Maxmax5's Homemade Mushroom Soup

These days people are 'calculative' towards the food especially on calories. No doubt many hi cal foods are delicious, i.e. fat, starch, but that does not mean without hi-cal food/ingredient, we cant cook a good one. In this post, im going to show you how to cook Mushroom Soup without using cream (hi fat content). 

Ingredient for 6 pax:

• Button Mushroom ............................................ 600g
• Sweet Onion .................................................... 3
• Garlic ................................................................ 5 cloves
• Fresh Thymes & Rosemary ............................. 2 - 4 spring each
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper  ............. seasoning
• rice .................................................................. a handful
• Sunflower Seed Oil  ........................................ 3 tbsp
• flour ................................................................ 2 tbsp
• Chicken Stock / Water .................................... 2 litre

Methods:

1. Preheat oven at 200 degree C / 392 degree F 
2. Wash and halve the white button mushroom
3. Lightly season the mushroom with salt and pepper and some thymes leave (no stem)
4. Into the oven for 25-30 min. (Reduce moisture means intensify the mushroom flavour)
5. Meanwhile, on med-high heat, add oil and sweet onion, brown the onion, 10 - 15 min. Beware do not burn them. 
6. Add in garlic and sautee for another 3 min then add flour and continue sautee. Flour will thicken the soup later but need to sautee it until the colour change from white to lightly brown. 
7. Once everything is brown, add in the mushroom together with the mushroom water in the tray from oven (if any). then add in rice and stock/water.  (rice will give more texture to the soup after blended)
8. Lastly the Bouquet Garni (herbs tighten on butcher twine). For this recipe, i use Rosemary and Thymes. Immerse it into the soup. 
9. Boil for 30 min with lid semi open and then remove the Bouquet Garni before using an immersive blender to puree the soup.
10. Done.  The texture should be thick and full of blended solids like mushroom and rice. 

Useful Tips:

• If you have no oven, remove step#4 and sautee the seasoned mushroom after the onion is brown. During the process, the mushroom will give up its water and you will need to sautee until the water dry out, usually 10-15min.
• Serve with dash of truffle/olive oil, topped with sautee mushroom and garlic bread. 
• Add cream for a lighter flavour but not advisable if you are concerning the cal :P 

Light season with Thymes, salt and pepper before baking

Shrooms are baking

Browning caramelised sugar in the food to yield more flavours

A "handful" of rice. Add solids and improve texture. No one like watery soup

Bouquet Garni into the boiling soup. 30 min. 

Blend with Immersive Blender and serve. 

Homemade Roast Chicken

Was thinking to roast a chicken for ages, in fact as long as anything using oven, because it suits my style: slow cook and also can cook in larger batch at once. So decided to borrow mom's kitchen for this brand new dish. Im going to cook for 5 professional housewife this time so i decided to add a small trick to surprise them :) Im looking for crisp skins and succulent meat even the chicken breast. For seasoning it will just be simple black pepper and salt as the dominant flavour. Lets back to the basic. 

Thermometer as precaution measure. Watching the transformation is fun.

Ingredient:

• Whole chicken, skin on, neck/foot chopped, pref around 1.2kg 
• 1 Lemon/Orange 
• Salt and pepper 
• 8 Shallots
• 2 large carrot
• 2 large leek 
• 6 cloves of garlic 
• knob of unsalted butter
• sunflower seed oil (drizzle)
• 1tbsp each dried thyme
• Baking tray
• Butcher's twine

Method:

1. Optional: Brine the bird for 12-18 hours (depending on size). Click here for my previous post about brining. 
2. Sprinkle generously salt and pepper into the chicken's cavity and then stuff in the half cut lemon
3. Truss the bird to ensure uniform heating, click here for how to truss. Set a side to leave it air dry to room temperature (90min-120min). Optional: Hang and fan if you need to speed up the process
4. Preheat the oven to 240 degree Celsius with the fan on to evenly circulate the hot air
5. Roughly chop the shallots, carrot, leeks and garlic and put it on the tray. Add in a knob of butter and season with salt and pepper (these will be a delicious side later on)
6. Bird on the veg bed, breast side up, sprinkle salt and pepper from high to ensure uniform contact. Sprinkle too the thyme and drizzle with oil. Rub evenly.
7. Into the oven. Reduce the heat to 200 degree Celsius as soon as you close the lid. The initial high heat will yield a brown crisp skin. 
8. A 1.2kg whole chicken will take about 60 min - 75min. Check doneness with a poke in thermometer. When the reading reach 75 degree celsius (inner tight), the bird is cooked. Or pierce the same location and if clear juice flows out, done. 
9. Take out and let rest for 10-15min with aluminium foil cover. This is for even distribution of the juice within the meat. 
10. The baked veg can be a great side. And while resting, squeeze the lemon/orange juice to mix with the bake juice and can reduce the juice to about half. The acidity will improvement the flavour to next height ! 

So in 1 cooking you will end of with 3 components: the meat, the veg and the sauce. So try today at home with this simple to make roast chicken :) Bon Appetite


Useful Tips:

1. Around 1.2kg is the idea weight, do not buy if got a lot of fat underneath the skin. 
2. Always cut the bird's joint in stead of bone.
3. Breast on top when place on the veg bed. 
4. A good cutting will yields 2 tights, 2 wings and 2 breasts. (see below pic)

Hang and Fan on for 2 hours. Air dry is important for a crisp skin

Seasoned veg bed: Leak, Shallot, Carrot

Trussed and seasoned bird. Ready to be roasted

I forget to turn on the fan so the browning was not really even :(

Reassemble the cuts and the veg with reduced juice and sprinkle
with chopped coriander. 

Spaghetti Stir Fried with Hotate Scallop and Bacon

I miss the bacon and scallop combo (texture and flavour) !!!

When it comes to spaghetti, it is always a simple an versatile dish which can be done in less than 30 min from prep to table. For this post, im going to show you a simple spaghetti in stir fried style which i think most of us are very familiar with.

For 2 pax ingredients:

• Frozen Hotate Scallop ................. half pack
• Pork Bacon Chunks..................... half pack
• Spaghetti ..................................... 200 g
• Sweet Onion.................................1 halfed and sliced
• Oil (pref plant base) ..................... 2 tbsp
• Garlic .......................................... 3 cloves
• Bay Leaf ..................................... 1
• Dried Thyme................................ 1 tea spoon
• Salt .............................................. Liking Amount
• Brown Sugar ............ .................. Liking Amount
• Freshly Ground Black Pepper...... Liking Amount
• Water ........................................... 200 ml
• Parsley .......................................... garnish 
• Chili Flakes .................................. Liking amount (optional)
• Butter ........................................... 1 knob (optional)

Direction:

1. Half and Slide the sweet onion and rough chop the garlic
2. Lit up the fire and pre heat frying pan with oil 
3. On another burner, boil 1 liter of water with 1 tea spoon of salt
4. Sautee the onion until brown (5-10 min)
5. Add in garlic, hotate scallop and bacon chunks
6. At this point, spaghetti into the boiling water (10 - 12 min)
7. Continue to stir fry the ingredients until brown (5 min)
8. Add in bay leaf, thyme, seasonings and water and bring to boil (5-7 min)
9. The gravy mixture should be thickened up and you can drain the spaghetti and pour them into the mixture and let it further cook for 1-2 min
10. The spaghetti will suck up the gravy so pay attention to step #9. 
11. Lastly garnish with chopped parley and black pepper. 

It is a super fast, easy to prep, cook and clean dish which everyone can try at home especially during weekend when you are lazy to go out. This stir fried spaghetti dish combines the sweetness from the scallop and onion vs. the savoury and smoke flavour from bacon, and yet all bind together with the herbs to create a deep aromatic gravy for the spaghetti that is cooked to perfection. A must try if you are spaghetti-crazed :P

Useful Tips:

1. Experiment the doneness of spaghetti, i find it 10 min in boiling water and another 2 min soak in the gravy is just right for me. (Because 1 min different in water will change the texture, pay attention to this)
2. Unsalted butter helps to bind all flavour further
3. The gravy is just for flavour purpose, so if you think the water added is too much, continue to boil to reduce the liquid
4. Or if you think the water is too litter after step #9, add some spaghetti water (DO NOT add fresh water)

Healthy and Hearty Vegetable Soup

I first know about the ABC Soup was in the 'Cooking Competition' during my secondary school time. It was a really easy and tasty soup, my first impression. One need only not more than 5 ingredients to cook it, so it is always the choice for the competition :P So when im cooking these days, i wanted to enrich its flavour and texture but maintain the main idea: stay healthy and hearty, so i tried to create my own version. 

Vegetable Soup garnished with cream, black pepper and parsley

Traditionally, the ABC Soup is cooked from water, carrot, onion, tomato, some salt and white pepper. On top of these, i added potato, celery, leek and garlic for flavour and 1 handful of rice for texture. The complete ingredients per below:

1. Carrot .......................... 4
2. Onion .......................... 4
3. Potato .......................... 2 Large
4. Tomato ........................ 4
5. Celery ........................   8 sticks
6. Leek ............................ 2 Large sticks
7. Bay leaf ....................... 1
8. Rice ............................. a handful 
9. Water ........................... 2cm above the ingredients in the pot
10. Fresh Cream ................ optional amount to liking 

20-30min of boiling will soften the vegs for easy blending. 

Direction:

Cubed Ingredient #1 - #6 and add them into the pot then add in the water. We do not want to over add the water nor under so, i figured out adding the water to about 2cm above all ingredients are just good. Lit on and add in the bay leaf and rice. The boiling should take about 20-30 minutes depending on the cube size. Take away the bay leaf and start blending with an immersive blender. Until everything have 'disappear', you should end up with a thick soup (because of the rice and potato). At this point, season with salt and freshly grounded black pepper. Add in some fresh cream and it will become another promising flavour. 

Basically you can add in anything into this veggie soup and blend them. If you are on diet, especially for dinner on, you can instead drink this soup because of the starch (potato and some rice), it is actually a good filler. 

Useful Tips:

1. This soup is equally good if serve chilled
2. For silky smooth texture, you can sift the soup before serving
3. Food processor can replace the immersive blender, the idea is just to blend everything together
4. A knob or 2 of unsalted butter will further enhance the flavour

Juicy and Tender Chicken Breast - 100% Guaranteed !!!

Large chicken breasts in brine solution ready to go into fridge.

Breasts on hot grill pan, turn 90 degree to get the beautiful char mark

Probably the most protein packed pcs of meat in chicken, the breast is often found chewy and dry especially after grilled. Naturally this is a lean meat full of protein fiber and the moisture is lost during the cooking time thus many do not like it but prefer the drumstick. There is a method to solve this problem scientifically in the kitchen and the result is 100% guaranteed juicy and tender chicken breast like you never eat before !!!!  The answer is brining. 

Overview

The basic brine solution is add 10% salt into water enough to cover the breast and leave it covered in the fridge overnight (8hr minimum). And then take it out rest to room temperature before start grilling. The science behind is simple: OSMOSIS, particle of higher concentration will move through a membrane to lower concentration. That says the salted water (higher concentration in salt) will 'move' into the cell of the meat making them full of water. So when you grill, there will be sufficient water inside the meat to compensate the lost. So you will end up with juicy, succulent and tender pcs of chicken breast.    

How to brine?

1. First determine the amount of meat you want cook.
2. Prep a container (prefer with lid) which can store a water that is enough to complete submerge the meat
3. Add in salt (5-10% of water by weight) and wait until fully disolve
4. While waiting, clean and cut a way any fat/skin/membrane on the chicken breast
5. Meat into the salt brine (make sure the brine is at room temperature, you dont want to cook the chicken at this point) and put into fridge with lid on (prevent odour escape)
6. After 8-12 hrs,  drain water and let the meat warm up back to room temperature. 

Variations

Because the principle is to add in the brine solution into the meat so actually we can perform 'add in' more than water but FLAVOUR too !!!   Infuse the brine solution with herbs like thymes, pepper corn, coriander seeds or veg with strong aroma like garlic onion or even honey, maple syrup which will add a distinctive character to the meat you are creating. The combinations are endless but maybe you can try out my Sweet and Savoury Chicken Breast Brine below next time when you wanna eat some protein pack meat:

For 4pcs of large size chicken Breast (1" thick)

• 1/2 tea spoon of nutmeg powder
• 1/2 tea spoon of mustard powder
• 6 cloves of peeled garlic
• 2 roughly chopped sweet onion
• 3 table spoon of salt
• 3 table spoon of brown sugar
• 1 table spoon of grounded black pepper
• 1 table spoon of dried thymes
• 1 bay leaf
• half cup of honey (optional)
• 1 liter of water

Direction: Roughly chop the onion and garlic then add everything into a small pot bring to boil for 5 minutes to infuse all flavours into the water and then soak in the chicken breast after the water came to room temperature. Leave in the fridge for 8-12hrs and then take out the meat and let them warm up to room temperature. Grill 3-4 min each side (breast thickness 1"). I find it is good when the internal temperature reach 65 degree Celsius. And DONE the super duper easy grill chicken breast.  

Useful Tips

1) Boil all ingredients ONLY with just enough water and then add in the remaining to shorten the cool down period. 

2) Close lid while put in the fridge: prevent odour to spread all over 

3) Discard the brine solution, all flavours have been 'brined' into the meats. 

Homemade Pasta with Mince Pork, Onion, Carrot and Tomato Topping

My very first pasta dish :)

I was actually intended to cook the classic Bolognese sauce for my first ever home made pasta (find out how to make Super Easy Homemade Pasta, click here) but soon after i think it should be my own style of pasta topping to commemorate my very first experience. Because i'm actually preparing this dish for a dinner with my nieces and nephews, so i think it should be something sweet and sour. I know the kids will love this contrasting flavour :)

And so i started to draw out the ingredient list and the cooking procedure in mind. Below are the ingredients (4 pax):

1. Sweet Onion (white colour) .............. 4, cut into 1cm dice
2. Carrot ................................................ 1, Julianne  about an inch long
3. Tomato .............................................. 4, cut into 1cm cube
4. Garlic ...............................................  8 cloves, roughly chopped
5. Minced Lean Pork ............................ 400 g
6. Water ................................................ 400 ml
7. Oil, preferred plant base..................... ??
8. Bay leaf ............................................. 1
9. Dried Rosemary ................................ 1 teaspoon
10. Dried Thymes ................................... 1 teaspoon
11. Parsley ............................................... liking amount, chopped 
12. Seasoning (salt and pepper) ............... liking amount
13. Brown Sugar ..................................... just a pinch 

Prep Time: 15 min, Cook Time 15 min. 

Steps:

1. Drizzle enough amount of oil into a hot sauce pan 
2. Sautee sweet onion until slightly brown (that's when you smell the aroma)
3. Add in the chopped garlic and turn around to mix well 
4. Toss in the minced lean pork and continue sautee. You will want to squash the pork during the sautee so it wont end up in big lump (look ugly)
5. Until lightly brown add in the carrot and stir fry for another 2-3 min
6. Add in the cubed tomato and herbs then add in the water. 
7. Bring to gentle shimmer for 10 min (for all flavours to marry each other)
8. Lastly season with salt, brown sugar and freshly ground black pepper. 

I like to cook pasta and the topping sauce side by side so that i can end up with freshly cooked food to serve those i care. With the pasta cooked on 1 stove, just bring them onto a plate and top it with the sauce. Finally garnish with the chopped parsley. I'd say this is a very appetizing pasta dish because of the topping are made from the sourish tomato and sweet base carrot and onion. And to make it sparks, herbs are added too to increase the depth of the flavours. Not to forget the minced pork to make it a really hearty topping :P   The kids like it very much and so do i  <3 

Super Easy Homemade Pasta

Im always a fan of noodle/pasta and all of their variations. Basically if i have choice, i will not go for rice, cant be held but don't know why :P  From my previous post of "The Making of Egg Noodle (of Wantan Mee)" click here to read, im really surprised that it is relatively easy to make fresh noodle/pasta at home. So i decided to make one myself, the very first dough in my life. 

Because this is my first time, so i went through several recipes over the net and also consulted my aunties for inspiration. Finally in the end, i've made up my mind to stick to the basic of the basic: egg and flour. YES, you read it right, only egg and flour nothing else. Will it really work? I was skeptical really, in my mind. 

I then gather the necessary utensil/ingredient and the list is per below (for 4 pax):

1. Egg ........................................... 6 pcs
2. All Purpose Flour ..................... 600 ml (add if needed)
3. Rolling Pin ................................ 1 unit
4. Mixing Bowl ............................. 1 unit
5. Measuring Cup .......................... 1 unit 
6. Fork ........................................... 1 unit 
7. Scrapper ..................................... 1 unit
8. Cling Film .................................. 1 roll

Before everything start, make sure all are wipe clean and then pour the flour into the mixing bowl. You want to reserve some for later when kneading. I actually find it is easier to start it in the mixing bowl because especially for first timer like me, i worried if for whatever reason the flour will just 'spill' all around.  So you make a well in the center of the flour in the mixing bowl, and then add in all eggs. Poke the yorks with fork and slowly whisk the eggs to the flour around. A bit at a time, until all flour are mixed with the eggs. ADD more flour if you the dough is watery (always do NOT follow the recipe 100%).

Until you feel it is not sticky, take the dough out and start the kneading on the work top (sprinkle some flour to prevent stick). Kneading is all about pushing, squeezing, re-shape by hand and repeat the same. During the process, the gluten develop and that is why you will find it harder and harder to knead but just do it until you have a smooth none sticky surface (around 30 minutes for above quantity). 

Wrap it in the cling film and put it into the fridge for another 30 minutes (prevent moisture lose). Let it rest after the hard exercises. After that take out and start rolling. 

For me this is the hardest part because i decided to do it by hand. Basically you just need to roll it thin enough and then cut it to desired width. Sprinkle flour to prevent the pasta stick together. If you find it is hard to roll, you can actually divided the dough into manageable size before start rolling. Cover the rest of the dough with damp cloth while rolling other. 

Fresh pasta cook faster than the dried. But the rule of thumb of cooking always applies: the bigger the object, the longer time needed to cook. It should be somewhere around 3-5mins depending on the thickness and width. So it is advisable to try it before taking out from the salted boiling water. And done the home made pasta :) 

Make sure you read my next post for the Delicious Mince Pork, Carrot and Onion Pasta Sauce (click here) for the perfect pasta meal which is suitable for all ages :) 

Eggs and flour in the mixing bowl

Slowly whisk the eggs with flour. Bit by bit. 

After 30 minute of kneading. 

Dough wrapped in cling film.

After 30 minute resting in the fridge. See any different?

First rolling. Look like a map to me .... LOL  :P

Filet de Sole en Papillote - My first attempt

I was first came across this technique from Laura Calder's TV show and i was immediately attracted by this simple to cook and yet incredibly delicious dish. "Filet de Sole" in French means fish filet and "en Papillote" means in parchment paper a.k.a. baking/greasy paper. The main concept of this technique is to capture the moisture within the paper while cooking, and the result should be a moistly cooked fish. But there are several catches during the process which i discovered during my try, lets go through it one by one below:

Vege base of carrot, celery, thyme, rosemary, salt and pepper, generous
 amount of either grape seed oil or olive oil

First thing to do is to roughly cut the desire vegetables to serve as a base to the fish fillet. Do pick large vegetable like above, or something like cucumber, leek, onion, or any root veg. Reason is because they do not wilt easily while steaming within the paper later on. Here is the trick: the cutting size should depend on the estimated cooking time of the fish, you want both fish and veg just nicely cooked.

Crimson Snapper a.k.a. "Ang Sai". You can practically use any fishes in
any sizes available as long as it is fresh but because i need it as a shared
dish so i use this big one. 

After cutting, on a large pcs of parchment paper, lay over the cuts, herbs (i should have used fresh one) and season and then put on the fish. Some like skin on some does not, so its your choice but one thing for sure, if you don't have fresh fish, please do NOT, do NOT try this technique because this is ought to be a light taste dish, any stench from a rotten fish will definitely ruin everything. 

Season the filet with salt, freshly ground black pepper, lemon zest (i did
it in wrong way cz i sliced too deep into the skin). We need
ONLY the yellow part of the skin not the white part!!

Season the fish. On principle you can use any herbs but because this is my first time so i keep it a simple seasoning. I will try something fancier next time like fennel seed, fresh dill. After the seasoning, i squeezed a halfed lemon onto the fish, just to ensure there is 'no' fishy smell (i'm not a fish guy). So when everything is done, time to 'packing'. 

I used 3 pcs of baking papers. One at the bottom so the whole pack can
be easily taken out after cooked. 

Cover the layers with another big pcs of baking paper and make a fold starting from any corner and then fold OVER the previous one and continue. You should end up with coming back to the very first fold but before ending the fold, pour in few splashes of white wine. No worry about the alcohol as it will be evaporated during the cooking process leaving nothing but the aroma itself to steam the fish. You may use a paper clip to help for a better fold along the way. i used four of them as the fish was too large. So next time, buy a 2 feet wide baking paper and cut them into square, if you can get the fish size right in the center of the paper, you will end of with a perfect round pack after folding. Try it and you will know what i mean.

Into the oven 200 degree Celcius convection over, pre-heat for 5 min before

i used a convection oven with top and bottom heating elements on. As you can see from the picture above, there has no direct fire towards the ingredients so while heating up, the wine will be boiling and the vapour created will steam the fish. So why fish over the veg? this is to ensure the top and bottom of the fish will get the SAME heating temperature for a uniform texture. Imagine if you put the veg on top of the fish and whats underneath is the tray. Tray will have higher temperature than vapour so the bottom size of the fish will be overcooked but the time you see the fish is cooked (on top). So the veg base below is to prevent the fish from overcook.

Final presentation: cut open the baking paper on the table and the released
steam/aroma will be a wow factor for the diners. 

For this 6/8" thick fish, the cooking time was 18 minutes at 200 degree Celcius (pre-heat for 5min). When you take out the tray from the oven, the whole packing should be bloated (folds are good). Gently slice the packing onto a serving plate. Beware of the juice inside from spilling out. Cut open the paper to release the steam within as part of the presentation and done.

Few more words:   I knew i will need around 20min to 'bake' this big fillet and thus i cut the veg into a relatively large size but i was wrong. They were not thoroughly cooked to the desired texture, i.e still got the crunchiness... zzz    However on the fish, it was PERFECTLY cooked. Fluffy, succulent and balanced of flavours between the added and the original.  Im glad that Mr. and Mrs. Lor actually finished it given than this is a new flavour that they never tried before.  In my next attempt, i will julienne celery, leek and carrot and give it a quick sauté and then get a smaller fish, i.e. mackerel around half and inch thick for around 10 min cooking time. I think it this combination will be good for individual serving. Stay tuned :)

Pork Shoulder Braised in Reduced Red Wine Sauce

This is an extremely easy dish to make and also required minimum time be in the kitchen. Basically you brown all sides of the large chunk of inexpensive cut, i.e. shoulder, brisket, collar with seasoning (always and only salt and freshly ground black pepper). Leave those yellow-brown sticky bits on the pot as those are packed with flavours. If you do it right, it will look like below:

Browned large chunk of pork shoulder

Then using the same pot, sautee whatever but preferable thick veggie u can think of, just to name a view: carrot, onion, leek, potato, garlic, celery....etc until brown. Then you add red wine of you selection at preferred amount then bring to boil and reduce the liquid until less than half of the original (this way the alcohol will be evaporated and the wine taste will be intensified). Then you add stock, i prefer the all purpose chicken stock, bring to boil again then add in all the meats you seared earlier. You can also add herbs like rosemary, thymes, bay leaf...etc for more body to the finishing sauce. 

All ingredients into the pot

Then being it to a very gentle shimmer for about 3 hours (varies depending on size of meat and type of meat). Remember to close the lid to ensure all the juicy goodness stays inside the pot during the long 3 hours. Check regularly to ensure no overcook. Once the meat is to the liking tenderness, remove everything from the pot and left only the stock.  On high heat, boil the remaining stock to further reduce it (as mentioned above, to intensify the flavour). At this point you can add unsalted butter to bring all flavour together, some prefer cream to thicken up the sauce. Anyway you choice. 

Assembly: Gravy/Sauce is second last. My style is to sprinkle some spices to finish the garnish

Always balance any meat dish with veg for a healthy meals. For this particular dish, i used blanched french bean and backed capsicum. Also i made simple mashed potato as base for the meat. It is all then assembly time while the sauce is reducing. Always taste it and give it a pinch of salt and pepper if you think you need a bolder flavour. And finally, here you go: Pork Shoulder Braised in Reduced Red Wine Sauce. 

Finished product. A balanced dish from texture, colour and flavour.