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A bit of Magic in Your Cooking, with Chef Michael Elfwing of Senses

Last weekend I was invited to a cooking class held by Panasonic Cooking Magic with Chef Michael Elfwing of Senses, KL Hilton. The session was joined by 5 winners from the Panasonic Cooking Magic Workshop Facebook Contest, and we were promised an evening of showcase and good food.

Chef Elfwing – Panasonic Cooking Magic Ambassador

Chef Michael Elfwing is the Chef de Cuisine of Senses restaurant for the last 8 years and  contributed to the restaurant winning the prestigious 5-Star Diamond Awards as one of the Best Restaurants in the World and also the Hospitality Asia Award for Best Western Cuisine.

He is the Panasonic Cooking Magic ambassador, and Panasonic is also the main sponsors of MasterChef Malaysia.

Pineapple and Basil Bubbly – with Panasonic Juicer and Blender

First recipe of the evening was a simple Pineapple and Basil Bubbly.

Using Panasonic Blender & Juicer, extra the juice out of a fresh pineapple. Next, add 6-8 leaves of basil, 500 ml of ice cubes, 1/2 table spoon black pepper, and 300 ml sparkling water in the blender to mix it all up. And there you go, refreshing welcome drinks for half a dozen guests.

Sweet Corn & Basil Soup – using Panasonic Blender and Induction Cooker

First hot dish to be prepared was the Sweet Corn & Basil Soup. The ingredients are as follow (for 6 servings):

• 8 pc fresh sweet corn
• 2 pieces leek, stem sliced into 5mm thick slices
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 gloves garlic, chopped
• 30 gram basil
• 2 liter chicken stock
• 50 ml olive oil
• sea salt & white pepper

Ratatouille with Panasonic Microwave Oven, Steamer, and Pressure Cooker

The main dish was Ratatouille (just like the movie, I should try the recipe one of these days and then share it here) with a steamed French seabass on top.

This is a slightly more complicated recipe but can be prepared in just about half an hour or so with the help of Panasonic Microwave Oven and Pressure Cooker. The result was a beautiful dish that tasted as good as it looked. I enjoyed this very much.

The microwave oven – NN-SV30, is really impressive. You can use it  as a microwave, to grill, bake, and even steam. Who wants a dedicated oven that does nothing but baking?

Valrhona Guanaja Chocolate Fantasy – Panasonic Microwave Oven NN-SV30

For dessert, chef Michael prepared Valrhona Guanaja Chocolate Fantasy with Passion Fruit Parfait. The chocolate fantasy is made like a pudding and can be frozen uncooked and only defrosted and baked when needed. Check out the melted chocolate core, isn’t it enticing?

Chef Michael got extra help in making ice cream

Another recipe from Chef Michael that I want to share here is the Passion Fruit Parfait. Up till now I didn’t know that you could actually make this at home with nothing but a hand mixer and refrigerator.

Ingredients (for 12 portions):

• 6 egg yolks
• 100 gram sugar
• 400 gram whipping cream
• 6 egg whites
• 100 gram fresh passion fruit pulp (you can use other fruits if different taste is desired)

Method:

• Whip the cream to soft peaks using hand blender
• Whisk the egg yolks and 50g sugar until white using a hand blender, add passion fruit pulp to the egg mix
• Whisk the egg whites with 50g sugar until stiff peaks using a hand blender
• Fold the cream into egg yolk mix, and fold in the egg white last
• Pour in a mould and freeze overnight

Valrhona Guanaja Chocolate Fantasy

The parfait is best eaten within a few days since no artificial ingredients or preservatives is used, and they sure tasted delightful especially with the chocolate fantasy. Home made ice cream with melt in your mouth chocolate pudding sounds good to you?

KY with some of the stars of the show, chef Michael Elfwing and Panasonic kitchen appliances

After the cooking demonstration, we were treated dinner with the above dishes. It was a wonderful night and one that actually made me think about upgrading to the Panasonic Microwave Oven or maybe the Panasonic electric Pressure Cooker.

I do cook on a semi-regular basis and can really see the benefit of having good quality and safe to operate kitchen appliances. For example, my old school gas powered pressure cooker always have the risk of blowing up, but you can use this Panasonic unit in a set-and-forget way, and it even doubles as a slow cooker as well.

Overall it was a lovely evening. We not only got to have a great dinner, but I took home a few recipes to try as well, thank you Panasonic & Chef Michael!

KY cooks – Garlic Fried Rice with Seafood

It’s been a while since I posted any home cooked dishes. So here’s one, a simple garlic fried rice with seafood recipe.

This is something that you can prepare in less than half an hour, garlic fried rice is a pretty classic Japanese dish, I just add some seafood to kick it up a notch a bit. While traditionally they also use spring onion, I replaced it with red onion due to availability and that worked out well to add that crunchiness and freshness element to the dish.

garlic fried rice with prawns and scallops

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cup of rice for 2 person
• 2 large eggs
• prawns (you can also add squid or other seafood)
• scallops(optional)
• 2-3 bulb of garlic, chopped or cut in slices
• 1 red onion, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon of soya sauce, some salt & pepper
• 3-4 tablespoon of cooking oil

ingredients – garlic, onion, rice, prawns, scallops

Cooking instructions:

• heat up cooking oil
• fry garlic till a shade before golden brown, remove and set aside
• using the same oil, fry prawns (with a dash of salt), then remove and set aside
• sear scallops with shells on, then remove and set aside

the key is to fry the garlic, seafood, and rice separately

Cooking instructions part 2:

• with the same oil, fry eggs till 80% cooked
• add rice, and stir for a minute
• add soya sauce, salt, and some pepper
• add garlic and continue to stir for another minute
• add garlic and prawns, stir for another minute
• serve while hot (arrange your scallops with best of your artistic ability)

start with the egg, then rice, onion, then everything

The key to this dish is to have the garlic and seafood fried separately. This allows better control and ensures that each ingredients are cooked properly since they have different cooking time. Try it!

More recipes from yours truly can be found here.

KY cooks – Bacon Fried Rice and Red Spinach Soup

Simple meal for two of bacon fried rice and red spinach soup. This is something that I cooked up last night because bacon was calling my name, and at the same time I wanted to fix something real quick instead of making elaborate dinners.

a complete meal – bacon fried rice and red spinach soup

Total preparation and cooking time is about an hour, but that is because you need more than half that time to boil the chicken bones (for soup) and making rice in the first place. Actual active cooking takes place in less than 20 minutes.

The result is a satisfying meal that has has all your essential dietary needs (I think). There’s meat, egg, vegetable, soup, and rice. As an Asian, that’s all I need.

bacon is the key ingredient here, obviously

Recipe for two plates of bacon fried rice, ingredients:

• streaky bacon (150-200 grams), cut them in squares
•  half a bulb of garlic, chop em up
• 2 eggs
• rice for two person (I cooked 1.5 cups)
• chili padi (optional)
• 1 table spoon of dark soya sauce
• 2 stalks of spring onion, chopped
• salt and pepper to taste
• minimal cooking oil

open up the rice and crack a couple eggs in there, stir

Instructions:

• heat up a table spoon of cooking oil (you don’t need much since bacon will release more oil)
• fry bacon, garlic, and chili padi at the same time till bacon is cooked and garlic is fragrant
• add rice, dark soya sauce, stir
• after 3-4 minutes, open up the fried rice at center, add half a spoon of oil and crack the two eggs into it
• let the egg cooked for a bit before stirring it with fried rice for another 3-4 minutes
• add spring onion, salt & pepper and keep stirring for another minute or two
• serve while hot

the red spinach soup is real simple to prepare

Ingredients and instructions:

• wash red spinach with plenty of water and pluck off the stems
• boil 3 bowls of water with chicken bones, wolf berries optional (you might want to pre-boil once to remove impurities, I use chicken bones from chicken chop cut)
• I boil it while rice is cooking, that took about 45 minutes
• add red spinach, keep boiling for another 15 minutes (while frying rice)
• add salt and a bit of pepper and it’s ready to be served

Do check out other recipes if these are thing stuff you like to eat, they are usually pretty simple to prepare. Good eating!

KY cooks – Mint and Egg Soup

This is one of the fastest soup to prepare that is perfect to clear up sinus problem – the mint and egg soup. Everything can be done in about 10-15 minutes, and makes a perfect companion to another dish, or even to be consumed just by itself.

I’ve always thought that making the mint and egg soup means chucking everything into the pot and just boil away. As it turns out, the process involves a few more steps in between, and here’s how you do it:

the two main ingredients – mint leaves and egg

Ingredients (for two as companion dish):

• a bunch of mint leaves – pluck and use only the leaves
• 1 egg – lightly beaten
• ginger – in strips
• 3-4 cloves garlic
• 1 teaspoon oil
• half a chicken cube (or soup stock if you have)
• salt and pepper for seasoning

with some oil, fry ginger, garlic, then the mint leaves

Cooking instructions:

• with a pot, heat up cooking oil then fry ginger as it takes longer to cook
• a minute or two later, add in garlic
• when garlic is fragrant, add mint leaves, stir till you can smell the mints, around 1-2 minutes
• add egg, and cook it to the consistency of soft scrambled egg
• add 1.5 bowl of water and chicken cube (or soup stock)
• bring to boil, add salt and pepper  according to taste

make a scramble egg, almost, then add water and chicken cube

So there you go, 2 small bowls of mint and egg soup ready to serve. The frying process, together with the addition of ginger and garlic really brings out the flavor of the soup. The only little tricky part with the mint soup is that mint leaves generally doesn’t last very long in the fridge before turning black and bad. You should always cook it at the lastest 1-2 days after purchasing for best results.

Get cooking! There are more recipes here.

and it’s ready to serve after boiling for a couple minutes

P/S: the recipe for prawn dish on the photo above is here.

KY cooks – Fried Prawns with Soya Sauce

It’s time for another recipe sharing session. This time it’s seafood – fried prawns with soya sauce, a simple to prepare and yet pretty luxurious dish (just because prawns are so expensive these days).

I had some prawns in hand thanks for mom who actually works in a market, and since I ran out of asam to make my favorite nyonya style sam prawn, I went online to look for something simple to prepare, and landed on this fried prawns with soya sauce recipe from Babe KL. I know Babe KL & Capt’n Hook personally and was sure that her recipe wouldn’t go wrong.

trim off all sharp edges, add pepper, salt, corn starch

Anyway, here are the ingredients you need:

• big prawns, I had XL prawns, bigger the better
• 1 bulb garlic – chopped
• 2 inches ginger – cut into stripes
• 2 tablespoon corn starch
• salt & pepper
• 1 tablespoon worchestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoon dark soya sauce
• 1 tablespoon soya sauce
• a couple stalks of spring onion
• cooking oil

cook the prawns and place it aside

Prawn preparation steps:

• trim off the all appendages of the prawns with a scissor
• clean and pad dry the prawns with paper towels
• marinate prawn with salt, pepper, and cover with corn starch
• heat up some cooking oil and fry prawns till reddish (2-3 minutes)
• set prawns aside

ginger, then garlic, then prawns, and all the sauces, finally spring onion

there you go, classic fried prawns with soya sauce

So there, the dish really turned out pretty well, I actually wished that we had put in even more garlic & ginger cos they really brought out the taste of the prawns and went well with rice. For those who likes it a little sweeter, feel free to add a teaspoon of sugar too.

For more recipe from yours truly, click on my cooking category.