Lifes Passion

Meat Balls

2010-06-10T21:02:00.000-07:00

I made this last night Italian Meat Balls or at least my version of it... and my friends asked me for the recipe so i thought maybe it's better to put it up here for everyone to see =)

Please note guys that the quantity im putting down is just estimated u can alter the quantity if you think its not right, like what i normally do.

Meat Balls
500g minced meat
1/4 finely chopped onion
1 egg
1 clove of garlic (crushed/ finely chop)
1-3 tbs Extra virgin olive oil
1 hand fulls of bread crumbs ( add more if the mince is still very wet)
oregano herbs
Thyme herbs
fresh parsley (chopped)
Salt
Black pepper

combine all ingredients properly, for me i prefer to use hands some don like to touch the meat so you could use a fork but not really recommended.

after all ingredients are properly combined roll it into balls

cook it off in a heavy based pan like maybe a non stick pan if you have if not its alright just try to using a heavy based

heat up olive oil and 1-2 knobs of butter, once the butter and olive oil is heated place the meat balls into the pan and cook for about 5-12 minutes depending on the size of your meat ball. ( DO NOT OVER COOK IT if not it will go dry and tough)

methods you could try is by pressing it, it should feel like the inside palm of your hands its a bit springy / has a little resistance/ bounce back i suppose=P. or you could just bring 1 out and cut it open to taste.

will upload the sauce later at the mean time Im off for lunch Starving

This is A List of 2009 Worlds Best Restaurant

2009-10-02T08:35:00.000-07:00

1 =	El Bulli	Spain	The World's Best Restaurant Best Restaurant in Europe
2 =	The Fat Duck	UK
3 7	Noma	Denmark	Chef's Choice
4 =	Mugaritz	Spain
5 21	El Celler de Can Roca	Spain	Highest Climber
6 =	Per Se	USA	Best Restaurant in the Americas
7 =	Bras	France
8 =	Arzak	Spain
9 6	Pierre Gagnaire	France
10 11	Alinea	USA
11 =	L'Astrance	France
12 7	The French Laundry	USA
13 New Entry	Osteria Francescana	Italy	Highest New Entry
14 2	St John	UK
15 5	Le Bernardin	USA
16 11	L'Hôtel de Ville - Philippe Rochat	Switzerland
17 8	Tetsuya's	Australia	Best Restaurant in Australasia
18 4	L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon	France
19 2	Jean Georges	USA
20 New Entry	Les Créations de Narisawa	Japan	Best Restaurant in Asia
21 18	Chez Dominique	Finland
22 21	Ristorante Cracco	Italy
23 12	Die Schwarzwaldstube	Germany
24 16	D.O.M.	Brazil
25 9	Vendôme	Germany
26 2	Hof van Cleve	Belgium
27 Re Entry	Masa	USA
28 16	Gambero Rosso	Italy
29 13	Oud Sluis	Netherlands
30 New Entry	Steirereck	Austria
31 New Entry	Momofuku Ssäm Bar	USA
32 16	Oaxen Skärgårdskrog	Sweden
33 4	Martin Berasategui	Spain
34 4	Nobu London	UK
35 New Entry	Mirazur	France
36 17	Hakkasan	UK
37 13	Le Quartier Français	South Africa	Best Restaurant in the Middle East and Africa
38 Re-Entry	La Colombe	South Africa
39 5	Asador Etxebarri	Spain
40 New Entry	Le Chateaubriand	France
41 =	Daniel	USA
42 Re-Entry	Combal.Zero	Italy
43 28	Le Louis XV	Monaco
44 3	Tantris	Germany
45 New Entry	Iggy's	Singapore
46 New Entry	Quay	Australia
47 2	Les Ambassadeurs	France
48 25	Dal Pescatore	Italy
49 13	La Calandre	Italy
50 New Entry	Mathias Dahlgren	Sweden

Something which Foodies may be interested in =)

Reference:http://www.theworlds50best.com/module/acms_winners?group_id=1

Eaten Brains??

2009-07-16T07:58:00.000-07:00

Sorry for not updating my blog but here is some new things, there was a Food and Wine show in Sydney Darling Harbour and 1 of the chefs that came was my Idol Gordon Ramsay, i went to his show. but will write about his convention later.

Today was my 8th week in kitchen operations 3 which my chef described it as ' the worst class ever in this world' well thats because this week we are doing offal which are parts of animals which are not really cuts of meat but of organs such as the heart, liver, stomach, intestine and etc... in some countries some offals are considered as a delicacy where as some countries rarely eat or may even consider it to be repulsive to eat... like my chef said and a contestant from master chef Aus- Po ' its something which individual are brought up from' or your pellet is brought up by eating this type of things.

well on the menu today we cooked some ''lovely'':
-cows stomach with a tomato base sauce
-sweet bread ( Thymus gland) pan fried and serve with asparagus, herb butter and veal jus
- Lambs brain crumbed with bread crumbs and 3 types of herbs, pan fried and serves with a water cress base salad, truffle infuse butter and Court Bouillon sauce
- liver, char grill and serve with crispy bacon and herb butter

well personally i suppose i have been brought up by a family who has exposed me to all types of cuisine from western to asian cuisine i did not find the dishes too bad rather i found it as well~ kinda interesting... =) i didnt had a hard time trying out the liver, cows stomach and sweet bread only thing i found a bit weird in the beginning is to try the lamb brains which my chef forced each of us to taste.. but even so i end up eating d whole thing it was rather rich and tasty but with a vry vry creamy and silky texture which sort of like eating a really flabby piece of fat.. but the bread crumbs helped to give it a bit of crunchy texture..

so all together i kinda enjoyed this class to be honest offals may not be the most popular cuts or dishes in the world but if you are willing to give it a chance you will find that it's actually not that bad.. its actually quite tasty and rich in flavours... especially when served with the right compliments and sauce.

Trying new recipes

2009-04-09T22:41:00.000-07:00

Since my Aunt is back in Malaysia i had to cook my own dinner lately..
bright side of things are i get to try and invent new recipes..

One of the dishes i made that turn out pretty well.. even my class mates liked it is...

Penne pasta with Bechamel sauce ( a white sauce with a brown Roux)

Ingredients are:

100g of plain flour
100 of butter
1 ltr milk
sliced onions
strips of bacon
Parmesan cheese
finely chopped parsley
Penne pasta
sliced brussel sprout
sliced roman brown mushrooms
salt
and freshly cracked pepper

Method:

1. melt the butter in a hot pan and slowly add in plain flour to thicken the roux make sure that the butter to flour is 1:1 ratio..

2.than cook the roux for a little while till it turns slightly brown.. than add in the milk to the roux, constantly stirring the sauce

3. saute the onions,mushrooms and bacon ( you may sliced the bacon into pieces) and let it rest.

4. season the sauce with salt and fresh cracked pepper.

5. allow the sauce to simmer while you cook the penne pasta...

6. add in the Parmesan cheese and brussel sprouts into the sauce into the sauce while stirring the sauce

7.lastly plate the penne pasta with the sauce and top it with the sauted mushrooms, onions and bacon, sprinkle the fresh chopped parsley on the pasta ( you may also add the sautes items and chooped parsley to the simmering sauce, giving it a stir to spread it out evenly just before plating it.)

note: if the sauce is too rich you may add in some water to dilute it a little and also do not add too much salt to the dish as the Parmesan cheese is salty too..

this dish turned out pretty good for me and my class mates, it is similar to a carbonara sauce, and im not sure if this recipe even exsisted before i just created this dish out of my mind after having a kitchen studies class about sauces and stocks... enjoy..

Ps: kc you can try making this dish to impress your GIRLS...

Operations Class

2009-03-08T03:14:00.000-07:00

Well it was my first week in my college Brasserie cooking live for real paying customers eating in the brasserie...

And i must say in a live kitchen with a experience or professional chef cooking for customers does stress ppl out... i was beyond stress i was absolutely freaking out at first but it turns out it wasnt that bad partly because firstly i have a nice chef though i did get a slight kick but its normal even my other class mates got it as well... so yea..

anyway i was position at the entree Risotto and Sides section, during service among the others mine was the busiest section compared to the other sections but fortunately the chef decided to jump in and lend me a helping hand... all in all it ended pretty nicely and to be honest i am more confident and looking forward in returning to the kitchen next week again...

well unfortunately this term i wont be able to have time to take photos as i did last term about my dishes but hopefully next term will... either way take care cheers...

Birthday...

2009-02-27T04:53:00.000-08:00

Well my Birthday has passed about a while ago. To be honest this is my first ever birthday away from Malaysia away from my family and friends so so far away from home..

well as the saying goes there's always a first in everything....

So well my aunt decided to bring me to Hornsby RSL club- bistro for my Birthday dinner on Sunday, well first off as we entered the bistro things looked pretty alright in a simple calm club-ish manner... as for the food i had the special of the day which was a T-bone Steak but because it was the special of the day there were many orders for the special so as you may figure mine didnt really turn out the way i wanted it to be... as i ordered a medium-rare steak...

It came out kinda burned on the sides but was medium rare in the middle.. because of the burned sides it gave the steak a strong bitter taste killing its original taste... but yet the middle part of the steak was still nice...but still i don really blame the chef.. as for my drink I had a glass of lemonade Vodka...

after the meal we decided to head to the Hornsby Mall to have some ice cream and i must say the ice cream was pretty good^^ not too sweet....

Clarify

2009-02-17T03:42:00.000-08:00

Just to clarify.... well Gordon Ramsey is very well known for his brilliance as a chef with 3 michelin stars and has about 22 restaurants world wide and has 3 reality tv series such as kitchen nightmare, Hells Kitchen and the last but not least the f Word... and as we all know that Gordon is also very well known for his use of words but the f Word does not stand for f*ck but in truth it stands for food... well maybe most of you know this but i just wanted to clarify about that.

Melaka

2009-02-16T23:06:00.000-08:00

Malacca or Melaka is a state which is filled with a rich culture heritage, an amazing history and not to forget a place where famous good and rich food can be found.

Malacca is one of Malaysia's hottest tourist spots where the roads are decorated with fresh flowers, historical landmarks and colorful 'becah' which are bicycle taxis which are decorated with load of flowers, lights and as for some even music depending on the cyclist or riders liking.

though Melaka is still considered as hot tourist spot in Malaysia but sad to say that over the years it has been developed to a more modern tourist place, thou many of it's historical landmarks are still kept and protected but yet buildings such as shopping malls and food courts has some how in a way robbed its originality where both the historical landmarks do not and can never blend in with the modern day shopping malls it pains me to say that i would rather prefer it as it was 5 years back when i visited Melaka where you feel that the beauty of the place has not been affected nor spoiled by the modern day buildings that its still safe from the busy growing world, where its a place for locals and tourist to feel relax in a slow pace, peaceful manner and enjoy being surrounded by historical buildings and such.

But despite its disappointing changes, Melaka still has one thing to offer which i believe will be quite hard to change, is it's the original baba, nyonya and Portuguese cuisine food which have earn its reputation around Malaysia where else to find genuine nyonya & Portuguese food in Malaysia other than in Melaka.

The few dishes which is famous in Melaka besides nyonya and Portuguese food is it's unique and tasty Chinese Chicken Rise Balls and satay celup and the crowd waiting to get their hands on it was absolutely unbelievable you could be there for hours before you could even get a place to sit not to mention order... And due to the fact that me and my friends was there for a day trip we went off and settled in for the next best thing that we could get our hands on.

For lunch we ate Wan tan mee, But the Wan tan mee in Melaka its absolutely different from the ones in Kl the mee is more soft and delicate very light and smooth on the mouth, tho it has very limited choices as the shop only sells 'char siu' sweet pork but yet it was absolutely fantastic and to be honest i do not fancy eating 'char siu' but this was exceptionally delicious, and thats not all we discovered that the wan tan mee had a special ingredient in it which is 'chu yau cha' which means pork fat (which is sliced to little cubical pieces and fried to a crispy and absolutely fragrant taste tho it may not be the healthiest thing in world but its definitely one of the tastiest delicacies in Chinese cooking) , and wan tan mee is never complete without a bowl of 'sui gao' which means dumpling soup indeed this 2 dishes are a perfect match.. the soup was very sweat, fragrent and not to mention light in the mouth, and it is topped with some dumplings and spring onions which made the soup even more outstanding like any other the texture of the dumpling skin was very silky and smooth like 'tau fu fa' as for its filling it was filled with merinated pork meat and the taste of it was just amazingly lovely...there is not a doubt that this is the most unique and tastiest 'Char siu wan tan mee' i have eaten in my entire life, and last but not least it only cost rm2.80 for a small bowl and rm3.20 for a large bowl.( note to self next time go for the Big bowl.)

as for our dinner we walked round along jonker street where little hawker stalls of food and shops selling gifts and accessories flooded the entire place it was just jam packed with stalls and people pushing and making their way around the street it was hot but yet an interesting and fun experience. As we walk we bought food like oyster stir fried with eggs, otak-otak and char kuey.. the oyster eggs were good but not as good as the ones i had in Pinang because firsty I could barely taste or eat the oysters and secondly it was also not as tasty, as for the otak-otak it was good both the texture of the otak and flavour was good and to top it off the spice of the otak was just nice not too spicy just nice to give that little heat to boost its flavour as for the char kuey it was good but i would also prefer the ones i had in Pinang which were much more fragrent in taste andsmell.. it had more bean sprouts too which gives it a bit more crunch to every bite...

I will admit that it may not be a very healthy way of eating so many fried stuff but hey its Malaysia and further more it's MELAKA so why not just go crazy and satisfy your mouth and pellet with what ever goodness and delicious food you can get on to... at the end of the day i assure you it will worth every bite in it and giving you a very happy and satisfied end... As for the next day just make sure you workout twice more than your normal routine cause hey no matter what we do we still have to pay a price for our actions right? so why not? =)

Why so complicated?

2009-02-16T03:24:00.000-08:00

Before i started studying cookery i always had the idea that cooking was tough and in many ways very complicated where in fact its not, when i started my course I found out that cooking is actually quite simple all you need is to be passionate or maybe even just need to like it, cooking is some what like drawing you just need to know the method of drawing it, or in this case cooking it, some one can give you the greatest recipe of all time but if you do the methods wrong you will not get the dish, 2 same dishes may have totally different taste, dish one maybe be fantastic where as dish two may just suck, its because of the method is not done right.

many chefs round the world now love to use or create plain,simple, fast yet all so very tasty and colorful dishes. one of Chef Ramsey's sentences are 'it's quick, simple, vibrant and delicious' he always loves to use words like 'fast, quick, easy ,simple' when his cooking as for his dishes presentation it's never too fancy. Like my chef's lecturer said our presentation has to have 3 things relevance, relevance & relevance... no fancy pants things like umbrella's and little sugar daddy or people dolls on or beside it... its cooking not baking...

Malaysian food

2009-02-16T02:50:00.000-08:00

Like any other cuisines in the world Malaysian cuisine has it's own uniqueness, like India is curry, Italian is cheese and pasta but as for Malaysia there are various types of uniqueness due to the fact that it is a multi-racial country where Malays, Chinese,Baba(mixture of chinese and malay culture and heritage) & Indians live together in harmony, so out of the large variety dishes i can possibly think of in Malaysia are: Roti canai, Roti tissue, char kuay teow, bak ku teh, Hokkien Mee, Mee Goreng, Wan Tun Mee, deep fried chicken skin, Indian nasi bryani, nyonya cuisine, nasi lemak and loads more..

And there is no doubt that Malaysian cuisine is absolutely popular for its fantastic taste and smell. Where as the presentation of the food in Malaysia is normally just plain and simple and served on a flat plastic or tin plate but yet it's so very attracting to the person/people eating it.

Also compare with countries like Aus, a majority of Malaysian food is far more cheaper than it is in other countries, I read an article last year on an Australian journalist who went to Malaysia and dine in normal road side restaurants and having to spend less than 15 aussie$ i think he was able to order heeps of things including drinks. which is O so very cheap!! but yet some times we as Malaysians often do complain that our food is way too costly where in fact its not...

I also noticed that many of Malaysian's dishes are made from very basic simple ingredients such as Roti canai, mutton soup ect... which all smells and taste good.

So who says Malaysian's dont know how to eat good food aiy...