Sabor

Went back to Angel to explore the place as I didn't manage to do it last week, had to rush back to prepare the meal for M's friends. We saw a South American restaurant called Sabor on the toptable website with pretty good reviews and so we decided to try it for lunch. The starters were excellent. I had skewered chicken with a lime and citrus dressing with sweet potatoes with a cheese and mustard sauce. The flavours were sharp and delicious. M had corn fritters. I don't really like corn so I can't appreciate it. She said its good though. We were really looking forward to the mains but sadly, they don't meet up to the standard set by the starters. I had steamed red snapper in a banana leaf with coconut rice. The fish was alright, nothing really special and the coconut rice was way too coconuty for my taste. I am not a big fan of coconut so I guess I am biased. M had the cornmeal dumplings. I thought they tasted like muffins and the dressing for the salad that came with it was too strong, an overdose of mustard I think. M didn't like it as well. So not exactly a very enjoyable lunch experience but I guess for the price of 15 pounds per person, I shouldn't complain that much.

http://www.sabor.co.uk

Smoked mackerel

Another one of my lunch favourites, smoked mackerel and bread. You can't really get it in Singapore, aside from Cold Storage, Marketplace where its really expensive. Here, its in Asda and cheap. Its a good healthy lunch item to have, fish, omega 3 and all.

Chicken baked rice

I think Singaporeans first knew about baked rice when Swensons introduced it to their menu a couple of years ago. I am not too sure whether I first tasted it at Swensons or whether I tried it at home. My mom apparently loved it so much, she started making it at home on a regular basis. I think she developed the recipe on her own. I am not too sure. Anyway, its really simple. Fry onions and mushrooms in olive oil. Add in diced chicken seasoned with salt and pepper and fry till the chicken is browned on both sides. Place rice in a casserole dish, pour the chicken mixture on top. Pour in canned mushroom soup and cover with lots and lots of cheese. Bake till the cheese is golden brown. I actually modified the recipe today and I honestly think its better this way. I replaced the onions with the leeks and I think the mixture tasted richer with this change.

M: I am not a fan of baked rice but W's version is good.

Braised chicken, pork and egg with rice

D is here on his weekly visit and I made used of this opportunity to cook something Chinese, something I can't do on a regular basis for M's meals. I am thinking of doing this on a weekly basis as well, was thinking of making three cups chicken next week, when D comes over again. I didn't have enough chicken for a full meal, so I added some pork to it. Its quite a nice mixture of meats. What I did was to fry some garlic (with the skin), shallots, sliced ginger, star anise and sugar till they are fragrant and add the chicken and pork to the mixture. Fry the meats till they are brown on both sides and add dark soya, a bit of light soya, water and five spices. Bring to the boil and simmer. Add some hard boiled eggs and continue the simmering till the meats are cooked. Serve with white rice. Yums.

Of course, the picture is taken by D. I can't possibly take such good pictures. The food arrangement was done by him as well. Looking back at my old food blog, my pictures really suck...

Pork chops with mustard and tomato sauce / Rosti

M loves rosti. The extent to which she loves it scares me. When I first cooked it, she started eating it, not from her own plate, but from mine. I had to increase the amount of potatoes today so that she can have enough. Besides, she has been bugging me to cook it for the last two weeks. Its not something I want to cook often as the preparation work is tiring. You have to grate the potato into a dish and trust me, the palm of your hand will hurt like hell after you grate at least two potatoes. Thankfully, its easier after that. Add melted butter, salt and pepper to the potato mixture. Fry it till its brown and crispy on one side, flip it over and fry the other side. Oh I almost forgot, I didn't fry the rosti. M did it. All I did was to GRATE it and season it. She did everything else.

To go with the rosti, I made another dish from my French cookbook. Pork chops with mustard and tomato sauce. I still remember hating mustard when I was young, I didn't like it on my burgers but again, as always, after making a dish with mustard in it, I started loving it. Maybe its because its dijon mustard and not American mustard. I am not too sure. Anyway, for this, pan fry pork chops (seasoned with salt and pepper) with butter till they are brown on both sides. Remove from the pan. Add white wine and boil till the alcohol is almost all evaporated. Add cream and tomato puree and simmer for a while. Return the pork to the pan and simmer till the meat is cooked. Add peeled and diced tomatoes, dijon mustard and tarragon (Don't use basil! Mistake on my part.) Heat throughly and serve on the rosti. The sauce goes pretty well on the rosti.

Honey chicken

Its porridge day again. In order to survive the blandness of it all, I cooked honey chicken to go along with the porridge. M loves No Signboard restaurant in Singapore and she has a fixed list of dishes that she orders from: honey chicken, cereal prawn and garlic vegetables. Since cereal prawn is not something i can make, prawns are way too small in this country, i have to learn how to make honey chicken. Thankfully, its not that difficult. Coat chicken pieces with cornflour and salt. Prepare batter by mixing an egg, water and self raising flour. Dip the chicken into the batter and fry them till they are crisp and cooked. Remove from the pan. Fry ginger. Add honey to the mixture, be careful not to burn it (I have done it once (M: today)). Return the chicken to the pan. Add a mixture of soya sauce and cornflour to the chicken. Heat throughly and serve with spring onions.

[M: W is a great cook. Looking forward to cereal prawns next week.]

Le Mercury / Potato and leek soup / Chicken Chasseur

Went to Angel to meet M's friends for lunch. Quite a nice place, commercialised but still with a slight hippie edge to it. Had lunch at this French restaurant called Le Mercury. For 10 pounds, you get a starter and a main. Its alright, nothing spectacular, something that comes with the price I guess. I had a crab tian and a rib eye steak with shallot sauce for lunch. I have been craving red meat for some time as I don't cook it at home. Actually, what I really crave is a huge burger not the fast food kind, the gourmet kind but I haven't had the chance to get something like tt. So a steak will do for now at least. The steak was not bad, quite juicy, the shallot sauce went quite well with it. As I didn't feel thristy after the meal, i guess there was no MSG in the sauce, hopefully the beef stock was made from scratch and not from a stock cube. The crab tian wasn't fantastic, but for 3 pounds, you can't really expect real crab meat, instead its just crab sticks. M had roast pumpkin soup and fish cakes. She wasn't particularly happy with it too.

http://www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/reviews/334.html

Subsequently, M's friends came over to our place for dinner and I cooked potato and leek soup as a starter and chicken chasseur as the main for them. For dessert, we had the Gu chocolate souffles.





I think I really expanded my knowledge of soup, not from recipe books, the internet or even restaurants. Its from the cafe at my faculty. Everyday, there's a different soup and I have actually learnt to make most of them. I particularly liked this soup for lunch as its filling, perfect when I am starving after the gym. I love its natural flavours too, potato and leeks. For this soup, bring to the boil and simmer, diced potatoes in chicken stock for 20 minutes. Add diced leeks and simmer for another 15 minutes. Puree the vegetables, return to the soup, mix well, add some creme fraiche and serve.



I really started cooking when I went to New York and bought this cook book, The Best Ever French Cooking Course. Chicken chasseur was one of the first recipes I used from it and after it, I was really hooked on this dish, i must have cooked this on average once every month. I didn't used to like food with tomatoes but after this, i kept buying tomatoes in bulk to use in my cooking. Dredge chicken portions in flour, salt and pepper and pan fry them till they are brown on both sides. Remove on pan. Saute onions, garlic and mushrooms till they are golden. Return chicken to the pan with the juices and add white wine. Bring to the boil. Add chicken stock and a can of tomatoes and simmer till the chicken is cooked. Serve with pasta and rice.