Happy holidays & update on #romescodiaries

Okay so my little romesco project didn't last a week or beyond the first two dishes. My boyfriend was over for a visit from Canada and we were just so busy going out and doing stuff that I had to abandon cooking at home almost entirely during his stay (safe to say we both wanted sushi quite often). There was time for small meals but there was no way any romesco sauce was going to accompany stir-frys. I'm guessing the family had enough romesco sauce too as whatever leftover sauce I had was left untouched until I had to remove and dispose of it myself, no thanks to mould.

Should've left it in the freezer. Yeah.

Romesco diaries: Entry #2, Pan-seared salmon w/ roasted veggie medley and sautéed potatoes

Yesterday's entry was shrimp penne and can be found here (my romesco recipe included). 

In my attempt to make full use of a week's worth of homemade romesco, I will be using the sauce in different dishes every day. Today's ingredients were baby potatoes that I have forgotten about (they had begun growing sprouts!), salmon, and leftover raw vegetables that needed cooking (3 mini vine tomatoes, 1 bell pepper, 2 small carrots). 

As with a bunch of mismatched vegetables, what better way to cook them than to have them thrown together in olive oil and roasted. I added an onion for sweetness and some cremini mushrooms (brown buttons) for earthiness. 

The baby potatoes were boiled then sautéed with butter, olive oil and parsley. Salt and pepper to taste. I stirred constantly to get them all fluffy/ fuzzy on the outside. I notice there's a lack of green on the plate and I would have added some baby asparagus, green beans or french beans; if I had any.

There's no complication to this dish as everything was seasoned with salt and pepper and cooked in olive oil. I would say the cooking on the fish is extremely important as it is a focal point in the dish and crispy salmon skin tastes absolutely wonderful. To get it crispy easier, score the fish skin, making sure not to cut too deep; and salt generously at a height to cover more surface area evenly. I make sure the pan is at high heat when laying the fish down skin-side. I then lower the heat depending on how crispy the skin is and how fast the fish is cooking. 

Romesco diaries: Entry #1, Shrimp penne

Romesco diaries is my way of documenting how I use a week's worth of homemade romesco.

 Meal #1 with romesco: Seared prawns with penne topped with romesco. 

Pasta Recipe:
Serves two 

• Medium-sized prawns marinated in salt, pepper & paprika
• Penne Rigate (2 cups uncooked)
• Small onion (half finely chopped; half slivered)
• Garlic cloves (4–5, finely chopped)
• Red wine vinegar (1 tablespoon for deglazing)
• Olive oil (2 tablespoons; one for searing prawns, the other for sweating onions & garlic)
• 1/2–3/4 can of stewed tomatoes
• Dried or fresh chopped parsley (1/2 teaspoon)
• Paprika (1/2 teaspoon)
• Salt & pepper to taste (I use sea salt)
• Romesco (1 tablespoon added to pasta)

1. Bring water to boil, add pasta and some salt. Once cooked to a still-crunchy firm texture (al dente), remove (you will be cooking this twice). Keep boiled liquids (magical pasta water). 

2. Sear prawns in pan heated with olive oil. 5–6 seconds each side. Set aside. 

3. In still hot pan, add olive oil, garlic and onions. Sweat until caramelised slightly. Pan should appear slightly browned in some areas.

4. Deglaze with red wine vinegar. Add pasta and some pasta water if it is dry. Toss. Add stewed tomatoes and their juice. Toss again. Add romesco. Toss some more. 

5. Season with paprika, parsley, salt and pepper. Add prawns and give it a final few good tossings.

6. Serve topped with romesco.

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So I made a romesco last night for the very first time. Can't say I followed any one exact recipe as I looked at a few online and viewed some on Youtube; and kind of tailored the recipes to what ingredients and tools I have at home. 

With romesco, most recipes call for using a food processor. Ours found it most opportune to break itself prior to romesco-night so I had to make do with a closed-top mini-slice-&-dice thingamajig (a Philips hand-blender). I thought the closed top would mean no drizzling in of olive oil to emulsify the mixture at the end while the processor keeps running. But just adding the oil in then blitzing did just fine to emulsify.

I used this hand-blender in replacement of a food processor.  It comes with a beaker and the closed chopper container on the left, which I used.

Nevertheless, it was a success at the end of much too long a night in the kitchen. One romesco recipe cited cooking time as 30 minutes. Bollocks. It took ~90 minutes to roast the peppers, tomatoes and garlic. I may have overlooked the use of pre-roasted bell peppers in the recipe. Oh well.

Here's my romesco recipe: 

• 4 medium-sized ripe tomatoes (cored) 
• 1 garlic bulb (halved crosswise; one half for roasting, the other finely chopped raw)
• 1 large red bell pepper (cored and sliced in half)
• 1/4 cup blanched almonds
• 1/4 cup peeled hazelnuts (peel these once you've panfried them as the skin crisps up and makes removal easy)
• Olive oil 
• 2–3 tablespoons red wine vinegar 
• 1–2 tablespoons red wine (not necessary if you don't have any) / 1–2 tablespoons water (or as much as needed to tailor consistency of the sauce)
• 1 slice stale white bread (if unavailable, toast fresh slice with olive oil in a pan until brown and crisp)
• 1 red chili (optional; cored and opened to remove seeds; lay flattened when pan-searing)
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• Salt to taste
• ~ 1 tablespoon dried chili flakes (tailor according to required heat) 

1. Place tomatoes, half a garlic bulb, bell pepper halves on a baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil. Put into over heated at 375F or 190C. Roast for 60–90 minutes or until they caramelise. Tomatoes and garlic should not be burnt. Bell peppers can be left in longer and as the skin starts to blacken in some parts, remove.
2. While waiting, add a tablespoon of chopped garlic into the food processor / hand-blender-chopper receptacle.
3. Toast almonds and hazelnuts in a heated pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Brown them then set aside to cool. Now sear red chili flat in pan and set aside once the skin starts crackling; set aside.
4. Add nuts and bread to the garlic in the food processor. Blend until fine and crumbly like breadcrumbs.
5. Once roasted, remove skin off tomatoes and bell peppers and add to the food processor. Garlic should be roasted until soft in texture; and added to the food processor. Add seared red chili. Blend until incorporated with the dry ingredients; a paste should form.
6. For non-proper-food-processor users: Add tablespoon by tablespoon of olive oil, blending in between each addition. Repeat until the consistency is emulsified / creamy. This should take 2–3 tablespoons.
For food-processor users: Keep mixture on a blitz while pouring in a slow, steady stream of olive oil, as if making mayonnaise. Stop once consistency is emulsified / creamy.
7. Add red wine vinegar. Pulse. If it is still to thick, add red wine / water; or both. Pulse until it reaches a smooth-enough consistency whilst retaining a coarse texture.

8. Season with paprika and salt. 

Recipes that helped me the most are:-
1. http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/romesco_sauce.aspx; and

2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfwZVZlfSaM by the Culinary Institute of America.

Have fun!

Superstar-Sashimi

Clockwise from top right: Scallop (hotate); Pacific saury (sanma); Yellowtail/ Japanese amberjack (hamachi); Olive flounder/ bastard halibut--LOL (hirame); Tuna (maguro); Salmon (shake/ sake) 

It's preeetty obvious that I like sashimi. The genius in me figured a filler-post of sashimi pictures would be a nice intermission between the lengthy, wordy ones. I scavenged a couple of pictures taken on my phone and I do apologise for the ones defaced by the Instagram border. 

The usual suspects. Clockwise from top: Scallop (hotate); Tuna (maguro); Salmon belly (sake/ shake harasu); Yellowtail (hamachi); Escolar ("shiro maguro"/ real Japanese name: aburasokomutsu; being called "white tuna" in japanese is a common misnomer; escolar consumption is actually banned in Japan due to associated health risks with its high wax content BUT consuming less than 6oz in a sitting shouldn't cause any harm--according to some info found online). When ordering assorted sashimi I tend to have escolar switched with something else. All you buffet-sashimi vultures now know to stay away from this fish. 

Most of the sashimi are from my neighbourhood Japanese restaurant Ishin and they serve the freshest sashimi in town, priced very reasonably too considering that most of the fish are flown in from Japan bi-weekly. I've sampled a fair share of sashimi around town and have yet to find a place with fresher and more value-for-money sashimi. They aren't by all means that cheap but for the quality you get, the prices are warranted. If you find yourself at Ishin, the scallop sashimi is amazing.

Oh and perilla leaves--from the mint family--(shiso) are edible. They're the green leaves served with sashimi and I love them. These leaves are not just decorative in nature but also serve as a bactericide--perfect when paired with raw fish. It is unfortunate that most Malaysians wouldn't know they're edible and would choose not to eat the leaves or bother looking them up. Because of this most restaurants have either stopped serving perilla leaves or have provided less in a sashimi assortment (to my disappointment of course). Perilla leaves when snipped (cut into thin strips), make a great garnish for pastas and rice. You will find them used that way in Japan; on top of Japanese pastas, pizzas and contemporary rice dishes. They also taste great as tenpura or wrapped around a protein for kushiyaki/ yakitori. 

So yeah, edumacate yourselves!

Yes, I did type e-du-ma-cate. For no particular reason. *shrug*

The salmon belly sashimi above was at Sushi Zanmai.

I can't believe I've done this to myself at three in the morning.

To Ippudo or not to Ippudo

If there's one noodle dish that has become universally known, it has to be ramen. From its influences on pop culture (think Brittany Murphy in The Ramen Girl), to its ubiquitous instant form (albeit being nothing like a freshly made version unless you're buying legit instant Japanese stuff; I was surprised to hear the Canadians have an instant "ramen" brand Mr. Noodle, which unsurprisingly, isn't like ramen or what instant ramen should be*), ramen is synonymous with a piping hot bowl of saaaaavoury goodness. The ramen experience is fuss-free and no-frills. Choose your soup, additional toppings and you're set. And maybe a "kaedama" or two if you're still peckish.

*It's fine if it's called instant noodles if it's abysmal at being instant ramen but it can never be an instant ramen and not be instant ramen, if that makes sense

In my region, ramen chains have long found their niche in the local food scenes in Hong Kong and Singapore. Good thing for us in Malaysia is that we're seeing a lot more ramen places, and Ippudo is one of them. From what I can gather online, Ippudo is a famous ramen chain from the Hakata district in Fukuoka, Japan. Having been to Fukuoka myself, I can testify that if there's two food items they take seriously, it's ramen and mentaiko. Hakata ramen is basically tonkotsu ramen and being a specialty of the region, it was named after Hakata.

Being from Hakata, Ippudo serves only tonkotsu ramen--ramen in a milky pork-bone broth. Having heard of Ippudo's opening in KL, I was never really hyped up enough to venture to the traffic-hell-hole that is downtown KL just for a bowl of ramen. Curiosity got the better of me, some half a year later. Reading promising reviews of the place raised my expectations and I genuinely thought I was going to savour a bowlful of Japan all over again. Knowing my luck with food, I should've steered clear of such thoughts. I don't eat a lot of ramen but I have had some good ones and terrible ones to have a fairly reasonable benchmark. And seeing this is all about tonkotsu, I will be comparing this with the one I had in...Japan. Go big or go home I guess.

I had the "Karaka-men" which is a tonkotsu ramen topped with a spicy miso mince of pork and cashew nuts. It came topped with two slices of pork belly (I'm not a fan of pork belly and would usually have lean chashu--Japanese for "char-siew"/ roast pork--loin). A table of two, we shared a serving of gyoza and it was pretty tasty but average. The noodles are apparently unique to the Hakata-style, being thinner than the standard chuka-men and they had a good bite to them. The spicy miso mince was flavourful and not very spicy. I have an affinity for meat minces and noodles, thanks to my upbringing. Pork or chicken minces are very tot-friendly. Not that I was ever a fussy eater as a kid.

My only problem with the dish is: 1. the broth; and 2. the fact that there was a hair in it. I'm slightly amazed at how frequent I find things in my food that shouldn't be within a 5-feet radius of the table. First things first, the broth--the life force of a good bowl of ramen, the "chi" of the dish, if you will. There was a distinct gaminess to it, like a stink you get from pork offal left out for a while. I know a good hearty broth may use uneaten bits of the animal (trotters, tail, skin; God forbid, head) and I have had soups made with far more gut-wrenching ingredients than what normally goes into a tonkotsu broth, but I couldn't get past that distinct smell I was getting from Ippudo's version. It almost reeked like a chicken broth I once had in China. Tonkotsu should be smooth, mellow with a hearty but not overwhelming porky taste-- just top notes of pork amid a blend of other stock(s) (lol, using top notes to describe it maaay be pushing it a little--don't mean to sound pretentious, sorry!).

Don't let this spoil it for you though. Knowing broths to be tricky, it may be the case that the Ippudo outlet at Pavilion was just having a bad day? Or that Ippudo Malaysia just isn't that great compared to the ones in other major cities. I have a sneaking suspicion it's the decision to alter the broth to "suit local tastebuds" that made it taste like it was made with offal-concentrate. I read this off of a food blog somewhere and even the writers think Ippudo Singapore's version is better and stays true to the original Hakata flavour.

Oh and there's the hair I found in my soup. It was a tiny strand and I'm somewhat perplexed at how I managed to spot the darn thing. But that I did and they got me a new bowl right away. Didn't help that the serving is huge and I was halfway done when tragedy struck.

Overall, I didn't find the reason behind all the hype and I wouldn't think the fault lies with Ippudo (I'm sure the one in Hakata is bangin') but just this one Malaysian outlet. They should really do away with the catering-to-local-tastebuds bullshit (an excuse to use cheaper pork perhaps?) and serve up honest, unadulterated tonkotsu ramen. To put it in a way Malaysians would understand, imagine serving Nasi Lemak without the santan in the rice.

Healthy sludge

This is my first meal today. No, not breakfast because it was 4pm when I made this. Just one of those days where I'm feeling extremely lazy in the kitchen. Instant oats are the answer to my prayers. Sort of. Well I had nothing better so yeah.

When I say lazy in the kitchen I don't really mean just grabbing-a-bag-of-crisps-and-reheating-last-night's-leftovers-and-call-it-a-day kinda lazy. Not for me, at least. There is some minuscule amount of effort here. Can you see it?  Cubed apples. Yeah I'm posh like that. I spent more time and effort preparing these babies than it took me to whip up a bowl of porridge. Naturally that makes sense because all you need is to plonk the oats in a bowl and try not to burn yourself when filling it with hot water.

Speaking of which, my hot water dispenser is possessed. When the dispense button's pressed, water comes out. Not rocket science, I know. BUT as in an ideal world, water would stop when you lift your finger and my demonic machine won't allow that, no siree! It is always a gamble using it and lately it's gotten way moody. I held the bowl up and filled it as needed. Lifted my finger and hot scalding water kept coming. I freaked, cussed and started repeatedly jamming the dispense button with my finger. It was stuck. Shit. Water was filling to the brim and my hand risked first degree burns. In a last minute panic I slammed down hard enough on the button and it stopped. What a spectacle that was.

Now I was left with a bowl of barely-there porridge resembling that of barley soup. Instead of adding more oats to the mix, I opted for whole grain cereal with nuts. I don't see any logic in doing so as the cereal turned to mush quicker than anything as it hit the bowl. Let's imagine my reasoning at the time was that I did it for the nuts. The soupy mix turned gloopy in no time and was ready for the rockstars of the meal: apple and honey. Honey misbehaved a little and was being a little shit. Knowing my luck, that's no surprise. It was in a squeeze-bottle and there was but two and a half tablespoons left. I pretty much strangled the air out of the bastardly thing and after several attempts, despite such vigour, it spat out less than half a teaspoon of honey in defiance. It hissed as it filled with air again. "Sod it", I thought and left the recalcitrant honey bottle to its self.

By the time I had stirred everything together, little appetite was left. Hence this blog post and a now neglected half-eaten bowl of crusty porridge on my side.

Foodie adventures in China, sort of

...ok, not quite. To be fair it wasn't a food trip or anything so I tried my best to document whatever interesting -- though slightly vile for some -- foods I could capture before I was being left behind on the streets by the group; or before someone started poking their chopsticks into a communal dish.

It was my first trip to China (a picture-heavy post available on my style site Styleplume--I left the strange pictures for here) and wasn't sure of what the southern province of Yunnan had in store. The general consensus was that the food would suck, or rather pale in comparison to the cuisine of other provinces more well known for their food (Beijing, Shanghai). Boy was I craving Peking duck and Xiao Long Bao. Well not really. Ok maybe XLB.

The consensus was right. Not even being Chinese helped in appreciating the humble dishes of the Motherland. Well not in my case anyway as my proficiency in Mandarin is zero to none. That, and I'm Malaysian which goes to show that though Chinese, I am still foreign. I have a high tolerance for abysmal food in the sense that even if it looks meager, I'd try it the first time and if it's shit I'll just not eat it again. But being somewhat accustomed to Chinese cuisine over the years, Yunnan really takes the cake for boring, uninventive dishes. I will speak of the let down that was the infamous "Cross-over-bridge noodles" or "Rainbow-bridge noodles" or "half-assedly-made-lukewarm-excuse-of-human-fodder", later in the post.

First things first. Yak.

We were in the highland city of Lijiang and this was yak territory. Hence yak milk, yak cheese, yak cheese dough fritters, yak jerky, yak yogurt drink (pictured above), yak coats, and yak flavoured things like candy I'm sure. The drink was pleasant and tasted like any plain yogurt drink but became increasingly frustrating to drink as it wasn't chilled. I met a yak in person and its gaze proved somewhat intelligent and soulful. I felt really bad for eating yak jerky after.

Every meal looked like this; communal dishes to be shared and everyone was polite enough to not selfishly gobble up the nice stuff. During this meal, a lady came by offering us (in what I could understand, given my idiot-mandarin) "complimentary rice wine" which, in its defence for being unlike rice wine, wasn't really rice wine. Basically cheap half-fermented stuff. The motive? She was selling the cups and rice wine keeper-pot thing. Oh and every meal came with two large bottles of local beer and our choice of either Sprite or Coke. Not bad if they didn't forget to chill these beforehand or provide some goddamn ice. So I had hot tea with every meal instead, which proved mildly satisfying as I'm more of a tea person. Maybe the province was running low on ice-making facilities? Maybe the eatery's freezer broke (one place actually said this)? I'd like to think they're just heartless beings.

Oh and here it is, the bane of my existence. The noodles frivolous as they were, served no purpose. It was just a disappointing interlude to our meal of emaciated roast duck-- a local specialty, so I was told-- stir-fried leaves and near-unidentifiable meat dishes. Our guide warned us beforehand to heed the boiling hot soup when sliding the noodles in as the heat was required to cook the quail egg that came with it. Fair enough, even the waiters winced in agony as they placed the bowls in front of us. I slid the ingredients in. And nothing happened. To the egg, I mean. It just sat at the bottom of the bowl in mucoid consistency, unfazed by the heat. WHAT HEAT? I sipped the soup and it was lukewarm at best. What's worse than a cold dish that's supposed to be hot? A tasteless one. What is it about these famous shite-bridge noodles again? To be honest, we were probably served haphazardly being tourists and all. This adds to their aforementioned heartlessness.

The other famous provincial dish was a mushroom hotpot course. Poisonous wild mushrooms were cooked up in a broth for some 15 minutes or so before they were deemed safe to eat. Our waiter had to ask another for advice on whether the mushrooms were ready to eat. Very reassuring for us, I'm sure. I actually love hotpots and the magic that happens to the broth being infused with the flavour of every ingredient. This, did not happen with this meal. The soup was tasty the first time round and as more ingredients were added on a course by course basis, more plain stock was added to the pot; diluting the broth and rendering the infusion with previous ingredients' magic juices an utter waste of effort. No hotpot magic to happen here. Also the fishballs were pasty and dough-like in texture. See what I said about them being heartless? 

Now for some street-food. 

 A --very-- salty tofu skewer which I now regret finishing. If looks could deceive, this tofu stick has it down. During the occasions we were served dishes devoid of seasoning, this would've been most opportune. 

The above two were delicious. Finally Yunnan gets something right; grilled squid and marinated lamb skewers. I am not a fan of lamb per se but these yummy morsels didn't reek of gaminess (I may have confused lamb with the gaminess of goat here) and were melt-in-the-mouth tender. Ok maybe not that melty but for meat, it was juicy enough to warrant seconds. 

Hands-down the best mango pudding I've ever had, ever. I would go back to Yunnan just for this. I'm not even kidding. (I am. But it was really good.)

This drink was nice too. At least it was cold. Grabbed it straight from the chiller myself. Take that, heartless China. Just to clear things up a bit, I'm not deeming all the food in Yunnan unpalatable or bastardly. We were just unlucky to be fed tourist fodder most of the time, hence my bitter sentiment. 

Had these noodles at the airport. They proved to be a good last meal in Yunnan as by this time, after days of being force-fed food slightly above being edible, I couldn't be arsed to look for poncy airport grub or anything familiar to more westernised palates (I didn't go about hunting for the one KFC either as I don't eat fast food anyway; I sincerely mean this in a non-derogatory way). We had noodles like this served during breakfast at two hotel buffets and they're hearty and good. I suggest this over shite-bridge noodles anytime but I don't know the actual name of the dish other than that it has a savoury pork mince added to noodles in plain broth.

Below stands a Coke can in all its Chinese glory. Know what it says? Well, Coca-cola. Duh. I don't normally drink Coke but I did for the sake of not wanting to spend ten times more on Pu'er tea; and just out of sheer curiosity on what Chinese Coke would taste like. Unsurprisingly, it tasted of coke. What was I thinking.

Here I've saved the best for last. Feast your eyes on vacuum-packed creature parts (there's a root vege somewhere in there) sold at a truck stop; chicken feet individually packed for ready-to-eat convenience. 

Dubious-looking cartilage-laden bits of pig skin?

"More taste, more excellent".  Uh, no. Just no.

I joked about surprising non-Asian friends with a chicken foot as a souvenir. Should've done it. 

Well that's all for now. Hope you enjoyed the post!

Vanessa

(This post is sorta dedicated to Edwin Congreave and his brilliant but lazy food blog http://tour-bar-blues.blogspot.com. Thanks for inspiring me to update mine!)

Summer Salad

Here's my version of a quick and easy summer salad. This salad has a good combination of greens, fruits, healthy fats and protein.

Serves: As a main or 2 sides
Ingredients
1   avocado (cubed)
1   tomato (cubed)
1   kiwi fruit (cubed)
A mixture of leafy salad greens. Here I used chicory (frisee endive) and lollo rosso (red loose leaf lettuce)
A handful of blueberries

Smoked chicken (cubed)

Light Caesar vinaigrette (I use a brand called Newman's Own). Alternatively you can use any kind of vinaigrette.