Ma Po Tou Fu 麻婆豆腐

I followed Fuchsia Dunlop's recipe found in her book titled "Every Grain of Rice". I followed the recipe very closely but, of course, introduced a bit of improvisation.

Since I can't find the internet link to her recipe, I will type it out here for those interested:

Ingredients (5 generous servings, if you have meat)

500-600g plain white tofu (I think she is referring to the semi-firm tofu but I used soft tofu - two packets)

4 baby leeks or spring onions, green parts only (I find it a bit wasteful to use green parts only so I used the entire spring onion)

2 1/2 tbsp Sichuan chilli bean paste (this is a must-have but I did not use 2.5 tbsp. You'll need to adjust it according to your own taste)

1 tbsp fermented black beans (this falls under the optional but nice-to-have category)

2 tsp ground red chillies (optional, I did not use this)

1 tbsp finely chopped ginger, 1 tbsp finely chopped garlic (this is just a rough estimation, I think I used a little more than that)

1/2 cup vegetarian stock or water (I added half a piece of chicken stock cube to my water since I do not have any vegetarian stock)

1/4 tsp ground white pepper

2 tsp potato flour mixed with 2 tbsp water (I used corn starch and it is all an estimation)

1/4-1/2 tsp ground roasted Sichuan pepper (any purist would say this is a must-have but I did not have any in my dish)

200 g of ground pork




Instructions:

1. The original recipe recommend to par-cooked the tofu but I did not since I am using soft tofu.  I can see how that is necessary if you are using semi-hard tofu.

2. I browned the ground pork first then take it out of the pan.

3. In a clean pan, I fried the chilli bean paste until fragrant, then added garlic and ginger. Next I added the fermented black beans.

4. As Fuchsia warned in her cookbook "take care not to overheat the seasonings; you want a thick, fragrant sauce and the secret of this is to let them sizzle gently, allowing the oil to coax out their flavors and aromas".

5. Next I added the browned ground pork into the pan and stir fry it a few times. This is also when I added 90% of my chopped spring onion.

6. Finally, I added the soft tofu in the pan. I stir fried all of these very carefully. I broke apart the tofu but I dont want it to turn mushy, or as Fuchsia says it "dont damage the tofu".

7. Season with salt and pepper

8. Add the cornstarch water to thicken the sauce until your desired thickness.

9. Sprinkle the remaining scallion and serve. 




I can't say I have tried the most authentic Ma Po Tofu in my life since I have not been to the motherland of Ma Po Tofu; but this dish is surprisingly delicious. All the flavors blended together seamlessly. The chilli bean paste brings the heat, which makes the dish especially appetising. 

Lemon Tart Round Two

Having made deconstructed lemon tart, now is the time to make a proper lemon tart with...a tart base.

So good!

Biscuit crumbs cannot compare with a proper tart base.

Lemon Spongecake with Lemon Icing

Continuing with exploring desserts with lemon, we've decided to make a simple lemon spongecake. We followed this recipe very closely to make the spongecake and kept a very close eye on the cake. I took the cake out after 35 minutes; I think I could have taken it out at the 30 minutes mark.

Next up, make the lemon icing. For that, I use this recipe. The lemon that I used was big so I added too much lemon juice. The better way to do it is to drizzle in the lemon juice slowly while stirring until you get the consistency right. I saved the lemon icing by adding a bit more butter and a whole lot more icing.

Creame caramel

When you tried once and it is a success, what's more to tweak?

The recipe that I used was this.

There wasn't any real trick in making this if you follow the recipe closely. I cooked the caramel under low heat and it took a while for it to turn to this maple colour. I am not sure if I can cook it at higher heat but I am okay with taking more time to let the colour develop.



One thing to note, when the caramel colour began to develop, it comes fast so you need to pay really close attention at the first sign of change in colour.

The next trick is to determine the doneness. Again, I have to rely on these words "until the custard has set". I am not sure what that means so I relied on my instinct. The custard was, how should I say, slightly jiggly when I took it out after checking it a few times and setting the timer for another 2 minutes, another 2 minutes, a another 2 minutes.



You would never know how it would turn out until you flip it over. The custard was smooth and the center was still custardy.

Now the real trick is to replicate this.

Lemon Tart (Tart Eu Citron)

Deconstructed lemon tart to be precise.

I am scared of making a tart because of the complication so I decided to make a tart-less tart. Since I need the crunch, I decided to use digestive biscuits.

The recipe for the filling that I used is this. 

I made three lemon tarts.

First tart: Make the digestive bottom based on this recipe, which was not pre-baked. The tart was overbaked. I misjudged what "wobbly in the center" mean. The sourness and sweetness were balanced but I did not get the silky filling. The digestive biscuit bottom was completely soggy. Not crunch.

Second tart: Repeat the above. Baked the digestive biscuits on a side until crispy brown colour. I omitted the sugar from the digestive biscuits. Didn't need that much sugar in my diet. I also reduce the sugar from the filling. Bad mistake. I misjudged "wobbly in the center" again and this time I underbaked. The tart was too sour. I also over-zested.

Third tart: I cut the ingredients of the filling by half. I used 3 eggs and slightly more heavy cream. I didn't overzest, I used the right amount of sugar. Baked the digestive biscuits on the side. The tart was set at around 16 minutes point, which was when I took it out. I thought I overbaked because the center was quite set.

But this was what I got...

Carbonara Pasta

I have always wanted to make carbonara pasta simply because it is a simple pasta to make. In pasta-lore, carbonara pasta is like a holy-grail and that is my own definition. I have not had real roman-esque carbonara pasta in my life so I can't say how authentic or good my pasta is compare to the real deal. Take on its own, this pasta is really delicious. It is creamy as it should be.

Now that I know how easy it is to make carbonara pasta, may I make a plea to all restaurants around me that serve carbonara in cream to STOP. Just STOP doing what you are doing. If you want to keep doing it, fine, but don't call it carbonara pasta. 

I will not spell out every step of how I made this dish. If you are interested, check out my main source of reference: Cook's Illustrated. Here, I will simply emphasise a few areas of note:

1 lb pasta (most websites say 1lb of pasta feeds 4 people. They must have been talking about feeding                  4 giants. The way I see/eat it, 1 lb of pasta yields about 6-8 regular size servings)

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 1/4 cup of cheese

3 eggs + 1 egg yolk

1 tsp pepper

1 tsp salt

6-8 strips of bacon

1 tablespoon of fat, I used ghee

I used cheddar cheese, not the fancy cheese (read: Pecorino-Romano). Before you cry "sacrilegious!", hear me out. It is not only expensive, it is also very difficult to find fancy cheese here in this part of my world. Invite me to cook for you, I will buy Pecorino but you pay! :)

Although I have heard of this way of cooking bacon, I have not done it before. The main problem this method solves is - oil splatter. I fully agree with the effectiveness of this method in creating crispy bacon with much much less oil splatter.

The carbonara sauce sans cheese. That will go in soon.

I toss my pasta over a double boiler.

The black bits that you see are not charred bacon. They are the brown bits of good stuff that caramelised on the pan. Millard reaction!

Potato Leek Soup

For whatever weird reason, I'd always say to myself "I am going to make this dish" every time I come across this dish on the internet. I can't say for sure how long that has been going on. At least a few years.





So yesterday I decided to "just do it". I turn to Kenji Lopez's Potato Leek Soup for guidance and I thought I would share my own general thoughts on his recipe.

1. A mix of butter and corn oil instead of 2 tablespoons of butter
2. 6 leeks instead of 2
3. Store-bought chicken stock (more on that later)
4. 3 large russet potatoes
5. 1 bay leave
6. no buttermilk (I don't have this laying around in my pantry)
7. no cream (more on that later)
8. no nutmeg (I don't have this laying around in my pantry)
9. I flavoured my stock first (see below) before adding it to the leek and potato. I then cooked everything for 15 minutes in a pressure cooker.



As with most cooking, there are a lot of "feel" that goes into it. In my opinion, whatever "timing" that was given is just for reference. I took me less than 10 minutes to soften the leeks.


Now, the stock. The stock is probably the most important ingredient of this dish. I didn't have the time to make my own chicken stock so I bought it from the store. The selection was minimal, more like, there was only 1 brand to choose from. I warmed the stock on a stock pot and tasted it. It tasted strange. There is a funny synthetic mushroom taste, like a can of you-know-what brand mushroom soup. The soup was thin and lacked flavour so I improvised by adding the following these two items - a fistful of dried anchovies and a chicken stock cube. Now before you scream at me, hear me out. I read somewhere that anchovies add umami flavour to any stock and I figured a fistful of anchovies can't hurt. It turned out to be the correct choice. Now chicken stock cube. I am not a purist. For something last minute and frill-free, I'll take it.





The surprising part of my soup is that it did not require any cream. The soup is already creamy after I blended it. Could be the extra potato in my soup. Anyway, I prefer it without the cream. I might lack some flavour but I can do without the extra fat in my diet.