A Bottle of Johnny Walker and A Jug of Long Island Tea Later.......

A fav hangout of mine in Jakarta would be Mulia Hotel at Senayan. I don't know why, but I love the bar there... CJ's. I guess it's the band, the drinks, the crew that I know so well.... but the price, not cheap. The crowd there is also much to be desired I guess..... (it's a but like KFC, if you get the drift) The Christmas decor is not too shabby, in fact it's quite grand, sorry about the pictures taken thou, Blackberry has to do something about its camera! http://www.hotelmulia.com/

Anyway, we were there to bid farewell to a friend who has decided to get back to Singapore after 3 months in Jakarta. Well, at least he tried to get used to this place, but it was meant not to be? Anyway, it was a good night out.... 5 glasses later and that friend was sleeping at the VIP area like a baby.... WEAK!!!!!

I have always been interested to make food with shot glasses, being cool looking and you know... kinda 'in' using shot glasses as a serving utensil. Well, I did 1 from before about 2 months ago. Salmon Puree with Celery in a Shot Glass.

- salmon fillet to be grilled for 1 minute (depends if you want to have your salmon well done or semi-cooked, my advice is to have it semi-cooked for a better colour)

- cut the fillet into smaller pieces for blitzing

- cut some strips of celery as well for blitzing (if you want to grill the celery strips, it's better for that extra taste)

- in a Blitzing device, I am using the Phillips Blender ( heh... cheap and good) add the salmon fillet, celery, a teaspoon of salad cream, a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of olive oil. (add a teaspoon of White Wine as an option) Blitz the contents together - if you want chunky pieces, not too long about 5 presses of the blitzer; 10 presses of the blitzer to smoothen the mixture more.

- grill or blanch some prawns (shell-less... and yes ladies, its TRUE.... no skin is better) with olive oil and chopped garlic, salt and rosemary. In my case, I blanched the prawns in salted hot water for 1 - 2 minutes.

Serving - cut strips of celery, about 2 inches long and 1/2 inch thick. In the shot glass, oil the inside and just tip the blitzed salmon and celery in. Garnish with crushed black pepper and put the prawns above and stick the celery into it and it's done.

This is a simple dish, easy to make and can be done a day before with storage in the fridge as this can served as a cold dish or normal temperature dish. Seafood shot! DOWN it!!

Italiano..... but not really

It was pissing like no tomorrow.... yesterday but the silver lining in that was it stopped the suppossed mass demonstrations in parts of Jakarta. ( PHEW)

I had to meet a friend and I was told to go to this Resto in Niaga Bank Tower... it's called PEPENERO. It's an Italian Resto with outlets in some parts of Jakarta, but this one is very chic... If I were to have a resto, I would make it to replicate Pepe's, Very Nice! I didn't bring my camera with me and taking pictures of the place and food with my Blackberry will do it much injustice. But if you would like to have a good meal and at a good price (about SGD10 / dish) and with such a chic ambience, get your asses here!!!

After a bread basket and a pork belly main dish, I was filled. The cuppa was also typical Italiano.... MIA BELLA......perfecto. Chatting continued and a handshake after, we parted ways.... I swear the pork bellies called me back, but I had to go off. It was still raining!!!

<-- the building on the LEFT

I swear I will try to make it back in SG, so watch out for it all.

A friend on facebook wrote to me about this blog and she commented that she liked the way I did some of my abalone dishes, so I'll share with you lot 1 of the dishes. Abalone with Kailan and Shitake Shroom in Oyster Sauce.

Abalone is a delicate shellfish. Its going to taste like a deflated basketball when cooked wrongly (trust me I know, I had a bball smacked to my face when I was in secondary school). Anyway, it's actually not that difficult, its all in the timing.

New Moon (no ladies, there will be no Camp Edward nor Camp Jacob) is my fav brand for abalones and I had 1 stacked away in the cupboard and since the Mrs loves Abalone, I decided to cook for her some time back.

- Abalone, remove it from can but keep the brine, it will be useful. Rinse the abalone with water and paper towel dry it.

- Oyster sauce, 2 table spoons of it would be enough. Add a tablespoon to dilute it. Leave that for now.

- Kailan to be soaked in boiling water for 1 minute to retain its hard and crunchy texture. Add oil and salt to the boiling water.

- Shitake Shroom takes some time to cook if it's the dried type but I suggest using the fresh one. Blanch it for 1 minute and then on a grill pan, grill it over high heat for 1 minute on each side. There will be the sweat of the shroom and that is sexy when mixed with the oyster sauce to give that extra 'ka-pow' to the taste!

- Oyster sauce to be reduced in a pan over mid-high heat and add the shroom juices to the pan. Add olive oil and also some chopped garlic to make the taste better. A touch (1 teaspoon) of honey will make the suace flowing with saltiness and sweetness at the same time.

- Back to the star of the dish. In the same water that was used to blanch the Kailan, turn off the heat of the stove and slide the Abalones in. Let it soak in the hot water for 1 minute. Toss it around in the hot water. Remove after 1 minute and lay it over the veges as in the image.

To top it up, add a teaspoon of olive oil when serving and drizzle some dried chilli flakes to add colour and slight taste. Well guys, hope that this will remind you of that sexy abalone dish that you have tried in many restos..... Buon appetito!

Jakarta Bound for a week

Well, it's time again to go back to the motherland..... just for a short trip. To oversee some things actually and to pay some local bills.

I can't cook in this country, the kitchen is the territory of the trusty maids, so I shall give a past dish for you today. I did cook this here in Jakarta, but I had to borrow the kitchen from a friend who has the ORIGINAL SINGAPORE STYLED YONG TAU FU. For those who like Yong Tau Fu, take a visit to this resto when you visit Jakarta. It's only 15 mins away from the airport and they serve 100% AUTHENTIC Yong Tau Fu! Get into thier website for more details and branches in Singapore and Jakarta: http://www.tanglinytf.sg/

Well, in Jakarta, the Carrefour is MASSIVE!!!! Even the one out of town is huge! The whole basement of the shopping mall - Pluit Emporium is Carrefour. Well, food here is cheap, but only certain types. The topside steak was a cheap SGD 5 for 650 grm! I bought 4 of those and also some Bell Peppers and potatoes to make Spicy Teriyaki Mash.

Grilled Mid-Rare Topside with Bell Peppers and Teriyaki Sauce Mash:

- boil the potatoes till soft and then msh them together. Use some butter to highten the taste. Add a touch of salt to taste. To make it more creamy, add 4 table spoons of FULL CREAM MILK (that's right all, FULL CREAM! You want healthy? Just eat salad then....) Let this rest on the side.

- for the peppers, cut them into strips and just grill them. Lay the grill pan with Olive oil and just grill them peppers! Make sure to allow some char-ing as this will add crisp and enhance its sweetness. About 10 minutes and on high heat with constant turning to make sure that the peppers are not over burnt!

- I bought ready made BBQ sauce and just soaked the raw meats into it for 4 hours. After its done, I let them rest for awhile before putting them on a hot and olive oiled grill pan. As the meat is thick, we have to make sure that we time the cooking properly. 3 mins on 1 side of the steak and then add a knob of butter for when we turn it to the uncooked side. Butter is for taste, so it's going to make the meat explode with its own juiciness and the salt from the butter will make the kitchen smell like heaven. for 3 mins on the other side and then turn the heat to mid and for 1 min on each side, continue to cook the meat.

Serving - make sure that you re-grill the peppers to ensure heat. The potatoes are meant to be covered with alu foil / cling film to maintain its heat as well. The BBQ sauce to be made warm for dressing. As above picture, serving can be done as above. For the mash, use a table spoon and create a semi-scoop sized helping of the mash and place 1 scoop on top of the other. Lay the grilled peppers on another part of the serving plate and lastly, the steak. Scoop a helping of the BBQ sauce and lay it above the steak. From the grill pan, there will be remains of the juices of the steak, use some and lace it above the steak as well. Lastly, dress it with pepper and a teaspoon of olive oil. READY TO EAT!!!

MAKAN!! Ayo! Makan dong!! :)

A Seafood Dinner

It was one of those days you know... lazy but full of cooking inspiration. Especially after a failed attempt for a seafood dinner on Friday, when we realized that the seafood was incomplete bad to boot. I mentioned this right? Crappers... all day long?

Anyway, Sunday was a good day to give the palette a better taste of seafood comprising of prawns / oysters / scallops / tuna.

From these I made soup for the prawns and scallops infused with white wine and garlic.


I also made tuna steak (well-done) with rockets and laced with caramalized red onion reduction.

Here is the grilled garlic prawns and scallops.

Oysters as is with chopped chery tomatoes and olive oil with lemon.

Let's just do the grilled prawns as this is a simple way of preparing this dish:

- clean the prawns and gut the black stuff at the back. Some people say its poop, some say its the veins... whatever it is.... just gut the buggers!!

- stuff garlic into the slits (SLITS ok..... you sick perverts)

- for the scallops, dress it with oregano / basil / parsley

- chop some onions and put them unto the grilling pan for the grill contraption (not a grill pan).

- lay the prawns, the scallops and some chopped cherry tomatoes above the onions and drizzle olive oil to it and chuck them into the griller. On medium-high heat and for 15 minutes. Remember to turn the scallops after 10 minutes onto the other side.

- after its done, serve the prawns and the scallops beside each other and squeeze a touch of lemon over it, add a bit more of olive oil and dress it again with salt, pepper and flash some chopped parsley over the dish. Do not forget to place slices of lemon (for some who like the zing). The last touch must be to use the juices that have flowed out from the prawns and scallops and dress that over the dish for a better taste.

For those other dishes, just drop me a line and I'll share on how to make them. :)

Hope you enjoy the prawns!!

Rain rain go away

Saturday morning and the rain kept me awake... the pitter patter of sky juice!?! Argghhh.....

To make it worse, the Sambal Kang Kong from Pasir Panjang New Hong Kong Street 'Che Char' gave me the crappers!!!!! OUCHHHH......

To appease the tummy and my rectum, I ransacked my Samsung Fridge to see what I can find from before. Not so much as left overs, but ingredients for a tummy cooling soup... Cucumber / Wolfberries / Golden Shrooms / Tomatoes / Egg.

As the Mrs was still asleep, I could be on time for a soup-in-bed Saturday morning surprise. Wait... the crapper called (the agony!)





Back to the kitchen and my legs were wobbly from the 'tai-chi' controlled release. Knife and chopping board out, Cooling Soup here we go:


- Cucumber are diced into cubes

- Tomatoes are diced into small cubes

- Wolfberries are soaked in water

- The stock, now the stock is tricky, well if you want to start from scratch but I decided to use the good 'ol Indo way..... RYOCO! :) Easy and quick, a small satchet of this 'taste enhancer' will do the magic, but of course, do add water to taste. Add into 750ml of water to this satchet into a pot and bring it to a boil.

- Golden shrooms are to be washed and just spread apart

- An egg to be beaten in a bowl for pouring into the pot later

- Corn starch if you like your soup to be thick (I know for the ladies, it would be among OTHERS, but let's revert our attention to the dish shall we and I mean culinary dish)




Method: to be honest, just dump all the ingredients in. But best to let the cucumber 1st, shrooms + wolfberries 2nd, 3rd tomatoes (this is in accordance to toughness of these ingredients in soup) and lastly corn statch else beaten eggs to thicken the soup. When done, add a dash of pepper and done. Warm and cooling for the body..... ahhhh......... CRAPPERS AGAIN!?!?!?

Some new toys....

A visit to Vivo City to get all my personal banking done and suddenly, the itch was there..... how about some new toys... (no! not THOSE toys you foul minded gents! Vivo doesn't sell them, elsewhere.... I'll tell you next time) ANYWAY..... I was refering to shopping in Daiso.... cheap as chips!!!! Damn.... but they did not have what I wanted - a splatter cover but I got myself an electronic timer and a peeler each @ $2! Yeah ok... cheap thrill.... but literally!!



Did I mention that I just got a new Phillips kettle? WOOOOO HUUUU.... It's brushed Alu look matches with the kitchen so well that I HAD BUY IT! Of course, it did set me back $25 (with the help of $50 Best Denki Voucher) but hey.... it looks the DADDY in me kitchen!

A Facebook post by me: what to cook, what to cook, what to cook.
Responses were not many, 1 said to cook chicken curry, while others spoke jibberish but 1 came back to cook Rack of Lamb / Agilo Olio / Roasted Pumpkin Soup. WOW! I had all the ingredients for a wicked Agilo Olio!! Of course, that can wait, cos I'm still in the SHOPPING ZONE!!!! Well..... if you consider shopping in Giant - s-h-o-p-p-i-n-g....

3 fags (puffs / 'batangs' / curuts / 条 - god damn it! It still don't sound right.. but you guys know what I mean right? *RIGHTTTT!!?!?) and a cuppa after, I set off for home which took no more than 7 minutes... WEST SIDE!!!!!!!!!!!! Bolted to the kitchen and got all the things I needed for that Aglio Olio.



Aglio Olio:

- Speggs + garlic + parsley flakes + Indo Chilli Padi + chilli flakes + cherry grape tomatoes

1) Speggs are to be cooked in its normal method: in hot salted water and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. About the standard 10 minutes will be enough.

2) Cut the tomatoes into halves and grill them red suckers!! 5 minutes on each side either of high or mid-high heat. Grill the skin side first....

3) When the speggs are boiling, get 5 tablespoons of the liquid and seperate into a small bowl for later use

4) In the meantime, cut your garlic and also chilli padi and parsley OR you can use dried parsley leaves.

5) When the Speggs are almost Al-dante, start on another pan: olive oil, garlic and cut chilli on mid-high. Once the speggs are done, drain them over cold tap water. Transfer them straight to the other pan and start to ruffle the mixture together. It won't take long, 1 minute at the max and then you finally add the parsley.

6) To serve, use a thong (I said... USE... I didn't say WEAR) or a pasta scoop, and in a shallow plate, stage the speggs at the center of the plate then add the grilled tomatoes and place them at the side. Dress the plate with 1 table spoon of olive oil, a dust of black pepper and some dried chilli flakes... and there you go! Of course, add Parma Cheese if your tongue calls for it and enjoy!



Other substitutions to the parsley can be diced basil leave, orengano or even rosemary. Also, some diners do like to add prawns to this dish, white meat fish or even ham / bacon.

Chinky chink and the chinky bunch

True enough, with me mumm's presence, there was little cooking and more eating out. We went to Lao Beijing @ Plaza Singapura for dinner and the food was great. It was because we were there that I decided to share my Chinese creation.... of sorts.

Baby Bak Choi with Wolfberries and Black Fungus.

I have always regarded Chinese food as a pain as they require stir-frying, I clean my own kitchen and that is stressful with all the oil splattering in Matrix fashion i.e all over the place! But I had a friend who also asked me to cook more Chinese food. Well wrong dish though as he is more of a flesh eating carnivore.



- A bag of Baby Bak Choi to be placed inside boiling water but not during cooking the water. Just 1 minute with the lid on the pot and the veg is done. Add a teaspoon of salt to the water, this will be absorbed into the veg.

- Black Fungus has to be prepared in advance as they are normally in dried form. Place them in hot water and let them soak for about 15 minutes. Remember to rinse them afterwards. They would be done by then.

- Wolberries are also treated the same as the Black Fungus; a tablespoon to be put into a bowl of hot water and let it soften. 5 minutes will suffice.

Cooking:

Warm up the pan and add a tablespoon of vege oil. When the oil is hot enough, a teaspoon of pre-cut garlic to be added and stirred around the pan. At this point, add the vege into the pan and stir around, making sure that the leaves are not burnt. Add the black fungus and continue stirring. Lastly, put the wolfberries into the pan and then add a tablespoon of light soy sauce. Continue to stir to infuse the taste of the sauce into the veg. Lastly, add a teaspoon of diluted oyster sauce*. Continue to stir and when done, add a bit of corn flour** to thicken the sweat made by the veg and the fungus. When the sauce thickens, the dish is ready to be served.

Add a dash of pepper and cut chillies (to add that ZINGG) when serving..... 吃饭!!!



* Diluted oyster sauce is simple. In a small bowl, add a teaspoon of oyster sauce and add hot water, normally 3 times the amount of the oyster sauce. Stir the potion until the water is fluid and without lumps.

** Corn Starch is relatively used in many Chinese dishes. Add a table spoon of corn startch into a normal sized rice bowl and add water until it fills 1/3 the bowl. Stir the mixture until there is no lump as well before pouring into the pan. NOTE: when pouring the corn startch mixture into the pan, make sure that you stir the contents of the pan, else, the starch mixture will clump. Also, to take note that the mixture is to be properly mixed prior pouring into the cooking pan!