Potato Salad

This is a simple and easy-to-do potato salad that packs flavour. Its great for pot luck gatherings and can be done a day in advance of the party.

One important note though, get the waxy skin potatoes as opposed to the rough skin kinds. Waxy potatoes have a lower starch content and will hold their shape better after cooking. They will retain more of a bite as opposed to the starchy variety. Among the potato varieties commonly found in our local markets, I use the "Bastragi Granola" or "New potatoes" (potatoes harvested young) for salads. The red potatoes are great as well. Basically, go for a potato that has a smooth slightly waxy exterior.

The most common starchy potato variety found here is the Russet etc. Starchy potatoes have a very rough exterior. They are great for fries, curries and baked whole. They have a higher starch content and has less of a bite when cooked. The russet potatoes are what I used for the crispy oven baked potatoes.

We do not get a large variety of potatoes being an Asian city state but I guess you are still able to find at least 1 type of waxy potato in the nearby market/supermarket.

Here is what you'll need for 4
500g potatoes.
4-6 Hard boiled eggs (optional) - quartered length-wise.
3 stalks spring onion - sliced
1/2 diced zucchini (optional)
1/2 smallish yellow onion - finely diced
1/2 Mayo (The Japanese mayo seems to garner a more positive response from my guests)
3-4 tablespoons Bacon Chips  - self made or store bought is fine. I do not recommend the artifical bacon chips though.
1 teaspoon sugar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper


Steps
1. Cook the potatoes. Place them in a pot with enough water to fully cover the potatoes. Cover and boil over the stove. When the water comes to a boil, lower heat and continue to cook for another 2 minutes. Take out one potato and check whether its done by poking a fork into the potato. If it goes in without alot of strength required, your potato is done. Leave it to cool to room temperature. About an hour or so. Cut the potatoes into large bite sized chunks and set aside.

2. In a large mixing bowl add in all the spring onion, diced onion, zucchini, bacon, a small pinch of salt, sugar and a generous hit of black pepper. Mix well. Then add in the mayo and mix everything together. Doing it this way helps to ensure a uniform distribution of ingredients. (hopefully preventing your guests getting a spoonful of onion!).

3. Add in the potatoes and eggs in the large bowl with the mayo. Mix well. Best served after chilling for at least an hour or 2.

4. Garnish with spring onion and bacon and serve.

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Salad with Crackling Pork Belly

Made this for our anniversary dinner. The plating style is not something I'm used to but I decided to try something fancy since it was a special occasion. The wife likes it, so I must be doing something right.

Pumpkin Salad with Crackling Pork Belly

Pumpkin and macadamia were born to be best friends. They go together superbly. The pumpkin discs went well with the pork. The slight bitterness of the rocket with salty pork was awesome. Asparagus was great with the macadamias and puree.
Did I mention there was Pork belly with crackling, I mean do we really need anything else other than that?

Ingredients for 2
About 300 grams pork belly with skin on
About 1/2 of whole butternut squash
10 stalks of asparagus - bases trimmed
1 cup of rocket leaves - washed
1/2 cup of macadamia nuts
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Vinaigrette dressing
1/2 cup Italian Parsley
1 shallot
1 clove of garlic
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
juice of 1/2 a lemon

Prepare the pumpkin/squash
1. Peel the pumpkin and cut them into slices about 1.5 cm thick. (just estmate, does not have to be exact). An average sized squash should give you about 6 slices from the fleshy part of the fruit. (The upper part without the seeds)

2. Using a small cookie cutter, cut out discs from the slices. Set these discs aside.

3. Roughly cut up the rest of the pumpkin. Wrap them all in a large piece of foil and bake in a pre-heated oven at 160 degress for about 45 mins.

4. Place the baked pumkin pieces in a food processor and puree until smooth. Scoop out and set aside. You can pass the puree trough a find mesh seive for a even smoother puree. Mix in the butter and season with a pinch of salt. Reserve and set aside

5. In a saute pan, heat some cooking oil over a medium heat. When oil is heated, cook the pumpkin discs till they brown on the outside and soft in the middle. About 6 minutes per-side. (depending on the thickness) Set aside when done.

Roasting the pork
1. With a very sharp knife, score the skin of the pork with parallel lines about 1/2 a centimeter apart. (A stanley knife works great for this). The cuts you make should also get into some of the fat under the skin, but do not cut all the way to the lean meat under the skin. Salt the skin generously, making sure to rub the salt in the cuts. Pepper the sides as well.

2. Place pork on a baking dish and cook in the oven set to "grill" mode for 45 minutes. Until the skin
"crackles" fully. When done remove from heat. Cut into 2 and set aside.

While the pork is in the oven, prepare the rest of the stuff
1. To make the Vinaigrette, put all Vinaigrette ingredients in a food processor and blitz till smooth. Add a small splash of water if its too dry or too hard to blend. season with salt and pepper to taste. Reserve and set aside

2. Toast the macadamias in a pan over medium heat until they brown. No oil needed. Reserve and set aside

3. Blanch the aspargus for 1 minute in salted boiling water. Then shock them in cold water. dress lightly with extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper.

To plate, if you wanna try your hand and fancy plating, you can try "pulling" the puree across the plate. Dress the plate how ever you like. I found that plating in this general order helps.

Pumpkin Puree, Pork, Pumpkin discs, macadamias, asparagus, rocket and lastly the vinaigrette.

Enjoy.

Spicy Thai Style Chicken Salad

Thai style grilled chicken salad

Was looking to make something spicy for dinner on day and we had chicken thighs in the fridge. So I went out got some lemongrass and corriander and lettuce.

Tangy, savoury, sweet and spicy at the same time. A very refreshing dish to have on its own but this salad goes great with any south East Asian themed meal as well. Ingredients are relatively low cost but the dish still delivers a great meal. Definitely punches above its weight.

Serves 2 (As a meal) or 4-6 as a side dish.

Ingredients:
For grilled chicken
2 boneless chicken thighs (I get them all the time at Cold Storage, 2 for S$4.79)
2 tablespoons grated fresh lemongrass
1 tablespoon fish sauce
2 tablespoons Thai sweet chilli sauce
3 cloves garlic - grated/finely minced
Juice of half a large lime

Salad Dressing
2 tablespoons Thai sweet chilli sauce.
1 tablespoon fish sauce
2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
Juice of half a large lime
2 chilli padi - sliced
1 clove of garlic - minced/grated

Rest of the stuff
1/2 purple onion - sliced
2-3 cups lettuce - roughly chopped
1/2 cucumber - sliced
1 bunch of corriander - roughly chopped
3 stalks spring onion - chopped to 1-2 cm lengths.
1 tomato - sliced into strips
100 grams rice vermicelli

1. To prepare marinade for the Thai style grilled chicken, mix all the ingredients (except the chicken) in a large bowl. Place the chicken thighs one at a time in the bowl. Ensure the chicken is well coated/covered with the marinade. Place the chicken in a resealable bag, pour the remaining marinade into the bag. Seal and let it rest in the fridge for at least an hour.

2. To cook the chicken, grill (skin side up) in a preheated oven at 200 degrees celsius for about 35 minutes.

3. While the chicken is cooking, you can prepare the dressing and veg. Mix all salad dressing ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

4. Cook the vermicelli according to package instructions. Then allow it to cool. (you can place it in the fridge or use some ice cubes.

5. In a large salad bowl, mix all the vegetables with the vermicelli thoroughly. Then pour in the dressing, tasting as you go. Mix everything well.

6. Serve the chicken in cut pieces on top of the veg. Drizzle the chicken with juices from the roasting pan and serve.

Enjoy!

Roasted Chicken and Baby Spinach Salad

I thought this up when I needed a carb-free dinner one evening. But you could serve roasted potatoes on the side as a carb element. Its an easy to do chicken salad dinner. Basically oven roasted chicken on a simple salad.

Grilled Chicken and Baby Spinach Salad

The chicken was really great, the lemons added a nice hit of acidity to chicken as well as the salad. The dressing was light and refreshing. The lemon infused roasting juices helped to lift the salad up with its acidity. Nice and fresh veg don't really need a heavy dressing.

Ingredients for 2
2 boneless chicken thighs

spice rub:
1 tablespoon parika
1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
1 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves
1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Rest of the stuff:
1 Lemon - Thickly sliced. Should get about 6 slices at most from a whole lemon.
1 cup baby spinach
1/2 cup chopped romaine lettuce
1.2 cup rocket leaves
Parmesan cheese.
1 tablespoon mixed seeds (use your favourite seeds, e.g pine nuts, sunflower seeds, sliced almonds etc)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt and pepper to taste.

Steps:
1. Mix all spice rub ingredients together in a large bowl. Coat both chicken thighs fully and place them in a resealable bag, pour any remaining run into the bag. Mix well, shake the bag a little, don't be shy about it :)

2. Lay the lemon slices on a baking tray. Use them as a base for the chicken. Lay the chicken on the lemon slices, skin side up. Its alright if the chicken is alot larger than the base of lemon slices. Cook in a preheated oven 180 degrees celsius for 35 minutes.
(optional but I like to do this. Use the grill function for the last 3-5 minutes.)

3. While the chicken is cooking, you can prep the salad. Mix all the salad greens well. Season with salt and pepper and toss with Extra Virgin olive oil and mixed seeds.

4. Optional - When the chicken thighs are cooked, cut them up into more manageable sizes.

5. Dish the salad onto individual dishes and garnish generously with Parmesan.

6. Lay the chicken on the veg, drizzle with the lemony roasting juices. Serve with more freshly ground pepper if you like.

Enjoy.

Thai style Crispy Pork Lettuce wraps.

This dish is inspired by what I saw on Gordon Ramsay's Ultimate Cookery course.

Thai style Crispy Pork Lettuce Wraps with chilli Corriander dressing

Here is what you'll need

For the mince stirfry:
300 Grams minced pork
4-6 garlic cloves - chopped
2 stalks spring onion - sliced
juice of half a large lime
lime zest
drizzle of Thai fish sauce
1 teaspoon sesame seed oil
cooking oil for frying
1-2 stalks of large chillies - sliced
1 bunch Baby romaine lettuce

For the dressing:
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon light soya sauce
2 teaspoons Thai fish sauce
2 teaspoons brown sugar (regular sugar works too)
Juice of the other half of the lime
1 bunch coriander - roughly chopped
1 stalk of large chilli - sliced