清汤牛腩 Slow－braised Briskets in Clear Broth (1st Experiment)

Posted on November 30, 2015 by chefquak

slow braised briskets清汤牛腩

my first experiment on 清汤牛腩 using crockpot slow-braise (lazy man) method on 4.10.2015. ^^

this was very much inspired by a friend who brought her excellent slow braised briskets清汤牛腩 for a recent homecooked 17-courses 16pax eat together a short while back on 17.8.2015.

for me that was gold standard. 🙂

slow braised briskets清汤牛腩

one key point was buying the right briskets.

slow braised briskets清汤牛腩

i used to buy from giant but the brisket cuts there did not have the thick collagen layer (the 胶)。

slow braised briskets清汤牛腩

my friend taught me to buy from chinatown so when i was there to get fish & prawns etc i bought 1 kg from the 1st of the 2 stalls there. 🙂

daikon 白萝卜

recipe was simple & strait forward-

scald briskets to remove scum (i used about 700g only for experiment)

add 2/3 of a cut daikon & 5cm cut ginger (i also added 3 sprigs of spring onions & 1 small red onion)

cover with vegetable stock or water

place in cold crockpot on low & set meat thermometer to 90degC.

add salt to taste

slow braised briskets清汤牛腩

theory is 90degC supposedly optimum temperature to convert connective tissues (collagen) to gelatine & give the brisket great favours & umami. ^^

i estimated 6hrs to 90degC but only reached 84degC at 10.5hrs.

part of the reason is the experiment, taking out the brisket, cutting & trying. if w/o interference should reach 90degC faster.

slow braised briskets清汤牛腩

brisket was quite tender & delicious.

the daikon (radish) also tender but firm, and soup is sweet with meat flavours.

slow braised briskets清汤牛腩

i let it reached 90degC then left it in crockpot overnight. it was more tender & tastier the next day.

this the first try, pretty tender & tasty 清汤牛腩. not quite my friend’s gold standard yet. will try a second time, make some adjustments & do an update then.

c.h.e.f andy

Quite OK 3pax Lunch @ Chickenwok 鸡之味 on 21Mar2015

Posted on March 22, 2015 by chefquak

brinjal tofu salted fish

went to visit a chinese friend & look at his new Beacon LED office/store at tradehub21 on 21.3.2015.

chickenwok 鸡之味

he arranged for another mutual friend to meet at chickenwok 鸡之味 downstairs his office, and bought lunch.^^

we were early (intentionally) at 11.15am so the place was empty & we were the first & only customer (at the time we finished about 12pm).

i have seen chickenwok 鸡之味 S$15 for S$30 groupon vouchers many times before but did not consider to try. for today we did not have vouchers. & a check at groupon showed that the vouchers had sold out, but i know they always come back. seen it so many times liao. so next time if i come, i will be armed with vouchers. 🙂

we ordered 5 dishes. they were all pretty ok, no bad dishes, tasty enough, quite inexpensive.

all except the S$8 romaine lettuce, which my ancient upbringing think quite ridiculous vs other dishes but my wife had enlightened me that there was no basis in the first place for me to think that vegetables should be cheaper than meat! 🙂

and i do marketing, so i know the average amount romaine lettuce cost S$2.50 (2 bunches) to S$3.50 (3 bunches) in sheng shiong, and more in chinatown. well, so it’s S$8 in an inexpensive restaurant.

the best dish (kind of just slightly better than the rest) i found (top photo) was oddly the brinjal & tofu. the salted fish gave it a very interesting flavour & overall the dish was tasty.^^

curry chicken

curry chicken was good.

curry chicken

good as in c/w any economic rice stall or nasi padang stall, but cannot compare with the lemak green or red curries at good nasi padang stalls e.g. river valley nasi padang (now closed). 🙂

this the thicker more pasty curry & not so lemak kind.

curry stingray

curry stingray also good, better than curry chicken, basically like any good homecooked curries or coffee shop stalls, which means not too bad la…^^

claypot braised belly pork 东坡肉

the claypot braised belly pork 东坡肉, not really 东坡肉 (the top restaurants seldom serve this swimming in braising sauce, always bunched standing up with or w/o sauce though i had tried the wet version also at kamjiazhuang recently, anyway tasted different in texture & flavour), was better than i expected. in fact it was rather good braised belly pork, nice soft texture retaining some bite not falling apart & quite tasty. 🙂

romaine lettuce with shimeji

romaine lettuce was good. to me, still too expensive vs a S$6 braised pork belly & S$6 stingray. still not attuned to the times, haha! 🙂

the prices

there was no GST & service. they charged S$0.60 for ice water. for me that’s quite ok. guy got to make a living. 🙂

& if you get a S$15 for S$30 groupon voucher, then this is better than coffee shop & food court prices.^^

c.h.e.f andy

Wok Fried Manila Clams 香锅炒蛤蜊

Posted on December 27, 2014 by chefquak

#1 stir-fried manila clams with curry leaves

stir-fried manila clams with curry leaves – 28.10.2015 update

oct2015 update – i have done this dish a few times now. the best rendition was when i did a 9pax teochew muay lunch for my friends on 28.10.2015 (top photo).

wok fried manila clams 香锅炒蛤蜊

wife went to chinatown today & bought S$6/kg manila clams, a kind of soft-shell clams or steamers.

manila clams are much lighter & tastier than the hard shell littleneck clams (the usual lala) though some called manila clams lala also. so even though they cost higher per kg, you actually get your money’s worth.

wok fried manila clams 香锅炒蛤蜊

for today i fried it with butter, chilli padi, curry leaves, orange zest, sliced ginger, white wine, oyster sauce + corn flour on high fire.

need to drain (keep sauce) so as not to overcook clams, return sauce to pan to thicken, then return clams to coat with sauce for few seconds.

this time, the result was a super nice wok-fried manila clams – 特好吃香锅蛤蜊。。。

i was thinking probably need not mix the 2 styles also-

i can try the usual butter, chilli padi, orange zest, ginger & white wine which is my usual preparation for mussel pot or clams & mussels for pasta & risotto.

or i can do the curry leaves, chilli padi, sliced ginger, oyster sauce, corn flour good for toa tao & clams the asian style.

this time though the mixture of taste was quite excellent. everyone enjoyed the dish. ^^

stir-fried manila clams with curry leaves – 16.10.2015

stir-fried manila clams with curry leaves – 16.10.2015

subsequently, i did this dish a few times, and they were consistently good.

the best was still that shown in the top photo!

c.h.e.f andy

Royal Walk (London for Free) on 22Aug2014

Posted on September 7, 2014 by chefquak

view of 10 downing street

last time i came to london was in oct2011. that time my wife & i & our son walked around saint james park.

this time as we had more time, we decided to follow the london for free/royal walk route. we took the victoria line from kings cross to green park & changed to jubilee line to westminster on 22.8.2014.

we started with 10 downing street, but the street was closed with security post and not accessible to tourist. 😦

victoria embankment view of london eye

from there we walked along richmond terrace towards river thames, crossed the road to victoria embankment next to the battle of britain memorial. 🙂

the london eye was opposite. i had not taken the london eye nor indeed the singapore flyer. i did not pay much attention earlier as the initial thought was paying £18 (S$33 for singapore flyer) to spend 30mins (32mins for singapore flyer) with 20+ strangers (25 in 1 capsule for london eye & 28 for singapore flyer). but in a way it is like paying to go up eiffel tower or empire state building to view the city. i may try them some time….

the appreciative & the critical, from wiki on london eye–

Sir Richard Rogers, winner of the 2007 Pritzker Architecture Prize, wrote of the London Eye in a book about the project:

The Eye has done for London what the Eiffel Tower did for Paris, which is to give it a symbol and to let people climb above the city and look back down on it. Not just specialists or rich people, but everybody. That’s the beauty of it: it is public and accessible, and it is in a great position at the heart of London.

Writing for G2 in an article from August 2007, Steve Rose described the Eye as follows:

The Eye… exists in a category of its own…. It essentially has to fulfil only one function, and what a brilliantly inessential function it is: to lift people up from the ground, take them round a giant loop in the sky, then put them back down where they started. That is all it needs to do, and thankfully, that is all it does.

view from victoria embankment

victoria embankment view of flyer

never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few - winston churchill

never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few – winston churchill

we walked along the embankment towards house of parliament aka palace of westminster.

there was winston churchill’s famous quote – “never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few” by the memorial.

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big ben @ house of parliament aka palace of westminster

big ben was right ahead. we crossed the road to the house of parliament aka palace of westminster.

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statue of winston churchill at the parliament square

there was the statue of winston churchill at the parliament square.

apparently one cannot find any pigeon resting on the head as it is wired & will give the poor creature an electric shock.