The Devil Duck Eggs

NOTE: Duck Eggs not Salted Eggs. LOL! Well, I have to tell this because most people, especially Malay/Malaysian, they always associate duck eggs with salted eggs. Well, not all duck eggs are salted but salted eggs are definitely duck eggs. Hahahaha...

Ingredients:

6 Large size of duck eggs, preferably organic duck eggs
1/2 cup of boiled butter bean, cooled off
5 large slice of defrosted smoked salmon (if you don't have it fresh!)
2 tablespoon of olive oil
Salt & black pepper, to taste
Caviar (I'm using two colors)
Cherry tomatoes, sliced (not too thin)
Flat leaves (Italian) parsley

Methods:

1) Boiled the duck eggs - hard boiled, cooled off, peeled off & halved.
2) Take out the egg yolks and clean dry the yolk-case area.
3) Meanwhile waiting for the duck eggs to completely boiled or cooled off, you may put the butter bean, smoked salon, olive oil and salt & black pepper in a food processor and process all the ingredients until well-blended and smooth.
4) Place the mixture carefully into the cleaned yolk-case. Not too full, just a lil' bit above 3/4 full. 
5) Place 1 slice of sliced cheery tomato above the salmon mixture.
6) Carefully place the caviar (using end of teaspoon or tip of knife) on top of the sliced cherry tomato.
7) Add on the flat leave parsley as a finishing touch.

 

Babababa Baba Ganoush

A dip for vegetarians/vegans. The outstanding taste of the char-grilled eggplant mix with some other herb and spices, and also the smooth texture make it one of the best dip to snack on. Best eaten with warm toasted pita bread or foccacia bun. Try it! You'll love it although if you are not vegetarian/vegan. Because I am not.

Ingredients:

2 large eggplants
1 tablespoon tahini (or more as needed)
3 garlic cloves, chopped
A pinch of ground cumin
1/4 cup of lemon juice (or more as needed)
Salt & black pepper to taste
2 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon of chopped parsley
1/4 cup of black olives, sliced


Methods:

1) Prick the eggplants with a fork in several places and place on the fire or grill rack. Grill, turning frequently until the skin blackens and the flesh just begins to soft. Around 10-20minutes. Let it cool slightly and peel off and discard the skin.

2) Place the eggplants flesh in a bowl and mash the eggplant to a paste by using a fork.

3) Add the tahini, garlic, lemon juice and cumin. Mix well. Season with salt & black pepper. You may add more tahini and/or lemon juice, if needed. Up to your taste!

4) Transfer the mixture to a serving bowl or individual small serving plate with the back of a spoon to form a shallow well. Drizzle olive oil over the top and garnish with the chopped parsley and chopped olive.

Olive & Mushroom Tapenade

Olive & mushroom tapenade taste a lil bit weird at first if you eat just like that so I add some variation on how to eat this beautiful dip from Morocco (see notes below).

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon of butter
500g mixed thinly sliced white button mushrooms
2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
1 small handful of black olives
Olive oil
A few of fresh basil/sage leaves
Salt & black pepper to taste


Methods:

1) Lightly saute the garlic & mushrooms in the butter until they sweat. Allow to cool briefly.

2) Pour mixture into a food processor and pulse just for a while, let say 5 seconds.

3) Add the a little salt, basil/sage leaves and a little olive oil. Pulse for few seconds. Check the texture. I prefer it rough with visible mushroom chunks in it.

4) Transfer to serving bowl or individual small serving plates.

Notes: Taste much nicer if served straight away while it still a little bit warm with toasted pita bread and some roasted garlic and/or grilled vegetables i.e eggplant, courgette, etc. with a lil dip of olive oil and balsamic.

Speedy Hummus

I am not a fan of any Mediterranean food. Might it be a starter or main course or dessert. Nope. But I started to like hummus because it is light, flavorful, easy and best to serve with toasted pita bread. And it doesn't took me second try to master it.

Ingredients:

2 clove garlic
1 can of chick peas, half the liquid reserved
1-2 tablespoon of lemon juice (or up to your taste)
1 tablespoon of tahini
Salt & black pepper to taste
1/4 cup of olive oil
Garnishing: Paprika powder, chick peas, olive oil & chopped parsley

Methods: 

1) In a food processor, chop the garlic. 

2) Pour chick peas & the liquid into blender, reserving about a tablespoon for garnish. 

3) Place lemon juice, tahini, salt & pepper in the food processor together with the processed chick peas. 

4) Pour the olive oil and blend until creamy and well mixed. 

5) Transfer the mixture to a medium serving bowl or individual serving small plate. Garnish.

Easy Wild Mushrooms Soup

Shrooooooms! This fabulous wild mushrooms soup wont get you hang to death penalty in Malaysia. It is addictive but it does not contain any magic mushroom that will make you high and hallucinating. LOL! Trust me, you'll like the taste ;)

Ingredients:

Olive Oil
1 teaspoon of dried thyme or handful of fresh thyme leaves
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
2 stick of celery, roughly cut
1 stick of large leek, roughly cut
1 liter of chicken/vegetable stock
1 cup of dried porcini, soak with hot water until soft, tossed & roughly chopped.
500g of mixed wild mushrooms (i.e shiitake, oyster, de mort, chanterelles), cleaned & sliced.
200g of white button mushrooms, cleaned & sliced
600ml liter of cooking cream
salt & pepper to taste
knob of butter


Methods:

1) In large stock pot, saute garlic, onion with olive oil until it turn slightly light brown, not burned.

2) Add in thyme, celery and leek and stir until it become soft.

3) Pour in the chicken or vegetable stock, simmer under medium heat.

4) Add in the porcini and all the mushrooms, under medium heat, bring to boil.

5) Lower the heat and then add the cooking cream, salt & pepper to taste.

6) Leave it at the lowest heat for good 15-30 minutes or it reduced a little.

7) Off the heat, put in the butter. Let it cool off for an hour in the stock pot.

8) Roughly blend the soup to the texture that you desire.

*You may it need to reboil again before serve.
**You may serve it with normal toasts or foccacia bun or any kind of bread with butter.