The Best Dinner Degustation @ Jaan on 20Jan2014

seafood ceviche

seafood ceviche

of all my reviews thus far, this was the best dinner! 🙂

went to jaan on 20.1.2014 with a friend couple who are very close to my wife.  jaan has been always our favourite degustation restaurant. i had not intended to take photos as i had reviewed jaan when we dine here on 8.5.2013. the prestige menu (summer or winter) usually featured minimum changes, and so i missed out on the 2 amuse bouche photos. the first fingerfood bites platter was somewhat different with chicken samosa etc but the same crackers with humus dip. the second cepes mushroom tea, a very intense tasty soup, was largely the same – still the best soup i had. 🙂

the freshly baked bread basket came. i picked a brioche (a puffy highly enriched bread with nice crust) & a baguette. they did not have the previous truffle bread, which was brioche with truffle infusion.

when the first dish came – #1 a seafood ceviche – i decided to take photos. i had not paid attention to the prestige menu having assumed it had few changes. the ceviche was par excellence! well so many dishes were. 🙂 it was incredible – it had langoustine, caviar on top another prawn, scallop, oyster, ikura & crab meat. i could eat this again! 🙂

beetroot

beetroot “melody”

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toast to go with beetroot “melody”

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55min 60degC organic egg

55min 60degC egg

55min 60degC rosemary smoked organic egg

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55min 60degC rosemary smoked organic egg

roasted foie gras

roasted foie gras

#2 next was a beetroot melody thing – jelly, sorbet, some garnishes including cheese. there was some toast to go with it.

#3 the 55min 60degC  rosemary smoked organic egg with iberico chorizo & proscuito was same as before. i love the texture combination the egg yolk added to the dish & the savoury & slightly salty proscuito made it such a very enjoyable experience. a similar dish was served at au jardin for our recent new year eve dinner on 31.12.2013, and maybe this was something i could try out myself for my home dinners. 🙂

#4 there was no change to the roasted foie gras dish. my wife though preferred the caramelised pan-fried version, anyway she doesn’t take foie gras much these days. 🙂

brill

brill with crayfish foam

miyazaki wagyu

dry aged miyazaki wagyu

miyazaki wagyu

dry aged miyazaki wagyu

miyazaki wagyu

dry aged miyazaki wagyu

#5 the brill, an atlantic flatfish in the turbot family, came with crayfish foam. it was beautiful to look at, fine & exquisite in taste, but the texture of the brill was not my favourite.

#6 the menu prestige had pigeon as the second main, however 1 friend did not want pigeon so we asked the chef to substitute & requested for the miyazaki dry aged wagyu which was served on the 5-course menu. thanks to our friend, i tried miyazaki wagyu at jaan for the first time! it was fabulous! we were served a black sesame puree on the side, sounded odd, but tasted perfect with the wagyu.  although it is common for western steak cuts to be wet-aged or dry-aged, i have not seen this done for japanese wagyu. don’t know why but jap wagyu are so expensive, and already the flavour is very intense due to the high marbling, so perhaps not common to incur weight loss & intensify flavour further through ageing? anyway i was not complaining as the aged miyazaki wagyu was just exquisite! 🙂

pre dessert

pre-dessert

choconuts

choconuts

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we had a citrous pre-dessert, which had blood orange etc like a palate cleanser., very nice indeed.

#7 then it was the choconut – different temperatures of chocolates..good but no better than previous versions.

we ended with petit four & coffee/tea. it was such a wonderful dinner! 🙂

the entire degustation comprised 7 courses (4 appetisers, 2 mains & 1 dessert) PLUS 2 amuse bouche & 1 pre-dessert, so it was almost like a 10 course degustation.

every dish was great, many were superlative, and it was indeed an artisan cuisine, very pretty, fine & refine, utterly pleasurable.

c.h.e.f andy

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Char Siu

super nice char siu

super nice char siu

made super nice char siu last evening! 🙂

was doing a 5-course dinner for 8pax, and evolved & tried out a new recipe for my miso belly pork, which turned out excellent. had a small leftover cut of belly pork, no point returning to the freezer so might as well cook it. had been trying out marco pierre white crackling belly pork recipe & other chinese roast pork recipes which were ok taste-wise but abject failures when it came to the crackling skin.. so decided instead to duplicate the miso belly pork recipe on char siu. 🙂

melt-in-the-mouth tender

melt-in-the-mouth tender

char siu - so happy!

char siu – so happy!

char siu - so happy!

char siu – so happy!

i added boiling water to the excess belly cut & cleaned it thoroughly in slow running cold water. i then prepared the char siu sauce mix, covered the belly pork in char siu marinade in an oven dish & placed it in the chiller for 2days.

on the day of cooking, i brought the char siu out of the fridge & placed it in the oven set at 60degC for 4 hours (i was lazy to bring the pork to room temperature for 1 hour outside the fridge as it was a long 4hr low-temperature cooking & one could adjust the timing by 15mins to compensate for the lower starting chiller temperature). after 2 hours, i turned over the belly pork & placed it back in the oven. at 4 hours i removed the belly pork & placed it on a rack over a aluminium foil lined oven tray. i preheat the oven to 250degC while putting the char siu sauce in the oven dish to the microwave oven for 10mins to reduce the sauce. i then brushed the thicken sauce on both sides of the belly pork & returned it to the preheated oven at the top rack & turned to broiler function for 10mins, then turned over & repeated for 5 mins.

the result was a super nice char siu, very tasty & melt-in-the-mouth tender. 🙂

N.B. i did the miso belly pork pan-charred instead of oven broiled & it came out excellent, so will try pan-charred on char siu next time. 🙂

c.h.e.f andy

Ingredients:

  • belly pork (300g)

for the char siu sauce

  • 2 tbsp lee kum kee char siu sauce
  • 1 tbsp ketchup
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 1/2 tsp red colouring (can skip this or add more ketchup for colouring)
  • 3/4 cup shaoxing wine

Directions:

  1. clean & marinade – add boiling water to remove scums & clean thoroughly in slow running cold water. combine the char siu sauce mix together & stir to dissolve the sugar. cover the belly pork in char siu marinade in an oven dish & place in the chiller for 2days.
  2. cook –  bring the char siu to room temperature (1/2 hour) & place it in the oven set at 60degC for 4 hours. after 2 hours, turn over the belly pork & place it back in the oven. at 4 hours remove the belly pork & place it on a rack over a aluminium foil lined oven tray. preheat the oven to 250degC while putting the char siu sauce in the oven dish to the microwave oven for 10mins to reduce the sauce. brush the thickened sauce on both sides of the belly pork & return it to the preheated oven at the top rack & turn to broiler function for 10mins, then turn over & repeat for 5 mins. the result was a super nice char siu, very tasty & melt-in-the-mouth tender.