Archive for category Food
Panfried Duck Breast
Duck Breast with asian greens
I spotted some duck breast while at a Vietnamese butcher shop in west end. These were frozen and had bones in it. Abit too much actually. This particular piece if painstakingly removed the ribs and left with just a single drum stick.As with most meats I cook these days, it is pan fried to give it some colour and then grilled/oven to finish it off. The pan (aka duck fat) was deglazed with rice wine, rice wine vinegar, mushrooms and brown sugar. Works well.
The other pieces of duck went into a confit style with bit of salt and cooked in oil for about 1.5-2hrs. Too much meat for one person in one day.
Gelati ‘discovery’
The best gelati I have tried so far is actually in Gelateria Cremona, Brisbane. Before you all start pointing out what does Brisbane have to do with good ice cream, please read on. Although I clearly havent tried all the gelati shops in Melbourne or on my travels to Italy and France, I think i have sampled enough to come to my ‘best’ expereince so far. Gelateria Cremona’s pistashio taste just like grounded pistashio in lush, creamy gelati. Strawberry taste like blended strawberry milk in the texture of gelati. Dosen’t get simpler and better than that.
Meanwhile, me and a few friends was walking at Southgate after the fireworks on Monday and we decided to try Tutto Bene’s gelati. At first we just wanted something to eat (sweet). When the shop owners told us the inside seating was closed we wanted to leave. Then I saw all these dairy, gelati awards on the bench and paused to take a closer look. I tried limoncello (brilliant) but my friend gave me a weired look since she was ’allergic’ to alcohol’s taste. At the end we agreed on calamansi and fig. The calamansi was just a delicious mix of citrus acid resembling lime, and a refined bitterness of a kumquat. Fig was thick and every bite was greeted with bits of the fig seeds. There might have been some rasberries in it for the acidity.
After all these years walking past this place, I don’t believe I havent tried it before.
Chicken Tsukune
This was a dish inspired by our latest trip to Japan over Christmas. My Japanese friend Haruko, took us to a nearby yakitori restaurant for dinner one night. This is the Japanese equivalent of the Spanish ‘Tapas’, where you order exactly how many pieces you wanted and it gets made fresh and delivered to your table. Yakitori means grilled bird. What we had was grilled skewered pieces of chicken and pork bits. The tastiest bit is skewered chicken bum. Seriously…. Yakitori is cooked on open flame bit like BBQ. The charcoal flavor of Yakitori is simply amazing. There is nothing quite like fatty bits of meat struggling with open flame. The taste buds always win. This stuff goes so well with sake and beer .
Anyhow my attempt to recreate the taste
- Hand minced chicken thigh fillets (i.e. chopped up finely with knife)
- dried shiitake mushrooms
- soy sauce
- bonito soy sauce
- scallion
- mirin
- chopped tender ginger
- touch of sugar
- julienned shiso leaves
- lime (or yuzu but these things are impossible to find in Australia – if anyone knows where I can get my hands on yuzu either as a fruit or as a plant PLEASE let me know)
Mix the minced chicken, shiitake mushroom, soy sauce, bonito soy sauce, mirin, chopped ginger and sugar together to form a paste. Unfortunately I do not have a BBQ or open flame so I just pan fried these. I used a blowtorch to add the final bit of charred flavor on. Of course, this was served with some Junmai Ginjo Sake.
American pie
I brought the book American Pie last year and just havent got my hands dirty yet. But somehow I found time tonight after my evening grand round at the hospital. I made the dough last night and kept it slowly fermenting in the fridge. According to Peter Reinhart, bakers often use this technique to allow time for the natural enzymes to break the complex sugars in the flour. The cold environment slows fermentation so less of the sugar is converted to carbon dioxide and alcohol. The result is more flavour in the dough but not too much air. The result was an excellent pizza base (crisp and snaps gently) but the crust needs a bit of improving as it was a bit hard. The pizza stone was purchased for $10 and I believe it has made the base more crispy. Peter’s book is full of details and obsessive observations on the art of pizza making. From enzymes and yeast to pizza base spinning to just smiling at a wonderfully fresh pizza base – the book is a good read for those what want to understand why rather than just how.
Perfect Breakfast with Madelines
Posted by tzuyang in Coffee, Food, Photography on February 15, 2009
For some reason I have been thinking of sweets lately, which is highly unusual for me as I am normally a savory person. Perhaps I should do a glucose challenge test. I found these Madeline baking tray sitting in the cupboard so I went on an hunt online for recipes. I came across these on 101cookbooks. My recipe below has been slightly modified. These Madelines turned out pretty well and go exceptionally well with a Macchiato.
Madelines:
- 100gm butter + extra to grease pan
- 90gm plain flour + bit extra to dust pan
- 80gm sugar
- 4 large eggs
- zest of 2 lemons
- half vanilla pod
Firstly, preheat oven to 180deg Celsius and well butter the pan. Dust the pan with flour and tap out the excess.
Make clarified butter: Melt the butter in a pan in low heat and watch it boil and turn sightly golden brown in colour. Take the butter off the heat and strain it into another container removing all the milk solids and wait until it cools to room temperature.
Scrape the vanilla seeds into the sugar. (You could save the used vanilla pod into a container filled with sugar to make vanilla sugar.)
Whisk the whole eggs in mixer at high speed until it forms silky pale meringue about 3-4mins. Slowly add the sugar with vanilla seeds into the egg while whisking at high speed and continue to whisk for another minute or two.
Sift the flour onto the egg mixture and add lemon zest then fold gently until mixed then add the cooled clarified butter into the egg/flour mixture. Fold again until all mixed until just mixed. Don’t over mix this mixture or it wont rise.
Spoon the mixture into the baking tray then bake for about 5-10 minutes depending on size. Watch it change colour very quickly.
Gazpacho
Barcelona is 16 827 km from Melbourne. I want to get far away from the smell of the hospitals in my 2 weeks of annual leave in June.
Gazpacho is a Spanisn cold vegetable soup. It is based on the cold garlic soup from the southern autonomous region Andalusia consisting of bread, garlic, olive oil, sherry vinegar and salt. Add some tomatoes, capsicums, cucumbers and then chill it (very important) – you have gazpacho.
My version this time has: Roasted capsicums – 3 Very ripe tomatoes – 3 Garlic – 1 clove raw or 3 cloves gently cooked in some olive oil until the moment they start changing colour Sherry vinegar – 1 table spoon Salt and pepper Optional parsley for garnish.Just blend all ingredients together with enough water to get a thick consistency and chill. Alternatively, if you can’t wait on theis delicious concotion then put the vegetables in the fridge and add cold water and ice to blend.
Duck duck
Most people who know me well, understand when I suddenly fall into cravings for duck. I brought a piece of duck breast + thigh on bone at the Vic Market to sooth my ache. According to Gordon Ramsey’s Cookalong the duck is place skin side down on a cold pan to help render the fat out. Then finished inthe oven. Certainly works to a crispy brown skin and well rendered fat. I just deglazed the pan with some barley liquer (Chinese cooking wine), soy sauce, brown sugar and balsamic vinegar.
Gnocchi with chicken, mushroom, roasted peppers and truffle oil
Inspired by cheap spuds in the grocery store, I decided to make some gnocchi. Gnocchi is an Italian pasta made of potatos and flour +/- egg (according to Tzu-yen purists dont use eggs.) Anyhow, I sort of made up this recipe for Gnocchi out of guesswork…
Gnocchi (serves 4)
- 3 potatos
- teaspoon of butter
- 1 egg
- Tipo 00 flour
- salted water for boiling
The potatos are first steamed until soft (about 20-30minutes), the skins are then removed and the potatos mashed with the butter. Then flour is gradually added to the mixture and incorporated until dough is not sticky and easy to handle. It is then rolled onto a floured surface into sticks approx 1.5cm diameter. The dough is then cut with a knife then sprinkled with flour until ready to use. Boil with a huge rapidly boiling pot of salted water. It is ready when it floats to the top in about 2-3minutes. Be careful as it may foam up and overflow into the kitchen.
The above dish is assmbled with chicken breast, mushrooms, roasted peppers, white truffle oil and finished off with flakes of parmigiano reggiano. This dish was paired with Pewsey Vale Riesling 2008 which was discovered in the Halliday’s top 100. This Riesling can be described as fresh, aromatic, citrus, crisp acidity.
Macha creme brulee
Creme brulee is recipe wise a thicker creme anglais set in a container rather than blended into a liquid. I found that by covering the ramekins with food wrap or lid really gives the final product a very smooth surface. Macha (green tea powder that is purely grounded green tea leaves) has such a wonderful flavour and is excelent as an addition to vanilla or by itself.
And that blow torch is a mean tool.
Sugar + Fire
More food for the hot weather
Finding cakes was not a part of my job description. It was fun anyway – something different from the persistent haggling of a patient for more diazepam. The only problem was the 45 degree heat.
Cucumbers, tomatoes, flat-leaf parsley, lemon zest, feta (a good one = Dodoni), olive oil and seasoning with thin spaghetti. I know some people wont like this combination for pasta but on a hot day with limited time and a guilty conscience of getting take away…