Almost round the world dinner

From top left, a short of Spanish tapas inspired dish (beans and chorizo) - quite nice. A basic soft white loaf originally from chefsteps USA. A typical Italian dish with interlaced mozzarelle, tomato slices and basil who's name escapes me at the moment. Last, stir fried broccoli with garlic and abalone sauce.

The bean and chorizo dish is worth repeating. Quite nice.
1. Cut into pieces and brown the chorizo sausage (this one was spicier than usual).
2. Take out sausage.
3. Saute half an onion + a pinch of dried fennel seeds.
4. Add garlic and add back sausages and a bit of butter. Fry a bit more.
5. Add heinz baked beans (I used 3/4 of the can for 2 sausages).
6. Add a bit of water or white wine. Add thyme. Bring to boil. Then simmer for a while until slightly reduced.
7. Add a bit of cream, stir it in thoroughly and simmer a bit more.

Phoon Huat discovery and beetroot rice

Just discovered that Phoon Huat has a branch in Clementi that sells delicatessen stuff and so cheap! I bought 2 bone in pork chops ($22+ a kilo), and 2 Australian sirloin steaks (also in the 20+ range). Also got myself a jar of duck fat ($8.9), and a small container of burrata cheese (forgot the price but I remember very reasonable). The pork chops and the burrata was used in this meal.

I also experimented with a new dish. Rice cooked in beetroot juice and a little butter. Unfortunately, instead of juicing, I tried a short cut of blending the beetroot, but that leaves a bunch of vegetable crud on the rice which is unsightly. Also because dinner was delayed, I stuck the rice in a warm turned off oven to keep - it dried out the rice. But when I tried the rice fresh from the steamer it was pretty good. I'll repeat this again using pure beet juice done with the slow juicer.

Weekend dinner and a few notes

Not sure why my last attempt at seafood soup was mediocre, but I got it back. Seems like fennel, leek and some good quality tomato paste (or thick sauce - I used my home made) is the holy trinity here. Plus a touch of fish sauce (not enough to intrude). I also fried the prawn shells in high heat with fennel until I could smell the prawniness before I added the vegetables to sauté.

The French beans were stir fried in a very hot pan with beef tallow (rendered beef fat). Beef tallow was from the fat I cut off from the short ribs when I made beef soup last night. To get the tallow, I chopped the fat into fine strips, mixed it with a bit of baking soda, then steam pressure cooked it in a closed container for 1.5 hrs. 

The pasta was simply made using 2 strips of finely chopped bacon. Then mixed with my home made tomato sauce plus a bit of whipping cream. I have realized that whipping cream in a siphon can is much more convenient. The cream expires in 2 months and I can simply use as little as I like, cleaning the nozzle after use. There isn't that much difference between whipping cream and heavy cream. Only if I wanted to use Creme fraiche then I'd get the "real thing".

Initial attempt at chicken ballotine

Not bad for a first try, I think. Was pretty good even - succulent and very tasty with a good almost papery skin. Can be improved. I had to improvise a little coz I originally wanted to do it over 3 days, but ended up just cooking it right there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfY0lrdXar8

https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/ultimate-roast-chicken

http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/07/the-food-lab-complete-guide-to-sous-vide-chicken-breast.html

I combined 3 references above. First Jacques Pepin showed the way in deboning the chicken, so that you can stuff the resultant meat (when you roast this, it's called a ballotine). Then I honoured chefsteps in their crispy roast chicken technique where you slooowly bring the chicken meat to serving temp (to get good texture and juicyness), then blasting it with a super hot oven at the last step to get the crispy brown skin. Then, because I ran short of time, I did the initial low temp roast of the chicken at a higher temp, and consulted serious eats for the optimal time to hold at temp.

First the deboning. Turns out to be not too hairy, though the chicken skin turned out a but more fragile than I expected. I had to do a little creative covering when I packaged it later. I then brined the chicken by injection with 5% salt solution.

The stuffing is worth documenting. The lap cheong was outstanding in the stuffing.
1. slowly saute 1/2 a lap cheong to render the fat out.
2. Then saute chopped onions till translucent.
3. Then add rice and coat in oil. Add sliced garlic and mushrooms.
4. Add in chicken stock and cook the rice. I used slightly more water to make the rice moist for the stuffing.

I trussed the chicken with the stuffing and tied the string. Dried the top as much as possible with paper towels. Thankfully, not much incident with spilled stuffing. The chicken was unevenly thick with some spots just having bare skin and other spots having thick meat - I solved it by thinly slicing some of the thick meat and placing the sliced meat in the thin spots.

Because I ran out of time, instead of cooking at 74C for a few hours, I raised the low temp roasting to 95C. I then monitored the meat temp to 63C and held it there for 10 minutes (as per serious eats for pastuerization) by turning off the oven, opening the door to let some heat out, closing it again (a "human" temperature regulator). The internal temp went to 66C max during this time.

Took the chicken out. Raised the temp to 300C. Brushed a little oil on the chicken. Then put it back into the very hot oven. After a few minutes, the chicken skin is bubbling and starting to brown. I turned on the forced fan in the oven and lowered to 275C. I stood there and monitored still the skin looked right (actually turns out it could have browned a bit more). Rest the chicken before eating.

Ang Mo Hae Mee

The star attraction was the prawn stock.

I bought pretty fresh large prawns, peeled the shells and used it to make prawn stock as follows
1. heat oil in a pot and then fry fennel seeds for a few minutes at medium heat
2. Add the prawn shells, turn the heat up and fry until fragrant.
3. Add vegetables (diced one small onion, 2 stalks celery and a little leek) and saute until translucent.
4. Add garlic and saute a bit more.
5. Add water to just barely cover ingredients. Add some thyme and dried kelp and then bring to a boil.
6. Lower the heat to a bare simmer and simmer for 40 mins.
7. filter out the resultant stock.

To cook pasta,
1. Cook the prawns in the prawn stock till just barely cooked.
2. saute garlic in pan with olive oil.
2. add cooked pasta and stir around for a while.
3. Add the prawn stock with the prawns and simmer for a minute.
4. serve with fish roe, sliced sun dried tomatoes and seeweed.

Braised Beef short ribs

Braised the short ribs SV style (as an experiment) for 48hrs at 62C. Not bad... Not bad at all - only thing is : is it worth it to do it for 2 even though it's little effort other than waiting. The braise fluid was my new fangled tomato sauce.... And nothing else.

Served simply with.

1. Puréed steamed pumpkin with a spoonful of Philadelphia cream cheese, dash of maple syrup, some Greek yoghurt and a healthy dollop of black pepper.

2. Grated Parmesan on mini portobello mushrooms and grilled.

3. Steamed mini corn with Japanese sesame dressing and steamed snow peas.

The puréed pumpkin was pretty nice aside from the main attraction.