High Fidelity

Crêpes Suzette

Flambéeing crêpes suzette, originally uploaded by yongtze.

Crêpes Suzette is a typical French dessert but I haven't seen it in any restaurant that I have been to. This is a recipe from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I really like the intense orange flavour of it. If you prepare the crêpes and the orange butter ahead, it is easy and fast to finish this classic dessert. Practise the folding and flaming of the crêpes until you become good at it had you wished to perform this dish in public.


For 15 to 18 crêpes 4 to 5 inches in diameter:

- 3/4 cup milk
- 3/4 cup cold water
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 tablespoon caster sugar
- 3 tablespoons orange liqueur (I used Grand Marnier)
- 1 cup flour
- 5 tablespoons melted butter

1. Place the ingredients in the blender jar in the order in which they are listed. Cover and blend at top speed until well mixed and the batter is smooth. Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

2. Brush the skillet with oil. Heat the pan over moderately high heat until it begins to smoke. Immediately remove from heat, pour in a 1/4 cup of batter into the middle of the pan. Quickly tilt the pan in all direction to run the batter all over the bottom of the pan in a thin film.

3. Return the pan to heat for 20-30 seconds. Once the under side in a nice light brown, turn the crêpe and brown lightly for about 15-20 seconds on the other side. As doen, slide the crêpe onto a wire rack and let cool several minutes before stacking them on a plate. Grease the skillet again and proceed with the rest of the crêpes. You can keep the crêpes warm by covering them with a dish and seeting them over simmering water. Crêpes also freeze perfectly.


For the orange butter (6 serves):

- 1/2 cup caster sugar
- 2 bright-skinned oranges, wax-free
- 200 grams unsalted butter
- 1/2 to 2/3 cup strained orange juice
- 3 tablespoons orange liqueur

1. Peel the skin of the orange (only the orange part) and place them together with the sugar in a food processor. Process until the orange zest and sugar are finely blended. Cut the butter into small pieces, and add into the processor and process until smooth and almost fluffy.

2. Then, cream in the orange juice and the orange liqueur by droplets. Add a bit more orange juice if the muxture still remain creamy. Cover and refrigerate.


To finish off:

- 18 cooked crêpes
- 2 tablespoons caster sugar
- 1/3 cup orange liqueur
- 1/3 cup cognac

1. Place the orange butter in a large skillet set over low-moderate heat (or you can use a chafing dish set over an alcohol flame shoud you wish to perform this in public). Heat the butter until it is bubbling.

2. Dip both sides of a crêpe in the butter. Fold it in half and in half again, to form a wedge. Place it at the edge of the pan. Rapidly continue with the rest of the crêpes until all have been dipped, folded and arranged.

3. Sprinkle the crêpes with the sugar. Pour over them the orange liqueur and cognac. Avert your face and ignite the liqueur with a lighted match or a lighter. Shake the pan gently back and forth while spooning the flaming liqueur over the crêpes until the fire dies down. Serve.

Andrew's Hamburger

Andrews Hamburger, originally uploaded by yongtze.

Ph: (03) 9690 2126; 144 Bridport St, ALBERT PARK 3206

I moved to Albert Park 6 months ago and I am extremely delighted that Andrew's Hamburger is just 5 minutes walk from my house.

The shop front and the interior will bring you straight back to the 70's, when food was still properly made with quality ingredients and patience. Every time when I was there the queue is always so long that it snakes out onto the foot path. Consider yourself lucky if you are told there is a 15-minute wait during dinner hour. It opens from Monday to Saturday until 9:30pm, but get there earlier because the beef patties are always sold out well before the closing hour.

No you won't get fancy ingredients here. These are good old, honest burgers that are cooked to the perfection in front of your eyes. The patties are grilled till the edges are crunchy, with cheese melted over the top. Below the patty are big fat thick tomato slices and finely shredded white cabbage and iceberg lettuce.

No photo of burger here because it is always most eagerly consumed after a well-worth wait. Take my word for it - you won't be disappointed.


Andrews Hamburger, originally uploaded by yongtze.

Steamed chicken-and-leek bun

steamed chicken-and-leek bun, originally uploaded by yongtze.

I have been wanting to eat cha siu baau (Cantonese barbecue pork buns) for a while.

Actually, no! The truth is that I have been dying to bake for a long time. But my new place that I moved into doesn't have an oven! That means no pie, quiches, tarts, gratins, fresh bread, roast chicken, the list can go on and on.

Well anyway, I had the sudden urge of eating a chicken-and-leek pie one day. Obviously I can't bake any pie without an oven. So I had this idea of using chicken-and-leek as a filling in Chinese steamed buns. After a few days of gathering ingredients and researching on the recipe for steamed buns, the end-product is what you see above.

The steamed bun looks yellow-brownish instead of white because I didn't use bleached flour. The dough for Chinese steamed-bun is actually not hard to make. It is double risen, first with yeast and then with baking powder, which makes the buns light and fluffy. Most recipes I found reccommend low-glutten flour to make the buns light and soft. I used a mixture of plain flour and corn flour which works fine too.

You can be creative with the fillings, which can be either savoury (e.g. the classic barbecue pork bun) or sweet. With sweet fillings like lotus seed paste or red bean paste these buns make great afternoon snack.

Makes 6 steamed buns:

- 3/4 teaspoon dried yeast
- 80ml lukewarm water
- 1 cup plain flour
- 2/5 cup corn flour
- 20g caster sugar
- 1 1/2 tablespoon oil (vegetable oil or pork lard)
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Fillings:

- 1 cup leek (white part only, chopped)
- 2 shallots (chopped)
- 1 cup chicken meat (diced or minced)
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 4 tablespoons pure cream
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 teaspoons roasted sesame oil (optional)

1. Dissolve the sugar in the water, then add the yeast. Stir and set aside until foamy.

2. Sift the flour and corn flour in a bowl and add the yeast mixture and the oil. Using a wooden spoon, mix the ingredients to a rough dough. Knead for about 5 minutes on a lightly floured surface, or until the dough is smooth and elastic. If it is very sticky, knead in a little more flour.

3. Lightly grease a bowl with some oil and place the dough in it. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and set aside to rise in a warm place (which means anywhere in Melbourne right now) until double in volume.

4. For the filling, melt butter in a frying pan on medium heat. Add leek and shallot and cook for 5 minutes or until they are soft. Stir frequently not to let the leek and shallot brown. Add in chicken and cook until the meat is cooked. Pour in the cream, stir and mix well. Simmer for 1-2 minutes. Season to taste. Add the roasted sesame oil if using. Let the filling cool down.

5. Once the dough doubles in volume, punch it down and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Flatten it and make a well in the centre. Place the baking powder in the well and gather up the edges to enclose the baking powder. Pinch the edges to seal. Lightly knead the dough for several minutes to even incorporate the baking powder.

6. Divide the dough into 6 portions. Working with one portion at the time, press the dough into circles with the edges thinner than the centre. Place the filling on the dough. Draw the sides in to enclose the filling. Pinch the top together and put each bun on a square of greaseproof paper (which I don't have it so I just put the bun on a lightly greased plate as shown below).



7. Place the buns well apart because they will continue to rise during steaming. Steam over simmering water in a wok or anything that suits you for 15 minutes. Serve hot. Steamed buns freeze well too.

My vegetarian brunch

my vegetarian brunch, originally uploaded by yongtze.

I have been eating a lot of pasta this few weeks. I wanted something rich and creamy but didn't feel like eating meat (because there was no meat in the fridge!). This is like a vegetarian version of carbonara and I think I might cook this more often than the real thing in the future =)

Serves 2

- 250g pasta of your choice
- 2 zucchinis, diced 1.5 cm cubes
- 1 garlic head, skinned and chopped fine
- 3 egg yolk
- 1 cup of grated parmesan/romano cheese
- half cup of cream
- light olive oil
- salt and pepper

1. Boil water in a large pot, adding some salt and oil. Once the water has started to boil, add the pasta and cook until al dente.

2. Heat up a skillet and add 3 tablespoons of oil and the chopped garlic. Cook with medium heat for about 2 minutes. Add diced zucchinis, stir and mix well with the garlic. Cover with a lid, cook for another 3-5 minutes or until the zucchinis are cooked. Open the lid from time to time to check and release some excess moisture.

4. Drain the pasta, return it into the pot, add egg yolk, cream, cheese to mix well with the pasta. Add in garlic and zucchinis mixture too to mix again. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Simple pasta with left-over roast pork, garlic and herbs

simple pasta with left-over roast pork, garlic and herbs, originally uploaded by yongtze.

This is a very simple quick lunch I made today because I've got some left-over roast pork meat in the fridge. Feel free to use any left-over meat you have in the fridge because most of the flavour comes from the garlic and the herbs - a fast, simple and tasty lunch.

Serves 2

- 250g pasta of your choice
- 150g leftover cooked meat, I used roast pork here
- 1 garlic head, skinned and chopped fine
- 10-15 basil leaves
- 2 tablespoons chopped chives
- light olive oil
- salt and pepper

1. Boil water in a large pot, adding some salt and oil. Once the water has started to boil, add the pasta and cook until al dente.

2. Heat up a skillet and add 3 tablespoons of oil and the chopped garlic. Cook with low heat for about 3-5 minutes. Watch the heat and stir the garlic often as not to burn the garlic. It should remain golden but not brown.

3. Add the leftover meat and mix it well with the garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Cover the skillet with a lid to warm the meat through quickly without burning the garlic, about 3-4 minutes.

4. Drain the pasta, mix well with the garlic and meat. Add in the basil leaves and chives to mix well. Season to taste before serving.

Fish porridge with local snapper

Fish porridge , originally uploaded by yongtze.

It's been a while since I put up a new recipe here. My guilt finally hits and here is a fish porridge recipe that is light and yet subtly tasty. Be sure the fish is fresh as it is the freshness that makes the porridge. Also, to cut down the cooking time, I used a stick blender to make the porridge smooth and creamy.

Serves 2-4:

- 1 cup of jasmine rice
- salt
- 1 whole snapper, about 1 kg
- 1 tablespoon peanut oil
- 10 cups of water
- 2 good knob of gingers, cut into thin shreds
- 2 shallots, thinly sliced
- 1 onion, sliced
- 2 spring onions
- 2 shallots
- 2 tomatoes, skiinned and cut into cubes

1. First we fillet the snapper. Keep the trimmings, tail, bones, and fish head for the fish stock. Cut the fillets into 2cm x 2cm smaller pieces.

2. Next, we start making the fish stock. Place the water, the trimmings, tails, fish bones, head, onion, half of the ginger, 1 spring onion (roughly sliced) into a stock pot and bring to boil on high heat. Once boiling, turn down to medium heat and simmer for 30-45 minutes, adding salt to taste.

3. Meanwhile, wash the rice thoroughly and drain the water. Add the oil to the rice and  mix them well in a heavy-bottomed stockpot. Set aside, let the grain to soak up the oil.

4. Once the fish stock is ready, pour it through a sieve into the rice and start cooking with high heat until the rice turns soft. Turn down the heat to low-medium to slowly cook for about 30 minutes, stirring often. Once the rice is really soft, use a stick blender to blend the rice for the creamy texture.

5. Add sliced fish, tomatoes and the other half of the gingers into the porridge and simmer for another 10 minutes, keep stirring as the porridge tends to burn at the bottom once blended. Salt to taste. Thinly slice the other spring onion.

6. For confit shallot: slowly cook the shallots with oil over very low heat for about 10 minutes until very crispy. Keep the oil together with the shallot.

7. To serve: Pour the fish porridge into serving bowls. Place some thinly sliced spring onion, confit shallot and its cooking oil on the porridge. For stronger flavour, sprinkle a few drops of sesame oil and some white pepper.

Update

We found YongTze is still busy cooking, taking photos and still forgetting about this weblog. It is confirmed that he is still very much alive and is in Melbourne.

Do not expect him to be back anytime soon probably before summer (when it will be too hot to do anything else). Meanwhile, check his flickr at - http://www.flickr.com/photos/yongtze/. He is known to update his flickr more frequently these days as his craze about photography continues to worsen.


A spring afternoon, in front of Melbourne Town Hall, Collins Street

Steamed asparagus with kaiser fleish and garlic

Steamed asparagus with kaiser fleish and garlic, originally uploaded by yongtze.

I have been ordering organic vegetables and fruits "Box of the Week" ($35) from "Green Line Organic Direct" for a few weeks and have to say that I am quite pleased with it. To give an idea what you can get in a box: Today I received 5 apples, 4 mandarins, 2 navel oranges, 4 bananas, 4 roma tomatoes, 3 potatoes, half a pumpkin, one bunch of celery, a small bag of baby spinach leaves, about 12 mushrooms, 2 carrots, 1 iceberg lettuce, and about 12 asparagus. Not exactly cheap but I would say it is reasonable and comparable to Safeway Homeshop (Not even organic).

With the asparagus, I decided to steam it quickly and then mix with pan-fried kaiser fleish (kind of like smoked bacon) and garlic. I have been eating steamed vegetables recently for its simplicity, speed and obvious health reasons.

Another reason is that as I always cook rice on the stove - when the rice is being boiled and cooked, just wait until most of the water evaporates and little holes appear in the surface on the rice, throw in the cut vegetables onto the rice and put the lid back on. While the rest of the water continues to boil and evaporates as the rice is being cooked, the steam cooks the vegetables in 2-5 minutes. So I get the rice and the vegetables cooked in the same pot and around the same time, extremely simple, fast and less washing-up to do!

I like squeezing my orange juice

Orange juice, originally uploaded by yongtze.

"We demand a level of convenience that is immodest.... We have lost familiarity with how things were made and the association of effort with reward" - Camilla Plum

How you like your omelette?

I'm just wondering how people like their omelettes? Fully cooked and slightly browned on one side? Or like French omelettes - moist, creamy inside?