THE TAKE HOME CHEF IS COMING TO TOWN

Australian celebrity chef, Curtis Stone, will be at The Fullerton Hotel on the 5th of November. He will be part of a very special dinner event, treating guests to his favorite dishes from the program that made him what he is today - Surfing the Menu.

Rated one of the Sexiest Men Alive in 2006 by the People Magazine alongside George Clooney and Brad Pitt, Stone has hosted many cooking programs, most notably, as the Take Home Chef on Discovery Networks' TLC.

He started his professional cooking career at the age of 18 at the Savoy Hotel in London. Soon after, he began cooking alongside the legendary Marco Pierre White at The Cafe Royal and Mirabelle. He then became head chef at Marco's Quo Vadis before moving on to the prestigious Restaurant 301.

Stone will be in town on the 5th of November for the Singapore Sun Festival's Surfing the Menu with Curtis Stone. He will be cooking up a storm, treating guests to some of his favorite dishes from Surfing the Menu.

He will also join local chef Samia Ahad, host of The Food Bachelor for a special cooking class on the 6th of November: East Meets West in the Kitchen. Both chefs will come together to create dishes using the same produce and ingredients, but with their own individual styles.

SURFING THE MENU WITH CURTIS STONE
Friday, 5th November
7:00PM
The Straits Room, The Fullerton Hotel
S$228++

Booking Details:
(65) 6348 5555 or www.sistic.com.sg


EAST MEETS WEST IN THE KITCHEN
Saturday, 6th November
11:00AM - 3:00PM
Coriander Leaf Restaurant, 3A Merchant Court
River Valley Road, #02-03 Clarke Quay
S$208++

Booking Details:
(65) 6732 3354 or info@corianderleaf.com

Time

Got home late... looks like I'll be posting another day. I foresee a busy 2 more days. I really want to clear up all the pending issues I have at work before I leave. Especially since there won't be another intern to pickup after me for a whole week after.

Running Bread-cake Thing

Some of you may know that i tried my hand at bread making today. and those who follow me on twitter would also know that that didn't go too well... but it's been a long day, including waking up at 6AM for the Singapore Yellow Ribbon Prison Run, which didn't go too well either, at least for me.

But more on both tomorrow. for now, i can barely stay awake. Such a long and tiring day. Will blog soon! with lots of pictures. i went out of my way to snap them for these posts (Y)

I'm on the Night Train!

It's finally done! I've finished it, and here it is, my cover of Nightrain by Guns N Roses, and my first time trying Multi-Track recording. I have 3 tracks in this cover, 1 Track for Izzy, biased 30% to the left, 1 Track for Slash, biased 30% to the right, and 1 track for extra FXs, smack center, which you'll know when you hear it. Put on your headphones, and less talk, more rock!

Audacious!

So I was trying to put together a nice little music track to put on this post. It was all going so well too, I just finished putting it together in Audacity and recording the little 'Extra' bits to play over the existing tracks, and I was doing the final master, just making some parts a bit louder, and some parts a bit softer, etc. Just as I was amplifying a short portion of a track, Audacity crashed. AUDACITY CRASHED. AUDACITY CRASHED.

I just sat there in shock for awhile. I didn't save my progress at any point. D:

I'm trying some recovery tools, but it's not helping very much... It doesn't preserve the channels, tracks, or even the sequence. Looks like I'll have to rerecord it... my poor fingers.

Yogurt Basil Chicken, 'Grilled' Leeks & Herb Roasted Potatoes

I made dinner!

The theme for today's dinner was for everything to be easy to cook, cheap, and healthy, and of course, with great flavor and texture.

I prepared three dishes, from left to right:

• Yogurt Basil Chicken
• Herb Roasted Potatoes
• 'Grilled' Leeks

And I think they all turned out okay! I'll tell you a bit more about them, just keep in mind that this isn't a how-to or a guide, just a short expository on my experience preparing these dishes. I'll provide a recipe if you really want it though!

Yogurt Basil Chicken

I've always wanted to cook with yogurt. It always looks so cool and refreshing when you see it on TV. It's also smooth, creamy and with that great semi-sweet tangy flavor.

This is actually the second time I've prepared this dish, but I think it was better the first time, largely because this time I accidentally procured dark meat instead of white meat /:

I started with my chicken 'marinade' of sorts; I mixed my yogurt with Basil, Lime Juice and some Lime zest. then I just tossed my chicken about in it and put it in the fridge while I took a shower... It was a hot day.

This is really a simple dish to prepare. Out of the fridge and into the frying pan... but because I increased my portions this time, I tried it with a Wok...

It was only okay. I still prefer my frying pan. but because the Wok retains so much of the liquid, I ended up doing some boiling/broiling thing, haha. The plan was to sear it first, then slow cook it.

All that liquid is the juice from the chicken, and the yogurt separating.

I didn't see so much liquid the last time so I panicked a little. After letting the chicken cook abit more, I chose to drain the liquid and fry/grill the chicken on my good ol' frying pan.

Yay!

Back to normal! The chicken was looking right again:

At this point, the chicken was almost done. so I brought my heat down and poured in the remnants of my marinade, which I'd added more yogurt to. This cooked down really fast, and really developed a sweet and sour flavor I've come to love. It took on a tasty color too:

This sat on low heat under a metal cover for awhile, then I just plated it up and garnished with some fresh parsley.

Yogurt Basil Chicken!

And that was it! It didn't really get the same flavor as the last time, because dark meat isn't as ready to soak up flavor the way white meat does. It was really tender though.

Grilled Leeks

Leeks are great. They're a low-calorie, fat-free food offering a handful of important nutrients, including folate, iron, vitamin B6 and vitamin C. They also cook down to have a smooth buttery texture and have a great flavor. It's also a great way to ease onions into your diet, because leeks taste like a milder, meatier onion.

Cooking them was even easier than researching for that last paragraph. haha. First you clean your leeks, then you cut your leeks.

Butter in the pan, throw in some garlic: Garlic and leeks work well together. Just a quick toss about, then pour in some vegetable stock; just enough to cover your leeks.

Simple as that. just pop a cover over that and put your heat down to a medium low flame, just enough to simmer.

That'll sit there obediently for the next half hour, and when you open the lid again, most of the stock would have been boiled off or absorbed by the leeks, and you'll have smooth-as-butter, tasty veggies that taste like you labored over them for a good 20 minutes!

Herb Roasted Potatoes

This is my favorite dish for tonight, its the first time I'm trying this, and I sorta made it up as i went along. I only thought to take photos after they were in the oven though... ):

But this was another easy dish, in a large baking tin, I just threw in my potatoes, fresh rosemary, fresh parsley, some oregano, garlic, and olive oil. I tossed them about and then decided I could throw in some leeks too. then tossed them some more, added more olive oil, salt and pepper, then straight into the oven.

Just drizzle some olive oil every now and then, and that's rock n' roll.

When the potatoes look nice and crisp, and a fork should be able to pierce to the bottom of the tin without any resistance, you know they're good to go. Again with the fresh parsley, and done!

Am I going overboard with the parsley?

Quick and easy dinner for 5. It was fun to do too! Again, if you want a more precise recipe just drop a comment and I'll try and draft out a recipe card, but these are so simple, I'm sure you'll have no problem after reading through! Till next time!

Life is Pretty Awesome Today

It's been an interesting 370 days since my last post. I'm now in my last few weeks of internship, i'm doing an internship with Discovery Networks Asia-Pacific. It's the kind of thing where you wake up at 7AM, be grumpy because it's 7AM, but then count your blessings and realize how lucky you are on the way to work. That is, unless the commute is particularly rude that morning.


It's been really fun so far. The team is great fun to work with, and while the workload can get heavy, it's very varied, so I seldom find myself bored, and everything I do feels important, and that's really important for an intern - the worst thing would be to feel completely useless; cheap labor. That can get really demoralizing.

I've had the opportunity to produce UpNexts for DTL. Those are 15 second spots that go something like this:

Next...

He's the man who brought Gordon Ramsay to his knees.

And now, these contestants face the heat,

For a shot at owning their very own restaurant.

Marco Pierre White's Chopping Block... Next.

It's really fun. Haha. I've also had the opportunity to meet Ian Wright, Olly Steeds, and even Bobby Chinn.

Bobby Chinn Rubbing His Chin.

So that's what I've been doing for the past few months. That's not all though, but the rest, I'll leave for later posts. Look forward to more posts about my culinary adventures... and misadventures. Hopefully more of the former, though the latter may be pretty entertaining.

Oh! Whoever can guess the inspiration for the post title gets a cookie!

Back in... White?

So I came home today and just suddenly decided to post up on to my blog... First thing i noticed was: I forgot my log in details!

so did some snooping around. a fair bit of straining, staring at the ceiling looking for inspiration, then I decided to check my history... MY LOGIN DETAILS ARE STILL IN MY HISTORY. I really need to clean up my web browser...

Anyway. got in, took a step back, and wow. Blogger sure has improved since the last time I posted. new posting interface, (Which I haven't started using yet... let's figure out how to walk again before we run, shall we?) new template design interface, and PAGES! I really want to use the pages feature, but I'm not sure what I should do with it; I've got a few ideas though, have a look through the pages, let me know what you think.

Next thing. I should probably chime in with an update on my life as it's been since August 2009. But, that's for a later post. Lots of interesting things have been happening, both good and bad. I've gotten into some new traditions, drifted away from some traditions, discovered new values, and most importantly, i've learnt so much in the past year. But more on that in the near future. for now, you can continue surfing the internet in disbelief, that I'm back and ready to continue this blog.

Got quite abit of housekeeping to do though. look out for:

1. Standard Tag System
2. Regular Returning Articles (Kind of like a Column in a newspaper)
3. Multi-media tie in (Saving for a HDCAM!)
4. More pictures
5. More Interactivity
   

I know I have, as a blogger, let you down before. But the only way I can keep this thing going is with some good Author-Reader interactions, so lend me some sugar - I am your neighbor! I've got lots planned for this blog, but I need you to help me make it work.

I'm so excited right now I'm going to go to sleep! Check back before the end of the week!

I'M BACK.

After a 1 year coitus... i mean hiatus, I've been suddenly overcome with the sudden urge to post something!

I'll fill you in on what's been happening since I last chimed in to this web log, but first! I want you to help me write this story! I've started like this, leave a comment on what you want the next part to be about and i'll continue it before the end of the week:

"He awoke to the hiss that could only be produced by marrying cold market bacon to a hot, cast-iron pan; to the subtle vanilla-cinnamon perfume of freshly made pancakes, and the tangy, sweet aroma of fresh syrup being boiled down. There was no doubt that..."

I hope this is the start to something big, when everything's done, hopefully a month or 6 later, i'll post up the final product, the short story you all helped to write. Just leave a comment explaining to me what you want the next part to be about and i'll take the most original idea. of course, it needs to flow with the whole scheme of things, but that hasn't been established yet so go wild!

Oops

i think i missed one week. haha. forgive me, it was a busy week. but finally all the submittable ICAs are done. abit late in updating. haha. there's been alot of Team Fortress 2 lately. and now its exam period.

i realize i'm not consistent in TF2. sometimes my aim is true 90% of the time, and i make all the right decisions and become a very valuable member to the team. sometimes i can't hit the enemy at all, and become useless to the team. i think its 60-40. 60% Fail 40% Win. i wonder what makes 60% fail. once i figure that out i think i can bring it down.