Lobster Thermidor

 

Ingredients:

Cooked Lobster 

Minced Shallots

Butter

Milk

Flour

White Wine

Honey Mustard

Gruyere cheese - grated

Minced parsley

How to Make:

1. Preheat oven at 200'C.

2. Preparing the White Sauce (Bechamel Sauce):

Add butter to a frying pan in medium heat, add equal parts of flour (eg. 2 tbsp of butter, then 2 tbsp of flour). Keep mixing until you have a light roux. Add milk gradually and keep whisking until the bechamel sauce reaches a consistency and thickness you like. Whenever it's too thick, add some milk. Season with salt and black pepper. Set aside.

3. Cut the cooked lobster in half lengthwise. Remove the stomach sack and dark intestines. Take the meat out of the shell and cut them up into bite size.

4. Rinse the lobster shell again in clean water and wipe dry.

5. Add butter to a frying pan, then add minced shallots, once fragrant, add a splash of white wine. Then add the bechamel sauce, mix well. Add the lobster meat and mix well. Add a spoonful of mustard. Mix well. Then add handfuls of grated Gruyere cheese. Check taste and adjust seasoning. Remove from heat.

6. Spoon the lobster mixture to the shell carefully. Sprinkle more grated Gruyere cheese on top.

7. Bake lobster at 200'C for around 10 min or until it's golden. Garnish with some minced parsley on top and serve immediately.

Enjoy with your favourite white wine!

Red Bean Dessert Soup

 

            

Ingredients:

Japanese Red beans 250g

Dried Lotus seeds

Fresh lily bulbs - must rinse under tap water to remove all mud and dirt.

Tangerine peel x 1 pc

Cane sugar x 3-4 sticks

How to make:

1. The night before your cooking, rinse the red beans and soak in water overnight.

2. Similarly, rinse the lotus seeds and soak it in water overnight.

3. On the day of cooking, rinse 1 piece of tangerine peel. Once soft, use back of knife to scrap inside of the tangerine peel.

4. Drain the red beans. For the Lotus seeds, after draining water, check every lotus seeds to ensure nothing inside the middle. The black thing inside the centre of the lotus seeds taste very bitter. So must remove.

5. Put all red beans,  lotus seeds, tangerine peel to a cooking pot. Then add 3000ml water and 3.5 sticks of cane sugar. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to medium and cook for 1 hour.

6. Remove all lotus seeds from the pot. Save it for later use. Discard the tangerine peel.

7. Blend the red beans with the soup inside in a few times. Will suggest add more beans in the beginning, so in case it's too thick if you can add the soup to mix to reach a right consistency of the blended sweet soup. After each blend, pass through a sieve to another pot.

8. Once the blending and sieving, the red bean soup should be silky smooth. Add back the lotus seeds in this pot. Also add the cleaned lily bulbs, and bring to a boil. Check taste accordingly and serve.

** fresh lily bulbs add a very nice fragrance to the red bean soup. Add this at the last step as it get broken down and dissovled if cook too long.

Enjoy!

Any leftover, save in fridge and eat it cold with vanilla ice cream.

Fresh Abalone

 

Ingredients:

Fresh Abalone of your choice (personally I like Japanese Black Abalones)

Ginger/ spring onion

For the Chicken Stock: old chicken, chinese ham, carrot and onion

Konbu

For the sauce: butter, minced onion, flour

How to Make:

1. First, make your chicken stock overnight. Blanch old chicken and ham. Place blanched chicken and ham to a big pot together with a carrot roughly cut and an onion roughly cut. After boil, turn to medium heat and cook for about 3 hours. Drain. After cool down, skim oil on top, then place at fridge overnight.

2. On the day of cooking. Take out chicken stock, further skim the fat on top. Reheat soup.

3. Clean abalone. Remove all seaweeds or dirt from shells. Then use toothbrush to clean all skirts of the abalone. Boil a pot of water, add ginger slices and spring onion, blanch the abalone in this pot of water for about 5-10min (abalone with the shell)

4. After blanching, some abalones maybe removed from the shell. Its ok. Rinse abalone with water. Further clean the abalone by removing the guts as shown in picture above. But do it gently in order not to tear or break the abalone.

5. Using a pressure cooker, put abalones together with a few shells (NOTE: the abalone shells can add to saltiness, so a few will do), together with a piece of konbu to the pressure cooker, then add the reheat chicken stock so that all abalones are slightly submerged under the stock. Bring to a boil, then close the cover of the pressure cooker, reduce to medium to medium low heat and cook for 1 hour. After cooking time is completed, turn off heat and let everything settled inside the pot. I think about 1 hour after cooking, the cover of the pressure cooker is ready to be released. Take out abalone gently, then sieve the soup inside. Use a skewer to test if the softness of the abalone is to your liking.

*** Pressure cooker uses 1/3 of your normal cooking time*** so if you normally need to use 3 hours to braise a kind of food, you need only 1 hour in the pressure cooker. But most important to note is right after cooking time at the pressure cooker is completed, dont try to release the cover or else accident will happen!

6. Use the soup sieved from the pressure cooker to make your abalone sauce. In a separate frying pan, heat up some butter in medium fire, then add some minced onion, then sprinkle some flour on top. Mix well, then add the soup, check taste and season accordingly. Cook until the sauce reaches the consistency you like.

you can plate your abalone with rice, pasta, risotto however you like.

Enjoy!

Potato Au Gratin (Gratin Dauphinoise)

 

* adapted from Gordon Ramsay's recipe

Ingredients:

Milk x 200ml

Double Cream x 200ml

Bay leaves x 1 to 2

Garlic Clove x 1 peeled and smashed

Potatoes (eg Desiree or Charlotte or May Queen) x 1 kg

Cheddar Cheese grated x 200g

Salt and Black Pepper

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

How To Make It:

1. Preheat oven to 200'C.

2. Lightly oil a deep ceramic baking dish.

3. Heat the milk, cream, bay leaf and garlic in a pan until simmering. When it begins to bubble up at the sides, turn off hear and leave to cool slightly.

4. Peel and finely slice the potatoes to rounds, using a mandolin.

5. Scatter 1/3 of the cheese over the bottom of the baking dish, the cover with a layer of the sliced potato, overlapping slightly. Season with salt and black pepper.

6. Continue layering until you have used all the cheese and potatoes.

7. Strain the creamy milk, discarding the bay leaf. Pour over the potatoes and gently pressing the potatoes down to help them absorb the liquid.

8. Sprinkle with a little more cheese and bake for 45 min or until the potatoes are golden brown and tender when prodded with a sharp knofe.

9. Leave to stand for a few min and serve.

Enjoy with your favourite meat dish!

Brownie

* recipe adopted from Donna Hay

Ingredients:
200g Dark Chocolate, chopped
250g Butter, chopped
1 3/4 cups (310g) Brown Sugar (or use the Nativa Palm sugar as a healthier alternative)

4 Eggs
1/3 cup (35g) Cocoa Powder, sifted
1 1/4 cups (185g) Plain (all-Purpose) flour, sifted
1/4 tsp Baking Powder
Peanut Butter (try use the 50/50 Brand as a healthier alternative)

How to Make:

1. Preheat oven to 160'C. Line a 20cm square tin and line it up with baking paper.

2. Place Dark Chocolate and butter in a saucepan over low heat and stir until smooth. Remove from heat and cool slightly.

3.Beat eggs in a big mixing bowl, then add sugar, cocoa powder, flour and baking flour until all mix well.

4. Pour chocolate and butter mixture to the egg mixture until mix and well combined. Smooth up the top using a spatula.

5. Dab some peanut butter on top of the mixture here and there and use a toothpick or skewer to swirl around.

6. Bake in oven for 50 mins or until skewer withdraws clean.

Allow to cool slightly in tin before slicing. Serve warm or cold. Best with ice-cream!

Enjoy!

古早蛋糕 Taiwan Sponge Cake

Ingredients:
6 eggs - egg whites and egg yolks in separate bowls
100g cake flour - sieved
100g butter
100g milk
100g caster sugar
approx 2 tbsp vanilla essence or pandan essence

How to Make:

1. Preheat Oven to 150'C.

2. Line your cake tin with baking paper inside. I used a 18 x 18cm. Then use foil paper to wrap the outside of the tin. You will need to prepare a bigger tin which you can place this cake tin inside while baking.

3. Use a small pot and melt butter with the milk at low heat - around 50'C, keep stirring until butter melted and mixed well in the milk. Remove from heat.

4. Pour the butter milk mixture to the bowl containing the sieved flour. Use a hand whisk and whisk and mix them well.

5. Then add egg yolk one-by-one to the flour mixture and continue to use the whisk to whisk and mix them well. Add either vanilla essence or as me, pandan essence and mix well until all smooth.

6. In the bowl containing the egg whites, use an electric whisk to whisk, adding sugar little by little until the egg white mixture is meringue like and you can see ribbons like shapes in the mixture - eg. if you take up the whisk, the mixture stays on the whisk...

7. Add the egg yolk mixture to the egg white mixture. Using the hand whisk to fold them evenly.

8. Pour mixture to the cake tin. Put cake tin inside a bigger tin or tray. Then add hot water to the bigger tin or tray until it's around 1 inch high outside the cake tin.

9. Place the bigger tin or tray with the cake tin to the lower 1/3 of the oven and cook for around 60 mins.

10. test with a skewer. If nothing stick to skewer, it's ready. Remove from oven, then carefully, take out cake tin from the bigger tin or tray with water inside. Carefully, remove cake from the cake tin and tear away the baking paper.

Rest, then serve and enjoy with your favourite tea!

Drunken Abalone and Chicken Wings

* this dish is inspired by my photographer friend Ann Choi during the COVID19 home quarantine and home cooking peak season! You can substitute/add chicken wings, ducks tongue etc as you like  :)

Ingredients

Fresh abalones - 10-20pc 
Sliced Ginger and some spring onion
Chicken Wings and/or Ducks' Tongue - qty you like
Gooseberries 紀子- a bunch 
Dried Longan 龍眼- a bunch
Huadiao wine 花雕酒 or 太雕酒- 200-250ml
Zaolu 糟滷- 100-150ml (this is salty so beware not to add ,more than this)
hot water - 150ml
Rock Sugar or brown sugar  - 2-3tsp

How to Make:

1. Wash and rinse the gooseberries and longan and soak them in water for 10-15 min. Drain water.

2. Now the DRUNKEN MARINATE  - Melt the sugar with 150ml hot water. Then add the soften gooseberries and longan + Huadiao, Zaolu. Taste first and adjust accordingly. Put this marinate to an airtight box big enough to hold all the abalones, chicken wings and/or ducks tongue!

3. Remove abalones from shells and wash under tap. Use toothbrush to brush all the sides/skirt. Remove guts.

4. Wash and wipe clean chicken wings and marinate with Dark Soy Sauce for around 15 min.

5. Boil a pot of water with ginger slice and spring onion. Once boil, put the cleaned abalones to the pot and cook for 5-10 min.

6. Then remove all abalones and put them to a bowl of ice and ice water immediately to avoid it from further cooking and meat becomes tough. 

7. Once abalones cool down, put the abalones to the air tight box with the Drunken Marinate. Leave overnight in fridge.

8. For chicken wings, blanch them in boiling water for 8-10 min. Then remove them to a bowl of ice water with ice immediately to avoid them from further cooking and meat becomes tough. Add to the air tight box with the Drunken Marinate.

Enjoy it as a cold appertizer with a glass of sake or beer! In winter times, this dish can be served hot by steaming it for 5-10 minutes.

Veal Chop Milanese

Ingredients:

Veal Chop (with bone)
2.5 cups breadcrumbs
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 tbsp rosemary leaves
2 tbsp thyme leaves
1 tsp lemon zest
2 eggs
flour
salt & pepper
lemon wedges to serve on table

How to Make:

1. Preheat oven to 200'C.

2. Clean veal chop and wipe dry. Lightly hammer it with the meat hammer on both sides.

3. Marinate with salt and black pepper.

4. Mix the grated cheese herbs and lemon zest with the breadcrumbs.

5. Heat up oil (deep enough to place veal chop underneath oil) in a frying pan.

6. Dip veal chop to flour on a plate. Shake off excess flour.

7. Dip veal chop to the egg mixture on another plate.

8. Then dip veal chop to the breadcrumb mixture. lightly pressed the breadcrumb mixture onto veal chop. Shake off excess. Then deep fry in the frying pan until lightly golden on both sides.

9. Remove veal chop from frying pan. Shake off excess oil. Place them into a oven proof tray with wire rack on top.

10. Bake in oven for another 15 min.

Ready to slice up if after tested with skewer no blood seeping out. Serve with freshly squeeze lemon juice on top.  Enjoy with your favourite white wine or burgundy red!

Plain cake 鷄蛋糕

Ingredients:

Eggs x 6 - separate egg whites and egg yolks to 2 bowls
Flour 100g - sifted
Unsalted butter 100G
Milk 200g
Vanilla essence - 2 tsp
1 square cake tin tray
1 bigger tin tray which can fit the square cake tin inside and with space to pour in some water

How to Make:

1. Preheat oven to 150'C.

2. Heat up butter with milk in a pot until mixed evenly  and around 50'C. Remove from heat.

3. Add butter mixture to the sifted flour and whisk until smooth.

4. Add eye yolk to the butter and flour mixture one by one and whisk until smooth. Then add 2 tsp vanilla essence and mix well.

5. Whisk the egg whites in another bowl until it looks like meuringe like, i.e. when holding the whisk, the egg white mixture can hold.

6. Pour the egg pour mixture to the whisked egg white bowl slowly and mix them well.

7. Pour into the square tin tray lined with baking paper. smooth up the top and bang against table top to ensure all air bubbles come out from the mixture.

8. Put the square tin tray to the bigger tin tray. Add water of around 80'C to the bigger tin tray until it is around 1-2cm high.

8. Carefully put inside oven and bake for 1 hour until top is golden.

Rest in room temperature and enjoy with your favourite cup of tea or coffee.

Cipriani Baked Tagliolini

* recipe adapted from Cipriani original recipe and photo credit to Cipriani

Ingredients:

Bechamel Sauce (makes 3 cups approx)
50g unsalted butter
50g flour
600ml milk
freshly ground white pepper

Pasta
3 tbsp unsalted butter
120g Prosciutto Cotto (or parma ham), cut into julienne strips
1 Box Cipriani Tagliolini (250g)
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan Cheese, plus extra to pass at table


How to Make:

Bechamel Sauce:

1. Boil water in pot 1 until simmering.

2. Use pot 2 which is smaller than pot 1 and can be put on top of pot 1 to heat up the butter in low heat. Once butter almost melted, take it away from the heat and whisk in milk.

2. Once the milk and butter and are blended evenly, return pot 2 to medium heat, continue to whisk and stir until smooth and sticky.

3. Once butter and milk mixture turns thicker and sticky, place it on top of the simmering water at pot 1. Continue to whisk and stir, season with salt and pepper, for approx 10 min or until the consistency and thickness of the bechamel sauce meets your requirements. I will suggest keeping an eye on this to ensure it does get too thick Otherwise, difficult to coat the pasta later. If the sauce gets too thick, add more milk...

remove from heat and stand by.

Pasta:

1. Preheat your Grill.

2. Bring a pot of water to boil and add salt. Cook the pasta for 2 min until al dente. Drain water.

3. Melt 1 tbsp of butter in a large skillet (bit enough to hold all pasta) over medium high heat. Add the ham and cook for a min or 2, stirring constantly. 

4. Put the pasta to this skillet, toss it with the ham. Add 1 tbsp of butter, sprinkle with half of the grated parmesan cheese and toss well.

5. I suggest to add half of the bechamel sauce to the pasta and coat them evenly though original recipe did not contain this step.

6. Spread pasta evenly in a shallow oven proof dish. Spoon bechamel sauce on top and sprinkle with remaining grated parmesan cheese Cut remaining 1 tbsp butter into bits and scatter over the top. *** utmost important is put be greedy and put too much pasta. A think layer is best to achieve restaurant's results! ***

7. Grill/Broil as close as possible to heat source until golden and bubbly, about 2-5 mins.

Serve immediately! Enjoy with a glass of your fav champagne or white wine! 

Vegetarian Soup - Soup for Humid Spring

* this soup meant to nourish your spleen and release your excess humid in your body （健脾祛濕）

Ingredients:

Hairy Mountain Fig (五指毛桃）x 2 pc (around 250g)
Fresh Yam (鮮淮山/ 山藥）x 1/2 stick (around 150g)
Dried Lotus seeds x 1 bunch (around 20g)
Dried Lily Bulbs x 1 bunch (around 20g)
Fox Nut (茨實) x 1 big bunch (around 50g)
Chestnut around 150g (shell removed)
Red dates x 10pc and remove the seed inside
Carrot x 1 pc
Corn x 1 pc

How to Make:

1. Hairy Mountain Fig and the lotus sees lily bulbs, fox nut, all rinse and soak in water for 15 mins.

2. Fresh Yam peel off skin (using gloves if you have sensitive skin) and cut into pieces.

3. Carrot and Corn rinse and cut into pieces.

4. Put all ingredients to pot and once boil, turn to medium to medium low heat and cook for 1.5 to 2 hours.

For non-vegetarian version, can add lean pork too. This soup has a coconut smell somehow and very appetizing to me.

Enjoy!

Vegetarian Soup - Five Elements Soup 五行湯

* recipe adopted from 溫暖人間 magazine
* meant to be 補氣火血 （Qi-Tonifying and Blood-Activating)
* for non-veg version, just add some lean pork. Blanche pork first of course before adding to this soup pot.

Ingredients:

1-2 Chayote
1-2 Carrot
1-2 Corn
100g barley seeds
8-10 dried mushrooms
100g black beans
10-15 cashew nuts

How to Make:

1. Rinse black beans and soak in water for 15 mins.

2. Rinse mushrooms and soak in hot water for 15 mins.

3. Rinse barley seeds and set aside.

4. Wash Vegetables, leave the peel on. Chop into pieces and set aside.

5. Bring a pot of water to boil and add in all ingredients Once boiled, turn to medium to medium low heat and cook for 2 hours. Adjust taste with sea salt.

Enjoy and nourish yourself!

Abalone Pasta

* Top bottom was 2nd attempt but bottom photo 1st attempt. Difference in black truffle quality affects the look and aroma of the dish. But the abalone itself won't go wrong. All in all, a great dish to try cooking if you are a fan of abalone.

Ingredients:

Fresh Black Abalone (those from Japan is amazing. But those from Australia also good) - around 600-800g per piece will be a good size.

Chicken and Chinese Ham stock (as the abalone will absorb all the flavour of this stock, make sure you cook this stock yourself instead of buying pre-made ones. see below how to do this) 

Black Truffle 

Black Truffle Oil

Italian parsley - minced

Chicken and Chinese ham stock:

blanch whole chicken, then blanch chinese ham with some puer leaves. Place them in a big pot fill with water, 1 pc of carrot, 1 pc of onion, bring to boil, then remove to medium heat and cook for 3-4 hours. Remove oil on top and filter out cooking ingredients.

Abalone Pasta Sauce:

Stock left in pressure cooker

Additional Chicken and Chinese Ham stock

salt and black pepper

cornflour solution

How to Make:

1. Better reserve fresh abalone from your fishmonger in advance.

2. Prepare your abalone in day in advance of your cooking day. After removing from shell and removing the guts, wash thoroughly under tap water. Can use a toothbrush to clean the side of the abalone to avoid dirt sticking inside.

2.  Pour chicken stock into a pressure cooker and bring it to a boil. Then add the abalone inside, make sure the abalone is under water level. Close the pressure securely, then lower heat to medium low heat and cook for 1.5 hour. If you are cooking 3 pc of more, can cook longer like 2 hours. Pressure cooker cooking time is 3 times of normal cooking. So if normal cooking requires 3 hours, then you only need 1 hour using pressure cooker, etc.

3. After cooking time is up, switch off fire. Turn the pressure cooker cool down itself until it shows you you are ready to release the lid. Don't rush removing the lid or else everything will blast!

4. Once lid is removed, use a skewer to poke inside of abalone to see if it's soft enough for your liking. If it's not tender enough, you will have to add some cooking time again, but make sure you have sufficient stock inside the cooker.

5. If it's tender enough, remove abalone from the stock which should be thickened a bit by now. After cooling down, put abalone in air tight box in fridge. So next day when you do  the dish, it will be much easier to slice it very thin.

6. Save the stock left inside the pressure cooker to make your abalone pasta sauce - the abalone sauce!

7. On the day you cook your dish, take out abalone from fridge and make thin slices.

8. Cook the abalone sauce in a pan, if qty is not enough for your pasta, then add some chicken and ham stock. Bring to boil, check taste and adjust accordingly with salt and pepper. Add cornflour solution to adjust thickness of sauce. Use tongs or a laddle to gentle heat up the thinly sliced abalone in the above abalone pasta sauce. Remove abalone to a plate. 

9. Cook pasta (I prefer using fresh pasta for this dish and cooking time should be 2-3 min only) as per packet's instructions) less 1 min. Put cooked pasta to the abalone sauce and coat the pasta.

10. Place pasta nicely on a serving plate, then put the heated abalone slice on top of the pasta nicely. Drizzle with black truffle oil, then shaved black trufffle on top. Garnish with some minced parsley to add color and flavour.

Enjoy this dish with your fav champagne or white wine!

Shrimp Spring Roll

* recipe adopted from justonecook

Ingredients:

Fresh Shrimps - remove head and shell but keep tail intact. Remove intestines too.

Spring Roll Wrapper

Negi (long spring onion) - thin slices

Japanese cooking sake

Sea salt

Miso paste of your choice but choose one which is not salty (optional, can omit)

Thai sweet and spicy sauce (optional)

Glue:
1 tsp flour mix with 1 tsp water

How to Make:

1. After remove head and shell of prawns and cleaning up intestines, you now have to tend to the tail. Press tail flat down on chopping board and use tip of knife to cut some away. So the tail when pressed can become butterfly like. You can also remove some excess water during this process.

2. Make a couple of slits diagonally on the underside of the shrimp.

3. Hold the shrimp with both hands and straighten it as s much as possible in order to get the shape as straight as possible.

4.  Marinate shrimps with sake and salt.

5. Cut the spring roll wrapper from square shape into 2 triangles in the middle.

6. Spoon some miso paste right across the middle of the triangle wrapper, then place one straightened shrimp on top of the miso paste, with the tail of the shrimp being outside of the wrapper. Then place some sliced negi on top of shrimp.

7. Pull one side of the wrapper to the other side. Wrap roll up.

8. Upon the end, use finger tip to apply the self-made glue on the wrapper to "seal" it.

9. Heat up a pot with oil then deep fried until both sides are golden. Drain oil on a tray and use kitchen towel to remove excess oil before serving.

You can serve like this direct or with some Thai  sweet and spicy sauce. Enjoy together with your fav champagne or white wine!

Zosui 雑炊 (Japanese style rice in soup)

* adopted from recipe at justonecook

Ingredients:

For Broth:
3 cups dashi 
1 cup of chicken stock (optional - I think adding some chicken stock makes this dish even more tasty!)
2 tsp light soy sauce
1/2 tsp sea salt

For Zosui:
6 pc of boneless skinless chicken thighs - clean and wipe dry and cut into squares
carrot and shitake mushrooms - cut into thin slices. Qty is up to yourself.
spring onion - minced
2-3 bowls of cooked rice - rinse a few times with filtered water
2 eggs - beat it in separate bowl
toasted white sesame seeds
white pepper

How to make:

1. Follow the dashi packet instructions and prepare your dashi stock - approximately 3 cups.

2. Once the dashi stock is boiled, add chicken pieces to the stock. Skim off the scum and foam on the surface.

3. When the stock is boiled again, add carrot and mushrooms and cook for a few minutes. Once you think they are tender enough, add the soy sauce and salt. Please check taste and adjust accordingly.

4. Add the rinsed cooked rice. Then when the stock boils again, gently add the beaten eggs all around the surface of the pot.

5. Sprinkle with white pepper, minced spring onion and toasted sesame. Cover the pot with lid and bring to serve.

Once the lid is open at dinner table, you can immediately smell the fragrance of this dish. Enjoy this healthy dish!

Eggplant Agebitashi

* recipe adopted from justonecook

Ingredients:

2 Japanese/Chinese eggplant
Turnip - to grate into sailing radish
Spring onion - minced
Ginger - grated (optional)

Sauce:
3/4 cup (180ml) dashi
3 tbsp (45ml) mirin
3 tbsp (45ml) cooking sake
3 tbsp (45ml) soy sauce
1 tbsp sugar (prefer raw sugar)

How to Make:

1. Cook the sauce in a pot. Once sugar all dissolved, check taste. As different brands of soy sauce have different taste, you might need to adjust accordingly with a punch of salt or add more water etc. Cool down sauce.

2. After rinsing and wiping eggplant, cut into half lengthwise. Then make incisions on eggplant (skin side) diagonally (don't cut through, gentle does it!).

3. Make sure to wipe off any moisture with paper towel.

4. Cut each halves into 3-4pc.

5. Heat up vegetable oil to around 160'c, then deep fried the eggplant. Don't crowd the pot. Remove from oil, drain oil in a wire rack, then gently wipe off excess oil with kitchen towel.

6. Pour sauce to eggplant. If u want to serve this dish chilled, keep them in fridge.

7. When ready to serve, add grated daikon, ginger and minced spring onion on top.

Enjoy!

Thai Style Roast Pork Shoulder

Ingredients:

Pork Shoulder x 2 pc
Honey

Marinate:
Lemongrass x 1 - use kitchen to smash and flatten it and cut into 1-2 inches
Garlic x 4 cloves - smash and flatten
Lime Leaves x 4pc - shredded
Shallots x 3pc - thin sliced
Dark Soy Sauce x 2 tbsp
Fish Sauce x 2 tbsp
Rice wine x 2 tbsp
Palm Sugar x 2 tbsp
Lime Juice x 1 tsp
Parsley - minced (can omit if you do not like parsley)


Dipping Sauce:

Fish Sauce x 2 tbsp
Lime Juice x 2 tbsp
Rec Chilli x 1pc - sliced and de-seeded (if you cannot take too spicy)
Water x 1 ml
palm sugar x 1 tsp
-> after mixing, please check taste and adjust accordingly.

How to Make:

1. Clean pork and wipe dry. Marinate with above ingredients overnight in fridge or at least 2 hours before cooking.

2. On the day of cooking, preheat oven to 200'C.

3. Use kitchen towel to remove marinate from pork.

4. Line a baking tray with foil. Place pork on top of top and put to oven for 8 mins.

5. Flip the pork and cook for another 8 minutes.

6. Brush honey on top of pork and cook for another 2-3 minutes.

7. Remove from oven carefully and sliced.

Ready to serve with either the above self-made dipping sauce or with the ready made Thai Sweet and Chilli sauce.

Enjoy!

Thai Papaya Salad

Ingredients:

Green papaya x 1 - peeled and shredded
Mini dried shrimp (get from Thai grocery store) x 1/4 cup - grounded
Dried chilli x 1 - soaked in water and drain
Garlic x 6 cloves
Lime rind x 1/4 cup finely shredded
Palm sugar x 3 tbsp
Fish sauce x 3 tbsp
Lime juice x 1 tbsp
Tamarind juice x 1 tbsp
Peppercorns x a few
Peanuts - toss in a hot pan


How to make:
1. Pound the shredded papaya lightly in a mortar, remove and set aside.

2. Pound the garlic, dried chilli and peppercorns thoroughly , transfer to a mixing bowl.

3. Mix tamarind juice, fish sauce and palm sugar together, bring to a boil over medium heat. Please taste and adjust the seasonings as per your liking.

4. Once the taste of the dressing is to your liking, remove from heat and cool on top of a bowl of ice. Add lime juice, pour into the chilli mixture, stir well. Check taste again. Put aside as dressing.

5. Add papaya, dried shrimp and lime rind in mixing bowl and toss well with above dressing.  Sprinkle with peanuts and ready to serve!

Enjoy!

Tamarind Prawns

Ingredients:

Fresh giant tiger prawns x 500g
Onion x 1/2 -minced
Garlic x 2-3pc - pressed
Red chilli x 1 - shredded removing seeds
Shallot x 2 to 3pc - thinly sliced
Dried hot chillies x 6-7pc, crisp fried
Palm sugar (buy fresh one if possible) x 2 tbsp
Fish sauce x 1 tbsp
Tamarind juice x 1/3 cup
Chicken stock x 2 tbsp
Crispy fried garlic and shallots for garnish

How to cook:

1. Wash prawns, remove shell and head and keep tail intact and remove intestines.

2. Marinate prawn with sea salt, then pan fried with pressed garlic until outside of prawn turned white color. Remove from pan.

3. Cook onion until fragrant and soft. Add palm sugar, chicken stock, tamarind juice and fish sauce, stir well until sauce thickens. Add the prawns back and mix well until done.

4. Arrange on a serving dish and garnish with fried garlic and fried shallots. 

Enjoy!

Potato, Eggs and Garlic Shakshuka

* recipe adopted from FT recipe

Ingredients:
Potato - peeled and medium sliced - blanched for approx 10 minutes until slightly soft
Onion - sliced
Garlic - 2-3 bulbs, keep skin and cut horizontal at the top 1/3
Thymes - 2-3 sprigs
Eggs
Milk or whipping cream

How to Make:
1. Heat up olive oil in a frying pan and place garlic flat-side down. Place on low hear and dont move or touch them for about 10 minutes. When time is up, check if the flat side of the garlic is golden, if not, cook for a bit more. If already golden, then remove from pan.

2. Add the thyme to the pan and fizz for a little while. Then add the sliced onion (still on low hear).

3. Remove the garlic cloves from the garlic you removed from the pan and add the cloves to the pan. Add the potato, then season with sea salt flakes and black pepper. Mix well, cover and cook for approximately 10 minutes or until all potato slices are soft enough.

4. Remove the thyme, add a little bit of water say 2 tbsp and 2 rounds of milk or whipping cream for a creamy finish, increase the heat to medium high, when the water/cream boils, add the eggs all over the surface. Cover and cook for 5 minutes (until egg whites have set but yolks are still runny).

Sprinkle surface with black pepper and some shredded thymes and ready to serve hot!

Pair this with your meat dish or eat alone!

Enjoy!