Racing Before the Races

As quick as a monitor lizard looking for cover.

The practice sessions at the recent Singapore F1 were as chalk is to cheese in relation to its actual competitive racing. When time is of paramount importance, as there's only one chance at getting it right for only one of the twenty-four drivers, the grand prix took on a nerve cutting edge. I found myself rooting as much for the underdog as I did the leading driver.

And so it was to dishing out dinner over the three nights the grand prix was in town. You see, friends from Australia had come to crash at our pad for the sole purpose of catching the races with us, post satiation with yummy mains and salads. So that means the dinner menu must not only be speedy to prepare, but also had to take their palates right to the very edge of gastronomical cuisine.

And that called for tried and tested recipes that can be prepared in a jiffy, within a time span shorter than what it would take a take-away to be delivered to your door-step after you have completed your order by phone.

So on Friday, I stuck some steaks on the grill, and while they were sizzling away on the bbq, I whipped up a fiery green peppercorn sauce and inter-laid an abundance of rocket with slices of Peckham pears and bite-size portions of King Island blue, dressing all in a velvety coating of extra virgin olive oil and truly aged balsamic vinegar.

On Saturday, I chose a fifteen-minute roasting for my lamb cutlets, all air-flown from New Zealand. And that gave me plenty of time to toss together the diced cabbage, with hearty chucks of koo chye and generous slivers of granny smith apples - all nicely coated with home-made mayonnaise and a golden tablespoon of Manuka honey. And so had plenty of time left to leisurely and lovingly stir together more of the same honey and Dijion mustard - which became a cooling sweet and tangy sauce for the pretty as pink cutlets of lamb fresh from the oven.

And for the final evening before the races, I caramelized ocean fresh fillets of salmon together with zesty slices of lemon. And as the frying pan did its magic on fish and fruit, I sauteed generous sprigs of Malaysian asparagus in melted salted butter and freshly squeezed orange juice.

And there is never a better feeling than watching the races, after we've attended to the equally important affair of appeasing our appetites. For our adrenaline was kicking in even after all that food had commanded the rush of blood to our bellies.

Anchovy Seasons

See the difference viewed East or West.

While Australians associate owning a car as gaining the liberty to go on an extended road trip, often to unwind, explore new terrain or find one self, car owners in Singapore see their vehicles as a means to convenience: they will even drive down just a block to get to the nearest hawker centre! Such a contrasting difference can be said too of the way anchovies are used in getting a dish up from scratch.

In this part of the world, the anchovy serves not as a garnish but a main ingredient in many local dishes. So you have a hearty serving of these fish deep-fried to go with the nasi lemak, mixing it up with spoonfuls of fragrant coconut rice and rich spicy sambal; as you would too when the deep fried fresh catch is eaten by the Teochews with watery but grainy porridge. Or you can take to the dish the Cantonese way, by stir frying the freshly raw anchovies in sweet dark soya sauce and sliced red chillies, and accompanying that with steamed jasmine rice.

But when you go west, this humble fish, preserved in brine, takes an invisible twist: most dishes require you to finely chop them up, so that the flesh of the fish will evenly melt into the sauce, strongly lending to a dish just its obvious flavour. And often it’s a major seasoning, as it is too when tiny slivers of this finely chopped catch from the sea are stirred fried with florets of cauliflowers. Then there’s this linguine dish, where you doublet into steaming tomato passata generous amounts of rapidly melting anchovies.

And you are by no means confined to using the brine preserved anchovies with just reddish pasta sauce. The anchovies melt just as well into cream based gravy tossed together to garnish those parcels of freshly steamed prawns and koo chye raviolis.

And as these varied, but all equally yummy, dishes exemplify the differences in the way we use this unassuming  fish, it is worth noting too that that variety is driven by this basic disparity: In South East Asia, we use the fish freshly harvested from our seas. Look west, and they pull together delicious dishes with only anchovies preserved in an ingenious variety of ways. And so when taken as a holistic perspective, the culinary world becomes a lot richer and tastier. 

To All Things Olives

Going the distance: as far as they can see

I first gained an inkling of the labourious process of making olives tastily edible in an episode of "The Food Lover's Guide to Australia". The freshly picked fruit has to be immersed in salted, flavoured water for weeks on end. And the water has to be changed a couple of times within that time frame! However, if you have a recipe on par with the way Coriole gets their kalamata olives up to scratch, by all means bottle that. Otherwise, do as I do: buy a dozen packages from this winery when I'm next in South Australia. It's so good it's definitely worth carting all of them back to Singapore.

And you'll be amazed how quickly I'll go through the dozen. You see, they make wonderful after five nibbles with that glass of pinot grigio. And like any good crisps, you can't ever stop at one. Yes, they are that additive!

Then generously toss them pitted and whole onto a tomato passata-ed pizza base that's been slapped with lip-smacking delicious slices of salami and three cheeses. Although the olives stick out like UFOs, they hold up  to the oven's heat pretty well - neither burning up or shrivering.

Or slice the pitted olives up and patiently stir them into a basil, mushroom and garlic tomato pasta sauce. Well, not that patiently, as it doesn't take that long for the olive slices to completely dissolve and disappear into the rich gravy; enriching it ever so slightly ever.

Or you can toss the pitted olives into a food processor, along with sprigs of fresh rosemary and a generous drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. And keep the machine switched on high till a smooth paste is formed. This then naturally becomes a great succulent crust slabbed over the portions of meat on each lamb cutlet, after the seasoned red meat has been sitting in high heat for about fifteen minutes. And this offers a balanced contrast from the Greek-inspired lemon-spliced fresh salad of halved cherry tomatoes, whole kidney beans, sprite-ly green koo chye and crumbled marinated feta.  

The versatility of this delicious savoury fruit holds no bars to your leaps and bounces on the culinary balance beam. Only the limits of our imagination will hold it back from going for a perfect ten.

Wanton Wrappers

Bedding down well in Langkawi's tropical forest

When the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus school building in the heart of town was gazetted to be converted into the dining hub, CHIJMES, former students rallied together to petition against it. Unfortunately for them, they failed to block the move. And to this day, old girls of that school lament their lost roots. Fortunately for  the rest of Singapore, there is now one more place to dine surrounded by a poignant sense of the country's past.

And this holds true too for the venue from which The White Rabbit operates. As does Australia's passion in converting historic church buildings, with rapidly dwindling congregational attendance, into private residential homes or self-contained holiday cottages. There is something almost magical about spending a couple of nights shrouded within former churches, surrounded by furnishings nicely in tune to their time in history.

This versatility, wanton as it may sound to church-goers, is mirrored by the humble wonton wrapper.  Born rooted in traditional Chinese cuisine, it can be transformed into deep-fried crisp "crackling" bases on which the Thai infused chicken mixture sits, giving this Australian fusion tapas a cut above the ordinary. As it can make a successful wrapping round a minced prawn and chive patty, morphing into boiled fusion ravioli, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil infused with anchovies, cherry tomatoes and finely shredded basil.

I've even swapped filo pastry for these Chinese wrappers, and so simplified the process of making Moroccan seafood birouats, having retained the Middle Eastern tradition of dipping the deep fried wonton wrapped  tapas into a small bowl of sugar mixed with cayenne and cinnamon.

Similarly, I've thrown out the laborious process of making my own dough for wrapping round the salmon and herb filling for a Jewish piroshki. The humble wonton wrapper serves as a divine substitute that crisps up nicely when you bake the "crescent moons" of piroshki. And you'll want them in no other way save piping hot from the oven.    

As such, this humble Chinese "invention" succeeds in going to bed with diverse cuisines from the world over. And this encourages me to experimentally dip deeper in such wanton "marriages" with culinary recipes that have stood the test of time.

Complexing Pasta's Flavour

A repeated gush of palatable sensations. 

Forty-four nationalities worship in St George's Church, a good representation from every continent on earth. Given all these layers, the social dyanmics is always refreshingly different.  So meeting someone for the first time there is an adventure, just like the entertainment and dining hub Dempsey has successfully become. And this multicultural cauldron ensures that you end up with a little taste of each from the world over, layer upon layer.

That cannot be said about a pasta recipe I looked up. Using a tomato passata with blended anchovies as the sauce, and whole capers, chopped up kalamata olives and fresh basil as contrast, there's still a singularity in taste: savoury with a salty zing, added by the sprinkled grated parmesan over the fettucine al dented.

To layer in the complexity, I did a couple of add ons: first, I swapped the tomato sauce with Prego's mushroom flavoured pasta sauce, and the parmesan with mature red cheddar. The latter I pureed with the anchovies, garlic, and large de-seeded green chilli. And that pureed mixture I stirred thoroughly into the pasta sauce, after sauteeing my weight-watcher's minced beef, capers and chopped kalamata olives. As such, my sauce becomes a decidedly yellow-orangy hue (because of the melted cheddar).

To deepen the hue of the sauce and further positively complicate its flavour, I splashed a liberal slosh of spicy red wine. And only stirred in a generous serving of fresh chopped basil after I'd taken the pot of pasta sauce off the stove: this ensures the herb retains its charming green hue and refreshing flavour.

The end result is the layering of flavours that sing in resounding harmony. And becomes a recipe that decidedly has to be repeated again when close friends come for relaxed home cooking. For though its taste has gone from strength to strength, it still holds to this truth: its making retains the simplicity of making pasta.

A Fuss Free Luxury Picnic

As fuss free as a stay in Alila Manggis

The early evenings are the best time to go on a picnic in Singapore, seated on the grass by the edge of a tranquil pond teeming with aquatic floral and fauna. The long shadows cast by the setting sun cools the Botanic Gardens to a pleasant 26 to 28 degrees Centigrade, and occasionally there will even be a soothing breeze.

In keeping with the leisurely pace of such pleasant surroundings is a pack I make with my hubby that the meal we pack along will be fuss-free but luxurious. So along with a previously chilled wonderful Lehman's Eden Valley riesling, we include in our picnic basket a dozen freshly shucked raw oysters with slices of zesty lemon and a crack black pepper shaker.

Also from Cold Storage is a generous pork knuckle, roasted till we salivate thinking about its crispy crackling. And these slices of the still succulent white meat will be dipped into un-caramelized thick cut marmalade, straight from a bottle by Hediard. The savory knuckle, with the coy sweetness of this jam, opens up your appetite further. So that you'll have plenty of room to dip your quickly cut crisply green celery sticks in the slightly sweet but wonderfully savoury Chandon's tomato and red capsicum relish - a great companion to those jazzy jammed up roast pork and crackling.

And this induces us to crown our peaceful contemplation of nature in all its glory by heartily digging deep into hearty bowls of refreshing fresh blue and raspberries, generously coated with powder-light icing sugar. We won't trade this palate cleanser for the temptation of a fruity gelato - even though Estivo is just a five minute drive away.

Layering a Curry

As layered as Nara's shrubbery

Oia and Thira may be towns born on the same rock in Santorini, but there the similarity ends. While the first is about magnificent sunsets on the horizon and extraordinary signature-style architecture,  the second sings in what the buildings hold within - sensuous scenic paintings and absolutely divine jewellery. You can't have gone to just one before claiming that you've seen the Greek island in its truest form and substance. You must first experience the aesthetic adventure both promise.

This holds true too to how you'll cook cherry tomatoes in a pot of curry. It doesn't matter if swimming in its spicy, coconut-rich gravy is slices of pork, fish or chicken. What's crucial is the way the heat, as in temperature and spice, in the thick creamy sauce interacts with these divinely sweet fruit. And how that heat interacts with them depends on whether you've tossed in these cut or uncut.

If they go in whole and get cooked till the point where their skins "crack", popping them straight into your mouth brings a burst of steaming tomato juice over every taste bud embedded in your tongue. But if you splice the tomatoes in half before cooking them with the meat in the curry pot, the spicy juices permeate the cut surfaces and nicely inter-mingle with the tomatoes' juices. That mixing creates a totally new sensation surpassing every experience that you've ever made with a meal of curry.

As Santorini has layers of differences hidden within the folds rising from its shore, so too will a curry when half the tomatoes are tossed in whole, and half halved before doing so. Then this humble Asian dish takes on an added complexity in taste and texture, adding into the dish a fourth and fifth dimension.

It's Time for a Microstoven

Even the cockatoo wants to imitate the micostoven 

They say that necessity is the mother of invention. And whatever may have been the necessity that ignited whoever to invent the microstoven, he should get a standing ovation from all the cooks and chefs the world over.

How did I come to realize that such an encore should be given? Well, the European made oven I have right now has a smaller interior even though the exterior has standard dimensions. That I didn’t know until I tried baking my frittata in a frying pan, after partially cooking it over a stove: I found that out when this pan’s handle won’t fit into the oven. And as a result, the final stage of cooking the frittata failed miserably.

Now, I got round it when I went to buy a microstoven: an kitchen equipment that can go from microwave to stove to oven and back again. And that is a God sent as I now can also brown my beef in it before I deglaze the meat’s juices off the pan, without removing the browned meat. And so add all the tomato and sherry into the said magical pan before shoving this cooking miracle into the oven.  

Similarly, I can now stir fry to high heaven the spicy ingredients that formed the gravy smothering the whole snapper for a Jewish dag ha sfarim in the same microstoven. And there’s no worry that the time after the stove and so in the oven will dry out the sauce, as good old aluminium foil does its job magnificently in keeping the moisture in the fish and the gravy.

And the results are so good for all three dishes that I’m almost inclined to buy a second. Until that is I know that a pyrex, with a glass-like lid, can do just as well for the heritage dish from Israel.