introduction by the organiser.

~ Menu of the day ~
DIY Salad
Potato Salad
Spring Sushi Platter
Assorted Sausage Platter

Never try the DIY salad but the potato salad was pretty good. Baked baby potatoes with herbs. Sushi and sausages were yummy too.

Deluxe Canapes

Nice presentation. Choux pastry with egg mayo, Prawn Cocktail and Sauteed Mushroom on toast.

Honey Chicken
Pan-Fried Snapper with Miso Butter Sauce
Penne Pasta with Chicken, Mushroom & Pesto

Honey chicken was good but would be perfect if is boneless instead. Pan fried snapper was a bit overcooked but was creative to roll it like a rose bud. Pasta was ordinary but goes well the fusion theme instead of the usual fried rice and noodles.

Assorted French Pastries
Cheesecake, Strawberry Tart & Lemon Merguine
Mango Pudding with Fruits Topping

The dessert section were rather impressive for caterer standard.

Fruit Punch

Creative effort was oblivious in the setting and presentation.

All in all, the above newly launched menu was rather impressive and creative. I was surprised that the above spread, depend on the number of courses (min 30 pax), the price per pax is about S$18 - S$23 only. Indeed very affordable and value for money! Don't you agree?

Wine Tasting

The event ended with a wine tasting session and lucky draw. I know nuts about wine but I did prefer the white wine to the red one. The house wines are from Wine Mansion, their in house wine supplier. As for the lucky draw, I didn't win any but my friend whom I brought along won a bottle of wine.

Special thanks to Jane and Jessie of Neo Group for the invitation!

Check out their website for catering details - Orange Clove