A mixed green salad with chanterelle and shitake mushrooms, jumbo scallops and pistachios.

I love mushrooms. From the ordinary everyday button mushroom to the fancy and insanely expensive black or white truffle, I cannot think of a kind that I don’t like. My favourite way to prepare them is to make them into a ragout, which is just a fancy term for sauteing the mushrooms with garlic, shallots, a small amount of stock or wine and cook until all the liquid has been reduced. Most mushrooms have a lot of flavour; the reduction simply intensifies and enhances the great flavour. Sometimes I serve the ragout as a side-dish to compliment a piece of perfectly seared steak, other times I put them on a patty to make a juicy mushroom hamburger. When ET and I want to have a light meal (yes, sometimes we do too!), I would mix up a plate of greens with the ragout. I’m not much of a salad eater, but when the salad has mushrooms, I can easily finish a plate

This recipe serves 2 people.

- 10 medium-sized shitake mushrooms
- 10 medium-sized chanterelle mushrooms (or hedgehog if chanterelle is not in season)
- 30 pistachios, ready-to-eat, shells removed
- 4 jumbo scallops
- Mixed greens (as much as you like)
- 1 clove of garlic, minced
- balsamic vinegar
- extra virgin olive oil
- sherry

1. Rinse the mushrooms. Remove the stalk of the shitake. Cut off the tip of the chanterelle stalks. Cut the mushrooms into pieces. You don’t need to cut them too small because they will shrink after they are cooked.

2. Heat a pan with 1 tbsp of olive oil. Saute the garlic. Put in the mushrooms. Put in 1/2 tsp of salt, black pepper and 3 tbsp of sherry. Let the mushroom cooked until all liquid has been reduced.

3. Using a paring knife, score criss-cross marks on the top and bottom of each scallop. Season the scallops with salt and pepper. Coat them with cornstarch, dust off excess. In a pan, put in 1 tbsp of butter. Once the butter has melted, place the scallops into the pan. Let the scallops seared over high heat for one minute for each side. After both sides have been seared to golden brown, cover the pan for 1.5 minutes and lower the heat to medium. The trick to have perfectly seared scallops is to not to move them too much during searing. The time noted here cooks the scallops to medium-well. If you want to cook the scallops fully, let them sit in the covered pan for 1 minute longer.

4. In a large bowl, put in 1/2 tsp of mustard. Put in 1 tbsp of balsamic vinegar. Using a whisk, whisk in 1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil. Once the olive oil has been completely incorporated with the vinegar, whisk in another 1 tbsp of olive oil. When the oil has been incorporated, whisk in another 1 tbsp. In the end, you will get a dressing that is an emulsion of olive oil and vinegar. Whisking the olive oil one tablespoonful at the time ensures the success. If you have more greens, you can make more dressing by using more vinegar and olive oil, as long as you follow the ration of 1 part vinegar to 3 parts oil.

5. Toss the greens in the dressing.

6. To assemble: place the greens on a plate. Add the mushroom ragout on top of the greens. Place the scallops on the salad and sprinkle pistachios all over it.

Some people believe that there is only one true love in life. I believe there is one special cookie for everyone. Your special cookie might be the first cookie you had, or the cookie that you always had when you were a kid. Ultimately, the special cookie is the cookie that you want to have when you had a bad morning, a bad day at work or even a bad date. You might also want to bite into this cookie when you missed a flight, a hard deadline or the season’s premier episode of Lost. It is the cookie that could save you from kicking yourself (or other people’s behinds) in heated moments. If you are still looking for your special cookie, check if you utter a “Mmmmm” sound next time you have a cookie. If you do, then that cookie might just be the one for you.

My special cookie is a shortbread cookie made from an easy recipe created by Anna Olson. I have tried other people’s shortbread recipe but Olson’s remains my favourite. The right proportion of butter, sugar and flour listed in her recipe makes this cookie tastes rich and yet not overly buttery. To turn this shortbread cookie into my special cookie, I make them in different shapes – hearts, duckies and gingerbread men.

This recipe makes 36 cookies if you are using a small ice cream scoop. Based on the experience of making many batches, I’ve made a few modifications to the recipe. The ingredients are the same as Olson’s but the steps are slightly different.

1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature, soften
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp icing sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 310F.

2. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter with icing sugar until butter is fluffy. First beat at low speed until the sugar and butter are combined, then turn to high speed and beat for 10 minutes. This step is important because fluffy butter makes fluffy cookies. Beat the butter until it is almost white in colour. In the end, beat in the vanilla extract at medium speed.
3. Using a spatula, fold in the flour, cornstarch and salt.
4. Using a small ice cream scoop, drop the cookie dough onto an cookie sheet, leaving 2 inches between cookies.
5. Bake for 15 minutes or until bottoms are slightly brown. Let cool and enjoy.

Those are the steps to make the shortbread cookies. There are a few more steps involved to turn the cookies into hearts, gingerbread men or duckies. You will need cookie cutters (in shapes that you preferred), wax paper and a rolling pin.

1. On a very long piece of wax paper, put the dough on one side of the paper. Cover the dough by folding the paper in half. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out to 1/4 of an inch thick. Place the dough covered with the wax paper on a cookie sheet and put it in the freezer until it hardens, which takes about 20 minutes.

2. Once the dough has harden, let it warm up in room temperature for 5 minutes or until is is soft enough to cut through using a cookie cutter. Flour a cookie cutter and use it to cut the dough into individual cookies. If the dough becomes soft and start to stick to the cookie cutter, put the dough back in the freezer for 5 minutes. Flour the cookie cutter as often as needed.
3. Repeat step 2 for the remaining dough.

Once the cookies have been cut, they must be baked right away or must be stored in the freezer. Put the cookies on a cookie sheet and let them harden in the freezer. Once they are harden, stack them up in a container and keep them in the freezer until you are ready to bake them.

Besides cookies, I believe for everyone there is also a special chocolate bar, cupcake, ice cream sundae, fried chicken, mac & cheese… the list just never ends. But I feel that when someone had a bad day, the special cookie can always make that person feel, well, a little special.

While strolling through the meat section at a local grocery store this weekend, a nicely packaged piece of pork tenderloin caught my attention. ET was walking right beside me and when he saw me checking out the pork, he complained like a kid and said, “I don’t like pork tenderloins. They are always tough and chewy. I had some at a bistro in Paris and even the French couldn’t make it taste good”. Already lost in my thoughts of good pork tenderloin recipes, I was too busy to acknowledge him. Continue ignoring him, I realized the tenderloin was on sale for buy one get one free. Fantastic! I know I can use the discount to convince ET for buying the pork ET might be picky with his pork, but he rarely refuses a good deal.

On our drive home, I remembered a pork tenderloin recipe that I read about earlier from the Fine Cooking magazine. I had wanted to try that recipe and now is the perfect chance. ET is right; pork tenderloin is a lean piece of meat and therefore it could be dry and tough. To make the meat tender, I modify the recipe slightly by quickly pounding the pork before marinating it. The pounding turned out to be a good step – the pork wasn’t tough and ET devoured ten pieces in no time.

This recipe serves two people who really like pork, or 4 people if served as an appetizer.

You will need:
- 20 pieces of pork tenderloin, sliced 1/4 inch thick each
- 1 cup of Japanese bread crumb (Panko is the brand that I used)
- Oil for frying

For marinate you will need:
- 1 tbsp of grain mustard
- 2 tbsp of onion powder
- 1 tsp of kosher salt
- Freshly ground pepper

1. Using the back of the knife, chop each pork slice. Turn the slice by 90 degrees, and chop the slice again.
2. Add the marinate to the pork. Fridge for a few hours up to overnight.

3. Drench each pork slice in bread crumbs. Gently dust off any excess.
4. Heat oil in a quart pan. Make sure the oil is not higher than 1/2 the height of the pan. When the oil reaches 350 F, put in a few pork slices. I always clip a thermometer by the side of the pan. The thermometer tells me exactly how hot the oil is and by adjusting the heat, I’m able to fry at the optimal temperature.
5. Fry the pork slices for 1.5 minute. Place the pork on paper towel and let it cool.

6. To serve, put a dollop of plain yogurt and a bit of Dijon mustard on each slice.

Writing this recipe reminds me of a pork tenderloin roast that my friend prepared one time he invited us over for dinner. His pork roast was juicy and tender. It was the best-tasting pork tenderloin I had. This recipe cannot beat his but it’s a quick fix for my pork tenderloin craving for now

When I had the afternoon tea at Hotel Vancouver for the first time, I was drawn to a sandwich with a bright and cheerful mustard colour. Assuming it was a regular egg salad sandwich, I was surprised when I tasted a mild curry flavour in the first bite. It was a curried chicken salad, as I discovered later from reading the menu. When I thought about this sandwich later (yes, I often think of the food long after I ate it ), I couldn’t help to recreate it. I added roast chicken in my version because I wanted to give the salad a more substantial texture. I have liked this sandwich and made it a few more times since then.

From our Christmas dinner, we had some turkey leftovers and I made this sandwich again using turkey meat instead of roast chicken. The turkey meat worked as well as chicken and hey, if it’s another way to finish off those turkey leftovers, then it must be a good thing!

This recipe makes 3 sandwiches with a good amount of filling

- 1 cup of minced roast turkey or roast chicken meat, without the skin
- 3 eggs
- 2 tbs of mayonnaise, more if desired
- 1 tsp of mustard
- 1 tsp of hot curry powder
- freshly ground pepper
- salt to taste
- 6 pieces of sliced bread

Bring water in a quart pan to boil. Put in the eggs and let them boil for 10 minutes. Rinse the eggs under cold water until they are cool to touch, about 3 minutes. Remove the shell and minced the eggs.

In a bowl, put in the minced turkey, eggs, mayo, mustard, curry powder and ground pepper. Mix well. Taste and add salt if necessary.

Trim the edges off the bread. Spread a generous amount of the salad onto a piece of bread, making sure all 4 corners are covered. Place another piece of bread on top. Cut into 3 pieces of finger sandwiches. Repeat with the other two sandwiches.

A plate of Yeung Chow Fried Rice with the classic ingredients: BBQ pork, shrimp, peas and egg. There is so much ingredient that I can hardly see the rice.

One of the best ways to understand someone is by watching how they do a task, and I always learn a lot about someone when I watch them cook. Recipes are often written with room for imagination, and it’s rare to find two persons interpret a recipe in exactly the same way. Fried rice is one of those recipes that can be easily changed to suit individual preferences, and I have noticed people who are alike tend to cook fried rice in a similar way.

My brother and I both love cooking fried rice. He loves salmon and one day he created a delicious fried rice using salmon. He used so much salmon in the fried rice that even he laughed and said “I’m making fried salmon, not fried rice.”. We both like things in abundant; we are the type of people who like a lot of fillings in a sandwich and we refuse to eat sandwiches with “empty corners” – when the four corners have little or almost no filling.

Just as we thought everybody should be like us, liking fried rice with a lot of ingredients, we met a friend who is the opposite. When he tried my sandwiche, he took out the extra ham and cheese. When he tried my fried rice, he picked out the extra shrimps, BBQ pork and peas. He likes to keep things simple in life. He’s the type of guy who is happy with a TV at home and never considers building a home theater. He is a die-hard believer of “less is more”.

It’s funny how our personalities make who we are. When I was small, I always thought what I like is what everyone likes. After all, who doesn’t like fried rice that has lots of things in it? One of the best things I like about cooking, which might also explain why I’m also so crazy about it, is to understand different tastes and create dishes that satisfy different tastes. Having said that though, I still think my friend is somewhat strange.

To make my loaded version of Yeung Chow fried rice, you will need:

- 1 1/2 cup of diced BBQ pork
- 1 1/2 cup of cooked small shrimps
- 1 cup of green peas
- 2 eggs
- 4 bowls of cooked rice (to see how rice should be prepared, read Portebella mushroom fried rice)
- 1/2 cup of diced green onion
- Soy sauce
- Freshly ground pepper

In a non stick pan over high heat, stir fry BBQ pork for a minute.

Add in shrimp and stir fry quickly.

Add in green peas and freshly ground pepper, stir fry for a minute. Put all ingredients into a bowl

Put 2 tbsp of oil in the pan. Put 2 bowls of rice into the pan. Using a spatula, gently loosen up the rice. Turn the heat to medium and fry the rice until each grain is separated. Turn the heat to high and crack an egg in the middle of the rice. Very quickly, scramble the egg and mix it into the rice. Stir fry the rice until the egg has been cooked, about 1 minute. Put 3 tbsp of soy sauce in the middle of the rice and mix the soy sauce into the rice.

Put half of the shrimps, BBQ pork and peas into the rice. Stir fry until the ingredients and rice are mixed well together. Turn off the heat when done and mix in half of the green onion.

Repeat with the second batch and you are done.

How do you like your fried rice to be made?

Author: My Husband

For our friend headed to Singapore soon, here’s the post I promised – a small sampling of our favourite hawker dishes. Since we don’t live in Singapore, I don’t know the locations of the “famous” hawker stalls that sell these dishes, so perhaps some of our Singaporean readers (few though you may be ) can chip in with their recommendations?

Yes, there is a HUGE amount of variety when it comes to hawker fare; the dishes described here are but the tip of the proverbial iceberg that is hawker food in Singapore. S, my best advice is to stop and taste everything that looks appealing to you. But remember to pace yourself…

Murtabak. This is a super-sized roti prata with meat filling. The hawker used twice the amount of dough of a typical prata to make this; filled with your choice of meat, onion, and eggs, it is fried on a big griddle until it is nice and crispy. This was served with a bowl of curry for dipping. This is tasty stuff, but be that as it may, I have never been able to finish one of these by myself.

Fried Hokkien “Mee” (noodles). There was an interesting discussion on ChowTimes about this dish, but the consensus is that the Singaporean version (as opposed to the Malaysian one) isn’t cooked with a dark sauce. This version had plenty of ‘wok hei’ and was sufficiently “prawn-y”. Remember to ask for the sambal chilli as it provides the dish with a nice kick.

Do not forget the satay.

Chai Tow Kway. The locals refer to it as carrot cake, but obviously, it isn’t carrot cake in the North American sense. This can be cooked with or without the dark sweet soy. This is really very similar to the Cantonese 蘿蔔糕 , but cut into pieces and pan fried over high heat. This was one of my favourite dishes growing up, and even now, I make it a point to eat it more than once when I’m visiting.

Orh Jian. This is a wonderfully greasy fried oyster omelette. Eggs and oysters are combined with a binding agent (usually a slurry of potato flour) then fried in a huge pan until a nice crispy crust forms. The vinegary chilli sauce that accompanies this dish is important for (i) cutting the greasiness and (ii) giving it a nice heat – ask for more if you like.

Hainanese chicken rice. OK – it IS weird to just order the rice without the chicken. But Christina likes free range chicken and doesn’t think much of the “tofu” chicken that is so prevalent in Singapore. But the rice by itself is fantastic. Aromatic and flavourful, each grain is distinct and al dente.

Teh Tarik. This is a strong tea – flavoured with both condensed AND evaporated milk – that involves a degree of showmanship to prepare. The tea is first mixed with the milk, and then poured between two containers to (i) cool it down (ii) aerate it for a smoother texture. The showmanship comes into play when the hawker gradually increases the distance between the two containers during the pours, thus giving the impression that the liquid is being “pulled” between them.

Ice kachang. Shaved ice, red bean paste, and a black jello like substance(涼粉). The ice is drizzled with various coloured syrups and gula melaka. Gula melaka, which I had referenced here, gives this dessert a smokey, coconutty flavour that elevates the taste of simple shaved ice into the flavours of haute cuisine. Superb stuff.

Chendol. Like ice kachang, except with the addition of coconut milk and the little green jellies. The version shown here is served in a bowl, but this is usually served in a cup. It is yet another wonderfully refreshing dessert with which to fight the Singaporean heat.

There are many many other dishes that I haven’t described, but consider the above a preview for your trip, S. I’ll continue with a sampling of street snacks for my next post.

Author: My Husband

Several weeks ago, I received my Starbucks Gold Card in the mail and I’ve been using it for my in-store purchases ever since. It works just like the regular Starbucks card, except that for every 10 drinks you buy, you get one on the house. That works out to an overall 10% savings, which is pretty neat, and very much appreciated.

Gold card holders also receive “perks” every now and then, and I got my first one via email two weeks ago – a coupon for a complimentary Salted Caramel Signature Hot Chocolate. All I had to do was print the coupon out, present it along with the gold card to the Starbucks cashier, and – presto! – I get a free drink.

Let it be said that I am a big fan of drinking chocolates. Ever since I had my first cup of thick, rich and luscious cioccolata calda in Rome years ago, I’ve been hooked. I’ve also had the pleasure of drinking some really excellent chocolate chaud in Paris. But alas, I have never been able to find the equivalent of such drinks in North America. Hot chocolate here is thin, watery and – more often than not – gritty because of the mix used to make the drink. Since I didn’t manage to find the stuff I like in Vancouver, I convinced my other half that we should try making it at home. So we went and bought mixes from MarieBelle and Schokinag (not bad, but nowhere near what we had in Europe), looked up and tried different recipes from the internet, and used all manner of kitchen tricks to recreate the dark rich consistency that characterizes Euro drinking chocolate. Through trial and error, Christina eventually came up with a brew, made by whisking melted bittersweet valrhona, cocoa powder, cream and milk together, that tasted really good. The downside was that it took a lot of work to prepare!!

When Starbucks introduced Chantico in 2005, we became quick fans of the drink. Its smooth, lush texture, as well as the quality of the cocoa, really made it stand out in a sea awash with mediocre products. Suffice it to say, we drank quite a lot of Chantico until it was withdrawn from the market in 2006.

It has taken Starbucks two years to develop a proper replacement for Chantico (imo, the regular hot chocolate doesn’t count). The new product – actually, a line of products – finally hit the market in September 2008 and is supposed to address some of Chantico’s shortcomings. For instance, the new drinks – collectively referred to as Signature Hot Chocolate – are available in different sizes. Also, they are customizable (i.e. whole milk, 2%, skim, soy, with/without whipped cream). I didn’t view the inability to customize Chantico as a shortcoming, but well, it was withdrawn from the market, so what do I know? The timing for the introduction of the new Signature Hot Chocolate couldn’t have been better. With the chill of autumn setting in, who could resist a cup of hot chocolate or three?

Buoyed by my fond memories of Chantico, I redeemed a Salted Caramel Signature Hot Chocolate for a quick taste test last weekend. The drink mix was prepared in a plunge pitcher and poured into a steel pitcher for steaming. The concoction was then transferred to a cup, topped with whipped cream, drizzled with caramel, and sprinkled with salt. Curiously, the barista had problems working the salt shaker, which resulted in a rather meagre amount of salt being added to my hot chocolate.

I took a sip and knew I wouldn’t be ordering this drink much. Too bad. In terms of consistency, the drink was slightly thicker and richer than regular hot chocolate, but it was no match for Chantico, much less cioccolata calda. On the mid-palate, it had some sweetness and was pretty chocolaty, but lacked any sort of complexity. I only got a very faint hint of the salt, but that wasn’t surprising given how little of it was sprinkled on my drink. I also thought it didn’t finish well; there was an after taste that reminded me of… scalded wax in a paper cup.

A Chantico, this Signature Hot Chocolate is not. For now, I’ll have continue getting Christina to make her special concoction just to tide me over until our next trip to Europe…