So most of my friends know what a huge fan I am of Michael Ruhlman – it was, in a way, his - of a Chef series that kind of encouraged me to give working in a restaurant kitchen a go. (Far from hyping up/glamourising the job, he told it pretty much like how it was which made me feel a little more prepared for what was in store.) And it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made in my life, as I think I learnt a lot about myself and – hey! it was great fun :)

Ruhlman’s also the author of Ratio (also available as a pretty spiffy iPhone App), which I think is one of the most important books ever written for people trying to learn how to cook. I’ve written briefly about it before, but essentially he strips recipes back to their core: ratios (mostly by weight), and I love A) any recipe that will allow me to measure by weight instead of volume, and B) a recipe that allows you to adapt it with different flavour combinations and seasonings. The concept of Ratio teaches you to cook exactly like that: giving you basic building blocks and letting you free to pretty much create whatever you’d like in the kitchen.

A couple of days ago, he also posted a recipe for buttermilk dinner rolls on his blog, and I’ve been looking for a soft roll recipe for a while now. (The bread ratio – 5 parts flour : 3 parts water – is great for most sturdy loaves but I wasn’t confident enough about knowing what to substitute for the liquid etc in order to get a soft fluffy dinner roll.)

Being the fan girl that I am, I decided to give those rolls a try, sprinkling the middle buns with sesame seeds and the rest with flaky salt. Unfortunately, I didn’t really let it proof enough during the second rise so the rolls were a little dense (and baked into a slightly non-roll-like shape), but the flavour and – density aside – texture were great. I’m intending to try them again very soon (perhaps with a slightly smaller amount of flour: maybe 700g?), this time starting out a little earlier so I don’t end up rushing the process.

Ruhlman recommends eating these with soft butter, but they were also fantastic, torn into chunks and smeared with a little homemade mayonnaise (egg yolk, dijon, mild-flavoured olive oil) or whole-grain mustard, and topped with a rare slice of steak (fried in some canola oil scented with two cloves of garlic). It was a fantastic dinner, and thanks for inspiring this meal, as well as countless others, Michael! :)

Happy 2010, everyone! Things have been a little busy in the ‘Kong, what with our NYC trip (which I will try to write about soon!), and back-to-back visitors over December. New Year’s Eve was a fairly tame affair in this household, with just four of us (the last houseguest of the decade, J, and S joined us in this year’s feasting), a delicious spread, and a healthy dose of booze.

To bunny’s dismay, J has been the first person around to not just entertain but encourage my crazy kitchen ideas, and while I was showing him one of newest cookbook acquisitions, we decided that NYE’s dinner needed to pay tribute to some of the yummiest food I partook of in the big apple. Having regaled him with tales of the Momofuku Pork Bun, that naturally was on the menu. When we flipped through and found the fried chicken recipe, things just started to fall into place.

And dinner was thoroughly badass. A fittingly epic last meal of the decade, starting with my take on the pork & egg buns, followed by David Chang’s fried chicken (which he brines, then steams, then fries, delivering a shatteringly crisp skin), and ending off with the River Cottage pistachio cake topped with a batch of cereal milk (based on Christina Tosi’s cereal milk panna cotta) frozen custard.

It’s now two days later and I’m still reeling from the deliciousness of the meal – something I couldn’t have carried off at such short notice without my trusty sous chef! (He also took most of the photos here – and you can see the rest of his shots – plenty of which involve the three monsters who have been haranguing him nonstop – on his flickr stream.) I’m also more than relieved that I don’t need to wait till my next visit to Manhattan before I get to sample more of David Chang’s awesome Momofuku creations!

Now, how did everyone else count down?

Pork & Egg Buns
(inspired by and based largely on recipes from David Chang’s Momofuku cookbook)

8 slices pork belly (see below)
4 slow-poached eggs (see below)
4 or 8 frozen chinese buns (the white sweet-ish sort, I substituted man tou ‘cos I couldn’t find the proper ones, but it worked fine)
quick-pickled cucumbers (see below)
4 tsp hoisin sauce
rendered pork fat or oil for deep frying, heated to 190C

Steam the buns according to the instructions on the packet (generally about 5-8 minutes on medium-high heat), and halve them if necessary. While the buns are steaming, deep fry the pork belly slices just so they’re heated through and the edges are golden brown and starting to get crispy. Crack the eggs out of their shells and slide them into the hot oil, deep-frying until golden brown all over and just heated through.

Assemble the buns from bottom-up as follows: bun, pork belly, egg, 1 tsp hoisin, 4-5 slices of the pickled cukes, then the top bun. Serve immediately, with chilli sauce and scallions on the side.

Pork Belly

5-600g slab of pork belly, with the cross section measuring roughly 2×4″
1 tbsp sea salt
1 tbsp caster sugar
50g rendered pork, beef, goose, or duck fat

Mix the salt and sugar together, then rub it all over the pork belly in a ziploc bag, then seal and refrigerate for 4-8 hours. Rinse, discarding any liquid that has collected in the bag, then transfer to a new, clean ziploc bag. Warm the rendered fat until liquid and pour it into the bag over the belly. Seal the bag, pressing out as much air as you can.

Heat a pot of water to between 80-85C. Using a flame-retarder, or any other method you prefer – if you’re a lucky bastard and already own a sous vide supreme, you should clearly use that (heated to 82C, specifically – maintain the temperature of the water in that range and confit the pork belly, en sous vide for 8 hours. Once the cooking is complete, plunge the bag into an ice bath to stop the cooking process, then refrigerate until completely cold (this makes it easier to slice). You can prepare the pork up to a week in advance until this step.

Before serving, run warm tap water over the bag to slightly loosen the fat, then remove the pork belly from the bag, scraping off the excess fat. Cut into slices roughly 0.5cm thick. The slices can then be warmed in a little oil in a skillet, deep fried, or grilled.

Slow-Poached Eggs

This is basically David Chang’s take on the ubiquitous onsen tamago – i.e. eggs that Japanese women used to make by carrying a basket of raw eggs into then onsen or hot spring baths with them while they bathed. In the time it took for a good soak, you’d emerge not just refreshed, but with a basket of creamy eggs, coddled in their shells.

There isn’t so much a recipe for this, it’s just a method. Essentially, the raw eggs – shells intact – need to bathe for about 45 minutes at 62C. Again, unless you have an immersion circulator, it’s a little hard to keep your water at Precisely this temperature, so if you keep it within maybe 60-63C, you should be good to go. Once I got a large-ish pot of water to 62C, I popped the eggs (previously brought to room temperature) in, and just turned the heat back on to medium-low for about 30 seconds every 7-8 minutes. Obviously, if you have a bigger pot of water, it’s going to maintain its temperature better, especially immediately after adding the eggs in.

Once the eggs are cooked, you can use them immediately, or chill them in an ice bath to arrest the cooking, and refrigerate until you reheat for use up to 2 days later. When you crack them open, there will be a little bit of egg white that’s still fairly loose, just crack your egg onto a saucer, and tip the dish over your sink, using your fingers to hold the egg in. It will drain off the loosest, translucent bits, and the rest are fine for eating.

Quick-Pickled Cucumbers

Another non-recipe: slice two to three small cucumbers into 1/8-inch-thick discs, and toss with 1 tsp each coarse salt and caster sugar. Set aside for 5 minutes, then rinse and drain. Taste them: if you like how they are (slightly crunchy, with a little saltiness and a hum of sweetness in the background), you’re good to go. Otherwise, correct the seasoning with extra salt or sugar, and drain again before using. It takes literally 8 minutes to do from start to finish, and the cukes can be held for a couple of hours max, so do this right at the end, just before you start your steaming and deep-frying!

Yield: Serves 4 as a first course, or 1 really hungry person. :)

The first time I’d heard of snickerdoodles was sometime early this year. It was on some food blog or other (sadly I can’t remember where I originally saw this whimsically named cinnamon-sugar encrusted cookie), and I was hooked. I mean, c’mon. They’re called snickerdoodles – how can that be a bad thing?

Long story short: I completely forgot about them, having neglected to pick up a jar of ground cinnamon on any of my supermarket runs. (Bunny isn’t a fan of cinnamon, so I don’t use it all that often.) That is, until Deb of Smitten Kitchen posted about them. This time, the pictures were so gorgeous and so tempting that I pretty much immediately ran out to citysuper to get supplies, and boy were they good.

For one, the entire house smelled heavenly. I mean, it tends to, when you’ve got little bombs of sugar and butter and cinnamon in the oven. And it took so much self-control to not eat them as I pulled each snickerdoodle off the baking tray and onto the cooling rack. They were the perfect mix of crisp-edged and chewy on the inside.

It’s taken me long enough (about 3 more batches have since been baked in between) to post about them, but now that I have, it’s your duty to make some. Your sweet-toothed, cinnamon loving friends and family will love you all the more for it, and, because they keep for about a week when wrapped air-tight, they’d probably make the perfect Christmas gifts. No prizes for guessing what my friends will be receiving this year – which reminds me, I’ve gotta get baking! :)

PS: Merry Christmas everyone!

Snickerdoodles
(From Smitten Kitchen)

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 oz unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar, plus more if needed
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon, plus more if needed
2 large eggs

Preheat the oven to 200°C, with one rack in top third and one rack in bottom third of oven. Line baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper.

Whisk together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt to evenly mix and aerate then set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl. Beat in eggs, one by one. Add dry ingredients, and mix on low speed to just combine. Chill the dough for at least one hour (or overnight) in an airtight container to facilitate scooping.

Once the dough has chilled, in a small bowl, combine remaining 1/4 cup sugar and the ground cinnamon. The original recipe says to use a small ice-cream scoop to form small balls of dough, but I found it much easier to weight out 20g pieces of dough and roll them into small balls with my hands. Roll them in the cinnamon sugar, and arrange about two inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake until the cookies are set in center and begin to crack (they will not brown), about 10 minutes, rotating the baking sheets halfway through. Transfer the sheets to a wire rack to cool about five minutes before transferring the cookies to the rack.

Yield: I didn’t count (and, also, many of the finished cookies disappeared into waiting and eager mouths once they came out of the oven…) but I think I made around 4 dozen 2 to 3-inch snickerdoodles.

As I mentioned in my previous post on Bento Basics, one shortcut that I’ve found invaluable is relying on your freezer. I’ve always extolled the virtues of bulk-cooking, especially for people who have small family units. It can be a little tricky to buy and cook for one or two people, and since it takes hardly any longer to make a small amount of ragu as it does to make a giant pot, why not just do a big batch which you can portion and freeze, and that’ll make for another 4 or 5 meals which will only take a few minutes to heat up in the microwave (or on the stove top).

Soboro is likewise a great staple to have in your freezer. Since I use it mostly for my bentos, they’re also in such small portions that I can nuke them while stir-frying some vegetables, and the entire bento gets assembled in under 10 minutes. The best part about it is that it takes under 30 minutes to cook, even in a huge batch (unlike some stews which might need a few hours in a low oven). The only thing I’d really caution you against is buying cheap ground meat from a dodgy source: there’s been quite a lot of attention shone on E.Coli and other types of bacterial food poisoning arising out of contaminated grinder equipment and poor hygiene (especially if all sorts of odd, nasty bits get ground into the meat, complete with the associated germs), so find a reliable butcher you trust, or – as I prefer – grind it on your own. (Granted, most people look at me kinda funny when I say that I grind my own meat. But it’s really quite easy when you have a KitchenAid or a similar stand mixer, which has a meat grinder attachment available. Although, presumably, grinding your own meat means you’ll be in the kitchen for more than the abovementioned half hour.)

The best part about soboro is how versatile it is: you can make a classic sanshoku-don (3-coloured rice bowl) bento if you combine it with some tamagoyaki (Japanese rolled omelette) and steamed veg, mix it with some mashed potatoes, then bread and fry the mixture for soboro croquettes, fold it into an omelette or scrambled eggs, use as your base for a fried noodle dish, or even drain off the sauce and fill onigiri (rice balls) with it (as pictured at the start of the post).

And lest you start to fancy soboro as something that belongs only in your obento, I should probably share one of our current favourite weeknight quick-fixes too: when I was in Tokyo in October, we closed off a meal at a little yakitori joint with an excellent soboro donburi: a bowl of steaming hot rice, a few spoonfuls of juicy soboro, all topped with a quail’s egg yolk. When mixed together, the sauce from the meat and the egg yolk combined, coating the rice with such a delectable rich flavour. I now replicate this at home by mixing up a double portion of the donburi with a hen’s egg yolk. Simple, and – admittedly – not much to look at, but I can assure you: it is thoroughly satisfying.

Ground Meat Soboro

5 tbsp oyster sauce
3 tbsp mirin
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp dark soy sauce

3 tbsp sesame oil
1 bulb garlic, peeled and minced (or grated)
3 tbsp grated ginger (about a 2-3 inch knob)
1kg ground beef/veal/pork/chicken (or a mixture – I like using roughly 70:30 beef to pork)
5 tbsp sake
salt & black pepper
a small bunch of spring onions/chives, sliced into 1cm lengths (my bundle weighed about 100g, and had around 20 stalks, but feel free to adjust this amount to taste)

Mix the first 4 ingredients together in a small bowl, set aside.

Heat the sesame oil in a large, high-sided frying pan over medium heat, and add the garlic and ginger. Fry until fragrant, and just starting to brown around the edges; about 3 minutes. Turn the heat up to high, add all the meat in and fry fast to brown all over, breaking up any clumps that form.

When the meat is about 3/4 cooked, add in the sake and a big pinch of salt. Cook, stirring frequently, until the meat is cooked through. Add the sauce mixture along with a level tablespoon of ground black pepper and about 50ml of water, and stir thoroughly to ensure that it is evenly mixed. Turn the heat to low and simmer, about 5 minutes until the liquid is reduced by half. Remove from heat, then stir through your spring onions, cover and let it steam for a minute or two more to wilt the spring onions. Taste, correct the seasoning with salt and/or pepper if necessary.

You can now either serve it immediately, or cool rapidly (use an ice bath), then portion out and store. It will keep for about 2-3 days in the fridge, covered tightly, or for a few months frozen in an airtight container. I generally freeze portions of around 150g for my bentos, which I can then nuke for 2-3 minutes on high to defrost and reheat.

Yield: Makes about 8 servings, depending on the sizes of your portions, but you can also double (or triple!) the amount you make, depending on the size of the pots you have. Likewise, feel free to reduce the amount you make, tasting and adjusting the measurements accordingly.

Those of you who follow me on twitter or flickr probably know by now that I’ve been mad about bento for a while. It all started sometime in the middle of September, when bunny and I were both So Bored of all the food in Central (where she works). I mean, as much as Hong Kong is the Land of Food, there’s only so many days in a row when one can eat wonton noodles or congee with century eggs.

It’s been 2.5 months now, and apart from when we weren’t in town, or when bunny had lunch meetings, she’s gotten a w-packed bento box for every single weekday lunch. The best part is that making one for myself as well means I don’t end up eating instant noodles or ordering pizza for myself either, which used to happen when I was too lazy to get out of the house for lunch (i.e way too often). Now, our bentos aren’t of the macrobiotic, whole-wheat, largely vegetarian variety either, but we’ve been eating nutritious, balanced meals. And since my bento boxes (which I bought from the awesome Bento & Co. to replace my prettier but less sensible lacquerware ones) each have two equal-sized compartments, it’s easy enough to divide: one compartment gets half carb and half protein, the other compartment gets fruits and veg.

After the first week or so, I also got into the swing of things and have now learnt to build up a small but dependable stash of freezer staples for each week. We also get to use up doggy-bagged leftovers from when we eat out, which we always used to just chuck in the fridge and forget about till they had to be thrown out. I think I’ve figured out a few tips for those of us bento-makers who don’t/can’t/won’t wake up early enough to assemble the bentos each morning, and hopefully those of you looking to make your foray into bento-making will benefit from what I’ve learnt. I can’t say I’m anywhere near a pro at this bento stuff, but well, I’m sure there’s always stuff we can learn from each other. Likewise, I’d love to hear what tips and tricks you guys have, if you bento too. :)

Bento Basics

1. Use Your Freezer

Daily bentos would be darn near impossible if I didn’t use my freezer the way I do now. I’m not much of a morning person, which means there’s no way I would ever get up at 6am to prepare a fresh batch of rice, let alone cook all the other components of our obentos. My favourite tip that I learned from Just Bento (my favourite online resource for all things bento), was that rice freezes really well! You just have to make sure that you clingfilm your portions of rice while the rice is still hot and wrap the clingfilmed bricks in a heavy-duty ziploc freezer bag, ‘cos that way you’ll trap the moisture in, and once you nuke it (I microwave a 150g packet for about 4 minutes on high, or two packets for 6 minutes), it’ll be a little parcel of moist, steamy rice, which you can then fluff up and no one will be able to tell that you made it last weekend. I also like making some staples like simmered kabocha (japanese pumpkin) and meat soboro (which I’ll talk about in a later post), and these all freeze great as well. Apart from my giant fortnightly rice-cooking/packing operation, it generally takes me about 10-15 minutes each evening to assemble the next day’s bento, which makes it a much more accessible task.

2. What To Include

There aren’t that many things that can’t find a happy home in your bento – leftovers from last night’s dinner, stewed/steamed/stir-fried veggies, eggs, fruit, and all types of meat. My basic bento is a rice bento: rice, some meat, vegetables (cooked or raw), maybe some egg or tofu as a secondary protein, and some fruit for dessert. Flavour combinations work the same way as any other meal, so if you’d be happy eating some stir fried beef with steamed broccoli and fried tofu on rice for dinner, there’s no reason why that wouldn’t work in your obento. I also like to surprise bunny with her some of her favourite snacks every now and then. For example, she loves mushrooms, but I hate them, but I’ll buy a batch of mushrooms to cook up for her in different ways once every week or fortnight to make sure she’s not missing out just ‘cos I don’t like them.

3. What NOT To Include

I pack my bentos the night before, since – as mentioned – I’m really not a morning person. This means that whatever I pack is going to be sitting in the fridge for at least 8-10 hours, and then on bunny’s desk for another 3-4 hours before she eats it. So as much as you can theoretically include anything you want in your bento, I have to keep in mind not to put in things that wouldn’t work if they had to be microwaved. For example, fish tends to overcook very easily, and if I have thin fillets of fish over densely packed rice, I know that by the time the rice is warmed through in the microwave, the fish is going to be overcooked. Apart from the odd pasta salad, I probably also wouldn’t try to pack in pasta dishes – claggy sauces, overcooked noodles.. ew! You also don’t want to include things that would spoil easily like raw fish on sushi, or eggs that are particularly runny, as they’re just open invitations for bacteria to come out and play. (For the eggs in the picture below, I only cut them open just before I was going to eat them, since they’re runny inside, and kept them properly refrigerated right up till lunch time.)

4. Variety

The main reason bunny and I started on this bento stuff was because we were bored of the lunch choices around her workplace. Keep in mind, as awesome as it may be to be tucking into home-cooked food for lunch while everyone else is chewing on cardboard sandwiches, you’d still get bored. Even if you were eating your favourite food every single day. So mix things up – some days I make pasta salads with leftover bits of ham or bacon (pictured at the top of the post), some days green salads. This week, I made yakisoba and fried up some e-fu noodles with minced pork and shredded chinese lettuce since bunny was getting bored of rice bentos. Over at Just Bento, Maki’s got a great Weekly Meal Planner which is great for meal planning (obviously), but also to help you keep track of what you’ve been eating/packing, so you know if you’re getting boring and need to mix things up a little. (See, I told you! That site is Fantastic.)

5. Equipment

Alright, I’ll admit it: half the reason I got tempted to start on bentos was the evil world of e-commerce. Shopping for bento boxes was such fun! :) But there’s a reason why the ones I started out using wouldn’t cut it. First, the lid didn’t shut firmly, so if I had a stewed dish with lots of sauce, it might spill and leak out while bunny made her way to work. Second, there was only one compartment, which meant that I either everything had to be microwaved at lunchtime, or nothing at all. The boxes I now use each have 2 compartments, each with a 450ml capacity. So if I want to include raw veg, they can sit in one compartment while the rice and meat goes in a different one. That way, when bunny’s in the pantry at work, she doesn’t need to pick out her fruit from her rice to microwave. And, these sets came with an elastic band to keep the two compartments snapped firmly together, even when I pack them a little too full. Also, unless you’re sure that you’re never going to need to microwave your bentos, I’d recommend getting a microwave-safe box instead of a metal one, and ensure that it’s big enough to contain a meal that will satiate your biggest eater. (Keep in mind that most bento boxes are made with kids in mind, so they might be a little on the small side for adults.)

Another thing you might want to consider is getting tumblers for soup or hot drinks – if you, like bunny, love hot soups, you can get an insulated tumbler (which means you’ll have to heat the soup up in the morning before packing it), or get a couple of cheap Lock & Lock type water-tight containers which can then be microwaved to heat up along with the rest of your lunch. But if you’re just including a packet of juice, a neat idea I got from Jamie Oliver is to freeze the tetra-pack, which helps to keep the items in your lunch bag cold, and will also melt into a slushy by the time lunch comes around. In fact, if you have a 2-tiered bento, you could also do away with the top lid and use the elastic band to tie your juice pack to the top so as to keep its contents cool.

There’s no need to go out and spend an arm and a leg on your bento boxes, especially if you’re going into bento to try and save money (which is a great idea, by the way – my bentos cost a mere fraction of how much we used to spend eating out). Just keep in mind that you want something easy to clean (dishwasher safe if you’ve got one), microwave safe, and big enough for your meals. I’d also recommend looking for those that come with elastic bands, but you could always DIY that bit, or use a collection of tightly-lidded plastic containers, of course.

One last thing which I’m sure you’re all already aware of: the internet is rife with resources on all topics under the sun, including bento making. So whether it’s cute charaben or the more ordinary, everyday lunch bentos you’re looking to make, have a sniff around online. I’ve learnt loads from the sites I’ve found (most of all from Just Bento and Just Hungry), as well as a whole bunch of others which are a quick google search away.

Okay fine, it’s not summer (in Hong Kong – or anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere – anyway), but I think we’re all too familiar with those weeknights when you need to rustle up a quick dinner. And whether it’s a hot summer’s day where you’re dreading the idea of spending a few hours in a hot kitchen, or it’s a gloomy wintry evening where all you want is to curl up on the couch with a warm plate of dinner in front of the tube, this pasta’s for you.

I’ve been cooking a lot more these days. Honestly, as much as I love food and cooking, I only used to average about 3-5 meals a week where I cooked. But in the last couple of months, I’ve been packing daily lunch bentos for the bunny and I, as well as cooking many more dinners (and weekend brunches) for the two of us. It’s probably also got something to do with the new kitchen, which has much more space than the old one did. :)

This pasta is one of my weeknight staples – it’s really easy, and most of the ingredients are things I tend to have on hand: a couple of fresh, good-quality sausages, a handful of fresh prawns (or scallops, or lump crabmeat), chilli flakes, and garlic. It goes great with short pasta like fusilli or shells, which grab bits of the crispy sausage meat, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work just as well with noodles if that’s all you’ve got in the larder. If you don’t have any seafood around, you could just leave it out, and even use different types of sausages (like fresh lamb ones). And last night’s addition of roasted cherry tomatoes added a delightful explosion of tangy sweetness in every other mouthful.

And, I know I say this in pretty much every recipe I post (but only because it’s true!), it’s really fast and easy to do. By the time you’ve roasted off your tomatoes, the pasta will be cooked and you can add everything into the pan where your sausage and prawns are to combine it all. Seriously – 25 minutes tops and you’ll be out of the kitchen. Time yourself and see!

Pasta with Sausagemeat, Prawns, and Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

100g cherry tomatoes, halved
2 good-quality fresh pork sausages (I used spicy spanish ones here)
5 large cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
10 fresh prawns, peeled and deveined
chilli flakes
200g dried pasta
olive oil
salt and pepper
pecorino or parmeggiano for grating

Preheat your oven to 200C and bring a pot of salted water to the boil. Lay the cherry tomatoes cut side up on a baking tray, drizzle over some olive oil (about 1-2 tbsp) and season quite liberally with salt and pepper. Roast for about 20 minutes, or until they’ve shrunken by about half.

Once your tomatoes are in the oven, cook your pasta according to the packet instructions, or until al dente, and prep the rest of your ingredients (slice the garlic, peel the prawns, squeeze the sausagemeat out of their casings).

Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil in a sauté pan and cook the sausagemeat over high heat. Break up any clumps of meat with the back of a wooden spoon, and fry until the meat is well browned and slightly crispy. Add in the garlic and sauté for a couple more minutes, then push the meat and garlic to one side and fry the prawns until just pink – about 1 minute per side. Season well with salt, pepper and add about 2 tsp of chilli flakes (or more, to taste).

Once the pasta is cooked, drain it, reserving a little of the cooking water, and add it to your sauté pan, together with the roasted tomatoes. Toss it all together, adding a little of the cooking water to loosen it, so that the “sauce” clings to the pasta. Taste, and correct the seasoning if necessary.

Divide between two warm plates, and grate over a generous amount of cheese. Serve immediately, and enjoy!

PS: If you had some on hand, a sprinkle of freshly chopped flat-leaf Italian parsley would be great to brighten up this dish, both visually and with that slightly peppery bite.

Yield: Serves 2

I don’t know whether it’s got something to do with the weather – growing up in Singapore meant that I was always in search of an icy-cold drink – or if it’s cos they just taste nicer this way, but I’ve always been an iced coffee kind of girl. I like hot coffee too, especially on a cold morning, in a warm mug that I can wrap my hands around, but given the choice, I always spring for my coffee iced.

I’ve experimented with different ways of making it at home, chilling espresso, making coffee ice cubes, assembling my coffee and sticking it in a pitcher in the fridge to decant as and when I wanted my fix, but a lot of that just ended up being too pernickety: I’d run out of coffee ice cubes, or space in the freezer, and I’d never have the foresight to make a batch of cold coffee to stick in the fridge so I’d always end up dropping a bunch of ice cubes into not-super-cold coffee, making it more diluted than I liked.

Enter Cold Brew coffee – thanks to the neuroses of a similarly obsessive friend of mine. This is a method of making coffee similar to the Toddy Coffee method, but without the Toddy system, of course. Essentially, all you do is mix some medium-coarse ground coffee with water, and let it steep for 12 hours, before straining out the grounds. What you’re left with is a coffee concentrate which you can then dilute with either milk or water, depending on how you like your coffee.

The other great thing about cold brewing is that there’s a much lower percentage of acid and oils extracted from the coffee (the figure of how much acid and oil extracted is somewhere between 15-35%, depending on which internet source you trust more). This means that the coffee doesn’t end up with a bitter/sour aftertaste when you cool it down or keep it for a while. In fact, a batch of cold brew will keep in the fridge for a good two weeks or so (though I’ve never had a batch last that long in my house)! And while, like me, you might be concerned that lower amounts of oils means less aroma and flavour, the full 12 hour steeping time soaks every last bit of coffee-tastic tasting goodness right out of those beans, so you don’t need to worry about an inferior tasting cuppa joe.

And, since it’s already cold, and super concentrated, you don’t need to worry about it melting all your ice cubes. Just factor in the melting ice in your dilution factor while assembling your drink.

The only hiccup I encountered was that while most of the information I found online on the proportions of coffee to water suggested a 1:4 ratio by volume (i.e. say 1 cup of ground coffee to 4 cups of water), the resulting brew I got was much too weak. I did a few experiments and I’ve settled on my perfect ratio, which is 1:4 by weight. It’s also way easier to measure it out by weight, but if you haven’t got a scale, my ratio works out to be around 1:2 or 2:5 by volume.

Also, this coffee that I made was just So Good, I now drink it by the bucketload. I’ve barely even made it to Starbucks for Toffee Nut Latte season!

Cold Brewed Coffee
250g medium-coarse ground coffee
1000ml cold (distilled) water

Weight out the coffee and water into a non-reactive container that has a tight fitting lid (you want to keep other fridge aromas out). Mix well, to ensure that there are no lumps of coffee grounds, then cover.

Allow to steep for at least 12 hours (I’ve left it for about 16 with no huge detriment either), then strain twice – once through a fine-meshed sieve, then the second time through a coffee filter or a sieve lined with muslin/cheesecloth. Store in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to two weeks.

Yield: Around 700ml of cold brew

Awesome Iced Lattes
1 tbsp simple syrup*
150ml whole milk, very cold
1 shot (30ml) cold brew
4-8 ice cubes

Combine all the ingredients and stir well to combine. Enjoy :)

*simple syrup is equal parts of sugar and water by weight, heated on the stove or in the microwave until the sugar fully dissolves and a clear solution is produced.

It’s no secret around here that I love eggs. A friend and I were recently – and, rather excitedly – comparing our Top 5 egg-dishes, and there was one rather obvious common thread: we both love them runny.

Now, I haven’t always loved runny eggs. In fact, I still don’t really like the Singapore coffee-shop style of coddling eggs in a tub of hot water for a couple of minutes, until the whites are barely set and the yolks are still completely liquid. Two of these – as far as I’m concerned – completely uncooked specimens are cracked into a saucer, and doused in soy sauce and stirred into a pulp. Thankfully, while I still am not a huge fan of runny whites, I’ve learnt to love runny yolks, which are also the perfect sauce.

Oeufs en Cocotte (the fancy french name for Baked Eggs) are something I’ve read about for a long time. For some reason, I never really got around to making them till this past week – ramekins too small; ovenproof dish too shallow; no cream in the house…. All I can say is that I am one helluva fool for procrastinating for so long.

The entire dish comes together in about 15 minutes, and can be customised for any time of the day – add a little chopped ham or crisped bacon under the eggs for breakfast, unmould over a frisée salad for a light lunch, or serve in the shell, topped with a little caviar, for an elegant starter with grilled asparagus spears for dinner. Whatever the time of day, and however you choose to garnish it (or, eat it plain as below), if you love eggs even a quarter as much as I do, I’m sure you’re going to really enjoy this one.

Oeufs en Cocotte

4 eggs
butter for greasing
40g freshly grated cheese (I used emmental here, you could also use a mild cheddar, gruyere, parmesan, or any other melty cheese that tickles your fancy)
60-100g cream
salt and pepper

optional:
nutmeg
a few tablespoons of shredded/chopped ham/bacon/leftover roast chicken
a large handful of spinach, blanched and drained well

Preheat your oven to 180C, and butter two appropriately sized ramekins or oven-proof dishes (you want a dish approximately 10-15cm in diameter and 3-5cm deep). Sprinkle most of the cheese evenly into the base of the dishes. If using any of the optional extras, scatter the meat/veg in a thin, even layer over the base, then crack two eggs into each dish. Drizzle half the cream around the yolks (I prefer to have the egg yolks exposed), then season well with salt and pepper, grate over a little nutmeg, if using, and sprinkle the rest of your cheese over.

Bake in the preheated oven for 7-10 minutes. When done, it should still be pretty wobbly – the yolks should be runny and the whites just set. (Feel free to take them out a minute or so before the whites are set, as they will continue cooking from the residual heat.) Serve with plenty of buttered toasted bread to mop all the egg up, and a tall glass of iced coffee.

Yield: Serves 2

I find it a little disconcerting that I’ve never posted about les croque monsieurs et madames before. I’m not the hugest fan of sandwiches but I don’t think the words exist to adequately describe my love for these. Stripped back to its core, you really have little more than a glorified ham and cheese sandwich, but oh what a difference that little makes. In one of my most recent food posts, on Mac & Cheese, I waxed lyrical about the joys of pasta, cheese and bechamel. Here, that same heavenly combination of cheese, bechamel and carbohydrate perform in an equally loved sequel, only with ham making his debut.

Of course, no sandwich ever lamented the addition of an additional egg, and that’s where the croque truly shines in my opinion. A sunny side up is the perfect ingredient to any dish – especially if you like it the way I do, that is slightly browned around the edges. From one little 2 oz package, and in a single mouthful, you have the ultimate dish really – a combination of textures, flavours, and a self-saucing one at that. Naturally, the gooeyness of an egg yolk lends itself well to sandwiches which, especially when toasted, might turn a shade dry.

Now, simple as this sandwich is, I’m not going to try to convince anyone that it’s a dish one should be whipping up every morning for breakfast. It’s a little too rich for that, for starters. But on a lazy Sunday morning, I can really think of nothing I’d rather be eating on my balcony with the bunny. Plus, if you made mac & cheese earlier in the week, all you need to do is save a couple of dollops, and thin that out on Sunday morning with a splash of milk for a croque that will come together in no time. :)

Croque Madame

2 tbsp unsalted butter, plus more for spreading
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
500ml full cream milk
nutmeg
150g freshly grated cheese (I like using either a mild cheddar or gruyere)
4 large slices of country bread
1 tsp of dijon mustard
2 thick slices of smoked leg ham (or as much as you want to pile in)
olive oil
2 eggs
salt & pepper

Preheat your oven to 200C with a rack on the upper third of the oven. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Once it is liquid, pour in the flour, and stir briskly so that the butter and flour are evenly incorporated. Turn the heat up to medium, and, stirring often, cook for about 2-3 minutes, or until the butter starts to smell nutty, but before it takes on any colour. Slowly whisk in the milk, adding a little at a time and whisking all the while, to get a smooth sauce. Once all the milk is added, turn the fire down to medium-low and let it simmer, stirring and scraping the bottom every couple of minutes until it reduces into a velvety sauce. Season with salt and white pepper, and grate it about half a nutmeg. Whisk in 100g of the cheese, then set aside and keep warm.

While the bechamel is simmering, spread your bread on both sides with a little butter and toast it lightly. You don’t want it to get too brown, just to very lightly colour it. One one side of each slice, smear a little dijon mustard. Assemble each sandwich from the bottom up as follows: bread (mustard side up), ham, 1/4 of the cheese, bread (mustard side up again), a generous dollop of the cheesy bechamel, and another 1/4 of the cheese. Place the two sandwiches on a baking tray and bake for about 5-10 minutes, or until the sandwich is just warmed through and the cheese is bubbling and lightly browned in spots.

While the sandwiches toast, fry two eggs sunny-side up, or to your liking. Once the sandwiches are done, top each with an egg, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and tuck in!

Yield: Serves 2

Note: It’s hard to make the bechamel in a much smaller quantity than this, so I’d either save a little bechamel from another dish, or save the rest to use later. If you’re refrigerating bechamel, store it in an airtight container, with a little piece of clingfilm pressed to the surface (to prevent a skin from forming). It will thicken (or solidify, really), but you can thin it out easily but whisking a splash of milk in, and – if necessary – reheating it gently on the stove top. I don’t think it’ll keep for very long, but a little tub of bechamel has never lasted more than 2 days in my fridge anyhow. :)

Happy birthday, grownup! I guess now that you’ve crossed this threshold, I really don’t get to call you siew pang yao anymore, eh?

It took me a while to figure out how to write what I wanted to say here, but I think I’m just gonna go with the pictures. Suffice to say that these are some of the best memories I’ve got of Hong Kong, to date, and probably will be in the Top 10 no matter how long I end up here. And I’ve got you to thank for them. So thank you, for letting me claim that chair on your balcony, for coming with me to hunt down my elusive, unreachable park-in-the-middle-of-a-flyover, for scarfing down scones (and everything else I’ve put on a plate in front of you) until you felt so ill (and really boosting my ego there haha), for the neverending drives, for being in Hong Kong. :)

So here’s wishing you a delightful birthday! I hope it’ll end up being one of your plusplusplus-es. It pisses me off that this is the first time I’ve been able to wish you happy birthday (and I’m not even there in person), but it’s okay, ‘cos I know I’ll be around for the next gazillion. Gettin’ rid of me ain’t as easy as leaving the Kong!

PS: Someone else misses you too.