Tag Archives: duck breast

Delightful Delicious 100Gourmet Dinner @ Disgruntled Chef Ang Siang Hill on 29Oct2015

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sous vide duck breast - par excellence

sous vide duck breast – par excellence

had a most delightful dinner with wife @ disgruntled chef ang siang hill on 29.10.2015. ^^

we both liked the duck breast best but other dishes (except for the lollipop & dessert) were just as delicious & marvelous. 🙂

this was a 100gourmet dinner citibank promotion where overseas award winning chefs paired with 2 top singapore restaurants every month to deliver a 6-course dinner at S$100++

for this evening it was chef daniel sia of disgruntled chef & chef joris bijdendijk of restaurant RIJKS®

charcoal bread. pork floss on cream cheese

charcoal bread. pork floss on cream cheese

we started with a charcoal bread. the bread was excellent, crusty yet fluffy inside. 🙂

charcoal bread. pork floss on cream cheese

charcoal bread. pork floss on cream cheese

not really used to having cream cheese on toast, but the combination did go well.

lobster & chicken vin jaune

lobster & chicken vin jaune

the lobster & chicken in a yellow wine sauce was really delicious.

lobster & chicken vin jaune

lobster & chicken vin jaune

both lobster & chicken were superb. chicken had a very crispy skin. something i cannot make. & such a wonderful sauce.

pan sauteed scallops

pan sauteed scallops

& the scallops were excellent. colour & presentation was beautiful of course, and Chef Joris Bijdendijk, Executive Chef at the restaurant RIJKS® in the world renowned Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, personally drizzled the oil over the dish at our table.

pan sauteed scallops

pan sauteed scallops

scallops were sashimi grade & the inside were still raw. one of the tastiest scallops i have take! bite, taste, everything! ^^

flounder lollipop

flounder lollipop

not sure about the flounder lollipop. wife thought it was poor.

flounder lollipop

flounder lollipop

i thought it was ok, tasty enough. but it’s like glorified fast food? nothing special or distinctive to me other than trying to look different.

black cod. nori butter. cockles. cucumber

black cod. nori butter. cockles. cucumber

the cod was a return of another wonderful dish.

server warned us that some diners feedback that the nori butter made the dish quite salty & they were still adjusting the taste.

black cod. nori butter. cockles. cucumber

black cod. nori butter. cockles. cucumber

for us, the seaweed butter did give a distinctive salty taste but nothing overpowering & in fact flavoured the dish rather well, & the shellfish bits (cockles??) added great bite to a delicious sauce. the cod tasted a bit firmer, like a monkfish texture, anyway it was good.

& what a beautifully plated dish! 🙂

sous vide duck breast - par excellence

sous vide duck breast – par excellence

& wa..the duck..it was the best duck i had.

sous vide duck breast - par excellence

sous vide duck breast – par excellence

so tender & sweet. just enjoying this duck, i am thinking i gonna try my sous vide duck breast again.

i did that for my duck l’orange some time back.

jaan's hay roasted pigeon

jaan’s hay roasted pigeon

it reminded me of the excellent jaan’s hay roasted pigeon. that was quite long ago though, so this duck actually felt better.

like a mars bar dessert & cream

like a mars bar dessert & cream

the dessert was too ordinary to complement the excellent dishes, but still the mars mar thingy had a really nice chocolate & great texture. i am so so with the cream just took a little.

we have never been to disgruntled chef at dempsey or here at ang siang hill. i must say the service was excellent-polite, friendly, quite knowledgeable & attentive.

this was 1 of the best dinners i had for a while, except for the excellent japanese omakase at hachi. hachi is different cuisine, which we would prefer by comparison but it also cost a lot more.

it reminded me of the really sumptuous dinners & dining experience at jaan, which we do not go any more because it’s no longer offering feed at raffles discounts. presentation was delight & food was exquisite. jaan had 2 amuse bouche which were excellent PLUS a palate cleanser item, so total like 10-course.

for the price, i think this dinner at disgruntled chef was next to perfect.

c.h.e.f andy

Very Fulfilling RI Buddies 8pax Homegourmet Dinner on 13Feb2014

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4hr sous vide crispy skin duck breast

the sous vide crispy duck breast was one the dishes i was ambivalent & uncertain about. first, it was troublesome to buy a whole duck, cut out 2 duck breasts, and then think what to do with the rest. i usually made a good lor arh (braised duck) from the remaining pieces but it was not healthy to keep eating duck with all the fat. second, while i was quite confident the sous vide meat would turn up well, i was not confident of doing the crispy skin w/o overcooking the duck & was not entirely convinced that the crispy skin was not just much ado about nothing (same ambivalence i had when practicing crackling belly pork). did the skin add much to the experience? i guess it did but whether the result was deserving the effort?

anyway for this evening, it turned out that the sous vide duck breast & the striploin pot-roast, a method i did for the first time on striploin, were quite excellent! 🙂

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menu planning – i was looking for a change of menu for my RI buddies dinner from the usual miso cod & pan-fried wagyu as main courses. i did a good gordon ramsay crispy salmon so i knew i would do ok with garoupa fillet.  it was not convenient to practice the gordon ramsay pepper sauce nor the pot roast but i felt quite comfortable to do it for the first time for my friends. 🙂 the poor man’s buddha-jump-over-the-wall was also a new dish. i did it once & it was good. for the pasta, i thought to revisit my seafood pink sauce linguine (& i did a very good one recently) to replace my usual alio olio. 🙂

pan-grilled giant hokkaido scallops (some 2" diameter)

pan-grilled giant hokkaido scallops (some 2″ diameter)

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scallop. miso belly pork. pencil asparagus. grape tomato. carrot.

#1 got dinner started with a very good pan-seared giant hokkaido scallop & my usual 4hr miso belly pork. both were very good. this the first time i added cooked vegetables. the carrot sticks were done in the steam oven, very sweet & consistent. the pencil asparagus were pan-roasted after i did the scallops & miso belly pork.

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poor man’s buddha-jump-over-the-wall

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poor man’s buddha-jump-over-the-wall

#2  next was the poor man’s buddha-jump-over-the-wall. the pig trotters was done overnight (about 7hrs) together with dried scallops & thick dried mushrooms & 2 chicken drumsticks (skin removed) for stock in a crockpot on low. the pig trotters were removed & put in the fridge to preserve the nice gelatinous texture. 🙂 the limpets & sea cucumbers were added just before serving, together with cut pieces of pig trotters. the soup was quite perfect at the time i was about to serve, but i was worried it was not enough for 8pax, so i added a bit of chicken stock. it was still good but i felt the flavour was not as intense, and actually there was enough soup w/o diluting it. it was kind of guesstimate thing as cooking for 8pax & practicing it once for a smaller serving did have some variations. 🙂

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4hr sous vide crispy skin duck breast

#3 the duck breast turned up supremely good! was brined in sugar & salt for 2 days & cooked at 60degC in the oven for 4hrs. the skin was then scored & i put on a pan at medium fire for 5mins to render out the fat to create a thin crispy skin. an important addition was orange sauce (see recipe here). i reduced this substantially to produce a thick caramelised nicely citrous sweet sauce. it went really well with the duck which was super tender. 🙂

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seafood linguine in pink sauce (creamy tomatoes)

#4 next was the seafood linguine in pink sauce. all my friends thought it was very tasty, but another & i still preferred the alio olio style which i did very well every time. 🙂

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pan-grilled garoupa fillet in gordon ramsay pepper sauce

#5 then came the 2 main courses. first up was the pan-grilled garoupa fillet with gordon ramsay pepper sauce. my hand-held food blender was evidently not the right tools to produce the very smooth blended sauce in gordon ramsay’s pepper sauce video (a real beauty). the garoupa were marinated well so flavour was ok. the texture of the garoupa fillet (frozen pack) was not great. of course it was too much to compare with my usual miso cod (also frozen pack).

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striploin pot roast in crockpot low to 125degF (52degC)

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vegetable ratatouille

#6 the striploin pot roast was a beauty. see the nice maillard reaction brown ring in the photo. it was nicely seared all round before placing in a crockpot on low with the vegetable ratatouille to reach 125degF (52degC) – about 1.5hrs, then in a 55degC oven for another 1 hr.  it was a very nice medium rare, & medium at the ends. i was very pleased with this first crockpot roast on a striploin. my first was a chuck pot roast. it was good but this was lots better! 🙂

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chocolate lava cake, toasted almond ice cream & “huat kueh”

#7 the last course was my chocolate lava cake. i had done very many good lava cakes. this time i did the exact same recipe & timing (3m 40s in a 210degC oven on broiler setting). somehow it was overdone & there were not much lava. will need to reduce to 3m 30s next time. sigh! i really need to work on another dessert recipe.

it was a really enjoyable & fulfilling experience for me (1 of my good friends described as full-filling haha!). i really feel good about this! 🙂

c.h.e.f. andy

Feeling Excited – Doing a 8pax Dinner for My RI Buddies This Evening!

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doing a 8pax dinner for my RI buddies this evening – feeling excited! 🙂

for me, cooking is about planning & making it happen, and the process is quite fun.

i don’t have to start cooking until 1.30pm.

the soup for poor man’s buddha-jump-over-the-wall was done overnight. so i just need to add back the individual servings of pig trotters, limpets, sea cucumbers & mushrooms when serving the soup.

the miso belly pork & crispy skin sous vide duck breast will be in the oven at 60degC for 4hrs. during the 4hrs, i will prepare the chocolate lava cake (takes <1/2hr) and 4 sauces- orange sauce for the duck, gordon ramsay pepper sauce for the garoupa fillet, pink sauce (creamy tomato) for the seafood linguine & vegetable ratatouille for the striploin pot roast. each takes say 15 – 30minutes.

at 5.30pm, i will start my striploin pot roast (700g) with ratatouille in the crockpot on low & should get to 125degF (52degC) in 1 hr, & i can place it in a covered oven dish in a 55degC oven for another 1.5hrs, probably serves it at 8pm.

when the friends are here at 7pm, i will do the pan-charring for the scallops & then miso belly pork (which were marinated in miso for 3 days & “sous vide” at 60degC for 4hrs in the oven, & then pan-roast the pencil asparagus.

after that i will serve the soup, and then do the cold pan method to try to get the crispy skin “sous vide” duck breast (brined for 2 days & also 4hrs at 60degC in oven). as i told my friends the medium rare duck breast is ok, but i unsure of the crispy skin (both texture & taste) & will probably not do this dish much in future if it doesn’t work well (just like the crackling pork belly – not worth doing if cannot get it right).

the seafood linguine in pink sauce is straight forward just tossing, with both pasta & the prawns & squid already prepared.

for the garoupa fillet, i had a good marinade (2days) so it should be quite nice pan-grilled. i am doing the gordon ramsay pepper sauce for first time today, but the video sure looks really exciting. 🙂

for the striploin pot roast, i have done this before on chuck pot roast (a cheaper cut) but this the first time i am trying it on striploin. never really know how it will turn out especially i am varying the temperature a bit to make rare instead of medium rare, but that’s the fun & challenge of the unknown. 🙂

my chocolate lava cake is quite standard fare, so should be ok though occasionally the lava part still doesn’t work out well as the timing is too short & any slight variation in oven temperature & timing will affect the result.

looking forward to a fun evening. we are going to share our secondary school photo albums too…haha. 🙂

c.h.e.f andy

Sous Vide Crispy Skin Canard a l’Orange

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5hr sous vide crispy skin canard a l’orange

5hr sous vide crispy skin canard a l’orange

N.B. this post was updated on 19.6.2014 with more recent photos from a par excellence canard a l’orange for a 10pax sit-down dinner on 24.3.2014.

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did my first sous vide crispy skin duck breast last week on 25.1.2014. was quite pleased with the result. 🙂

i took a leaf from my favourite video chef, chef john of foodwishes.com, video recipe on stove-top sous vide duck breast.  chef john did it beautifully with a zip-lock bag immersed in water in a dutch oven heated over stove-top. i may try that some time. for now i am more comfortable with using the oven. so i first brined the duck breasts (2 pieces) for 2days with salt & sugar brining solution (2 heap tbsp sugar & 1 flat tbsp salt in about 800ml water). read more about brining here.

then i placed the duck breasts in a covered pyrex oven dish with enough brining solution covering the duck breasts, and placed in the oven for 5hrs at 60degC. i used a meat thermometer to check that the meat was between 55degC and 60degC (on this occasion it was 58degC).

i removed from the oven & thoroughly dried the duck with paper towels, and then scored the breast, just cutting the fat. i then made a herb mix. i did not have fresh herbs so used dried basil & tomato herb mix, rosemary, coarse black pepper. i did not add sea salt as the duck was already brined. i rubbed the herb mix into the scored fat and the meat & sides.

i heat a non-stick pan with just a dash of vegetable oil to smoking, and placed the 2 duck breasts skin-side down, pressed against the pan & let the fat rendered out for about 5mins or more.

5hr sous vide crispy skin canard a l’orange

5hr sous vide crispy skin canard a l’orange

5hr sous vide crispy skin canard a l’orange

5hr sous vide crispy skin canard a l’orange

the result was an excellently flavoured medium rare duck breast with nice crispy skin. for this first attempt, the fat was not rendered out enough especially at the edge which was still white colour. still it was a very good recipe to reproduce a nice consistent sous vide interior & a crispy skin.

i am still working on the sauce. i could not locate the sauce recipe on chef john’s video. currently i am thinking to use the duck in orange sauce recipe OR to experiment on a fruit jam sauce mix. 🙂

anyway, i will be doing this dish for a 8pax dinner for my buddies on 13.2.2014. for now i will probably go with the orange sauce.

c.h.e.f andy