PREPPING PART 3

In the last blog we built a menu up from 'sprinkles' of herbs through to stuffed capsicum. The Bolognese sauce we created that was matched with rice and stffed into a red pepper could have just as easily have transmogrified into Spag Bol, lasagna or a really delicious meat based soup, like old Mr Lazar used to make in his now sadly departed charcoal grill in Johnston St. (It is now an apartment block. All of these dishes are equally yummy so why did we choose to make stuffed peppers?
Remember that Eugenius is a cafe that prides itself on the freshness of its cuisine and you will understand that Spaghetti Bolognese  presents a problem in terms of the cooking of the pasta. As we do not like to precook the noodles because they never taste as good, we can't really do this. Go to Pellegrinis. Lasagna we can do easily but as our patrons are by-and-large weight conscious and often afraid of carbs it's never that popular. I suggest Leo's in Fitzroy Street. As for a meat soup, well that works well in winter, but in summer fahgetaboutit! But even if we could make all three of these dishes and sell them, we wouldn't because it would skew our menu too much into one direction. A well constructed cafe menu covers all bases but doesnt belabour them.    
Stuffed peppers is a retro-futurist dish that is healthy, easy on the eye, easy to keep and reheat, and tastes great. But note that when we designed our menu, we didnt start off thinking of making stuffed peppers. Neither did we scratch our heads after we had made Bolognese sauce and think, what are we going to do with it. Rather, the dish evolved from both directions and its creation was also informed by otehr considerations. When we come to menu design, we will discuss price points, eatability, and other factors that relate to why one dish is chosen over another when a new menu is constructed. happy eating!

PREPPING PART TWO

So we have established that cooking for paid customers requires more discipline than when cooking for family. By discipline, I mean to say that there needs to be consistency, timeliness, attractiveness and reliabilty. At a cafe, you never know how many people are going to show up, when, and what they are going to eat. Ok, some family members can be toey if their dinner is not served on time but in general they don't walk out as can happen in a restaurant. Customers can't be expected to hang around indefinitely for their meals. On the other hand, a cafe can't turn a  profit if there is a surfeit of staff. Also, storage space both for ingredients and prepared meals is an issue especially at a small place like ours.  So flexibilty and adaptability is of the utmost importance.

Eugenius has quite a substantial menu but I'll let you in on a little secret - a lot of the dishes we serve are made from the same basic elements combined in different ways.

In order to provide consistent meals in a timely manner, prepping is very important. I dont mean half-cooking the risotto - I never order risotto in restaurants for this time-saving shortcut to bad cooking. Neither am I referring to blasting in the microwave or having a soup boiling away. By prepping I mean preparing building blocks from which various meals may be constructed. It's the culinary equivalent of a macro. Once these building blocks have been made, they can be used straight away or else stored for periods of time, either in the fridge or freezer. having easy access to them,  frees the chef to be able to consummate tasks that require his or her more immediate attention. I'll give you a short example here to illustrate what I mean. More substantial expositions will feature in forthcoming blogs.

SPRINKLES TO STUFFED PEPPERS
SPRINKLES: Chop up fresh herbs eg., parsely, coriander, dill, rosemary. Use these sprinkles on scrambled eggs, salads, food on display in the fridge, to add that restaurant pizzaz.
PARIS BUTTER: Add sprinkles to a blender together with a dollop  of garlic, sesame oil, ginger, mustard, lemon rind, hoprseradish, whisky, soy sauce, ketchup, chilli powder, tabasco and a block of butter.  Mix till the butter is evenly speckled. Put what you dont need of the Paris Butter in small containers in the freezer. Use Paris Butter when scrambling eggs, frying mushrooms, grilling a steak - it has a thousand uses. Put it out with the bread to show your clients what you are made of!
PEPPERONATA: Fry onion, red pepper and fresh tomato in Paris Butter. Pepperonata is delicious by itself or as a relish. It's fantastic on toasted polenta.
NAPOLI: Stew Pepperonata in tomato paste, a dash of white wine and some more Paris Butter. Napoli forms the base for many dishes, from saltimbocca alla Romana, to delicious tomato-based soups.
BOLOGNAISE: Fry minced meat in Paris Butter, add Napoli sauce and a zeffrito of carrots, tomato and onion, chuck in a splash of red wine (drink teh balance yourself) and Luigi's your uncle.
STUUFED CAPSICUM: Cook some basmati rice in your rice cooker and add it to your Bolognaise (same amount of rice as sauce) and feed it into a cooked capsicum. Simple, eh!
So you can see how one thing leads to another. There's another secret for you..    

PREPPING

I know a lot of you blogniks out there are excellent cooks but cooking for your family is not the same as cooking professionally. It's not a matter of quantity - at eugenius we often only make a limited amount of something whereas at home you may be cooking for a truckload of family or friends. It's not a matter of presentation - though at our family dinners food rarely makes it to the dining-room table as it is attacked en route. It's not a matter of kitchen appliances - at eugenius we make do with a sandwich press, a convection microwave, a Bamix, a couple of frypans and a camp stove. It's not a matter of cost - though the rule of thumb is the selling price of a meal needs to be at least 5 times the cost of the raw ingredients, at eugenius we use top-shelf materials and as our prices are cheapish we often fall below this rule.
So what is it a matter of?  Consistency for a start. If a customer loved his Breakfast burrito last week when he orders another one this week he expects to get the same thing. So the key is:- have a recipe, source the same raw materials and present the dish the same way each time. Most chefs know this in principle but if you are thinking about opening a restaurant you need to thoroughly bed down your proposed menu items before you commit them to the printed menu. And it is not just the one item you need to get right, you need to consider how each item works with the others. What narrative are you trying to achieve? Is it a type of cuisine, a way of cooking, a style, an emphasis? You need to consider your storage options, your purchasing agenda, your profit margins...
So once youve done all that and you believe the menu item will work, then you open your restaurant and you have to make the thing. And here comes the most important thing...PREPPING.
We'll get onto that next blog

BEEF AND BARLEY SOUP a la Eugenius

Serves 8

olive oil, a shaky pour

500g gravy beef ripped apart

1 large onion, finely chopped

3 teaspoons sweet paprika

3 carrots diced

2 swede, peeled, and diced

2 sticks celery slivered

4 cups chicken stock

4 cups beef stock

1 pack pearl barley soaked overnight

Heat oil in a large, deep saucepan over medium-high heat. Add a third of the beef and brown. Add remaining oil and onion to pan. Cook until tender. Add paprika. Add carrots, swede, celery, stock, red wine, barley and beef. Bring to the boil. Skim scum. Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, for 1 1/2 hours

RUSSIAN SALAD

Originally developed in Moscow in 1863 by a chef call Olivier, his so-called Russian Salad is nothing like ours. Whereas his featured grouse and other expensive game, ours contains no meat at all. And where his was based around diced potatoes, ours is based on diced beetroot. Ours has a lovely purple colour derived from the beetroot and other purple ingredients. Olivier's, mositened by mayonnaise is cream in colour. The beauty of the eugenius' version is not only the taste but teh colour and combination of textures. You get tghe crunch of the corn, combined with the squish of the peas, the slide of the hard-boiled egg, and the snap of celery and raw carrot. The key in making this salad as in all salads is SALAD TOPOLOGY. This is the subject for a separate post (which will come later) but in essence it means that a salad needs to be comprised of elements all of which are roughly the same size and shape. Corn and peas go together for instance, but not corn and julienned carrot, so you would never put corn in a coleslaw, and if you were to combine corn with peas and carrot therefore, the carrot needs to be cubed. By teh same token, if you are making a coleslaw and want to put beetroot in it then slice the beetroot into the same size sticks as your carrot or cabbage.
So basically your Russian salad comprises small balls (corn, peas) and small cubes (carrot, cucumber, potato, beetroot, spring onions) roughly in equal proportions. The dressing melds the ingredients into a homogeneous whole. Ill give away the dressing secrets in my next blog
eugenius

MUFFIN FLAVOURS

So what to put into your muffin? At Eugenius, customers are under the impression that muffins are healthy(wwll, besides the sugar content they do contain quite a lot of yoghurt) so to maintain the illusion we do not use any obviously fattening fillings such as chocolate. Fruit filled muffins are what we are all about and a three fruit combo is the most popular. Hard to say but easy to digest is our current hit - pear, persimmon and pomegranate. Rhubarb, apple and blackcurrant is another popular choice. Use fruit of the season and for mouth pleasure combine crisp textures such as pear with smoother ones such as rhubarb. Don't peel your apples or pears as the skin adds to the visual appeal. Cut hard fruit in small sticks rather than little cubes, and for added visual attraction dot the muffin with seeds such as pomegranate or small berries. happy muffin-making!

MUFFINS

Muffinsa are everywhere and they're pretty horrible usually. Made the day before they weigh down the counter at cafes like lead weights. Eating into them is an unpleasant experience akin to biting into dentist amalgam. Cold, heavy and sickly sweet, most muffins are bricks in fancy dress. On the other hand, a good muffin, moist and full of fruit can be a wonderful experience. Here is the recipe from Eugenius:-
EUGENIUS MUFFIN INGREDIENTS (makes 4 or 5 muffins):
  One cup self-raing flour
  Half cup sugar (or less if you are using jam or marmalade)
  Half cup yoghurt
  One 700g egg
  Three-quarter cup of fruit chopped or stewed - spoon of marmalade or jam optional *
 EUGENIUS MUFFIN DIRECTIONS
 Pre-heat oven to 185C
Mix all ingredients LIGHLTY together
Fork into greased muffin tray. DO NOT PRESS OR PUSH THE MXTURE HARD. Level of mix should be above tray.
 Bake for 20 minutes. remove from oven and let cool before lifting from tray.

* In another blog we'll talk about what fruit combos work well.

TARRAGON CREAM DRESSING

A simple dressing that will make your reputation as a masterchef. Spoon dressing with cherries added into a lettuce leaf and serve with cold roast chicken. Delicious!
1 egg
2 rounded tablespoons castor sugar
3 rounded tablespoons tarragon vinegar
Salt & pepper
250 – 300ml double cream
500g stoned red cherries
Break egg into bowl and beat with a fork. Add castor sugar then gradually add tarragon vinegar. Stand bowl in a pan of boiling water and stir mixture until it begins to thicken. Draw off heat and continue stirring. When mixture has consistency of thick cream, remove from pan and stir for a few seconds longer. Season lightly and leave until cold. Partially whip double cream; fold this into cold dressing and season to taste, (This recipe can be made in larger quantities – omitting the cream – and stored in a screw-top jar in refrigerator for up to 3 weeks, then add whipped cream just before serving). Gently fold in the pitted cherries just before serving.
Isobel Negri

HOLLANDAISE SAUCE

Everybody reckons they can do this but not many do it right. Follow Eugenius' recipe below and u'll be ok.
This is a very simple recipe for a delcious Hollandaise. For a classic Eggs Benedikt, toast an English muffin, then top it with a layer of warm shaved ham, a poached egg, then add the Hollandaise sauce over the white of the egg. As the sauce is the same colour as the yolk, the top of the muffin will appear a seamless golden colour.

Juice of one lemon
4 egg yolks
3/4 - 1 cup hot melted butter
salt and pepper

Blend lemon juice and egg yolks for a couple of seconds to combine. While machine is running, add the melted butter slowly, gradually increasing the flow as the mixture starts to thicken. Add salt and pepper to taste.

CHICKEN WITH POLENTA

Another recipe from Sergio. Terrific on a cold day. Imagine sitting round an open fire with Sophia Loren, Umberto Eco, Gina Lollobrigida and Marcello Mastrionni dining on this bold rustic food while guzzling a flinty Sangiovese. We'll live Silvio Berlusconi outside. No bunga bunga here, just good wholesome fun!

CHICKEN WITH POLENTA

Finely chop 2 onions
Finely chop 3 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ cup white wine

Add the above to a large casserole dish and cook 3 to 4 mins until the onion is soft.

Add the chicken pieces (ask your butcher to cut up the whole chicken into about 10 pieces)
Also add 1-2 carrots, chopped finely
Add celery stick, chopped finely
Add torn basil leaves and rosemary leaves
Add more white wine (about ½ cup)
Add 5-6 fresh tomatoes or you can use good quality canned whole peeled tomatoes. If you are using fresh tomatoes, don’t bother to peel and seed them.

Also add potatoes cut into large pieces

You may also add more water if you want lots of sauce.

Cook all of the above in the casserole on top of the stove for approx 45 mins to 1 hour depending on the quantities used.

Once the chicken is cooked, serve the chicken in a wide bowl and add a large tablespoon or two of polenta on top of the chicken and serve.

Some people at this stage add white wine vinegar
Grated parmesan cheese
Black pepper
Chopped fresh chilli

menu dinner tonight

Dinner this week

2 courses $30 : 3 courses $35

Includes glass of wine.

ENTREE

Choose from:

Beef and barley soup,

Russian tuna salad,

Frittata & relish

MAIN

Choose from:

Chicken Makhani reposing on a bed of Moroccan rice

Tender roast veal cuddled by mushrooms and Paris butter

SIDES: Potato and eggplant gratin

Roasted vegetables with tahini

 DESSERT

Warm plum cake with clotted cream

SPAGHETTINI with Anchovy, Parsley, Olive Oil and Parmesan

In winter I like a good pasta and nothing beats the following recipe realted to Eugenius by Sergio di Pieri, organist and chef. You may have heard of his younger brotehr who has a Gondola on the Murray.
Sergio cooks from the heart. His passion for food and overall joie de vivre infused with a joyous spirit.

His recipes derive from his childhood in Treviso. The son of a poor farming family, Sergio is animated about the simple dishes of polenta and beans his mamma used to prepare. Many of the dishes he enjoys have now become staples in fancy restaurants, but according to Sergio, not many are done right - pastas are over-cooked; risottos are soggy; sauces lack flavour...

Essentially, he says, one needs fresh produce and good quality ingredients to produce sensational food. Fancy cuts of meat, and complex saucing do not make a better tasting dish...

So to Spaghettini..

In a frypan warm the olive oil over a low heat, add

2-3 cloves of finely chopped garlic
small tin of anchovies
chopped parsley (including stalks)
few fresh chillies
green or black olives cut into 4
lemon zest

As the oil warms, move the ingredients around in the frypan, and when the garlic is cooked, remove from the heat.

Meanwhile, cook the spaghettini in plenty of salted boiling water. When al dente, drain pasta, mix with all other ingredients and add parmesan cheese and serve.

This method is also excellent with fresh tomatoes, finely chopped garlic, olive oil, a little chilli, salt and pepper and fresh basil leaves. The secret is to cook the ingredients slowly and do not cook either of the above for a long time. It only takes about 5 mins to cook each recipe.

PARIS BUTTER

This is one of the staples the kitchen at Eugenius Cafe. Sometimes called Cafe de Paris, Paris Butter, gives a certain je ne sais quoi to eggs, omlettes, mushrooms and soups. When grilling mushrooms for instance lavishy spread Paris butter for a simple yet effective way of imparting flavour. In an omelette, Paris Butter gives a rich feel and a delightful look with the the speckles of green herbs mingling happily with the golden hue of the softly beaten eggs. Use Paris Butter in fact on any savoury dish that calls for butter. It is preferable to oil in a Bolognese sauce. So here it is. oohlahlah!
CAFE DE PARIS

1 kg butter left outside the fridge so as to be soft.
Heinz tomato sauce, two swigs
Dijon mustard, two dollops
capers (in brine), 10 off or 4 large caperberries
Brown shallots, 3 off
Fresh curly parsley, a large snap
Fresh garlic chives, 10 off
Dried marjoram, a pinch
Fresh dill, a pinch
Fresh thyme, a pinch
Fresh French tarragon, a pinch and a half
Ground rosemary, a pinch
Garlic, 2 cloves chopped very finely
Anchovies, contents of a small bottle including the oil
Brandy, a slurp
Madeira, a slurp
Worcestershire sauce, a splash
Ground sweet paprika, a few shakes of the bottle
Keens curry powder, a generous spill
Cayenne, a pinch maybe two
Green peppercorns, 8 off
Lemon, juice of one
Zest of ½ lemon
Zest of ¼ orange
Salt, a shake


Mix all ingredients with the exception of butter in a glass bowl and leave to its own devices for a day, then purée the mixture in a blender and push through a strainer to isolate teh chewy bits. Foam the butter and mix with the purée. Form the butter into a log, freeze it and cut off slices as you need them. Teoretically, it keeps for several weeks but it won't last you that long.

BEEF STOCK

 Making BEEF STOCK at Eugnius, is a weekly affair

It's perfectly acceptable to show some contempt for your stock but I hope you never become so world-weary as to give up making it and use store-bought stock cubes instead.

Beef bones, 1kg
Swede,
Turnip
Potato
Carrot
Celery
Onion
Garlic
Red wine - a given. I oftentimes also pour in a cup of black tea.
Herbs-rosemary, thyme, oregano are nice but you can add anything really.

So simmer it for an hour and a half while doing sodoku and attempting maybe a cryptic crossword. They are both a terrible wate of time but if you are cooking at the same time, you don't feel as guilty.

FRENCH ONION SOUP

We love a good soup at eugenius cafe almost as much as we like a good drink, so we really love our French onion soup because it's laced with booze. Here's the recipe!
FRENCH ONION SOUP

Beef stock (see below) 1 litre
onions 8 off
sugar, a pinch
cafe de paris, 30g (recipe see separate listing) baguette 8 slices
gruyere cheese 100g shaved
red wine glass for soup, rest of bottle for the chef
whisky, a swig
tokay, another swig


Slice fine cross-sectional half rings of onion, while lapping on the red wine as commiseration for the tears the onions bring to your eyes. Fry the onions ion a hot pan with the sugar and cafe de paris, until they turn golden and translucent. Meanwhile simmer the stock. Add a glass of red wine - after all, why shouldn't the onions have some fun? Add a swig of tokay for sweetness and a swig of whisky (not to impugn the cockmanship of the French male, but whisky, not cognac, gives this onion soup its manly thrust). Slice the onions into the broth and simmer for thirty minutes. When ready to serve, add some slivers of cheese to the soup and stir. For the crouton on top, put some more gruyere cheese on a 1cm slice of baguette and grill. Serves 4.

Beef and Barley Soup

Winter is upon us and our insides need warming. What could be better than a hearty soup? Our Beef and Barley soup is a sure-fire winner. It sells a beaudy at the cafe. here is teh recipe:-
BEEF AND BARLEY SOUP (serves 8)

olive oil, a shaky pour

500g gravy beef ripped apart

1 large onion, finely chopped

3 teaspoons sweet paprika

3 carrots diced

2 swede, peeled, and diced

2 sticks celery slivered

4 cups chicken stock

4 cups beef stock

1 pack pearl barley soaked overnight

Heat oil in a large, deep saucepan over medium-high heat. Add a third of the beef and brown. Add remaining oil and onion to pan. Cook until tender. Add paprika. Add carrots, swede, celery, stock, red wine, barley and beef. Bring to the boil. Skim scum. Reduce heat and simmer, partially covered, for 1 1/2 hours

muffins

ok so over to more prosaic recipes. let me start out by declaring  I HATE MUFFINS.  To me, they taste like soggy cake. That is, until  i started making them myself. Now i think they are divine. Moist, tasty, healthy.. everything that store-bought factory-produced muffins are not. The secret - next blog will reveal all, or almost all... Can't give everything away

Hainan Chicken Rice Recipe

 Hainanese chicken rice courtsey of Eliza Lim

For poaching chicken I just put vegies like carrot, leek, onion, garlic, ginger in to boil with white pepper, light soy sauce and Chinese wine in a large pot of water.

You just put enough water in pot with vegies and seasoning to cover whole chicken. Bring to boil, lower whole chicken, reduce to simmer on low for about 50 min and then switch off and let it sit for about 15 min. After you carve chicken up you can put bones back and keep simmering for tastier stock that you can freeze

For cooking rice

Place equal cup rice to stock in rice cooker.  Put in a bit of sesame oil, some ginger pieces, fried garlic, pinch of salt – stir through & hit the cook button.

For garlic chili dipping sauce

•   10 fresh red chilies

•   2 cm piece ginger

•   4 garlic cloves

•   1/4 teaspoon salt

•   1 teaspoon lime juice

•   2 tablespoons chicken stock (from the boiled chicken. This stock is essential for the chilli sauce)

Just add all ingredients into a blender or food processor, and give it a good whizz, until ingredients are well blended. Adjust the seasoning with more salt or sugar to taste. The chili garlic sauce can be kept in the refrigerator for about 2-3 days only.

If you are lazy, bottled Garlic Chili dipping sauce can be purchased from any Asian grocer.

Ginger sauce for dipping

•   75 g ginger

•   6 garlic cloves

•   1/2 teaspoon salt

•   1 teaspoon lime juice

•   2 tablespoons chicken stock (again stock from the boiled chicken)

To prepare the ginger sauce is the same as the Chili Garlic - give the ingredients a good whiz in the blender.  What gives the extra oomph for the sauces is the stock from the chicken broth -- so, do not omit this ingredient.

Sauce for chicken

•   1 tablespoon garlic oil

•   1 teaspoon sesame oil

•   5 tablespoons light soya sauce (adjust according to taste)

•   Dash of oyster sauce

•   1 1/2 tablespoons sugar (adjust according to taste)

•   3 tablespoons chicken broth  (use more if you want more sauce)

Lastly combine all the ingredients for the chicken sauce and pour it all over the cut up chicken. You can add more soya sauce and chicken broth to the chicken if you prefer. Just adjust the taste of the sauce with soya sauce and chicken broth.  If you do not have garlic oil,you can fry a few cloves of garlic in oil for few minutes then take out oil and garlic pour it into a jar, and let the garlic steep inside the oil.

Garnishing

•   fresh coriander leaves

•   sliced spring onion

•   sliced cucumber

Spread coriander & spring onion over chicken pieces.  Eat with chicken rice & sliced cucumber & dipping sauces. 

I like adding some oyster sauce to my garlic chili sauce when I am eating this dish.

Extras

Microwave some beanshoots for 1-2 mins, pour some of the sauce for the chicken and an extra dash or two of oyster sauce and stir through.  Eat together with the chicken rice.

HAINAN CHICKEN RIUCE CONTINUED

Ok so now you know i like this dish but I'm quite particular about it. The soup must be hot and flavoursome and the chicken must be succulent. When serving the dish, I like to place the rice in a soupbowl and pak it in then invert it on a dinner plate so it forms a nice round mound. On top of the rice, place slices of white chicken so that they slightly overlap. Place slices of fresh cucumber on either side of the mound. i also like to quickly cook baby bak choi in the chicken stock and add some to the plate. Before serving, I pour some of the chicken sauce over the centre of the chicken, not too much as to drown the chicken and discolour the rice, just enough to moisten both. The accompanying condiments are served separately. in teh next blog, i will divulge our recipe....

hainan chicken rice

Hainan Chicken rice, a popular dish in malaysia and Singapore - it can be considered Singapore's national dish - is a simple dish of poached chicken, steamed rice, and chicken soup, but there is a major difference between a good one and a version that is just so-so. The chicken should be juicy which often it is not, having sat on the counter all day. the soup needs to taste of chicken, not just hot water. The rice must be light and fluffy not dried-out glug from the bottom of the pan. And most importantly, the condiments that accompany this dish - the ginger dressing, and the ground fresh red chilli must be home-made and delicious and not just poured out of a bottle. Yuk, I hate cornflour! For teh above reasons, if you got to Maxwell Food market in Tajong Pagar, Singapore, you will see two Chicken rice stalls -  one is always busy with people and the other dead quiet. True, Singaporeans love to queue and so join a line because they want to do what everyone else is doing, but the plain fact of the matter is, one chicken rice is good and the other is not. In future blogs, i will reveal the secrets of Hainan Chicken rice. 

welcome to the first blog of eugenius cafe! we invite all manner of food and drink discussion here. as passionate foodies, mary and eugene have their own unique (and different) opinions on what constitutes a good meal, a good recipe, not to mention a good coffee - he says there is no such thing as strong coffee, whereas she has a more refined palate perhaps. When it comes to food, though, they both like spicy. At Eugenius, there are many different house-created concoctions of spice ranging from kasundi which is delicious on eggs and strong meats such as lamb, and a sriracha-style chilli sauce which makes an unbelievable bloody mary. recipes will be posted in coming weeks