Mac and cheese

Not really a mac and cheese but more like cheesy pasta bake. I did not have macaroni on hand so I used spiral pasta I have in my pantry.

Serves 3 as appetizer
200g macaroni (or short pasta)
1 garlic clove, peeled
10g butter, plus extra to grease
300ml thin cream
1 bay leaf
Pinch of nutmeg
200g of grated cheese ( gruyère, cheddar or any hard cheese)
30cm x 18cm x 5cm gratin dish, buttered.

1. Preheat the oven to 180
2. Place the bayleaf, cream and garlic in a saucepan and let it boil. Set aside for 15 minutes.
3. Boil pasta according the instruction on the packet. When cooked, drain well and add olive oil to coat.
4. Remove garlic and bayleaf from the cream, and mix in 150g of cheese and nutmeg. Add pasta and coat them with sauce. Season liberally with salt and pepper.
5. Tip the mixture into the gratin dish. Lay the mixture out evenly. Sprinkle 50g of cheese.
6. Bake for 30 minutes till golden and bubbling.

I feel that the dish was a bit too big for my mixture. If I used a smaller dish, it would have been better.

Dutch Baby Pancake

The promise of piping hot pancakes topped with syrup and fruits is enough to get me jump out of bed even on a Saturday morning.
Since I don't have a loving boyfriend or husband in the form of Daniel Craig (yes, I am obssessed), I decided to whip it up by myself. Instead of going for ordinary pancakes, I experiemented with Dutch Baby Pancake which looks like Yorkshire pudding. I have been fascinated by this puffy pancake since the day I saw it on Martha Stewart's website, but never tried to make it. It seemed too difficult then. I tried and the result was not so bad, but I wish I used different flour.

Makes 2 to 4 servings.
3 eggs,room temperature
1/2 cup milk, room temperature
1/2 cup sifted bread flour or all-purpose flour*
1/8 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
7 teaspoons butter
Freshly squeezed lemon juice
Powdered or confectioners sugar

* I used all-purpose flour but it is said (on the internet) that bread flour will work a lot better.

1. Place a cast iron skillet in the oven and preheat it to 225°C. I used two 7-inch skillets.
2. In a large bowl, beat eggs till light and frothy. Add milk, flour , vanilla extract and beat for five minutes more.
3. In a piping hot skillet, place a blob of butter, enough to coat the surface.
4. When the butter has melted, pour the batter and put the pan back in the oven.
5. Cook for 20 minutes until the pancake has risen and golden.

Serve with freshly squeezed lemon juice and generously sprinkle powder sugar.

- If I had more time, I would serve them with stewed strawberries and whipped cream. Imagine what a bliss that would be.

À Table, French, Seoul

I was invited by my colleagues to join them for celebratory lunch at

À Table in Samcheong-dong. À Table serves decent French food at reasonable price, a real plus.

There is no à la carte menu but prix fixe only. I think that the chef changes the menu monthly. Customers get to choose main course. Today's was beef tederloin or lamb, and I went for lamb.

Amuse bouche...I think it was velouté of cauliflower and apple compôte.

Creamy but refreshing at the same time.

Scallops with sweet pumkin sauce and seafoam.

Tender but I wished the scallop was sweeter.

Seafood terrine with mango sauce.

Lamb

It was meant to be a chocolate mousse but it was not really a mousse.

More like chocolate custard. It was nice with pistachio sauce and all, but I will not call that a mousse.

Prix-fixe lunch: 30,000KRW+ 10% tax

Tel: 736-1048

Things I love...food or not

Not in particular order...

1. My spoilt but still adorable dog whose butt I am constantly tempted to bite.
And her paws..I love its smell.
2. Fresh high thread count cotton sheet
3. Snuggling up in my bed in the weekend mornings, knowing that I don't need to get up for another hour.
4. Reading books or magazines while soaking in lavender-scented bath
5. Freshly baked chocolate chip cookies
6. Hot chocolate made of shaved Valhorna chocolate
7. Vanilla ice cream topped with hot fudge sauce and cream
8. Morning in Picadilly Circus watching people going to work.
9. Fortnum and Mason around Christmas
10. Stollen
11. Christmas in Paris
12. Tiramisu from Zafferano
13. Carrot cake from Ceci-Cela
14. Mistuko, a perfume by Guerlain
15. All the perfumes by L'Artisan Parfumeur
16. Fresh jasmine flowers
17. Smell of my mom - Sisley Eau de Campagne, I think.
18. Summer in England
19. Hot scones smeared with butter, and then topped with rasberry jam and a thick layer of clotted cream.
20. Washing my feet before going to bed. I am convinced that this helps me to sleep.
21. Marmalade
22. Apricot jam
23. Learning a new language
24. Faye Wong (王菲)...ooh...I worship thee.
25. Sipping a mug of hot chocolate on a icy morning in Paris
26. Louboutin heels
27. Clarins body oil
28. Full-body exfolation Korean style and body massage afterwards
29. Smell of freshly cut grass
30. Whipped cream on anything
31. Cheese
32. My friends. Whereever they may be.
33. Smell of wet trees
34. Thigh-crunching squat. More painful the better.
35. Karen Mok (莫文蔚)
36. Lemon tart
37. Dooly, an old Korean cartoon character.
36. Gargamel and Azrael from The Smurfs
37. Farewell My Concubine (Movie)
38. Ice tea on a hot summer's day - it must have mint leaves
39. Tamarind
40. Flaky paratha
41. Smell of old books
42. Old pictures of my parents
43. Old love songs
44. Christmas carols
45. Afternoon nap on a rainy day while listening to old love songs
46. Buttered savoy cabbage
47. Tom from Tom and Jerry
48. Pork cracklings
49. Mille feuilles from Goumard (I don't think they do it anymore)
50. Kashimiri embroidery
51. Chips (fries) with salt and vinegar
52. Gooey, sticky and sweet pecan tart
53. Thick bath robes at the hotels
54. Reading history books
55. Being home alone
56. Quiet mornings - no phone calls, no door bells
57. Macaroons from Ladurée
58. The moment when I am about to fall asleep
59. Medjool dates
60. Sandwiches from Prêt à Manger
61. Peanut butter cups, preferably frozen
62. Chocolate-covered almonds
63. Toasted marshmallow
64. Palsun, a Chinese restaurant at Shilla Hotel. I have been going there since I was little. Although the restaurant underwent a renovation, it still reminds me of my granddad. Very expensive for me to go there with my friends, so I rely on the grace of someone else's charity (like my parents and aunties and uncles) :P
65. Walking around London
66. Walking around Paris
67. The National Gallery, London
68. Klimt
69. Staying true to one's principle
70. Korean style beef jerky made by my mom
71. Ho-dduk - a Korean style panfried cake stuffed with sugar, cinamon and nuts. They are often sold on the street.
72. Topanyum, a type of Korean salt made on soil bed. It is very high in minerals. When used in food, it makes all the difference. Far superior than famed Sel de Guérande.
73. Roast turkey with stuffing
74. Kelly bags
75. Pesto
76. Bruxelles
77. Avocado
78. Passionate performers
79. Wong Kar Wai's films
80. Zhang Yi Mou's films
81. Enjoying a latte at home.
82. Korean apples
83. Having a goal in life
84. French cruller at Mister Donut
85. Brussel sprouts
86. Having butterflies in my stomach when I am about to travel
87. Korean beef bbq
88. Green orange juice I had in Lahore
89. Butter croissant
90. Good stationery
91. Being born into my family
92. CSI the TV series
93. Location of my workplace - surrounded by mountains. Very rare in Seoul
94. Having a boss who inspires me
95. Old Korean songs, like Yongpil Cho and Patti Kim
96. Creamy dip scooped up with tortilla chips
97. Pig's trotter Korean style
98. Cantonese roast meat
99. Chaat
100. Dosa
101. Having a job
102. Saffron
103. Pistachio lokums
104. Rose petal jam
105. Candied fruits from South of France
106. Grasse
107. Medieval cities in France
108. Violet petal jam
109. Botanical paintings
110. When my spoilt dog sleeps on my chest lightly snoring down my face.
111. Waterstone's
112. Thick youghurt drizzled with honey
113. Lavender
114. Patchouli
115. Thinking of what to cook for my lunch gatherings
116. Going to ballet performance
117. Pavlova
118. Fluffy pancakes
119. Hot tea
120. A good salad on a sunny day (Lots of nuts, bitter radichio, goat cheese)
121. Regular work-out session with my trainer
122. Tanya Chua (蔡健雅)
123. Smell of frangipani and monoi
124. Vanilla flower
125. Lever arch files
126. Yoon Dong-Ju (윤동주), a Korean poet who was tortured to death by Japanese in 1944,
and his beautiful, beautiful poems.
127. A Guinot facial at 122 Knightsbridge
128. Ear candling
129. Making body scrub at home
130. Chinese massage
131. Taipei
132. Hong Kong

The list of food I plan to master in this lifetime

I once read in a food magazine (probably Donna Hay) that if you master 10 of your favourite dishes, then you are set for life. So I thought about what to master in this lifetime. I have crossed out the food I mastered :p

1. chocolate chip cookies
(Dare I say I mastered it? Let's just say that as long as I stick to the recipe, I will be fine.)

I find it very hard to bake these seemingly simple chocolate chip cookies to perfection. I have wasted almost a kilogram of Valhorna chocolate.
(I shed tears every time I think of them)
Has anyone tried Millie's Cookies? You probably have if you have visited/lived in UK. You can find them in nearly every train station and even at Heathrow. They are not the best in the world, (too sweet for my taste) but I want to immitate the texture of miniature cookies. They seem soft and slightly chewy.
I want to make the ultimate dark chocolate chip cookies that are cripsy on the outside but chewy on the inside.

2. chocolate brownies

I wasted another kilogram of Valhonra chocolate. I despise almost all the brownies sold in Korea. Most of them do not deserve to be called 'brownies'. They are just chocolate sponge cakes with bits of nuts thrown in. Brownies should be gooey and slightly crispy on the edge.
The best chocolate brownie I tried till date comes from Chandos Deli in Bristol. It was my weekly treat. It was dense, gooey with chunks of white cholate, plain chocolate and brazil nuts here and there. I aim to recreate them.

3. pasta (one each of cream sauce , tomato sauce and olive oil base)

I don't want to sound smug, but I think I found one of the ultimate cream sauce pasta which will appear regularly when I invite guests over. It is prawn in parsley cream sauce. But for tomato sauce and olive oil base I haven't quite mastered.

4. Yukgaejang

It is a spicy Korean beef soup made of beef brisket, gosa-ri (bracken. Yes, we eat them), shitake mushrooms and leeks. My ex-maid used to make very very nice yukgaejang that I think of time to time. Whenever I come home for holidays, yukgaejang was the first dish I ate. It is hearty and spicy, just what I needed after 11 hours of flight.

5. Caramel à la Fleur de Sel

To be honest with you, I never had a real Fleur de Caramel à la Fleur de Sel. My favourite macaroon at Ladurée was Caramel à la Fleur de Sel variety. I tried once at home but it was hard to get them solid at room temprature. Perhaps the first thing I can do is to invest in a candy thermometer.

6. kimchi (baechu, kakdugi and pa)

Kimchi. One cannot talk bout Korean food without mentioning kimchi. The (usually) spicy preserved vegetables are staple of our daily life. Each household has its own unique recipe. There are actually various types of kimchi but I guess the most well known and hard-to-master one is baechu kimchi (Baechu is sold under the name Chinese cabage in supermarkets in the West). I also want to master kakdugi, a kimchi made of cubed radish pieces, and pa kimchi, made of spring onions and good fish sauce.

7. madeleine

These almondy cakes are simple yet elegant and delicate. And the shell-shaped curves are pretty to look at. A madeleine with a cup of lemon-verbena tea. Heaven.

8. Lemon tart

It is actually quite hard to find a nice lemon tart. They are often soggy or eggy (in an unpleasant way) or both.

9. omelette

Light-as-air omelette will make a perfect light meal any time of the day, whether served with green salad or smoked salmon.

10. Roast

Time to time, I get craving for roast, be it beef, chicken or pork. I miss pork cracklings, yorkshire pudding and buttery savoy cabbage. It is almost impossible (again) to get it in Korea, so why not cook my own? Mastering a roast would mean mastering roasting meat, potatoes, cooking vegetables and gravy. This will be a challenge.

Oz's Kitchen, pizza and pasta, Seoul

In my opinion, the last thing we need in Seoul is another pizza and pasta joint. Everwhere I go, whether a French restaurant or Italian restaurant, all I see on the menu are pasta. They are usually the predictable menu like carbonara, alio e olio, vongole, etc. I am honestly sick of them. I mean, I can cook them at home better than most of them. So I was a little skeptical about going to Oz's Kitchen, a pizza and pasta place in Samcheongdong. But since the review I read on the internet - "good food, but the portion is small for the price"-, I decided to give it a go. And I was surprised that the food was actually very good.

With my colleague - the other female in my office, my partner in crime-, we popped in there for lunch today. We ordered tomato and home-made ricotta salad, conchiglie in home-made pesto and musrhoom and ricotta calzone.

During lunch, a complimentary small salad and coffee are served.




A complimentary salad - romaine, cruton, parmagiano reggiano




Tomato was very sweet, ricottao so smooth and dressing was refreshing without being too sharp. Speckles of black pepper on the cheese were nice compliment. The portion is very small though. But I am glad it is, because I don't eat much. (I eat little but often)




I think it is one of the best pasta I ever had. It was very fragarant without overpowering bitterness which is a trap that a lot of pesto fall into. The conchiglie was cooked to perfection and just the right amount of pesto covered the pasta.






Mushroom calzone...the dough was so perfect. The best I had in Seoul. The filling was creamy. Although I would have liked more filling inside, the dough was thin enough. I think it would go very nice with wine.




The owner is a photographer/cook who also runs cookery classes. I am so happy to have found this place. The food was simple yet perfect. The only minus for some people is the portion. I have no problem with it, but some people may find it too small.

Tomato and ricotta salad: 9,500KRW (£4.75)
Conchiglie in pesto: 14,500 KRW (£7.25)
Mushroom calzone: 20,500KRW (£10.25)

75015. French Bistro, Seoul

I was toldby a girl with who I attend a cookery class with told me that her friend opened a bistro in Hongdae, so I decided to check it out.
The bistro is called "75015". Sounds familiar? Anyone who has been to Paris would know that it is area code/zip code for each arrondissement in Paris, and this case, the 15th arrondsement where Le Coron Bleu is. 75015 is run by three friends who studied at Le Cordon Bleu together.

Having studied at Le Cordon Bleu, making crêpe and gallette may sound like a waste, but I am glad that they are.

Everything on the menu is zipcoded like 75001 Gallete aux etc etc and I ordered 75003 which is gallete aux jambons, oeuf et fromage, a buckwheat pancake with ham, egg and cheese. On the top, a dollop each of pesto and tomato sauce are served.It is served with homefries/cubed potatoes cooked in rosemary and olive oil, green salad with olives and sliced almonds and a slice of bread.



I was advised to mix egg yolk, pesto and tomatoe sauce to achieve a gooey sauce to dip in. It went very nicely with gallete.



I wanted to try their crêpe, caramelized banana crêpe to be exact, but the waiter said that it may be too much after a gallete. He advised me to try their fondant au chocolat.




It was not bad. I would have gone gaga over this 10 years ago, but I think I tried something better over the years. This one definitely reminds me that what I had at Jean-George Shanghai was a good one, though a bit boring. (I mean, it was as good as it can be, and like crème brûlée, I am sick of it. Yes, I should really stop eating it. )




It is a bit of a walk to find the place. FYI, this is what the bistro looks like.






Tel) (02)332 1113