Chicken Puff

I went to a Christmas Carol in the park with friends today, we had a fabulous little picnic where everyone just bring something to contribute for the picnic. My contribution today is my Chicken Puff that took me about 2-3 hours to make in total.

For 7 people

Ingredients :

• Ready made puff pastry - I used Pampas Pastry
• 1/2 cooked diced chicken (it can be boiled - I bought charcoal chicken from supermarket)
• 1/2 cup diced frozen carrot
• 1/2 cup onion
• 2 boiled egg diced
• 1/2 bunch Dill/ parsley chopped
• 100ml - 150ml milk
• salt
• pepper
• a pinch of sugar
• a pinch of cumin
• 1-2 tablespoon plain flour
• 1 whisked egg + 1 tablespoon of water (for glazing)

My ready made puff pastry, 6 sheets in a pack

Method - Chicken filling :

1. Stir fry onion & carrot for about 5 minutes
2. Add chicken, boiled egg, dill/ parsley, milk, salt, pepper, sugar, stir for about 5 minutes
3. Thicken by adding 1 tablespoon of plain flour

Method - Wrapping Option 1 :
I copied the wrapping method from the Pampas pastry packaging, it looks good but a little extra care needs to be taken.

1. Lay a sheet of greaseproof paper, lay pastry, spread chicken filling and start rolling
2. Spreading the filling over the puff pastry
3. Roll it like sushi - Leave about 2cm from the border - I forgot to do this...I had to scoop out the excess.
4. Lay aluminum foil in your oven tray & lightly greased them with butter
   
5. Brush the top with whisked egg glazing mixture
6. Bake at 220 degrees till golden brown

Oven hot !!

Method - Wrapping Option 2 :
I think this is an easier option, I actually make this version as well because I was lazy to make the roll.

1. Cut Puff Pastry into 9 squares
2. Put 1 tablespoon of chicken filling in the middle of the square
3. Fold it (triangle shape)
4. Lay aluminium foil in your oven tray & lightly greased them with butter
   
5. Brush the top with whisked egg glazing mixture
6. Bake at 220 degrees till golden brown

Sepia Restaurant

One more Birthday party to go for year 2009, birthday boy has asked me to select a place to go... da..dahhh..I picked Sepia Restaurant. I picked it because I heard some gozz that the owner used to be the head chef at Tetsuya and it is conveniently located in CBD (behind Darling Harbour) and everyone can just make their own way there.

Pre Starter - Eel consomme and seaweed
It is okay, kinda like drinking tea with seaweed flavour.

Friend's Starter - Ocean trout with apple salad

My Starter - Prawn with black sesame rice crackers, micro basil, black sesame sauce

Main - Butter poached Fish with subtle miso sauce & crispy seaweed, they laid some vegies underneath the fish but I can't remember the type of the vegs (I think it was garlic shoot).

Side - Creamed Corn with lime butter
I love the baby cooper pot, I just want to take it home.

Pre Dessert - Moscato jelly with lychee sorbet & peach

Dessert - Elements of Chocolate (chocolate bubbles, prune,etc)


Dessert - Sponge with strawberry, custard & buckwheat (deep fried)
Very yummy, not heavy and mild sweetness.

We definitely love the food, the presentation, the ambience etc, the only flop of the night was the rude & snob waiter. Not all of them got attitude problem, we just happened to be so (UN)lucky to be served by a yo-yo mood swing waiter.

Macaroni Schotel

I made Macaroni Schotel for friend's afternoon tea party, it is yummy but so full-o-fat (milk, cheese, pasta, spam, ham). This version of Macaroni Schotel is adapted for Indonesian taste (with Dutch origins), Happy Trying !!

For 8-10 people

Ingredients:

• Pasta 500gr - penne/ macaroni (anything hollow)
• 1 onion chopped finely
• 375 gr SPAM (medium can) - mashed using fork/ potato masher (this can be replace with corned beef)
  
• 100 gr ham chopped finely
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• Black pepper
• a pinch of sugar
• 1 litre Milk
• 1 teaspoon Ground nutmeg
  
• 5 Egg
• Shredded Tasty Cheese
• Bread Crumb

Step 1 - Pasta :

• Boil pasta as per instructions from the packaging less 2 minutes (to avoid super soft pasta)
  
• Strain pasta and run through cold water (pasta to stay in strainer to remove excess water)

Step 2 - SPAM mixture :

Stir fry onion, SPAM and ham for about 5 minutes - leave it aside to cool down

Step 3 - Milk mixture :

In a measuring cup, make milk mixture :
Milk + nutmeg + sugar + salt + black pepper + egg - - - whisk for about 5mins

Step 4 - Layering :

• Grease baking tray with olive oil/ butter (baking tray size width 23cm x depth 5cm x 33cm)
• Create layers :

Layer 1 : Pasta
Layer 2 : SPAM mixture
Layer 3 : Tasty Cheese
Layer 4 : Pasta
Layer 5 : Tasty Cheese

Step 5 - Finishing :

• Pour milk mixture from any corner slowly, once milk mixture reach the top shake the tray slowly to ensure milk mixture run evenly through the entire layer
• Sprinkle bread crumb on the top
• Bake in the oven till the top is golden brown

I forgot to take proper picture..however, it can give you some idea on how it will look like.

El Bulli (Sydney)

Another birthday invite this weekend for me, I was invited to go El Bulli Spanish Tapas located in Randwick. Took us around 15 minutes to decide what we want to order as they have good variety of tapas. We ordered double of everything except for Paella.
Did pretty well, 95% vanished from the table.
Overall they are good, friendly waiter, nice little cosy restaurant, and good variety of tapas.

Potato with aioli sauce

Chicken & chorizo Paella balls - don't be fooled by the size of this little paella ball (ping pong ball size), they are quite filling. Never mind...they are too good to be missed.

Chicken & chorizo Paella balls

Grilled Stuffed mushroom with pancetta and parsley

Garlic Prawn - not impressed at all coz they were using frozen prawns

Empanadillas - beef, olive & egg wrapped in pastry
This is spanish version of curry puff, pity that their puff is not crispy.
I still think Singapore/ Malaysian curry puff is way better.

Grilled Lamb with Garlic - I am not a big fan of lamb because of the smell, however this was okay for me as they are pretty generous with the garlic sauce which balanced the lamb smell.

Chorizo
Seafood Paella with chorizo

Seafood Paella with chorizo - mussel, prawn, calamari, vongole, etc.
This is a must try item if you go there, make sure you just order for 2 person (it is enough for 7 person).