A Diary of Cooking for a Doctor's Birthday

I was booked to cook a week ago by an account manageress who works in Singapore!

My body vibe is recently rendered to vibrate in a low and slow frequency mode, I know exactly why. Then I rode on a 2050 time machine (a dream) to have an awakening. 

We always have to live on creatively and resourcefully, we have to ride above the adversities to be a winner. If we can't find anyone to love us, support us and cherish us fully, then we really have to live as a loner but also acted as a hopeless narcissist! 
^ _ ^ 

It's time to kick-start my afternoon of cooking, first I turned on a theta music or classical music to promote beautiful crystals in my food, that's the reason I never got sick or got fatter since the day I attended chef school! 

I realized why chefs never have problems in conceiving the next generation due to their food crystals were shaped according to a most common heard four-letter word in all the commercial kitchens! If someone's food was burnt, the chef also wanted to fxxk the black carbon! Isn't that amusing?

11:30 - Start to soak Adzuki bean, it will be used to prepare Adzuki konnyaku jelly dessert. 

12:00  - Start to cook the red bean, still taking my sweet time, didn't do any other mise en place yet!

13:00 - Started to prepare the red bean Konnyaku jelly and the two salads

This Adzuki bean konnyaku jelly got three layers, the bottom layer is clear red bean soup, the middle layer is filled with red bean and the top layer is filled with red bean puree. 

Polish traditional red cabbage salad, besides Poland, New Zealand is anther great country to prepare this nutritious and healthy salad, it goes well almost with any meat and fish dishes.

Chilled garden salad with dressing prepared. This is my business sticker, everyone likes my business name and my business logo. I designed the business logo, I will tell you who is the celebrity chef who named my business if only From the Piano Chef earns its first bucket of gold!

Something difference of this dressing from normal dressings was the moment you mixed it with the salad, immediately you could smell its aroma

14:30- Started to prepare Asian-Western fusion seafood sauce for mussels, my herbal knowledge is applied on this sauce, the herb used can prevent seafood poisoning and it also enhanced very nice aroma and flavor to the sauce

Still taking my sweet time. The only mise en place I did was preparing the  fresh sambal ingredients, cutting the Brussels sprouts and giving the carrot a nice Japanese cutting. Anyone sees me playing and concocting Asian herbs and spices would fall in love with me.... thus I chose to work alone. I don't want anyone to get near me asking, "What's the fxxk you put in there?" Now you know why some chefs produced smelly belachan? 

15:00 - Making carrot cake, everyone can make carrot cake, the only differences is the flavor

This was how the birthday cake eventually looked like, the topping was prepared from saffron cream cheese!

Started to cook sushi rice and steam golden kumara to prepare this kumara sushi rice cakes.

Prepare the Thai style crispy fish's mixed vegetable salad and mango sauce, still took my sweet time in the kitchen

16:45 - Received a call to confirm pick up dinner at 18:00 asked if I could get it ready on time, of course I said yes, but where were the meat dishes? Honestly, all of them were still in the fridge raw, unwashed and unseasoned! But I was quite sure, food poisoning wouldn't happen if food was cooked and served within two hours!

17:00 -  My stove was only by then gotten fully on heat, and my blood was running the fastest since the whole weekend, I started to prepare crispy pork belly. Real cooking only started... I loved the cooking challenged with limited time! That's my cooking character, if I cooked simple dishes without any recipes, my stove would only get heated on the last hour!

Crispy pork belly with really yummy pork jus. Bad photo taken due to overhead light reflection.

17:05 - I only started to deep fry the two fish, double fried them took a while as my wok was small

17:45 - Only started to steam the mussels

17:55 - Finally stir-fried Sambal Brussels Sprout and Carrot




Preparing some fancy Asian dishes are much more difficult in catering business than western food, menu has to be carefully planned and considered to ensure any vegetable wouldn't turn yellow or soggy after stir-frying. Like the crispy fish during delivery, the tail of the fish could be easily broken with slight impact. 


Also, recently the fresh mango was mostly over-ripen in Auckland's supermarket or simply there was no stock availed. In such case, frozen mango could be replaced but the preparation method used had to be planned wisely to ensure freshness during presentation.

From the Piano Chef, please consider us when you want Asian-Western unusual menu and unusual dishes. We are very knowledgeable in tropical herbs and spices, we are also excelled in concocting breakfast juice and different kind of breakfast healthy hot drinks to compliment your breakfast meal.

From the Piano Chef’s Program Cuisine Breakfast

Eiffel's Tower 

 Beetroot Pancakes with Kale Tapenade Spread, Cold Smoked Salmon, Meringue with Herbal Croutons, Egg Yolks and Cheese, Beetroot Sabayon

There is program music intended to evoke images or convey the impression of events.

From the Piano Chef, we have decided to release a series of creative breakfast meals called program cuisine, a genre of nouvelle cuisine by using a programmatic name for such created dish, intended to evoke images or convey an impression of such meal.

As a hardworking chef, I really think breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  Eiffel’s Tower is a fine dining breakfast meal, it’s not a lazy chef’s breakfast meal. It comprises almost all the necessary ingredients of a big breakfast or continental breakfast components in it but constructed in a refined way that required a chef’s good hands dexterity.

From the Piano Chef, we also create breakfast recipe that doesn't look too childish for adults or too elegant for children, everybody eyeing for it, everyone keen to try the components in it, it is always fresh, nutritious, healthy and delicious!

We are looking forwards chefs from all over the world to practice this 5-stars program cuisine breakfast meals!

Eiffel’s Tower

Ingredients (1 portion):

1 large Egg, separated, whisk egg white until firm, meringue

1 pinch Salt, meringue

3g Icing powder, meringue

2 tbsp Herbal croutons

1tbsp Meat filling or cold smoked salmon

2 drops Lemon juice

2 tbsp Cheese

A piece of starch either bread, pancake, hash brown or rice, spread or mixed with garlic butter or herbal butter

Method:

1.       Prepare starch, cut into three pieces with the ring, prepare croutons, herbal or vegetable spread, meat or salmon, set aside

2.       Whisk the egg white until firm, then add lemon juice, a pinch of salt and icing powder, continue to whisk until very firm

3.       In a greased ring mould, place a piece of starch on the lowest, spread the filling, place the minced meat or salmon on top, repeat. On top of the third piece of starch, after spread the filling, spread the meringue, add croutons, press. Make an indent space to place yolk in the center securely, finally place the egg yolk on, cover with cheese

4.       Release the ring mould, place the quirky egg into a salamander, gratinize.

5.       Serve it with a sauce of your choice

From the Piano Chef’s Tomato Sauce

Ingredients (4 portions):

6 large Roma tomato, skinless and deseed, chop

1 tbsp Tomato paste

2 small pickle onion

1 tsp Tapenade

¼ Jalapeno chili

1 Grilled black garlic

2 tbsp toasted pine nuts

8 Basil leaves

5g Coriander

3g Tarragon

2 tsp Balsamic

½ tsp Dijon mustard

2 tbsp Extra virgin oil

1 tbsp White wine

½ tsp Tapioca starch, mix with a little water

TT Salt, pepper, and sugar

Method:

1.      Sweat onion with olive oil, then add black garlic, continue to sweat, add tomato paste, deglaze with wine, add fresh tomato, simmer for 20 minutes

2.      Mix in all ingredients to tomato sauce, check seasoning

3.      Blend in a blender until puree

4.      Boil once to reach food safety temperature.

From the Piano Chef’s Vegetable Spread

Ingredients:

1.      50g Green vegetable of your choice (Can use mushroom or mix of mushroom)

2.      2 tsp tapenade

3.      ½ clove garlic

4.      ½ tbsp onion

5.      3g Parsley leaves

6.      A pinch of fermented chili flake

7.      3 drops of lemon

8.      1 tbsp Walnut or pine nut

9.      TT, sugar, salt and pepper

10.  2 tablespoons extra virgin oil or butter

Method:

1.      Stir-fry the ingredients

2.      Blitz the ingredients until puree

From the Piano Chef's Creation April 2017

Creative, Fresh, Authentic, Healthy!

From the Piano Chef, every week new recipes are created based on specific healthy ingredients. We believe in sharing our ideas and creativity. 

Creation based on Amaranth 

Amaranth Pancake, Banana Gratin, Amaranth Banana Cheese Puree

Amaranth Sauce, Dip, Spread, Puree or Dressing, they are all healthy and very nutritious

From the Piano Chef: We chose Amaranth Smoked Mussel Sauce as a spread for breakfast toast

Amaranth could be prepared as a noodle dough. Amaranth tasted wild with a specific odor, I ate it since I was young, I know what other ingredients could compliment it.

Amaranth Asian style noodle

My mentor asked me why I didn't try to create a fusion  from my birth origin, so I created this special Sambal Amaranth Pesto

And the above Amaranth pesto went perfectly with this Amaranth noodle, accompany or garnish with Bonito flakes, this creative dish was dedicated to my mentor, and I was advised to use itogaki for refined garnishing. Real yummy dish, all Malaysian, Singaporean and Indonesian surely will love this new very nutritious creation

Creation based on Burdock

Burdock leaf's pasta dough. To make successful pasta dough, it shouldn't be soft

Burdock fettuccini freshly came out from pasta machine

After drying for a while

Fettuccini with Red Algae Fish Balls on Asian fusion pasta sauce made of burdock stalk, yellow beetroot, and daikon with mutti

Fettuccini was toasted with olive oil and parsley

Pasta sheets prepared for tortellini

Half-baked Burdock Tortellini with Red Algae Fish Paste Filling on Pasta Sauce

Creation based on Saffron

 Asian style Saffron egg noodle. Asian noodle always looked yellow, some of them added turmeric, but most of them were added with the coloring agent or even forbidden chemical. To add saffron to the noodle to produce similar vibrant color that Asian like is prepared for a 5-Stars meal. It is 10 times more expensive than regular noodle.

Saffron noodle before cooking

Saffron noodle after quick blanching

The vibrant color of saffron noodle. Someone challenged me if I was given a fifty dollar a plate but without using the expensive seafood to prepare Chinese style noodle, could I produce a 5-Stars noodle, so here it was.

This is the ultimate treat prepared from the fresh A-grade NZ Golden Queen peach, saffron (I used the grounded saffron as well), and Konnyaku jelly. 5-star treat as dessert

Even before I was a trained chef, I began my own creation, when I didn't like the over sweetened cheesecake with biscuits as cheesecake base, I returned home created sugarless mixed nuts and mixed fruits base. The secret of a cheesecake is the carefully thought distribution of sweetness in my cheesecake creation. There is also a balance of calories. By using konnyaku which is known to flush out 25% of your calories, this cheesecake is thus not as fattening as other versions of cheesecake. 

Ideas in creating new dishes, application of healthy ingredients and even plating style

Duck is high cholesterol meat, using half roasting half confit cooking techniques, it helps to release its fat, parsley is one of the best herbs used to cook duck in health-wise choice. This herbal sauce used more than 10 secret ingredients. It was accompanied by confit of apple as well. And it's tummy was filled with Asian sweet rice with raisin, saffron and water chestnuts. You definitely like it when you see the most beautiful green color oil and confit apple slices when it is done.

Just for fun, change the famous Chinese style steamed Chinese cabbage with scallop's plating.

Carrot cupcake with a secret popular component added besides walnuts and sultanate used, I don't like pineapple in carrot cake, I grew up with too much pineapple and carrot, I don't think the two are a good combination. This carrot cake is garnished with carrot puree icing topping, this cupcake has fewer calories than most cupcakes.

Samples of Family Style Meals Menu Planning and Recipes From the Piano Chef

Eating Mexican-Texan Fajitas can be real fun. Prepare your own authentic Mexican-Texan style Fajitas on tortillas, even the tortillas will be handmade by you. Chef Si learned the authentic way from her Mexican-American classmates' mothers in the valleys when she studied in South Texas. 

• From the Piano Chef, we create balanced menu planning, give ideas and suggestions for your family meals according to your budgets.

• Chef Si also incorporates healthy juice, Chinese tonic tea and herbal drinks for your breakfast meals. We design a menu according to your health status, age, your children's age, ethnic background, eating habit and taste buds exposure. 

• Our recipes are creative and full of surprises, they can last you at least for 6 months at a minimum cost. We design the menu and recipes in such a way that you will be willing to pay for it. 

• We design your menu by interviewing you, check the status of your cooking standard, will provide assistance and rapport if you want to improve your cooking standard, create more fun, a network of sharing, healthier and interesting dishes to your family meals.

• Tell us what you want, we design your daily meals plan. You soon will find out cooking is fun, the best hobby that you acquired. You trust your own healthy, clean and hygienic food that you handle, also you may find out you don't get sick as often. 

 

• We write family meal style menu and recipes for customers worldwide, we will take the case in a condition if we are able to help you.