Recipe: Braised Veal Cheeks

I am sometimes asked how I decide upon what food to serve to my guests. There is a simple answer to this: I don't. Usually, the decision is made for me, through various circumstances. In this case, I was sitting around scratching my head wondering what to serve for a main course. On my table, it had to be meat, no questions about that. But what kind of meat? Beef? Lamb? Pork? Quail?

I flipped through the Indoguna catalogue, and discovered that only a few items met my budget requirements, and out of these, I decided I wouldn't mind trying my hand at cooking veal cheeks, even though I'd never attempted them before.

Now, when you think veal cheeks, you think braised, but the trouble was, I'd never braised anything before. Not vegetables, not eel, and not veal cheeks. Still, once I had Googled a suitable recipe, it didn't seem very difficult.

Unfortunately, this isn't one of those magical recipes that can be followed word for word, measure for measure. With some amendments:

Ingredients (Serves 8)

16 veal cheeks (about 3kg)
4 onions, chopped
2 - 3 carrots, chopped
450g button mushrooms, sliced
4 tsp chopped garlic
1 cup Madeira wine
1 litre veal stock
1 cup red wine (optional)
2 bay leaves
4 thyme sprigs



The original recipe also included bacon, rather like cooking coq au vin, but I decided to dispense with that this time.



In a deep pot, saute the onions and carrots with some olive oil, until they're nice and soft, about 5 minutes or more depending on how you've cut them.



Add the garlic and the mushrooms and continue to cook. Personally I'd add the garlic even before the onions and carrots, but it doesn't really matter. Make sure nothing burns as the mushrooms are cooking.



It should only take another five minutes or so for the mushrooms to become nice and brown all over, whereupon they'll probably start exuding some juices.



Deglaze with Madeira (I used port since I didn't have Madeira handy), and cook for 1 to 2 minutes, allowing some of it to evaporate.



Add the veal stock and the herbs, and bring the whole thing to a boil. Once it's boiling, turn it down to a simmer.



Season the veal with salt and pepper and add it to the simmering liquid. The liquid should just about cover the veal. If it doesn't, add the red wine. Simmer, covered, until the cheeks are tender, about 1 - 2 hours. It's quite hard to overcook when braising and stewing, so just check once in a while after an hour and turn off the heat when you're satisfied. Make sure to stir the bottom occasionally, so that nothing burns. Don't worry if it seems like the cheeks are not getting soft; by the time you fish them out after two hours, if they still aren't tender, then you started with rocks.



Again, served with polenta, and again, the polenta didn't turn out very well. If anyone has a good polenta recipe, I want it!

Technorati Tags: Recipes, Veal Cheeks, Braising

Recipe: Vichyssoise

Vichyssoise is a classic French soup, beautiful in its pure whiteness and hearty in its flavour. It's made from potatoes and leeks. If you don't know what a leek is, please find it here. Leeks are closely related to onions, but have a much milder and more complex flavour, which make them perfect for soups. In Singapore, leeks are much cheaper if bought from the wet market, so try to avoid getting them from supermarkets, where they can cost $1 per 100g, which is criminal.

This recipe comes courtesy of Anthony Bourdain, and is one of those rare recipes that actually works just about perfectly.

Ingredients (Serves 6)

4 Tbsp/56g butter
8 leeks, white part only, cleaned and thinly sliced
2 medium potatoes, cut into small cubes
4 cups/900ml light chicken stock
2 cups/450ml heavy cream
1 pinch of nutmeg
Salt and Pepper
4 fresh chives, finely chopped

No mise en place picture for this recipe; I was in a bit of a rush and forgot. Use your imagination. Generally, only the white parts are mild enough to use, but a little bit of green is forgiveable. Just a bit though.



In the large, heavy-bottomed pot, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Once the butter is melted, add the leeks and sweat for 5 minutes, making sure they do not take on any colour. Add the potatoes and cook for a minute or two, stirring a few times.



Once your spuds and leeks are glistening and slightly softened, they should look something like the ones above.



Stir in the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer. Cook on low heat, gently simmering, for 35 minutes, or until the leeks and potatoes are very soft. Allow to cool for a few minutes.

Slowly, and in small batches, puree the soup at high speed in a blender. Do not fill the blender more than halfway-up each time. I forgot to take pictures of this process, but really, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure it out.



When everything is blended, return the soup to the cooking pot and whisk in the cream and the nutmeg. Season with salt and pepper. Return to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and continue cooking for 5 minutes. You can thin out the soup with a little additional stock at this point, if needed.

Now, vichyssoise can be served either hot or cold. You may serve it now, hot, and it'll be good, but you can also serve it cold, and it'll be much, much better.

If you are going to serve it cold, here are Bourdain's instructions: Transfer the soup to a mixing bowl and chill over an ice bath, stirring occasionally. When the soup is at room temperature – and only when it is at room temperature – cover it in plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator overnight, or until cool.



When ready to serve, check the seasoning, sprinkle with freshly cut chives, and serve in chilled bowls. As easy as easy can be.

And as Anthony kindly reminds us, This is a soup that does get better over time. But keep it covered with plastic (not foil) in the refrigerator, as it will pick up other tastes. And never put it into the refrigerator while still hot.

Technorati Tags: Recipes, Soups, Vichyssoise

Recipe: Tomato Gazpacho

Finally found some time last weekend to cook and have dinner. Feeling rather inspired by the French trip, I decided to try my hand at a tomato gazpacho. There was just one slight problem: I had no idea how to make one.

After looking around, I found an easy-looking recipe. Actually, tomato gazpacho is not very difficult to make; you just have to make sure your ingredients are nice and fresh, no preserved stuff.



It is indeed unfortunate, though, that something as simple as fresh ingredients are so hard to find in Singapore. The tomatoes you see above, vine-ripened, are still not as sweet and succulent as one would like, but they'll still set you back about $2 each, so you'll want to budget properly.

My main problem was that I only wanted enough gazpacho to fill five shot glasses, and had no idea how to reduce the recipe correspondingly. In the end, I ended up with about ten times as much gazpacho as I needed. If you do feel like serving gazpacho, keep the portions small (as in an amuse-bouche); it's a bit spicy to serve as a full soup course.

Ingredients (serves 6 as a full course)

1 large cucumber, peeled and cubed
2 red bell peppers, seeded and chopped
6 ripe plum tomatoes, cubed
1 large red onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 tablespoon basil
1 tablespoon parsley
1 1/2 - 2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
4 cups tomato juice
1/3 cup vinegar (preferably balsamic, but any kind will do)
1/4 cup olive oil



There really isn't much skill involved in this recipe. It even lends itself to being made a day in advance. If you muck it up, then there is no hope for you, really. Having said that, I did manage to muck it up slightly. If you do make the recipe in advance to chill in the fridge, be sure to leave out the garlic or use very little (even less than the stated amount above). This is because garlic intensifies as it sits and will overpower the rest of your gazpacho. I read this in some other recipe and ignored it, but it turned out to be one of those pearls of wisdom that are actually true, so ignore at your own peril.



Okay, so place your cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, onion and garlic in a food processor or blender and pulse the hell out of everything till you get liquid. If it's too dry, add some of the tomato juice or olive oil. Keep adding the other ingredients till everything has been smoothly blended.



If your blender is not very big, then for mercy's sake work in batches. You can mix the separate liquids you obtain in another bowl.



At the end of all that blending, you should obtain something that looks roughly like the liquid in the bowl above, depending on how far you've deviated from the recipe and taken your own liberties.

Now all you have to do is strain the liquid repeatedly (I strained at least three times) to rid it of all that unpleasant pulp, pith and seed residue that the cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes generate. Your gazpacho should be as smooth as possible.

Once that's done, have a taste. Gazpacho is meant to be pretty intense, but if it goes straight to your head, chuck it into the fridge with a couple of ice cubes to dilute it. Serve chilled at the dinner table, to be drunk as quickly as possible.

P.S. if anyone has a good recipe for clear gazpacho, I want it!

Technorati Tags: Recipes, Gazpacho

Review: L'Antipasto

Continuing with the Italian theme, we were looking for a place to have lunch on Saturday, when the weekend Business Times fortuitiously featured a writeup of some new eateries that have opened. One of those featured, L'Antipasto, was really close to home, and looked like it offered very lunch-friendly fare, so we decided to give it a try.



L'Antipasto also includes a small deli concept, where you can purchase hams, tomatoes, and assorted Italian goodies. A modest dining affair, the restaurant can probably comfortably seat about thirty people, and the interior is well-lit.



We decided to start with a selection of Italian cold cuts, mostly ham and salami with a dash of olive oil. The cuts were pretty good (3.5/5), but they could have been served even more chilled.



We also decided to share a plate of bruschetta. I've found that it's always the simplest dishes that are paradoxically the most difficult to do well. Few places serve a truly exceptional bruschetta, hence I was pleased to find that L'Antipasto was one of the few places that took their bruschetta really seriously (4.5/5). It was quite excellent, the tomato concasse full of ripe, full-bodied, explosive cubes of sweet tomatoes, the bread just the right state between crusty and rock-hard. I think I could have made an entire meal of those little buggers.



At this point the chef came out to have a chat with the customers, and when we praised him on the bruschetta, he told us it was because the tomatoes were specially imported from Italy, and very kindly brought out two samples for us to try. The ones on the right are Italian tomatoes whose proper names I have forgotten, and the ones on the left are Buffalo Heart tomatoes. It's interesting how different in texture and taste they were; the small tomatoes were clearly meant for eating, as they were sweet and palatable, while the buffalo hearts were much more grainy and not easy to eat in their own right.



I decided to have the special pizza set lunch that the restaurant was offering on weekends; a pizza and a dessert of the day for $18. The only pizza that looked fairly appetising was the Hawaiian, but the end-result came out rather disappointing (2/5). The ingredients were not particularly generous, and the oven was either not hot enough, or the pizza wasn't placed in it long enough, because the pizza crust was still rather doughy and floury. Usually I don't finish the crust because it fills me up, but this time I didn't eat it because it was quite awful. You can see how pale the crust looks in the photo; not a hint of charring at all.



My sister had the lightly-cooked duck breast, which was very good, and I'd happily recommend it. The pizza though, you could probably do without.



Lunch ended with a tiramisu, which is supposedly one of the must-trys at the restaurant. As tiramisus go, it was pretty good (3.5/5), though I did think it could have benefitted from a bit more coffee.

L'Antipasto suffers from quite a few teething problems at the moment, most notably the fact that they run out of food exceedingly quickly. In the time that we were there, they informed us that they were out of two desserts, and one main course. This was on a Saturday afternoon, which I think speaks quite ill of their procurement strategy. Also, some of their dishes are a bit hit and miss. Given this, prices should be lower in order to compensate and attract more customers to an otherwise unknown location.

L'Antipasto (Italian)
76 Namly Place
Tel: 6762 1587
Email
Location: 4/5
Service: 3/5
Ambience: 3.5/5
Food: 3/5
Overall: Overpriced for their current offerings; time will tell what will become of them

Technorati Tags: Italian Food, L'Antipasto, Singapore, Restaurants

Review: Da Paolo il Giardino

Italian restaurant binge this past week. On Thursday, May and I went to have dinner at Da Paolo il Giardino, part of the Da Paolo chain that spans three restaurants and one pizza bar.



In terms of location, ambience and presentability, Da Paolo il Giardino certainly has a lot to offer. It's located squarely in Bukit Timah Road, very conveniently accessible by bus or car (no train, sorry), and offers both indoor and al fresco dining. I cannot eat without air conditioning in the this weather, so we sat indoors. It rained heavily that night, so it's a good thing that we did, too.



The kitchen is a see-through concept, so if you sit near the back of the restaurant, you get to see your food being prepared, and if they really do spit in food you send back. The restaurant also features a classy bar counter and nice, clean white tables and chairs.



I decided to go for the ravioli ($18) stuffed with veal and ricotta, tossed in butter and sprinkled with grated parmesan. Now, when they say tossed in butter; they're not kidding - my pasta was served in a pool of butter. I did think olive oil would have been more appropriate, and in a much smaller quantity. Nonetheless, the ravioli was very good, though they should have been more generous with the stuffing (3.5/5).



For dessert, we couldn't decide between the panna cotta and the chocolate cake ($8), so we decided to ask a waiter for recommendations. He very helpfully suggested the chocolate cake, because it came with ice cream. So between one dessert at room temperature and one cold dessert, we'd be better off with the cold dessert (no really, he actually said this).

So all right, we decide to have the cold dessert. Personally I think it's never a good idea to order chocolate cake for dessert unless it's the molten variety, because they inevitably turn out dry and not very nice. So it was with this cake (3/5); merely passably mediocre.

In terms of location and ambience, no complaints from me. Service is decent, I suppose, but not spectacular. The food is satisfying, and you're unlikely to be disappointed, but don't expect to be surprised, either. Prices are pretty much mid-range, with desserts being especially value for money.

Da Paolo il Giardino (Italian)
501 Bukit Timah Road,
#01-05, Cluny Court
Tel: 6463 9628
Website
Location: 4/5
Service: 3/5
Ambience: 4/5
Food: 3.5/5
Overall: Dependable Italian cuisine; perhaps the best outlet of the chain

Technorati Tags: Italian Food, Da Paolo, Singapore, Restaurants