Asparagus and Shiitake Omelette

You are absolutely right, I am on a complete Breakfast trip, but then I have to admit, I love Breakfast (and Lunch, and Dinner, and all the nibbles between the meals). But at the moment I am totally into Breakfast.

This Breakfast is very much with an Asian touch, the sauce served is with black bean sauce, chicken stock and then the omelet is topped with pickled cucumbers and soy bean. I haven't added any chili as I am not too much into spiciness, but if you like, just add some red chilies, it will not just look great but taste great too.

The breakfast is very easy to do, the stock can be prepared in advance and to make it easier, you can just cook the shiitake mushrooms in the stock and then pour over the omelet.

The asparagus needs to be quickly blanched, but make sure it is still nice and crisp when serving. I like to use as well white asparagus, it is just different and really, really nice.

The cucumbers are marinated a la minute, basically do them at the beginning, then make a cup of coffee, then prepare the recipe. By the time you want to serve the omelet, the cucumbers will be marinated to perfection

Of course you can always take this recipe and use it for a light lunch or even dinner, it is easily prepared and I usually keep the stock in small bags in the freezer, so it is always available

Recipe

Omelette
20 ea Eggs
100 g Shiitake Mushrooms
50 ml Vegetable oil
150 g Asparagus green
150 g Asparagus white
100 g Bean Sprouts

Pickled Cucumber
250 g Cucumber
25 ml Sushi Vinegar
25 g Sugar, white

Black bean Sauce
50 ml Vegetable oil
50 g Ginger
10 g Red Chili
50 g Black Beans
25 ml Rice Wine
250 ml Chicken stock
25 ml Light Soy Sauce
25 g Sugar white

Method
Peel the cucumber and cut in thin long strips
Mix vinegar and sugar
Add cucumbers and marinate for 15 minutes

Cut ginger and chili in julienne
heat oil and toss ginger and chili quickly
Add blackbeans, stir for another minute
Add all th other ingredients and bring to the boil

Blanch the aspargus
Heat oil and toss sliced shiitake mushrooms
Add eggs and stir quickly to form and omelette
When half cooked add some asparagus in the middle
Finish the cooking gently
Roll the omelette
Plate the omelette in a deep plate
Pour some broth on it
Garnish with pickled cucumabers and bean sprouts

Vegan Cuisine: Punjabi Samosa

Yes we are going Vegan for a change, but in a way that it is amazingly tasty and anyone would enjoy it, not just Vegans.

OK, I have to admit that I usually use Ghee (clarified butter) and a little yogurt in the dough but it is easily left away and as tasty as if one uses Ghee. One can as well substitute with Soy Milk

There is a lot of Indian Vegan Cuisine, it is amazing to see the range of vegetarian and vegan dishes cooked in India. So we have brought some of it in our Restaurant called Just Veg.......as the name says, we do only serve vegetarian cuisine there and even in the kitchen, no meat of fish will be prepared.

Just Veg is the first and only Vegetarian Restaurant in Maldives and is part of the All-Inclusive Plan of Atmosphere Kanifushi, a relatively new hotel that is not even one year old. But the restaurant has already fetched honors in England when it was voted one of the top 10 restaurants in Maldives by Travelogy, a top Travel Agency in the UK, and something that we are very proud of.

Towards the end of the month we will get a Guest chef here, I am not telling you much yet, but yes he has a Michelin Star, he comes from Milano, Italy and the restaurant is Vegetarian.....not many of them have a Michelin star

Ingredients
1 cup All-purpose flour
1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
1/2 tsp Carom Seeds
Warm Water as required
Salt to taste

For Stuffing:
500 gm Potatoes - Boiled, Peeled and Mashed
1 tsp Cumin Seeds
2 tsp Ginger Finely Chopped
2 tsp Green Chili Finely Chopped
1/2 cup Onion Finely Chopped
½ tbsp Red Chili Powder
2 tbsp Fried Cashew Nuts - Finely Chopped
1 tbsp Garam Masala
1 tbsp Fresh Coriander Leaves
½ cup Green Peas, Boiled ½ tbsp
Dry Mango Powder
1 tbsp Oil

Oil for deep frying
Salt to taste

Method
Take a bowl. Add flour, salt, carom seeds, oil and mix well.
Knead a firm dough using warm water Heat oil in a pan.
Add cumin seeds when its splutter add ginger, green chili, onion and sauté for 3-4 minutes
Add red chili powder, garam masala, salt, dry mango powder, peas and mix well
Add mashed potatoes and cook for 4-5 minutes on medium heat
Add fresh coriander, fried cashew nuts and mix well. Keep aside
Take one lemon size dough and spread into a thin circle.
Cut it into half and make a cone of half circle with the help of water
Take a some portion of potato filling and place it in the middle of cone and close the cone with the help of water
Heat oil in a pan and deep fry samosa on medium heat.
Serve hot

Sunday Brunch at the Peninsula in Makati

Sometimes you have to treat yourself to something very special, something like a Sunday Brunch at The Peninsula in Makati, Manila. There are of course many great places to have a Brunch, but we thought to start with the Peninsula.

The hotel is already impressive but what impressed me most was that when we drove into the garage, the security came immediately as our car was too high, they guided us in a special parking slot that we could after our Brunch drive out again the same way......which we did and they made sure nobody would drive down while we are on the "wrong" road......now that is service and friendliness, the Brunch already started really good.

We were a little early so had time to browse through hotel, shopping is not great and sort of done like an after thought.....but there is a small pastry shop with home baked goods, yummy that is for sure.

While browsing we walked into the most amazing cupcake trolley and they had these little lollipops....chocolate pralines on stick, just amazing

The buffet is huge, the choice is amazing. It actually spreads over 2 restaurants, one having the more traditional Asian and Filipino dishes and the other the more continental, international dishes

There are plenty of action station, the chefs are busy at work, but at the same time looking well after the guests. They still have time to explain the food and chat to the guests.

The Pizza Station is another highlight, there is not just the normal Pizza but a sweet one as well and it looked absolutely delicious

Eating Brunch is a long and slow affair. You don't go there to have a quick bite to eat, no; you want to take your time and sample a bit of everything. I started with some continental cold meats, Oysters and smoked Salmon, all was of top quality, the cold meat on the photo is Bresaula, one of my absolute favorites!!!! It comes from the Valtellina region and is air dried beef.

Then I went on to try the Sashimi. There is a swell Sushi, but for me the rice fills my tummy too fast, so I skipped the Sushi. Sashimi was delicious with really fresh Tuna and Salmon

Then a main course, roast Prime Rib was so juicy and tender and a little Pork Belly, nice and crispy.

Then a bit of Tempura, Calamari were tender and overall great and crispy

No meal is complete with some cheese. I love cheese but have to say that the cheese selection was a bit disappointing. Never mind, it was still nice and the Croissant was fantastic. I love a good Croissant with a bit Brie

And then of course the desserts. I do have a sweet tooth and must say that I could have gone wild and have a lot more, but after all the great food I already had, I think I would have popped

There was still a little space, so I did go for seconds.....with a lovely cup of coffee, the Berry Panna Cotta was super light and delicious

So overall it was amazing. If you go, take the Champagne Brunch package, then you can wash down the delicacies with Moet et Chandon, something that is hard to beat. 

It's more fun in Philippines: Hoyop Hoyopan Caves

This is not the first time I write about caves here in Philippines, I like caves and wherever I see caves and go and see them. Last time I wrote about the Calao caves in an earlier blog but let me tell you, the Hoyop-Hoyopan Caves are a lot better.

The main difference is that the Hoyop-Hoyopan Caves are still alive. One can see the Stalactites and Stalagmites still growing which is amazing. Then there is a lovely tour going around the caves.

The caves have been used by the local population as a shelter, even now when there is a big Cyclone coming, the local population would find shelter in the caves. But the locals are not the first ones using the caves, there is evidence that 10’000 Years ago the caves have already been used by the first settles in the region.

The tour is really nice and at the end it gets a little tight, one has to squeeze through a tight, narrow opening, I guess I was already at the limit to fit through. Then one gets out of the cave and can see towards Mount Mayon....and with clear weather one can see the volcano.

Going back even further, one can still see some of the corals left which proves that originally the caves where actually under water

I have to admit, it would have been great to have a more knowledgeable guide, not that our guide was bad, he really tried his best, but I just like to hear a lot of facts too, how old, what stones and so on, but at least the guide gave a lot of the recent history of the caves

As usual, it is a bit difficult to find the caves, best to have a GPS a put the name in, and then the drive is very easy. The caves are quite high up in the hills one has even a good view onto Mount Mayon, so while staying  in Legazpi, I think it is a must to visit these Caves up here in the hills.

The caves ore on private property, so there is an entrance and a parking fee, but both are not very high. As soon as a car comes on the parking there are a couple of souvenir stores opening...nothing special but some nice little souvenirs are for sale

While I am on the topic of Legazpi, we stayed in a lovely hotel called St. Ellis. It was very refreshing walking into the hotel, all was nice and bright, we got a great room to a very reasonable price and tried out the restaurant which served excellent food. The SPA offered exactly the right massage I needed after a long day driving, so I can only recommend this hotel. Again, there is of course a write up I did in Trip Advisor.

Pork BellyAdobo

Its more fun in the Philippines: Mount Mayon

The second part of my miniseries to Mount Mayon which is the most iconic volcano in Philippines. Mt. Mayon is one of the most perfect shaped cone volcanoes in the world and yes it is still very active even so when we were there it was not just very quiet, but totally hidden away in the clouds.

The road to Mt. Mayon from us is a very long one, not just in Kilometers, but the roads are not the best while we went, there is a lot of building and upgrading being done at the moment so one has to stop often at red light. On a positive note, the scenery between Lucena and Naga is absolutely beautiful, we tremendously enjoyed the drive. Just after Lucena the road has a diversion with a beautiful curved road, take that one, it is a lot of fun driving through it I felt like being in the Swiss Alps driving up a pass road.

Then there is the traffic. It is actually better driving the good 500 km during the day as at night the visibility is not great and there are plenty of trucks and buses who seem to prefer driving at night. During the day there are of course plenty of jeepneys and tricycles

We stayed over in a town called Naga, there is not much I can tell you about this town, we only arrived late around 9 PM and looked up a hotel in Tripadvisor…….which was a bad choice. The room was OK but breakfast was terrible and the restaurant full of cockroaches, we just left as quickly as we could. No I won’t tell you the name of the hotel but of course I wrote something in Tripadvisor….

So, let me come to the volcano, the one, the famous one…that we actually didn't see because of the clouds. The best photo opportunities are from the Cagsawa Ruins. Cagsawa is a town that was founded by the Spanish in 1587 and was totally buried by an eruption on February 1, 1814. Only in the 1930ties the town was excavated and a made into a tourist attraction. Even today Mt. Mayon is very active and tourists are advised not to go hiking without a guide. Only 2 month ago some German tourists lost their life while hiking and walking into a dangerous area with deadly gases

If one imagines a sunny day, I have to admit, it would be absolutely stunning, and there are plenty of souvenir stands where one can buy little memorabilia and food. The volcano is not far away from Legazpi, the next major town, so Legazpi is actually the best point to stay over. We stayed there for one night. Unfortunately the mountain was still covered the next day so we have no choice but come back here in the future again

There is still more to explore here but more about that in my next blog.

How to make Sushi

We have started with our internal cooking classes, mainly for chefs but of course open to other interested Hosts here at Soneva Fushi. The first cooking course was Sushi, something we are very proud of as we have a Japanese Master Chef working for us in the Japanese Restaurant. Naoki has worked many years in Japan and worked as well for many Japanese Ambassadors, so he has an immense knowledge about Japanese Cuisine and of course Sushi

Today he shared his knowledge with us and I am more than happy to give it further to all of my avid readers. To explore new recipes, to chat to fellow chefs and cooks, that is what widens our horizons. Our main topic after the actual cooking was how different could we do Sushi, could we do sweet Sushi, Italian Sushi, Indian Sushi? Yes, we can do them and we all came up with some great ideas, especially for the Sweet Sushi.....but more about that later

When doing Sushi one has to follow some ground rules. The rice for example has to be a top quality rice. It has to be washed, a very important part of Sushi making.

First the rice should be rinsed twice very quickly, just to remove the dirt that sticks on the rice. Then the rice has to be washed up to 5 times, only a little water has to be in the rice. Not too much force has to be used as otherwise the rice kernels will break.

When the water is clear we go to the next step, the soaking. Sushi rice has to be soaked for about half an hour.in this time the rice will turn white which is a good sign. Then the water gets poured off again

To cook the rice one best takes a rice cooker. The same amount of water has to be used like the rice. No seasoning is required. It gets cooked till al dente, the rice needs to have a bit of a bite. The cooking takes about 38 minutes, after that leave the cooker closed for another 7 minutes before opening.

Then the rice gets mixed gently with the seasoning, everything needs to be done gently. The recipe for the seasoning is below.

Then when you make the Sushi, either Maki or Nigiri you have to be gentle again. If the rice is pressed too hard then the Sushi becomes a bit like a rubber, so it is really all about gentleness and love.....Sushi making is a great way to relax

Recipe
230 g Sushi rice
150 ml Sushi flavoring

Cook the sushi rice till soft, but a little bite left

Add the sushi flavoring (vinegar sauce) to it

Sushi Flavoring
550 ml Sushi vinegar (Cider Vinegar)
250 g Sugar
25 g Salt
30 ml Hon Mirin
30ml Nisake

Heat everything up, but do not boil

Tokyo Fish Market

Another blast from the past, a little bit from my travels while working on some of the most amazing cruise ships. This time it is about the visit of the Tokyo Fish Market, something that will always stay in my memory. I think it is one of the most amazing markets in the world and it was an eye opener for me at the same time....but let me tell you the whole story

While being the Executive Chef on "The World" we spent a couple of days in the port of Tokyo as part of our one month circumnavigation of Japan. During this time I had a little time to explore this amazing city, amazing in every aspect as basically nobody speaks English and all the roads are marked in Japanese only. The city is absolutely huge, so one better does not get lost in it.

One of the adventures I had was going to the Tokyo Fish Market, the biggest in the world and famous for its tuna auction which happens every morning. We got up nice and early, outside was still dark, so around 4.00 in the morning we were in the taxi to get to the market. It was still cold outside as it was early spring, but all the excitement we had was enough to keep us warm.

One of the most amazing parts of the Fish market is the Tuna Auction. All the tuna is lying on wooden pallets and are ready for inspection. All of them are frozen and will sell for a lot of money. For Japanese freshness of the fish is paramount, so why would they buy frozen fish? It is actually quite simple, Tuna is caught all over the world, the boats are sometimes out for many month. To keep the fish fresh it will be shock frozen, that means it will be put through a freezer line that freezes a big tuna in minutes. Like this the ice crystals are very small and won't deter the quality. 

When the tuna gets defrosted carefully, the meat will still be in perfect condition. So to buy a top quality frozen fish is actually not a bad thing, I rather have that then a "fresh" fish that might be already in the shop for days. But everything else on the market is super fresh and sometimes still alive.

Another amazing part is to see how everybody works, the ethics the camaraderie, the team work. The best example is when they fillet a tuna, the fish is so big that one needs more than one person to do the job. Sometimes up to three people help with the filleting. They use a special knife that is about two Meters long, flexible and extremely sharp. With the skilled men they are able to fillet a tuna leaving none of the precious meat on the bone. I was just watching them how the quickly filleted a fish, working in complete harmony and making it look so easy

Another great par is to see all the different types of fish and seafood. Here I stood behind some New Zealand Green Shell Mussels, I had never in my life seen Green Shell Mussels of that size, I just had to have a photo with me, just to see the huge size of them. But of course there was a lot more to see. All the sea Urchin, the Hamachi, I found Guey Duck which is a clam that is mainly from the west coast of Canada, a Clam with a mussel hanging out that is up to 50 cm long. It gets mainly used for Sashimi, and of course there was so much more.

We must have spent something between 3 to 4 hours in the market and I could spend easily a lot more time there, I think I have only seen a fraction of the entire market, but the memories I have are always with me and have changed my way of thinking, especially about freshness and quality of fish, about the way the Japanese take care of the products in the market, it was a real eye opener.

I have seen many fish markets in the world, but I think this one is by far the most impressive one, the sheer size, the cleanliness of it, yes it smells of fish, but it it is all fresh, it smells of the sea. By the time we left they were already busy cleaning up the market, everybody is making sure their little stand is absolutely clean for the next day

On the way out we could see all the fish packed and ready to be delivered to thousands of restaurants, not just in Tokyo, but all over the region and some is even exported. It was a fantastic experience and I hope that some day I will be able to go back to Tokyo and it is 100% sure that I will go back to one of the most fascinating fish markets on the world

Pepper Crab from Sri Lanka

Happy New Year to everybody!!!!

The recipes keep on coming, today another lovely recipe with crabs. The crabs we have are absolutely amazing, the meat is sweet and juicy and the way we prepare it they become a real feast. We are getting the crabs as well from Sri Lanka, so they are really nice and fresh.

As we do not fly any life animals at Soneva Fushi, the crabs we buy are quickly boiled to kill them and then flash frozen, only then they are sent to us. I think over the last couple of blogs you could see that we do things different here at Soneva Fushi. We try to keep our carbon foot print down and are busy reducing it to Zero by the end of 2014, a big thing to do. The of course we go as much as possible local, organic and sustainable.......I think in the long run this is the only way all the hotels should go but unfortunately only a small fraction is actually doing it.

So one of the things we don't do is flying life animals around half the globe that our guests can savor them, no, this is cruel to the animals so there is no way that we will do it, no oysters, no fresh lobster from US and Canada, but still we buy the best available products and have extremely happy guests......we call that as well Intelligent Luxury.

Anyway, back to our crab dish. The sauce is extremely easy as we don't want to overpower the crab, just onions, garlic and oyster sauce, a little extra pepper and that's it.

Here is the recipe

Recipe
3 Kg whole Crabs
250 G Butter
750 Ml Oyster Sauce
125 G Garlic
75 G Onion
100 G Spring Onion
50 G Sugar
30 G Black Pepper Powder
1.5 Kg Steamed Rice

Method
Cut the crabs in large pieces, crack the shells open, especially the claws
Dust the crabs in corn flour and pepper
Saute in oil for a couple of minutes, add sugar and some more pepper

Cut onions and garlic finely, then add to the crab
Add the oyster sauce, bring quickly to the boil
Toss quickly

Serve the crabs on a plate, garnish with fresh spring onions and lotus root chips

Steamed rice separate

Reef Fish Carpaccio with Madras Curry infused oil

We are going absolutely wild here at the hotel and having so much fun. We are looking at all the recipes in the different restaurants and I am busy compiling all of them into one single file. This is not an easy task and it will take some time, but all the chefs are helping and making sure their recipes are in and the photos are up to date. That means we are cooking and tasting and changing and photographing and having huge fun.

Today we did a new dish, something we want to serve on our special sand bank dinners. it is a reef fish carpaccio with Madras curry infused oil. It is a bit of a fusion dish of local fish with hints of India which is so close to us and of course I have a lot of Indian chefs working here.

It is actually really simple to do, if you cant find reef fish, try to get any white and firm fish, even a halibut would go really well because it has a delicious flavor.

We serve it with a little salad, brunoise (little cubes) of vegetables, cooked lentils and a slightly spicy curry infused oil which I take as well for the vinaigrette. I like to finish off the dish with some micro herbs, but that is optional

Recipe
600 G (1 lb, 5 oz) Reef fish fillet, white
20 G (0.75 oz) Sea Salt
10 G (0.3 oz) Black Pepper
50 G (2 oz) Radiccio salad
50 G (2 oz) Frisee salad
50 G (2 oz) Lollo rosso salad
30 G (1 oz) Micro Herbs

10 G (0.3 oz) Curry powder
1 Ea Cinnamon stick
1 Ea Star anise
1 Ea Cardamom
1 each red chili
100 Ml (3 oz) Oil

30 Ml (1 oz) Sherry Vinegar

30 G (1 oz) Lentils, pink
70 G (2.5 oz) Carrots
70 G (2.5 oz) Celeriac
50 G (1.8 oz) Lotus Root

Method
Add spices to the oil, heat up and simmer for 10 min
Keep the spices in the oil over night, then strain
Use some of the oil for the vinaigrette

Mix half the oil with the vinegar for the dressing

Roll the fish in plastic, nice and tight and freeze
Cut the fish thinly and plate on baking paper, then add another sheet on top, cut in a perfect square
Plate in the middle of your plate
Sprinkle gently with salt and pepper
Mix the lettuces and toss in a bit vinaigrette

Sprinkle the carpaccio with the blanched brunoise of vegetables Cook the lentils al dente and sprinkle as well

Drizzle with oil and vinaigrette, garnish with Deep-fried lotus root
Serves 10 friends