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Of Cabbages and Kims!

Recipe

I went to a Kimchi making class! Courtesy of Mel, since she couldn’t make it and I got to go in her place!

Here is our lovely teacher teaching us about dealing with the cabbage. 

There’s such technique to making the kimchi, even after you have the sauce ready. Speaking of which, it has like, a million ingredients!

But you can do heaps with kimchi, including a really yummy kimchi soup!!!

I’ll put up a later post detailing a recipe for kimchi. =) But meanwhile, here’s my take-home from the class!

It looks scary, I know. But it’s so yummy!!!

I love pickling.

Happy munching!

Oh Sushi, my Sushi!

Review

I love me some Japanese food. I’ve always had a fascination with seafood since I was a kid, and am of the firm belief that everything from the sea should be eaten raw. Not that there’s anything wrong with cooked seafood, but there’s nothing that can really compare, IMO, with the sweetness of fresh seafood.

Mel and I went to Itacho over the weekend, and they’re still the best sushi place I’ve ever been to. My wonderful experience there was only tempered by the fact that the staff can be quite…blur, and the hefty price tag. But no biggie, good food like that is worth the price and bumbling staff.

My favourite – Salmon and Salmon Roe roll. Super fresh slices of salmon wrapped delicately around a pinch of rice (that is really just there for the structure) and topped with salmon roe (my little bubbles of absolute joy!). The thick, silky salmon leaves absolutely no aftertaste, and the salty roe is just the perfect match for it. The best things truly come from nature.

The sister dish of the above-mentioned roll, this Salmon mini bowl is basically the same thing, deconstructed. This one gives the eater the opportunity to just have mouthfuls of just the salmon roe, which sometimes is the needed thing.

This Tuna and Crispy beancurd is unfortunately more theatrical in its look than it’s flavour. The crispy texture was a welcome surprise, but the overall flavour was rather bland. It’s really did not do the beancurd anymore justice than other Chinese crispy beancurd dishes out there.

Another mildly disappointing piece is the Foie Gras sushi, as the foie gras did not have the creamy, buttery texture that I’ve come to expect from a piece of fatty goose liver treated right. It was slightly overdone, but not an absolute disaster.

This Crab Miso Gunkan was worth the try. It wasn’t a phenomenally pleasant surprise, but it was a nice surprise nontheless. The crab was soft and light, while the miso packed quite a flavour punch. Not bad.

This Baked Crab was absolutely delightful. Crab shell was filled with a rice and mushroom mixture, and then baked with cheese over the top. Steam immediately escaped upon breaking through the helmet of cheese, and the aromatic mushrooms made their presence felt. Fluffy chunks of crab were carefully woven throughout the dish, and every mouthful was heaven. A must-try.

And who can overlook those delectable slices of raw fish? The fatty salmon was melt-in-your-mouth, but it does happen to leave an oily after-feeling. The dorsal sushi had the same effect, except for a slightly more complex texture. It seemed to have a slight resistance to it before it yielded to the determined eater.

The Hotate was worth every bite, but sadly not the same can be said of the Green Tea Salt. It had a really odd flavour to it, and if anything, undermined the freshness of the scallop and made it seem old and…well, not fresh. Just have the scallop, it’s good enough as it is.

And who can forget the sashimi. As mentioned above, the standard of raw salmon at this joint is beyond reproach. It’s truly the best salmon sashimi I’ve had in my life. The swordfish lived up to the same standard, and melt-in-your mouth texture is the stuff of dreams. And the prawns. Oh my the prawns. The Fairy Prawns have a deep fried head and brings out all the flavour of prawn, and the sweet, succulent body is so delicate, so clean, so pure, that it almost makes me feel like I’m partaking in an act of debauchery by putting it in my mouth.

If you have cash to spare and a reason to celebrate, this is definitely a place that you should visit. Reservations can be made, but there’s a SG$50 per head minimum. Otherwise, there will be a queue for dinner.

Itacho Sushi
Ion Orchard
#B2-18
Singapore
(+65) 6509 8911

Operating Hours:
Sun-Thu: 11am – 10pm
Fri-Sat: 11am – 11pm

Happy munching!

Grillz

Recipe

There has been many a debate on what makes a good grilled cheese sandwich, and it going me thinking: grilled sandwiches are awesome regardless, but what if I don’t have a sandwich press? Well, one way to deal with it is well, to use the grill in the oven. But my oven’s shot at the moment, so here’s how to do it with a frying pan!

First, lightly spray a frying pan with some olive oil. You could also just use a non-stick pan for this.

Use a medium high heat, and when the pan’s nice and hot, build your sandwich!

Mine’s got cheese, ham, tomatoes, and mustard. Next, top off your sandwich!

The trick is, to make sure that the sandwich gets all nice and toasty, use a large dinner plate to weigh it down. This will create the same effect as a sandwich press.

When you’re happy with the toastiness of your sandwich, just flip it over and repeat!!

Voila! A quick, healthy meal that takes just minutes!

Happy munching!

The Tin (wo)Man

Food For Thought
Artwork by Andy Warhol
Image taken from wallyg

Some people are against all forms of processed foods. Nigella (my goddess!) is an example of one. She believes in eating lots of ‘real foods’, but can’t stand ‘processed foods’.

But what are processed foods exactly?

One example of processed foods that is commonly given is canned food, and I have to admit that I’ve had (have!) a secret love affair with them. Yes, I do believe in ‘real foods’, but tinned goods have so much to offer! They are always on hand, cheap and last for absolute ages! No, I don’t think that you should have it for every meal, but when it’s late at night and everything else needs prep, tinned foods can be that shining beacon of light saves you from the hunger! I remember when I was a kid and a quick, easy, comforting lunch would be bread and a creamy bowl of Campbell’s soup.

Apparently, Campbell’s soup was meant as a luxury side dish for the upper echelons, but they found out that the ‘lower class’ were the ones buying the product and using a tin as an entire meal! Either way, tinned soup just evokes warm, fuzzy memories of childhood.

The best time was when I was sharing a tin of oxtail soup with my mom, and it had an egg cracked into it. We had the soup with soft white bread, sitting across from each other at the dining table.

What’s your best food memory?

Hung Out to Dry

Recipe 1 Comment

I was flipping through one of Heston Blumenthal’s books where he was talking about the perfect Pasta Bolognese. There were loads on the perfect sauce, but he also discussed the perfect pasta.

Apparently, (and this is backed up by my extensive research – Iron Chef on TV had similar information) all freshly made pasta needs to be dried. This gives the pasta more body and bite, and helps it ‘stand its ground’ when there’s sauce added.

So I decided to experiment.

First, the basic fresh pasta recipe:

6 egg yolks (or three eggs. Not the perfect outcome, but acceptable for everyday food)
2 cups (300g) strong superfine flour (plain flour’s fine, you just have to knead it more)

Mix the egg yolks in with the flour. You can do this in a food processor till there’s a course crumb, or by hand in a bowl. Once it comes together, tip it out onto a clean counter top an knead till the dough is smooth and elastic. Wrap the dough in cling and leave to rest for 1/2-1 hr.

*On a side note, if the dough is too dry, add more egg. It all depends on the size of the egg you’re using.*

Next comes the fun part. Section the dough into 100g balls. I use a pasta machine to roll it out, but you can do it by hand if you want (it’s quite a bit of grunt work though). If you’re using a pasta machine, feed the dough through the machine on the widest setting once, then fold it over and feed it through the machine again. Do this a couple of times. After that, keep moving setting thinner till you get a sheet that you can see newsprint through.

Put the sheet through the pasta-cutting-roller-thing, so you get your linguine/fettuccine/etc.

Oh, and always remember to keep your dough lightly floured! Otherwise you’re going to end up with a sticky mess.

There are two main ways of drying out pasta. The first is the hanging method.

Get a clean rack and drape your carefully rolled out pasta over it. I’m using a plastic bath towel rack with suction cups, but any rack should do the trick as long as it will take the weight and you can clean it properly. The pasta strands are not supposed to touch, or mould will form. (I know I’ve got some that are touching – they were fine, but just try your best)

Drying time will depend on the climate you’re in. In Heston’s book, it’s mentioned that low heat and low humidity work well, and I can safely say that it’s the case for me. The pasta was completely dry (as in, stiff-as-a-board dry) in a couple of hours.

The second method is the nest method. This was a bit tricky.

Ok, so mine’s not so much a nest as it is a heap. You’re supposed to roll it into a nest shape and dry on a rack. For some reason mine just kept rearranging itself into heap formation. Either way, it seems to me that this produces a more semi-dry pasta, as opposed to the fully-dry hanging one.

The other thing that’s mentioned in Heston’s book is the cooking of said pasta. Apparently the holy ratio of pasta cooking is 10:100:1000. That is, 10g of salt, 100g of pasta, 1000g (1L) of water. Bring the salted water to the boil and add the pasta. Check after 5 minutes whether it’s cooked, and then a couple of minutes after that if it isn’t. The fully-dried pasta takes longer to cook.

The verdict? The thick fully dried pasta suits a meatier sauce, and the thinner fully dried one suits a simpler sauce or an Aglio e Olio type dish. The semi-dried one tasted a lot eggier, and I’m thinking that it’s more compatible with a cream-based sauce.

The fresh pasta was certainly worth the effort, it tasted like it had character of it’s own, rather than just the carbohydrate component to a dish. I would strongly recommend trying it. =)

Happy munching!

Ribbed for Your Pleasure

Recipe

I just love slow-cooked ribs. Firstly, because I love slow-cooked anything. It barely takes any prep, and just bubbles away while you’re at work! And the smell when you come home is…well, it’s as if someone’s been slaving away to prepare your dinner for you!

And well, ribs. No one can resist that melt-of-the-bone succulence that comes with a well cooked rack of ribs.

I’ve got a recipe for slow-cooker ribs that is honestly, well, cheating. It’s not the most wholesome, from-scratch recipe there is, but it’s easy (and tasty)! And we all need a bit of ease in our lives once in a while.

Ingredients:

2kg Pork Ribs
1 Large Brown Onion
2 cloves Garlic
1 tbsp Chilli Powder (or 2 fresh chillies, chopped finely)
1 tsp Paprika
1 tsp Dried Rosemary
Enough tomato and BBQ sauce mixture to almost cover the ribs

Directions:

Thickly slice the onion and lay it on the bottom of a lightly oiled slow cooker. This acts as a trivet for the ribs so that it doesn’t burn on the bottom. Next, throw in the rest of the ingredients and cook on LOW for 6 hrs (or on HIGH for 4).

Serve with a selection of steamed veggies. 

By the way, the time that I specified is more of a minimum. I usually put it on in the morning and then go out, leaving it on for about 8 hrs. It’s all good.

Hope this gives you as much pleasure as it does me.

Happy munching!

Just Keep Swimming

Review

I love seafood.

It has been somewhat of an obsessive pilgrimage. The endless search for the fresh, the sweet, the succulent. The chase of the briny flavour of the sea, coupled with bright, seductive colours.

I can never resist the promised flavour explosion that the sweet coral of a crustacean brings. And as someone once said to me, “You can never get fat on seafood”. Whether or not that is true, it is but a consolatory statement as I gorge on all the sea has to offer.

Just looking at these Alaskan crabs through the glass, my mouth begins watering. Their perfect, coral legs splayed in the air just inspires a ravenous hunger for the sweet/salty flesh within.

It was a very good day. A very good day indeed.

Cous in Bouche

Food For Thought
Image by artwork_rebel

Cous Cous /kuskus/
Wikipedia

“…a dish of spherical granules made by rolling and shaping moistened semolina wheat and then coating them with finely ground wheat flour.”



I know I’m probably incredibly behind in food trends, but I’ve just discovered the wonders of Cous Cous in the home!! I had taken awhile to try Cous Cous because a friend provided a description of “like sand”. But after seeing it fluffed with a fork my gluttonous will could hold out no longer. I tried some and it was absolutely lovely. It was light and soft, and was an excellent carrier for the flavours that were bestowed upon it.

But it took an episode of Nigella for me to fully realise how easy it is to prepare at home! All you have to do is put the Cous Cous in a bowl, add whatever spices/flavour you’d like, and cover with hot water! Leave it to stand and 10 minutes later fluff with a fork. This is even easier to cook than rice!

This is definitely going to be an addition to my pantry cupboard.

Happy Munching!

Beef Up Your Stew!

Food For Thought

Lentil
Wikipedia

“The lentil or Masoor daal or Masoor dal (Lens culinaris), considered a type of pulse, (generic translation daal or dal,) is a bushy annual plant of the legume family, grown for its lens-shaped seeds. It is about 15 inches (38 cm) tall and the seeds grow in pods, usually with five thousand seeds in each.”

One of the vegetarian substitutes for mince is the humble lentil. Usually, the image that lentils conjure up is that of buckets of water, and having to soak them overnight…all of that effort. I know I’m probably not the first one to think of it, but I’ve just found a way to avoid all of that!

Stews.

A stew-type recipe (like a bolognese)  calls for a mixture of mince, and when you’re making a big pot (presumably for a large family), you’ll need a large amount of mince or risk the stew ending up watery, rather than rich and hearty. And meat is expensive! The solution?

Lentils!

Because of the long cooking hours, you don’t have to soak the lentils. Just rinse it in a strainer until the water runs clear, and add them in with the rest of the stew. When the stew’s finished, the lentils are nicely cooked and the stew’s really nice and hearty!

Great for those cold winter nights coming up.

Happy munching!

Junk in the Trunk

Food For Thought 3 Comments
Image by mauricesvay

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. I’ve been busy moving house, and it’s absolutely killing me that I don’t have a useable kitchen at the moment. Everything’s in boxes and I think that I’ve actually run out of space in my kitchen!! =(

Seeing as how it’s a public holiday (Easter long weekend in Australia), there aren’t many healthy alternatives if you don’t have a kitchen. Which I don’t at the moment. So it’s been pizza and burgers, and as much as I appreciate junk food once in awhile, I just can’t take it anymore!! What I would give to have rice and veg at the local hawker’s in Singapore!!

I miss hawker food like you can’t imagine.

I miss late night hawker food even more.

I NEED VEGETABLES!!