Geragao - a prawn fritter nyonya-style (reblogged from Dec 2013)

Recently back in Melaka, we saw fishermen selling geragao or shrimp seedlings (very tiny ones) along the road to Klebang. My MIL had some in her freezer and I requested for a tasting: voila the results...

 The tiny shrimps are actually used for a fermented prawn condiment called Cencalut used in local cuisine. However, fresh geragao can be added into a simple flour mixture (liquid) and then be fried in oil like a fritter. It is usually eaten hot with chilli sauce. It has rather surprising flavour...

The fresh geragao...

Gastronomique adventure at l'Atelier de Joël Robuchon - Etoile (reblogged from Feb 2014)

I only had more or less a day in Paris recently and as usual without a plan. So I went wandering around Champs Elysées without anything in particular and because of the cold wind, I got hungry fast. The usual hangout at Chez Clement had renovated their menu to a much more commercial and restricted one, not to my fancy...so I went further up the street and entered a luxury store called Drugstore Publicis (liked this store because it sells all kinds of gastronomique delices, including premiun caviar from Petrossian and macaron from Pierre Hermé) with intention to eat early lunch at a swanky bistro - luckless, the snorty receptionist asked me to wait for another 15 minutes eventhough its door menu said service begins at 11:30 (which was the time I asked for a table). I walked further into the shop and suddenly realised there was a restaurant at the bottom of the mirrored staircase called "L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon Etoile".  I walked down the staircase and were well received and the rest was history...(too bad for the snorty bistro at the entrance (to be avoided as it costs even more than a 2 Michelin-starred restaurant just 10 steps away).

 The decor is rather modern with a zen twist, playing on lights and shadows and a lot of red contrasted against black, giving it an almost Japanese lacquer feel...

Guests are allowed to compose their menu according to their hunger/eating capacity and I find this good as one won't have to end up stuffed at the end of the meal (and over paying for that!). I chose a 3 items menu for lunch at 43 euros (value for money): 1 entree (cold or hot), 1 main course and a dessert. I opted for the cesar salad (it was called something else, I forgot), pigeon (additional 12 euros) and crêpes suzettes. With drinks and apéritif, it came to a total of 73 euro and absolutely full stomach. Excellent.

 The amuse-gueule: a shot of foie gras mousse with a drip of morel mushroom sauce and Parmesan foam. Flavourful.

 Bread served on a metal holder (looks like Alesi to me...)

Deconstructed Cesar salad. While the styling is rigorous, I find it to be too "sauced". Could be lightened a bit and a tad more bacon chips will deffinitely make it tastier...

 Star of the day: pigeon breast meat with seared foie gras wrapped in Savoy cabbage leaf and bacon. The pigeon melted in my mouth and paired extremely well with the foie gras. The whole was flavourful and rich. It could, however, be even better if the salad served were less "sauced" with the powerful and acidic dressing that tends to overwhelm. A light vinaigrette will definitely be better.

 The potato purée served on the side was smooth as silk and extremely rich in flavour. Best potato purée eaten ever anywhere...

 The chefs hard at work...

 The crepes were charmingly traditionnal served with the bitter-sweet orange sauce. Liked it.

 A little madeleine and chocolate to finish...

 The mirrored staircase

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.

Fleur de capucine

My first experience with capucine, or Nasturtium in English, was in La Rochelle at a foster family's. It was end of summer 2003 and there were loads of this plant's flowers and seeds on the flower bed. Micheline (the hostess) showed me that the roughly grounded seeds of this plant can be added to salad giving it a rather peppery taste. The flowers, even better, have a sweet and peppery taste, something which not many people explored (whichever types of flowers) in their salad...

Chinese Jasmine omelette

When I was a child, we used to have this creeping plant with heart-shaped leaves in our garden and my grandma used to make a simple egg soup with its fragrant flowers. The Cantonese call this flower Yeh Loi Heong, meaning fragrance of the night and it is a very easy plant to grow. Unfortunately, this plant is hardly seen this day and a chance upon it in the farmers' market is always a great pleasure.

To make an omelette:
4 eggs, beaten
1 clove of garlic
salt and a touch of pepper to taste


Normally, I would use bacon or lard to flavour omelettes but this delicate flower will not work with the strong aroma of the bacon fat.


Rinse the flowers well under running water, removing the stems and old, stale flowers. Set aside. Drizzle oil over a heated frying pan, put in the garlic and stir until fragrant. Add the flowers, stir fry for a minute or two and add the beaten eggs. If you like, you may add a swirl of fresh cream just before the eggs set. Serve hot.