I sometimes wonder if every family is like mine, big in terms of numbers and extremely crazy about food. Eatgazelove has raved quite a bit about the foodie ways of my immediate family as well as my paternal extended family, so after an awesome meal at my maternal extended side last night, I thought it would be nice to give everyone a sneak peek into the fab culinary skills of the equally food crazy Goh clan.
Seafood is one thing that we don’t see too often at one six b. Don’t get me wrong, Pak Law does some mean fish and prawn dishes but he hasn’t gone quite full on with the seafood to whip up something that is a little bit more hardcore like with crabs or crayfish. I used to think that it was because it was more of a chore to clean and prepare these crustaceans that Pak Law didn’t really want to create too much of a mess in the kitchen but I was proven wrong just the other day when Pak Law surprised everyone with a crab dinner, Sin Huat style.
This particular dinner at one six b is one to go down in history as it marks the first time the entire dinner (less dessert of course!) was prepared by the three men of the family. Led by head chef Pak Law, sous chef brother in law B and rookie chef G joined forces one Saturday evening and put together what I would like to call a Peter Luger inspired meal. The main stay of course was Pak Law’s fab pan fried ribeye steaks. Seasoned heavier with salt and pepper this time around, these black angus steaks were juicy, tender and full of peppery spice that made the black angus taste phenomenal. The standards of the steaks at one six b have definitely gone one up and this peppery ribeye is now officially my favorite.
It’s been a while since Pak Law last whipped out his paella pan. I am not quite sure what inspires him to make paella each time, but it always intrigues me how Pak Law always knows just precisely when us regulars subconsciously crave some special Spanish rice. This past weekend, one six b was filled with saffron aromas with Pak Law cooking up another spectacular round of seafood paella. With smokey chorizo flown in London and fresh green lipped mussels, prawns and squid, Pak Law’s paella is one of the few special dishes that have me without hesitation forgo my low carbohydrate rule! This is one zesty one dish meal that is full of flavor. With sweet and robust tastes, bright colors and moreish saffron spiked basmati rice, it is testament how good the paella is just by how quickly the huge pan of rice disappeared amongst the nine of us!
It’s been a week or so of experimentation in the kitchen of one six b with Pak Law busy taking his research from the food network, asian food channel and stack of cookbooks and culinary magazines into the kitchen. Weekday dinners saw some new spins on home grown favorites whilst the weekends saw Pak Law exploring new techniques and methods to bring new depth and flavor to some of his classics. Kicking off this first series of experiments is a part home cooked park store bought mash up version of the nasi lemak. Think fluffy fragrant coconut rice accompanied by freshly fried cumin tumeric ikan pasir pasir, sambal prawn pe tai, sambal brinjals, topped with a sunny side up egg and a slice of hot of the grill mackeral otah. This might not be your typical nasi lemak mix, but this version definitely gives even the Changi Village version a run for its money!
I am officially a quarter of a baa-baa black sheep, otherwise known to most as peranakan, and while I do not profess to be a true blue full fledged nonya, I am still proud of my part heritage and even more proud to have inherited the peranakan appetite and discerning palate! Ask any peranakan, and they will for sure tell you that the best food can only be found in the homes of the nonya. There really is nothing that can quite compare to a home cooked peranakan meal put together by your grandma, mother (sometimes fathers too!) and aunts who have busied themselves in the kitchen over the past week getting things in order, working to recreate dishes based on recipes passed down from generations. As such, the bar really is set extremely high for any peranakan restaurant to be able to compare. There are several outfits that have established themselves here in Singapore but in my book, there is only one place that comes close the taste and flavors I get with the peranakan food whipped up by the Law clan, and that place is none other than Peramakan.
It gives me great pleasure to introduce to everyone my dad. The man behind it all and the resident chef at onesixb. With it being Christmas and all, I thought it would be nice to share with all my favorite chef, decked out in his new chef outfit (I had to get it after seeing it at ToTT!) and some of his signature dishes whipped out specially for the holiday season.
I know it has been a tad quiet on the one six b front and contrary to what you may think, Pak Law has actually been busier in the kitchen then ever! He has not only been refining his classics but venturing into new ground over the past couple of weeks so its been kinda of a whirlwind culinary adventure. Pak Law has really been putting together dinner after dinner faster than I can keep up with my postings here at eatgazelove, so I’ve decided to quickly bring you peeps up to speed with a photo recap of the journey thus far.
The Malays call it ‘satay’, the Indians call it ‘kebab’, the Japanese coin it ‘yakitori’…whichever way you call it, they all refer to the grilling of meats over a charcoal fire. I always imagined that putting together this skewered dish was quite a painstaking effort, what with the marinating, the skewering, the setting up of the charcoal fire to the actual grilling, and hence never thought to expect to have it actually whipped up at home. Pak Law obviously didn’t quite agree with my interpretation as he announced one Saturday morning quite out of the blue, that dinner that evening would be yakitori. I have to admit that I was pleased as I do love these skewered treats but was a little worried at the same time as I wasn’t sure if Pak Law could manage all that prep and the cooking!
The confit de canard, better known to most as duck confit, is what I would call a true classic french dish. Originating in the Gascony region in the south west of France, this sinfully rich creation prepared by salting and poaching the duck leg in its own fat and then preserving it again in its fat, has garnered followers first across France and now, around the world. Thank goodness for technology and some entrepreneurial folks, these days the confit can be bought pre-poached and ready packed in layers of fat. Because the salt and curing process has all been taken care of, the major battle would be to fry these legs to a perfect brown. It does take quite a bit of skill to get these done right and I am so pleased that Pak Law’s got it nailed! Read the rest of this entry »
