Pumpkin and Screw Pine Dinner Infusions

Today's dinner menu theme is infusion. Part of the fun and pleasure in cooking is to experiment moving flavours from one ingredient to another.I used pandanus (screw pine), coconut milk and bacon as my key infusions.

The entire meal took 2 hours to prepare and here's the instructions:

Pandan Wrapped Chicken

4 whole boneless chicken leg
16 pandan leaves
1 tbs fish sauce
1 tbs oyster sauce
1 heaped tablespoon sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
pinch of pepper and salt 

Clean chicken and remove skin and fats. Cut each leg into 4 equal sizes. Marinate chicken with fish sauce, oyster sauce, sugar, sesame oil, salt and pepper for at least 1 hour.

 

Preheat oven to 220°C/425°F. Thoroughly clean pandan leaves and cut off the harder end leaving about 12 inches of green top. Wrap chicken individually and secure with a toothpick.

 

Arrange on a wire rack and cook in oven for 30 mins or until exposed meat turns golden brown. Remove from oven and serve immediately.

Steamed Pumpkin and Bacon Cream

1 medium pumpkin

200ml cream

4 egg yolks

1 medium white onion

3 strips of streaky bacon

water

olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Carve pumpkin and scrap the inside until you get a bowl. Discard seeds. Bring water to a boil in a pot and

add the pumpkin in. Simmer over medium heat for 10 minutes or until pumpkin is soft. Pour into a colander , drain and leave it to cool. Chop onions and bacon into bits. Brown bacon and caramelize onion in a hot pan with olive oil. Separate bacon and onion from oil and put them aside. 

Add cream and pumpkin mash into a blender and blend till smooth. Add in egg yolks, salt and pepper. Pulse until smooth. Stir in bacon and onion and pour into pumpkin bowl. Steam for 20 mins. Carefully remove from steamer (the bowl can be a little soft) and drizzle bacon oil before serving. I saved half of the oil and used it to quick stir fry cauliflower for a quick and tasty vegetable side.

Coconut Rice

Long grained rice

Coconut milk

A bunch of pandan leaves

Water

Thoroughly wash rice. Combine 1 part rice with 1 part water and 1 part coconut milk. Throw in a knot of pandan leaves and cook as per your rice cooker's instruction.