Kitchen Notes

I often research food processes and do cooking experiments in an effort to sift out recipe gems. Dishes that are palatable and tasty, meat that is juicy and moist. Tasteful with the right degree of texture and tenderness. And vegetables that are still crunchy without being hard or fibrous. Above all, a cooking method that yields consistent results in my cooking day after day!

Along this culinary journey, these are some of my notes:

Beef cubes (500g) from Fairprice: Cooked in sous-vide setup @ 58-deg C for >24 hrs ( about 9 am till 2 pm following day). Result: Still a bit tough, chewable and not tender enough. But definitely less tough than if cooked the conventional way. Decided to continue cooking in slow cooker under low setting for next 6 hrs or more to see if the meat will become more tender, less chewable.

Sauce used to cook with the beef:
1. Saute 5 slices ginger and 2 cloves gsrlic (smashed) in hot oil until fragrant.
2. Add 1/4 cup rice hsiaoh sin wine, 1 pc star anise, 1 pc cinnamon stick, small piece of rock sugar, 1.5 T hoisin sauce, 1 T oyster sauce, 1 T sesame oil, pieces of mandarin orange peel, and about 2 cups water (500 ml) to the mix.
3. Add salt to taste (I added about 1 t Kosher salt, available from Cold Storage).
4. When the mix is boiling, add to the slow cooker.
5. Add the beef slices only when the temperature of the sauce mix is about 60-70-deg C. That is the temperature when one is not scalded tasting the sauce!
6. Will add cornflour (and water first to adjust taste) to thicken sauce only after meat has finished cooking.

Beef Tripe, 400 g: Cook it for 15-20 min in pressure cooker will render it tender enough to eat.

Beef tendon 300g: Cooked 35 min in pressure cooker, found it became too tender.

Daikon or Radish: Cooked cut chunks for 3 min (timed when cooker starts hissing) - found the texture was too soft.

Sweet peas: 2 min in boiling water is enough to cook the vegetable to just the right "crunchy" texture.

UPDATE:
Found the slow cooker I am using read 92-deg C under 'Low' setting one-hour into braising. Will test it again one hr later with the temp probe. hmmmm...will this relatively high braising temperature render a good quality of tenderness in the beef? Maybe I should stop the slow-cooker and continue to cook the beef using the sous-vide approach at 58-deg C? Yes, I think I will do that!

Pan-fry Sea Bream  01-Nov-2011
My dear wife has the skills, timing and judgment to pan fry sea bream, resulting in a fish that is still sweet, tender and fresh, but with a crispy scale that is deliciously salty, but not too salty! How much oil? Well, she don't deep fry but she pours enough oil to about 1/2 the fish depth. She first rubs salt on the skin (eyeball, < 1 tsp) on the clean fish and set aside for 5 min. Next she fries the fish in a hot wok under high heat initially to seal in the juice, then reduces the fire quickly. All this takes skill and judgment.

Grilling and Broiling Notes:
Difference b/w Grilling and Broiling?
How to test Grill Temperature with Your Hand

Tue 10-Jan-11 : Soy Braising Stock
As I scummed the frozen surface fat off the soy-sauce braising stock, an idea flashed through my mind - why not stew chicken wings the same way as I do for Hainanese Chicken Rice i.e. steep the wings in the soy braising stock for 25 min, fire off, to allow the latent heat to cook the chicken? Knowing that the wings cook to tenderness less than 25 min in the simmering broth previously, I decided to cook as follows:

1. Bring the braising stock to a boil.
2. Fire off, plunge the chicken into the broth.
3. After 2-3 min turn on the fire to low and simmer the stock for 5 min.
4. Turn off the fire, and leave the chicken to steep for 10 min.
5. Remove the chicken from pot when the pieces are tender.

Remark:
I was astonished at the tenderness after only ~15 min in the braising stock! Upon tasting, the pieces were remarkably tender, and with a subtle, rich aroma too!