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.

Reinventing no-knead bread version 1

Objective is to get a no-knead bread that is as fuss free as possible and fits with my lifestyle/timing. Assumes I use air con at night to sleep with and I want fresh bread early in the morning.

The first attempt is good. Taste is excellent, crust good. Crumb is still a little dense - probably the consequence of a one rise bread.

Here's a blow by blow.

1. Mix a 70% hydration dough with 1 to 1.5% salt and 1% yeast. Use ice cold water.
2. Mix dough into a ball as per no-knead and put container into bedroom. This was at about 8pm.
3. When going to sleep, turn on aircon as usual with the container in the room.
4. Wake up about 1 hour before breakfast.
5. Take dough out of container, and shape it with minimal disturbance of the dough. Make some tension on the skin with the shaping.
6. Turn on oven at 195C. Go and do morning toilet.
7. After about 15-20 mins, return to kitchen.
8. Bake at 195C and with water injection.
9. test temp, if almost done like 5-6C below done (done is 96C), but bread not browned, turn off water injection, increase heat to max for browning.

The critical part is the fermentation. Serious eats says after fermentation, can dump into fridge for as long as 3 to 5 days to develop even better flavour.

Watermelon Jelly

Took 2 watermelons. Scraped out the flesh, and blended. Then sieved to extract water.

Gentle boiled the fluid down (maybe 1/3 down). Dehydrated the pulp.

Then add agar agar to the fluid. Poured it back into the melon shell, adding some dehydrated pulp.

Result: 2 watermelons reduced to a watermelon jelly in the 2 halves of one watermelon. Natural sweetness from the concentrated juice/pulp.

Korean Pajeon (Pancake)

Love this Korean dish. But my first 2 attempts, while tasty, were not crispy or well formed enough.

I think with this version, I'm on the right track. Possibly a bit more eggy than normal, but I like the egginess. The key is (A) patience and (B) more corn starch.

Re: patience. Don't be tempted to turn the heat up. Keep at medium heat (assuming the pan is heavy bottomed and retains heat).

Re: corn starch. Corn starch gets a better crisping effect.

This version is totally basic - only spring onions and some chopped regular yellow onions I had on hand.

For the sauce, good quality rice vinegar, chili flakes (or oil), soya sauce, mirrin, toasted sesame seeds and chopped spring onions. Mix to taste.

1. quarter cup cake flour and quarter cup corn starch with salt to taste mixed up.
2. Make a batter with 1/2 cup ice cold water (or just refrigerate the batter after making). 
3. Saute onions for a few minutes at medium heat in non-stick pan.
4. spread vegetables evenly over the pan. Then carefully pour the batter evenly over the vegetables.
5. Continue frying for at least a minute until batter is firming up. Press down with spatula to ensure contact with pan.
6. Pour one beaten egg evenly over the top. Roll pan to spread egg mixture out.
7. Cover for one minute for egg to steam a bit.
8. Uncover and continue, pressing down to ensure contact.
9. When some smoke comes out from the bottom of pancake, lift to check doneness. Continue to fry until brown and crisp.
10. Invert the pancake and fry the other side till slightly browned.
11. Invert again and finish it off with a short fry at high heat.

dinner with whatever is in the fridge

Tastes pretty good. Went well with sake. Somewhat a spring clean of fridge contents. Made for 2.

From top and clockwise.

1. Miso glazed eggplant. Bake oiled eggplant halves at 160C for about 15 mins until soft (but not falling apart). Take out, glaze flesh with miso mixed with mirrin, honey and olive oil. Grill flesh side up until slightly charred in bits on the miso. Top with toasted sesame seeds.
2. China style scrambled egg with tomato (albeit canned tomato). Reduce the tomato with basil and garlic until little water exists. Take out. Cook scrambled egg the normal way. When almost done, mix in tomato. 
3. Butter rice with coriander flakes. Make rice normally but with a flake of butter, pinch salt and a dash of coriander.
4. Steak on a bed of wilted spinach. 2 inch steak that I had in the freezer, sous vide at favorite temp with salt, pepper and thyme. Take out, pat  dry and sear. Make a sauce with pan juices, chicken stock, a little flour and cut off bits of beef fat. Pour over beef slices through a sieve.

Thermal Cooker #5 Chicken thigh and sausage cabbage soup

This tastes a lot better than effort #1, which is also a tomato based dish. Instead of using all tomato, I used 2/3 tomato and 1/3 chicken stock. Also, the cabbage + herbs sweetened the soup (can I find the herbs on the caravan trail? Hmmm). There's also a bit of cooking before boiling, which I think helps because it rendered out the spicy sausage oil.

3/4 of large can of tomato sauce, a 250ml of chicken stock, 1 small head cabbage (chopped coarsely), 1 carrot sliced, 4 garlic cloves (whole), 1 medium onion sliced, 2 chorizo sausage (or something that is spicy), 2 small chicken thighs, 7-10 leaves of basil, 2 stalks of wan sui.

In the pot, stir fry sliced sausage with a bit of olive oil until starting to brown and oil has rendered out of the sausage. Pour in sliced onions and saute until soft. Then layer cabbage, chicken, cabbage and pour the stock + tomato sauce over. Top up with water, but not too much because the cabbage will shrink when cooked (so just below the top of the cabbage).

Bring to boil and keep it there for about 10 mins, with last 5 mins with lid on. Insert into cooker.

#ThermalCooking

Thermal Cooker #4 Bak Kut Teh

Used this spice pack. Its actually not too bad. Didn't even really need the dark sauce as stipulated in the packet instructions.

You still should boil the pork first to get the scum out, throw the water out and then boil with fresh water and put into the pot.

#ThermalCooking

Thermal Cooker #3 Beef "Rendang"

Tried this particular version. It not only has the rempah, but it also comes with a packet of coconut premix.

Needs a little more water to cover the beef, so its not exactly dry. Hence it tastes more like a lemak curry. However, the taste is not bad if you don't think of it as trying to replicate  rendang.

#ThermalCooking

Thermal Cooker #2. Green Curry Soup aka Spicy Chicken Soup

This was made with a packet of commercial green curry paste, then diluted with plain yoghurt and milk to taste. This was deliberate since I had coconut milk and kaffir lime leaf - the point was to simulate what is available during camping. Then I dropped some french beans, cherry tomatos and frozen veg in together with 2 small chicken thighs

Notes:
1. We returned late in the evening. So it had a 12 hour cook - a rather extreme duration.
2. The mixture measured at 53C when I opened it. So 12 hours is basically max. 10 hours better.
3. Some veg just can't stand the long cook - the french beans in this case.
4. Surprisingly edible, just don't think of it as "green curry", but as a spicy chicken soup.

Result: Pass for camping. Might want to look for a better brand of green curry paste.

#ThermalCooking

Thermal Cooker #1. Sausage and Bean stew and rice

This is the first of posts on my experiment with the Thermal Cooking Pot (from Shuttle Chef)

We bought a new Thermal Cooker. It came with a free smaller version. And we already had one. So that makes 3. A 3, 1.8 and 1.5 litre pot.


The purpose of this is to experiment with "no fuss" cooking. Something with barely any effort and can be thrown together with minimal equipment. This is in preparation for our future jaunts in camping. Many people have apparently raved about this appliance for camping - it saves on gas, and you can prepare it in the morning and return to a hot meal in the evening.

Here's the first effort.

Assemble one can of cannelloni beans, one can of tomato, half a large onion (sliced), 3 small whole pieces of garlic, bunch of thyme, a few slices of celery and carrots, and 3 sliced chorizo sausages.

Put the whole bunch in the pot, bring to a boil and keep it boiling for about 7-10 mins, last few with lid over. Then insert into outer container. Prep in the morning. Eat in the evening after work.

Result.

Pros: Easy to prepare. No sweating of veg, no browning of meat, minimal cutting, no tomato sauce concentration, no smells etc.

Cons (not really a con): the sauce was a bit one dimensional. Overall taste is just decent. Can do again.

Rice was cooked in the smallest container. Half a cup thai rice plus 1.25 times the volume in water. Bring water to boil, reduce heat and cook another 10 mins with lid on. Insert into outer pot. Rice turned out ok even after approximately 10 hours in the pot.

#ThermalCooking

Chef steps slider buns

Bookmarking this

https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/slider-buns

Kueh Salat again

I need to try to make it more consistent. Also someone asked me for a "recipe".

So here's an attempt to write it down.

Criticisms (welcome any tips):
a. there's a very slightly bitter taste, almost astringent. I personally think it adds to the dish but mw tells me some people won't like it. Its probably due to the blending at high speed of the pandan essence.

b. The rice breaks apart a bit easily, and the custard from the rice. However, I suspect part of the reason is how people apportion it. I think you need to make a clean cut on two sides, then separate from the main body with a flat blade.

Serving size: fits a 20x20x5 cm disposable aluminum dish.

Make pandan essence (about 300ml)

1. 3 packets of pandan leaves from NTUC supermart (from memory each pkt is 60g).
2. carefully wash the pandan leaves (the base can be quite dirty). Discard any light green parts - you want the dark green bits.
3. Cut the leaves into small pieces - say about 3cm length.
4. Put in about 1/2 to 3/4 cup cold water into blender.
5. In several steps, put in a portion of cut pandan leaves and blend till pulped. Resist adding more water - though you might want to put in a few ice cubes to help the blending and keep the blended pulp cool.
6. Dump the whole thing into a fine sieve. With clean hands, start squeezing as much juice as possible out of the pulp and discard the dried pulp. Do this about a small handful at a time.
7. Mix in about 2 to 4 teaspoonfuls of vanilla essence to taste.

Make rice

You need about 250g of glutinous rice. Add slightly more if you want a thicker base.

1. Soak rice in water for at least a couple of hours. 
2. Make blue pea juice - it needs to be dark blue. 
3. Steam rice with a half and half mix of water and coconut cream (not milk) and half a teaspoon of salt. For 250g of rice, use 1 cup of fluid.
4. Take the rice out and mix it as the cream tends to come to the top.
5. Its a matter of taste how you want to add the blue pea flower juice, but in this case, I separate the rice into 2 bowls. I add the juice to one bowl and mix well.

Make pandan custard

1. Mix about 300-325ml of pandan essence with about 180-200ml of coconut cream.
2. Add 140g sugar.
3. Gently heat the mixture and stir until sugar is dissolved. Taste and add more sugar if necessary.
4. Get ready about 3 tablespoons of flour and 6 cold eggs beaten.
5. Heat the mixture until almost boiling and start adding the flour in small quantities while stirring the mixture vigorously. Control the heat as you don't want it to actually boil.
6. You are done when the fluid coats the back of a spoon and you run a finger down and you get a clean line (the french call it nappe) down but the rest of the mixture on either side stays on.
7. Using a large spoon, ladle a small amount of the mixture into the eggs while stirring the eggs. Add progressively larger quantities and mix until at the last bit, you can pour all the mix into the eggs and mix. The technique for this is called tempering.
8. Step 7 should be done just as you are ready to pour the custard mix into the rice - see next step.

Make rice base

1.  Take the rice from "Make rice" and coat it into the base of the container. Use a flat utensil to press the rice down into the base (I used an oiled potato masher) and make it more dense.
2. Put the container with the rice into the steamer and steam for another 5 minutes or so.

Final Step

1. Take the still warm custard and pour it into the container through a fine sieve (this will remove lumps such as undissolved flour and egg bits).
2. Gently steam in steam oven for about 40 mins at about 95C. If not using steam oven, then steam traditionally in a wok with an ajar lid.
3. The custard is done when its internal temp is about 82C or else insert a chopstick and it should come out cleanly. Be aware that different parts of the custard may cook at different rates.
4. Cool on countertop.