Home Made Truffle Scrambled Eggs

As a result of the amazing truffle degustation dinner that we attended at Chiara, we each went home with one truffle that we knew we needed to save for a special occasion. The time came when we were staying over at a good friend's place, and had time to prepare breakfast. 

We had never handled an entire truffle before.

We put it in an airtight box with eggs for 3 days to allow the truffle aroma to infuse the eggs before scrambling them. 

And when we opened the cover - WOW. The truffles were super fragrant.

Ready to be shaved, but no of course we were too cheap to buy a truffle shaver. So we used a vegetable peeler instead. 

If the internet could transmit smells, this would be one photo that would need to be transmitted. The truffle smell had completely gone past the shells into the eggs. It was awesome. 

I beat the eggs up, then added some milk. Cream would have been perfect but we didn't want to buy any since we wouldn't have known what to do with the remainder. 

Getting the eggs cooked was super simple - just stirring them non stop in a non stick pan, with butter, watching the heat constantly to make sure that the eggs didn't overcook. 

And this was it - absolutely perfect scrambled eggs. Point to note from us cheapskates is that a vegetable peeler just won't do. Don't stinge on the truffle grater. The truffle slices were way too thick!

 

Not the best shot of our brekky, but it was a pretty amazing meal, with smoked salmon and dill on the side and toasted sourdough bread. 

Bubur Udang: A traditional family favourite

'Twas a sunny mid week afternoon in Melbourne when I suddenly thought about a dish that, as a child, I had looked forward to eating rain or shine, exam time or holidays, hot/rainy or hot/humid - it was something my entire family loved because it was super tasty and it could not be found at any restaurant. I half suspect now that it was a concoction put together by my Nyonya grandma, the bona fide born-in-Malacca sarong-toting epitome of virtuous housewife-dom that we all dearly loved and respected. It is at this juncture that I have to stop talking about food and share a bit about my grandma. 

She was among a rare breed of English-educated women during the early 1900s in Singapore, and I was told she came from a well-to-do Malaccan family which even had its own burial area marked out in Bukit Brown. Something didn't add up because even though I knew the Ong family owned lots of properties in Malacca and Singapore, I didn't think she had an easy life growing up because of a rather comical (to me, not to her) story she related about having to eat her pet pig. She had the most beautiful cursive handwriting, and always looked immaculate and elegant in her sarong kebaya, the top pinned together with an ornate krosang. Mama was one of the most gracious and polite women I knew, always friendly to shopkeepers and serving staff, and if there was any woman I wanted to be like, it would be her. I have such fond memories of staying with her in Joo Chiat when I was younger, and walking with her to buy "50cents of grated coconut" or "30 cents of tumeric powder". Every time we drove past Victoria Street, she would point at CHIJ and tell me this was where she went to school (Dad would point to Raffles City on the other side and say regretfully that his school got torn down for - of all things - a shopping mall, conveniently forgetting about the hotel and office towers.) 

But I digress. Back to the recipe - I managed to find tiger prawns at my favourite seafood shop in Victoria Street, which looked pretty fresh to me. 

I kept the heads and shells for stock, and minced the flesh

Mama's recipe also had tau kwa, which I sliced up into small pieces

The rice grains needed to be solid - think khau tom - Thai boiled rice/porridge. 

The tau kwa slices were shallow fried in oil until golden on the outside

Mama used streaky pork, but in the interests of health, I decided to go lean. Not as shiok but oh well. 

The tau kwa after frying

I fried the prawn heads and shells with some minced garlic and a tablespoon of tau cheo, or ground bean paste - the aroma was amazing! 

Beautiful thick orange prawn stock

I removed the stock, and then without wiping the pan, fried the minced prawn in there. 

Putting it all together was pretty simple - I had a pot of pork bone stock boiling away, so I added the prawn stock and all the different ingredients, and lastly added the rice. 

Best served with chinese parsley and fried shallots, but I didn't have any on hand

A family trick to make the bubur udang even more shiok - pounded red chilli mixed with soy sauce. 

More Asian Recipes - Chap Chye

Time after time, I find reasons to believe Melbourne is most definitely the BEST. CITY. IN. THE. WORLD. One of them being that I could find every single ingredient to cook chap chye at our favourite Asian grocer shop at Richmond. Tau cheo - check. Dried lily flowers - check. Belacan - check. Dried black fungus-  check. Dried mushrooms - don't insult them...different sizes, different prices. Check.  

I can't recall which recipe I used from the internet (just google chap chye and you'll get a few dozen, but I didn't want to end up buying things I was only going to use once (like tung hoon and dried beancurd skin) so I did compromise on the variety of ingredients used. I usually study the recipes and combine them together, so I don't think it will be possible to repeat what I did, since I didn't even take down notes. 

Soaked them and then tied them

Soaked them and then sliced them

Soaked them and then pounded them

I chopped up about half a cabbage for this

I fried the pounded shrimp first with some garlic and tau cheo

Then added streaky pork

Then I threw in the cabbage

And then I threw in everything else. I didn't have time to get fresh prawns so I just had to make do without.

It tasted pretty good, and was even better the next day after soaking in the flavours overnight.

You can even get belacan cubes and limau perut leaves in Melbourne. So I made some sambal belacan, praying that my angmoh neighbours wouldn't complain about the putrid smell of the belacan cubes roasting in the oven. It was perfect with the chap chye :)

Bouillabaisse - Home Made

According to Wiki, Bouillabaisse is a traditional Provençal fish stew originating from the port city of Marseille. After having paid through my nose to eat it at restaurants, I decided it was high time to try making it myself. 

Being the mistrustful person that I am, I compiled around 4 or 5 credible looking recipes and put them together to my own preference. All of them stated the need for fresh fish bones for stock, so I asked the fishmonger to give me any carcasses he had on hand. He only had this ugly bream, and since it was free, I went for it. Ugh. 

I bought heaps of other seafood though, so I think the free fish carcass was well deserved.

I first boiled all the shellfish in white wine, separately so they wouldn't overcook. 

And I marinated some t-bone steaks on the side as well, with fish sauce and pepper (there's a science to the fish sauce!) 

I was starting to get a bit worried after the wine+seafood juices turned cloudy. 

In the meantime, this was what happened to the fish carcass after being boiled. I know the head is the most important part when it comes to stock, but I really couldn't bear looking at the fish head, and I wasn't confident that it wouldn't be too fishy. So I chopped the head off. 

In the meantime, I set all the boiled seafood aside. 

Throwing in bay leaves, an onion, peppercorns and celery into the fish stock 

I chopped up one fennel and put it aside

All the recipes state the need for a roux, made by mixing roasted red peppers with breadcrumbs. So these went into the oven to roast. 

I fried the fennel with leek and garlic - all chopped, of course

Threw in a few pieces of orange peel, and some saffron threads

And instantly, like instantly, everything turned orange, so I decided to sprinkle some paprika too 

All the stock mixed up, with a bunch of parsely leaves thrown in

I cut up some rockling on the side, and since I had flake, I threw that in too. It was a huge mistake. Flake does not go with this recipe! 

The end result was gorgeous though. 

So were the t-bone steaks, done to medium perfection by the husband. They cost $10 for 2 steaks! Amazing value. Would have loved to grill them over fire instead of pan frying them though.

I was too tired to bother with the roux, so we just ate the peppers as they were

Another peek at the pot - this was really gorgeous and I was impressed with myself (!!) but I don't think I would ever cook it again. It took so much time and effort to clean all the seafood, and the worry of overcooking the seafood also added some stress. I spent around $60 at the market buying all the seafood, so with labour included, I can fully understand how a small bowl can cost $30+ at a restaurant.