Chilli bean eggplant and minced pork

Ingredient:

2 oriental eggplant
2 tbsp cooking oil
2tbsp bottled chilli bean sauce
1 tbsp crushed garlic
200g minced pork
1 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp Chinese black vinegar
3/4 cup chicken stock
2tsp cornstarch, dissolved in water
2 spring onions, chopped
1 red chilli

Methods:
Cut thr eggplants into halves lengthwise and then cut each half into thick sticks.
Steam the eggplant until tender, for 8 minutes.Set aside.
Heat the oil ina  deep frying pan or wok until it starts to simmer.
Add the garlic and fry till fragrant.
Add the pork, lightsoy sauce, chilli bean sauce and stir-fry until the pork is browned.
Add the chicken stock, vineger and eggplant and toss with more soy sauce or salt.
Mix Cornstach with water and stir in until the mixture thickens.
Add the spring onion and chilli and fry for another minutes.
Serve with steamed white rice.

Mild on its own yet flovoursome when cooked- Brinjal

The eggplant goes by many names; Brinjal, aubergine, egg apple, Guinea squash, or garden egg. The name "eggplant" itself developed in the US, Auatralia, New Zealand and Canada because the fruit of some 18th century European cultivars were yellowor white and resemble goose or hen eggs.

The British refers to it as "aubergine", which was dervied from the French, who in turn derived it from the Catalan "alberginia" In India and South Africa, the fruit is called 'brinjal', which is often the name it is referred to in our local markets.

All Cooked up
This spongy, mild-tasting vegetables is meaty yet low in calories.Unlike most fruit, it is never eaten raw but lends itself well to many cooking methods like grillling, baking, sauteing or braising. Like a sponge, the eggplant soaks up any liquid it is immersed in and some unwitting cooks have found themselves with a soggy mound of incredibly oily eggplant.To avoid this, when frying or sauteing eggplant, be sure to steam them first so that they are already moist and don't need too much oil to turn soft. Similarly, when grilling, simply brush olive over your eggplant slice and griled. The oil si quickly absorbed but is enough to soften the eggplant ar the cooking time progressess.

When choosing eggplants, look for those that are firm and shiny and with unbroken skin. Male eggplant tend to have fewer seeds and so are less bitter than female eggplant- but this is all but indiscernible. Still, to completely eradicate any bitterness , you can cut your eggplant according to your recipe and sprinkle some salt over them. Leave them to rest for about 12-20 minutes and drain the water that is released. Some chefs say that this process also helps to prevent the eggplant from abosrbing too much liquid or oil when cooking.

There are numerous types of eggplants, all of which require a warm climate to thrive. The best-known variety is the purple eggplant which is relatively long and fat. The longer variety of eggplant, in a slightly lighter shade of purple(more common in wet market) are referred to oriental eggplant, while the smaller, slightly streaked eggplant are called apple eggplant, These are commonly used in Thai and Indian dishes.

Tips: To determine the sex of an eggplant, look at the indentation at the bottom. If it is deep and shaped like  dash, it is a female. If it is shallow and round, it's male.

Seafood Zest- Grilled Prawns with papaya-flavoured sweet potato, thai asparagus amd fruit salsa

Ingredient - Serves 4
 8 pcs of king prawns- wash and de-vein the prawns, leaving the tail, season with sea salt and pepper.
16pcs of Thai asparagus
100ml of olive oil

for the flavoured sweet potato:
160gm sweet potatoes, cubed
80gm papaya
30ml fresh orange juice
10ml fresh lemon juice

for the seasoning:
sea salt
black pepper, crushed

for the fruit salsa:
120ml tomato coulis
40g fresh tomatoes
20g fresh red chilli
40g avocados
40g fresh mango
30g shallots
10g coriander

for garnishing:
fresh chervil

Methods:
Heat the pan and add 2 tsp of olive oil and grill the prawn for about 6-7 mins.
To make the flavoured potatoes. Add the sweet potato cubes in a pot of boiling water to boil for abt 20mins. Mix the boiled sweet potatoes with papaya., lemon juice and orange juice.
Put the Thai asparagus in apot of boiling water and boil for 2 mins.
To make the fruit salsa: cut the tomatoes, chillies, avocados, mangoes , shallots and coriander. Mix the ingredient with tomato coulis and olive oil.
Pour the fruit salsa over the prawn and the side of the plate. Garnish and serve.

Recipes from Stamford Catering - Patrick Tang

Fusion Cusine- Malay/ Western - Chicken 'Bergedil'

Ingredients:
Potatoes- Baked and Mashed - 200g
Vegetable oil - 15ml
Garlic Chopped - 5g
Shallots- chopped - 20g
Leek - Chopped Finely - 20g
Minced Chicken -100g
Nutmeg powder -11/2 tsp
Egg Beaten - 2pc
Salt & pepper to taste

Method:
1. Heat the vegetable oil and sauted garlic., shallot and leek over medium heat for 2 mins. Stir constantly. Add in the minced chicken and saute for another 5 mins. Set aside. in a bowl, combine the mixture with mashed potato. Season with salt, nutmeg and pepper. Shape the mixture into round shape. Dip each patty into the egg and fry on each side till golden brown.

Or :

you may want to dip into egg then roll on breadcrumb for addtional flavors. Then deep fried it for about 2-3 mins.

Cream of Asparagus

Ingredient:Fish Stock - 1 litre
Shallot - 100gm
Garlic - 30gm
Butter - 50gm
Salt - to taste
Asparagus dices 250gm
Cream -150gm

For Decorative purpose:
Whole crayfish
Poached Quail egg
Chervil
Home dried tomatoes

Methods:

Sauteed Shallot and half  cut garlic in butter on a slow fire in a thick bottomed pan until translucent,now add the aspsargus to it and cook for another 10-20 mins. Season it with Salt.
add the crayfish stock to it and let it stimmer, cook the asparagus through, add cream to it and boil.
Use a hand blender to blend, Check the seasoning again and strain with fine sieve.
Blanc the whole live crayfish -tail in boiling water for 3 mins. Refresh shell out and cool it down, cut into medalluion, use 2 medallions per potion.
Serve with crayfish and top with dried tomatoes and egg.

Pan Seared Codfish with Dry Scallop and wolfberry sauce

Ingredients:

Codfish fillet- 120gm

garlic- 30gm

Red Onion - 30 gm

Dried Scallop- 30gm

wolfberry - 10gm

Abalone mushroom- 80gm

Chicken Stock - adequate

Cooking oil - 100ml

oyster sauce- 1 1/2 tsp

Light Soya Sauce- 1/2 tsp

Dark Soya Sauce- few drops

Chinese wine- 1tsp
Salt to taste
pepper to taste

Methods:
Season codfish with salt and pepper. Heat saucepan with cooking oil, pan sear codfish on both sides till it turns golden brown. Fry Garlic, red onion, dry scallop and wokfberry till fragnant, Add oyster sauce, light soya sauce, dark soya sauce, Chicken stock and chinese wine, let it reduce for 10mins. Suateed abalone mushrooms and golden mushroom with chopped garlic , season with salt and pepper.Serve.

Norwegian Salmon Cutlet Grilled with Rosemary & Carameliazed Lemon

Ingredient:
4 pcs Salmon Fillet
Fresh Rosemary(bruised)- 1 sprig
Virgin Olive oil 30ml
sea salt 1 tsp
freshly ground black pepper to taste
mesclun salad 100gm
extra virgin olive oil- 20ml

Caramelized lemon
butter- 1 tsp
lemon- halved 2 pcs

methods:
Marinade salmon with rosemary , olive oil, sea salt and black pepper in a bowl for 20mins. Remove rose,ary and grill the 2 cm thick salmon for 1 min on each side. Set aside for 3-5 mins before serving.

Make caramelized lemon. Rub butter over halved lemons, grill flesh side down till caramelized for about 2 mins.

Place Grilled Salmon onto centre of the serving plate. Garnish with caramelized lemon. Drizzle olive oil over the mesclun salad before serving.