Paella Fried Rice

This is a fusion between Spanish seafood paella and Chinese fried rice. I use soffrito (see below), saffron and seafood stock to flavour the short grain rice. The paella rice is cooked without the seafood and set aside, together with its socarrat, the toasted, crusty base layer of rice. The seafood (prawns, squid, mussels) are cooked seperately.

The usual ingredients for Chinese fried rice are prepared separatedly... peas, chopped fried egg strips and sausage. Here I use Hua Tiao pork liver sausage in place of chorizo, stir fried over medium heat. The paella rice is then stir fried in a little grape seed oil (for it high smoke point) over high heat to achieve the 'wok-hei' in Chinese stir fry.

To serve, arrange the squids, prawns, mussels around the fried rice and garnish with crispy, fried shallots.


Soffrito is a based ingredients in many Spanish dishes, in particular, paella.  It is prepared with tomato, onion and olive oil.  Slice the tomatoes in half. Remove seeds and place over a grater to retrieve the puree. Discard skins.

Heat oil over medium low heat. Add onions, sugar, salt and cook, stirring until the onions are soft and golden brown. You want the onion to caramelise but not burn. This may takes up to 45 mins.  Stir in the tomato puree, paprika, bay leaves and cook for a further 20 minutes over medium heat. Soffrito is ready when the tomato has broken down and deeped in colour and the oil has separated from the sauce.

Ingredients

1 kg medium size tomato
1 kg yellow onion, finely chopped
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
I tsp sweet smoke paprika
3 bay leaves
150 ml olive oil

Roast Chicken with Sumac and Lemon

My good friend, Luis Calvo Alonso brought me a packet of the exotic sumac spice from Istanbul. I decided to adapt a recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi. I do not have za'atar, which is a blend of spices usually consisting of thyme, sumac, oregano and toasted sesame seed.  I made my own blend with ajwain (a thyme flavored seed), sumac and white sesame seeds instead. The chicken is quartered and seasoned overnight, before it is roasted together with the marinate in a casserole at 200 deg C.  Before serving, it is garnished with roasted pine nuts, parsley and a drizzle of olive oil.

Ingredients
1 large free-range chicken, divied into quarters
2 red onions, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
4 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
1 1/2 teaspoons ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon sumac
1 lemon, thinly sliced
200ml chicken stock
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons za’atar
20g butter
50g pine nuts
4 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley

Chilled Black Garlic Noodles with Lumpfish Caviar

An invitation to a degustation lunch at Gordon's Grill, Goodwood Park Hotel, gave me the opportunity to taste the much hyped Cold Japanese Noodles with caviar.  I decided to creat my own version with home made black garlic noodles. The noodles takes less than a minute in boiling water to reach the right texture. For the sauce, I used ponzu, tare sauce, mirin, olive oil and truffle oil. The noodle is mixed in the sauce and chilled. For garnish, finely chopped chives, seaweed and half a teaspoon of red Lumpfish caviar. The slighty salty flavour of caviar with a nice crunchy pop combines well with the aroma of truffles to give this chilled black garlic noodle a surprising delicious taste.

You can buy black garlic here.

Mussel Escabeche

This is a rustic Spanish tapas dish that can be prepared in advance. It is served chilled and perfect with a glass of beer or wine and crusty bread. I used the pacific black mussels for its meatiness. In a medium pot, add 60 ml of white wine, bay leaves and mussels. Cover and cook over medium heat.  As soon as mussels open, remove them. When cool, remove mussels from shells.  Strain and reserve the cooking liquid.

To make escabeche, heat olive oil, shallot, garlic, pinch of salt and saute until shallot is soft. Add vinegar, peppercorns, paprika, and remaining wine and simmer for about 5 minutes. When the escabeche is cool, stir in the mussels. Pour into a shallow dish, cover and refrigerate overnight.

NB: For a more spicy escabeche, add 1 dried chilli when making the escabeche.

Serves 4 Tapas Rations
750 g mussels
100 ml white wine
40 ml white wine vinegar
2 bay leaves
20 ml extra virgin olive oil
1 medium shallot, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
5 black peppercorns
Pinch of salt
Optional: 1 dried red chilli

I created a  mussel escabeche bruschetta with baked bell peppers (marinated in herbs infused olive oil) and black garlic over a slice of home made foccacia.

Chiprones con Cebolla Caramelizada

The sweetness from the caramelized onion make this baby squid tapa very delicious. I added crispy smoked bacon to give the texture an added contrast. When making the caramelized onion in olive oil, make sure you continue to stir it to prevent it from burning. Add bay leaf, a dried chilli to give the onion extra flavor. When the caramelized onion is ready, stuffed them into the baby squid and pan fried till done. You may add piquillo pepper if you like. Wine is added to deglaze and make the sauce.

Baby Shrimp Kakiage with Parmesan

Kakiage is a Japanese term for mixed tempura. Parmesan cheese adds another dimension of flavor to this crispy kakiage. Besides the fresh baby shrimps, I added diced black garlic, red chilli and yellow onion. I adapted the recipe from Nobu Matsuhisa, but decided to use a mixture of rice flour and plain flour instead of the usual tempura flour. For extra crisp, I used ice cold beer for the batter.

Duck Leg Confit with Mixed Fruit Garnish

This is one of my favourite dishes as it is so flavorfully delicious. The meat literally falls off the bones, the skin is thin and crispy and you do not get the fattiness one would associate with duck skin.

Almost all French recipes for duck leg confits are seasoned with thyme. I could not get fresh thyme in the days I was to make the dish. So I used Ajwain seeds instead. Ajwain, a thyme flavored seed of the Carom family, is common in Indian and Middle Easter cuisine. I also added crushed bay leaves, chopped parsley, black pepper and of course, sea salt. The legs are marinated in the mixture for 24 hours. I cooked the duck legs in its own fat at 85 deg C for 4 hours, with skin side up, adding a bulb of garlic and and one or two cloves.

For the mixed fruit garnish, I use fresh apples and dried prunes, golden raisins, wolfberries, white wine, and crushed almonds. I simmer the dried fruits in fresh orange juice and a little chicken stock before adding diced apple cubes, without over cooking it to retain some crunchiness. The roasted and crushed almonds are added last.

Australian Wagyu Ribeye with Mustard Flavored Watercress Salad

For this dish, I want a twist between a sweet-tart flavor of a Japanese steak sauce and a tangy mustard dressing for the watercress salad.

The wagyu steak is simply seasoned with salt and pepper, then sous vided at 59 deg C for 45 min. I added a dash of smoked paprika before grilling it on a hot cast iron skillet for a minute each side. I reckoned a minute is a bit too long for a tender wagyu steak about 20mm thick. While the meat tasted great, it could have been better if I have reduced the grilling to just 30 seconds each side.

For the watercress dressing, I use a homemade Dijon mustard, cider vinegar, honey and extra virgin olive oil. The mustard was made a couple of weeks ahead from black and yellow mustard seeds, mustard powder, yellow onion, garlic, dry white wine, worcestershire sauce, salt, vinegar, sugar and a dash of ground mace, all spice, tumeric, white pepper and cinnamon.

To serve, I added shiitake mushrooms sauteed with a little sea salt and garlic.