Sunday 22 April 2012

Chocolate Lava Cake from Little Paris Kitchen



HEAVENNNN

from little Paris Kitchen





I would add extra salt onto the salted caramel sauce
you have to be patient and focus when making caramel.
I burnt the first round :p coz I was sorting out other stuff while doing it :p

http://www.saturdaykitchenrecipesearch.co.uk/rachel-khoo-chocolate-lava-cake-the-little-paris-kitchen

INGREDIENTS
For the caramel filling
150 g sugar
150 ml double cream
1 tsp salt (course sea salt)
For the chocolate sponge
large bar of dark chocolate (150g? min. 60% cocoa solids)
85 g butter
cocoa powder
170 g light brown sugar
85 g flour
6 eggs

MAKE THE CARAMEL FILLING
1. Sprinkle enough sugar to cover the bottom of the medium sized saucepan
2. Cook this until it melts and begins to go golden brown then add the rest of the sugar
3. Cook all the sugar until it reaches a cola colour
4. Add 150 ml double cream (be careful at this stage – stand back – it does boil up)
5. add 1 tsp of salt
6. Cook until it reaches 108 deg or it coats the back of a spoon
7. Pour into a bowl and carefully place in the fridge to cool (this is piped into the chocolate sponge later so its got to stay runny)

MAKE THE CHOCOLATE SPONGE
1. Put water into a saucepan and bring to a simmer
meanwhile
2. Break the chocolate bar into a bowl
3. Add 85g of butter
then
4. Place the bowl over the saucepan to melt the chocolate and butter (stir occasionally)
meanwhile
5. Grease ramekins
6. Coat the inside of the ramekin with cocoa powder
7. Mix 170g of light brown sugar with 85 g of flour in a baking bowl
8. Then add the melted chocolate and butter and mix through
9. Crack and blend six eggs
10. Add the eggs to the mixture in the bowl and blend thoroughly
11. Ladle the mixture into the ramekins filling about three quarters full (leaving room for the caramel sauce which gets added later)
12. Chill the filled ramekins for about an hour in the fridge

13. Squeeze the caramel into the chocolate mixture using a piping bag
14. Bake 180oC for 15min
15. Enjoy :)

Saturday 21 April 2012

Benares

We bought a £50 quid voucher - with a value of £100 food from the telegraph's select (a group buying site)
The head chef, Atul was on Great British Menu a few years back. His food looks good so we have always wanted to try it out.

on the whole the food was average and unmemorable.
It's not cheap - on top of the voucher.. we have to top up another 60 quid.


Poppadom with homemade chutney


Passion Fruit Chutney Martini
This is a drink that has been created with a bit of help from our Chef, Atul Kochhar. A combination of house made passion fruit chutney, Wyborowa vodka, fresh lemon juice, sugar and a dash of passion fruit juice.
- very nice and refreshing! 


Starter
Quail Kebab
- very average. nothing special 
Hand Dived Scottish Scallop in the Shell, Broccoli Puree & Lentils

Main


Venison loin with spiced apple and foie gras mousse



Seared Gressingham Duck Breast

Chocolate Peanut Butter Tube, Jaggery Cake, Cumin Marshmallow and Sugar Cane Ice-Cream

Star Anise Apple Tatin with Fennel, Vanilla Ice Cream, Salted Butter Caramel
- that was quite disappointing.. can't really taste the spices and the tart tatin is very average 
no chewy caramelly pastry... 

Jasmine rice pudding with candied orange, mandarin, mint and berry sorbet
This was a complementary "pre-dessert" - but guess they forgot to serve it .. so it came as a "post dessert" instead. 
I am never a fan of rice pudding.  It was quite ordinary I thought

Petite "three" :p 


Benares on Urbanspoon

Tuesday 17 April 2012

Melody's Ramen :p with Japanese Braised pork

Bought some fresh ramen when we were in Japan
so I made my own Japanese braised pork (Buta kakuni) and marinated "soft" boiled egg to go with it



Japanese Braised Pork
I used the recipe here:
http://www.justhungry.com/buta-no-kakuni-japanese-braised-pork-belly
I melod-ize it by adding extra ingredients like garlic, onion to make the stock even more flavoursome :)
It's a very easy and yummy recipe :)




Buta no kakuni (Japanese braised pork belly)
About 450g / 1 lb pork belly
2 Tbs sugar
1 piece of leek (about 6 inches / 15 cm long or so. You can use the green part too.)
1 large piece of fresh ginger
1 star anise
3 Tbs. soy sauce
2 Tbs. sake
2 cups water

Cut the pork into cubes about 1 inch / 2cm or so square. If the skin is still on, leave it on. Heat up a large pot with a heavy bottom. Sauté the pork belly cubes, without any added fat (you don’t need it…) until browned.

When the meat is browned, scrape it to one side and put the sugar in the fat that’s accumulated on the bottom, and stir around until it’s a bit caramelized. Stir and toss so the meat gets coated by the sugar.
Add the rest of the ingredients, bring to a simmer and lower the heat. Put a lid on and let it simmer gently for about 3 hours, turning occasionally.

To serve, dredge the pieces carefully out of the very oily cooking liquid, and peel of the thick layer of fat that’s on the skin side of the meat. Drizzle a little bit of the cooking liquid over the cubes.

I then made Heston's Soft boiled egg, and marinate the egg in the braised pork sauce over night ...
My eggs were a little overrrr.. but still yum :)
http://www.channel4.com/4food/recipes/chefs/heston-blumenthal/soft-boiled-eggs-recipe

Method
Place the eggs in the smallest pan available and only add enough cold water to cover them. Put the lid on the pan and place over the highest heat possible.
When the water comes to the boil, remove the pan from the heat and wait for 6 minutes.
After the time has elapsed, remove the lid and carefully remove each egg. Cut the top of each egg before serving in egg cups.





Monday 16 April 2012

Roast & Conch

I was attracted by the smell of roasted cocoa bean at the front of this hotel chocolat shop. 
going downstairs .. there's this little cafe called Roast and Conch 


They sell coffee like espresso/cappucino using cocoa bean instead of coffee bean!
you could choose both shoot using cocoa bean.. or 1 shot coffee and 1 shot cocoa bean. 
That sounds interesting... but there's always a reason why it's not readily available already...
That's because it's not actually nice... at all 


We had a "cappucino" and "macciato" made with 2 shots of cocoa
I was expecting something a bit like hot chocolate.. 
but it didnt taste much really... 

we were also served a little slice of chocolate crepe to try
and it tasted pretty average
on the whole it was quite a disappointing experience.. 

they display some chocolate making machine downstairs though 

The Conch



Sunday 8 April 2012

Japan Day 10 - Kyoto - Our friend's wedding

One of the main reasons why we went to Kyoto is to attend our friend's wedding :)

As pre-wedding lunch, we went to Man Kame Rou
http://www.mankamerou.com/
A 2 michelin star traditional Japanese restaurant 

My friend and I dressed up in Kimono for it :p
http://www.yumeyakata.com/kimono/index.html
We got there just after 10 and it was SO PACKED already as it was the first Saturday since the opening of sakura.

Here's what we had to do 
- beat the crowd and picked a kimono we like - the outer layer, inner layer (with floral print on the collar) and the belt.
- we then moved onto the room next door to have our hair done.  There were 6 standard kimono hairstyles to choose from


- then we moved onto he changing room - where there were two people dressing us up at the same time.

It costed us 2500yen to hire the kimono (discounted) and an extra 1050 for setting the hair :) not bad huh. There are many other optional extras e.g. hair accessories/ prettier belt etc

 Here's the end product

Kimono is not very comfortable and you couldn't walk fast with it!
To ensure the belt doesn't drop down in the middle of the day. They tied it up AS TIGHT AS possible.
Also, you couldnt lean back while sitting down since it would ruin the pretty bow they made at the back.

We had Japanese setting for the lunch - where we have to kneel down throughout the whole meal and ate from the mini serving table in front of it!!! That was hard! :p couldn't feel our feet after a while.. We ended up going to the loo every 10 min ..hahaha... just so that we can get up and walk around.
Some marinated octopus as the first course

Sashimi 

Pretty basket

tadaaaaa 
a lot of nicely marinated vegetable and seafood.
so pretty and colourful. 
everything perfectly cooked.
frankly.. i couldn't really tell what some of the stuff are... but they are all delicious
being a little picky :p I didnt finish the whole basket off and I got told off by the waitress :( 

tofu fish soup

Jelly - very refreshing :)

The ceremony took place at one of the UNESCO World's heritage site - Shimogamo Shrine 下鴨神社
It was a Shinto style wedding

Before the ceremony, we sat down together with the bride & groom and their family in a little room where the staff explains what's going to happen during the ceremony and had a little rehearsal.

We were served - sakura tea (it's a bit salty with gold leaves! tasted more like a broth rather than tea) and a little red bean mantou (steamed bun)




We had a tour around the shrine.. then went into the ceremony room.  
 It was quite interesting .. It includes the exchange of  many cups of sake and spinning a twig.  

  

Pretty and very expensive kimono


Around the shrine




Strawberry mochi :) 




On the way to our friend's wedding, we saw this restaurant that looks very cute!!! so we thought we could go back afterwards for dinner. 
However, after looking at the menu - which is all burger/ steak! 
we've decided to go to the restaurant next door - serving katsu! 

I had katsu with plum

Keith had DOUBLE PORTION of Katsu with japanese curry.. 
very greedy...

Saturday 7 April 2012

Japan Day 9 - Kyoto/Arashiyama

We went to Arashiyama on a Saturday afternoon and it was jam packed!




Bamboo Grove




This is a famous soba restaurant in Kyoto
http://www.arashiyama-yoshimura.com/
frankly...... it was good but I actually like the texture of the soba from Nara a bit more which is a bit thicker :p  it could just be my preference.



and Yoba icecream as dessert!! (tofu skin)




We then walked along the philosopher's path towards the silver temple..





However.. by the time we got there.. it was closed already :(
lots of food on the way.... as usual



Green tea ice cream puff at the entrance of the silver temple
yum yum yum

went back to the city centre in the evening for sashimi rice



 Sakura at night :)


There's a ninja restaurant in Kyoto which we really wanted to go :p 
with waitor/waitress dressed up as ninja and dishes with ninja related presentation 
e.g. food serves on a sword
maybe a little gimmicky for some people :p 
but we thot we would give it a go anyway 
However, it was impossible to get a table without reservation :(