I love my grill

My oven has a really hot grill. I love it. Use it all the time.

Tonight for supper, I up turned a couple of large portobello mushrooms,  laid a slice of tomato in the cavity and filled the top with Parmesan cheese. I then grilled it in the oven. Nice supper with some leftover Chardonnay I had the the fridge.

Cioppino - seafood soup - dinner

I first had one in Seattle a few years ago and I enjoyed it very much. Here's my attempt

Based roughly on http://www.grouprecipes.com/84621/my-cioppino-italian-seafood-stew.html

Fish stock made from Saito fish bones, prawn and crayfish heads with the obligatory mirepoix.
Had to filter twice but still looks black (prob because the bones had blood and the prawns/crayfish as well.

This is basically western style tomato soup but with a fish stock and 2 anchovies fried into the oil at the start.

The same soup but blended in the blender. Tastes quite nice at this point by itself.

The seafood. I cut the crayfish down the middle, chopped off the head for stock, but left the split tail on.

The mussels. Not very good (bought in Chinatown mkt). Not fresh testing and rather tasteless.

Finished product with wan sui on top.

Bread with extra virgin olive oil and shredded parmesean grilled in the oven.

Ze crayfish tail

Side dish. Fry thin slices of Chinese Salted ham, then a bit of garlic, then quickly stir fry the veg.
Just before it is done, pour some boiling chicken stock on top and mix.

The completed side dish.

The breakfast of leftovers

3 week old eggs, 2 week old cherry tomatoes and week old celery and carrots.

Made into tomato cheese omelette and morning vegetable juice with assist from rye bread and grated Parmesan.

My omelette ( ala jacque pepin ) shape is a little ragged. I've only been able to get good shape on my first try some months ago. 

Sunday night dinner

Dinner on Sunday (quickie one) with, 

A. Tomato Orange pork stew from Tuesday, refreshed with green peas and my missing mushrooms (tasted much better with the mushrooms).

B. Mashed Potatoes made simply with a tab of butter and some hot milk and salt (consistency not quite right, but it was done quickly so I guess I deserve it).

C. Salad - with walnuts, sun dried tomatoes, croutons made from stale bread and a bean combo bought from cold storage. Dressing a sweetish one from olive oil, honey, salt and a little lemon juice.

Goes with sake (normal or ume).

Tomato and orange pork stew

Based on the recipe posted below (and used pork instead of veal).

Tastes all right except sauce was a bit too tart tasting (meat was good). Partly because I keh kiang and added half a lemon worth of juice and partly because its missing the mushrooms! When I opened the mushrooms bought 2 days ago, they were slimy (shame on you cold storage!).  I had to substitute with carrots.

Should do ok with a neutral carb such as rice. I feel this can be improved. May try again - the meat itself tastes good

Steamboat craze

This is the 6th steamboat dinner in 3 weeks! Assembled in 15 mins or less with the stock (as per "quick and dirty steamboat stock") boiled in rice cooker via timer.

This is Ume sake sparking wine. Mw likes it. I find it tastes ok, but somewhat too sweet for me.

Orange Liqueur - Limoncello Style

I'm making a Orange Liqueur, using a Limoncello recipe (i.e. Orange zest instead of Lemons). I'm hoping to use it in another chocolate cake.

I'm using a canning jar. Put in about 250ml of vodka.

Was supposed to zest without the white pith. Unfortunately I used mandarin oranges with very thin skin.

Finally did it with some large oranges with thicker skins. I still had to run my knife over the remaining pith on the zest though.

Now to wait one week. To be continued.

Slightly more than 1 week later. Boiled a cup of water with 3/4 cup sugar for 15 mins then added to the vodka (strained) after cooling. 

Now to wait another 2 weeks.

Vietnamese beef dish - Bo Tai Chanh

Nice. Will try it some time. I think it is worthwhile to use good beef.

A recipe that seems suitable: Bo Tai Chanh

Quick and dirty steamboat stock

Makes decent tasting stock quickly (such as for a weekday meal).

1.5 to 2 times water to 1 volume of good chicken stock (in this case 500ml of stock).
1 tomato sliced.
small handful of dried mushrooms
1 aromatic such as a stalk of spring onion bruised.
4-5 slices of ginger.
1 small piece of dried cuttlefish or something similar.
A little salt.

Boil the whole lot together at high heat for 20 to 30 mins. Decant through a sieve to remove the solids. Voila steamboat stock.

French style chocolate cake

There's no flour in this. Easy recipe. Saw it on French Food At Home Seaon 1 episode 1.

End result: I find it decadently delicious taste wise. Texturally speaking, it was a bit too crumbly - perhaps bake a little longer or more eggs? Or perhaps I should not have used the scalloped springform dish (pieces just stuck to the bottom or the sides).

Instead of serving with ice cream, French Food At Home served it with whipped cream and raspberries.

Just equal amounts of dark chocolate (70% recommended) and butter. Melt and mix over a bain marie with 2/3 to 3/4 cup sugar (and any other flavoring - i used a bit of instant coffee and cinnammon). Then mix it into beaten eggs (4 eggs for 200g of chocolate).

Initial melted chocolate

Stirring in the lumps of butter

Adding the melted mixture to the eggs a little at a time and mixing it so as not to cook the eggs.

The mixture in the springform mould. French Cooking at home says to optionally sieve to remove lumps. I didn't.

Now waiting for it to bake (45-50 mins at 190 C). A bit nervous. Made the stupid mistake of forgetting that the chocolate should be unsweetened. But I did add less sugar than normal (regular recipes call for 1 cup) so maybe it will balance out.

Here it is with a dusting of sugar on top (I know I said I was afraid its too sweet but it really looks much nicer white on black.

After note. Ate with raspberries very nice

Homemade ipad mini kitchen mount

Bought a cheap plastic protective shell for the ipad mini. Then stuck it on the kitchen cabinet with velcro - quite sturdy.

Success with mayonnaise at last

Third time lucky with this after 2 prior failed attempts. Did this while waiting for mw to finish her afternoon nap.

Seems like the critical success factors are:
* don't rush. The prior 2 times, I was rushing around, cooking a complete meal. I also tried using a hand held food processor.

*  Mix by hand and watch carefully.

* put the bowl in the sink (possibly with a towel on the base). That way you can use vigorous hand action and not worry about the bowl or stuff spilling out.

Anyway, here's what I did (tastes good btw).
1. One raw egg yolk + teaspoon of djion mustard + a dash of vinegar + fine salt.
2. mix well for 20 secs or so, stirring vigorously.
3. really just add the oil drop by drop. Do not disbelieve the instructions you see on the internet. Stir vigorously all the while to incorporate.
4. After about 50 drops or so, the mixture should look smooth and creamy. Only then can you add the oil faster.
5. keep on adding oil and stirring. Stop when the mixture gets thick and smooth (basically like the end product).
6. Add lemon juice to taste.

Apparently, if the oil and egg mixture separate and do not emulsify in step 4/5, you can recover it. In another bowl, add a bit of water (tablespoon). Then treating the failed mixture as though it was the oil, and the water like it was the egg yolk, repeat the procedure from 3.

Afternoon snack with carrot sticks and mayo

PS. This is probably the basic recipe. Lots of people add herbs etc into it. But you do it at the end together with the lemon juice.

First attempt at Quiche

Recipe is more or less classic Quiche Lorraine with added broccoli and onion filling (onion fried with the bacon. Broccoli added raw before baking in not too small pieces to give a crunch to the veg).

Good and bad news.

The bad : pastry just was plain no good. Fail.

The good : very savory egg custard filling. Perhaps I should bake it a little less, but turn on grill to 

brown the top in last few minutes (with a bit of cheese).

For the filling, the trick is to have at least 3 cm depth of filling. This is to allow the bottom/middle part to be moist.

Dinner in 30 mins

Cooked a frittata with Parmesan, onions, tomato, broccoli, mushrooms and a single stick of lap cheong. With a plate of carrot sticks, olives and tomato slices on the side. There's a small splash of vinegar in the egg (should use lemon juice and zest if I do this again)

Not bad.

Note to self. Cook lap cheong, onions and tomatoes for quite a while at medium heat before adding rest of mixture.

The frittata was rather shallow and wide due to the oven safe paella pan I used. 4 eggs. In future, at least 6-8 eggs is better for the size of this dish.

Dinner on Hari Raya Puasa

Was rushed, did not take enough pictures (none of the Nasi Kuning).

Made Beef Rendang and Nasi Kuning. Both were well received by family as tasty.

For the rendang, I used 2 types of cuts of beef as an experiment - the first were the frozen beef cubes ($6 for 500g) from NTUC and the other was from the beef counter (beef shank) at $14+ for 550g. The first was still tough despite 4 hours of slow cooking while the other was very very tender : the cut of beef still is a significant choice which slow cooking does not erase.

Loads of beef rendang recipes on the internet. Finally I just did one with a spice paste similar to that I used for the otah, but without the prawn paste. I used coconut cream : just enough to wet the beef plus a little more water only. Note to self: you need a little oil to blend the spice paste (many recipes just say blend without stating you need a little fluid to get the blending going).

For the Nasi Kuning, I used coconut cream and chicken stock. Taste is nice but somehow the texture of the rice is not fluffy enough.

The chicken thighs were primarily for the children. I had one myself. Very simple recipe : just brine the chicken in 1 to 16 salt water brine with a little white wine for a couple of hours. Wipe the chicken down and rest in fridge for a couple more. Then roast in oven for 30 minutes, before basting in a djion mustard/honey/balsamic vinegar/oil mixture and turning on the grill for several minutes. Tastes great (kudos to brining as a technique). The black looking outside is just the basting fluid turning black under the grill - did not taste burnt.

Lastly did a veg puree (not as nice as last time I did one), but still ok.

Fail poached fish and aioli

I was trying poached fish today. I picked up hake. Bad choice. Tastes weird, metallic even.

My second attempt at mayonnaise (aioli). Still fail. I can't seem to get it.  Must be really really patient I suspect.

At least my mashed potato was decent.

First attempt at otah

Result : very savoury but texture is too liquid and should cut back on salt if I use otak udang again.  I packed too much into the banana leaves and the otah just burst out. Could also have added even more vinegar - too cautious coz its not in recipes but it offsets the otak udang nicely.

Chili paste : 20g dried chili, 10 buah Keras, 4 small onions, large thumb of galangal, 2 thumbs of tumeric plus a dash more of he powder, 3 lemon grass (core stem only), tblspn of coriander powder. And.... (Heresy) A small can (12g) of otak udang otherwise known as he gou - basically like balacan but sweeter. I was too lazy to go and get some as I couldn't find it on the shelf, but it seems to serve well (but must remember to omit salt and sugar which most recipes call for). Also added a teaspoon and a little of apple cider vinegar (to offset the sweetness).

Blend the chili paste to a smooth paste and then fry in veg oil for about 15-20 mins till very fragrant, stirring to avoid burning.

Then when cooled, mix with 500g fish and (here's another deviation), 100ml of coconut cream and the chiffonated kaffir leaves (5) and one egg. I should have added corn starch at this stage (maybe 3 tablespoons).

Banana leaf courtesy of the banana tree below my father in laws flat. I had too few leaves and I guess I packed too much in causing the burst. I put some in my leftover puff pastry as well.

Had the puff pastry later with a glass of Pouilly Fuisse - nice. The otah in the banana leaves looks ugly but still tasty.

The chili paste is nice by itself - a basic recipe that I might be able to use in other dishes.