How to cut without getting cut, anyone?

Roasted tomatoes with sea salt, black pepper and sprigs of fresh thyme.
Snapped in the restaurant kitchen with an iPhone.

OK, here's a confession. The more I use the knife, the more fearful I am of it. Too many horror stories seen and heard, and a few near-misses of my own have kept me pretty much on my toes. When I hold a knife in my hands, it has my full attention and I don't allow myself to get distracted. I will also not allow anyone in the commercial kitchen to rush me. The customer can always wait, but I want to leave this place with my ten fingers intact. There is no one I want to impress with my (lack of) knife skills so I'm quite happy to be perceived as the snail in the kitchen. 

This is how much tomatoes I cut today with Chef giving me several tips and guidance for which I am so grateful. An Extra Virgin Chef needs all the help she can get!

The best duck breast in the world!

How wicked does this look??!!

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I knew it was a matter of time before I would succumb to sous vide. I've been thinking about it for as long as about 6 months. Today, I yielded to the temptation and attempted my first home sous vide duck breast. The effort was worth every minute of my time and attention! 

In the absence of a commercial sous vide machine, I did a home version consisting of a cast iron pot, ziploc, water and a meat thermometer and maintained the temperature at 55 degrees Celsius for an hour.

Then, I pan-seared the meat for 5 minutes on the skin and 1 minute on the other side. This golden glow got me wildly ecstatic!

Pan-searing the duck breast ensures the fat is rendered, leaving a nice crisp skin that encases the moist flesh beneath.

A big thumbs-up from my man. "Fine dining domesticated," he says.

This costs a fraction of what you will have to pay in a restaurant. Ducks, duck fats and I have a lot of chemistry going. I've roasted a whole duck in 4 hours - click here to see the photos. But this little duck breast project has got to be my most exciting and rewarding culinary experiment. Rated a close second is my home-cured smoked salmon. I will definitely be making this again, and very soon too!

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Mom's 10-minute Whole Fish Dish

A dish so humble it doesn't even have a name.

Millions of housewives in Chinese households have prepared this dish for their families a zillion times. I've eaten it myself for years yet the curiosity on how it's prepared only dawned on me today. Duh!

Duh, because it is so Chinese, so easy to prepare and so yummy. This is definitely one of the most common dishes you can find in a Chinese family. And one you'll never find in a Chinese restaurant in the US or Europe. It is too authentic and too home-cooked to be commercialised! It is right where it belongs - at home. 

Again, I used my duck fat but you can use any type of cooking oil. So here are the ingredients and methods, the first time I'm documenting my mom's food.

Ingredients:

One big onion, sliced

One whole fish (can be almost any type of fish really. And if the fish eye or head grosses you out, try a fish fillet. I'm sure it'll work just as well.)

Plum sauce (see picture)

Dark soy sauce (see picture)

Salt

Spring onions and tomatoes (for garnishing)

Method:

1. Clean and pat dry fish. Rub salt all over fish. 

2. Heat oil in wok. Saute onions till fragrant. Add some water, just a cup or so.

3. Add plum sauce, about 1-2 TBS (no scientific calculations for true Chinese cooking!). Use less if you don't like the sauce too sweet. Plum sauce is sour-sweet in nature. Look for a brand with no additives, no flavour enhancers and no preservatives. Between us, DO NOT use Woh-Hup brand.

4. Add dark soya sauce (only to darken the colour of the sauce, not for taste, so as long as the liquid turns dark, it's enough. About 2-3 tsp, I think. No hard and fast rules here either.)

5. Bring liquid to the boil. Taste and adjust seasoning. Then add fish.

See, the dead fish is smiling. When you cook out of love, even the ingredients conspire with you!

6. Let it simmer for a while. Heat is transferred to the fish via the liquid. Turn the fish about every few minutes so it cooks evenly. (Don't stain your kitchen walls trying to turn the fish like I did!) Baste the top with the sauce occasionally. Cover with a lid for a few minutes if you like. Remember, "simmer" means small bubbles. If you are getting big bubbles, that's "boiling", which means you need to turn down the heat.

7. It's done when the eye protrudes! My mom also uses a chopstick to check readiness - if it pokes through the thickest part easily, it's done. If you feel some resistance, stop poking. It's not ready.

8. Garnish with some colours like spring onions and tomatoes, and serve with steamed brown rice.

We are taking less and less rice in this household. What about yours?

Easy peasy daily Chinese. You can't get more authentic than this. Ten minutes was all it took. I spent more time taking photos of it and documenting it!

I'm creating a new category in my blog called Mom's Recipes to start documenting her very simple, yet yummy dishes that have fed us all these years. Authentically home-cooked Chinese food that don't make it to restaurants. You can't find these in recipe books and you certainly don't get to eat them in Chinese restaurants in Western countries. 

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Click here to see Mom's Chap-Chye (very traditional Chinese mixed vegetables) or her Braised Pork Belly with Preserved Mustard Cabbage/Mui Choy.

Or click here to find other Whole Fish recipes.

My recipe collection book

My daughter got this for me for Christmas from Munich and gave it to me during our Europe pig-out which means this book travelled with us to Austria and Italy. I've found it so practical in helping me to organise my thoughts and notes and loose clippings.

There are coloured pockets for me to insert the occasional news clips of recipes that I would want to try my hands on when I feel like it.

There are also clear folder pages so I can see the pictures and be allured by them to want to try them out.

Yes, beef carpaccio is also very high in my To-Try List. 

Coloured tabs for me to categorise and label - should I label them Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner or Must-try, I-dare-you, and Dream-on?

Word of the Week: Bistro

In my own bistro one day, there would be a stalk of fresh rosemary in the bottled water on the table. 

A traditional bistro in its European origins is a small restaurant that serves moderately priced simple meals in a modest setting. Bistros are defined mostly by the type of foods they serve. Home-cooked food with menus developed around simple recipes that would keep over time. 

Today's bistros are chic in deco and architecture and normally high in prices. 

I'm thinking it would be fun to try to run your own bistro and share the kind of food you'd like to share with others!