Archive for February, 2009
We serve marinated Duck Breast at the restaurant that is cooked “on the bone”. This way the breast has more flavour and tenderness.
Seeing as we buy the ducks whole, the legs and wings are removed for other recipes (the wings being used in stocks). The Duck Breast is a very popular dish on the menu so we end up having loads of legs left over.
We use some of the legs in our “Dtom Khem”, which is basically a Caramel Soy Braised Dish which is sometimes served as a Daily Special. Other times we include the legs in our Stocks (broths) and use the resulting meat to make Croquettes.
One day I asked one of the cooks to shred the legs, which he did very well but he also happened to throw away the fat and skin by mistake! :shock: .
After calming down 
(and picking up the pots and pans that had been strown inadvertently) I sat down to think about what I could use the meat for (Croquettes, the original idea needed some degree of fat in the recipe to ensure a succulent interior).
As it happened, fate had left us with some Foie Gras in the fridge, so I decided to match the pair and make a pressed Terrine.
Terrines are named after the cooking vessel that they were originally cooked in (like Paella is named after its cooking pan, the paellera), however nowadays it can refer to any stacked, shaped and set cold dish.
For our Terrine I decided to add some pickled Daikon and Carrots to compliment the Foie Gras and some Jamón (Spanish Ham).
The two “terrines” have been pressed for 24 hours.
Galangal is a root that goes by many names. Sometimes it can be found being called “Blue Ginger”, or “Thai Ginger”, or being spelt “Galangale” or “Galanga”.
It is an essential ingredient in South East Asian cooking, especially Thai cuisine. It parts a tender sweetness and spiciness to dishes as well as a pleasant sharpness. It has many medicinal properties and can be found in many remedies including processed and nautral herbal ones..
It is a fundamental ingredient in the Thai soup “Dtom Kha Gai”, meaning Boiled Galangal Chicken (soup) and not Boiled Chicken Leg (soup) as I thought it was for many years….. :shock: .
Recently we served up some warm Galangal Soup as an Amuse Bouche.
Warm Galangal Soup with Galangal Infused Cream.
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Furthering our sausage making adventures we prepared some Soured Laotian Style ones.
The recipe is basically similar to the normal Laotian Style Sausage, however some cooked and washed Sticky Rice is added along with some Rice Water.
It is then allowed to “sour” at room temperature for two days so that the flavour can develop, before being stuffed in to the casings then refrigerated to slow down the process.