Showing posts with label Savoury. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Savoury. Show all posts
30 Jan 2014
Bak Kwa Madness for coming Chinese New Year??
Chinese New Year is justwith my friend since the start of January.
I came across an article on New Paper - 'Behind the scenes in a bak kwa shop' which featured Lim Chee
Guan. There was even a video to give public a peek at its HQ at Pandan Loop. Obviously the secret recipe
was not included in this article.
My eyes almost popped out of my socket when I saw that 1kg of Bak Kwa was going for $50.00 at the
shop! Gosh! Those people have been queuing for hours too and they mentioned that it was worth the wait.
Is it a tradition that Chinese New Year means Bak Kwa time?
The link of the article can be found here.
Another article which I came across last Monday with the heading
HED CHEF EXTRA: How to make your own bak kwa
HED CHEF EXTRA: How to make your own bak kwa
sparked my interest.
The recipe given was:
-1kg minced pork (shoulder butt)
-220g fine sugar
-1½ tsp salt
-1 tsp light soya sauce
-1 tbsp oyster sauce
-½ tsp five spice powder
-1½ tbsp Chinese rice wine
-Pinch of red food colouring powder
I guessed many people who tried making it would be greatly disappointed as it would never turn out the
same as those commercialized outlets like Lim Chee Guan, Bee Cheng Hiang or Fragrance Bak Kwa.
The reason of me writing this post was because I was a bit pissed off. I have already tried making Bak Kwa
even before this article's recipe was published, using the oven, even with barbecuing, and the results was so off! It could be found on my previous post here. Not to mention the texture was not right too...
Notice the article's recipe above contained sugar as the main sweetening agent? My friend and I did a batch
with only sugar and no honey (the recipe I used have), the taste turned out really flat! Honey not only
sweetened the Bak Kwa but also provides flavor. (Different brand, different flower, different flavor also.)
Be careful as honey is sweeter than sugar too.
Another thing that would happen when you place the marinated meat into the oven would be the oozing out
of marination which I experienced many times before. To prevent that from happening, I suggested using the
dehydrator which I did not expect my friend to actually buy it
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| The same dehydrator that could be used to make fruit and vegetable chips! It cost my friend about $250. Basically he dehydrated the marinated meat for about an hour, about 65 degrees (high). (Also have low and medium heat options.) |
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| After that, the marinated meat is smoked with his own-made smoker, made from a 3 tier Ikea rack, covered by some board used for artwork. (Sushi bamboo racks to place the marinated meat on.) |
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| (Top view) An opening for smoke to escape and and thermometer to determine the temperature of the smoking. |
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| Just a tin with hickory wood/charcoal to produce the smoke. |
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| Final outcome of the Bak Kwa! Do not use hickory wood but stick to charcoal instead as the smokey flavor was overwhelming. It made the Bak Kwa taste like Lap Cheong (Chinese sausages) instead. The Bak Kwa was also like a sponge, absorbing all the moisture from my mouth, making it dry. Almost there!!!! |
(Everything stated is based on personal opinion ; open to suggestions and advice)
4 Jan 2014
Homemade meat jerky! Bak Kwa experiment for Chinese New Year!
My very 1st post for the year 2014 and I will be blogging about my homemade meat jerky process! I still
have a couple of 2013 posts which I have yet to update but this post was the priority since Chinese New
Year is approaching! My 3rd time experimenting with the seasoning quantity before finally settling with the
one below. (Note: Adjusted based on my personal preference!)
have a couple of 2013 posts which I have yet to update but this post was the priority since Chinese New
Year is approaching! My 3rd time experimenting with the seasoning quantity before finally settling with the
one below. (Note: Adjusted based on my personal preference!)
The recipe I modified into:
Pork 300g (A bit fattier would be better)
Sugar 3 tbs
Honey 3 tbs (I think malt syrup would be better, more caramelised flavor.)
Fish Sauce 1.5 tbs
Sweet Wine 2 tbs (I used a dessert wine)
Dark Soy Sauce 1/2 tbs
Char Siew Sauce 1 tbs (Removed after 3rd batch)
Five Spice 1/2 tbs
Sesame Oil 1/2 tbs (Removed after 3rd batch)
If anyone knows of any better tried-and-tested-before recipe, care to share with me so I could try?
I knew it would not be so easy to get close to the exact taste of Bak Kwa, if not everyone would be making
their own already.
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| The recipe would be for 300g of meat and I did X2 the recipe for 600g of marinated minced pork, beef and chicken. Best if you could add more fats into your minced meat as mine were all too lean! After marinating the meat overnight in the chiller, the minced chicken was a bit watery while minced beef was still rather firm. Pork was always in-between. |
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| I started off by portioning the meat into 100g - 110g so that all the jerky would be about the same size. (Too large piece would be difficult to flip over and would easily break apart.) I spread the minced meat onto an aluminium sheet, place a cling wrap over and using a rolling pin, flatten the meat evenly. About 2mm thickness for mine. |
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| After spreading evenly on the aluminium, either you could directly bbq the meat or place it into the oven to bake fully. I did half-half. About 200 degrees in the oven for 10-15 mins to firm up the meat before transferring to the BBQ pit to barbecue! I guessed that it was normal for the marination to leak out of the marinated meat during the baking process? Any ideas? |
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| Picture of myself barbecuing the meat jerky! |
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| Another selfie shot with my friend's barbecue pit! Thanks Glenn for letting me use his house to barbecue! |
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| The texture was way too smooth to be Bak Kwa and it looked more like ham instead. |
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| My friend did the baking to firm up the minced meat before I barbecued them. Kept flipping and barbecuing piece by piece as his oven could only bake a piece at a time. |
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| Glazed with honey when the meat was about to be done with a bit of charred parts appearing. Make sure the honey dries slightly or it would end up sticky. |
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| Done! Pork or beef ?? |
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| Another shot with only 2 pieces... |
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| Some of the minced chicken ended up like this, all broken apart because it was too soft to flip with tongs. |
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| Done with all the 1.2kg of beef and pork which took about 5 hours...? |
Final conclusion:
Beef - Jerky have quite a strong beefy taste and smell which could be quite unpleasant.
The meat was rather firm but soft and tender.
Easy to handle while baking and barbecuing.
Easiest to dry up and discolour after a few days in the fridge
Chicken - Became watery/mushy after marination and broke apart easily.
Tasted a bit like satay / chicken steak.
Pork - Texture a bit rubbery after a few days in the fridge.
More suitable due to having more fats (although mine still not enough)
All - Unusual smell and taste, something like hoisin sauce detected.
The texture too smooth to be Bak Kwa.
Overall taste still negative to me.
29 Nov 2013
Artisan Boulangerie Co. - Bread and Savoury Fix
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| I wasn't born to be a bread lover, often avoiding bread during breakfast, not until I was attached to the bakery section of my internship place for 2 months with Lawrance. While learning to make bread, I felt the distance between me and bread being pulled slightly closer and I learnt to accept and appreciate bread now. Ryan, who taught us to make bread suggested that we try the kind-of-newly-opened Artisan Boulangerie Co., which is a bakery led by award winning French baker, Eran Mayer. The products are made by artisan techniques (from scratch by hand), can be said to be quite uncommon in Singapore. After work that day, we headed over to Orchard and took a shuttle bus to Great World City. |
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| The outlet had great lighting for photography which food bloggers like me would look for. After being amazed by the selections of bread and savoury products available, we spend quite some time on deciding the suitable lucky dough that would end up in our tummy. Thankfully the pretty staffs were really patient with us and I must compliment them for their great costumer service too! Ryan picked the Ciabatta, known literally as the slipper bread, topped with half a capsicum, cucumber slices and a pile of micro-greens. I guessed the bright red colour of the bell pepper and those greens were for colour contrast against the dull white-brown crust of the ciabatta. They act as a crunch as well as a value-adding element to the bread too. The large piece of flat oblong shape bread had a crisp exterior and a soft doughy, slightly chewy interior. |
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| My first target would definitely be the quiche as I just love savoury food. Due to limited choices, I ended up picking the Smoked Salmon & Dill Quiche. I was kind of surprised that my quiche came with salad with sweet-sour vinaigrette dressing that could cleanse my taste buds. I was thankful that the quiche was only lightly salted by the few small pieces of smoked salmon visible. It was slightly cheesy inside and I tried to eat as slow as possible to savour it. (I could have easily eaten 3 pieces of quiche!) The crust was slightly thick, resulting in the inner layer of the tart being raw (unbaked). I only noticed that halfway through my meal as this happens when I had too much free time to admire my food in details. |
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| My other friend had the Tuna Stuffed Focaccia. It was a rustic piece of 'figure of 8' loaf and I guessed he wanted something filling enough to be his dinner. Although the sesame seeds were sprinkled rather randomly and unevenly, the perfect golden brown crust was really crispy! The interior was also light and naturally flavorful, if you understand what I meant. It was sliced in half and stuffed generously with tuna. This loaf was so photogenic that I had problem choosing the best 'pose'. (Sorry, can't see the tuna filling from this angle.) |
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| Both Ryan and Lawrance added on coffee which emitted a lovely aroma. The barista did a great job creating such an impressive coffee art which I would not bare to destroy if I had a cup too. (I did not order as I did not want to risk having insomnia that night.) |
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| Last but not least, we shared the Cafe, Passionfruit and Cassis (black current) Eclairs (From bottom to top)! 3 lovely stripes of colours on each eclairs depicting the flavor it contained and only the Cafe (coffee) was easily guessed right. The choux pastry were towards the hard and dry side (more water than milk (if any) used in the recipe?) and baked into a crisp dark brown hollow case. Our favorite was the Cafe, light in flavor and not overly sweet. Passionfruit was fruity and tangy, same as the more unique Cassis. Overall, the ambiance was not bad, great for a chilling out session or a romantic hi tea meal with partner. I was also thankful that I was dining with patient people as it took me about 15 minutes to finish taking pictures! |