roasted red snapper

I learned this dish casually while reading Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential. He always stressed that a good quality dish should be simple, only needed at most 4 to 5 ingredients. Finding a fresh fish is crucial. Look for firm fish with bright eyes and red gills. It should smell sweet, not fishy.

olive oil
1 yellow onion, peeled and thinly sliced
2 large cloves of garlic, one peeled and chopped, the other smashed
a stick of butter
a few sprigs of rosemary
1 lemon
a whole red snapper, cleaned, with head and tail intact, scored
1 tomato, quartered
1 whole red chilli, seeds removed and sliced

Preheat your oven at 220 degree C. Rub the fish inside and out with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

In a large sauté pan over medium heat, warm the oil. Add the onions and sauté, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the chopped garlic and sauté, stirring occasionally, for a minute. Add in the butter and let it melt, then squeeze the juice from half the lemon, continue cooking until the mixture is reduced.

Put the snapper in a roasting pan or in a tin foil. Stuff the cavity of the fish with half of the onion mixture, along with the smashed garlic and the rosemary. Spoon the remaining onion mixture over the fish and in the score marks. Add in the tomato and the chilli surrounding the fish. Drizzle some olive oil and squeeze the other half of the lemon juice. Put in the oven and roast for 30-35 minutes, until crispy and thoroughly cooked.

linguine with crab, lemon and chilli

It is quite imperative to use the freshest, best-quality crab available, to make this dish worthwhile. Otherwise you might as well chuck in a can of tuna flakes and call it a day. Adjust the heat from the chilies and the amount of lemon juice to your liking.

Serves 2
250g linguine
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1/4 cup minced shallots
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 red chilies,  seeded, sliced into thin rounds, divide into 2 portions (add more or reduce to adjust the heat)
1 1/2 tablespoons (or more) fresh lemon juice, divided
salt & freshly ground black pepper
200g crab meat, cooked

Cook the pasta according to the packet instruction until al dente. Reserve some of the pasta cooking water.
 
Meanwhile, in a large skillet, melt 1 tablespoon butter with 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat. Add shallots and stir until just soft, 3 to 4 minutes. Add garlic and one portion of the chili and cook, stirring often, until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Add 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice and 3 tablespoons pasta cooking liquid; season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir until liquid is reduced; until almost evaporated, about 1 minute.

Stir in the pasta into skillet and add 1/2 cup reserved pasta cooking liquid. Increase heat to medium-high. Toss around the pasta and stir, until liquid is reduced and pasta becomes glossy, about 2 minutes. Add the remaining 3 tablespoons butter, 1 tablespoon oil, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, crab, half of mint, and the rest of the chili.

Stir pasta until butter melts and pasta is well coated, adding more pasta cooking liquid if dry. Serve immediately, and top with a teaspoon of lemon zest if desired.

classic tray-baked chicken

This dish should be in the repertoire of every home cooks who owns an oven at home. Instead of frying them in oil all the time, which most M’sian does, and with the by-product laced with unhealthy fat and cholestrol, why not tray-bake them? It uses a minimal amount of ingredients – chicken, olive oil, salt and pepper (and if you want gravy, chicken stock) and is especially useful on those busy days when you are just too busy to think of other creative dish to do with with chicken parts. Though it may considerably takes longer than frying, the result is mesmerizing and the aroma is irresistable. The entire kitchen will smells good and your taste palate will be rewarded well.

3-4 pounds of chicken parts (2 breasts, 2 thighs, 2 legs, 2 wings)

extra virgin olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper

a whole bulb of garlic, crushed

1/2 cup chicken stock, to make gravy (optional)

2 sprigs of thyme and rosemary (optional)

Preheat oven to 230 degree C.  Rinse chicken pieces in water and pat dry with paper towels.  Coat the bottom of a roasting pan with olive oil.  Rub some olive oil over all of the chicken pieces in the roasting pan.  Sprinkle both sides of the chicken pieces with liberal amount of salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Arrange the pieces skin-side up in the roasting pan so the largest pieces are in the center (the breasts) and there is a little room between pieces so they aren’t crowded in the pan. Chuck in the garlic in the pan and if you prefer to have a wonderful aroma, lay a few sprigs of rosemary and thyme in between the chicken pieces. (I also like to add some tomatoes, quartered, into the roasting pan together with the chicken as i always love roasted tomatoes). Another alternative which resulted in a wonderfully spicy chicken is to rub them with paprika apart from the salt & pepper.

Roast in the oven for at least 30 minutes or until the juices run clear (not pink) when poked with a sharp knife. If your chicken pieces aren’t browning to your satisfaction, you can put them under the broiler for the last 5 minutes of cooking, until browned sufficiently.

Once the chicken is cooked, remove them to a serving plate and let rest for 5 to 10 minutes before serving. This will be a great opportunity to make the gravy. To make gravy for the chicken, take the roasting pan with its drippings and place on a medium setting on the stovetop.  Use a metal spatula to scrape up the drippings stuck to the bottom of the pan.  Add a half cup of chicken stock to the pan to help deglaze the drippings from the pan. Strain the stock and dripping mixture into a small saucepan and heat on medium high to reduce to desired thickness. Add a few spoonful of corn starch to thicken the sauce more if you still feel the sauce is too loose.

spaghetti alla carbonara

The origin of carbonara sauce, as with most other recipes are obscure. Some believe the dish was first made as a hearty meal for Italian charcoal workers, Carbonari, (“charcoalmen”). Whatever the story, carbonara sauce is, to me, one of the basic sauce for pasta (besides alfredo, bolognese, and genovese). One must learn how to make pasta alla carbonara well in order to claim to understanding what Italian dishes are all about. Luscious and wonderfully indulgent, it takes as long to make as it does to cook the pasta.  The fundamental ingredients are simple, just spaghetti (or other long pasta), pancetta or bacon, eggs, Parmesan cheese, a little olive oil, salt and pepper.  Pancetta or bacon is substituted with streaky beef slices so the dish becomes pork-free. A silky sauce is created when the beaten eggs are tossed with the hot pasta and a little fat from the meat.

Serves 4

8 strips of streaky beef, sliced into small strip

3-4 whole eggs

1 cup grated parmesan or pecorino cheese

1 pound spaghetti pasta (or other type of long pasta, such as fettuccine)

Salt and black pepper to taste

extra virgin olive oil

Cook the spaghetti to al dente. In the meantime, heat the olive oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the streaky beef and cook slowly until crispy. Once cooked, turn off the heat and put the beef into a large bowl.

In a small bowl, beat the eggs and mix in about half of the Parmesan cheese. When the pasta is ready, drain and transfer into the bowl with the beef.  Move the pasta from the pot to the bowl quickly, as you want the pasta to be hot. It’s the heat of the pasta that will cook eggs sufficiently to create a creamy sauce. Toss everything to combine, then add the beaten eggs with cheese and toss quickly to combine once more. Season to taste, and serve at once with the rest of the parmesan.

roasted tomato soup

There are many variations on how to prepare tomato soup, and by far, this is my most favourite and the easiest with the least ingredients. I love serving this with baguette, the crunchy outer texture compliments the rustic taste of the soup.

Serves 4

1kg ripe cherry tomatoes

4 large tomatoes

4 cloves of garlic

4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 small red onions

a small bunch of fresh basil

extra virgin olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Prepare a medium roasting tray. Preheat oven to 220 degree C. Quarter the large tomatoes and together with the cherry tomatoes, put all into the roasting tray. Drizzle over a good lug of olive oil season with salt and pepper. Crush and peeled the garlic and toss into the roasting tray. Put in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes.

In the meantime, peel and roughly chop the onions and put in a hot saucepan with a few lug of olive oil and a pinch of salt. Sweat the onion for a few minutes without browning over low heat. Stir the balsamic vinegar, turn up the heat to medium and let it cook away and reduce down. Take the tray of tomatoes out of the oven and add everything into the pan of onion.

Carefully pour everything into a blender, add the basil (reserves some for garnishing) and whizz to a fairly rustic consistency. Serve in a bowl, optionally topped with freshly grated Parmesan cheese, drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and the reserved basil.

pasta alla primavera

 

This Italian phrase, primavera [pree-muh-VEHR-uh]  means “spring style” and refers to the use of fresh vegetables (raw or blanched) as a garnish to various dishes. The origin of the dish is traced back to New York, where the chefs at Le Cirque restaurant came up with a riot of vegetation doused in butter, cream and lots of parmesan cheese. This version is a lightened and simplified rendition of this classic, but still captures the spirit of the 70’s and 80’s high style dining fashion. The dish may contain almost any kind of vegetable, but firm and crisp vegetables, such as broccoli, carrots, peas, onions, and green bell peppers with tomatoes are the usual preference. Classic primavera sauce is based on a soffrito (the sweating of vegetables in low heat without browning) of garlic and olive oil and finished with Parmesan cheese. Further versions, such as this one is based on a heavier cream or Alfredo style sauce.

Serves 4

1/2 pound spaghetti

a small bunch broccoli, about 1 heaping cup of florets

1 small zucchini, diced

4 asparagus’ spears

1/2 cup snow peas/honey beans

3 minced garlic cloves

2 tablespoons tomato paste

a bunch of basil leaves, chopped

4 tablespoons butter

1/4 cup chicken/vegetable broth

1/2 cup heavy cream

a handful of freshly grated parmesan cheese

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cook the pasta to al dente. Bring a large pot of water to boil and salt it well. It should taste like the sea. In the meantime, fill a large bowl with ice water to prepare the waterbath.  Boil the broccoli for 1 minute. Add the asparagus and boil another minute. Add the snow peas/honey beans and boil for 30 more seconds. Remove all the vegetables and plunge them into the ice water. Once they’re cool, drain in a colander.

If you want, you can boil your pasta in the same pot you boiled the vegetables in, or you can start over and boil new water. In a large saute pan, heat the butter over medium-high heat.  When the butter melts, add the garlic and zucchini and cook for a minute. Add the tomato paste and cook for another 2 minutes. Pour in the chicken/vegetable broth and turn the heat to high to bring it to a boil. Add the cream and toss in all the vegetables you boiled. Stir to combine. Turn the heat down until the cream-chicken broth mixture is just simmering, then add the parmesan cheese and stir again to combine. If the sauce seems too thick add some more of the broth.

As soon as the pasta is done, drain and transfer it into the sauce and stir to combine. Add the basil and season to taste. Serve immediately.

 

perfect roasted chicken

There are three finese points to a perfect chicken. Though there are many variables that make one roasted chicken different from another, only three key components are essential to ensure you end up with the perfect roasted chicken: 1) Seasoning, 2) oven temperature and 3) the maintenance of juicy breast and fully cooked thighs. Seasoning in this case is salt. A chicken should be liberally salted. It should have a visible coating of salt. An agressive use of salt ensure the chicken tastes delicious. It also helps dehydrate the skin so that you wind up with a crisp brown skin and not a pale soggy one.

Chicken should be roasted in a very hot oven, at least 220 degree C, where it should accomplish two important jobs: browns the skin and cooks the leg and thigh fast, giving the breast less opportunity to dry out. The most common mistake people made that they ended up with flavorless breast is that they fail to understand what is happening in the cavity of the bird. If the leg is not tied up, or the cavity is left empty, hot air swirls around the cavity of the bird, cooking the breast from the inside out. To prevent this, you should truss the chicken (binding the legs together), which most home cooks don’t bother with. If you don’t, simply stuff the cavity with something, lemon, onion, garlic or herbs, where my preferrence is lemon.

To prevent overcooking your chicken, a 1 hour at temperature of 230 degree C is sufficient enough for a 4-pound/1.8kg bird (50 minutes for a bird under that). But as a rule of thumb, use the cavity juices to judge doneness. After 45 minutes, if you tilt the bird so the juices spill from the cavity into the rendered fat are clear instead of red in color, it is then safe to take the bird out of the oven. Once done, the chicken should be rested for a good 15 minutes before you cut into it. The bird wont get cold i promised you, since they would still be cooking internally once you’ve taken it out of the oven.

(Good enough to) serve 4

One 3 to 4 pound/1.4 to 1.8 kg chicken

1 lemon

a whole bulb of garlic

salt and freshly ground black pepper

3 to 4 pound/1.5 to 2 kg of Russet potatoes, peeled.

About an hour before cooking time, salt the chicken entirely with salt and pepper (salting the bird hours earlier in advance will result in the skin being smooth shiny and golden instead of being crispy) . Cut the potatoes to the size of a golf ball. Bring a pot of water to boil and boil the lemon, potatoes and garlic for about 10 minutes. Drain in a colander, prick the lemon a few times to let off the steam. Stuff the lemon and garlic into the cavity of the bird. Truss the chicken well. Sit the chicken inside a roasting tray just big enough to ensure the bird fit snugly. Add in the potatoes around the chicken and drizzle a good amount of olive oil so it coats the potatoes well. Slide the tray into the oven and cook for about an hour. Check the color of the juice, if it runs red, give it more time in the oven.

Remove the chicken from the oven and let rest for 15 minutes. Carve the chicken and serve with any sauces of your choice.

spaghetti and meatballs

Meatballs are fantastic! Meatballs are amazing! They’re easy, fast and simple. They’re so easy, that i always wondered why are there still people buying those frozen ready-made meatballs? I have two kids to tend to, and always reached home from work by the time the sun has gone down, yet i have time to make those wonderful meatballs everytime i felt like having them as dinner. They’re wonderful to have with simple tomato sauce, whether accompanied by chunks of bread or by pasta, they’re great with vegetable broth, or by having them as sandwiches. Their potential are endless, yet so simple – all you need is good quality minced meat.

For the meatballs

500g minced meat

1 large egg

1 large onion, finely chopped

50g of breadcrumbs/12 pieces of cream crackers

a handful of fresh flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

1 cup of freshly grated Parmesan cheese

salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the tomato sauce (serves 4)

1 onion, finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

2 cans of 400g chopped plum tomatoes

400g of spaghetti

a handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese

salt and freshly ground black pepper

extra virgin olive oil

To make the meatballs: In a large mixing bowl, add the minced meat, chopped parsley, egg, the Parmesan cheese and a good pinch of salt and pepper. If you’re using the cream crackers, wrap the crackers in a clean towel and smash up until fine, breaking up any big bits with your hands and add into the bowl. If you’re using the breadcrumbs instead, add them into the bowl. With clean hands scrunch and mix up well. If you feel the mixture is still to sticky and would not hold up shape, add some of the breadcrumbs until the mixture have a good consistency and can be shaped. Shape the meatballs into the size of golf balls (or bigger, depending on your preference, but not too big or it will be hard for them to cook properly) and then pat them down so they can evenly cook. Drizzle them with olive oil and jiggle them about so they all get coated. Put them on a plate, cover and place in the fridge until needed.

To make the tomato sauce: Put a large pan of salted water to boil. Heat a large sauce pan on a medium heat and add 2 lugs of olive oil. Add your onion to the pan and stir until softened and lightly golden. Then add your garlic, and as soon as they start to colour, add the tomatoes. Bring to the boil and season to taste. Meanwhile, heat a frying pan and add a lug of olive oil and your meatballs. Stir them around and cook for 8–10 minutes until golden (check they’re cooked by opening one up – there should be no sign of pink). Add the meatballs to the sauce and simmer until the sauce thickens, around 20-30 minutes, then remove from the heat. Once the pasta is cooked, stir them to the tomato sauce, add the Parmesan cheese, correct the seasoning and serve immediately.

grilled salmon, green beans and couscous

There’s nothing like a piece of perfectly cooked salmon with a crispy, crunchy skin, perfectly complemented by boiled green vegetables. Couscous is also a great companion to fish fillet whether grilled, poached or steamed. Any combination with vegetables when you’re serving grilled fish are acceptable, but i prefer to combine them with soft boiled vegetable, whether green or starchy, such as green beans or potatoes. If the fish is prepared by poaching or steaming, then my preferred choice of vegetables would be those hard crunchy one such as broccoli done by grilling. Contrast is the concept when pairing fish with vegetables. It’s important to prep your fish before it goes into the pan to ensure the seasoning is done well. Lay the fillet flat on your chopping board, skin-side up, and score through the skin about half inch deep – you can use the score marks to push herbs (in this dish i’m using rosemary and thyme) into it. Season the fish using fine-salt and freshly ground black pepper, fine-salt is the preference since the grain of a coarse salt could “burn” the fish. Drizzle a bit of extra virgin olive oil over the top.

Serves 4

4 6-8oz (about 200g) salmon steak, scored

4 handfuls of slender green beans, tops removed

4 large handfuls of couscous

a few sprigs of rosemary, leaves picked

a handful of thyme, leaves picked

salt and freshly ground black pepper

extra virgin olive oil

Bring a pot of hot water to boil and salt. Add the green beans into the pot and boil until softer, about 10 minutes or so. Put your couscous in a bowl, then pour over just enough boiling water to cover it. Add a slab of butter into the bowl and let melt. Set aside for 3 minutes to allow the couscous to soak up the water. Heat a small non-stick frying pan and add the salmon steak on their side. Cook for 2 minutes, turning the salmon over halfway. Remove the salmon strips to a plate. Prepare another plate, spread the couscous all over and covering the plate, acting as a “base” for the dish. Slide the salmon on top of the couscous, with the green beans to the side. To serve, spoon over some pesto or crème fraîche.

spaghetti with fresh tomato sauce

There is nothing more beautiful than the sight of a fresh, fully ripen plum tomatoes. The blessed tropical weather that we have means that having fresh tomatoes is an occassion we savour all year round. The dish has a thick creaminess that you can never duplicate with canned plum tomatoes, no matter how good or expensive the are. There is an ideal instant, a tell-tale sign, for serving this sauce: when the tomatoes soften and all of their juices are in the pan, the sauce will suddenly begins to thicken. At that moment, at its’ peak, another minute or two later will result in the juices evaporating and, although the essence of the sauce is equally intense, it won’t be able to coat the pasta well. Observe the sauce as it cooks, but should it happen, just add a little olive oil or butter to the finished dish.

Serves 4

8 medium-sized fully ripen tomatoes (cored and roughly chopped)

2 cloves of garlic, minced

one shallot, minced

a good slab of butter, about 4 tablespoons

400 grams spaghetti or linguine

a handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cook the pasta in a large pot of salted boiling water. Melt butter in a skillet of a saute pan, add the garlic and shallot and fry for a minute or two over medium heat. Add the tomatoes, cook, stirring occasionally until the tomatoes begin to juice up, then turn the heat to low and continue to stir until the sauce thickens. Season the sauce to taste. Once the pasta is cooked, drain, and toss with the tomatoes and cheese.

Variation:

• Add some shrimp when together when frying the garlic and shallot just before adding the tomatoes
• Add a few branches of basil, remove them just before serving and stir in about half cup of roughly chopped basil leaves into the pasta
• Toss the pasta with about a cup of cubed fresh mozzarella
• Add dried chilli to taste along with the tomatoes to install a bit of heat into the pasta

**A note on preparing fresh tomatoes: Always core fresh tomatoes before being used (remove the cone-shaped wedge from the stem end). Peeling is optional – but if the tomato skin is an issue, simply remove it by blanching (score the bottom end of the tomatoes, drop the tomatoes into hot boiling water for 30 seconds, remove with a slotted spoon into a bowl of cold water and slip the peel right off the score marks). Alternatively, you can also fish out the skin as the sauce simmers; it automatically separates from the flesh.