Hasselback Potato with Garlic

 

Ingredients:

Potato (select those good for baking)

Duck Fat

Garlic, a few whole pieces, pressed

Salt & Black Pepper

Parsley - minced

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200'C.

2. Rinse and clean the potato. Wipe dry.

3. Use a sharp knife and slice the potato very thinly like a fan, say leaving 0.5cm until bottom of potato, i.e don't cut it up. Need to slice it thinly but retain the whole potato. Suggest to use a pair of chopstick to hold the potato bottom and in this way you wont cut to bottom of potato too. The thinner you slice the potato, the faster the will crisp.

3. Heat the duck fat, garlic and salt until melted. Feel free to adjust the amount of garlic and salt to your liking.

4. Place potato to an oven tray, then drizzle duck fat oil over the potato, making sure to get it between all the slices.

5. Bake for 60 min until golden. Drizzle more duck fat onto potato every 20 mins.

6. Remove from oven and let cool for a few min. Sprinkle with minced parsley.

Can serve with sour cream.

Enjoy this alone or with steaks!

Japanese Potato Salad

Ingredients:

Potato (May Queen Potato my first choice) -2 to 3pc

Hard Boiled Eggs - 2pc - cut into dices.

Pickled Cucumber or plain cucumber - 1pc-cut into dices

Corn - 1/2 bowl

Kewpi Mayonnaise or Kraft Mayonnaise

Method:

1. Wash and rinse clean potato. Peel skin.

2. Boil a pot of water and add a pinch of salt. Cook potato for 20-30 min until skewer can stick inside potato.

3. Remove water from the pot and cook the potato for another 3-5 min (to dry up water inside potato).

4. Place cooked potato in a big bowl and gently mash it - no need to be total mash so some keep some small bite size in the salad.

5. If using fresh cucumber, after rinsing it, add some salt and let it settle for a while. Then you can see some water coming out. Remove water and cut into dices or bite size good for salad. If using pickled cucumber, just cut them into bite sizes.

6. Mix mash potato with cucumber, eggs, corn with mayoannise and a dash of lemon juice. Adjust tasting to your liking.

Serve in a bowl or scoop it out like ice-cream. 

Enjoy!

Japanese Sesame Spinach

 

Ingredients:

1 bunch of Spinach (approx 220g)

3 tbsp White Roasted Sesame

1 tbsp Sugar (or Stevia or Monk Sugar)

1.5 tbsp Soy Sauce (choose a less salty type)

1/2 tsp Mirin

1/2 tsp Sake

Method:

Sesame Sauce:

1. Use a wooden grinder and grind the sesame in a grinder bowl until sesame all broken down. You can smell the nice aroma during grinding too.

2. Add the sugar, soy sauce, mirin and sake and mix well. and put aside.

Spinach:

1. Clean and rinse well the spinach.

2. Boil a pot of pot with a pinch of salt. Then put all spinach in the pot and cook for 45 seconds, then remove to a big bowl filled with ice water.

3. Once spinach are cool enough to handle, squeeze out all water using your hands.

4. Then cut up the spinach to say 2 inches long.

5. Mix with the sesame paste. Put in fridge for a while before serving.

Enjoy!

Cold Tomato in Dried Plum Sauce 冰鎮話梅車裡茄

 

* ideal summer appertizer!

Ingredients:

Cherry Tomatoes or Detterino Tomatoes

Dried Plums 

Rock Sugar

Lemon Slices (optional)

Method:

1. Clean and rinse tomatoes.

2. Gently cut a cross on the skin of tomatoes.

3. Boil a pot of water. Once boiled, put in all tomatoes and cook for 30-60 seconds. Then remove all to pot of ice water. Gently remove all skins.

4. In another pot, put 1 bowl of dried plums, 1 tbsp of rock sugar and 2 glasses of water, bring to a boil and adjust tasting yourself. It's very personal how sweet or sour you want this base sauce for the tomatoes. Cooked for 10 mins. Then cool it down and sieve out the plums.

5. Put all de-skin tomatoes in this plum soup in an air tight box and put to fridge overnight. You can also add 1-2 slices of lemon in this plum soup too.

6. Upon serving, just place tomatoes on a plate without the plum soup.

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!

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 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!

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! 

Chilled tomatoes in Plum Sauce

* a very appetizing dish in the summer and very easy to make.

Ingredients:
Cherry Tomatoes or tomatoes of your choice
話梅 1 to 2 packs (you can buy from supermarket, qty depends how many tomatoes are you preparing)
Brown Sugar
梅粉 (optional)

How to Make:
1. Remove skin of tomatoes by: (1) light cut a cross at the bottom or top of the tomatoes. (2) put them in boiling water, then turn off heat, for 1-2 minutes. You should see the corner of the skin peeling off a bit. (3) remove the tomatoes to ice cold water. (4) peel off skin gently and keep shape of tomatoes.

2. Prepare plum marinate sauce by: boiling a pot of water with the plum side for 5-10 minutes, then add sourness and sweetness by adding 1-2 tbsp of brown sugar and the 梅粉. Let it cool down.

3. Place all tomatoes inside the cool down plum marinate sauce in a food container box and close the lid and place in fridge overnight.

4. When you are ready to serve, just remove tomatoes from the marinate and garnish with a piece of mint!

Enjoy, perhaps with a glass of plum wine!

Tofu Salad

Ingredients:

Fresh Tofu of your choice

Cooked Preserved Egg - separate egg yolk with egg white and blend separately in blender or chop them up into small dices with a knife

Good quality sesame oil


How to make:

1. break tofu into paste like with a fork or chopsticks.

2. add egg white to the tofu and mix well together with sesame oil.

3. Pour into a chinese bowl and wrap with cling wrap and chill at fridge.

4. Pour the Tofu mixture to a serving plate upside down from the bowl and top with egg yolk crumbles. Add a dash of sesame oil or white sesame on top as you like.

Ready to serve as a cold appertizer. Enjoy!

Watermelon Salad

* recipe adopted from Gordon Ramsay

Ingredients:

Watermelon - cut into cubes
Cucumber - cut into cubes
fetacheese - break into cubes
cherry tomatoes - cut into halves
rocket leaves
pecan - toasted in hot pan with a sprinkle of salt
lemon -rolled the lemon on table top, cut into half horizontally and squeeze out lemon juice
Mint leaves - shredded
balsamic vinegar and a dash of olive oil

How to Make:

1. mix rocket leaves with a dash of olive oil and balsamic vinegar first.

2. add cucumber and tomatoes to the above mix.

3. then add water melon and mint.

4. add lemon juice for the final mix.

5. sprinkle toasted pecan on top.

A refreshing salad best for summer time! 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!

Potato Tartin

Ingredients:

1 x 375g sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed at fridge on the night before cooking
1 cup (75g) finely grated manchego (or a cheese you like, say cheddar)
1/2 cup (120g) mascarpone cheese
350g potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
salt and black pepper
rosemary

How to Make:

1. Preheat oven to 200'C.

2. Place the sheet pastry on a large oven tray lined with baking paper.

3. Use a small sharp knife and gently score a 2cm border around the edge of the pastry.

4. Use a fork to prick the pastry sheet centre.

5. Mix and combine the 2 cheese and spread the mixture on top of the pastry sheet centre.

6. Toss the potatoes with olive oil, salt and pepper in a mixing bowl and line the potatoes neatly above the cheese mixture and sprinkle with rosemary on top.

7. Bake in oven for 25-30 min or until golden.

Enjoy!

Zucchini Fritters

Ingredients:

5-6 small zucchinis (approx 810g), grated

3-4 eggs, beaten

250g Feta, crumbled (optional)

3/4 cup (120g) plain flour

1.5 tsp baking powder

1/3 cup chopped mint leaves or parsley

sea salt and black pepper

How to Make:

1. Place the grated zucchinis on a flat towel with another one on top to absorb excess water.

2. Place zuchinni, eggs, feta, flour, baking powder, mint/parsley, salt and pepper in a mixing bowl, mix and combine.

3. Heat olive oil in a non stick pan over medium high heat. Add 2 tbsp of mixture to the pan and flatten with a spatula. Repeat and cook in batches for 2-3 min each side or until golden.

4 After pan-frying, blot oil in kitchen towel before placing them in serving plate.

Enjoy!

Deep Fried Potato Balls

Ingredients:

Baking Potato x 3 pc
some milk
some cream
salt and pepper
flour
egg
breadcrumbs

optional:
crabmeat or cooked minced beef

How to Make:

1. Wash and peel potato.

2. Put potato in a pot of cold water and boil. Once boiled, turn to medium heat and cook potato for around 30 min or until they are soft. Remember to add some salt to the water.

3. Drain the water, reheat the potato in the same pot for 1 min to ensure all moisture inside potato are gone.

4. Use a masher to mash all potato. Add a dash or milk and cream. Check taste and adjust seasoning. Most important is we do not want this to be too creamy soft. We need it to be more solid and easier for shaping and deep frying.

5. If you prefer, you can add some crab meat or minced beef to the minced potato.

6. Once cool down, shape the potato into ball shape.

7. Prepare a pot of oil, once oil is hot enough, dip potato balls into flour, then egg mixture, then breadcrumbs and put inside pot to deep fry until golden.

Serve with mayo or brown sauce or ketchup.

Enjoy!

Burdock, Carrot and Chicken Salad

Ingredients:

Organic Carrot - wash, wipe dry and shredded
Burdock - wash, use back of knife to remove skin, then shredded
Chicken thighs - steam until cooked. After cool down, shredded **
Sesame  - some for grinding
Sesame - some for garnish on top
Sesame Oil - choose a fragrant one
Sesame Salad Dressing of your choice

** for Vegetarian version, replace chicken with shredded 素雞

How to Make:

1. Stir fried the burdock in a frying pan adding a dash of soy sauce, mirin, Japanese cooking wine and sugar - i think around 5 minutes.

2. Add the shredded carrots to the frying pan, mix well with burdock for around 2 minutes. As we want to keep these all crunchy.

3. Drain the water/oil from the above mixture. Once cool down, can keep at fridge.

4. Before serving, best to take them out from fridge for a short time so they will not be too cold. Mix the shredded chicken thighs, the burdock and carrot mixture with the grounded sesame, sesame oil and sesame salad dressing to your liking. Garnish sesame on top and ready to serve.

Enjoy with a nice glass of sake!

Quiche Lorraine

Ingredients:
Ready made shortcrust pastry
flour
4 eggs
2 onions - sliced
bacon - diced
300 ml single cream
100 ml milk
100 g cheddar cheese - grated
salt & pepper

How to Make:

1. Preheat over to 200'C.

2. Heat up a pan with olive oil. Fried the bacon until fragrant, then add the sliced onions. Once all soft and fragrant, remove onions and bacon from pan, draining away the extra oil.

3. Roll the shortcrust pastry on top of a floured top and gently lift it up and place it on top of a 23 cm round, loose bottomed tart tin (best with holes on tin base), filling all the inside of the tin.

4. Trim off excess of pastry from edge of tin gently. Place tin on top of a baking tray.

5. Spread the onions and bacon on top of the pastry.

6. Beat eggs in a large jug, then mix together with the grated cheese, milk and cream, Season with a bit of salt and pepper. Then pour the egg mixture from the jug into the pastry. Then place the baking tray with the tart tin and pastry all ready to oven for baking for 30 minutes or until the filling is set and golden on top.

The egg tart will drop back once you take the tray out from the hot oven, upon then, the tart will be ready to be cut and enjoy!

Mushroom Tart

Ingredients:

For  the Tart:
ready-made all-butter puff pastry
1 egg yolk mix with a tsp of water to make eggwash

For the Mushroom Cream:
dried porcini mushrooms - a handful
onions x 2 - minced
300g chestnut mushrooms
thymes
a squeeze of lemon juice
3tbsp cream
1 egg yolk
chives - finely chopped
salt and black pepper

For the Topping:
200g chestnut mushroom - sliced
15g butter
a squeeze of lemon juice
chives - finely chopped

How to Make:
1. Preheat oven to 220'C.

2. Rinse dried porcini mushrooms, then soak them in hot water for 30 minutes or until soft. Drain water and minced the softened porcini mushrooms.

3. Wipe clean the chestnut mushrooms. Finely diced.

4. Heat up a frying pan with olive oil. First cook the minced onion until soft, then add the diced chestnut mushrooms, then the porcini mushrooms - until they are all soft and fragrant. Then add the thymes, season with salt and pepper and lemon juice.

5. Blend the above mixture to a paste using a blender. Remove mixture from blender to a bowl. Mix it with cream, egg yolk and chives. Leave to cool.

6. Roll our pastry on a floured board to a thickness of approximately 5 mm (1/4 inch).  Use a knife and mark a border of approx 1 inch from the sides (do not cut through!)

7. Spread the paste in the inner square (i.e within the knife marked borders). Arrange the sliced mushrooms on top, then squeeze lemon juice all over.

8. Use a pork to lightly press on the 1" border of the pastry and brush with eggwash so as to give a nice gloss of the border after baking.

9. Bake at 220'C for 15 minutes or until pastry turns golden.

10. Sprinkle with chopped chives before serving.

Enjoy!

Chinese Vegetarian Pot with Nam Yu 八寶南乳素齋煲

Ingredients:

choose 8 different types of vegetables of your choice! for myself, i like the followings:

Dried Chinese Mushrooms 冬菇
Black Fungus 黑木耳*
Yellow Fungus 黃耳*
Beancurd Stick 素雞
Sweet Beancurd Sheet 甜付竹
Beancurd Sheet 付皮
Japanese Cabbage
Baby Corn

Ginger - 4-6 slices
Garlic - 6 to 8 pc pressed
南乳酱- 2-4 pc
seasoning - oyster sauce ***, sugar, sesame oil

*** For Vegetarian version, replace with vegetarian oyster sauce

How to Make:
1. 2 nights before making this dish, wash the chinese mushrooms, then soak them in water overnight.

2. Next day, drain the soaking water, use corn flour to wash the soaked chinese mushrooms, rinse clean.

3. Marinate the chinese mushrooms with sesame oil, sugar and a little bit of soy sauce, then steam for 1 to 2 hours until soft. Once cooled down, cut the chinese mushrooms into your desired size.

4. Keep the mushrooms water in the dish after steaming for use later.

5. Other ingredients with the *, just wash and rinse clean and soak in water until soft (around half a day). Japanese cabbage wash and drain and cut to your desired size. No need to be too small as it will shrink during cooking.

6. Heat up a wok which is big enough to hold up all your ingredients, add oil, then the ginger and garlic until fragrant. Then add the 南乳酱  until fragrant. Be careful of not burning the 南乳酱 . Better turn heat to medium at this stage.

7. Add all the above vegetables ingredients except the Japanese Cabbage and baby corn, add the chinese mushrooms water and braised for 1 hour or until all soft and taste good! Feel free to season with oyster sauce and sugar and sesame oil. If not all ingredients are submerged under the braising sauce, add more water to the wok or pot until all ingredients are submerged underneath. Check braising from time to time to avoid anything sticking at the bottom.

8. Once the above braising is quite ready, then Japanese cabbage and baby corn for braised for another 20-30 min. Finally, check taste and seasoning by adding sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil as required.

Enjoy!

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!