Baked Salmon

I bought 2 pounds of salmon fillet recently and decided to cook this piece of salmon 5 ways! The only feasible way of doing this is by baking it. I have never baked fish before and so it was a good opportunity to learn a new skill. After a quick look into my pantry, I came up with these 5 combinations:

1. Dried fennel seed and lemon

2. Crushed raw almond and dried red chilies

3. Cumin and Coriander powder

4. Fresh garlic and ginger

5. Dried Rosemary and thyme



Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425F.
2. Place a sheet of aluminum foil at the bottom of a baking pan.
3. Arrange the fish on the baking pan and use a brush to apply a thin layer of oil over the fish.
4. Season the fish with crushed salt and fresh ground pepper.
5. Place the ingredients accordingly on the fish.
6. Bake the fish for 10-15 minutes.

I forgot to place the aluminum foil at the bottom of the baking pan. This caused my fish to stick to the bottom of the pan and when I lifted the fish up, they broke into pieces, which you might be able to detect in the photos bellow.



The crushed almond and red chili was my least favoriate. The almond, though provided texture, did nothing in terms of flavor. The chili, however, did provide a nice kick. I will use more chilis in the future and combine it with something else, say Garlic and Ginger, which was the dominant smell in my kitchen when I baked these salmon.



The fennel seed and lemon was "okay". Again, the taste of the fennel seed did not transpire. Either I used low quality fennel seed or I didn't use enough fennel seed. However, can't go wrong with lemon flavor on a piece of fish. My favorite is the cumin and coriander Salmon just because I like dishes with heavy flavor. I have lost count of the number of times where I pan-seared fish with cumin and coriander.

The winner

Pan Fried Flat Rice Noodle (Char Kueh Teow)

This is my absolute favorite dish in the world. If I am stranded on an island and a genie can only  bring me the same food every day, this is the dish I will get.

I have scouted every restaurant in the city that serve char kueh teow but none were able to satisfy me the way this noodle satisfies me back home.

Feeling frustrated and a little home sick, I have decided to make char kueh teow and I am not ashamed to point it out right now that the char kueh teow that I made is the best I have tasted in NYC.

One of the main challenges of making char kueh teow is getting all the ingredients and prepping them.  The second main challenge is the cooking method. Wok on high heat. There is no alternative. None.

I adapted my recipe from http://rasamalaysia.com/char-kuey-teow/2/ and I have to give most the credit to this site. There are some detail instructions and tips on this site that I strongly suggest that you follow. I will highlight places where I digressed and modified.

Here we go...

Ingredients (2 servings)
1lb. of fresh flat rice noodle
8 shelled shrimp
1.5 chinese sausages, slice diagonally
Big bunch of fresh bean sprout, wash thoroughly
4 stalks of scallion, green part only, cut into 2 inches length
3 gloves of garlic, chopped finely
2 whole eggs

Sauce 
5 tablespoon soy sauce
1.5 tablespoon dark soy sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
Pinch of salt
Pinch of white pepper powder


Instructions (the sequence of adding each ingredient is essential, it is best to cook char kueh teow one serving at a time)

1. Prepare the mise en place http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mise_en_place. Make sure you have all the main ingredients ready before you start cooking.



2. Mix the sauce together and set aside.
3. Heat 2-3 tablespoon of oil in a wok, set the fire to high.
4. Add half the garlic and stir it for 10 seconds.
5. Add the half the chinese sausage and the shrimp. Cook with the garlic for 30 seconds. Followed by half the chinese bean sprout then half the noodle.



6. Add 2.5 tablespoon of the sauce into the work and stir to mix well.



7. Push the noodle to the side of the wok and crack an egg directly in the middle of the wok.
8. Move the noodle over the egg and wait for 15 seconds.



9. Add half the green scallion and stir the noodle to mix everything well.
10. Serve immediately.



11. Repeat step 3-9 for the second serving.


I absolutely absolutely ABSOLUTELY love what I made. Again, I give much credit to rasamalaysia.com for providing the detail instructions.  From the very first bite to the very last bite, everything spells "home" and "yummy". I had a big satisfaction smile on my face as I enjoyed it. Elation!

I was fortunate to share this dish with a couple of friends and they loved it. I did not add the chili paste, it is optional.  I also did not add the cockle clams because I don't like it. Good luck finding it in north America.

Creme Brule

This is one of those desserts that has been sitting in my head for years and never gotten around making it until now. Everyone knows this dessert and it requires no introduction. I had my first Creme Brule at Le Cirque and the experience etched deep into my memory.

A friend gave me a blow torch (thanks SC) recently and the final piece of the puzzle has arrived. It is time to make creme brule.

I used Le Cirque's recipe as a reference and the original recipe can be found here http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/le-cirques-creme-brulee. As usual, I made some slight adjustments.

(The original recipe is for 8 servings but I decided to reduce it to 2 servings since I am making it for the first time, but as you will see, even when I reduced the servings to 2, I still ended up with 4 creme brules)


Ingredients: (4 servings)
1 cup of heavy cream
splash of vanilla extract
small pinch of salt
2 whole eggs (I will explain this later)
5 tablespoon of regular sugar
Brown sugar for glazing



Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 300F.
2. Warm the cream and salt to gentle simmer.
3. Mix the eggs and the sugar completely.
4. Pour the warm cream into the egg/sugar mixture slowly.
5. Add the vanilla extract.
6. Strain the mixture.
7. Arrange the ramekins in a water bath.
8. Transfer the egg mixture into the ramekins
9. Cover the arrangement loosely with a foil
10. Bake for 1 hour.
11. Once the creme brule cools down, cover the top of the creme brule with a thin layer of brown sugar and flambé the sugar.

This is the very first flambe that I tried and as you can see, the result is not good. It took me about 4 tries to finally discovery the secret for a perfect caramelized sugar crust. Unfortunately, I did not take a photo of that.

As noted above, the original recipe called for EGG YOLKS ONLY but I accidentally use whole eggs instead. Guess what, there was no detectable difference between using whole eggs and egg yolks only. Yes, I made both kinds!!

Most recipes call for eating creme brule when it is at room temperature but for me, it is best when it is WARM. FRESH OUT OF OVEN WARM! 

french toast

I had some stale french bread that have hardened. Unless I have the jaw of The Hulk, I will not attempt biting on to it. In a spur of the moment, I have decided to make french toast. In the past, I have only knew of using eggs, but after a quick glance of the internet, I realized there can be other ingredients. I also have some leftover orange juice from a party and alas, within 5 minutes, I put together the "batter" needed for the french toast.

Ingredients
2 eggs, beaten
splash of orange juice
splash of milk
large pinch of sugar
small pinch of salt
Bread





Instructions
1. Mix the wet ingredients, sugar and salt together.
2. Heat some oil in a pan.
3. Dip the bread in the "batter" and transfer them to the pan.
4. Cook until the surface turns slight brown.

                      French Toast and Vietnamese Coffee on a lazy weekend morning. Bliss

I never knew orange juice can be used to make french toast but it makes total sense. Now I know, I can use other juices, such as pear, peach, pineapple, whichever I find myself having.

Sweet potato

How often do you look at a potato at the grocery store and think to yourself - "this is an interesting potato?". In the world of potato, there is sweet potatoes that intrigues me with its flavor as much as its color. The most common kind of sweet potato that people are familiar with is the "orange-flesh" sweet potato. Now, what if I tell you, this exist:
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This is a purple sweet potato. You can't tell from the color of the skin, which is almost white color.

Side by side picture of a purple sweet potato and an orange sweet potato. The raw scent of these two kinds of potatoes are completely different. Each has different and unique notes.

This is how I used to eat sweet potato when I was growing up. Cooked in water with small amount of sugar added. It is not a side dish, but a dessert!

The natural purple color from cooking purple sweet potato is mesmerizing. It is like looking into crystal clear ocean and seeing all the life beneath it.

I copied this image from another blog and here is the reference http://mainmainmasakmasak.wordpress.com/2007/12/30/japanese-sweet-potato-balls/

Farfelle ai Porcini e Capocollo

I have only made two kinds of pasta in the past - pasta with tomato sauce and sweet sausage, or baked pasta. The third kind of pasta that I made recently was the simplest of all.

I was struck by the earthly flavor of wild mushroom at a dinner last November and I wanted to cook with this kind of mushroom since then. Instead of wild mushroom, I got some dried porcini mushroom which has that intense woody flavor.

For good measure, I happened to have some capocollo cured meat in my refrigerator.






Ingredients (1 serving)
Farfelle pasta (bowtie pasta) or ANY kind of pasta.
Dried porcini mushroom, 4-5 pieces. Soaked in water 30 minutes before using. Save the juice.
1-2 slices of Capocollo
Green peas
Quarter of an onion





Instructions
1. Boil a pot of water and cook the pasta.
2. While the pasta is cooking, sauté the onion for 1 minute.
3. Add the mushroom, capocollo and cook for 1 minute.
4. Add the green peas and cook until the juice dries up. 
5. When the pasta is done, combine the pasta and the mushroom and toss everything to mix well.
6. Almost forgot salt and pepper for seasoning.

This pasta is very light and not heavy like the tomato or cream based pasta. I like to think that this pasta comes very close to how pasta should be made. The intriguing flavor of a cured meat combined with the earthy scent of the mushroom is balanced by the freshness of the green peas. The pasta, is like a blank canvas and the rest are colors.

I have since made variations of this pasta with andouille sausage (just because I happened to have some), and left over grilled chicken The option is limitless as to what you can put into this dish.

2 minutes after serving this dish to myself
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Roasted Pork Belly

 

Sometimes there is no words to describe how delicious roasted pork belly taste. The 4 key things that I look for in a perfect roasted pork belly are these:

1) crispy pork skin
2) not too much fat layer under the skin
3) tender and juicy meat
4) just the right amount of salt

Call me picky (aren't we all picky when comes to certain things?), I yet to find a place that sells roasted pork belly that meets every single requirement that I look for.

As for the solution? Make it my own!

I found a recipe on this website http://www.noobcook.com/crispy-roast-pork-belly/  , which I based my "experiment" on. 

Ingredients

1 slab of pork belly (approximately 1.5lb)
2 tsp of salt
1/2 tbsp 5-spice powder
1/4 tbsp white pepper powder

Instructions  (the words in red are copied verbatim from the website above, please refer to the site for complete original instructions)

1. Holding a small knife in a stabbing action, make short diagonal slits with the tip of the knife on the surface of the skin (but not cutting into the meat) at random. 

2. Combine 1 tsp salt, 5-spice powder and white pepper in a small bowl. Rub the marinade all over the meat portion only. If any marinade gets on the skin, rub it off with a paper towel.

3. Rub the remaining 1 tsp salt on the skin. Place pork belly on a plate, uncovered, skin side up and let it marinade for a few hours or preferably overnight in the refrigerator. The purpose is to dry the skin thoroughly.  I did it overnight. 

4. Place the pork belly skin side up on a baking tray. There are many ways to roast a piece of meat. The key is to reduce the amount of oil splashes in the oven. Please find other resources on the internet on how to deal with this.

 

5. Set the oven to 400F and let it come to temperature.

6. Roast the pork belly for 1 hour or until you can stick a bamboo skewer through the meat. 

I am not shy to say that this roasted pork belly hit every single thing that I look for in the "perfect" roasted pork belly. The skin of this roasted pork belly isn't as crunchy as I am accustomed to but it is a minor flaw that I will accept without burning the meat in the process.

I lied when I said I used pork belly, be honest, I actually did not use the traditional pork belly cut. Instead I used something leaner as you can see from the photo. I don't remember the name of the cut but I will update it when I find it.

In my opinion, this is a very simple dish to make and it sure tasted better than any store-bought roasted pork belly within my vicinity.

 

My roasted pork belly has a big gaping hole staring at me. Now it makes sense why the author of the website that I used has this line:

By this time, the skin will be softened and you can see some blistering on the skin. Using a bamboo skewer, poke as many holes as you can on the portion of the skin which is still soft.