Mummy, I can cook!

Soto Ayam, Malay Chicken Soup (for the Soul)

2012-03-20T03:03:00.025-07:00

When you get showers one day, sun the next, winds on another, you know the seasons are changing. Then again, that's possibly the case for London all year round. The fickle weather gives us all something in common, aside from the economy and the Olympics, to whine about at least. But also with the changing seasons, comes the snotty noses and sore throats. When I'm down with a bout of flu, or when I just need a little boost of immunity to soothe my paranoia, or even when I'm just after a comforting bowl of warmth, there's nothing like chicken soup.

The power of "Grandma's chicken soup" is not just a placebo effect. I've written about making homemade stock/bone broths before, how the slow-cooking of meat and bones draws out both delicious flavour and health-giving nutrients. Every culture has their own version of chicken soup, and back in Singapore, the Malays have their chicken soup infused with fragrant herbs and spices. Soto ayam, or mee soto (i.e. with noodles), was always a simple favourite from the school canteen in primary school.

Malay Spiced Chicken Soup (Soto Ayam)

recipe adapted from the brilliant 3hungrytummies

makes enough stock for 2-3 servings

Ingredients

1 large free-range pastured chicken carcass (you can use a whole chicken and double the ingredients, but this is even more so frugal)

2 litres of water

1 large onion, minced

1 cinnamon stick

4 cloves

2 star anise

1 bay leaf

1 lemongrass, bashed

unrefined sea salt, to taste

for the spice mix

1" piece of ginger

4 cloves garlic

1 heaped tbsp coriander

1 tbsp cumin

1 tbsp turmeric

1 tbsp white peppercorns

to serve (basic version, read below for other toppings)

rice vermicelli, soaked in cold water for 15 min

shredded chicken from above

handful of beansprouts

fresh coriander leaves

crispy fried shallots

Method

1. Pound/blitz the ingredients for the spice mix together. Rub the chicken carcass with the spice mix.

2. Saute the onion till lightly browned, then add the chicken carcass, along with the rest of the ingredients. Add the water, bring to a boil, skim off any scum that rises to the top, and then let simmer for 2h on a low heat.

3. Remove the carcass, pick at the remaining cooked meat and shred. Strain the broth to remove the spices.

4. Blanch the rice vermicelli and beansprouts in boiling water very quickly (less than a min), dish into a bowl, and pour a ladle of hot chicken broth over. Top with the shredded chicken, coriander, and crispy fried shallots, and serve immediately, with some chilli on the side if desired.

Ah, chicken soup, soto ayam especially. It's also often had with pressed rice cakes lontong, hard-boiled eggs and potato croquettes bergedil, and topped with extra chilli paste. The simplest "school canteen" version is usually just like what I've done though; noodles, beansprouts, shredded chicken, a sparse sprig of coriander because the kids remove it anyway.

Just a whiff of the fragrant asian herbs and the musky depth and aroma of the spices nourishes the soul, but a slurp of it nourishes the body instantly. I love reading about traditional (food) therapy, and traditional chinese medicine suggest warming pungent foods in spring to get your qi and blood moving, so this is actually a delicious way to get your dose of medicine.

Mint and Mustard Meatballs (they're green!)

2012-03-16T03:31:00.019-07:00

Cumin Mustard Meatballs with Mint Pesto

It's St Patrick's Day tomorrow, i.e. a day to get merry and celebrate all things Irish and green! I unfortunately don't have anything remarkably Irish to share. I remember making shepherd's pie last year, but even then, I added lots of masala spices and called it Indian shepherd's pie, a bastardisation yes, but still one of my most triumphant recipes. I do have something green though. And involving lamb. And a bit of an alliteration.

Cumin Mustard Meatballs

Ingredients

300g free-range minced lamb

1 small onion, minced

1 heaped tbsp dijon mustard

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tbsp gram flour (i.e. chickpea flour)

generous grind of unrefined sea salt and black pepper

a little ghee (or olive oil)

Method

1. Combine ingredients together, and mix till it forms a paste. Roll into little walnut-sized balls with wet hands.

2. Fry in ghee on a medium-hot pan, making sure to get a nice sear and caramelisation on the outside, then lower the heat, flipping/rolling the meatballs as they cook. If you don't want to give them so much attention, you can probably also chuck them into the oven for 15-20 min at 200 degrees celsius.

Mint Pesto (no cheese)

Ingredients

2 large handfuls of mint leaves

1 small handful of toasted almonds (or pine nuts, more expensive)

2 cloves garlic

generous pinch of unrefined sea salt, freshly ground black pepper

your favourite extra virgin olive oil

squeeze of lemon

1. Combine all the ingredients except lemon in the food processor, adding the evoo as you g, enough to make a smooth paste. Finish with a squeeze of lemon. You can also do it by hand if you're enthusiastic.

2. This will keep in the fridge for a couple of days if submerged under oil, and is brilliant to dress salads or goat's cheese or as the finishing touch to soups/pastas/risotto or just with good bread.

I know they aren't perfectly and beautifully spherical, but they don't have to be; they're rough and homemade and yummy anyway. These aren't the traditional Italian meatballs that everyone associates meatballs with, made with eggs and breadcrumbs and slowly simmered in tomato sauce; think Indian kofta meatballs, bound instead with chickpea flour and with a hint of aromatic cumin. Cumin and mint go really well together, I first tried this combination with fresh peas; it was a total revelation, and I now find it almost natural to reach for cumin when I use mint. I really liked the tangy heat that mustard added, so now I may just add that to the equation too!

Happy St Patrick's Day, and Happy Mothering Sunday too (in Singapore we celebrate Mother's Day in May, but hello mummy anyway if you're reading this) !

Blue Eggs and Purple Broccoli

2012-03-12T16:15:00.008-07:00

I did this for next month's East End Life newsletter, and thought it would be fun to share here on the blog too. This one was a feature on Animal Farm, a brilliant mixed-livestock farm set in the rolling hills of Bellingdon. They do excellent meat (wild boar, rare breed beef, sheep etc.), and they also rear many different varieties of free-range poultry so you can usually find a mix of gorgeous duck eggs, glossy deep brown eggs from Burford Brown hens, and delightfully pale blue-tinted Cotswold Legbar eggs!

As much as I love my omelettes and fancy frittatas, I felt I would be somewhat letting the chickens down if I just break their beautiful golden yolks up, so I decided to lightly boil them and appreciate the delicious subtle flavour differences among the different eggs.

Soft-Boiled Eggs with Sesame Roasted Broccoli Soldiers

Ingredients

3-4 large free-range eggs, a mix

1 large handful of purple sprouting broccoli

1 tsp good soy sauce (traditionally fermented, I used tamari here)

1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil

1 tsp sesame seeds

extra virgin olive oil, enough to coat

Method

1. For the soft-boiled eggs, put room temperature eggs in a single layer in a saucepan with enough cold water to cover. Bring to a boil over high heat, and once boiling, take off the heat and let sit in the hot water for 4 min exactly. Immediately remove to a bowl of ice-cold water, to stop the cooking. (See here for how to boil eggs.)

2. Break the broccoli into roughly equal stalks. Toss with rest of ingredients except sesame seeds. Spread in an even layer on a greased baking tray.

3. Roast for about 10-15 min at 180 degrees celsius or till lightly browned at the edges. Scatter sesame seeds over to toast about 5 min towards the end.

This is actually an old recipe, I did it almost exactly a year ago, with normal broccoli, but tis' the season for purple sprouting broccoli! It's one of the simple favourites I return to. Sometimes I have the soft-boiled egg with sourdough toast soldiers, sometimes with seasonal vegetable soldiers; either way, you can't go wrong with oozy golden yolk from a happy hen!

Jasmine Rice Pudding with Poached Rhubarb

2012-03-08T04:04:00.016-08:00

In the farmers' market right now, and quite likely in the shops pretty soon, are the gorgeous rosy pink stalks of the first of rhubarb. It's the one other thing besides purple sprouting broccoli that's in season in this lull between winter and spring.

This rhubarb is 'forced', which sounds kind of bad, but actually just mean they are grown in darkened sheds. They are actually more succulent and prettier than the sturdier outdoor-grown mottled green stalks. Before coming to Londom, I've never seen rhubarb or even heard of them, let alone taste them, and my first try eating them plainly cooked (sans sweetener) left my mouth puckered at its sourness. But subsequent attempts roasting or poaching them with some sugar or honey changed my mind and I'm in love with this sour fruit-vegetable.

Since the cold winds and rain have returned after a week of surprisingly sunny weather, I'm not going to do anything involving sorbets or jelly, nor strawberries (oh when will you arrive?). Rice is my ultimate comfort food, whether for savoury or sweet. I don't buy pudding rice; I simply use jasmine rice, cooked much like congee, but with a rich stir of thick coconut milk instead of milk, much like I do for traditional black sticky rice pudding. I know the traditional british rice pudding is baked in the oven and has a 'skin' on top; I do't know about you but I really, don't fancy skin.

Coconut Jasmine Rice Pudding
serves 2 greedy people, or up to 4
Ingredients
1/2 cup jasmine rice, rinsed twice and drained
1 cup water
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup coconut cream (i.e. the thick portion floating on top)
1 cinnamon stick
pinch of unrefined sea salt

Method
1. In a saucepan, combine rice with water, coconut milk, cinnamon and salt. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce heat to low and let simmer, stirring occasionally for 30 minutes, till it's cooked to a soft creamy consistency.
2.Remove from heat, before stirring in the coconut cream and let cool, or you can chill extra in the fridge for a cold pudding.

Poached Rhubarb with Ginger

1 pound rhubarb stalks

250ml water

1 thumb-sized piece of ginger

3-4 tbsp unrefined cane sugar

Method

1. Bring sugar, water and ginger to a simmer in a wide pan, till sugar dissolves.

2. Trim and cut rhubarb stalks into 1" long pieces and add to the ginger syrup. Bring to a simmer again, for just another 1-2 minutes. You want the rhubarb tender but not falling apart into a compote/mush.

3. Serve warm, or cool if you like, with the rice pudding, and you can also keep the extra in the fridge to top porridge or pancakes (sourdough crepes!) or plain Greek yogurt.

A scoop of creamy pudding with the faint fragrance of jasmine rice, the richness of coconut milk, and the sweet-sharpness of rhubarb,with just that little heat from the ginger, was all I needed on that cold rainy day. Oh, and a big warm fluffy pillow, and the temporary make-belief that I had no schoolwork due. Ah, bliss.

Steamed Whole Flounder (the sizzling Cantonese way)

2012-03-05T03:43:00.014-08:00

Whole fish with partially broken tail (see point 4 below)

Just finished a design brief for school which included drawing, in near-microscopic detail, a whole lot of fishes. I see scales and gills and fins everywhere now.

On the bright side, I can properly tell a plaice from a dover sole from a lemon sole and flounders. They are all British flatfishes, with both eyes on one side which makes them look quite odd, and eating-wise, they all have a similar delicate flaky texture. Whether they are more oval or diamond-shaped, or whether they have spots etc help tell them apart, though frankly, the price is the best way to tell them apart. This is why I say, skip the plaice and dover soles, and go for the lemon soles (actually not a sole but a winter flounder) and flounders! A flounder is not only a cheaper option, but also a more sustainable option, and frankly, pretty similar taste and texture-wise. At £5/kg, this freshly caught flounder that I got from Pimlico farmers' market was a bargain!

I steamed the whole fish Cantonese-style, i.e. with hot oil poured over after the fish is steamed; you'll get what I mean by sizzling when you watch the video! (Er it's only 2 seconds but I couldn't resist recording the sound hah.) This step is not just for fun, it's what elevates the dish!

Cantonese-Style Steamed Whole Flounder

serves 2 as a side

Ingredients

1 whole flounder, about 400g

1 tsp unrefined sea salt

1" ginger, finely sliced

1 stalks spring onion, finely shredded

(opt) 1 red chilli, finely sliced

1 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine

3 tbsp good soy sauce (traditionally brewed and fermented)

1 tbsp mix of toasted sesame oil + 1 tbsp groundnut oil

handful of chopped coriander leaves

Method

1. Wash fish and pat dry, then rub evenly with salt and rice wine. Place fish over two chopsticks set over a plate. This will make for more even cooking.

2. Set up a steamer by putting a rack into a wok/pot over boiling water, and set the plate of fish on the rack (make sure it doesn't touch the water). Steam over high heat until just cooked, about 12 min for mine.

3. Carefully transfer the cooked fish to a new plate. You don't want the old plate and the fishy cooking liquid.

4. Scatter the spring onions, chilli and ginger over, then drizzle over the soy sauce.

5. Heat the oil in a pan until smoking, then immediately pour over the fish. Garnish with coriander, and serve straight away with rice.

The fine, flaky flesh of the flounder is really suited to this delicate steaming method. Soy sauce, ginger, spring onions, are all very simple chinese-cooking essentials, but they all come together brilliantly with the fish, and the final step of sizzling hot sesame oil just adds the final flourish. Keeping the fish on the bone also helps to keep it extra moist and tender, much like how meat kept on the bone is juicier. I know it freaks some people out, but growing up in a Chinese household, a whole steamed fish makes quite a common appearance on the dinner table. I tend to relish seeing the head and tail with my fish.

My food in print (:

2012-03-02T03:53:00.007-08:00

East End Life Newsletter (Feb 2012)

See recipe for Scottish Shepherd's Pie (Haggis Pie with Swede Crust)

Flavour Magazine (Feb 2012)

See recipe for Steamed Cabbage Dim Sum Dumplings

I've been doing a lot of "I'm 21 years old oh my god" moaning recently. I'm at the stage where I start worrying about my future and what I want to do with my life when I graduate. When I'm not thinking about food, I think about graphic design at central saint martins, and I've still got more than a year to go in my degree and to continue thinking. I do know I want to do something related to food. What that is exactly, I have no idea. But I'm happy anyway to be doing a bit of food writing for now- not paid, but it's exciting to see my food in print, and it helps generate publicity for the farmers' market. Just wanted to share this with all you lovely people who read this space (:

Spicy Purple Sprouting Broccoli with Fried Red Lentils

2012-02-27T01:18:00.015-08:00

It's that time of the year, isn't it? Neither winter nor spring. It's kind of getting warmer, but you still need your coat at times. It's kind of getting brighter earlier and darker later, but now and then the sky still threatens to rain and darken everything. On the food front, it's that time of the year when nothing's especially in season. The tender salad leaves aren't out yet, the winter roots are still here, but they're just going to leave soon, and nothing much is really new.

It's kind of easy to get bored, but thank god there is one "in-between' vegetable that's springing up at the farmer's market, the purple sprouting broccoli. They're gorgeous spindly stalks of broccoli with purple florets instead. I was just thinking to myself how nice it would be to get these instead of roses for valentine's day (I know I'm weird).

Spicy Purple Sprouting Broccoli with Fried Red Lentils

serves 2 as a side

Ingredients

handful of purple sprouting broccoli, broken to roughly even-sized florets

1 cup red split lentils

3-4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1 tbsp dried chilli flakes (or to taste)

juice of 1/2 a lemon

generous pinch of sea salt

1 tbsp ghee or grassfed butter

Method

1. Soak lentils for about 20 min before cooking (to maximise digestibility, split lentils actually cook really quickly so you don't have to soak overnight unlike most pulses). Cook in boiling salted water for about 5-10 min, or until just tender but still retaining its shape. Drain.

2. Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil and plunge the broccoli in, boil for about 2 min until just tender, and drain and refresh in cold water. Squeeze some lemon juice over for a bit of tang and to help it stay fresh.

3. Fry the chopped garlic in ghee till fragrant, then add the spices and chilli along with the cooked red lentils, and fry till slightly crispy. Season, and add the broccoli to warm through at the end.

Purple sprouting broccoli has a nice delicate taste despite being part of the cabbage family. The leafy stalks are also yummy so don't think it's rather a waste just because of the stalk:floret ratio. The savoury warm spices in the red lentils help to bring out the flavours, and I just find spice a welcome addition in this transition from winter soups to spring salads. To be frank though, it's also because the art student in me just can't resist putting the purple vegetable against the complementary bright yellow of the turmeric-stained lentils.

I'm also submitting this to Dom's Random Recipes Challenge. This month, we have to go back to the first cookbook we used to enter RR, and for me, that was just my folder of cutouts and copied recipes. This came from a cutout for making tarka dal by Madhur Jafffery , which looks delicious and creamy and er, nothing like the red lentils I made. I decided I was sick of soupy dishes, and I kind of decided to just give the whole slow-cooking and tempering thing a miss; but well, there are similar spices used, and it is still red lentils o.0

Shrooms-Stuffed Rice Noodle Rolls

2012-02-24T03:16:00.000-08:00

I'm still a little preoccupied with pancakes. I've run out of flour though, and my sourdough baby is unfortunately hibernating in the back of my fridge now. But I insist every day can be pancake day. And I believe most things involving a batter and turns out round and flat-ish constitutes a pancake.

This is a variation of my original chee cheong fun, which I likened then to a rice crepe being rolled up. The one I did in the past is the Singapore version, just plain with sweet soy sauce drizzled over. This time, I decided to stuff it like you get in Cantonese dim sum restaurants, no shrimps though, sadly, but mushrooms did just fine, and the plus side is you get a delicious mushroom dressing.

Rice Pancake Rolls Stuffed with Mushrooms

Ingredients

For chee cheong fun (rice noodle pancakes)

150g rice flour

1 1/2 tbsp potato/tapioca starch

2 tbsp cornstarch

1 tbsp oil

450ml water

pinch of sea salt

For mushrooms and sauce

handful of fresh mushrooms, sliced (I used chestnut button mushrooms)

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tbsp good soy sauce (i.e. traditionally and naturally brewed/fermented)

1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil

1 tbsp shallot oil

To finish

fried shallots (as much as desired, though try not to finish all)

chopped spring onions

Method

1. Mix the flours together, then stir in the water slowly, before adding the oil and salt. Leave the batter to rest for an hour. Prepare steamer (or makeshift one) with a greased plate or tray over, and then add a small ladle of batter and swirl to get a thin even layer. Steam for 5 min on high heat. While one 'rice crepe' is cooling, steam another in another plate/tray. (For detailed instructions/photos, see original post).

2. While your 'rice crepes' are steaming/cooling, prepare the mushrooms. Add shallot oil to a medium-hot pan, add the garlic, followed by the mushrooms. Saute till the mushrooms are nicely browned and give off their mushroom juices, then add the soy sauce and sesame oil and cook a little while more. Reserve the cooking liquor.

3. Place the fried mushrooms near one end of the crepe, then carefully roll up. Continue until you run out of mushrooms/crepes. To finish, drizzle the reserved fragrant mushroom-soy sauce over, and top with the fried shallots and spring onions, and eat immediately.

Ok so this wasn't dim sum restaurant quality. I tried my best to get it as thin as possible without it breaking,

but because my chee cheong fun batter has no wheat starch flour (not the same as wheat flour), it's a lot less translucent and springy. But it is more accessible to everyone, not just because it's therefore gluten-free, but also because most of us probably don't have wheat starch lurking in your kitchen cupboard. And, it was delicious anyway! Fresh rice rolls, fried mushrooms, and the yummy garlicky mushroom-soy sauce with the fragrance of toasted sesame oil and fried shallots.

Happy pancake friday (:

Crispy Sourdough Pancakes with Caramelised Asian Pears and Bacon

2012-02-21T00:56:00.011-08:00

Happy Shrove Tuesday i.e. Pancake Day! Everyone's getting into the mood and I've been bookmarking too many pancake ideas and toppings and fillings recipes the past week. I love my sourdough crepes, topped with some caramelised fruits and better yet, with homemade ice cream too. It felt time for something savoury though, since it was almost lunchtime, and I couldn't decide between sweet or savoury, so here we go with pears and bacon and cheese.

Pancakes are so very versatile that way, and the idea of a pancake is so loosely defined anyway, anything that kind of involves a batter and is fried in a pan kind of constitutes a pancake. The British idea of pancake is very different from the fluffy American version I grew up associating pancakes with, it's kind of..flat if you know what I mean. I leave it to you whether you call this a pancake or a crepe.

Crispy Sourdough Pancakes with Caramelised Asian Pears and Bacon

serves 2

Ingredients

4 sourdough crepes (I re-heated some defrosted ones that I've made earlier)

1 large pear, peeled and sliced (I used an Asian pear)

4 slices of bacon, cut into half so you get 8 shorter slices

handful of grated raw farmhouse cheddar (or melting cheese of choice)

2 tbsp unrefined cane sugar (adjust according to sweetness of pear and your taste)

1 tbsp grassfed butter

Method

1. For bacon:

Add bacon to a cold skillet with just a tiny bit of olive oil (it will release its own yummy fat to cook in later) and let cook and crisp up over medium heat, turning once to let it brown on the other side. Set aside on a paper towel to drain, pour away the bacon fat but don't bother to clean the pan really well. (When I say pour away, I mean, save the bacon fat for another day to use in stir-fries or salad dressings)

2. For pears:

Toss the pears with the unrefined sugar. Add the butter to the slightly-bacon-greased skillet. When it just starts to foam, add the sugar-coated pears and let caramelise slowly, turning so both sides are browned.

3. To assemble:

Place the crepe best side down, place bacon down first, followed by the caramelised pears, and sprinkle the cheese over. Try to be fair and divide evenly. Bring the 2 sides together to form a pocket, or you can fold whichever way you like! Place into a pre-heated oven, and grill on high till the crepe is crispy and the cheese has melted and 'glued' everything together.

Asian pears are juicier and crunchier and have a more mellow sweetness to them than your usual Comice or Conference pears, but really, any pear or sweet fruit would be great against the crispy salty bacon. I've done a non-bacon version with gingery caramelised peaches and yogurt before, which could definitely work. This is really quite versatile so you could do this with your normal pancake too, though the tangy heartier flavours of the sourdough crepes make this even more so yummy, and a sourdough starter isn't too difficult to make. Well, maybe not in a day, but who's to stop you from declaring it your own pancake day next Tuesday ;)

Black Sticky Rice Pudding

2012-02-16T01:39:00.023-08:00

Black Sticky Rice Pudding with Red Adzuki Beans and Coconut Cream

I had a variation of this on Valentine's Day, at Kopapa, an all-day little cafe/restaurant at the Seven Dials started by chef Peter Gordon. The menu was interesting, a very creative fusion of asian and western. The dessert I had was "warm black rice and coconut pudding, pineapple caramel, pandan marshmallow, furikake". It was good, but it only brought back cravings for a familiar favourite dessert from home--something much simpler, but I find much tastier.

We call it bubur pulut hitam, though I think the Thais also have the same dish, by a different name. It's a sweet black rice porridge, with lashings of thick coconut milk. My mum makes it a "deluxe" version by adding a handful of red adzuki beans too, and that's the one I'm sharing.

This is made using black glutinous (but it doesn't have gluten) rice, also known as "forbidden rice", so it cooks up really sticky and starchy much like short-grain pudding rice or plain glutinous rice. Like brown rice, it's a wholegrain, with unevenly-coloured black husks, but it cooks into a gorgeous deep purple. The antioxidants in black foods are notoriously high (think black garlic, blackberries) and this is no exception, though you'd want to make sure you get all these benefits by soaking it nice and long to make all that fibre easier on your tummy.

Black Sticky Rice Pudding, with Red Adzuki Beans and Coconut Cream

serves 6 to 8

Ingredients

1 cup uncooked black glutinous "sticky" rice

1/2 cup red adzuki beans

2/3 cup unrefined palm sugar "gula melaka", or to taste

10 cups water, more or less as desired

thick coconut milk, to serve

Method

1. Soak rice and red beans overnight in cold water.

2. The next day, drain, and replace with 10 cups of fresh water, and bring to a boil over high heat.

3. Let simmer for about an hour or more, or till the rice and beans split and are cooked till soft. Stir once in a while so the grains don't settle at the bottom and and burn, and top up water as needed, though at the end, the water in the pot will be mostly gone and the rice will be pretty much like porridge. I like it less thick and sticky so I add more water than normal.

4. Stir in the chopped up palm sugar till dissolved, then remove from heat.

5. Scoop into bowls and serve warm with a generous spoon of thick coconut milk over. For summer/tropical weather: Refrigerate leftovers, and then serve with a scoop of coconut or vanilla ice cream as a cold dessert.

The black sticky rice pudding is heaven in a bowl. Glorious chewy little amaranth grains, studded with soft sweet red beans, and the best part of all, that ripple of rich coconut cream running through it all. The gula melaka is a very Singaporean-Malaysian flavour that just makes this dish sing, you can replace it with another sugar (preferably unrefined), but this adds a delicious caramel toffee-like sweetness and depth.

I know porridge for pudding doesn't seem like the most glamorous dessert, but this is my antidote to the the lingering winter cold; to missing home; to dessert cravings; and to health-- all in one.

Soy-Braised Pig's Ears (NOT a Valentine's day recipe)

2012-02-10T02:32:00.000-08:00

With February the 14th just round the corner, I'm seeing too many cupcakes, hearts and chocolate about. This is one recipe that is definitely not pink and sweet, and in fact, is quite likely to make your Valentine's stomach churn.

If you regularly read my blog, you'll know that I'm quite the offal fan. It's cheap, usually more nutritious than the popular cuts (liver has loads of vitamin a for instance, and trotters are rich in gelatin), more sustainable, and delicious. The last point is probably a point of contention, but I really think more people just don't give it a try enough.

Pig's ears are a first for me, it's actually not very meaty at all, made up mostly of soft cartilage and skin, i.e. gelatin i.e. good for joints and skin. I thought I'd treat it like kway chap, a very popular Singapore breakfast dish made up of very wide sheets of rice noodle sheets with soy-braised pig's intestines, beancurd and eggs. Absolutely delicious. See why I am the way I am?

Soy-Braised Pig's Ears (adapted from jeroxie's recipe)

Ingredients

For the pig's ears

A pair of pig's ears

2 cups water

1/4 cup of shaoxing wine

4 tbsp good soy sauce (traditionally brewed and fermented)

1 heaped tbsp of unrefined palm sugar

large thumb of ginger

1 cinnamon stick

2 star anise

generous dash of five spice powder

white pepper and fresh coriander, to serve

For the rice noodle sheets

see recipe for chee cheong fun

For the chilli dipping sauce

2-3 large red chillies (not bird's eye)

1 clove garlic

1" ginger

1-2 tbsp rice vinegar

unrefined sea salt and sugar, to taste

Method

1. First you need to clean the ear really well. That's probably the hardest bit about this. Use an unloved shaver to shave off the excess hair and try to scrub away any dirt. That part was quite icky, but at least it doesn't stink the way I heard intestines do, and it feels less squishy than normal meat in fact. It's really just like, your own ear, but extra large. Blanch the pig's ears in boiling water and throw away the water with all the gunk.

2. Add all ingredients to a pot, bring to a boil, and then let simmer on low heat for 5-6h, longer will make it nice and gelatinous, shorter will leave it with a slight crunch in the middle. I just put it in a slow-cooker, on high for about 3 hours.

3. Meanwhile, you can prepare your chilli sauce (just blend everything)

and rice noodles sheets. This time, don't roll the rice sheets, and just slice (I'm into tearing) into very wide noodles.

4. Remove the ears and slice. Place noodles into a bowl, scoop the braising stock over, add a dash of white pepper, and top with the sliced ears and fresh coriander.

I know this is probably not many people's cup of tea, but I'll assure you it's not icky at all, and in fact delicious. The soy braising stock is the star actually, aromatic with the chinese braising spices, lightly savoury and slightly sweet at the same time. If you have any leftover, you can simmer some peeled hardboiled eggs in them for Chinese soy-braised eggs, or the easier/more traditional way is just to add them towards the end of cooking. The pig's ears themselves are soft and gelatinous on the outside, with just a slight bit of bite in the middle, great for slurping the fat rice noodle sheets with.

It's a nostalgic yum for me. I'm not being weird; try it. Maybe not for Valentine's day, but try it.

Simple Spiced Rice-cooker Pilaf

2012-02-07T04:31:00.000-08:00

Once you get plain rice right, it's easy to do a whole range of rice dishes. Change the water to homemade stock or coconut milk, add a spoon of fried shallot oil or garlic oil, or even a generous dab of butter, and the plain ol' boring rice immediately becomes neither plain nor boring. There's no change in the basic steps at all, but it looks and tastes a bit more exciting than a pot of plain white rice (which I do love though). This one, I just sauteed the rice in some ghee with whole garam masala spices first, it's a brilliant side to Indian curries or and probably Arabian-style spiced stews and tagines.

Indian mothers seem to frown upon that thing, that modern rice-cooking machine, but ask any Asian mothers and they will swear by their rice cookers, and so do I. My beloved pink Toyomi rice cooker turned out fluffy, feather-light grains that may just fool the beady eyes of the Indian housewife. That said, you can easily do this over the stove-top too, in almost exactly the same steps.

Simple Spiced Rice-cooker Pilaf

1 cup basmati rice, soaked for half to 1 hour

1 onion, chopped finely

1 cinnamon stick

4 cardamom pods, crushed

2 cloves

1 tsp ground turmeric

1 cup cold water (plus minus. depends on your brand/age of rice and how long you soak)

very generous pinch of unrefined sea salt

1 scant tbsp of ghee/coconut oil

Method

1. Switch rice cooker to "cook" and let the pot heat up.

2. Add the ghee/oil and saute the whole spices for a min or so to toast.

3. Add the chopped onions to sweat, before adding the ground turmeric.

4. Add the soaked and drained rice, saute to coat in the spices, then add the water and salt, and close the lid (make sure it's still on 'cook').

5. When it clicks done, do the "close and wait, open and fluff, close and wait, open and breathe".

(i.e. When it's done, do not open for 10 min. Then open, give a fluff through with a chopstick or fork but no spoon. then close and let steam for another 5 min. Then open for a min or so to let excess moisture evaporate, take the time to breathe in the wonderful fragrance. You can then eat or let it stay warm in there for a while longer till you want to eat.)

While cooking, the fragrance of the spices and the basmati rice will perfume your kitchen. Though done in "that rice-cooker thing", the rice has cooked up beautifully into loose, fluffy grains, and each and every one of it has soaked up all the warming flavours of cinnamon, cloves and cardamom, and the golden colour from the turmeric. Now I just need a big bubbling pot of curry with extra chillies, and I think I'm all set against the ridiculously late february snow.

Plain Old Boring Rice

2012-02-03T02:10:00.000-08:00

Yes, paella is nice, so is risotto and congee and nasi lemak and all these special rice dishes, but there is just something so essential and comforting about a "boring" bowl of rice to an asian meal. And you'll be surprised how many people can't get it right. It was the hardest thing to me when I first started to cook for myself. It either clumps, or isn't cooked on the inside, or is both of them at the same time.

Long-grain white rice is the humble staple to accompany almost everything for me. I don't particularly fancy the korean/japanese sushi rice for anything other than well, sushi, so this is a guide only for the common white rice. I have 2 favourite varieties, basmati rice to go with curries/for fried rice, and jasmine rice to go with most other se asian/chinese food. The methods are a bit different because you want different end results (see "so what is perfect rice" below), but not that different, so here we go.

Rinse.
So many people don't seem to find this important, but it is. They say it used to be necessary to remove talc in old processing methods but rinsing does more than that. You remove surface starch, stop it from clumping later, and just makes it overall cleaner and fresher tasting. Put the uncooked rice in plenty of water and swirl and swish and massage. Plus, you give your hands a nice shot of free SK-II anti-aging skincare at the same time. Wash till the water runs almost clear, it won't ever be totally clear.

Soak (only for basmati)
Soaking makes the grains really long and slender. I try to soak it for 30 min, sometimes I forget and leave it for an hour, and other times, I forget and just do it for 15 min. After soaking you throw away the soaking water with more unwanted surface starch. Cooking in fresh water makes the rice really fluffy and separate.

Water to rice ratio

My mum has this traditional method I'm sure you've all heard rumours of, sticking your finger in and adding enough wanter to come to the first knuckle of the index finger. It works for her, and it works for me sometimes, if I'm doing it in the pot of the same size, and for about the same amount of rice. But I don't know if it will work for a big guy with giant fingers.

So the more conventional ratio I always hear is 2:1. I don't know how it can work for people because I always get mush with 2:1.

For jasmine rice, I do 1 1/4: 1.

For basmati rice, I do 1:1, perhaps a bit more if it wasn't soaked.

But it varies a tiny bit with the brand and age. Just experiment. 2 flops should do it.

What else?

For basmati, also add a drop or two of ghee or some other oil.

And most western cooks seem to advocate salting the rice. I guess it's all good and fine if you want to, but most asians don't. It's really just a plain bowl of rice, sweet and simple, to go with the colourful flavourful side dishes.

Of course, if you want, you can throw in some spices like a cinnamon stick or some cardamom pods to the rice for extra fragrance. BUT these are instructions for a "boring" bowl of rice.

The Rice-cooker Way

"God every asian has this!"- english roommate in year 1.

Haha yup, it does make life easier.

1. Add water (and oil) to rice. Cook. How difficult can it get?

2. But also do the "close and wait, open and fluff, close and wait, open and breathe".

The Stovetop Way

1. Add the water (and oil) to rice, bring to a boil over medium-high heat.

2. Once it starts boiling, turn the heat down to a medium and let it simmer, don't peek. Takes about 15 min, probably less if it's soaked basmati rice. Or just until you see most of the water has been absorbed and you see craters.

3. Turn the heat down to very low, and let it finish cooking for about 10 min.

4. Take it off the heat, and do the "close and wait, open and fluff, close and wait, open and breathe".

So what is perfect rice?

For basmati, it's that unique basmati aroma, and the fluffy, long separate grains of rice. Not sticky, not dry either but loose enough for the rice to flow easily when you run your spoon (or hands) through it.

For jasmine rice, it's that warm jasmine scent, the grains will be soft but not mushy, and plumper than the basmati. Not sushi rice-sticky enough to pick up a clump with a pair of chopsticks, but less dry than basmati, so you can shovel it safely from bowl to mouth with the chopsticks (bowl being just in front of your mouth of course).

Basmati v.s. Jasmine Rice

Whichever it is, "plain old boring" rice is a thing of beauty. I love the little pearly white* grains, the curl of steam unfurling from it. I love how humble and simple it is- how easily it pairs with so many things, yet how happy it is to give its partner the limelight. I love the distinct signature fragrance it gives off, and even the sound of the rice cooker clicking when it's done.

*I say, sod it with all the talk about "healthier" brown rice.

My mum absolutely hates brown rice. She says it's hard, and sits heavy in the stomach. There was a period of time I was convinced I loved it because it was higher in fibre and nutrients and what not, but in fact, the phytates in the hull of whole grains prevent us from absorbing all these additional nutrients so in fact we absorb a lot less goodness eating brown rice than white. I've since returned to the type of rice I grew up eating- white rice. And just look at the healthy Japanese, Koreans and Thais who prefer their rice white too. That said, I do have soaked wholegrain rice, but as I learnt from traditional chinese medicine and ayurveda, its warming and drying properties make it suitable less frequently than the neutral and calming white rice. There is a reason why our bodies cleverly seek out food that tastes better.

If you were wondering about this random sidetrack, well, this blog has always been as much about health and nutrition as it is about food tasting good. I believe they go hand in hand, so it all works out brilliantly (:

Winter Paella with Chinese Sausage and Mussels

2012-01-30T08:38:00.001-08:00

The Jellied Eel magazine is holding a "Love Your Local Sausage" competition, together with London Farmers' Market, to find our best local banger. The ones nominated for Pimlico Farmers' Market (which I work at) are Downland Pig's Breakfast Maarmalade, your traditional fat pork sausage with a hint of sweetness, and 12 Green Acres'' Cooking Chorizo, a wonderful British substitute for the famous Spanish sausage. I'm excited for them, and Cheryl from the market has also asked if I can try to share some kind of recipe involving sausage, in the spirit of this event.

I did this paella a few weeks after I came back from Spain, because I was kind of missing the sun there, and I've got Spanish goodies from the trip that I wanted to use up, e.g. the vintagey-designed pretty tin of paprika sitting on my table. I didn't have chorizo then, and because it's the dead of winter and I try to eat seasonally, there were no peppers or fresh tomatoes or green beans or peas. Instead, I made use of what I had on hand, Chinese sausage lap cheong (a traditional sweet cured chorizo-style sausage), mussels, onions, canned tomatoes and lots of fresh parsley. Of course, this would be a brilliant recipe to try the Cooking Chorizo with, so you can give it a go with that!

Winter Paella with Chinese Sausage and Mussels

serves 2-3

Ingredients

200g of paella rice

1 onion, chopped

1/2 can of tomatoes (400g tin)

500ml of stock i.e. water i.e. the reserved mussels cooking liquor

1/2 chinese sausage (or cooking chorizo)

500g fresh mussels

pinch of saffron (the most expensive thing by weight in my house currently)

1 tsp smoked paprika

unrefined sea salt, to taste

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

to serve

chopped fresh parsley

lemon

Method

1. Clean the mussels, scrub well and remove the beard. Throw away those that don't close after tapping, they're dead. Add mussels to a pot, add cold water, and cover and bring to a boil. Cook until the mussels open, it takes only 3 min or so. Drain, discarding those that don't open. To make your stock, just add the saffron strands to the hot reserved cooking liquor and let infuse.

These were mussels from the Jennings at the farmers' market.

Mussels is another seafood we should eat more of, it's cheap and sustainable and yum.

2. Add the chinese sausage to a hot shallow frying pan (mine was about 12" wide for that number of servings) and let it cook till lightly charred and the fat oozes out. Drain and set aside.

I know people just add the chorizo after the sofrito but I like to get the lap cheong-flavour-infused lard out from the first.

3. The all-important sofrito. Add the olive oil to the fat and sweat the onions, then add the canned tomatoes and paprika and keep frying till it reduces to a thick paste and becomes darker in colour.

4. Add the rice and stir for a couple of min till well-coated. Now add the stock, and reduce the heat to a simmer. Make sure the rice is spread out well i.e. all under the surface of the liquid. Leave it alone and DO NOT STIR (it's the opposite of risotto). You want a crust "soccarat" to form at the bottom.

6. When all the liquid has been absorbed, arrange the mussels and chinese sausage artistically over the rice. Cover the pan with foil and turn off the heat, and let the rice finish steam-cooking, for about 10 min.

7. Serve straight from the pan with a big squeeze of lemon and scatter of parsley.

This easily cured my winter blues. They say one eats with the eye before the mouth, and just looking at all the colours made me think of summer and sunshine! It wasn't the usual proper summer paella, but the deliciously greasy and savoury chinese sausage, the sweet mussels, the fresh fragrance of parsley made up a beautiful substitute. The star of the show however, is ,of course, the rice, dyed a happy golden yellow and plump with all the flavours from the mussel stock, paprika, saffron, tomatoes and sausage.

The chinese sausage added a sweeter dimension to the paella, kind of like chinese claypot rice, but sub with the chorizo for a more authentic spanish feel. Oh and Londoners, please go have a little wander around the farmers' markets and vote for your favourite sausage(: The contest ends in about 3 weeks time. You stand a chance to win prizes too including a meal for two at a top London restaurant and a bag of the top 5 bangers (!!!)

I'm submitting this to Simple and in Season hosted by Ren of Fabulicious Food!

Haggis Pie with Swede Crust (A Scottish Shepherd's Pie?)

2012-01-26T10:20:00.002-08:00

It was Burns Night yesterday. That probably doesn't mean anything much to anyone outside of Scotland, but I'm always fascinated by the many odd festivals and days here in the UK, and really, any reason to celebrate something is worth grabbing onto, what with all the January blues. I tried haggis when I first went to Glasgow, and the sound of it- a sausage/savoury pudding made of sheep's heart, liver and lungs, oatmeal, spices, wrapped in a sheep's stomach- may have put most people off, but I totally loved it. Haggis, neeps (mashed turNIPS, i.e. swede) and tatties (mashed poTAToes).The dish, and the name, and the way the scottish say it with their thick unfathomable accents.

This is a combination of that with another great English dish, the shepherd's pie, hence "Scottish shepherd's pie". I was thinking of calling it a poor shepherd's pie, offal being a lot cheaper than mince, but that didn't sound right.

Haggis Mushroom Pie with Swede Crust
Ingredients

part of a haggis, about 300g, removed from casing (a whole haggis is massive)

1 swede, about 500g, chopped

1 small onion, chopped

handful of mushrooms, chopped

2 generous tbsp grassfed butter

unrefined sea salt, black pepper (to taste, be generous)

Method

1. For the crust, boil the chopped swede in salted water till tender, drain, and mash. Season generously with salt and pepper and 1 tbsp of butter.

I love that shocking orange-yellow colour that cooked swede turns

2. For the filling, saute onions in another tbsp of butter till softened and golden-translucent. Crumble in the haggis, cook for a while more, before adding in the mushrooms to sear and sweat.

3. Put filling into an oven-safe baking dish, or many mini ones, top with the mashed swede, and dot with remaining butter. Bake at 180 degrees celsius for about 20 minutes till the top is nicely golden.

Because haggis is made with the addition of oatmeal and lots of black pepper and spices like nutmeg and oatmeal, this pie filling definitely had some very more-ish intense flavours going on. The sweet swede was brilliant against its savouriness, the reason why I go mostly for the neeps over the tatties when I eat haggis, and the reason why I decided to ditch the usual mashed potato crust. Swedes are especially good this time of the year, so I would happily have them plainly mashed with lots of butter and sea salt.

But do it with potatoes if you will! Pies of any crust, filling, or nationality are great anyway. See Indian shepherd's pie, with a masala kheema filling, made about a year ago (:

I'm submitting this to Simple and in Season hosted by Ren of Fabulicious Food!

This recipe is also featured as part of the column for the London Farmers' Market in East End Life!

Stuffed Squid Baked in Sambal Chilli

2012-01-23T09:15:00.000-08:00

I got a squid from the farmers' market the other day, a whole fresh squid, not the chopped up rings you get in the freezer section of Tesco's. Pretty exciting. Had no idea how to clean it myself, but Susan Eats London has this brilliant tutorial.

Anyway, once you get it cleaned right, you want it coked right i.e. avoid that rubbery texture that comes from overcooking it. To do that, you can cook it really fast on high heat, like in a stir-fry, BUT the chinese translation of that ( 炒鱿鱼) also means to get fired from your job, and that doesn't seem to bode well especially around this period of time when we should be saying 恭喜发财 (gong xi fa cai i.e. "wishing you good fortune/prosperity).

So the other way to go, was to cook it really slow. Been very into stuffing things lately, see last post on cabbage dumplings, and hey, I have a whole squid, not squid rings, so why not? I saw this mediterranean-style recipe using tomato sauce that looked really good and basic, and just for a taste of home, mixed it up with the very easy recipe for stir-fried sambal tumis sotong, and there you have it, stuffed squid baked in sambal chilli.

Stuffed Squid Baked in Sambal Chilli

Ingredients

1 medium squid, cleaned and tentacles removed (do not throw! save for other recipes, or chop up and add to the stuffing mixture)

1 heaped tbsp sambal tumis

2-3 tbsp tamarind paste, made by soaking tamarind pulp in hot water

1/2 onion, sliced into rings

1 tbsp unrefined coconut oil, or olive oil if you wish

chopped fresh coriander leaves, to serve

for stuffing

cooked rice

toasted cashew nuts

chopped coriander stalks

dash of fish sauce

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees celsius.

2. In a medium hot pan, fry the sambal chilli paste in coconut oil till fragrant. Add the tamarind pulp and let simmer for a while to thicken.

3. Combine ingredients for stuffing. Stuff the squid with it, do not be greedy and stuff too much, the squid will shrink while cooking! Secure with a toothpick.

4. In a baking dish, place onion slices at the bottom, then place stuffed squid over, and finally, pour over the sauce.

5. Bake for about 25 minutes, until the sauce is bubbling and the squid is cooked through. Serve with chopped fresh coriander leaves sprinkled over.

The squid cooked this way was unbelievably tender and bouncy, making it a great wrapper around the savoury fragrant rice/nuts/herb stuffing. That, combined with the spicy, sweet and tangy sambal tumis sauce, was a delicious way to have my squid and keep my job ;)

Give fresh squid a try, it's actually in season right now, and a very sustainable seafood option that doesn't break the bank. You can also play around with it, and stuff it with anything really. Helen from Food Stories, has this sizzling one that I've bookmarked from long ago, it's squid stuffed with minced pork and thai spices, and then grilled quickly over the bbq (unfortunately, it's not exactly the right season for a bbq, but hey, no one's stopping you!)

Steamed Cabbage Dim-Sum Dumplings

2012-01-19T04:53:00.001-08:00

Chinese New Year is in a few days' time! Growing up, that was the day we all looked forward to and got excited about. It's when we have festive cheesy music, new clothes, huge family gatherings with relatives you never knew you had, and of course, lots and lots of food. See why I never was that excited about Christmas? This is our "Christmas".

That's one thing that's keeping me cheerful. My laptop's been taken away for a repair, and it's not only costing a hell lot, it's smack before portfolio submission, and will take about a week. It's not just withdrawal symptoms I'm suffering from, it's the flu symptoms too.

I've got here a slight twist on traditional dim-sum, using cabbage leaves instead of gyoza/potsticker wrappers or wonton skins. It's a lot lighter and fresher, and makes for a welcome change from the indulgent treats around this period, especially if you, like me, are feeling under the weather lately.

Steamed Cabbage Dim-Sum Dumplings

Ingredients

Makes 10 cabbage rolls

5 large cabbage leaves (I used a January King, wrinkly savoy would be pretty too)

300g free-range british pork mince

1 bunch of spring onions, finely chopped

1/2" piece of ginger, finely chopped

1 tbsp good soy sauce (traditionally brewed and fermented)

1 tsp toasted sesame oil

generous dash of white pepper

Dipping sauce

2 tbsp good soy sauce

2 tbsp black rice vinegar

(opt, not for the s) chilli oil

Method

1. In a large bowl, mix the ginger, soy sauce, pepper and sesame oil with the pork, stirring vigorously in one direction till the mixture comes together. Gather the ball of mixture and slap it back down into the bowl repeatedly. These tips are important! They will result in a better springier texture.

Stir in the spring onions after that or they get mushed up (I realised this from experience) then leave to marinade.

2. Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil, and blanch the cabbage leaves so they become more flexible and easy to work with. Refresh in cold water and pat dry. Slice each leaf into half, removing the hard stalk in the meanwhile (don't waste, just pop into your mouth;)

3. To wrap, place 1 tbsp of filling in the centre of the leaf wrapper. Bring the bottom up, the sides together, and then roll away from you, till you get a nice tight cabbage roll.

4. Arrange the cabbage dumplings on a lined bamboo steamer, or you can simply use a plate set over a steaming rack. Steam for 8-10 min till cooked.

5. Serve warm with the soy-vinegar dipping sauce.

I think the savoy cabbage really just begs to be stuffed, its large, beautifully wrinkled leaves serving as the perfect wrap, but you can use any cabbage really. The leaves become really soft and delicate after steaming, so you can easily bite through into the savoury, juicy pork-and-spring-onion filling. And the super simple vinegar soy dipping sauce just adds that bit of acidity which complements each bite really well, I think it'd be nicer with shreds of ginger in it too actually.

You can of course stuff it with your filling of choice. Prawns, maybe water chestnuts or something crunchy, and if you want to use chicken, make sure it's kind of fatty, i.e. not breast meat. I've done something similar before in spring with collard greens, "pseudo-lmades"; they're larger so I stuffed them with rice, toasted nuts, sweet raisins and lots of fresh herbs, but anyway, this is just so you know you can really stuff these cabbage dumplings with whatever you want!

Happy Chinese New Year, may it be filled with food, prosperity (definitely need a bit of this after the laptop repair), health, happiness, and more food (:

I'm also happy to add that this recipe appears in this month's Flavour magazine!

Rustic Hand-torn Sourdough Noodles (Mee Hoon Kueh)

2012-01-14T15:20:00.000-08:00

It's been two consecutive posts about kimchi thus far, and I'm not going to continue with a third, but I really do enjoy making my own fermented food. They're fab for your health, usually quite simple to make, requiring not much more than just patience, and I feel this odd sense of motherly pride looking at my little fermented babies. I think it might be a sign that I'll make not a half-bad mother 10 years later. I do enjoy eating my babies though.

Besides kimchi, my sourdough starter has been brewing happily, and though I haven't been baking with it that much these days, I have been using it for crepes/pasta/noodles just because they're a lot simpler. I made my sourdough pasta dough that day, ready to cut into noodles, but got lazy and decided heck. Just roll it out and tear them in. That's the way a very rustic, homely handmade noodle dish, called mee hoon kueh (usually plain flour and water) is made back in Singapore.

The stock couldn't be simpler, it's an asian dashi stock made with dried anchovies and shiitake mushrooms (you can even make it instantly if you've got my all-natural instant stock powder recipe down). That's more common, though you can easily use any homemade stock you've got on hand.

Rustic Hand-torn Sourdough Noodles

serves 1

Ingredients

For noodles

Sourdough pasta dough

For soup stock

handful of dried anchovies (ikan bilis)

shiitake mushrooms soaking water (see below)

2 cloves garlic, chopped

For serving

small handful of dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked and drained

fried/roasted ikan bilis

fried shallots

chopped spring onions

The seasonings

1 tsp traditionally fermented MSG-free oyster sauce

dash of white pepper, unrefined sea salt, to taste

Method

1. Add the dried anchovies to the mushroom soaking water, top up with enough water for a bowl of soup, bring to a boil, and let simmer for 20 min. Slice the shiitake mushrooms, let marinate in the oyster sauce for a short while.

2. Meanwhile, fry the chopped garlic in a little oil till fragrant. Drain and add the fried garlic to the simmering stock. In the remaining oil, fry the mushrooms to cook, then set aside with the rest of your toppings.

3. Roll out, or just flatten, your ball of sourdough noodle/pasta dough. Tear pieces off and drop it into the boiling stock. They're cooked when they float to the top.

4. Season to taste with pepper and sea salt. Dish out into a bowl, top with the mushrooms, roasted anchovies, fried shallots, and spring onions over, then tuck in! It's also nice to have thick sweet soy sauce and chilli on the side; my kind of thing.

This is handmade noodles at its best, simple, hearty, and for me, nostalgic. There's a rustic sort of fun in tearing your noodles into odd mini-handkerchief-like shapes, instead of the usual fiddly long strands. My mum used to shoo us from the kitchen, it was her territory, so we hardly got to cook as kids, but this was one thing we all got the chance to do. You can definitely do it your way, if you don't have/like anchovies; other versions come topped with minced meat or a poached egg, brilliant too!

Kimchi Pheasant Pot-Roast

2012-01-10T14:43:00.001-08:00

This is the reason why I made a new batch of kimchi the other day; the last of my 2 month-old mature kimchi went into this pheasant pot-roast.

I'm still relatively new to game, having grown up in a country where the closest we get to shooting season is when the government sends pest-management people to shoot crows. I tried venison recently, loved it, and now am on to the next least scary one on the list of game meats (see below). It's not very expensive either, plus I pretty much got it free (job perks heh). Pheasant really does remind me of a smaller chicken, but with much leaner meat and a slightly gamey smell to it, which was why I decided to braise it with the powerful spicy and tangy kimchi and kimchi juice. As with most things I'm unsure about, I went the easy way, low and slow, and the results were deliciously tender.

Photo from 2 years ago, when I first came to borough market.

I didn't know they were meant to be eaten.

Kimchi Pheasant Pot-Roast

serves 2

Ingredients

1 pheasant

1 large onion, sliced

3 cloves garlic, smashed

3 pieces of ginger

1 cup chopped kimchi+ 1 cup kimchi juices

1 tbsp grassfed butter + 1 tbsp olive oil

unrefined sea salt, white pepper

Method

1. Preheat oven to 150 degrees celsius.

2. Place a heavy-bottomed casserole pot over the stove, heat the butter together with oil, then add the pheasant to brown, until golden all over, about 10 min.

3. Set aside. Add the onions and garlic and stir-fry till softened and fragrant. Add the kimchi to the pot and stir-fry for a couple min more.

4. Return pheasant to the pot, pour kimchi juices over.

5. Bring to a simmer, cover and place in the oven for 3 hours, basting a few times. When done, prinkle over chopped spring onions, and let rest for a while before carving (or rather, tearing. It's tender enough for that!)

Maybe it was the 3 hours, or maybe it was the enzymes in the kimchi juices at work, but the pheasant was deliciously juicy and tender despite its reputation of being too lean. If you're not normally crazy about the plate of cold kimchi on the side of your Korean meal, you might quite likely change your mind with this. The slow-braising in the oven kind of mellows the pungency of the kimchi out while intensifying its flavour, so all that sour, spicy and savoury flavours just infuse the roasted pheasant with all things good. Super healthy too I might add. Definitely worth offering the last of my kimchi for this beautiful bird.

P.S. Charles!! It's the first dish I cooked in your pot (:

I'm submitting this to Simple and in Season hosted by Ren of Fabulicious Food!

Better Homemade Kimchi

2012-01-07T12:55:00.000-08:00

It's 2012! A new year! Out with the old, and in with the new. I decided to use up the 2 month-old kimchi in the fridge (scrummy stew recipe coming up), and to replace that, I made a new batch of this "Korean sauerkraut". It's quite different though, I would say, you can think of it as sauerkraut with a kick. Sour, spicy,just delicious, oh and also incredibly healthy, even arguably the Koreans' secret to longevity.

I've made kimchi before, but I don't think it was the best it could be. It is very simple though, so if you want a no-faff, passable kimchi recipe, you may still like it. This new one is inspired by Maangchi and many other Korean youtube videos, made with grated pear instead of sugar, and with an extra step of making a "porridge". This is still considered an easy version i.e. mak kimchi, the traditional one uses the whole cabbage. You don't have to use napa cabbage, I've tried it before with your normal white cabbage, works brilliantly too.

Better Homemade Kimchi

Ingredients

2 small/medium (about 2kg) napa cabbage i.e. chinese leaf lettuce

1/2 cup unrefined sea salt

1/4 cup sweet rice flour i.e. glutinous rice flour

1 cup water

1/2 cup fish sauce

1 cup of Korean hot chilli pepper flakes

4 cloves garlic, minced

1" piece ginger, minced

1 large onion, minced

1 pear, peeled and grated

Add-ons

1 carrot, shredded

1 bunch spring onions, shredded

(Whatever you like that's in season. I've added shredded beetroot before too. You can even add raw oysters/ squid etc. for a deluxe version.)

Method

1. Chop cabbage up into bite-sized pieces.

2. Soak in cold water for about 5-10 min. Drain, sprinkle the salt over evenly. Leave it for 1 1/2 hours, but turn about 2-3 times through to salt evenly. By then, the cabbage would have sweat and reduced in volume by quite a lot. Rinse 3 times.

3. Meanwhile, make your spice porridge. Add rice flour to water and bring to a simmer, keep stirring. Remove from heat, and when cool, add the rest of the ingredients to the rice paste.

4. Combine the cabbage, add-ons, and spice porridge. Get your largest mixing bowl and mix well.

5. Press into an airtight, sealable container, and wait.

6. About 2 days later, you'll see bubbles and it will smell slightly sour (in a nice way), that's when you can transfer it to the fridge, where you can try some 2 days later, or let it stay for a months even, depending on how mature you like it. (Note: Every time you take a bit out, be sure to press the kimchi below the kimchi juices.)

See bubbles? There will also be significantly more "juice".

I love kimchi, it's spicy sour tang instantly whets your appetite, and it makes an easy side to grilled meat/fish or even plain rice, or for the older ones, I add it to stews, or even just batter it to make kimchi fritters, yum. Because I like my kimchi really mature, I can only say for sure if it's better than version one a month or so later, but I've sneaked bites (it's been a couple of weeks) and already I like it.

Is this the best possible kimchi? Of course not, Koreans have nationwide competitions for it and they add fresh raw oysters and squid and all sorts of goodies to this powerful pickle. But this is a lot more realistic and doable for a starving student. Now the difficult bit, to wait.

New Year's Spicy Sprout Tops Stir-fried in Chicken Fat

2012-01-03T14:52:00.000-08:00

It's 2012, gosh how time flies.

At this time every year, there's a huge spike in the number of searches for things like 'diet' and "burning calories". I know because I have a friend who likes to spew out little Google trend facts like this. I don't know if many of you read my about or listen to your mummy pages, but this blog is as much about yummy food, and about health. Which, to me, shouldn't be that difficult because they go hand in hand. I don't believe in calories, or low carb, or low fat, I believe in just cooking and eating real food, and that's easily going to beat any microwaveable pizza nutrition-wise, taste-wise, and actually, budget-wise too.

Here's an example of something simple and good. We've probably all had more than enough of brussel sprouts from Christmas, but the sprout tops themselves are worth a second look. If you can't get hold of these, any cabbage will be delicious sliced thinly into ribbons and tossed in a quick stir-fry like so. And for a naughty kick, I used chicken fat (could very well be any leftover fat from roast turkey/pork/bacon drippings etc.) which is wonderful for flavour, great for the high heat stir-frying, and actually really quite healthy and not as naughty as we think.

Stir-fried Sprout Tops with Chilli and Ginger

serves 1-2 as a side dish

Ingredients

1 large bunch sprout tops

1 clove garlic

2 red chillies

1 inch piece of ginger

1 tbsp chicken fat (or choice of fat)

2-3 tbsp of stock (or water)

dash of good soy sauce, traditionally brewed and fermented

juice of half a small lemon

Method

1. Pluck the leaves off the core and slice into thin ribbons, including the stalks (that's really the sweetest and crispest part!) Chop up the garlic, finely slice the chilli and ginger.

2. Melt fat in a frying pan or wok over medium-high heat, but do use a large pan so the vegetables can get tossed around and ultimately end up in your stomach instead of all over the stovetop.

4. Add the sprout tops, turn up the heat, then add a splash of stock or water. Keep everything moving, so nothing burns!

5. When almost all the liquid has disappeared, drizzle in the soy sauce form the side of the pan, do a final few tosses to mix everything.

6. Remove from heat, squeeze of lemon. Serve hot, with rice/noodles/fish/meat.

I just look at the colours and I want to eat my veg, not just to fulfill my 5-a-day. I think the whole idea is loving food for what it is.

Anyway, I was listening to this great vlog, and have decided my New Year's Resolution for 2012 is to be more me, to do what I really love and believe that by some unfathomable law of attraction or force of physics, that all things foodie and some things design will hence gravitate towards me, so that even though I'm probably not good enough to have my own cookbook or cafe, I may perhaps design cookbooks and cafe signs and napkins.

Best of 2011

2011-12-31T06:18:00.000-08:00

It's the last day of 2011, the day we start reflecting and looking back at the year. I wanted to do a recap of the best moments of 2011. It turned out to be a horrible process that took me a lot longer than I wanted to, because I really couldn't choose. I ended up forcing myself to choose one from each of the categories on my RECIPES page (which I will finally update in a while so make me happy and go see it tomorrow).

So,

Favourite Vegetable Recipe

Soy Sauce Roasted Eggplant with Satay Peanut Sauce Dressing

The slow-roastd flesh of the eggplant is deliciously soft and savoury from absorbing the marinade, and it goes wonderfully texture-wise and taste-wise with the slightly sweet, aromatic and crunchy peanut dressing. Of course, I am generally biased towards anything with that sauce-- freshly ground roasted peanuts simmered with tamarind and spices, homemade (or satay man-made) with love. Refer to the chicken satay post for the singapore satay peanut sauce.

Favourite Meat Recipe
Mum's Sesame Oil Chicken

When I first came to London, I got pretty homesick in the first few months. My mum used to send me ridiculously large parcels which complained about because the fact that they were ridiculously large meant that, for her, they were ridiculously expensive, and for me, they were ridiculously heavy (I had to carry them from the post office in the snow). Secretly though, these parcels of love made things just a little better, and though most of the things were pretty useles--she sent me toothbrushes once-- some things I've still kept as treasures, one of which is a handwritten list of some of her recipes. Sesame oil chicken is one of them.

Favourite Fish Recipe
Baked Herring with Gooseberries, Chilli and Star Anise

As perfectly normal and even boring as it may sound to some people., gooseberries are really very new to me. I've never seen them before coming to London, though I've heard of them, but only in Enid Blyton/similar storybooks.
Herring and gooseberries turned out to be a good combination, as the tart juices bursting from the gooseberries help to cut the richness of the herring. I couldn't resist adding the chillies and spices, and though it may sound off, I thought it'd work somehow. The sour-sweet gooseberries work kind of like tamarind in the Southeast Asian recipes I'm familiar with, which is often combined with soy sauce and chillies for a balance of sweet, sour, salty and spicy.

Favourite Rice Recipe
Leftover Turkey Congee

I know it was the previous post. But congee is the chinese equivalent of a bowl of risotto-- just simply rice, plump with the flavour from the stock it's simmered in, so each spoonful is a scoop of light yet creamy and comforting goodness.

Favourite Sweet Recipe
Sourdough Crepes with Caramelised Peaches in Ginger Syrup

There is something about a peach, that fuzzy exterior which just begs to be stroked, and that bright yellow soft and juicy flesh inside. I loved them with the tangy sourdough crepes to mop up the sweet lemony gingery peachy juices and the smooth creamy yogurt. Refer to the "Sourdough crepe, that was easy!" post too.

Favourite Sauce Recipe
Sambal Tumis (All-important Belachan Chilli Paste)

This is not any ordinary chilli paste. Yes, you use this as a dip at the side, but you also use this as the base for creating so many classic Singaporean/ Malaysian fried rice/noodles/barbeques/curries/sauces. That said, it's an extraordinary dip, and nasi lemak is not nasi lemak, fried hokkien prawn mee is not fried hokkien prawn mee, without this sambal chilli on the side. What's unique about this cilli paste is belachan- a potent smelling fermented ground shrimp paste. I still remember cooking with it last year when I was still staying in halls and my Turkish flatmate kind of flew from the kitchen. But don't judge, because I guarantee you'll love this chilli for it's sweet, spicy, salty, savoury and just a tiny bit tangy and smoky flavour.

I tried game meat for the first time

Ragu of Venison Slow-braised in Shaoxing Wine (with homemade Sourdough Papardelle)

Venison just sounded so fancy and..restaurant-y, so I had the impression I would be much better off without it, pocket-wise. But then I realised how cheap the venison necks were. I'm a fan of using the less popular cuts of meat. You get so much more bang for your buck, plus there's loads of flavour, especially if the meat is still hanging onto the bone (marrow bones in this case, score!). And, it's definitely tender if you remember to go low and slow. I found recipes calling for it to be braised in red wine, but because I'm not one to have red wine around the house, I used Shaoxing rice wine instead, and to complement that, some typical Chinese braising spices, which would also counter any gamey-ness.

Oh, and more.

I met Santa in the form of Charles from Five Euro Food.

I have the best job possible for a real food lover, working at the Pimlico Farmers' Market on Saturday mornings.

I'm thankful for all the good things that have happened, and for the bad, food and cooking have helped make it very much more tolerable. All in all, this was a brilliant first year for me food-blogging wise, I don't know what I see for the year ahead, but I hope to be able to continue doing the things I love and meeting people who also enjoy doing the things I love. May everybody have a lovely 2012, and enjoy your last few hours of 2011!

Leftover Turkey Congee

2011-12-27T11:19:00.000-08:00

Christmas is actually over, after all the hype and excitement in the lead-up to the big day, it's finally over. And after a night with too much good food and wine, you really just want something quite light and comforting and ideally uses up the leftover turkey. For me, that's congee. It's the chinese equivalent of a bowl of risotto- just simply rice, plump with the flavour from the stock it's cooked in, so each spoonful is a soothing scoop of goodness. Unlike risotto though, you don't want separate grains, and in fact you don't even want to see any grains. The rice should have all disintegrated into a thick porridge. The ratio is about 10 cups water/stock to 1 cup of rice, you can use less or more depending on how thick you like your congee.

Turkey Congee

serves 2

Ingredients

1/2 cup of jasmine rice, washed till water runs clear

5 cups of homemade stock (in this case, turkey. refer stock 2.)

unrefined sea salt (to taste)

To serve:

leftover turkey, shredded

chopped spring onions

fried shallots and shallot oil (replace with toasted sesame oil if unavailable and lazy)

dash of good traditionally fermented soy sauce

dash of white pepper

Method

1. Add the rice to the stock in a preferably heavy-bottomed pot and bring to the boil.

2. Lower the heat and let simmer, stirring occasionally to prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom and burning. It will take quite long, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours, though unlike a risotto, you don't have to constantly stir.

Not yet, still not yet there, almost there, there!

3. When rice has reached the right consistency, scoop into bowls and top with the shredded turkey, spring onions, fried shallots, and finish with a drizzle of shallot oil. The soy sauce and pepper is usually at the side so the eater can add to taste.

Oh and another option. You can crack in an egg at the end, after you remove it from the stovetop, the residual heat from the congee sort of poaching the egg. I wish I remembered earlier, that's my sister's and my favourite part about congee.

Nonetheless, this was just what I needed after all that rich and sweet food, something plain and familiar, but deliciously creamy and comforting at the same time. The rice has fully soaked up all the yummy and nourishing goodness of the stock, and turned almost soup-like so you can just slurp it down without even chewing.

By the way, there are other methods out there to speed up the process, like pre-cooking the rice first, or using a rice cooker, but I think there's still no better way than to do it the traditional way, slowly letting it cook and stirring it with love, and though it takes long, honestly, there is almost zero effort involved.

I'm entering this in the One Ingredient challenge, hosted by Laura (how to cook good food) and Nazime (working london mummy), the ingredient this month being turkey of course!

Giblet Pate (with Shiitake Mushroom, Thyme and lots of Butter)

2011-12-25T00:08:00.000-08:00

I can't believe it, it's finally here. Even though my family never really celebrated Christmas while I was growing up, all the countdowns and jingles and christmas lights and all those festive recipes on everyone's blogs have gotten to me. I'm actually pretty excited about it. Going to roast my first whole turkey in a few hours' time, fingers crossed. I know everyone will probably be too busy preparing/eating a feast to check on your blog feed, so no one's going to read this post, but I thought I'll just do it anyway. A final little entry before I go and make merry.

Whether you decide to roast a turkey or a goose or a duck or even a chicken, the unfortunate bird will very likely come with giblets, i.e. the liver, heart, and gizzard. I know they don't look the most appetising of things, but please, don't throw them away! I hate the idea of wasting good food, food that's good not only health-wise (it is one of the most nutrient-dense foods you can get), but good taste-wise. Make stock with it for fantastic gravy, or chop it up for fantastic stuffing. Or make this pate and serve with posh crackers or thin slices of toast as appetisers.

Giblet Mushroom Pate

Ingredient

giblets from 1 turkey, minus the neck (about 250g), chopped up

small handful of dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked to soften and sliced

2 shallots, chopped

2 sprigs of thyme

75g grassfed butter, plus 50g at the end

unrefined sea salt and black pepper, to taste, be generous

Method

1. Heat about 25g of the butter in a frying pan until foaming. Add the mushrooms and cook till softened. Set aside, along with mushroom juices.

2. Add another 25g of the butter in the frying pan and allow the shallots to sweat and slightly caramelise. Add the chopped giblets and let cook till a golden brown crust forms but the insides still remain pink.

3. Tip the mushrooms and juices back into the pan, along with the leaves from 1 sprig of thyme, and let all the flavours mix for a little while. If you want a slightly chunky pate, reserve a bit of the mushrooms for later.

4. Puree everything with the 25g of butter till smooth. If you want a very smooth pate, pass through a sieve. If you want a chunky pate, chop finely the reserved mushrooms and add to the puree.

Ooh more butter!

5. Spoon into ramekins, or teacups for me. If not eating imediately, you can add a sprig of thyme for prettiness, then melt the last 50g of butter over a low heat, and pour the yellow liquid clarified butter over the top of each cup. Once chilled, the butter will solidify and that layer protects the pate and allows it to keep so you can make it in advance!

This is rich and buttery smooth, but chunky at the same time with little bits of shiitake mushrooms. I would imagine an offal-lover loving it, but an offal-hater quite liking it too, with the sweetness from the caramelised shallots, savouriness from the shiitake mushrooms and fragrance from the thyme. I hope this comes in useful, and in time before you throw away your pack of giblets.

Last of all, here's wishing everyone a MERRY CHRISTMAS, ho ho ho!

Flourless Chocolate Orange and Ginger Cake

2011-12-21T14:58:00.000-08:00

One thing I left out from my Spain post, was the desserts and sweets. I don't have a massive sweet tooth, so I often favour the savoury. I don't think anyone noticed, because Spain doesn't exactly come to mind when you think of sweets, and Spanish treats don't seem to go beyond churros dipped in hot chocolate.

We did have quite a few nibbles of their candies and cakes, and what's most different about them is that they are quite often made with almonds instead of flour, probably because it's one of their major produce. Another is the orange. When we first arrived in Seville, our mouths literally dropped when we realised that ALL the trees on the streets had oranges growing on them. We didn't know if we could pluck them, but we picked a fallen one from the ground, and giggling excitedly, washed it and ate it (it was sour).

Anyway, all that- the chocolate, the almonds, the orange- got me inspired to try making Nigella Lawson's flourless chocolate orange almond cake, which has rave reviews from almost everyone who has tried it. I tweaked it a little, added a bit of ginger for that Christmassy spice and a bit of Asian character, and used unrefined muscavado sugar instead for a deeper caramel-sweetness and colour, plus it's healthier.

Flourless Chocolate Orange and Ginger Cake

Makes a 6" round cake (I halved the original recipe, so you can double and do an 8" one)

Ingredients

1 small orange, about 200g (haha mine was really from Spain)

3 free range eggs, lightly beaten

100g ground almonds

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

125g light muscavado sugar

4 tbsp of good cocoa powder

1 tsp of grated fresh ginger

Method

1. Put the whole orange in a pot with some water, bring to a boil and cook for 2 hours. Drain, and cut in half to remove the seeds when cool, then pulp everything- skin, pith and all.

2. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.

3. Mix in everything else. You can do it in the food processor too.

4. Pour into a greased, lined 6" cake tin. Bake for about 45 minutes, you may need slightly longer or shorter depending on your oven so check at about 30 min to see if you need to cover with foil to prevent the top from burning.

You'll see mine cracked on top ): I don't know why, but it still tasted good so I didn't mind, I just sliced from the centre for the photo taking hehe.

5. Leave the cake to cool before slicing. I also just brushed the top with some honey for a easy prettier glaze. And this is optional but it's lovely served with some cream(preferably grassfed, full-fat).

It's the easiest cake I've ever made, there's no creaming of butter or whipping of egg whites etc. In fact, I realise there's no butter in this, nor is there gluten or dairy, or refined sugar in my version. Healthy cakes shouldn't taste quite as good, but this is deliciously chocolatey, with the fragrance of orange and slight spice from ginger. I hate airy chiffon-style cakes so I really liked that it's so moist, oh but at the same time, it's surprisingly quite light and not too rich you feel like you're eating a bar of chocolate shaped like a slice of cake, as many chocolate tortes are.

Recipe challenge mania: I realise this is perfect for entering Choclette's We Should Cocoa challenge(Chocolate and Orange this month), yay it's the first time I'm doing something chocolate. And if they don't mind me being sneaky here, also Karen and Kate's Teatime Treats (Christmas Bake). I was slightly chuffed that I couldn't take part in Dom's Random Recipes this month because I had no cookbook to even choose to give away to charity, though I did give away Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone, which mentioned a rich chocolate cake Hagrid gave to Harry on his birthday, if that counts... but I'm probably pushing it. Ok enough.

A little bit of December sun and a lot of Spanish food

2011-12-18T10:02:00.000-08:00

I'm back! I write this now in a sleep-deprived, over-stuffed state, so I'll let the photos do more of the speaking. I went to Barcelona and Seville for a little 4-day escape from the cold and grey skies of London. As with most of my travels, the experience is largely gastronomic. Spain was always one of those countries on my to-go list after the Brindisa chorizo sandwich I had at Borough market.

And chorizo I did have, along with some of their other less-famous cured sausages and hams.

Little 1 euro sampler sticks for the indecisive like me

Jamon is Spanish for ham, and the slicing of the ham is a fine art in itself. The whole cured leg is usually hung up proudly for display, not just in the markets, but also in the restaurants and tapas bars.

You would think I stuffed myself silly with pork there, but actually, I had a lot more seafood. Barcelona and Seville are both coastal, and you can tell from the amount of seafood on their menus. I had the best seafood I ever had (and that's saying a lot because I grew up in Singapore!) at the Mercat (market) de La Boqueria. I was shocked, because, really, it was just plain-grilled, and then finished off with a drizzle of Spanish olive oil and sea salt, but it was amazing and just bursting with the fresh flavours of the sea.

Mind-blowing seafood platter done to perfection, not overcooked or overladen with excessive seasoning or flavourings

Oh and speaking of the market. I love to visit markets, and even in London, I still get excited every Saturday when I work at the farmers' market. I must say it's been one of the most impressive markets I've seen so far. Rows and rows of fresh vegetables and meat (including offal) and of course, the aforementioned seafood-- probably why the grill was so good.

The mushroom stall!

Just one of the maybe 20 seafood stalls there

It's not just your usual cod or salmon they sell though, often times, it's really the cheap fishes, things like sardines and the tiny oily fishes we often turn our noses up at, just simply fried up as little snacks, or tapas.

Pescadito fritos (fried little fishes)

Which brings me to the tapas. I think what was most immediately obvious about the Spanish were that they were really friendly people; everyone was like family, whether or not they've grown up together or only just spent the last five minutes together. That whole concept of tapas is based on the idea of sharing- just little plates of snacks and appetisers that everyone can all munch on over a beer and a conversation. It's not at all like a formal, stuffy dinner where no one really dares to speak much because you're busy making sure you don't accidentally open your mouth while you're chewing.

Haha. The very friendly owner at a busy tapas bar overflowing with locals all through the day and night.

Our never-ending appetite. The series of tapas we had, starting from the top left:

Croquetas, chorizo on bread, tortilla de patatas (Spanish thick potato omelette), fried sardines, and something he put a plate down of with a "Bueno!"

Oh and of course, what would Spain be without some paella! Our hostel was supposed to have a paella night on the rooftop where everyone will learn and have a hand in making paella, but disappointingly, it got cancelled ):

I got so excited when I saw that huge pan hanging in the kitchen, but, oh well.

We didn't have the chance to make it to Valencia, the birthplace of paella, but this dish is all over Spain. The most interesting one we had was the paella negra, kind of like seafood paella, but in a wicked black colour because of the squid ink.

(Black) Lip-smackingly good, but we came to the conclusion that this was not food you should order on a date, unless I find a foodie boyfriend just as greedy.

And now I need to get back to the realities of briefs and projects (yes, over the Christmas break; oh the cruel uni life!) I will still find time to do a thing or two inspired by my Spanish adventures; it should be great because the upcoming festivities are all about sharing and food and family and friends-- and that's Spain in a nutshell for me (:

Bok Choy and Bacon Quiche

2011-12-13T03:51:00.000-08:00

It's getting harder to be excited about the stodgy winter vegetables, and though I've been on a root veggie kick lately, I'm starting to count down to the delicate greens of spring..Enter the bok choy, or pak choy! It's actually a member of the cabbage family and is in its peak season in winter. But unlike the rest of the winter veg, it quite reminds me of a spring vegetable with its tender leaves and juicy crunchy stalks.

Another thing it reminds me of, is home; it's one of the most common vegetables in asian dishes. This time though, I'm sharing something more exciting than the usual stirfry or soup. Quiche!

Basic Quiche Ratio

(I realised if I go by weight, this actually also fits in with Michael Ruhlman's ratios)

3 eggs, beaten

1 1/2 cup of a mix of whole cream and milk (preferably grassfed and not ultra-pasteurised)

about 1/2 cup of grated cheese, e.g. swiss or feta (There's no cheese in this one though, and apparently, according to Julia Child, we should skip cheese if there's bacon already)

See Sambal Asparagus and Gruyere Crustless Quiche for custard ratios for crustless quiche. Either way though, there's always more liquid than eggs. Quiche should be luscious and custardy, not like a hardened frittata!

Bok Choy and Bacon Quiche

Makes an 8" quiche, 1 1/2" high

Ingredients

Homemade all-butter shortcrust pastry (with GF option)

3 large eggs

1 1/2 cup of whole (full-fat please!) grassfed single cream

2 large shallots

6-8 slices of bacon from happy outdoor-bred pigs

4-5 bunches of baby bok choy

pinch of grated nutmeg

lots of freshly ground black pepper, and sea salt to taste

Method

1. Preheat oven at 180 degrees celsius.

2. Get your pastry ready first. So that while it's in the oven for the 20 min pre-baking and out of it to cool down, you can get the filling ready!

3. Chop up your bacon and shallots, and slice thinly your bok choy, the stalks included, that's the nice juicy bit.

4. Saute the bacon till crispy, drain and set aside. In the remaining bacon fat, saute the shallots till softened and translucent, then add the bok choy to wilt. Season.

5. Scatter the cooked bacon, shallots and bok choy as evenly as you can over the pastry shell.

6. Whisk together the eggs and cream, season, and then pour it over the ingredients, into the pastry shell. I like to do this at the oven because I know myself and I know I'm sure to spill the filling while carrying it over.

7. Bake at 180 degrees celsius for about 35-40 min, or until puffed (it will deflate once out of the oven though) and golden. Remove from oven, let cool before removing from the tart case and slicing.

Sweet caramelised shallots, savoury bacon, and a rich velvety custard-- no wonder the quiche lorraine works. But this has added greens in it to make you feel slightly better about yourself what with all the other Christmassy treats. And bok choy works great here, kind of like the more commonly used spinach but with a sweet peppery crunch.

Yes, school has ended and I'm finally getting into the holiday mood! I'll be escaping the Christmassy tunes of a white Christmas for the rest of this week though; I'm off backpacking in Spain for a bit of sunshine and flamenco and seafood and paprika and chorizo and all things wonderfully spanish and delicious (:

Braised Chestnuts and Chestnut Mushrooms

2011-12-09T10:44:00.000-08:00

I thought I would do something with something that's a little more Christmassy. So I got a bag of chestnuts, because that seems to be the nut of choice around this period.

Chestnuts don't taste like normal nuts at all. They're actually quite sweet and not really crunchy. Apparently in some places in Europe, chestnuts form the staple of their diet, so they're more like carby nuts. Some of you may be surprised to know that chestnuts aren't a European thing, the way I was surprised to know that they aren't an Asian thing when I first saw vendors roasting chestnuts on the streets of London.

This is adapted from my mum's "dao you ji", chicken braised with chestnuts and shiitake mushrooms in soy+oyster sauce. I used chestnut mushrooms instead that I got for free from the farmers' market that day, also because I like the idea of putting the two "chestnuts" together. And I used no chicken, which makes this a really easy and simple side that you can serve up (maybe for Christmas if you've got some leftover from preparing stuffing?)

Braised Chestnuts and Chestnut Mushrooms

Ingredients

400g of chestnuts in shell (or you can use ready prepared ones which will make this even simpler)

2 large handfuls of baby chestnut mushrooms

1 tbsp traditionally fermented/brewed soy sauce

1 tbsp traditionally fermented oyster sauce

1 tsp ground white pepper

few slices of ginger

few cloves of garlic, peeled but left whole

Method

To prepare the chestnuts

1. My mum always used dried chestnuts so fresh chestnuts was totally new to me. I found this really useful website teaching you how to.

Cut an 'X' on the flat side of the chestnut (important, or they will explode!!). If you can, soak overnight in water, which will help it cook and peel easier, plus it will help with the issue of anti-nutrients and digestion.

You can boil or roast, I decided to roast for ~25 min in a 200 degrees celsius oven, to bring out its sweet flavour more. Once the shells split, peel them from their shells. If you leave them to cool too long, the shells stick so it becomes harder to peel.

You'll end up with a lot less chestnuts than 400g, because of course, it's de-shelled, plus you'll have to discard the bad ones, and you'll probably munch on a couple as you go ;)

2. Add the chestnuts, together with all the rest of the ingredients, and enough water to cover in a pot. Bring to a boil, then let simmer for about 30 min.

Easy, no frying first, no fuss.

3. Add the chestnut mushrooms, and continue to simmer for about 15 min till cooked.

Notice sauce has already reduced by quite a bit from earlier.

4. Increase the heat so the sauce reduces, until you get a yummy sticky sauce to coat everything. Yup, no need for cornstarch or anything to thicken.

The chestnuts add a mellow nutty sweetness to the braising sauce so you've got sweet and savoury altogether. The best part is, the chestnuts and mushrooms and the garlic cloves soak up that sauce, and biting into each of them is a delicious burst of flavour. You can skip the reducing step if you want, so it's more like chestnuts and mushrooms in a light braising liquor, the way my mum does her dao you ji, also yum. I know because I taste-tested about 10 times while reducing..It was addictive ):

Anyway I know there's still nothing Christmassy about this at all except for that one ingredient. Hmm.

Ragu of Venison Neck Slow-Braised in Shaoxing Wine

2011-12-05T14:42:00.000-08:00

While working at the farmers' market one Saturday, Jessica's mum, who was manning the booth for South Downs Venison & Game, managed to convince me to try venison. I'm not against venison, especially the wild venison that they are selling. It's not only in season and sustainable for the environment; on your side, it's incredibly rich in protein and nutrients, low in cholestrol, and being wild, it's as natural and organic as you can get.

What kept putting me off venison was the price. Venison just sounded so fancy and..restaurant-y, so I had the impression I would be much better off without it, pocket-wise. But then I realised how cheap the venison necks were. I'm a fan of using the less popular cuts of meat. You get so much more bang for your buck, plus there's loads of flavour, especially if the meat is still hanging onto the bone (marrow bones in this case, score!). And, it's definitely tender if you remember to go low and slow. I found recipes calling for it to be braised in red wine, but because I'm not one to have red wine around the house, I used Shaoxing rice wine instead, and to complement that, some typical Chinese braising spices, which I hoped, would also counter any gamey-ness.

Ragout of Venison Neck Slow-Braised in Shaoxing Wine

serves 4

Ingredients

700g wild fallow neck, on the bone

1 very large onion, chopped

1 carrot, chopped

1 star anise

2 cinnamon sticks

2 cloves

2 strips of dried tangerine peel

2 tbsp soy sauce (traditionally fermented)

1/4 cup Shaoxing rice wine

1/2 cup homemade stock, or water if you're in a pinch

unrefined sea salt, black pepper

2-3 tbsp of olive oil/dripping (I had some fat saved from skimming some homemade stock)

Method

1. Season the venison necks generously with salt and pepper. Heat the oil/fat in a not non-stick pan, and brown the venison necks until lightly golden-brown all over, then set aside.

See the marrow that will leak into and richen the sauce later?

2. Add the onions and carrots to the remaining oil in the pan and let cook till the onions brown slightly, then add in the spices to toast for a few seconds more.

3. Pour in Shaoxing wine to deglaze the pan and make sure you scrape to get all the yummy caramelised flavours.

4. Return the venison necks to the pan, add in the stock and soy sauce, bring to a boil, and then let simmer for 4 hours. What I did was to transfer it to my slow cooker, and I just left it on high. If you have a cast iron pot, you can just do everything in it, then cover and transfer to an oven for a few hours, something I hopefully can do in future (thanks again Charles!).

5. 4 hours later, the meat will be falling off the bone and the sauce should be nice and brown. You can thicken it up with a slurry or by reducing it, but I decided to just puree the vegetables into the sauce with my hand blender (remove the whole spices first!) and then strain. Shred the meat and return to the sauce.

The meat will be fork-tender, so you can easily get it all off the bones

6. I served this once with parsnip mash,

and then the next time, with homemade sourdough parpadelle (recipe updated by the way!)

Either way, it was delicious, the gravy rich and savoury, just thick enough to coat the pasta or run over polenta (or just a nice mash/puree like I did, because honestly, how many normal people stock polenta at home??) without being gloopy. If you were hesitant because you thought venison's too lean and tough, the photos of the clean bones and falling apart meat ought to change your mind. And if you were afraid of gamey smells, venison really is quite mild, and anyway all that aromatic Chinese braising spices and wine should settle any remaining fears.

I know it's nearing Christmas, and venison doesn't seem very Christmassy, but I'm sure people are getting a bit tired of all that on the web lately. My family never really celebrated Christmas, so I thought I'd save all the roast turkey and mince pies and christmas pudding recipes for other bloggers who probably will do a better job ;)

By the way, Taste of Christmas was really fun, I'll try to write more about that next time!

Christmas came early! (Taste of Christmas Ticket Giveaway)

2011-11-30T08:11:00.001-08:00

I thought I was dreaming yesterday when I opened my email. I really literally stared for a full minute and wondered when I'm going to wake up.

In my previous Bloggers Unplugged post, I said my Christmas wish was for a cast iron pot/pan that can go on top of the stove and into the oven. But that was really just it. A dream. I can never justify affording one, at least in my current student financial situation.

So imagine my surprise when I saw an Amazon gift certificate for exactly that in my mail. It was from Charles from Five Euro Food. That's the nicest thing someone I've never met has ever done to me, but I really couldn't accept it. But he insisted again and quote: "Perhaps you think it's strange to have a gift from a random internet stranger, but I love to make people happy-- even if I don't know them. There's too much misery in the world... I like to think I can spread a little happiness." I get it now, that man is actually Santa in disguise. Really, though, he's an awesome person, and his website is also just as awesome! He definitely made me very happy, in fact, for the rest of the year, and possibly next year.

And now for the " Christmas came early" part 2.

I enter lots of lucky draws, because I read in some chick lit book once that it never harms one to do so. It's not like you lose anything in return. I don't expect to win, of course, in fact I don't think I've ever won one. But I did this time, and it's a pair of tickets to the Taste of Christmas food festival this weekend! It's from Action Against Hunger, an international humanitarian organisation committed to ending child hunger, a beautiful cause, so please go find out more about them and perhaps get started a little earlier on your Christmas giving!

Inspired and still a bit in shock by what Charles did, I've decided to give ONE ticket away to another Blogger. Only one, because I really want to go too. That also means, this is also a "win a free date with Shu Han" giveaway, but I think it might put half, or maybe all of, the people out there off so I didn't use that as the title. Really though, I think it will be really fun to get to meet the faces behind all these people I've met since I started blogging. And it's fun to be able to spread a little bit of the incredible love and luck I've gotten.

To enter the giveaway, just post a comment below saying hi. I'll update this post on Friday to announce the random lucky winner/ my unlucky date.

P.S. this only admits entry for one of the days between the 2-4 December, and although I want so much to go on the 2nd, because I get to see two of my food heroes Jamie Oliver AND Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, I have a presentation in school that day, bloody hell. I was praying i would get an email saying they've switched the days, but no, that would be greedy. So if you enter the giveaway, you've to be up for going in the weekend, there's still loads of fun stuff and famous chefs going on!

P.S.S. I just realised no one may want to go with me and I've put myself in a bit of an embarrassing spot if so. Please do comment!

Ok I better post this before I wake up from this dream.

2/11/11: OK so my p.s.s. came true, and no one wants to go. Or rather, no one who can go, wants to. I'm a little disappointed, but I'm just going to go and have a blast with my friend, and definitely give an update about how it went. Thanks everyone for the best wishes and happy december (:

Food Bloggers Unplugged!

2011-11-27T15:43:00.001-08:00

Thanks Elaine from Pear Tree Log for tagging me in this Bloggers Unplugged post! This is so much fun for me, not sure if it's as much fun for you to know all these random facts about a random person, but here goes anyway:

1. What, or who, inspired you to start a blog?

I'm just going to copy this directly from my "about" page because it explains so much about me and this blog, plus I know people don't read "about" pages these days.

"I grew up in a country and a house full of amazing food, but I never really had anything to do with creating that amazing food. I was forced to start cooking for myself when I went over to London to study."

"Besides cooking, this blog is as much about my discoveries and beliefs anbout food and health. I'm not your typical health nut who eats soy nuggets and bran flakes, or your typical diet-conscious teenage girl who goes for low-fat frozen yogurts. I like butter and coconut milk and fatty meat. I eat and believe in real, whole, seasonal, local foods."

"I used to feel that I'm weird or different, and that I had to eat foods that I don't want to eat to feel 'normal' around others,and that I had no right to talk about my love for cooking and food if I'm into health at the same time. But I don't care now, I've decided to heck the raised eyebrows of the skinny latte-drinking, instant koka-mee eating people around me, and embrace the freak in me."

2. Who is your foodie inspiration?

I especially like watching Nigel Slater, but gosh, I have so many foodie inspirations. My mum, most of all though.

3. Your greasiest, batter-splattered food/drink book is?

I don't own cookbooks because I'm too poor/cheap to get them, but I have this thick red folder with recipes cutouts and copied from online/publications, geekily filed with dividers, and littered with post-it notes and edits.

4. Tell us about the best thing you have eaten in another country, where was it, what was it?

Since I'm in London now, does Singapore count? ;) In that case, darn I can't decide again. There are too many. Fried carrot cake would be one. My mum's kong bak pau (48 hr marinated pork belly). Anything peranakan, especially curries and kuehs.

5. Another food blogger's table you'd like to eat at?

3 hungry tummies. I really just get so hungry looking at ALL the recipes, not just the Singaporean/Malaysian ones, but also the Western ones.

6. What is the one kitchen gadget you would ask Santa for this year (money no object of course)?

A cast iron pot and pan that can go on top of the stove and into the oven.

7. Who taught you how to cook?

My mum and all the british tv chefs have been a great help.

8. I'm coming to you for dinner, what is your signature dish?

Anything curry or stewed.

9. What is your guilty food pleasure?

Crispy fried shallots. It's supposed to last for a couple of weeks or more in the fridge as toppings/condiments for chinese and southeast asian dishes, but I can easily pop the whole batch within a couple of hours, I mean, days.

10. Reveal something about yourself that others would be surprised to learn?

As if my life does not revolve around food enough, I've recently gone hippy and started washing my face with honey, exfoliating with ground turmeric or cinnamon, and moisturising with olive oil.

And now, to tag 5 others!

Sissi from With a glass

Wendy from Table for 2

little macaroon

Susan from Susan eats london

Helen from Food Stories

Tonkotsu Ramen Broth

2011-11-23T15:03:00.000-08:00

After that in-depth post on making your own stock or bone broth, I think I might have given the impression that I'm really good at making perfect stock.

I'm not.

I try, and heck, to me, that's the right way! There are so many types of bone broths anyway, and the Japanese tonkotsu ramen broth is an example of how different the idea of 'perfect' is. I mentioned how in most Chinese stock/soup-making, the aim is to get a very clear and light soup. Tonkotsu broth is the opposite. It's so decadently thick and rich with the collagen and fat from pork marrow bones that you get an almost milky white broth.

The first time I tried it, I did it the way Marc Matsumoto from No Recipes suggested- mixed with chicken bones, complete with ginger, tahini, and burnt garlic (he has a really great detailed post and he's probably eaten and made a lot more ramen broths than me). Then I came across Shizuoka Gourmet, whose broth was the complete opposite, with just one ingredient: pork bones. I loved the simplicity of it. Tonkotsu broth is, after all, essentially, about pork. There's something poetic about how just putting in effort and time transforms a pile of pork bones to a delicious broth rich in flavour (and nutrients). I still kept Marc's tips on using pork leg bones for the marrow and connective tissues, and the tahini for an added nutty aroma and richness. The burnt garlic oil as a final flourish isn't a must, but it is pretty awesome.

Tonkotsu Ramen Broth/Stock

Ingredients

To make about 2 litres of broth base

1.5 kg pork leg bones

7 litres of water

To serve (for 1)

2 1/2 cups of broth base

1 heaped tsp tahini (sesame seed paste)

1 serving of ramen noodles

unrefined sea salt and white pepper, to taste (or use miso instead for miso tonkotsu ramen)

Toppings (up to you)

Ideas:

squidgy yolk hard-boiled eggs, beansprouts, seaweed, black wood ear/cloud fungus, shredded leftover pork from the bits hanging on the bones, toasted garlic and ginger, toasted sesame seeds, chopped spring onions, seaweed, black garlic oil (see below)

Method

1. In a deep large pot, blanch the bones in boiling hot water to remove the blood and impurities. Drain the water and scrub the pot before filling with fresh water and bringing to the boil.

2. Add the bones again and keep skimming off any foam or scum, about 20 min.

3. Cover and let simmer on a low fire for 15 hours. (yes, no typo. What I did was transfer to my slow cooker, pre-heated and kept on high, through the night.)

At the start- pork leg bones, with the lovely marrow and fat we want

After 2 hours- see the oil that will get emulsified with the stock to get our creamy broth

After 15 hours- concentrated broth heaven

The bones after that - bleached dry of all their goodness

4. Filter to get your tonkotsu broth base.

5. To serve, blanch the noodles in boiling water for 1 minute or till slightly less done (as it'll continue cooking). Mix the ingredients for the soup and pour over the noodles, then top with choice of toppings. Slurp and enjoy!

The broth was deliciously rich and so creamy you'd think there was something more than just bones and water. You'll see that the latest attempt (not this photo, the one right at the start) was slightly more successful. I slurped all of them down very happily anyway, and knew right after that this was thick with collagen because my lips got all sticky. I heard from my Japanese classmate that in Japanese ramen places, you had to finish your ramen and slurp down the whole bowl of soup or you'll start getting the evil eye, so I'm just keeping up with tradition(:

You'll notice I haven't given much attention to the other components of the tonkotsu ramen. The toppings are really up to you, but purists would say the noodles are perhaps just as important as the broth. The ramen master will probably be using handmade ramen noodles, but I think I would starve if I had to start making the noodles too. I did use fresh egg spaghettini, handmade by Phil from Pimlico farmers' market...

The thing about the elusive tonkotsu ramen broth, is that there is no definite recipe to follow. It's that heavily guarded secret and the only way to get hold of it is by, I don't know, begging a ramen master to let you train under him for 20 years, or some kind of despicable means? Or you could just research and experiment yourself, which is what I did. I hope you enjoyed the recipe, but keep on visiting your favourite ramen place!

Oh and lastly, the 'burnt' garlic oil if you're interested:

Black ("Burnt") Garlic Oil

Ingredients

1/4 cup sesame oil

5 cloves of garlic, minced

Method

1. Over medium low heat, toast the minced garlic in the sesame oil, stirring occasionally until it is very dark brown. Turn the heat down to low and let it cook until it is black. (I kind of chickened out and stopped at the dark brown/copper stage, see photo.)

2. Immediate transfer hot oil and garlic to a heatproof bowl, let cool completely and blitz with a hand blender until you get a uniformly black (or copper) oil. It will taste slightly bitter but is fantastic when you add just a little bit to the broth

Black garlic oil for Black Friday (:

The 'Right' Way to Make Stock

2011-11-19T15:57:00.000-08:00

I just blogged about making instant stock powder from things that are naturally savoury (and compact). But the best stock to me is still traditional bone broths, simmered over hours to extract not just flavour, but minerals and nutrients. Back home in Singapore, my mum makes stock almost everyday, slow-cooked in a huge black claypot over a charcoal fire, with a very precise selection of bones from specific parts of specific animals for the right flavour.

Here, I do things a lot simpler.

Stock is basically just bones, simmered in water, hence also called bone broth (of course, there's also the vegetable stock i.e. onions carrots celery leeks, in a pot, about an hour). There aren't really any hard and fast rules, but read on anyway. I've got tips, and I also want to bring up Chinese stocks, which are quite different in many ways!

My mum's big black stockpot over a charcoal fire

The bones and bits

You can use a leftover chicken carcass, or if you don't often buy a whole chicken because you're cooking for one, just save your bones from after you finish eating a drumstick or something. Bones that have been pre-roasted will give a "brown" stock, fresh bones will give a "white" stock. You'll also often find carcasses on sale at the farmers' market, or just ask your butcher for beef, or veal, bones, usually for free. In chinese cooking, pork bones are favoured. Yes, pig's tail. For really gelatinous broth, add chicken feet/wings/neck/pork trotters/ears/tail.

To boil or not to boil?

The Sally Fallon method calls for the bones to sit in cold water with a tablespoon of vinegar added for an hour or so before bringing it up to a boil, to extract all the calcium and minerals.

For Chinese stock though, the first step is always to parboil the bones. That gets rid of most of the blood and impurities and makes for a cleaner, clearer stock. I prefer this, it gives a much better result, and I doubt there's much difference in the nutrient content after all those hours of simmering.

A bubbling pot of stock

is wrong.

Whether or not you parboil the bones at first, you want to bring the bones and water to a boil, and then immediately reduce to a simmer, over low heat, for the rest of the time. There should be just a tiny bit of bubbling action, think that minimal bubble stream you see from a goldfish in a tank. Keep skimming any scum that you see on top, though the parboiling step helps to reduce the amount of scum.

For how long?

The general attitude usually is, for as long as you can. Your aim is to extract everything out from the bones, flavour and nutrients-wise. I usually leave it overnight in the slow cooker on low, and the next day, the bones become useless and soft enough to crush with a spoon. But my mum says 3-4 hours or the colour of the stock gets affected.

You can add nothing, or anything, really

I think next time I refer to stock in my recipes, I'll be slightly more specific and say 1, 2, or 3.

1. The Western stock usually calls for onions, carrots, celery, maybe leeks or bay leaf too. I save the carrot tops and base of celery etc and freeze them to add to stocks, or even to make vegetable stock. So, repeat, it can really cost nothing.

2. The Chinese stock calls for ginger and spring onions, which helps to get rid of the undesired "smell". Sometimes a dash of rice wine, for the same reason. I think it also works as a sort of acidic medium much like Sally Fallon's vinegar, to extract nutrients. Oh, and contrary to popular belief, no garlic.

3. You can add nothing at all too, which is what I like to do usually because I don't know if I'll be using it for what kind of recipes.

4. Just thought of this. Asians often don't just make basic stocks to add to dishes, often we just make soup with bones straight away, slow-simmered with various herbs/ingredients for different types of soups. An example is gamjatang, a Korean pork bone soup, and there's the many Chinese "long-fire soups" 老火汤.

So what is good stock?

Good stock should gel when refrigerated (see above/below). That's collagen that you can get much better than any collagen pill. Colour will differ based on type of stock.

In addition, if it's Chinese stock, chefs (and chinese mums) will look for stock clarity. To get that, you not only have to follow all the tips above for chinese stock, but you should ideally skim off the fat after chilling (DON'T THROW, save for cooking!) and use bones that are not fatty, because the fat globules dispersed in the stock makes it not as clear as it can be. My mum's specific blend for clear stock 清高汤 includes the bones from the back of the pig, chicken feet, chicken breast bone, and dried scallops. But she also makes stocks from pig's tail and trotters for other dishes, and I really love the rich taste of those stocks.

This was so gelatinous it set like too-stiff jelly. The white layer on top is the hardened fat.

This soup is considered not clear enough.
That's one example of 老火汤- pork bones, with dried cuttlefish, daikon radish and goji berries. It's delicious, clear or not.

So, after all that, I just want to say, homemade stock is a wonderful and very important thing to do for our health and for our cooking, and it doesn't matter so much what is the 'right' way and whether you make it in the perfect way or not! I hope when we realise how simple (and cheap!) it is, we can all make it a point to start making our own stock instead of paying for that preservative-filled Knorr cube.

Stock is good not only for soups and stews; you can use it to make plain rice more exciting(and I don't just mean risotto), or add a splash to vegetable stirfries, or-- just search "stock" on my blog for all the fab things you can do with it!

Make your own natural instant stock powder

2011-11-15T13:56:00.000-08:00

Stock is my all-important kitchen essential. You throw in some rice or noodles or vegetables or meat into good stock and you get a delicious risotto or comforting noodle soup or creamy vegetable soup or a nice stew. It's the secret something special behind a simple dish. Good stock to me is usually bone broths, slow-simmered over hours to extract the flavour and nutrients from that leftover carcass. I never never waste any scrap of bones so I usually have stock in the fridge. I try my Martha-Stewart-best, but I don't always have stock on standby though.

For those situations, I resort to "quick stocks", made very simply with Asian cupboard essentials- dried anchovies or dried shrimps, or for vegetarian versions, shiitake mushrooms or kelp. It's often quite simple, just boil the dried anchovies (ikan bilis) or shrimps in water for 20 min or so, and because they're so small, you get their flavour quite quickly. Shiitake mushrooms and kelp are even better, just soak in warm water for 30 min or so till they soften. They're perfect for unplanned stock because these dried goodies can keep for quite a while in your larder without going bad-- very important for someone with a fridge less than half her dwarfish asian height.

And then one day I was walking around the supermarket, and I saw ikan bilis (quite obviously the supermarket was in Singapore, not London) and mushroom stock powders and cubes. Of course, ikan bilis and mushroom stock powder have a lot more in them than just ikan bilis and mushrooms, mainly things that I can't pronounce properly or end in dubious numbers. Thus, my homemade instant stock powder was born!

Homemade Instant Stock Powder

(example here is for ikan bilis stock)

Ingredients

dried anchovies (ikan bilis)

Method

1. Toast the anchovies in a low oven to make sure they're completely dry. You'll also start smelling the delicious (ok subjective) savoury smell of roasted anchovies, which definitely adds to the flavour.

2. Let cool completely. Throw into a food processor or blender and whizz up until you get a fine powder. Store in an airtight container, preferably in the fridge if you want it to keep longer.

That's it! I know some people may recoil at the idea of anchovies, but it's often used for Asian soups. It's also full of calcium since you eat the soft edible bones, and iodine since you eat the head (Oops I'm putting more people off aren't I?)

Anyway, you can do the same for dried shrimps, dried mushrooms, or kelp. The great thing about this is you can not only stir it into hot water for instant stock, you can sprinkle this over your stirfries for an instant umami hit. (Anchovies are great with garlic and spinach, fyi. One of my mum's favourite vegetable stirfry combi.)

Bonus tip: Break off the stalks for dried shiitake mushrooms and grind them up instead, because that tough part takes forever to soften and hence usually gets discarded after soaking, which is a complete waste of perfectly tasty mushroomy flavours.

Leftover Barley Arancini stuffed with Lincolnshire Poacher Cheese

2011-11-13T15:21:00.001-08:00

I hate wasting food. I'm perfectly happy eating leftovers for breakfast lunch dinner, and I'm weird enough to be fine with eating cold leftovers too. I had leftover barley risotto, or as I found out later, orzotto, and though I would be happy just eating it straight from the fridge like cold porridge, I decided to do something a bit more exciting with it, because for once, there's no deadline for school next week.

Arancini is leftover risotto, coated with crispy breadcrumbs, with or without a stuffing. I don't know what leftover orzotto, coated with crispy breadcrumbs, with or without a stuffing, is called. I suspect it's the same. This is usually deep-fried, which is messy and gets my face oily and generally not advisable in my poorly ventilated flat, so I've done it in an oven.

Leftover Barley Arancini

makes 4-6 balls

Ingredients

about 1 cup of leftover shiitake mushroom barley risotto

about 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs (I first drizzled evoo over leftover sourdough bread before toasting and throwing into the food processor, so the breadcrumbs go crisp easier and you don't have to worry about the arancini not having an even coating/spray of oil.)

1 egg, beaten

4-6 cubes of raw Lincolnshire Poacher cheese (this is like a cross between British cheddar and swiss gruyere, absolutely delicious. You can get this at the farmers' markets and Neal's Yard Dairy.)

unrefined sea salt, white pepper

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius.

2. Fold eggs into the leftover risotto. Using wet hand, scoop up a handful of risotto, flatten against your palm, and press the cube of cheese into it. Shape into a ball, enclosing the cheese. It should be gummy and sticky after a night chilling in the fridge, so it won't be too difficult.

3. Season breadcrumbs with salt and pepper. Roll the balls in the breadcrumbs, and then line them up on greased parchment paper.

4. Bake for 20 minutes, or until crispy and golden.

The shiitake mushroom barley risotto was already good so it couldn't really turn out very bad, but now it's crispy and cheesy as well. Ah, yum.

Shiitake Mushroom Barley Risotto

2011-11-10T14:32:00.000-08:00

I know I have been blogging about soups and stews and all manners of "I want to go home and stay in bed" foods during the past 2 weeks of miserable colds, school and weather. Risotto must sound like another of my comfort food posts, but it's not. Risotto is special. I haven't even heard of the thing until I came to London (don't judge, have you heard of kway chap, tutu kueh, chye tow kway before? HAH.) My cold is over, the projects are over (for this week at least), and the weather is oddly getting more tolerable. So I decided to treat myself to a touch of fanciness.

But I didn't have the 2 key ingredients to a usual risotto: arborio rice and stock. I was looking at my larder again to see what I did have. I saw barley, which cooks up nice and "glue-y" too while retaining its shape, (not to mention being great for the skin and digestion) hurray! And for the cooking stock, I deferred to my usual asian cupboard essentials for quick stock (dashi): dried shiitake mushrooms and kelp. Hence this risotto, or barley-otto. <-- Edit: I realise there is a name for this kind of dish, it's called an orzotto. Boo.

Shiitake Mushroom Barley Risotto

serves 1

Ingredients

70g pearl barley

3 dried shiitake mushrooms

1 piece of dried kelp (otherwise known as kombu)

2 large shallots, finely chopped

small splash of rice wine

1 tbsp of "sweet dark" soy sauce (made from equal amts of traditionally fermented soy sauce and molasses, or you can use unrefined sugar)

1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil

1 tbsp olive oil

white pepper, to taste

chopped parsley and spring onion, to finish

Method

1. Briefly rinse, then soak the shiitake mushrooms and kelp in about 1 cup warm water for about 30 min. Reserve kelp for something else, slice the shiitake mushrooms up and let it marinade in the sweet soy sauce and sesame oil. Bring the dashi up to a simmer.

2. Heat olive oil over medium heat in a saucepan, and saute the chopped shallots till soft and translucent.

3. Add the barley and saute for about 2 min or so (it will not really get translucent like with rice). When it gets a bit toasted, add the splash of rice wine and stir until it evaporates.

4. Add a ladleful of the hot stock, stir until it has almost all been absorbed, then add the next ladleful. Continue like this on low heat but still keeping everything at a simmer, until the barley is cooked. It will be about 30 min, or when the barley is tender but still have a bit of bite and is kind of runny at the same time.

5. Meanwhile, saute the marinated mushrooms in a separate pan. Stir into the risotto for the last couple of minutes.

6. Remove the risotto from the heat, taste and season with white pepper and sea salt if necessary (note kelp is also salty), and then stir in the chopped parsley and spring onions.

I really like this! The barley gives a quite different flavour and an extra nutty texture to the risotto. It's also perfect for the fall/winter, because it immediately brings to mind hearty wholesome stews. I definitely will do this again with other vegetables when I've got some good homemade stock, not that the shiitake-kelp stock wasn't good; it was delicious with the barley, very savoury and full of umami.

I know it's yet another kitchen make-do, but it did turn out well, and one day, one day, I will be rich and spend it all on my kitchen (:

Leek and Butter Bean Soup with Caramelised Shallots and Bacon

2011-11-05T09:45:00.000-07:00

It's bonfire night! I wish I were doing something a little more exciting than sitting at home making soup and working on my project, but it's due monday, and really, I actually like staying in the kitchen and keeping warm by my indoor bonfire, aka the bubbling pot of soup.

I was also planning to take part in this month's combined kitchen challenge (Random Recipes by Belleau Kitchen and No Croutons Required by Tinned Tomatoes) with this soup, but realised it was neither a random recipe from a cookbook because I bunged it up myself, nor was it vegetarian because of the bacon; bummer. Anyway, it was too good to not share, so here it is.

Leeks + Butter Beans =Winter Yum

Note: You can make this vegetarian by leaving out the bacon if you want, though in that case, maybe increase the butter ;)

Leek and Butter Bean Soup with Caramelised Shallots and Bacon

serves 3-4

Ingredients

1 large leek, white and light green parts only, sliced

1/2 cup of dried butter beans, soak for at least 6 hours

5 large shallots, sliced into rings

1-2 slices of bacon (from happy pigs), chopped up into bits

2 cloves of garlic, sliced

2 cups of homemade vegetable/chicken stock

2 tbsp of grassfed butter

1 heaped tsp dijon mustard

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste (be generous!)

Method

1. Add the soaked butter beans to a pot, bring to the boil, and let simmer for 1.5 hours or so till cooked and soft. You could skip this step if you're using canned beans, though dried and soaked is always cheaper and usually easier on the stomach.

2. Add bacon to a medium hot pan, saute till crisp and bacon fat oozes out. Drain and set aside.

3. Add the sliced shallots to the bacon fat and fry till golden brown and caramelised. Remove some for garnishing later and set aside.

4. Add the sliced leeks and garlic and mustard and saute till softened and fragrant.

5. Add the stock and cooked beans, bring to a boil and let simmer for 15 min or so.

6. Blend, adding more hot stock/bean cooking liquid if needed, till you get a smooth and creamy consistency. Taste and season (note bacon and mustard are also salty). Finally, stir in the 2 tbsp of butter.

I topped the soup with the crisped up bacon from earlier for a bit of salty texture, and finished it with sweet caramelised shallots, kind of inspired by the way a lot of food back home in Singapore is finished with a final drizzle of shallot oil or scatter of crispy shallots.

I love leeks for their mild onion-y sweetness and I often liken them to giant spring onions minus the bite. It's great thrown into whatever vegetable soup you have, or actually, it's great when you make chicken soup too. This came about because I was planning for dinner in the morning and wanted to make (roasted) leek and potato soup, but had no potatoes. So I raided my pantry for something to add some body to the soup, and saw the jar of butter beans, and thought "creamy hummus..soup?" Hmm. Anyway this soup is good- creamy and rich without being cloying, and full of good stuff for your body- so I would say it's one of those successful moments of desperation!

Steamed Eggs (Chinese Savoury Custard)

2011-11-01T02:59:00.000-07:00

Another very homely recipe to chase away the blues.

It's really cheap and simple and has hardly any ingredients at all, and all the kids (and adults) love it. It's the Chinese household equivalent of the more known Japanese chawanmushi, the Japanese version being steamed in a pretty little cup, with all sorts of hidden goodies. The version I grew up with though, is plain and unadorned and done in a shallow steam-proof dish. The most basic version is called 蒸水蛋 i.e. "steamed water eggs", because it is literally just steaming a water-egg mixture, but using stock (my mum insists!) makes it 10x better.

The test of a good steamed egg lies in the texture. It will be soft and silky with a smooth surface, kind of like a savoury set custard. Done wrong, it will be rubbery with a a pock-marked surface-- like the ones I used to do until I went to research and properly grilled my mum.

I love this old-school fail-proof way of measuring liquid:egg ratio

Steamed Eggs

serves 1-2

Ingredients

2 free-range pastured eggs

6 eggshell-halves of cooled boiled water/homemade stock (hence, size of eggs don't matter!)

white pepper + 1 tsp Shaoxing wine (opt, but again, my mum insists!)

To serve

traditionally brewed and fermented soy sauce

toasted sesame oil

chopped spring onions (opt, as kids we'd pick them out)

Method

1. Beat eggs well with the water/stock. Strain the mixture through a sieve to get rid of the bubbles, into a shallow (mine was about 1/2 inch deep) steam-proof dish.

2. Prepare steamer, or for a makeshift one, just set a metal rack over a pot of boiling water, making sure the metal rack is higher than the water level. Place the dish on the rack, covered with a plate or sealed with foil (my mum's style).

3. Turn to low heat, and steam for about 15 min or till set. If you're not sure, shaking the dish a little, it should be jiggly but firm.

4. Serve with a drizzle of soy sauce and sesame oil (adjust according to taste, you may need less if you've seasoned it with a flavourful stock), and sprinkle the spring onions over.

My mum, being my mum, will also add minced pork or fish seasoned with a bit of soy sauce and pepper, and she will use her best stock (leftover, made from simmering chicken bones and dried scallops). The one I have here is a lot less deluxe. But it's, oh gosh, so familiar and good. The eggs are just set with a delicate custardy texture, and is seasoned simply by the river of light soy sauce running through. Each spoonful of steamed egg is like a savoury scoop of home.

I think I even saw a little bit of sun peeking through the clouds just now (:

Mum's Sesame Oil Chicken

2011-10-27T09:00:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, things haven't gotten better since I last posted about the power of a warm pot of chilli. I've finished one project, but am onto two new ones. It has now even started raining these days and the skies are perpetually grey. There are some things that you just crave when you feel cold, stressed, and blue, and for me, that's usually soups, stews, and my mum's cooking.

When I first came to London, I got pretty homesick in the first few months. My mum used to send me ridiculously large parcels which I complained about because the fact that they were ridiculously large meant that, for her, they were ridiculously expensive, and for me, they were ridiculously heavy (I had to carry them from the post office in the snow). Secretly though, these parcels of love made things just a little better, and though most of the things were pretty useless (she sent me toothbrushes once), some things I've still kept as treasures, one of which is a handwritten list of some of her recipes. Sesame oil chicken is one of them.

Extremely detailed instructions in a mix of Chinese and English, with tons of annotations

Mum's Sesame Oil Chicken

serves 2

Ingredients

2 chicken legs, cut into thighs and drumsticks (you can use whichever parts you like, but they must be bone-in)

1 tbsp ginger juice (peel, smash/grate ginger, squeeze. reserve the ginger.)

2 tbsp toasted sesame oil

2 tbsp soy sauce (traditionally brewed and fermented)

1 tbsp Shaoxing rice wine

1 tsp unrefined cane sugar

1 tsp white pepper

1/2 cup water

1 tbsp olive oil

Method

1. Marinate the chicken in the ginger juice, sesame oil and soy sauce, for about 1 hr, or even longer.

2. To a medium hot wok/pot, heat the oil, and add the reserved ginger, fry till aromatic.

3. Add the chicken pieces, drained of their marinade, to brown slightly, about 1 min, then add in the Shaoxing wine, followed by the marinade, and cook for a few more min.

4. Add in the water, cover and let simmer on low heat for 30 minutes. Serve warm with rice.

The ingredient list is really simple, just Chinese store-cupboard essentials, and the method's really simple too. But the results are so worth it. While cooking this, the kitchen filled up with the familiar heavenly aroma of ginger, sesame oil and Shaoxing wine, and the end results are just as therapeutic- tender braised chicken sitting in that fragrant broth. Thanks mummy (:

Note, you can sub the rice wine for hard liquors like DOM (especially 'warming' and great for post-natal recovery according to traditional chinese medicine, just fyi).

Masala Minced Beef and Kidney Beans Chilli

2011-10-22T15:03:00.000-07:00

It's the end of National Baking Week, and I really wanted to do something this week and I've waited all the way till Saturday to try to do something I could blog about. But I really couldn't muster up the time and effort to do anything more fussy than throw-everything-in-a-pot-stews. The temperature's taken a huge dip and and when I'm not busy moaning about the weather, I'm busy with the crazy crazy pace at school this term.

I often do chillis/stews like this: some mince, topped up with beans, a can of tomatoes, some spices. It's simple, easy, filling, yummy, and better yet, yummier the next day. There are countless variations for this, this variation was one I made for my birthday before.

Masala Minced Beef and Kidney Beans Stew

serves 4-6 (especially if accompanied by rice)

Ingredients

400g minced beef (you can sub any meat you like, or omit for vegetarian version)

1 cup of soaked, cooked red kidney beans (you can sub any beans you have)

400g can of tomatoes

1 large onion, diced

1 cinnamon stick

2 bay leaves

3 cloves

4 cardamom pods, smashed

2 tbsp cumin powder

1 tbsp coriander powder

1 tbsp garam masala

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsbp chilli powder (to taste)

sea salt and black pepper

1 tbsp coconut oil

Method

1. Over medium high heat, add the whole spices to the hot coconut oil to toast for a few seconds.

2. Add diced onion, fry till golden translucent and fragrant.

3. Add the minced beef and all the ground spices, the chilli powder, salt and pepper. Stir fry till beef is browned and caramelised, about 5 minutes.

4. Add the canned tomatoes and cooked beans, bring to a boil, and let simmer for at least 15 minutes. It's best if you let everything in the stew get to know one another better, so if you aren't starving, leave the curry off the heat for a couple of hours.

By the way, just to reiterate, leftovers are thicker and richer in flavour, so it's definitely worth it to make a big pot of warming chilli. This is more-ish-ly delicious, a hot and spicy antidote to the miserable weather and month ):

For anyone going through a similarly miserable period, but still keen on doing a belated, super easy something for National Baking Week (and Apple Day, 21 October), try Cinnamon Baked Apples, topped with crispy nuts, raisins and greek yogurt.

A Dessert-turned-Salad of Cinnamon & Coriander Roasted Pumpkin and Pumpkin Seeds with Greek Yogurt

2011-10-18T13:47:00.000-07:00

Continuing with my current favourite new vegetable family the winter squashes, this time round using the more easily available pumpkin, I have a roasted pumpkin salad!

It was meant to be a very simple sweet treat, roasted pumpkin with spices, tangy greek yogurt, crunchy toasted seeds, kind of the way I have baked apples. But I didn't have butter left, so I used olive oil instead, and the evoo flavour just didn't seem right for dessert. I stuck to the spices, but made it a salad with the beautiful rainbow chard that I couldn't resist getting at the market on Saturday.

Cinnamon & Coriander-Roasted Pumpkin and Pumpkin Seeds

Ingredients

1 small pumpkin

1 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp garlic powder

unrefined sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

extra virgin olive oil

Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees celsius.

2. Peel pumpkin and remove seeds and fibrous strings. Cut into 1 inch large-ish bite sized chunks.

3. Wash the seeds and dry thoroughly. (If you want to soak the seeds first to get rid of phytic acids/for better digestion, soak overnight with salt before drying and proceeding. And if so, then this becomes a next-day-meal, or plan ahead! )

3. Toss the pumpkin chunks with a generous drizzle of evoo, 1 tsp each of cinnamon and coriander and a pinch of sea salt.Toss the seeds with 1 tsp each of garlic powder and coriander, and a pinch of sea salt (skip if you've soaked in salted water).

4. Roast pumpkin on middle rack and seeds (plus walnuts) on lower rack. Remove seeds after 15 min or until lightly browned, careful they burn really quickly! Increase temperature to about 200 degrees celsius and continue roasting the pumpkin until tender and lightly browned and caramelised, about 30 min.

Some of the roasted pumpkin, left to cool a little

To serve,

Saute sliced rainbow chard with some olive oil. Add roasted pumpkin chunks on top of the bed of chard, scatter the toasted seeds and walnuts over, spoon plain whole (full fat please!) greek yogurt over.

I know I said I'm done with salads, but the smell of the cinnamon in the oven and the warm vegetables makes this really very much a warming thing. The sweetness of the pumpkin goes nicely against the tangy creamy yogurt, especially on top of a bed of silky/crisp swiss chard, with freshly toasted walnuts and pumpkin seeds (I hate wasting food) some crunch.

Oh I suggest you do a larger batch of roasted pumpkin at a go because it's so delicious you might finish them all. If you've got any pumpkin and pumpkin seeds left over, mash up the pumpkin and use it in sourdough ravioli or add it into your baking, or really, just add some yogurt and honey for instant dessert (as originally planned..) Yum.

Last, the fabulous Stephen from The Obsessive Chef has gotten a cookbook published! Ah, a dream come true, really, and I'm envious but incredibly happy for him at the same time! Do spread the word, and get a copy of his cookbook if you can!

Simmered Kabocha Squash with Dried Shrimps

2011-10-12T12:47:00.000-07:00

One of the best parts about fall, is pumpkin and its many other squash friends. I love how they look and all their cute names- butternut squash, crown prince Squash, munchkin (aw, sigh!), kabocha squash. They all taste similar to your normal pumpkin, but with slightly different textures and sweetness.

The kabocha squash is a dull green on the outside, but has a super bright orange-yellow flesh. It's got a really strong sweet flavour, even sweeter than butternut squash, which everyone agrees is sweeter than pumpkin, and a fluffy texture in between that of a pumpkin and sweet potato, so it's ideal for this slow-simmered recipe. It's adapted from my mum's recipe i.e. it's really good but also i.e. the proportions are heavily estimated.

Simmered Kabocha Squash with Dried Shrimps

serves 2-4

Ingredients

1 kabocha squash (slightly less than 1 kg) , peeled and chopped into bite-sized chunks

1/4 cup of dried shrimps (you can find this in most asian stores, I'm not sure if it'll work if you replace it with those small cooked shrimps you buy for potted shrimps)

8 cloves of garlic, chopped finely

unrefined sea salt

1 tbsp evoo + 1 tbsp grassfed butter

Method

1. Soak the dried shrimps in about a 1/2 cup of warm water for 15 minutes before cooking. Drain and reserve the soaking liquid; it will be the stock used for simmering later.

2. Over medium high heat, add the oil and butter. Saute the garlic and dried shrimps till fragrant, then add the chopped squash. Add salt, cook till slightly caramelised around the edges.

3. Add the shrimp stock, bring to a boil, lower heat, cover, and let simmer for about 15 minutes, or till squash is just tender.

4. Increase heat and let the cooking liquid reduce till it's kind of dry and even sticking to the pan a little. Serve with some fresh coriander.

This looks really plain and simple, but it's delicious. All the garlicky, salty, shrimpy flavour is concentrated and absorbed by the sweet kabocha squash. The edges are just coming apart and the inside is tender. Though not much to look at, the mushy bits of mashed up, slightly burnt (from the final reduction) shrimp and garlic is the best part.

Note: My mum normally uses pumpkin with a pinch of brown sugar, which I've left out because kabocha is already so naturally sweet. You can probably use other squashes too, but tast and adjust sugar levels accordingly. She also doesn't always add the coriander, but it does give the dish some lift, so it's up to you, but either way, it's very good.

Pear, Fennel and Bacon Salad with Warm Ginger Dressing

2011-10-10T08:05:00.000-07:00

Only in London can you get 29 degrees one day, and 13 degrees 2 days later. Grr, I refuse to believe the days of salad and sunshine are over. My wool coat is still tucked away in a large vacuum-sealed bag. And before soup and stews and curries take over, here's a salad to bridge the gap-- a warm salad, one not made with the leafy greens of spring, but what fall has to offer. The dressing is really simple, made with the fat from cooking the bacon--salivate-- and some ginger for a bit of needed heat.

Pear, Fennel and Bacon Salad, with Warm Ginger Dressing

serves 1-2

Ingredients

1 bulb of fennel

1 ripe Conference pear

2 strips of streaky bacon (from happy pigs), cut into small pieces

1 thumb-sized piece of ginger

1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil

1-2 tsp sweet rice vinegar

freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. Slice the fennel bulb thinly, same goes for the pear. Mince the ginger.

2. Over medium heat, cook the bacon in some evoo till crisp and its fat oozes out. Transfer the bacon to some kitchen towels to drain.

3. Add the sesame oil to the bacon fat in the pan, saute the ginger till fragrant. Remove from heat and whisk in the rice vinegar and black pepper.

4. Combine pear, fennel and bacon, pour the warm ginger dressing over, and sprinkle with fennel leaves.

The crunchy fennel goes really well against the soft juicy pear, and the sweetness of the pear in turn goes really well against the salty crispy bacon. There's the familiar warming flavours of ginger and aniseed (from the fennel), and I also scattered some fennel leaves around for colour and freshness and because I don't like wasting any part of my food. Everything was very impromptu as it usually is, but I think it worked out fine.

But ok I admit, just listening to the wind outside, I really would rather some soup now. Fine, fine the sunshine days are over ):

Roast Purple, Green and White Cauliflower with Garlic and Chilli

2011-10-06T05:15:00.000-07:00

Controversial cauliflowers pre-roasting

This was one of the things I made for my birthday meetup on Saturday. When I pulled the alien-looking purple and green cauliflower out of their bags, there was a collective "eeeee!" to which I simply replied "We're eating that for dinner."

Cauliflowers are coming into season as the temperature takes a dip. I was working at the farmers' market that morning, and I couldn't resist picking these beautiful aliens up. Plus, they always say to get more colourful vegetables. To make sure my friends would still eat them, I decided to roast these cauliflowers, because almost all vegetables taste better roasted, and with garlic and chilli, because everyone loves garlic and chilli.

Roast Purple, Green and White Cauliflower with Garlic and Chilli

Ingredients

a mix of cauliflowers (or you can use just the normal ones)

as much garlic as you like

dried whole chillies, soaked and split (or just chilli flakes)

few drops of toasted sesame oil

unrefined sea salt

generous glug of extra virgin olive oil

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees celsius.

2. Break the cauliflowers into roughly even-sized florets, smash the garlic cloves but leave them in their skins.

3. Put all into a roasting tray, scatter with dried chilli, sea salt, sesame oil and olive oil, toss to coat. Roast, stirring occasionally, for about 20 min, or till tender and lightly browned.

If you've always thought these brain-like vegetables are boring and tasteless, please try roasting them! They become absolutely yummy, with those slightly spicy, caramelised edges, and if you're still not convinced, there's the roast garlic in the same pan too, and pretty much no one turns down roast garlic.

Five Spice Moist Apple Cake (and Happy Birthday to me!)

2011-10-03T08:32:00.000-07:00

It's my birthday today! I'm 21 now ): That sounds really old. I don't feel fully adult yet.

I had a small meetup with some good friends on Saturday, actually, large, if you consider the skype meetup with the other good friends in the US/Singapore now. It was fantastic having everyone there, virtual or physical, and it was a fine night. It was a fine day too, what with London's freak summer in october and I spent the day doing things I love- managing the farmers' market at Pimlico in the morning and in the afternoon, cooking.

The menu was heavily spiced, despite the hot hot weather, because the cook gets to choose and I'm very biased towards spice (: Carrot and lentil soup, masala minced beef and kidney beans chilli, curry spices-roasted chicken drumsticks, chilli and garlic roast cauliflower, and spiced basmati rice. I didn't want to do anything difficult, so it was stuff that needed hardly any attention or exact recipes, mostly just cooked according to taste, smell, and the things that caught my eye in the kitchen and the market.

Oh, except for the cake. I'm not a great baker so I always turn to recipes for them, double-check for positive reviews, and then pray for good results. I know it's not the prettiest of cakes, but I would say it turned out really good, and if you like soft, moist squidgy apple-y cakes, you'll probably love this. I was happily surprised, because me being me, I reached for five-spice powder instead of cinnamon.. same colour, sorry. But all's well that ends well, and it even got roommate-approved (she's a brilliant baker).

Five Spice Moist Apple Cake (adapted from here)

makes an 8" square cake

Ingredients

125g grassfed unsalted butter

225g fine unrefined brown cane sugar

2 eggs, beaten

225g organic plain flour (can be adapted for gluten free baking using 90g superfine rice flour, 90g sticky rice flour, 45g tapioca starch, I'll test one day)

enough whole (full-fat please) grassfed milk to loosen the batter

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp five spice powder

2 tsp cinnamon (because I realised after the first tsp)

300g apples (I used 3-4 small egremot russets--ugly skin but incredible sweet flesh, and 1 large saturn-- beautiful red sweet juicy firm. Don't settle for the boring galas or coxes from the supermarket!)

3 tbsp honey + 1 tbsp melted butter

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees celsius.

2. Cream the softened butter and sugar for 2 min, then mix in the beaten egg.

3. Sift flour, spices and baking powder together and fold into the mixture, adding enough milk to loosen the batter.

4. Peel and chop up the russets and stir into the mix. Slice the saturn apple into thin slices for later.

5. Pour into a buttered, baking paper-lined springform cake tin, or in my case an 8" deep baking tray. (opt) If attempting to make rushed cake look prettier, arrange the apple slices on top, overlapping.

6. Bake for 1 hour, until risen and browned and a skewer inserted comes out clean. About 10 min before it's about to be done, glaze with the butter and honey.

It was a mistake that turned out to be a good thing, because there was just that very subtle hint of fennel, cloves and star anise in the background, in addition to the cinnamon. In fact, it's probably not detectable, though you do get a sense of "something extra". The batter is going to go into my bookmarked collection of recipes, because it's simple and delicious- tender and moist, not airy like a sponge (which I usually hate) but not at all dense or stodgy, and will probably work just as well with whatever fruits are in season.

And I thought I'd ride on some birthday luck maybe, so I'm entering this for the Autumnal Baking Challenge giveaway at What Kate Baked, and the Simple and in Season event at Fabulicious Food.

Sourdough English Muffins

2011-09-29T12:10:00.000-07:00

Remember at the start of summer when I left my sourdough starter on the kitchen counter on the day I flew back to Singapore? I took quite a while to get over that, and got a new one going, and surprisingly it was doing really well, maybe because of Singapore's warm weather. This time, for my flight back to London, I didn't forget it, but I didn't manage to sneak it past the customs. You should see her face when she opened the jar and smelt it, and when I weakly tried to explain what a starter was ("It's.. food?"). Ok next time it just goes into my check-in luggage, double-wrapped.

These sourdough english muffins were made in Singapore, just to test the new-- now gone-- starter.

Sourdough English Muffins

Makes 8-10 muffins, adapted from Wild Yeast blog

Ingredients

I've used weight instead of the approximate cups value, because flours and such all weigh very differently, and the best way to make sure you've happy results is by weight and ratios.

SPONGE:

110g ripe starter (feed it in a 1:1 water:flour ratio, get it healthy and bubbly, and give it one feed again about 6 hours before you use it)

260g white whole wheat flour

275g whole full-fat milk, preferably grassfed

FINAL DOUGH

the sponge

75g plain white flour

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp unrefined sea salt

1 1/2 tbsp raw honey

YOU'LL ALSO NEED

some semolina

muffin tins (this, I realised only after. for a budget alternative, try tuna cans with top and base removed)

griddle or frying pan

parchment paper

Method

1. The night before, in a large non-reactive bowl, mix the sponge ingredients until just combined. Cover and let rest about 8 hours.

2. The next morning, add the rest of the ingredients.

3. Turn onto counter and knead (with oiled hands) about 8 min or so. It'll go from having a really sticky and craggy texture to a smooth surface, but overall, the dough will still be quite wet and sticky.

That's what I mean by sticky

4. Form 10 blobs of dough on a sheet of semolina-dusted parchment paper. Dust the top with semolina too. Cover and let proof at room temperature for about 45 min to 1 hr.

5. Heat the pan over medium low heat, with the muffin tins, and flip the dough into the tins. Cook on 1 side for about 5 min, and after it has risen nicely, flip to cook on the other side until lightly browned and sides are firm.

I was really worried when I saw the muffins wouldn't "form", but then I realised that wet sticky dough is the key. See below (description after recipe).

This is why I suggest muffin tins. I got better at shaping them sans tins towards the end though. Btw though ugly, these were yummy.

6. To eat, dig into the sides and split with a fork before toasting the halves. If you want to freeze them for easy breakfasts, also split them first.

I got the tip from Nigella Lawson, who insists on a fork to get the best ragged holes.

The sourdough english muffins had just a slight tanginess and complexity you wouldn't normally find in an english muffin, but the same spongy chewy texture and all those nooks and crannies to catch all that melted butter and jam. To me, that's what's an english muffin is about. And to get that, the dough has to be wet enough to warrant muffin tins. Though not perfectly shaped, the muffins were delicious, especially slathered with jam and butter!

If you were wondering about the green jam, it's kaya, a Nonya pandan coconut curd jam.

Ah, I'd better be off now to feed my sourdough starter The Third, boo.

Half-Boiled Eggs

2011-09-27T08:16:00.000-07:00

These are also called soft-boiled eggs in some Singapore coffeeshops and is a must-have accompaniment to kaya toast, but I don't think that's an accurate translation, because they're completely different. Instead of a solid white and a runny yolk, you have runny whites and a fake-solid yolk (it looks like a cooked yolk but gives way to delicious gooey mess once poked). I believe the Japanese have a similar thing called onsen tamago, "hot spring eggs", cooked in a very similar but more rigorous way using hot spring water.

This is much easier to make, but as with soft-boiled eggs, timing is important.

Half-Boiled Eggs

Ingredients

Room temperature large free range eggs

Boiling hot water

To serve

dark soy sauce, traditionally brewed and fermented

white pepper

Method

1. Arrange eggs in one layer in a heatproof bowl or pot.

2. Pour boiling water over to cover the eggs, then cover the bowl or pot with a tight lid.

3. After 6 min (5 min for medium eggs), drain and rinse with cold water.

And now, the fun part:

4. Crack egg open and slip the egg out.

As you can see, I clumsily broke one yolk while cracking it.

5. Add a dash of soy sauce and pepper, to taste.

I know it looks like an artistic experiment, but it's delicious. The white is so so soft and slippery, and the yolk, a perfectly-formed orange bubble that bursts into a warm sticky egg-river that runs into the soy sauce river. Dip your kaya toast in it if you like, and/or just slurp the rest down, with a nice cup of coffee or tea, Singapore-style.

I'm flying tonight, back to London ): I'm going to miss all the people and food here.

Kaya (Pandan Coconut Curd Jam) Toast

2011-09-22T21:35:00.000-07:00

Kaya toast with an English twist, kind of (see end of post)

The term "kaya toast" usually refers to more than just the pair of thinly sliced white bread toasted on a charcoal grill, spread with sweet kaya and a slab of salted butter; it also includes a couple of half-boiled eggs (more on that next time), and a cup of freshly made coffee. Instead of latte or mocha or cappucino or frappuncino or I-really-don't-drink-Starbucks-much, you can have:

kopi (coffee with condensed milk),

kopi c (with evaporated milk),

kopi 0 (black without milk with sugar),

kopi o kosong (black without milk or sugar),

kopi siu dai (with less sugar)

kopi po (thin), kopi gao (thick),

kopi kosong (plain).

Or you can have tea, and actually I'm more of a tea person, but that brings up another even more confusing list.

Kaya toast is considered our national breakfast, and kaya, probably our national spread of choice. Making kaya is like making curd or custard, but the Singaporean way. You only need eggs, sugar, coconut milk and pandan (screw pine leaves), oh and LOTS of patience. I just shared my lime curd, which was done directly over the stove on low heat, but this time round, I took care to do it with a double boiler, because you need to stir-cook the curd jam for close to 2 hours. Yes.

One of the 4 key ingredients- pandan leaves, freshly pinched from my backyard

The ratios of the 4 ingredients vary but I'm using the ratios used by the boss of the Good Morning Nanyang Cafe, voted Singapore's best kaya, though I've taken some extra steps to make it greener and smoother.

Kaya (Pandan Coconut Curd Jam)

makes about 2-3 jars' worth i.e. lots of servings, so really it's not that much sugar and eggs and coconut milk ;)

Ingredients

12 medium (or about 10 large) free-range eggs

1 cup (250ml) thick coconut milk, fresh if possible

1 cup (250g) unrefined cane sugar

1 bunch of pandan leaves (less than half that photo)

Method

1. Beat the eggs and sugar till egg yolks are broken up and the sugar is dissolved. Add coconut milk to the mixture and mix well.

2. Sieve into a large metal/porcelain bowl. (He skips this for a more rustic, lumpier texture)

Sieving for smooth kaya

3. Set the bowl over a pot of simmering water (i.e. your double boiler. Choose a pot size that allows the bowl to balance and sit snugly on top.)

4. Tie the pandan leaves into knots and add into the mixture. Reserve one leaf and pound/blend it to get the green pandan paste.

5. Stir the mixture for 1.5 to 2 hours constantly (but taking 2 min breaks between stirs is fine, although do be more vigilant when you see it thickening up). It'll be a mucky colour. Add the pandan paste towards the end to up the colour and pandan intensity.

6. (opt) Puree with a hand blender for an even smoother texture if you like.

Let cool, store in clean jars in the fridge for about a week or so, as there aren't preservatives.

Kaya!!

I know it's kind of a dubious green, but it's just delicious- thick and rich with all that egg and coconut milk, and with the unmistakeable fragrance of pandan. You can also try the slow-cooker method which takes longer but with no effort on your part, but I think the sweat/love contributes to the x factor of homemade kaya.

There are two versions, the Hainanese one is a toffee brown because the sugar is caramelised first, whereas the Peranakan Nonya version I'm sharing is greenish because of the pandan paste added and has a stronger pandan smell, which is perfect with the sweet full flavour of the coconut curd, and just irresistible against salted butter on fresh warm toast.

Oh and yes, those are english muffins (homemade, sourdough, recipe soon) instead of your usual commercial white bread slices. I was going to make eggs bennies with the muffins and eggs, but suddenly craved something a little more local before I went back to London (next week ahhh).

Calamansi Lime Curd Tart

2011-09-19T07:53:00.000-07:00

This is the first time I'm taking part in Belleau Kitchen's Random Recipes- hi Dom!- because this is the first time I can. What usually happens is, food bloggers are encouraged to line all their cookbooks up, give a random shuffle, close their eyes, pick one, eyes still closed, flip to one page and cook that exact dish, no cheating.

I don't own enough cookbooks to line them up, because I'm just too stingy/broke to get them. I've got one back in London from a charity shop, and one in Singapore from my awesome sisters. Hmm. This time round though, Dom has decided to have a "magazines,cuttings and pullouts" edition and I've got lots of those, in fact, nerdily hole-punched and filed and organised with dividers in a thick ring file. ✌

Anyway, the lucky recipe is Heston Blumenthal's lemon tart for Waitrose, or more accurately a lemon curd tart. I used calamansi limes instead of lemons, because, well, have you ever had a calamansi lime before? They're tart-ier, citrus-ier, fragrant-er, think sweeter limes. I have it conveniently growing in my garden too (hee hee) and I want to make sure I make full use of the everything local and unique to home before I go back to London.

A word before I start: I was quite disappointed, as were many people. I usually read reviews before I try something out, but this time I wanted to stick to the challenge. The tart was meh, BUT the calamsi lime curd is very very delicious though (and so is the homemade pastry) so please read on anyway!

Calamansi Lime Curd Tart

makes a 9" tart, serves 6-8

Ingredients

Homemade 1-2-3 Shortcrust Pie Pastry (gluten-free version if you like, and you only need about half or less of that recipe)

10-12 calamansi limes (or 4 unwaxed lemons in heston's case)

170g unsalted grassfed butter, cubed

220g superfine unrefined raw cane sugar (he said 220g unrefined golden caster sugar)

5 medium free range eggs + 1 egg yolk, beaten

Method

1. To make the tart shell (see here for photos):

Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius. Roll the dough between 2 sheets of clingfilm to a thickness of 2mm, and a width 10cm more than the tart pan. Press the pastry to fit the tart case, leaving the edges overhanging to trim after baking in case the pastry shrinks. Prick with a fork, leave to rest 30 min. Place scrunched up parchment paper and dried beans on top and bake for 20 min. Remove the beans and paper and return to bake for 10 min till golden, before leaving to cool completely, trimming, and lifting from case.

While the case is cooling, make the lime curd:

2. Zest 8 of the calamansi limes (good news, they have a bittersweet peel), then roll all of them on the table, juice them and measure out 150ml.

3. Put the butter, sugar, juice, zest and eggs into a pan, and over medium heat, stir continuously for 10-15 minutes, until the butter as melted and the sugar has dissolved, do not allow to simmer.

4. Increase the heat to medium high and stir until it begins to simmer. He says to simmer for 5 seconds only (which is ridiculous, I followed my instinct and simmered until it thickens, but stirring like mad to make sure it doesn't curdle. According to people who have tried this, it turns out it was right to follow my instinct or you'll simply have pastry swimming in a lemony pool.)

5. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl, cover with clingfilm to avoid a skin forming, and cool in the fridge for 30 minutes. At this point, you have really delicious calamansi lime curd.

6. Pour cooled lime curd filling into the centre of the tart allowing it to flow evenly to the edges. Place in the fridge for 1h (again, ridiculous, I left it for about 4h, but it still didn't set fully, maybe overnight would be a better idea.) before serving.

The lime curd was delicious. Thick, citrusy-sweet and very tangy, with the unmistakable fragrance of calamansi limes. I can picture it spread over toast, or in between cake, or on top of pudding. As for this lime tart, the sharp fresh flavours of the calamansi lime curd would be perfect to cut through the crumbly buttery pastry-- if only it set properly. And at the end of the day, I think I still prefer the usual baked lemon tart over the no-bake set-in-the-fridge types. Sorry Heston and Dom ):

Shortcrust Pie Pastry, as easy as 1- 2- 3 (even when it's gluten-free!)

2011-09-15T09:04:00.000-07:00

It rhymes!

Oh gosh I want an iPhone. Not for angry birds or even for Google maps (which I actually do need given how often I get lost), but for all those gimmicky chef-y apps. My bank account/frugality/stinginess forbids me from getting one though.

If you've got one though, do get the Ruhlman Ratio app- "Forget about teaspoons, ounces, cups and (shudder) fractions; it's all about the 'parts'. This is a refreshing, illuminating and perhaps even revolutionary look at the relations that make food work. " I think it's ingenious! And I'm not saying this in hope that he comes across my blog and decides to give me the app (and come to think of it, the iPhone) for free, though that would be nice.

Pie is supposed to be as easy as pie, but everyone's kind of scared of it, and so was I, but it's really not that scary. According to Ruhlman, it's as easy as 1-2-3 -- 1 part liquid, 2 parts fat, 3 parts flour, plus keep everything cold. And with that you're pretty safe. You can then start thinking about all the additional things to do to make it different or better:

Liquid- cold water's fine, but I sub some of it for apple cider vinegar for a flakier crust, some people suggest vodka too which sounds like a great idea!

Fat- Lard will give a flakier crust, but butter gives more flavour. You can do half half. I like mine all butter and I find it flaky enough. You can use unrefined coconut oil (it's also a semi-solid) for a vegetarian version. Don't use shortening, hydrogenated vegetable oils are horrible.

Flour- White pastry/AP flour (organic, unbleached if possible) is the standard. But the brilliant wonderful people behind the Gluten Free Canteen confirms you can make this totally gluten free too, as long as you keep to the ratios BY WEIGHT. I'm not celiac, but I notice a worrying pattern with pimples when I eat wheat (unless it's in sourdough but I don't think sourdough will work here, as much as I love it). I've made normal pie crust a lot of times and so I decided I'll just do the same thing with their suggested gluten-free flour blend, since the ingredients called for are quite simple, no unpronounceable things like xanathan gum. In fact, when making shortcrust pastry, you want to reduce gluten formation, so gluten-free is quite fine. GFC suggest a mix of superfine brown rice flour, superfine white rice flour and tapioca starch, but I changed it up a little since I don't want to use unsoaked wholegrains.

Homemade Shortcrust Pastry

for a 9" pie with top and bottom crust, or a quiche with lots of leftover dough for convenient future baking

Ingredients

300g unbleached pastry/AP flour OR

gluten-free flour blend, made up of 90g tapioca starch, 90g sweet rice flour (aka glutinous/sticky rice flour), and 120g superfine white rice flour

200g grassfed butter

70g water

30g apple cider vinegar

pinch of sea salt

Method

1. Extra steps, to be done in order before you start, for the obsessive compulsive:

- Stuff the mixing bowl, a fork, and the bag of flour into the freezer.

- Chop up butter into little cubes and put into the freezer. If you freeze it before cutting, you're going to have a hard time.

- Put a cup of water into the freezer (it won't turn to ice that quickly don't worry)

2. Measure out flour and sift into the mixing bowl.

3. Add the chilled butter cubes and "cut" them into the flour with the help of the fork and rub/toss with your fingers quickly, until you get a mixture resembling coarse crumbs. Or you can use a food processor, even Martha Stewart does.

4. Make a well in the centre, and mix in the vinegar and ice-cold water slowly. Combine till it just comes together into a ball of dough, be flexible with the ratios, I sometimes find I need more or less to form a dough. Don't overwork, don't knead, see it's easy.

5. Split into half, wrap with clingfilm, and refrigerate for at least 2h or for a quick fix, freeze for 30 min. You can also just conveniently leave your dough to freeze till whichever day it is you feel like baking.

From here on you proceed with whatever pie recipe. This is what usually happens as a guide:

6. Flatten ball of dough into a disc between 2 sheets of clingfilm, flouring if necessary (with tapioca starch if GF), before rolling out from the centre (roll, turn, roll, turn... don't go over the edge or you get flimsy edges) until it's bigger than your pie pan.

7. Place dough into pie pan. You can partially roll up the dough with the rolling pin to pick it up, if it breaks or if your dough doesn't want to be picked up, just press it into the pie pan, whatever, it will still taste good!

Make-Do Kitchen 1: The clingwrap roll-ing pin..

8. Trim the edges (keep the extra for patchwork). If it's a quiche pan, use a chopstick to fit dough into the ridges. If it's a pie pan, crimp the edges by pinching. Refrigerate for at least 30 min.

Make-Do Kitchen 2: The chopstick

9. If it's a quiche or tart, poke holes, pre-bake the pastry at 180 degrees celsius for 20 minutes, with parchment paper placed over, and dried beans or rice poured over to weight it down. If it's a filled pie, you don't have to because the crust definitely cooks, but do remember to cut slits on top if it's a fully closed pie or your pie will explode.

Make-do Kitchen 3: The kitchen towel pastry brush

Brush surface with an egg beaten with some water or milk for a glossy bakery-like finish.

For quiches/tarts

(Make-do kitchen 4: Dried green beans as baking beans)

For filled pies

(you can also do a lattice or have fun forming the top crust with cutout shapes, as long as there's 'ventilation')

And a close-up of the result:

Delicious, buttery, light, flaky pie crust!

And yes a recipe for a pie of sorts is coming up soon!