K(C)ooking Keller

I bought The French Laundry Cookbook 2 weeks ago and have been completely enamoured by it ever since - S will attest to the fact that most nights I fall asleep rolling on whatever page the book is opened to, and dreaming of how to perfect that recipe.

At around the same time, I also stumbled upon the French Laundry at Home blog, which documents Carol's attempts to recreate ALL of the French Laundry recipes at home, and is absolutely hilarious. Truth be told, some of the recipes are way too technically complicated, and others just too esoteric (braised pig's head anyone)? Don't get me wrong, I love offal (I'm Chinese - I'll eat just about anything), but I don't think S or too many of my dinner party guests will be too appreciative.

Anyway, before I proceed, I've made 2 changes to the blog. First of all, because I have had comments that this blog is too "technical" for non-cooks, I've decided to omit the precise recipes and techniques. I'm happy to share recipes though - just post me a comment and I will respond. Secondly, because I am so craaaaap at photography, I have decided to appoint S as creative director (aka photographer) of my blog (in addition to his official role as chief taster).

We have S's sister, G, visiting for the weekend, so I decided that it would be a great opportunity to try out some of Keller's recipes. I was a touch ambitious and decided to serve 4 courses for dinner last night.

I started out with Parmesan Crisps with Goats Cheese Mousse - a recipe straight out of the book itself. The slight complication was that I did not have the egg carton called for to shape the crisps, so I decided a small rice bowl would have to do the job. Also I don't have a Silpat (don't even know what that is?!), so I used a non-stick pan lined with baking paper, and shaped them with a cookie cutter - it seemed to work fine.

The crisps came out ok. The difficult bit was the shaping part - my first 2 batches crumbled into shards as I pushed them into the bowl. I finally figured out that timeliness was key - I had to shape these just as they were going from hot-and-still-a-little-soft to cool-and-brittle. Also, I found the best way to shape them was to press in the edges with thumbs and fingers to create a tulip shape - you kind of need fingers of steel for that as the crisps are HOT! Ouch.

The goats cheese mousse I decided to do it my way - instead of processing everything in a blender, I handwhipped the cream first, before creaming the cheese by hand, and then folding n the cream. The resulting mousse was light, and yet held its shape through dinner. I actually made about 10 crisps but we forgot about the photography until only 3 were left - oops. For the next course, I served Blinis with Salmon Tartare, Red Onion Creme Fraiche and Ikura (salmon roe). Now Keller serves his Salmon Tartare on home-made cornets, but I looked at the recipe and was sutably intimidated by the technicality. Also I had read Chubby Hubby's attempt at doing the same, so I had been forewarned! I decided then to serve my tartare on mini potato blinis, using the recipe from another part of Keller's book. To take the salmon theme further, and also because it is oh-so-trendy to do the Japanese fusion thing, I decided to garnish the top with a sprinkle of ikura.

Now, my blini did not come out looking "evenly browned with a small ring of white on the edges", like the picture in the book. I attribute this to uneven heat conduction of my pan as well as a slightly too thin batter. However the taste was very delicate, and the combination of textures of the various components along with the richsalty burst from the ikura was very pleasant indeed.

I then served Gazpacho, the recipe for which I followed to the letter in Keller's book, except that I substituted the cayenne pepper for a fresh red chilli. I did omit the balsamic glaze as I ran out of time to make it! However the resulting soup was still one of the better gazpacho I've eaten (drunk), perfect for a warm summer night, and even S, who does not normally take to tomatoey food, liked it. (we forgot to photograph this.. obviously too caught up in the eating at this point!)

For the main course, I did not use any Keller recipes. I had found some beautiful quails from the specialist butcher nearmy home and really wanted to try roasting them (first time cooking quail!!). I also found some very fresh chicken livers, and decided to do an ode to Keller by pairing the livers with the quail, since he does mention throughout the book that he loves to eat offal.

I brined the quails in a mixture of salt and sugar solution with bay leaves and thyme, and then, in my enthusiasm, decided it would be a brilliant idea to tunnel-bone the birds (it wasn't). A brave attempt, given I've never seen a live demonstration of the process, let alone been trained in the technique. I did manage to remove the ribs and breast bones, as well as the thigh bones of the quails, with minimal tearing of the skin, but couldn't quite figure out how to remove the back bone, so I left that in (lame lame!!), after about an hour struggling with the birds. Anyway, with the half tunneled birds, I decided to stuff with a porcini-pancetta mixture. I then grilled the birds on my outdoor barbie.

With the livers, i marinated them in milk for about a half hour (reduces the gamey flavour), then sauteed these over high heat for a couple of minutes until medium rare. I then made a pan sauce by deglazing the pan with white wine, a mixture of reduced duck and quail stock, and added minced onions, dijon mustard and butter (sauce Robert).

I served the quail and liver with a potato rosti (under the quail in the pic) and a side of braised red cabbage. On hindsight, I should have chosen a green vegetable side because everything on the plate just looks too brown. Also my plating skills are terrible - next course I take is going to be one on food aesthetics.

Tastewise however, the quail was quite delicious, as was the liver. The most outstanding thing on the dish though, was the sauce - S is not usually a huge sauce person and he actually remarked on it. I think next time I make this dish, I will make enough sauce so that it is pourable from a side bowl as a proper "sauce".

Leftovers are always an issue for me. This morning, I made bacon croquettes with all the leftover potato and creme fraiche I had - that went pretty quickly. I am also making gravalax with the rest of the salmon... However what do you do with leftover ikura (besides eat it outright)?

Why Vietnamese Girls Don't Get Fat

The pseudo-Vietnamese food found in Hong Kong is, to say the least, pretty dismal, despite the relative proximity of Hong Kong to Vietnam. My theory for this is that the predominantly Cantonese palate of Hong Kong just simply cannot get used to the pungency of the fresh herbs used in Vietnamese cuisine, and the resulting interpretation we get here is well... just sad.

I have loved Vietnamese food since the first time I stepped foot in Hanoi in 2003. Vietnamese cuisine is heavy in its use of fresh herbs to accent dishes, and is refreshing, healthy, low fat and flavoursome. For reasons I put down to sheer ignorance, I have always thought Vietnamese dishes as being too difficult to master. Thankfully, at the Career Discovery course I did at the CIA recently, a number of the dishes we had to prepare were authentially Vietnamese, and this really opened my eyes to the beauty and sheer simplicity of the cuisine.

I tried to recreate 3 dishes 2 Saturdays ago. My recipe adaptations from the CIA versions as follows:

Pho Bo (Vietnamese Beef Noodles in Soup)

This turned out superbly, a decent copy of the real thing you get on the streets of Vietnam. The secret is sloooow simmering of the broth to bring out the beefy goodness, as well as constant skimming to avoid clouding the broth with impurities.

For the broth:

Beef bones. Ask the butcher to chop into 2 inch sections
Enough water to cover (I used about 6l of water)

500g beef brisket

4in piece of ginger, peeled, charred

1 large yellow onion, peeled, sliced, charred

Fish sauce, to taste

Sugar, to taste

Salt, to taste

2 whole star anise (10 pods), lightly toasted in a dry pan for 2 min

6 whole cloves, lightly toasted in a dry pan for 2 min

1 stick cinnamon, lightly toasted in a dry pan for 2 min

1 tsp hole peppercorns

Method:
1. Prep the bones. Put the bones in a pot with water to cover, and bring to a rolling boil quickly. Boil for 2 minutes, then discard the water and rinse the bones in cold water. This helps to get rid of excess blood, fat and impurities in the bones. Then cover with cold water again, and bring to a slow simmer. Continue to simmer for 3 hours.

2. After 3 hours, add the onion and ginger to the broth. Plac the star anise, cloves, cinnamon and peppercorns in a spice bag and add this to the broth. Continue to simmer for another 2 hours.

3. Marinate the beef brisket in sugar, light soy sauce and fish sauce for a few hours. Sear the outside of the brisket in a hot pan. In the final 2 hours of simmering, add this to the broth. Simmer until the brisket is very tender

4. Season with fish sauce, sugar and salt, to taste

For the noodle assembly:

Vietnamese rice noodles, cooked in boiling salted water (like pasta) until soft

Bean sprouts

Yellow onions, sliced paper thin

Scallions, sliced into thin rings

Sprigs of cilantro
Sprigs of Asian (Thai) basil

Sprigs of mint

Sprigs of Vietnamese mint (rau ram) - optional, I did not use as I could not find it

Saw leaf herb - optional and also cannot be found here

Thai bird chillis, sliced

Lime wedges

Rib eye or other good cut of beef, sliced paper thin, raw

Cooked beef brisket, sliced into 1/2 in slices

Method:

To serve, place the cooked noodles in heated bowls, and add the brisket and slices of beef, then ladle the boiling hot broth into the bowls. The broth should instantly cook the raw beef. Garnish with any amount of vegetables and herbs, and squeeze limes into the broth, to taste.

Prawn Rice Paper Rolls

This is actually very simple to make, as long as you have your mise en place all ready to go, and once you have gotten the knack of "rolling". The trick to not having the rice papers disintegrate on you is not to soak them for too long in the hot water. They should feel just on the brink of being completely soft as you take them out of the water, as they will continue to soften slightly as you assemble the roll. Freshness of each of the ingredients is crucial.

Ingredients:

Fresh prawns, medium, cooked in their shells in salted water, peeled, deveined and cooled.

Round rice papers (I used 6in ones, larger ones can sometimes be found)

Red leaf lettuce, washed, dried and torn into pieces

Bean sprouts, briefly blanched (10-15 sec!)

Carrots, julienned

Mint

Asian basil

Cilantro

Mung bean or thin rice vemicelli noodles, cooked (optional, I did not use)

Vietnamese dipping sauce (recipe to follow)

Method:

1. Toss lettuce with carrots and noodles (if using) with some of the dipping sauce, just enough to coat.
2. Set up the rolling station. Fill a roasting tray with hot water. If necesary, keep boiling water on hand to add to the bowl if the temperature drops too low. Use a wooden chopping board as the rolling surface (wood absorbs excess water), or place cheesecloth over the rolling surface.

3. Work with one rice paper at a time. Dip one edge in hot water and turn to wet completely, about 10 secs. Lay the sheet on the rolling surface and stretch to remove any wrinkles. Line the bottom third of the sheet with the lettuce mixture, bean sprounts, 1 sprig of mint, 1 sprig of cilantro, 1 basil leaf, half a prawn. Make sure ingredients are evenly distributed from one end to another, leaving a little buffer at each end.

4. Using your index and third fingers to press down on the ingredients, use your thumbs to flick the bottom end over the ingredients. Still holding down on the ingredients, use your fourth finger to fold the sides in, then use the thumb, index and third fingers to roll. Make sure the roll is tight. (It takes practice! Thanks to my Hokkien family, I credit my rolling skills to a lifetime of pohpiah rolling.). Finish making all the other rolls in the same way.

5. Serve rolls with the remainder of the dipping sauce.

For the Vietnamese Dipping Sauce:

Ingredients:

2 garlic cloves, sliced

4 red Thai brid chillis, chopped, seeds removed

1/4 cup fish sauce

1/2 cup hot water

2 Tbs fresh lime juice

1/4 cup sugar

Method:

1. Place garlic and chillis in a mortar. Pound into a paste with a pestle.

2. Combine the garlic mixture with the rest of the ingredientsin a small bowl. Stir until sugar is dissolved.

3. Ladle into serving bowls

Ga Nuong Xa (Lemon Grass Barbequed Chicken)

All over Indochina, you will see street hawkers roasting these incredibly flavoursome and tasty birds over open charcoal fires. My recipe is a decent home version. I accidentally left it for too long on the skin side, and the wings came out charred, which marred the look of the bird. However the taste was not impacted, and in fact the charring added to the smokiness I wanted to achieve!

Ingredients:

Chicken, 1-1.5kg, butterflied

Lemongrass, white part only, 4 tbs, minced

Shallots, minced, 2 tbs

Garlic, minced, 2 tbs
Soy sauce, 2 tbs

Sugar, 2 tbs

Fish sauce, 2 tbs

Dried chilli flakes, 1 tbs, or to taste

Salt, 1 tsp

Cilantro, chopped, 2 tbs

Canola oil, 4 tbs

Cilantro soy dipping sauce, 1 cup

Method:

1. Set aside half the lemongrass. Combine remaining lemongrass, shallots, garlic, soy sauce, sugar, fish sauce, chilli flakes and salt in a large bowl. Add the chicken and turn to coat. Leave to marinate for at least 4 hours, and preferably overnight. Bring the chicken to room temperature before cooking.

2. Combine the remaining lemongrass with the oil and season with salt and pepper.

3. Gril the chicken, preferably over a charcoal grill. I have a gas grill, so I used the charcoal in foil method as per "Home Smoked Goodness". Periodically turn and baste the chicken with the oil until done.

4. Let rest for 10 min before serving with the cilantro soy sauce.

For the Cilantro Soy Dipping Sauce:

Ingredients:

Garlic clove, 1, sliced

Thai bird chillis, 4 (or to taste)

Fresh ginger, 1in piece, peeled and sliced

Fresh cilantro, 2 tbs, finely chopped

Soy sauce, 1/4 cup

Fresh lime juice with pulp, 2 tbs

Water, 2 tbs

Sugar, 2 tbs

Method:

1. Pound the garlic, chillis and ginger in a mortar with a pestle, until it becomes a paste.

2.Mix well with the rest of the ingredients until sugar is dissolved.

3. Serve in ramkins.

Home Smoked Goodness

I have been dying to try the home smoking techniques I picked up at the CIA course 5 weeks back, and yesterday finally presented itself with enough time for my experiment.

So I had that big slab of spare ribs left over from the roast pork a couple of weeks back, which I had rubbed with a mixture of cumin, paprika, chilli powder, brown sugar, salt and pepper, and frozen. I decided that I would try to create a Southern style meal, complete with smoked bbq ribs, buffalo wings, coleslaw and fries.

Althought my outdoor grill runs on gas, and it was seemingly impossible to smoke anything with a gas grill, I had learnt from the CIA chef instructors that all it takes to permeate food with that smokey aroma is a few briquettes of charcoal (and wood chips if available) in a confined space. I made 2 foil parcels of charcoal briquettes, poked holes in the packs, and left these on top of the gas plate to heat up and smoke. When the grill was hot and ready, I placed the slab above the parcels, and shut the lid on the grill to keep the smoke in. Ribs have to be slow cooked for best results, so I shut the fire off on the side of the grill with the meat, and just left a low fire on at the other side. This I would turn every half hour or so for around 2 1/2 hours until the meat was tender and the bones could be moved from the meat if gently nudged.

The coleslaw called for mayonnaise thinned down with vinegar and sugar, and as I hate bottled mayonnaise, I decided to hand make a batch. I have made mayonnaise and other emulsion based sauces many times in the past, with varying degrees of success, and I have found the secret to a stable sauce is lots of wrist power, and a VERY slow addition of oil. Hand whipping always seems to give the best texture for me - I don't like the blender and mixer versions.With 2 yolks, one cup of oil (7/8 canola, 1/8 a very fruity olive oil), white wine vinegar, salt and pepper,I ended up with slightly more than a cup of mayo, plenty for one salad, so I used the remainder to make a chive aioli as well as a blue cheese dressing for the wings.

For the blue cheese dressing, I blended the mayo with sour cream, chopped parsley, chopped garlic, red wine vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, gorgonzola, salt, pepper and a dash of paprika. It turned out very nicely - smooth and tangy. It went well with the wings, which were ok, but not quite spicy (or red) enough. I only had spice in the last bit of preparation (the tabasco in the sauce used to toss the cooked wings), which was not quite sufficient for our South East Asian palates. Next time I will be adding paprika and chilli powder to the flour mix before frying.

I had also been really eager to try the technique for great fries as taught to me by a coursemate at the CIA. He said the secret to really good fries is to first blanch the fries in 160 deg c oil for 2 minutes until the splattering stops (basically removes some moisture from the potatoes), then lay them out on a tray and refridgerate until very cold. When ready to finish off the frying, heat the oil to 190 deg c, then take the potatoes out of the fridge and put them straight in the hot oil until golden brown. I have to say the technique worked pretty well.

To finish off the ribs, I made a batch of bbq sauce (I think most of my friends have figured out by now that I HATE using anything out of a jar). I did start with commercial ketchup (was not economical to brew my own..), which I cooked down with red wine vinegar, worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, sugar, mustard, chili powder, garlic, ginger, oil, and lemon. 15 minutes before the ribs were done, I swabbed them with the sauce for the final cooking, and also served it on the side.

All in, I have to say dinner was a good result - the ribs were surprisingly flavoursome, the slaw was refreshing, the fries crispy and the wings not spicy enough, but tasty nonetheless. I was especially happy with the smoking - next time I will be adding apple or cedar wood to the foil parcels for more impact.