Alaska Crab Salad

This is really easy to do as long as you are willing to devote some time and stand in the kitchen for quite a while and are willing to pay for the expensive cost for a fresh Alaska Crab!!

Ingredients: (for 12 persons)

Fresh Alaska Crab x 1 (steamed or boiled, with the crab meat all removed from shells)

Avocado (please choose the ripe ones) - around 7pc - cut into cubes

Tomatoes (please choose the italian ones or the ones which you think are sweet and tasty) - remove skin using method stated below, then cut into
cubes and drain the tomato juice

Fresh Chives - minced

lemon/ mayo/ sesame dressing/ lemon olive oil


How to make:

1. If you are not arranging directly on plate but is preparing in advance, cover the bottom of each stainless steel cylinder with plastic wrap and place the 12 cyliners in a tray.

2. Mix the avocado cubes with mayo to a consistency you desired and spoon them into the base of the cylinder.

3. Mix the tomatoes cubes with sesame dressing to a consistency you desired and spoon them above the avocadoes layer. Try avoid spooning the juice into the cylinder though.

4. Use your hand to tear the crab meat to bite size and mix with a splash of lemon juice, then mayo to a consistency you desired and spoon them above the tomatoes layer.

5. Wrap the whole tray with the 12 cylinders arranged in the fridge.

6. When you are ready to serve, place one cylinder on one plate and remove the plastic wrap at the bottom of the cylinder bu sliding it carefully away from the plate, then remove the cylinder.

7. Add some a few drops of lemon olive oil on top of the crab layer then sprinkle with the minced chives and serve!!

This presentation looks professional but is so easy to make anyone can do this. Enjoy!!

Removing Tomatoes Skin:
a. lightly cut a cross around the tomato skin.
b. place them in boiling water for 30 seconds and immediately place them in a ice water bath.
-> the skin tear off itself easily.

Beef Wellington

* this receipe is modified from the one from "Christmas with Gordon Ramsay"

Ingredients:
(serves 4-6 paersons)

900g beef fillet (perferably the centre cut with even thickness)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
English mustard, to brush meat

Mushroom Duxelles:
700g chestnut mushrooms or just brown mushrooms, cleaned, and stalks removed
a handful of cooked chestnuts
1 garlic clove, peeled and chopped
2 thyme sprigs, leaves only

To assemble:
8 slices of parma ham (choose those with less salty flavour)
500g ready-made-all-butter-puff pastry
plain flour, to dust
2 egg yolks, lightly beaten with 1 tbsp water (eggwash)

How to make:

One night before cooking:
1. Wash and dry beef with kitchen towel, season with salt and pepper.

2. Heat olive oil in a frying pan over high hear, quickly sear outside of beef until evenly browned, about 5 mins, turning as necessary.

3. Transfer beef to a plate and brush all over with mustard and allow to cool.

4. For the duxelles,out the cleaned mushrooms, cooked chestnuts and garlic in a food processor, add a little bit of salt and pepper and blend to a fine paste, stopping to scrape down the sides a few times.

5. Heat a fry large frying pan and scarpe the mushroom paste to the pan and add the thyme leaves, mix well and cook over high heat until dry, sitriing occassionally. The duxelles must be sufficiently dry to avoid making the pastry too soggy. Spread out on a tray to cool down.

6. On a clean working top, line a large piece of cling film, then lay the parma ham on top, overlapping each other so as to form a rough rectangule large enough to wrap the whole beef fillet.

7. Using a palette knife or a spatula, spread the mushroom duxelles on top of the parma ham, a thin and even layer does it.

8. Lay the beef fillet along the middle of the mushroom layer. Keeping a tight hold of the cling film from the outside edges, neatly rool the parma ham and the mushroom duxelles over the beef into a tight barrel shape. Twist the end of the cling film to secure. Refridgerate for 15 mins to firm up.

9. On a clean working surface, lightly dust with flour and roll our pastry to a thickness of roughly a HK$5 coin thickness and brush with some of the eggwash.

10. Take beef out of fridge, remove from cling film carefully and place it in the middle of the pastry.

11. Roll the pastry around the beef to envelope it and then presss the edges to seal. Pinch the pastry at the ends to seal and trim off the excess. You can use the excess pastry to make patterns on top of the wrap.  Wrap the log tightly in cling film and chill in fridge.

On the night of cooking:
1. Take the beef out from the fridge 1 hr before cooking and bring it to room temperature.

2. Preheat oven to 190'C. Remove cling film and brush the whole pastry with eggwash and bake it oven for 35 min. If pastry appears to be browning too quickly, lower the temperature slightly.

3. Leave to rest in a warm place for 10-15 min before carving.

Enjoy with your favourite gravy, mash and veggies~~

Warm Chocolate Cake

* This Receipe is a modification of the receipe at "Dessert Fourplay by Johnny Iuzzini"

Ingredients:

250g unsalted butter - cut into small pieces
250 bittersweet chocolate (preferbbly Veronha 72% cacao chocolate) - break into small pieces
5 large eggs
5 egg yolks
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp (125g) caster sugar
1/3 cup + 1 tbsp (50g) all purpose floor

How to Make:

1. Butter eight 4oz ramekins or sixteen 2oz molds and dust them lightly with flour. Place them on a baking tray.

2. Boil water in a saucepan.

3. Place butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl and place on top of the saucepan with boiling water. Turn fire to low and keep stiring the butter and chocolate mixture on the heatproof bowl above the saucepan until all melted smoothly.

4. Put eggs and egg yolks to a bowl of a standing mixer fitted with whisk. Beat at medium speed until frothy.

5. Pour in sugar and increase speed to medium high. Continue to beat until eggs have trippled in volumne.

6. Scrape the butter and chocolate mixture into the eggs. Beat until well mixed, scraping the bowl once or twice.

7. Sift the flour and fold gently into the egg and chocolate mixture.

8. Spoon the mixture into the ramekins or molds, cover each of them with plastic wraps and place in fridge.

9. 1 hour before cooking, take them out at room temperature.

10. Preheat oven at 230'C and bake them for 6-7 minutes. Centre of cake will still be soft and a bit melting. Once taken out from oven, leave them for a few seconds, then you'll be able to either invert them into plates or spoon them out of the molds and place in plates. Sprinkle with icing sugar on top.

Best serve with Vanilla Ice Cream.

Enjoy~

Roast French Poussin

Ingredients:
French Poussin (preferrably the white one instead of the yellow ones)
Lemon
Fresh Basil
Garlic
Butter
Honey
Dark Soy Sauce
Salt and Pepper

How to make:
1. Wash and dry poussin in and out. The worst job in this receipe! especially when you have to pull out all hair remaining on the skin (with care or else the skin will be torn).

2. Marinate chicken using dark soy sauce - and using your hand to coat the dark soy sauce evenly on the skin - this is my creative step on bringing some color to the skin. It does not add much to the taste really. Keep this marinate in for at least an hour.

3. Preheat oven to 230'C.

4. Stuffed 1/4 of a cleaned lemon together with a few basil leaves (cleaned and wiped dry) and a piece of garlic clove inside the tummy of the chicken. Then tie back the legs together using the string that comes with the poussin when you bought them.

5. Season the poussin top and bottom using salt and pepper and place them neatly in a baking tray lined with foil.

6. Melt some butter in a oven proof dish in the preheat oven or in microwave. Using a brush, drip the melting butter over the skin (try dripping as even as possible).

7. Put the tray with the poussin to oven for 10 minutes. Then remove from oven, change position of tray, turn oven temperature down to 190'C. Drip more melted butter all over and cook for another 30 minutes at 190'C. Then take out again and drip/brush honey all over poussin's skin and cook for another 5 to 10 minutes until skin turns golden color.

Serve with the sauce you like or with the juice coming from the chicken and the butter and honey in the tray!!

** dont put your tray too low in the oven or the skin cant get the golden color as you may wish for. But not too high to avoid burning the skin too.

Enjoy~