Foccacia first attempt

Not too bad. This could be a foundation of a savory carb for a party of people. 500g makes quite a bit of bread. 200g is probably a minimum.

Next time, I'll use a slightly less hot oven and take it out when it is slightly less brown this time. I might also use more water/oil because I was a little afraid it was too much. Basically it turned out a bit more crispy crust than I like. I might also use AP flour.

1. Make the dough. 80% hydration inclusive of 3 tablespoons of good olive oil in the water. 2% yeast, 2% salt. About a tablespoon of sugar and 500g bread flour. Knead about 10 minutes and put in fridge overnight.

2. Take out dough. It may already have doubled in the fridge. If not, leave on counter top until it does.

3. Punch down dough. Spread it flat (maybe 5 mm thick) on a very well oiled (olive oil) pan.

4. Let it rise until about double in size.

5. Using 2-3 fingers, press down the dough until almost down to surface without puncturing it, until you get big dimples all over.

6. Wait again - maybe 30-40 mins this time. Start the oven (used 230C, next time will go for 210C).

7. Scatter rosemary bits over.

8. Mix about 1/4 cup water + 1/4 cup good olive oil in a jar. Shake vigorously to turn it to an emulsion. Then, with the help of a spoon to scatter the fluid more evenly, pour it over the dough.

9. Bake until golden.

Japanese style salted egg

This is pretty awesome and easy to make for a starter type dish. It has a long savory finish that stays on the tongue for a while.

Because it turns out a bit salty (MW found it so, and I thought it was ok), its probably better paired with some salad leaves (plus a little vinegrette) and probably some kind of nut (peanuts, pine nuts etc). Will try this for next time I entertain.

The egg white will turn slightly brown as some of the miso migrates into the white.


Make a hard boiled egg. I made mine with center slightly moist.
Peel and encase egg in miso.
Put in Fridge, and wait 4 hours.
Wash excess miso off and lightly dry the egg.

Sa Po Fan

Did chicken claypot rice in a paella pan. Turns out quite well as the blue steel based paella pan is conducive to working up the burnt crust we like in a sa po fan. The paella pan heats very rapidly and passes the heat directly to the rice, which then burns a bit and sticks to the pan.

Because it is in a big pan, you need some way of evenly cooking the rice so it turns moist and plump. In my case, I used my steam oven.

This recipe uses everything in an entire chicken, which I like. I also took out quite a bit of skin and fat.

1. Buy one chicken (smallish to medium) and debone it. 
2. Wash 2.5 cups rice, and then dry it in the sun for several hours over a sieve.
3. Remove as much skin and fat as possible. Left the skin on the chicken wings though. Chop meat into 3-4cm pieces (except chicken wings).
4. Marinate meat with about equal weight of low sodium soya sauce, dark soya sauce. Add a bit of scallop sauce (or oyster sauce), a few dashes of fish sauce, pepper and a capful of brandy (did not feel like buying a bottle of chinese wine just for this). Leave for at least several hours in fridge.
5. Take the bones, neck, feet, scraps of meat (sans skin and visible fat) and make chicken stock with one leek, bunch of spring onions, dried mushrooms, garlic, knob of ginger and a dash of fish sauce.
6. Steps 1-5 can be done way ahead of time.
7. slice 5 lap cheong thinly. Saute in medium low heat in pan until fat from lap cheong renders out  and lap cheong brown - about 20 mins. Remove lap cheong and leave fat in pan.
8. saute salted fish (about 1/2 to 3/4 of a small fillet, broken into small pieces) in the oil. Then when fragrant, add sliced garlic (about 5 bulbs worth). May have to add a bit more vegetable oil if rendered lap cheong fat not enough. Saute a bit more.
9. add dried rice and gently fold in the rice, coating it with the oil.
10. Add the marinated chicken pieces, taking care not to add the excess marinate. 
11. Fold the chicken into the rice. 
12. Add sliced fresh shitake.
13. Add 3 cups of chicken stock (skim stock to remove chicken fat).
14. Put into steamer and steam 30 mins.
15. Take out from steamer, and then turn the heat to high on stove top. Put the paella pan on top and heat until you hear a crackling sound and smoke coming out (open windows, turn fan on, turn cooker hood on). Lower heat, wait for smoke to dissipate, and repeat for 4-5 times.
16. Sprinkle fresh chopped spring onions on top.
17. Just before dinner, steam in oven for a minute or two. Serve hot. Use large metal spoon to break crust and mix into rice.

forgot to take pic until we had served ourslves. Oopsie

Potato something or other.

This is the first time I'm trying something like this and its surprisingly tasty. It was from some odds and ends I had.

I had 2 chorizo sausage and some marinated minced pork from a previous project in the freezer. Also had potatoes on hand, as well as a small amount of vegetable soup.

I browned sliced sausage in the pan, then took it out.

I sliced one yellow onion and one stalk of leek. Sauted it in a pan with a teaspoon of fennel. 

I took the lot out, then fried the minced meat at high heat until cooked, stirring well. Then I added back all the other ingredients and large diced potato from about 5 potatoes plus a small amount of vegetable soup. Pushed the lot into a 200C oven for about 40 minutes or so or until the potatoes were tender.

Chana Shorba

mw had this soup at a buffet and she liked it. So I tried to replicate it.

Turns out that the internet has as many recipes for this as there are search results.... almost.

And none of them pureed their chickpeas like mw had in her buffet.  So I winged it a little.

It was quite nice.

1. Fry slices of one yellow onion (with sliced leeks from one stalk) in a little oil, with about a tablespoon of cumin seed, very slowly to caramelise it, spraying water from a spritzer as necessary to keep it from charring up, until well browned.
2. Add this to about 1 knob ginger, 1 knob fresh tumeric 1 teaspoon powered tumeric, 4 cloves garlic, a few shakes of chilli flakes, about half a tablespoon or more of pepper, 2 tablespoons yoghurt, 3 tablespoons tomato paste, sliced bits of 1 fresh tomato, generous shake of dried coriander, 1 kaffir lime leaf. Then blend the lot finely.
3. Fry the blended mix for about 10-15 minutes at medium heat. This is the marsala.
4. Add 2 cans of pre-cooked garbanzo beans (chickpeas) with their fluid. Add a bit more chicken stock or water, bring to boil and simmer for about 15 minutes. Add salt to taste.
5. Put the lot into a blender and puree the soup. 
6. Put it back in the pot, add a little water if necessary to make it less thick.

jeera rice

I've tried doing Jeera rice without butter - nope doesn't work.

Anyway, this version is pretty simple. Toast generous pinch of cumin seeds in butter till fragrant. Then add basmati (pre-soaked and then dried partially) and gently fold rice to coat with fat. Continue turning over rice for a few minutes. Pour in about 1.25 times the volume of the rice with stock. Bring to the boil at high heat, then cover and cook at low heat for 15 minutes. Turn off heat and let it sit for at least another 20 minutes. Lift cover and test for doneness and whether it needs more water. If necessary, add a touch of water, put the lid back on and turn the heat back up for a bit, and then let it rest again.

PIzza

After about 4 tries, still trying.

My pizza is fairly mishaped, don't think I've gotten the hang of jerking it off the peel nicely yet.

Crust tastes ok'ish. Probably better than chain pizza, but needs improvement. Not sure how I can do that. Will be trying again.

Lesson 1: the dough needs to be high hydration! e.g. 70% (like baguettes). Otherwise will turn out leathery.

Lesson 2: 6 mins at 275C on a pizza stone will do it. Don't over do it in the hope of seeing more browning.

Beef ragout on mashed potato

Tastes rich and velvety.

1. I used a mix of Beef Cheeks and Short ribs (trimmed). Approx 1.5kg.

2. I cut off the bones off the ribs with some meat and used it to make a quick beef stock in the pressure cooker with celery, carrots, onions and a dash of fish sauce + marmite (the last 2 when added in small quantitites add umani without intruding with their unique fermented flavours).

3. Cut the meat into smallish cubes. Then brown in batches in pot.

4. Slice in half 2 medium carrots, quarter one large yellow onion. Put in mix of red wine (merlot) and beef stock in about 1:2 ratio. add a small bunch of fresh thyme and about 3 tablespoons of tomato puree. The stock/wine mix should just barely cover the beef.

5. Braise for 9 hours at 100C in oven (overnight in my case). Traditionally 140C for about 4 hours will also do. The meat will be practically falling apart into small pieces and strands.

6. Strain out solids, pick the meat out from the vegetables and put aside. Discard vegetables.

7. Thicken the stock with regular blond roux. About 120g per litre of stock. Salt and pepper to taste. I used quite a lot of pepper to make it distinctly peppery. Add more tomato paste for balance if necessary.

8. Put meat back and warm the whole thing up. Pour over a bed of mashed potatoes and garnish with chinese celery.

9. The beef is rich, so mashed potatoes should not be too buttery. Also serve with plain vegetables (e.g. steamed baby carrots or sweet corn).

Salmon en papillotte

Was already half eaten before I remembered to take a photo.

Anyway, "en papillote" but using aluminium foil and steam.

I took a thick piece of salmon, slashed it vertically and horizonally. Then rubbed dill pesto all over including the cuts. Dash of pepper and salt with a squeeze of lemon juice.

Steamed in wrapped packet for approx 20 mins (I used a thermometer to have it read 58C). Let it cook slightly further in residual heat without opening after taking it out. Could have used regular baking but my steam oven was already wet from a previous use.

The dill pesto was approximately this recipe: https://www.thespruceeats.com/lemon-dill-pesto-with-scandinavian-twist-2952900

Except I used pine nuts instead of walnuts. Also I found the raw garlic taste too strong, so I cooked the pesto in a pan for a few minutes on medium heat before applying.

Seafood Minestrone with fried fish fillet

The inspiration was loosely Gordon Ramsey's seafood minestrone with salmon.Only I did it with 0.5kg of venus clams and 0.5kg of the smaller clams and an approximately 1 kg red tilapia.

Fairly pleased with this one. Hence the detailed record.

1. The fish was bought for $8. I filleted it into 4 portions, and set the fish bones aside.

2. The clams for about $4.80.

3. In a large pot, toast a generous handful of dried fennel. Then add a mirepoix of sliced onion, carrots and sliced celery.

4. Saute for a while until fragrant, then add garlic (about 4 cloves sliced).

5. Turn to high heat. Add the fish bones and stir it around till fragrant.

6. Add a generous dollop of white wine and let it boil. Then add about a litre of water, boil. Then add the clams. Squeeze a medium lime into it, and add the lime flesh and all.

7. When clams start to open, pick them out of the stock. Let the remainder simmer for another 20 mins or so.

8. Remove the clam meat and refrigerate.

9. When the stock is done, sieve it to get the semi-clear stock.

10. step 1-9 can be done ahead of time.

11. Prepare a minestrone mix. In my case, frozen green peas, frozen corn kernels, frozen brocolli, some shredded wong bok, diced bell pepper, halved cherry tomatoes, and small sliced celery. Squeeze more lime juice to taste.

12. Bring the stock back to the boil, add the minestrone mix, and noodles. Boil till noodles are soft.

13. When stock is done, turn off heat and add back the clam meat.

14. For the fish fillets, dry comprehensively with paper towels, then salt both sides, keeping skin side up. When sweat beads the skin from the salt, wipe it down with a paper towel. Score the skin (longitudinally - head to tail). Heat pan to high heat, lower fish fillets. After a short while turn heat down to medium high and cook until skin is browned (approx 6-7 mins). Turn over and briefly cook the other side.


15. To serve, ladle noodle soup into dishes. Grind black pepper. Then layer fish fillets over. Squeeze more lime juice over the fish.

mushroom soup

Mustapha sells a 1.3kg packet of portobello muchrooms for about $20. Quite cheap. Bought it to try mushroom soup.

Used homemade vegetable soup stock.

1. Cut mushrooms roughly.

2. In a big bowl, thoroughly mix dill pesto, olive oil, butter, dried thyme, and rosemary leaves.
(dill pesto recipe: from https://www.thespruceeats.com/lemon-dill-pesto-with-scandinavian-twist-2952900 - found it a bit overpowering by itself, but using it with the mushrooms seems ok. Dill is really cheap - can get a huge bunch from Mustapha for $2).

3. Spread on tray and roast mushrooms at 200C until mostly dry (about 40 mins), taking out the tray and stirring the mushrooms around halfway through.

4. Use the vegetable stock and pressure cook with dried mushrooms for about a few mins (buy from Chinese medicine shop - get the fragrant tea leaf mushroom or other - do not use shitake).

5.Put roasted mushrooms, stock with soaked dried mushrooms, and a dollop of plain yoghurt (creme fraiche for the richer version) into a blender and blend till fine. Add more water if necessary to thin it out.

Roast Chicken Redux

Updated and improved version of roast chicken. Recording this.

Chicken Thighs have improved - juicy and tasty with a not too tender texture.

Breasts very slightly drier because of the slightly higher ending temp than last time - not a breast man, but mw is.

Skin is delicious and crisp, though not shatteringly so.

For further improvement, I'd try kampong chicken to see if the less fat chicken affects taste. The skin is much better now, but I suspect hard to improve because of the wet brine. I'd keep the wet brine, as opposed to injection, coz I like the coca cola brine.

Recipe for repeatability.
1. Brine chicken 10 hours in 5% brine solution composed of 0.5 litre water with 100g salt and 1.5 litre of classic coca cola.

2. Take out chicken, dry it out with paper towels as much as possible. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight to dry the skin out further.

3. Carefully use fingers to separate skin from meat starting at the breast without breaking the skin.

4. Insert longish rosemary twigs under the skin. The purpose being to keep the skin away from the meat as much as possible. During the slow roast, this bit of skin will turn translucent and during the high heat phase, will be paper crisp.

5. Stuff cavity with orange or lemon. Tie or sew up any exposed flesh as much as possible.

6. Roast in oven at 90C for about 1.5 hours until temp of flesh near skin is about 50-55C. Then turn the heat down to 77C and roast for about 2.5 hours. The idea being to bring the meat temp up as quickly as possible while still at low temp roast. Then at 50-55C, you want to really slow roast it.

7. Once the chicken temp hits about 64-65C or so (the 2.5 hours in step 6), turn the heat to 69-70C. You want the chicken meat to slow roast in the region of 66-69C for 1 to 1.5 hours. Even with the heat equalised during the slow roast, you still need a bit of temperature gradient.

8. Take out chicken and rest a bit. If this was all done right, there will be very little dripping because the moisture has been retained in the chicken.

9. Turn oven temp as hot as it will go. Mine goes to 275C convection.

10. Pop chicken in for about 4 mins or so. Watch it very carefully to avoid burning.

11. Take out chicken. It may be unevenly browned. Complete the browning with a blow torch.

Beet bread

Instead of using water, just use slightly diluted beetroot juice.

Looks rather like a root vegetable itself....

Ang Mo Chap Chye

Trying to get rid of the excess food in the fridge, so adapted a Italian classic called Ribolitta. Otherwise known as ang mo chap chye 8-). Its not classic Ribolitta, but close in concept. Cooked so much I had it over 3 days. Day1 - as a meal by itself with crackers. Day2 - as a side to a fish dinner. Day3, browned 2 small chorizo and rendered its spicy oil, and added the soup to turn it into a more meaty dish.

Stuff I wanted to get rid of that I had in the larder or freezer: can of cooked chick peas, half a brocolli, homemade chicken stock, packet of fresh sweet corn, carrots (small diced for mirepoix and chunks), bell pepper, a small remnant of barley, remnants of frozen corn, onion, garlic, celery, 1/3 cup rice, one sausage (frozen) and one small lump of marinated minced pork.

I also had a left over baguette from Cedele (not nice at all, tasteless and dry, but repurposed for ribolitta. Got lazy and bought bread - regretted it), and one piece of frozen you tiao. Remove crust from baguette and large dice everything.

Added: a small head of cabbage, 1 can of italian plum tomatoes, leek, thyme. Rosemary and basil from the balcony garden.


1. add meat and brown.
2. add and saute a mirepoix of onions, celery, leek, diced carrots, and bell pepper with a little fennel.
3. add can of tomatoes, break it up and cook a little more, with a generous bunch of sliced garlic.
4. Put herbs in basket (or whatever) and put in center.
5. Layer sliced cabbage, barley, rice, chickpeas and other veg.
6. Pour in mix of chicken stock and water. Not too much coz veg will cook down.
7.Bring to boil and simmer about 25 mins.
8. Push in diced bread and cook about 10 mins.
9. Let it sit for at least half a day.

Day 3 re-rendition of the dish

roasted white bait

1. Rinse dried preserved white bait through water and soak 10 mins, then drain dry.
2. Deposit white bait evenly on a large plate with an absorbent paper towel. Squeeze dry on both sides.
3. Spread evenly on tray and insert into oven at 90C for about 20 mins until dry to touch.
4. Increase oven to 150C and roast till browned.

fish head curry

Tried one for the first time. Kind of improvised, so non-std recipe.

Verdict: ok'ish. Fish was fresh anyway. The curry was a bit lacking in depth. Possibly should use a good fish stock next time if I can get it.

Used whatever veg was available in my fridge + yong tau foo from the market.

1. saute half an onion with a pinch of fennel and cumin.
2. Then add packaged fish curry powder. Continue sautee'ing
3. Add stock/water with garlic pieces.
4. Add coconut cream + 3 lime leaves + dried crushed tamarind (just broke off a small chunk).
5. (attempt to add flavor). Add dried white bait and some frozen mussels.
6. Lower the half fish head into the curry. Bring to boil and then simmer on very low for 30 mins.
7. Take out the fish head.
8. Cook the yong tau foo and veg in the curry.

Pumpkin Puree

My inspiration was this

So I steamed some pumpkin about 30 mins. Broke it up with a spoon. Added a touch of cinnamon + pinch of salt and a shake of pepper.

Then I tried adding : Creme Fraiche, My homemade yoghurt and coconut milk cream in that order (to taste).

Result: winner is the one with coconut cream, though MW says I should use less coconut cream to avoid overwhelming the pumpkin.

In the original version, the puree mix is exuded through a NO2 siphon (most likely) to give it a lightness. Obviously can't do that (unless I buy one 8-)).

No pic of the results. Forgot.

Some interesting stuff to learn from

Ate some interesting stuff. Things I might experiment on.

"Salmon Berry Sandwich" with fish eggs. Salty sweet (mostly salty) composed starter that goes well with a proscecco.

 Another starter. This one is a very light pumpkin cream with a crisp thin wafer on top. What works

• The cream is very very light. Will need to experiment. Possibly use creme frache (heavy) or coconut cream? (lighter). 
• There's a light touch of unidentifiable spice. But pumpkin goes traditionally with cinnamon and/or nutmeg. Can try that.
• The cream was probably exuded through a compressed gas siphon. Can't duplicate that, so any home effort will be a compromise

 

This is another starter. What works for this is 

• savoryness from the (again) smoked salmon
• a bit of fruitiness from a tomato confit like mix
• a touch of raw onion 
• texture from bland but crisp veg

Beef short ribs. This might be the least inventive, but well executed.

1. medium to medium rare short ribs (probably sous vide).

2. charred on the outside on the grill

3. sweet sour sauce.

4. mild pickles.

Fish dish. Fish is Hapuka (a deep sea fish). What's interesting is the tarragon crust on top, and a smoked cream sauce. Must try to replicate the smoked cream sauce if I can.

Tamarind juice

Not too bad. About 100g of crushed tamarind pulp plus 100g of sweet dried fruit we bought in chaozhou (Mw says its kumquat) with a little honey to taste, boiled for 30 mins.

Test attempt at roast duck for CNY dinner

Taste was excellent. Skin is so so. But good first start. I think good enough that CNY dinner itself will be my second attempt.

First make a 3.5 liter brine with 1.5 liter classic coca cola, 2 litre water, 170g salt, a few tablespoons of  sugar, 10-15 shakes of fish sauce, 2 medium oranges (juice and pulp added), 2 cinnamon sticks, 1 garlic bulb (halved), and some orange liquorice sweets I bought from China. Boil all together except the coke and make sure salt is dissolved. Then add the coke (cold from fridge). Let the mix cool and then put it into fridge to bring it down further.

Trim the duck, then add it to the cold brine overnight.

Remove from brine, drain duck and pat dry.

Prick skin all over (not sure if I should have done this before the slow roast or after - oh well).

Stuff cavity with one large orange.

Stick it in the oven and roast at 80C for 8-9 hours.

Take out of oven. Cool the duck with a fan airflow. Then stick in the the fridge for several hours at least.

Take duck out of fridge and let it warm up gradually (couple of hours). Cover any parts that are likely to overcook in the next step (wings and any holes in skin or cavity).

Crank oven to 300C. Then bring it down to 275C with fan. Open all windows and close the kitchen door (it will smoke).

Put duck in. And watch carefully. It should only take about 10-12 mins.

Take out duck. Cool 15-20 mins before carving.

 

 

 

After carving. Forgot to take photo pre-carve.

after the slow roast.

Stuffed peppers

Saw a bunch of small bell peppers being sold in NTUC. Was tempted to do stuffed peppers.

Filling is (from memory): minced pork, toasted whole fennel/cumin, pepper salt/fish sauce, a little soup stock, dash of sesame oil, a little oil from frying dried prawns (did not use the prawns), fried garlic, wan sui, spring onions, finely chopped shitake mushrooms, one egg, dash of sake and sweet wine. Hey, and the kitchen sink too.

Slow roasted about 40 mins at 95C (monitored internal temp till about 78C). Then cranked the oven to grill.

Result, very tender and sweet bell peppers with a savory fill. Worth repeating. Had a lot of excess which I froze - I expect they are easily gently reheated with little effect.

Note for next time:
1. filling is difficult as the peppers are small (many of the peppers weren't fully filled. Find a tool or use last finger next time.

2. Stuck the caps on, but it tends to fall out. If I'm serious about presentation, will need to find a way to keep the caps on. The fill is sticky, but not sticky enough (brush egg white around cap and run a torch very briefly over to seal the cap?).