Food and more Food

Pan seared sea trout, Scallop ravioli with vanila cream sauce. - French/italian combination

Roast Beef sirloin, yorkshire pudding and jus roti - traditional english (College)

Seared rack of lamb, rich saffrom mashed potato with tomato chutney and ceps gravy. (Cap & gown pub)

Smoked Haddock monte carlo with chive cream. (kitchen skill)

Pressed rich Chocolate cake brownie

Healthy italian

Quick sauce called PESTO. Rich in texture of green basil. You can use any types of pasta. A quick 2 minutes dish surely will impress your guest. Love it. all you need for your fresh pesto are:

toasted Pine nuts. (Best toast in a wok without any oil until lightly brown)

Fresh Basil leaves.

Parmigiana {Parmesan}. Blitz them all at once. with Some Garlic!!

A little bit extravagant here, Black Truffles. A unique fungus that grows below ground with pungent smell dan garlicky flavour. It is well used by great chefs and you can find them serve mostly in big restaurants and definitely michelin starred restaurants. It is rare and grow by itself. The one thing is in fact it's undesirable appearrance. Pooo :)

The word Truffle in my country would be 'Chocolate truffles'. You know, chocolate truffles :). I guess we were never told where the word 'truffle' actually comes from. A fresh truffle will still has its flavour and aroma. If you happen to order one from a restaurant and its tasteless, Return it back and ask for really Fresh truffles.

Pesto Pasta with black truffle.
MANJARI.......

Offal with Great Use

I was thinking to how would people back home (Brunei) would preceive me and for whatever kind of labels would be on my head. whether or not I intend to cook classical Bruneian dish remian sceptical to some food bruneian lover. I sat there and thinking what is Bruneian dish really. Suddenly 'soup Ekor' - Oxtail soup came crossed my mind. It wouldnt be much of a local dish but it's common. Rice being the staple food would always be great companion just as anything. I had a little chat with Chef Wright about oxtail dishes. He suggested me that its nice to go with meditaranean twist by using couscous. He also insist me on using apricot for it's sweet and lightly sour flavour.

To add that bruneian twist, well trying to, I found bread fruit from the local market. Believe me, back home in Brunei my dad grow lots of these beautiful fruit. We normally have it deep fry as afternoon high-tea during any weekends. Ithought that would be nice compliment and last. As planned, i thought of using chou-flour puree (cauliflower), but i believe this is all about eating the offal parts with nothing intervene the oxtail slices but the sauce.

slices of Ox-tail

Bread Fruit, It's ripped and changed colour. Fresh ones looks green.

Cut into half, white, soft seed in the middle.

Braised Oxtail, Ratatouille couscous with apricot, Roasted 'SUKUN' bread fruit and garlic & shallot confit.

Sukun [su- kon] ; Malay transalation for sweet bread fruit.

That apricot in the couscous relieve that fats in your mouth. That tangy, citrus flavour is just the perfect combination. I guess it work well with under-ripped manggo too.

Thanks to Chef Wright for his kind wisdom.

Food is more than art, it's driven mentally.

Lets get smokeyyyyyyyy....

Sous-vide the chicken breast for 1 hour...

En place just before its ready to be smoke. I made a thread swirl to give it aspiral shape. As you can see, I used tarragon, star anise and white sugar. After experimenting four times with different types of herbs, I finally found the stuff that's suitable and it didn't give a bitter taste.

It's smoking already....

Let smokey caramel coat the meat.

Look at that, Nicely coated smoky colour. With sous-vide method, the juice is retained and is not dry. Full of chicken flavour.

That will be the end result.

Smoked Chicken with Potato lyonaise and shredded leek crips with beetroot puree.

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Sugar
It's a hassle and annoying. lots of patience needed.

BRIOCHE maple pudding.

It took me ages just to get that caramel on hazelnut to look like that. Im no pastry chef. Bought a brioche and with some leftover i made myself Brioche maple pudding. I got inspired from french cook book some times ago. Classy!

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Pate' Savarin (savarin Paste)

then it turn into this...

Savarin of manggo, coconut tuiles and curry leaf sabayon.
Truly Gorgeous. I dont own savarin mould so i used souffle remekin instead.
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As i was craving Halal Mcdonald Big Mac, I indulge myself making my own patty.

Look at that, hand cut chips with paprika and herbs. Fresh Lettuce and mayo-gherkin-onion-ketchup sauce. a lil bit of Hollandaise.

Fat burger.

Nyamannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn... with a spalsh of tasbasco sauce.

Mustanir proudly taking a photo of his bread.

What a weekend. Fun

Mustanir actually inspire me to have a go at making savarin after my 1st attempt failed. Also, Thanks to Chef Cooper for the tips.