Vanilla Cheesecake with Caramelized Strawberries and Mandarins

Someone feedback to me that my Almond Tofu Pudding is too easy to make for Valentine's Day. So I made Vanilla Cheese Cake with Caramelized Strawberry and Mandarin for this special occasion. Although I am still single and unattached, I put in a lot of love and effort to make this dessert. I hope those gentlemen who read this post can benefit from my creation. This recipe is originated from Chef Gordon Ramsay, I made some modification to celebrate Chinese New Year at the same time by adding mandarin orange to this absolutely delicious dessert. This is a no-baked version cheese cake, absolutely easy to create this cheese cake.

Add 200g of cream cheese into a bowl with 2 teaspoons of vanilla flavouring, 3 tablespoons of icing sugar, juice of 1/4 lemon and 200ml double cream and beat until smooth. Spoon the cheese cream mixture into a mold ring and chilled it for 2 hours.

Add 2 tablespoon of sugar in a pan. Heat the sugar till they caramelize. Add in strawberries and mandarins (you can choose the fruits you like for this dessert) into the pan. Add in a splash of Creme de Cassis into the pan. Cook until the strawberries and and mandarins become soft.

Take out the cheese cake from the fridge. Add peanuts grinds to cover the top of the cheesecake. Remove the mold ring. Placed the strawberries and mandarins beside the cheese cake. Served.

Your ladies will love this dessert.

For Her as Valentine's Day Gift

I ended my service in my company at Chinese New Year Eve. These 3 years has been an amazing journey to me. I know a lot about gas turbine, control and make great friendship to my colleagues. I also complete my master course, get distinction for my basic photography course and Licentiate title in Photographic Society of Singapore. I start dining as my hobby and later on food photography. At the end I cook my own food, decorate my own food, shoot at my own food and eat my own food. I get quite a lot these three years but there is something on me that is not change, that is I am single and available.

I knew and dated quite a number of ladies throughout these three years but there is only a lady in my mind. We have been colleagues for 2.5 years. I only express my interest in her after I tender my resignation. Probably she is attached by now. Looks like my mission for coming this world is not to fall in love with a lady and setup a family. My mission may probably explore this world, help the needy and on engineering field to help others. I have the fate to meet her but not with her. I may score straight As in my exam but I fail in my relationship. Again I still believe my future is waiting for me. I need to move on and help those who seriously need me.

I want to make a three course meal for her. The starter is Thai Fish Cake. Her hometown is at Taiping, Malaysia, and it is quite near to Thailand. My starter will remind me that her hometown is at Taiping. First I added  250g of Dory Fillet and 250g of Sea Prawns with shell removed into the food processor. Add two teaspoon of sea salt with lime, coriander, freshly ground pepper and curry powder for fish. An egg is also added into the food processor. Process them till they become paste but remain some texture. Put them into the bowl and mix with mixed vegetables. Mold them to smaller patties about 8 cm diameter or smaller with wet hand. Chill them for half to one hour. After that fry them using a pan with vegetable oil till they are golden brown. Serve them with salad preferably. Done!

My entree for her is Jinn Liong's version Tablet Noodles (板面) with Pork, Crab, and Soft-Boiled Egg. She ate tablet noodles for lunch most of the time. I am going to create this dish with  western touch. I add olive oil to my wok, and fry the sliced garlic cloves till the fragrance of the garlic is released. I added crab meats and minced pork and fry them in the wok. I season them with salt and pepper. When they are 70% cooked I added diced red, green and yellow bell peppers and simmer them together with my crab meats and minced pork with my homemade vinaigrette. I off my stove and let them 90% done. Next I boil the water with salt and pepper and cook my tablet noodles. Once they are cooked, I dry them and spray some olive oil on them to prevent them from sticking together. Then I switch on my stove again and fry the noodles with the diced bell pepper, crab meat and minced pork together and mix them well together. I serve my noodles on the plate. Done.

My dessert is Almond Tofu Pudding with Peanuts, Strawberry and Mint. I mix 900ml of almond soya milk with two teaspoon of sugar and one and half teaspoon of Agar Agar (Gelatin in Malay) and boiled them for a minute together with crushed mint leaves. I remove the mint leaves and pour them into the molds and glasses and wait for them to cool them. After that I chill them in the fridge. Once they are chilled, I mix the peanut grinds with sugar well and spread them evenly on top of the puddings. I place the strawberry and a small stalk of mint leaves of each pudding and they are ready to serve. Done.

I come out recipe is not only for her, but all to my male friends and fans. The dishes are easy to make and the ingredients are easily available in the market. Make the dishes for your love ones on Valentine's Day and they will appreciate what you do to her.

Here I wish the readers reading this post Happy Lunar New Year and Merry Valentine's Day.

La Petite Cuisine

28 January 2011

I am always excited whenever I go to La Petite Cuisine. This small French restaurant does justice to French and European cuisines that are reasonably priced and absolutely delicious. The ambience is also nice and casual, in my opinion. There is an area where I can dine outside of the restaurant surrounded by bushes and flowers. The bushes and flowers also partitioned the roads and the pavements; thus this makes dining absolutely enjoyable.

The service is “poor”. I had to go take my menu, order my food at the counter and get my own water there, just like Macdonald’s a few steps away from La Petite Cuisine. The service sounds absolutely ridiculous. Absolutely wrong because they do not charge me the service charge and I think it is reasonable. The head chef / owner of the restaurant is cute, friendly and absolutely charming with his curved mustache. He comes out occasionally and greets his customers. In my opinion, he looks like Mario from Super Mario Brothers Series. I call him Chef Mario in this blog.

I order the Pan Seared Foie Gras with Orange Flavour Sauce for my starter and Confit de Carnard (duck) for my entree. The Pan Fried Foie Gras is absolutely delicious. The sauce adds flavour to foie gras, the foie gras is well seared and it is well seasoned. It melts in my mouth and does not left grease in my mouth. It is absolutely cook to perfection. 

The Confit de Carnard is also delicious. The skin of the comfit is crispy and the meat is tender. In my opinion, it is not well seasoned. However if the comfit is consumed with the sauce, it is absolutely delicious.

I pay S$34 for my two-course meal. This restaurant does justice to Pan Seared Foie Gras with Orange Flavour Sauce. I think it is worth every penny for my two dishes and I will definitely return to La Petite Cuisine and visit Chef Mario after Chinese New Year, with my lovely friend, Yew Fen.

Address

10 Jalan Serene, #01-05

Serene Centre, Singapore

Fast Food, Crispy Salmon

26 January 2011

Chef Gordon Ramsay comes out the Fast Food concept that allows busy office men and women to cook simple, easy, healthy and absolutely delicious meals at home using a few available and fresh ingredients. Today I  recreated his Crispy Salmon and adding my mushrooms, cherry tomatoes and my homemade vinaigrette to add excitement to the dish.

My homemake vinaigrette was made of lemon juice, oliver oil, sesame oil, sea salt and black pepper and they were whisked together. My homemake vinaigrette is prefect for my crispy salmon.

The salmon has the natural sweetness from its fats. The sea salt from the salmon and my vinaigrette harmonizes my mushroom, cherry tomatoes and salmon. The skin of the salmon is crispy and the meat is tender. My crispy salmon is absolutely delicious!

Coffee with a Touch of Soul

Espressoul, Singapore, 22 January 2011

It is always fun to go to Olympus Hands-On Session & Model Shooting for newly launched Products. That day I was going to have some fun with Olympus XZ-1, the flagship model of Olympus compact camera. I took some images in Raw file using my Olympus E3 and XZ-1. XZ-1 is slim and it has bigger aperture. The main advantage of this camera in my opinion is it has the Dramatic Art Filter which was useful to take landscape with HDR effects. Absolutely amazing camera. I tempted to get one. But I still want my EP-1 and E3. So please stop "poisoning". 

The Olympus model was so beautiful. The picture on the left was taken using E3.

The picture on the right was taken using Olympus XZ-1. Which camera is better? In my opinion, the fine young and smart gentleman behind and the young, good looking lady in front of the two cameras are the best.

After the event, I decided to pay a visit to the Singapore famous Bistro, Danny Pang. I met him at Coffee Appreciation Session in Asian Food Channel Studio. I wrote a post about my coffee session at http://hikaru-allez-cuisine.blogspot.com/2010/04/asian-food-channel-studio.html. He is a genius in brewing coffee. So I decided to go to his cafe for a cup of coffee and a slice of cake.

Danny was not in his cafe that day. Still I needed a cup of coffee and a slice of cake to enjoy the relaxing Saturday. His apprentice was in the cafe making a cup of Piccolo for me. Piccolo is a type of espresso. It was tasty and good enough to refresh myself to continue my relaxing weekend. The ambience was quiet and good. Love songs was played in the cafe. Absolutely relaxing. I guessed it is my new hideout for my relaxing weekends now.

The address is

Espressoul

25 North Bridge Road, #01-01,

EFG Bank Building
Singapore 179104
Tel: 6337 7803

Number 1 Asia Finest Restaurant

Singapore, 17 January 2011

This was a day I needed to go to the Best Asia Finest Restaurant, Iggy’s, to do justice on several events. They were my belated birthday, my new career after Chinese New Year, the completion of my master course and getting my Chinese New Year bonus. Iggy’s is located at the third floor of Hilton Hotel at Orchard Road.

The decoration in Iggy’s was contemporary.  Black was the main colour, which represented high class. There was a counter where the diners could see inside the kitchen where the chefs are working. It is almost like eating on a chef table. The dining experience in Iggy’s is absolutely amazing.

The first dish was the complimentary appetizer. It consisted of monkfish, caviar and other fresh ingredients. The ingredients were compliment to each other. It was absolutely delicious. The sourdough bread was also served with salted butter.

The second dish was Duck with Yukon Gold Potato, Mache, and Alba Black Truffle. The presentation looked fantastic and luxurious with potato, mache and truffle. The truffle worked well with potato to bring out the earthly flavour and nutty texture of the truffle. The duck skins were very crispy. The duck comfits are a bit salty without any side dish. However they went well with potato, mache or truffle and make this dish absolutely delicious in my humble opinion.

The third dish was Gnocchi with Truffle Salsa and Egg. This dish was absolutely luxurious. Truffle was quite compatible with Egg, and they were one of the great pairings of French gastronomy. Gnocchi is an Italian small dumpling and is made of potato usually. The dish was very savory because pancetta was also added to this dish.

The fourth dish was Wagyu Striploin with Carrot, Leek and Rosemary. The Striploin was moist, well seasoned and dense with flavours. It could be aged for several weeks. This dish was absolutely delicious.

The fifth dish was the dessert, Chocolate with Cinnamon, Mandarin and Vanilla. The dessert was absolutely delicious and it was the best way to end the prefect and luxurious meal.

The service was great, and the Maître D and the waiters were very helpful and attentive throughout the lunch service. I had a great dining experience in Iggy’s. Later on I dropped my camera cover on the floor and I did not notice I dropped it even I left Iggy’s. The waiter picked it up for me and called me through my mobile phone to ask me to return and pick my camera cover just before I left Hilton Hotel. I guess this is what makes them the Asia Finest Restaurant by taking over the first position from Joel Rubuchon’s L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon.

I will definitely return to Iggy’s.

This is what I think in front of the kitchen: The chefs were working with heart and passion, using the best ingredients to satisfy their customers. There were times they made mistake and reprimanded by the head chef. But they never gave up; they bounced back and finished their services.

Relationship applies the same principle; you give all the best to the one you like. It may not work out but at least you try and no regret to make a move.

Iggy's Restaurant

The Hilton, Level 3

581 Orchard Road

Singapore 238883

Tel:+65 67322234

www.iggys.com.sg

Saying from Chef Gordon Ramsay

"Keep it simple, but good. Forget about pompous sauces, and over-the-top creations. I like good food that is simply cooked, without pretension, but with a lot of heart and flavour."

Source from: More and Beyond, A Collection of Recipes from the Singapore Airlines International Culinary Panel