Sous chefs in the making?

My kids have always been a great help in the kitchen. I think I have in many ways, rubbed off my love of cooking and food to all of them! They love watching cooking shows, pottering around in the kitchen, and discuss the food adventures they had. Sarah is definitely a baker. Rebekah enjoys experimenting and did very well for her F&N course in school. Rachel is a mix of both. 

I really hope this the legacy I will leave with them and in which they will remember me by. Food brings people together and create memories that stay with you forever. It creates a sense of belonging and identity. It is in essence, a means of understanding who you are and where you come from. Yes. It is that powerful and profound. So do not underestimate the binding power of the food that you eat. Here are pictures of a weekend dinner prepared by Rachel. 

With the Apple iPhone 6 plus...

I can now post my blog through my phone. More importantly, load pictures of food which I can never do in the past! Woo hoo! JACKLYN is officially back. 

So, it's been a very long while since I posted anything. Well, I am on a zero carb diet since June 2014 and slowly, I have been losing around 1 kg per month. You need to be extremely patient when it comes to weight loss and just keep focusing on the end goal. Most people give up easily because they did not see any immediate results. There is no magic formula except discipline and exercise. My body is now in a state of ketosis, meaning, it has been trained to burn fat as fuel since there is so little sugar. I just need to keep it that way for as long as I could. 

I also discovered three great insights while on this weight loss journey - we are all unconsciously addicted to carbs, we do not need 2,200 calories to survive a day. It's is all a lie by the USFDA and farm lobbyists. And, lastly, we are also unconsciously turning to carbs to cope with our modern stressful lives. So you see, what we are today in terms of health and sickness, is a result of our own creative design. Basically, we created our own shit. Our ancestors, the hunter gatherers, survived without carbs and ran marathon distance barefoot. Advancement in science is in a paradoxical way, harming us than helping us. Sounds weird? I leave you to these thoughts. Meanwhile, enjoy the food pics I took recently in HK. 

 

OMG!

Did I last post in April? Oh crap. Well firstly, I hardly bring my laptop home over the weekends and secondly, you guess right, I cannot access this in the office.

Lots of stuff happened since April. We bought a new place and sold our current. It is a very nice change as our new lifestyle is now more outdoors based and we get to enjoy simple pleasures like having dinner or coffee in the terrace facing the east coast skyline....

We bought a new equipment too - an Outback BBQ with 3 gas burners. Awesome stuff. Cooked a couple of steaks over Sunday and it turned out burnt and perfect. Tons of possibilities on the wonder barbie - roasting, grilling, smoking....got to get our hands on some good barbie equipment and download recipes. If you watch License to Grill or Boy Meets Grill, you will grilling is so versatile. What makes it a tad more interesting is the marinades, dips and salad dressings.

Ok ok, I did raise the concern on carcinogens but apparently, so long you do not use any form of sugar that caramalises or changes in chemical composition, we are good on this front. So no basting of molasses etc.

With some great and cheap meats from Melbourne, we are set for a fantastic grastronomical journey!

New Adventures!

Ha! I did venture into some new dishes these past months. First up, a chicken fricasse with leeks, cream and white wine. And a basil and semi dried tomatoes pasta dish. Very simple but goes well with the heaviness of the other dishes. Made a greek salad as well..now I know why they dribble the feta cheese when ready to serve, and not toss it all up, which is what I did! The feta cheese became a bits of wet cheese and well, didn't look too presentable but Hashim loved it anyway.

I am going through bouts of despair at my job and sprinkling moments of joy, delight and hope of training to be a chef. Who cares about bloody expats and idiotic jobs for equally boring engineers. My company is  absolutely the most boring place to work for...uninspiring products, poor talent and atrocious processes. I might be better off slaving in a hot kitchen surrounded by the things that I love and find inspiration from... My soul breathe and live from any form of creative spirit, be it music, art, food, fashion. I often beat myself up as to why I am where I am. I hate it to the core and find no joy in what I am doing. On the other hand, beauty inspires me, uplifts my jaded spirit and provide endless possibilities in my mind. Beauty in the shape of a beautifully crafted dish, a symphony of tastes, a colourful and well tailored garment, a painting that evokes emotions...stuff like that makes me want to live and be alive.

Oh man. My only solace is to keep cooking...and doing little things to keep my spirits alive. I made a beouf bouguignon again but due to a lack of time in the oven (need 3 hrs!) and wrong type of stock (only Jones the Grocer...), it didn't turn out as thick and robust as I would like. But its time to move away from this dish as I made it so many times. Should try doing a coq au vin or a veal dish. Or maybe a roast lamb from the Cumulus cookbook. Its a beautiful cookbook with very elegant ingredients. Very refine dining at its best. Not sure if it should even be replicated at home! I can't emulate the physical experience to match the elegance of the dishes....

We will be having a seafood lunch this Sunday. Thanks to my colleague's recommendation of a seafood wholesaler in Woodlands. Three large mackerel for SGD10? Unbelievable. Bought mussels, cod and salmon to last us for months. I will be making a mussel with pasta and white wine sauce, grilled mackerel with tomatoes and capers and maybe a black sea bass stew. Can't wait for the weekend to come. I don't give a shit for my work!

Help, anyone wants to hire a amateur chef, waiter, maitre'd for the same salary? Who will be that crazy? I am praying for a sponsor to send me to chef school....:-O

Slice That Became a Pie!

I need a weighing scale.

We had friends over for dinner and as usual, its a perfect opportunity to try my hand on a few new recipes. I always make it a point to plan dishes that compliment each other in tastes. It should not cause a cacophony of confusion in your taste buds but eases you on a sweet and slow journey of discovery. Good food must create a memory in your head. Whether its an explosion of richness or a wonderful balance of flavors, every dish should give you lasting impressions.

After flipping through four cookbooks, I decided on the following:

Pork ribs in red wine stew
Chicken fricasse with red cabbage
Grilled mackerel
Creamed spinach
Zucchini slice
Pasta in green olive sauce

Conclusion: Julia Child's recipes are for those who have an entire day to perfect one dish...:-) Her recipes are flawless but incredibly laborious!

I have never done the fricasse and zucchini slice before. The ficasse turned out very well. The dish was almost emptied out and the red cabbage has completely melted into a dark and rich mass of gooey goodness. The only mistake I made was the pan I used was not suitable for pan frying the chicken till it turns brown. Cheap Ikea stainless steel saucepan. The skin sticked to the bottom of the pan and never came off. Even after de-glazing with red wine and simmering for a while. It transformed into a burnt crust basically. The fault lies with the quality of the pan. I need a new 30 cm covered non-stick saucepan. TANGS, here I come.

Well, the zucchini slice was a bit of an interesting twist. Its meant to be a slice, like a stacked filo pastry. I made a mistake of not weighing out the flour and simply estimated. It wasn't enough and the slice collapsed into a moist pie, much like a shepered's pie. After 15 mins in the oven, it was not solidfying enough and was actually bubbling. Oh crap, I might have to forego that dish and not serve it out if it becomes a disaster. After 30 mins, it was cooked with a slight burnt crust on top. Hey. maybe it isn't so bad. Worse comes to worse, it will just be a normal pie. I added another 10 mins of cooking and when I took it out of the oven, it looks really nice, like a professional pie!

I served it out and believe it or not, everyone loves it. I couldn't believe my luck in turning a disaster into a triumph. Woo hoo, I should be more confident of myself going forward.

Food was emptied out. I was really happy. And my other half said I have progressed so much in my cooking skills I should seriously do something about it...

As always, thanks to my two sous chefs. Without their sweet little help, I wouldn't have been able to finish everything in time.

A Living Room

Wow. Its been 4 months since I last blogged. It wasn't that my love for food has died. Maybe I was lazy? But one thing I have learnt for sure, is that food is meaningless if you are unhappy. The best food came out of chefs who are smiling. Your mood affects the outcome of your food. When you spirits are up and you are enjoying the cooking process, all the favours and portions will come together, like a well conducted symphony. I am sure you have never seen a cranky and grouchy conductor. A great conductor simply guide and glide with the music that comes from his effortless hands.

In these 4 months, I did make a few memorable dishes....pork ribs in red wine sauce, expanded my pasta repertoire to include mussels vongole, pasta with bread crumbs, anchovies and olives, black sea bass in tomatoes...all because of a brand new cookbook by Mario Batali! Yeah. His recipes are really simple and the results are always spectacular. And of course, I bought Marcella Harzan, a guru of Italian cooking. Her cookbooks are similar to Julia Child's - no pictures! But chokeful of detailed instructions and tips. I once made a potato soup from scratch and I know her recipes are fail proof.

We discovered a little bistro tucked away in Joo Chiat, which we passed by on numerous occasions because it didn't look unique or different from the tons of restaurants/eateries lining Joo Chiat. Well, due to recent physical inconvenience, we happened to walk into it one rainy afternoon. And we have been back ever since. They serve the best cheesecakes ever, yes, better than Cheesecake Cafe! Its creamy and delicious, with fresh spin on traditional flavours, including (burp) durian!

Their lunch and dinner menu impresses too. Had a pizza and pasta, plus beef stew one Suhday afternoon and the food was really good and affordable. They won't charge you Orchard Road prices. Pizza was thin and crispy with fresh toppings. The sausage and cream pasta was heavenly without being cloying. Beef stew was probably a Eastern European version with cabbage and spices. I expected a French version, since I could make one on my own. But it was a nice surprise. And ladies, they serve over 25 types of tea with exotic combinations like rasberry, hibiscus, cranberry, lemon, myrtle, echinecea, passionfruit, lavender etc. I have ordered a different tea every single time.

But the best part has yet to come - being in the restaurant is like being in your own living room. Cosy, comfortable with warm and personal service. Big day beds with lots of cushions and soft decor makes the place so inviting you really feel like falling asleep in. And you definitely do not want to leave. Cannice and her team have done a fantastic job in creating a little 'home' in Joo Chiat.

Chezcake Bistro it is. Check it out.

Pasta

Whoa, its been 3 months since I blogged....think I was busy with work, training for my half marathon. In between I did have some interesting adventures but all in all, quiet and unremarkable.

M has a passion for cooking, honed from her stint at Olio Dome where she was waitressing a long time back. Its nice to hang around with someone who loves food as much as I do. We have been comparing notes on Julia Child, complete with a trip to Tanglin supermarket. I wanted to show her where are all the fresh ingredients, as well as to convince her why its important to use only the best. One must pick up good habits when learning to cook and not go the lazy, shortcut way of using processed or packaged stuff. I hope she agrees... :-)

I got myself two Italian cookbooks. Well, I needed a fresh perspective with pasta. Quite sick of my usual recipe of sausages, bell peppers, or a simple mushroom, garlic and chili aglio olio. Mario Batali did not disappoint me! Am trying out a spaghetti with olives, anchovies and breadcrumbs, as well as a pork rib stew in tomatoes and red wine. The kitchen is smelling so good now!

Still sick from another bout of sinustis, taking anti biotics and generally no appetite. Hopefully tonights dinner will do some wonders as I missed my runs last week. What a bummer. I hate it, especially since I am running above target now. God, I would be so disappointed if I have to restart my training again.

Trick for priming the body for intensive training - vitc c, multivits, glucosamine and lots and lots of healthy food laden with protein.

Wish me luck.