The truth about vegetables

7 days into our new life, we're still trying desperately to bat off jet lag, and acclimatize to the weather. The walk, however short, to the office, is a sweltering one. Heat. It really wraps around you like a blanket the minute you step into the open air.

Food. I never thought I'd say this, but I miss the food in London, very much. The food here, quick, excellent, readily available, cheap - but how is it that we can walk into a mall that has more eateries than all the rest of the shops combined together, comb the building and walk out, lamenting that 'there is nothing to eat!'  We morosely chewed on chicken rice from across the road (as good, and fat as it was) and nodded in agreement that we needed our kitchen really soon.

Earthy roots and bulbs ...

Colours of nature...

Maltby street - how i've missed you!!!

I hadn't realised what it was that was missing from my diet but at the team lunch today, my eyes turned their attention to a list that is otherwise ALWAYS disregarded - the salad. Trying not to be poncy, my mind tried to say 'burger and chips, burger and chips' but my moment of joy came as I chomped happily on my raw greens and blue cheese. Did I think I'd find so much satisfaction in a plate of leaves? I never thought I'd live to see this day.

PS: The Bank, please stop marinating your avocados in whatever you are steeping them in, it tastes awful.

-::-

A trip to the wet market is on the cards very soon. And although this photo was taken in the Barcelona market in Summer of 2011, I reminisce little of this market other than the abundance of jamon and cheese. As for Fruit - the tropics kicks backside, lah.

Midnight Trysts

Tonight, I had a mega craving for a sweet and savoury snack. Raiding the pantry, I realised I hadn't THAT much to play around with but found some basic bits to whip up some cupcakes with a peanut butter frosting. Not quite Martha Stewart, but a fantastic snack and gift (if your frosting skills are better than mine!! The best part, all you need is a whisk, a tablespoon, and a bowl

Classic Fairy Cakes (makes 6)

50 g Softened Butter

50 g Caster Sugar (or 4 table spoons)

50 g Self Raising Flour (or 4 table spoons)

1 large egg

1 table spoon of milk (or 1.5 table spoons)

1 tsp vanilla essence

Whisk softened butter with sugar until a creamy consistency. whisk in egg and vanilla, and fluff in sifted flour and milk. Mix the dough just until everything is incorporated. At this point, the mixture should hold relatively well on the whisk. No runny mixture here. Spoon into cupcake tins lined with colourful fairy cake liners and bake for 15-20 mins at 180 degrees until golden brown.

While you wait, make the peanut butter frosting with

80 g Softened Butter

100 g Icing Sugar (3.5 tablespoons)

1 tablespoon peanut butter
a few drops of vanilla essence or 1 satchet of vanilla sugar. If you use vanilla sugar, reduce icing sugar accordingly (about 10 g)

Whisk (with an electric hand mixer I have come to realise, or if you have awesome muscles) until you get a pale creamy mixture of a relatively fluffy consistency. Incorporate peanut butter and whisk for another 8 minutes. Scoop frosting into a piping bag or ziplock bag and place in fridge to set.

By now your cupcakes should be done. Let them cool on a baking rack for about 30 minutes and pipe frosting onto the top of these little gems. If you are using a ziplock bag, snip off just the tip and frost accordingly. Sprinkle with some hundreds and thousands and voila, happy home made cupcakes in under 45 mintues! 

:)

Focaccia madness

I should start this post by saying that someone asked me. 'why waste time making bread when it can be bought so cheaply?' My response -- the smell of bread in the oven gives me a warm fuzzy feeling but more importantly nothing can taste better than home made bread (done properly of course). Bread making also teaches one to be patient. Oh, so very patient.

Last Sunday I forayed into a long abandoned attempt to make focaccia, a flat baked italian bread. My last attempt in Spring garnered some rather encouraging comments, but goodness it was HARD. i mean, rock hard. Undetterred, I was determined to recreate the memory of that fabulous bite of home made ligurian focaccia  I shared with Mr Mo in Porto Venerre. 

That was a warm August day -- it was summer. Hot, sultry, with a gentle breeze of the sea. When someone told me that eating could actually be a sensory experience, I never knew what that meant until that day. Bread, hot from the oven, drizzled in olive oil so luscious, and sprinkled with salt that teased you with the scent of the Ligurian sea. All that intertwined together, oh my...I might have been in heaven.

All that from bread did you say? Yes. BREAD. 

So it was a rather dreary lazy Sunday, and I was slightly depressed that the summer sun had wandered off to greener pastures, and the memory of Liguria crept into my mind. So off i hopped to tescos to pick up some necessities -- Rosemary, Garlic, Bread Flour. You see, that, plus some good extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, yeast, a pair of hands, and oh -- patience!! Trust me. Anyone can make this :D

I picked out a recipe from the good folks at Rustico Cooking, tweaked the recipe a little and added some Rosemary and Garlic.

• 300 g white bread flour.
• 1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for greasing the bowl and pizza pan
• 1 tablespoon or 5g of baker's yeast.

Mix the flour, 1 tablespoon of the salt, and the sugar and yeast in a bowl. Add 3/4 cup of warm water and ¼ cup of the olive oil. Stir with wooden spoon until the dough starts to form into a clump. Fold the dough for about 2 more minutes until it comes together, and knead with your hands for about 3 minutes. I find that oiling your hand with olive oil helps prevent the dough from sticking to your fingers. Add a little more flour if the dough is sticky or a little more water if the dough is dry.

By now, the dough should be smooth and supple, and rather soft but not sticky and wet; adjust with a little flour or wtaer as needed. Transfer to an oiled bowl and shape into a ball. Cover with a cloth and let rise at room temperature until doubled, about 1 hour.

Transfer the dough to a generously oiled round baking pan and push with your fingers until it extends to the sides of the pan. Let rest 30 minutes, covered. This second rise is very important as it makes the bread light and fluffy. Uncover the dough and dimple it with your fingers, using the pads rather than the nails so you don’t tear the dough. This is the most important step in the focaccia-making process; dimple the dough deeply for best flavor. Scatter the Rosemary and chopped garlic over the dough. Let it rise at room temperature 30 minutes, covered with a cloth.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 220degress celcius (preferably with a baking stone in it).

Combine the remaining ¼ cup of olive oil and the remaining teaspoon of salt with ¼ cup of room-temperature water in a bowl. Pour over the focaccia.

Bake the focaccia on the bottom rack of the oven (or place the baking pan on the baking stone) in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until golden on the top and bottom and lightly crisp. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature.

Note that the bread does not keep for more than 1 day. To store, keep it wrapped in aluminium foil and in an airtight container. This prevents it from becoming hard too quickly.

Buono Appetito!

Simple suppers

 

whilst i'll never make it as a food stylist, I just wanted to note down one of my favourite suppers during the summer. Seared duck breast (medium done) on a bed of red onion couscous mixed in with spinach wilted in a pan of post-duck, topped with our own home grown chillis. 15 mins from pan to plate. weekday nights couldn't get easier!

The stomach gets what the stomach wants - Fast Hainanese Beef Noodles a la Han

I've been having an immense craving for beef noodles from Singapore. no, not beef pho, not beef stir fry with noodles, but rice noodles with a thick herby sauce with tripe, beef balls and tender slivers of beef. Ang Mo Kio style.

Alas, I searched the aisles of the supermarket and peered at asian menus with a pang of longing. To no avail. To be honest, I am rather baffled that I have not seen this on any menu in London so if anyone's seen it. Please let me know!!

Anyhow, I did the next best thing (which was the first thing I should have done anyway) -- I trawled the internet for recipes. Strangely enough, they were few and far between, with one potential. Thank you so much kitchencapers, it was god send. Due to some pantry deficiencies, I didn't have all the ingredients, or my ideal bits of la vache. Nonetheless, I have to say, my stomach went to bed a very happy camper last night.

This recipe serves two.

Ingredients for stock

1. 400 g beef (I suggest a mix of shin + tripe but this requires a much longer cooking time. I didn't have either in my local supermarket so i bought beef mince - see below) + abt 600ml of beef stock (either from boiling the shin + tripe for 2 hrs, or for a quick fix, use an organic beef stock cube).

2. 1 large white onion and 2 cloves of garlic

3. 1/3 cup light soy sauce

4. 1/4 cup dark soy sauce

5. one cinammon stick

6. 5 cloves

7.5 spice powder. the recipe called for 2-3 aniseeds but again, my local was somewhat, deficient.

8. 1 tbps peppercorns (white or black)

9. a handful of wolfberries (about 15)

10. half a pack of salted mustard greens (rinsed and chopped)

11. one cup full of fresh coriander (chopped and as much as u like really)

12. bean sprouts.

13. vermicelli.

Ingredients for beef balls

1. 400g mince

2. half a thumb of fresh ginger (grated or pound)

3. a soup spoon of rice wine

4. 1 tsp of light soy sauce

5. white pepper

To do:

- Drizzle some oil in and sweat the chopped up onion and garlic in the stock pot over medium heat for about 8 minutes till translucent. chuck in wolfberries, cloves (and aniseed if u have them and if u don't, 1 tsp of five spice powder) and cinnamon stick. wait 20 seconds.

- pour in the soy sauce both light and dark, drop in the stock cube at this point and fill with 600 ml of water / pour in the beef stock. Once it is brought to a boil, bring it to a low simmer.

- to work the beef balls, mix in the ginger, rice wine, soy sauce and white pepper into the beef. Press with hands and shape into balls, 1 inch in diameter. this makes about 20 beef balls. cling wrap and pop it in the fridge. if you're not a fan of beef balls, you can use sliced beef. marinate in the same way but instead of using grated ginger, you can try using ginger juice. some people use bicarbonate of soda to tenderise the meat but i personally find that unnecessary.

- these will marinate for about 15mins.

- take the cinnamon stick out of the stock pot at this point.

While waiting.....

- chop up mustard greens, coriander, and some fresh chilli padi (I miss very much the tangy vinegery chilli sauce! i think vietnamese chilli sauce is probably the best substitute here).

- blanche rice vermicelli in boiling water and let it sit for 5 minutes (i used half a pack). Drain water.

- blanch beansprouts in boiling water for 90 secs (if you prefer you can have it uncooked. i'm not a big fan).

Clean kitchen.

By now, the soup would have cooked for about half an hour and ought to have reduced by a third. Drop in the beef balls and cook them till they all rise to the top of the pot. Remove immediately and set aside.

Bring it up to high heat to boil for another 10 minutes and drain through fine mesh sieve (lesson learnt from chewing on cloves). Place pot back on hob and if you'd like your sauce nice and thick, stir in some potato starch (pls add only tsp by tsp and stir in to break all the lump each time, until you achieve your desired consistency).

Assemble noodles, sprouts, beef balls, sauce, mustard greens, coriander and chilli.

Sounds like lots to do? believe me, it was a mere 45 min job! and it was well worth the work.

Young Turks @ The Loft 91/365

Where do I begin?

Perhaps I should start with saying thank you to my foodie friend Goz for a seating at The Loft .

 Some time ago, I had the pleasure of savouring the posh bacon and eggs by Ben Greeno during dinner. So when Goz mailed me about some seats he had for the Young Turks, a collaboration between Isaac McHale, James Lowe and Ben Grenno, at the Nuno Mendes' Loft Project. I could hardly say no!

Freda and I rolled up to Kingsland Road after a long Thursday at work not knowing what to expect being novices in 'guerilla' dining (as I'd call it). We were welcomed by Chris and Dan of the Clove Club with a rhubarb prosecco fizz, and nibbles -- Gem Lettuce, Curd & Anchovy, Smoked Cod's Roe with an oat tuille (this was sublime and my favourite!!), and cured middle white fat (cured for 14 months?) and ham (18 months, I think).

The Loft which is situate off the rather industrial looking side of Kingsland Road is a charm. High ceilings, exposed brick walls (I have an incredible weekness for this!), long tables, spring blooms perched in white pots, an open kitchen where the chefs and their team laboured through the evening to plate up beautiful morsels of food. Front of house made sure everyone was taken care of and topped up intermittently. The wine pairing was interesting and it added an additional dimension to the entire experience.

There was loads of natter between the diners (it was really great meeting uber supperclub enthusiast Miguel from Portugal, Wenlin and her husband Amir), and the chefs were happy to mingle and chat (both before, during and after diner) and didn't really oppose to anyone peeking and peering at the preparations. It was clear that it was going to be an evening of communal dining amongst people with one similar passion - food. OK, so this was definitely an obvious point but hey, i'm new at this, and I have to say, I was slightly in awe !

Moving on:

L-R from the Top

Duck Egg, Ramson and Snails (Chateau de Roquefort ' Petit Sale' (2010))

I am easily excitable. Snails, eggs, and garlic are easily on my list of top favourite food types / ingrediants. Except, I've never had it altogether on a plate. Duck Egg sousvided? or poached? It was a huge yolk perched on a slice of sourdough toast, snails and a green garlicky sauce which absolutely blew me away. Tonight, it was also a botanical lesson unlike any other for me.

Ramsons, as I soon found out later that evening, is also known as buckrams, wild garlic, broad-leaved garlic, wood garlic or bear garlic. It is a wild relative of chives and is a favourite of the wild boar. Thank you wikipedia.

Raw Beef Rib, Oyster and Chickweed (Vignobles Guillaume Pino Noir (2008))

This second dish, as my Portuguese dining partner pointed out, was an interesting twist on the french steak tartare. I already said i'm easily excitable -- raw beef, oysters, breadcrumbs fried in fat...ick. Fat. Oysters. Beef. ipercholestoral maybe, but again, a winning combination for me. What was interesting here was the the oysters were in fact infused into a mouse of sorts that was delicately piped onto the plate. The beef had much more of a bite (which I thoroughly enjoyed) than its slightly more mushy cousin across the channel (possibly from the raw egg). the neighbour on my right (as I soon found out was the 'mother of the chef'),  Isaac's quivered a little at the redness of the beef but thoroughly enjoyed the other courses. Clearly, a mother so proud of her son :)

Chickweed, I now know, is an annual herb, widespread in temperate zones. Most are succulent and have white flowers, is edible (obviously) and has medicinal value. altnature.com tells me that they exhibit a very interesting trait, they sleep every night, hence termed the 'Sleep of Plants', and the leaves fold over its tender buds and new shoots.

Beetroot, Iced Goat's Milk and Pickled Elderberries (Domaine Gerard Metz 'Eldelrwicker' (2009))

This was an interesting and very original dish. It was kind of a cross between a savoury dish and a dessert. I am loving beetroot at the moment and the iced goat's milk reminded me fondly of ice kachang (a shaved ice dessert) back home.If i didn't know better i'd have thought that the dainty white mound was icing sugar. Right. I am personally not a big fan of a goat's by-produce - milk / cheese but I gave it a go and found this to be a very clever dish with intense flavours.

Jersey Royals, Monk's Beard and Crab (Pierre Cros Minervois Blanc (2010))

I didn't quite expect potatoes this evening (based on the previous dishes). It was comfort food with the most amazingly flavoured crab(or seafood?) cream. Was the potato cooked in broth? This chowder reminded me of the seaside and Noirmoitier. I almost can't wait for summer to arrive now. ;)

Monk's Beard, also known as Barba di frate, I was told had flavours that were sort of a cross between seaweed and spinach. Looking at it on the plate and picking it out with my fork, it looked almost abit like some of the saltwater plants we used to study in water (fish) tanks during science classes."How DARE YOU!?" some might say. But it was a really clever complement to the dish  - it reminded me of the sea.

Ok, so http://recipetips.com/ tells me that this is a type of chicory common in Tuscany, Italy where the Cappuccino monks began growing this vegetable green which ultimately became named for their efforts in raising it. With a short season lasting for only five weeks or so, Monk's Beard develops into a thin leafy green with a long white stem.

Chicken, Rye, Hop shoots and Green Onions (Domaine Boudau 'Le Clos' (2009))

I could not believe the chicken in this dish. So moist, so tender, it was unreal. I was heaving from the 4 earlier dishes by this point but still, I cleared my plate. This dish, though many would think is simple and rustic in flavour, chicken, grains, shoots and green onion (did we taste some mushroom in it?) -- kinda like a rustic english risotto but boy was this spectacular. In terms of flavour, this dish has no words. Suffice it to say, the earthiness (and chickeniness [I already said, there are no words]) was phenomenal. It blew me away.

This, together with the first dish were the stars of the day for me.

At one point, someone passed round a packet of what looked like a bunch of dried out skinny asparagus. The knowledgeable diners told me nope, it was hop shoots. It had an amazing grassy fragrance. I swear, one could almost get high on it.

Hop. Sounds familiar? Wikipedia tells me that it is a small genus of flowering plants native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. It is a perennial herbaceous plant which sends up new shoots in early spring (until the end of May) and dies back to the cold-hardy rhizone in autumnT. he female flowers (often called "cones") of H. lupulus are known as hops, and are used as a culinary flavoring and stabilizer, especially in the brewing of beer. The hop is part of the family Cannabaceae, which also includes the genera Cannabis (hemp), and Celtis (hackberries).

Ok, do we understand now why one might get slightly loopey on it?

Hop shoots grow very rapidly and at the peak of growth can grow 20 to 50 cm per week. Hop bines climb by wrapping clockwise around anything within reach, and individual bines typically grow between 2 to 15m depending on what is available to grow on.  When the hop bines run out of material to climb, horizontal shoots sprout between the leaves of the main stem to form a network of stems wound round each other.

Chocolate Malt Ice Cream and Cascara Jelly (The Kernal, Imperial Brown Stout)

I have to confess that by dessert, even though I was bursting at the seams, I was expecting something really punchy and explosive. Normally, it decides whether a spot is sealed in ultimate food heaven at the end of the evening. That said, the verdict: delightful, and a lovely light finish to the evening.

There was a murmur that the cascara had something to do with coffee. The jelly had such delicate flavour, my very undiscerning palate could barely taste it. Was it there for texture? hmm...but using the very cliche phrase, it made the dessert 'come together'. The ice cream was velvety and smooth and I'd be happy to chow down a pot of it anyday. Even though the flavour of the jelly was subtle,  it really did add something of  a je ne sais quoi in the dessert.

Cascara. When I first googled what it was, the top hit said it was a herb with laxative propreties. hmm...upon further research this morning, http://hasbean.co.uk/ told me that Cascara is the dried fruit from the coffee 'cherry', the seed from which is the coffee 'bean' as we know it. Normally this is a waste product or at best is used to fertilise the ground by breaking it down. But it can be used to brew a delicious and refreshing caffeinated drink.

If you are still here reading, you can probably tell from the length of this post that this experience, to say the very least, was really really exceptional.

Details
http://youngturks.co/event/youngturks-theloft/

Quebec Wharf 315 Kingsland Road London E8 4DJ

Macaroons 79/365

Saturday night saw me battling my ultimate baking challenge - David Lebovitz macaroons. The first batch turned out like flat chewy subway cookies but had the right flavour.

Undefeated, I forged on to try again on Sunday morning. This time, the little babies rose nicely...but still no d**n feet!!! Flavour went all wonky so this time I pimped them as flourless chocolate 'Hero' cakes.

One day, I will succeed.

Apple Turnovers 65-66/365

Leftover green apples from last week's crumble + puff pastry = yummy buttery apple turnovers.

On another note, following my spate of bad luck with airlines (budget and otherwise), I finally got round to booking my flights to Rome next month. At a reasonable price no less. Winter begone and let the tides turn.

Bleeding Hearts 64/365

Bleeding Heart Yard


 The restaurant takes its name from the yard where it is located which, according to the history books, was named after a 17th century beauty, Lady Elizabeth Hatton, who was found murdered there.

The Legend

Lady Elizabeth Hatton was the toast of 17th Century London society. The widowed daughter-in-law of the famous merchant Sir Christopher Hatton (one-time consort of Queen Elizabeth 1), Lady Elizabeth was young, beautiful and very wealthy. Her suitors were many and varied, and included a leading London Bishop and a prominent European Ambassador. Invitations to her soirees in Hatton Garden were much sought after.



Her Annual Winter Ball, on January 26, 1662, was one of the highlights of the London social season. Halfway through the evening's festivities, the doors to Lady Hatton's grand ballroom were flung open. In strode a swarthy gentleman, slightly hunched of shoulder, with a clawed right hand. He took her by the hand, danced her once around the room and out through the double doors into the garden. A buzz of gossip arose. Would Lady Elizabeth and the European Ambassador (for it was he) kiss and make up, or would she return alone? Neither was to be. The next morning her body was found in the cobblestone courtyard – torn limb from limb, with her heart still pumping blood onto the cobblestones. And from thenceforth the yard was to be known as The Bleeding Heart Yard.


Charles Dickens and the Bleeding Heart

Charles Dickens knew Bleeding Heart well. In ‘Little Dorrit’ he wrote of folks in the yard, saying “The more practical of the Yard’s inmates abided by the tradition of the murder”.
But he went on to document another Bleeding Heart story: “The gentler and more imaginative inhabitants, including the whole of the tender sex, were loyal to the legend of a young lady imprisoned in her own chamber by a cruel father for remaining true to her own true lover – but it was objected to by the murderous party that this was the invention of a spinster and romantic, still lodging in the Yard”.

[Credits: http://www.bleedinghearts.co.uk/]


I had high expectations as the website did tout itself as having the 'finest' french cuisine in london. They had a wide selection of good wines at fairly reasonable prices (you'd be hardpressed to find that here in London!). However, there were lots of confused serving staff and mixed up orders, food was not much to holler about, as it was not unlike what one would expect from a normal french bistro in Paris. The good thing is that it had a price tag to match as well so one can't complain. :)

PS: Intriguing legend though :)

Cigala 59/365

Not too much to update today, except that I might have found the chilled-out alternative to Caminos. I must have walked by Cigala (which by the way, means Langoustines) at least a hundred times on my way to the Rugby Tavern for after work drinks but I've never noticed this corner stop. Good sized paella, flavourful starters, yummy chorizos, excellent tortillas (and I am quite picky about my egg and potatoes), and a really stunning whiskey ice cream cake to finish.

Note to self: Learn how to make Higado a la jerezana - pan-fried chicken livers with caramelized onions and Pedro Ximenez sherry. It was the star of the evening! 

And here's to the end of February. Golly, time's passing really quickly this year!

Cigala
54 Lambs Conduit Street,
Russell Square,
London, WC1N 3LW

Dinner by Heston 58/365

Now I know it is a big Asian thing to take lots of pictures of their food, in various states of undress, or should I say, consumption. Someone has asked me to post photos of my food when I write about them. 'It makes the recipe look more delicious' they say.

Now you'd probably wonder, ok so why is Han putting up a photo of a kumquat with some sticks of toast in the background? I must say, as with every other person who has been to Dinner,

This is no ordinary kumquat.

Say hello to Meat Fruit, a little piece of magic by Mr Heston Blumenthal. A sublime chicken liver parfait wrapped in a sweet mandarin jelly. Traditionally in the kitchen of Mr Mo's grandmother, foie gras was always paired with quince jelly. So this was a clever morsel of culinery delight -- creamy, flavourful, and honestly, pretty amazing.

I was sat next to a lovely Mel to whom I was lamenting about my impending food envy as the serving staff popped out with trays of beautifully plated food which were a real visual treat!! As we had a seating for 6, we ended up playing musical plates on our round table. Without delving into a mega picture spam, the winners were as follows.

 

The Meat Fruit (c.1500) won hands down in creativity. Rice and Flesh (c.1390) came a close second as a visual treat (gold (from saffron) and burgandy (possibly from red wine?) is always a winning combination colour wise!

In terms of flavour, the Salamagundy (c.1720) was what I could only call 'chicken-y' but packed full of flavour.

The Broth of Lamb (c.1730) and Savoury Porridge (c. 1660) tasted familiar and oddly reminded me of my God mother's cooking flavours (but obviously with much more precision and complexity in flavour). Comforting and homely, the Savoury Porridge (which was done with cod cheeks, a twist on the Fat Duck's reknowned snail porridge) flooded me with my first memories of my mother's spinach and parsley 'chok'.

Slight digression here but, what I wanted to say really was --- the starters were STUNNING.

For mains, we divided and conquered - Spiced Pigeon (c. 1780) and Beef Royal (c. 1720). The spiced pigeon, as Mel and I agreed that the texture and look of the pigeon was -- almost rare, but it was the smoothest and tastiest pigeon I've had by far. It has a good bite and is rather chewable at first (without being tough or stringy), but melts onto your tongue within seconds. I know, all these descriptions might not sound palatable.  Perfectly cooked!!

The Beef Royal ---- 72 hours Slow Cooked Short Rib of Angus, Smoked Anchovy and Onion Puree, Ox Tongue. Need I say more?

We rounded up the afternoon circa 2011 at 430 pm with yet another round of musical desserts. Pretty colours on a plate they were --- the deep purple of blackcurrent, pastel pink of rhubarb, the sandy colour of salted caramel, and the deep rich chocolate brown (all not on the same plate of course!!)

My winners for the final course was the pineapple tipsy cake (which Goz said tasted somewhat like kaya...) and the brown bread ice cream. The rest of the desserts were very clever in tastes, but far too experimental for me. This course cemented my preference for slightly more traditional flavours in my pudding.

With that, I leave you with the amazing pineapple spit roast, turned uniformly by a ginormous mechanical contraption designed by famed watched maker Ebel. Very rustic and traditional!

My fellow diners informed me that Dinner was in itself a very different dining experience (sensorily and wallet wise) from its world acclaimed brother. While I have not been to the Fat Duck, this was to my mind, a sneak preview of the aesthetic skill, culinery cleverness and creativity that Mr Blumenthal and his team possess.

Dinner was, as my friend Goz assured me, nothing short of excellent.

(photo credits: Goz of http://www.plusixfive.wordpress.com/)



Pain Au Chic 55/365

Credit: http://www.pedlars.co.uk/

'The Chanel of the Bread Bin World'

Every Wednesday, I look forward to having a copy of the Stylist shoved into my hands by the little Asian men who valiantly wave copies of them about. My favourite page as always, is The Stylist List. This cute little mini bread bin caught my eye.

Now in my life, people who know me well also know that store bought sliced bread are often disposed off unwrapped, baguettes gone hard (I sometimes make croutons), other breads 'lao hong' ('lost air' as the chinese would say). The bread bin was my ultimate bread mortuary.

It was not until I passed through the towns in Liguria last summer that I fell in love with the local foccacia tossed in an abundance of olive oil and salt that allowed you to imagine of nothing more than olive branches waving delightfully at the salty sea over the cliffs. Coupled with the fluffiness of the bread, bronzed crispiness of the skin, sultry flavours dancing on your palette... ... ok I might be getting carried away here. It's bread we're talking about!

With renewed rigour, I sought out and tested several bread recipes when I came back. But without a bread machine, kneading can sometimes be a real pain when you're not in the mood for it! An Italian once told me that foccacia was one of the few breads that required very little handling and true to his word, it was one of the easiest (and most tasty!) breads I've tested out. I originally used a mish mash of recipes for Foccacia alla Ligure from the internet and tried several versions -- I've finally found this combination to be a winner (for me at least :)).

This is the plain version and you can wing it with olives, ham, sundried tomatoes (a favourite in our household!), rosemary, garlic or cheese. This serves 3-4.

2.5 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (or organic white bread flour)

3/4 of a pack of easy bake yeast (about 5g. each pack normally has 7g)

3/4 table spoon

1/2 cup tepid water (plus extra as needed)

2-3 drizzles (or 1/8 cup) extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for greasing the bowl.

Method:

1. Mix flour, yeast and tablespoon of salt together with a spatula (or food processor if you have one).

2. dribble and mix in the 1/2 cup of tepid (warm) water slowly.

3. drizzle one generous ribbon of olive oil around the dough and mix in. 

4. Add a little more warm water and mix in to form a soft dough (about 1 minute). At this point, you should be able to scrape the dough away from the sides of the bowl and it will be quite elastic (and a little sticky). If too sticky, dust a little more flour in. If too dry, drip a little warm water in.

5. Oil the side of the mixing bowl, you can use the same bowl as the dough would have come away and the bowl will be quite clean. Using your hands which are oiled with some olive oil, shape the dough into a ball.

6. place a tea towel over the bowl and let it rise in a warm place (I usually put my next to the radiator) for about 2 hours. It should double in size. 

7. Take the dough out of the bowl, flatten it and knead it for 1 minute (not too vigourously!). Three or four folds and kneads will do, just to exercise the dough. Pull into three-four balls and wrap with clingfilm. Place in the fridge overnight. (or you can cook them at this point as well but refrigeration somehow gives fluffier results, as I have discovered by accident)

8. Take dough out of the fridge and let it rest for 30 mins. Press and push each ball of dough flat into desired shape (I usually shape it like a pita bread).  Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

9. In a small bowl, whisk together 1.5 tablespoons of olive oil, 3 tablespoons of tepid water. Drizzle over the dough. Let the dough sit for about 30 minutes at room temperature. Dimple the dough with your fingers and at this point, add the topping you desire. I usually sprinkle some coarse sea salt over the dough at this point.

10. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown and slightly crisp. 

The caveat of this recipe is that it probably uses less olive oil than the traditional foccacia and is thus less fatty. I guess I could indulge myself once in a while with a greasy sumptuous treat which makes the bread softer but I find that the oily bread (as with most other greasy foods) don't keep as well for the following day.  The bread is great the next day as well (with a couple of minutes in the oven to warm up) with proscuitto or cured meats. :)  I have also used this as a pizza base.

Now. I think I have a very good reason to acquire my little Wesco bread bin.

Plus Six Five (+65) 16/365

So a friend fr sg (who is by far one of the best cooks i've known -- Hey he even made his own bak kwa ok!) in london is about to start a new supperclub, called +65. The sweet old chap made some yummy tasting kway chap and invited some people round for dinner (which included me finally meeting miss goingwithmygut, and a longtime LJ cyberacquaintence). It was a very commendable effort, what with all the scrubbing of pig's stomachs and cleaning of fen changs. I wished I could have stayed for more food and chats, but I had visitors hailing from the land of windmills. :(

+65's website is currently under construction but will be up and running quite soon I think.

Posh Bacon and eggs 14/365

The best take on bacon and eggs a la Mr Greeno i've had in a while. 1 out of 6, the belly of lamb, smoked mackeral, and yoghurt mousse with malt drop meringues(?) came as very close runners up.

The thing about france 12/365

Over Christmas, we visited Mr Mo's grandmother who now lives in a retirement home run by nuns, in Saintes. Some of you may know that Saintes is a Roman town in the southwest of france which sprouted in the 1st century. 'Saintes' somehow reminds me of the word 'saint' in english. Coupled with the fact that the town pivots about a magnificent Basilique, and that the retirement home overlooks a roman abbey, it is little surprise that this little town runs amok with some very traditional catholic families.

No, this post is not about religion, it is about tradition. The french tradition, to be precise. The four of us Mr Mo, his maman and Mamie Odette had lunch in Les Saveurs de l'Abbeye, a restaurant gastronomique which was situate right next door to the abbey. Food was simple, but exquisite. Soup served in coffee cups, tarte tartin served in what I can only believe was designed by a lopsided scandanavian glass blower. What intrigued me was that when we sat down, the table was set with plates, napkins, cutlery, and a very precariously balanced long stemmed vase. Very cute, but very dangerous when left in the likes of me or miss sotong.

After we'd ordered, the waiter sauntered round, and collected all the plates on the table. Unused! Mr Mo explained that the table needed to be 'dressed' and went on to explain table 'dressing' etiquette to me. At some point, Mr Mo recounted a story about getting his grandfather's pants up in a twist when he used to deliberately place his bread on the 'wrong' side of the table. 

Later in the week, when I glanced down at my plate after lunch, bread on the wrong side, fork misplaced, no one noticed anything was amiss, but I thought to myself, even though I will probably never really be propre enough, that is all part and parcel, and indeed something special about our cross cultural relationship.

That said, chopsticks please.

Merci beaucoup.

Soup challenge -- chunky celery soup

 

Now before you go all bananas on how disgusting celery is (as an ardent celery hating child myself), I have been pleasantly surprised at how well it complements (and is vital because of it's slightly peppery flavour) certain dishes. Having made bolognaise ragu earlier in the week which required all of 2 celery stalks, the rest of the stems and leaves sat wilting sadly in my fridge. As temperatures dipped below 10 this week, I was really longing for a thick hearty soup, none of this broth business that us Asians are used to. It made me think of the chunky soup series by Heinz, of which one of my favourites was the bacon and potato soup. yums. 

Anyway, I digress. This can be winged out very quickly, with or without bacon, and deals with the underabsorption of ingredients from previous meals (sorry i am actually studying for an exam now!)

The base is somewhat similar to that of the carrot and coriander soup I made last week (I realise that alot of the ingredients used in potages here are pretty much a standard set, of course, knowing as well which veges complement which herbs.)

So again, 1 white onion and 1 clove of garlic finely diced, drizzle of olive oil and butter (about 1 tsp) in a pan over low heat until onions are translucent, scrape outer layer of celery if you don't like the fibrous bits and chop up finely. Reserve leaves on the side for garnish. Sweat everything together for 8 minutes with a bay leaf and one finely diced large potato. add a glass of dry white wine (or enough to just cover the veges). Reduce for 10 minutes to allow the alchohol to evaporate. Add 3 cups of home made chicken stock. sprinkle over 1 tsp of nutmeg and bring to minimum heat cook. Go do something for 30 minutes.

Stir in 1/2 cup whole milk (DO NOT BOIL SOUP VIGOUROUSLY) and either (1) puree with hand blender (again only when soup has cooled to room temperature or risk an exploding mess in the kitchen) or (2) mash up with manual potato masher. This gives it a chunkiness which I like. Add salt and pepper to taste.

This was served with a heap of home made croutons which was simply yesterday's pasty white baguette roll cut up into 0.5 cm cubes , dressed with olive oil and pepper, and tanned in a preheated oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown at 180C.

As a treat, you can also fry up bits of bacon until brown and crisp and drain on kitchen paper.

To assemble, spoon up soup, drop croutons and crumble bacon into soup. Garnish with reserved celery leaves (and parsley for a nice deep green colour). I omitted bacon this time but dressed it up with mom's fried shallots and freshly milled black pepper. I know it might not look like the fanciest soup  in the photo above being a rather sad pale green colour, but it made me a very happy camper last night. :)

xx

Cinque Terre (1) - Riomaggiore

Riomaggiore

 First of the Cinque Terre towns from La Spezia, Riomaggiore (as with the rest) was cliffside town which for some reason had lots of boats, and even a dive site! Suffice to say that each town had a charm of its own, Riomaggiore for me was personally produce heaven. We saw tonnes of oversprouting tomato plants, prior to which bits of such vines were only seen packed into uniform plastic boxes in various supermarkets. The lemon trees heaving with beautiful golden fruit. All over the Cinque Terre we saw big sickly looking trees that bore bundles of green fruit. It was only in the walk to Corniglia that I finally deduced that these fig trees!

From the top of the cliff, we looked across the sea and saw the 4 other cliffs within which the other towns resided. Little grocers peppered the town centre (not quite the town centre as the village was built in a very narrow manner inland) and peddled their wares, fresh fruit, vegetables, pesto, pine nuts, fresh pasta, baskets of foccacia, oh i could go on. All of this wonderful ingredients presented themselves on a plate at Billy's in Manarola, a restaurant that i'd highly highly recommend if anyone is headed that way.  

Lunch time paella posts

My housemate recently lamented that she quite liked (and missed Paella), a typical fare originating from Valencia in Spain. Last night, we hopped over to the supermarket to pick up a couple of things, and broke open our new pan that we had been using for stock since we didn't have a shallow one big enough enough to house all the ingredients. The final product turned out quite well, and this recipe works for me even ifthough the picture above seems to tell a tale of a Chinese Fried Rice. I digress. Just for keepsakes, here's the process:

From grocery bag to plate time: 45 mins

Season 4 mini chicken breasts fillets (about 120 g?) with a little salt and pepper and dredge in plain flour to cover. Drizzle a few ribbons of olive oil into a hot pan and slide in chicken pieces to fry on medium heat till golden brown.

While waiting, chop up 200g chirozo sausage (we used iberico chorizo fresh from the butcher), 1 medium yellow onion, 4 cloves of garlic and 2 pointed red peppers (or bell peppers if you wish but we like the pointy ones as they are sweeter).

Set chicken pieces aside. At this point, heat in another pan 1.8 l of organic chicken stock and seperate into two portions. Keeping the pan on the stove, add the sausage and fry a little till fragrant (about 5 mins) and add in chopped up onion / garlic / peppers. Leave veges and sausage to sweat a little more. While sweating, add a good pinch of saffron threads into one portion of the stock and let it infuse for about 10 minutes.

To the paella pot add 500g of paella rice / long grain rice and stir everything together so the rice gets a lovely coat of flavours. Pour in the saffron-infused stock, cover and bring the pan to a simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, sort of bringing the rice into the centre of the pan(to avoid any rice sticking and for even cooking). Pour the rest of the stock into the pan and let it continue to do its thing for another 10 minutes, stirring occassionally.

Mix in 100g of mixed seafood (squid / mussels / prawns) and a handful of peas (large or small depending on how much you like these petit pois. Cover and let the seafood cook for another 10 minutes. Slice up chicken into bit sized pieces and chop up a bunch of parsley. Switch heat off, stir in chicken pieces and chopped up parsley. Let the pan rest for two minutes, and gather up plates for serving. With 1 lemon, squeeze juice of half into paella and give rice a final stir. slice up the other half into wedges for serving with plated final product. Blissed out.

Ps: if you don't like chicken, replace with equal portion of fish or more seafood :)

The failed domestic goddess

i've come to realise that cooking has got alot to do with how you feel, your mood and spirits. Even if you follow the recipe right down to the T, one can still get it dreadfully wrong.

Tonight for instance, I had a batch of frozen pastry left over from the last quiche I made. I decided to defrost it to make a beef pot pie but changed my mind to have rice with the stew instead. I kept the stew in a foil to retain the moisture but it refused to reheat in the oven. I took the foil off (obviously) but the oven was too hot and the stew dried out.

I then decided to bake some custard tarts, one of my all time favourites, just to cheer myself up. Now I don't usually follow recipes exactly when I bake. I take the general proportions and just go with my gut feel, measurements, timing, temperature. I took the usual steps but for some reason, the custards exploded into some very dubious looking ugly buns, kinda like mutated scones that popped out from pastry shells. Custard flavour was spot on though.

Lesson learnt, never cook when you're in a shitty mood. You just end up with some serious crap. Now what am i going to do with these 10 little volcanoes?

At Morgan m.

Petite Jas -

Bonne anniversaire mon amie...j'espere que t'aies passe une bonne jour avec nous...c'etait une tres bonne idee :D ...c'est pas le meme sans PY et YC, mais il est aussi magnifique que l'annee derniere.