Fusion Delusion

You know thing have come to a head when someone has made an ice cream out of Chinese claypot rice, lap cheong and all. Pace Heston Blumental and the rest of the liquid nitrogen gang, I’m going to spend the rest of the evening with a copy of Alice Water’s Chez Panisse Cooking but therein lies another kitchen dilemna. Fresh, seasonal produce? Not in Singapore. At least we will have some good wan ton noodles to look forward to in Hong Kong tomorrow.

Masala tea

Porco never ceases to be amazed that there is at least one person a day out there in the blogosphere who visits this site in search of a recipe for Indian tea with spices and by the way, it is spelled masala not marsala as originally printed. Pig mistake.

Porc luck

So last weekend was a bit of a kitchen disaster – Saturday lunch was jellied eggplant, ravioli filled with prawn and watercress, braised mustard stems in chicken broth, consomme flavoured with Earl Grey tea and beef brisket with roasted sweet potato mash. Everything was fine except Porco failed to notice the olive oil had gone off. Bugger. 

Yesterday’s Sunday lunch

Eats:

Eggplant mousse with a red pepper coulis

Parfait of chicken liver with a port and onion jam

Shrimp ravioli with laksa pesto

Tomato salad in tomato confit

Frozen lychees

Veloute of sesame prawn toast

Crispy chicken with vegetable tagine in red date sauce

Glugs:

Pol Roger NV

De Bertoli Noble One Semillion 2003

Clos de l’Oratoire 2000

Thelema Cabernet Sauvignon 1986

Menu for dinner next week

Trio of appetisers – timbales of liver and bacon with a port reduction, mousse of eggplant, tomato confit and tomato jellly with salsa verde.

Foam of sesame prawn toast.

Chilled salad of cucumber and apple in a dressing of chive yoghurt and ikura roe.

Pan-fried duck breast in orange sauce with duck ragout in red wine and stewed haricot beans.

Not sure what to do about dessert. 

Marsala Tea

Mortar and pestle – pound together 8 green cardamom pods, a stick of cinnamon, 6 bits of cloves and a knob of ginger. Optional – nutmeg and pepper. Boil in a mixture of 2 cups water and a cup of milk. Smell and bring to simmer. Two teabags and turn off heat. Steep and sweeten to taste. Serves 2.