Young Ginger Roots Part 2: Main Course and Dessert

I half-jokingly told my friends that I have bought so many young ginger roots at the market that maybe I should prepare the whole dinner using that as the major theme. And come to think of that, it’s not a bad idea at all. So after the appetizer of the tomato stuffed with ponzu jelly and young ginger garnish, here’s the main course dish and dessert.

The Ramen Story - Making it at home

I took on the experiment of making ramen from scratch at home not on a mission to create the perfect bowl but to try to see how difficult it was even to make a half-decent version.

I first got this idea when I picked up the book by Ivan Orkin, the chef behind the legendary Ivan Ramen (first in Tokyo, then New York City). In the past I always thought ramen is nothing more than a bowl of broth made with pork bones, slices of charsiu and noodles, but I was fascinated by the complexity of Chef Ivan's recipe of no less than a dozen different ingredients that went in, each requiring separate set of processes to prepare. This is why I decided to try on a simplified version as an one-off project in my own kitchen. I meant to start during the Chinese New Year break but at the end I didn't start until one week after.

Cooking with Not-my-homemade Jam

In early December, a good friend and a neighbor of ours W - known for his jam-making skills among many of his talents - passed us a jar of quince jam he made during the festive season. We were ecstatic to have received such a wonderful gift right on time for the holiday stretch.

Beef Tenderloin with Chimichurri Sauce

Last weekend, I made a bunch of Chimichurri Sauce to go with the meatball skewers we prepared for a church reception. Afterwards, I decided to make an extra batch using leftover ingredients to for a makeshift steak dinner at home.

Dinner for Two (Part 1) - Rice Paper Ravioli

Bouquet of 99 roses. Candlelit Dinner. Those are not really our thing. At least not on February 14. Not when restaurants were baiting on customers with "special menu" charging twice the normal price; not when pretty much everyone is doing the same thing.

Instead, this year I decided to cook a simple dinner at home on Valentine's Day. I realized it's been a while since I cooked a slighly more sophisticated dinner just for us two so it's good to stay in, opening up one of the bottles we kept in the wine fridge to clear up some much needed space, and just chill.

Just a slightly fancier home dinner

It all started with us wanting to open a bottle of Piedmont wine ahead of our trip to the region late next month. Figured it's good to have some background knowledge of the geography and produce of the area to make the journey more fun. This is when I decided preparing something for dinner that would go well with the wine.

Cooking at home: A presentable dinner

A change of our schedule allowed us to ask our friends Charlene and Alan to come for dinner in one weekend evening in late June. They don't seem to have a preference on anything particular, plus my work schedule has been crazy lately, so I was unable to plan too much ahead of time - so there goes items like steak or pork. Well I have been making a few duck dishes lately with some success, so I decided to stick with duck as my main course ingredient.

Cooking at Home: Making of an "Artisan" Dinner

I have been experimenting with some new dishes lately, and we have some of our friends come over one Saturday night to try them out.

We started off with an amuse bouche of white chocolate "truffle" with foie gras filling. We had something similar in a few places before (namely Amber of Hong Kong and more recently, at Yukawatan in Japan's Kuruizawa) so I was curious to see whether this can be replicated at home. Turned out it's more difficult than I thought in terms of archieving an uniform coating of chocolate on the foie gras cube, but at least it did taste decent. Something we can explore further.

Another sous vide dinner - at home

Just this past weekend we had 2 families over for dinner at our place. After hearing me mumbling about how good Sous Vide dishes can be, my friend A requested that I did one that evening, which I not only obliged but made 2 dishes out of my Sous Vide machine.

Cooking at home: 30-hour "Instant" Ramen

Like many Hong Kong families, I always keep a handful packets of instant ramen at home – whether that be for a quick fix for breakfast, lunch, dinner or midnight snack, or just about any time when I need some value-for-money calories. After all, it’s fast, it’s cheap, it’s easy and it actually tastes okay.

But what I am sharing today is quite different than what you have in mind when we talk about instant ramen. First, it’s not “instant” – it’s cooked for 30 hours; second it’s not cheap – it probably cost as much as you would in one of the many ramen shops in town, but it’s still relatively easy to make, and is definitely close to the quality of any version you can find anywhere sans Japan.

48 Hours Short Ribs

Sous Vide is more than just cooking in a plastic bag...

Sous Vide short ribs has always been considered kind of the holy grail in sous vide cooking at home, as this seems to bring out the best balance of flavors and texture for a meat cut that may be otherwise tricky to handle. And I have been planning to do this ever since I got my Sous Vide Supreme machine just before Christmas. 

Here I am using a much simplified recipe - given the time constraint I had and I strictly used what I have left over from the refrigerator as well. But with a choice cut from a trusted butcher, you really don't need to over-do things to make this a decent dish. That I guess is one beauty of sous vide cooking - it's really hard to go wrong.