Cross your teacakes

The origin of the crossed bun is still a little vague. Most believe that Christians ate these buns on Good Friday – the cross symbolizing the crucifixion. However, some believe that crossed buns were eaten in ancient times by the Saxons to honour the goddess Eostre. [The name "Easter" is said to originate from Eostre, goddess of fertility, whose name was derived from the ancient word for "spring" - eastre]. Although food history has always intrigued me, I shan’t delve further into this particular one relating to religion and teeming with pagan symbolism, for fear of sounding too much like a character from a Dan Brown novel.

The Holy Week leading up to Good Friday usually meant that my home would be filled with scents of raisins, cinnamon and warm bread as my Mom rolled out tray after tray of Hot Cross Buns from the oven. She makes them the traditional way of course, perhaps with just a few tweaks to the recipe to suit our tastes. I only enjoy eating them at this time of year simply because we baked them only around this time of year. So this year, being away from home, and with a sudden craving for chocolate, I produced my version of something hot, crossed, and almost sacrilegious. [Some believe that chocolate is so 'heavenly' that if it's not the "food of the gods", it must be the devil's doing].

I can’t give you a proper recipe since I’m not the professional chef in this household. I simply mixed Pilsbury’s dark chocolate cake mix with water+vegetable oil+eggs=cupcakes. Topped with cooking chocolate melted with butter (and some leftover chocolates from Christmas). Finally, Milo (powdered chocolate) sprinkled over a makeshift X-stencil.

Santa’s really in the soup now

The Easter bunny had better not overstay its welcome too or we’ll have a similar post about chocolate covered fruit cake for Christmas.

HAPPY EASTER!

The Perfect Apple

Finding the “perfect” apple for apple pie, based on apples available in Dubai. I believe the perfect apple-pie-apple should be full of flavour, with good texture and some acidity.

The contenders and results on a scale of 1-5, based on Flavour (F), Texture (T), Acidity (A), Water Content (W):

1. Golden “Val Venosta” (Italy) – F:0.5 / T:0 / A:4 / W:4
2. Golden Del “Washington” (USA) – F:0 / T:0 / A:3.5 / W:4
3. Golden (Iran) – F:3 / T:1 / A:0 / W:3
4. Golden Jumbo “Le Crunch” (France) – F:3 / T:1 / A:2.5 / W:4
5. Pink Lady (New Zealand) – F:5 / T:3 / A:3 / W:2.5
6. Ariane (France) – F:5 / T:4 / A:1 / W:3
7. Red Gala “Stemilt” (USA) – F:3 / T:2 / A:1.5 / W:2.5
8. Royal Gala “Le Crunch” (France) – F:0.5 / T:5 / A:1 / W:4
9. Red “Riviera” (Italy) – n/a (apple was overripe)

The winner: The Pink Lady

Note: It was my first time tasting the Ariane from France and I was immensely impressed. Amazing flavour!

Ariane

The Royal Gala “Le Crunch” from France was the crunchiest apple I’ve ever eaten! Although lacking in flavour, it’s good to keep it in mind as a healthy snack as it’s juicy and crunchy, with subtle flavours reminiscent of nashi pear.

Cep and Truffle Soup

Soup
*Cep mushroom (frozen)
Cep mushroom (dried)
Carrot
White onion
Celery
Sea Salt
Distilled Water

1. Rinse the dried cep mushroom and leave aside. Roughly **dice the frozen cep, carrot, white onion and celery. Sauté gently.
2. Empty all the ingredients into a gastronome with a vacuum lid. Cook in a combi steamer for 12 hours.
3. Process all the ingredients and leave over a muslin cloth to drip. Pack and seal till ready to use.
*always slice (halve) frozen cep lengthwise to check for worms. Fresh cep would be a waste for soups.

**always ensure maximum bruising on vegetables for soups and stocks.

Truffle
White Alba truffle oil
Maltodextrin
Fine salt

1. Mix all the above ingredients well using a hand held blender.

Cep Heads
Cep mushroom (Fresh)
Cep soup
Kappa (Carrageenan)
Fine salt

1. Bring a portion of the soup to a boil, seasoning well. Over the stove, add in the Kappa while mixing using a hand held blender simultaneously.
2. Leave the gelling solution to calm to a *temperature of 41 degrees.
3. Coat each Cep head and leave at **ambient temperature for 10 mins before transferring into a chiller.<
4. Flash quickly under the salamander before serving.

*gels begin to form at a temperature of 35 degrees. Here I aim for a slightly higher temperature to slightly steep the fresh cep mushroom.

**all gels must be left at ambient temperature to cool down further at a slow constant rate. This would enable the triple helices to recombine more perfectly as molecular motion has been slowed down.

Peanut Butter n Jelly Sandwich

Jelly
Raspberry
Blueberry
Blackberry
Confectioners sugar
Cassis puree
Cassis liqueur
Citric acid
Isomalt
Gelatin leaves
Gellan gum

1. Puree the mixture of berries with the confectioner’s sugar.
2. Combine the cassis puree and liqueur, citric acid and Isomalt. Bring to a boil and over the stove, add in the Gellan while mixing using a hand held blender simultaneously. Add in bloomed gelatin leaves and mix well.
3. Quickly combine the gel solution and the berry puree. Fill into a siphon and secure the head on. Charge with nitrogen gas and leave in a hot bain-marie.
4. Lay terrine moulds with plastic cling film and discharge warm jelly mix in obtaining a 3cm height. Directly leave in a blast freezer.

Peanut Butter
Creamy peanut butter
Praline paste
White chocolate
Lecithin
Distilled water

1. Over a double boiler, combine the peanut butter, praline paste and white chocolate. Fold and leave to dissolve together.
2. Add in the distilled water with the lecithin and mix using a hand held blender. Once a homogenous mix is attained, carefully blend the surface of the mix to obtain foam.
3. Dish the foam into the frozen terrine mould covering the jelly mix. Ensuring the foam is over dished 1 cm over the height of the mould.

Sandwich
Caster sugar
Pectin
Vanilla pods
Distilled water
Japanese breadcrumbs
Clarified butter

1. Split the pods to obtain the seeds.
2. Use both the seeds and pod to combine with the sugar, pectin and distilled water. Bring to a boil and leave to cool.
3. Fry the breadcrumbs in the clarified butter. Strain off excess fat and fold in the vanilla syrup.
4. Lay onto a silicon mat to obtain a thickness of half a cm. Leave to dehydrate at 60 degrees for 5 hours.

Plating up:
1. Once the “sandwich” is crispy, carefully *“break” out the length and width of the terrine mould.
2. Unmould the frozen terrine and place onto the “sandwich”. Serve on a frozen plate immediately.
*The “sandwich” should not be symmetrical as it should have an overall rustic look.

Fried BBQ Drumstick

Fresh chicken drumstick
HP sauce
Ketchup
Worcestershire sauce
Dijon mustard
Honey
Red wine
Black pepper
Carrots
Red onions
Celery
Distilled water

1. Saute the diced carrots, red onions and celery. Deglaze with the red wine and leave to reduce. Add in the distilled water and leave to reduce again.
2. Strain off the vegetables and add in the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil and cool.
3. Vacuum seal the drumsticks with the sauce and leave to marinade over night. Cook in a combi steamer till the drumstick reaches a core temperature of 61.5 degrees. Remove and leave at ambient temperature for 10 mins. Cool in an ice bath.

To Bread:
Cooking liquids
Gelatin leaves Japanese breadcrumbs
Beaten whole eggs
Plain flour

1. Bloom the gelatin leaves and melt into the boiled cooking liquids from the drumsticks. Leave the gelling solution to calm to a temperature of 41 degrees.
2. Coat the chicken drumstick with the solution and leave to set. Repeat process with 3 coats.
3. Bread the coated drumstick, flour > eggs > breadcrumbs. Repeat the process twice.
4. Deep fry till golden brown.

Accuracy

I have just returned from a long break, spending a month back home in Singapore and my wife’s hometown Petaling Jaya (PJ) in Malaysia. Trips home are always a major food and shopping fest, especially in Malaysia where I’m constantly tempted by glorious food and great buys. When I think of PJ, images of huge malls filled with all-you-can-buy goodies and mountains of local Malaysian dishes spring to mind.

But it was in a small shophouse tucked away in PJ Old Town that I found my best buy – a precision digital scale. This was actually top of my shopping list, followed by an electronic probe thermometer that I managed to purchase in Singapore.

A chef’s new “power tools” are no longer confined to sharp knives and “keen” tastebuds. Precision and accuracy are pre-requisites for maintaining consistency and achieving perfection in cooking.

Accuracy, an underestimated term in kitchens today. Mostly it’s more of this, less of that. Taste the sauce, more salt, less cream or too much butter.

A common question by junior chefs might be, why the crème anglaise seems thicker today than it was yesterday? The horror of a solution would be, “Hmmm… the gel is not setting, I think we should add in more gelatin.”

An even more horrific truth would be the fact that the scenario above applies not only to juniors, as I myself have witnessed senior chefs doing and saying the same thing! Unbelievable? Not quite.

The reason? Training and basics.

The culture of kitchens is to work round the clock, being able to expend every minute and second possible. Getting ready for the coming service. Pre-plating amuse bouche, praying the damm gel sets in time, hoping the Chef does not find out that the bloody ice cream has a strong egg taste before the new one churns in time. Busting one’s behind to get the fish soup passed through the food mill. Rolling cannelloni and thinking of the pasta running short and with that in mind realizing that the fucking raviolis needs to be made. The examples are endless. The accused, everyone who has ever worked in a professional kitchen.

If everyone learned (and practiced) the importance of accurate cooking, much time and headache could be spared. We’re now able to achieve such accuracy with modern technology. But of course the chef has to learn the basics.

How much does a chef need to spend on an accurate scale, a probe thermometer, oven thermometer? I am sure ALL PROFESSIONAL KITCHENS HAVE A VACUUM SEAL MACHINE. If not they should seriously rethink their HACCP/Hygiene standards. This is a “powerful” equipment in the world of cooking.

Sous vide cooking techniques can be applied throughout the kitchen. I’ve applied this technique for pre cooking roasts, stocks, vegetables and even making sauces containing eggs. The application varies with the knowledge of accurate temperatures for specific produce.

Once such tools are acquired you are already one step closer to attaining perfection.

Then arrives the difficult but all-important process of trial and error, for is this not the way all chefs learn? But this time, why not re-learn the basics, using these new tools and improved techniques? All one has to take note of is the perfect cooking time of basic produce. For example, the precise temperature at which egg yolks and whites coagulate? How red meats cook? Fish, poultry, vegetables and so on.

Tried and tested results in books and reports are available out there, providing an invaluable resource for those who seek it. So the next time, just give perfection a chance before we decide to whisk the crème anglaise over the stove like a mad man or add more gelatin to the mix.