Marinated tofu salad with ginger, soy and mirin dressing

My husband calls tofu “a non-food”. His explanation: that “it doesn’t taste of anything”. Which is actually quite true. My take on tofu is because it has no strong taste, it can (and does) absorb flavours really well, so marinating tofu gives you the protein-packed goodness of it, with all the wonderful flavours of your marinade.

This is an asian-inspired salad that is light from the dressing, yet filling and nutritious. Marinating the tofu does take time but once it’s ready you can put this salad together very quickly.

Ingredients makes 2 servings 

1. 2 squares firm tofu
2. Edamame – squeeze out the edamame from their pods – I buy frozen edamame still in the pod from my supermarket, they’re super easy to use – just take the amount you want, cover with hot water for a few minutes and they’re ready !
3. Mixed salad greens
4. 1/2 small Japanese cucumber, sliced
5. handful cherry tomatoes, halved
6. 1/2 avocado
7. 3 tbls raw pine nuts, toasted
8. Dressing:
9. 1/2 thumb-sized piece of ginger – peel off the outer skin and grate finely
10. 8 tbls mirin
11. 8 tbls rice vinegar
12. 6 tbls neutral flavoured oil – I used rapeseed
13. 2-3 tbls soya sauce
14. 2 tsp sesame oil

Method

1. Mix all the dressing ingredients together and pour 3/4 of it into a ziplock bag
2. Pop the tofu in the bag with the dressing and let marinate for at least a few hours, preferably overnight
3. When ready, heat up your skillet on high heat and fry the tofu
4. While the tofu is cooking prepare the rest of the salad
5. Dress the salad lightly with the remaining salad dressing
6. Pile salad on to a salad bowl/plate and top with sliced tofu

 

Meyer Lemon Tea Cake

Meyer lemons are a cross between a lemon and a mandarin orange, and have a sweet floral flavour, without the mouth-puckering tartness of normal lemons. When cooking with meyer lemons vs normal lemons you will need to adjust the sugar of your usual recipes.

Of course when I saw them in my local supermarket I had to grab a bag of them. I’m planning to make all sorts of meyer lemon-y things with it – my first was a meyer lemon tea cake.

My recipe is adapted from Joy of Baking’s Lemon Blueberry Bread - my recipe uses less sugar (and no blueberries!) and the end result is a light, airy, deliciously lemony cake that goes perfectly with a big mug of tea.

Ingredients

1. 1 1/2 cups (195g) plain flour
2. 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3. 1/2 tsp salt
4. Grated zest of two meyer lemons
5. 1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter, room temperature
6. 1/2 cup (100g) castor sugar
7. 2 large eggs
8. 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
9. 1/4 cup (120ml) milk
10. 1/4 cup meyer lemon juice

Lemon Glaze:

1. 3 tbls sugar
2. juice of 1 meyer lemon

Method

1. Butter and flour a loaf tin
2. Preheat oven to 180C (350F)
3. Rub the zest and the sugar together to release the lemon oils
4. Add softened butter and beat until light and creamy, about 5 minutes
5. Add eggs one at a time, beating well between each egg
6. Mix vanilla extract, milk and lemon juice together
7. Sift flour, baking powder and salt
8. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture (in three additions) and milk (in two additions) alternately, starting and ending with the flour. Mix till just combined or you’ll overwork the gluten in the flour and end up with a heavy cake
9. Pour batter into prepared loaf tin and bake for 55-65 minutes, when the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean
10. Make the lemon glaze while the cake is cooking
11. In a small microwaveable bowl, stir together sugar with the lemon juice
12. Microwave for 10-20 seconds or just until the sugar has dissolved
13. When the bread is done, remove from oven
14. Pierce the top of the hot loaf with a wooden skewer or toothpick and brush with the hot lemon glaze
15. Cool loaf in the pan for about 30 minutes then remove from pan and let cool completely on wire rack

 

The Handburger

Fancy a quick burger in Singapore ? Then check out the Handburger. Nothing fancy, but serves decent burgers, and it’s conveniently in Raffles City, which, for me, means the added bonus of not having to schlep across town just for a burger (and yes, I know in Singapore that’s just a short 15 minute cab ride away but everything’s relative when you live a 5 minute walk away).

It’s Diner-style American fare, and you don’t linger there, you just go to eat.

I’m a burger “purist” – just give me a standard beef burger. In this case, it’s with 100% grass-fed beef, and comes with melted cheese, some lettuce and tomato (ticks the “I am eating vegetables” box) and this insanely good onion jam that brings the whole lot together. The burger buns are made on the premises and has the light consistency of a brioche but without the sweetness.

They have tons of other burger options, from duck to pulled pork or even seafood, if that floats your boat. Oh, and speaking of floats, they have root beer floats, which went fantastically well with my burger

The Handburger
252 North Bridge Road
#B1-77/78 Raffles City Shopping Centre
Tel: 6334 4577

Open:

Sun – Thurs: 11.30am – 10.00pm

Fri/Sat: 11.30am – 10.30pm

Quinoea Salad

Quick, healthy and delicious – who could ask for anything more in just one dish ?

Packed with lean protein, you can whip this up for a simple lunch that will keep you satisfied till dinner-time.

Ingredients makes 2 lunchtime servings

1. 1/2 cup quinoea
2. 1 cup hot chicken broth
3. handful coriander
4. handful flat leaf parsley
5. cherry tomatoes, quartered
6. 1/2 small red onion, diced
7. 1/2 cucumber, sliced
8. few cubes feta cheese – I used Danish but any feta would do
9. juice of 1/2 – 1 lemon
10. few tbls good olive oil
11. few tsp red wine vinegar
12. salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Bring the chicken broth to boil, add quinoea, lower heat and simmer for 15 minutes or until the germ of the quinoea appears
2. Strain any excess liquid if there is any, fluff up the quinoea in the pot and let cool till warm (just so that it won’t cook the herbs)
3. Add the vegetables and herbs
4. Mix the lemon juice, olive oil, vinegar and salt and pepper together – adjust to taste
5. Dress the quinoea salad and you’re ready to eat !

41 Degrees, Barcelona, Spain

Hands down, the best meal I have had. Ever.

41 Degrees started off as a cocktail lounge, attached to the tapas bar, Tickets, by Adrià brothers, Ferran and Albert. The intimate 16-seater bar then started serving a 41 “course” dinner of amuse bouches.

The meal is a totally immersive experience that I don’t want to spoil for anyone who has not yet been. Suffice to say if you’ve been, you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, then it’s an absolute must-visit if you are in Barcelona.

It’s also the closest thing to El Bulli, with owners, cooks and many staff from the famed, now-closed legendary restaurant. (Albert Adrià himself has referred to 41 Degrees as a “mini Bulli”).

Make no other plans for the evening – our dinner started at 8 and we left after midnight. And with an almost ridiculous attention to detail, we didn’t stop grinning at each other the entire evening. Every thing is intended to (and does) surprise and delight every one of your senses.

I heard that Albert is planning to return the space to its cocktail roots, and moving the dining experience somewhere nearby in Barcelon’s theatre district, but bookings can only be made via their website.

Bario Ramen @ Bugis+

So I’ve been slowly working my way through the six “Ramen Champions” at Bugis+. Second on the list (after Aoyama) was Bario Ramen from Tokyo, which serves Jiro style ramen. The Guardian UK recently listed Jiro in its “50 best things to eat in the world” list. “Ramen of the man, by the man, for the man.”

And I think it absolutely delivers on that promise.

The first thing you notice from Jiro-style ramen that differentiates it from other ramen is the noodle. It’s thick and chewy. Piled on top is a mountain of bean sprouts. And the chasu is also not the traditional round thin slices. It’s chunky and meaty slices of tender pork belly. And the tonkotsu stock is rich and flavoursome.

There’s a lot in to the bowl to eat, and Bario offers an almost ridiculous choice to double your noodles.

It’s a go-to favourite of my hubby’s for all the reasons above. For me, the first slurp/spoonful was delicious, but by the third or fourth, I was pretty much done. Perhaps the richness of the stock, or the stodginess of the noodle – it lived up to its infamous resistance to digestion.

And so I continue my quest to try all six chefs’ ramen and make my decision as who would be my ramen champion. Stay tuned for more…and the final verdict.

Carolyn’s Fried Rice

Leftovers. A brilliant way of ensuring you get the most out of everything you have, reducing waste. And I love how many cuisines have developed recipes specifically to use up leftover carbohydrates. For Western cuisines it’s day-old bread – think English bread and butter pudding, Italian panzanella, French toast.

With rice being the staple carbohydrate in Asia, the main dish for using leftover rice is simply frying it with whatever else you have on hand. The basics are you need to add some protein and some vegetables. You can keep it super simple or jazz it up – it’s completely flexible. My recipe below is just an example of what I made last night with some leftover belly pork from a roast I made over the weekend.

A few notes:

You almost can’t make fried rice with freshly cooked rice. There’s something about the way the grains separate to take in all the flavours in the pan rather than going stodgy. I actually spread my rice out on a plate and leave it uncovered in the fridge overnight to really dry out the rice. I’ve also tried the healthier option with brown rice, and it’s an individual taste thing, but I think fried rice just works better with white rice because the rice absorbs the flavours better.

You can also just use soya sauce rather than the mix I used below, although the combination of the three sauces, I think, adds a bit more of a complex flavour to the dish, and I think the fish sauce adds an additional hint of umami to the dish.

Ingredients

1. 2 cups cooked leftover rice – see note above about drying it out
2. 1/2 cup leftover roasted pork belly – you can substitute this with any leftover meat or even sausage
3. 2 eggs – I like my fried rice eggy
4. 1/3 cup frozen peas
5. 1 tbl oyster sauce
6. 1 tbl fish sauce
7. 1-2 tbl soya sauce

Method

1. Drizzle a small amount of oil over the cold rice and use your fingers to really separate the grains
2. Heat your frying pan to high, and fry the meat so that the fat renders
3. Push the meat to one side of the pan, crack your eggs on the other, and kind of scramble them
4. When the eggs are about half done, add the rice to the pan over the eggs and mix everything together so the eggs almost coat the rice
5. Add the peas and mix again
6. Add the sauce (you can add more or less to taste) and fry till everything is mixed and fragrant
7. Enjoy !

Restaurant Cal Pep, Barcelona

Assorted fried seafood – crispy deliciousness

An absolute must-go for tapas when in Barcelona. Get to Cal Pep early – you can’t book, and the word is out – the 20 stools in the front room were full as soon as the doors opened for lunch at 1.

We chatted to the waiter at the counter, asked for our favourites (pimentos, clams) and then left it to him to recommend, based on what produce they had that day. There didn’t seem to be an enormous range – the waiter explaining that ingredients are kept to a minimum, with the emphasis on freshness. Just the way we like it.

Every dish was a stunner. Josep Manubens Figueres, the chef and owner (“Pep” is a common Catalan nickname for Josep), ensures the seafood at his tapas bar is the freshest that is available every morning at the fish auctions along the nearby Costa Brava every morning.

Cooks wait patiently until the first order comes in, and then they come in flying, thick and fast, with no reprieve, and what I can only describe as “organised chaos” ensues.

Chick peas with fried spinach and jamon

The dish of deep-fried seafood – lightly floured small fish, squid, calamari rings and small prawns – came out crispy and tasted of each individual piece of seafood, not just randomly of oil. The chick peas and vibrantly green spinach (not at all overcooked or gloppy) had bits of fried jamon, imparting the dish with its flavour and providing a nice contrast in texture.

There was just one meat dish – a speciality of the house - botifarra de porc amb foie d’ànec fresc, pork sausage with foie gras and port wine, served in inch-long slices over white beans.

Saffron milk cap mushrooms cooked on the grill

We also tried for the first time some mushrooms we saw at the Boqueria, the saffron milk cap. Bright orange in colour with deep green stains (which apparently appear when the mushrooms have been handled) – the flavour is mild and the texture is almost “crunchy”.

Simplicity is the key to the beauty of each dish – with every plate, there was nothing that didn’t absolutely have to be there.

Remember to get there early – or be prepared to stand impatiently behind diners like us. Their schedule is complicated, so check their website to find when they are open.

Cal Pep
Plaça de les Olles, 8, Barcelona
Tel: 011-34-93-310-7961

Las Estrellas Mirador San Nicolas, Granada, Spain

The entire Alhambra was too big to capture in one picture – this is just one third of the spectacular view from our table

En route from Seville to Barcelona, we stopped off in Granada to visit the breathtaking Palace, the Alhambra. One thing to note if you are visiting – be prepared for hoardes of tourists (of which we were, as well), which to me, slightly diminished the experience of the beauty and tranquillity of the Palace. I have to say that the Alcázar of Seville – although not on as grand a scale as the Alhambra, is (in my humble opinion) equally beautiful, and you get to appreciate the beauty of the palace at your own pace, in peace and quiet, rather than jostling amongst tour groups and photographers.

But I digress.

The Alhambra is not only amazing inside, but can be viewed from a spectacular vantage point across the mountains. And perched on top of that vantage point, is Las Estrellas Mirador San Nicolas. Book ahead in advance and ask for the table next to the window.

Our hotel in Seville was kind enough to not only recommend this to us, but booked it for us as well, and we found ourselves in the enviable position of being smack bang in the middle of the window, watching the sun set behind the Alhambra. Nothing quite like it, really. And so amazing that I only remembered to take a photo after dark, and it certainly does not do the view any justice.

Creamy rice paella with lobster and seasonal wild mushrooms

Is the view enough to make Las Estrellas Mirador San Nicolas a must-visit ? The food is good…just not great. I’m being super picky here, but I thought the presentation seemed a bit dated, and to be totally honest – and I do understand that it’s a completely different type of restaurant than the nearby tapas bar Kiki (which you should also visit if you are in Granada) – but the seafood at Las Estrellas just didn’t seem as fresh.

The food we did have was certainly not bad at all, and the service was impeccable. For an amuse bouche we had a cold cauliflower cream with white chocolate and pistachios, starters was a beautifully balanced home made foie gras terrine with a tangy red onion confit (which was actually my favourite dish of the evening).

Vanilla ice-cream profiteroles with a hot chocolate sauce

My main was a creamy rice paella with lobster and seasonal wild mushrooms and for dessert we had vanilla ice-cream profiteroles with a hot chocolate sauce.

Having said all that, I do actually think that if you are going to Granada, go to Las Estrallas Mirador San Nicolas. It’s a nice treat for the taste buds and a spectacular treat for the eyes. Ten stars for atmosphere. Remember to book “that” table !

Las Estrallas Mirador San Nicolas
Callejon Atarazana Vieja, 1
19010, Granada, Spain
Tel: +34 958 288 739
E: estrellasdesan-nicolas@hotmail.fr

Bar Alfalfa, Seville, Spain

Provolone al horno – molten baked cheese

Seville is a compact town where walking around is feasible, and for us, preferable, as you get to appreciate and soak in the atmosphere of new cities faster. As we walked to and from our gorgeous hotel AlmaSevilla – Hotel Palacio de Villapanés to the sights around Seville, we passed by many, many tapas bars, of which one was always full, with people spilling out on to the street late into the night (which was probably just normal for the Spanish as they really do eat late).

Chicharrón – deep-fried pork rinds

On the corner of Alfalfa and Candilejo, and with the easy-to-remember name, it was easy to see just to be there.

In Bar Alfalfa we found a few dishes which we hadn’t seen as often in other bars. A Moroccan-inspired pork belly stew with apricots and raisins, artery-clogging (and of course delicious) chicharrón – seasoned and deep fried pork rinds, and a simple dish of marinated sardines on toast, dressed with a good glug of olive oil. And the amazing Provolone al horno – baked cheese.

Marinated sardines on toast

Add funky tunes and ice-cold beer and sherry and that was a happy afternoon spent in Seville.

Bar Alfalfa
Corner of Calles Alfalfa and Candilejo
Seville, Spain

Open: around lunchtime till late