Our 13th anniversary do...

Last March, we celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary at home with some friends...

The choice of flower was pale lilac orchids sourced from a farm in Rawang over white table linen...

Raw cauliflower and home made aïoli, with a touch of piment d’Espelette. 

Foie gras served with balsamic reduction, apple confit, roquette salade and a slice of ripe kundang to bring it home...

Though Italian, a touch of French was introduced to the carbonara with smoked lardon from the Franche-Comte...

Oven-roasted duck with truffle-scented mash of potatoes and confit of cherry tomatoes, cooking jus...

Wedges of Comte cheese and salad

Tiramisu, a crowd favourite (Italian)

Dinner to end the year 2014...

As the year 2014 closes, we celebrated with a dinner with friends at home...it is also occasion to "clear out" my clogged fridge.

 Sitting elbow to elbow for 8 persons...

 Raw cauliflower is good with a simple aioli...

Tomatoes 2 ways: in concentrated purée and as raw (kumato). Served with a balsamic reduction, olive oil, sprinkle of fleur de sel and a Parmiggiano regiano chip...

 Lamb shoulder braised slowly in white wine and garlic, served with potato purée and the cooking jus.

 A simple salade with a cut of cheese... Comte

Suddenly feeled inspired to create, but a bit messy with the construction because of laziness: chocolate mousse à l'absinthe on almond crumble, lemon jelly, crème anglaise, caramel aux fleurs de sel and a pear chip.

Yet another makan chez moi...

We had some visiting friends from afar, across the straits and the theme was "autumn". So I whipped up an autumn-inspired menu...

 Table set with tiny pumpkins and champagne-coloured roses...

 A bloc of foie gras with pâté to start things (goes well with the champagne)...

 Pumpkin and roasted bell pepper soup to start the dining experience...a dollop of crème fraîche and a pinch of piment d'Espelette made it French...

 Poached egg scented with truffle oil, with crispy bacon and Parmiggiano reggiano chips, served with a swirl of Balsamic reduction and salade of roquette.

 Pan-seared butter fish on a puree of brocoli, served with oven-roasted yellow bell peppers and cherry tomatoes.

After some simple salade and a serving of Morbier, dessert was fruit cake with orange syrup, topped with orange-scented Chantilly cream, and an infusion to end it all.

Simple pleasures...(reblogged from my main blog)

Over the weekend, I had the time to experiment with a few dishes...results:

 The table set as usual...

 Breakfast done as dinner: crispy bacon and Parmiggiano reggiano chips on poached eggs and strewn lemon cress...

 Cannellini bean stew (with lamb)

 A wonderful cheese with a nutty body: Morbier
Read about the cheese: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morbier_cheese

 Salade to go with the cheese...

Simple chocolate cake to sandwich crème de marron (chestnut cream) with a dollop of freshly made chantilly and raspberry

Culinaria mia...(reblogged from Jul 2014)

Well I was asked to try some recipes with some friends (luckily not me who paid for the expensive ingredients) as they are newcomers to dining French-styled.

So here's the pictorial result of the experiment (went well) ...

 Table set the way I like it - pure and simple lines

 Something to chew on while waiting: Serrano ham on indian mango

 A trio of amuse-gueule - sauteed mushroom with bacon and highlighted with piment d'Espelette, canard confit (duck) on orange segment and fresh tomato and roquette salade with octopus in garlic oil.

 First course: a twist on quiche Lorraine - salted cod (called Morue salée in French) is used, a traditional brandade ingredient and the filling is mixed with wilted onions and leeks, topped with Comte cheese and baked to golden brown. The cod must be soaked 24 hours before hand and the water changed a few times to reduce its saltiness as well as to rehydrate the fish. Always good served with a tangy salad (lemon-honey dressing).

Decadent: braised Wagyu ribs with wild cèpes and  red wine stock. The Wagyu is served on a bed of gratin dauphinois.  A crowd pleaser, especially the meat lovers!

 The cheese and salad was kept to a bare minimum for first timers - kind of initiating them to this part of the dining with an easy to eat cheese - petit camembert.

Crêpe Suzette made easy. The orange sauce was made by squeezing six oranges, reduced to half by boiling down with sugar and flavour with Grand Marnier and eau de fleur d' oranger (orange flower water). Blanched orange peel is mixed in to get the candied bits in the sauce.

Another makan-makan...(reblogged from Aug 2014)

A friend came visiting from Singapore and I decided to throw in a quick-fix dinner with whatever we had in our magic box - the fridge!

 We chose a more colourful theme for the table this time...it was in tandem with the festivities around us...

 Chose a simple local dish to start: prawns in spicy tumeric sauce with pineapple:
1/2 kilo of medium sized prawns, intact
1 medium-sized pineapple, diced
1 1/2 inch of fresh tumeric, pound with:
a pinch of course sea salt,
3 shallots
3 cloves of garlic
3 chillies (cili padi)
3 stalks of lemon grass, pounded at the base to release the oil
2 cups of water
milk from 2 coconuts

In a casserole, add in the water, 1/2 the coconut milk and all the pounded ingredients. When the mixture boils, add in the pineapple, season to taste. At this point, add a tsp of sugar to balance the whole mixture. When the pineapples are cooked, add in the remaining coconut milk and the prawns. Serve when the prawns are ready, in about 3 minutes of cooking time.

 Foie gras and champagne grapes: no cooking required. Just serve with toasted bread.

 From the frigo, braised wagyu with wild porcini or cèpes. 

 Salad with Comte cheese

Simple butter cake with orange sauce. Served with fresh raspberry.

Celebrating Mid-Autumn Festival (reblogged from Sept 2014)

Au nom de la fête (In the name of the festival), we celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival with some friends at home with an Italian menu...

 Simple and clean set-up as usual

 bit of Mid-Autumn Festival details to remind everyone of the traditional festival...someone saw the "Ling Kok"( a kind of water chestnut but has horns) and quipped "Oh, that reminds me of my childhood..."

 The "Ling Kok", translated literally means Holy Horns. It is actually a floating aquatic plant with triangular leaves and these fruiting bodies are hard as horns and they droop into the water from the plants' floating body. We used to play with these when we were small.

 Yams from China - these are specially used for the Mid-Autumn Festival and are not found throughout the year.

 A sort-of bean soup from cannelini, borlotti and chick peas. The stock is a mix of onions, tomato sauce and lamb bits.

 Antipasti of ripe fig, kumato, roquette, yellow cherry tomatoes, dried sausage and Pecorino cheese.

A carbonara of tagliatelle home-made.

Recipe for the carbonara:

Prepare the pasta as prescribed (fresh or in box);

200g of smoke-cured bacon (fatty), cubed

Parsley, chopped finely

4 eggs

Pecorino cheese, grated

Salt and white pepper for seasoning,

Olive oil

In a pan, render the fat from the bacon. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl with the Pecorino cheese (you can also substitute this with grated Parmiggiano Regiano). Pour the hot pasta over the bacon fat in the pan, mix and fold in the egg-cheese emulsion. Sprinkle over with the freshly chopped parsley and season with salt and pepper if necessary. Serve with fresh basil leaves.

 Pan-fried Dory, seasoned with lemon, herbes de Provence on a bed of baby French beans. The beans are highlighted with lemon zest and fresh onions. The cooking jus was made by deglazing the pan with some white wine and fresh orange juice.

We skipped the salade and went straight to the dessert: chocolate cake with orange sauce.