Posts tagged food styling

Breakfast, the most important meal of the day

I love breakfast. It’s a little more difficult to make breakfast for one but I still love breakfast. I always have. I like breakfasts and dinners. Lunches I have less of an affinity for, unless it’s a dim sum lunch with friends.

Starting 2 January, I’ll have less opportunity for breakfast because I’m starting work at Boulangerie Paul which is opening at Ngee Ann City (3rd story). Don’t quote me on when the big opening date is exactly! Even though the work is retail and I’ll be starting from the bottom up, I’ve been given the opportunity to learn pastry and I’m really excited.

To be honest, my mom isn’t exactly thrilled that her daughter is going to be working at a retail shop. Words and more were exchanged last night and I’ve not quite recovered from it yet. I don’t know if I will like it myself but my dad said “you don’t know until you try.” And sure, I’ve failed at a few things in my life already but I feel that I have to try. At the very least, the hard work and operational hours will hopefully take my mind off other things in my life.

My first acquaintance with Paul was in London, at South Kensington meeting a friend years ago if I remember correctly. And then there was Paul in Paris and Lille. Trivia of the day - Paul, as it stands, started off in Lille. I like their lemon and chocolate tarts. Great pâte sucrée, the lemon curd is cooked just enough to ward off the over eggy taste.

The more I think about it, hell yeah. The more excited I am about it.

Bonjour to a new day and a great start to the new year.

Open-faced burgers

I love a good hamburger and my preferred patty is made from minced pork, minced beef, and chopped bacon. The good things about making your own are:

1. You know exactly what’s in it
2. No messing around with unwanted stuff like chutney or onion marmalade (yes, I know there are some of your who actually like the stuff!)
3. You can make em whatever size you want
4. You can keep an emergency stash somewhere for those “I need meat” moments.

Ingredients:

• 250g minced beef
• 250g minced pork
• 150g bacon, chopped into small bits
• 1 medium sized onion, chopped finely
• A couple of cloves of garlic, pressed or chopped finely
• A handful of Panko breadcrumbs
• Couple of teaspoons of milk
• Salt and pepper

Directions:

Pop everything into a large bowl and mix well to distribute the different meats evenly.

Mix the milk with the breadcrumbs and add to the meat mixture.

Season with salt and pepper

You can also add other yummy things like feta cheese to the meat mixture, chives. 

Shape into patties. Coat lightly with flour to help it hold its shape. When ready, pop them into a frying pan and fry till the meat is browned on the outside and cooked on the inside.

I had my burgers with some baguette from Sun Moulin which I buttered lightly and topped with a hint of Naked Baby mayo, and sides of cherry tomatoes tossed in olive oil and grilled cauliflower (which is really easy - cut into florets, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with some salt and pepper and grill till tender)

I also remember having these little burgers with rice and an egg on lazy days.

Meat & mushroom tartlets in a herbed crust

About two weeks, a friend pinged me and asked if I’d be interested in be interviewed for a feature in the Sunday Times. Here’s the article from the 4th of December. The theme was Christmas and the journalist was looking for something savoury coz the other people were making sweet things - mulled wine, cake pops and cupcakes. Another friend of mine suggested making mince pies with a twist - the mince being savoury instead of the Christmas minced pies that are traditionally sweet with spices in them.

It just so happened that the book Kitchen Coquette had reached me the day before and as I was pouring through its pages, our jumped a recipe for meat & mushroom tartlets.

[Adapted from Kitchen Coquette for the filling & Tartelette for the pastry]

Ingredients:

(For the pastry)

• 1.5 cups of all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp dry mustard
• 1/2 tsp thyme
• a pinch of salt
• 3 egg yolks
• 70 g unsalted butter

(For the filling)

• 150g minced pork
• 150g minced chicken
• 100g shitake mushrooms, finely chopped
• Small handful of shitake mushrooms sliced into fingers
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped or pressed
• 1/2 tbsp spoon thyme
• Zest of half a lemon, finely grated
• Half a cup of cooking cream
• Salt and pepper
• Handful of parsley, finely chopped

Directions:

In a mixer, whip together the butter, mustard, herbs, and salt on medium speed until light and airy. Add the egg yolks, one at a time and beating well after each addition. Mix until incorporated. Add the flour and mix briefly.

Gather the dough into a smooth ball. Flatten the dough into a disk, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.

When the dough is nice and cold, roll it out on a lightly floured board or in between two sheets of plastic to fit your tart tins. If the dough tears while you roll or/and transfer into the pan, just patch it with your fingertips.

Refrigerate 30 minutes before baking.  (You can freeze the dough for up to 3 months and prepare it up to 4 days in advance.)

To make the filling, heat some oil in a frying pan and sauté the onions till translucent. Add the mince and fry till golden brown. Add the chopped mushrooms, garlic, thyme and lemon and cook till fragrant and all the meat has cooked through.

Reduce heat and stir the cream through, together with salt and pepper to taste. Just before taking it off the heat, stir the chopped parsley in.

In a clean frying pan, heat up some butter and fry the sliced mushrooms until golden. Set aside.

Spoon the filling into the prepared tart shells. Top with the butter mushroom slices and bake in an oven preheated to 180ºC until the crusts have cooked through and the meat and mushrooms have taken on a golden brown hue.

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There are quite a few steps to it but you can make a larger batch of tart shells and freeze them. These are delightful little savoury bites for tea parties or for a buffet style get together. Enjoy!

Japanese tonkatsu on rice

A couple of months ago (yes, this photo is that old), Sue Ern came over for dinner instead of trying to rub elbows with the Orchard Road human traffic and I decided to make tonkatsu because we both are meat eaters. We had a great time catching up over a quick bit of frying, eating and make up. I thought I’d post my tonkatsu recipe because many people don’t know easy it is to make. It’s Japanese but really, it’s just pork chops. What makes it Japanese is the “naked baby” mayo and the tonkatsu sauce (I like the Bull Dog brand).

Ingredients:

• 4 pork chops (you can use loin too)
• 2 tbsp soy
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine (optional)
• White pepper powder
• Flour for dusting/coating
• 1 egg
• Panko breadcrumbs
• Oil for frying

Directions:

Sandwich the pork chops between two pieces of cling wrap and flatten with a mallet until about 1/3” thick.

Make the marinade by mixing the soy, sesame oil, Chinese cooking wine and pepper together. Add the pork chops to the marinade and until the chops are well coated. Leave for a couple of hours to marinade or overnight.

Heat up about half an inch of oil in a fying pan till medium-high.

While the oil is heating up, line up the following in shallow dishes: flour, egg, Panko bread crumbs. Take each piece of pork and dust with flour. Next dip into the egg mixture quickly and coat both sides. Then transfer to the dish with bread crumbs and coat well with the breadcrumbs. You may have to use your fingers to press the crumbs in.

Fry the pork chops in the oil until the outside is golden and the pork chops are cooked through.

Serve on a bed of warm Japanese rice with “naked baby” mayo and tonkatsu sauce. Here, I added some rocket/arugula leaves dressed with mayo to the dish. And there you have it, Japanese tonkatsu.

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The best thing about tonkatsu is that you can make a big batch and store it in the freezer, sandwiched between waxed freezer paper or baking parchment. Just pop them into the fridge compartment a couple of hours before cooking to thaw and you’ll have a really simple easy meal that you can whip up in no time.

Megan, this recipe’s for you :)

I know I shouldn’t have but…

Lunch. Yesterday. I know I nutritionally I shouldn’t have. I know lots of people are really stuck up when it comes to spam or luncheon meat. But I love it. It’s a childhood thing, I think. And in fact, lots of restaurants in Japan and Hong Kong serve spam on noodles, with rice or in sandwiches.

So I had luncheon meat, fried, on a bed of rice with a raw egg (also very Japanese and again, yes I know, it’s called “salmonellosis” but races of people do it and I figure I’m predisposed to not being susceptible to it), with some sliced cherry tomatoes tossed in olive oil and freshly cracked black pepper. And that was lunch!

Featured on Notabilia: quinoa salad with green pepper and grilled cauliflower

I am absolutely thrilled to be featured on Notabilia - thank you Pooja - sharing my failsafe go-to recipe when I’m knackered after a day’s work or when I have vegetarian friends coming to dinner or when it’s so hot outside that all I can stomach is something crisp and clean on the palette.

Click through for the recipe and I hope you like it too.

And here’s a link to some of my other recipes.

Cinnamon French toast & fresh strawberry topped honeyed Greek yoghurt

Whenever there are red, ripe, sweet smelling strawberries (that aren’t Driscoll’s because from my experience Driscoll’s pick them when they haven’t yet ripened enough to give them a longer shelf life and so are tasteless and hard) in the supermarket, I buy some for immediate consumption. So far, the best strawberries I’ve found are from NTUC Fairprice and Carrefour in mini punnets. Strawberries are best eaten slightly thawed and not straight out of the fridge in my opinion.

I decided to have some honeyed Greek yoghurt topped with strawberries and some French toast with it as I had some soft white bread left from a brunch party. After trying with different breads, I’ve come to the conclusion that French toast is best made with white bread (yes, evil!) and nothing grainy because the grainy texture interferes with the texture of the fried egg.

Ingredients for French toast:

• 1 egg (1 egg per 2 slices of white bread)
• Cinnamon - I used about half a teaspoon because I love cinnamon but you can adjust this to suit your tastes
• 1 tbsp milk
• 2 slices of white bread

Directions:

Beat all the ingredients together.

Take a slice of the bread and dip it into the egg mixture, coating both sides evenly.

Send it to the frying pan with a little oil or butter in it and fry till the egg is cooked till golden on both sides. Repeat with the 2nd slice.

Serve with maple syrup and some butter.

I am going to have to learn to make my own yoghurt soon because yoghurt is so expensive in Singapore. Speaking to Pooja from Notabilia a few weeks ago at the bookbinding class, I hadn’t realized how easy it was to make until now. I just found a recipe online so you can bet I’ll be making my own very soon! More on that later! In the meantime, have a lovely day!