Spicy Fried Minced Pork with Sichuan Chilli Oil

Ingredients: 

Ingredients A:
300g minced pork -- a little fat is good, otherwise it will be dry
1 tbsp water -- or stock if you have it
1/8 tsp ground white pepper
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil

2tbsp oil
1 inch ginger -- finely chopped
1 spring onion -- finely chopped

2 tbsp Sichuan Chilli Oil -- with goop / sediment

Put the minced pork in a bowl. Add the remaining items from Ingredients A one at a time, stirring in between.

Heat the oil in a wok. Add the ginger, and stir fry until the fragrance is released. Add the spring onion, and do the same.

Add the minced pork with a large pinch of salt. Break it up into little clumps as it browns.

Serve over hot rice.

Notes: 

I did not have any, but I'd recommend adding some cooking wine -- mirin, sake, Shaoxing -- to the minced pork as part of Ingredients A.

Sticky Chai v.1

Ingredients: 
100g black Ceylon tea
15g cinnamon sticks
5g whole clove
20g vanilla powder
5g turmeric powder
15g dried ginger
5g aniseed
3g licorice root
5g whole green cardamom
10g black peppercorn
5g coriander seed
200g yellow box honey

Break the cinnamon sticks in half, and pull them apart.

Crack open the cardamom pods, and extract the seeds from the pods -- keep the pods.

Break up the slices of dried ginger -- pull apart with your fingers or chop.

Pour all the dry ingredients into a bowl, then pour the honey on top and stir. Everything should be moist with honey, without dry spots. Put into a jar and leave it in a dark and cool cupboard for 2 weeks.

Notes: 
I am making my own Sticky Chai because I find the original one to be too sweet, not spicy enough and lacking in licorice/aniseed flavor that Matthias so loves.

I did not mix this by hand. I recommend using your stand mixer on the lower setting, with a dough hook. It is less work to clean the dough hook and bowl than to do this by hand.

Using the dough hook also minimises the crushing of the spices. While some crushing is ideal (that is why I pull apart the cinnamon sticks), I suspect that crushing or grinding the mixture down may cause some of the spices -- particularly the clove and the star anise -- to taste too bitter in the final product.

I only used yellow box honey because it was cheaper. Any regular honey will be fine. I plan on making a batch with maple syrup at some point, but with less of the aniseed.

Tasting Notes: 

Makes for a very mellow, and mild chai. I have to add some fresh ground pepper and chopped ginger to give it even the slightest kick.

Maple Cake

Ingredients: 

4 egg whites
50g sugar

50g flour
20g sugar
100g milk
1 egg yolk
maple extract
vanilla bean paste -- optional
pinch of salt

50g flour
1/4tsp baking powder

Dissolve sugar in warm milk. Whisk milk into first 50g of flour, followed by egg yolk, extract, and salt.

Beat egg whites until stiff with the sugar. Pour milk mixture in while whisking, then sift into flour.

Divide into 12 cupcake forms and bake at 160C.

Notes: 
The cupcakes did not open up, and were too chewy. I think that was too much milk for 12 cupcakes. I am going to increase the egg yolks and decrease the milk.

Fennel and Potatoes in Cream

Adapted from Food52

Ingredients: 

1 fennel head
5 potatoes

black pepper
2tsp coarse salt
1 bay leaf
200g milk
200g cream

Chunk up the potatoes.

Cut off the fronds and other dark green bits of the fennel for another use. Quarter it, cut off the hard rooty bit, and pull it apart. Slice them into roughly the same dimensions as the potatoes.

Pour the rest of the ingredients into a pan, and warm up on low heat. Stir, then add the potatoes and the fennel.

If the milk does not submerge the vegetables completely, cover the pot. Keep an eye on it because milk has a tendency to bubble up and out of the pan and it is a terrible mess to clean up.

Cook for about twenty minutes, or until tender. Taste for salt.

At this point, you can drain the vegetables, reserving the milk liquid for another use. You can serve the vegetables at this point.

You can also portion them out onto gratin dishes and broil them until crispy. I recommend brushing a bit of oil over the top to help it crisp up faster.

Notes: 

You can swap out the fennel for leeks, if you like, or the potatoes for another root vegetable. Parsnip would probably work well.

For flavor, you can add a clove of garlic, garam masala, chilli flakes, amongst other things, to the milk. But if you use fennel, I actually suggest adding fennel seed instead, because I am afraid the garlic etc will over power the fennel.

Next time, I will probably not use cream. It is not necessary.

You can use the milk after that in a roux-based sauce. I plan to fry up some steak in butter, use that to make a roux and dump in the milk after that.

Green Tea Ice Cream

Ingredients: 

27g matcha powder
180g condensed milk
450g heavy cream -- 40% fat

Dump everything into a mixing bowl, and whip until stiff.

Please keep an eye on the mixture as it whips up pretty quick if your cream is cold.

Scoop into container and freeze for at least 6 hours.

Notes:

I assume that you will not be able to resist having a taste of the mixture before it freezes. The matcha powder, before freezing, will be a touch too much, but it will smooth out after freezing.

You can also put this into an ice cream maker, but I do not have one.

I am going to try this recipe for condensed milk soon, with the coconut sugar.

Soft Chocolate Cake

Ingredients: 

45g egg yolk
195g whole eggs
135g sugar

45g cocoa powder
50g flour
45g sugar
40g heavy cream
60g milk

50g flour
1/4tsp baking soda

Dissolve sugar in cream and milk over gently heat. Whisk into flour and cocoa powder. It will be a stiff paste. Cover.

Whip eggs up with sugar until you can draw an initial over the top before it begins to disappear.

Whisk in cocoa paste.

Whisk in flour with baking soda.

Bake at 160C in a 25cm round tin.

Notes: 

Need to adjust cocoa and flour ratios. Cocoa powder can be reduced 30g, I think.

Matcha Cake

Ingredients: 

250g egg whites
200g sugar

80g all-purpose flour
10g matcha
100g milk
50g cream

80g all-purpose flour

Sift the first 80g of flour with matcha. Warm milk and cream together, then stir into matcha-flour mixture. Make a smooth batter.

Whip egg whites with sugar until stiff peaks.

Whisk matcha mixture into egg whites.

Sift second 80g of flour and fold through.

Bake in 25cm round tin at 150C.

Notes: 

Next time, I will put some off the sugar into the matcha mixture instead. It should help keep the matcha mixture more liquid and increase the volume of the egg whites a bit.

This is a slight modification of the Coffee Cream Cake, which should really be called the Latte or Cappucino cake. I removed the egg yolks because I think they will get in the way of the matcha flavor.

Tasting Notes: 

Soft, moist and redolent of matcha. I am definitely on the right track.

The texture could be finer and more even, but I put that down to the matcha mixture not being as smooth as it could be.

I am going to reduce the amount of flour in the wet mixture a bit further, to make it smoother and easier to incorporate into the egg white.

Coffee Cream Cake

Ingredients: 

100g all-purpose flour
150g heavy cream
60g milk
10g instant coffee powder
5g coffee extract

10 yolks + enough egg white make up 440g
200g sugar

100g all-purpose flour

Warm up the cream and milk. Dissolve the instant coffee powder and then stir in the coffee extract.

Whisk the coffee mixture into the first 100g of flour. It should be a smooth batter that looks rather like soft and melty chocolate ice cream.

Beat the eggs and sugar on low speed over a barely simmering water bath until very light and thick. If your eggs are fresh, it should take at least 10 minutes. Eggs that start from cold and are not particularly fresh will take at least 15 minutes.

Stir some of the egg mixture into the coffee mixture to loosen it up, then dollop it into the rest off the eggs while whisking.

Whisk in the second 100g of flour a spoonful at a time.

Pour into a 25cm square tin (lined on the bottom), and then bake at 150C until a skewer comes out clean.

Notes: 
I forgot to loosen up the coffee mixture, but you should do that. Makes it easier to get a batter that does not streak.

I want to try this with only egg whites, partly because I have a surfeit of them and partly because sometimes I find that you get a cleaner flavor. Matcha will probably be the first one I try.

I split up the flour for textural reasons, but it is also far easier to get a mixture that can be whisked into the eggs this way.

You can split the recipe into 2 8 inch round tins or 2 7 inch square pans.

Tasting Notes: 
The coffee taste could be stronger, but the texture is really quite good.

I think you could quite easily skip the coffee and just use vanilla extract, or put some powdered spices like ground cinnamon into the cake.

Chendol Cake

Ingredients: 
8 egg yolks + enough egg white to make up 440g
80g coconut sugar
70g caster sugar

50g gula melaka
200g thin coconut milk -- see notes
60g thin pandan juice -- see notes

3 egg yolks
200g all purpose flour -- sifted

Line the bottom of a 25cm square pan.

Melt the gula melaka into the coconut milk and pandan juice. Let cool a bit, then temper in the egg yolks.

Whisk the gula melaka mixture into the flour. Set aside.

Whisk the remaining eggs, coconut sugar and caster sugar over a barely simmering pot of water. I brought a pot of water to boil on a slow cooker, then left it on the keep warm setting.

It will become very thick, and it is ready when you can completely write an initial over the top with the mixture before it sinks.

Fold a scoop of the egg mixture into the flour + gula melaka mixture to loosen it up. Whisk this into the eggs with the mixer still going.

Scrape the bottom, and pour into the prepared tin. Bake at 160C until a skewer comes out clean.

Notes: 
Chendol is a Malay dessert. It has shaved ice, green spaetzle-looking strands of noodles, sometimes red bean, and it is all doused in coconut milk and gula melaka syrup.

Gula melaka is a kind palm sugar, and is not the same as coconut sugar. There are no coconuts involved in the making of coconut sugar. You can probably use other kinds of palm sugar, but make it a dark colored one -- Thai palm sugar is too pale.

Thin coconut milk is coconut milk after the coconut cream has been skimmed off for other uses. You can probably substitute regular coconut milk and water in a 50:50 proportion.

Thin pandan juice is the water skimmed off the top after squeezing pandan juice. The stuff at the bottom is the thick stuff, the paler, cloudy-water looking stuff on top is thin pandan juice.

I actually had excess pandan juice and accidentally tipped it all into the pan, so I simmered it for until it was reduced to the proportions I gave above.

It would be interesting to try using 50:50 coconut cream and pandan juice.

Tasting Notes: 
Failure! The bottom half was gluey and 'kueh'-like, but the upper half was gorgeous. Fine crumbed, and soft and spongey.

I am going to try this again, but this time I will only add the hot liquid to half of the flour, and whisk the rest in bit by bit at the end.

ETA: 
I am making something else today with the same technique of whipping eggs up until super light, and I suspect that when I made this, I did not whip the eggs for long enough.

Quarkkuchen, or Matthias's Favourite German Cheesecake made with Quark

Adapted from German Kuchen

Ingredients: 
125g butter
200g sugar
4 egg yolks

1kg quark

Juice of 1 lemon

45g semolina
20g cornstarch
1tsp baking powder

6 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
50g sugar

Cream butter and sugar. Add yolks one at a time.

Add quark. Scrape the bottom several times.

When the quark mixture is fully combined -- and no longer has streaks of yellow but is a pale yellow through out -- add the lemon juice, followed by the dry ingredients.

Whip the egg whites until stiff peaks with the cream of tartar and the sugar.

Fold the egg whites into the quark mixture.

Pour into a 25cm springform tin -- the German-style ones with the glass bottom are great -- and bake at 160C until done. The cake will rise, puff and then sink. It is done when a skewer comes out clean.

Notes: 
I used this recipe because it was the most similar one to Matthias's mom's recipe.

I added an additional two egg whites because I have found that when making cakes that puff and then sink, the addition of the extra egg whites makes for a better, smoother textured cake. If you do not have extra egg whites lying around spare, the cake should taste perfectly good without them anyway.

You cannot use a smaller tin without reducing the recipe. Even with a 25cm tin, there was plenty extra to make Matthias and I a small one tonight plus some extra batter for him to eat.

Tasting Notes: 
Matthias says that I do not need to finagle with the recipe any more, but I shall see what his mother has to say when I get her recipe.

Soft Almond Cake

Adapted from Genoa Cake, or Pain de Genes

Ingredients: 
4 large eggs
250g marzipan
60g flour
1tsp vanilla extract

Blend the marzipan into the eggs. If using a stand mixer, I recommend trying the dough hook, and scrape the bottom regularly. . You may also use a blender.

Switch to a whisk and whip at medium speed for at least 15 minutes, until the mixture is very light, very pale and very fluffy.

Whisk in the flour and vanilla extract.

Pour into a 22.5cm pan and bake at 180C for 15-20 minutes.

Notes: 
The annoying part is working the eggs and marzipan into a uniform paste. Using a blender is fastest, but you will need to clean it -- and also waste batter transferring it to different bowls and such.

This was a cake designed from laziness. It takes similar proportions to the Genoa Cake, but fluffs it up with a machine and gets rid of the heating eggs and almond paste bit.

The pan does not need to be very tall, as the cake does not rise very much in the oven.

As it does not rise very much in the oven, it also stays pretty flat. If you were to stack the cake, it probably will not need levelling.

It would be lovely topped with fruit and glazed, or sandwiched with lightly sweetened custard.

Tasting Notes: 
The texture is spectacularly good. Very soft, fine and moist.

It does not taste as strongly almondy as the Genoa Cake recipe does, but it is still very fragrant.

In some ways, it takes the best things of the Genoa Cake and makes it better with what I consider it to be superior texture.

Three-Day 100% Wholemeal Flat Bread -- with starter and scalded dough v.1

Ingredients: 

Scalded Dough:
200g strong wholemeal flour
300g boiling water

Starter:
5g active dry yeast
10g sugar -- optional
100g strong wholemeal flour
150g milk -- buttermilk or other soured milk products is also fine

250 strong wholemeal flour + extra for dusting
2tsp salt
50g oil

Toppings -- optional

Day 1: 

Scalded Dough:
Stir boiling water into wholemeal flour. It is fine if there are dry patches. Cover with clingwrap and let cool for a bit before placing in the fridge overnight

Starter:
Scald the milk. Let cool before stirring into the remaining starter ingredients. Make sure that the starter rises before putting it in the fridge.

Day 2: 

Chunk up the scalded dough, then pour the starter on top. Knead or stir until it is uniform. If using a stand mixer, let it knead away, scraping the bottom occasionally, on the lowest setting for 8 minutes.

Pour in the salt and oil. Add about half the flour, and then the rest by the spoonful until the dough is just barely tacky. Knead for 4 more minutes on the lowest setting.

Tuck into a ball, and let sit on the counter for about 1 hour. Place in fridge overnight.

Day 3: 

Portion the dough out.

Pat or roll each piece out. If adding any toppings, sprinkle them on the dough now. Then roll them up like a cinnamon roll, seal the edges and tuck the ends in.

Cover and stash in fridge until ready to use.

When ready to cook, heat a dry, clean pan.

Roll out the dough, and flip into pan. When it starts to puff, flip again. The bread is ready when both sides are speckled with dark brown spots.

Notes: 

This recipe was the result of Matthias saying he liked the Scalded Dough Flat Bread better after it had sat in the fridge for another day. He is German and likes his bread thoroughly fermented and preferably sour.

If using a soured/fermented milk product, you do not need to scald it, just warm it up a bit.

It is fine if you need to flip the bread multiple times because you haven't gotten the timing right. That is probably better than burning them anyway.

I do not know how well this bread works as a 'filled dough', as opposed to just using things like spring onion or sesame seeds and things like that.

I plan to try using sesame oil for the dough and then adding a couple tablespoons of sesame seeds to the dough (not as a filling, add it as the last ingredient on Day 2).

Tasting Notes: 

This was kinda gummy. The other version was better. I think I need to figure out if the gumminess is from excess liquid or the milk.

Toscakaka

Adapted from Poires au Chocolat 

Ingredients: 

Cake:
100g soured milk
100g butter
1tbsp vanilla extract
4 large eggs
20g glucose
130g sugar
200g flour
5g baking powder
3g salt

Almond topping:
180g butter
180g sugar
80g heavy cream
230g flaked almonds
1/8 tsp salt

Cake:
Line the bottom of a 25cm springform tin.
Melt the butter, and stir in the soured milk. Leave to cool.
Mix flour, baking powder and salt.
Crack eggs into mixer bowl, add sugar and glucose. Whisk at medium speed until thick and creamy. It should leave a trail long enough for you to write an initial.
Sift in a third of the flour, and then whisk until it disappears. Pour in half the butter-milk mixture. Alternate in this way until the flour is all in.
Scrape the bottom and fold it roughly (without deflating the mixture) to make sure that it is even.
Pour into tin and bake at 160C.
Remove when a skewer comes out clean -- about 25 minutes -- and turn the heat up to 200C.

Almond topping:
After the cake has been in the oven for 20 minutes or so, start making the topping.
Dump the butter, sugar and cream into a pot. Heat on medium, while stirring. When it turns into a glossy mixture with large bubbles, remove from stove, and pour in the almonds.
Stir to coat the almonds in the mixture.

Pour the almond topping on the cake, spreading it around with a spatula. Put it back in the oven for about 8 minutes. Watch the cake, and take it out when the topping is shiny and brown but before it burns.

Notes: 
Be mindful of the temperature of the eggs. If they are too cold, the mixture will curdle a tiny bit when you add in the soured milk and butter mixture, and the texture of the cake will be coarser.

This makes for a very topping heavy cake. You can reduce it a bit, if you like.

I make more caramel mixture than is needed for the almonds to adhere to the cake because I like it to soak a little into the cake too. It helps make the cake a little less dry in case you forgot to take it out of the oven on time too.

The cake is best on the day it is made. The next day,  warm it up a little in the oven. It makes the caramel chewy rather than crisp again, but it is definitely better sloppy caramel.

Fudge Brownies

Adapted from Alice Medrich's Cocoa Brownies

Ingredients:
210g butter
250g sugar
100g cocoa powder
100g liquid fudge
3/8 tsp salt
coffee extract
3 large eggs -- cold
100g flour

Melt butter, sugar and cocoa. Stir until completely melted, and then take off heat.

Stir in the liquid fudge, salt and coffee extract.

Beat in eggs one at a time, followed by flour.

Bake at 160C until a skewer comes out nearly clean.

Notes:

You can remove it from the oven a little earlier, but it will be more squishy and difficult to slice cleanly.

The original Medrich cocoa brownie recipe is my go-to standard brownie recipe. I do usually make it with a little more cocoa powder, and often throw in different extracts and spices, but it is very good as it is. The main thing is that it needs a day to rest so the cocoa flavor matures.

The recipe with fudge is a little denser and chewier, and stays moist for longer. It has a stronger, more chocolatey taste right out of the oven, and despite the additional liquid, slices more cleanly (without freezing or any shenanigans).

Scalded Dough Flat Bread

Ingredients: 
200g strong wholemeal flour
200g all purpose flour
5g active dry yeast
2g sugar -- optional
1tsp salt
1tbsp vegetable oil -- optional
Chopped spring onion -- green bits only -- optional

Mix wholemeal flour with all purpose flour to get your flour mix.

Dissolve yeast and sugar into 60g of water.

Weigh out 200g flour mix. Pour 300g of boiling water and stir. There will be dry patches, but this is fine. Cover, and let sit for about 30 minutes. This is your scalded dough.

Pour yeast mixture, salt and vegetable oil over the scalded dough, and start kneading. Add flour mix by the spoonful until the dough becomes tacky but still kneads into a ball. I had about 60g left over, which you should use to dust your kneading board when rolling out the dough later.

Tuck into a ball, and cover with cling wrap. Let it sit on the counter for 1 hour, and then into the fridge over night.

Divide into 8 portions.

With your hands or a rolling pin, roll each portion out to roughly 10cm in diameter, and then scatter spring onion over it. Roll it up like you would a cinnamon roll, pinching the ends and edges closed. Then roll it into a ball.

At this stage, you can cook it right away or cover and put it back into the fridge.

To cook, simply roll out each ball until about 2-3mm thick and flip it onto a very hot pan -- the pan should sizzle when a few droplets of water is sprinkled onto it. Cook each side until it is speckled with light brown spots. It should puff a little in the center.

Notes: 
Scalding the dough cooks the starch, so that the bread is both softer and less likely to be uncooked in the center.

I read a whole bunch of flat bread recipes before coming up with this one. Some of them include instant mashed potato or dried potato flakes for softness, but I do not keep that in the house.

This recipe probably works with just all-purpose flour, or wholemeal all-purpose flour, but for the same amount of water, you will need more flour -- strong flour absorbs more water. You should increase the salt in this case because you will end up with more dough.

The sugar is optional. I only used it because I was concerned that my yeast was rather old and I needed to quickly find out whether it was still alive.

If meant to be eaten plain or with fairly bland accompaniments, I would up the salt to at least 2tsp.

I cooked it stove top because I have a nice, large frying pan that is flat. If using the oven, I think 3-5 minutes on the hottest setting should do the trick.

If you are not using the spring onion, I think it might be quite tasting to pan fry the dough with a bit of butter and sugar and cinnamon. Or to add ground cinnamon and more sugar to the dough for a sweeter treat.

Cider and Caramelized Balsamic Vinegar Pickled Ginger

Ingredients: 

255g thinly sliced young ginger

60g boiled cider

60g sugar 

120g water 

120g caramelized balsamic vinegar 

Umeshu -- optional 

Put everything but the ginger into a pot and bring to a simmer. Turn off when the sugar is completely dissolved, and let cool slightly.

Prepare the container(s) you will use to store the ginger by rinsing out with the umeshu. Rinse off the covers too.

Divide the ginger into the container(s).

Divide the vinegar liquid into the container(s). 

Seal, and store in fridge. 

Notes: 

The pickled ginger will be more tender and less sharp if you use young ginger. 

The boiled cider is just something I bought in New York. It is simply apple juice reduced to a syrup. You can substitute water, and perhaps some sugar if you like it sweet. 

I used my Weck jars -- straight sides, with a volume of 370ml. I split the ginger up because I could not fit it all into one, but there is no reason why you could not just dump it all into one container. 

I think this batch will be too sweet to be eaten with sushi, but that was never my intention anyway. 

The umeshu rinse is not necessary at all. I just could not find the sterilising liquid in the house, and since I will be storing it in the fridge for just a few days, I think it does not matter. 

Cocoa Tangmian Cake

Adapted from Kitchen Tigress

Ingredients: 

145g egg white
1/8tsp cream of tartar
75g sugar

75g butter
55g flour
30g cocoa powder
30g milk
65g egg yolk
1tsp coffee extract
1/8 tsp salt

Melt butter. When it is completely melted and starting to foam, dump in the cocoa powder and flour. Whisk in.

Whisk in the milk, then the yolks one at a time. Add the coffee extract and salt with the last of the egg yolk.

Whip the egg whites with the cream of tartar and sugar until firm peaks.

Fold the egg whites in thirds into the cocoa batter.

Bake at 170C for about 30 minutes.

Notes: 
My cake rose, cracked, and then sank while cooling. I could not invert the cake in the pan to cool because it rose too high -- out of a fairly tall pan.

I might have done better to use a slightly larger pan because I increased all the ingredients a little.

Tasting Notes: 
The flavor is good, but the texture has much to be desired. Back to the drawing board.

Genoa Cake, or Pain de Genes

Adapted from From Buenos Aires to Paris, originally a Pierre Hermes recipe 

Ingredients: 
3 eggs -- 55g each
200g marzipan -- see notes
50g all-purpose flour
40g butter
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp rum

Line the bottom of a 18cm round tin.

Blend the marzipan with the eggs -- see notes.

Put the marzipan mixture over a hot water bath, and whisk until it hits 60C.

Take off heat.

Whip the marzipan mixture until you can drizzle the outline of a star over the mixture, and it lasts long enough to see complete picture.

Whisk in the rum.

Whisk in the butter.

Whisk in the flour.

Bake at 180C for 20 minutes, or until the skewer comes out clean.

When cool, wrap in clingwrap and store at room temperature for 2 days.

Notes: 
The marzipan should be at least 52% almond, and it should still be soft when you take it out the package.

The original recipe suggests beating the eggs in one at a time with a stand mixer. Given the texture of the marzipan, I think using a blender is faster. I used a stick blender, but if I were making a larger quantity, I would chuck all the eggs and marzipan into a jug blender and whizz away. It would probably be less messy.

I used cacao rum for this, but I do not see why you could not use extract (perhaps a little less, maybe a tsp, or 1.5 tsp) instead. To be honest, the rum flavor was not very noticeable anyway.

I bet this cake freezes fairly well, and would be something awesome to have in the fridge for last minute toasting to serve with ice cream or poached fruit.

Tasting Notes: 
Pretty good. This actually makes a fairly small cake, so you might want to double it because it is an excellent cake.

Momofuku Ssam Bar, New York, USA

We randomly walked in and got a table.

I was trying to go to Booker & Dax, but accidentally made a reservation for the wrong the day. We wandered into Ssam Bar first, though, and they just happened to have some seats for three! Matthias's awesome luck as always.

Seven Spice Sour - Sake, Yuzu, Lime, Shichimi 
I think this was possibly my favorite cocktail through my stay in New York. The shichimi was sneaky, and I did not realise for some time that the kick was setting in. But the balance of yuzu and shichimi was exceptionally on point.

Green Pal - Japanese Whiskey, Manzanilla Sherry, Dry Vermouth, Shiso 
Matthias's cocktail. Pretty good, but on the sweeter side still for him, even though I asked for less vermouth.

Spicy Shrimp Roll - Daikon, Green Mango, Peanut
I do not actually remember this one being spicy, but it was a pretty good take on a Vietnamese rice roll. The sauce was pretty good.

Diver Scallop - Ham Dashi, Radish, Thai Basil 
The dashi was jelled, and it covered the entire dish. Nice texture, but it and the radish kinda overwhelmed the scallops.

Pig Ear Ssam 
Not on the menu any more, it seems. But it was delicious -- Matthias ate half of it. The pig ears were fried, and they came already pre-made into ssam.

Grilled Flat Iron Steak - Ramp, Parsnip, Nettle 
Matthias ordered this because steak and nettle. It came with what looked and tasted like tendon puffs to me (is this a trend? I have had this in a few other places recently too). He overwhelmingly approved of this dish.

Passion Fruit Pie - Coffee, Cilantro
Surprisingly delicious. I ordered just to try, since we were there, and was not particularly keen on either offering. But the pairing of passion fruit and what tasted like a coffee crumb or coffee cookie works deliciously well. The cilantro was rather lost, however.

Overall
Pretty good. I think Matthias liked the food more than I did.

Momofuku Ko, East Village, New York, New York, USA

Cocktails
I ordered one that had fig balsamic, gin, and orgeat. Very sippable.

Quartet Cocktail 
Delicious, and served very cold, as it should be. I cannot remember the ingredients, but it had a bunch of Matthias's favorite things, like bitters, and the new-to-us ingredient was Cappelletti, which turns out to be something like Campari.

Pommes Soufflees
A potato puff with caramelised onions inside.

Lobster Palois
We were told that it was a take on a lobster roll. It was a cylinder, with an open bottom, with the lobster meat inside.

Tartlet 
Delightful! I'd love to know how they make the 'tart' shells. It looked like it was akin to a thin pancake batter, baked in the shape of a rectangular tart case until crisp, and then topped with pumpkin and shredded cheese.

Vegetable Roll 
I remember tasting bright basil, but that is it.

Millefeuille 
Thin layers of rye puff pastry sandwiched with ikura.

Madai - Consomme, Shiso
I mostly remember they spraying the top of the bowl with a shiso spray.

Razor Clam - Pineapple, Basil 
Interesting. I expected this to be hot, but it was actually cold. The clams in the dashi were perfectly done, tender and sweet, and it was topped with little basil seeds too.

Sunchoke - Dry Aged Beef, Tarragon

Starchy and satisfying. If I remember correctly, the beef was actually just beef fat.

Uni - Chickpea, Hozon 
I never particularly like uni, but this is definitely my favorite uni dish ever. The slightly salty creaminess of the chickpea puree enhanced the flavor of the uni for me.

Mackerel Sawarazushi - Wasabi, Dashi Ponzu 
Amazing. I always love aburi sushi when done well, and this definitely ranks as one of the best things I have ever put into my mouth. This one alone would have been worth staying up until 1am for a few nights to get a reservation at Ko.

Mackerel Dashi - King Oyster, Asian Pear 
A nice touch to make the broth with the same mackerel bones. The Asian pear provided just the right amounts of sweetness and crunch.

Soft Scramble - Potato, Caviar, Herbs 
So full of potato flavor, and so so good. I cannot say the egg portion of the dish was very memorable, but the potato puree at the bottom of the bowl and the crunchy bits of potato on the top? Very, very good. The accent of sweet potato vinegar was just right.

Bread and Butter 
They offered bread with the Soft Scramble. Too white for Matthias, but otherwise pretty good. It came with some radish butter that I did not like.

Orecchiette - Octopus, Olive 
It was served as 'Octopus Bolognese'. It came across more as a chilli paste with underpinnings of tomato. I think it would have been better served over hot rice than with pasta.

Branzino - Artichoke, Yogurt, Sumac 
The fish was perfectly done, but it could have used more punch from the sumac.

Pork - Kimchi, Onion 
I liked the kimchi topping, though it could have been spicier, but the meat itself was too fatty for me.

Foie Gras - Lychee, Pine Nut, Riesling Jelly 
I do not usually appreciate foie gras, but it was more akin to a shaved ice in presentation and form, or a melting shaved cheese that is slightly funky. Eat each bite with all three components, and you have something that is not quite a dessert, and not quite a savory either.

Clementine - Campari 
At this point in the degustation, this was the perfect refresher course -- indeed, we were told that this was the pre-dessert. It was served very very cold, and the Campari was just enough to cleanse the palate.

Chocolate - Mint 
One soft and one crisp chocolate cookie-like base, topped with a quenelle of Fernet Branca pudding (or ice cream, I cannot remember which). It is quite light for a chocolate dessert, and pretty good.

Mignardises
It was one macaron with a fermented-something (I cannot remember what it is) filling that was rather savory, and a dulce de leche shortbread cookie. The macaron is definitely better.

Overall: 
Fantastic, in a word. Worth every penny.
We can often rate a degustation by how many dishes I ate a few bites, and then handed to Matthias. This was 2 out of 17, and one of them was primarily because I asked for extra bread and was worried that if I finished the pasta too, I would not be able to eat any of the later courses.

Chikalicious, East Village, New York, USA

Amuse 
Tea panna cotta and grapefruit sorbet. I am usually not a fan of panna cotta, but that was so good that I would be excited to have an entire bowlful for dessert. The tea flavor came in strongly, balancing out the creaminess of the panna cotta.

Warm Chocolate Tart with Peppercorn Ice Cream and Red Wine Sauce 
This was more like a molten chocolate cake in a tart case. Delicious, though also not particularly interesting. The peppercorn ice cream was a nice touch, but the red wine sauce got a little lost. This paired well with the suggested port.

Fromage Blanc Island "Cheese Cake" 
Not a cheesecake, per Matthias. To me, it was more of a frozen mousse than a cheesecake. I cannot say I liked it very much.

Petit Fours 
The Coconut marshmallows did not have any of the chew that I normally associate with marshmallows. I disdain the dessicated coconut dusted around the marshmallow too -- go fresh (maybe steamed with a pinch of salt) or go bust.
The orange cookie dough was interesting. It was soft, like a piece of fudge, dusted with what tasted like feuilletine on the outside, and perfumed with orange.
The cinnamon chocolate truffle was pleasantly bitter on the outside, before the aroma of cinnamon hits the nose.

Overall
Pretty good. I would definitely go back. I just wish they would put up the menu when they change it.

EN Japanese Brasserie, West Village, New York City, USA

We had the Aozora menu. (Note: I am writing this nearly a week after we ate there. I can no longer remember everything I ate, in particular the elements of the Zensai, of which there were at least seven.) 

Ginger Cocktail & Green Tea Hi 
We arrived early, and were directed to the bar. 
The Ginger cocktail was bright and refreshing, and eminently drinkable. There was just enough lime in there to be a counterpoint to the ginger. 
The Green Tea Hi was rather a disappointment, especially since they used bottled tea for it. 

Zensai 
Anago Tempura: Sweet fish flesh encased in crunchy tempura batter 
Cauliflower Shira Ae: The cauliflower was perfectly cooked, but the sauce was not 
Ikura: Fresh ikura atop perfect rice 
Kumamoto Oyster: Delicious, as fresh oysters are wont to be, but not special otherwise.
Glazed chestnut: Sweet and creamy 

Aburi Sashimi Salad 
It came beautifully presented, and a tangy sauce (plum?) was poured over it. I personally think it could have done without the sauce, but I normally prefer my salads without dressing anyway. 

Kinmedai To Kinoko
Essentially, fish in mushroom broth. The fish was good, and the skin still crispy despite sitting in the soup, but I am personally not a fan of mushrooms. 

Uni Mousse
I do not like uni very much, but Matthias really liked it, and ate my portion too. It was served atop a cold dashi gelee. 

Washugyu Steak
The apple, garlic and ginger sauce was very tasty, and the meat juicy and tender. Matthias ate most of mine because I was already quite full. 

Snow Crab Rice Pot 
Prior to the steak, this was placed in front of us, a stone pot on top of something resembling an essential oil diffuser (the kind that you put a tea light under), and an hourglass. They lit a small fire underneath, and once the fire goes out, which takes quite awhile, you turn the hourglass. This is to let the rice finish cooking and also to let it cool a little. 
Inside, there was crab leg meat and mushrooms on top of rice. The rice was perfectly cooked, and the crab meat sweet. 

Mixed Berry Panna Cotta 
This was rather excellent. The berry sauce on top of the delicate and creamy panna cotta was on point, and it came with a delicious strawberry ice cream and a little tea (probably hojicha) cookie. 

Overall 
Pretty good. The Zensai set the tone for the meal, and everything on that plate was absolutely delicious. Out of 7 courses, Matthias finished 3 of mine for me. 
The service was also excellent. The only down note was that the limited tea selection. 
Matthias did have the sake pairing, and he concluded that it was kind of wasted on him since he does not know enough about sake to really enjoy it. 

Stinking Bishops, Newtown, Sydney, Australia

This was their special 1-year anniversary degustation menu

Amuse Bouche 
A lovely little cup of a smoked fish soup, with apple. It was very savory, and just the thing to kick of a cold and wet evening.

Autumn Vegetables
Vegetable medley, consisting of golden beetroot, artichoke and radish, atop a delicious puree (no idea what it was, but it might be parsnip). Nicely done, but the crispy flakes of garlic were completely out of tune with the dish, and did not add to the flavor. If they wanted to add a crispy texture, toasted flaked almonds would have been the thing.

Confit Ocean Trout, Black Olive Crumb, Marinated Goats Feta 
Nicely done on all counts, even the black olive crumb -- I do not like olives. The only problem was that together, they were too salty.

Rabbit Cigar, Seared Scallop, Scotch Quail Egg, Dutch Carrot, Pea
I am sad to say that they did not serve an individual, perfect pea with this dish. It came with a vibrant but grainy pea puree instead.
The rabbit cigar was minced rabbit piped diagonally along a spring roll wrapper, and deep fried. It was like Australian lor bak, but overly gamy. Very disappointing, as was the scotch quail egg.
The highlight of the dish were the Dutch carrots. They came dusted in cocoa, which is a surprisingly terrific pairing.
Overall, this was not a great dish. The individual components were not great, and I cannot see how they were meant to go together.

Cheese
They served a Comte and a soft, sheep and cow's milk cheese. As usual for the Stinking Bishops, the cheeses were delicious and served at the perfect temperature.

Hot X Bun Ice Cream Sandwich 
Essentially what it says on the title: they split a hot cross bun, stuffed some cinnamon ice cream, blood orange jam and a half Cadbury creme egg in there.
And terrible. Seriously terrible.
The hot cross bun on its own was not bad. But the combination just did not work. The jam overpowered the ice cream -- you could not taste the cinnamon, just something cold and creamy -- and why on earth was there a Cadbury creme egg in there?

Overall
Very disappointing. I adore the Stinking Bishops, and maybe my expectations were too high. Matthias and I often go there in the mid-afternoon on the weekend and he likes to try whatever hot plates they have, and we have always loved the food.
If you go, stick to the cheeses (tell them what you like and let them steer you), the charcuterie (they do an awesome smoked Wagyu beef, amongst other things), and the regular menu.

Chai Chiffon Cake

Adapted from Kitchen Tigress

Ingredients: 

180g egg white 

1/4 tsp cream of tartar 

55g sugar

60g egg yolk 

55g sugar 

95g strongly brewed chai -- see notes 

60g oil 

100g flour 

1tsp baking powder 

1/4tsp salt 

Sieve the flour + baking powder. Then whisk in the salt, and set aside. 

Whip egg whites + cream of tartar + sugar to soft peaks at medium speed over a pan of hot, freshly boiled water. Then whisk for an extra 45 seconds at top speed. Remove from pan, and set aside. 

Whip the egg yolks + sugar until thick and creamy. Then whisk in the chai, followed by the oil. Whisk in the flour mixture in 3 - 4 parts, each time dusting the flour over the top of the batter. Stir in a third of the whipped-up egg whites. 

Pour the egg yolk mixture over the remaining egg whites and fold. 

Pour into a 22cm 2-piece chiffon cake tin. Bake at 180C. 

Notes: 

This chai should be brewed straight up in milk, not water, and without sugar. I suggest at least 2-3 teabags worth, and squeeze out the liquid. 

Alternatively, I have been experimenting with a triple-brewed chai extract of my own making -- this time, I used some left over chai and a tablespoon of the extract. I will report back.

I did not actually taste the cake as it was a gift for someone. But the texture etc looked perfect. 

Duck Confit

Ingredients: 

8 duck legs -- about 2kg
24g fine salt
8 juniper berries
6g whole black pepper
8 dried curry leaves
6g yellow mustard seeds
240g duck fat -- see notes
4 fat garlic cloves -- see notes

Pull the curry leaves apart into bits with your hands. Put all of the spices into a *mortar and pestle and crush roughly. Stir in the salt.

Rub all of the cure over the duck legs.

Let sit for 24-48 hours.

Rinse off all the cure, and pat dry.

Vacuum seal 2 of the duck legs at a time, with 60g duck fat and a clove of garlic.

Sous vide at 75C for 10 hours, and chill down. Stash in fridge for at least a week before eating.

Notes: 

Duck Fat: Hank Shaw suggests 1tbsp per two legs. I was trying to use up the rest of the duck fat I had already open from the can, so I added more. I also suspect that using more duck fat may lend the resulting confit a more unctuous flavor.

Garlic Cloves: For each bag of confit, use either two small cloves or a single fat one.

I use Michael Ruhlman's estimate of 6g salt per 500g duck. I often cure it for the full 48 hours, and do not find my duck to be too salty. If I am reusing duck fat, I generally adjust the salt downwards.

While Hank Shaw suggests 65C-75C, I saw lots of places suggesting 75C-82.5C. As I made a double batch (usually, I only do 4 at a time), and didn't have any curing salt on hand, I did it at a higher temperature this time as I expect that it will be kept for longer.

I have made a previous batch of sous vide duck confit, cooked at 65C, and then kept in the fridge for 2 weeks. The meat was deliciously tender, and the fat meltingly soft.

Prior to this, I had only ever made duck confit with olive oil. If you do not have a sous vide machine, I highly recommend the slow cooker or oven method with olive oil. Still superbly tasty. It is, however, messier.

I would actually not have bothered to use duck fat except Matthias bought me a can of duck fat some time back, and my vacuum sealer does not deal well with liquids.

Tasting Notes to come in a few weeks 

Nasi Lemak | Coconut Rice

Ingredients: 
100g long-grain rice
2g salt
1 clove
One thin slice of ginger
100-150g coconut milk
1 Pandan / Screwpine leaf -- if you can find it

Rinse the rice. Add the coconut milk plus enough water to cook the rice. Drop in the rest of the ingredients and cook as per normal.

Notes: 

Long-grain rice usually needs anywhere from 1.5 to 2.5 times more water than rice, by weight. I find that with the coconut milk, you need a bit less liquid in total than when you just use water, about 10-20% less.

Avoid using Japanese rice for this recipe.

The coconut milk needs to make up roughly half to two-thirds of the liquid.

In a pinch, you can use a single corner of a star anise, but clove works significantly better.

100g makes for a very small amount of rice. I normally cook at least 300g for two people.

This recipe is scalable. Provided you do not put in too much liquid or salt, the rice will still be edible.

The salt is necessary to balance out the flavour of the coconut milk.

Sesame Rump Steak

Flavors adapted from Just Bento

Ingredients: 
10g sesame oil
5g Verjuice
5 drops sherry vinegar
10g sugar
20g soya sauce
Rump Steak

Mix everything but the steak in a small bowl.

Slice the steak into strips that are 1.5cm wide and 1cm thick. Each piece should have a bit of the end cap fat.

Brush the steak pieces with the sauce on all sides.

Vacuum seal so that the pieces do not overlap.

Sous vide at 60C for 8 hours.

Notes: 
Flavors were good, but next time I will sous vide it at a lower temperature for a longer time.

The meat was a little dry.

Buttery Sous Vide Veal Shank

Ingredients 
1 veal shank -- 1.2kg
35g butter
salt
oil
3 bay leaves
3 cloves of garlic 6 cloves

Brush oil over the shank, then sear on all sides. Salt as you go.

Put everything into bag and sous vide at 55C for 24 hours, then raise temperature to 57C for another 24 hours.

Remove from bag. Pour off juices to make sauce if desired.

Sear on all sides.

Notes: 
Very tender and soft. Not in the least dry.

I could cut it easily with a butter knife.

The main problem with sous vide cooking for me at the moment is the difficulty I have in salting. This veal shank was not salty enough.

Mom's Awesome Meatballs for Soup v.2

Original recipe by May's Awesome Mom 

Ingredients:
180g minced pork
2 drops sherry vinegar
5g soya sauce
25g water

18g cornstarch

White pepper
2g salt

Notes: 

Still not quite right.

More pepper.

Less cornstarch -- 10%.

Needs rice wine. The sherry vinegar does not kill the meat smell very well.

Mom's Meatballs for Soup

Original Recipe by May's Awesome Mom 

Ratio: 
100% minced pork
20% water
5% oil
20% cornstarch
2% salt

Put the pork into a bowl. Mix in the rest of the ingredients one at a time.

Spoon the meatballs with a teaspoon into simmering broth. They should be done in a few minutes. If you need to check, fish one out and slice in half.

Notes: 
Not final version.

Too much cornstarch.

White pepper is missing.

Can add chopped scallions, other herbs, bits of carrot, or chopped dried salted fish.

The oil can be substituted with shallot oil, garlic oil, etc.

The water can be substituted with stock.

Marzipan Chocolate Cake

Adapted from 101 Cookbooks

Ingredients: 
220g Marzipan -- 28% almonds, from Odense
180g whole almonds -- roasted
45g cornstarch
5 jumbo eggs
1/4 tsp salt
32g cocoa powder
80g butter
10g vanilla extract

Melt butter. Take off heat, and toss in the cocoa powder. Whisk until smooth right away.

Whilst blending, it is important to scrape down the sides and bottom of the blender every so often.

Put the marzipan and almonds into the blender and grind until fine. If there are some almond chunks still, that is fine. It is more important that you do NOT hit the nut butter stage. Toss in the cornstarch, and mix briefly.

Add eggs one at a time, blending in between. Add the vanilla extract and salt.

Pour in the cocoa + butter mixture and blend some more.

Divide into tins, and bake at 180C. It is ready when a toothpick comes out clean.

After 5-10 minutes, turn them out onto a rack. You should do this while the cakes are still hot, before they start steaming in the pan.

Notes: 
When grinding the marzipan and almonds together, it is very important that you do not reach the point where the almonds start releasing oil. If there are still chunks of almond, it will blend down as you add in the eggs.

I am mostly doing this because I have marzipan with a very low almond content. The good stuff has a minimum of 53%. You might be able to use that straight up. My proportions of almond to marzipan is adjusted to achieve 60% almonds.

I poured out the almond + egg mixture into the pot with the cocoa powder + butter and whisked it in by hand. I only did this because I was not sure if my blender mixed everything properly. The next time, I'll just pour the butter mixture into the blender.

I divided the batter into 5 bear-shaped tins. They contain 150g of batter each, with leftovers. The original recipe suggests a 20cm tin, and I think that sounds about right to me.

For 150g of batter in a short tin, I only needed 20 minutes before the toothpick came out clean.

Tasting Notes: 
Very dense and heavy. I might see about using less eggs next time.

Pierre Hermes has a similar recipe that involves heating the egg + marzipan mixture to 60C, I might give that a shot the next time.

Either skip the cocoa powder altogether -- some almond extract or rum might be nice -- or add more. The chocolate favor was not strong enough.

The cakes popped out of the tins nicely, and the lines from my bear tins were clearly delineated.

One of the bears had a giant bubble. Next time, rap the pans on the table before baking, or pour the batter in from a greater height.

Ume Restaurant, Surry Hills, Sydney, Australia

We had the 5 course tasting menu + scallops.

Yuzu Shochu Cocktail 
Pretty good and straightforward cocktail. The yuzu flavor shone.

Sashimi Course 
Really beautiful. Set the high bar for the night.
A few slices of sashimi (I want to say that it was hirame, but I can't remember for certain) with sesame and lightly seasoned with yuzu shoyu.

Shiki no Salad 
Roasted carrots with brussel sprouts.
Not very special, and the brussel sprouts were a little burnt for my taste.

Seared Hokkaido Scallop
The scallops were perfectly cooked, but they overdid the butter, so you could not taste as much of the natural scallop sweetness.
They were dressed with butter and finger limes.

MisoYaki Gindara
Perfectly cooked. One of the highlights of the meal.
They coated the skin with some rice crispies, which was novel and added to the dish. Cod dishes are usually just full of soft, and the rice crispies made for a great textural contrast.

Riverina Lamb 
If not for the menu, I would have thought that it was very tender beef -- I do not usually eat lamb.
For a meat dish, this was on the sweeter side for me, but otherwise decent.

Dashi Rice 
They asked if we wanted rice with the lamb. This was easily the worst dish they served. The grains of rice were furry, and almost gluey in the mouth.
According to the receipt, they used Akitakomachi rice and it was such a terrible waste.

Peach with Smoked Tea Ice Cream 
The ice cream was excellent, and the rest of dessert detracted from it. The dessert included honey poached peaches and freeze-dried raspberries. The flavor of the smoked tea cut through the sweetness perfectly.

Overall: 
I would go back, but I would stick to the sashimi offerings next time. The savory dishes were on the sweeter side for my taste.

Salty Poached Chicken

Ingredients: 

1 small chicken -- just under a kilo
2 inches ginger root -- optional
2 l chicken stock
Fine Salt

Exfoliate chicken. Insert the ginger root into the cavity if using.

Bring stock to a gentle simmer, put in the chicken, and turn the heat down to very low, and leave it to cook for 40 minutes.

(For reference, I set the induction cooker to 600 watts.)

Turn off the heat, cover the pot, and let sit for another 40 minutes.

Take out the chicken, and place it in a bowl. Use a pastry brush if you have one to brush the salt all over the chicken skin. I estimate that 1.5 teaspoons should be plenty. Put in the fridge until cold.

Notes: 
You can use water, but the chicken will not be as good. Make sure to add some aromatics like the white part of the scallion or leak to the pot if you use water.

Whether you use water or stock, make sure to use the remaining liquid for something tasty.

Cinnamon Tarta de Santiago

Original Recipe by Poires au Chocolat

Ingredients: 
250g ground almonds -- I used natural for a speckled look
250g sugar
6 eggs
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt

Line the base of a 25cm round tin. Preheat oven to 180C.

Separate 5 eggs. Crack the last egg into the bowl with the egg yolks.

Whip the egg whites until stiff peaks.

Whip the egg yolk + egg mixture until pale, then tip in the sugar and continue whipping. It is ready when you can draw a letter A with the mixture, and the letter does not disappear until it is complete.

Whisk in the almonds and cinnamon and ginger and salt. This mixture will be quite stiff, but keep whisking until it is uniform and there are no clumps of dry stuff. Use a spatula to wipe off the beaters / whisk, and then scrape the bottom to make sure.

Fold the egg whites into the almond mixture in thirds carefully, to avoid deflating the egg whites too much. Make sure there are no streaks of egg white or clumps of almonds mixture, then scrape the bowl into the prepared tin.

Bake at 180C for 40-45 minutes. It is ready when the middle no longer jiggles and a skewer comes out dry.

Let cool in tin, then turn out to a plate.

Notes: 
I made the changes after trialling the original recipe a couple of times. This version is moister, without losing too much lightness.
You can change the spices, or omit them completely. The original recipe uses lemon zest, but my man does not like lemons very much.

Nasi Lemak Sambal

Original recipe from May's Awesome Mother, who weighs ingredients while making traditional recipes so May can make them too 

Ingredients: 
40g Candle nut
210g fresh Red Chillis
10g Chilli Padi
20g Belacan
100g Shallots -- small purple ones if possible, banana shallots are not the same
1/2 tbsp Tamarind paste
Limes -- only if you can find mini limes, like limau kasturi, otherwise double the amount of Tamarind paste
100ml oil
Salt -- to taste
Sugar -- to taste

Peel the shallots, and chop them up roughly.

Put them in the bottom of the blender, and puree them.

Cut off any bad bits and remove the top of the chillis. Cut them up roughly, and add them to blender a bit at a time. If you have to, you can add a bit of water.

When this finishes blending, do the same with the chilli padi, and then add all the belacan and candlenuts.

At this point, you can freeze the paste for a few months. When you're ready to use it, take it out of the freezer and defrost in the fridge over night.

Prepare the tamarind water: mix the tamarind paste with three times as much water. Push through a sieve to remove the bits, squeezing to get as much out as possible.

Heat half the oil in a wok or a medium size saucepan. When it is hot, add in all the paste and stir fry over medium heat for 15-20 minutes until aromatic, and no longer 'green tasting'. The oil should also 'release' from the paste. If that does not happen, add more oil and keep frying. You may need the full 100ml.

Add some salt and sugar to taste, and then add the tamarind water / lime juice a bit add a time until the flavors are to your taste.

To serve: 
Coconut rice, deep fried little Asian anchovies (can add peanuts if you like them), sliced cucumbers and hard boiled eggs. You can add a beef rendang or other meat curry too if you like, or a deep fried turmeric chicken wing (that's what my favorite place in Singapore does).

Notes: 
The limau kasturi juice makes the sambal more fragrant.
You can add small prawns (I mean in the 22-25 per kilo range), peeled, to the sambal after the last step.
The candlenuts are illegal in the USA, so you can substitute macadamias. I'm not sure what they add to the flavor/aromas, but they add creaminess to the sambal. I am not sure how much macadamias you will need, but you can probably start with the same amount and see.
Do the frying outdoors if possible, because the smell is very strong.
If you deep fry chicken, shallots or the little anchovies yourself, you can use the left over oil for the sambal.
In theory, you can grind this with a mortar and pestle, but it will take you a long time unless you have been trained by a grandma. Even my mom uses a blender.

Mocha Ogura Cake

Original recipe by Kitchen Tigress 

Ingredients: 
310g egg white
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
140g caster sugar

125g egg yolk
100g egg white
80g cooking oil -- I used rice bran
40g cocoa powder
140g brewed coffee -- see notes
110g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt

Line a 25cm round cake tin. If you have a pan that is at least 8cm tall, you can choose not to line the sides. (see notes)

Heat the oil until smoking. Stir it slowly into the cocoa powder until it is smooth. I recommend adding just enough oil to form a thick paste with the cocoa powder, smoothing it out, and then stir in the rest of the oil.

Put the kettle to boil. Place a roasting pan or similar at the bottom of the oven, and preheat it to 170C.

Whip 310g of egg whites until foamy and add the cream of tartar. Once the cream of tartar is dissolves, add the sugar in slowly. Whip until stiff peaks.

Whip the remaining egg white and yolk until foamy, then tip in the cocoa mixture. Whip until thick. Keep whipping while slowly pouring in the coffee.

Gradually sift the flour into the bowl. Add the salt last.

Fold the whipped egg whites into the cocoa mixture in thirds. Make sure there are no lumps of egg white and no white streaks.

Pour the mixture into the prepared cake pan at a height.

Pour the hot water into the pan -- 1cm of water should be enough -- and put the cake in. Bake at 170C for 30 minutes, and then turn it down to 130C until it's no longer jiggly in the middle and the top bounces back when gently pressed.

Let rest in the pan for 10 minutes or so, before turning it out onto a plate. Peel off the paper on the sides, if used, then let cool completely before slicing.

Pan Size: 
I used a 25cm round tin that is 8cm high, but the cake rose to 12cm or so in a mushroom shape before it sunk. So you can probably use a larger tin or half the recipe for a 20cm square tin (would still need to have high sides).

Tasting Notes: 
Lovely. Soft, fluffy and moist mocha sponge.
Try to wait until it's completely cool to slice so that it does not wet down. I was greedy and unable to do this.

Coffee Notes: 
I used some sous vide brew made with a boost of vanilla powder, but I will try using a stronger filter brew the next time I make this.
You can substitute water mixed with instant espresso powder, but I find that it does not taste as good.

Future Notes: 
I plan to try a chai version for my man soon, as well as a green tea version.

Aging Boulevardiers in the Sous Vide Machine

Ingredients: 
80g bourbon
40g Punt e Mes vermouth
80g Campari
10g Whiskey barrel chips

Put everything into a jar and into the sous vide machine at 40C for 40 minutes.

Tasting Notes: 
It is fairly mellow from the bourbon that was used.

Sous Vide Chicken Porridge

Ingredients: 
600g chicken stock
75g rice
2g salt
splash of soya sauce
splash of sesame ail
2 slices of ginger root
2g of green goo
Extra chicken stock or water for thinning out
soya sauce and white pepper to serve

Put everything into a jar and sous vide at 85C until the individual rice grains 'open' up. It will look more like individual rice grains that are fully cooked in liquid than rice porridge.

Store in fridge until ready to serve.

Serving Instructions: 
Empty out the jar, scraping out the remaining rice grains, into a saucepan. If you would like a thinner porridge (my preference), add up to 150ml of stock or water.

Let simmer for about 5-10 minutes, watching to make sure it does not burn. Rice porridge has a tendency to bubble and splatter.

When the liquid in the pot turns a slightly milky color, serve it ladled into bowls. Excellent accompaniments include shredded poached chicken, gomashio, other kinds of furikake and salty little fish, youtiao and freshly chopped scallions or coriander.

Ratios: 
The key ratio here is 75g rice to 600g liquid. Green tea or other stock would make delicious rice porridge as well.
I did try a 100g rice to 600g liquid ratio, but there was too much starch released by the rice relative to the liquid in the jar. In my experience, simmering the porridge a little longer to thicken it is fine, but having to thin it out when it gets too thick does not work out very well. I know this because I have made many many pots of overly thick rice porridge.

Sous Vide vs Stovetop 
The main benefits are that you do not have to watch it, check regularly to add water or stir. And it still will not burn.
If you don't have a sous vide machine, that's not a problem. You can just put the jar into very gently simmering water on a stove. If the water gets hotter than 85C, that is not a problem, just that it will probably be ready faster. It will be more of a problem if the water is not hot enough.

Tasting Notes: 
This tastes better with a lighter broth. It isn't meant to be a heavy meal, after all.
The ginger is essential, but coriander root is nice to have.

Poached Chicken Legs

Ingredients: 
1 pot of chicken stock -- enough to submerge your chicken legs
2 chicken legs -- skin on and bone in

Bring the stock to a gentle simmer, then put in the chicken legs for 20 minute without a lid. Turn off heat, and leave it in for another 10 minutes before removing.

For salty, silky chicken flesh, brush fine salt over the skin and chill in the fridge over night. Remove the skin before eating.

May's Notes: 
I have a cheap (read crappy) Kogan induction cooker (I recommend induction, I do not recommend Kogan). I set it to heat at 600W and did not change the setting.

Tasting Notes: 
Turned out pretty well, but still a little pink in the middle for me -- I pulled the meat off the bone and put it in rice porridge, so that was fine.

Future Notes: 
The legs need a little bit more time, maybe another 5 minutes with the heat on.
You can use water, but I'd add some aromatics and oil to the water.

Sous Vide Chicken Stock

Ingredients 
450g Chicken Necks
2 cloves Garlic

I scalded the chicken necks with hot water, then divided them as follows:

1.5l Jar: 
240g chicken necks
1 clove garlic
1180g water -- tap

1l Jar: 
200g chicken necks
1 clove garlic
560g water -- tap

Sous vide at 80C for 4 hours.

I also have 3 carcasses and a clove of garlic in a giant pot of water on my new induction cooker for comparison's sake. The temperature in the pot also hovers around 80C.

(I planned for them to go into the machine too, however, my jars are not wide-necked enough.)

Tasting Notes: 
Not very different, except for the 1.5l jar tasting thinner, and my induction cooker does keep the temp hovering around 80C as well.
The advantage of using induction is that it lets me skim the scum off, though if you simmer at low temperatures, there isn't very much of it.
Overall, I might do this again if I am unable to use the induction cooker for some reason, but for the amounts that I normally make soup in, the sous vide machine isn't very practical.
If I wanted a jar of stock, and I was already using the sous vide machine for congee or something else, I can see that it would be convenient to also just put the jar the machine.

Other Notes: 
Tomorrow, I will publish my tasting notes for sous vide congee based on the jarred stock.

Savory Mash Potatoes

Ingredients: 
650g cubed potatoes -- after washing, peeling and cutting
200g chicken stock
100g butter
1 clove garlic

Sous vide at 80C for 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Future Notes: 
Add salt at the beginning of cooking, not half way through because you forgot.
Higher temperature needed. Chef Steps has it at 90C for about half an hour.