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.
Friday 27 February 2015
Thursday 26 February 2015
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.
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.
Thursday 12 February 2015
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.
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.
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.
Tuesday 10 February 2015
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.
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.
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