holiday foods

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone.

Chef Pol

Dried Cherries...

Missus got this cherries for me. I still got the duck thighs and breast in the freezer. I just simply braised the meat with cherries using chicken stock. I wanted that chinese touch and thought of '5' spice. I used star anise and cinnamon stick to infused the sauce and it gives that chinese aroma.

Dried Cherries from Tesco. This is good for people suffering from gout diseases. It has high natural enzymes that would dilute crystalising in the joint. A good antioxidant that can eliminate purines. I know because I have Gout :)

Braised duck breast in cherry sauce with Chinese herbs.

Happy wife, Happy life..

I always have the tendency to served up 'VIP' style menu for the sack of having fun. Some people think we are crazy but why not.

Tandoori Chicken Drumstick. This dish featured last week catering menu.

Clean foil wrapped on the tip, makes it clean to hold and enjoy.
There were also Fish pie and minced beef.

Stuffed Duck Thighs with green herbs chick peas, Caramelised button onions, Crispy Taro, Served with cranberry Sauce

Stuffed duck Thighs with Cranberry Sauce. This was simply the best. Tender duck Thighs with aromatic sweet tangy cranberry sauce. Underneath the duck, I placed crispy yam cubes just to have that slight crunch and to sliced that sharp sourness from the cranberry sauce. It worked perfectly.

chef pol

Mafalde Competition...

Staffs tasting the dishes.

This afternoon we had mini pasta cooking competition using Mafalde pasta. All cooks took part and the winner will get $10 as well as thier dish will feature on next year menu.

Mafalde Pasta.

A) Kolo Pasta. Thick Sweet Soy Sauce with chicken

B) Mafalde Pasta with spicy cream mushroom sauce

C) Mafalde Salad with eggs and crispy fish

D) Simple mafalde pasta with blackpepper olive oil.

E) Mafalde Pasta with sausage

The winner was clearly dish B. Just nice. They are all self-taught chefs who never had any formal trainning, let alone working in established hotels. Two of them are apprentice. They all did well. I just want to have a little bit of fun.

Chef Pol'

We love duck... someone just had to kill them...

Tuiles [tiles] Moulding tuiles using rolling pin.

Many many tuiles shape... Today i made Sesame Tuiles.

More Tuiles...

Sesame tuiles for garnishing. Seared Carnard (Duck), soba noodles, sauteed tomato concasse with tomato butter sauce

ALL is not Lost. all the excess fats and carcasses are turn into duck fat. It's suitable for roasting potatoes or any root vegetables.
Duck [Carnard] is special. One of a kind. It's gamey, succullent and has more fats than other birds. Too bad duck does not provide enough meat for people. It's quite expensive.

Washed and ready to be chopped.

Cuts of duck. the wings, carcass, the tail, the neck, head, thighs, legs, breast. We normaly only use four cuts where it has more meat. Breast and the thighs.

I was preparing two duck dishes today. Stuffed duck thighs with green herbs and chick peas finished with Cranberry sauce. The other dish was Seared duck breast, with soba noodle and tomato butter sauce.

Duck fillings consist of Fresh Rosmary, thyme, Spinach and chick peas.

Once finished chopping, it will turn out like this.

Simply stuffed the fillings inside the duck thighs and roll it with a cling film into candy barrel shape. after steaming, i thought the meat would be intact into nice barrel shape but It didnt materialise as the meat opened up. So i was guessing, maybe duck has low protiene, unlike chicken and it won't set.

Chef Pol

Nutshells

Can you guess what are they?

Just what hotels do...

Just how would you turn cheap cuts into something extravagant. This was one of the menus we did for the 'VIP' guest during Eid events. We made chicken boxing tandoori using chicken niblet(Wings). Slow Roasted in the oven. Although we were not using authentic tandoor oven, I could have roast the spices like garam masala and just let it sit in the oven. by theory, the spice will infuse the chicken.
Chicken boxing in the Oven.

Chicken Niblet, with caramelised Onions and rosmery and thick balsamic reduction

This is more of a Italian Rustic chicken niblet. In the uk, whole chicken wings is so much cheaper at about 0.90 pence per/kg. They dont use them that often. In Brunei, Chicken wing is considered one of the prime cuts, where it's sold at an average of $7 per/kg. Funny ay...

Im not sure whether Ive shown you this, anyway This fish dish was also featured in the 'VIP' menus. It was Tengiri with pistachio herb crust. Believe it or not, not one diners even thought the fish was tengiri, a local produce. They believe its more of a delicate fish like the snapper, sea bream, and even Salmon. I hope they will get the idea that our local produce is as good as western fish. A good restaurateur will not try to put Salmon on its menu. I mean why use frozen and expensive fish. THIS is BRUNEI should I remind you again..... Cheap yet with qualities. No ones gona pay for overcharging dish. I envy most restauratuer who were able to put nice deco interior design in thier restaurant but I will be sad if they don't last long and try to be Over Creative and serve short-cut recipes.

chef