La Petite Vancouver

Revolver Coffee Gastown

2012-11-11T16:12:00.000-08:00

Taste Of Summer

2012-08-11T11:47:00.003-07:00

After my visit from Granville Island public market, I was really inspired to hold a small dinner gathering to celebrate summer. It's also the season in which more edible flowers and other fresh produces are available.

Le goût de l'été

Assorted summer vegetables salad

*Inspired by Restaurant André

Soupe du jour

Kaffir lime and osmanthus flower soup with grilled pearl onions, carrots, microgreens and mushrooms

*Inspired by Restaurant André

Bijoux d'été

Chef Jean Georges's seared scallops with caramelized cauliflower and caper-raisin emulsion

Le jardin d'été

Chef Andre Chiang's potato confit with the braised mustard seed, parsley purée, lemon thyme, seared fish, chicken skin powder, quinoa, marigold

Bombe de fruits de la passion

Palate cleanser - passion fruit bomb

Déconstruit la forêt noire

Deconstructed black forest - Chocolate tree, chocolate soil, 66% dark chocolate chantilly, 41% milk chocolate chantilly, griottines, dill flower

Guu Garden Revisited

2012-04-23T20:16:00.000-07:00

My friend came over from Seattle this past weekend. We decided to grab a dinner at Guu Garden as he and my other friends never had dinner there before. Guu Garden becomes more well-known among local diners now (I said so because of its hidden rooftop location) compared to when it first opened two years ago. Their customer service and food selections have improved since my several past visits. I personally think it's part of the reason why Guu got gold medal for casual Japanese last year.

That night, "horse sashimi" was up on their daily special menu. We looked at each other and raised our eyebrows. As none of us were adventurous enough, we ended up not trying it. Apparently the table next to us had similar reaction as we did. Horse sashimi might be a common dish served in izakaya in Japan. However, it's not really common here in Vancouver.

We ordered mostly non-classic Guu dishes that night as we wanted to try out what Guu Garden's original dishes. Aside from specializing in oden, Guu Garden also serves many original fusion dishes. What I meant by original here is that it's different from the other Guus.

Bang Bang G Chicken - chicken breast, cucumber, jelly fish dressed with sesame dressing.

Their take on classic Sichuan's bang bang chicken dish. At Guu Garden, they use sesame dressing instead of spicy Sichuan dressing.

Deep Fried "Miso" Calamari
The miso sauce tasted almost like a BBQ sauce. Hence I felt like eating barbequed calamari which was good.

Deep Fried Cauliflower Karaage
I like how they made this "karaage" style instead of tempura style. It was not as crispy as we expected it to be. However, the combination of mayonaise and powdered chili worked well with the deep fried cauliflower.

Assorted Oden in haccho-miso based brorth
It was my first time tasting miso based oden broth. I found the broth a little sweet, but in a good way.

Miso Kakuni - haccho-miso stewed pork belly with half boiled egg
The pork belly was a let down of the night as it was not tender as it was supposed to be.

Tuna Melon - Diced tuna sashimi, melon and dashi jelly dressed with soy based sauce, topped with shaved frozen melon and cilantro.
This was by far the most refreshing dish of the night. I like the combination of frozen melon with tuna.

Hon Maguro / Blue Fin Tuna Sashimi
Best dish of the night, the blue fin tuna sashimi was very fresh.

Roasted Duck Breast with Seared Miso Mayonnaise
Our second best dish of the night. The roasted duck breast was really tender and the seared miso mayonnaise dressing elevated this dish to another level.

Mixed Nuts & Beans salad with Black Sesame & Spicy Miso Dressing
I really like the black sesame dressing on this dish. However, I wish they could put more of the black sesame dressing on the plate.

Unagi Nuku-Sushi - Steamed Sushi in a traditional steamer topped with BBQ eel and sliced omelet, served with dried seaweed and pepper.
The unagi was cooked perfectly. We didn't expect this dish to come in a bamboo tray.

Taiyaki "Macaron" with Red Bean Fillings and Vanilla Ice Cream
The macaron's texture was kinda chewy - it has little resemblance to mochi.

Poached Egg with Almond Bread Crunch And Sherry Caramel

2012-04-22T12:59:00.000-07:00

Like some of my fellow food bloggers, I also like to collect cookbooks. Some of the cookbooks that I collected are out of my cooking skills and are only meant to be prepared in a professional kitchen.
However, there's always a few recipes that are doable in a home kitchen. The poached egg with almond bread crunch and sherry caramel recipe by an Australian Chef: Brent Savage really caught my attention when I flipped through his book. Aside from being doable at home, I actually enjoyed eating this dish as well. The runny yolk from the poached egg just blended well with the crunchy almond bread. The sherry caramel added a little sweetness to the dish and I particularly like the aromatic orange oil that was drizzled over the dish.

Recipe adapted from Bentley contemporary cuisine by Brent Savage

Serves: 3

Almond Bread Crunch
* 1 x 1 cm ( 3/4 inch ) thick sourdough bread slices
* 25g (1/3 cup) blanched almonds, toasted
* sea salt flakes

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 160°C(315°F) and bake the bread for 8 minutes or until completely dry and crisp.
2. Allow the bread to cool and very thinly slice lengthways with a sharp knife - the bread should shatter into small pieces.
3. Thinly slice the toasted almonds lengthways. Combine with the breadcrumbs and season with salt.
4. This can be made one day in advance and stored in an airtight container.

Sherry Caramel
* 15ml honey
* 15ml sherry vinegar

Method:
1. Place the honey and sherry vinegar in a small saucepan and bring to boil.
2. Reduce the heat to medium and continue to cook for 8-10 minutes or until the mixture reaches 110-112°C(230-234°F) and is a caramel. Set aside.
3. This can be made one day in advance and stored in an airtight container.

Orange Oil
* 1 orange
* 15ml olive oil

Method:
1. Finely grate the zest of the orange into a bowl.
2. Pour in the olive oil into the bowl and mix.
3. Transfer the olive oil and the zest in an airtight container and leave it in a warm place for an hour to infuse.
4. Strain through a fine sieve, pressing as much oil out of the zest as possible.
5. Discard the zest and set the orange oil aside.

Poached Egg
I am using Heston Blumenthal's recipe for the poached egg as I found it easier to make at home compared to Brent Savage's recipe as it requires shorter amount of cooking time ( 4-5 minutes instead of 1.5 hours).

Recipe adapted from Channel 4

* 3 eggs

Method:
1. Fill a saucepan with approximately 15-20cm of water then add the salt. Place a plate upside down in the bottom of the pan then place the pan over a medium heat and bring the water up to 80ºC(176ºF)
2. One at a time, crack each egg into a ramekin dish and pour it into a slotted spoon with small holes. Allow to drain any residual white for approximately 1–2 minutes.
3. Lower the slotted spoon into the warm water and slide the spoon out. Allow to poach for 4-5 minutes.
4. Remove with the slotted spoon and place on kitchen paper to drain the excess water.

Presentation
1. Drizzle some sherry caramel in the base of the bowl.
2. Spoon the almond bread crunch on top.
3. Carefully place the egg on top and season with salt and pepper
4. Drizzle with the orange oil and garnish with the nasturtium leaves or chopped dill leaves.

Potato Confit with Braised Mustard Seeds

2012-03-03T22:36:00.003-08:00

I've been admiring Chef Andre Chiang's creations for a while although I've never been to his restaurant before. He was featured in Poh's kitchen show last year in September. In the show, he made a potato salad with mustard and dill. I've wanted to try making this dish for a while since I saw the show. It was not until yesterday when I found boomer potatoes in one of my local markets that I immediately thought of making this dish.

Preparing this dish might be a challenge for me as I never made a fine dining dish before. I've also modified the recipe to accommodate with the the availability of ingredients in my local markets. The end result was stunning. I really like the combination of potato confit with the braised mustard seed. The chicken skin powder, quinoa and bread crumbs added extra texture to the dish. All the ingredients on the plate complimented each other really well. Chef Andre is simply a genius.

Recipe adapted and modified from Poh's kitchen

Ingredients:
100g baked mackerel cut into bite sized pieces
( you could use any kind of fish here )

Potato Confit
400g boomer potatoes, washed
1 cup extra virgin olive oil, chilled
3 sprigs lemon thyme

Braised Yellow Mustard Seeds
2 tablespoons beef/veal demi-glace
¼ cup (75g) soaked yellow mustard seeds, soak dried mustard seeds in boiling water for an hour and drain

Chicken Skin ‘soil’
1 tablespoon toasted quinoa
2 tablespoons chicken skin powder*
1 tablespoon toasted breadcrumbs
1 teaspoon finely chopped chives

Parsley Puree
1 cup parsley leaves, washed and blanched
Pinch sea salt
1 ½ tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, more as needed
1 tablespoon water
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Method:
Potato Confit
Place potatoes in a medium saucepan of boiling water and cook for 10 minutes or until tender. Drain potatoes, place in a medium bowl and pour over the chilled olive oil, making sure the potatoes are submerged. Allow to stand for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight to allow the flavours to develop.
To serve, place the potatoes into a hot non-stick frying pan, over a medium heat, with the thyme. Cook until potatoes are golden.

Braised Yellow Mustard Seeds
Place beef/veal demi-glace in a small saucepan with the soaked mustard seeds over a low heat, stirring occasionally and season with pepper.

Chicken Skin ‘soil’
Place the quinoa, chicken skin powder, breadcrumbs and chives together in a small bowl, stirring to combine.

*To make chicken skin powder, simply place chicken skin on a roasting tray lined with baking paper. Place in a preheated oven at 200°C (180°C fan-forced) and cook for 15-20 minutes or until fat has rendered down and become crispy. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Place in a food processor and process to a fine powder.

Parsley Puree
Place parsley, salt, half the olive oil and water together in a food processor and process until smooth. Scrape down the sides and slowly add the remaining olive oil.
Add lemon juice to taste and adjust seasoning if required. Place in a small bowl, cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days.

Assemble
To assemble the salad, place pan-fried confit potatoes in a medium mixing bowl with the braised mustard seeds, mixing until well coated.
Spread a smear of parsley puree across each serving plate. Evenly divide the potatoes between the four serving plates, and then scatter over some crispy chicken skin ‘soil’ on each plate. Divide the baked mackerel between the four serving plates and finally scatter over some edible flowers before serving.

Dessert Degustation Series#2

2012-02-27T22:00:00.003-08:00

Le printemps
72% chocolate sponge, caramel sand, fleur de sel

This was a deconstructed version of one of my favorite chocolate bonbon flavors: caramel fleur de sel.

Le Jardin
Osmanthus ice cream, pistachio soil, chocolate soil, popcorn parfait, kalamansi sauce, passion fruit gelée, yuzu gelée, assorted edible flowers

The garden was inspired by chef Janice Wong. This was my take on my own version of fantasy garden. I was lucky enough to be able to find several kinds of edible flowers over the past weekend.
Otherwise, I won't be able to make this dish. I had Osmanthus jelly for the first time from my HK trip last year and I instantly became a big fan of it. It's the reason why I came up with the idea of making an ice cream out of it and made it the main component of my garden.

Kuro Goma 3+
Black sesame fluid gel, black sesame moss, black sesame cheesecake, black sesame powder

I've made this dish dish before ( you can read the post here ). One of my diners specifically requested it to be part of the courses and I was glad he enjoyed it.

Deconstructed Ambroisie
Chocolate coral, pistachio sponge, raspberry paper, pistachio mousse, chocolate sponge

If you are following my blog, you would've known that I've made Hidemi's Ambroisie for many times. This time around I tried to make a deconstructed plated dessert version of it and turned each components into a slightly different form / texture.

l'Automne
Chocolate tree, chocolate soil, 72% chili chocolate rock, muscovado pearls, pistachio streusel, almond streusel powder

The Autumn was inspired by chef Albert Adria's forest. I really admired how he tried to make it close enough to the real forest. His version had way more components compared to mine.
I was glad I manage to pull it off. I'd fun experience while making this dish especially experimenting with different kinds of components and textures.

Dessert Degustation

2012-02-18T20:40:00.001-08:00

I hosted my first ever dessert degustation yesterday to celebrate my friend's birthday. I normally will bake a cake for my friend but this year I want to make it a little different.

1st course : Suika Bakudan [ watermelon bomb ] - palate cleanser

2nd course : The Colour Purple

*Blueberry parfait, blackcurrant fluid gel, blackberry

3rd course: Guanaja H2O + Popcorn Parfait

*70% dark chocolate coral, caramel, popcorn parfait, dill

4th course: Kalamansi Sorbet - palate cleanser

*Homemade kalamansi ( Philippine lime ) sorbet

5th course: Enchanted Forest

*Chocolate trees, chocolate soil, pliable chocolate ganache, blueberry parfait, rose meringue kisses,

popcorn parfait, chocolate sponge, matcha sponge, popcorn powder, cherries and blackberries

Happy Lunar New Year 2012

2012-01-23T09:39:00.000-08:00

One of my best friends just came back to Vancouver recently after he finished his studies in the States. I've made a birthday cake for him this past weekend, a milk chocolate and passion fruit mousse cake. As my friend prefer less sweet desserts, I've reduced the sweetness of the milk chocolate mousse and highlighted the passionfruit more while trying to maintain the flavour balance. I was glad that end result was not too sweet for him and he really enjoyed the cake. The flavour combination was inspired by Pierre Herme's macaron mogador while the chocolate decor was inspired by Pierre Marcolini.

Components:
mousse au chocolate au lait
mousse aux fruits de la passion
biscuit joconde au chocolat

For all my fellow bloggers and readers who are celebrating Chinese New Year, I wish you all Happy Lunar New Year ~ 龍年快樂！

Bûche de Noël 2011

2011-12-22T10:08:00.001-08:00

This's the Bûche de Noël I made this year for a Christmas party at my godbrother's place.
I simply turned Hidemi Sugino's Ambroisie into a Bûche. It's much more polished compared to the yule log that I made last year.

My godbrother have a giant thread ball at his place and I was really inspired when I first saw it. Hence, I came up with the idea of making a chocolate thread ball as part the cake decoration.

The cake components ( from top to bottom ):
Chocolate glaze
66% dark chocolate mousse
Pistachio mousse
Pistachio sponge
Raspberry jam
Chocolate sponge

You can find the recipe here

I wish you all a Merry Christmas! Je vous souhaite à tous un Joyeux Noël!

L'Abattoir Revisited

2011-10-29T22:44:00.000-07:00

I first visited L'Abattoir in May 2011. My dining partner and I left on cloud nine. Having had that wonderful dining experience, I decided to celebrate my birthday at L'Abattoir this year. The menu has been redesigned to showcase Fall specialties. You could, however, still find some favorite dishes from the Summer menu such as the dungeness crab and cheakpea toast, the confit of albacore tuna, and the Steak Diane. One particular dish that really stuck in my mind from the Summer menu was the soy glazed duck breast. Unfortunately, they didn't carry that dish forward to the Fall menu.

The breadbasket at L'Abattoir never failed to impress me and my friends. They came fresh and warm from the kitchen. The breadbasket was filled with the anchovy cheese twist, the lightly spiced flat bread and the buttery bacon brioche. Although the breadbasket was complimentary, all of the breads in the breadbasket were perfectly made. It was my friends' first visit to L'Abattoir and the breadbasket alone convinced my friends that L'Abattoir is no ordinary restaurant.

For the appetizers, we ordered the poached egg with black truffle, the marinated North Arm farm beetroot salad, the pan fried veal sweetbread on toast and the Steelhead served with crunchy potato salad.

The poached egg totally got me at my first bite. The combination of poached egg, potato gnocchi, pecorino, fried shallots and black truffle was totally brilliant, they simply melted in my mouth. I should say this was the best poached egg I've ever had.

Beetroot is not my favorite vegetable to begin with as I am not a fan of its earthy flavor. The marinated beetroot dish, however, made me change my mind about this vegetable. The taleggio custard really balanced out the earthy flavor from the beetroot. This was simply my favorite beetroot salad.

The pan fried veal sweetbread was another lovely appetizer. Some of my friends love it while the others and myself found the sauce gribiche a little too sweet.

The last appetizer on the table was the warm steelhead and crunchy potato salad. My friend enjoyed the steelhead with the horseradish sauce and she loved the aromatic flavor of the dill. The downside of this dish was the crunchy potato salad as she found it lacked it flavor.

For the main course we ordered the Steak Diane, the loin of rabbit stuffed with its leg, the scallops and oxtail dumplings, and the pork shoulder cooked in milk.

The Steak Diane was served with potato fondant, charred onions, bone marrow bon bon and garnished with peppercorn. This dish, unfortunately, failed to impress me. It was not a bad dish at all as all the components were cooked properly. I just personally found there were a little too many peppercorns for my liking.

One of my friends ordered the rabbit dish. The loin of rabbit stuffed with its leg was wrapped with bacon and underneath the dish was the cabbage puree. The rabbit dish was then topped with figs and radishes. The rabbit dish was wonderful, the meat was tender and nicely seasoned. All I can hear from my friend was "mmmm~"

My other friend really enjoyed her scallop dish. The oxtail dumplings were wrapped into a cylindrical form. They looked more like an egg roll to me. The scallops were exquisitely seared and together with oxtail dumplings, the Asian pear, the beech mushroom and the hidden bok choy they made a nice combination of texture and flavor. The spiced jus that was poured all over the dish was apparently one of the main stars. My friend couldn't stop telling me how good the spiced jus was.

Although it looked simple in presentation, the pork shoulder was incredibly tender. My gosh, it was just so good.
I was totally surprised and impressed at the same time. The pork shoulder dish easily become my second favorite entrée at L'Abattoir after the soy glazed duck breast.

They totally changed the dessert menu for the Fall season. The Earl Grey Pot de Creme and the Nanaimo bar were our choice of dessert for the night.

The Earl Grey Pot de Creme was a really light dessert. It consisted of three layers: the whipped milk sprinkled with cinnamon at the top, lemon shortbread in the middle and the earl grey cream at the bottom. When all the components were eaten together, you can taste the fluffiness of the whipped milk, the crunchiness of the lemon shortbread and the aromatic flavor of the earl grey. I loved it.

The Nanaimo bar was served with poached pear, chocolate tuile, spiced wine and pear sorbet. The Nanaimo bar itself was rich and creamy. The pear two ways were nicely prepared. I really enjoyed the pear sorbet - it was really refreshing. Although I like the presentation, I personally didn't get how all these components link to each other. I found that it's best to enjoy each component on its own.

The service that night was solid as usual and we left the dining room with a big smile on our faces.

Hawksworth

2011-10-23T17:14:00.000-07:00

Located inside the luxury Rosewood Hotel Georgia Vancouver, Hawksworth opened its door in June this year. My friend and I decided to celebrate our joined birthday at Hawksworth. The restaurant is divided into three sections: a bar section and two dining areas. Once you stepped into the dining area, you will instantly notice the focal point of the dining room: an enormous and dazzling oval chandelier. They also have a visually striking glass-enclosed wine room located between the dining room and the kitchen.

Aside from the elegant ambiance, Hawksworth offered both regular menu and a 5-course tasting menu ($75). Our server introduced us to the daily specials and she also told us that we could also order any dishes from the tasting menu individually.We ordered the seared qualicum bay scallops and the yellowfin tuna carpaccio for appetizer. The seared qualicum bay scallops came with kimchi cous cous which I found really interesting . I like the chef's take on Asian ingredients. Although the seared scallops had a nice combination of spice, acid, and texture, the overall taste was pretty subtle. I found that it was missing an extra punch in flavor.

For entrée, we had the Fraser Valley pork belly served with quinoa, ancho, peach and almonds and the grilled sturgeon served with manilla clam, sun choke and shellfish nage. The pork belly was cooked perfectly. Each components that came with this dish had a strong aromatic flavour which was lacked in my seared scallop dish. My friend did not enjoy his grilled sturgeon as he found it lack in flavor.

When it came to dessert, we both chose the same one which was the Valrhona milk chocolate mousse. Not many restaurants use the French Valrhona chocolate for chocolate dessert as it is expensive compared to regular Belgian chocolate. The milk chocolate mousse was served with chocolate crumbs, passion fruit mousse, passion fruit gelée, and passion fruit sorbet. The milk chocolate mousse was light and fluffy. Milk chocolate and passion fruit goes well with each other. The flavor combination reminded me of Pierre Herme's macaron mogador.

Despite the hit-and-miss food, the service was stellar. The overall dining experience was memorable, we could really feel relaxed that evening albeit dining in a stiff and formal environment.

La Mémoire

2011-10-10T18:20:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid I remembered having a mocha birthday cake from our local bakery. Although it's just a simple layered chocolate cake with mocha buttercream, the strong mocha flavor really stood out. The smell and flavor of the mocha really stuck in my mind.

Inspired by chef Janice Wong's memories of taste, I decided to remake this dessert to represent my childhood memory. The picture above was my interpretation of the adult palate - a deconstructed mocha cake.

The components are as follow:
1. Chocolate soil
2. Chocolate sponge
3. Mocha buttercream
4. Popcorn powder
5. Dark chocolate sphere
6. Dill & Violette's petal

Choco Caramel

2011-10-04T23:29:00.000-07:00

Sea salt caramel chocolate bar
70% dark chocolate + fleur de sel caramel

My first attempt on chocolate bar, more to come.

Fleur de sel Caramel ( serves 50 )
[recipe modified from Kristy Choo of Jin Patisserie]

250g sugar
250ml cream
38g glucose
1/2 vanilla bean
fleur de sel ( sea salt )

Method
1. Combine sugar and glucose and cook to caramel stage
2. At the same time boil the cream with vanilla bean in a separate pot
3. Pour in cream gradually into the caramel
4. Stir until thoroughly mixed
5. Continue to cook until it reach 112°C
6. Transfer the mixture onto silpat and let it set and cool
7. Once cooled, sprinkle with fleur de sel

Kuro Goma 3+

2011-10-02T02:49:00.000-07:00

Kuro Goma is the Japanese for black sesame and the 3+ implies my three ways of presenting the black sesame dessert.

The inspiration behind this dessert came across when I was browsing through an interior magazine two weeks ago. Inside the magazine there was one apartment's interior that really caught my attention. This apartment was dominated by monochrome walls and furnishings. The wall and floor were all white while the furniture are bold black. There were only a few color introduction in the apartment which for me really stood out in the black and white environment. I was really inspired by the concept and hence I came up with this dessert.

The main character for this dessert is the black sesame. Aside from being one of my favorites dessert flavor, I wanted to try different types of dessert that you can make with black sesame.

The components on the plate:
Black sesame fluid gel
White chocolate moss
Black sesame cheesecake
White chocolate plaquette
Black sesame moss
Super soft black sesame sponge
Blackberries

Strawberry Love Affair 1.0

2011-09-25T00:58:00.000-07:00

My third creation: Strawberry love affair 1.0. This one was inspired by chef Janice Wong's shades of red. Mine was a much simpler version with less components.

On the plate: strawberry parfaits, raspberry-red currant fluid gel, chocolate decors and red currants.

Guanaja H20 & Tropical

2011-09-19T20:35:00.000-07:00

I have been a fan of molecular gastronomy for a while. It was when I first discovered Alinea's cookbook few years ago that I got hooked instantly to the gastronomic world. I never thought food could be interpreted this way, totally out of this world.

This past week I did my research on molecular gastronomy especially in dessert making technique. I came across Singaporean pastry chef Janice Wong of 2am dessertbar. I saw her works before from Lennardy's blog and was totally amazed. Her works were truly inspirational. My Guanaja H20 was inspired by her Araguani H20. Guanaja H20 was an aerated 70% Valrhona dark chocolate formed into a shape resembling a coral. The dark chocolate was only mixed with Evian water, so there was no heavy cream, eggs, nor sugar in it - it was pure chocolate. One will feel less guilty enjoying this dessert. You might have questioned how can chocolate be mixed with water as water is the enemy of chocolate. Apparently a French chemist Dr. Herve invented this. You can find Heston Blumenthal's video explaining how this works.

I added a few drops of caramel fleur de sel to go with the chocolate coral. Although I like 70% dark chocolate, I prefer to have a little sweetness in my dessert. The sweet and salty addition from the caramel fleur de sel mixed really well with the aerated dark chocolate.

Here's a close up shot of the Guanaja H2O

My second dessert I called it Tropical. It might look a little busy in term of presentation but I like the combination of texture and flavor.

In the middle was the pliable chocolate ganache. Big props to chef Alex Stupak who invented this while he was at Alinea. I used a milk chocolate instead of dark chocolate as milk chocolate was better off with passionfruit. The pliable chocolate ganache was by far the best chocolate ganache I had ever tasted. Next in the plate was the super soft matcha sponge. This was my interpretation of El Bulli's super soft black sesame sponge. The rest of the components in the plate were: two passionfruit couilis curls, passionfruit sorbet, raspberry, white chocolate dome and popcorn powder. I added popcorn powder to add a slight saltiness to this dessert.

Poached Pear in Osmanthus Wine

2011-09-10T15:21:00.000-07:00

This was my rendition of Chef Jacky Yu's 桂花陳酒燴啤梨 ( Poached Pear in Osmanthus Wine ).
I had this dessert during my recent visit to Xi Yan Sweets in HK. I really enjoyed the poached pear dessert. The one that I had was served with lychee ice cream and dried orange slice. The combination of the poached pear, dried orange slice and lychee ice cream was sublime.

I got myself a small pack of dried osmanthus flower when I was in HK. However, I didn't get Osmanthus wine back with me as I thought I could find it in Vancouver. Little did I know, when I was searching for it, how difficult it was to find one in Vancouver. I nearly gave up on remaking this dessert. It was not until my fifth attempt that I finally found it.

For my version, I did put a little twist on it. Mine was poached pear served with Osmanthus wine reduction, mango sauce, and black sesame sorbet.

Recipe modified from Jacky Yu - Food- Life - Attitude

Ingredients
3 pears ( European variety )
1/2 bottle of ages osmanthus wine
50g sugar
250ml water
skin of 1 lime
skin of 1/2 orange
1 small piece cinnamon stick
Osmanthus flowers ( optional )

Method
1. Peel the pears. Put the rest of the ingredients into a pot and bring to boil.
2. Once boiled, put in the pears and cover the pot with lid. Cook over low heat for 20-25 minutes until the pears are tender.
3. Turn off the heat and leave them to cool
4. Transfer the pears and the poaching liquid into a container and refrigerate for 24 hours.
5. Pour about 200 ml of osmanthus wine into the pot and add about 2-3 Tbsp of sugar and heat it up and reduce until the sugar melted and wine thicken. ( The amount of the osmanthus wine and sugar depends on how many servings of osmanthus wine reduction that you want to make, please adjust accordingly )
6. Garnish the plate with the osmanthus wine reduction.
7. Transfer the pear onto the plate. Strain the poaching liquid and pour over the pears. Garnish the pear with some dried osmanthus flowers.
8. Add some mango puree, some fresh fruits, and serve with ice-cream/sorbet of your choice.

Christophe

2011-09-05T20:57:00.000-07:00

I got myself a new toy this weekend: a spray gun - finally can coat my entremet perfectly with chocolate spray now. I didn't plan on making any entremet this long weekend as I wanted to just relax and chill out. However, I was really inspired to make an entremet once I got the chocolate spray gun.

This cake was named after pastry chef Christophe Adam. As you already knew from my previous blog entries, I am a big fan of his works. This entremet was inspired by his mangue-violette eclair. It wasn't easy to find crystallized violet in Vancouver. I tried it before in a dessert I had at MARKET, Shangril-la so I knew I could find it here.

The components are as follow:
Violette crystallisée
Sauce à la mangue
Mousse à la mangue
Crème mangue-violette
Biscuit joconde au chocolat

I really like the aromatic flavor from the crystallized violet. The combination of mango sauce, crystallized violet and mascarpone was sublime. The combination of those three complimented the mango mousse really well. I used a chocolate sponge base to give an additional slightly stronger flavor to yield a subtle punch in overall flavor. For texture, I used two crystallized violets ( one inside the entremet and one outside ) to add some crunch.

Vancouver's first Oxtail Ramen

2011-09-02T10:50:00.000-07:00

It's only in Suika izakaya you could find many interesting dishes that you can rarely find in other izakayas. One of their interesting dishes is their Tokyo Oxtail Ramen. I got a chance to try it in my third visit. Their Tokyo oxtail ramen is a slowly braised oxtail with noodle in soy broth topped with dried fish powder and scallions. The broth, having been cooked for days, had a rich flavor and the dried fish powder gave an extra punch in flavour. The noodle had proper texture and not chewy, it really complimented the broth perfectly. This ramen I'll call it as adventurous to eat due to the use of oxtail as the main ingredient instead of regular braised pork belly. Suika's oxtail ramen easily became my top two contender for best ramen in Vancouver.

Since my last two visits ( you can read the entry here and here ), they changed their menu's design into two popular Japanese cartoon characters : Doraemon and Dorami - another creative idea by the owner.

Another dishes that we tried was the sashimi 'shake' salad which consisted of daily fresh sashimis tossed with sesame soy dressing. After giving a short introduction to the salad, our server began shaking the jar of salad for a minute and then served the salad in a bowl. I found this to be very entertaining.

This time we tried two of their desserts: the Yukimi Daifuku ( green tea and red bean gelato wrapped in sticky rice cake ) and the summer crème brûlée ( frozen crème brûlée with mango gelato and fresh strawberry sauce ). The daifukus were properly made and the green tea one was my favourite. You can really taste a pretty bold matcha flavour in it. I tried their frozen matcha crème brûlée before and the summer version was much more flavourful. The aromatic mango flavour mixed with the sweetness of strawberry sauce produced a perfect harmony. My friends and I finished it in less than a minute.

Éclair Aquatique

2011-08-30T00:11:00.000-07:00

My second attempt on Christophe Adam's éclair. This time I made one of his signature triple fondant éclairs: the aquatique.
He had made several different versions of the éclair aquatique before. The one I made was the version from his éclair book.

The components are as follow:
Le crémeaux vanille
Le fondant blanc
Le fondant vert et le fondant à la menthe
Le fondant bleu

Éclair au thé vert matcha

2011-08-24T11:07:00.000-07:00

Éclair has never been this interesting before! Thanks to Chef Christophe Adam for bringing the classic chocolate éclair to a completely different level. He really inspired me to attempt his fabulous creations. This was my first time ever making pâte à choux, éclair, and fondant patissier. I still need a lot of practice esp in making a perfect tubular éclair.

My rendition of Fauchon's matcha éclair:

MonokuRo Boo Cake

2011-08-23T23:54:00.000-07:00

I made a MonokuRo Boo cake for my friend's birthday today. She's a big fan of this Japanese cartoon character. MonokuRo means monochrome in Japanese and Boo is the pig's sound (oink) in Japanese. I came up with my own variation for the inner side.

The components from top to bottom:
Matcha sponge
Matcha cream
Matcha sponge
Red bean paste
Crispy chocolate praline
Matcha sponge

Hidemi Sugino's Everest エヴェレスト Recipe

2011-08-16T23:30:00.000-07:00

This was my ~~fifth~~ sixth attempt on Hidemi Sugino's recipe. I really admired his works and totally respect him as the king of mousse cake. In his book , Le Goût Authentique Retrouvé, he used a great variety of fruits and some of them being seasonal. This Everest entremet use red currant as one of the main ingredients. The Everest got my attention when I first flipped through the book. I've never seen an entremet like this before - it's totally unique yet appealing. Nevertheless, I was a little disappointed back then to not able to make this entremet due to its use of seasonal ingredient - red currant. It's really hard to find red currant in Vancouver. I remembered seeing it once in a supermarket and never seen it since. I did some research and apparently red currant is only in season around July/August. I was, however, really lucky last week that I passed by a local farmer's market and they happened to have red currants.

The component of the Everest are as follow: ( from top to bottom )
Framboises [ Raspberries ]
Amandes effillées torréfiées [ Roasted almonds ]
Sucre glace [ Powdered sugar ]
Crème chantilly [ Sweetened whipped cream ]
Biscuit joconde sans beurre [ Butterless sponge ]
Mousse au fromage blanc [ White Cheese Mousse ]
Sauce aux fruits rouges [ Red fruits sauce ]
Biscuit joconde sans beurre [ Butterless sponge ]

As expected, the white cheese mousse was really fluffy and simply melted in your mouth. The combination of the white cheese mousse with the red fruits sauce was sublime. The roasted almonds gave an extra texture to this entremet. Although the flavor of the Everest was subtle, it was memorable.

Recipe translated and modified from Le Goût Authentique Retrouvé
Recipe serves 3 entremets ( 7.5cm x 3.5cm x 4cm oval shaped ring )
Image reference for the mousse ring's shape:

Notes:

1. This recipe was written under assumption that you already know how to make french meringue, crème chantilly, raspberry couili and raspberry jam
2. Please keep in mind that temperature ranges and time will vary depending on your oven. So please adjust accordingly.

Biscuit joconde sans beurre

20g icing sugar
20g almond powder
16g egg yolks
12g egg whites
18g all purpose flour

French meringue

40g egg whites
24g sugar

1. Sift and combined icing sugar and almond powder in a mixing bowl
2. Add in egg yolks, egg whites and whisk until thick and fluffy
3. Sift in all purpose flour
4. Make french meringue and fold into the mixture
5. Bake at 230°C / 446°F for 6mins

Sauce aux fruits rouges

8g red currant jam
4g raspberry couili4g raspberry pulp
a pinch of sugar
few drops of lemon juice
2g kirsch7g raspberry
7g red currant

Mix all of the ingredients above in a mixing bowl

Mousse au fromage blanc
80g whipping cream
70g white cheese / fresh cheese
2g gelatin
3g kirsch
8g lemon juice

Pâte à Bombe

16g egg yolks
20g sugar
5g water

1. Mix the white cheese in a mixing bowl with spatula till smooth
2. For pate a bombe, whisk the egg yolks in a mixing bowl until pale yellow
3. Boil sugar and water until 120°C then add to the egg yolks and mix well with electric mixer
4. Take 1/3 of the white cheese and put it into a new mixing bowl and add in kirsch
5. Mix the pate a bombe to step #4
6. Add in the lemon juice to step #5 and mix well
7. Add in the melted gelatin to step #6
8. Add step #7 and step#1 and mix well
9. Add 1/3 of the whipped cream to step#8 and mix well10. Add the rest of the whipped cream and mix well

Sirop d'imbibage
12g Sirop à 30°B ( sugar : water = 1.3 : 1 )
8g water
6g kirsch

Assembly

1. Align an acetate sheet below the mousse rings.
2. Cut the sponge into several oval-shaped sponges
3. Brush the sponge with soaking syrup
4. Lay the oval sponge at the bottom of the mousse ring
5. Pipe in the white cheese mousse until it fills half of the mousse ring
6. Put some of the red fruits sauce in the centre of the white cheese mousse
7. Pipe in the white cheese mousse again until it almost reach the top ( leave some space for the sponge on top )
8. Cut the oval-shaped sponge to a slightly smaller size ( smaller than #2 ), brush them with soaking syrup and align them on top of the mousse ring
9. Apply a little pressure on top of the sponge with your hand so that the white cheese mousse will come up a little bit and cover gap beside the sponge on top of the mousse ring
10. Align another acetate sheet on top of the mousse ring and refrigerate
11. Once set, prepare for decoration
12. Bake some sliced almonds at 270C for 5 minutes or until slightly golden colour
13. Hidemi used creme fraiche and sugar mixture to make the creme chantilly. However you could just go the traditional way and use whipping cream and sugar mixture instead
14. Apply the creme fraiche all over the entremet and apply some more on top and shaped it to mimic a triangular box shaped with icing spatula
15. Put some raspberries on top and roasted sliced almonds16. Sift some powdered sugar on top

Pierre Hermé’s Macaron Mogador recipe

2011-08-12T22:23:00.000-07:00

Pierre Herme's macaron Mogador macaron is eye-catching and looks exotic. I was lucky enough to have tried the macaron Mogador on my recent trip to HK. My friend V who happened to be in London at that time helped me get a box of Pierre Herme's macaron back to HK. V said that the salesperson in the London store told him that the macarons were shipped from Paris to London.
Pierre's macaron in general was really oustanding. On your first bite of each macarons, you can already get the aromatic flavor that burst in your mouth. This reminded me a lot of the macaron from Jin Patisserie in Venice, Los Angeles.
What I really like about the macaron mogador was the use of passionfruit and milk chocolate as the filling. The tanginess of the passionfruit did compliment the milk chocolate very well.

My rendition of Pierre Herme's Macaron Mogador:

Recipe adapted and translated from Pierre Herme's Macaron book

INGREDIENTS

For Macaron Shell

300g (20 Tbsp) almond powder
300g (20 Tbsp) icing sugar
110g (110 ml) egg whites
5g (1 tsp) food coloring ( lemon yellow )
0.5g(a pinch) red food coloring ( or ½ tsp coffee )

For Italian meringue

300g (20 Tbsp) sugar – for sugar syrup
75g (75 ml) water – for sugar syrup
110g (110 ml)egg whites

For Ganache

100g (7 Tbsp) room temperature unsalted butter
550g (37 Tbsp) Valrhona Chocolate Jivara ( 40% cocoa solid )
10 passion fruits ( need 250g passion fruit juice )

For Garnish

Cocoa powder

INSTRUCTIONS

For Macaron Shells

1. Sift icing sugar with almond powder
2. Mix the colors in the first egg white and pour over the sugar-almond preparation without mixing
3. Boil water and sugar to 118°C (244°F)
4. Once the syrup is at 115°C (239°F), start whisking second egg whites to hard peak
5. Prepare a pastry brush dipped in a bowl of cold water and clean the edges of the pot with the brush so that the sugar syrup won’t stick when you pour over the whisked egg white.
6. As soon as the sugar reached 118°C(244°F) remove from heat immediately. Pour the sugar syrup over the stiff egg whites little by little. Continue whisking at high speed.
7. Whisk and let cool to 50°C(122°F) before adding to the sugar almond prepared earlier.
8. Mix the Italian meringue with the sugar almond mixture until you reach “lava” consistency
9. Pipe and Shape the dough round about 3.5 cm in diameter and spaced every 2 cm on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
10. Once you finished pipping the macarons, prepare a tablecloth and fold it into four. Tap your baking tray gently on top of the tablecloth.
11. With a sieve, sprinkle the shells with cocoa powder
12. Let the macarons rest for at least 30 minutes until it’s not sticky when you touch the top of the macaron with your finger
13. Preheat oven to 180°C (356°F)
14. Put the tray into the oven and bake for 9-12 mins ( depends on oven ) and keep the oven door slightly ajar with a wooden spatula.
15. Do not remove from the sheet until they are completely cooled

For filling

1.Cut butter into pieces. Chop the chocolate with a serrated knife.
2. Cut the passion fruit in half and scoop out the pulp and obtain 250g of juice.
3. Weigh the juice and take it to a boil.
4. Melt half the chopped chocolate in a saucepan in a double boiler. Pour in juice 3 times onto hot chocolate
5. As soon as the mixture temperature is at 60°C(140°F), gradually stir in the butter pieces. Stir until the ganache is smooth.
6. Pour into a dish. Cover the ganache with transparent film. Keep it in the refrigerator until it is creamy.
7. Pour the ganache into a pastry bag and use a pipping tip No. 11.
8. Garnish generously with ganache onto one half shells then cover them with other shells.
9. Keep macarons for 24 hours in the fridge and remove from the fridge 2 hours before serving

Hideki Kawamura's Acidulé

2011-08-07T14:38:00.000-07:00

I've been making birthday cakes for 3 weekends in a row. This time I made Hideki Kawamura's signature cake : Acidulé. As my friend likes sour flavored cake, the Acidulé instantly came in mind.

The components of the Acidulé are as follow :
White chocolate and lime mousse
Lime genoise
Passionfruit-mango-raspberry gelee
Lime genoise

I like the combination of flavors of the Acidulé. The sweetness of the white chocolate was enough to balance out the sourness of the passionfruit-mango-raspberry combo. The acidity of the lime cut through nicely among the other flavors.