Borough market / Baked eggs italian style / Baked escargots with truffle butter

Was dragged out of bed, early in the morning by M to go for a Reiss warehouse sale at Brick lane. Aside from having to navigate through lanes of a dubious nature, we could not find anything to buy even though the the prices were low. I was understandably cranky. But things got better subsequently after we went over to Marylebone high street to do some window shopping. According to M, she likes the place more than Angel as its quieter. It is after all a posh part of town, full of shops with articles I can't afford. It is good just to look around especially the kitchenware stores. After that, to get rid of her KFC craving as she puts it, (keep eating KFC until she's sick of it) we decided to go to KFC yet again just eight days after our last trip. Thankfully, she seems to have gotten sick of it. She had, on her own, 2 pieces of chicken, 1 hot wing and 1 crispy strip. Hopefully, I don't have to have it for a long long time.

After lunch, we went to Borough Market at London Bridge, a gourmet food market where as you can see in the picture, we bought quite a bit of stuff for the fridge and larder.



a) Melon
b) Cherry tomatoes
c) Red and yellow peppers
d) Ciabatta and foccacia (Buy one get one free!)
e) White truffle cake and Plum cake (25% off!)
f) A jar of escargots in truffle butter
g) eggs



So with our purchases, I made baked eggs italian style, a recipe from the cooking for one cookbook. Just crack an egg into a ramekin dish, mix chopped and deseeded tomatoes, basil, chives, olive and place the mixture on top of the egg. Cover it with cheese and bake in the oven at 200 degrees for 20 minutes.



In addition, we baked the escargots and ate it with the ciabatta which M used to make garlic bread. Its pretty good value, 27 snails (M counted it)in that jar for just 5 quid and yes, it tasted really good. And yes, the snails do look like they are in an assembly and its thanks to M that they look as such.

Chicken braised with red wine (coq au vin)

M didn't think that this dish is nice initially as it didn't look good. I have to agree that the dish's appearance isn't that colourful like some of my other cooking and that it just looks brown and bland. Can't really do anything about it as the dish is essentially braising the chicken and vegetables with red wine such that everything just looks brown. But thankfully, the taste of it was alright. M said that if she closed her eyes when she ate it, it would taste good. She also commented that the colour of the sauce looked like that of red bean soup and she hates that soup. Well, I loved this dish, L and J have had it and they have said they liked it as well. To cook it, brown the chicken portions on both sides and set aside. Fry whole shallots for 2 minutes and add flour to it. Mix well and add red wine. Bring to the boil and add chicken stock, the chicken, mushrooms and bouquet garni. Simmer for 45-50 minutes. Remove the meat and vegetables and boil to reduce the sauce by 1/3. Return the chicken and vegetables to the pot and reheat. Season and serve with either rice or pasta.

M, at the end of the meal, has declared that she likes the dish now and that she has overcome her initial aversion to the colour.

Chicken, bacon and leek casserole

The first time I cooked this, I made the mistake of adding salt to the casserole and it turned out really really salty. So this time, I wised up, the salt from the bacon was sufficient. So to cook this, brown chicken pieces on both sides and remove from the pan. Fry bacon till brown and add in the leeks, cook till the leeks turn brown as well. Place leeks and bacon into casserole dish and place the chicken on top. Add a bit of chicken stock, cover tightly and bake in the oven for 1 and a half hours. The leeks should have the consistency of cooked cabbage and melt right into the sauce. The meat should fall off the bone easily. Serve with pasta

Spaghetti with garlic, chilli and mushrooms

A quick and simple pasta lunch. Just fry some garlic in olive oil, add in diced mushrooms and chilli and mix in the cooked spaghetti. Season with salt and pepper. Drizzle some good quality olive oil. Add some parsley on top and its done. I ate this with some smoked mackerel. Yums

Tortellini with sundried tomatoes

With M on leave, its been meal after meal outside. KFC, Ubon, La Tasca. Yesterday, M wanted to go to some designer sampler sale and so we had to wake up early in the morning and go all the way to the city so that the best of the stock would not be lost in the span of an hour. She went on her merry way, into the sale, I went my tired way into Cafe Nero where I had a strong cafe mocha, a almond and blueberry tart. I read half of Eragon there. We watched Wicked the Musical after that. Its not too bad but not fantastic. The songs were not memorable but the storyline was brillant, funny and subversive, the way I like my fairy tales. Its essentially the backstory to the Wizard of Oz. I am going to get my hands on a copy of that book.

So today, we decided to spend it on mundane chores, grocery shopping, ironing (her, mwhahah she's going to be stuck in front of the ironing board for the whole board, leaving me free to do my own stuff mwhahahah). For lunch, I cooked tortellini (Asda: I obviously can't make stuffed pasta yet, maybe one day, in the distant future) with sundried tomatoes. So to cook it, fry carrots and onions for 5 minutes and add chicken stock, can of chopped tomatoes, crushed garlic and tomato puree. Simmer for 10 minutes till the carrots are soft.Add in the chopped sundried tomatoes and basil and mix well with the tortellini. Serve with grated cheese and black pepper.



For dinner, we decided to have something light so its just tomato soup with orzo pasta and garlic bread with cheese. M made the bread!

Ubon by Nobu

Went to Ubon by Nobu for lunch today. M's treat for my submission of my thesis and finding a job at last. This is probably the most expensive Japanese meal I have had in my life. Thankfully, its one of the best. We had miso chips with tuna and scallops for starts. Interesting mixture with a sweet sauce. Ingredients blended well and I quite like it. Its just for 4 such pieces, 7 pounds is just too exorbitant. Luckily, the mains were much more value for money. I had the Ubon In and Out Bento box. Its 31 pounds and yes, it is pricey but you get so much in the boxes that the price is worth it. There's tempura prawns, black cod with miso, tuna sashimi, 9 pieces of sushi, rice with some sauteed vegetables and miso soup. The tuna sashimi was absolutely amazing, with a shallot, wasabi and sesame sauce. M's main was the beef and tempura luncheon set for 25 pounds. For that, you get a mountain of beef, i am not joking, I can see two steaks in those beef slices. I am not a big fan of it though. The beef was not very tender and you could not taste much of its natural taste. The sauce reminded me too much of Southern American cooking and I am never a fan of that. The tempura was good though although with tempura, you can tell if its poorly cooked easily but you can't tell the difference between good tempura and mind blowing tempura. For dessert, we had the chocolate bento box, a chocolate fondant with green tea ice cream. I quite liked it although the price was a bit steep, 9 pounds.

I would go there again, just to try out some its more unique dishes, like the wagyu skewers and the crab claws. oh another thing, do people use spoons to drink miso soup? M says they do. I have never done it

Oh go catch Borat. Its hilarious. Well, Borat just makes me cringe a lot but the reactions of his American victims, in relation to homosexuals, the Iraqi war and Jews, absolutely priceless.

Creamy boscaiola

The Italian (or more specifically, pasta) craze continues. But before that, M is on leave today and we went out to the city to satisfy one of her many cravings. KFC. She's been talking about sinking her teeth into a chunk of fried chicken since she got here and finally today, we had the chance to get it for her. We ordered initially, a variety meal: 3 pieces of chicken, 2 hot wings, 1 crispy chicken strip, 1 large fries and 1 large coke. I have to admit, it was good. I haven't had KFC for at least a year, if I am not wrong. Amazingly, it wasn't enough for her even though we divided it evenly. I had to get two more pieces of chicken, shared between us of course, to satisfy the craving. Well, at least she's happy and sometimes thats all that matters. I wonder what her next craving is.

Anyway, for dinner, we had creamy boscaiola, another recipe from my Cooking for one cookbook. Its really simple and its like carbonara without the eggs. Fry bacon and mushrooms in olive oil. Add cream and boil for 5 minutes till the sauce thickens. Mix in chives and pour over cooked spaghetti. Serve with parmesan cheese (not for me), parsley and black pepper.

Roasted butternut squash fusilli

I think I am getting bored of cooking French food for my western dishes, been doing that for quite some time and I decided a change of cuisines was necessary. Since L was saying how she had an italian cookbook and that she wanted to use it, this gave me the impetus as well as the inspiration to move into that field as well. So yes, its pretty much official. I am going to cook more italian food from now on. So to start with, I made Roasted butternut squash fuslli today. Roast the squash in the oven at 200 degrees for 40 minutes or till its soft and mashable. Blend the squash with chicken stock, cream, parmesan cheese and a pinch of nutmeg till you get a smooth sauce. Mix cooked fuslli with the sauce, add some chopped chives and spring onions, warm it a little and serve.

M absolutely loved the dish and parmesian cheese actually, she added an amount way beyond that stipulated in my cooking for one cookbook. I am not really a fan of parmesan cheese, I am more a cheddar and mozzarella person and so i found the taste of the sauce way too overpowering for me. I think the next time I cook this, I am going to leave the cheese out from the blending and add it only on top of M's plate.

Chicken and vegetable soup / Tuna souffle

Getting bored of using the same cookbook for most of my dishes and so I decided to use a cookbook I haven't really read for a long time. Was at Junction 8 Bishan NTUC, waiting for my mom, browsing through cookbooks and I thought this wasn't too bad. Cooking for One and so I got it for my student days. For today, as we had a heavy lunch at Tiffinbites, we decided to have something light. Just a soup and something special.



The weather is changing and so chicken and vegetable soup was on the menu, to make sure that M doesn't fall ill while braving the cold. She is rather susceptible to invisible organisms especially since she's been putting in a lot of OT these days. So all I did for this soup is to throw in some chicken meat, peas, carrots, cauliflower, onions and potatoes into chicken stock, simmer till they are all cooked and you have a really healthy meal.



To prevent this meal from being too bland, I whipped up something special from the cookbook. Tuna souffle. This is my first time with this recipe and I honestly didn't expect anything to happen, i.e. the souffle to rise and puff. I was staring at it through the oven glass initially. I went to check something on the internet. I came back and I was astonished to find that it was actually rising. The recipe involves mixing bread crumbs, cream and spring onions and letting it stand for 2 minutes. Add in tuna, lemon juice and eggs. Mix well, season and pour it into the ramekin dishes. Cook for 20-30 minutes in the oven at 200 degrees till the souffle is golden and well puffed. Serve with spring onions on top. I am really really happy with this dish.

Steamed fish with minced pork, mushrooms, ginger and chilli

Having fish at a chinese restaurant is an extremely expensive affair. It can easily go beyond 10 pounds (fish for three to four persons) depending on the restaurant of course. D said he hasn't had it for some time and I said me too, so I decided to cook it for lunch today. Did quite a lot of prepatory work for this dish. Went to Asda early in the morning to buy a sea bream (farmed in Greece!). The fish has to be really fresh or else it won't taste nice. Corresponded with my mom on how I should cook it. I knew the basics behind it, the problem was how long I was supposed to cook the fish for. Thankfully everything came out alright. For a sea bream around 15 cm long, I steamed it for around 14 minutes and it turned out just right. Not overly cooked. The seasoning has to be adjusted a bit,its a bit bland, but just a little. All in all, I am quite happy with it.

Tender and crisp chicken legs with sweet tomatoes

Another one of Jamie Oliver's recipes and a very good one at that, after I made certain modifications to it. Its really simple to make it and its pretty healthy as well especially if you are like me and you deskin the chicken. In a way, you can't call the chicken crisp in my case as there's no skin to be crisped up by the oven heat. So how simple is it? All you need to do is to place chicken portions in a casserole dish, add basil with the stalks, a variety of tomatoes, halved or quartered depending on its size, garlic cloves with the skin and chopped chilli. Season with salt and chilli powder. Add a bit of chicken stock and bake in the oven at 180 degrees for 90 minutes. Serve with pasta and you get a full meal, meat and vegetables.

Spaghetti with tuna, mushrooms and tomatoes

To get the energy necessary for me to go through my gym routine, I started eating pasta for lunch. This is a really simple and quick pasta recipe, you just need around 15 minutes to prepare and cook it. Saute minced garlic, tuna and mushrooms. Add in canned tomatoes. Simmer till the mixture is heated through. Add cooked spaghetti to it. Mix well and season. Sprinkle some cheese over it. I am using leftover mozzarella cheese. Not too sure I am supposed to do that. I think we are supposed to use Parmesian cheese but oh well, I needed to get rid of my mozzarella cheese as M has spotted its expiry date. This is basically the core of the recipe as adapted from a Jamie Oliver recipe. You can add lots of stuff to it such as olives, anchovies and roasted peppers. It still tastes good without all these stuff though. Interestingly, M claims that she likes it as well.

Kitchen

Oh I should have done this a long time ago. This is a photo of our kitchen.

Cafe Rouge / Steamed egg with minced pork

Had lunch at another franchise restaurant, Cafe Rouge, a French restaurant. You can see it in most cities in the UK. L, you are probably sniffing or snorting, being the food snob you are but yes, in a way, you are right this time. I have had meals at this restaurant many many times, in Nottingham, London, Strathford upon avon but tt wasn't that good this time perhaps because of our selections. I had French onion soup, it was strangely thick, I don't recall onion soup being thick. It tasted alright at the beginning but as I drank more of it, I realised that it was too salty. I should cook onion soup. M's potato, leek and spinach soup was fine though. Note to one self, try using spinach, the next time you make potato and leek soup. My main was thankfully alright. Salmon fish cakes and chips. Nothing spectacular. M's bacon, onion and mushroom tart looked absolutely disgusting. It was brown and black. I don't think its actually burnt but it just doesn't look that appetising. It tasted alright though. However, when food doesn't look that good, M doesn't eat it. Its as simple as that.

http://www.caferouge.co.uk/



"My hair is drinking the soup!"

So its porridge day. I realised I have never taken a photo of my porridge despite us eating it on a regular basis so you can see it today. Oh, M is finally sick of it so we are having noodles every week from now on, with the chicken stock. Woohoo! I definitely prefer noodles to porridge. Had steamed egg with minced pork with it. Its a dish that I have eaten all my life with porridge as well. My mom has been cooking this ever since I was born.

Chicken with tarragon sauce / Potato and carrot mash

M has been really busy but on friday, she managed to get back on time to have dinner. I made another dish from the French cookbook, chicken with tarragon sauce. Have to admit, it wasn't very successful as in my attempt to save money ie using creme fraiche when I am supposed to use whipping cream since I have creme fraiche left over from my tomato soup, the sauce became too watery. Reminder to one self, creme fraiche is for pouring, its not meant to be heated. Anyway, for this dish, boil chicken breast in chicken stock, white wine, dried tarragon and garlic till the chicken is cooked. Remove chicken from pot. Boil the sauce till its 2/3 evaporated. Add WHIPPING CREAM and boil till 1/2 is evaporated. Add fresh tarragon, season and pour over the chicken.



The carrot and potato mash was thankfully much more successful. I am proud to say that I made this dish up on my own. Boil carrots, potatoes. oranges, with dried herbs, cumin and salt till the carrots and potatoes are soft. Pour away the water and mash the mixture. Add olive oil to ensure a smooth texture. Season with salt and pepper.


Oh and I tried sushi from Waitrose. California Roll, to be precise. It was horrible. Really really horrible as they used normal rice instead of japanese rice. Sushi is not supposed to be crunchy.

三杯雞 (Three cups chicken)

Another one of those traditional chinese dishes that I love but M hates. My mom gave me this recipe when I was in my chinese cooking phase, before I got my French cookbook and starting exploring western cuisines. My initial experiments with this dish were not that successful, I fried the chicken for too long before adding the sauce. A breakdown in communication as I thought my mom said fry the chicken till its completely dried. Lets just say the end product wasn't that good. At least, I have learnt from my mistakes. Anyway, fry garlic cloves and ginger slices in sesame oil till fragrant, add in the chicken and just fry it till its brown on both sides. Add soya sauce, sugar, chinese wine and simmer till the chicken is cooked. Mix in some spring onions and serve with rice. The three cups is referring to 1 cup of soya, 1 cup of chinese wine and 1 cup of sesame oil. I am assuming that the cups are quite small. Its actually quite cute, the names of these recipes.

La Tasca

Went to catch The Departed at the cinema near our place. Had lunch at a La Tasca branch there, a Spanish Tapas bar and restaurant franchise. What I like about this place is that you can just order a few tapas, get a few drinks and just chill out there for a while especially with the view of the West India Quay outside the restaurant. We ordered chicken croquettes, potato bravas, deep fried king prawns and aubergine with cheese, tomatoes and herbs. We ate all that with olive and sun dried tomato bread. The thing about franchises is that you can expect, at the worst, average food so in a way, you are hedging your bets by not trying some fancy restaurant which you may not exactly like. For example, Sabor. The food was alright. I really like the potatoes bravas although M didn't like it as she wanted the potatoes to be crispy. We had no issues with the chicken croquettes and the aubergines. M didn't like the prawns as she found it too small. She obviously hasn't stayed in the UK long enough as its quite difficult to find the real king prawns that you see back in Singapore. All in all, we were fine with La Tasca.

http://www.latasca.co.uk/

As for the movie, I really enjoyed it and I think its better than the HK version primarily because the dialogue in Infernal Affairs is too cleaned up, the policemen and the triads don't sound like people from that side of the line. But The Departed, the language is gritty and hopefully true to the culture of the Boston police force and the Irish mobsters. I am not too sure which ending I prefer though. M likes the HK ending.

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.