Picasso

Kings Road is not a good place to have a meal without proper planning. If you went there on a Saturday, with no idea where you were going to have your lunch, you would be just like us, wandering up and down the road like a bunch of lost sheep. At some point in time, we got so sick of the search, we just went into the nearest restaurant and had our lunch. The place was called Picasso and even though, it was situated along the bland row of fashion chains populating Kings Road, it was surprisingly good. Home cooked Italian food, rustic, simple and wholesome. I had the marinara, spaghetti with clams, prawns and squid. It had a rich tomato sauce, a sauce with actual depth unlike the stuff they serve at Cafe Nero and an enormous helping of seafood. M had the penne ragu. She said that it tasted just like the way her mom cooks it. So I assume thats good. So a good discovery in the middle of exorbitant shopping land. Unfortunately, the food left me extremely thirsty while I waited for M; she was doing her usual window shopping so I guessed they must have added a great deal of salt into the food. When we got home and ran an Internet check on the restaurant, we were amused to find that it is one that Gordon Ramsay frequents.

We also went to the Chelsea Farmers' Market. I was expecting something like Borough Market but as M puts it, its not even a real market. Its just an area with some shops and thats it. We went to an organic supermarket there(L, you will love it) and bought some organic icing sugar and caster sugar for our planned attempt to make carrot cake tomorrow. (Fingers crossed(Edit: sadly it didn't turn out that well, we will try again next week) I bought some white tea as well. I am really going into a tea craze, I have green tea, white tea, some flower tea and earl grey in my cupboards and I even bought a teapot today from Habitat. It was quite a good bargain, 6.80 pounds for a Bodium teapot with a detachable compartment for the teabags/tealeaves. Oh and I finally bought a coffee mug to replace the one I broke for my coffee machine.

For dinner, we ordered takeaway. Our very first takeaway meal at our London apartment. Not too bad, we actually resisted getting any takeaway for almost three months. But the craving for greasy Chinese food became too much for us to overcome and so we ordered it. I was also too lazy to cook anything for dinner after our day out. So we ordered from this restaurant, Taste of China, Chicken fried rice, King prawns and broccoli on crispy noodles and salt and pepper prawns. The chicken fried rice was good, the classic taste of takeaway fried rice. M had a huge craving for it. The crispy noodles was unfortunately not crispy anymore but the sauce was alright. Similarly, our prawns weren't crispy but again, the taste was the one we were looking for. Conclusion: the food is alright if you have a craving for greasy chinese food but the delivery time was too long for it to be a really good meal. That said, we might order from this takeaway again, dishes that would not be affected by the delivery time.

Pork chops with tomato sauce

Strangely, this week, I have been cooking food which I messed up the first time round for this blog with the use of the wrong ingredients. The last time I tried making this French dish, pork chops with tomato sauce, I used basil and that really had an adverse effect on the taste of the sauce. This time, its the right herb, tarragon and yes, the sauce is finally acceptable to both M and my tastebuds. The picture looks better too.

Mashed carrots / Spaghetti with chicken and tarragon sauce

This time, I got it right. The use of single cream instead of creme fraiche does make a huge difference to the sauce. Its now thick, with a smoother consistency as compared to the last time I cooked this. To make this more of a pasta dish rather than a chicken dish, I deboned the chicken portions, mixed it into the tarragon sauce before pouring it onto the spaghetti.

I wish I could take all my photographs in daylight as it really does make a difference but as long as one of us is working, its hard to do so. What I can do now is to take close up photos of my food as the surroundings can look very drab at night.

Chocolate fridge cake

Sunday is going to be our pudding/dessert making day (hopefully) from now on provided we can finish eating whatever we have made the sunday before. Instead of going out, we will just spend the day at home, messing up the kitchen with flour, digestive biscuits and syrup to produce (hopefully) something decent. Beginner's luck prevailed for us or perhaps the recipe we used is easy (lesson 101: pick easy dessert recipes), our first stab at making a cake was a success. We made chocolate fridge cake, a recipe we found on the bbc webpage (once again, click on the title of this entry for the recipe.) I first heard of such a cake, a flourless cake from my mom. She had seen it on the Jamie Oliver show but didn't manage to write down the details of the recipe.

The chocolate fridge cake tasted just like brownies with apricots and raisins within.

Sunday lunch: Souffle omelette with fresh herbs and cheese / Baked tomatoes

Food photographs tend to look the best in the daytime. Natural light just gives it a certain glow and its impossible to replicate it using a camera (I think). So today, we decided to make use of the fact that M doesn't have to work on Sunday to cook something nice and to make full use of the sunlight for our photos. As its sunday, brunch food is well in line with the day, we made omelettes with tomatoes. I said we as M actually did the most difficult task of all for the omelette, whisking the eggs BY HAND till they are stiff. I can't whisk. I honestly can't. I just can't master the strange circles I have to make with the whisk. She spent 20 minutes whisking it, heh and I only then realised that we had an electric whisk hidden in the depths of our cupboards. She wasn't exactly happy after that. Anyway, this is no ordinary omelette as you should have already guessed from the fact that M has to whisk the egg. I got the recipe from the bbc website, so you can just check it out yourself. Just click on the title of this entry. For the tomatoes, I drizzle some olive oil and balsamic vinegar, seasoned the tomatoes and baked them in the oven for around 10 minutes.

The Big Easy

We went to yet another posh street, Kings Road for M to do her weekly obligatory window shopping although today she managed to break through the window, into the shop to purchase a couple of items. For lunch, (the only thing I am interested in today), we went to The Big Easy, an American restaurant on Kings Road. This restaurant came strongly recommended by a number of food guides. (http://www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/reviews/516.html) Its also said to be one of the top five restaurants to have steak at in London



I had the The Classic Chophouse Burger "prepared from the Finest Prime Chopped Scotch Beef with French Fries & House Made Coleslaw. Aberdeen Angus beef burger char-grilled & served with lettuce, tomato, red onion & a pickle." I can say that my craving has been satisfied. It was a good burger. For me, the beef has to have that char grilled taste, it must not be dry, it should be moist and juicy and it must be savoury obviously. The burger does meet all these criteria and so I am a happy camper. I don't mind coming back again to try their steaks.

M had the Bar-B-Q Home Smoked Ribs "Hand trimmed, extra meaty ribs, slow smoked & finished on the char-grill with our special recipe Bar-B-Q. sauce." Her favourite ribs is the one at Tony Romas and she said that the one we had today compared favourably to it. It was meatier than the ribs at TM but the sauce was not as good. Therefore, she considers it a tie.

Tuscan chicken

With this dish, we finally used up all the peppers we bought from Borough market, a grand total of 6. Basically, we made roasted peppers and tomato soup on monday, the tuna pasta with red pepper sauce on tuesday and the tuscan chicken today. We did not take a picture of the soup as it looked too much like tomato soup. (M: it was tomato soup, just that there's pepper inside it), Are we sick of peppers yet? M says no but thats from someone who's not planning the cooking. Anyway, Tuscan chicken, a recipe from my Chicken the best ever recipe collection cookbook. Brown chicken portions on both sides in olive oil and remove from the pan. Saute onions and red pepper till soft and add in crushed garlic. Return chicken to the pan and add in white wine, a can of tomatoes, sun dried tomato puree and oregano. Bring to the boil and simmer till the chicken is cooked. Sprinkle breadcrumbs on top and put it under the grill till the breadcrumbs are golden.

Oh almost forgot, I was supposed to add cannellini beans into the mixture but as M can't stand beans (in general, actually), I didn't do so.

Chinatown / C and R restaurant

Singaporean / Malaysian food is quite difficult to locate in England but we managed to find a restaurant for it. Its called C and R restaurant and its located close to the infamous Wong Kei in Chinatown. I decided to treat D and his gf to a meal there to celebrate the completion of my phd thesis. I have eaten there on a number of occasions previously. D and I had Singapore fried prawn noodles (sotong mee), His gf C had the hainanese chicken rice while M had the Prawn noodle soup. All in all, we were quite happy with the food as the cooking was at least equivalent to that of the average hawker stalls in Singapore. In addition, we had teh tarik, kopi tarik and ice kachang for dessert. For a bunch of people who have been away from Singapore for some time, this was truly heavenly fare.



Subsequently, we did some shopping in Chinatown, specifically, I bought more cai sim. Its practically impossible to find cai sim in the British supermarkets here. They do have pak choi but for a very exorbitant price. So, I normally go to Chinatown to stock up on such green vegetables. M needs some greens in her diet. As we wanted to have udon soup tonight, we bought udon and japanese chilli powder. M bought some strange flavoured crisps. I hope its nice.



So for dinner, I added sukiyaki sauce to chicken stock to make udon soup. I also marinated some pork in teriyaki sauce and grilled it for a while before adding it to the noodles. And the white stuff is tofu.

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.