laocook

Squid or Cuttlefish is cleaned, cut, scored and skewered, brushed with a mixture of Oyster Sauce, Light Soy Sauce and Garlic Puree, and dusted with Corn Flour before being briefly fried to resemble Lollipops.

As with most foods, overcooking them will make them chewy, make sure that the deep frying oil is clean and at 180º, it only takes a few seconds for them to brown then turn a crunchy golden colour.

We serve them with a sticky Soy and Honey based sauce, which is cooled in the fridge. Hot crunchy Squid Lollipops with Cold Dipping Sauce…lovely…

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For dessert tonight King made some “Kanom Chun” (Layered Dessert) using Coconut and Pandan Juice which he extracted from our last remaining Pandan Leaves which were brought over from France. The delicate aroma of the extract is wonderful, refreshing and vibrantly green.

However, we found that the fine and subtle aroma of the Pandan can sometimes become lost or overpowered by the Coconut and Sugar. To remedy this we served it with our “Pandan Air” (made with what little was left over from King´s recipe.)

The “Air” is a texture much like bubbles, but lighter than “Foam”, the latter needing a Cream or Fat based substance to hold it together. When eaten, the “Air” leaves no sensation on the tongue, instead it “disappears or vapourises” and is therefore “tasted” via the Olfactory Glands (this sentence reminds me of Perfume by Patrick Suskind a fantastic book).

The “Pandan Air” sits on top of a Jasmin Tea Jelly made by our Pastry section.