Mini Liew: Ken Cook Christmas Eve Dinner

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Ken Cook Christmas Eve Dinner

Date: Dec 24, 2011

Today is Christmas Eve. Let Chef Ken cooks a Christmas Eve big meal today.

Today's menu is two type of Ribeye steaks, with Mash Potato (made from real potatoes, not powder), Tomato Spaggetti, Clam Chowder & Musroom Soup (ok, this one from packet bought from Cold Storage).

Today I also want to share with you how to cook a good mashed potatoes.

Mashed Potatoes

You will need:

1. 4 large US Potatoes (i.e. US Russet)

Peel the potatoes. Cut it into 3-4 pieces per potato. Wash it. You need to wash as much starch away as possible. We do not need the starch in our mashed potato.

Then, put the potatoes into a pot with the cold water. Put the pot on the stove and heat it up. You should cook the potatoes starting with the cold water in the pot (not the other way, boiled the water and put your potato in).

Then, you pinched 2-3 pinch of salt into the pot. I actually ran out of salt, so, I use the sea salt flakes. Also can do.

When your pot start boiling, you see lots of scum (those white bubbles). So, you should use a spoon to filter it away.

One good trick is, you place your spoon in the middle of the pot, and start rotating it, the scum will slowly flow to the side, or the edge of the pot. It is easier to pick up the scum that way.

These scums are impurities, and starch. We don't want those.

So, how long you need to cook the potatoes? You can use a knife to test. If you poke the potatoe, and you can still fill the potato can stuck on to your knife, that means, it is not ready yet! If the potatoes very quickly start falling off when you poke it, that means, it is ready for next step.

So, you filter the potatoes using a restrainer. Do not rinse it with water or cold water. You want the potatoe to be remain hot.

Quickly put inside another pot. And then, if you have potato smasher, use that. IF not, you can use two big forks, like me, to smash the potato.

2. You can buy this butter from Shermay Cooking School @ opposite Holland Village. This is French butter, very nice.

When you are ready to smash your potato, then, you take the butter out from your fridge. Please be reminded, it is important to have COLD BUTTER. Cut the COLD butter into smaller pieces.

Add the cold butter into the potato. Remember, butter has to be cold. So that cold butter will not easily split. When it split, it will turn into oily butter, and it cannot blend into the potato. When the potato is hot / warm, add the cold butter, and whip it with the fork, your cold butter will blend with the warm potato.

Keep whipping the mashed potatoe. Add Cold Butter some more, whip it.

3. Then, you need this cream. I also buy it from Shermay Cooking School. Very useful. You turn on your stove to SMALL FIRE. And then, put the pot (mashed potatoes) on to the stove, add the cold cream, and continue whipping it on the stove with slow fire.

You continue to whip the mashed potatoe, with cream, with cold butter until it becomes silky silky texture. And you have just made a very nice silky mashed potatoes.

Sea Salt & Black Pepper Steak

1. Buy a good steak. Wagyu is nice, but it is too expensive and too fatty!

So, this time, I went to Huber's Buchery and buy this.

Australia Angus Beef Ribeye with 200+ days Grain Fed. It is a wet aged (packed in vacuum and aged for usually 60-90 days). This is 3 peices, and it is very cheap. Don't buy it from Cold Storage, it is expensive and not aged. Aged beef will give lots of juice, and the beef is very tender and nice!

So, next, what you do is to heat up your steak pan. Once the steak pan is hot, pour some Olive oil onto the pan, use a kitchen paper to spread the olive oil. This one is with Ail and Thym, and it is not oily. Very nice Olive oil which you can buy it from Tanglin Mall 2nd floor @ Little Provence. They always at the Farmer's market.

OK. When the oil is hot on the steak pan. Turn the fire to slow fire.

Then, you take out your beef rom the chiller. Take note, from the chiller. NOT THE FREEZER. You should always put your beef at the chiller. It is cold termperature but not that cold to be frozen. Don't let your beef becomes soften outside too long, as the water or juice will easily come out.

Then, pinched some salt and black pepper on both side, and then, place the steak onto the steak pan.

The reason why you cannot let the salt to stay too long on your steak is the longer the salt is there, it will react with the surrounding and the water inside the steak will come out. You don't want that.

Don't forget to use your fork to check the meat tenderness. So, the basic idea is put vertical for 1.5min - 2min (depend on how thick is your steak, mind is aobut 210g+), then, turn horizontal for 1.5min to 2min. You can start seeing half of your steak that touch the steak pan is slowly cooked. Then, you turn the steak around for 1.5min to 2min in horizontal position, and then, move it to vertical for 1.5min to 2min.

So, with good beef and a constant check on the rawness of the beef, you will not go wrong.

Don't forget to wrap the steak with a aluminium foil. And the wrap it with a cloth to keep the temperature. this is called RESTING the steak. So, you cook for 6-8min for the steak, then, you let it rest inside the wrapping for 6-8 min. Later you will uncover a very nice steak, which is very juicy, and the meat inside is pink in color. This is very good steak!

Brussels Sprouts

1. Buy this from Huber's too.

OK. Boil a small pot of water. Put in olive oil. Pinch some sea salt in it. Throw the Brussel's sprouts into the pot.

Cook for 8-10 minutes. Done!

So, when you serve the food, you use a big plate, and scoop the mashed potatoes and cut the Brusells and Sprouts into half. Kenliew's Ribeye Steak.

I also cooked the second piece of steak marinated using Red Yeast Soya thick sauce. Just to experiment and try out the difference between the two steak with the same cut. The steak turned out to be nice too. But it is Chinese flavored. Means, you marinated the meat so that the whole meat taste like what you like it to be. As for the Ang-Moh way of eating, it is eating the raw and juicy meat that is counted as top premium meat.

Tomato Spaggetti

1. Red onions. My advise is to buy a ceramic knife to do the dicing job. Less eye tears.

Dice it.

2. I used the cherry tomatoes.

I also used those riped on vine tomatoes too. The called it Truss Tomatoes.

Very nice tomatoes.

Dice it.

3. Oh, I still got this mixed veggies.

Cooking is creative. You use whatever you can find in your fidge.

4. I found some minced chicken too. Marinated it with sea salt, soya sauce, black pepper.

5. I bought this from Huber's too. Very nice Angel Hair. The noodles is so soft. Heat up a pot of water. Put in olive oil and pinch 2 finger full of sea salt into the pot. Put the Angel Hair in when the pot is boiled. Cook for 3-5 min. Take out the noodle. remove all water.

OK. Let's start! Heat the wok. When wok is very hot, pour olive oil in. When oil is boiled, puot in the Onions. Stir fry it. Add the minced chicken. Stir fry it.

Add in the tomatoes. Stir fry it.

Add in tomatoes ketchup! Surprise! I didn't use the Spaggetti sauce.

Add the Anger Hair.

If you have a Spaghetti tongs to flip the Angel Hair until all noodles have tomatoes saunce on it. Remember to keep adding tomatoes, water, and sugar and salt to make it the taste you like.

Put some Brussels Sprouts beside it, it becomes very tasty spaghetti. The kids will love it.

I made 5 plates.

Nearly forgot, I have soup too.

Put packet soup into a pot of cold water. Slowly heat up the water and bring it to boil. Boston Clam Chowder is ready.

There we celebrate our Christmas Eve at home with simple food.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I open a Italian 2008 Masi - Brolo Campofiorin red wine. I cannot remember where I bought this. But this wine goes very well with our dinner. http://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=1164076 You do not need an expensive wine to go with your simple dinner. :) This wine is some what very concentrated. So, we have to let it breathe for a while. It has very dark red color, and the aroma is very nice, a bit oaky, with black fruit notes. This wine goes very well with the meat and the cheese we had.

Umppppph.... Nice fat.

We all agreed that it is a satisfying dinner. Later, my sister came and I happen to leave some meat for her and her daughter. And they love it too! I am so happy.