Another attempt at Chee Cheong Fun

Ok. This turned out better.

The mouth texture was approximately right this time. Freshly made rice noodles like this tastes nice with just soya sauce, sesame oil and spring onions.

For the rolling, it helps to cool the tray a little first. Also use of hands makes for better control.

I'm going to try for even lighter texture next time. First experiment is to use a little more water.

An interesting abject failure

They say that no science goes unrewarded. Even the failures tell you something.

I had a little time on the hands since my school schedule freed up and the wife is out partying. So I went back to do some experimenting after a long hiatus.

I tried to do Chee Cheong Fun.

Turns out I made a stupid mistake of using a stainless steel tray. So the rice sheet just stuck on it and made a most horrid mess. It looked bad. I sprinkled some sesame seed and a little dribble of soya sauce on it, and .... what do you know.... it actually tastes quite good (though the skin's a little thick).

Seems too easy (aside from the rolling bit haha). can try it again with a non stick later. Hmm... or should I do it on baking paper and use that to roll up the sheet?

Amount makes about one sheet on a tray that fits into a 3/4 of a 60cm square steam oven.

recording for a repeat try.

1. 1/2 cup rice flour.
2. about 2-3  tablespoons finely milled glutinous rice flour
3. 1/2 cup water at room temp + 1 tablespoon of neutral veg oil.
4. Salt to taste (about a generous "dash").
5. 1/3 cup boiling water

mix well flour, salt and the water/oil mixture in a bowl.
then pour in the 1/3 cup boiling water.
Mix well.
Set aside for 40 mins
Stir once more, and pour on to well oiled tray in thin layer.
Steam for 4 mins  (with the steel tray, I warmed it up first then steamed 3 mins).

The reference recipe called for 2 kinds of starch. Won't buy that just to experiment. Instead I went with the glutinous rice flour I had from a previous experiment.

Salmon fish head miso soup

Acquired a salmon fish head at $2. Used it to make soup. Not too bad. Quick and good.

1. saute half an onion + half leek slices with a dash of dried fennel.
2. when translucent, add chopped garlic and saute a bit more.
3. Add 2-3 teaspoons of white miso and quickly stir through.
4. Put in fish head and pour water in to cover about 3/4 of heads (heads will break up slightly)
5. Add in sliced carrots.
6. Bring to a boil for a few minutes.
7. Cover and simmer about 20 mins. Remove any scum that rises. May need to flip the heads over halfway.
8. uncover and add any additional veg (used small corn). Adjust  by adding water and/or miso to taste.
9. Bring to boil again and cook the veg through.

one pot lunch

Took 15 mins, if you don't count the home made pesto, which was done yday.

Boil (11 min) pasta in salted water. 7 mins remaining, add the egg in shell. 5 mins remaining, add the frozen broad beans. Take out egg, cool, and peel. Take out the rest, and toss with pesto.

Potato Rosti

Not too bad. The outside was crisp and non oily. Inside was potato'y and tender. Critical advice was followed from this recipe:

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2011/oct/13/how-to-cook-perfect-rosti

Basically, I boiled the potatoes in their skin the night before and placed in the fridge. Only the next morning, did I shred them.

One note: actually I think one large potato is enough for a moderate 2 person breakfast (with fruits etc). 

Spanish Tortilla

This was a hit too tonight.

http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/spanish-tortilla

I took a hint from the above link to first slowly cook the potatoes and onions/bell pepper in lots of oil (basically braise it in oil). Then cool it and mix it into the egg mixture.

(I reused the oil for the porchetta)

I then cooked it for the first part of the combined eggs/potatoes/onions in the pan, then finished it off in the oven under the broiler. As this was my first time, I monitored the temp - when it hit 55C, I transferred it to the pre heated broiler and took it out when it was browned and the internal temp is 69C. Residual cooking did the rest.

69C is probably too high - the temp would continue to rise for a while. I might take it out at a lower temp - say 65C - just to get some runny parts in the dish.

Porchetta

I followed fairly closely to the recipe in the following link: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2011/12/the-food-lab-deep-fried-sous-vide-36-hour-all-belly-porchetta.html

It was delicious.

Couple of problems.
1. The skin of the pork belly, while crispy, seemed a little thin? Perhaps its the cut.
2. The use of all that oil in the deep fry seems a waste and messy.

I'll repeat this again, but without the deep fry. I'll use the oven at 300C and see what happens.