Last-minute meal ideas: beef tacos

Let me paint a scenario for ya: you bump into a friend you have not seen in months on your way home, you start chatting and catching up on each other's lives, you start wondering, Geez, why haven't I made time to catch up with this person sooner? You invite the person to dinner at your house out of impulse, then realise that you have not done any shopping or meal planning. Oops, too late to pull out now. Time to make a quickie detour to the shops. Ideas are running through your brain as you try to figure out the best recipe to impress but no-fuss so to allow time for all that talking you are about to do. Well, I am one who often finds myself in that situation, as I love food and people both so much and what better way to catch up with my peeps than over a home-cooked meal? 

One of my go-to recipes in situations like this is tacos. Okay, I would not exactly call it a 'recipe', as the ingredients are sooo easy to prepare and the assembling is done at the table in DIY fashion. My version of tacos is essentially made up of Mexican tortilla (shop-bought small tortillas, corn or flour)+grilled meat (I like grass-fed beef steak)+salsa and salad+sauce (I am a hoarder of chili sauces). Cooking method is a no-brainer also: season your steak with your favourite seasoning (be creative!) and grill to medium/medium rare (that's how I like it. You should cook to your desired consistency. Don't let any steak snob tell you that you can't). Rest the meat before slicing. While meat is resting, make a salsa. I used corn, diced avocado, halved cherry tomatoes, diced Spanish onion, diced cucumber and chopped coriander (or cilantro) with a sprinkle of lime juice and S&P. Before dishing up, I heat the tortillas on the grill for a few seconds till they are warm, and wash up some lettuce. Voila! My favourite sauce to go with beef tacos is definitely the smokey chipotle sauce. I am sure you don't need me to tell you how to make a taco: fill->wrap->enjoy!

What is so wonderful about a taco meal is that I often have leftover steak and salsa, and they make a perfect healthy salad the next day for lunch. Just add leftover sliced steak (re-heated lightly on a grill, if you like) and salsa, and drizzle some olive oil and smokey chipotle sauce, there you have it! The colour of the dish is absolutely irresistible, and the taste is refreshing, tangy, smokey and each mouth full is a perfect combination of tender steak and crunchy vegetables and herbs. Oh Myyyy...

So for your next last-minute meal, give this beef taco 'recipe' a go. Remember: good food is about finding good flavour and texture combinations, not about how long you slave over the stove for.

Hainanese chicken - it's all about the chook

For those who are familiar with South-East Asian food, you must have heard of Hainanese Chicken. It is a national dish in Singapore and wildly popular in other parts of Asia also (such as Japan, Malaysia and Thailand). But what most of you may not know is that this is a Chinese dish that originated from the island of Hainan, a tropical island and popular tourist destination. This is a simple, subtle yet flavourful dish commonly served with oily chicken rice, dipping sauces, clear chicken broth and refreshing vegetables such as cucumber. The chicken skin is gelatinous, flesh tender and juicy, the chicken rice full of chicken goodness, the dipping sauces (commonly a garlic and chili one, and a shallot one) add great flavour boosts to otherwise quite a subtly-flavoured dish, the coriander garnish and light soy broth bring everything together.

I like making this dish at home because it is so easy (and healthy too)! Well, I could post my own recipe here, OR I could just point you to a few of the better recipes out on the world wide web. Those who are not familiar with the authentic taste and texture of this dish could easily get lost in the countless Hainanese Chicken recipes out there.  Below are a few good Hainanese Chicken recipes I recommend:

1. Adam Liaw, the winner of MasterChef Australia, has a pretty good recipe found here: Adam Liaw's Hainanese Chicken. I would say that this recipe would get you something fairly close to the Hainanese Chicken and rice sold in the Asian food court under Pittsway Arcade in Sydney CBD. I wrote a passionate blogpost on the chicken rice there called: The best chicken rice for under $10 in Sydney
2. SBS food safari, a cooking/eating show, has a pretty decent recipe found here: SBS food safari hainanese chicken. I like the use of Chinese shaoxin rice wine but not quite sure about serving it with kecap manis, a Malaysian sweet soy sauce with the taste and texture of savoury molasses. I have never served my chicken this way. I am sure you can pick and choose the bits you enjoy.
3. Pailins Kitchen, a YouTube cooking channel, has a good Thai version of the dish: Kao Mun Gai. If you are in Sydney, try out Kao Mun Gai at Yok Yor Thai Food Factory.
4. Ochikeron, a YouTube cooking channel, has a good Japanese version of the dish: Hainanese Chicken Rice - Japanese variation. This is the easiest variation of this recipe, as this entire recipe is cooked in a rice cooker. But you are not going to get the same authentic taste and texture found in recipe 1. 

As you may have noticed, each recipe varies depending on the cultural origin of the chef and individual preferences, so don't be alarmed by the number of variations. As a matter of fact, I would go so far to say that as long as you follow the following basic principles, you can apply your own little 'twist' to this dish as you like:

• Buy a good quality chicken as it is the star of the dish. I always get free-range organic whole chicken as they taste like chicken (unlike the sad caged hormone-pumped 'product' that grow from a chick to full-grown in 2 weeks). It makes a huge difference what chicken you get, trust me.
• The chicken needs to be cooked on low heat. Don't boil the crap out of it.
• The rice needs to be seasoned with chicken flavour. The best approach is to use the cooking liquid or chicken fat or both.
• There needs to be a sauce. Or this dish would be too subtle. Garlic, ginger and shallots are the 'holy trinity' in Asian cooking, and the most common Hainanese Chicken sauce ingredients. You can add them in the cooking broth also to flavour the chicken.
• Garnish the dish with something fragrant and 'crunchy'. Fresh coriander and/or shallots, or deep-fried shallots, or fresh chili, garnish brings the dish to the next level, both in taste and look.

Now that you are equipped with all of this knowledge, I bet you cannot wait to run into the kitchen and try it out yourself. I am going to leave you with a nice picture of the Hainanese chicken rice I cooked the other day to get you in the mood. Happy hainanese chicken eating, everybody!

 

Frenchie, Food and my weekend of Free cooking lessons

Late last year I took a trip to France. It was a much anticipated trip, as I had only briefly visited Paris on a stop-over to England a few years ago. During my travels in Paris, I met a local foodie, P. P is a friendly and quirky Parisian around my age who lives and breathes food. I was excited to find out that P was in the process of relocating to Sydney. There is never enough foodie friends in the world, I was cheering.

With the blink of an eye, my month-long vacation to foodie heaven was over. The trip has inspired my quest to learn more about the rich culture (food and otherwise) France hides behind her 21^st century veil. 3 months after my epic trip, P landed down-under to start a new life. I invited P to spend a weekend in my ‘hood’ and cook together. 

I had been operating  under the assumption that I already know enough about French food to feel good about myself. Unsurprisingly, P, being as out-spoken as he is, challenged THAT assumption, and promised to teach me how to make ‘real’ French crepes to start my French cooking education 101. While my initial thought was “surely I know how to make crepes, who doesn’t?”, I suspected that there might be something P knows that I don’t. P laid out the list of ingredients on my kitchen bench, and I was slightly baffled by the presence of a potato, sliced in half. What on earth would you  need a potato for? To test the temperature of the pan? To add to the crepe batter? It turns out that the potato half is traditionally used to evenly spread the cooking oil in the pan! How ingenious! P combined plain flour, sunflower oil, eggs, milk, cooking rum and vanilla sugar (caster sugar infused with vanilla bean pods) to create a runny crepe batter and left it on the bench to ‘rest’ for an hour. When the batter is well rested and slightly thickened, P used the potato to spread some sunflower oil evenly in a non-stick pan. I was intrigued like a kid in a science class – watching P cook brings me back to the Christmas markets on the Avenue of Champs Elysees in Paris, where food markets stretch out for miles, and cooks and food producers proudly showcase their specialty. There are various kinds of foods on display, from donuts, crepes, churros and sausage sandwiches, to foie gras, pates, salami sticks, etc – every stall is a heavenly mouth-watering experience.  Just as I was off with the food fairies, dreaming and drooling over Paris, P tapped on my shoulder to inform me that crepes were ready. I AM THERE! On my plate sat a delicate crepe filled with a rich dark chocolate and banana mixture.  Being a greedy person that I am, I felt compelled to add strawberries, cream, icing sugar, sugar syrup, and whatever delicious things I can find to stuff into the crepe. Luckily, P stopped me in due course before I turned the crepe into a 3-course dinner, and advised me to learn to appreciate simple flavours as they are. Initially unconvinced, I rolled my eyes and took my first bite into the chocolate and banana-filled crepe. Hmmm…the soft crepe with a hint of rum, and dark chocolate and banana filling, is a marriage made in heaven. It might be a marriage of a couple of simple ingredients, but that, in no shape or form, discounts the quality of the union. It was simple but heavenly. They might just be crepes, and there might just be chocolate and banana, but they taught me a valuable lesson in cooking (and life in general): do not always try to overload your crepe, learn to appreciate the simple things, as they are beautiful…

Poor men eat better - smokey BBQ pork ribs

As a food enthusiastic, I have eaten all kinds of things at all kinds of places. One important lesson I have learnt is: poor men eat better! While a large juicy sirloin or wagyu steak does get my blood pumping, NOTHING beats the likes of spicy buffalo chicken wings or smokey BBQ pork ribs. As a matter of fact, I find cheaper cuts of meat more tantalising, probably because the bone keeps the meat moist. One of my favourite ‘cheap’ cuts is American-style pork ribs, and here is one of my favourite pork ribs recipes:

Ingredients (for 4 hungry adults):

·         4 full racks of American-style pork ribs

For the spice rub:

·        Chinese five spice (if you are unable to find the Chinese five spice ‘blend’, use ground cinnamon, fennel, cloves, star aniseed and black pepper, as these are the five spices that make up the blend)

·        Salt and black pepper

·        Cayenne pepper

·        Olive oil

·        Light soy sauce

For the smokey BBQ sauce:

·         Melted honey (or brown sugar, although honey works better as it blends in better)

·         Tomato ketchup

·         Worcestershire sauce

·         Smoked paprika and/or liquid smoke (I bought my natural hickory smoke online. If you are unable to find this ingredient, just use smoked paprika instead)

·         Salt and black pepper

·         Light soy sauce

Method:

1. In a mixing bowl, add one tablespoon of the five spice blend and cayenne pepper, a generous dash of light soy sauce, a sprinkle of salt and pepper (to taste) and olive oil. Mix well to create a ‘wet rub’. NOTE: you can adjust the ratios of the ingredients to your taste
2. Trim the fat off the pork ribs and poke holes in the meat with a fork. Place in a large tray
3. Pour the wet spice rub over the ribs and give them a good massage. Marinate for at least 1 hour (the longer the better)
4. Pre-heat the oven to 150C
5. Place the marinated ribs on an oven rack and pour some water in the tray underneath. The idea is to NOT let the meat be exposed to direct heat. Bake the marinated ribs at 150C till tender. NOTE: this should take approximately 1.5 hours, however, time depends on the thickness of the meat and oven quality. If you wish to speed up the cooking process, cut the full rack into half racks
6. In the meantime, make the smokey BBQ sauce by combining all the ingredients. The best method is ‘trial and error’: try combining 1 tablespoon of honey, 1 tablespoon of ketchup, 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, 1 tablespoon of light soy sauce, and a couple of drops of liquid smoke (OR 1 tablespoon of smoked paprika) and a sprinkle of salt and pepper to begin with, and adjust to taste. The BBQ sauce should be sweet, savoury and slightly tangy, but the flavour profile should suit individual taste. If you wish to make more sauce, just increase the quantity of each part. Combine well and set aside
7. When the ribs are baked to tender in the oven, take them out and smoother them with the BBQ sauce. Leave some to brush over them. Turn the oven to 200C and put ribs back in. NOTE: alternatively you could grill the ribs on a barbecue to achieve better results. Continue to ‘base’ the ribs with the BBQ sauce and cook on both sides until caramelised. If the grill/oven gets too hot, turn the heat down to avoid burning
8. When both sides of the ribs are coated with the sauce and nicely caramelised, take off the heat and rest for 10-15 minutes before serving. Before you devour them all, make sure to wear a bib or at least change into a black shirt! 

Crispy-skin salmon with chorizo and red pepper stew, served with baby potatoes, and a caramelized balsamic sauce

This is a quick and easy recipe that follows the formula of: simple ingredients+common sense=deliciousness. The rule of thumb is: you do not need to be precise to the ounce, but you do need to understand ratios and flavour combinations to cook well. This recipe is an example of the universal fish+tangy flavour combo: fish and TANG belong together: fish and lime, fish and lemon, or fish and vinegar, you may have noticed acidity is applied to many fish dishes, no matter where the cuisine comes from. The smokey chorizo sausage improves the flavour profile of the dish, taking it up a notch.

Ingredients (for 4 hungry adults):
- 4 salmon fillets, with skin on. The skin gives an extra 'dimension' to the texture of the dish, when crisped up
- 1 large smoked chorizo sausage, sliced thinly
- 16 baby potatoes, washed and skin on (or however many you feel like, really)
- 4-5 red capsicums (for this recipe, red capsicums work better than green ones, as they are sweeter)
- A handful of rocket leaves for garnish
- 1 large leek, finely chopped
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- Olive oil (standard virgin olive oil for cooking, and extra virgin olive oil to dress the dish at the end)

- 2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed (we do not want the garlic to overtake, so it is better to just 'crush' the garlic cloves)
- Caramelized balsamic vinegar (I got a bottle of 'Little Fish Cafe' caramelized balsamic vinegar from a friend who brought it back from Port Macquarie in Northern NSW. If you do not have it, just use balsamic vinegar, but a little less of it, or it would be a bit more acidic).

Method:

1. Rub salt and pepper on the salmon fillets. NOTE: ensure the skin side is salted. Leave on kitchen bench for a few minutes to allow the seasoning to penetrate. Pat dry the fillets with kitchen towel. These steps ensure that excess moisture in the skin is drawn out, so it becomes crispy when pan-fried
2. Wash the potatoes, and cut them in half. Wash and cut the capsicums into thin strips. Wash and cut the leek into fine pieces. Crush the garlic cloves
3. Heat a good quality non-stick pan on low to medium heat, and add sliced chorizo. Render the fat off the sausage and cook until crispy. Set aside the cooked sausage and leave the fat in the pan
4. Rub a little olive oil on the fish fillets to prevent sticking. Fry the salmon fillets skin-side down in the chorizo fat. Add a little olive oil if needed. NOTE: do not overcrowd the pan so the fish 'fries'. Cook until the skin becomes crispy and golden brown. Turn over to cook the other side. NOTE: the best way to check if fish is cooked on the inside is to poke a bamboo stick in the fillet, and if the white 'protein foam' comes out, then the inside is cooked
5. Boil the potatoes to 90% done. To check, poke a knife in the potatoes, there should be some 'resistance'. This way, when the potatoes are cooked again in the pan, they retain their 'structural integrity'. Drain well
6. Set the cooked fish aside. 'De-glaze' with leek, crushed garlic and capsicum strips. Season with salt and pepper to draw the moisture out of the vegetables and speed up the cooking process. Cook the vegetables until soft and tender. Drizzle a generous amount of caramelized balsamic vinegar over the vegetable mixture and toss in the baby potatoes. Mix well to coat the potatoes. Cook for a couple of minutes, or until the potatoes are 100% tender. Toss the cooked chorizo back into the pan. Check for seasoning
7. Garnish with rocket leaves and drizzle a little virgin olive oil over the top. Serve and enjoy the more-ish crispy-skin salmon on a bed of tender baby potatoes, creamy leek and sweet stewed capsicum, topped with the crispy, sweet and smokey chorizo. The vegetables are well integrated into the slightly smokey, sweet and tangy sauce, and the rocket adds a peppery twist. I don't know about you, but I sure am starving!

Malay-Chinese Take Away on Hunter - It's not laksa, if it's not an aerobics workout

Good Malaysian curry laskas are everywhere, but great laskas are few and far between. As a keen Laska fan, I have been to countless joints in Sydney over the years. My work lunch on most days used to resemble a bowl of steaming Laska soup of some sort. However, in recent years, I couldn't help but noticing that many of my favourite Laska restaurants started to get a tad 'stingey' with their soup, eg, watered-down and bland Laska soup, more carb and less protein in soup, etc. My former all-time favourite: Jimmy's Recipe (500 George St, Sydney), used to have beautifully-rich and spicy Laska. Things started going downhill a couple of years ago, when the ratio of water and Laska paste began to grow. Just when my interest in Laska started to wane, I was pointed to the best Malaysian curry laska joint in town. A friend of mine had been raving on about 'Malay-Chinese Takeaway' (seriously, that is the name) on Hunter St (58, Hunter St, Sydney). I decided to tag along to see what the fuss was about. Judging by the long lunch-time queue and enthusiasic diners, I started to get a good feeling. We ordered chicken and vegetarian laska respectively, and what came out, for less than AUD$9, were small bath tubs of steaming-hot soups with that rich and vibrant 'complexion' that I had been missing. I had my first taste, and found myself devouring the entire bathtub of it in a matter of minutes. All the boxes of a good laska were ticked: complex, flavoursome, spicy and rich paste, tick; generous amount of protein and fibre for your money's worth, tick; the right ratio between laska paste and coconut milk, tick; unlimited supply of dark red spicy sambal to add on top, tick. My white shirt resembled a modern oil painting, dunked in a bucket load of sweat, but it was well worth it!

So, next time if you feel like a good aerobics lunchtime workout, check out Malay-Chinese Takeaway on Hunter, oh, do rememer not to wear a white shirt!

The sandwiches that have started a religion

As much as I love writing about food, I had never thought much of the idea of writing about a sandwich. Let’s be honest, sandwich does not exactly top my ‘interesting food’ chart. I have, however, decided to write about sandwich today, except that I am not just writing about ANY sandwich – I am talking about sandwiches from the BEST sandwich joint in the known (and possibly also the unknown) universe. They come from a little hidden-away shop in the Sydney CBD, whose name, products and reputation, go far beyond its humble shop front: ‘Big Bite on Pitt’. My discovery of the best sandwich shop in the world was purely accidental, and to this day, I am convinced the ONLY two ways to find out about it, is via (a) word of mouth, and (b) accidental discovery. When I was working near the shopping strip in the Sydney CBD, I had walked past lunch-goers queuing outside of a little sandwich shop, tucked away in an old arcade, during lunch time many times, but never bothered to investigate – I had never been satisfied with just a sandwich for lunch. One day, I took the liberty of asking one of the lunch-goers in the queue what the big fuss was about. I still remember the answer distinctively: “They have awesome sandwiches, I come here every day!” Wow! I had never heard anyone speak so passionately about a SANDWICH before, so I better give it a go, I thought! I did, and I have been going there for lunch twice a week since. People talk, and as they do, a religion is underway, and here is why:

1.      You are NOT going to find a sandwich bigger than the ones you get at Big Bite on Pitt. Even someone like me with a stomach as large as the great canyon, has trouble finishing the entire sandwich on a good day. For AUD$9.5, you basically get enough sandwich for two satisfying lunches, on home-baked brown or white bread, with a generous amount of mouth-watering fillings of your choice, and enough salad to earn a couple of heart foundation ticks. If you give the lovely people at Big Bite a smile and tell them how much you love their sandwiches, there is a 50% chance they may throw in a slice of their more-ish cakes for free

2.      You are NOT going to find a more delicious sandwich anywhere else. Their sandwiches are FAR from being ‘pedestrian’ – they are addictive, to say the least, thanks to the wide range of juicy fillings, from the more common sandwich fillings such as ham and turkey, to the daily special fillings such as lemon-pepper chicken, spicy chicken, burrito beef, lamb that is carefully and lovingly marinated in garlic and herbs, sticky Italian sausages, and perfectly-crumbed and juicy veal schnitzel. My absolute favorite is the marinated lamb, served with a creamy yogurt and parsley dressing, and loads of salad, on brown bread. The sensation of biting into the tender and flavorsome lamb, coated in yogurt dressing, refreshing herby salad, and brown bread that is delightfully crusty on the outside, and sublimely soft on the inside, is as satisfying and comforting as a bowl of hot soup on a cold winter day, a refreshing mango lassi on a steamy hot summer afternoon, an embrace from your lover…mmm…joy-gasmic!

3.      Apart from the quality and quantity of the sandwiches, you are also going to get the friendliest and the most generous service, often not offered at other sandwich joints. I often request extra salad on my sandwich, and every now and then, I am lucky enough to get a slice of carrot cake for free.

I think you get the idea here: next time you feel like lunch in the sun with a friend, or just a really good take-away, take A BIG BITE sandwich with ya (or two, if you feel extra confident/hungry). Oh, did I mention from 250 Pitt St?