Roasted Meat, Ang Mo Kio, Singapore

It's always pleasing to find little gems in the heartlands of Singapore. In fact, some (or most) of the best grub in Singapore are found in the heartlands where people are still keeping it real. I was in the area of Ang Mo Kio and decided to stop by somewhere for lunch. This coffeeshop at Blk 332 Ave 1 had a little crowd going on, so I stopped by and had a look.

To my utter delight, I saw a whole suckling pig being hung up at this stall simply named "Roasted Meat". To make things even better, this little slab of porcine splendor wasn't reserved for anyone and they sold it in portions as well.

Turns out they only make suckling pigs for retail during the weekends, so I guess it was my lucky day. This was still fresh when I ate it, the skin was super crisp and the meat was still moist and warm. They also had the "Peking duck" sauce for dipping, not just the common dark and sickly sweet soy sauce.

The roast duck looked really good too, so I ordered half a bird for lunch and the other half to-go. Man, was this good roast duck and on promotion at only 18SGD a bird, it was almost a steal. The skin was thin and crisp but best of all, it was served mostly deboned. To top it off, their chilli sauces were good too.

D

Steak and Parmesan Yorkshire Pudding

Those who were communicating with me whilst I was at work that day would have known that I was getting a huge craving for steak and Yorkshire pudding. I'm actually not very sure as to which order to post the recipes but I guess I'll start with the Yorkshire puddings first because the batter has to be made prior and chilled before use.


*Parmesan Yorkshire Pudding*

Yorkshire pudding was originally served in England as a poor man's food because it was essentially a filler. It would normally be served with a generous pour of gravy before the roast was carved. It is essentially a savory pudding although other dessert variants which involve golden syrup are quite popular as well. Since this is my first "baked/non-meat" recipe, I thought it befitting to let a savory parmesean Yorkshire pudding have the maiden honor.

Ingredients:
1. Plain flour
2. Milk
3. Eggs
4. Salt
5. Beef dripping
6. Grated parmesan

Method:
1. Beef dripping
a. Buy some beef drippings or even better, freshly make your own

b. Beef dripping is actually the fat from a roast which has dripped down to the tray below but since I wasn't roasting meat today I requested some beef fat from my friendly butcher. The people at Butcher House were generous enough to give me some raw fat

c. Fry the beef fat till a good amount of oil is released and the initial pieces of fat become brown crisps (these are extremely tasty to snack on)
d. Pour the oil into a bowl and keep aside to cool for later

2. Making the Batter

a. Mix equal amounts of milk into plain flour i.e. one cup of milk to one cup of plain flour, and stir consistently
b. You may blend or machine mix this but I prefer the old fashion method of hand-whisking it
c. Add a very small pinch of salt and two medium sized eggs to every cup of milk and flour used, whisk till smooth
d. Hand-whisking actually prevents you from overbeating the eggs
e. Mix in grated parmesean
f. Cover batter in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes

3. Baking those Puddings

a. Place about one teaspoon of beef dripping into each cupcake orifice and smear it about
b. Bake the fat at about 220degC till it starts to "smoke" (usually after about five minutes)
c. Remove the tray from the oven and using a 1/3 cup, pour one scoop into each orifice
d. You should have enough batter for five cupcake sized Yorkshire puddings
e. Immediately place back into the oven and bake (still at 220degC) till golden brown (usually takes about 20 minutes)

f. This stuff rises heaps so it's really quite fun

g. Look at how much it has risen once it's ready! I swear I didn't pop in any magic blue diamonds to get this effect haha.


*Steaks*

Nothing really much to talk about, a good steak basically requires a good cut and a good source of heat.

Ingredients:

1. Steak - this is a closer look at the 6 week aged USDA Black Angus ribeyes that I picked up from Butcher House. Each one is about an inch thick and weighs about 435g
2. Salt and pepper

Method:
1. Heat up your steak cooking pan/stone/wok/etc

2. Cook one side first

3. Flip it only once
4. Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste


*Steak and Parmesan Yorkshire Pudding*

The main reason why I included parmesan in my Yorkshire pudding was since I wasn't making a roast, I didn't have a good gravy to go with it, but I still wanted to give it a nice flavor. I'm actually not really fond of getting my Yorkshire puddings soggily drowned in gravy and prefer them straight, crisp on the outside and fluffy and chewy within.

I guess you could pimp up your Yorkshire pudding with more condiments such as bacon bits and cream, grilled mushrooms etc. But I wanted to dine hardcore tonight, no frilly pretty bits, just a man and his meat. Besides, just look at those golden brown and perfectly crisp Yorkshire puddings, are you sure you want to adulterate it with anything else?

As I was feeling abit of a bloodlust that night, I decided to deviate from my usual medium-rare finish and had my steak done rare plus instead.

The other steak was still done to the usual medium.

Serve both dishes hot! This is especially important for the Yorkshire puddings as they tend to go limp after awhile when cooled.

D

*This post is the second of two to be dedicated to Cin for my unco-ness =P*

Butcher House, River Valley, Singapore

Some things in life are always worth celebrating. A close friend getting married, a family member having a baby, a grandpa reaching 100 years. Not too far from the rest on that list is, "a new butchery being opened" haha! I received the flyer informing me that a new gourmet butchery had just opened at 464 River Valley Road and decided to pay them a visit.

Anyway this place is called "Butcher House"; that's it, nothing more fancy. I really appreciated that smack-in-the-face-lack-of-subtlety name. "Butcher House", sounds like some B-grade slasher flick or a secret level in Diablo haha. Their selection is quite wide but since they had only opened on 1st November 2006, some of their suppliers had not delivered some stock- namely the wagyus! Nonetheless, their range of sausages and hams was rather impressive. In fact, they had the snail sausage (it's a rolled sausage, not a sausage made from snails. Hmm I wouldn't mind some snails right now...) that I used to get from Swiss Butchery. Even bigger suprise! The people running this place were ex-Swiss Butchery staff! So I gleefully proceeded to choose an assortment of things just to suss out their quality and took my little bundle of joy home.

So I came home with some sausages, ham and two good-sized steaks for dinner. The great thing about a new place is that they are always ever so polite and allowed tastings for all their cured meats. That's how I decided what to buy this round.

I liked this alot more than the veal bratwursts because it had a chunkier bite and stronger flavor. Veal has never been a favorite meat of mine because its flavor is usually too light and subtle.

Anything with a spicy variant is worth trying. This tasted pretty good too, like a less herby chorizo.

Had to get some good old honey glazed ham in anticipation of Christmas. This was really quite good, not too salty and extremely fragrant and most importantly; it tasted fresh.

Since they didn't have any cuts of wagyu, I couldn't have a fair comparison against Espirito Santo's or Swiss butchery's wagyu. A notch below wagyu came the USDA Black Angus ribeye, which did look very nice though, so into the basket it went.

Which opening celebration is without some nice freebies? My flyer entitled me to some free vacuum packed mini frankfurters and a 10% discount membership card. Way Cool!

So far, things at "Butcher House" seem rather promising and they said they'll email me when the wagyu's in. Till then, I'll just enjoy their hams and sausages.

D

*This post is the first of two to be dedicated to Cin for my unco-ness =P*

Picnic by the Swan

Singapore's a great place with good food, it's very centralized and is great as a travel hub to other countries with great food as well. However, there are still some things I miss about Perth, Western Australia (besides family and friends of course haha). One of those things is just a simple lunch picnic in the park just besides my abode overlooking the Swan River.

Grab a tasty breadroll from any European deli. I normally go for the mixed meat with extra butter, salad and a dash of salt and pepper.

Since this deli I get my breadrolls from is rather generous with the salad, I usually order a 200g side-serve of spicy salami to supplement my lunch and in a way, just to balance things out a little hehe.

Wash it all down with a cold Chinotto (Italian soda) whilst watching the boats go by on the clear blue waters of the Swan. Chinotto is a drink for those with an acquired taste. It tastes sweet at first but has a slightly bitter aftertaste; I love the stuff.

Singapore is great for many things but somehow I can never replicate this experience here.

D

p.s: If anyone knows where I can get Bisleri Chinotto in Singapore, please let me know? I'm not fond of the more popular San Pellegrino brand.

Roast Pork D Chinese Style

Roast pork is one of those things I very seldom order at a Chinese BBQ joint unless I have a ridiculous craving for it. I don't order roast pork because I can make a wicked one at home and I feel it's rather meaningless to order something that you can do as good or if not, even better. I do however, order BBQ pork (char siew) or BBQ pork ribs despite being to make them as well because they tend to require a little more effort in my kitchen. That being said, Chinese roast pork is so easy to do that once you start making it at home, I think you may share my sentiments. Although I'm never secretive about my recipes, I don't tend to slut them around either. This is one from my family vault of classics and is always very welcomed at potluck parties.

Ingredients:
1. A good slab of belly pork
2. Salt, five-spice powder, Chinese salt, preserved red fermented beancurd, pepper, oyster sauce
3. Sesame oil

Method:
1. Season the ventral surfact of the pork belly (i.e. the meat side) with salt, pepper, five-spice powder, Chinese salt, oyster sauce, preserved red fermented beancurd and sesame oil

2. Put the slab(s) on a rack and roast in the oven, meat side up for about 40 minutes at 160degC (non-fan-forced)
3. Remove from oven and flip it over so that the skin side faces up

4. Score the surface with a sharp knife to form a grid (as you can see, the blades in my kitchen don't get early retirement haha)

5. Generously rub salt into the skin (you may use a brush or a similar utensil to do this because it's really hot but I am the man with the iron fingers. I am now however, the man with the burnt and painful iron fingers)
6. Place the slab(s) back in the oven for another 20mins at 160degC, skin side up

7. Turn the heat up high (about 200 to 250degC) to start the crackling process

8. You can actually hear the skin go "pop" like popcorn when it's crackling. *Pop*, *pop*, *pop*... music to my ears. You can even get a sheet of bubble wrap and join in the chorus

Hint:
1. Marinate the slabs for at least a day, this gives it a much better flavor
2. Do not score too deep into the skin such that you penetrate the meat, the juices from the meat will make it difficult for the skin to crackle

Behold! Home-made roast pork with super crunchy crackling. Is there anymore reason to order this outside now?

Slice and serve hot!

D

Helio Cafe Again

It's been awhile since I last went to Helio Cafe and I heard that "Chocolate Theme" week was going on so inevitably I was here again for lunch.

We started off with a salad that had watermelon, crumbled fetta and chrysanthemum petals. Quite unique really but I was never a salad person (with the exception of a good Caesar - a true man's salad) so it did not leave that strong an impression on me.

Since I had some guests who have not been here before, I thought it wise to play it safe and order the baked salmon with the saffron cream sauce which was done extremely well the last time. This variant didn't have the pastry but it was still very delectable indeed. The soft and succulent portobello mushrooms complemented the tender flaky salmon perfectly.

"Pastry Wrap Seedless Grapes Chicken with Lemon" was up next. The chook is basically encased in a very hard pastry which allows it to be steamed in its own juices. This creates an extremely tender and juicy bird. The flavors from the grapes and lemon are imparted to the chook elevating its already strong aroma to a higher fragrance.

Now that the mains were out of the way, it was time to indulge in some desserts! Don't get me wrong, the mains are very good indeed but you know a place has good sweets if your largest course is your dessert haha. The Chocolate Almond Orange Cake tasted exactly like how it's described, crunchy almond bits and a light citrus tang, the rick dark chocolate used in this shone through creating a really nice balanced taste.

Chocolate De Pot with Chocolate Biscotti, think of this as Nutella on steroids. Dipping the crisp biscotti into the de pot made this dish as fun to play with as it was good to eat.

A nice twist to the molten chocolate cakes that are getting so common right now. This molten white chocolate cake came topped with apricots which were soaked in rum and red wine for two months. A generous dash of rum which was infused into the cake made this even more enjoyable.

Well, many would have heard and tried baked Alaskas but at Helio, they serve a torched Alaska instead. This allows the meringue to be extremely light and fluffy because it is not required to be subjected to the heat of an oven over a period of time. This is the Chocolate torched Alaska with rum and brownie base.

I'm the trouble starter, punkin' instigator

I'm the fear addicted, danger illustrated

I'm a firestarter, twisted firestarter
You're the firestarter, twisted firestarter
I'm a firestarter, twisted firestarter

Drizzle over some rich dark chocolate.

In contrast to the immaculately soft and light meringue is a sinful and rich brownie infused with dark Jamaican rum. Clement took the liberty to add a little more rum than normal into this. A gesture I most appreciated. Encased in an innocent looking fluffy exterior but with a core so indulgent and decadent, this was like the not-so-innocent girl next door haha!

No trip to Helio Cafe is really complete without their cheesecake right? Pre-sliced to serve our table of four, this fridge-set cheesecake sure hit the right spot.

All of this good stuff washed down with a very light alcoholic white wine tea. Although it may sound rather unconventional to mix tea and alcohol, it has been done. Remember Long Island Tea? All in all, Helio Cafe provided a very satisfying luncheon for four at about 170SGD.

D