The Sugar Bar » wine

Brunching at Graze with girlfriends

diva — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 09:10:11 +0000

I think I have completely mastered the art of indulgence. It involves zero baking of my own, merely getting up at a fairly late hour mid-morning, throwing some roomy clothes on, slapping on a decent amount of concealer and makeup, a taxi ride and voila. It is the Life of Brunching. Maybe it’s the change of lifestyle ever since I moved which is a little more hectic and fast-paced now, but such indulgences (trust me they don’t happen that often) feel utterly well-deserved and I’d equate the relaxing qualities of good brunches and quality time spent with girlfriends to that of a holiday. The works. Enough said.

Just last weekend, I discovered something so glorious it had to be shared. Or rather, everyone had to have a mug each because it was ironically too good to share. Graze mocha – refer to photo above. Thick, creamy and rich; more chocolatey than most, this was so decadently good an opening to brunch. It was hard to stop after 3 gulps and put this mug down. I know I shall be craving mugs of these on cold rainy nights.

As soon as conversation started flowing (no doubt lubricated by mocha), the dishes started arriving. I loved that they all looked so simple, honest and homemade, exactly how breakfast food should be! Clean, fresh and sort of understated on medium-sized white plates.

Spanish Omelette

This was by far my favourite dish of the day. The Spanish omelette was delicious with bits of chorizo and mushrooms, topped with fresh rocket and seasoned new potatoes that gave a little sweet citrusy tinge to it all. Those little spuds really made my day, whatever they were seasoned with!

Signature Cast Iron Pan – two scrambled free-range eggs, hash browns, bacon, chipolata, baked beans, roast vine tomatoes and mushrooms

A beautiful dish to behold with that rustic feel to it. I think we girls were a sucker for the cast iron dish anyhow, considering one of us had a little cocotte (imported from France) in her handbag. I hate to admit that this resembled dirty fry-ups with my housemates on Sunday morn. It wouldn’t be fair (to Graze) to do a comparison because I mean the latter had a real variety of ingredients, better execution of the dish, baked beans that did not come out of a can and it tasted delicious. But there were similarities for sure – the whole concept of a fry-up. Graze had just upped their game, polished their shoes you know.

Eggs Benedict – two poached eggs served on brioche toast with hollandaise and two slices of mortadella

This probably wasn’t as good as the eggs I had in a recent brunch trip. The eggs were slightly over-poached and it lacked that impressive oozing waterfall of molten yolk when attacked with a knife though the mortadella was quite scrummy. It didn’t have that swollen body poached eggs tend to have, a slight wobbliness and inability to contain its insides not unlike a huge badass blister under your skin, angrily threatening to explode (wow that’s a gross analogy but you get the idea right that sort of precarious balance between a whole egg and a poached egg come undone). I wasn’t sure why the hollandaise had been browned on the top as though it had been set under a grill for a few seconds.

Scottish Smoked Salmon Bagel with Cream Cheese, Dill and Rocket

Toasted seeded bagel – now that’s something hard to find in Singapore. This was lovely and the smoked salmon has to be mentioned. WONDERFUL! Very flavourful and not at all bland like some smoked salmon can be.

Savoury aside, we come to what we saved our tastebuds for.

Old Fashioned Pancakes Stack – with berries, honeycomb ice cream and maple syrup

The pancakes were as expected, fluffy and delicious although a little thinner than we’d hoped for. But they were delightful and well paired with berries and maple syrup (hard to go wrong with such a classic combination). What we really liked was that fat ball of melting honeycomb ice cream. If we didn’t have quite so many girls around the table and I was mindful of etiquette, I’d have grabbed that soup spoon of ice cream and dunked it into my mug of Graze mocha. Bet that would’ve tasted sublime.

Orange and Vanilla Waffles – with chocolate sauce and cut strawberries

Mmmm. Need I say more? And ahm, REALLY GOOD vanillla ice cream. My heart melted just a little at the sight of those specks of vanilla seeds. The ice cream was so rich I wouldn’t have been surprised if they’d snuck some clotted cream into the mix.

And to end it all on a rosey-hued note, a glass of Libalis Rose Maetierra wine which was of a lovely shade I wanted it as a nail polish colour. Happy smiles all around, food bellies nicely concealed under roomy dresses or blouses and a slight reluctance to leave this beautifully light restaurant. As we stepped out into the street and hailed more taxis to take us to our next destination (yea a crew of fat ladies who lunch), I couldn’t help noticing this slightly lethargic but warm feeling in my belly. I realised that that was the sensation of peaceful contentment and a stomach goblin finally satiated.

Graze
No. 38 Martin Road
Singapore

http://www.graze.com.sg

Spicy Lamb Burgers and an Onion Marmalade with a Kick

diva — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 09:18:15 +0000

This past week’s been great – I’m very food-involved and there’s much talk about cupcakes which couldn’t make me any happier. There’s even been a cupcakery feature in the latest British VOGUE. Surely there are too many signs?

And then the bestie was in London all week on an audit job so she popped in on Friday night for my homecooked meal before we went out to catch up and unwind over a couple of drinks (we managed to fit in some awesome boogying as well).

After graduating from uni, our crew of friends were like a a bunch of seeds that went dispersing in the air. Some went back to the their hometowns, some went further out to look for jobs, some wandered south-wards (like moi) to continue with their studies, or not. Some stayed put and welcomed the next stage in life with somewhat hesitant and nervously open arms. It may seem like we’ve split ways and gone forward, hopefully a positive step towards our goals in life. The latter I reckon is true but the former, I hope will never happen. Partings can be sad and goodbyes are such bittersweet moments. But again, they are also a chance to say ‘hello’ again. So it’s good. Think positive.

We’re doing the best we can to stay in touch and sometimes, being such a laidback/chilled out bunch can mean there are long periods of time when the only contact we’ve had is the odd text or 2 minute phonecall. But even those moments are great. And whatever chance we get to see each other, we make sure that we have a great time in such a way that we might be said to re-define the phrase ‘quality time’. In the past few weeks, it’s been superb as most of us have done our best, booked our train tickets early, etc. to get down to wherever for a birthday bash, a dinner, a wicked nightout, a quick weekend meet-up. It’ll definitely get harder as everyone’s getting busier with work and it’s very tricky to try and sort something out between everyone’s schedules. Because of that, I’m over the moon when someone comes to visit even for a short while. These moments become all the more precious since they’re so hard to come by.

Since bestie and moi had gone for that ridiculously divine meal at Murano the last time she was down in London (and flippin’ gave myself indigestion because of it, not that I’m complaining – I’d do it all over again even if you added something more injurious to my body to the mix!), it was time for a homecooked meal, with a slight touch of sophistication I say. I’m fortunate to know girls who have hearty appetites and enjoy sitting in front of the telly with a plate of good food, scoff it down unabashedly whilst sipping daintily on a glass of whine. A bit of an oxymoron appearing in that sentence but that’s sorta like what we are. Chilled out, reaal chilled out the two of us, sophisticated (I hope!) with brains to boot, do I dare say with a touch of class and yet always eager to eat food like it should be eaten in real time. Here I am proud to announce two real women in real time! The others I’m sure you’ve either heard of on this blog or I shall, in good time, schedule in their grand entrance.

Yes, real women eat real burgers. Unless pardon me, you’ve special dietary requirements, no offense anyone!

I love sandwiches. I love good bread – especially when baked fresh so it’s crusty warm outside and almost melting buttery soft on the inside. Some good extra virgin olive oil that almost tastes grassy as a dip and some butter on the side, it’s a heavenly combination. And because good bread’s such a luxury, I like homemade burgers in anything but the cheap burger buns you can get in the shops. It jazzes things up a little, makes it look and taste better and surely makes the whole eating experience a lot more exciting?

I chose a seeded bun for this as I’m like a bird, or a squirrel, whichever. I eat loads of seeds and nuts a day. I’m addicted to them things. They make me happy. And looking at the generous sprinkling of seeds on the bun tops, I was well chuffed. I was hoping to get sourdough bread, which is what the Handmade Burger Co. we often visit serves their burgers in and I do love the texture of good sourdough. Unfortunately, my (eeks) last minute trip to the shop came back with nothing and I had to settle with the leftover stuff in the bakery section.

These burgers have a special ingredient. What’s that? Chutney! What kind of chutney? A totally spanking Mr. Vikki’s Tomato & Nigella Chutney I got from the BBC Good Food Show. It flavoured, along with the added spices and fresh coriander, the lamb very nicely and I was a little shocked how good it tasted with just a couple of simple things like that. The lamb burger also retained all it’s moistness so when I squished my bun together with the burger fillings, it oozed out all that juice and caramelized liquer which the bottom bun bread was very eager to absorb. Yum yum. Will definitely make this again and again.

For 2 servings
Spicy Lamb Burgers
Ingredients

Put all the ingredients, except the cheese and lettuce, together in a large bowl. Mix well and then split the mince mixture into two. Form into balls, gently pat down and form the round sides in a burger pattie.

Add some oil to a hot frying pan and cook each side about 4 minutes on medium heat. Serve in a bap, burger bun, ciabatta roll, seeded bun, etc. Top with fillings, onion marmalade and eat!

Onion Marmalade with a Kick
Ingredients

Add oil to a hot pan. Sauté the onions until they are soft and slightly translucent. Add white wine, thyme, chopped chili, salt and pepper. Lower heat and let it cook gently and caramelize for about 45 minutes. You may want to let it caramelize to a stage where it’s a lot wetter and gooey but I like to have the onion pieces still fairly whole and visible.

When cooked to your preference, stir in the balsamic vinegar and honey to taste. Serve on top of your burger.

London BBC Good Food Show & Masterchef Live

diva — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:09:02 +0000

First, a big thank you to Forever Better, Míele’s PR Company, for inviting me to this event and another thank you to Cherry (she and Lauren liases with the invitees) who is the sweetest person ever. I’m glad I could make it down to the BBC Good Food Show this time round as I had deadlines to meet last year and missed out on all the great foodie shows and tastings. After Saturday, I’m tempted to book my tickets for the next Good Food Show in the Birmingham NEC come summer as that promises to be an even more taste-blowing event.

An experience never to be forgotten and one I’ll always remember by from the puddings we tasted, one of which I was unable to get a photograph of because my camera decided to give up on me shortly before we sampled it. [*I do apologise for that. If I'd been more prepared for low battery, I would have more pictures on of the other things I sampled and stalls visited] But I’ll get to the food we nommed on for lunch later.

There was much going on with the Masterchef Theatre, the Cookery Experience, the Invention Test and all the time, celeb chefs like James Martin, Michel Roux Jr, Theo Randall, etc. were bouncing back and forth between these shows. On the main stall floor, the famous Harumi Kurihara was giving live demonstrations; sushi academy masterclasses, kitchen knife skills by Marianne Lumb (who we bumped into in the ladies!!), sugar roses classes by Phil Usher, cupcakes classes by Squire’s Kitchen and even duck carving were amongst the activities or classes you could take part in. So much to see, so much to sample, so much to enjoy – it’s no wonder the BBC Good Food Show was spread over 3 days 13-15th November. As much as I enjoyed the whole day-out at the Olympia Grand Hall soaking up this splendid experience, I was sorry that there was too much to do within a single day and unfortunately missed quite a few exciting classes like the cupcake and sugar roses demos.

Nonetheless, I was thrilled to have seen the Masterchef hosts John Torode and Gregg Wallace. They are hilarious! So were the Plenty ladies Brenda and Audrey who were right mental! And the previous winners from Masterchef – Steve Groves (whom I adore to pieces) and Mat Follas were there at the Invention Test as judges. A surprise last contestant was James Martin, who appeared a few minutes late much to everyone’s delight. A giant roar from the audience, a squeal from both Anne of Anne’s Kitchen and Sunita of Sunita’s World, (and I’m so glad I finally got to meet these 2 gorgeous foodbloggers! A little starstruck but they were so sweet and easy-going) and an unashamed catcall from yours truly. What? That man’s so loveable and dishy, if a tad bit chubby.

Andi Peters interviewing Steve Groves & Mat Follas

Invention Test was a joy to watch and many of the contestants whipped up – in a stressful 30minutes – some very tasty looking dishes from prawn curry, to vietnamese-inspired pancake to a hearty penna pasta dish using the key ingredients given to them: prawns, pork, pears, etc. Anne, Sunita and I had cowardly turned down the invitation. Being stared at whilst cooking, cooking under a blinding spotlight, cooking against the clock and knowing that this is a competition would’ve gotten to me. Something bad would’ve happened – like setting my hair on fire, scalding everyone around me, chopping a finger off. It wouldn’t be pretty and the whole event might end with a heart attack and me being rushed to the hospital in a half-charred state. I don’t do well under pressure when it comes to the kitchen and small working spaces. But at the end of the show, Sunita was having regrets of not having accepted the challenge and blimey, do I adore her more for it! What a gutsy foodie! I shall need to learn to be more courageous like her.

Plenty ladies Brenda & Audrey having a laugh

As much as I had a great time with the Masterchef Invention Test, what totally made my day was wondering about all the stalls, especially the Great Taste Awards section. So let’s have a look at some of the stalls we visited. There were too many stalls to see, both on the ground level and the floor up. We certainly didn’t get to look at everything but what we did see, we liked very much!

Crabbies 4% alcohol Ginger Beer – this is great. Very crisp and refreshing. Perfect with a slice of lemon. You can find this in Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and even your local Wetherspoon’s most likely! These were going for 3 bottles for a fiver and The Angel in Islington will offer you it for nearly £3 a bottle. I’d definitely be getting this for summertime barbies and I’m tempted to get a bottle of this for ginger beer battered fish and chips. Savvy?

Rachel’s Organic Yoghurt – I’ve always try to keep a tub of Rachel’s Greek Yoghurt with Honey or the Rhubarb Yoghurt in my fridge as they taste so good, one of the creamiest low fat yoghurts available in shops and are a great way to jazz up a fruit medley pudding. The new toffee & milk chocolate flavours are great. Toffee is a real winner and doesn’t have that sickly weird colour that toffee “flavoured” yoghurts usually do. A hefty creamy white yoghurt, yum yum.

Tropical Sun’s plantain chips – my first time tasting plantain and I really liked them! Good crunch, looked like banana chips but without the sweetness of it. Very more-ish.

Kikkoman and some live cooking demos – available is Kikkoman’s range of sauces, soy sauces, marinades and a counter for demos. Unfortunately, we just missed it and didn’t get to taste any of the teriyaki chicken that were snapped up in a flash.

Laverstock Park Farm and their offerings of buffalo burgers, ice cream, mozzarella cheese and lagers – you can find most of their products in Waitrose and I’ll definitely be popping into my local Waitrose for the mozzarella made from water buffalo milk. The creamiest, softest and most delicate oozy mozzarella that still holds up well. The buffalo milk is supposed to make this mozzarello firmer but not too firm. I like this a lot! And you’ll be pleased to know that their products are free-range as their buffalos have had a great life grazing on open pastures except in the cold winter.

Eudoro’s porchetta, prosciutto and cheeses – quality meats here are food porn at its best. The cheeses are beautiful to look at and Anne had a taste of the gargonzola. I would’ve loved to takeaway a porchetta panini for dinner that night but somehow backed out. Why did I do such a silly thing?! Regrets.

Yum Yum Tree Fudge – beautiful handmade fudge from Suffolk made from British sugar in a wide range of creative flavours like chili chocolate, lime & coconut, cappucino, lavender, mint chocolate, lemon bon bon, raspberry, etc. Check out their website for more at www.yumyumtreefudge.com

Ethiopian Coffee Company – we didn’t get any coffee although I bet we needed it, surely. This stall smelt amazing.

There were too many stalls to visit in just a day and too much eating and gawking!

•••

Our Restaurant Experience lunch in tapas-sized portions. Restaurants at the show were the Blue Elephant, Roast, Café Spice Namaste, Launceston Place, Skylon, Boxwood Cafe, Theo Randall at The InteContinental, Min Jiang (a new comer to the GFS), Urban Caprice and the MasterChef Restaurant featuring dishes from winners Thomasina Miers, Steven Groves, James Nathan and Mat Follas.

Theo Randall at The InterContinental: Cape Sante – Panfried Scallops with Pancetta, Red Chili, Rocket & Lentils

The Masterchef Restaurant: Mat Follas’s Lavender Mousse with Hokey Pokey and Berry Sauce

The Masterchef Restaurant: James Nathan’s Chocolate & Orange Sponge Pudding

My Shopping Haul:

I love fudge. I think Sunita got 2 bags for her family. I got 1 for a lemon-fanatic friend who was visiting that evening and 3 for myself. Who’s greedy?

Yum Yum Tree Fudge: A medley of flavours – lavender, mint chocolate, lemon bon bon

Mr. Vikki’s Tomato & Nigella chutney, Plum-infused Sake, WARRE’s 10 year tawny Port, Fruits of the Forest Balsamic Glaze

WARRE’s port wine was very impressive, especially the 25 year aged vintage but going at £25 a pop, I wasn’t too eager to split with that kind of money despite the port being very rich, dark and smooth. Hey! It’s the recession. We gotta be wise about things like that, eh. I settled for the 10 year aged that was also very lovely but going for only a tenner! Whey. Talk about Diva doing bargain shopping.

At Apulia Blends stall, I was blown away by their selection of extra virgin olive oils, the apple balsamic vinegar and the fruity glazes. I do love a good balsamic vinegar but I’ve never ever bothered with balsamic glaze. A taste and I was sold. Tempt me with ideas of pouring these glazes on ice cream – I’m sold even more. This forest fruit one was going for £6.50 a bottle which in my opinion, is worth every penny. The shocking thing, however, was that I found the same bottle at the Shoreditch Food Hall just round the corner from my pad being sold for a quid cheaper. Who knew?

Really delicious apple balsamic vinegar at nearly £12/bottle

I’m a loyal customer of Japan Centre as they have the best and biggest range of Japanese groceries I could possibly ever need away from home. Part of the Oishi JAPAN exhibition by Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries participants, I was happy to find them plugging a good couple of bottles of sake amongst other kuramotos (sake makers). Tasted some very nice junmai daiginjo, a citrus flavoured sake, some sochu and this wonderful plum-infused sake I couldn’t resist. I love my sake warm and drinking it traditionally from those cute wooden square boxes is always a treat but this plum-infused baby was very lovely drunk cold.

And what about the chutney? There were many stalls selling chutney and it was hard to choose what to taste and where to taste but Mr Vikki’s caught out eye with their huge array of bottle reds (and I mean chutney, not wine). Arranged from the mildest to the hottest, we were glad we started at the bottom of the range in heat – Tomato & Nigella. I do love spicy chutneys but I’m not great at taking the heat as I dislike the tongue-numbing sensation after which always worries me that I’m losing my tastebuds! The guys at Mr Vikki’s were very friendly and my favourites were the Tomato & Nigella and Chili Jam. And to top it all, they were part of the Great Taste Awards section. Winners they are.

I had a great time with Sunita and Anne! The BBC Good Food Show totally made my weekend although I was so knackered after like never before. Took me all of Sunday to spring back to my normal self. I’ve also started writing down a few recipes I’ll be testing with the new ingredients I’ve got so do come visit again for more exciting posts! I have some sweets and main dishes up my sleeve in the coming weeks to come.

Hope everyone had a fab weekend. Have a good week ahead and only 11 days to London Food Blogger Connect!

Poor Knights of Windsor…really darling, I mean an Indulgent French Toast

diva — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 02:34:51 +0000

Sugar, the weather, dehydration, the evil world…I don’t know…(something!) has unleashed its terror! A spot on my nose and a spot on my chin! As irrelevant to food or to anyone else’s concern as it is, I wish only to share with others my horror and how I dissipated this frenzied alarm with plenty of orange juice, water and a plate of loveliness. And if you wanted to know, even my golden cocker spaniel spurned me when she caught sight of these f***ers on my face. Tch! Talk about true love and fidelity. It’s probably about time I chucked her out and gave food and shelter to that stray black cat down the road. That’ll teach her a lesson for mocking her spotty mistress!Right. So, moving on from spots and the psychological drama of a 21 year old and her dog, I’d like to give you the Poor Knights of Windsor, otherwise known as french toast (or eggy bread) with a dash of sherry and prepared in a slightly different way. Honestly, I like to think that the Brits are finding (once again) reason to include alcohol into yet another dish. A pudding, a breakfast meal, a snack – these knights of windsor aren’t too much or too little if you get what I mean. Also, you can have them savoury or sweet just like French crepes or English pancakes; what could be more exciting than such variety?

If you’re wondering about the name ‘poor knights’, it’s probably metaphorical — due to the fact that stale or nearly stale bread is preferred. Take something gross, unexciting and bordering on poisonous. Give it a good making-over a la Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother, and what do you get? A well posh plate of yumminess. I mean, that’s just totally genius, isn’t it? Besides, it is apparently so, that the older the bread, the better it soaks up the prepared egg mixture. Convenient! But if you’re really intrigued, the poor knights (not the Knights Templar) were really the retired knights of Edward III who accompanied the Knights and Ladies of the Garter. They were given lodging at Windsor Castle and paid a pension – the King’s way of looking after his own financially ruined but loyal knights.

Thinking of setting up some sort of themed breakfast? Why not go all out. Egg it up with Soft Boiled Egg and Toy Soldiers too? The boys should have a field day and decorating the table spread should be exciting. Check out Gomestic for really cool contemporary egg cup designs!

It is common to find poor knights of windsor made with stale white bread and I mean really good bread, even brioche, that’s gone a little stale. But it doesn’t hurt to use pretty peasant-y breads. I mean, that’s the whole point of this. So I’ve used some dusty, grimey, ol’ multi-grain bread and it actually was, to me, better than just plain white. With sunflower seeds, flaxseeds, a bit of poppy and a touch of rolled oats, there was so much more going on than just egg and sherry. What a great way to start the day with all the fibre goodness, vitamins from egg, and a shot of sugar (and alcohol) to lift energy levels for a long day. So what I’ve been trying to say is, this is good. Like real good.

If you’re still unconvinced and reckon it’s just me being all posh and snotty, fine then, grumpy. Go back to your usual french toast and miss out on this creative spin of the regular french toast (and really, I’m not just saying this cause I like my alcohol)!

This recipe yields 4 slices. Please note, typical recipes use only egg yolks and recommend that this produces a finer, homelier result but I don’t like wasting the whites so here goes all.

Poor Knights of Windsor
Ingredients

This is really the simplest breakfast or brunch one could ever prepare. I highly recommend using a good non-stick pan (I use Tefal) so as to reduce the amount of butter you use for frying. It means less mess and less calories!

In a bowl, beat the eggs. In a separate bowl, mix together the milk, sherry and sugars. Place both sets of liquid each in a deep-set plate or bowl, enough to put the bread into to soak.
Place frying pan on low heat and add a quarter of prepared butter to pan. Soak a slice of bread in the milk mixture first, gently pressing down. Carefully flip it around and coat. I like it not completely soaked in milk so as to get more of the egg mixture in the bread. Remove with a firm hand and transfer to plate of egg mixture. Repeat the process and coat through thoroughly, giving it a proper soak. Once butter is melted in the pan, quickly transfer the bread slice to pan and allow to cook about 1-2 minutes each side (this means your pan has to be hot enough). Repeat the cooking process for the rest of the slices. This will be quicker as the pan gets hotter, so stay on your feet!

Plates up once your lovely toasts are cooked. Drizzle with maple syrup and serve with your favourite fruit or jam. If you’re one for the savoury like I am, serve your knights of windsor with a good helping of salted butter, freshly ground sea salt and black pepper. Heaven!

Pan-Seared Pork Steak with Apple & Pecan Risotto

diva — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 18:27:16 +0000

Earlier this week, one of my mates said to me, “I’ve just realized how funny you are. Every damn thing you say is Facebook quote-worthy.”

Obviously flattered, the topic of the worthiness of my witty banter soon passed and things got right down and dirty – the topic of food, chocolate, Sunday roast and Christmas mince pies. Indeed, I am often less bothered about what I say really than the yummy concoctions I put in my mouth. I mean, I get totally psyched about that!

One good thing about my pals and I are that we are easily teased by food. Apart from friendship, this is the strong bond that brings us lot together. Think of us as a Knighthood of Glorified & Appreciative Eaters, if you like. So anyway, everyone got properly jittery when Starbucks released their Christmas red cups, considering the fact that among us we have people who have either worked/works at Starbucks and/or are just generally unadulterated Starbucks junkies (and unafraid to admit that we are). So, still satiated and buzzing from an afternoon Christmas special drink (with the roof of my mouth tingling a little from burning it on a dark cherry mocha), feeling nice and toasty in my new slipper socks as my room is slowly infused with the scent of burning mulled wine candles, I plot my Sunday lunch.

And blimey, was this Sunday lunch very brilliant on the flavours! Just last week, I’d popped two beautiful pork steaks into the freezer in an effort to save them for a time when I was better prepared ingredient and energy wise. Today was just the perfect day for tasty steaks and what better to pair pork than with apples? The advent of winter also means making use of wintry flavours in fruit and nuts. Instead of chomping on that next bar of Aero chocolate, I was beyond delighted to deck myself in my black sugarbar apron and get working within the comforts of a heated home on a hearty meal.

I found an interesting recipe on goodtoknow.co.uk incorporating Chinese ingredients for a pork marinade. I was a little worried on how that might work with a fruit risotto but my fears were put to rest once I put a fork of meat to mouth. The flavours were gorgeous! Chinese 5 spice and the garlic was just wonderful, making the meat so juicy and succulent with a nice lacing of oriental sweetness. I adore this marinade and highly recommend it. In fact, I’m hoping to use this recipe again next week for another friend of mine, in hopes of wowing his socks off and showing him what a stunning cook I am. Actually, it’s also because I owe him a meal after he whipped me up some amazing chicken fajitas about 2 weeks ago. This man, I swear, is some sort of god of fajitas.

The apple risotto too was quite amazing. Word of advice, don’t pick sweet apples such as Royal Gala or Pink Lady. As much as these apples are tasty and beautiful to look at, I find that choosing a rather tart apple like Braeburn or maybe even a Cox just perfect, especially since it’ll go well with a dash of white wine.

This recipe serves 2.

Pan-Seared Pork Steak on Apple & Pecan Risotto
Ingredients

In a small bowl, mix together ingredients for the marinade. Place pork steaks in a large plate and pour marinade over the tops of the steaks. Rub gently into the steaks, flip over and cover the clean sides with marinade. Make sure to pat the chopped ginger in the marinade onto the steaks. Cover plate tightly with clingwrap and let sit in the refrigerator overnight or for at least an hour.

For the risotto, make sure you start on it about 10-15minutes before pan-searing the steaks as this will take about 5-7minutes to cook completely.
Heat the butter in a saucepan. Add the risotto rice and fry for about 2 minutes. Add the shallots and fry a little longer. Ladle about 2 ladles of vegetable stock into the saucepan, lower heat and let simmer. The arborio rice will slowly absorb the liquids in and be careful to only add a ladle of stock each time, stirring now and again as the rice cooks – you can add liquid to risotto but not take it out!
When all the liquid is nearly absorbed, add another ladle and continue this cooking process. This will take about 10-15minutes to cook. Once the risotto rice is cooked through, add the white wine and stir. Once the consistency of the risotto has reached the desired thickness, remove from heat and add 1/2 the prepared grated parmesan, thyme, apples and pecan. Stir with a quick and firm hand until all the ingredients have just come together.
Add the rest of the grated parmesan, saving a tiny bit for sprinkling over the tops. Season with black pepper if needed.

For the pork steaks, preheat the oven to 200d Celsius and prepare a hot frying pan. The pan has got to be very hot but not overly hot. Grease lightly with cooking spray. Remove steaks from refrigerator.
Place steaks on hot frying pan and let sear for about 7 seconds (you will have to judge this by eye). With a pair of tongs or a spatula, flip the steaks quickly to sear the other side for another 7 seconds. Now remove and place on a grill, then slide into the oven to cook for about 5 minutes. Once cooked, serve quick on a bed of apple & pecan risotto with a sprinkle of grated parmesan.

Grilled Salmon, Courgettes & Apricot Jam with Lemon Herb White Wine Sauce

diva — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 21:39:25 +0000

If someone invented a giant comfy grandfather chair that recharged your ‘life’ levels, I’d totally get it – crumple straight into it like dead batteries to a charger and stay in there lifeless till I’m good and ready for the world.

Completely maxed out in terms of energy today. Never realized 4 hours in the library could be so soul-sapping (since it has never left me so dead tired before), to the point that I turned down a pub quiz night and pound-a-pint, and an invitation to Gatecrashers. Normally, if there is a lack of events for the evening, I’d happily light my row of candles by the window sill, turn the lights down, slap on a face mask and cuddle under the covers with my readings. My brain is completely fried, my eyes red and tired, and my neck stiff as hell. I can’t seem to do anything else other than sit my laptop on myself and struggle immensely hard at completing this post.

What I’d give my life for right now? A back massage, an eye mask and the comfiest king-sized bed with the most luxurious bedspread and most decadent down duvet in the world!

If my week (subtract last week’s amazing nights out and my 21st) of bad karma was not depressing enough, it would be laughable to think the people up there were letting me go scot free without a next round of setbacks. Round Two is a fucked up shower that might fall through the ceiling, a injured right hand that got caught in a door and being woken up by a deafening faulty fire alarm. Some tribes somewhere believe that your soul travels out of your body whilst you sleep. Hence, one should be gently woken up (if truly necessary) to give the soul sufficient time to return to the body that houses it. Reckon, not only was my body shattered from lack of sleep, my soul has been given a right electric-shock from that horrible alarm. If I were crazier than I already were, which is really a bad thing, I’d go up to that dastard manmade invention and give it a good talking-to. Only I was taught in school that there’s a difference between living and non-living things. Cheeky as I am, I ain’t gonna try and provoke that barrier between them. Not all binaries of the world can be exploded.

The pictures for this post aren’t much. 3 out of 4 of the lightbulbs in the kitchen went bust and I didn’t have a spare lamp anywhere for extra lighting. I forget that a return to student life is equivalent to foregoing little luxuries like not having to pay the bills, groceries bought and ready-stocked in pantry and fridge, and err… lights?

The sauce is power-packed and inspired by a gorgeous sauce paired with scallops from Melonfish. The strength of the garlic and lemon were pretty superb with the sweetness of the courgettes. The flavour of the salmon, it being an oily fish, pulled everything together and tamed the piquancy of it all.

Lemon Herb White Wine Sauce
Ingredients

Courgettes & Apricot Jam
Ingredients

Grill salmon steaks as you normally would.

For the sauce:
Melt butter in a heavy-based saucepan. Add olive oil. Sauté garlic in the fats, be careful not to let them brown. Add wine, tomatoes, lemon juice and zest and mix well. Next, add the rest of the ingredients. Lower heat and let it simmer until thickens. Season to taste.

For the courgettes:
Heat olive oil in large frying pan. When oil is hot enough, add the courgettes and stir-fry till slightly browned. Remove from heat. Add jam and stir, making sure to coat all courgette strips with jam. Season a little. Serve.

Matcha Layer Cake, White Chocolate Cream and Plum Wine Glaze

diva — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 14:45:13 +0000

Put bag down. Remove groceries from shopping bags and place onto appropriate shelves of pantry. Open fridge. Arrange selected ingredients into a neat row on island top. Recipe. This wasn’t in the least robotic movement but rather quick chop-chop actions executed with precision — a race against time!

After some weekend shopping in town and an iced tea with a book whilst waiting for Mum’s Japanese lesson to end, I was all geared up for some intensive kitchen affair. Let’s just say I devoted about 5 hours in the kitchen today to prepare pudding and the best Sunday roast I could ever offer all in the spirit of the blessed Sunday. To add to that, I’m officially off my office attachment and this breath of fresh air (not that I didn’t enjoy the overall experience in the office and meeting my fellow colleagues) has suddenly infused my muscles with more energy and I don’t feel the least tired after dishing up, cleaning up, washing up. Pimm’s and iced lemon tea was a fantastic idea as well — bet that really gave me quite the energy boost for the afternoon. Roast dinner was pretty good. I think I might’ve outdone myself, this time round cooking the carrots under the chicken to cook in the chicken’s onion, garlic, lemon and rosemary-infused juices. The cajun-spiced roast potatoes were just beautiful, considering I used U.S Russet potatoes and the roast vegetables were all nicely golden-brown and sweet from the over-onion-age. The gravy was made from all the leftover scrapings off the roasting tray, white wine, Worcestershire sauce, freshly ground black pepper and some cornflour.

Well, what comes next you would know is something green. I think right about now, someone would be just bouncing off the walls wanting to tell me to stop this matcha obsession. Gee. You’re totally right. I mean like how much of my life can this humble green powder actually take up? Plenty; and only a wally brain would want to forsake this lovely ingredient.

It seems that matcha is no longer the rave. To me, (since green tea has always been around in this country and Japanese influence since before independence – hey, we were under the Japanese Occupation) it’s less a rave now but more evidently a part of our lives and culture. You see O-cha shops everywhere offering green tea lattes, matcha ice cream and beautifully presented sweets and puds (this I can’t resist). Ceremony-grade matcha and tea ceremony equipment seem to be readily available. Everyone on the street talks about it — sometimes in one of those wide-eyed, amazed fashion and sometimes in that motherly you-should-eat-your-greens,-it’s-good-for-your-health way.

I’m still on the lookout for a near-authentic Japanese teahouse so I can pick up some tips and proper skills (not to forget I need to return to a Chinese teahouse to brush up on my amateur tea-making skills — gosh am I so lacking). While that has yet to happen, I spend my time basking in the fact that I can enjoy matcha and green tea and all my other favourite teas to maximum satisfaction. Ever since there was that Daring Bakers’ Opera Cake event, I was so tempted to try my hand at it. Of course, I didn’t have much time to spare for an opera cake — what with the joconde, buttercream, ganache, sponge and glaze layers. It is a lovely French sweet I’d love to stuff my face with; a solitary affair, preferably in the dark and soundproof room but when it comes to making it, I would really give a word of warning that my lazy ass will never agree to such culinary commitment.

On that note, my white chocolate ganache failed as well. Let’s just say I’d blasted the radio and got a little carried away with my whisk and singing as I rocked my lungs out to the sounds of 3 Doors Down to the point where my heavy cream started to split and curdle like there was no tomorrow. God, it was beautiful. The ganache was such a mess I had no choice but to title it ‘White Chocolate Cream’ or would ‘White Chocolate Melty Mush’ be more apt?

Because I was a little strapped for time and I knew I wouldn’t have the patience to stand about all day in the kitchen taking care of cake layers and cream layers, etc. I decided to stick to a sponge layer and “ganache” (lol, I giggle) and a simple plum wine glaze. That chopped things up easy peasy for me and didn’t require much brainwork. In fact, if you’ve stuck with my blog long enough, you realize when it comes to cooking, strangely I hate to think much. It’s awful how lazy I get when it comes to cooking and blimey, I call myself a food-lover and ultimate baking fan. The horror, the horror (of my true personality, that is).

This recipe is quite a mess as I’ve taken bits from Kevin’s Green Tea and White Chocolate Opera Cake recipe. I drooled over this quite a bit and really fancied having a slice of it myself. I’m afraid I haven’t really done this recipe justice but the results weren’t too bad. All the flavours were great. The sponge cake could definitely have been a little less rubbery and fluffier but heck, pudding definitely wasn’t the star of the show tonight. The plum wine glaze was good. Sexy. You couldn’t really taste much of it since I only used 2 tablespoons of it (didn’t want to mislead people into thinking I drink in the day — although I did) but the smell of it as you stirred the warm cream was nose-orgasmic, would that be the word? Anyway, there was always Mum’s frozen Daifukus after the cake to sweep up whatever bits were found wanting and sweeten up the tastebuds the right way up. No biggie.

Matcha Layer Cake
Ingredients

(directions are taken from Kevin’s Closet Cooking blog)
Line a 12 1/2 inch by 15 1/2 inch jelly roll pan with parchment and grease it with butter.
Beat the egg whites in a bowl until they form soft peaks.
Add the sugar and beat until the peaks are stiff and glossy.
Beat the almonds, icing sugar, matcha and eggs in another bowl until light and voluminous.
Add the flour and beat until the flour is just combined.
Fold the meringue into the almond mixture.
Fold in the butter.
Pour the batter into the pan.
Bake in a preheated 425F oven until lightly browned and just springy to the touch, about 5-9 minutes.
Run a knife along the edges to loosen the cake form the pan.
Cover the cake with parchment paper, flip and unmold the cake.
Peel of the parchments paper flip and cover the cake while it cools.

White Chocolate Cream
Ingredients

Place chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl.
Heat heavy cream and butter in a heavy-based saucepan on low heat until it just starts to boil. You can tell when it starts to bubble around the edges of the pan. Remove from heat and pour over the chocolate. Leave for 30 seconds then use a wire whisk to whisk till smooth. Set aside to cool a little.
Save half of this mixture for the glaze.
Whisk 120ml cream till it forms stiff peaks then fold into cool ganache mixture.

**don’t know if this will work for you — mine pretty much turned into tasty mush LOL. I don’t usually make such terrible mistakes. Man. Blame the rocker in me. Jokes.

Plum Wine Glaze
Ingredients

Whisk ingredients together and set aside.

Sugar Syrup
Ingredients

Dissolve sugar in water. Set aside. This will be used atop sponge layers when assembling the cake.

For instructions on assembling the cake, please click on the link above before the recipe which will take you to Kevin’s blog for better directions. Mine was a very haphazard, freeze and slab on freeze and slab on event. Not exactly a method with finesse.

No matter. I’m still in a fine mood and I’m off to watch the telly. It’s the beginning of another week tomorrow but I’m pretty excited to begin work at The Flaming Queen. Selling candles at Palais Renaissance — gosh that’s well luxurious!

Vegetarian Yakisoba with Ebi Sakamushi

diva — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 16:02:44 +0000

Although it’s technically our summer holiday, I’ve been busy. And no, it isn’t just socializing. It’s about packing, buying presents, shopping for themed party costumes, sorting out next year’s rent and planning moving logistics. It’s slightly crazy and ‘eating’ away at my time for cooking and baking. But then again, I did spend the whole of last week FEASTING. And by feasting I really mean gorging myself on bbq after bbq, pizza express, Strada at The Mailbox, loads of gelati from Morelli’s, that kinda thing. Unfortunately, all that fantastic indulgence has resulted in a pot belly and a lack of posts on my blog.

Due to the parties and other preoccupations such as learning to deejay from Alex (as if I really did learn), nearly crashing his Ferrari laptop, sunbathing, playing pseudo volleyball,etc. I have not been catching up enough with the food blogosphere. Lots of catching up to do indeed.

I have received a couple of emails about the Beauty and the Feast. Again, thank you all who participated. I’ll think about whether I’ll continue the challenge. I’m not too sure about it as it was pretty much a once-off thing. Let me know what you think and I’ll see how it goes, depending on the response.

Trying to do quickcook meals is the new cool and highly essential when you can hardly find time to sleep and housekeep because of a busy schedule. So here’s a post dedicated to Japan’s fast food! At least I think it is since I used to see boxes of yakisoba loads at train stations for quick takeaways and in my mind, that’s definitely ‘fast’ food.
I love yakisoba. Tasty and really quick to make. The sauce is really the essential bit that marries everything together. If I’m not wrong, yakisoba sauce is quite easy to find pre-made in bottles. I looked through some recipes online for yakisoba sauce and they required oyster sauce which gives fantastic flavour. I’m sure you can find vegetarian oyster sauces made with, what was it, mushrooms? But I’m not too sure if it’ll taste exactly the same as the real thing. Doubt it. I’ve chose to go for a vegetarian yakisoba sauce, not because I’m iffy with oyster sauce. I love it! But I don’t have any in my pantry. I haven’t really tried to make traditional yakisoba by using all the right ingredients but have instead thrown it all together with what I have lying around and that’s bordering on rotten.

Don’t be put off by the name ebi sakamushi either. It is so simple and flavourful and hardly requires any thinking. It is basically sake-steamed prawns. You can use drinking or cooking sake. Either way it gives off a lovely smell and infuses the prawns in a sweetness, enhancing its naturally sweet flesh with tinges of malty rice flavour as well. I really like this and makes a great appetizer too. I placed the prawns in paper nut cups and popped them into a bamboo steamer which made them easy to serve out onto individual plates. This also helped the prawns to cook in their own juice without the sake flowing away.

Here’s a recipe that yields 2-3 servings.

Vegetarian Yakisoba with Ebi Sakamushi
Ingredients

For the vegetarian yakisoba sauce:

For ebi sakamushi:

To prepare the sauce first, whisk all ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.

Now cook the noodles in hot water. Once cooked, run under cold water and set aside. You can leave them soaked in cold water to prevent them from sticking.

Heat some oil in a large frying pan. Golden brown the onions, then add all the vegetables and stirfry. Next, add the soba noodles and the yakisoba sauce. Fry until all the sauce has been absorbed into the noodles. It might get a little sticky due to the sugar caramelizing but that’s fine. If you prefer not to have your noodles uber sauced-up, you can use about 2/3 of the prepared sauce and fry on high heat.

For the ebi sakamushi, simply place prawns in nut cups and pour the sake over the prawns into the cup. Steam until prawns are cooked through and bright pink.

Serve noodles with sesame seeds, gari pickles (optional) and the prawns on the side.

Garlic Shiitake & Gari Soba with Sweet Green Tea Sauce

diva — Fri, 30 May 2008 16:34:46 +0000

Thank God it’s Friday.

Not that it makes much of a difference, since (why?) we’re on holiday and officially worry-free from exams. This weekend, Hans and I are the only ones left in the house; so begins our crazy marathon of baking and cooking, feasting and merry-making (no innuendos there). Not only do we deserve this because of the hard work we’ve put in, but after a “WE’VE BEEN BROKEN INTO” scare, it’s only natural to need comfort food.

Have no fear. We weren’t broken into but both the front door and the porch door were foolishly left ajar and coming home to that was a bit of a shock. What a miracle we weren’t since we don’t live on one of the safest roads in Selly Oak.

Comfort food this was with that lovely sweet sauce. It is a rather thick sauce so you don’t need much for a serving of soba. Don’t expect it to be a very green tea-ish sauce either as this is made not with sencha but with green tea cooking sprinkles. I didn’t do much with the mushrooms as shiitake on their own have a very distinctive flavour.

Right then. Hans and I have to get back to what’s cooking in the oven.

Here serves 2.

Garlic Shiitake & Gari Soba with Sweet Green Tea Sauce
Ingredients

The noodles take about 5-7min to cook so get started on your sauce first.
Whisk all the ingredients together, except for the green tea cooking sprinkles and hot water. Then in a heavy-based saucepan, heat the mixture and stir slowly on low heat. In a small bowl, mix together the green tea sprinkles with hot water and let it sit for about a minute. Add this to the saucepan and leave it to reduce a little for 2-3min. Then cut the heat and set aside.

Cook the soba noodles.

In a frying pan, fry the garlic till nearly golden brown. Then sautée the mushrooms. When cooked, add a few drops of sesame oil. Stir and then set aside.

When the soba is ready, drain the water and run some cold water over it to stop the cooking and keep the noodles cold. Place noodles in bowl. Place gari pickles on top, followed by garlic fried shiitake mushrooms. Drizzle about 2 tbs of sweet sauce over it and garnish with sesame seeds.

Baked Sesame & Sake Salmon Steak on Spicy Cod Roe Specialty Spaghetti

diva — Sat, 17 May 2008 13:31:34 +0000

BLIMEY. How long is the name of this?
It would have gone a lot longer if I’d cared to define the type of spaghetti I’d used but let’s save that for later. Not to mention I’ve spinned up some pretty amazing sibilant alliteration.

I have to thank Marc of No Recipes for putting up this classic easy-peasy Japanese marinade up on his blog because without it, my salmon would have been a failure. His marinade is the star of the show. I had been saving these beautiful rusty red Wild Alaskan steaks for something special and as the Almighty one would have it, this marinade was simply beautiful. The only deviation from the original recipe was the cutting out of grated ginger, a substituting of soy sauce with teriyaki sauce instead as I wanted a sweeter marinade and also a touch of dill for a slight herbiness.

I have to say I loved this dish! I absolutely enjoyed this (and so did Sam, what with all his moaning and wide-eyed appreciation. Hans & Anna who had a taste gave a thumbs up too. O joy!) and I think the fact that I was hungry made it even better but did not delude me in any way as to the harmony of this dish. It may not look like much but the spicy cod roe went really well with my red pepper and garlic specialty pasta (which I indulgently ordered in from Italy…seriously which student does that?!). I really liked the sweetness of the sauce with the general flavourfulness of the salmon and the touch of dill worked pretty well with its sweetness. Phew!

Don’t forget black sesame seeds. I found it quite a feat to source for these guys since it’s a very oriental ingredient and you hardly find it in Asian or Western cooking (more popular sightings would be black sesame ice cream and cakes) so Sakib’s Off Licence was out of the question for me. Black sesame seeds have a very different flavour to its white counterpart and gives off a smoky and almost peppery flavour. White sesame together helps to keep in check its earthier flavour. A very yin yang and truly eye-catching combination. The Chinese and Japanese love using black sesame seeds on breads and in biscuits and desserts. You might have heard of the Chinese black sesame paste dessert which is black sesame creamed into a creamy, paste-like soup. It never is too sweet or cloying because of the sesame’s deep, earthy flavour and the sesame seeds have to be very well ground. It’s Mum’s favourite dessert and swear it’s just about the best Chinese pudding, right after gui ling gao.

On the overall, I give myself a great big pat on the back, 5 stars for this (even if I cheated and used readymade spaghetti mix when I have a bottle of karashi mentai in my pantry) and label this a definite make-again-soon recipe. Also, I take back all my complaints about salmon and I definitely wouldn’t mind spending a little more in the future on really good fresh sustainable salmon as I suppose nothing can compromise quality when it comes to fish.

This, despite the lengthiness of instructions, is fairly simple even for one who is brain-dead from a 3hr paper and knackered from shopping. You hardly have to think to put this together and with a little carefulness, serves 2 hungry chipmunks.

Baked Sesame & Sake Salmon Steak on Spicy Cod Roe Specialty Spaghetti
Ingredients

For the marinade (recipe adapted from Marc@norecipes):
1 tbs sugar
2 tbs teriyaki sauce
2 tbs mirin
2 tbs sake
1 clove of garlic, crushed
touch of dill
about 1-3tsp flour for thickening (to be used after the fish is cooked)

For the cod roe spaghetti:
about 100g dry spaghetti (I’ve used a red pepper & garlic spaghetti from Italy)
touch of olive oil
1 packet ready-made spicy cod roe pasta mix/ 2 tbs spicy cod roe

In a bowl, mix together ingredients for the marinade and place the salmon steaks in the marinade, carefully turning them to coat them in that lovely juice. Leave for about 30min in the fridge covered in clingwrap for it to absorb the flavours.
In a little pouring jug, mix together the different coloured sesame seeds. You can give them a little toasting before placing on the fish or leave it un-toasted because it’ll do so as it bakes anyway.

Preheat oven to 190d Celsius.
Drizzle some olive oil onto a baking tray.

Remove salmon from the fridge. Give them one last turn in the sauce and place onto the oiled baking tray. Pour the sesame seeds in a steady line down the steaks. Using your fingers, spread the seeds out and gently pat onto the steaks to make sure they stick. Now place on the middle shelf in the oven and bake about 5-10min.
Thereafter, check on the fish then move up to the top shelf for another 5min or so.

You should have started to cook the spaghetti right when the fish was put in the oven. Once al dente, strain away the hot water. Add some olive oil and the spicy cod roe. With a pair of tongs, give it a good mix. Cover with aluminium foil with the shiny side facing inwards.

Place the rest of the marinade in a heavy based saucepan. On low heat, heat up this marinade and using a whisk, whisk in a sprinkling of flour to thicken the marinade into a sauce very gradually until desired thickness.

When all the parts are ready to be served, place spaghetti in middle of a large plate and sit the salmon on top. Drizzle a couple of tablespoons of sauce all over and serve.