Burrata Amuse Bouche

 

Burrata cheese (with some of the milky fluid) + acacia honey + dill oil + wasabe + hazelnuts + wan sui = very nice

Sous Vide Pork Belly (plain and char sui)

 Both have a common method.

Both sous vide at 68C.

1. To make pork belly and put into freezer. Use when you need small bits of savoury pork to add to a dish.

2. To make char siu 

For (1), cut the pork into long strips or medium cubes (what ever is the serving size). Season liberally with salt and pepper. Then sous vide at 68C for 24 hours. When done, cool and store separately (including the gelatinous liquid) into seperate bags. When using (e.g. for fried rice), defrost, and cut into slices. Don't throw away the liquid in the bag - use it.

For (2), marinate in Lee Kum Kee char sui sauce. Then sous vide for about 10 hours at 68C. Take it out. Prepare the basting sauce 

- half of it is the marinade.

- add a dollop of BBQ sauce, honey, lemon juice and a wine (shaoxin or other) to taste. (next time will try rose water).

Preheat oven to 300C. Baste the meat once and put into oven. When the sauce on the meat is boiling off and looking a bit sticky, take out and baste once more. Roast until you see charred bits.

Pecan Pie

 Result seems quite nice. Crust at the edges may be slightly too brown.

Make the pie crust roughly as per https://www.davidlebovitz.com/french-tart-dough-a-la-francaise/

With the following modifications.

1. I have 10in dish, so should increase the amount.

2. I used a stove and steel pot, instead of oven. This is also a lot faster.

3. I put pebble weights on the dish, put in the freezer for 10 mins. Then baked in oven at 210C for 10 mins. After that, I remove the weights and bake until slightly brown and set. I wanted to avoid the crust rising and cracking.

I used the pecan pie filling as per https://cookiesandcups.com/easy-pecan-pie-recipe/

Except that I halve all quantities, and use a little less sugar. The intention is to make the nuttiness shine and make it less sweet.

Then I glazed the result with the remaining filling and a brush.

Refine yoghurt recipe

Doing too much on-the-fly. Will now start recording the method, so can refine from there.

Trial 1

1. Bring 3 liters of 2% milk to 92-94 C and keep it in this range for 15 mins. Stir continuously during this time to prevent burning the milk too much.
2. Turn off heat.
3. Add 150g honey and 1/2 tablespoon vanilla essence. Stir it in.
4. Cool milk to around 43 C
5. In sterilized containers, spoon in at least 5% to 10% by volume of a previous yoghurt batch. Or else use store bought yoghurt with live culture. 
6. When milk is cool enough, pour in the milk mixture into the sterilized containers.
7. Cap the containers and put them in a bath at 41C for 8 hours.

Result: texture was pretty good. Slightly sourish, so needs a bit more sweetness. Cannot taste the vanilla. Overall, this is pretty good yoghurt.


Trial 2

Add more sweetness and vanilla essence. Keep everything else the same. i.e

1. Bring 3 liters of 2% milk to 92-94 C and keep it in this range for 15 mins. Stir continuously during this time to prevent burning the milk too much.
2. Turn off heat.
3. Add 180g honey and 1 tablespoon vanilla essence. Stir it in.
4. Cool milk to around 43 C
5. In sterilized containers, spoon in at least 5% to 10% by volume of a previous yoghurt batch. Or else use store bought yoghurt with live culture. 
6. When milk is cool enough, pour in the milk mixture into the sterilized containers.
7. Cap the containers and put them in a bath at 41C for 8 hours.

Result: This is weird. The result is slightly sweeter, but the texture is now slightly runny (which should have been the impact of cooking time and temperature, which I did not change).

Will revert to Trial 1 again strictly. And see what happens.

Trial 3
This one’s the best yet.

Basically the same as trial 1, but ferment in bath for 10 hours instead. Texture is nice and blend of sweet/sour is balanced. 

Salmon Rice

Inspired by a salmon rice bowl I had in Japan. Uses minimal utensils. Makes for 2 servings. Result is utterly delicious.

1. Make a seafood stock. In my case, stir fry garlic and leek tops at medium heat until fragrant, then add prawn shells (about 10 prawn shells) and fry at high heat until you smell the shells. Add just enough water to cover the ingredients. Simmer for 30-40 mins covered.

2. Make fried white bait topping. Wash the white bait, drain, then fry until light brown.

3. Drain the stock and keep aside. Rinse the stock pot.

4. In the stock pot, fry several slices of thinly sliced leeks in a touch of oil. Then add 3 teaspoons of good quality red miso and continue frying to break it up. Then add the dry jasmine rice (1 cup - there is no need to wash it to remove starch). At medium heat, continue to gently stir fry the rice for a few minutes. Then add 1.5 cups of stock (topping up with water if stock is insufficient). Add a bit of acid (calamsi juice, lemon juice etc).

5. Bring the rice mix to a high boil. Then gently lay a cold (partially defrosted) salmon on top (about 200-250g). Cover with well fitting lid, then lower the heat to low. Cook the rice for about 20 mins, then turn off the heat and let it sit for another 10. Take off the lid, and using a spoon, break the salmon into the rice, mixing well. Probably can add chopped spring onions (did not in my cooked version).

6. Eat with the fried white bait as topping.

Teochew fish porridge redux

What's different from the first time is I used Ta pan fish (Eng?). The flesh is firmer and more flavour full. Its a large fish - I took the tail, filleted the flesh and took out the bones.

I also slow cooked sliced garlic and ginger in vegetable oil until the garlic was well browned but not burnt. This can be added to the porridge as a garnish - it lifted the taste quite a bit.

Teochew Fish Porridge (sort of)

I kind of riffed on it, but it tasted nice.

I used sea bass (not a usual fish).

For 2
1. Fillet fish and refrigerate the flesh for later use.

2. Put fish bones into pressure cooker along with slices from 1/3 length of leek, 2 halved cloves garlic, a thumb size ginger in slices, and one leaf of kiam chye. Add water. Pressure cook for 10 mins. Let it release pressure normally before opening.

3. Strain stock and put into pot. Measure out rice (I used half cup) and wash rice thoroughly, then add into pot. Add more water as required.

4. Taste stock. If necessary, add a bit more kiam chye. Also add sliced ginger (about half a thumb worth in my case) to taste. Add one teaspoon of fish sauce or to taste. Bring to a boil and keep it at a rolling boil for about 10 minutes or until the porridge starts to bleed white into the water and the rice is cooked.

5. Remove kiam chye (if using). Let the porridge sit on stove top for a while - the rice grains will expand further.

6. When ready, bring the porridge to a boil again. Add fish slices and 6 frozen oysters. Bring to boil and then lower heat to a very slow simmer until cooked. Watch oysters carefully so they don't shink too much.

7. Put butterhead lettuce into the bottom of serving bowls. Then ladle the hot porridge over. Garnish with cut spring onions. Eat with white pepper to taste.