Indian Cuisine

Day 5 & 6 were about Indian cuisine. Went to Tekka market/Little India for marketing cum breakfast today. It was a very different experience as it was my 1st time having breakfast there. Much better than having Dosai in the coffeeshops anywhere else. I found myself quite lost when it comes to Indian cuisine cos I have no idea what to cook at all. Chose prawns from the market without knowing what to do, then Chef S showed me how to do in class and wala.....

Prawn masala

Basmati rice w carrot poriyal & chicken masala

Restaurant in Little India

Masala tea

Dosai

Idly

Beginning of term 4

yah, i didn't update for the last 3 mths. working split shift makes me lazy to upload my pix cos my only time at home is 12midnight to 845am. sighs.....

the past 3 mths was v v busy in RB, lacked of staffs, 1 for 1 lunch buffet, western wedding dinner. F1, Chaine de Rotissier, etc. I'm fortunate to be put in charge of the pasta station due to lack of staff, that i can plan my own buffet items, ordering etc.

it's the beginning of term 4 and we are doing asian herbs & spices & cooking techniques. did laksa from scratch on the 1st day, 4got to take pix :( braised duck and bak kut teh on the 2nd day, duck was good, bak kut teh was a little sweet. i did chicken rendang yday while my grp mates did tumeric rice and sambal tempeh. pounding the herbs from scratch was tiring, and dirty (gotta bleach my jacket to get rid of the spice paste). the blender was right in front of us but we weren't allowed to use it. D**n....

Today, we went to chinatown market for 'excursion'. we were given 10bucks each to cook up something anything for lunch. so we bought jia yu (those use for turtle soup) for braising, pig trotters for braising also but not tender enuff so we leave it for tmr. pork liver, kidney & loin for stir frying, bean sprouts with salted fish, stir fried pandan chicken, wolfberry leaves for soup & kang kong tempura (inspired by zhu chao lai le). incidentally we found out that chinese celery tempura taste better. so sad that i 4got to take pix for today :(

food created in Nutritions & Garde Manger class

ACP pix I

Chef R who doesn't wanna appear in my blog

opps, Chef R in the pix

food from the past 9 mths

It's been 9 months....

wow, 9 months... I didn't realise that (Thanks to Chef R for reminding). The last post was 1 week before the Advance Culinary Program started and now it's the beginning of the work rotation of term 3. I just had my term 3 exam today and tomorrow I'll be back to MMS. I guess I've alot to update, I've been too lazy to update coz the pix are difficult to add.

well well.... where should I begin? ok, ACP course started Nov '08 & after a month of classroom rotation, we were supposed to be posted to Hotel partners. but due to crisis, not many hotels were hiring, especially trainees. I was arranged to have an interview with CP hotel which was @ Changi airport. I almost fainted when I heard the news. CCK to Changi everyday, might as well kill me. I turned down the interview of cos. I got accepted by MMS as trainee & had since apprenticed in the Italian restaurant (RB) for 5 mths & room service kitchen for 1 mth. Tmr I'm going back to the RB again :( I don't dislike the job there, in fact I learned alot. I just hate the split shift hours. I spent more time in the hotel then home.

ACP was intense but fun. I really like the lectures and practicals. My classmates are fun tho sometimes pain in the S. We started with 14 pple but left with 12 now, 1 withdrawn and 1 deferred. I hope the number wil be the same till we graduate, which is end Oct 09. @ times I've doubts cos of income, time sacrificed & physical but I really want to see myself graduate. Not just graduate but with flying colors. I'll persevere!!!!!

Go meaty, dinner 21/10

Bought some beef sausages from Carrefour last Sunday (special offer!!). Took out the meat & added thyme & chopped onions. Rolled into balls with mozarella cheese filling. Sauce was made of tomato paste, water, red wine vinegar & sugar. Made pork version (below pix) specially for my mum & bro-in-law who don't take beef.
Marinated with dark soy sauce, honey, pepper & salt. Didn't marinate long enough for the taste to penetrate, 3hrs was definitely not enuff. I did once last week marinated overnight & it tasted v good. Tonight was a little blend.

Wii wiiiiiii

Bot wii & wii fit last week. Had been thinking abt getting one since i was in china. why buy now?? cos with wii fit i can have some fun exercising at home, otherwise i'll surely become one fat chef someday, like many friends are trying to warn me of. Hopefully with wii i won't get too lazy... all the best to me :D

Here comes the food....

Lemon Passionfruit curd - I followed the recipe from straits time. Abit too sour but the taste isn't bad.
Tarts made with the lemon curd, mum did the crust. not bad for a start but many commented to sour lol.. will improvise.
1 fine day my mum decided to make sushi so by default I have to help. Brought her to NTUC finest in Bukit Timah Plaza cos CCK NTUC sucks. My mum ended up only cooking the rice & cutting the seaweed, I did the rest. Hmmm... I don't know how to roll properly yet, & the gunkan sizes were all different =( but taste was alright.
My 1st cake - Started with simple fruit cake 1st. I insisted to bake the sponge cake myself instead of mum helping cos I wanted it to be SOLELY my 1ST, lol.... It wasn't as easy as I imagined. I rarely try making pastry, I should start practicing now. Again, not bad for a start, sponge cake was nice & soft, fresh cream almost failed as I overwhipped the 1st round. My classmates liked it :) whereas my bro commented the cake being too um.... 'loose'.

The gift for my hard work

I was voted by my classmates for 'best kitchen staff' & awarded with this recipe book written by our CEO, Chef Megel. I'm thankful to my classmates for their support.

Buffet training


Forbes event


Formula 1

Long time no blog

wooowww... it has been 2 months since I last blogged. Just completed this F&B term 2 weeks ago. Too lazy to edit the photos which is why it took me so long to update :p

Past 2 mths was v busy for school. 1st we had our class tests for F&B, then we had our mock up 1 & mock up 2 for restaurant training (RT), right after was our actual RT with 'guests' from office, chef instuctors who gave us evaluation on our service, restaurant design, etc. After RTs came the end of term written & practical exams. In between all these, we were involved in Forbes event (rich men gala dinner), Formula 1 nite race (i was in the Honda box at the paddock =)) & lastly, buffet training.

RT was a very good training for my creativity, perseverance & of cos service. I'm not a very creative person, but I drained my brain trying to 'create' a nice restaurant. Everybody elses had a theme but I couldn't think of any. Worst or all I fell sick during the actual RT due to late nites designing the menu & over stressed. So I just did a restaurant called Muxe (Muse), meaning source of inspiration. Overall creativity wasn't fantastic but I'm glad that it suits the fine dining feel that I was trying to create. We all played different roles in one another's RT: Restaurant manager (design restaurant theme), servers (as captain), bartenders (create a mocktail), executive chefs & stewards.

School II

Table setting in a team

Menu for a lunch event

Nice table setting

Western kitchen

Having fun in the kitchen

Dinner 28th July

Hmmm, another week has past. School was great last week cos lotsa cooking & cutting, including cutting myself LOL... Today onwards will be fully F&B training & little bit of OJT in kitchen.

Ok, dinner tonite was Sausage patty sandwich with yellow zucchini. I minced the meat of sausage, mixed with sauteed shallots & garlic, dried mixed herbs, egg & flour to mold into patty. This picture is abit colorless.... I dun hv lettuce at home :(

School

ok.. today I have time to write, no morning quiz tmr (yippee!)

Alright, let me recap 1st day: Woke up 0545 but not as fresh as last "1st day" haha... 1st day and the 1st half of 2nd day was orientation. I felt nervous as I haven't been to school for a long time. We had a v heart warming welcoming session whereby the CEO Chef M, all the faculty Chefs and main office staffs stand in a line and introduced themselves. After which is the school policies, introduction of each dept etc... a bit boring at the end. Lunch was good. I like the way we have lunch at school. Lunching at the patio in the park, the staffs & chefs will mingle around the students and chat with them. Everyday will be a different duty chef (when they are not teaching) so we can have a taste of the chef's specialties. We have chefs from Indian, Malaysia, Thailand, China, Switzerland, French and of cos S'pore. All nice pple....

2nd day we had a spice garden tour at fort canning park. I never knew S'pore has such a garden. It was fun...then fun was over cos 1st lesson began in the afternoon...Chef M sat beside me with some others during lunch (to mingle), made me so nervous. Nvr had a CEO sitting beside me b4 LOL.....

We have quizzes everyday, today's the 3rd lesson and we already had 4 quizzes. Some graded and some not. Quizzes are not difficult but it has been a long time since I last studied so I'm kinda stress and I wanna do well. Today is the only day I don't have to study for quiz & we were released earlier today. I dun think I'll have such luxury too often especially when practical classes start.

Below is the knives set bought from school, it cost me $535. I've worked 3 weeks temp, earned $746 but paid $535 for knives, $52 for textbook, $171.2 for chef jackets, $21.4 for aprons. I hope there's nothing more to pay, no more temp job to cover :(

All in all, school is fun tho tiring, I'm enjoying it much more than working. Hopefully I can get more pictures to post, esp on the practical.

updates

School started 3 days ago but I haven't got time to sit down and write abt it. everyday is tiring but fun. will talk abt it later... off i go to study for the quiz tmr.......

Dinner 19th June

Diced Beef:

Cooked w butter, seasoned w salt & pepper.

Garlic: sliced and toast or deep fried.

Beer Batter Stuffed Chicken:

Minced prawn seasoned w rosemary, paprika, salt & pepper

Debone chicken wing & stuff with prawn mixture

Beer batter: Beer, plain flour, salt & dried herbs

Cover stuffed wings w batter & deep fry till golden brown

En route to school

Took some pictures yesterday for the '1st day of school'. Was contemplating whether to put up the pix since it wasn't it anymore. But then again, the feeling was there, and i dun think i can take pix again on the next 1st day, so I decided to post them. VOILA.....

wide awake at 6am

last look b4 leaving the house. black n white... can't rem when was the last time I wore like dat

Overhead bridge to the bus stop

190 bus stop. I'm glad to be staying in CCK for once.... just for bus 190 cos it's just 35mins to town.

Crossing the road to Park Mall

Taking the lift to the 4th level

Gotta walk thru this carpark (boring..)

Finally the beginning of more interesting route

From here onwards, I can smell some funny odour. I think it's from the trees around but I didn't smell it when I was here in the afternoon.

4 flights of stairs.... where the panting begins....

I was breathing heavily when I reach the top. Age is really catching up...

Nice trees leading to Fort Canning Centre

Um..... FCC :p

School's main office, classes & kitchens on the left & right

kitchens on the right, ground level. Will be sitting around there for lunches in future.

View to the spice garden

Beautiful sky.... it's a nice place for school :)

After all the walking & photo taking, I was still early..... well, I was 1 mth earlier haha...

What a day!!

Today is the 1st day of school, or rather was supposed. I've waited so long for this day but only got to know this morning that the class has been postponed to 14th July. I was mad.... not because of the class being postponed, but because of the poor administrating. The number of students is easily less than 20, how could they forgot to inform me? I was so excited about this 1st day of school thingy that I woke up a few times before the alarm rang at 5:45am, and I woke up wide awake, which is very rare. I reached the school so early that I have amber time to do some exercises in the park. Well I'm not so angry now cos there's nothing I can do abt it. Sigh... I dunno if I will have the same excitment abt the 1st day next month... it won't be the same I guess.

Now I've to worry abt what to do for another month. I've been idling for 1.5 months and I'm getting bored. It's good to have a break but this is too long since I've already had 1 mth break in CZ. Today clocks 2.5 months without a job... I've broken my record, my last record was only 2 weeks. tsk tsk tsk... I'm getting too lazy....

Dinner for family 27th May

Cooking dinner for my family is a big chore bcos my sis doesn't eat pork, my parents, BIL & future SIL don't eat beef, & my bro doesn't like fish. The best thing to cook is chicken but I wanna do something else this time. So I decided to cook pork for my bro & BIL, fish for my mum & future SIL & beef for myself & sis :p Working in kitchen is definitely not easy...

some pix...

some gifts for my frens in Changzhou

Using my idling time I've made some gifts for my friends in CZ, who are also leaving quite soon. Table soccer is for Sang & Phuong, poker table is for Andri. I miss those moments I had with this group of friends, we had so much fun together. So even I'm back to SG, I wanna make something memorable for them. It has been donkey years since I last made something for a gift. I hope I will have time & creativity to do more.....

Chocolate Orange Sticks

These chocolate sticks are quite easy to make and they are quite tasty, for those who like citrus.

2 large thick-skinned oranges
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
125g dark chocolate

1. cut orange peels into 1/4" strips
2. drop strips into boiling water, return to boil & strain, repeat 2 more times
3. combine water & sugar in pan & stir over heat until sugar is dissolved. do not boil
4. add strips, bring to boil, reduce heat & simmer uncovered until strips become tranlucent. stir from time to time while simmering
5. remove strips & leave on wire rack to dry overnight
6. melt chocolate over simmering water, add strips to coat evenly
7. shake off excess chocolate & place each piece on alu foil, stand at room temp until chocolate cools off. put strips into the fridge to set.

Breakfast today

Simple but healthy & nice :)

Crème brûlée

This creme brulee is my 2nd attempt. The 1st one didn't succeed bcos I just follow the oven timing from the recipe but it wasn't set at all. I use a diffferent recipe for the 2nd attempt. This time I checked, not just following the timing blindly. To me it turned out so-so, I think it's too creamy. I'll have to explore again to make a less creamy yet delicious one, cos my mum was complaining it's not suitable for folks with high blood. My mum even requested to try the 'original' one from restaurants so that she can compare. No wonder I wanna be a chef......

Dinner Party 10th May

I invited 3 May babies to my house for dinner. Along w my mum, my sis, bro-in-law, my sis's friend & me, it's a total of 8 pax. It was the 1st time I'm preparing a full course meal for more than 5 pax. I was quite stressed abt it & it was tiring....but I enjoyed it cos while doing all these, I learned something in the processes. I'm trying to keep track of the cost of the food too so as to aid me in menu planning.

Entrée
1)Tomato basil soup - tomatoes($3), basil($1), vege stock($4)
2)Bruschetta - baguette($1.3), pest0($3), toppings($0.6)
Main
1)Baked chicken w terragon - chicken($12), potatoes($1), tomatoes&onions($0.5), terragon&oregano($4), misc seasoning($1)
2)Salad (no pix) - avocados($3), olives($0.3), yellow plum tomatoes($4.10), honey tomatoes($2.5), walnuts($2.5), basil($2), mozzarella($1.5), dressing($0.3)
Dessert
1)Lemon sorbet - lemons($3.6), sugar($0.5)
Others
Pita bread ($4), Lychee martini ($9)

My impromptu dinner - Fried udon w basil shrimps

Wasn't planning to have dinner at home tonight but was so tired walking in the street 'measuring the road' so I came back home. My mum's fridge is always stocked with meat, fish, shrimp, etc..(yah I know it's not so fresh) so it's convenient, esp when I'm famished :)

Fried Udon

1 pkt of udon

1/4 red pepper

1/4 green pepper

1 tsp pesto

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp stock

salt & pepper to taste

Heat garlic w oil in pan, add peppers & stir fry for abt 1min, add udon & fry for 1min, add stock and simmer until liquid dries up. Add salt & pepper to taste.

Basil Shrimps

Shrimps

olive oil

salt & pepper

white wine

basil leaves

Season shrimps w salt & pepper. Heat oil in pan, add shrimps & basil leaves. Add white wine shortly after. Cook shrimps until it's just done.

Donuts with choco almond & lemon icing toppings

1st time my mum & I try making donuts. We used the pre-mix flour so it wasn't difficult. The shape is a little bit tough to control tho, the sizes are irregular, both of us were like chicken hands duck feet, haha.... but it'll be better I believe, when we try again :)

Stuffed chicken maryland

This is the 1st oven baked food I've ever tried... turned out quite alright :)

Welcome to my foodie blog

This is a blog which I've been wanting to create, to record the food that I've cooked and the process of my 27 mths long culinary course. hmmm.... also bits & pieces in life...