The day I cooked pasta and prepared salad for 150 people, single-handedly

I know I have not been updating much. I was so caught up with many things, I sometimes forget and skipped a meal. As a result, a few of my jeans are now looser. It is a good thing, come to think of it.

Last week, I attempted and successfully accomplished cooking for 150 people. There are other types of foods like sandwiches, curry puffs and fried Malay meehoon and mee. But the pasta I prepared saved the day.

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It is a crazy idea, that I cook 10 packets of pasta. That’s five kilograms of dried pasta, you know? It is no joke and one shouldn’t attempt doing so unless one is absolutely sure they can managed. You see, by the fourth packets, I had ran out of space to fill the boiled pasta. I summoned all the big pots I have and managed to boil only six packets. There is no way I can boil the other four packets and I estimated I won’t have enough pasta sauce to go with it.

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So, just to keep some notes for future reference, these are the ingredients :

ELBOW SHAPES PASTA WITH TOMATO AND BASIL PASTA SAUCE

6 packets of 500 grams San Remo elbow shapes dried pasta – Boiled two packets at one go. Remove, strain and mix with some olive oil. Set aside.

3 roasted chicken (buy from Tesco) – Tear the meat into small pieces. Keep the bones for making stock.

1 large tin (and I mean really large) of pasta sauce. Bought from Lucky Frozen food supplier and it costs only RM21.50

3 tins of pre-sliced button mushrooms

5 large onions

1 large bottle of tomato ketchup

Some oil, some pepper, salt and whatever sauces on hand

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Cooking in large batches and serving to hundreds of people mean we must be absolutely hygenic. No dirty hands, no dirty cutting board, make sure all the foods are cooked thoroughly, never leave the foods in a warm temperature and make sure the foods doesn’t stand in room temperature for too long.

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I started boiling all the pastas in batches at only at 2 pm and got things ready by 5 pm. Note that I used the shortcut of buying fresh roasted chicken from Tesco which was hot out of the oven.

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I am borrowing the photo of Boris (a youth from my church) who was feeding his brother to grace this post. It is very rewarding to cook for large groups because the feelings of looking at so many people eating the foods I cooked gives me a fuzzy feelings inside.

I will put the recipe for the apple and potato salad I made in another post.

4 Replies to “The day I cooked pasta and prepared salad for 150 people, single-handedly”

  1. hi
    it was great to cook for so many people and you really have to have the confidence…. I really appreciate what you have done , i always have this wish to do something for such a large crowd .
    The only advantage is that you have some ingredients which are pre-sliced or cooked which makes it a bit easier as you said and time saving too.
    what was the occasion for which you cooked such a great meal?
    keep up the good work!!!!!!!

  2. Wow…you’re really THE woman!!! I think I will faint at the thought of cooking for 10 and here you are dishing out delicious foods for 150 🙂

    You have certainly made attending church very attractive – I hope that I can join in any church activities you’re cooking in when I’m back!

    Must look for your pasta recipes – I love pasta but my tot hates it. He’ll only eat Chilli’s mac and cheese 😛

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