Blog Moved

Hi all,

I have moved my blog to http://www.foodandscent.com

See you there!

Cold Beetroot Soup (Vegan and Raw)

I was introduced to cold Russian borsch (from a home styled Russian cafe run by a lovely lady) while living in Sydney and instantly fell in love with this perfect summer soup. Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to ask her for the recipe and am still kicking myself for it.

Inspired, I created this almost no-cook recipe that's easy and packing with healthy phytonutrients. For raw foodies, simply omit the boiling step and you have a lovely raw soup.

Cold Beetroot Soup

Ingredients (3-4 serves):

1 beetroot
Juice of 1 lemon
1 litre water
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp sea salt
Dill
Cilantro
Black pepper
Your choice of vegetables

Method:

Peel and slice beetroot to 0.5 cm thick patties. Combine beetroot, lemon juice and water and simmer over low heat for 15 minutes. For raw diet, soak beetroot in water and lemon juice at 40 degrees C for at least 2 hours. Remove from heat and add honey, vinegar and salt. Adjust according to taste and leave it to cool to room temperature.

Prepare and slice your choice of vegetables. To serve, arrange vegetables in a soup bowl and pour enough soup to half cover. Garnish with freshly cracked black pepper, chopped dill and cilantro.

Pineapple Macarons

My goal of the week was to perfect (almost) one type of macaron and since Chinese New Year is round the corner, I thought I'd attempt to make one with pineapple and if it works, they'll make lovely gifts for the festival. They're not entirely difficult to make but you do need to have a rather reliable oven as the slightest change in temperature can affect how they look. Also, do not expect perfection immediately; it took me at least 4 batches to get tit right.

Basic Macaron Shell

Ingredients:
3 large egg whites (left at room temperature for at least 5 hours or leave it overnight in the fridge)
 200 g icing sugar
100 g  almond meal
100 g caster sugar
Food colouring

Method:

Preheat oven to 150 degrees C and line baking tray with parchment paper. Combine icing sugar and almond meal in a large bowl. Sieve mixture and mix well.

Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gradually add in sugar while still beating until white stiff and smooth. Add food colouring and mix well.

Combine egg white with almond meal mixture and fold vigorously to mix well. Pour mixture into a piping bag and pipe out even circles making sure there's adequate room between each circle.

Tap tray or knock against table to remove air bubbles and slightly flatten them. Leave it at room temperature for 15 minutes. The skin should be dry to touch after 15 minutes and you can add sprinkles or paint colours on it if you like. Leave it to bake in the oven at 150 degrees C for about 15 minutes.

Let it cool and carefully peel it off parchment paper. Your macarons are a success if they are smooth and crisp on the outside, with 'legs' all around it. You can now fill your macarons with your filling of choice.

Pineapple Paste

Ingredients:

1 pineapple

1/2 cup sugar

Method:

Remove skin and 'eyes' of pineapple. Grate the entire pineapple.

Heat up a wok to medium heat and add in pineapple mixture. 

Allow all the liquid to evaporate while constantly stirring. This should take about 10 minutes.

Add sugar and continue cooking until all liquid is almost gone and pineapple caramelizes to light brown. Remove from heat and let it cool completely before using.

You can use the pineapple paste for tarts, biscuits or macarons.

Sous Vide Chicken with Beans and Spud

The French culinary technique sous vide or vacuum cooking seems almost unattainable in the home kitchen (and they'd like you to think that so you'll keep going back to the restaurant) but is really as easy as roasting chicken if you have a slow cooker. I originally intended to do a duck dish but I was down with duck luck and couldn't find one.
The chicken turned out moist, succulent and perfectly done and paired with baby potatoes and french beans that are coated with chicken fat, this is comfort food for the connoisseur.


Ingredients:

1 large chicken
Baby potatoes
French beans
1 lemon
Salt
Pepper
Mixed herbs

Method:

Clean chicken and pat dry with paper towel. Split chicken into two halves and trim off any visible fats. Leave fats aside for later. Sprinkle salt, pepper and lemon juice over chicken and marinate well. Transfer 1 half to a ziplock bag and remove as much air as you can and seal. I used a straw to suck out the air but if you have a vacuum sealer, go ahead and use that.

Let it sit for at least 30 mins. Fill slow cooker with water and set to low. Check the water temperature regularly using a kitchen thermometer. A low setting should keep your water at around 70 degrees C which is what we want. Once water temperature stabilises, put in your chicken bags and let it cook for 60 minutes. Check water temperature every 15 minutes.

While that is going, bring a pot of salted water to boil and add in potatoes. Boil until potatoes are almost soft.

Drain and allow potatoes to sit in pot until they evaporate dry. Heat up a skillet to medium heat and add in chicken fats. Render as much fats as you can until chicken bits turn crisp.

Remove and discard chicken bits. Crank up heat to high and add salt and potatoes into skillet. Toss potatoes around until evenly coated with oil. Remove from heat and transfer to baking tray. Sprinkle mixed herbs over potatoes and roast in oven for 15 minutes at 220 degrees C or until skin is crisp.

Return skillet to heat and cook french beans over medium high heat for about 4 minutes.

After an hour, remove the chicken from slow cooker and carefully remove from bag without spilling the juice. Keep the juice aside. The chicken should look plump and moist.

Heat skillet to high and add olive oil. Brown chicken on skin side for 3 minutes. Remove and put on serving plate.

In the same skillet, pour in chicken juice and a squeeze of lemon juice. Add a pinch of salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Thicken the sauce using constarch and water.

Serve chicken with baby potatoes and french beans with sauce drizzled over it. Enjoy!

Paradise Dynasty

 Had dinner tonight at Paradise Dynasty at Orchard ION and was lucky the queue wasn't terrible. The restaurant was rather large and dressed to opulence. Despite the hype and crowd, food wasn't fantastic although very reasonably priced. These pictures were taken with my iPhone and I'm very impressed by the instagram filters.

 The signature dynasty xiao long bao in 8 flavours. The foie gras (brown) worked the best although it would probably work better if it's filled with mince duck instead. Truffle (black) was a let down. It was neither pungent nor sulphurous. Ginseng (green) was weird and cheese (yellow) just tasted cheap.

 Double boiled chicken soup. Really basic and average.

 Jing Jiang Rou Si (shredded pork in sweet peking sauce). Again, this is incomparable to the amazing ones I've tried and could do with more condiments.

 Picked cabbage and vegetables. No comments. x_x

Crispy pork ribs. Tasty but a little too dry.

 I realised how negative I have been in this review. The food isn't that bad, but given all the hype and publicity, I was expecting a lot more from them. I'd definitely return to try their other dishes since it is reasonable but only if there's not a queue.

Zucchini Stuffed with Pork and Century Egg

Zucchini Stuffed with Pork and Century Egg

Ingredients:

2 large zucchinis
200g ground pork
1 century egg
bunch of cilantro
1 tbsp oyster sauce
3 tsp corn starch
salt
pepper
oil

 

Method:

Slice zucchinis into 2 cm thickness. Hollow centre with a small knife. Dice century egg and cilantro into small pieces. Mix with ground pork, oyster sauce, corn starch, salt and pepper. Fill centre of zucchini slices with mixture. Heat a pan with vegetable oil over medium heat. Carefully brown and cook zucchini on each side for 5 minutes.

Wintermelon Soup

Probably the best soup I've ever made. It is delicate yet flavourful at the same time.

Wintermelon Soup

Ingredients:

1 medium wintermelon

1 fresh coconut

200g smoked duck breast

500 ml chicken stock

1.5 litres water

Method:

Cut across top and bottom of wintermelon and peel off skin using a vegetable peeler. Crack open coconut, collect juice and scrap out the meat. Slice duck breast into 0.5cm thickness. In a large pot, bring water, stock and coconut juice to boil. Carefully add in wintermelon and half of duck breast. Simmer for 1 hour. Add coconut meat and remainder of duck breast into the inside of wintermelon and simmer for another 30 mins. Enjoy!