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Shopping as Cooking

29 Aug

So today was a big one for the family – it was ZPA’s naming day! She got all dressed up and gorgeous, and the whole family was on hand to celebrate. I knew that when we came back from the ceremony, we would be hungry, and want to eat. But I also knew that the house would be full the night before, making it a tad difficult to sort out any before-hand cooking. When there are two boys sleeping 10 feet away from the kitchen, you dont really want to be banging pots and pans, and frying up stuff. What to do? One of the things I do best… Cook with my credit card 😉

Shopping as cooking is a skill in and of itself. Presenting a meal to people, especially tired, hungry, happy people, is a delicate balance. You want to feed them well, and in a celebratory way, but you also dont want to keep them waiting. They (and you) want to walk in the door and be able to sit down and eat within a few minutes. They also dont want to be totally overwhelmed by a hundred different tastes – so even if you are going to make a spread, you need to edit. Sometimes I do cook ahead meals, but when I cant, I shop for the very best ingredients, wonderful prepared foods, and serve my family’s favourite kind of meal – a spread of breads, cheese, fish, vegetables, fruits and sweets that can be combined into delicious bites – and each person can pick and choose for themselves what they want, and how much they want.

This kind of shopping is something you must go into with forethought. Who are you presenting this meal to? What kind of occasion? How old are the people sitting around the table, and does anyone have allergies, special needs, specific likes or dislikes? If you know someone will be sitting down to eat this meal who has a peanut allergy, then dont serve peanuts in even one thing! A smorgasbord like this is asking for food contamination – dont do it! If you have vegans and vegetarians, cater heavily to them. In my opinion, people will eat loads of vegetarian offerings in a feast like this, and much less of the meats and things like chicken salad.

I love shopping for a feast of this kind because it so closely reflects the process of cooking. When I cook, I think about the people who will eat the meal. I think about their likes and dislikes, the things that they find luxurious, their special quirks. I try and cater to those things because in that service, there is an expression of love. Same thing here. Its a way to show the people you are serving that this is personal to them – and you include not only luxuries, but things that you think might interest or titillate their senses.

Plus, leftovers make a wonderful dinner for an exhausted household!

We were 7 sitting down to eat, ranging from 70 – 11 years old. This is what we had.

  • Fresh tomatoes, thinly sliced
  • Fresh sourdough bread
  • Bagels – plain, sesame, everything
  • Smoked salmon, a whole plateful, with sliced lemon and capers
  • Smoked whitefish salad
  • Taramasalata
  • Cream cheese + butter
  • Three different kinds of cheese – a soft ripe brie like cheese, made locally, a sharp cheddar, and a parmesan
  • Quince paste
  • Seaweed salad
  • Hummus
  • Apple cake
  • Fruit salad with greek yogurt
  • Cinnamon mini muffins
  • Cinnamon rolls
  • Ice tea
  • Lemonade
  • Coffee

It was a feast, and it was satisfying and delicious.

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Birthday Dinner!

23 Aug

Tonight was my beloved sister’s birthday dinner. It was a feast of feasts. I am so full I can barely type, let alone remember all the recipes! So am going to let the pictures do the talking. I will post recipes soon, I promise! Happy Birthday beloved MZ!

By the way, I decided that everything was going to be served cold or at room temperature except for the mushroom pie, which came hot from the oven. It is a hot humid summer’s day, and it was just so much nicer to eat things that were not burning hot. I also found that this really enhanced flavour… things just taste better, in my opinion, when they are not at extremes of temperature (the only exception to this is of course ice cream)… room temperature lets the full flavour come out undisturbed.

Hope you enjoy these pictures as much as we enjoyed the meal – family, friends, laughter and a whole lot of love.

Broccolini with lemon and almonds

Broccolini – very easy, and astoundingly delicious. Toasted almonds. Broccolini (basically baby broccoli with little flowers) given a boiling water bath for a mere minute or two until just tender. Cooled for a moment in ice water. Then dunked into about 1/3 cup olive oil + juice + grated rind of a lemon. Bit of salt and pepper. Toss with almonds and refrigerate overnight. The almonds make this dish really nutty and beautiful, and the lemon makes it bright and sparkly.

Roasted Butternut + Arugula

Roasted butternut on a bed of arugula. A simple olive oil, balsamic, salt and pepper dressing sparingly poured over the top. Strewn with sprouts, which I dislike, but which the birthday girl adores!

Parsnip Mash with Truffle Oil

Parsnip mash with truffle oil and cracked black pepper…. easy peasy. Peeled, sliced parsnips, simmered in milk. When soft, drained, mashed with a bit of the reserved milk, some butter, salt and cracked black pepper. About a tablespoon of white truffle oil mixed in at the end. Sublime and silken.

Honey glazed carrots

Gorgeous organic carrots – honey glazed, with a touch of cinnamon and a heap of butter. A little burnt, and a lot delicious. Our Mum’s recipe…

Heirloom tomatoes

Chopped heirloom tomatoes, slicked with olive oil, salt + pepper, and chopped parsley and basil from the garden. So goood!

Fig, ricotta + goat's cheese tart

A fig tart from my imagination that turned out beautifully! A walnut crust, with a ricotta + mascarpone base. Sweet wine poached figs, sliced and stuffed with goat’s cheese. It was REALLY good. I will post the recipe tomorrow!

For the Birthday Woman!

Personalised mushroom pie 😉 Portobello, white button, shiitake, and truffle oil, bound with a bit of sour cream, panko and fresh parmesan, baked in a puff pastry crust.

:)

And finally a blackout birthday cake, with lashings of fresh cream.

Happy Happy Birthday to my most beloved sister. You are my heart 🙂

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Abundance

21 Aug

Sunday is my sister’s birthday, and of course I am planning a really lovely meal for her. I am trying to rein myself in a bit because its really muggy and hot here at the moment … and you dont really want to eat lots of rich overwhelming hot dishes when its a thick summer’s day. But I do want it to be an exciting meal, and to that end, I went mosey-ing along to Whole Foods (my personal mecca) to see what was in store. I have never been there during the summer months, and I have to say… WOW. Amazing, beautiful, gorgeous, luscious, astonishingly bright, delicious, fragrant, touchable, edible fruits and vegetables. I mean really, really stunning. I probably spent about an hour in the produce section. I couldnt believe how lovely and tempting everything looked…

These are just some of the things I picked up…

Such colour and texture and taste!

Check out these baby heirloom tomatoes. Seriously gorgeous. I chopped some up tonight to go into a bean (pinto and kidney) stew. They added brightness and freshness and a certain pizzaz to the dish. I just love how they smell… essence of tomato but each one subtly different.

Lusciousness

Peaches, with baby fuzz skin, and a scent like a perfect perfume. Flesh juicy and sun warmed, sweet and tangy and thirst quenching … like your first kiss. Unforgettable. And the avocadoes… bright green and creamy, we had one for lunch today, sliced thin and sprinkled with salt and pepper and a tiny drizzle of olive oil. With sour dough bread, and some smoked white fish salad. What a summer’s meal!

Cant eat just one...

Oh these cherries. So glossy they seemed out of a magazine. Such blood red colour, and tartsweet flesh. Staining our lips red, like lipstick. These cost ten times as much in Malaysia, and when I had these today, I realised the ones at home dont even taste like cherries should. These had such a complete and full flavour that all your senses are satisfied after eating just a few…

Oh My Goddess

These grapes were phenomenal. We had them for dessert with the cherries. Thick skinned, so you had to work at biting into it, but once you did … An explosion of juice, the essence of grape – but greenpurplered all combined. You had to spit out the seeds and skin after, but each bite was like a firework going off. Amazing!

Roasted for dinner tonight :)

Have you ever seen such beautiful kale? Frilly, thick, perfect. Roasted it for dinner tonight with bean stew and rice. What a great, healthy, vegan meal. Simple and yet infinitely satisfying. This kale was so vibrantly green it almost hurt the eyes. And it was absolutely delicious. Earthy, strong, vibrant.

Perfection

Strawberries. I was literally assaulted by the perfume of these berries in the store. I tried one, and they were sooooooo good. I couldnt resist. I got a four pound box first, but then decided may be it was overkill, so I compromised with a 2 pound box. Again, it cost about ten times less than it does in Malaysia, and these were so richly strawberry-ish I couldnt believe it. I plan on making a strawberry fool with some organic whipped cream to go with the chocolate cake for M’s birthday dinner…

There were so many other things – firm succulent mushrooms, tender delicate raspberries, red and green figs, leeks, parsnips, arugula, elephant garlic, bright broccolini… I was totally and blissfully immersed in these lovingly grown and sold fruits and veg. I was so happy today, and I am so thankful that my family and I can experience such abundance.

Speaking of which… I am still musing on the menu for the birthday dinner, but I think its going to go something like this…

  • Poached fig tart – made with a walnut crust, mascarpone and blue goat’s cheese base (all local cheeses), and wine poached figs on top
  • Mushroom pastry
  • Roasted butternut and parsnips
  • Broccolini with almonds
  • Honey glazed carrots
  • Heirloom tomato salad
  • Arugula + Avocado
  • Creamed spinach
  • Chocolate blackout cake with a raspberry coulis + Strawberry fool

What do you think? 🙂

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Roasted Butternut and Pesto Lasagne

2 Jul

I was expecting quite a few people tonight to watch the Brasil – Netherlands game (was that a surprise or what?!) and so decided to make a lasagne. But I didnt want to do one which was rich in tomato sauce (though I do have a wonderful sauce that has a secret ingredient… oh wait, I will leave that for another time!). I decided I wanted to do a lighter version of lasagne, so I thought of butternut (orange for the Dutch) and pesto (green for the Brasilians). Instead of a bechamel or thick cheese sauce, I decided to do a mix of ricotta, light cottage cheese and sour cream. Not traditional, I know, but it made the lasagne very edible especially when watching such a nailbiting game! It wasnt heavy or overwhelming, but really scrumptious and pleasurable.

This is really easy to make, especially if you do the pesto the day before. This is recommended anyway to ensure that the sauce deepens in flavour and complexity. The rest is a matter of mixing a few things together, and roasting the butternut, and it really can do that all by itself!

This recipe will fill a very large roasting pan – serving probably 10 – 12 hungry people (or 6 with double leftovers, which isnt half bad!)

Roasted Butternut

Butternut is extraordinary. Its sweet and roasts, bakes, stews, steams and purees like a dream. It has a vibrant colour, and its just an amazingly beautiful texture and taste. You really dont have to do anything to it for it to taste good. Just let it be, and thank it for being. 🙂

For this recipe you will need:

  • 1 1/2 large butternuts (probably about 5 – 6 cups chopped)
  • Seasoned salt and white pepper
  • Olive oil

Preheat oven to 180C. Peel, deseed and chop your butternuts roughly. Tumble the butternuts onto a cookie sheet in one layer. Sprinkle with a few tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, some seasoned salt if you have it (if not regular salt is fine), and white pepper. Using your hands, mix all well, and pop into the oven. This will roast very quickly – you probably dont need more than 20 – 30 minutes. You will know its done when the butternut starts to caramelise and brown on the edges, and its soft through. Gorgeous. Leave to cool while assembling the rest.

By the way, the butternut is superb just like this, served as a side dish, or as the basis of a wonderful soup (whiz it up with some yogurt or a little bit of vegetable stock), or even as a cold salad, tossed with some rocket and balsamico and parmesan. Can you tell I adore butternut? 🙂

“White Sauce”

This is not your traditional bechamel. Its much lighter, and yet ensures that the lasagne stays moist and tastes very rich. Its easy to make because it takes no cooking. Just a little beating together and you have alchemy.

The egg just adds lightness and helps everything cook. If you dont have one, or dont want to add one, then forego it.

You will need:

  • 500 g light cottage cheese (curds or smooth, your choice, though I like curds)
  • 500 g ricotta (full fat or light, again your choice)
  • 250 g light sour cream or about 1/4 cup buttermilk
  • 1 egg
  • Handful of parmesan
  • Salt and pepper (just a little)

In a large bowl, combine all ingredients, and set aside until assembly.

May I just make one note here? I had a beautiful bowl of cottage cheese, ricotta and parmesan and I broke the egg straight into it. And the egg was bad. The smell was terrible, and I was heartbroken. All that good food gone to waste, simply because of my laziness. Please do remember to make sure that when you are adding egg to a recipe, always break it open in a separate container and then add it to your main ingredients. You will save yourself an extra expense and trip to the grocery store. I know, from experience!

Assembly

For this lasagne, you will need:

  • Panful of roasted butternut
  • “White sauce”
  • Pesto
  • About 1 1/2 cups pecorino or parmesan, grated
  • 500 g box of dry lasagne pasta or fresh, if you can get it!
  • Olive oil
  • Handful of Italian parsley to finish

Preheat your oven to 180C.

If you are using dry pasta, fill a pan with hot water, add a few drops of olive oil, and put the pasta in. This will hydrate it a little, which will help in the baking process. You dont cook this lasagne for long, and it does not have a thick saucey component that will cook the pasta during baking. Hot tap water is fine, or a kettle that has been boiled and left for 15 minutes or so. You should be able to touch the water. Leave the pasta in for about ten minutes.

Oil the bottom of a very large roasting tin with a little olive oil. Spread about 1/3rd of the butternut over the bottom of the pan, sprinkle a little bit of parmesan over, and drop about 1/2 cup of white sauce over this. Cover entirely with pasta. Spoon about a cup of white sauce over this (or more – you want to cover the pasta entirely but not thickly), and spoon tablespoons of pesto on top. You want a white base, with beautiful bright green blobs. Cover entirely with pasta. As you cover it, you will see the pesto spread – this is good. Do another butternut layer, another pesto, and a final butternut layer. Cover with a final layer of pasta, and pour the rest of the white sauce over all, and sprinkle the remainder of your cheese over. You should have a pretty full pan, and five layers of lasagne.

Bake in hot oven for about half an hour, or until heated throughout, the pasta is soft, and the top is brown and crispy. Let rest for a few minutes when you take it out of the oven, and chop up a handful of Italian parsley to sprinkle over.

Serve with a refreshing salad. And watch your team win! Or lose 😉

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Banoffee Pie

2 Jul

This is not the traditional recipe for Banoffee Pie. For that, you will have to go here.

But this is the banoffee pie of my childhood. A cookie crumb crust made with HobNobs and melted butter. A thick dark golden brown slather of dulce de leche. Bananas. And a mound of unsweetened vanilla whipped cream. Each on its own, good. Combined together. Nirvana. Honestly. And its one of those desserts that you learn to make from very young, and because its so easy (given the preparedness of the ingredients), you feel a sense of achievement and satisfaction when it is served to ooohs and aaahs.

Assembly is easy, and you can certainly make this divine pudding over a few days, and assemble a few hours before serving. Its really good as breakfast too. Heh.

Crust

  • 3/4 roll of Hobnobs
  • 1/2 cup melted butter

Put about 3/4 roll of HobNob cookies in a zip loc plastic bag. You should have may be 5 or 6 left (good for a cook’s tea!). Break them up a bit using your hands, and then, using any heavy object (the bottom of a wine bottle will come in handy here) smash and crush the biscuits to a fine pebbly sand. You might need to do this in two batches.

Pour the crushed biscuits into an 8 inch round, non stick, springform cake pan. Pour the melted butter over, and mix. Using your fingers, create a crust at the bottom, and about half way up the sides of the pan. Put in the fridge for about 20 minutes to harden up a bit.

Whipped cream

I stabilise my whipped cream with agar agar, which is a vegetarian gelatin made from seaweed. Its totally flavourless, and about 1 tsp of agar agar to 1 cup of cream ensures the cream stays whipped and high, even after 12 hours in the fridge.

You will need to whip:

  • 2 cups heavy cream
  • 2 tsp agar agar
  • 2 tsp vanilla essence

together until they hold hard peaks. Set aside for the assembly.

Assembly

Take the crust out of the fridge, and pour in the cooled dulce de leche. It should completely coat the bottom of the crust, and be about 1/4 inch thick. If you want more, go ahead and add more, just remember it is VERY sweet.

Take about 6 -9 small pisang mas bananas (or whatever is available for you), and slice lengthwise. You should get about 3 long slices from each banana. Layer the bananas over the dulce de leche. Put in the fridge for about 20 minutes to firm up again.

Cover the entire pie with the unsweetened whipped cream, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, and up to 24.

When you are ready to serve, run a knife around the edges, and unmold the springform pan gently.

Serve with love and gratitude.

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Review – Nathalie’s Gourmet Studio

28 Jun

My friend, goddessmoments, had posted a photo on her FB page which showed what looked like an amazing restaurant that has just opened in Solaris Dutamas, Nathalie’s Gourmet Studio. We decided that we wanted to try it out and made plans to go today. They are open from 9 – 6pm, breakfast being baked goods and from 3pm onwards, tea and cakes. There was not a huge lunchtime crowd there (yet) but once people get to know the quality and level of cooking thats available, you will probably have to end up making reservations! Its a small place – about 6 – 8 tables, with seating outside that is not prime at the moment because of the construction going on next door. There is also a huge open plan kitchen where Nathalie runs cooking classes (AngelKitten and I are going for a macaron class soon!) as well as an organised professional kitchen which you can see from the seating area.

When we arrived at 2pm, we were greeted and seated quickly. The menu is simple – 5 or so of each starters, main courses and desserts, as well as a small children’s menu. I love reading menus, and this one did not disappoint. You can see the mind of the chef working in the menu, and it was intriguing. The place settings are beautiful and simple, yet elegant and functional. It made us feel welcome, and everything we needed was accessible immediately.

Nana and AngelKitten ordered juice, which came in beautiful little individual carafes. AngelKitten had orange (which I think may have been blood orange) and it was superb – the essence of orange, tart, sweet, sour, perfection. Nana had pineapple, which was sweet and gorgeous. I love the care and thought that has gone into the presentation here. It makes you feel special.

They served us gorgeous, crusty baked rolls, with sweet butter sprinkled with sea salt. I think you can tell the quality of a chef’s kitchen by their attention to details like the bread – and this one was perfect.

I had a starter for my mains – the eggplant three ways. It was wonderful! First there was a little toast with savoury eggplant and raw tuna. Just an astonishingly lovely combination of flavour. Then there was an eggplant ice cream – savoury, cold, a hint of sweetness, silky on the tongue and wonderfully challenging for those of us who think of icecream as dessert. For me as a cook, it was a great exploration of seeing eggplant in a different way. And finally, there was a beautiful eggplant jelly, with an eggplant and cream espuma or foam. It was my favourite. The creamy dusky flavour was essence of eggplant, and made me think of making an eggplant soup that would have those flavours in it. Not only was this a mouthwatering dish, but it was visually stunning.

Nana’s main course was the duck confit. He said it was delicious. Beautifully cooked duck, orange, and caramelised onions. He loved the balance of flavours, and the satisfaction of a hearty meal that was presented absolutely beautifully.

AngelKitten was looking for a simple main course so she could concentrate on dessert. She ordered from the children’s menu (since she is 12 plus 8!) and had the bolognaise tagliatelle. It was a very large portion for a child’s size! But she said it was really good – tomato-y but not too much so, meaty and flavourful without being too complex. Exactly what a child’s palate wants. She really wanted to try the chicken nuggets reimagined, but they did not have them, so we will have to go back again!

And finally there was another starter, salmon blini with lemon grass cream and a salad. Beautiful, simple, light – the lemongrass cream was sparkling – such a taste sensation with the silky unctuous salmon! Stunning presentation too.

And then… came dessert! AngelKitten and I had done what we always do – check out the dessert menu first, and then thought about the main course! She had an utterly superb orange creme brulee with caramel sauce, and a blood orange sorbet. Such lovely contrasts – the icey cool sharpness of the sorbet – light and airy – sweet yet tangy – and the creamy sweet meltingness of the creme brulee. The whole plate was so well thought out. Everything complemented and contrasted in interesting ways. A delightful crunchy tuile sat atop the sorbet, sharp and crackly and sweet, light and icy and tangy. The creme brulee sat on a vanilla cookie crust – the texture of the crust the perfect balance to the richness and wobbly delights of the creme. So very very very good, and so satisfying.

I had the trio of desserts – a consideration of how different chocolate can be! First there was a rhubarb and tarragon crumble with a white chocolate espuma. The rhubarb crumble was tart and soursweet, the crumble with hints of cinnamon. The chocolate here only highlighted the different taste sensations of the fruit, and was definitely a supporting character. Then there was a  macaron – I chose the caramel, though I should have probably chosen the chocolate for unity of plate! I didnt regret it though – the caramel macaron was astonishing – a delight, a whisper of macaron, and a bold flavourful bittersweetsalty caramel licked in the centre. I could bathe in that caramel and be happy. And finally, a tiny, delicate chocolate tart, with a fragile vanilla crust. But it had a huge chocolate flavour – intense dark smoky notes. Wonderful.

All in all a brilliant meal. As a cook, it inspired me to think of different balances and ways to present food. As an eater, it appealed to the sensualist in me.

Was there anywhere we could find fault in this lovely new restaurant? Well, yes actually. The only uncomfortable note of the entire meal was the seating – outside seats were very low, and we could not sit there because of the noise and pollution from the construction. Inside was beautiful, but they had inexplicably chosen high, sharp bar seats and high tables. Very uncomfortable and difficult to get in and out of. The seats were the only thing in the restaurant that did not encourage you to stay a while and enjoy. Honestly, after an hour or so of sitting, they were painful.

Nathalie’s Gourmet Studio changes its menu every month, so we will definitely be back next month to try more mouthwatering delicacies. It is exciting and very happy making to see such a high level gourmet space opening up in KL. Its wonderful to be able to explore the food mind of a serious chef through her menu. Thank you Nathalie for creating such a sumptuous gourmet experience!

PS – Try the macarons! We brought back a large box – couldnt resist!

Nathalie’s Gourmet Studio – Unit 4-1-5 – Solaris Dutamas – Jalan Dutamas – 50480 Kuala Lumpur – Tel : 03.62 07.95 72

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Memories of a Vegetarian Thanksgiving

23 Jun

A Thanksgiving for everyone – even the turkey!

M + I cooking together, for Z’s first Thanksgiving…

  • Honey glazed carrots
  • Green beans with crispy friend onions
  • Cornbread stuffing with jerusalem artichokes, mushrooms, kale, and dried cranberries
  • Cranberry honey whiskey sauce
  • Puff pastry roll with mushrooms and pine nuts
  • Garlic mash potatoes
  • Red wine onion gravy
  • Roasted butternut and sweet potato with a maple glaze
  • Berry crumble
  • Pecan pie
  • Red wine and honey poached pears dipped in bittersweet chocolate with vanilla ice cream

… and there are only 4 of us sitting down to dinner!

This was the first Thanksgiving I celebrated in my sister, M’s house in Washington DC. I was there helping to look after Z, my beloved niece. My sister is vegetarian too, and with the advent of her daughter, we found that she was pretty intolerant to milk and dairy products. So we held back on layering the butter everywhere, though we didn’t completely do without it. It was a sumptuous meal, redolent of the most beautiful produce of the season. The colors where phenomenal, and M’s non-vegetarian BSA and our TBH didn’t even miss the turkey!

One of these days, I will try and recreate it and post the recipes. But the menu itself is pretty phenomenal!

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