The Food Canon

Keeping a food blog has been enormously helpful in my journey of learning and discovery as a home cook. The discipline of blogging has helped me to improve on my dishes. Careful notation, taking note of the ratio and amount of ingredients, the motivation to learn and master new recipes all take on a new level of engagement when you know others are also reading and benefitting from these.

Responses from fans and interactions with other cooks, food suppliers and food bloggers have also been a wonderful learning and enriching experience. I am thankful for every new person I have met in the course of the year, every new acquaintance made.  

How do you feed more than a hundred hungry men with BBQ beef efficiently? Most of them were from Half-way Houses, and obviously, do not get to enjoy good steaks often.

Good beef is expensive. So, how do you give them an unforgettable experience of great beef without breaking the budget?   

Sous Vide came in very handy again. I bought grain-fed short rib beef, a relatively inexpensive cut ($20+ per kilo). It was SV-ed at 55°C for 36 hours. Then left in the fridge till it was about time to serve. The beef was sliced into strips (fish finger size). It went on the BBQ for about 1-2 minutes, turning to brown all sides for the Maillard browning effect.

I have 6 types of rice in my pantry: Thai Jasmine, Calrose, Japanese Rice, Basmati, Sweet Rice and Glutinous. I can assure you that none of them will be wasted and will eventually be used.  

Glutinous rice or Sticky Rice is special in its own way. Remember that it is staple in countries like Laos. It is versatile. It can be used for appetisers, mains or desserts. It can be an early morning breakfast delight, afternoon tea staple or a dinner dish. It can grace a Chinese wedding banquet, often towards the end of an 8-course meal. It can also be used for fine dining dishes. As the rice holds up well in almost any shape and can be served in small quantities, it is a chef's choice of rice.

I grew up loving my Mum's curry chicken which she cooked very often.

I have made her recipe many times. But it was when I started using the Anxin "naked-necked" chicken of late that some memories returned on how hers used to taste like.  

A day trip was all it took for me to learn about the chicken we use today. It answered many curious questions I had about the types of chicken we used today and it tasted differently from the ones I grew up eating.

Exotic. Tasty. Spicy. Curry.

Curries, of any kind, are appetising.

A good curry needs:
Oil - you do need some of this
Spices - the fresher, the better.
Chilli of some kind
Something salty i.e., salt (!)
Thickening agent i.e. milk, coconut milk, yoghurt
and of course, meat, potatoes etc.

I will do a short blog on some simple recipes for chicken.

As with always, start with the best chicken you can find. Some of you overseas should have easy access to great free-range chicken. Here, I prefer to use the "naked-neck" chicken as the meat is firmer, sweeter and flavorful. You can find out more about this chicken from Toh Thye Sun's farm which sells this Anxin brand. You can also source this "naked neck" chicken from the wet market. Just talked with your regular chicken seller. They are often sold as "Kampung Chicken." Dr Leslie Tay has also blogged about this chicken here.

I steamed some of this Anxin chicken with garlic sauce (the recipe here). In fact, steaming is one of the best ways to retain the flavours of the chicken.