Gordon Ramsay's Perfect Scrambled Eggs (Perfect Brunch)

I adapted this recipe from Gordon Ramsay's Youtube Video. It's delicious, and it needs a little effort to make this happen. This is without doubt THE BEST recipe for perfect scrambled eggs I've ever cooked at home. The Creme Fraichè is gives them a wonderful creamy texture. Thanks to Gordon Ramsay for the recipe and tips. I think I will just stick to this.

I love having brunch at home. But we have very little opportunity tho. So, weekend brunches might end up in a cafe or local hawker fare or something. Not all cafes make good scrambled eggs.

I make mine really simple. I get a store-bought brioche, slice it thickly, apply a layer of good french butter and give it a grill.

This Le Creuset Cast Iron Square Skillet Grill (20cm) Classic (Flame) is a gift from Alan. I'm lovin' it every single time when I'm using it. It fits 4 slices of thick brioche nicely. Of course, you could use some good store-bought sourdough, slice it generously and pop it into the toaster.

Meanwhile, in another cast iron skillet, I'm roasting my button mushrooms and tomatoes with vine on. Just a drizzle of olive oil, season with salt and pepper.  Just let the mushrooms and tomatoes sit in the pan on medium low heat and it will cook well on its own.

Fresh large eggs, Creme Fraichè, chopped chives, butter, salt and pepper. That's all you need.

This recipe serves 2 greedy adults. This will make you feel full for hours.

Ingredients for the scrambled eggs

• 6 Large Eggs
• 1 knob of butter, cold and cubed (around 25g)
• 1 tablespoon Creme Fraichè
• 2 tsp Chopped Chives 
• Fresh ground pepper to taste
• Sea Salt to taste

Something to go along with the scrambled eggs, you will need :
a good slice of Brioche or Sourdough,
Tomatoes preferably with vine on,
some button mushrooms or portobello
I've got a handful of salad
and any other stuffs that you think it will make your brunch looked sexier.

Method 

1. Medium low heat fire, break eggs into a non-stick pan. Use spatula to whip in quick motion to break the yolks. Don't season it now, otherwise the egg will starts to turn watery. 
2. Add the cubed butter into the pan, continue to whip in quick motion to induce air into the egg to achieve fluffier eggs. 
3. Still on medium low heat, continue to stir and whip until the eggs start to cook. Remove from heat, continue stirring the eggs for about 20 seconds, and return to heat again. Continue this motion until the eggs clumps, but soft.
4. Remove from heat and add in Creme Fraichè. Return to heat, stirring in Creme Fraichè.
5. Season with freshly ground black pepper, gently salt it, and garnish with a sprinkling of chopped chives. Give it a stir to combine everything and serve with toast. 

It's important to add butter right at the beginning because it will give the scrambled eggs a very nice velvety finish. The general rule of cooking a successful scrambled eggs is take it off the heat, go back to the heat, take it off the heat, go back to the heat, and it repeats. And treat it like a risotto. You can't stop stirring.

Always use a non-stick pan with a wooden spatula or a good silicone spatula designed to withstand heat for best results and easy cleaning. But of course, you could use ordinary stainless steel saucepot.

The eggs should have the texture of soft curds. It's best not to cook for more than 3 portions in one go as you will overcrowd the pan and the eggs wont cook as good. For larger numbers, cook in two pans rather than one.

Wake up your loved ones with this amazing scrambled eggs on toast. It's easy and absolutely delicious!

Red Wine Oxtail Stew / Oxtail Bourguignon (紅酒燴牛尾)

Fresh and meaty oxtail, red wine, rosemary, garlic, onions, tomatoes. By reading the list of ingredients, you know this makes a great french stew.

This slow-cooked oxtail meat is so soft and melting, and drenched with rich red wine sauce. This insanely delicious comforting food is absolutely perfect for parties and family gathering!

Be it Red Wine Oxtail Stew or Oxtail Bourguignon, or French oxtail stew, they are technically the same, although some could argue that they are different. Each family has different style of cooking Oxtail Stews. List of ingredients may vary. Some prefers more spices, some prefers basic flavors. French braise them with red wine and mushrooms, and it can be beef or oxtail or veal.

There's no lack of Oxtail Stew recipes online. But mine has shorter list of ingredients tho. So, it's easier to achieve. Everything is available in Cold Storage. But it does not means that this stew is effortless. Mashed potatoes would make the perfect side dish to complement oxtail stew.

Although oxtail is regard as cheap cuts in some country, but in Singapore? No. Not really. Oxtail is expensive in Singapore. In some restaurants in other countries who serves this dish in a peasant way, especially French, and slowly going into haute cuisine. But not yet there, and we're not sure if they will be there or not, unlike Beef Bourguignon.

Ingredients

• 1.5kg Fresh Oxtail
• 3 tbsp Plain Flour
• 4 tbsp Cooking Oil
• 2 Large Yellow Onions
• 4 Cloves Garlic
• 2 Fresh Tomatoes
• 2 cans Whole Peeled Tomato
• 2 sprig Rosemary
• 400ml Red Wine
• 400ml Beef Stock
• some Spanish Chorizo chunks, about 7 inches long (Optional)
• 2 tsp Ground Black Pepper 
• 2 tsp Salt (or more to taste)
• 2 tbsp Tomato Ketchup 
• some coriander leaves as garnishing

Method

1. Coat oxtails with 3 tbsp of plain flour evenly. In a french pot, heat up 4 tbsp oil, and give oxtail a nice sear until brown on every side. Remove oxtail and set aside. 
2. Throw in chopped onions, and garlic into the same pot. Saute until onions are soft. Add in fresh tomato wedges and whole peeled tomato can. Fry for another few minutes until tomatoes slightly softened.
3. Add in browned oxtails, arrange them nicely on the pot, ensuring each piece is at the bottom, while the tomatoes is on top. 
4. Add in carrots, rosemary, red wine, beef stock, spanish chorizo and ground black pepper. 
5. Let it simmer on the stove for 30mins, and transfer the pot into a baking tray, and send the pot into pre-heat the oven to 170 Degree Celsius for 1.5 hours. Do check for splatters and spillage. Reduce to 160 Degree Celsius if there's a need. 
6. Leave oxtail stew aside and let it age for a night. Remember to reheat it before going to sleep. 
7. On the next day morning, add salt, reheat the stew pot and let it simmer for another 30mins or upto 1 hour. 
8. Scoop away the top layer of fats. Add in tomato ketchup and give it a stir before taste test. Adjust saltiness accordingly, and the stew is ready to eat.
9. Optionally, for more presentable looking stews (like mine); Extra effort is needed - Transfer all oxtails, carrot chunks and chorizo chunks from the stew juices. Stew juices will then be strained, and then reduced under flame until stew juice achieved desired thick consistency. Pour thick stew juice over oxtail, and reheat oxtail stew under flame before serving. Don't forget the coriander leaves :)

Here's the complete pictorial guide for your easy reference. I'm sure this series of pictorial guide could complement the method in writing and so as to achieve better understanding. 

Step 1 : Dust oxtail with flour and pan-sear it till brown color. This gives really good flavors to the oxtail stew. 

Step 2 : Be very sure that you do not wash the pot after searing the oxtail. We need those brown patchy mess! Just throw in onions, garlic, tomatoes, and give it a good stir fry.

Before you even start cooking, do select the right flameproof casserole french pot size for your dish. The pot size should be able to fit all oxtails in just nicely with little leeway for other ingredients to fall down to the bottom of the pot except liquids. Like this, you don't have to tie kitchen string around each oxtail piece to hold the meat on the bone which I find it extremely tedious.

Step 3 and 4 : Add in oxtails, ensuring oxtails are at the bottom. And then, add the rest of the ingredients except salt.

Max bought me some real good Spanish Chorizo from Spain sometimes ago. I added Spanish Chorizo into the stew. Why? Because Spanish Chorizo has its distinctive smokiness and deep red color from dried smoked red peppers. It gives really nice flavor to the stew. You may argue that this isn't French stuff. It's optional. You don't have to follow exactly the same. No strict rules here. You also may add some paprika for extra heat if you prefer.

I'm quite regretful for using 22cm french pot for this dish. When I send the pot into the oven, it splatters and spills. So, I transfer to a 24cm french pot after that. So, selecting the right pot size before you cook is really important.

Leaving oxtail stew to age overnight is the key to success. The flavors will infuse all over during aging process. And Le Creuset french pot hold heat amazingly. It still 'cooks' during the cooling down process.

Step 8 : This stew will gives you a thick layer of fats floating on top. Don't get freaked out. Don't remove those fats on the first day. Because fat layer on top prevents air going into the stew, and this also explains the stew keeps well overnight without keeping it in the fridge. Fats will only be removed on the day you consume the stew.

This dish can be done in a rustic way. It can stop at step 8, or boil a little longer if one wish. Or like me, you may proceed to put in extra effort to go to step 9. This also means you have to wash extra pot, sieve, and utensils.

Step 9 : Stew juices needs to be strained, and reduced under flame until desired thickness has reached before pouring over the oxtail stew. You may also do another taste test after the sauce is reduced, just incase you want to do any further adjustment. Tomato ketchup would be a good compliment to the stew juice.

Look at the end result. My oxtail stew will have a nice gloss with the reduced stew juices poured over. And sprinkle chopped coriander leaves over oxtail stew gives another level of attractive look.

Although steamed rice is a good option as a side dish, but I assure you, Oxtail stew is best eaten with mashed potatoes as a side.

My mashed potato recipe is very simple. Some Russet Potatoes, good slab of butter, some fresh milk, and season well with salt and pepper. And oh! don't forget to prepare some salad too!

Cooking method for this dish requires slowly simmering the oxtail in wine, tenderizing the meat that would have been too tough to cook in any other way. Total cooking time of my Red Wine Oxtail Stew is 3 hours, not counting cooling time, and aging time. The meat fall off the bone nicely, but still remain some chew. I'm absolutely satisfied. It's insanely delicious!!!

Thou this dish needs abit of patience to cook, but I assure you that this is worth every effort. Do give this dish a try. I'm sure you will love it.

客家板麺 Malaysian Hakka Pan Mee

Do you prefer Pan Mee or Mee-Hoon-Kuay?

Some says they are the same. Some argues that they are different, but that's due to the shape of the noodles. Pan Mee (板麺, pronounced as Ban Mian in mandarin) is a Hakka-Style noodle, originating from Malaysia. Some translate it as "flat flour noodle", while some, translate it as "board noodle".

Flour hand-kneaded into dough traditionally torn into smaller pieces of dough by hand, but such laborious work is conveniently replaced by machine that can produce variety of shapes. Pan Mee typically served in soup, together with dried anchovies, minced pork, mushrooms and leafy vegetables. In my hometown, 树仔菜 (aka pucuk manis / manicai 马尼菜) is used.

My grandmother used to cook this delicious noodles for us. Usually she will let us have our choices of Pan Mee or mee-hoon-kway, and she will prepare the dough accordingly. That's one of the sweetest childhood memory. All she need is pack of flour, some anchovies and vegetables. She can cook up a comforting bowl of soup dish for everyone in the house. My grandmother has 12 child. My mom is the youngest, the last amongst the 12th. I haven't even tell you the number of grandchild she have. You can imagine that now. My grandmother is a wonder woman!

Because this is a very simple noodle soup dish, the soup plays a very important role in the preparation of Pan Mee. I've seen variations in soup base preparations. But for my grandmother, she use only dried anchovies and soya bean for the soup. Yes. Only two ingredients, but it makes great and flavorful soup base. Sometimes, the simpler it is, the better it taste.

I'm very straightforward and I'm not afraid to tell you. I don't have my grandma's exact recipe. I only vaguely remember what are the main ingredients my grandma use. I found Alan's recipe is the closest to my grandma's simplicity. So, I just followed, but with minor modifications.

Ingredients (Serves 4)

(Source : Alan, with slight modification)

for Soup

• 65g Dried Anchovies (aka Ikan Bilis / 江鱼仔)
• 180g Soya Beans (黄豆）
• 10 cups of water
• 1 tsp salt (adjust to taste)

for Noodles

• 250g Plain Flour or All-Purpose Flour 
• 2 Eggs
• 1/4 tsp Sea Salt
• 5-7 tbsp water, adjust according to dough texture
• 1 tbsp cooking oil 
• flour for dusting

for Minced Meat Sauce

• 300g Minced Pork (绞肉), preferably ground pork belly
• 4 Chinese Mushrooms (香菇), soaked till soft, cut into strips
• 2 Black Wood Ear Fungus (黑木耳), soaked till soft, cut into strips
• 4 cloves Garlic, peeled, chopped finely
• 5 Shallots, peeled, chopped finely
• 2 tbsp Oil
• 2 tbsp Dark Soya Sauce
• 1/2 tbsp Oyster Sauce, adjust to taste
• 1/2 tbsp Sugar, adjust to taste
• 1/2 tsp Pepper
• 1 tsp Corn Flour, to be mixed with mushroom soaking water

other ingredients

• a bunch of 树仔菜 (aka pucuk manis) or Choy Sum 菜心 or any of your favorite green leafy vegetables that serves 4 sharing. 
• 4 Eggs
• Fried crispy anchovies 
• Fried crispy shallots (optional)

Variation

1. For the soup, there are some Pan Mee sellers likes to add pork bones into the soup to create extra sweetness. Some uses soya beans, some don't. But the general rule is... dried anchovies should be there.
2. My grandma will only provide minced meat sauce and eggs when her budget allows. Eggs are usually cracked onto the soup and cook together with the noodles. It would be too costly for her to add eggs on every serving. 
3. I personally prefers 树仔菜 (aka pucuk manis), but when first preference is not available, I shall go for my alternative Choy Sum 菜心.
4. Fried crispy shallots is optional. But most Pan Mee stalls provide this topping. 

Method (for the soup)

1. Give dried anchovies and soya beans a quick rinse.
2. Soak soya bean in hot water for 20mins. Using both finger tips, rub away the skin from the soya beans. This is quite tedious. You can choose to skip this step if you are feeling lazy. 
3. In a large soup pot, add 2 tbsp of cooking oil, add in anchovies, stir fry anchovies till fragrant. 
4. Add in water and prepared soya beans, and bring to a boil. Lower flame to simmer with lid on for 20mins. Season with salt, turn off flame and leave to steep. 

Using both finger tips rub away the skin from the soya beans.

Stir fry anchovies till fragrant before adding in water. Fried anchovies will give you more flavorful soup.

Method (for the noodles)

1. Combine flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. Form a 'well' in the middle and crack in the eggs.
2. Add cooking oil and begin to combine everything together, adding water slowly by individual tablespoons until a non-sticky dough is obtained
3. Dough needs to be kneaded repeatedly until smooth and uniform in color. 
4. Cover dough with cloth and set aside to rest for 30 to 40 mins to relax the gluten. 
5. After resting the dough long enough, go back to the dough by first dividing the dough into 4 portions. 
6. Using pasta machine, process individual dough portions by repeatedly laminating and thinning the dough into elongated flat sheets before cutting into taligatelle-like strands. Dust some flour on the noodles to prevent noodles from sticking together. If pasta machine is not available, simply roll dough with rolling pin, on a flat surface dusted with flour, into elongated sheets before folded the dusted sheets slightly and cutting into strips. 
7. If you are making mee-hoon-kuay, simply hand stretch the flat sheets dough into desired free-style shapes accordingly.

Method (for the meat sauce)

1. In a saucepan, heat up 2 tbsp cooking oil. Add chopped garlic and shallots, stir-fry until shallots turned translucent and aromatic. 
2. Add minced pork followed by all seasoning and stir-fry until meat is cooked and uniform in color. 
3. Add in mushrooms strips, black wood ear fungus strips, and some mushroom soaking water. Stir well and cover with lid. Leave to simmer over medium low heat for 10mins. 
4. Add some corn starch mixed with some mushrooms soaking water to thicken the sauce. 
5. Dish up, covered, and set aside. 

Everything is prepared for the meat sauce.

Meat sauce is well cooked and in uniform color.

Method (to cook pan mee)

1. Prepare two heavy saucepan. One side is 2 ladle cups of boiled water, another side is 2 ladle cups of soup base. Bring both to a boil
2. Add a serving of noodles into the boiling water saucepan, cook noodles for a minute. Transfer half-cooked noodles into the soup base saucepan, and add a serving of vegetables. Adjust your cooking time accordingly.
3. When noodles are cooked, crack an egg into the middle of the pot and leave it with lid on briefly for about 20 secs for the white to cook slightly.
4. Ladle everything into a serving bowl, try not to break the yolk. Garnish generously with one portion of meat sauce, fried crispy anchovies, fried crispy shallots and serve!

You can, of course skip the part of using boiling water saucepan. You can just throw in your noodels and just cook it in the soup straightaway. However, the noodles will make your soup broth looked cloudy and thickened a little. I personally prefers to half-cook the noodles in boiling water first, as this step allows me to have nicer and clearer broth.

Pan Mee... Long, flat striped noodles.

While mee-hoon-kuay is free-style shaped flat dough by simply hand stretch the flat sheets dough in organic forms. There's no rocket science. Everyone can do this. To me. it should look homely and comforting. There's no rules here.

Look at my Pan Mee soup. The soup is quite clear and less cloudy compared to those selling outside. Although there's extra effort in cooking process, but this will make your noodles taste better in overall.

In Kuala Lumpur, Klang Valley, there's a popular version of Pan Mee that is prepared dry version. Everything is the same, just that they are without the soup, fiery dry chillies flakes are added, topped with some spring onions and stirred into noodles. That's another great way of enjoying Pan Mee.

Maybe next time I will try making dried version of Pan Mee.

I love this soup noodles. I think everyone should make this at home at least once. This just involves a few ingredients, and I guarantee you that this is a great bowl of comfort food, and something easy to prepare for weekend lunch for family.

So.... do you prefer pan mee? or mee-hoon-kuay?

The Real Cream Of Mushrooms Soup

I've always loved cream of mushroom and I honestly think this is the best one I've ever had.

I love the intensely earthy flavours in this smooth cream of mushroom soup recipe. I wanted something thick and creamy, but not heavy. I've cooked this mushroom soup for at least 4 times. It's indeed a keeper.

Here, I used 4 types of mushrooms. From the left, fresh Shitake mushrooms, Portobello mushrooms, white button mushrooms and Chinese dried mushrooms. These are real stuff!

If you find it tedious of buying so many types of mushrooms, do consider to skip Portobello mushrooms and replaced by Brown button mushrooms. Whatever it is, please don't skip Chinese dried mushrooms. With the existence of Chinese dried mushrooms, this pot of mushroom soup will give absolutely wonderful depth of earthy flavour. Otherwise, I swear that fresh Cremini or Porcini mushrooms is the best alternative too.

Ingredients
(Source : Noobcook.com, as reference)

• 50g Butter
• 2 Yellow Onion, chopped finely
• 1 Russet Potato (Optional)
• 2 tbsp Plain Flour
• 1L Chicken Stock
• 300g Portobello Mushroom
• 300g Fresh Shitake Mushroom
• 250g Fresh White Button Mushroom
• 5 to 6 pcs Dried Chinese Mushrooms, soaked overnight, chopped finely
• 4 to 5 Sprig Thymes or Sage
• 150ml White Wine
• 150ml Double Cream / Dairy Whipping Cream
• Salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste

for garnishing

• some extra whipping cream
• some spring onions or fresh parsley

Method

1. Do a quick rinse to the mushrooms. DO NOT soak the fresh mushrooms in the water. Chop Chinese mushrooms into fine pieces. Roughly chop the rest of the fresh mushrooms. 
2. Heat a large stock pot over a medium heat and melt the butter. Add the chopped onions, give it a few stir. Add in diced potatoes and chopped Chinese mushrooms, give it a good stir, place a lid on top and let it sweat gently until the onions are softened, translucent and shrunken.
3. Stir in the flour and cook for one minute more, then gradually stir in the stock. 
4. Add the mushrooms and bring to the boil. Looking at the total amount of 1kg mushrooms, it may seems like mushrooms overwhelmed. But they will shrink considerably when they are cooked. 
5. Reduce heat, cover and simmer gently for about 20mins, until the mushrooms are tender. Stir in the thymes.
6. Remove 1/3 portion of the chunky mushroom soup, set aside. 
7. Pour the remaining 2/3 portion of the mushroom soup into the blender or food processor, whiz until smooth. 
8. Return the smooth blend and chunks back to the soup pot and stir in the white wine.
9. Add cream and season with salt and pepper. 
10. Warm through, without boiling. Ladle into bowls and garnish with drops or swirls of cream. Enjoy! 

Note :

1. The existence of flour is to thicken the soup.
2. By adding potatoes is to give the soup a good overall body, so as to reduce the usage of cream. However, adding potato is optional. 
3. Remember to chop the Chinese mushrooms finely, so that it will cook well, as it takes longer time to cook and gives flavour faster.

Add the chopped onions, give it a few stir. Add in diced potatoes and chopped Chinese mushrooms, give it a good stir, place a lid on top and let it sweat gently until the onions are softened, translucent and shrunken.

Add the mushrooms and bring to the boil.

Remove 1/3 portion of the chunky mushroom soup, set aside. Pour the remaining 2/3 portion of the mushroom soup into the blender or food processor, whiz until smooth. After that, return the smooth blend and chunks back to the soup pot.

 Stir in the wine and finally, add cream and season with salt and pepper.

When Max's friend came to my house for lunch, I noticed that they stopped talking when they were having the soup. Hahaha... One of them couldn't raise her head to talk because she kept saying "Oh man@ This soup is so good!"

Another one, text Max and chase me for the recipe. She says "This is so so so much better than the one at The Soup Spoon!"

I'm glad that they liked it so much. 

Say NO to canned mushroom soups! No more salty and cream overload mushrooms soup! Say YES to the real thing!

Begedil (Deep Fried Potato Patty) - (MFF - Johor) #4

Okay, I get scolded for posting Soto Johor recipe without my Begedil recipe. Hahaha...

(Edited ) .. I just get to know that there is Begedil Johor. All thanks to Queenie for the alert. And I was told that the usual Begedil uses par-boiled or steamed potatoes method. While Johor version fried the potatoes before it is mashed. And I look at my Begedil... YES!!! I fried my potatoes before I mash em'! Johor version Begedil! Hahahaha... This is a coincidence. I did it totally without knowing. Now I can submit this to MFF Johor :)

I had been busy and I finally have some free time for a few days before my crazy schedule start again. So, okay... Begedil Recipe :)

Begedil is basically deep fried potato patty, usually eaten alongside with other Malaysian or Indonesian dishes like Mee Soto or Mee Rebus. or even with rice as part of the dish. Some like it with bits of browned minced beef, but I did mine without beef. It's up to you to add or omit whatever additional ingredients.

You can make these a day ahead, keep them chilled in the fridge, and then reheat them again in your oven or toaster. But with that aroma, I don't think so. I assure you, you'd want to start eating when they are straight off the frying pan!

Look at my golden stack! Hehe...

Okays. Cut short. Let's see the ingredients and start cooking. It's simple and easily available at supermart. But before you start cooking.... Let me tell you, this is not diet food.

Ingredient
(Source : Little Teowchew, with modification)

• 650g Potatoes, use slightly firmer ones. Brastagi is the best.
• 50g Shallots, sliced, fried
• 2 sprig Spring Onion
• 1 sprig Coriander leaves (optional)
• 1 tsp Salt, or more
• dashes of pepper
• 1 beaten egg

Method

1. Fry sliced shallots till golden brown. Set aside. Do not discard the shallot oil. Those are good stuffs.
2. Slice potatoes into thick slices, deep fry it until potato slices are cooked. Use chopstick to poke on it to test it's softness. 
3. Cut spring onions and coriander leaves.
4. Mash the fried potatoes. You don't have to 100% mash them. Leave some chunks (about 30% roughly mashed). It gives patties a nice bite.
5. Add fried shallots, spring onions and coriander leaves into the mashed potatoes. Mix well. 
6. Scoop some of the mashed potatoes and put them into the palm. Repeatedly press and make the patties compact. Roll them into balls and press it into thick patty form.
7. Heat up enough oil for deep frying - medium heat. 
8. Beat egg in a bowl.
9. Dip the begedil into beaten eggs, one at a time. And then fry the begedil till golden brown.
10. Drain the begedils of excess oil before serving.

I know. It's sinful. You don't have to remind me. But frying the potatoes slices (instead of steaming or boiling) adds more flavor to the and texture to the potatoes. For this part, I swear by it! But well, some people choose to go for the short cut method by par-boiling it. It's all about individual preference.

OMG.. Look at this! Loooook at this!!! Salivating? Hahahaha...

You want one?

Do read my  Mee Soto or Mee Rebus recipe if you are free :)