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.

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