Chik's Crib: December 2017

30 December 2017

ENAQ The Prata Shop

Singaporean food December 30, 2017 0

Finally, a prata shop in the West worth traveling for!

Situated besides Ghim Moh Market, ENAQ The Prata Shop opened its doors just this year. We got clued in by Miss XS's friend into this place, and the first time I came, I was so impressed that I returned within the same week. Most pratas are on the soggy side, but not these babies here: the prata is made fresh to order, with a blistered crispy surface that belies a softer, fluffy interior. I ordered a plain and a plaster prata. The curry is decidedly non-spicy, but still rich and satisfying. I enjoyed how thick the pratas are, but Miss XS did comment that they were really filling, and perhaps too chewy inside. She could only manage about 3/4 through her plaster prata, but that only means more for me. Ha!

ENAQ reminded me of the now-defunct Ah Mei Cafe. Both are prata shops that are run by Chinese (I did a double-take when I walked through the doors here), and both serve really good crisp pratas. Maybe it's because the Chinese owners know what texture Singaporean Chinese are looking for?

Another point in ENAQ's favour: the service is prompt and efficient. Orders - requests for more curry - were promptly served asap.

Address

21 Ghim Moh Rd, Singapore 270021

Opening hours

9am to 8pm daily

24 December 2017

Brother Burger and the Marvellous Brew (South Yarra)

Western Food December 24, 2017 0

One perk of living in Melbourne is that no matter where you are, you are never far from a great burger place. Amongst all the burger places, a few has retained a revered place in my heart - and Brother Burger is one of them. Despite the few years between my last visit and today (Fitzroy ain't the easiest to get to from the south of Melbourne!), I still remember every crunch of their delectable Onion Rings (Large $9.80) - thick-sliced and juicy on the inside, generously battered and perfectly salted on the outside. Three years later, they were as good as ever. The portion size for onion rings ain't that big, so if you're sharing, don't be afraid to get the large size.

As a testimonial to the quality of their beef, the patties here are done to medium-rare and retains a pinkish tinge in the middle. J and R raved about the double-patty Oh Brother, while several of us had the Royal Blue ($16.60). The accompanying blue cheese dressing was rich in flavor, and gave each bite a pronounced tang. It can get overwhelming for the uninitiated, but distinguished the blue cheese aficionados from the rest of the party. If you're not a fan of blue cheese, J and R adored the Oh Brother ($18.80)- a double patty, double cheese extravanganza.

Personally, the star of the night was Bogan Wings ($18.80 per kilo). I was never one for chicken wings - they usually have too little meat-to-bone ratio for me - but I'm a convert from this night on. The sticky cola-bourbon sauce was delightful, with a slightly complex bitter aftertaste. Everybody had a wing or two, but at the end of the night, the substantial pile of bones on my plate showed that nobody managed to as many wings as I did.

Shoestring Fries with Mayo Truffle (Large-$8.80 + $2.80) enjoys great popularity online. On first bite, it's pretty impressive; the truffle shone through the mayonnaise dip sharp and clear. They clearly don't skimp on the good stuff. Midway through though, I had a change of heart: dipping deep-fried fries in a combination of truffle oil and mayonnaise makes the oiliness of them all overtly pronounced. Skip the normal fries, and go for their Sweet Potato Fries ($9.80) instead.

16 December 2017

Thai Tea Ice Cream Recipe

Sweets December 16, 2017 0

What a journey! I started experimenting with Thai tea ice cream since 2016, but it took almost two years before I'm happy with the final product.

A trip to Thailand a few years ago whetted my craving for Thai Iced Tea, and I haven't been able to quite get it out of my head. In the blazing humidity of Phuket, sipping from a chilled cup of sweetened Thai tea go a fair bit in making the sun bearable. Back in Singapore, where we suffer from the same ferocity of the sun, Cha Thai provides me with my tea fix. In the Melbournian winter, I keep warm with hot Thai tea that I brew. (Number One brand is one of the better commercial brands for Thai Tea leaves, and available at $5.50 per 400g from the Asian grocers in Clayton across Coles.) The best Thai tea, a Bangkok friend helpfully informed me, is made by boiling the tea leaves in evaporated milk, and then sweetening each cup with a dollop of condensed milk and served over ice. (No wonder it tastes so good!) I haven't worked out the courage to try that at home, and content myself with using boiling water instead. In making ice cream however, all bets are off. Because adding water causes the ice cream to become icy, tea leaves are boiled with cream and milk.

The team at Serious Eats and the community at Food52 have come up with their version of Thai Tea. I tried both recipes side-by-side, and I had adapted Food52's recipe as below. If you're interested, see the explanation below on what's good (and what's not!) for both recipes.

Thai Tea Ice Cream

Makes roughly 1 quart
Adapted from Food52
Some bloggers (David Lebovitz, an alumni of Chez Panisse and authors of several cookbooks) have similar tastes in regards to sweetness as I do, but most community-submitted recipes are far too sweet for my taste. I suspect I'm not alone. When chatting to a few baking friends, most reflect similar views. I've adjusted the condensed milk proportion to reflect my taste, which seemed to be the consensus of my house mates as well.

INGREDIENTS
375g heavy cream
480g (2 cups) whole milk
1 dash salt
90g (1 cup) Thai tea leaves
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla
200g condensed milk

STEPS
1) In a small saucepan set over medium heat, combine heavy cream, salt, and milk with tea leaves until almost simmering. Remove from flame and steep until at room temperature.

2) Strain the tea leaves from the mixture and discard. The liquid content may seem really little, and may look like a tea-leaves-slurry-from-hell, but it's all part of the plan! Remember we haven't added the condensed milk or the egg yolks yet. Just strain out as much tea leaves as you can. (One good tip that I'd found online was to use a handkerchief for fine straining purposes. I hadn't tried that for myself yet, and will update this page after I do.)

3) Beat egg yolks into the mixture, and gently heat over a small flame until the mixture thickens. The mixture should coat a spatula and running your finger across the spatula should leave a line that remains. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla and condensed milk. Let chill completely before freezing according to ice cream maker's instructions.

==========================================

THE COMPARISON: SERIOUS EATS AND FOOD52
First off: Food52's recipe wins for appearance. It develops a vibrant deep amber, likely courtesy of the recipe stipulating twice as amount of Thai tea leaves as Serious Eats.

Texture-wise, Food52 takes the cake too. Freshly-churned from the ice cream maker, it's soft, sticky and dense, almost like a gelato's consistency. After a night in the freezer, it hardens but still retains a spherical shape from a scoop. Serious Eats creates an icier version with flecks of thai tea leaves left on your tongue after the ice cream melts away - and there's no way to change that. Which brings me to the most important point...

Preparation: the most time consuming part is straining out the tea leaves - seriously, it takes ages. In this regard, Food52's version wins hands-down. You sift the tea leaves from the cream and milk while the mixture is still runny, then add the egg yolks in. Virtually no tea leaves could be seen. Serious Eat's recipe mixes the egg yolks in before sifting the tea leaves off, and the thickened mixture both takes a long time and results in a mixture that still contains many large speckles of tea leaves.

Another boon in Food52's favour: Food52 uses two egg yolks compared to Serious Eats's six eggs yolks. As someone who still have a dozen egg whites from previous recipes frozen in the freezer, I'm keen not to add to my stockpile further.

So it looks like a rout for Food52... except not quite. The original recipe uses one can of condensed milk, which resulted in an intense cloyingly sweetness that turned one's stomach. The container holding Thai tea ice cream by Serious Eats, for all of its fault, emptied within a few days in the freezer, while the container of Food52's Thai tea ice cream languished for the next few weeks. Here, I've dialed down the sweetness here to a more nuanced level: I increased the amount of heavy cream by 140g, and cut the condensed milk to 1/2 of the original quantity. This resulted in an ice cream consistency that's still smooth and sticky without being overtly sweet.

10 December 2017

Spicy Beef Stew Recipe

Recipe December 10, 2017 0

Ever since my friend made me a bowl of this stew, I was hooked on the taste faster than you can say moo. Our Sweet Potato Cake was taking longer to bake than anticipated, and when she made lunch for herself, she gave me a bowl to stave off my blues. (Or maybe she knew I wouldn't stop bugging her until I got my own bowl...) It was a bowl filled with the softest, most tender beef ribs with kimchi and shiitake mushrooms, and flavored with a spicy broth with a deep unami kick. The broth was thick and flavorful, almost like it was meant to be sold at a ramen joint.

She graciously passed me the recipe, and we eventually turned our attention back to the cake that we were baking. But I couldn't get this spicy beef stew out of my head, and I had to make it again - and soon. I hadn't had half the ingredients in the original recipe, and as the year draws to a close, I should be curtailing my personal belongings so I don't have nightmares in a few weeks' time about packing. But still, I couldn't just give it up. I made a trip to the Asian grocers at Clayton - if you can't find an Asian product there, it doesn't exist. It took a while to gather the ingredients, until the store assistant let me on that while gochujang and kimchi could be found on the Korean shelves, dashi belongs in the Japanese section, and doubanjiang is Chinese.

Dashi concentrate (left), doubanjiang (right, top), gochujang (bottom, right)

The multiculturalism of this stew threw me for a loop; I thought it was a traditional Korean stew!, until I figured that why stress over something like that? As someone with the bigger picture in mind once said "who cares if it's a black cat or a white cat, as long as it catches mice, it's a good cat." If the combination of ingredients from several cultures is what it takes to fill my pot with a low-effort, highly-addictive broth, I'll embrace that. In many ways, this pot of stew showcases the pride of Melbourne as a melting pot: it's a city with an eclectic mix of cultures. There's a place for everybody, and the fusion of ingredients from one another's cuisine creates a new take on a traditional dish.

Spicy Beef Stew

Makes 8-10 servings
Adapted from Make Food Eat Food

I've tried both radish kimchi and regular cabbage kimchi, and enjoyed either. As with most stews, the recipe is very flexible and ingredients like meat or vegetables or mushrooms can be added in any proportions you like. The original recipe has a lot of steps and ingredients, which I've simplified to make into a one-pot, no-fuss recipe.

INGREDIENTS
1kg beef short ribs
One onion, peeled and sliced
10 cloves of garlic, smashed
4 tbsp gochujang
3 tbsp doubanjiang
2 tbsp dashi concentrate
1 cup of kimchi
300g dried shiitake mushrooms, sliced or whole

1.6L boiling water
Ramen-style noodles (optional)

STEPS:
1. Lightly season the beef with salt. About half an hour to 1 hour before you start, soak the dried shiitake mushrooms in a large bowl.

2. Set your stockpot over high heat, and pour a layer of oil into the pot. Add the beef short ribs in a single layer and cook until browned on all sides. Add onion and garlic and stir until lightly browned.

3. Add gochujang, doubanjiang and dashi. Pour the hot water into the pot, until the water covers the beef. Add the mushrooms. Scrape the bottom of the pot to release any flavoured brown bits.

4. Let the stew come to a boil before reducing the flame to a simmer. Cover and let simmer for 3-4 hours, until the beef is thoroughly soft and breaks apart easily. Top up more water periodically as necessary.

5. Add the kimchi and let simmer for half an hour before serving.