Monday, October 14, 2013

Recipe: Amazing Roast beef...a recipe from Electrolux's Chef E

Roast beef: recipe. How to get wonderful, beautifully cooked roast beef, by Chef Eric Low.

Roast beef...oohs and ahhs. Wonderful when done right. But in the wrong hands, can be dry, unappetizing. How to make the perfect roast beef? Here I share Chef E's recipe. Slow roasted beef with mushroom sauce.

I recently attended a demonstration by Chef Eric Low to show the ease of use of Electrolux kitchen gear.

Electrolux, the Swedish household and appliances manufacturer, presented their latest campaign, the Electrolux Home of Blissful Living with an interactive Facebook quiz that seeks to test players on their home management knowledge and award prizes! The quiz will test players on every day household skills, through multiple-choice questions in an interactive game show format. Successful players will win $50 vouchers weekly, culminating to a grand prize of $2500 worth of appliances from Electrolux. Having tried it, I must say it is not only fun to play, but also very informative.

To enter the contest, all one needs to do is visit the company’s facebook page at www.facebook.com/thelittlewhitebook to have a go at testing your household knowledge and winning prizes. The entire idea behind the Home of Blissful Living is for users to have a sneak preview at the company’s latest range of intuitive appliances that seek to take the hard work out of housework. To demonstrate the simplicity in its appliances, Electrolux invited Chef Eric Low for a quick cook off. Chef Eric will also be sharing original recipes that have a special touch, tips on cooking and how to use cooking appliances smartly to fans of The Little White Book.

Quite an extraordinary chef. Full of little tips, ready to share secrets. Learned a lot. Thanks to Beatrice of AKA and the fine folks at Electrolux for your wonderful hospitality and hosting the event.

On to the recipe:

Roast Beef with Truffle Soy Braised Mushrooms

4 portions

Ingredients:

  • 800g Beef Sirloin Piece, cut into 3 long strips
  • Salt and Coarse Ground Black Pepper

Sauce:

  • 100g Dried Shitake Mushrooms, soaked and sliced
  • 300g Honshimeiji or Bunashimeiji Mushrooms, trimmed
  • 70ml Light Soya Sauce
  • 1tsp Dark Soya Sauce
  • 2tbsps Sugar
  • 250ml Water
  • 2tsps White Truffle Oil

Preparation Method:

Season beef loins with salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 100⁰C.

In a hot pan, sear the beef on all sides.

Transfer to roasting tray and roast the beef for 25 –35 minutes depending on thickness.

Typically, one would roast at perhaps 250C or higher. Roasting at 100C needs a longer time in the oven, and slow cooking does not dry out the meat, as the protein molecules within the meat are not heated agressively such that they contract quickly, squeezing out the moisture. Roasting at a lower temperature also ensures that the meat is cooked across evenly. At higher temperatures, the outside tend to be well done and getting to medium rare deep inside the meat. But this method ensures the meat is cooked evenly, medium rare all the way to the centre.

Place mushrooms and soya sauce in a braising pot.

Add sugar and water, bring to boil and simmer for 20 minutes until liquid is reduced by half. Add truffle oil to the mushroom mixture. Important that the truffle oil is not used in cooking, it will burn, so only add the truffle oil at the last minute.

Rest the meat, because it was slow roasted at a lower temperature, resting time is less than normal.

Slice the roast beef and serve with truffle mushroom sauce.

Note that as Chef E sliced the beef, the juices did not overflow...as it was totally absorbed within the meat, making the beef very moist and juicy.

And the finished product...

The sauce is quite amazing. But I actually preferred the beef on its own...it was tender, juicy, and wonderful.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Dajie Wanton mee: an institution

Wanton mee is another of the nice (almost little) meals we can have in Singapore. Quite a balanced meal on a plate...you have the carbs, the greens, the proteins...but also with a bit...ok, a generous bit of fat.

One of the interesting ones I discovered recently...this stall have been serving great WTM for a long time, but for me this is a new discovery...good to just "friend" KF Seetoh on Facebook..haha.

Dajie, or Linda as she is known is the owner and operator, and have been running this stall, quite famous for the braised chicken feet in her wanton noodles. I don't quite cozy to the idea of the chicken feet...I do like them, but not especially so...so I ordered the wanton mee.

The noodles are quite good. The noodles are very nice, al dente, with a very fragrant eggy flavour. Lard is used, and this fortified the noodles even more, making it even more shiok. The char siew is ok, not anything special. The deep fried wanton is quite good. Crispy, nice meat filling within. The wanton in the soup was also very good, but I found the skin to be a bit thicker than the wonderfully delicate ones we get in Hong Kong.

I met with Roy...Linda's husband, and discovered they have recently taken up cycling as well...riding roadies from their place in Senkang...we talked shop about bikes a while. And I left the stall, feeling nice and comfortable with the food. And warm and fuzzy with the hospitality. Definitely recommended.

Dajie Chicken Feet Noodle

209 Jalan Besar (corner of Jalan Besar and Sam Leong Road)

Monday, October 7, 2013

Comfort foods: Steamboat at Crystal Jade

Steamboat is one of the comfort foods of my childhood. It comes in many variants, primarily in the soup base but also in the ingredients to be cooked by dipping into the boiling stock. Crystal Jade, who have been quietly making big strides in the Singapore and Asian culinary scene with good quality food in very convenient locations, recently opened a new restaurant specializing in steamboat.


This outlet, in the new-ish Zhong San Park, with the restarant's glass walls looking into a beautiful landscaped garden court. The new mall houses 2 hotels in its complex. I was there as part of the media tasting organized by JJ Koh of Pinstripes Communication who hosted the lunch with Samantha of Crystal Jade.

We tasted a duo of stock bases...one a superior broth of Pork Bone and another of Tom Yam.

The soup bases are rather special, and are the key to a good steamboat. The pork bone soup is made from a superior broth simmered for more than 12 hours, with fresh whole chicken, chicken feet, lean pork and pork bones. This is a robust, hearty stock, very comforting. The Tom Yam soup base is for those with a prefer a spicy base, and is made with superior broth, simmered with a Thai chilli and fresh chilli padi, lemongrass, scallion and lime juice.

A sauce station is placed for self service, and offers many varieties of sauces, from sesame to chilli, to diverse sauces to satisfy a wide range of tastes.

And the steamboat ingredients...

Handmade squid ball

Squids, carrots and celery...minced, hand made into balls. Very nice...beautiful sweetness of the squid and a very good springy texture. My favourite.

Fishball, Teochew style

Fresh white fish, hand formed. Nice tasting. Goes very well with either soups, but for me, I prefer the fishballs in the Tom Yum.

Meat balls

Another tasty one! The pork is handcut and rolled into a ball with fresh water chestnut. The meat is very nice with the pork bone soup, and the water chestnuts gives it a crunch.

They also offer a hand made prawn ball with black tiger prawns and a bit of squid.

Also on the menu, fresh meat, sans marinade, so it is critical to have fresh meats being presented for the steamboat

And a special Chef creation of grilled sea bass with preserved vegetables.

In addition to the traditional style steamboat, also available are two casserole type dishes which can also be turned into steamboats. The first is a fish soup, and another is a chicken pot dish.

A staple of Teochew cuisine is the stemed fish with preserved vegetables. The chefs gives this typical dish a twist by grilling the whole fish till golden brown, and on this, a savoury piquant sauce is dished over. The fish was very fresh, the meat firm, yet yielding. Very nice, with the soup, which, after the meat has been eaten, the fish bones can be removed, and the soup used as a stock base for steamboat. Quite superb.

By this time, we were already quite full, but a pot bearing the sauteed chicken with dried chilli and onion was served.

This was an intense dish. Very aromatic, with chicken sauteed the dried chilli in a sizzling hot pot. Broth can also be added after the initial tasting to make this into a spicy steamboat.

And finally a comfort food...salted pork bone and dried vegetable porridge

Pork and bones are salted for 8 hours, blanched and boiled for 2 hours with rice. Then the steam dried vegetables are added...a simple, but hearty and robust, comfort porridge.

Highly recoommended. If one choses the ingredients properly, can be a very nutritious and yet healthy meal.

Crystal Jade Steamboat Restaurant
#01-18 Zhong Shan Mall
20 Ah Hood Road

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Tandoor: supreme Indian cuisine

Indian cuisine...so good when they get it right. I long for the magnificent meals I had in India, even though the cuisine does travel rather well. I have had great Indian meals in London, New York, Malaysia, Singapore and even in Geneva. So it is with pleasure for me to review an old favourite - Tandoor at the Holiday Inn City.

An old establishment, holding court for some 28 years as one of the premier Indian restaurants in town, it was recently renovated, and the menu refreshed.

Renovated, now brighter than before. Cooking is still classical, but slightly modified to be less heavy, less greasy, and all the more healthy.

Traditional papadams, oven roasted.

A sourplum drink...very refreshing, perfect to start the evening

We had the Dinner Gourmet Trail at $68+++, and started with Samosa

Regular samosas...tasted very nice...but I was slightly...emphasis on slightly...disappointed as it was not served piping hot.

Next, a rich chicken soup with fresh mint...with a spiced scallop on a skewer on the side

Served at the table, a la Michelin, the soup was very nice. Beautiful, rich, very tasty broth. The bits of chicken, very tasty too. Great soup!

Then a series of 4 kebabs as appetizers.

From left, the Jalapeno corn kebab, Murg Lemongrass Kebab, and Malmali Seekh Kebab. I particularly liked the minced mutton sheekh kebab...rolled on a skewer and grilled in a tandoor. Juicy meat, beautifully flavoured, and wonderful fragrance. The Jalapeno corn kebab was also very interesting. The jalapeno had a nice bite, and went well with the corn. The Murg lemongrass was made of morsels of chicken, flavoured with lemongrass and grilled to perfection.

A jumbo prawn, spiced with chilli, honey and delicately flavoured with dill leaves was also served

The prawn was very fresh, succulent. I found it to be a bit sweet, testament to the honey used in the marinade.

Then came the mains...but first, one of their signature drinks...the Bollywood Belini...

Champagne, combined with a mixture of lychee and raspberry. Very nice, ingenious mix. Relieves the palate and gets it ready for the main courses...of which there were 6!

First, the Goan Fish Curry

The fish, ocean perch was marinaded, cooked in a tandoor, and served on a hot plate. The coconut curry is poured over the fish at the table. This was one of my favourite dishes in India, and the Tandoor version brought back memories of my wonderful experiences in Mumbai eating this dish. Very good. The fish was very fresh, beautifully marinated. My only nit pick was that the fish was slightly overcooked...mind you, this is very slight...and regular readers would know that I prefer my fish slightly undercooked...which demands super fresh fish, so take this minor nit pick with this in mind.

A magnificent lamb curry, called Nalli Gosht

Lamb shanks were used. Very tender - melts in your mouth is a catchphrase, but in this case is totally apt. The curry was very mild flavoured. Delicious.

A wonderful chicken dish was next

A dum cooked chicken, infused with Indian spices, saffron and mace. Very nice indeed. The fragrance wafts into the nose before one puts the chicken into the mouth. And once on the palate, the flavours reveals itself, each of the spices with its calling card, and the chicken itself was...like the catchphrase...melt in your mouth tender.

A dhal was also part of the mains served

Dhal makani: black lentils slow cooked with tomatoes, garlic and with butter and cream. Very smooth, rich. Not the best I have eaten, but very good indeed. And perfect for the basket of Indian breads

and the magnificent basmati rice, with saffron

The mains on my plate, each a small serving good for a bite or two.

With a serving of Palak Paneer...cottage cheese with spinach and a unique invention of the chef...the Mango curry...a dish inspired by the chef's grandmother trying to get the children to eat more vegetables, and truly successful.

Another cocktail was served...chai mojito

Masala infused Barcadi rum with a home made sugar syrup with fresh mint and coriander. Churned through crushed ice and topped with soda and garnished with fresh mint and lime wedge. Great drink!

And finally, dessert...a trio medly of Baily's Kulfi, rose and elainchi pana cotta and Gajar Halwa

Sweet! I particularly liked the kulfi...traditional Indian ice cream, but with Baily's Cream. The Gajar Halwa is very traditional, sweet. Kin loved the panna cotta...which was rose infused, and delicious.

A fitting tribute to the new chef Sujit Naik

The menu is traditional northern Indian, and the cooking very good indeed. The new decor is bright, lively and truly modern.

Many thanks to Cheryl of Ate Consulting for hosting and inviting me for the tasting. And to Chef Naik for his excellent cooking. Truly enjoyable dinner. Kin loved it so much, she returned with her friends the very weekend for her school reunion. And the girls loved it too!

Tandoor Restaurant
Holiday Inn Singapore Orchard City Centre
11 Cavenagh Road
www.tandoor.com.sg
6733 8333

Monday, September 30, 2013

Friend's Favourites: Dulu Kala at Beauty World

Good Peranakan restaurants are hard to find...maybe I am being too fussy, being peranakan myself...with access to great home cooked food. But I find good ones few and far in between. My friends KS and Pauline highly recommended this one, located in Beauty World Centre.

Located at level 4, right next to the rather more crowded food court, Dulu Kala, meaning Former Times translated from Malay vernacular that peranakans converse in, has been there for the longest time. I have never tried it before, and with the recommendation of both of these foodies, I had to try it. This is Pauline's husband's favourite restaurant...apparently.

We started off with a dish which is well loved by peranakans, but which is not particular popular with others. The sambal petai.

A personal favourite of mine. The bean is nutty, wonderfully aromatic...well some call it smelly. A strong distinct aroma to the nut will permeate the person who just consumed this bean. At its best, almost heavenly. Dulukala's version was good, but for that afternoon we were there, a tad too sweet, and not spicy enough for me. The bean was nice, fresh, and quite aromatic.

We also had the belachan chicken wing

Nicely fried, with a nice flavour. A tad too saltish to my taste, but this chicken wing retains a juicy tender meat with a light crisp skin.

The leather jacket stuffed with sambal was next

The leathery skin had been removed when the fish was served. At home, we would fry the fish with tumeric infused oil with the skin on. And stuff the fish with loads of sambal. This dish, as prepared at home is rather oily, but superbly delicious. The version at Dulukala is all the more healthy. The fish was served without the leathery skin, and was not greasy at all. The fish was cooked perfectly, nice meat, but I found the sambal lacking, and the shiokness which comes from the tumeric infused oil totally absent. This dish did not make the test for me.

A ladies finger dish was next

In contrast, I found this quite special. The ladies fingers seemed to have been roasted before being pan fried with onions, and chilli. Very nicely done. Full flavour and very delicious.

We also had an omlette

This was rather de rigeur. I would have preferred an omlette which is fluffy within a crisp exterior. But this tasted good, so no complaints.

For dessert, we had chendol

The chendol kinda saved the day for me. But still, it was lacking in power...by which I mean the coconut milk could have been stronger, they could have used more red bean and added attap seeds, and a stronger, bolder tasting gula melaka. But the green chendol is authentic, tender and soft.

I may sound critical of Dulu Kala, as I am measuring by very high standards. But really, the food is quite good. I would rate it as above average for a peranakan restaurant in Singapore, and just below three of my current favourites: Peramakan, Spice Peranakan and Novena 2004.

Dulukala Peranakan Restaurant
144 Upper Bukit Timah Rd
#04-04 Beauty World Centre
6465 2036

Thursday, September 26, 2013

Espresso Joints: La Ristrettos

Quaint, interesting artisenal coffee places have been sprouting all over the island. La Ristrettos is one...situated within a Medical Center...yes, right next to the Doctors' offices.

A bit out of the way to find...but situated on the 8th level of Novena Medical Centre...just upstairs of Square 2.

Looks interesting...certainly the owners are passionate about their coffee. There is a fairly large outdoor seating in landscaped garden just outside, but within, an order counter, and another countertop housing a magnificent espresso machine.

So first off, order some espressos...I had a machiato

Delivered as it should...a double shot of espresso, and marked with foam. Tastewise, quite nice. The coffee was robust, but as I have remarked before, milk tends to mask the taste...but it was promising enough for me to order a ristretto

It takes a brave barista to offer a ristretto. Ristrettos are not easy to pull one after another...but from the looks of the ristretto...I'd say it was less successful than the machiato. The double ristretto was too large in volume, the crema looked light and weak. On the palate, it was ok, tasting more like a double espresso than a ristretto. The mouth feel was not as luscious as I have tasted...for example in Mecca in Sydney.

Kin had the iced espresso...which they call cafe shakerato

A double shot of espresso, shaken violently with ice cubes, and served in a martini glass. Interesting...and surprisingly delicious.

We had food there too...Edward had the spagetti carbonara

Quite nice, I must say. Beautiful, rich, and very nice. Not too much sauce as they tend to do in Singapore, but more like carbonara as served in Italy.

Kin had the breakfast...the Grande...scrambled eggs, sauteed mushroom, bacon, spicy Italian sausage, salad and sour dough...quite regular, and not better than what we can whip up ourselves...no pic for this.

I had a crab capellini...

This was more successful...the capelini was nicely done. The serving had a generous helping of crab meat, and very nice cherry tomatoes. A bit light in taste, which was remedied by a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Quite nice.

Oh, we had a Ceasar's salad as well...with chicken

The salad was great. The greens were very fresh, and crunchy. The chicken breast, grilled I presume was very good. Tasty and still moist and tender. The salad dressing is light, and very tasty.

Nice, quaint place to hang out. The coffees were ok, but not spectacular like the blazing standards set by some of the new Artisanal coffee joints around...I have covered some, and some of the newer ones I will be covering soon. The food range from quite good to very good, though not spectacular. And its kind of a cool place.

La Ristrettos
10 Sinaran Drive
#08-37 Singapore 307506
(Novena Medical Centre)
6397 7165
facebook.com/LaRistrettos