Canapes Escape

Canapes are one of my favourites whenever I dine at hotel buffets. Imagine my joy when At 19 Culinary Studio planned for a Canapes Escape class. When I received the recipe, I was slightly disappointed that bread stick will be taught in class. In my dictionary, I never considered bread stick as canapes because canapes essentially have garnish sitting on top of shaped stale bread or puff pastry. Besides bread stick, we will be making seafood vol-au-vent, potato cakes & chicken burger.

We started preparing the bread dough first since it require longer completion time. To make mini burger bun, we mixed all the dry ingredients (plain flour, yeast, sugar & milk powder) using a dough hook in a bowl. Salt is added later to prevent spoiling the yeast if added earlier. Next, we added in eggs, milk & cold water, adjusting the mixer to slow speed & allow it to combine well for 10 mins. Butter is then added with fast speed setting for 5 mins.

The dough is proved for 15-20 mins. We shaped the dough & left it to proof for another 15-20 mins. See how huge the dough has grown just in over 20 mins.

The dough is baked for about 25-30 mins until nicely browned. The burger bun is left aside to cool & ready to use. Similarly, we prepared the dough for the bread stick first before moving on to the next recipe. The difference between a burger bun dough & bread stick dough is the absence of egg & butter in the latter. Hence, the bread stick dough will be more elastic compared to its counterpart. After the bread stick dough is ready, we cut it into strips & twirl so that it turns out curly when baked. Bread stick requires about 15-30 mins of baking.

Next, we started working on the 2nd recipe - seafood vol-au-vent which means seafood enclosed in a small hollow case of puff pastry. Vol-au-vent is usually filled with savoury ingredients but sweet fillings is possible too. For seafood, we picked squid & shrimp by cutting them into cubes. The cubes are then stirred together with sauteed garlic in butter. Cream is added then letting it simmer until the sauce thickens. We switched off the gas & allow the seafood to cool. Meanwhile, we cut the puff pastry using different size moulds. The cut puff pastry is stacked to form a hollow case, followed by a brush of egg yolk to promote a nice golden brown coating. Bake them at 180°C for 20 mins. We started scooping the seafood into the puff pastry, filling up the hollow space.

Our 2nd last recipe of the day is the chicken burger. We only need to prepare the patty since the burger bun was completed earlier. All that is required to make the patty is ground chicken, chopped parsley, onions, garlic, salt, ground black pepper & egg. Egg is added to the ground chicken & blended together until smooth. Once done, the blended chicken mix is combined with parsley, sauteed onions & garlic while adding salt & pepper to taste. We also mix in some capers to give a richer taste to the patty. The mixture is shaped into 4 1/2-inch thick patties which will be grilled over medium heat for 8-10 mins when covered. As soon as the patty is done, we started assembling the mini chicken burger.

Lastly, we continued with the potato cakes recipe. The potatoes were scrubbed before boiling them in lightly salted water. Once cooked, we grated them & mashed it with other ingredients - shallot, red chili, spring onion & coriander leaves. We formed the mash potatoes into patties which is then dredge in flour, eggs & crumbs. The patties is to be cooked in a non-stick pan for 2-3 mins until golden brown. For a lesser oil alternative, the patties can be baked in the oven.

There you have it, 4 different recipes to tantalise your personal taste buds. The one thing I didn't fancy is that the portion which was taught wasn't exactly mini size, in which defeats the purpose of calling the dishes as canapes. Oh well, as long the recipes tasted great & it's all that matters. The rest boils down to lots & lots of practice.

Simply Italian

Being a fan of Italian food, I'm all eager to sign up for Simple Italian class with Chef Khai. You must be wondering why the classes I attend, if not all, are conducted by the same chef. I don't have a personal preference for this chef but he usually organises class featuring recipes from the world. The price is quite reasonable in my context & the school is not too far from my house.

In this class, we were taught to prepare 3 recipes - tomato tartine (appetiser), chicken ragout with roesti potatoes (main) & tiramisu brownies (dessert). Tomato tartine is basically tomatoes on tart-size puff pastry. Tartine is not restricted to tomato filling & opens up to many possibilities of variations in fillings used. For us newbies, tomatoes are relatively easier to handle.

First, tomatoes were cut into cubes. Meanwhile, the pan is heated while adding in butter, sugar (to taste) & a little water, allowing the content to caramelised. Tomatoes were poured into the pan for a quick saute, to be seasoned with fresh herbs & black pepper to taste. While the cooked tomatoes were left aside to cool, we rolled the store-bought puff pastry to the desired size before cutting the dough with a cookie cutter. Instead of following the recipe's method, we were told to scoop the tomatoes on each cut puff pastry piece. Egg wash was applied on all the puff pastry, then popped into the oven to bake at 180°C for 10-20 mins or until golden brown. Here are our masterpieces. =D

Next dish is chicken ragout with roesti potatoes, a dish which involves more steps. To start off, we saute the garlic, carrot, & mushroom until half cooked. We then put in the chicken fillet which were sliced earlier & continued stirring. Cream, parmesan cheese & salt were added taste. The sauce & vegetables were left to simmer until thicken. Alternatively, egg yolk can be added to do the trick. For the roesti, we grated the potatoes & set aside in salt water to prevent oxidation. Meanwhile, we began sauteing some garlic & onion with some fresh herb & parsley, releasing the aroma. The grated potatoes were added in, forming a patty-like shape & let it cooked until brown on each side.

Once the roesti is cooked properly, it is ready to be served next to the ragout.

The last dish for the day is tiramisu brownies - a twist from the classic tiramisu which has a tiramisu topping over brownies. Due to limited time, we only managed to bake the brownies. Firstly, dark chocolate & butter is melted over a double boiler & set aside to cool. Using a stand mixer, whip the eggs & sugar until double the volume.

The melted chocolate-butter is then added to the eggs mixture. Next, yoghurt & flour were added & mix well until combine. Lastly, chopped macadamia is folded into the brownies mixture. The brownies is baked at 180°C. Just look at how well the brownies turned out!

It was a waste that time was running out. Otherwise, it would've been better to do the topping on the spot & get tips from the chef. In my opinion, the appetiser & main dish tasted the best. Yums~

Simple Japanese

Chef Khai organised a class today, focusing on the theme Simple Japanese. What constitutes simple Japanese food staples? You've guessed it right & that would be sushi, teriyaki chicken & tempura prawn.

We started preparing the rice first as it requires longer cooking time. The rice used for sushi is shorter & fatter in grain size compared to the local rice or Thai rice. It is starchier but not as sticky as glutinuous rice, which makes it ideal for forming sushi with bare hands. For this session, we used Japanese rice though Calrose rice is possible. The rice only needs to be washed once, then add water & cover it with kombu in the rice cooker. The ratio is 1 cup rice: 2 cups water. Once the rice is cooked, mix it with vinegar, sugar & salt, then set aside.

There is no fixed rules on what needs to be in the sushi. Just to name a few common ingredients used are Japanese cucumber, crabstick, pickles, fish roe & unagi. For our creation, we included mango slices to add some tangy flavour to the sushi. The secret to beautiful & neat looking sushi rolls is putting sufficient rice (not too much), rolling & tugging the ingredients in between nori sheet to ensure that the contents remain intact. Of course, the work of a skilled pair of hands makes all the difference.

My sushi rolls, on the contrary, obviously didn't look appetising enough to be savoured. Just look at the mess which points to signs of inexperience. Honestly, I wasn't enticed to pop one into my mouth but luckily the rolls tasted better than expected & more than compensate for the awful presentation. I seriously need more practice.

One of the tips to perfectly cut sushi rolls is to use a sharp knife. This would prevent the rice grains from falling off the nori sheet. Next on the list is teriyaki chicken. This dish calls for a sauce to marinade the chicken prior to grilling on a hot pan. Sauce preparation is quite simple as it's essentially a reduction of soy sauce (Japanese soy sauce, Kikkoman is highly recommended) & water. Ginger, sugar, garlic, spring onion & chicken bones (optional) are added for richness in aroma & taste. The sauce is boiled in a pot until the liquid is reduced by half. Then, we moved on to marinade the chicken with the ready sauce. Before that, the chicken fillet should be scored first to allow ingredients to be absorbed well. We added in garlic & ginger blend into the chicken together with the sauce, mixing it well; finally leaving it to marinade for 30 mins. Piece by piece, we grilled the fillet to perfection. Oh, the aroma is lovely! Juicy & flavourful too~ (sorry forgot to snap pictures because we were salivating already XD).

Lastly, it's the scrumptious prawn tempura we've been waiting for. Medium size shrimps were used in this recipe with the heads & shells removed, then deveined. We beaten an egg in a bowl, added in ice water & finally pouring in the tempura flour; mixing well until combined. Meanwhile, the oil is heated up before frying. Each shrimp is lightly floured & dipped into the tempura batter, then deep-fried until crisp & turns golden brown. Voila!

This is why I love attending cooking lessons on Sunday morning. Aside from the therapeutic experience, it gets me psyched up to cook as quickly as possible so that I can dig in my free lunch to ease my stomach growl. For the love of food, anything is possible... =)

British Food Fare

The British Food Fare class by At 19 Culinary Studio was postponed indefinitely a couple of months ago due to many last minute cancellations & I was the only student left. When the class was enlisted again, I immediately signed up for it. In this class, we learnt simple recipes which are classic staples served in British households - scotch egg, shepherd's pie & bread and butter pudding.

Chef Khai started the class with the first recipe, shepherd's pie. Those of you who have heard of this pie but wonders what goes into it, it's usually filled with minced beef or lamb. Of course, you can always substitute the filling with chicken if you are not fond of red meat. Firstly, we prepared the filling by sauteing the vegetables; adding in tomato coulis & brown stock, then combining the minced lamb into the pan to let it simmer until cooked & sauce thickened. The filling is left to cool aside.

Meanwhile, we boiled the potatoes which will be used to pipe onto the shepherd's pie. Once the potatoes have softened, we seasoned it with salt & pepper then sprinkle some nutmeg powder before mashing it. After the filling is cooled, we arranged a few aluminum foil tart tins on the baking tray & started scooping the filling into it. Then, we piped the mashed potato on top & bake it for 15 mins at 200°C.

While the pies gets cooked in the oven, we moved on to the next recipe - scotch egg. First, we blended the minced chicken with 1 tbsp of whipping cream & egg. Next, we added in coarse black pepper, cajun & salt to taste & kept aside. As for the eggs, we boiled them in a pot of boiling water sprinkled with some salt until they turned hard. When the eggs cooled, the shells were peeled off then wrapped with the prepared minced chicken individually to form a ball. Then, we dipped the eggs into a whisked egg in separate bowl before rolling into flour & bread crumbs. Each piece is then deep-fried until golden brown.

The last recipe was the bread & butter pudding, the easiest recipe out of the 3 dishes. First, we had to mix the milk, cream, eggs, vanilla essence & sugar together before adding in melted butter. Then, we needed to prepare caramel which will be the base of the pudding. The caramel consists of water & sugar boiled together in a pot with the ratio of 1:1. The caramel is ready once the water & sugar are combined. After that, we soaked slices of bread (leftover/slightly stale bread) into the milk & cream mixture prepared earlier for 10-15 mins. While waiting, the caramel is poured into a tin mould to cover the base. The soaked bread slices were then transferred to the tin mould. Finally, the pudding is sent to the oven to bake for 10 mins at 140°C.

Ta-da! There you have it, 3 simple less complicated dishes which are popular favourites in the UK. Yum~

Based on the given recipe, I find the bread & pudding a tad to sweet to my liking. It didn't taste as fantastic as the better ones I have tried. Nevertheless, it still tasted good & I wouldn't have done it any better than this prior to this class. More practice needed! Now I just need to get the oven installed & fire up.

Cooking Swedish

Two months ago, I signed up for Cooking British class which is to be held in October. Unfortunately, I received a call from At 19 Culinary Studio team while I was away for business trip explaining that the aforementioned class had to be cancelled due to low participation. Apparently, there were many participants who made cancellations & I was the only one left to attend the class. As stated in their rules, a minimum of 3 participants are required for class commencement as scheduled.

Due to this, I was offered to select another class of equivalent value or get a full refund if there isn't any class of to my liking. In the end, I picked Cooking Swedish which is a favourite class among most members. When the day arrived, I totally forgot that I had actually signed up for it & was rudely awakened by my alarm clock at 9am (not early but I'm not a morning person). Already running late, I scrambled to wash up & drove as fast as I could to the culinary studio. Upon arrival, I cooked up a white lie that my car had some problems just so that it didn't look too embarrassing that I arrived fashionably late. Nevertheless, the class didn't receive overwhelming response as I thought it should be because there were only 3 students who turned up (including me).

Chef Khai was the one who conducted the special Swedish cooking class for Ikea's contest winners. Due to overwhelming response, Chef Khai decided to organise a similar class for At 19's students. We started off with Jansson's Temptations, a fancy name for potato pudding. In essence, the potato pudding is made by cutting slices of potatoes & arranging it layer by layer together with anchovy fillet or bacon in a baking tin. Next, cream is poured into the baking tin to cover up the layers & then it's popped into the oven to bake to perfection. Garnish with some English parsley & voila! You have a new dish ready.

The second dish is a main course called Lindstromare with pickles cabbage & onion sauce. Lindstromare refers to beef patty in Swedish language for those of you wondering what it means. If you can't consume beef, mutton can be used as an alternative. First, the meat patty of your choice is marinated with egg, beetroot, onion cube & chopped parsley then seasoned to taste. The patty is then pan-fried until golden brown. Next, the cabbage is sauteed with butter & balsamic vinegar, season to taste. To prepare the sauce, we sauteed the onion until brown followed by black pepper. Demi glace is added & simmered until thick while adding seasoning to taste. No idea what a demi glace is? It's actually double cream. Finally, the patty is plated with pickles cabbage & onion sauce. Yum!

A meal is never complete without a wonderful dessert. In traditional Swedish style, Chef Khai demonstrated how to prepare a simple dark chocolate kladdkaka which is known as chocolate cake to the Swedes. Kladdkaka is a fairly simple cake to bake. All we needed was eggs, sugar, butter, unsweetened cocoa powder, self-raising flour, water, salt & vanilla paste. The eggs & sugar are whipped until smooth; then flour, salt, vanilla paste & water is added & mixed until well combined. Next, we put a few knobs of melted butter & cocoa powder into the egg batter, whisking it until glossy before finally adding in a teaspoon of vanilla paste. The batter is poured into a lightly greased 9 inch tart dish & baked in the oven preheated at 150 degrees Celcius for 35 minutes. Once ready, set aside the cake to cool slightly & finally dust a layer of icing sugar to serve. Just look at how beautiful the cake turns out...

Each of us took back our own creations to savour at home. The class ended at the perfect time at noon, when it was time for lunch & had plenty of appetite to gobble up all the dishes. Even then, I was struggling to finish my creations because the meal was wholesome. Now I just need to find time to practise & replicate this dish to perfection. XD

Open Day Demo 1: Modern Style Cuisine

Another Groupon offer caught my attention & this time, it's a cooking demo plus bread & pastries workshop at this school called At 19 Culinary Studio. For a RM50 coupon, I was entitled a workshop & a complimentary cash voucher worth RM50, not forgetting a free one-year membership with the cooking school. I signed up for this workshop which features a chef conducting demonstration on modern day cuisine.

When I arrived at the school, I was impressed that they have a nice kitchen where cooking/baking classes take place. Prior to the cooking demo, we were given a short education on bread & pastries. It turns out that handling bread & pastries is so easy that even frozen types can taste as good as you find from bakeries. It was good to know the secrets behind bakeries & how they create such soft & sumptuous treats.

Soon after that, the chef in charge appeared & introduced himself as Chef Khai. He had worked in several international hotels overseas & even undertaken the role of executive chef during his career. Now he has taken a more subtle role by conducting cooking classes & teaching in a college majoring in culinary arts. Since this was only a workshop & not a hands-on class, it was mainly notes taking & observing Chef Khai cooking the dishes for taste testing. The actual classes will cost more as ingredients & equipment are provided.

Chef Khai showed us how to prepare Roasted Pumpkin Soup which is the appetizer today's showcase (unfortunately I didn't managed to snap a photo because I was too busy taking down notes). He was very generous to share tips & different methods in preparing the same dish. Bravo! What's a meal without a main course? Well, fret not as he quickly moved on to demonstrating to us the steps to preparing Chicken Roulade with Mushroom Sauce. Delicious smells filled the air & everyone got hungry fast as it was close to noon. Before everyone started digging into the chicken, I quickly snapped a shot of Chef Khai's creation.

I have signed up for Chef Khai's class, Cooking British which will be held in October. The recipes will feature Prawn Cocktail, Lamb Sheppard's Pie and Bread & Butter Pudding. Yums! Can't wait for next month to arrive... =D

For more info, log on to www.at19culinary.com.

Noodles with added vegetables

Being alone at home has its pros & cons. The good thing about it is that the house becomes less noisy & nobody distracts you from doing your own thing. The bad, however, is you're left to take care of your own meals all the more if you're a grown up. Grandpa's car was available & I could easily drive out anytime to buy lunch. But the terrifying thought of getting stucked in jams & no luck in finding a parking on a scorching hot day is more than enough to keep myself glued at home.

Much thanks to the inventor of instant noodles, a simple meal can be prepared conveniently at anytime of the day. The cooking instruction is as easy as cooking lesson for dummies. Everyone can create seemingly tasty noodles by just following the steps-by-steps. As for me, eating only the noodles are definitely unhealthy without some protein content. Since there was no eggs in the fridge, I ended up garnishing my noodles with spinach & sliced carrots for a slightly healthy diet. XD

Ta-daa!

You only need the following:

1 pkt instant noodles (soup/dry) - I used Ibumie Har Mee Mi Goreng for the above

Vegetables (your preference)

Egg (highly recommended)

Poultry/seafood slice

Now says who that instant noodles are unhealthy? It can be another balance meal when cooked properly.

Step-by-step to cooking Mei's favourite instant noodle

Follow my instructions closely & you'll get to enjoy a sumptious Korean instant noodle meal. ^^

1. Read the instructions on the packaging carefully before cooking.

2. Open the packaging & place the content in a bowl while waiting for water to boil.

3. Pour in the noodle & the seasoning, leaving it to simmer for approx 4 mins. Add egg or veggie to taste.

4. Voila! There you have it, a spicy & soupy Korean noodle for you to savour. Who said it was hard to cook? It's still instant noodle. XD