Happy 2012 !!!!

Happy Happy New Year everyone... !!!! HOpe everyone has had a great start to the year. It was Especially fun for me when you have a drunkard ringing the door bell at 4am on 1st of Jan. I don know why I thought it was the postman with my package. Clearly no one does delivery on 1st Jan.

New Year's normally my time to cook and I couldn't resist the opportunity to try out some recipes inspired by Gordon , Nigella and Jamie

Salmon seems to be going at half price every Christmas. Naturally it was the perfect excuse to splurge and make a SAlmon en croute. I bought 2 arm length slabs of salmon, buttered them generously with herb butter. Layered on some pre-sauteed spinach and mushroom. Salt and peppered them and made a sandwich out of it.

Got some puff pastry as well and very gently wrapped it up into this fish looking like parcel. Do you like the 2012?

Egg painted the whole thing and popped it into the oven at 200 degrees Celsius for 1 hour. My parcel was 1.5 inches thick at its maximum and cooked perfectly without burning the puff pastry. The dough was strangely burnt resistant and baked to a nice golden brown.

I picked up this orange glazed duck stuffed with mince pork and cherry from M & S. Slightly dry after baking for 2 hours but the drippings were good enough to moisten it all up again.

Coca-Cola BAked ham. I thought it would taste alot sweeter and less salty after boiling it in cola and baking it with marmalade and lots of brown sugar.
Think I shall leave the ham to Aa next year (if there's one hahhaha)

Would you like a slice?

First time making bread and butter pudding having only eaten it twice in the past.
Too Soggy !!! hahahah
Thankfully our dear friends from Edinburgh brought us some Ice cream from St Andrews. I really need to check out this place in the future. !!

Good bye to another friend

Time of the year where peers move to another part of the country and My dear friend WY is finally moving down to London. In many ways I am happy for him as he embarks on his new life down South.

As we chowed down the salmon over some F1 action, it dawned upon me that I actually shared this dish with him way back in 2nd year.

and if you are wondering what those funny pear-shaped liked veggies are, let's just say they are the remnants of the potatoes that I used to make Rösti .



P.s.: Been too busy to blog recently. Hopefully I'll get more time to post in my next posting kekeke.

EN Dining, UE Square

Shg's the man when it comes to "atas" dining. Afterall, he's the lawyer/social animal who frequently does these sort of fine dining. I was given a choice of Jap or Italian and went with the former as I don have this habit of eating Italian back home.

He recommended En Dining which offers mainly sushi and sashimi dishes. It serves mainly food from the Okinawa prefecture which has influence from Taiwan and the US, due to its proximity to its neighbour and the US military presence in that region.

Anyhow, they were offering a 50% discount on the sushi and sashimi menu between 6pm - 8pm.

Fish anyone?? I find the calamsi quite extraordinary

My sushi platter. Fish was fresh and extremely delicate. Yum yum. The wasabi was wah... IMBa.. I think i overdosed on it.

Wafu Beef. I couldn't find anything called Wafu beef. Its not wagyu issit? The closest I got was wafu dressing which was a vinaigrette-type salad dressing based on soy sauce, rice vinegar and vegetable oil.


En Japanese Dining Bar @ River Valley
------------------------------------------------
207 River V

#01-57 UE Square

Singapore 238275

Telephone:

65 6735 2212
Opening Hours:

Sun to Thurs 6pm to 12am

Fri, Sat & Eve of PH 6pm to 3am

Sushi Tei, Tampines One

Sushi Tei again but this time at the newly opened Tampines One shopping mall. The restaurant has 2 floors of sitting with a nice view of tampines on the upper floor. The deco was in typical chic Modern Japanese styling with a super powerful aircon (brr.. freezing)

We tried a Dai Dai roll which consisted of salmon, fish roll and crabstick? . Weirdly, it tasted like a mexican chicken sandwichfrom Glasgow.

The girls had a portion of salmon sashimi. I din't try but it should be good.

and they had deep fried squid as well. I wonder where's the Japanese mayo?

On top of that a vegetable tempura. I like the way the golden mushroons were fanned out before being deep fried.

I had a jumbo chicken yakitori. It was jumbo in size but really lacking in taste and texture. Super dry and tough. Wasn't what i was expecting from what looks like thigh meat. Tori Q is still the way to go. Conclusion, don't order this

Otoro belly soup? or was it just fish meat soup. Tian was keen on soup so she had this for herself.

I had a ebi and egg rice set. Actually I just wanted some rice with sauteed onions and egg in a gooey Jap sauce. The prawns were alrite but not fantastic. Soggy in fact after immersing in the sauce. Maybe they should put lay the prawns on a seperate plate the next time.


Sushi Tei
10 Tampines Central 1
#04-13 Tampines 1
Singapore 529536

Telephone +65 6784 7877
Facsimile +65 6784 7577

Opening Hours
11.30am to 10.00pm daily
(last order 9.30pm)

Sushi Tei, Paragon

Japanese food makes good food photography. Everything is so well crafted and placed to perfection. The myriad of colours help to provide a nice warm feel to the picture too. Met up with the 46sers for a reunion meal. Ask the SIngaporean guys and they will tell you conversations with their army buddies can be one of the most enjoyable things to do. It dosen't how many times the same stories are repeated, the humour just never wanes.

Ok anyway, KC had the sushi set above. If you like one of everything then thats a simple one to start off. I thought the set was pretty cheap compaired to UK but u know when u are in SIngapore earning in Sing Dollars then its a different story.

Next up TW's curry chicken katsu. Don't know how it taste but definately smelt good.

My first course was a chatsu ramen which was lovely. Sushi Tei may not be the pros at doing ramen but I am easily satisfied after being deprived of good Jap food for so long. THe noodles could have been a bit more chewy and maybe 2 more slices of pork would have made it the right man-sized portion.

My 2nd course was an oyakudon. Din't get a picture of it because I was too hungry and totally forgotten about it.

Shang's beef sukiyaki. I might try this the next time when i return to Sushi Tei. I wonder when :( Downside to this dish is that it dosen't come with rice. And you know me.. I eat lots of rice... (reminds me of see woo and the ripping rice haha)

They call this the phoenix roll. A tempura prawn with rice rolled over it topped with aavacado. This type of sushi roll seems to be gaining popularity here. (also one of my to eat list at sushi tei the next time)

KC's Eel set. This dish seems quite wu hua ( worthwhile). 5 different ways of serving the eel allows for 5 different ways of eating them.

Post dinner drinks at starbucks. Green tea frappacinno. Nice creamy and vanillaish but not green teaish enough.

Baked Salmon

This dish was inspired by Poy from a dinner I had at her place. Simple. nutritious and seemingly healthy if u ignore the layer of oil at the bottom of the dish .

Ingredients
-------------------
Salmon
Tomato
Garlic
Olive oil
Salt paprika
Mixed herbs

Rub some salt onto the salmon and lay them in a baking dish . spread the spices and garlic over the salmon, drizzle generously some olive oil over it. Bake in the oven for 20mins at 220 degree celcius.

Serve with wedges or rice.

Baked Salmon, originally uploaded by jiapui.

Salmon Surfing Crushed Potatos

Salmon surfing crushed potatos is quite a cheesy title isn't it? If anyone can think of a better short title let me know. It was a last minute decision to have salmon for dinner tonight. There was an inspiration to make a crushed potato side dish after seeing the leftover peppers and tomatos lying in the fridge. I thought that would be a great pairing with some salmon. Afterall I had to head over to Sainsbury to get some groceries. Well, I decided to take it easy today after the OSLER in the morning which went fine :) .

Ingredients
-------------
Salmon
Garlic
Olive oil
Potatos
Peppers
Tomatos
Shallots
Salt
Balsamic Vinegar

Marinate the salmon pieces in olive oil and garlic and salt for about half an hour. Add in some herbs for added taste. Pan fry the salmon on one side and then flip over when its slightly charred (not slightly browned) Repeat on the other side. It is done when the meat starts to firm up. Normally takes about 3mins per side for a thin piece of salmon. Don't worry about the meat becoming too dry as salmon is quite resistant to dehydration.

For the potatos, boil them first till they are semi soft. Crush them. Fry the peppers, tomatos and some shallots in olive oil, add in the potatos and fry till its nicely browned. Season liberally with salt. If not it won't taste nice.

Lastly, make a balsamic lemon and olive oil sauce to go with the fish. I used a 1:1:1 ratio for making up the sauce.

Salmon Surfing Crushed Potatos, originally uploaded by jiapui.

Dinner at the Taymouth Restaurant, Kenmore Hotel

Hi all, I am back from my trip to the highlands. We paid the oldest Inn in Scotland, currently known as Kenmore Hotel, a visit. Despite being totally underdressed after the river rafting trip, nothing was stopping us from entering the "Atas" restaurant.

I had a smoked salmon for a starter. It was an unusual choice for me as I normally shy away from smoked salmon when Aa attempts to offer me. Well, this one tasted pretty good and paired well with the freshly baked bread.

For the main course, I had a roasted sea bream with a olive and tomato dressing. There wasn't much to rave about this dish . It was pretty bland and dependent on the fish in order to achieve a nice flavour. A fresh water Sea bream just did not hit me in the right spot that a sea fish would normally do. Otherwise, I felt the execution of the dish was perfect. The meat was delicate yet not powdery and the aroma from the thyme had infused sufficiently into the flesh.

I did not actually have this dish. K had it and it was the best choice for that evening in terms of dessert. This creme brulee was in fact cold and not the hot version that you would get at other restaurants. Its smooth texture and vanilla taste left me craving for more.

Kenmore Hotel
The Square, Kenmore,
PH15 2NU

Teritayaki Fish

First made this in 2nd year for a couple of friends that came over for dinner.
Its simple to make and taste great as well.
Just combine some brown sugar, dark soy sauce, mirin, terriyaki sauce for the marinate. Throw in some chop garlic.
Marinate for at least an hour
Throw into the oven 200 degrees for approx 30 mins.

*Salmon is quite resistant to heat and drying out. Don't worry if you've let it in the over for too long.