Today's menu:

@Wisnu can you get tamarind there?
I would be very surprised if you could not find Tamarind in Nigeria,
as Tamarind is indigenous to tropical regions of Africa including Nigeria, Sudan and Cameroon. It’s also not only growing in tropical but also in subtropical countries around the world. Because Tamarind is non-perishable items, it could be easily imported from other countries with low cost.

Tamarind is very popular among Asian and Caribbean (to some extends) cuisines. So unless there is no sizeable number of Thais, Indians, Malays, Filipinos, Indonesians, you will definitely find Tamarind easily in any Asian Supermarkets across continents. The price of tamarind is certainly more expensive compared to Indonesia, as it will need to be imported from tropical, sub-tropical countries.
 
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OK, 18 months later, maybe time to dig this one up ?

A few of our recent cooking.

Organized a small cocktail party at home mid December. Guests were mainly a few regulars from our favorite French restaurant, all members of the "Poet's table". Total 10 person, including us.

The idea is one organizes, and all the guests bring something, most will bring drinks, but those with cooking skills may bring some "specialites francaises"

I prepared a "quatre quart" (called pound cake in English), made with equal weight of egg, flower, sugar and butter. You weight 4 eggs first and adapt the weight of the other ingredients accordingly.

I also made an apple pie, rather easy.

A novelty was making a variety of puff pastry "snacks". Easy to find frozen puff pastry (Hardy's and Grand Lucky), after that for the shapes and content it's all up to one's creativity. Plenty videos on Youtube on the subject.

Note that the puff pastries were ALL made by the Miss, under close supervision of course, but she did a great job, especially as it was a "premiere" for her.

A few pics, but in series as max 3 attachments are allowed...

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Part 3

A little sample of the drinks, that's before the guests arrived and brought some more. Note that Bintang was banned....

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And the chef's "kitchen monitoring and control center"

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Christmas dinner....
As we are not used anymore to eat lengthy multi course dinners, going to a 4 or 5 star hotel restaurant is not worth it.

And anyway, we prefer Christmas at home, just the two of us.

So, the "chef" has been torturing his brain since a few days before to come up with a decent Christmas dinner. Note that 25th is the Missus birthday, so there will be again something to prepare....

Starter : I went for scallops "Brittany style". Main reason is I lived there for a long time in my first life, and I loved it. I found Scallops at Grand Lucky, US origin, frozen.

Sear / Brown the scallops in butter and reserve. In the same pan prepare the sauce : onion and garlic, add mushroom (very small cut), deglaze with white wine, add cream.
Put the scallops in a ramekin, I slice them in 4 to make it easier to eat, add the sauce, add breadcrumbs on top and some butter. Oven for about 15 minutes.
Result was very nice, the Miss loved it, I was happy as this was a premiere for me.

Part 1 :

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Christmas dinner, part 2 :

Main course : Bouchee a la Reine. The tricky part is to succeed to make the puff pastry "container" nice brown and crispy. Worked out pretty well.

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The filling is about the same as you would put in a chicken and mushroom pie. For the French touch, add white wine and cream of course...

Served with "Duchesse potatoes" and white asparagus.

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And a bottle of Prosecco

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Something a bit more basic for the next day, Boxer Day

Sauce should be with dill, but I couldn't find any those 3 last days, hence I used parsley.
Fennel is a decent substitute for dill, but also not easy to find.

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New Year evening :

I went for something a bit different from the usual stuff.

Blanquette de poissons or Fish Blanquette.

Quite some ingredients and of course there is a process to follow.

Mise en place :

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Plated, served with Basmati rice

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Was pretty good for a "premiere", but can be improved :
  • I didn't had fish broth (impossible to find here, too late to make some "homemade"), so I used vegetable stock. It sure does impact on the final flavor.
  • Should have put 200 / 250 ml of white wine instead of 150 ml
  • The prawns are too hard, next I will replace them by scallops.

But still, we both rated it "very good".
 
New Year evening :

I went for something a bit different from the usual stuff.

Blanquette de poissons or Fish Blanquette.

Quite some ingredients and of course there is a process to follow.

Mise en place :

View attachment 3755

View attachment 3756


Plated, served with Basmati rice

View attachment 3757

Was pretty good for a "premiere", but can be improved :
  • I didn't had fish broth (impossible to find here, too late to make some "homemade"), so I used vegetable stock. It sure does impact on the final flavor.
  • Should have put 200 / 250 ml of white wine instead of 150 ml
  • The prawns are too hard, next I will replace them by scallops.

But still, we both rated it "very good".
I salut you 👍
 
Coq au vin, “Rooster in red wine sauce”

As rooster is not easy to find and need a long, long cooking time nearly everybody makes it with standard chicken.

Mise en place :

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Put everything in a pot, cover with red wine and let marinate in the fridge for 24h.

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Next day :

  • Retrieve the chicken and dry it
  • Retrieve the vegetable and dry it
  • At the same time prepare some chicken stock (0,5 L) homemade or powder.
  • Bring the wine to a light boil to reduce it, get rid of the alcohol and scoop all the foam that will appear on top. Then filter it through a sieve.
  • Brown the chicken in butter / olive oil for a few minutes and set aside.
  • Do same for the vegetables.
  • Put back the chicken in the pot (with the vegetables)
  • Add the wine and top up with chicken stock. Cover and boil on low fire for 35 / 45 minutes (till the meat nearly falls of the bone)
  • Meanwhile dice your smoked pork belly (or pancetta) in small cubes, fry them and set aside.
  • Fry the mushroom (diced in 4 or 6) in the pork belly fat and set aside.
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  • When the chicken is cooked, remove it from the pot and set aside.
  • Same for the vegetables
  • Filter the sauce and thicken it if necessary.
  • Put everything back in (except the bouquet garni) and heat it up for serving
Serve with pasta, mashed potatoes or boiled potatoes

I deserved a zero for the plating, but the sauce was spot on.
The Missus was a bit skeptical at the beginning, especially with the chicken turning purple after 24h in the wine, but at the end she loved it.

Remarks for next time :
  • Use different parts of chicken (preferably ayam kampung)
  • Use baby carrots instead of regular ones. After 45 minutes they were still hard like bamboo.
 
New Year evening :

I went for something a bit different from the usual stuff.

Blanquette de poissons or Fish Blanquette.

Quite some ingredients and of course there is a process to follow.

Mise en place :

View attachment 3755

View attachment 3756


Plated, served with Basmati rice

View attachment 3757

Was pretty good for a "premiere", but can be improved :
  • I didn't had fish broth (impossible to find here, too late to make some "homemade"), so I used vegetable stock. It sure does impact on the final flavor.
  • Should have put 200 / 250 ml of white wine instead of 150 ml
  • The prawns are too hard, next I will replace them by scallops.

But still, we both rated it "very good".
A tip re the lack of fish broth - you can usually find dashi sachets in the supermarkets here - its a japanese instant fish stock and I have used it with some success.
 
A tip re the lack of fish broth - you can usually find dashi sachets in the supermarkets here - its a japanese instant fish stock and I have used it with some success.
Thanks, meanwhile I found (and ordered some) on Shopee.

"Katsuo Dashi" or Bonito stock.
 
Thanks, meanwhile I found (and ordered some) on Shopee.

"Katsuo Dashi" or Bonito stock.
I found bonito flakes at Delta Dewata in Ubud but couldn't find Kombu seaweed. Maybe nori would work. Did you know the original MSG or ajinomoto is the white stuff on dried Kombu?
 
OK, The Missus wanted to make her own pizza since some time so today lunch we went for the lazy version with prepacked dough.

Ingredients :

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Works in progress :

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Before going in the oven

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Result was OK but a bit overcooked.

Will do another try but with "homemade" dough.
 
Escalope milanaise and spaghetti Aglio E Olio, our version. Yesterday evening. A regular classic that we have about once a month.

Mise en place :

And yes, to make it more fun, the Miss and me have 2 different cuts of chicken,,,,

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The normal way to bread the meat is : dip in flour => dip in egg mix => dip in breadcrumbs

I prefer to coat the meat with Dijon mustard and direct in the breadcrumbs, give it a stronger flavour.

Breadcrumbs are home made with baguette (really browned) and I add some Parmesan, pepper and salt

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Plated :

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Lemon and butter sauce fits perfectly with this kind of meat.
 
Yesterday dinner was pork fillet in creamy mushroom sauce.

Good thing is that the recipe is a one pot recipe, makes things easier. Of course, the ingredients have to be added in the right order at the right time.,..

Speaking about time, this is something that we start at 3.30 pm to have it all ready for 6.00 pm.

Mise en place :

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Meat need to be cut rather small.

Brown the smoked pork (cut in small cubes, using pancetta would even be better) in butter / olive oil, brown the meat, deglaze with white wine, add a bit of flour, add 1L chicken broth, the vegetables, bouquet garni, bay leaves and let simmer for 1 1/2h.

Check if the meat is well cooked, reserve it on the side, remove the bouquet garni, onion, bay leaves. Start working on the sauce, thicken it (if needed) with corn flour, next add the mushroom, cook for 10 minutes, add the cream, a bit of mustard, reduce (thicken). Next put back the meat for 10 minutes to bring it back at the right temperature.

Served with fettucine :

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And tonight will be a classic again : salmon with Basmati rice.
 

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