Rösti

What have you done over the weekends? For me, I've learnt to make Rösti! My first time eating Rösti was at Marche, Singapore.

Rösti is a Swiss dish, also known as the potato pancakes. It goes well with sausages, sour cream, ketchup sauce, chili sauce, and what ever toppings you would like to have it on your potatoes. Making this Rösti was as simple as it was shown in the Youtube videos, just that on my first attempt I missed out one very important step! WASH THE POTATOES AFTER SHREDDING!

I didn't shred my potatoes using the conventional method, I let the BOSCH Food Processor to do the job, it only took less than a minute to get my potatoes shredded. Since I was preparing earlier, I just kept these potatoes in the fridge. And holy, it turned pink?!?! I knew there was some oxidization taking place in the potatoes, so I didn't really bother about the color.

Melted my butter in the pan, and cooked the pink shredded potatoes, and the potatoes didn't brown, instead it turned black! EWWWW, the color was so aweful looking and it turned sticky after cooking them. It went right to the bin afterwards.

So, what's the correct way to maintain the nice yellow color looking of the potatoes? After shredding the potatoes, rinse them through the tap water, till the water runs clear. This is to remove the starch on the potatoes that cause them to turn pink. After rinsing, pat dry the potatoes so when you fry these potatoes, they will turned out crunchy, instead of serving a plate of soggy potatoes.

Chelle's Simple Rösti Recipe:
Serve: 1 person  Time: 20mins

Rösti with sour cream topping

Ingredients:
1. 2 potatoes, Shredded (I prefer using russet potaotes)
2. 1 knot of butter, melted in pan
3. Sour cream / Ketchup Sauce / Chili Sauce (Whatever toppings you would like)

Methods:
1. Peel and wash the potatoes, shred them and rinse till the water runs clear.
2. Melt butter in the saucepan and place shredded potatoes in the saucepan. (You may want to use a shallow saucepan, so that you could flip the Rösti more handy)
3. Fry till the potatoes are a little translucent and leave them o the saucepan to cook. Cook on low heat for 3mins till the base of the potatoes turned brown.
4. Use a plate, place on the potatoes and flip the saucepan over. (Please be careful because it can get really hot on the plate or the saucepan can be heavy for ladies, get a guy to help you with that if needed.)
5. Heat the other side of the potatoes for another 3mins.
6. Again, flip the Rösti on your serving plates, and top with your favourite toppings!
7. The most important step: ENJOY!

The video is by Celebrity Chef - Gordon Ramsay. Just want to show how you could flip the potatoes over if you do not understand what i'm trying to describe here in my post:

Chocolate Delice with Salted Caramel

Hi People,

Next i am going to post about the Chocolate Delice with Salted Caramel that i did last weekend for Mother's Day and also a farewell dessert for my parents as they are going China for a short getaway.

I didn't have the chance to snap shot my dessert as i was busy serving the salted caramel sauce because when it cooled down, it actually turns sticky which is hard for me to scoop them up onto my plate. By the time i've done that, they have started eating. And when everyone was commenting how good it taste, i couldn't help but to get it into my mouth, then i realised, PICTURES!! Too late.. Doesn't matter, cause there are always pictures floating around the internet.

Chocolate Delish with Salted Caramel
Picture adapted from Eamon Eats

Inside of the Chocolate Delice
Picture adapted from Eamon Eats

Well, for my dessert, i didn't go into the extra effort of doing the white chocolate on top and almonds around the ring of the dessert. Basically my white chocolate got burnt in the microwave, and the shop was out of stock for almonds flake. This look like a simple dessert, but OH NO, it really requires a lot of your time and patience. It took me 8 hours for it to be done and the mousse set, i have actually underestimated my timing.

Why this dessert, and why a lot of bakers online are making them? This is the dessert created by Eamon Sullivan, which also crowned him a celebrity Masterchef from Masterchef Australian 2009. This dessert is made with the assembling of crème brulee, a biscuit base, chocolate mousse and chocolate glaze, and tipped with a spoonful of salted caramel sauce. The salted caramel really do makes a difference in this dish. Hmmm.. But the process of making this the second time will make me pause for a second.

You could find the full and accurate recipe at Eamon Eats. It was said that the recipe uploaded on Masterchef website is missing on some details and steps which have caused failure in some areas.

For my dessert, i did not use any cake rings, because it is kind of expensive to buy them and keeping them can be quite space consume. So i used transparency sheets to cut them into my desired size, and i also used them to replace the cookie cutter mentioned in the recipe. It worked perfectly well!

I have made a printable version for this recipe so you can get handy at all times! Today it's a Friday, which makes tomorrow a Saturday! Probably you could make this over the weekends! T.G.I.F !!

  Chocolate Delice With Salted Caramel

Skinny Teatox

Been sometime since i last did my post!

This post will be a review on what I've been drinking for the past 2 months everyday and night. (Note: No products were being sponsored. Reviews are based on own experiences.)

Skinny Mint Teatox
Picture adapted from www.skinnymint.com

Well, these tea bags honestly, it don't cost cheap, estimated is SGD$60 for 28 days teatox. They have a unknown retailer in Singapore, received my parcel in 2 days after placing my orders online. Parcel came in 2 packets of 14 day teatox, which 14 + 14 makes it a 28days. YAA, MATHS. Cause initially i thought i was cheated because they have a packaging for 28 days, which i was expecting that package. MORON ME.

Back to topic, Each 14 day teatox bag consist of 14 bags of morning boost teabags and 7 bags of night cleanse. The morning boost taste like fruit tea, sweet smelling. The purpose is to boost your metabolism rate and consist a little caffeine, and this tea is advisable not to be consume after a certain timing as it might makes you stay awake for the night if you are a highly caffeine sensitive person like me. So i always take this tea in the morning with my breakfast.

The night cleanse is to cleanse the body and as mentioned by it's name, it's taken at night. Instead of taking this tea everyday, you are supposed to take this tea on alternate days. Mentioned on their leaflet tea can gives you diarrhoea after the bowel are cleanse, and usually this happen after 8 hours of drinking, depending on your body. Mine took half a day to get the bowel cleansed. I don't like the taste of the night cleanse tea bag, as it smelled funny and the taste of it sometimes leaves my mouth a bit minty and numb. Hmmm... Do anyone have this experience?

Overall, i think it is worth the buy. I know you don't have to buy Skinny Mint to make yourself skinny, we are saying the effectiveness of the product here. Whenever i eat something oily and sinful, drinking this tea somehow lessen my guilt towards the food i've eat, and also self-experience that this tea really does the job well by cleaning my bowels. AND, IT HELPS SOLVING MY BLOATED STOMACH EFFECTIVELY which happens whenever i skipped my meals due to work load.

I will be doing my next purchase again because it's totally the worth even the night tea tasted awful. :X

Food Blogging (2)

Another food review!

Yesterday was Uncle's Birthday and we decided to head down to Causeway Point Shopping Mall for Swensens.

As remembered, Swensens was up for their name for their Ice Creams. I had Swensens countless time, and this, i have to say, the quality have gone way way down our expectations.

I guess in this post, i have to put on nasty comments about the food.

Bread Bowl Mushroom Soup

This mushroom soup, look nice on the menu cover, and nice on the plate, but awful in your mouth. YUCKS. There is a funny taste to it, and i really can't describe what taste was it, it was like some sourish taste, AHH, its just a ewww.

Onion Rings

No comments to the onion rings. It just tasted like this.

Mozerella Cheese Sticks

I dont know what to say about this. The mozerella have absolutely no fragrance at all, and when you bite off, the mozerella was so rubbery and unbreakable that you could pull it across the table. WAIT, was that even edible?

Fries with Barbecue Sauce and Mayonaise

Used to be my all-time-favourite. The barbecue sauce was a great disappoinment.

Come down to our main courses:

Grilled Salmon Topped with Pesto Sauce
Served with Mashed Potatoes & Vegetables-of-the-Day

Grilled Fish Sambal
Served with Mashed Potatoes & Vegetables-of-the-Day

Spaghetti Aglio Olio

Lets talk about the Aglio Olio first - It was the nicest among all 3 dishes! Haha! Spaghetti was cooked to the perfect timing, and the aroma of the garlic oil is doing its job to flavour the spaghetti. Yums!

Next, Fish Sambal. The sambal was good, but not the fish. The fish was overly cooked, leaving the fish to be so dry. So don't get cheated by the caption of "Oh so good fish....".

Lastly, the salmon. BAD BAD BAD! How does a piece of unfresh salmon taste like? Try that. and the gravy was OMG! It looks like some expired gravy, where it was so watery and you could even see the oil floating above the sauce, and the texture was similar to what a vomit looks like. So in the end we asked for a tar tar sauce to replace that gruesome sauce right on our plate.

Topless Five!

At last our desserts are served. So the flavour we chose for our ice cream was: Macadamia, Supreme Durian, Chendol, Cookies & Cream and Hazelnut.

If you want to give it a try, i would recommend Hazelnnut and Durian. The drurian was good (I love durians!) so does the hazelnut. I am not a macadamia nut fan, but heard that it is not bad.

Never you would want to order Cookies & Cream, it just tasted very normal. Chendol is good, but its a little bit too sweet. Sso if you have a strong sweet tooth, it can be recommended, the taste of the gula melaka is quite strong in it too.

Rating:

Staff Friendliness: 1.5 / 5.0 (Poor staffs attentiveness, that you might just want to approach the counter yourself to place your orders. Oh! and remember to go with a good mood, the sulky face of the staffs wont pleasant your dining there.)

Food: 2.0 / 5.0 (Sorry not my choice of restaurant to visit unless for their ice cream)

Variety: 4.0 / 5.0 (Yes, there are quite a number of varieties. I didn't get to try all, so probably if you have ate any nice food, you can comment and let me know! >.<)

Ambience: 3.0 / 5.0 

Price: $$-$$$

Address:

1 Woodlands Square,

Level 2, #02-08/09

Causeway Point Shopping Mall (Woodlands MRT)

Tel: +65 894 2086 (No Reservations are allowed. First come first serve basis.)

Website: www.swensens.com.sg

I have visited the above outlet, and there are more outlets in Singapore. My reviews are based on Causeway Point Swensen's standard.

Food Blogging (1)

Hello People,

So today i'm gonna do a bit of food reviews based on my own personal experience. No incentives were given to blog on these places.

Spuds and Aprons:

Spuds and Aprons is a casual dining restaurant in The Jewel Box (soon to be named as Mountain of Happiness), located at Mount Faber Road, one of a tourist attraction place in Singapore. The scenery there can be breath taking at night.

This is my view from my seating. I am kinda lazy to walk around taking pictures like other tourist. I was mad hungry for not having my breakfast.

View from my seating. This is a view on my left.
On my right, you could actually see cable cars coming from Sentosa.

I reached there in noon time, and i started my orders with "Wicked Fries & Gravy". It is basically potato wedges with 6 types of cheese and brown gravy.

Wicked Fries & Gravy (Steakhouse Cut Spuds with 6 types of Cheese & Brown Sauce)

It was being served in a metal pan, a portion perfect for 3-4pax. The fries tasted normal to me, if you are looking for a new flavour for potatoes, this is not worth having. Advise: Eat it quick, once it turns cold, your cheese turns cold and becomes rubbery, which is disgusting like having some sort of cheesy-gum. 

Being served next was a Berries Smoothie. It is a blend mixture of mixed berries, yogurt and vanilla ice cream. Not much to my likings because the yogurt taste was too strong that i can't seem to taste the berries sourness in it. Okay~ i like the purple (yay..)

Berry Smoothie

Served up next was my main dish. Pan Fried Salmon coated in polenta.

Pan Fried Polenta Coated Salmon
(Norweigian Salmon Crusted with Polenta, Cooked to "Pinkfection"
and served with Arugula Salad & Citrus Salsa)

This can be recommended to Salmon lovers, the taste is good. And i found some potatoes given in this dish too, under the fish. I am not a fan of vegetables, especially Arugula (or the simple name Wild Rocket) is the first vegetable that will not be on my list, i dislike the bitter taste to it. But i guess all vegetables should taste as how it should taste. Forget about the vegetables.

Okay, this dish was supposed to be cooked till medium raw, with only the top being cooked. But i can't stand the taste of raw fishes, so i requested for my salmon to be perfectly well done. The salmon is fresh, with nice salty taste of the crust. The sourness of the citrus salad was a good combination to the pan fried salmon.

This dish will be on my bill on my next visit.

Lastly, DESSERTS. 

Chocolate Cake
(Not in the menu. Apparently nothing much attracted me to
the desserts on the menu. You will just have to go over to the counter and
order from there, you can add a scoop of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream as complement.)

The cake was moist, with rich flavour of the chocolate ganache. The mousse wasn't too sweet as well. 

Overall, this place is a good place for couples, families, workaholic and tourist who is looking for lunch choices (you could just take the cable car up). 

To tourist, you could even try local delicacies offered like Laksa, XO Fish Soup, Hokkien Noodle, Singapore Curry Noodle and etc (but only between 12pm-2.30pm). After your dining, you can take a stroll at the Mount Faber Park, it will be a memorable place for your camera to capture it down. 

Before that, you might want to take a look at their toilet (Awarded as Best Toilet in the World Toilet Category on the French International Website). Haha! I sanpshot with my handphone (pardon for the bad lighting and i dont know how my pictures turned green when it supposed to be on a bright sunny day)

Look! There's a little fountain in the middle of
the hand wash basin. Haha!

That's a fat me with my geek glasses and a bloated
stomach after my lunch. 

Fun Things you could try there!

Challenge their Mountain of Happiness, by finishing 16 scoops Ben & Jerry's ice cream (8 flavours) in 15mins, and you get to go into their Wall of Fame and get a free funky apron!

Rating:

Staff Friendliness: 4.0 / 5.0

Food: 3.5 / 5.0

Variety: 4.0 / 5.0

Ambience: 4.0 / 5.0

Price: $$$

Address:

109 Mount Faber Road,

Level 2,

Singapore 099203

Tel: +65 377 9688 (Call for Reservation to prevent disappointment for night diners.)

Valentine's Day 2014

Starting off my first post on Valentines' Day.

And my present for him is.. 

Tadah! A DIY Chocolate Raspberry Cake.

Trust me, eating a cake is really "a piece of cake". Making one is... tiring.This is my first time making layered cakes. Slept only for 2 hours making this cake to wait for different components to set in the fridge, and JESUS! the mousse was a great failure, so runny that my raspberry confiture started to run off with the mousse.

And the heartpain story is - the raspberries cost me a bomb! $7.50/pkt, which i bought 4 packets, for the decoration and fillings.

THIS! was what i am expecting.. ):

Even though the outcome wasn't as what i've expected, but what makes me happy is still the compliments i am receving from him even though i know the cake tasted "eww?". 

One thing i have gained from this experience, is that i found the perfect way to make a dark chocolate ganache that is so tasty, and it actually makes my cakes taste a little bit better.

I've tried certain chocolate glaze recipes, either it is too runny that my glaze starting to run off my cake and im left with a soggy piece of cake or it turns out to be hard that like i have topped my cake with chocolate chunks. And this glaze i found online is REALLY glazing. You could even see reflection from the cake.

And THIS is the perfect recipe for Chocolate Glaze that you wouldn't want to miss it (and it sure does goes into my little notebook):

Chocolate Glaze (Recipe Used and Adapted from: "Cafe Fernando":

Makes: 1 1/3 Cups

Ingredients:

1. 1/4 Cup Cold Water

2. 2 Tsp Powdered Gelatin

3. 2/3 Cup Caster Sugar

4. 1/3 Cup Water

5. 1 Tbsp + 1 Tsp Corn Syrup

6. 3/4 Cup + 2 Tbsp Cocoa Powder (I use Hershey Unsweeted Cocoa)

7. 1/3 Cup Heavy Cream (I used Millac Dairy Whipping Cream)

Methods:

1. Pour cold water in a small bowl and sprinkle gelatin over the top and give it a light stir. Cover with a cling wrap and set aside.

2. Heat up small saucepan in medium heat and whisk sugar and 1/3 cup water till sugar a completely dissolved. Remove from heat and use a wire whisk and stir in corn syrup followed by the cocoa powder till mixture is smooth and glossy. (Best result is to sift your cocoa powder to remove any lumps of chocolate which can be hard to whisk in the mixture.)

3. Return pan to heat in medium heat, stir in the heavy cream and bring it to boil. Remove from heat and allow the mixture to cool till 60C.

4. Stir in the softened gelatin mixture till completely dissolved.

5. Allow mixture to cool down to 27C before glazing the cake. (You will not want to destroy your cake with a piping hot glaze.)

Happy Valentines' Day People!