Happy Chinese New Year!

Chinese New Year gatherings are always more bearable with cousins, and especially with cousins willing to cooperate.

In line with the new year - new beginnings vibe, I changed the header and cleaned up all links! It is oddly incredible how good this feels.

Hope the Lunar New Year brings love, happiness and contentment for all!


Love,
Daffy

What is breakfast to you?

What comes to mind at the sight of the word “BREAKFAST”? For some, this is a hot bowl of smooth rice congee, and a long fried you tiao (a long, savoury churro). For some, this might be kaya (coconut jam) toast and a cup of thick, strong coffee. In some other continent, this could be a simple freshly baked croissant with homemade pear jam.

I personally have images of fat fluffy pancakes almost drenched in maple syrup. A slice of bacon (pictured above) was a surprising bonus at Halia. While it worked, the combination never occured to me because they always belonged to separate breakfasts sets. Order "The Works" and you get bacon, beans, eggs, sausages and toast. Feeling like something sweet for breakfast instead? Get the pancake stack. There are few places that serve their pancakes as they should be - fat, fluffy and generous with the maple syrup. At Halia, they were all that with fruits and bacon: pure yum.

Side story- I was a little shocked when I was with a friend at a new cafe in town and the Banana Pancakes I ordered came as two 6-inch stacks of miniature pancakes the size of half my palm each. Even the bananas were tiny! Someone must have complained because the next time I went back, I saw waiters carrying plates of what looked like regular sized pancakes.


Back at Halia, while I had my mind set on the pancakes, my companion was drawn to a special breakfast combination right at the bottom of the menu - Truffle-scented Egg White Scramble with Sturgeon Caviar, Hokkaido Scallops and Foie Gras Torchon Pate on Brioche. It piqued my curiousity and after some deliberation, we took the plunge.

I was glad I was sharing it because every single component of the dish was rich. At first sight, the portion was not generous, but halfway through I was thankful for the foresight of the chef. It was decadently pleasant when shared though. Combined with light breeze, lush greenery all around (plenty of fresh oxygen), fat fluffy pancakes and a fun companion, that was possibly one of the most enjoyable breakfasts I'd ever had.

Frenched Out

When I invite a group of friends over for a potluck dinner and most of the conversation at the table revolves around ‘How did you make this duck confit?’, ‘Are frozen prawns better than those you buy at the market?’ or ‘Guess the mystery ingredient in the sauce!’ I know I’ve hit the jackpot.

This is possibly one of the ‘foodiest’ group of friends I have and having potlucks with them is always pure bliss because I know they take their food seriously. Most of my other friends would chip in by bring something bought, but the potlucks I’ve had with this particular group were all legendary and nothing less than homemade.

With a simple French theme, the menu of the night spanned from one-of-the-most-expensive-bowls-of-tomato-soup-I’ve-ever-drunk, and amazing Moules Mouclad (mussels in cognac cream sauce), to a fantastic duck confit that unfortunately has no recipe because the cook never uses a proper recipe.

The most tedious dish would definitely be the tomato consommé that was also possibly the most expensive dish there. G bought incredibly pricy vine-riped tomatoes from Jasons Market Place and mistakenly added to his basket organic cherry tomatoes, bringing the cost of the ingredients to a whopping $70. He brought all the ingredients over to cook so I witnessed the entire cooking process from start to finish and I take my hat off to him for his resilience.

And even when the tomato consomme did not turn out as clear as we all envisioned it to be, we all still appreciated the cool crisp intense tomato soup. I eagerly went for seconds and thirds taking into account the laboriousness of it all and the cost that went into it. Sadly, I went to Meidi-Ya a couple of days after that and bought a tomato essence drink produced by Asahi at just $2 which tasted almost identical to that labour intensive soup.

Which dish was the highlight of the night? It is arguable. It is terribly difficult to choose among the tomato soup, the mussels and the duck confit (especially with some truffle salt). But since the mussels is possibly the dish that was prepared at the lowest cost among the three, though it might not have ordinarily been so, I decided to post the recipe for the mussels - especially useful in these economically tough times.

Click here for link to L's recipe for Mussels Mouclad.

The Sick Salmon

New year, new resolutions! I haven't had my annual reflection/resolution-making session with Fel yet, but am hoping to get down to it soon. Sounds like my first resolution should be to stop procrastinating.

Random: I am simply in LOVE with this Little-Red-Riding-Hood-Stamp-Set I got as a gift. From my ultimate favourite stationery shop - Wood Would, I fell in love with it the moment I tore apart the gift-wrapper.

Since I was somewhat busy during the entire festive season, I decided not to overload myself by organising a dinner party among a group of close friends, although I must admit I was incredibly tempted to do so. I did however manage to make some adorable gift tags with the new stamp set for my colleagues - to go with some small gifts of course. AND of course, I managed to cure some salmon as well.

And as promised in my previous entry, here's a simple base recipe for curing salmon.

CURED SALMON

Recipe from CHOW

INGREDIENTS
3 cups kosher salt
3 cups granulated sugar
4 tablespoons lightly crushed white peppercorns
1 (1- to 2-pound) piece of salmon fillet, skin on (scales removed), pin bones removed
1 bunch dill (including stems), coarsely chopped
1 bunch Italian parsley (including stems), coarsely chopped
Zest of 1 medium lemon

METHOD
1. Place salt, sugar, and peppercorns in a medium bowl and mix until evenly combined. Rub about 1/4 cup of the mixture onto both sides of the salmon.
2. Mix together dill, parsley, and lemon zest in a separate bowl until evenly combined. Place half the herb mixture in the bottom of a 13-by-9-inch glass baking dish or other wide, shallow, nonreactive container, then spread 1/2 of the remaining sugar-salt mixture over the herbs. Place the salmon on this, and top with the remainder of the sugar-salt mixture and the herbs.
3. Weight the salmon by nesting another glass dish or heavy pan in the first baking dish or container. Place 3 to 4 pounds of weight on top of that (large cans work well) and put the dish in the refrigerator.
4. After 10 to 12 hours, remove the dish from the refrigerator and drain off any liquid. Scrape the layer of salt and herbs off the top of the salmon and flip the fish over. Repack the salt and herbs over the top, replace the weights, and store in the fridge for an additional 12 hours. (Mess alert!)

5. When the salmon is finished curing, remove it from the pan, rinse under cold water, and pat dry. Slice and serve!