Moved!

Hello folks, I decided to change my platform to wordpress. Cleaner and, though somewhat more difficult to navigate than blogger, works well for me.

Click here.

Adios.

All This Happiness, How Can I Contain Thee?

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I abandoned my day job and started dabbling in the kitchen only 15 months ago. But at times it felt as if I've been cooking forever.. Especially during those days where my fingers go numb over julienning carrots to painful feet. As if it has lost its charm and I'm just stuck doing chores.

But here's a toast to a year that is soon going to pass me by. A year full of cooking, at times with failure, and even more stubbornness to try again. 
Here's a toast to a year of being a grown woman, a wife and a chef in the making. A year that's full of hardships, but more laughters than I could ever imagine. 

Here's a toast to a year that taught me not to plan anything, because nothing ever run its proper course here, a year that forced me to embrace patience, no matter how much it eludes me. 

Looking back, I have come a long way from one who knows nothing about cooking to one who purposely ignores a good recipe. Pride always comes first before a downfall, so they say. But hey, as long as H doesn't complain.. I don't complain. 

Here are the highlights of my culinary journey.. the skills, tricks and secrets I've gathered along the way.

* The art of making the perfect caramel. Thanks to David Leibovitz's extensive notes, I've come a long way and make chocolate caramel tart and flan. Merci David! 

* The much loved butter chicken from Bee Yinn Low. It's Indian yet reminded me of my Singapore home. No one has ever complained about it. In fact, a copy of her book is en route to Toulouse as I type this, one of many presents from H. After all, if I'm going to educate my in laws about my heritage this coming Lunar New Year, I need all the help I can get! 

* The tricks of trussing chicken artfully, thanks to foul-mouthed Anthony Bourdain.

* He also taught me how to make garlic confit, that to this day become the ubiquitous ingredient in my fridge. It has oomph and sweetness and depth that raw garlic can't do. From slabbing that over toast bread to marinating meat to making a dip. Muchos gracias!


* The secret of yellow-ing the egg yolk. The egg yolk in Angola can never serve as a proper eggwash. I learn that all you need to do is add a little white vinegar to remedy that.

* After trying so many cake recipes, I learn that yogurt makes a very moist cake. Much preferred to substituting eggs with vegetable oil. And I hate icing, but the moment I heard about streusel, I fell in love. Yogurt muffin + streusel topping = bestfriends. Thanks K!

* I got my hands on herbs. Thyme on roast chicken, cilantro over ham and cheese toast, mint on cucumber salad, sage on pizza and pasta, bouquet garni on french stews. I love you herbs!

* The tricks of smooth baby bottoms egg. I watched many video tutorials over this but first of all, I learn to make a properly boiled egg from Ina Garten of Barefoot Contessa. Grey ringed yolks, be gone! I also learn that a room-temperature eggs that are few days old make the best hard-boiled eggs. 10 mins is all you need.

* The secret of making the perfect poached eggs, our most favorite egg-do, every single time. Vinegar and shallow pan with cover. Thanks to Simply Recipes.

* Flour and butter as the most basic thickener, also known as roux. 

* I have kneaded many doughs this year: pizza dough, short pastry dough, bread dough, chinese pancake dough, and all sorts of dough. My proudest moments are one where my dough turns well. The ingredients seem to know whether they are going to love each other or hate each other. My palm and fingers learn to recognize when to stop and when you need to knead the dough a little bit more, and more.. I hope I've picked up that graceful twist of wrist that a seasoned kneader always do, unconsciously. At the very least, I've surprised my Tia who's the family bread maker. This Asian girl has a pair of strong arms and even stronger back bone.

* And the best part, I experiment cooking with alcohol. Baileys cake, cognac truffles, rum raisin cake, beer can chicken, roast chicken with rum, fish scampi with white wine sauce, coq au vin, boeuf bourguignon, and many more. Rum is unobtrusive, beer adds weight and wine carries that nice tang saltiness (hold the salt, please). I can't wait to get into stout, port and mixing cocktails in my kitchen. My guests need drinks too, don't they? 

That's all folks. 12 worth keeping secrets, one for each month. 
I am giddy for 2012 and a whole new bag of tricks I shall unearth. 

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Cheers to the future.

See you next year!

Pardon for my absence. Internet is a bitch these days. It took me over an hour to post my gateau au citron. During that time, I played with my hair before my biannual trip to hair dresser. It's long enough to do a fishtail braid now.

The idea is very simple, really, but it requires very nimble fingers. My hair was so layered that I can't do a single braid. Two is needed, and now I look like that woman in asterix and obelix. Bummer!

Anyway, I suppose this will be my last post for 2011. I certainly welcome 2012!

I need sea, sand and salt in my hair pleaseee..

A Quickie

Pardon my absence.

In between of moving to a new house, getting to know a new kitchen (different oven, different stove), following all sorts of utilities men (TV, internet, AC..) around the house, helping a Singapore company to set up their Angolan office and planning a Christmas party (supermarkets are empty!!), I have nothing left of me. I have so much to do, so tired and yet I couldn't really rest. My feet ache and often numb.

H isn't exactly helpful because he's been working a lot including weekends.

A proper rest is needed. I plan to chill out on the beach this weekend, then replying some mails, then blogging. Then more groceries hunting.

Ciao for now.

Duck Fat Trivia

Long overdue promise, here's what I found:

1) Duck fat is the healthiest animal fat out there. The fat composition is said to be closer to Olive oil, than butter or worse, pork lard.

2) Research claims that duck fat is high in unsaturated fat, the good fat that's supposedly help you lower your cholesterol level.

3) 40% of duck fat content is oleic acid, which is a monounsaturated fat, that is often abundant in OO.

4) Many like to use duck fat as a substitute to butter when frying or sautéing. Not only because it's claimed to be healthier, but it gives another layer of flavor that butter cannot emulate.

5) In Gascogne region, South West of France, where D'Artagnan of Les Trois Mousquetaires (The 3 Musketeers) was originated from, it is said that people slab on duck fat on their bread, the way we often spread butter on our bread.

6) In fact, Gascogne-ian snacks on fried duck skin. But this is not a surprise knowing that the Japanese munch of deep fried fish skin, the Vietnamese chicken skin, the Chinese Peking duck and crispy pork belly.

7) Despite the diet in high fats (duck fat, foie gras, butter), heart attack occurrences amongst the french are relatively lower than say Americans, resulting in confusion among medical scientists, also known as Le Paradoxe Francais.

Having said that, it is imperative to remember that duck fat is still FAT. There is a lot of downside when consuming food high in fat content. Though many drawn similarities between OO and duck fat, it is no where near OO. In case you didn't know yet, the benefits of OO are rendered useless, even harmful, the moment you heat the oil up above a certain degree. Hence if you notice, one never deep fry with OO.

Duck fat is certainly tasty, but it is far (more like never) from making it to the healthy food list.

Health is important, living dangerously is fun.

But living dangerously everyday is reckless.

Duck week: The Game Plan

shredded duck meat and its broth

The game plan for this week:

* Cassoulet served with duck leg confit *

* Lo Ak (Braised duck, Teochew style) *

* Salted Duck Soup *

* Stir fry duck noodle *

* ??? * 

Let's see how long I can make this bird last.

Duck week coming up!

Nectar of 1 whole duck :)

Duck is such a tight-a** animal. Have you ever tried butchering one? No? Neither have I but this morning I tried to truss it the way you truss chicken. Into 8 pieces. Only to realize how tight-a** the animal is. Literally. If there's ever a war between the chickens and the ducks, the ducks will win hands down. Just by the sheer density of its bone and strength. In short, this person, moi, didn't manage to chop it with a recently-sharpened chef knife into 8 pieces (You need chinese cleaver to do that). I managed to get 6 instead (2 wings, 2 legs, 1 breast, 1 whatever remnants you want to call it) and looooooads of duck skin and fats. You can tell I'm happy right? Keep all the excess skin from the neck and those sweet spot near the a**, any classic french recipes will tell you to sauté your potatoes and confit with this sweet nectar.

I have a lot of new respects for this bird now. Not only did it make my life hell, my kitchen messy and oily, I can now prepare several big classics. Hah! Who says living in Africa has to be depraved. It didn't come cheap, this 2.1 kg bird.. (slightly over 20 usd for a frozen one), but I can now make cassoulet for H and Lo Ak (braised duck, teochew style) pour moi :)  canard a l'orange can wait till next time.

But for now, I'm turning the "carcasses" into a nice dark duck broth, first by roasting it. Man.. I can't wait to start!

Roasting the bones, in 180 C till brown

5 mins into roasting, can you see the nectar yet??

Oh this week is so going to be a wonderful week!! I can feel it.

n.b. I think my duck is male. I had a short biology lesson while trussing.

n.b.2. If you worry about your ever growing girth like me, Frenchies believe cooking with duck fat is "healthy" or at least, healthier than cooking with pork fats. I will enlighten us on this soon. Hang in there, and keep the fat!! 

And... we're back!

And Mauritius was glorious. And we're properly bronzé.

And someone got sick. And losing all 3 kgs gained and some more.

So for now, I am busy googling for 'what to eat when you're sick'. It seems that macaroni and cheese is a good option! Wow, I like.

On a separate note, I like Alvin Quah of Masterchef Australia S2 and I like Bee Yinn of Rasa Malaysia. So I'm quite unhappy with the dispute going on. Tsk.

En vacance

"So you are not interested in doing Safari?" asked H.
"Aiyah, we can ooh ahh the animals when we have kids lah. Why waste now?"
"You're weird."
"Nope, just a good planner."
"And you don't want to do hot air ballooning anymore?"
"I want. But I prefer this one right now. It's cheap! And Lonely Planet said it's the perfect time to visit!!"
"Ok."


And that, my friends, is the story of we're going for no-more-winter-yet-not-quite-summer Mauritius.

"See how I always give in to you?"

"Well, I happen to fancy a Hermes bag too.."

"You forgot I bought you Hermes? Many colours like how you like"
"Shagua!!! (silly). I want the real Hermes, not Pierre Herme!"

Be back in a jiffy. à bientôt!