Genting (small)

Monday, May 31, 2010

Roasted Lamb

Sorry for the late updates, but anyway, as for this time, The kitchen class was beef orientated. So i created my creations dish which is Roasted Lamb with lamb jus sauce, served with Stewed carrots, Braised celery, Roasted Egg plants and Couscous

That picture shows a rare lamb which is just cooked on the surface while the inside is bloody red.

Other presentations maybe like this:
This is a lamb rack, so the presentation is much different compared to the 1st picture

anyways heading to how to create this dish:

Roasted Lamb
- Marinate the lamb with salt & pepper, chives, onions and garlic
- Put it into the oven at about 200 degrees for about 30 minutes ++

Lamb Jus
- Roast the lamb bones & lamb residue to gain the "brownish" color in the oven
- Butter up a pot with some onions, carrot, celery and garlic in it. put it over a fire and let it sweat for a while.
- Add water to the pot and add a little tomato paste into the pot
- Put the roasted lamb carcass inside and slowly boil

*You can also use lamb stock if you're lazy to prepare this :)

Roasted Egg plant
- Cut egg plant into desired shape
- Season it with Salt & pepper, chopped garlic and sprinkle with olive oil
- Place in the oven until the "white meat" of the eggplant comes brown in color

Braised Celery
- Season celery with salt & pepper and a little butter.
- Put into a pan and add a cup of water with some brown stock in it.
- Cover the pan and leave it to boil over medium heat for 30 minutes

Stewed Carrots
- Saute sliced onions with olive oil in a pan over gentle flame
- Add carrots and a cup of water to the onions. Put a little salt and pepper to taste
- Once cooked, mix the carrots with parsley to gain color

Couscous
- It is similar to rice, so boil it with water with the ratio of couscous:water, 2:1
- Place some chicken stock/brown stock and let it cook for about 5-10 minutes

After you've done all this, You can create your own creation dish with this recipes :)
enjoy!

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Roasted Duck with pilaf rice & veggies

For this weeks class, We had to create our own signature dish which involves a duck. So we could use different types of methods to create our dish and as for me, I created:
Roasted Duck with gastrique sauce and served with pilaf rice, green oil, braised cabbage and caramelized mangoes.

Yes the name is very long and forgive my portioning as it is relatively big for a fine dining concept dish. This shows i'm a Malaysian! Big portioning babeh!

So anyways I shall explain the techniques of creating this dish

Roasted Duck
- Season the duck breast with salt, pepper/black pepper, thyme, chopped garlic & onions.
- After leaving it to rest for about 20 minutes (you can leave it longer if you want the flavour to be more intense), Place it on a roasting tray which has oil on the surface and roast until tender.
- Once tender, heat up a pan with olive oil, transfer the duck and let it sear just for the colour.

Gastrique sauce
- Pour 500ml orange juice into a pot and put to boil
- Add in 3 spoons of white wine vinegar and a pinch of salt
- Reduce the mixture until its thick in texture (leave it on the fire until it becomes thick)

Pilaf Rice
- Heat butter in a pan and sweat onions.
- Pour 200g of rice into the pot for a few minutes
- Pour 300ml of water into the pot with 1 spoon of brown stock
- Cover with foil and bake the rice in the oven

Braised Cabbage
- Heat up a pan with low fire and place 50g of butter and place cabbage into the pan. Season with Salt & Pepper
- Add water and let it simmer. Cover the pan with aluminium foil
- Strain the water from the pan

Caramelized Mango
- Pour a layer of sugar into a pan and heat it up.
- Once sugar starts to caramelize, add a little water to ensure the caramel has a smooth texture
- Once the caramel has reached a nice brown color, place the mangoes into the caramel for a short period of time and take it out

Green Oil
- Blend a large amount of parsley with olive oil



That is how you create this creation dish:)
I hope this information was helpful

If you would want to find a real nice way of presenting a dish, You can try to plate it like this:
This is a standard fine dining dish. As it has a small portion and it is full with colors.

Good luck in creating your own dish!

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Pan Fried Fish

This is my 1st food entry as this is what Me and My Classmates did in the 1st class. We're given a whole lot of items and techniques which we could mix around with. The main portion in the dish is the Fish Fillet.

We were supposed to choose our cooking method which was either Poached, Stuffing, Pan-Fried or Braised. Which most of us choose Pan-Fried as it was the easiest and less time consuming technique.

I wasn't able to take pictures of the preparation methods as I was rather busy with other things, But anyways, I'll do it for the upcoming posts :)

So as for the end result, It will be something like this:

This is a simple presentation of the dish

So getting to the Pan Fried Fish. I'll just explain the methods of making the pan-fried fish

1) Heat up a thin layer of oil in a pan
2) Take the fish fillet and season it with Salt & Pepper
3) Cover the surface of the fish fillet with flour evenly
4) Place the fish fillet on the oil skin face downwards first and turn it around to cook evenly.

The cooking process will take roughly 10 minutes.

So since we're cooking fish, We had to cook other varieties of vegetables and starch to make it a presentable meal. This will increase the value of the food as it provides more color and makes the meal more substantial.

As for the Starch, We had to make turned potatoes. So the steps would be:

1) Turn the potatoes into a smaller and cuter shape (turning is just another way of saying shaping the potatoes)
2) boil it in water and add a little salt to the water
3) Once the potatoes are cooked, drain all the water
4) Glaze the potatoes by melting a little butter on a pan, toss the potatoes on the melted butter until it has a shiny glaze on it (remember not to burn it!)

And as for vegetables, We had Celeriac puree, tomato confit & Glazed Carrots
As for the process:

Celeriac Puree

1) boil the celery root till soft
2) Place the soften celery root with a little olive oil, water, garlic, salt, pepper, butter, cream into a blender and blend till it becomes a rich texture

Tomato Confit

1) layer a roasting pan with olive oil
2) sprinkle salt and pepper on the olive oil
3) place some chopped garlic, basil leaves and thyme on the oil
4) place the tomatoes cut side down on the pan
5) put the pan in the oven at 200 degrees and bake for about 2 hours

Glazed Carrots

1) place cut carrots in a pan with butter and place on the fire.
2) Add water to it and stew it until carrots soften and have been glazed

Last but not least, We had to make the sauce for the dish and we chose Hollandaise Sauce. Hollandaise Sauce is a creamy sauce which is made out of mainly butter and eggs.

Hollandaise Sauce Method:

1) Melt 1/2 cup of butter until foamy but not browned
2) Whisk and beat 3 egg yolks in a bowl with a dash of lemon juice, salt and pepper
3) Gradually add in the cup of butter while whisking and add in 2 spoons of water
4) Reduce the mixture by placing it in low heat so that it'll be thickened

So there you have it! You can make your own pan fried fish with assorted vegetables :)

And if you want to be better in presentation, you can do it something to be like this:
So try your skills out! Cook your fish!

My first food blog

Hello everyone.

This food blog is actually created as it is one of my projects during my whole degree program. This is to show on the recipes and food products which is made during my classes :) I hope this blog will survive the 2 years HAHA. I'll write up soon!