nostalgic food

mcduck loves junket and so do i...

DIY sous vide at home: lamb steak

it must have been heston's feast on sbs that reminded me of molecular gastronomy...
suddenly, the harold mcgee book came out... and i discovered there were website such as sous vide extreme...
there must be a way to do "cooking a piece of meat in a vacuum bag in a water bath at a constant temperature" at home and cheaply without forking out few thousand bucks for a prof cooker...
after much web surfing and a visit to the local coles, came my light bulb moment, "coles prepacked steak, already marinated, cooked in topstove water bath with my trusty thermometre" (not forgetting that i had no food saver vacuum pack machine nor the prof water bath at hand)

the piece of steak had to be thin enough so that i didn't have to watch over the stove for hours and hours on end...

and it helped that the piece of meat was already sealed (thanks coles) and protected in a tasty marinade (thanks coles)
so with my candy thermometre showing the water temp being held at 58 degrees celcius, i floated the meat package (bottom sitting on top of a pair of chopsticks so not to touch the bottom of the pan) for 45 min or may be an hour at the same temp...
this was achieved by first getting 58 degrees in the roasting pan, then putting the pan over the smallest flame on the stove & watching the themometre, adjusting the flame if required...

the cooked meat in the bag did not look v appetising... however, the colour change of the meat pre and post cooking could be well spotted...

with the bag cut opened, i had instant sauce as well...
i did not bother to do any surface high heat searing for extra caramalisation or for any extra taste enhancing millard reaction... i simply sliced and served...

sliced marinated lamb with isreali couscous, mint and orange carrot salad with pumpkin seeds & simple broccoli

the nicest piece of lamb i have ever tasted! it didn't even taste like lamb... v tender, v juicy with a subtle meat flavour - and it was just a $4 piece of premarinated coles lamb?!
heston, thomas, farran and the gang are right...
next time i'll try some even cheaper, stewy cuts - according to bloggers out there, it would be like eating prime fillet cuts...

have a little merry x'mas!

being downunder, we were ready for a hot hot hot x'mas...
instead, the very english weather descended - including bucket loads of rain for the farmers (yipee) & a gloom and doom overcast (best reserved for video / hot chocolate days)
no matter... we did think of having a steamboat, but instead, had something deviating just a little from the tradition - i repeated the 90-degree slow fillet of beef roast...
which was yum to the max...
fillet was $30/kg and tasted much better than the $150/kg wagyu...
we had christmas pudding, custard and all (with too much brandy)...
we also opened our pressies!
this year... i got from santa(s)...
(as i have requested... excellent read, i am only on pg 10-15 or something... but v v good!)
something comfy for the feet...
something to make more cards / packaging with...
much needed software for my little and med laptops...
cookbooks from the fareast...
chocolates chocolates and more chocolates!
this is not a chinese new year red packet... it is a "golden packet" for x'mas!

homemade vietnamese gio lua (vietnamese luncheon meat)

just the weekend passed, mcduck made a delish rice noodle / viet ham (VLM vietnamese luncheon meat)... it was so delish... i just couldn't stop adding another piece and another (of the VLM)... at 7-8 bucks a roll, mcduck was rationing the portions... so i decided to have a hand in making my own...
after much research on the internet, and tweaking several recipes, i decided to make it with chicken thigh instead of the usual pork or chicken breasts...

approx 2kg of thigh cost about $20... i didn't bother cleaning up the sinew... i left the little bits of fat for moisture...
the rest of the marinade ingredients were in my pantry already... my recipe went like this:
2kg chicken thigh, diced into small pieces
5 tbsp fish sauce
4 heaped tsp chicken powder
2 tbsp sesame oil
4 tbsp veg oil
1 tsp pepper
2 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp tapioca flour 2 tbsp baking powder
*mix everything together and let it stand for an hour or several*
then i processed the meat in the food processor...
in 4-5 heaped tbsp of meat each time... processed for several minutes... rested between processing

until the meat became abit glossy and not sticky to the spatula... the meat became elastic...
i wrapped the meat in bamboo leaves and Al foil...
a note on the leaves -in the authentic version, banana leaves should have been used, i used the dried bamboo ones... had to be boiled and washed (v dusty and dirty)... cos i used the leftovers i had in the freezer, the leftovers from the time when i made sticky rice dumplings... i guess using the fresh banana leaves would be less work & more fragrant...
packed a bowl with the meat...
packed it on the lined bamboo leaves over Al foil...
rolled...
rolled...
tied both ends...
rolled over with Al foil, tightly...
rolled over with a 2nd sheet of Al foil... tightly again...
stringed, packed and lined up in my fish kettle...
covered with boiling water and simmered for an hour...

an hour later... after checking with the meat themometer (with internal temp 80 degrees cel' and beyond)... it was safe to be taken out...
and let cooled...
then came the unwrapping...
wow... it looked promising, liked the one from the shops...

and it tasted like that too! now i can have as much VLM as i want and not get told off! plus i will have 2 extra rolls waiting in the freezer for a rainy day...

My favourite PEPC snack

i do have the Primada recipe book sitting on the bench. I haven't tried many recipes from it though...

(i did do the cake with great success, blogged previously), cos making stuff with it (without any recipe) is so easy!
just put the stuff in, make sure there is moisture, close the lid, lock and press the button... done

i always make this "goji berries and snow fungus dessert/snack/soup" - it is nice to eat when kept in the fridge in summer and warming to have in the dead of winter...
goji berries are good for the eyes, and snow fungus is full of protein & good for the skin...
i like my dessert soup thick and gooey, a small pack of snow fungus (yellow, non bleached type) will do, plus a handful of goji berries...
goji berries need to be washed in cold water, they are usually dried in the open (may be on the road side some where in China, you never know, and thus full of dust)... remember don't buy these in health food shops, instead get them at the asian groceries - heaps more affordable!
snow fungus needs to be washed in cold water too and soaked - they expand 1-2 times at least
once they have expanded, they can be torn into smaller, more managable pieces...
plonk them in the pressure cooker pot...
fill with water, leaving 1-2 inches of space from the brim of the inner cooker...
close the lid, twist in position and make sure the top blowing hole is tuned to the "closed" position (the middle one on the dial of 3)
then just press the "soup button"...
the display will still show "000", until...

the inner pot heats up and the steam inside builds up until the pressure of the steam closes the airvent on the lid, then the "P00" comes on
"P" means the pressure cooker has reached its desired pressure and it is holding the pressure to cook the stuff... it doesn't show how many minutes it is going to hold the pressure though... i guess it uses fuzzy logic to sense whether the food inside is cooked or not...
when the stuff is cooked and ready, a "beeeeeep" sound is heard, adn the yellow light will shift from "soup" to "keep warm"...
all the hot steam and pressure is still trapped inside the pressure cooker... if you are in a hurry to eat right away, you'll have to release the x-s steam out from the pressure dial at the top - but becareful! this can be v dangerous! i usually just wait for the cooker to cool by itself (1/2 hr, an hour or overnight)...
or cover the top pressure dial with a wet cloth and v v v slowly turn the dial to release air/steam... the release of steam can take ages - mintues and minutes b4 the lid can be twisted and opened...
but with my goji berries and snow fungus dessert, i usaully leave the pot overnight b4 eating - the snow fungus will go more gooey... i do try and add sugar when the lid could be opened that night while the "soup" is hot (1-2 cups depending on taste, for the entire pot)...
then i enjoy it the next day and put it in the fridge (the whole inner pot with glass lid) to enjoy the rest fo the week...
yum!