中華冷麵 Cold Noodles

 

* Credits to @jeffreyveggielife, my J'shojin (vegan) cuisine teacher

Ingredients:

Marinated Monkey Mushroom (I used the one which is frozen and purchased from Kowloon City 廣益行) - sliced and pan fried in frying pan

Abura-age (油揚 - Deep fried Tofu Skin） (Can be purchased from Sogo or City Super tofu section in fridge)

Dried Seaweed - rehydrate in water and squeeze out water

Cucumber - shreds or slices

Tomato - thin slices

Noodle (choose a type good for this dish. Can be purchased from Sogo or City Super noodles section in fridge)

Eggs omelette (for vegetarian version, not vegan version) - slices

Sesame - grinded

Noodle Sauce:

Soy Sauce x 4 tbsp （I used Kikoman 萬字牌 特選丸大豆減鹽)

Rice Vinegar x 3 tbsp

Maple or Agave Syrup x 3 tbsp

Sesame Oil x 1 tbsp

Vegan Mushroom Powder (I used Vigor & Health 素高倍鮮G粉）

Vegan Soup base 200ml (just soak 1 small pc of Konbu Kelp together with 2 dried mushrooms in 1L water overnight, chinese mushrooms rinse with corn starch and water)

How to Make:

1. Cook the noodle sauce in pot until all mixed. Then cool down and place in fridge.

2. Noodles cooked as per packet instruction, then rinse in ice water.

3.  Mix the noodles in the chilled noodle sauce.

4. Place noodles nicely on noodle bowl, top with the above ingredients, then add a few more spoons of the chilled noodle sauce.

5. Garnish with sesame or grinded sesame.

For non-vegetarian version, can add sliced ham or chicken.

Enjoy this dish in this melting summer! 

Uni Pasta

 

Ingredients:

Fresh Uni x 1 typical wooden box (prefer those from Japan)

Garlic x 2 cloves - mashed

Shallots x 2 cloves - minced

white wine or sake x 1-2tbsp

Crushed red pepper or peperoncino 

Double Cream

Pasta 

shredded seaweed

How to Make:

1. Cook pasta as per package instructions less 30 seconds.

2. In a frying pan big enough to hold the pasta, cooked the mashed garlic and shallots with olive oil until fragrant, then add the crushed red pepper or peperoncinom, then the white wine or sake, then the double cream. Mix well.

3. Then add around 1/4 box of the uni and mix them well with the cream sauce, ensure uni all broken down like a paste in the sauce instead of lumps. Dont cook too long or else the uni too cooked and cream evaporated too much. check tasting.

4. Add pasta to this pan and ensure pasta evenly coated with this uni sauce.

4. Plate uni pasta to dish. Spoon extra uni on top of pasta and garnish with shredded seaweed on side.

Taste delicious together with a glass of sake! enjoy~

Carbonara pasta

 

Ingredients:

Fresh eggs x 4 (preferrably Japanese eggs or Itallian eggs with more yellow yolks)

Panetta cubes

Grated Parmessan cheese x 1-2 bowl

black pepper

pasta

Method:

1. Pan fried the pancetta in a frying pan with little olive oil until fragrant and cooked. Then turn off heat and take the chance to cool down the pan a bit.

2. Cook your desired pasta as per Box's instructions.

3. Beat eggs in a big bowl then mix well with grated parmesan cheese until the mixture is not too light but not too thick.  Then add grated black pepper.

4. Once pasta is cooked, put them to the frying pan with fried pancetta, mix well. Then add the egg & cheese mixture and mix well.

5. Use a tongs to plate to serving dish and add some black pepper and grated parmesan cheese. Can discard extra egg sauce when plating unless guest preferred more sauce.

Enjoy!

Baked Pork Chop Rice with Special Tomato Sauce

 

* This recipe is inspired by the former chef Au Kwok Keung at China Tang. My dad loves this dish but since Chef Au no longer working there and restaurant no longer serve this dish, I need to find out and experiment how to cook this. From an interview that Chef Au did with a newspaper years ago, I experimented. You can always replace the following tomatoes with those you like. Chef Au only said use a few types of fresh tomatoes and cooked for 2-3 hours...:)

Ingredients:

Italian San Marzano tomatoes x 1 kg

Italian Cherry tomatoes x 500g

Italian Datterino tomatoes x 500g

Onion x 1 - minced

Shallots x 1 bowl - minced

Tomato paste

Parmesan cheese - grated

How to Make:

1. Gently cut a cross on all tomatoes. Boil a pot of water. Drop all tomatoes inside the pot, switch off heat. After 2-3 minutes, when you see some skin peeling off from tomatoes, remove them at once and put them to a bowl of ice water.

2. Gently remove all skins from tomatoes. For the San Marzano or plum tomatoes, remove seeds from centre too. You can omit removing seeds part for cherry or detterino tomatoes.

3. Diced all tomatoes.

4. In a pot big enough to hold all tomatoes, heat it up, add some olive oil, cook the minced shallots and onion until fragrant and tender, then add all tomatoes. Mix well, add a round of tomato paste, then season all with salt and brown sugar. Once boiled, turn down the heat to medium/medium low and cook for at least 2 hours. You have to observe from time to time how the sauce is cooking. When you see no more "liquid" inside the pot and the tomatoes getting quite condensed, then you are almost done.

5. Preheat Grill to 230'C.

6. Cook your fried pork chop and fried rice your way. Put fried rice to a baking tray, all pork chop on top, then spread the tomato sauce on top of pork chop. Sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese and grill in oven for 5-10 min until you see the grated cheese and top of tomato sauce a bit brown, then ready to serve.

enjoy!

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! 

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!

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!

Chorizo and Prawn Pasta

Ingredients:

Fresh Sea Prawns, with heads and shells removed (can keep for other use)
Sliced Garlic 
Chorizo, blizz in food processor 
Parsley, minced
Pasta of your choice
Parmesan Cheese - grated
Extra Virgin Olive Oil

How to Make:

1. Clean prawns and remove intestines. Wipe dry and marinate with sea salt and black pepper. Remember to save the heads and shells for other use by keeping them in freezer.

2. Heat up a pan with olive oil, then pan fry the sliced garlic until golden. Remove the garlic to a dish lined with kitchen napkin to drain some oil.

3. Using the same pan with garlic oil remaining, pan fried the prawns on both sides, then add the blizzed chorizo until all cooked and fragrant. 

4. Cook the pasta as per packet's instructions or al dente. Add pasta to the frying pan and mix all together. 

5. Top the pasta with the golden garlic slices and minced parsley. Drizzle some extra virgin olive oil and grated parmesan cheese and ready to serve.

Enjoy!

Tomato Pasta

Ingredients:

Italian San Marzano or Piccadilly Tomatoes x 1kg
Italian can plum tomatoes x 1 can (optional - if you prefer the tomato paste to be more wet, adding can tomatoes will help)
onion x 1 - minced
garlic slice - 2 tbsp
basil for cooking and garnish
parmesan cheese - grated
olive oil

Pasta of your choice
1 bowl of sliced garlic

How to Make:

1. De-skin and de-seed the tomatoes first. You can do it by boiling a pot of water, cut a cross at the skin of the tomatoes, drop them to the boiling water for 1 min. Take them out and place to ice water. The skin will be easily peeled off at this stage. Remove all skin, mince the flesh of the tomatoes discarding all seeds and juice. After mincing the tomatoes, you can put them on a strainer so extra juice can be discarded.

2. Mince the can tomatoes and drain on strainer to remove extra juice.

3. Heat up a pan with olive oil, then fry the garlic slices until golden. Remove the garlic and save the oil in the pan sufficient to brown the minced onion.

4. Put minced onion onto to the pan with garlic oil and fry until soft, then add the minced fresh tomatoes and can tomatoes, stir fry until all combined. Season with salt and pepper and sugar to your liking. Then add the basil, turn heat to medium low and cook for 20 minutes.

5. Cook your pasta as per instructions on packet.

6. In a separate pan, heat up sufficient olive oil which will be used to coat the cooked pasta, then pan fried the sliced garlic until golden.  

7. Drain pasta, mix it in the pan with garlic olive oil, then and place it nicely in a serving dish.

7. Add tomato paste on top on pasta, then a basil leave, grated parmesan cheese and drizzle olive oil on the side. For those who like fried garlic, you can add the fried garlic to the pasta too.

Serve and enjoy it with your favourite white wine!

Claypot Rice with Fish and Onsen egg

 Ingredients:

Dashi stock

Fish Fillet

Rice Crispies

Eggs (preferably Italian eggs)

How to Make:

Dashi stock:

1. wipe Konbu with a set cloth, then soak it in a pot of water for at least 30 minutes.

2. Boil the above pot of water. Once you see air bubbles around the konbu, remove them. Then add a big bunch of bonito flakes. Once the water is boiled, turn off heat and let bonito flakes all dropped to the bottom of the pot. 

3. Drain bonito flakes away and you will have a clear dashi soup stock!

Claypot Rice:

1. Wash rice under tap until the water is no more milky but clear.

2. Put rice to the claypot. For every 1 cup of rice, add 1 cup + a little bit more dashi stock into the claypot. Soak the rice in the dashi stock for at least 30 minutes.

3. Put rice pot to stove and heat it up. Once water is boiled, put the fish fillet on top of the rice and cover the pot and turn heat to medium to medium low and cook for 15 minutes.

4. Then switch off heat and keep it covered and do not open it for at least 15-30 minutes. Then the rice is ready to be served by mixing fish fillet with the rice and adding rice crispies on top.

* Time when you should start cook the rice as the claypot cannot keep the rice forever hot. 

Onsen Egg:

cook eggs in slow cooker at 65'C for 30 minutes. Once done, remove eggs from water and keep in a bowl. Crack it on top of rice. Yum!

Spanish Red Prawn Pasta

* this is really easy to make and the effect is like "restaurant-standard" red prawn pasta! so must try!

Ingredients: (good enough for 8 persons)

Spanish Red Prawns x 18pc- chilled or frozen one both are ok. But for frozen one, prepare defrost time in fridge

Onion x 1  - minced

Garlic - sliced x 1/2 bowl

Cherry tomatoes in cans x 2 cans - blended in a mixer to become a tomato sauce

Fresh Basil leaves - washed and wipe dry

Pasta of your choice - around 400g

How to Make:
1. First and foremost is to make the sauce. Wash the prawns, remove all legs with scissors. Cut heads and put aside. For the body, remove all shells and carefully removed intestine from the front. Put prawn bodies back to fridge.

2. Heat up a pot big enough to hold all prawns heads, shells and sauce. Use olive oil, heat the minced onion and sliced garlic till fragrant.

3. Then add the prawns heads and shells and stirred fried with the minced onion and garlic till fragrant. Press the prawns heads until all juices come out from the prawns heads. Add the  blended cherry tomato sauce, mix well, season it with some salt and sugar, once boiled, turn to medium to low heat, and braised for around 30 min. Check from time to time. Remove prawns heads and shells from this sauce to a sieve. Press hard the prawn heads against the sieve so that all sauces from prawn heads go back to the sauce pot!

4. Prepare your pasta as per the box's instructions. I will suggest for al dente pasta, cook 1 min to 30 seconds less from the instructed cooking time.

5. Once pasta is almost ready, use a new pan to pan fry to prawns bodies using olive oil. Once prawns are cooked, remove prawns from pan. The pan should be filled with orange-oil, place the cooked and drained pasta to this pan and ensure pasta absorbs all such orange-oil. Then pour the pasta to the braising sauce and mix well together with the basil (leaving a few basil leaves to top the dish).

6. Transfer all pasta to a serving bowl, then top with the the pan fried prawns and a few fresh basil leaves on top. Drizzle some olive oil on top too.

Serve the pasta and don't forget to take out the bowl of prawns heads as there might be someone who like to suck up the prawns heads!

Paella

Ingredients:
Seafood of your choice - prawns, squids, clams, scallops are my choices!
Chicken thigh x 2pc - diced
Chorizo - sliced or diced
Onion x 1 - minced
Spanish rice x 2 cups
Chicken stock x 4 to 4.5 cups
Saffron x 1-2tsp
Paprika x 1-2 tsp
salt & pepper
parsley - minced

How to Make:
1. Wash and drain your seafood. For shellfish like clams, must soak in salt water for a few hours first.

2. Keep the chicken stock simmer in a pot.

3. Use 1 frying pan to prepare all ingredients first. I will start will pan frying the prawns, then the scallops, then the squids.  Remove each ingredients to a separate plate once cooked around medium well. No need to fully cooked them at this stage.

4. Continue with pan frying the chicken thighs and the chorizo, then remove them into a separate plate with all the oil released from the chorizo.

5. In a shallow frying pan which you will cook and serve the paella, heat up some olive oil, then pan fry the minced onion until soft, add the rice and mix well with onion until all rice are coated with the onion and oil. Add the saffron and paprika. Spoon over a few ladles of the hot chicken stock to the rice, add the chicken and chorizo, mix well, stir fry a bit, then add the rest of the chicken stock to the rice. Check taste and adjust your seasoning with salt and pepper. When the chicken stock in the rice comes to a boil, turn heat to medium, place the seafood on top of the rice (like the prawns, scallops, squids and clams) until the stock are all absorbed, rice is cooked and clams all opened! The whole process takes around 20-30min. Keep an eye and make a stir from time to time.


Garnish with minced parsley before serving.

This is one of the best dishes to be served in winter! 

Enjoy with a glass of your favourite white wine!

Assorted Mushrooms Pasta with Black Truffle

Ingredients:
Portobello Mushrooms
White Button Mushrooms
Brown Button Mushrooms
Ceps (can buy frozen ones and defrost before use)
Forest mushrooms (can buy frozen ones and defrost before use)
Garlic x 3pc - pressed or sliced
Onion x 1 - diced
Pasta of your choice
Italian Parlsey - minced for garnish
Black Truffle (those from Perigod from France is the best!)
Black Truffle Paste
*optional: black truffle sauce of your choicce
Black Truffle Olive Oil

How to Make:
1. Wipe clean all fresh mushrooms using a wet cloth - diced.

2. For the defrost mushrooms, rinse clean with water and wipe dry - diced.

3. In a big pan enough to hold all mushrooms, heat it up with olive oil, then stir-fried the garlic and onion until soft and fragrant. Then add fresh mushrooms. You might need to add more olive oil while cooking as the mushrooms absorbed oil quite fast. Once they are quite soft and fragrant, add the defrosted mushrooms, mix well until all fragrant. Then add 3-4 tbsp of black truffle paste, check taste and add salt, sugar and black pepper to your liking. If you choose to add black truffle sauce of your choice, adjust tasting after you have added the sauce. Leave them at the frying pan but switch off heat.

4.Cook pasta according to instructions of the pasta box. Once cooked, drain all water and add pasta to the mushroom sauce still in frying pan. Mix well.

5. Place them on a serving plate. Drizzle black truffle olive oil all over, then garnish with minced parsley. Lastly, shave black truffle on top and serve immediately!

Enjoy!

Baked Iberico Pork chop Rice

Ingredients:
Iberico pork loin x 4 (Iberico pork has a more tender meat quality)
Fresh Plum Tomatoes x 6
Garlic x 2pc - pressed
Onion x 1pc - diced
Green Peas - blanched for 2 minutes
Mozarella cheese - grated
Tomato based pasta sauce x 1 bot of your choice
Breadcrumbs
Flour
Eggs
Plain White Rice or Fried Rice

How to Make:

1. Wash and wipe dry pork. Then use either back of knife or pork hammer to stumble over the pork to make it more tender and flat.

2. Cut a cross on tomatoes, cook them in boiling water for 1 minute, remove immediately to a bowl of iced water. Remove skin and all the seeds inside. Put the remaining tomato flesh into a small food processor and pulse a few times until it becomes like minced tomatoes. Don't over-do it. Afterwards, place all the pulsed tomatoes into a sieve for a while so that extra juice from the tomatoes will be dripped out.

3. Heat up a pan with olive oil, then add garlic and pan fried until fragrant. Then add the onion and pan fried until soft. Add the tomato pasta sauce and the sieved pulsed tomatoes, mix well and season to your liking. Put this tomato sauce aside.

4. Prepare a wok with corn oil for deep frying the pork chop. Season the hammered pork with salt and pepper. Prepare 1 plate of flour, 1 plate of breadcrumbs and 1 plate of beaten eggs. First dip the pork into flour, shake off excess flour, then dip into beaten eggs and lastly dip into breadcrumbs and deep fry it in the wok until golden brown. Drain oil.

5. Pre-heat oven to 200'C. Place white rice or fried rice on the bottom of a casserole pot. Sliced the deep fried pork chop and line them up on top of the rice. Spoon the tomato sauce on top. Sprinkle the peas on top and lastly the grated cheese. Baked for around 20 minutes and Serve!

Enjoy!

White Truffle Tagliolini

Ingredients:
Alba White Truffle (approx 10g per person)
Pasta of your choice (i prefer using Tagliolini)
Onsen Egg (i prefer using Italian eggs as their yolks are golden yellow!)
Butter (1/2 to 1 tbsp per person)
Whipping Cream (1-2 tbsp per person)
Parmesan Cheese, Grated
White Truffle Olive Oil
Salt & Pepper

How to Make:
1. Prepare onsen eggs by preparing hot water bath (sous vide) at 63'C. Once temperate is reached, lower eggs to the bottom of the hot water bath using a laddle or using a basket to avoid breaking the eggs and cook for 30-35 minutes.

2. Cook your pasta as per the instructions as shown on the pasta bag but less 30-60 seconds.

3. Once your pasta is ready, drain them. 

4. Using another pan, medium heat, add butter and when it's almost all melted, add the whipping cream and the grated cheese, then add the drained pasta and mix well quickly (1 minute) with salt and pepper. Turn off heat and mix with white truffle olive oil too.

5. Divide the pasta into serving plate, making a dent in the middle.

6. Gently break the cooked egg in a small bowl, then spoon out the cooked egg portion into the dent of the pasta. (sometimes some egg whites will still be watery, discharge that, and just spoon out the cooked egg). 

7. Shave Alba White Truffle on top and serve as soon as possible.

Enjoy!

Black Truffle Risotto

Ingredients:
Fresh Black Truffle
Risotto Rice x 2 cups
Onion x 1 - minced
Garlic - 2-3 pc - pressed
White wine x 1/2 cup
Chicken Stock x 4-6 cups **
Butter x 2 tbsp
Olive Oil
Parmesan Cheese - grated x 2-3 cups
Black Truffle Olive Oil
Truffle peeler/grater

** For Vegetarian, replace chicken stock with Vegetable Stock

How to Make:
1. Order your black truffle from a reliable importer in advance. Once received, cover them with a kitchen towel and store inside an air tight box containing the risotto rice - the risotto rice will absorb some of the fragrance of the black truffle! 

2. On the day of cooking, just take out the truffle and wipe surface clean with a kitchen towel or brush them clean with a clean brush - gently. 

3. Boil the chicken stock, then keep simmering at low heat.

4. On a separate non-stick pan, heat some olive oil together with the butter, add the minced onion and garlic in high heat and stir fried until the onions become translucent and soft.

5. Add the risotto rice and stir until they are evenly coated with the butter olive oil and the minced onion mixture.

6. Splash the white wine until all evaporated.

7. Turn heat to medium. Add the chicken stock, laddle by laddle until each laddle of chicken stock is fully absorbed by the rice. Keep stirring the rice but without bashing them.

8. It takes approx 20-30 min to have the rice all cooked using the method in 7 above. Taste the rice from time to time to see if they are al-dente enough for you. If it is, season with some salt and pepper. Then add the grated parmesan cheese, and have the pan covered for 3-5 minutes.

9. Stir well, remove rice from pan and place at serving dish, sprinkle with truffle olive oil before grating the black truffle on top. 

Serve with champagne or white wine and enjoy the dish!!

Chirashi

* a very easy to make dish, but extremely welcomed in the Summer season. Most important is to get fresh and superior quality seafood and make the sushi rice right!

Ingredients:

Rice:
Japanese rice x 3 cups
Rice Vinegar x 6 tbsp
6 tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt

Toppings:
Toro - clean and diced to a size you desired
Salmon - belly part - clean and diced to a size you desired
Urnin
Ikura
cucumber - diced
scrambled eggs - thinly sliced

wasabi/ sushi soy sauce

How to Make:
1. Wash the rice gently until the water drain away is no longer milky colour but looks like clear water. Usually takes 6 to 8 rounds of washing.

2. Put rice to rice cooker and usually the rice cooker will indicate how much water to put for the number of cups of rice you are cooking for sushi use. 

3. Add the required water and let the rice rest in the water for 30 min before you switch on rice cooker.

4. Once rice is cooked, let the rice cools down a bit.

5. Prepare the vinegar sauce by heating them in a small pot, i,e. the vinegar, the sugar and salt - until all is dissolved and mixed well. No need to bring to boil. Check tasting. Then cool down the vinegar.

6. Put cooked rice to wooden sushi bowl and sprinkle vinegar dressing in a circular motion. Use a flat wooden spoon to mix it quickly in a cutting motion. * a wooden sushi bowl helps to remove extra moisture, preventing rice from being sticky.

7. When rice is loosened without any lumps left, evenly mix with vinegar dressing, mix the rice further with the wooden spoon quickly in a sideways slicing motion, while cooling it with a hand fan, to allow the extra vinegar to evaporate. When the rice cools down to room temperature, it's done. Cover the rice with a clean cloth moistened with water and tightly squeezed. * the moistened cloth covering protects the rice from drying out.

8. When ready to serve, add toppings sparingly! 

Enjoy with a glass of your favourite sake!

Crabmeat Cannoloni

Ingredients:
1 box of dry cannelonni (get any brand from supermarket and read the cooking instructions)
Fresh Crabmeat - steam crab and remove meat when crab is cooled
Yellow Zuccinni x 1- small cubes
Green Zuccinni x 1 - small cubes
onion x 1 - minced
chicken stock
fresh morzarella cheese cut into slice
fresh parmesan cheese - grated

Bechamel sauce:
plain flour x 2-3 tbsp
butter x 1-2 tbsp
whipping cream
chicken stock


How to Make:
1. Preheat oven - at a temperate as stated in the pasta box.

2. Prepare the bechamel sauce by using a non-stick pot - under medium heat, add the butter and flour and use a whisk to mix them together until it forms a roux (like a thick paste), then add cream and chicken stock until it reaches a consistency and flavour to your liking. ** Pls remember to have the sauce quantity to be enough to cover the top of all the cannelonni and not too thick also. Put aside.

3. Use a large pan, heat up minced onion with olive oil until they are soft.  Then add the crabmeat, stir fried with onion until evenly mixed. Then add the diced zuccinni, adding 1-2tbsp of chicken stock to make the zuccinni softer. Season with salt and pepper. 

4. Once the crabmeat mixture is cooked, drain them in another bowl so that crabmeat mixture is not moist with water/sauce.

5. Once crabmeat mixture is cooled down, stuffed them into the cannolini one by one. ** Dont stuff too hard or else the cream sauce will be difficult to permetrate into the stuffings.

6. Spoon some bechamel sauce to the bottom to the oven-dish. then line up the stuffed cannolonni to the oven dish, then spoon over the bechamel sauce to cover up the top of all the cannolonni - but ensure the dish is deep enough so that after spooning the sauce over, there's empty sauce before top of the dish as the sauce will expand and overflow if there's not enough "head room"! Place the sliced morzarella on top evenly, then sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese and some breadcrumbs.

7. Bake in oven as per the pasta's instructions on the box.

Serve when piping hot!! Enjoy!!

Fresh Mushrooms Pasta

Ingredients (for 6-8paxs):
Portobello Mushrooms x 6 pc (cut away the stem, wash and wipe dry and cut into thin slices)
Shitake Mushrooms x 6pc (cut away the stem, wash and wip dry and cut into thin slices)
Sliced Garlic x 1 bowl
Onion x 1 minced
Small Red Chilli x 4 - deseeds (if you dont want it too hot) and cut into thin strips
Italian Parsley - rinse, wipe dry and minced
Pasta of your choice (to me, the best pasta for this receipe will be the TartufLanghe No. 19 Tartfuo Tagliatelle - i.e. Tagliatelle with black summer truffle - they go really well with mushrooms!)

How to Make:
1. Follow your pasta instructions on how long to cook your pasta in boiling water with salt. After cooking, drain and return to the pasta pot with no water but still warm. Drizzle Olive oil to prevent the pasta sticking together.

2. Heat a pan big enough to hold all the pasta later with olive olive oil, the add minced onion. Stir fried until soft, then remove onion to a plate.

3. In the same pan, add more olive oil, then brown the garlic slices. Once the garlic slices are golden, add back the minced onion, then all the mushrooms and the chill. Once the mushrooms are all soft,season wtih salt and pepper and if a spicy taste is preferred, add a pinch of italian chilli powder too!

4. Pour over the pasta to the mushrooms pan, add the minced parsley and mix all well together and transfer to a pasta bowl/dish. Drizzle some olive oil on top and serve!

Enjoy~

Lobster Linguini

Ingredients:
Lobster x 1
Cherry Tomatoes
Can plum tomatoes
Sliced garlic
minced Italian Parsley
white wine x 1/2 cup

How to Make:
1. Blanch a fresh lobster in hot water for 15 minutes. Drain and after cool down, cut horizontally into half and remove meat from the shells and keep the head. Cut lobster meat into bite size.

2. Heat a pan with olive oil and add the sliced garlic until golden.

3. Add the lobster head and pan fried with the garlic for a while, then add  the white wine, then add the cherry tomatoes and the can tomatoes. Simmer the lobster head for 20-30min.

4. Remove lobster head, add the lobster meat to the pan and stir fry and mix well with the sauce.

5. Adjust taste with sugar, sea salt and pepper or even chilli powder if a spicy taste is required.

5. Add the minced parsley, mix well and and pour over to the cooked pasta and serve!

* you can also mix pasta with the sauce before serving.
* remember to drizzle olive oil on top before serving.
* some prefers to have some grated parmesan cheese on top too.

Enjoy!